Podcasts about racial justice project

In May of 2020, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis Police officer. which sparked world-wide protests that demanded change. In a new Daily J, WWJ's Zach Clark takes a look at what has changed in the two years following Floyd's murder. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Image)

Government leaders worldwide met the election of President-Elect Joe Biden with a collective sigh of relief. But while many celebrate Biden’s win, many still wonder if the possibility of another presidency that devalues global treaties and relationships related to protecting global health, the environment, and stemming nuclear proliferation is in America’s future. How is the U.S. viewed abroad? What are the opportunities and challenges ahead for the next administration? Where are the biggest tensions in U.S. foreign relationships and diplomacy? Does the U.S. have an international legitimacy problem? The world has witnessed amazing leadership from women in other nations, especially during COVID — so what can the U.S. learn from that? Helping us to sort out these questions and more are special guests: Penelope Andrews is the president of the Law and Society Association and a professor of law at New York Law School, where she co-directs their Racial Justice Project. Andrews is a trainer for the Judicial Institute for Africa, and has served as an acting judge of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, as well as being an arbitrator in hearings on racial discrimination in South Africa. From 2016 to 2018, she served as the first Black dean of the University of Cape Town faculty of law and, from 2012 to 2015, she served as the first female dean of Albany Law School. David Kaye, former United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the independent board chair of the Global Network Initiative. He is the author of Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet and a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Gregory Shaffer, chancellor’s professor of law at UCI, and director of the UCI Center on Globalization, Law and Society. He is former vice president of the American Society of International Law and a member of the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, and Transnational Environmental Law. Shaffer is among the world’s leading scholars on international economic law and the World Trade Organization. His forthcoming book is called Emerging Powers and the World Trading System. Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women. Thompson leads the institution’s formulation of evidence-based policy recommendations and oversees her organization’s advocacy efforts with the U.S. government and internationally. Thompson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Advisory Committee on Advancing Gender Equality in Foreign Affairs and a member of the Civil Society Strategic Planning and Leadership Group for the Global Forum for Gender Equality. Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Support the show (http://msmagazine.com)

BLACK LIVES MATTER.   How do we change the culture?   Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by three remarkable guests to discuss the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement, police brutality and accountability, the murder of George Floyd, white supremacy and privilege, our country’s systematic and systemic racist structure, and more. Joining Aaron for today’s critically important conversation is Alvin Bragg, a law professor and most recently the Chief Deputy Attorney General in the New York State Office of the Attorney General, Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Victoria Davis, a Community Activist and Leader who lost her brother, Delrawn Small, to senseless police violence in 2016.   Like Delrawn, George Floyd was a son, a father, a brother, and a friend. Floyd is the most recent name on a far too-long list of people stolen away from their families, friends and communities. In today’s episode, Aaron, Victoria, Kristen, and Alvin delve into the deep-seated roots of racism in our country, the issues of police abuse, brutality, militarization and accountability, the importance of solidarity, education, honesty and understanding, as well as how we move forward. How do we talk about racism? How do we dismantle white supremacy? How do we make change? What fills the silence if we don’t speak out and stand up?    Alvin Bragg has spent the better part of two decades in the courtroom, standing up to the powerful and fighting to get justice. A graduate from Harvard Law, Alvin joined New York Law School in 2019 as a Visiting Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Racial Justice Project. Professor Bragg’s research focuses on the intersection of criminal law and civil rights, prosecutorial discretion and accountability, and the functions of state Attorneys General. Most recently, Alvin served as Chief Deputy Attorney General in the New York State Office of the Attorney General. In that role, he reported directly to the Attorney General, helped set the office’s investigation and litigation priorities, and oversaw the work of the Criminal Justice and Social Justice Divisions.   Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, leads one of the country’s most important national civil rights organizations in the pursuit of equal justice for all. Throughout her career, Ms. Clarke has focused on work that seeks to strengthen our democracy by combating discrimination faced by African Americans and other marginalized communities. Kristen formerly served as the head of the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office, where she led broad civil rights enforcement on matters including criminal justice issues, education and housing discrimination, fair lending, barriers to reentry, voting rights, immigrant’s rights, general inequality, disability rights, reproductive access and LGBT issues.   On July 4, 2016 Delrawn Small was killed on Atlantic Avenue in East New York. His sister, Victoria Davis, is a staunch community activist and leader for police accountability in New York and continues to share her brother’s memory and story with the world in the hopes of demanding accountability, and maybe one day justice.     To learn more about Alvin Bragg, please visit his website here. You can also find his bio page at New York Law School here.   To learn more about Kristen Clarke, please visit her bio page here. To find out more about the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, please visit their website here.   To learn more about Delrawn Small, Victoria Davis’ brother, and their family’s story, please reference the attached 2017 New York Times article here.   For resources and to learn more about the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement, as well as how you can help, please click here.    Host: Aaron Freiwald Guests: Alvin Bragg, Kristen Clarke, and Victoria Davis     Follow Good Law | Bad Law: YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw Website: https://www.law-podcast.com

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Tom Porter, former dean of the School of African American Studies at Ohio University; and Dr. Gerald Horne, holder of the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. The US is facing three major crises. The first is the COVID-19 virus. The second is the economy. The downturn or recession was already on its way, and now COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem. "Workers filed 2.1 million new unemployment claims last week, the Department of Labor reported ... The latest figure indicates that the pandemic has pushed 40.8 million Americans out of work in just 10 weeks," Politico reported on May 28. The third issue, which will be the focus of Monday's program, is the civil unrest surrounding the killing, some say lynching, of Mr. George Floyd last week by then-Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin.People keep asking, "How is this happening in America?" To which I say, it always has, just go to William Patterson's book “We Charge Genocide.” What's giving the perception of a rise or increase in this behavior is cellphone video. Let's analyze how this is being portrayed in US media with what seems to be fairly peaceful protests during the day, and then the evening sets in, and the antifa folks and other agents descend on cities and wreak havoc.Internationally, look at the impact: "People in cities around the world have marched in solidarity with demonstrators in the US, as politicians and public figures unite to condemn the killing of George Floyd," the Guardian reported Monday. This is the internationalization of racism and white supremacy in the US. Again, read William Patterson, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr. and others. "There were protests outside the US embassy in Copenhagen on Sunday, while hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Berlin for the second day in a row ... At least four solidarity gatherings were held in New Zealand on Monday, with massive crowds kneeling at a demonstration in Auckland," the Guardian noted. "In Australia, however, a demonstration planned for Tuesday afternoon in Sydney was cancelled on Monday, after people threatened to 'create havoc and protest against the event,' an organizer said on social media." Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump chastised the governors of US states during a conference call on Monday morning, calling their protest responses weak and saying Minnesota had become "a laughingstock all over the world," according to audio obtained by the New York Times.GUESTS:Tom Porter - Former dean of the School of African American Studies at Ohio University, former executive of Graduate Studies at Antioch College, former director of the King Center in Atlanta and lifelong activist.Dr. Gerald Horne - Holder of the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is one of the most prolific writers of our time, and his latest book is "Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music."Dr. Anthony Monteiro - W.E.B. DuBois scholar, founder of the Saturday Free School in Philadelphia, former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University and lifelong activist.Jon Jeter - Former Washington Post bureau chief and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is also an award-winning foreign correspondent on two continents.Dr. Shayla C. Nunnally - Associate professor with a joint appointment in political science and Africana studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of "Trust in Black America: Race, Discrimination, and Politics."Mark P. Fancher - Staff attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Through his work, he addresses racially disproportionate rates of incarceration, racial discrimination against public school students of color, racial profiling, attacks on the democratic rights of communities of color and abusive police practices.

Good morning, you're listening to the Daily Apple, your source for the latest in Education News. I'm your host Jim Kent, the date is December 16, 2019. Before we get into the news of the day, I'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, VictoryXR. VXR's award-winning content, helps kids experience science and engineering in a way that they have never been able to before, while making sure to cover everything within the NextGen Science Standards, and they've made it accessible on every kind of VR headset you can think of. To find out more, check out VictoryXR.com But now for the news.According to a new poll by Gallup, About half of U.S. adults (51%) now consider a college education to be "very important," down from 70% in 2013. Over the same period, the percentages rating college as "fairly important" and "not too important" have both increased, to 36% and 13%, respectively. Perceptions that a college education is very important have declined in the U.S. among all age groups since 2013, but the drop has been especially pronounced -- 33 percentage points -- among adults aged 18 to 29. As a result, younger adults are now less likely than middle-aged adults and seniors to consider college as very important, whereas the different age groups held similar perceptions in 2013. Consistent with what Gallup found in 2013, women today are more likely than men to report a college education is very important (57% vs. 45%, respectively), although the figures are down among both groups. In 2013, 75% of women and 65% of men said a college education was very important.Black and Hispanic adults, two groups that are underrepresented in colleges and universities nationally, are more likely than whites to say a college education is very important. The differences in importance by race/ethnicity are generally consistent with 2013 measures, in which black and Hispanic adults were more likely than whites to view a college education as very important.College tuition has increased at twice the rate of inflation over the past two decades -- forcing many to wonder if that investment is worth it, and how important a formal degree is to achieving a better job and a better life. https://news.gallup.com/poll/270008/half-consider-college-education-important.aspx  The Kansas Star has published an article focusing on the struggles foster children face in education. Two years after the Every Student Succeeds Act required states to tally and report graduation rates of its foster children, the federal government has yet to make that information public.Of the states that have reported, most are shockingly low. In Oregon, 35 percent of students in foster care graduated from high school in 2017, compared to 77 percent of the general population.The Star spent the past year examining the long-term outcomes for kids who age out of foster care. It found that many will end up homeless, jobless and in prison because, in part, they were shortchanged on education. Shuffled from home to home, often sent outside their original school districts, they fall behind early and don't catch up. Zachary Lawrence, a special education teacher in south-central Kansas, told members of a legislative task force last year that many foster kids live such unstable and unpredictable lives that it's tough for them to be able to learn each day. Most states have not collected detailed information on the resources necessary to resolve these issues, or even the outcomes currently being faced.Brent Kent, former CEO of Foster Success, worked with lawmakers on legislation to require Indiana to track how foster kids are doing in the classroom. Once a year, a detailed report card must be published so the public is informed about how children in the state's custody are doing relative to their peers.The first report card was published last spring. https://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/article238246264.htmlThe Lansing State Journal reports that A federal appeals court panel has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by four former Michigan State University students against the university for failing to adequately respond to their sexual assault claims. The lawsuit, first filed in 2015, alleged MSU's handling of the four women's sexual assault claims violated Title IX and denied one of the women equal protection. The appeals court found that the women failed to prove “the school had actual knowledge of actionable sexual harassment and that the school's deliberate indifference to it resulted in further actionable sexual harassment against the student-victim, which caused the Title IX injuries.” "Because none of the plaintiffs in this case suffered any actionable sexual harassment after the school's response, they did not suffer “pervasive” sexual harassment as set out in Davis and they cannot meet the causation element," the opinion reads. The opinion also upholds Maybank's immunity, saying while Gross was "clearly dissatisfied" with Maybank's decision to overturn the male student's expulsion, Gross "has no 'right' to her preferred remedy." https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/12/12/msu-title-ix-lawsuit-kollaritsch-6th-circuit-dismissal/4409968002/According to the AP Democratic presidential candidates pledged to boost funding for public schools, increase teacher salaries and reduce college debt at a Saturday forum that cast a rare spotlight on education, an issue that has received only passing attention in recent debates. In one camp are Warren and Sanders, who have proposed free public college for all Americans and the cancellation of all or most of the nation's existing student debt. Buttigieg doubled down on his criticism of those plans, saying there needs to be more discussion about apprenticeships, internships and other options other than a four-year degree. He has supported free college for families making under $100,000. Biden continued to push for free community college. The candidates checked many of the boxes the unions will look for when they decide which candidate to support. Many of the candidates took shots at the prevalence of high-stakes testing, curriculum requirements and other measures that limit teachers' flexibility. https://news.yahoo.com/democratic-hopefuls-pledge-more-money-221236629.htmlThe Courier Journal is reporting that Despite a pending legal challenge to its authority, a newly appointed Kentucky Board of Education on Thursday forced out the state's education chief — a swift move that fulfills one of Gov. Andy Beshear's most prominent campaign promises.Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis resigned and will immediately vacate his position leading the state's K-12 school system. The new board accepted his resignation by a unanimous vote and acknowledged it did not have just cause to terminate Lewis.Lewis, who earned $200,000 annually as commissioner, was required to receive written notice of his termination 90 days in advance, under his contract with the board. Lewis accepted the earlier exit — and will walk away with 120 days salary and health benefits — after nearly three hours of closed-door negotiations. Under Lewis and the former board, the Kentucky Department of Education had planned to press for full-day kindergarten, reading interventions for the state's youngest learners and more flexibility for schools. It is unclear whether those requests will remain the department's priority under a new board and a new commissioner. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/education/2019/12/12/kentucky-board-education-ousts-education-commissioner-wayne-lewis/4397133002/According to Michigan Radio, The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into a southwest Michigan school district.Paw Paw Public Schools is no stranger to controversy. The district has been under fire for its mascot name and image – the Redskins – for years. Now, the district is facing a federal investigation after the ACLU of Michigan filed a complaint back in January. The ACLU's complaint alleges the school district "maintains an environment that is hostile to a variety of racial, religious, ethnic and immigrant groups." Mark Fancher, Racial Justice Project staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, says, “The school district has stubbornly refused to even discuss possible changes to make its programs more welcoming for Native Americans and other people of color, making this OCR investigation a victory. We are hopeful that federal scrutiny of the district will prompt concern that leads to reform.”Back in 2017, the Paw Paw school board voted against changing the mascot name from the controversial “Redskins” name despite pressure from groups like the ACLU. https://www.michiganradio.org/post/department-education-launches-investigation-paw-paw-public-schools  The AP reports on another school joining the modern backlash against standardized testing in admissions practices. Indiana University could soon stop requiring students to submit ACT or SAT scores with their college applications. A university spokesman says students applying for fall 2021 could have the option not to submit college standardized testing. The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports that the university's Board of Trustees recently approved the policy change. IU's nine individual campuses now must approve and implement their own “test optional” admissions practice. https://www.wave3.com/2019/12/15/indiana-university-could-make-sat-act-tests-optional/ And that rounds it up for todays headlines. Thanks again to VictoryXr for making this all possible. You can find the full transcript of today's episode, along with links to the full stories, in the description of the episode. If you have any questions, comments, or stories of your own that deserve to be broadcast, let us know on social media at dailyapplepod or by email at dailyapplepod@gmail.comThanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow morning, bright and early

Seeking justice, transparency and accountability in the tragic case of Eric Garner: Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Alvin Bragg, Gideon Oliver, and Monifa Bandele for a special conversation on police brutality, community safety, and the tragedy of Eric Garner’s death five years ago. Alvin and Gideon are both attorneys for the Garner family and Monifa is a community activist heavily involved in the case, as well as one of the petitioners in the recent judicial inquiry brought by Alvin and Gideon, on behalf of the family.  Although the NYPD has fired Daniel Pantaleo, the police offer who placed a fatal chokehold on Eric Garner on July 17, 2014, so many questions, disturbing questions remain.  The judicial inquiry request, recently filed, seeks answers to those questions. In today’s episode, Aaron, Alvin, Monifa and Gideon discuss the history of Eric Garner’s terrible and unnecessary death, what has happened since, and the broader implications this case and others like it have had and continue to have on our society. The conversation centers on the systemic issues that persist in our legal system and the flawed structure of our law enforcement institutions. What should be the model for community safety? Where should communities focus their resources?   Alvin Bragg is a visiting professor of law at New York Law School, Co-Director for the Racial Justice Project, and Co-Counsel for the Garner Family. Previously serving as Chief Deputy Attorney General in the New York State Office of the Attorney General and an federal prosecutor in New York as well, Alvin’s research focuses on the intersection of criminal law and civil rights, prosecutorial discretion and accountability, and the functions of state Attorneys General.  Gideon Oliver manages his own firm, Gideon Law, and is Co-Counsel with Alvin for the Garner family. After receiving his B.A. in philosophy with a correlate in Women’s Studies from Vassar, Gideon graduated from Brooklyn Law School and began working as an associate in his father’s New York-based firm. Gideon has been a solo practitioner since 2009 and serves Of Counsel for several other firms.  Monifa is Vice President and Chief Partnership and Equity Officer for MomsRising, an organization whose members aim to tackle the most critical issues facing women, mothers, and families by educating the public and mobilizing massive grassroots action. Monifa has more than a decade of experience in policy analysis, communications, civic engagement organizing, and project management. In addition to MomsRising, Monifa sits on the steering committee for Communities United for Police Reform and is an activist with the Black Lives Matter Movement.  Listen in to learn more about our guests and their involvements in the Eric Garner case, and the legal actions they are taking in pursuit of the real truth about what happened to Eric Garner, justice, and accountability. This is a riveting conversation about an incredibly important topic.    For more information on Alvin Bragg, visit his bio page here. For more information on Gideon Oliver, visit his firm website here. For more information on Monifa Bandele and MomsRising, please visit the organization’s website here.   Host: Aaron Freiwald Guests: Monifa Bandele, Alvin Bragg, and Gideon Oliver   Follow Good Law | Bad Law: YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw Website: https://www.law-podcast.com

Patricia Marealle, JD, Staff Attorney of the Immigrant Children’s Justice Project & Amina Seyal, JD, of the Racial Justice Project and Harding High School Teen Legal Clinic speak about the work of the Center for Children's Advocacy, a children's legal rights organization with offices in Bridgeport and Hartford, Connecticut. For more information on the Center for Children's Advocacy: https://www.cca-ct.org/ & https://www.facebook.com/centerforchildrensadvocacy/

Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar. Alexander is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law School. Following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Prior to entering academia, Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, where she coordinated the Project’s media advocacy, grassroots organizing, coalition building, and litigation. The Project’s priority areas were educational equity and criminal justice reform, and it was during those years at the ACLU that she began to awaken to the reality that our nation’s criminal justice system functions more like a caste system than a system of crime prevention or control. She became passionate about exposing and challenging racial bias in the criminal justice system, ultimately launching and leading a major campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement known as the “DWB Campaign” or “Driving While Black or Brown Campaign.” In addition to her nonprofit advocacy experience, Alexander has worked as a litigator at private law firms including Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, in Oakland, California, where she specialized in plaintiff-side class-action lawsuits alleging race and gender discrimination. In 2005, she won a Soros Justice Fellowship, which supported the writing of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" (The New Press, 2012), and that same year she accepted a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. She currently devotes much of her time to freelance writing; public speaking; consulting with advocacy organizations committed to ending mass incarceration; and, most important, raising her three young children—the most challenging and rewarding job of all. In this plenary address from the 2016 AAR Annual Meeting, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas (Goucher College) interviews Alexander, and the women converse in turn about racial (in)justice, the election, and religion's role in U.S. politics. The session is introduced by 2016 AAR president, Serene Jones. This plenary was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on November 20.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Michelle Alexander is an associate professor of law at the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, and has served as the director of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern California. Her book is “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Michelle Alexander — Who We Want to Become: Beyond the New Jim Crow.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Ron Wright is one of the nation's best known criminal justice scholars. He is the co-author of two casebooks in criminal procedure and sentencing; his empirical research concentrates on the work of criminal prosecutors. He is a board member of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project of the Vera Institute of Justice, and has been an advisor or board member for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences (FAMM), North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., and the Winston-Salem Citizens' Police Review Board. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting antitrust and other white-collar criminal cases.

Nearly half of all young black men in America are behind bars, on parole or probation. Legal scholars Michelle Alexander and Paul Butler argue that the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a system of racial control, targeting black men and decimating communities of color.In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. Yet it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans -- employment and housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote and educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion of jury service.Paul Butler's book, Let's Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice, offers a powerful new vision of justice. Americans live in a society fueled by fear and fettered by the lock-'em-up culture that dominates our criminal justice system; we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, yet our streets are no safer. Part memoir, part manifesto, Let's Get Free takes a fresh investigative look at the dysfunctional politics of our broken justice system and proposes a series of controversial solutions.A longtime civil rights advocate and litigator, Michelle Alexander was a 2005 Soros Justice Fellow. She served for several years as director of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern California. She clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court, directed the Civil Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School, and appeared as a commentator on CNN and MSNBC. She is currently a professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law.Paul Butler is a former federal prosecutor and the country's leading expert on jury nullification. He regularly provides commentary for CNN, NPR, and Fox News. He has been featured on 60 Minutes and profiled and published in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and The Progressive. Butler is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. An award-winning law professor, he now teaches in the areas of criminal law, civil rights, and jurisprudence at George Washington University.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 31, 2010