OBSCENE

Today's interview with Shaina Harrison with NYAGV

Shaina on grief and trauma communities deal with due to gun violence: "I think you know when I think about trauma, and especially working in the communities that I serve, I understand that the young folks that I'm working with don't want, they don't have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, right? They, nothing is "post" with them. They're living through this every single day. They lose folks so much that they don't even know that it's traumatizing, right. A lot of times this stuff just seems like it's normal. And it's like, what just happens in their community. What I would like folks to understand is that we're talking about real people, we're talking about mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers here. And I know that we can have rights, and we can also be safe. And I need folks to understand that we can have both of those conversations. At the same time. The fact of the matter is, America cannot afford gun violence, like we just can't, right. I remember reading a news article, right after the beginning of COVID-19 hit, it literally said, Please stop shooting, we do not have any more beds, right. Like the hospitals were packed with folks who had COVID, they couldn't even assess like, you know, the people who are coming in the shooting, shooting victims who are coming in right at a moment where every dollar counts, our federal, state, and local governments are spending a combined average of $34 million each day to deal with the aftermath of gun violence across the country. Like the total annual bill for taxpayers, survivors, families, employers, you know, and communities is 20, what $280 billion, right? We're spending so much money on gun violence when we could be taking that money, and actually putting it into resources that can keep our community safe. So I think for me, I really would want people to understand what the real impact is when it comes to gun violence in this country. And also think about this idea of protection. If we have more than half of the people who are dying from gun violence or dying from suicide. It really questions this idea of whether or not guns protect you, right? It's 22 times more likely to be killed someone you love, or yourself when you have a gun in your home, right? You don't like this. These are real statistics, the real facts, the real people, we are losing so much when it comes to, you know, gun violence, and we really need to have that conversation. How much is this actually costing us?"

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In this Episode of Obscene, I spoke with Julia Davis, Director of Youth Justice and Child Welfare for Children’s defense fund in New York. She helped me break down what’s in the American Rescue Act, whom it helps, and who it leaves out. We also examine what policies could truly protect and aid children and their families, not just to recover, but to flourish. 

Julia Davis joined New York’s Children’s Defense Fund in 2018 as the Director of Youth Justice and Child Welfare. In her role, she works in partnership with young people, defenders, service providers, and other advocates to advance policies that support children and youth who may have contact with the child welfare or criminal legal system. She has spent two decades working on behalf of young people through civil rights litigation, public policy, research, and public engagement campaigns. Prior to coming to CDF, she was a senior attorney at Children’s Rights, leading reform litigation for system-involved youth across the country. 

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Host Maya Contreras discuss voting by Absentee Ballot, Vote-by-Mail, what the difference is, and how difficult it will be to obtain, mail, and have your vote counted.

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Ashlee Marie Preston is a Trans Rights Advocate, Cultural Creative & Founder of You “Are Essential”. Ashlee is the first trans woman to become editor-in-chief of a national publication, Wear Your Voice Magazine, and she has just launched a voter mobilization initiative with Human Rights Campaign President, Alphonso David called My Vote is My Voice.

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Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America—the nation’s largest grassroots gun violence prevention group, with chapters in all 50 states effecting change at the local, state and national level. Her book, Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World, was released in May of 2019.

Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, once said she “had to do more than just cry,” after her son was murdered in two-thousand-twelve. Since then she has been a passionate advocate against gun violence, and is currently running for Miami-Dade County commissioner.

 

 

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Denise Oliver-Velez has been a political activist and community organizer, was in the Civil Rights movement, women's movement, and AIDS activism movement, and was a member of both the Young Lords Party and the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Denise is currently a Contributing Editor for the progressive political blog Daily Kos.

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Dr. Merseth discusses language barrier obstacles are still in place for eligible voters even with the language provision in the Voting Rights Act.

Dr. Julie Lee Merseth's interests are situated in the field of American political behavior with a dual and overlapping focus on race and immigration. Her research is especially animated by questions of how racial and ethnic politics in the United States are changing as a result of fast-growing populations of immigrants, largely from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

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Dr. Carol Anderson is a Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide, a New York Times Bestseller, Washington Post Notable Book of 2016, and a National Book Critics Circle Award winner. She is also the author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, which was long-listed for the National Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/Galbraith Award in non-fiction.

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Rebecca Cokley is the director of the Disability Justice Initiative at American Progress, where her work focuses on disability policy. Most recently, she served as the executive director of the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent agency charged with advising Congress and the White House on issues of national disability public policy. She joined the NCD in 2013 after serving in the Obama administration for four years, including time at the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a successful stint at the White House where she oversaw diversity and inclusion efforts.

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A discussion with the NARF Staff Attorney Jacqueline De León on Native American Rights Fund's (NARF) comprehensive study entitled, “Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters.”

Jacqueline De León is an enrolled member of the Isleta Pueblo. As a staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund better known as NARF, she helps lead field hearings across Indian Country on Native American voting rights and practices ongoing voter rights litigation.

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