Come Through with Rebecca Carroll
Rebecca Carroll has a meaningful conversation with Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility. This is a relatively short discussion but made a big impact on me, and I highly recommend it. Carroll as a black woman raised by white parents adds such a significant perspective to their conversation.
DiAngelo has dedicated her professional career to social justice education. Her book has been cited as one of the most important books of this moment in calling white people to action by asking them to look deeply within and understanding their complicity in this white supremacist structure that we live in.
Paul Butler and Ta-Nehesi Coates on The Ezra Klein Show
Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor and author of CHOKE HOLD, (Policing Black Men). He explains that the chokehold some police departments use to enforce compliance is in reality a doomed tactic. When a person’s airways are constricted, the body’s natural response to panic sets in and makes it impossible for anyone to keep their body still. Paul discusses the self-fulfilling cycle that excessive Police force manifests, by instigating the violence that it is supposedly trying to quell.
In this same episode, Ta-Nehesi and Ezra discuss this same cycle of violence discussed with Paul Butler, but asks, what would a non-violent state look like? They discuss and imagine scenarios when a neighborhood could be in a constant state of peace with no police involvement. They discuss how the idea of Police Abolishment tends to be controversial only to those who live in neighborhoods that have very little Police interaction.
Ibram X Kendi on Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us.
This deep and thoughtful exchange between two writers was powerful. Ibram X Kendi is a director of Antiracist Research and Policy at American University. He is the author of How to Be Anti Racist and other books on the same subject. He discusses how Racism intersects with class and culture and geography. How it affects how we view ourselves and others, and if we do the work, we will be able to see all forms of racism clearly and work to oppose them in our society and within ourselves.
Police Abolition is explored and breaks down the common misunderstanding that Police Abolition means to get rid of the institution as a whole when it actually means to restructure and implement significant changes that steer the institution away from its origins directly associated with slave patrolling.