Podcasts about African Americans

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Randal Pinkett. A multifaceted entrepreneur, author, speaker, and CEO of BCT Partners. Here's a breakdown of the key highlights and insights from the episode:

632. Chip Lococo discusses his novel, The Devil's Jazz:
A Gripping Historical Thriller of Murder, Music, and Madness in 1918 New Orleans, about the infamous Axman of New Orleans. “They have never caught me and they never will... I have been, am, and will be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or the realm of fancy.” — The Axman       In the haunted heart of New Orleans, as World War I draws to a close, a sinister presence stalks the streets. A brutal serial killer—known only as the Axman—emerges from the shadows, targeting the city's Sicilian immigrant community with chilling precision. Inspired by true events, The Devil's Jazz resurrects one of America's most disturbing unsolved murder cases in a city steeped in music, mystery, and myth. Retired detective Giancarlo Rabito is pulled back into the darkness when the killings begin. The press fans hysteria. The public panics. And when the Axman sends a blood-chilling letter to the newspapers — promising death unless every home plays jazz on a chosen night — the city answers with a desperate and defiant flood of music.       Chip LoCoco was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he attended Jesuit High School and received his BA degree from Loyola University in 1990 with a concentration in History. He then went on to receive his JD degree from Loyola University Law School in 1993 and joined his father's firm, Many & LoCoco, after being sworn in as an attorney in October, 1993. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 221 years. Order your copy today! This week in the Louisiana Anthology. Julie Kane, poet laureate of Louisiana, 2011-2013. “Moonrise on the Cane River.” "The moon is a surprised white face over the darkening river Even before a pair of blue-grey wings swoops down Between the O of its mouth and the O of a surfacing fish, And the phone rings, and it's you in Baton Rouge Grilling a silver catfish and staring at the moon." This week in Louisiana history. June 28, 1861. First Civil War battle engagement for Louisiana Tigers, at Seneca Dam on Potomac River. This week in New Orleans history. Hurricane Audrey. June 28, 1957. On June 27, the Hurricane Audrey reached peak sustained winds of 145 mph, making it a major hurricane. Without decreasing windspeed, it made landfall between the mouth of the Sabine River and Cameron, Louisiana the following day. Audrey killed at least 416 people, the majority of which were in Cameron Parish. This week in Louisiana. Essence Fest July 3-6, 2025 Various venues New Orleans, LA     What began in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate Essence Magazine's 25th anniversary has blossomed into an annual festival, which has welcomed hundreds of thousands of guests to the Crescent City each year over the past two decades. Often referred to as “a party with a purpose,” the Essence Festival of Culture promotes, celebrates, and explores health & wellness, spirituality, beauty & style, food, community & culture, entertainment, entrepreneurship, and much more within the African American community.     Attendees are invited to engage in panel discussions, shopping, meet-and-greets, activities, and of course, nonstop live music featuring some of the best in R&B, soul, funk, gospel, and hip-hop each and every Fourth of July weekend.     Essence Fest returns for its 31st year from July 3-6, 2025. Lineups will be announced closer to the event, but past headliners include Janet Jackson, Charlie Wilson, Usher, and Birdman & Friends, who will also honor three decades of Cash Money Millionaires. Postcards from Louisiana. Phillip Manuel sings with Michael Pellera Trio play at Snug Harbor on Frenchmen St. in New Orleans.  Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

Send us a textWhen Chris Broussard sits down with Dr. Steve Perry, the conversation quickly moves beyond sports statistics to the deeper currents of faith, identity, and purpose. Broussard's journey from Cleveland to Oberlin College reveals the powerful influence of representation – his decision to attend hinged on the discovery that the basketball coach was Black, leading him to a school with a remarkable history as the first American institution to accept African Americans.The heart of their exchange centers on Broussard's spiritual awakening during his senior year of college. Despite having everything a young man could want – basketball captaincy, a girlfriend, and a promising sports writing job waiting after graduation – Broussard describes an emptiness that led to his faith commitment on his 21st birthday. This transformation didn't diminish his Black consciousness but rather deepened it, connecting him to the rich history of African Christianity that predates America by centuries.Perry and Broussard tackle the complex ecosystem surrounding professional Black athletes with unflinching honesty. They identify a troubling pattern where young men with extraordinary talent become isolated from authentic mentorship, surrounded instead by childhood friends who may lack guidance themselves or business associates primarily interested in profit. The conversation explores how stars like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Jalen Brown navigate these waters, with some creating models for leveraging their platforms to uplift communities.Most compelling is their vision for what could be possible if athletes could unite beyond performative meetings toward sustained action. As Broussard notes, "We need to be building constantly, even in peacetime," pointing to the untapped potential of Black athletic influence in American society. Their conversation stands as both critique and hopeful blueprint for how success in sports might translate to meaningful change for communities that have produced so many of our cultural icons.Subscribe to hear more thought-provoking conversations that push beyond headlines to the heart of issues affecting our communities.

DJ Fatboy Slim's ‘Praise You' is a song you might have heard in a Hollywood movie or danced to in a club - to this day, it is still his biggest hit. But there is something you won't know: the singer behind the lyrics or the true meaning of the words. Civil rights activist Camille Yarbrough first released ‘Take Yo' Praise' 50 years ago. It was written as a love letter to African-American men, inspired by a moment of spiritual awakening and family secret. After its release, radio stations refused to play it and she felt she was labelled a “troublemaker”. When Fatboy Slim picked up an old copy of Camille's song, he turned it into a hit. But there is an irony - it is now played by radio stations around the world, but the true meaning of the music has been lost. Reporter Emily Webb goes to meet Camille in her New York apartment.

As we enter the second half of Blackest History Month 2025, we reflect on themes of power, influence, culture, and resistance, particularly within the context of Black thought, history, and contemporary developments in the US and global social structures. The contrast between figures like Kendrick Lamar (highlighted during the Super Bowl) and Donald Trump illustrates how power often intersects with whiteness, capitalism, and entertainment to shape public consciousness. This is especially evident in major advertising events like the Super Bowl, where creating a cultural moment and capturing attention become paramount. Meanwhile, the increasing channeling of public resources into promoting visions of white supremacy and hypercapitalism has intensified to the point of impunity, daring the rest of us to resist it.Martin Kilson's observation about shifts in African American intellectual and creative circles from pursuing power to emphasizing and commoditizing culture provides a lens through which we can examine intersections of cultural meaning-making and struggle. What happens when contemporary power dynamics—particularly regarding white nationalism and the redirection of both public and private resources—reduce Black Power to mere cultural posturing? Absent the deliberate connection of Movement and Memory to strengthening Africana Governance formations, can cultural influence contribute meaningfully to organizing, resisting, and building for the long term? Or is “playing the great American game” a never-ending cycle of diminishing returns?JOIN KNARRATIVE: https://www.knarrative.com it's the only way to get into #Knubia, where these classes areheld live with a live chat.To shop Go to:TheGlobalMajorityMore from us:Knarrative Twitter: https://twitter.com/knarrative_Knarrative Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knarrative/In Class with Carr Twitter: https://twitter.com/inclasswithcarrSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Jay unpacks the remarkable account of how Jesus proved He was the Lord of Life in Matthew Chapter 9. The woman with the unending blood flow and the dead twelve-year-old girl. are actually two sides of the same narrative. You'll be amazed how these two events combine to prove Jesus' power over death!Frothy Thoughts with the Truth BaristaVisit HighBeam Ministry, The Truth BaristaCheck out the Frothy Thoughts Blog!Check out The Truth Barista Books!Check out The Truth Barista YouTube Channel!

Everything is generational. In this episode, I talk with a friend who is willing to talk about his generation and the church. Dave Wonders is a millennial, who is married, has 3 kids, is a radio personality on a Christian network, and plays on the worship team at his Church, and he is my guest. So, what do generations mean for the Church moving forward? Dave joins me to discuss this topic, and you'll be surprised by what he has to say.Challenging the Culture with Truth with Larry Kutzler and Esteemed GuestsListen to the Latest Episode of Challenging the Culture with Truth Podcast!Check out the Latest CitySites Urban Media Podcast Network Episode!Check out Larry's books!Visit the CitySites Urban Media YouTube ChannelCheck out It Is That Simple, The Simple Ideas of Profound TruthsCheck out Monday Morning Mindset with Dr. Nathan UnruhCheck out Lenny's Corner with Dr. Lennard Stoeklen

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explaining to “America Reports'” John Roberts how the mainstream media has distorted the facts of a leaked low confidence intelligence assessment about the success of the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and the destruction of Iran's nuclear program; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth making the mainstream media think twice about lying about the destruction of Iran's nuclear program; Donald Trump's fierce response to CNN's Kaitlan Collins about his certainty of the destruction of Iran's nuclear sites; Jamaal Bowman trying to convince Marc Short that being called the n-word is the reason that African Americans have higher rates of cancer and obesity; Tom Homan admitting to Sean Hannity how destructive the potential for terrorist sleeper cell attacks in America really is; Joe Rogan correcting Bernie Sander's facts about Donald Trump's lawsuit against CBS News for their misleading editing of their Kaqmal Harris interview on “60 Minutes”; and much more. Dave also does a special “ask me anything” question-and-answer session on a wide-ranging host of topics, answering questions from the Rubin Report Locals community.  WATCH the MEMBER-EXCLUSIVE segment of the show here: https://rubinreport.locals.com/ Check out the NEW RUBIN REPORT MERCH here: https://daverubin.store/ ---------- Today's Sponsors: Prolon - Rejuvenate your body from the inside out, while supporting enhanced skin appearance, fat loss, and improving energy and focus. Prolon is offering 15% off and a $40 bonus gift for Rubin Report viewers when you subscribe to their 5-Day Nutrition Program. Go to: http://ProlonLife.com/DAVE Royo - ROYO breads are so good you'll forget they're healthier. Bread that's low in carbs and higher in fiber and protein. Go to http://eatroyo.com and use promo code RUBIN for 20% off! 1775 Coffee - Get 1775's Starter Kit. All single-origin, small batch, mold-free and toxin-free. Get your 1775 Coffee starter kit worth $200 for only $99. The initial launch is only 1,000 units - get it while you can. Go to: https://1775coffee.com/RUBIN and use code RUBIN

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Stacey Allen. The founder and artistic director of Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective. This episode blends art, activism, education, and cultural preservation through the lens of Black history and dance. Here are the key highlights:

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Stacey Allen. The founder and artistic director of Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective. This episode blends art, activism, education, and cultural preservation through the lens of Black history and dance. Here are the key highlights:

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Stacey Allen. The founder and artistic director of Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective. This episode blends art, activism, education, and cultural preservation through the lens of Black history and dance. Here are the key highlights:

In the spotlight is Tracy Clark, a Chicago native and the author of the award-winning Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series, featuring ex-cop turned private investigator Cassandra Raines, and the detective Harriet Foster series, featuring Harriet Foster, a homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department. Two tough, smart, African American female characters working the mean streets of the Windy City.  We discuss:  >> Creating characters >> Cassandra Raines >> Harriet Foster >> Chicago >> Deep-dish pizza >> Organic versus outlined writing >> Key writing advice >> Literary influences >> Etc.  Learn more about Tracy Clark here: https://tracyclarkbooks.com  Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol. Check out his novels here: https://snip.ly/yz18no   Write to Mike Consol at novelistspotlight@gmail.com 

They were known as "Black Loyalists" - enslaved and free persons of African descent who fought with the British during the Revolutionary War. Why did they do it? Why did they move to Canada after the war was over? And what is their connection to Virginia Beach, Virginia? We delve into those questions during a special 90-minute history lesson about a little-known part of America's history as we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

This week's episode of the Parsing Immigration Policy podcast delves into the Insurrection Act, its historical uses, and whether it could legally authorize the use of the military to assist in the arrest and removal of illegal aliens.The Insurrection Act allows presidents to deploy federal troops not only in cases of insurrection but also when federal law can't practicably be enforced through conventional means. The Posse Comitatus Act, which many point to as preventing such a use of troops, is not the obstacle many assume it is.President Trump so far has only tasked troops with protection of federal facilities and agents, but, if he chooses to exercise it, he does have authority under the Insurrection Act to put them to work actually enforcing immigration law.“The Insurrection Act has been invoked by leaders of both parties to protect civil rights and to enforce federal law. President Trump would have ample justification to use the Insurrection Act to allow the U.S. military to assist with large-scale deportation efforts,” said podcast guest George Fishman, Senior Legal Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and former Deputy General Counsel at DHS.Historical precedent:Over the past more than 200 years, presidents have relied on the Insurrection Act to deal with some 30 crises.Presidents of both parties have relied on the Insurrection Act: Grant to suppress the early KKK, Cleveland to protect Chinese immigrants, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson to enforce civil rights for African Americans, Bush to restore order during the 1992 LA riots.Misconceptions about the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA):The PCA does not apply where Congress has explicitly authorized military use — such as under the Insurrection Act.Immigration enforcement today:More than 15 million illegal aliens are in the U.S.3.6 million backlog in immigration court.1.4 million aliens have final removal orders, yet remain at large. Millions of removable aliens were released by the Biden administration, and ICE has no knowledge of their location.ICE has only 6,000 officers to manage enforcement nationwide.HostMark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration StudiesGuestGeorge Fishman is the Senior Legal Fellow at the Center for Immigration StudiesRelatedDon't Fear the Insurrection ActPresident Trump Doesn't Need to Invoke the Insurrection Act — He Already HasIntro MontageVoices in the opening montage:Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

In a sea of Gatsby re-tellings, this remix stands out. Kyra Davies Lurie uses Fitzgerald's classic as a jumping off point to take us across the country (and a few decades past the roaring 20s) to Sugar Hill, a little known affluent African American neighborhood where the scene is set.

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight Producer Swati Rayasam showcases a community panel of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech.   Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – “Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us” SHOW TRANSCRIPT Swati Rayasam: You are tuned in to APEX Express on KPFA. My name is Swati Rayasam and I'm back as your special producer for this episode. Tonight we have an incredible community panel titled Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison. This panel explores the history of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and [00:01:00] safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech. I'll pass it on to UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Professor Mike Chang to kick us off. Mike and Harvey: We're starting on Berkeley time, right on time at three 10, and I want to introduce Harvey Dong. Harvey Dong: Okay. The sponsors for today's event include, AADS- Asian American and Diaspora studies program, uc, Berkeley, Asian American Research Center, the Center for Race and Gender Department of Ethnic Studies- all part of uc, Berkeley. Off campus, we have the following community groups. Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Law Caucus, [00:02:00] Asian Prisoners Support Committee, and East Wind Books. Okay, so that's, quite a few in terms of coalition people coming together. My name is Harvey Dong and I'm also a lecturer in the AADS program and part of the ethnic studies department. I can say that I exist here as the result of birthright citizenship won by Ancestor Wong Kim Ark in 1898. Otherwise, I would not be here. We want to welcome everyone here today, for this important panel discussion titled: Deport, Exclude, Revoke, Imprison – Immigration and citizenship rights during crisis. Yes, we are in a deep crisis today. The Chinese characters for crisis is way G in Mandarin or way gay in [00:03:00] Cantonese, which means danger and opportunity. We are in a moment of danger and at the same time in a moment of opportunity. Our communities are under attack from undocumented, documented, and those with citizenship. We see urgency in coming together. In 1898, the US Supreme Court case, US versus Wong Kim Ark held that under the 14th Amendment birthright, citizenship applies to all people born in the United States. Regardless of their race or their parents' national origin or immigration status. On May 15th this year, the Supreme Court will hear a President Donald Trump's request to implement an executive order that will end birthright citizenship already before May 15th, [00:04:00] deportations of US citizen children are taking place. Recently, three US citizen children, one 2-year-old with cancer have been deported with their undocumented parents. The numbers of US citizen children are much higher being deported because it's less covered in the press. Unconstitutional. Yes, definitely. And it's taking place now. Also today, more than 2.7 million southeast Asian Americans live in the US but at least 16,000 community members have received final orders of deportation, placing their lives and families in limbo. This presents a mental health challenge and extreme economic hardship for individuals and families who do not know whether their next day in the US will be their last. Wong Kim Ark's [00:05:00] struggle and the lessons of Wong Kim Ark, continue today. His resistance provides us with a grounding for our resistance. So they say deport, exclude, revoke, imprison. We say cease and desist. You can say that every day it just seems like the system's gone amuk. There's constant attacks on people of color, on immigrants and so forth. And our only solution, or the most important solution is to resist, legally resist, but also to protest, to demand cease and desist. Today brings together campus and community people. We want you all to be informed because if you're uninformed , you can't do anything. Okay? You have to know where things are at. It's nothing new. What they're trying to do, in 1882, [00:06:00] during times of economic crisis, they scapegoated Asian Americans. Today there's economic, political crisis. And the scapegoating continues. They're not doing anything new. You know, it's old stuff, but we have to realize that, and we have to look at the past in terms of what was done to fight it and also build new solidarities today. Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. He went through, lots of obstacles. He spent three months in Angel Island he was arrested after he won his case because he was constantly being harassed wherever he went. His kids when they came over were also, spotted as being Wong Kim Ark's, children, and they too had to spend months at Angel Island. So Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. We need to learn from him today. Our [00:07:00] next, special guest is Mr. Norman Wong, a good friend of mine. He was active here in the third world Liberation Front strike that led to ethnic studies. He did a lots of work for the development of Asian American studies and we've been out in touch for about, what, 40 years? So I'm really happy that he's able to come back to Berkeley and to talk about yourself, if you wish, maybe during the Q and a, but to talk about , the significance of your great-grandfather's case. Okay, so Norman Wong, let's give him a hand. Norman Wong: Hello, my name's Norman Wong. I'm the great grandson, Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark was [00:08:00] born in the USA, like my great-grandfather. I, too was born American in the same city, San Francisco, more than 75 years after him. We are both Americans, but unlike him, my citizenship has never been challenged. His willingness to stand up and fight made the difference for his struggles, my humble thanks. Wong Kim Ark however, was challenged more than once. In late 1889 as an American, he traveled to China in July, 1890. He returned to his birth city. He had his papers and had no problems with reentry. In 1895, after a similar trip, he was stopped from disembarking and was placed into custody for five months aboard ship in port. [00:09:00] Citizenship denied, the reason the Chinese exclusion Act 1882. He had to win this case in district court, provide $250 bail and then win again in the United States Supreme Court, March 28th, 1898. Only from these efforts, he was able to claim his citizenship granted by birthright from the 14th Amendment and gain his freedom. That would not be the last challenge to his being American. My mother suffered similar treatment. She like my great-grandfather, was born in America. In 1942, she was forced with her family and thousands of other Japanese Americans to relocation camps an experience unspoken by her family. [00:10:00] I first learned about Japanese American internment from history books. Executive order 9066 was the command. No due process, citizenship's rights stripped. She was not American enough. Now we have executive order 14160. It is an attack on birthright citizenship. We cannot let this happen. We must stand together. We are a nation of immigrants. What kind of nation are we to be with stateless children? Born to no country. To this, I say no. We as Americans need to embrace each other and [00:11:00] cherish each new life. Born in the USA. Thank you. Harvey Dong: Thank you, Norman. And Annie Lee, will moderate, the following panel, involving campus and community representatives who will be sharing their knowledge and experience. Annie Lee, Esquire is an attorney. She's also the, managing director of policy for Chinese Affirmative Action, and she's also, heavily involved in the birthright citizenship issue. Annie Lee: Thank you so much Harvey for that very warm welcome and thank you again to Norman for your remarks. I think it's incredible that you're speaking up at this moment, to preserve your ancestors' legacy because it impacts not just you and him, but all of us [00:12:00] here. So thank you. As Harvey said, my name is Annie Lee and I have this honor of working with this amazing panel of esteemed guest we have today. So I will ask each of them to introduce themselves. And I will start, because I would love to hear your name, pronouns. Title and organization as well as your personal or professional relationship with the US Immigration System. So my name's Annie. I use she her pronouns. I'm the managing Director of policy at Chinese for Affirmative Action, which is a non-profit based in San Francisco Chinatown. We provide direct services to the monolingual working class Chinese community, and also advocate for policies to benefit all Asian Americans. My relationship with the immigration system is I am the child of two Chinese immigrants who did not speak English. And so I just remember lots of time spent on the phone when I was a kid with INS, and then it became U-S-C-I-S just trying to ask them what happened to [00:13:00] a family member's application for naturalization, for visas so I was the interpreter for them growing up and even today. I will pass it to Letty. Leti Volpp: Hi everybody. Thank you so much, Annie. Thank you Harvey. Thank you, Norman. That was profoundly moving to hear your remarks and I love the way that you framed our conversation, Harvey. I'm Leti Volpp. I am the Robert d and Leslie k Raven, professor of Law and Access to Justice at the Berkeley Law, school. I'm also the director of the campus wide , center for Race and Gender, which is a legacy of the Third World Liberation Front, and the 1999, student movement, that led to the creation of the center. I work on immigration law and citizenship theory, and I am the daughter, second of four, children of my mother who was an immigrant from China, and my father who was an immigrant [00:14:00] from Germany. So I'll pass it. Thank you. Ke Lam: Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, Norman. So my name's Key. I go by he, him pronouns or Nghiep “Ke” Lam, is my full name. I work for an organization called Asian Prison Support Committee. It's been around for like over two decades now, and it started behind three guys advocating for ethics study, Asian and Pacific Islander history. And then it was starting in San Quent State Prison. All three of them pushed for ethics study, hard and the result is they all was put into solitary confinement. And many years later, after all three got out, was Eddie Zang, Mike Romero and Mike no. And when they got out, Eddie came back and we pushed for ethics study again, and we actually got it started in 2013. And it's been going on to today. Then the programs is called Roots, restoring our Original True Self. So reconnecting with who we are. And one of Eddie's main, mottos that really stuck with me. He said, we need to all connect to our chi, right? And I'm like, okay, I understand what chi is, and he said no. He [00:15:00] said, you need to connect to your culture, your history, which result to equal your identity, who you are as a person. So, the more we study about our history and our culture, like, birthright citizen, it empower us to know, who we are today. Right? And also part of that is to how do we take down the veil of shame in our community, the veil of trauma that's impacting our community as well. We don't talk about issue that impact us like immigration. So I'm a 1.5 generation. So I was born in Vietnam from Chinese family that migrant from China to Vietnam started business after the fall of Vietnam War. We all got kicked out but more than that, I am directly impacted because I am a stranded deportee, somebody that got their, legal status taken away because of criminal conviction. And as of any moment now, I could actually be taken away. So I live in that, right at that threshold of like uncertainty right now. And the people I work with, which are hundreds of people, are fixing that same uncertainty.[00:16:00] Annie Lee: Thank you, Ke. I'm gonna pass it to our panelists who are joining us virtually, including Bun. Can you start and then we'll pass it to Chris after. Bun: Hey everybody, thank you for having me. My name is Bun. I'm the co-director of Asian Prison Support Committee. I'm also, 1.5 generation former incarcerated and under, direct impact of immigration. Christopher Lapinig: Hi everyone. My name is Christopher Lapinig, my pronouns are he, him and Sha. I am a senior staff attorney on the Democracy and National Initiatives Team at Asian Law Caucus, which you may know is the country's first and oldest legal aid in civil rights organization, dedicated to serving, low income immigrant and underserved AAPI communities. In terms of my connection to the immigration system, I am, I also am a beneficiary of a birthright citizenship, and my parents are both immigrants from the Philippines. I was born in New York City. My [00:17:00] extended family spans both in the US and the Philippines. After graduating law school and clerking, my fellowship project was focused on providing litigation and immigration services to, survivors of labor trafficking in the Filipino community. While working at Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles, I also was engaged in, class action litigation, challenging the first Trump administration's practices, detaining immigrants in the Vietnamese and Cambodian communities. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Thank you Bun. Let's start off by talking about birthright citizenship since it's a big topic these days. On the very, very first day of Trump's administration, he issued a flurry of executive orders, including one that would alter birthright citizenship. But I wanna take us back to the beginning because why do we have this right? It is a very broad right? If you were born in the United States, you are an American citizen. Where does that come from? So I wanna pose the first question to Letty to talk about the [00:18:00] origins of birthright citizenship., Leti Volpp: Very happy to. So what's being fought about is a particular clause in the Constitution and the 14th Amendment, which says, all persons born are naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Okay, so that's the text. There's been a very long understanding of what this text means, which says that regardless of the immigration status of one's parents, all children born here are entitled to birthright citizenship with three narrow exceptions, which I will explain. So the Trump administration executive order, wants to exclude from birthright citizenship, the children of undocumented immigrants, and the children of people who are here on lawful temporary visas. So for example, somebody here on an [00:19:00] F1 student visa, somebody on a H one B worker visa, somebody here is a tourist, right? And basically they're saying we've been getting this clause wrong for over a hundred years. And I will explain to you why I think they're making this very dubious argument. Essentially when you think about where the 14th amendment came from, in the United States, in the Antebellum era, about 20% of people were enslaved and there were lots of debates about citizenship. Who should be a citizen? Who could be a citizen? And in 1857, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a case called Dread Scott, where they said that no person who was black, whether free or enslaved, could ever be a citizen. The Civil War gets fought, they end slavery. And then the question arose, well, what does this mean for citizenship? Who's a citizen of the United States? And in 1866, Congress [00:20:00] enacts a law called the Civil Rights Act, which basically gave rights to people that were previously denied and said that everybody born in the United States is a birthright citizen. This gets repeated in the 14th Amendment with the very important interpretation of this clause in Norman's great-grandfather's case, the case of Wong Kim Ark. So this came before the Supreme Court in 1898. If you think about the timing of this, the federal government had basically abandoned the reconstruction project, which was the project of trying to newly enfranchised, African Americans in the United States. The Supreme Court had just issued the decision, Plessy versus Ferguson, which basically legitimated the idea that, we can have separate, but equal, as a doctrine of rights. So it was a nation that was newly hostile to the goals of the Reconstruction Congress, and so they had this case come before them, whereas we heard [00:21:00] from Norman, we have his great-grandfather born in San Francisco, Chinatown, traveling back and forth to China. His parents having actually left the United States. And this was basically presented as a test case to the Supreme Court. Where the government tried to argue, similar to what the Trump administration is arguing today, that birthright citizenship, that clause does not guarantee universal birthright citizenship saying that children of immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States because their parents are also not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The Supreme Court took over a year to decide the case. They knew that it would be controversial, and the majority of the court said, this provision is clear. It uses universal language. It's intended to apply to children of all immigrants. One of the things that's interesting about [00:22:00] what the, well I'll let Chris actually talk about what the Trump administration, is trying to do, but let me just say that in the Wong Kim Ark decision, the Supreme Court makes very clear there only three narrow exceptions to who is covered by the 14th Amendment. They're children of diplomats. So for example, if the Ambassador of Germany is in the United States, and, she has a daughter, like her daughter should not become a birthright citizen, right? This is why there's diplomatic immunity. Why, for example, in New York City, there are millions of dollars apparently owed to the city, in parking tickets by ambassadors who don't bother to pay them because they're not actually subject to the jurisdiction in the United States. Okay? Second category, children of Native Americans who are seen as having a sovereign relationship of their own, where it's like a nation within a nation, kind of dynamic, a country within a country. And there were detailed conversations in the congressional debate about the [00:23:00] 14th Amendment, about both of these categories of people. The third category, were children born to a hostile invading army. Okay? So one argument you may have heard people talk about is oh, I think of undocumented immigrants as an invading army. Okay? If you look at the Wong Kim Ark decision, it is very clear that what was intended, by this category of people were a context where the hostile invading army is actually in control of that jurisdiction, right? So that the United States government is not actually governing that space so that the people living in it don't have to be obedient, to the United States. They're obedient to this foreign power. Okay? So the thread between all three of these exceptions is about are you having to be obedient to the laws of the United States? So for example, if you're an undocumented immigrant, you are subject to being criminally prosecuted if you commit a crime, right? Or [00:24:00] you are potentially subjected to deportation, right? You have to obey the law of the United States, right? You are still subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Okay? But the Trump administration, as we're about to hear, is making different arguments. Annie Lee: Thank you so much, Leti for that historical context, which I think is so important because, so many different communities of color have contributed to the rights that we have today. And so what Leti is saying here is that birthright citizenship is a direct result of black liberation and fighting for freedom in the Civil War and making sure that they were then recognized as full citizens. And then reinforced, expanded, by Wong Kim Ark. And now we are all beneficiaries and the vast majority of Americans get our citizenship through birth. Okay? That is true for white people, black people. If you're born here, you get your ci. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to go to court. You don't have to say anything. You are a US citizen. And now as Leti referenced, there's this fringe legal theory that, thankfully we've got lawyers like [00:25:00] Chris who are fighting this. So Chris, you're on the ALC team, one of many lawsuits against the Trump administration regarding this unlawful executive order. Can you tell us a little bit about the litigation and the arguments, but I actually really want you to focus on what are the harms of this executive order? Sometimes I think particularly if you are a citizen, and I am one, sometimes we take what we have for granted and you don't even realize what citizenship means or confers. So Chris, can you talk about the harms if this executive order were to go through? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. As Professor Volpp sort of explained this executive order really is an assault on a fundamental constitutional right that has existed for more than a hundred years at this point, or, well, about 125 years. And if it is allowed to be implemented, the harms would really be devastating and far reach. So first, you know, children born in the us, the [00:26:00] parents without permanent status, as permissible said, would be rendered effectively stateless, in many cases. And these are of course, children, babies who have never known any other home, yet they would be denied the basic rights of citizen. And so the order targets a vast range of families, and not just undocument immigrants, but also those with work visas, student visas, humanitarian productions like TPS, asylum seekers, fleeing persecution, DACA recipients as well. And a lot of these communities have deep ties to Asian American community. To our history, and of course are, essential part, of our social fabric. In practical terms, children born without birthright citizenship would be denied access to healthcare through Medicaid, through denied access to snap nutritional assistance, even basic IDs like social security numbers, passports. And then as they grow older, they'd be barred from voting, serving on juries and even [00:27:00] working. And then later on in life, they might be, if they, are convicted of a crime and make them deportable, they could face deportation to countries that they never stepped, foot off basically. And so this basically is this executive order threatened at risk, creating exactly what the drafters of the 14th Amendment wanted to prevent the creation of a permanent underclass of people in the United States. It'll just get amplified over time. If you can imagine if there's one generation of people born without citizenship, there will be a second generation born and a third and fourth, and it'll just get amplified over time. And so it truly is just, hard to get your mind around exactly what the impact of this EO would be. Annie Lee: Thanks, Chris. And where are we in the litigation right now? Harvey referenced, a hearing at the Supreme Court on May 15th, but, tell us a little bit about the injunction and the arguments on the merits and when that can, when we can expect [00:28:00] that. Christopher Lapinig: Yeah, so there were a number of lawsuits filed immediately after, the administration issued its exec order on January 20th. Asian Law Caucus we filed with the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project. Literally we were the first lawsuit, literally hours after the executive order was issued. By early February, federal judges across the country had issued nationwide preliminary injunctions blocking implementation of the order. Our case is actually not a nationwide injunction. And so there're basically, I believe three cases that are going up to the Supreme Court. And, the Trump administration appealed to various circuit courts to try to undo these injunctions. But all circuit courts upheld the injunctive relief and and so now the Supreme Court is going to be hearing arguments on May 15th. And so it has not actually ruled on whether or not the executive order is constitutional, but it's going to. I mean, it remains to be seen exactly what they're going to decide but may [00:29:00] 15th is the next date is the big date on our calendar. Annie Lee: Yeah. So the Trump administration is arguing that these judges in a particular district, it's not fair if they get to say that the entire country, is barred from receiving this executive order. Is that procedurally correct. Judges, in order to consider whether to grants an injunction, they have a whole battery of factors that they look at, including one, which is like likelihood of winning on the merits. Because if something is unconstitutional, it's not really great to say, yeah, you can let this executive order go through. And then like later when the court cases finally worked their way, like a year later, pull back from that. And so that's, it's very frustrating to see this argument. And it's also unfair and would be very messy if the states that had republican Attorneys General who did not litigate, why would you allow the executive order to go forward in those red states and not in these blue state? It really, I would say federalism run terribly amuck. Swati Rayasam: [00:30:00] You are tuned in to APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley,. 88.1. KFCF in Fresno and online@kpfa.org. Annie Lee: But anyway, let's see back off from the actual case because I think what we're really talking about and what Chris has alluded to is, these cases about birthright citizenship, all the immigration policy is essentially determining who belongs here. Who belongs here. That's what immigration policy is at its heart. And we see that the right wing is weaponizing that question, who belongs here? And they are going after very vulnerable populations, undocumented people, people who are formerly incarcerated. So Bun if you can talk about how, is the formerly incarcerated community, like targeted immigrants, targeted for deportation? What is going on with this community that I feel like most people might not know about? Thank [00:31:00] you. Bun: Yes. For our folks that are incarcerated and former incarcerated, we are the easiest target for deportation because we are in custody and in California, CDCR colludes with ICE and on the day that we are to be paroled they're at the door, cuffing us up and taking us to detention. I'm glad to hear Harvey say, this is a time of fear for us and also opportunity. Right now, our whole community, the Southeast Asian community, mainly are very effective with immigration. In the past 25 years, mostly it was the Cambodian community that was being targeted and deported. At this moment, they are targeting, all of the Southeast Asian community, which historically was never deported because of the politics and agreements, of the Vietnamese community. And now the Laos community thats more concerning, that are being targeted for deportation. Trump have opened a new opportunity for us as a community to join [00:32:00] together and understand each other's story, and understand each other's fear. Understand where we're going about immigration. From birthright to crimmagration. A lot of times folks that are under crimmigration are often not spoken about because of our cultural shame, within our own family and also some of our community member felt safe because the political agreements. Now that everybody's in danger, we could stand together and understand each other's issue and support each other because now we could see that history has repeated itself. Again, we are the scapegoat. We are here together fighting the same issue in different circumstances, but the same issue. Annie Lee: But let me follow up. What are these, historical agreements that you're talking about that used to feel like used to at least shield the community that now aren't in place anymore? Bun: Yeah. After the Clinton administration, uh, passed the IRA [immigration reform act] a lot of Southeast Asian nations were asked to [00:33:00] take their nationals back. Even though we as 1.5 generation, which are the one that's mostly impacted by this, had never even stepped into the country. Most of us were born in a refugee camp or we're too young to even remember where they came from. Countries like Cambodian folded right away because they needed the financial aid and whatever, was offering them and immediately a three with a MOU that they will take their citizens since the early two thousands. Vietnam had a stronger agreement, which, they would agree to only take folks that immigrated here after 1995 and anybody before 1995, they would not take, and Laos have just said no until just a few months ago. Laos has said no from when the, uh, the act was passed in 1995, the IRRIRA. Mm-hmm. So the big change we have now is Vietnam had signed a new MOU saying that they will take folks after 1995 [00:34:00] in the first administration and more recently, something that we never thought, happened so fast, was Laos agreeing to take their citizen back. And then the bigger issue about our Laos community is, it's not just Laos folks. It's the Hmong folks, the Myan folks, folks, folks that are still in danger of being returned back 'cause in the Vietnam War, they colluded and supported the Americans in the Vietnam War and were exiled out and kicked out, and were hunted down because of that. So, at this moment, our folks are very in fear, especially our loud folks, not knowing what's gonna happen to 'em. Ke Lam: So for folks that don't know what IRR means it means, illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. It actually happened after the Oklahoma bombing, which was caused by a US citizen, a white US citizen. Yeah. But immigration law came out of it. That's what's crazy about it. Annie Lee: Can you tell us, how is APSC advocating to protect the community right now because you [00:35:00] are vulnerable? Ke Lam: So we had to censor a lot of our strategies. At first we used to use social media as a platform to show our work and then to support our community. But the government use that as a target to capture our people. So we stopped using social media. So we've been doing a lot of on the ground movement, such as trying to get local officials to do resolutions to push Governor Newsom to party more of our community members. The other thing is we hold pardon workshops, so try and get folks to get, either get a pardon or vacate their sentence. So commute their sentence to where it become misdemeanor is not deportable anymore. Support letters for our folks writing support letters to send to the governor and also to city official, to say, Hey, please help pardon our community. I think the other thing we are actually doing is solidarity work with other organizations, African American community as well as Latin communities because we've been siloed for so long and we've been banned against each other, where people kept saying like, they've taken all our job when I grew up. That's what they told us, right? [00:36:00] But we, reality that's not even true. It was just a wedge against our community. And then so it became the good versus bad narrative. So our advocacy is trying to change it it's called re-storying you know, so retelling our story from people that are impacted, not from people, not from the one percenters in our own community. Let's say like we're all good, do you, are there's parts of our community that like that's the bad people, right? But in reality, it affects us all. And so advocacy work is a lot of different, it comes in a lot of different shapes and forms, but definitely it comes from the community. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. You teed me up perfectly because there is such a good versus bad immigrant narrative that takes root and is really hard to fight against. And that's why this administration is targeting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks and another group that, are being targeted as people who are accused of crimes, including Venezuelan immigrants who are allegedly part of a gang. So, Leti how is the government deporting [00:37:00] people by simply accusing them of being a part of a gang? Like how is that even possible? Leti Volpp: Yeah, so one thing to think about is there is this thing called due process, right? It's guaranteed under the constitution to all persons. It's not just guaranteed to citizens. What does it mean? Procedural due process means there should be notice, there should be a hearing, there should be an impartial judge. You should have the opportunity to present evidence. You should have the opportunity to cross examinee. You should have the opportunity to provide witnesses. Right? And basically Trump and his advisors are in real time actively trying to completely eviscerate due process for everybody, right? So Trump recently said, I'm doing what I was elected to do, remove criminals from our country. But the courts don't seem to want me to do that. We cannot give everyone a trial because to do so would take without exaggeration, 200 years. And then Stephen Miller said the judicial process is for Americans. [00:38:00] Immediate deportation is for illegal aliens. Okay. Quote unquote. Right. So I think one thing to notice is, as we're hearing from all of our speakers are like the boxes, the categories into which people are put. And what's really disturbing is to witness how once somebody's put in the box of being quote unquote criminal gang banger terrorists, like the American public seems to be like, oh, okay you can do what you want to this person. There's a whole history of due process, which exists in the laws which was created. And all of these early cases actually involved Asian immigrants, right? And so first they were saying there's no due process. And then in a case called Yata versus Fisher, they said actually there is due process in deportation cases, there's regular immigration court proceedings, which accord with all of these measures of due process. There's also a procedure called expedited removal, [00:39:00] which Congress invented in the nineties where they wanted to come up with some kind of very quick way to summarily exclude people. It was motivated by a 60 Minutes episode where they showed people coming to Kennedy Airport, who didn't have any ID or visa or they had what seemed to be fake visas and they were let into the United States. And then they disappeared, right? According to the 60 Minutes episode. So basically Congress invented this procedure of, if you appear in the United States and you have no documents, or you have what an immigration inspector thinks are false documents, they can basically tell you, you can leave without this court hearing. And the only fail safe is what's called a credible fear screening. Where if you say, I want asylum, I fear persecution, I'm worried I might be tortured, then they're supposed to have the screening. And if you pass that screening, you get put in regular removal [00:40:00] proceedings. So before the Trump administration took office, these expedited removal proceedings were happening within a hundred miles of the border against people who could not show that they had been in the United States for more than two weeks. In one of his first executive orders. Trump extended this anywhere in the United States against people who cannot show they've been in the United States for more than two years. So people are recommending that people who potentially are in this situation to carry documentation, showing they've been physically in the United States for over two years. Trump is also using this Alien Enemies Act, which was basically a law Congress passed in 1798. It's only been used three times in US history it's a wartime law, right? So it was used in 1812, World War I, and World War II, and there's supposed to be a declared war between the United States and a foreign nation or government, or [00:41:00] there's an incursion threatened by a foreign nation or government, and the president makes public proclamation that all natives of this hostile nation, 14 and up shall be liable to be restrained and removed as alien enemies. Okay? So we're obviously not at war with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, right? They have not engaged in some kind of invasion or predatory incursion into the United States, but the Trump administration is claiming that they have and saying things like, oh, they're secretly a paramilitary wing of the Venezuelan government, even as the Venezuelan government is like cracking down on them. It's not a quasi sovereign, entity. There's no diplomatic relationships between Tren de Aragua and any other government. So these are legally and factually baseless arguments. Nonetheless, the administration has been basically taking people from Venezuela on the basis of tattoos. A tattoo of a crown of a [00:42:00] rose, right? Even when experts have said there's no relationship between what Tren de Aragua does and tattoos, right? And basically just kidnapping people and shipping them to the torture prison in El Salvador. As I'm sure you know of the case of Kimber Abrego Garcia, I'm sure we'll hear more about this from Christopher. There's a very small fraction of the persons that have been sent to this prison in El Salvador who actually have any criminal history. And I will say, even if they had a criminal history, nobody should be treated in this manner and sent to this prison, right? I mean, it's unbelievable that they've been sent to this prison allegedly indefinitely. They're paying $6 million a year to hold people there. And then the United States government is saying, oh, we don't have any power to facilitate or effectuate their return. And I think there's a struggle as to what to call this. It's not just deportation. This is like kidnapping. It's rendition. And there are people, there's like a particular person like who's completely [00:43:00] disappeared. Nobody knows if they're alive or dead. There are many people in that prison. People don't know if they're alive or dead. And I'm sure you've heard the stories of people who are gay asylum seekers, right? Who are now in this situation. There are also people that have been sent to Guantanamo, people were sent to Panama, right? And so I think there questions for us to think about like, what is this administration doing? How are they trying to do this in a spectacular fashion to instill fear? As we know as well, Trump had said oh, like I think it would be great when he met with Bukele if you build four more or five more facilities. I wanna house homegrown people in El Salvador, right? So this is all the more importance that we stick together, fight together, don't, as key was saying, don't let ourselves be split apart. Like we need a big mass coalition right? Of people working together on this. Annie Lee: So thank you leti and I think you're absolutely right. These Venezuelans were kidnapped [00:44:00] in the middle of the night. I mean, 2:00 AM 3:00 AM pulled out of bed, forced to sign documents they did not understand because these documents were only available in English and they speak Spanish, put on planes sent to El Salvador, a country they've never been to. The government didn't even have to prove anything. They did not have to prove anything, and they just snatch these people and now they're disappeared. We do have, for now the rule of law. And so Chris, there are judges saying that, Kimber Abrego Garcia has to be returned. And despite these court orders, the administration is not complying. So where does that leave us, Chris, in terms of rule of law and law in general? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. So, I'm gonna make a little personal. So I graduated from Yale Law School in 2013, and you might know some of my classmates. One of my classmates is actually now the Vice President of the United States. Oh man. [00:45:00] Bless you. As well as the second lady, Usha Vance. And a classmate of mine, a good friend Sophia Nelson, who's a trans and queer, was recently on, I believe CNN answering a question about, I believe JD Vice President Vance, was asked about the administration's sort of refusal to comply with usual orders. Yeah. As we're talking about here and JD had said something like, well, courts, judges can't tell the president what he can't do, and sophia, to their credit, said, you know, I took constitutional law with JD, and, we definitely read Marbury Versus Madison together, and that is the semial sort of Supreme Court case that established that the US Supreme Court is the ultimate decider, arbiter, interpreter, of the US Constitution. And so is basically saying, I know JD knows better. He's lying essentially, in all of his [00:46:00] communications about, judicial orders and whether or not a presidential administration has to comply , with these orders. So, to get to your question though, it is of course unprecedented. Really. It is essentially, you know, it's not, if we not already reached. The point of a constitutional crisis. It is a constitutional crisis. I think it's become clear to many of us that, democracy in the US has operated in large part, and has relied on, on, on the good faith in norms, that people are operating good faith and that presidents will comply when, a federal judge issues an injunction or a decision. It kind of leaves us in an interesting, unprecedented situation. And it means that, lawyers, we will continue to litigate and, go to court, but we can't, lawyers will not save the country or, immigrants or communities. We need to think extensively and creatively. [00:47:00] About how to ensure, that the rule of law is preserved because, this administration is not, abiding by the longstanding norms of compliance and so we have to think about, protests, advocacy, legislatively. I don't have the answers necessarily, but we can't rely on the courts to fix these problems really. Annie Lee: Oof. That was very real, Chris. Thank you. But I will say that when there is resistance, and we've seen it from students who are speaking up and advocating for what they believe is right and just including Palestinian Liberation, that there is swift retaliation. And I think that's partly because they are scared of student speech and movement and organizing. But this is a question to all of you. So if not the courts and if the administration is being incredibly retaliatory, and discriminatory in terms of viewpoint discrimination, in people and what people are saying and they're scouring our social [00:48:00] media like, Ke warns, like what can everyday people do to fight back? That's for all of you. So I don't know who, which of you wants to take it first? Ke Lam: Oh man. I say look at history, right? Even while this new president, I wanna say like, this dude is a convicted felon, right? Don't be surprised at why we country is in the way it is, because this dude's a convicted felon, a bad business person, right? And only care about the billionaires, you know? So I'm not surprised how this country's ending up the way it is 'cause it is all about money. One way that we can stand up is definitely band together, marched on the streets. It's been effective. You look at the civil right movement, that's the greatest example. Now you don't have to look too far. We can actually, when we come together, they can't fight us all. Right? It is, and this, it's like you look at even nature in the cell. When things band together, the predators cannot attack everyone. Right? They probably could hit a few of us, but in the [00:49:00] long run, we could change the law. I think another thing is we, we, as the people can march to the courts and push the courts to do the job right, despite what's going on., We had judges that been arrested for doing the right thing, right? And so, no matter what, we have to stand strong just despite the pressure and just push back. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. Chris? Christopher Lapinig: What this administration is doing is you know, straight out of the fascist playbook. They're working to, as we all know, shock and awe everyone, and make Americans feel powerless. Make them feel like they have no control, make them feel overwhelmed. And so I think first and foremost, take care of yourself , in terms of your health, in terms of your physical health, your mental health. Do what you can to keep yourself safe and healthy and happy. And do the same for your community, for your loved ones, your friends and family. And then once you've done that do what you can in terms of your time, treasure, [00:50:00] talent to, to fight back. Everyone has different talents, different levels of time that they can afford. But recognize that this is a marathon and not necessarily a sprint because we need everyone, in this resistance that we can get. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Leti Volpp: There was a New Yorker article called, I think it was How to Be a Dissident which said, before recently many Americans, when you ask them about dissidents, they would think of far off countries. But they interviewed a lot of people who'd been dissidents in authoritarian regimes. And there were two, two things in that article that I'm taking with me among others. One of them said that in surveying like how authoritarian regimes are broken apart, like only 3.5% of the population has to oppose what's going on. The other thing was that you should find yourself a political home where you can return to frequently. It's almost like a religious or [00:51:00] spiritual practice where you go and you get refreshed and you're with like-minded people. And so I see this event, for example as doing that, and that we all need to find and nurture and foster spaces like this. Thank you. Annie Lee: Bun, do you have any parting words? Bun: Yeah. Like Ke said, to fight back, getting together, understanding issues and really uplifting, supporting, urging our own communities, to speak Up. You know, there's folks that can't speak out right now because of fear and danger, but there are folks here that can speak out and coming here learning all our situation really give the knowledge and the power to speak out for folks that can't speak down [unclear] right now. So I appreciate y'all Annie Lee: love that bun. I was gonna say the same thing. I feel like there is a special obligation for those of us who are citizens, citizens cannot be deported. Okay? Citizens have special rights based [00:52:00] on that status. And so there's a special responsibility on those of us who can speak, and not be afraid of retaliation from this government. I would also urge you all even though it's bleak at the federal level, we have state governments, we have local governments. You have a university here who is very powerful. And you have seen, we've seen that the uni that the administration backs down, sometimes when Harvard hit back, they back down and that means that there is a way to push the administration, but it does require you all putting pressure on your schools, on your local leaders, on your state leaders to fight back. My boss actually, Vin taught me this. You know, you think that politicians, lead, politicians do not lead politicians follow. Politicians follow and you all lead when you go out further, you give them cover to do the right thing. And so the farther you push and the more you speak out against this administration, the more you give them courage to do the right thing. And so you absolutely have to do that. A pardon [00:53:00] is critical. It is critical for people who are formerly incarcerated to avoid the immigration system and deportation. And so do that. Talk to your family, talk to your friends. My parents, despite being immigrants, they're kinda old school. Okay guys, they're like, you know, birthright citizenship does seem kind of like a loophole. Why should people like get like citizenship? I'm like, mom, we, I am a birthright citizen. Like, um, And I think for Asian Americans in particular, there is such a rich history of Asian American civil rights activism that we don't talk about enough, and maybe you do at Berkeley with ethnic studies and professors like Mike Chang. But, this is totally an interracial solidarity movement. We helped bring about Wong Kim Ark and there are beneficiaries of every shade of person. There's Yik wo, and I think about this all the time, which is another part of the 14th Amendment equal protection. Which black Americans fought for that in San Francisco. [00:54:00] Chinatown made real what? What does equal protection of the laws even mean? And that case was Seminole. You've got Lao versus Nichols. Another case coming out of San Francisco. Chinatown about English learner rights, the greatest beneficiary of Lao v Nichols, our Spanish speakers, they're Spanish speaking children in schools who get access to their education regardless of the language they speak. And so there are so many moments in Asian American history that we should be talking about, that we should educate our parents and our families about, because this is our moment. Now, this is another one of those times I wanna pass it to Mike and Harvey for questions, and I'm so excited to hear about them. Mike and Harvey: Wow, thank you so much. That's a amazing, panel and thank you for facilitating annie's wanna give it of a great value in terms of that spiritual home aspect. Norm how does your great grandfather's , experience in resistance, provide help for us [00:55:00] today? Norman Wong: Well, I think he was willing to do it. It only took one, if no one did it, this, we wouldn't be having the discussion because most of us would've never been here. And we need to come together on our common interests and put aside our differences because we all have differences. And if we tried, to have it our way for everything, we'll have it no way for us. We really need to, to bond and bind together and become strong as a people. And I don't mean as a racial or a national group. Mm-hmm. I mean, we're Americans now. We're Americans here think of us as joining with all Americans to make this country the way it's supposed to be. The way [00:56:00] we grew up, the one that we remember, this is not the America I grew up believing in. I'm glad he stood up. I'm proud that he did that. He did that. Him doing that gave me something that I've never had before. A validation of my own life. And so yes, I'm proud of him. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. It's not for me to own. Yeah. Wow. Really not. Thank you so much. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. And, and , talking about the good , that we have here and, the optimism that Harvey spoke about, the opportunity, even in a moment of substantial danger. Thank you so much everybody. Mike and Harvey: This was amazing and really appreciate sharing this space with you and, building community and solidarity. Ke Lam: But is there any, can I leave with a chant before we close off? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. So this is a chant that we use on the ground all the time. You guys probably heard it. When I said when we fight, you guys said we [00:57:00] win when we fight. We win when we fight, we win. When we fight, we win up. Swati Rayasam: Thanks so much for tuning into APEX Express. Please check out our website at kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. APEX Express is produced by Miko Lee, along with Jalena Keene-Lee, Ayame Keene-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaida, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Ravi Grover, and me Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the team at KPFA for their support, and have a good [00:58:00] night.   The post APEX Express – 6.26.25-Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us appeared first on KPFA.

On June 19, the day the nation observes Juneteenth, President Donald Trump posted on social media decrying the "too many non-working holidays in America." Though he didn't mention it by name, the timing of the post was seen by many as a direct criticism of the holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. This comes after the White House offered no formal observance of the day, a sharp contrast to celebrations held under the previous administration. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed with the latest news from a leading Black-owned & controlled media company: https://aurn.com/newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WBEN's Evan DiPasquale on two African American heritage centers getting $400,000 budget bonus 70 Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:30:26 +0000 PjdQYQe2bV6l9vbS6aAGxCaWHaxkdvRX news WBEN Extras news WBEN's Evan DiPasquale on two African American heritage centers getting $400,000 budget Archive of various reports and news events 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News False https

Crystal Peoples-Stokes announcing budget resources for two African American tourism anchors bonus 1563 Thu, 26 Jun 2025 18:30:56 +0000 05E1VYYZrGdGJZ0g8R4Ri8UJxkARnW0F news WBEN Extras news Crystal Peoples-Stokes announcing budget resources for two African American tourism anchors Archive of various reports and news events 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News False h

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Keshia Walker. Founder and chairwoman of the Black Collegiate Gaming Association (BCGA). Here’s a breakdown of the key themes and takeaways:

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Keshia Walker. Founder and chairwoman of the Black Collegiate Gaming Association (BCGA). Here’s a breakdown of the key themes and takeaways:

This week on Stitch Please, Lisa hangs out with the fabulous Danesha Anglin (aka Classyfied Life), who proves that grad school stress can actually lead to sewing success. Danesha spills the tea on how she went from “I wonder if I can sew?” to “Look at these Renaissance pants breaking the internet.”They chat about the creative chaos behind designing, the beauty of learning by messing up, and why trusting your gut sometimes leads to the best stitches. Bonus: pattern collection spoilers and plenty of laughs for anyone who's ever screamed at their sewing machine.====Where you can Catch up with Danesha! IG-@classyfiedlife===========Dr. Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory, and American slavery. She is the founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers on Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville, Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.Instagram: Lisa WoolforkTwitter: Lisa Woolfork======Stay Connected:YouTube: Black Women StitchInstagram: Black Women StitchFacebook: Stitch Please Podcast--Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletterCheck out our merch hereLeave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.Join the Black Women Stitch PatreonCheck out our Amazon StoreReady to tap in to the visuals of Stitch Please? Then join our Patreon! For only $5 a month you can get all of the video versions of the pod. PLUS more goodies at higher patron levels. We couldn't do any of this without your support. Thank you!

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Keshia Walker. Founder and chairwoman of the Black Collegiate Gaming Association (BCGA). Here’s a breakdown of the key themes and takeaways:

Cynthia McKinney has made a career of speaking her mind and challenging authority. With her opinions, actions, and even her sense of style, McKinney has inspired both admiration and controversy. McKinney´s political career began unofficially in 1986 when her father, Georgia State Representative Billy McKinney, put her name on the ballot as a write-in. Cynthia McKinney was living in Jamaica at the time and did not take the matter seriously; still, she garnered a large percentage of votes without even trying. Two years later, McKinney ran for and won the seat, creating the first father/daughter combination to serve together in the Georgia State House of Representatives. Cynthia immediately began making her own mark, defying House dress codes for women by wearing trousers instead of dresses. She spoke out against the first Persian Gulf War, and despite being in the House with her father, she often disagreed and voted against him. In 1992, McKinney won a seat in the US House of Representatives in Georgia´s newly created 11th district. She was the first African-American woman to represent Georgia in the US Congress. McKinney became Secretary of her Democratic freshman class and was placed on both the Agricultural Committee and the International Relations Committee. Her gold tennis shoes and braided hairstyle became her trademarks, and effectively raised her profile on a House floor dominated by white men. Though a Democrat during President Clinton's tenure, McKinney voted against NAFTA, showing that she was not one to simply follow the Party line. McKinney worked hard in Washington to clean up pollution in her district and improve its rural roads. During her second term, McKinney earned distinctive committee assignments with the National Security Committee and the International Relations Committee's International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee. A supporter of a Palestinian State in Israel-occupied territory, she sparked controversy by criticizing American policy in the Middle East. After the 9/11 attacks, McKinney suggested the President might have had prior knowledge of 9/11. The criticism she received from this highly controversial idea probably contributed to her defeat in the 2002 election; however, she ran for the seat again and was re-elected in 2004. Between terms in office, McKinney traveled the country and Europe, speaking against the war in Iraq war and also about her 2002 defeat, which she attributed to Republicans being organized to “cross over” to vote against her in the Democratic primaries. Her career, including this episode of her defeat, was made into a documentary film titled American Blackout. Once back in office, she continued her criticism of the Bush administration on the first anniversary of the 9/11 Commission Report by gathering victims' families and intelligence experts together on panels to address the flaws in the report and critique its recommendations regarding foreign and domestic policy. Believing the government should not keep secrets from the people, McKinney introduced legislation to release the documents related to the death of Tupac Shakur and twice submitted a bill to release the sealed documents pertaining to Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. McKinney was very active in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and a vocal critic of the government's response. When Democratic Party leaders encouraged a boycott of a Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, she chose to participate and submitted her own report on the matter. In 2007, McKinney left the Democratic Party to become a Presidential Candidate for the Green Party.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Portland artist and activist Isaka Shamsud-Din has captured the lives and histories of African Americans in paintings throughout his life. He draws on his experiences growing up in Portland for his work. His exhibit, “Rock of Ages,” is currently on display at the Portland Art Museum. We spoke to him in January 2020. As reported earlier by Oregon ArtsWatch, Portland artist, educator and activist Isaka Shamsud-Din has died. The arts and education nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland announced earlier this month that the artist had entered hospice care. Shamsud-din had been ill with cancer for some time. We listen back to a conversation we first aired in January 2020 with Shamsud-Din when his exhibit, “Rock of Ages,” was on display at the Portland Art Museum.  

As J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, entrusted with building his collection, Belle da Costa Greene could ‘spend more money in an afternoon than any other young woman of 26', as the New York Times put it in 1912. In the latest LRB, Francesca Wade reviews a new biography of Greene and a recent exhibition dedicated to her at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, of which Greene was the first director. Francesca joins Tom on the podcast to talk about Greene's life and work. They discuss her long-term, long-distance relationship with the art historian Bernard Berenson and her reasons for concealing her African American heritage. Find further reading in the LRB: https://lrb.me/wadepod Sponsored links: Get tickets for Good Night, Oscar: https://goodnightoscar.com Learn more about Stories in Colour: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast LRB Audio Discover audiobooks, Close Readings and more from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiolrbpod

In Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Duke University Press, 2025), anthropologist and dancer Maya J. Berry examines rumba as a way of knowing the embodied and spiritual dimensions of Black political imagination in post-Fidel Cuba. Historically a Black working-class popular dance, rumba, Berry contends, is a method of Black Cuban struggle that provides the community, accountability, sustenance, and dignity that neither the state nor the expanding private market can. Berry's feminist theorization builds on the notion of the undercommons to show how rumba creates a space in which its practitioners enact deeply felt and dedicatedly defended choreographies of reciprocity, refusal, sovereignty, devotion, and pleasure, both on stage and in their daily lives. Berry demonstrates that this Black corporeal undercommons emphasizes mutual aid and refuses neoliberal development logics, favoring instead a collective self-determination rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices through which material compensation and gendered power dynamics are negotiated. By centering rumba to analyze how poor Black Cubans navigate gendered and racialized life, Berry helps readers better understand the constraints and yearnings that move diasporic Black struggles to seek refuge beyond the bounds of the nation-state. Maya J. Berry is Assistant Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Duke University Press, 2025), anthropologist and dancer Maya J. Berry examines rumba as a way of knowing the embodied and spiritual dimensions of Black political imagination in post-Fidel Cuba. Historically a Black working-class popular dance, rumba, Berry contends, is a method of Black Cuban struggle that provides the community, accountability, sustenance, and dignity that neither the state nor the expanding private market can. Berry's feminist theorization builds on the notion of the undercommons to show how rumba creates a space in which its practitioners enact deeply felt and dedicatedly defended choreographies of reciprocity, refusal, sovereignty, devotion, and pleasure, both on stage and in their daily lives. Berry demonstrates that this Black corporeal undercommons emphasizes mutual aid and refuses neoliberal development logics, favoring instead a collective self-determination rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices through which material compensation and gendered power dynamics are negotiated. By centering rumba to analyze how poor Black Cubans navigate gendered and racialized life, Berry helps readers better understand the constraints and yearnings that move diasporic Black struggles to seek refuge beyond the bounds of the nation-state. Maya J. Berry is Assistant Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

In Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Duke University Press, 2025), anthropologist and dancer Maya J. Berry examines rumba as a way of knowing the embodied and spiritual dimensions of Black political imagination in post-Fidel Cuba. Historically a Black working-class popular dance, rumba, Berry contends, is a method of Black Cuban struggle that provides the community, accountability, sustenance, and dignity that neither the state nor the expanding private market can. Berry's feminist theorization builds on the notion of the undercommons to show how rumba creates a space in which its practitioners enact deeply felt and dedicatedly defended choreographies of reciprocity, refusal, sovereignty, devotion, and pleasure, both on stage and in their daily lives. Berry demonstrates that this Black corporeal undercommons emphasizes mutual aid and refuses neoliberal development logics, favoring instead a collective self-determination rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices through which material compensation and gendered power dynamics are negotiated. By centering rumba to analyze how poor Black Cubans navigate gendered and racialized life, Berry helps readers better understand the constraints and yearnings that move diasporic Black struggles to seek refuge beyond the bounds of the nation-state. Maya J. Berry is Assistant Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

In Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Duke University Press, 2025), anthropologist and dancer Maya J. Berry examines rumba as a way of knowing the embodied and spiritual dimensions of Black political imagination in post-Fidel Cuba. Historically a Black working-class popular dance, rumba, Berry contends, is a method of Black Cuban struggle that provides the community, accountability, sustenance, and dignity that neither the state nor the expanding private market can. Berry's feminist theorization builds on the notion of the undercommons to show how rumba creates a space in which its practitioners enact deeply felt and dedicatedly defended choreographies of reciprocity, refusal, sovereignty, devotion, and pleasure, both on stage and in their daily lives. Berry demonstrates that this Black corporeal undercommons emphasizes mutual aid and refuses neoliberal development logics, favoring instead a collective self-determination rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices through which material compensation and gendered power dynamics are negotiated. By centering rumba to analyze how poor Black Cubans navigate gendered and racialized life, Berry helps readers better understand the constraints and yearnings that move diasporic Black struggles to seek refuge beyond the bounds of the nation-state. Maya J. Berry is Assistant Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

In this episode of then & now, we are joined by Dr. Jamaal Muwwakkil, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, to discuss the recent rollback of affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in American universities. Jamaal examines how these changes—set in motion by the Supreme Court's 2023 decision to end race-conscious admissions, alongside a rising political backlash against DEI, particularly from the Trump administration—signal a return to exclusionary practices after decades of hard-fought progress. Bringing a sociolinguistic perspective to the jagged history of Black student experiences in the era of affirmative action, Jamaal traces the arc from the first efforts at inclusion in the 1950s to the present moment. Focusing on the implications of these shifts, particularly for Black and Latinx students navigating the current higher education environment, Jamaal provides insight into how language, policy, and power shape experiences of belonging and exclusion on campus, offering essential context for understanding this pivotal moment in higher education.Dr. Jamaal Muwwakkil is a University of California Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA in the Department of Education and Information Studies and an incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington. Jamaal holds a Linguistics PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was also the 2019-20 University of California (UC) Student Regent-designate and the 2020-21 UC Student Regent. Jamaal's research specializations include African American language and culture, sociocultural linguistics, and political discourse.

In Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Duke University Press, 2025), anthropologist and dancer Maya J. Berry examines rumba as a way of knowing the embodied and spiritual dimensions of Black political imagination in post-Fidel Cuba. Historically a Black working-class popular dance, rumba, Berry contends, is a method of Black Cuban struggle that provides the community, accountability, sustenance, and dignity that neither the state nor the expanding private market can. Berry's feminist theorization builds on the notion of the undercommons to show how rumba creates a space in which its practitioners enact deeply felt and dedicatedly defended choreographies of reciprocity, refusal, sovereignty, devotion, and pleasure, both on stage and in their daily lives. Berry demonstrates that this Black corporeal undercommons emphasizes mutual aid and refuses neoliberal development logics, favoring instead a collective self-determination rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices through which material compensation and gendered power dynamics are negotiated. By centering rumba to analyze how poor Black Cubans navigate gendered and racialized life, Berry helps readers better understand the constraints and yearnings that move diasporic Black struggles to seek refuge beyond the bounds of the nation-state. Maya J. Berry is Assistant Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

In Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Duke University Press, 2025), anthropologist and dancer Maya J. Berry examines rumba as a way of knowing the embodied and spiritual dimensions of Black political imagination in post-Fidel Cuba. Historically a Black working-class popular dance, rumba, Berry contends, is a method of Black Cuban struggle that provides the community, accountability, sustenance, and dignity that neither the state nor the expanding private market can. Berry's feminist theorization builds on the notion of the undercommons to show how rumba creates a space in which its practitioners enact deeply felt and dedicatedly defended choreographies of reciprocity, refusal, sovereignty, devotion, and pleasure, both on stage and in their daily lives. Berry demonstrates that this Black corporeal undercommons emphasizes mutual aid and refuses neoliberal development logics, favoring instead a collective self-determination rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices through which material compensation and gendered power dynamics are negotiated. By centering rumba to analyze how poor Black Cubans navigate gendered and racialized life, Berry helps readers better understand the constraints and yearnings that move diasporic Black struggles to seek refuge beyond the bounds of the nation-state. Maya J. Berry is Assistant Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/music

The Black barbershop is a cultural institution. It's a place where you can get much more than a haircut. You get community. You get jokes. You might get politicized. And you will get the straight talk that we often hold back when navigating a larger public that's committed to white supremacist systems. In May 2022, Jay sat down with Quincy Mills to help us understand both the politics and economics of Black barber shops. Quincy is an associate professor of history at the University of Maine and College Park. Along with teaching courses in 20th-century African-American history, he's authored "Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America” and is working on a new book called “The Wages of Resistance: Financing the Black Freedom Movement." NOTE: Today's history story is a fictional account of what so many Black barbershops experienced historically To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

6.18.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Judge Blocks $600M EPA Cut, Hegseth Dodges, Galveston Vote Fight, NH Racist Email & FAMU/TSU News A federal judge ruled that the EPA's decision to cut $600 million in environmental justice grants was unlawful. Pete Hegseth dodges tough questions on Capitol Hill about deploying military force against Americans. In Texas, a redistricting battle in Galveston could wipe out Black voting power. Simone Leeper from the Campaign Legal Center joins us with the latest legal fight to stop it. Plus, a New Hampshire lawmaker sends an openly racist email blaming African Americans, NOT guns, for violence in America. Florida's Board of Governors confirmed controversial Marva Johnson as Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University's 13th President. And Tennessee State University secures millions in state funding after years of financial neglect. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you seen this wave of racist over the top AI generated videos featuring Black women on TikTok? Since the release of Google’s VEO3 AI video generation platform in May, which allows users to create realistic videos from text prompts, there has been a wave of viral AI generated videos on TikTok depicting Black women using racist stereotypes and tropes. Although the first videos were made with good intentions, their popularity has sparked copycat creators to recreate more and more extreme versions. Just like 19th-century minstrel shows reinforced a political and social climate hostile to Black people, today’s AI-driven content is being used by some to affirm a similarly hostile climate toward Black women, and prop up a political and economic system that benefits others at their expense. Bridget studied minstrel shows in grad school, and has a lot to say about these videos that are essentially white supremacist propaganda masquerading as entertainment. The original, not-so-bad, actually-clever video from account AI Clapback King: https://www.tiktok.com/@aiformobile/video/7512729952618286378 Conference talk about Black representation in AI, posted by AI Clapback King: https://www.tiktok.com/@aiformobile/video/7517712586712812814?_t=ZP-8xQFrwYvZqY&_r=1 EXAMPLE - Increasingly violent, decreasingly funny iteration of the original Karen video: https://www.tiktok.com/@hubbabubbablast400/video/7516178273047498015?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQIaauZ0LX EXAMPLE - Big Foot (2 million views): https://www.tiktok.com/@femalebigfoot/video/7514190146695154987?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQUzlvCtqQ EXAMPLE - Slave Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cottonvlogsss/video/7514846240031444254?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQV5CnNAQI If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Fake news, outright political lies, a shamelessly partisan press, and the collapse of truth, civility, and shared facts, Dr. Philip Kadish argues, are nothing new. The Great White Hoax: Two Centuries of Selling Racism in America (The New Press, 2025), a masterpiece of historical and literary sleuthing, reveals that the era of Fox News and Donald Trump is simply a return to form. We have been here before. In a book that brilliantly puts our current era into historical context, The Great White Hoax uncovers a centuries-long tradition of white supremacist hoaxes, perpetrated on the American public by a succession of political hucksters and opportunists, all of them willfully using racial frauds as tools for political and social advantage. In the antebellum era, slavery's defenders used bogus science to “prove” the inferiority of African American people; during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's enemies circulated a sham pamphlet accusing him of promoting a dilution of the white race through “miscegenation” (a racist term invented by the pamphlet's authors). From these murky beginnings, Dr. Philip Kadish draws a direct thread to D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, Henry Ford's adaptation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Madison Grant's embrace of eugenics (which directly influenced Adolf Hitler), Alabama Governor George Wallace's race-baiting, and Roger Ailes's creation of Fox News. The Great White Hoax reveals white supremacy as today's real “fake news”—and exposes the cast of villains, past and present, who have kept American racism alive. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

The American West was the meeting ground for numerous races and cultures; Native Americans, Hispanics, Anglo Americans, African Americans, and Chinese immigrants. During Westward Expansion, each group brought their own musical tradition and expressed themselves through song. We examine their stories of oppression, resistance, and peace, told through music.Find the full transcript of this episode including citations at our website:https://www.americanhistoryremix.com/episodeguide/music-and-raceIn this episode we cover…Introduction [00:00-03:15]Native Americans [03:15-07:01]Blackface Minstrelsy [07:01-10:56]The Banjo [10:56-13:46]Chinese Immigrants & Yellowface [13:46-17:06]Cantonese Opera [17:06-19:20]Chinese Immigration [19:20-21:39]Racial Hierarchy [21:39-23:03]Pan-Indian Identity [23:03-25:02]Ghost Dance [25:02-28:29]Mexican Americans [28:29-30:31]Corridos [30:31-33:56]Cantonese Songs [33:56-36:15]Immigration & Sexuality [36:15-38:18]Natives & the Overland Trail [38:18-42:15]Indianist Movement [42:15-44:12]African American Performers [44:12-47:02]Cross-Racial Love [47:02-49:00]Diversity in the West [49:00-50:14]Conclusion [50:14-51:54]To dive deeper into these topics (affiliate links):David Dary, Seeking Pleasure in the Old Westhttps://tinyurl.com/Seeking-PleasureLaurent Dubois, The Banjo: America's African Instrumenthttps://tinyurl.com/The-BanjoMarlon K. Hom, Songs of Gold Mountain: Cantonese Rhymes from San Francisco Chinatownhttps://tinyurl.com/Songs-of-GoldKrystyn R. Moon, Yellowface: Creating the Chinese in American Popular Music and Performance, 1850s-1920shttps://tinyurl.com/Moon-YellowfaceMelissa Parkhurst, To Win the Indian Heart: Music at Chemawa Indian Schoolhttps://tinyurl.com/To-Win-the-Indian-HeartIrwin Siber and Earl Robinson, ed., Songs of the Great American Westhttps://tinyurl.com/Songs-of-the-GreatJudith Vander, Shoshone Ghost Dance Religion: Poetry Songs and Great Basin Contexthttps://tinyurl.com/Shoshone-Ghost-DanceMusic Credits:"Corrido de Joaquín Murrieta" by Luis Méndez and Guadalupe Bracamonte from the recording entitled Raíces Latinas: Smithsonian Folkways Latino Roots Collection, SFW40470, courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. (p) 2002. Used by permission.“Ghost Dance Song” performed by Red Shadow Singers. Used with permission. Turtle Lodge (Sagkeeng First Nation, Manitoba, Canada) and Red Shadow Singers. “Spanish is the Loving Tongue” by Charles Badger Clark and Billy Simon. Arranged by Lara Randby. Performed by Matt Stutzman. Used with permission.“Oh! Susanna” By Stephen Foster. Performed by Tom Roush.“Navajo War Dance no. 2” by Arthur Farwell. Performed by Chris Brewer, 2024.  Public Domain.“Rosa Cheng Artist Video” by Rosa Cheng, Published 2021. Permission granted by Rosa Cheng, Artistic Director of the Vancouver Cantonese Opera.Support the show

Folk Music & Beyond host JoAnn Mar spoke with Dr. Angela Wellman and Hannah Mayree, two Bay Area musicians and educators who are part of the current effort to encourage more African Americans to take up the banjo and reconnect with the early American roots music of their ancestors.

Fake news, outright political lies, a shamelessly partisan press, and the collapse of truth, civility, and shared facts, Dr. Philip Kadish argues, are nothing new. The Great White Hoax: Two Centuries of Selling Racism in America (The New Press, 2025), a masterpiece of historical and literary sleuthing, reveals that the era of Fox News and Donald Trump is simply a return to form. We have been here before. In a book that brilliantly puts our current era into historical context, The Great White Hoax uncovers a centuries-long tradition of white supremacist hoaxes, perpetrated on the American public by a succession of political hucksters and opportunists, all of them willfully using racial frauds as tools for political and social advantage. In the antebellum era, slavery's defenders used bogus science to “prove” the inferiority of African American people; during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's enemies circulated a sham pamphlet accusing him of promoting a dilution of the white race through “miscegenation” (a racist term invented by the pamphlet's authors). From these murky beginnings, Dr. Philip Kadish draws a direct thread to D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, Henry Ford's adaptation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Madison Grant's embrace of eugenics (which directly influenced Adolf Hitler), Alabama Governor George Wallace's race-baiting, and Roger Ailes's creation of Fox News. The Great White Hoax reveals white supremacy as today's real “fake news”—and exposes the cast of villains, past and present, who have kept American racism alive. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Fake news, outright political lies, a shamelessly partisan press, and the collapse of truth, civility, and shared facts, Dr. Philip Kadish argues, are nothing new. The Great White Hoax: Two Centuries of Selling Racism in America (The New Press, 2025), a masterpiece of historical and literary sleuthing, reveals that the era of Fox News and Donald Trump is simply a return to form. We have been here before. In a book that brilliantly puts our current era into historical context, The Great White Hoax uncovers a centuries-long tradition of white supremacist hoaxes, perpetrated on the American public by a succession of political hucksters and opportunists, all of them willfully using racial frauds as tools for political and social advantage. In the antebellum era, slavery's defenders used bogus science to “prove” the inferiority of African American people; during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's enemies circulated a sham pamphlet accusing him of promoting a dilution of the white race through “miscegenation” (a racist term invented by the pamphlet's authors). From these murky beginnings, Dr. Philip Kadish draws a direct thread to D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, Henry Ford's adaptation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Madison Grant's embrace of eugenics (which directly influenced Adolf Hitler), Alabama Governor George Wallace's race-baiting, and Roger Ailes's creation of Fox News. The Great White Hoax reveals white supremacy as today's real “fake news”—and exposes the cast of villains, past and present, who have kept American racism alive. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Don't believe Trump's bombing lies about the U.S.-Iran War. A discussion with an African American journalist who seems to support Trump's MAGA immigration. Poll shows Mamdani besting Cuomo in NYC.Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://politicsdoneright.com/newsletterPurchase our Books: As I See It: https://amzn.to/3XpvW5o How To Make AmericaUtopia: https://amzn.to/3VKVFnG It's Worth It: https://amzn.to/3VFByXP Lose Weight And BeFit Now: https://amzn.to/3xiQK3K Tribulations of anAfro-Latino Caribbean man: https://amzn.to/4c09rbE

In this captivating episode of Two Mics Up, multi-hyphenate talent Lanett Tachel—acclaimed actress, writer, and producer—sits down to discuss her dynamic career and the powerful new feature film, Angie's Cure, now streaming on Tubi. Known for her commitment to creating layered, multi-faceted roles for African American characters, Lanett shares her journey from her early days in Prince George's County, Maryland, to earning her BFA from Howard University and making her mark in Hollywood.Listeners will get an inside look at the making of Angie's Cure, a psychological thriller that has already made waves with its world premiere at the Dances With Films Festival, where it won the coveted Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Film. Lanett discusses what it was like to write, produce, and star in the title role, exploring themes of trauma, mental health, and resilience. She opens up about the challenges and rewards of bringing such a personal and socially relevant story to life, and highlights the incredible cast and crew—including Essence Atkins, Vanessa Williams, and Sean Nelson—that helped make the film a standout success.The episode also touches on Lanett's other acclaimed projects, including the hit series PUMP and the Tubi thriller Twisted Date, showcasing her versatility and passion for storytelling. With her motto “Don't Wait, Create,” Lanett inspires listeners to pursue their creative dreams and make an impact both on and off the screen."This film speaks to me like nothing I've ever been a part of," Lanett shares about Angie's Cure, underscoring the personal and professional significance of this project.Don't miss this exclusive episode—stream it now on all major podcast platforms and catch Angie's Cure on Tubi!-Guest: Actress, Writer, Producer - Lanett TachelIG: @actresslanettFB: @lanetttachelproctorWeb: Newbreedentertainment.org

What's it like when you are the only African American dancer in a world of all white dancers? Lisa continues our very special interview with Jennifer Jones, the first African American Rockette. Jennifer talks about growing up seeing Broadway shows with her parents. She told her high school guidance counselor that she wanted to go to college and major in dance. Her counselor told her that she wasn't ready for college yet, although at a very early age, she always dreamed of being on stage. She was so passionate and started at a local community college before moving to New York City, auditioning, and getting hired to be a Rockette. She talks about how spectacular Radio City Music Hall is. It literally took her breath away! She shares the excitement of the famous Christmas Spectacular show and how she poured her heart into each show. She was performing up to six shows a day. Jennifer discusses resilience, and what she had to break through to make her dreams come true. She noted that this year is the 100-year anniversary of the Rockettes and a big event will be planned to celebrate. She also talks about her challenges, and how important it is to believe in yourself. She discusses the importance of being resilient. When she turned 50, she went to her doctor to request a colonoscopy. The doctor told her she was young and had nothing to worry about as she was healthy and had no family members with colorectal cancer. Jennifer listened to her powerful intuition and got a colonoscopy anyway. The doctors determined that she had colorectal cancer, and she was told she had five years to live. She felt embarrassed by this diagnosis as she was always the “healthy one” in her family. She was physically fit and a vegetarian. She met with a specialist and had four rounds of chemotherapy. To the amazement of her doctors, the tests showed dramatic improvement. She explains how she decided to meditate more, let go of toxic relationships, drink green juices, and so much more. She knew she needed to change the way she ate and the way she thought. In 2019, she was deemed cancer-free! Jennifer talks about testing early for colorectal cancer, and especially in the African American community. If there's a history in your family, it's important to test even earlier. She shares how her symptoms started as pressure in her abdomen, so she began changing her diet and meeting with doctors. She talks about organizations who can offer early detection and additional support including Colorectal Cancer Alliance: https://colorectalcancer.org and Colon Cancer Foundation: https://coloncancerfoundation.org. Jennifer's groundbreaking memoir is titled “Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience from the First African American Rockette.” This is Part 2 of the interview. Info: rockettejenn.com.

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine

Over more than fifty years and 16 books, Dr. Jessica B. Harris has uncovered the ways that West African food, and African American people, have fundamentally shaped American cuisine. Her seminal 2011 book, High on the Hog, brought the connection between African and American food into the culinary conversation, and led to the 2021 Netflix series of the same name. This week we talk with her about her own journey in making these connections, and she offers advice to the new generation of Black scholars and writers exploring these links: “Look ahead. What do you see ahead?” Her latest book is Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine.This episode originally aired on August 2, 2021 and was produced by Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, and Andres O'Hara. It was edited by Tracey Samuelson. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Kameel Stanley, and Jared O'Connell. Publishing by Shantel Holder.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Get all your favorite podcasts, more than 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, and live sports coverage with the SiriusXM app.

Clay's conversation with Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, professor of history at Norfolk State University in Virginia, about the status of race relations in America as we approach our 250th birthday. How should we read Thomas Jefferson's great sentence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”? Did Jefferson mean what he wrote? How accountable should we hold the Founding Fathers for making race a fundamental issue and condition of American life? Was Jefferson right or wrong when he said he was skeptical that we could ever be a biracial republic? Finally, what does the future look like to a distinguished African American scholar from Norfolk, Virginia?