Terrell J Starr Official

On this episode Black Diplomats welcomes Asha Castleberry and Richard S. Brookshire III, two members of the Black Veterans Project. They provide an insiders perspective of life on deployment, how the military industrial complex doubles as America’s biggest federal jobs program, and how they feel President Trump is doing with our armed forces.

Terrell’s mother and father both served in the Army, so the issue of how Black people fit into the service is very personal to him. He also has a chance to talk to them about reducing our nuclear footprint, and what it would look like to shift 10% or even 20% of our military budget to other programs.

This is a wide ranging conversation about how Black people interact with American foreign policy, often as the frontline enforcers.

For more information go to our website at www.blackdiplomats.net.

Thank you for listening!

In this week’s episode, I break down what I think the Biden/Harris ticket could mean for the future of American foreign policy.

I cited a lot of numbers and other things dealing with climate change, defense spending and other topics to support my arguments, so I am linking out to a lot of those sources here. Remember, these links are just starting points for you to do your research. I am just citing these to point to the data I used for today’s episode. 

For defense spending, I cited 2019 numbers from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. I also mentioned a 2016 Washington Post article about the $125 billion in administrative waste. Here is another good source to track defense spending waste. This year, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Barbara Lee lead efforts in their respective chambers of Congress to amend the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which proposed the budget for the Department of Defense for the upcoming year, by cutting 10 percent from the $740 billion budget. That amounts to around 74 billion. The money would be allocated for social programs, a similar call that activists are making about reallocating money from local police budgets. 

The amendment failed, per The Nation. Sen. Kamala Harris voted against the amendment, but a statement released by her office on July 22 shows she is willing to agree to a cut eventually.

If you want to read more about the Paris Agreement, go here. Some information on greenhouse gases is here. 

The full version of the Iran Deal is here and a shorter explainer is here.

As for the Democratic National Convention platform I read from, you can find that here.

Thank you for listening!

Painter Aïcha Sacha grew up in a little village in Germany. Her father was from Germany and her mother from Benin in Africa, and she says there were no other Black people in town. This experience of feeling as if she were on display followed her in Germany, and made its way into her paintings.

Last year Sacha moved to Marseille in France as part of her effort to focus full time on her art. Her work centers Black women in a vibrant world filled with mystery and beauty, and sometimes pain. The paintings often resemble portraits but the people in them don’t always inhabit a place and time, more an experience or feeling.

The longer she lives in France, fewer of her subjects live in cages.

Host Terrell J Starr talks to Sacha about being a Black woman in Europe, why most of her clients are American, and how the coastal tourist hotspot she lives in is dealing with ‘dat Rona.

She has an amazing Instagram of course.

To purchase her work or learn more about it go to her website.

Thank you for listening!

Black Diplomats takes a deep dive into the global struggle for human rights with an episode about LGBTQ+ pride in Russia and Eastern Europe. As activists build their movement, they watch government propaganda, religious authorities, and far-right extremists join together to protest every step toward equality, often with violent results. Pride parades are celebrations in many places around the world, but in Georgia and other former Soviet states Pride is still dangerous and rainbow flags are an act of rebellion.

Our guests today are three of the loudest rebels. Mariam Kvaratskhelia is an organizer with Tblisi Pride, Svetlana Zakharova is a Russian activist fighting on multiple fronts, and journalist Maksym Eristavi is carrying the narrative of their movement all over the world. Host Terrell J. Starr marched in the Kyiv Pride parade in 2019, where he planned to meet up with Eristavi in person, but the crowd was too big for them to find each other.

They agreed this was a good problem to have.

This brilliant panel talks about the battle for civil rights, how the Black Lives Matter and Pride movements intersect, and what self-care means when you’re a protestor…in a pandemic.

Svetlana Zakharova is a feminist, LGBTQI activist and human rights defender based in Russia.

She holds two MA degrees, in International Relations and Gender Studies. Svetlana has five years of work experience with Russian LGBT Network, the largest LGBT organisation in Russia as a Communications Manager. Since November 2017, she is a Board member of the Russian LGBT Network.

Mariam Kvaratskhelia has dedicated herself to LGBTQI advocacy and rights campaigns. As an organizer with Tblisi Pride she is on the frontlines, and often meets with other activists around Europe to network their movement for change.

Maksym Eristavi is a journalist and human rights advocate in Eastern Europe. Featured on NowThis, Gaycation by VICE, Voice of America, BILD, and many others, Maksym explores the intersection of identity politics, disinformation, and Russian colonialism. He has traveled widely and spoken about his work in the UK and Sweden, and at a hearing of the United States Senate.

Find out more about Black Diplomats at our website or support Black-lead journalism at our Patreon.

To learn more about Terrell, please visit terrellstarr.com.

To read some of Terrell’s work on foreign policy, download the Black Diplomats Digital Primer.

Black Diplomats’ logo was designed by Antoinette Childs.

Black Diplomats’ theme song is by Tall Black Guy.

Thank you for listening!

Beatrice Fihn is not playing. She has a Law degree from the University of London and a Bachelors in International Relations from Stockholm University. She also has a Nobel Peace Prize, accepted in her role as Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

According to her website Fihn has spent more than a decade working in disarmament diplomacy and civil society mobilization, but what that means in plain language is communication. She reminds us of the terrible toll nuclear weapons would cost if they were launched against civilians again, and how colonizer nations use the threat of all-out destruction to maintain the white supremacist balance of power.

Black Diplomats host Terrell J Starr has studied and reported on nuclear weapons throughout his career, so he is well positioned for a deep and timely conversation with an expert in the field. But Starr makes sure to keep the technical details light and stress the importance of this issue to each and every one of us, in ways we can all understand.

Do yourself a favor and follow Beatrice:

Twitter: @beafihn

Instagram: @beafihn

Check out the organization she leads here.

Find out more about Black Diplomats at our website or support Black-lead journalism at our Patreon.

To learn more about Terrell, please visit terrellstarr.com.

To read some of Terrell’s work on foreign policy, download the Black Diplomats Digital Primer.

Black Diplomats’ logo was designed by Antoinette Childs.

Black Diplomats’ theme song is by Tall Black Guy.

Thank you for listening!

Celina Caesar-Chavannes is a powerful businesswoman who lives in Whitby, Canada. In 2014 she decided to run for office and won, becoming the only Black woman in the Parliament of Canada.

Caesar-Chavannes was appointed the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a highly sought-after role, but she became frustrated by the lack of aggressive action to repair Canada’s deepest wounds. By 2019, she decided she would have more flexibility and, ultimately, more influence working outside of Parliament. She declined the opportunity to run again and resigned from the Liberal party, becoming one of their sharpest critics.

Black Diplomats host Terrell J Starr has a wide-ranging conversation with Caesar-Chevannes about her history in business and government, why Canada might not be the utopia people in the States think it is, what racism looks like in a country known for being friendly, and how they’re dealing with the scourge of COVID.

Check out her website here or follower her on Twitter to keep up to date.

To read more about Caesar-Chevannes’ time in Parliament, check out the articles here, here, and here.

For more information on Black Diplomats, check out our website here.

Thanks for listening!

Jessica Nabongo is the first Black woman to document traveling to every country in the world. She is a writer and photographer, and now she's added lifestyle guru to her resumé with the founding of her travel company Jet Black.

Nabongo was born and raised in Detroit to parents who immigrated from Uganda. Her family thought nothing of hopping on a plane to any destination, and after getting a graduate degree from the London School of Economics, Nabongo decided to visit every country she hadn't seen—and to do it by the age of 35. She made it happen with very few sponsors, building her own brand along the way.

In this episode of Black Diplomats, host Terrell J Starr talks to Nabongo about being a frequent world traveler himself, her favorite thing to eat in Georgia (the country, not the State), and how COVID-19 is messing with her summer.

Check out Jessica Nabongo's gorgeous website here.

Her travel company Jet Black can be found here.

And her completely amazing Instagram is here.

For more information on Black Diplomats, check out our website here.

Thanks for listening!

Disinformation from Russia was a big subject during the 2016 election for President of the United States, and 2020 is turning out to be no different. The US isn’t the only one dealing with this issue, in fact it’s a lively topic in former Soviet states all over Eastern Europe. Ukraine has gone so far as to ban a Russian-backed media organization, who responded by labeling it an attack on free speech.

But our guests say something has to be done to combat the power of state propaganda coming from one of the worlds savviest players.

Black Diplomats is hosted by Terrell J. Starr. Find out more about Terrell and listen to other episodes at our website.

Our guests this week are:

Shireen Mitchell

Shireen is an Internet pioneer and serial founder who was born and raised in the projects of New York City, playing video games before they could be played on televisions and designing BBS boards and gopher sites prior to the Web going world wide.

She is the founder of Stop Online Violence Against Women and an expert in digital voter suppression.

digitalsista.me

Maria Romanenko

Maria Romanenko is a Ukrainian-born British-educated writer, journalist, and certified life coach. She covers a wide range of topics from politics to culture, as well as produces a weekly TV show.

www.mariaromanenko.com

Nina Jankowicz

Nina Jankowicz studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe. Her book, HOW TO LOSE THE INFORMATION WAR, was published by Bloomsbury's IBTauris in Summer 2020. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, BuzzFeed News, The Wilson Quarterly, and others.

Nina Jankowicz at the Wilson Center

Romani people in Eastern Europe are joining protests in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. That seems strange to some people, but not to Terrell, or any of the guests on this episode.

Host Terrell J Starr talks about his experiences being a Black man from Detroit visiting Ukraine, Georgia, and other Eastern European countries. He tells stories of meeting folk who are white but speak the language of oppressed people everywhere.

Joining him are three women with deep knowledge of the region, and what kind of similarities can be found in the experiences of groups that seem so disparate on the surface.

Joining Terrell is Chelsi West Ohueri, a cultural anthropologist from Jackson, MS. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies with appointments in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies.

Also on the call is Sunnie Rucker-Chang, Assistant Professor of Slavic and Director of European Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Rucker-Chang examines literary and filmic works as they relate to the construction of minority-majority relations and formations of difference.

And from the heart of Roma country is Nada Greku, a graduate student at Central European University who is a leading activist for Romani rights in Central Europe and the Balkans.

Host Terrell J Starr talks to Banchi Yimer about the kafala system in this episode of Black Diplomats. Yimer traveled from her native Ethiopia to Yemen in search of work, and took a job as a domestic servant in Lebanon. She was promised a fair wage and the right to make decisions about her life, but she soon found herself trapped inside the house with no money or even her passport.

When she was able to escape she realized she was in the middle of a growing crisis of women in similar situations. Thousands of domestic servants were dumped on the street with nothing when the Lebanese economy crashed in 2019. Many of them are still there, waiting for the world to hear their stories.

Find more information about Banchi on her Twitter feed, or learn about Egna Legna Besides, the organization she founded to help protect women like her.

Donate to their GoFundMe to help migrant domestic workers in the Middle East.

To read more about the kafala system and it's impact you can go here, here, or here. This article about the death rate involving alleged suicide is heart breaking.