This week, Bella Bravo speaks to Zhandarka Kurti and Jarrod Shanahan. Kurti is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tennesee in Knoxville, and also works with Face to Face Knox, a campaign to restore in-person visitation to Knox County detention centers.  Shanahan is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Governors State University.

They have collaborated on a number of projects dealing with class, the racial order in America, and abolition, including a recent article in the Brooklyn Rail, Prelude to a Hot American Summer, about the George Floyd Uprising. Today, we share the first part of their conversation about the current movement, its relationship to the Black Lives Matter movement of previous years, and the limits of the demand to defund the police.