Into the Mix

In this episode of Into the Mix, Ashley C. Ford talks to Big Freedia, the performer who brought bounce music from the streets of New Orleans to the world. Join Freedia as she tells us how she got her start, how she faced personal tragedy — and how she’s continuing to show up for her community, using her platform to speak out against, and help reduce gun violence in New Orleans.

Join host Ashley C. Ford in conversation with political aide Andrew Aydin, whose idea for a thrilling new retelling of Congressman John Lewis' life and role in the Civil Rights struggle is helping a whole new generation of students and activists connect with their past. Dive into the power of writing, of storytelling — and the magic that happens when you shine a light on the ongoing struggle for justice.

In this episode of Into the Mix, host Ashley C. Ford talks with artist Favianna Rodriguez — maker of bold, energetic murals, prints, and sculptures — about how her work both names, and helps transcend, the pain of systemic racism. She’ll share how her work explores the themes of racial and economic injustice through a “yes” framework that embodies how we want to live in the world.

In the debut episode of Into the Mix, join host Ashley C. Ford for a deep discussion with John Legend on his art, his activism, and how he’s blending the two to spearhead a movement for a more equitable world. His newest venture? Igniting systemic change where it all begins — locally.

Introducing Into the Mix — a Ben & Jerry’s podcast about joy and justice, produced with Vox Creative. Join host Ashley C. Ford as she talks with the artists, activists, and all-around amazing people who are working to build a better world. The struggle, the wins, the thrill of making change and forging a fairer future — it’s all in here. So get into it. 

In 1865, General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15— a promise to redistribute 40 acres of once Confederate-owned land in coastal South Carolina and Florida to each formerly enslaved adult to begin mending the seemingly unmendable. It never came to pass. H.R. 40, also known as the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, has been brought to Congress repeatedly since 1989, first by the late Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), now by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex). Hear Jeffery Robinson, founder of the Who We Are Project and deputy director of the ACLU take on the past, present and future of reparations with veteran political activist Dr. Ron Daniels and legal expert and reparations advocate Nkechi Taifa.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. Vintage, 1992

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic. June, 2014.

Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America 1860 - 1880. Free Press, 1999

Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863 - 1877. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2014.

H.R.40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act

Lockhart, P.R. The 2020 Democratic Primary Debate Over Reparations, Explained. Vox.com, June 19, 2019

Marable, Manning. Beyond Boundaries: The Manning Marable Reader. Routledge, 2011.

National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) 10-Point Reparations Plan

Taifa, Nkechi. Black Power, Black Lawyer. House of Songhay II, 2020.

From slavery to sharecropping to mass incarceration, American institutions have reproduced cycles of social rupture and exploitation by design. Is it even possible to imagine true equity as long as the current carceral system stands? Carvell Wallace and Jeffery Robinson begin with Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill before turning to the ways in which incarceration ripples through questions of voting, health, wealth, and state violence. With final words from Afro-futurist author Sheree Renee Thomas, we’ll explore how we might dream a new America into being and the possibilities of Black liberation.

Additional information and resources related to this episode are available on our show page.

What does it mean to be well in America? Who is seen as deserving of healthcare? Racism has plagued the American medical system since its inception and continues to produce disparities in health and life expectancy to this day. In this episode, Carvell Wallace and Jeffery Robinson trace the decades-long epidemic of sharply higher mortality rates among both Black people giving birth and their babies. In conversation with OB/GYN and maternal/infant health advocate Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, as well as SéSé Doula Services founder Nicole JeanBaptiste, we’ll examine the way the healthcare system was designed to fail Black people, with a focus on Black maternal and infant health.

Additional information and resources related to this episode are available on our show page.

“To pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps” was originally a metaphor for the impossible. It’s now one of the most American of American idioms — encapsulating a belief that one’s fortunes and failures hinge on individual responsibility alone. It simultaneously obscures the systemic economic theft of Black people and other people of color in the US by state and commercial interests, as well as the systemic economic enrichment of white populations by those same forces. In this episode, Carvell Wallace and Jeffery Robinson explore how Black wealth has been routinely destroyed, using the example of a 1919 massacre in Elaine, Arkansas, where Black sharecroppers organizing for better financial conditions were killed by a white mob. We’ll also hear from law professor and scholar of banking history Dr. Mehrsa Baradaran on how discriminatory housing policies, unequal access to credit, and predatory banking continue to hinder attempts at wealth-building, even among the Black middle class.  

Additional information and resources related to this episode are available on our show page.

Black bodies have always been on the line in America, whether on the auction block or in a parking lot in Minneapolis. American law has enshrined the state’s ability to enact violence with almost total impunity. And, going back to as far as the Colonial Marines in 1808, reclaiming one’s body from this system has required fearless acts of rebellion. In this episode, Carvell and Jeffery trace the evolution of slave patrols into modern policing, exploring the consequences of that origin story with activist and lead of Black Visions Collective Miski Noor and Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, an historian of Black resistance and rebellion in the US. Collectively, they make the case that protest is vital to American progress and racial justice—and that we must keep taking to the streets.

Third stanza of “The Star Spangled Banner” arranged and sung by Sandra Lawson-Ndu

Additional information and resources related to this episode are available on our show page.