On this month’s episode of Redesign America, Mustafa Ali-Smith is joined by Taylor Bauldwin, who works at the intersection of food, tech, and the environment, to discuss environmental racism and injustice and its disproportionate impact on Black and brown communities. How did we get here? How have communities around the country been impacted by environmental racism and injustice? And what can we do to address it?

On today’s relaunch episode, host Mustafa Ali-Smith is joined by Katy Otto, Director of Communications at Juvenile Law Center, to discuss how the idea of Redesign America came to be, its focus, and why the podcast is more critical and urgent now than ever.

2020 showed us many things: change, struggle, uncertainty, and so much more. For Redesign America, it was a moment of reflection on what this podcast can be and how it can help us make the world a better place. Listen to hear the updates for the podcast and what is in store for the podcast.

As more people are emerging into conversations of defunding, divesting, and dismantling from police departments and the institutions they represent, we need to understand how these conversations fit into the framework of abolition. On this episode, we are joined by Jeneisha Harris, organizer and activist, to discuss the history of policing, the differences between reform and abolition, and how abolition helps us to solve systemic problems. This episode reinforces the need for abolition in the fight for social justice, from policing to racial capitalism, and how each of us has a part to play in this movement.

Resources:
Jeneishaharris.com
gideonsarmyunited.org/
8 to abolition
The Equity Alliance
Critical Resistance
Survived and punished
Movement for Black lives

Language conveys information about our attitudes, biases, and is a huge part of how we orient around issues of identity. Today, we are joined by Christopher Mendoza (@linguistpapi), a graduate student in Linguistics at Florida International University to talk about how to unpack the pervasive discourses of anti-Blackness within our communities. This episode interrogates the role of allies, most specifically non-Black Latinxs, in talking the language of intersectional movement building while centering the most marginalized as our political moment necessitates.

The Black Lives Matter Movement is an important one, but we do ourselves an injustice by suppressing some of its voices. In this episode, we are joined by Stephon Bradberry (@stephon_jb), Founder of We, Too, are America (@w2aa_org), to talk about the importance of critically acknowledging and uplifting all Black lives, not just some. This conversation looks at how our history has left queer, trans, and non-binary people out of our history despite their many contributions to it, the lack of attention they have received in the Black Lives Matter Movement, and how Black communities must address the violence against queer and trans people within their own community.

Higher education since its inception has been dedicated to advancing white maleness. This is often displayed in institutional and racial systemic practices that place persons of color and women on an opposing side. In this episode, we will explore how “white manning” shows up in higher education. We will also explore the lived experience of scholar, professor, practitioner, and researcher Dr. Frederick V. Engram Jr.

Despite its often vague and broad meaning, job fit has been found to be used consistently in student affairs hiring spaces by both candidates and employers while engaging in the search process. Even though there may be modest intentions behind its inception, unclear and vague use of job fit within the student affairs job process can prove harmful as means of condoning exclusionary practices against candidates while upholding hierarchical and oppressive practices while adhering to institutional whiteness within hiring practices in student affairs. 

The United States criminal justice system is complex in design, and many people just don't understand it and its inner workings. There are people who want to be involved in criminal justice reform, yet realize that the system has many moving parts. On today's episode, we are joined by a graduate researcher at Columbia University, Candice Crutchfield, as she discusses the criminal justice system, organizations advocating for reform, and ways that everyday citizens can get involved in being a part of this change.

A brief introduction from Mustafa Ali-Smith on what to expect from Redesign America's new podcast. A monthly podcast that will discuss and analyze topics and issues with experts and individuals studying in the respective fields.