The Activist Files Podcast

On Episode 29 of The Activist Files, communications assistant Alex Webster speaks with TRANScending Barriers executive director Zahara Green and Abolitionist Law Center executive director Robert "Saleem" Holbrook about what Black August means to them and the ways that they continue its legacy in their work. They discuss the importance of honoring the solemnity of the month, how current and former prisoners are the embodiment of Black August, and how we must take this moment to remember those freedom fighters who are still inside. They also highlight the ongoing work to challenge transphobia in both prisons and in organizing, the impact of COVID-19, and how abolition is an undertaking that requires entire social transformation.

What is necessary to reimagine civil rights in America? Center for Constitutional Rights’ Executive Director Vince Warren and PolicyLinks’ Founder in Residence Angela Glover Blackwell are in conversation about what equity looks like in this moment in a special joint, cross-promoted edition of “The Activist Files” and “Radical Imagination,” the organization’s respective podcasts. Using the pandemic within a pandemic framework, Vince and Angela discuss COVID-19 and the need for police reform. They offer deep reasoning for a call for radical ideas and solutions because to reimagine civil rights requires a fundamental disruption of our nation’s foundation, from the Black/white paradigm and anti-Blackness to the colonial-based power grab of social control and the extermination killing of our country's establishment. Their analysis leads to a push for solidarity that is not afraid of the issues, solidarity that allows space to talk about and eliminate the problems, solidarity that is transformative. 

Resources: 

• PolicyLink
• Radical Imagination, Episode 2: Police Abolition. Host Angela Glover Blackwell in conversation with Jessica Disu aka FM Supreme and Rachel Herzing
• The 1619 Project
• Charlene Carruthers, PBS, The Future of American Policing
• Searching for the Uncommon Ground

In this conversation, the last of a four-part series of blogs about the movement response to COVID-19, Samah Mcgona Sisay and Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Associate maya finoh discuss their personal definitions of abolition; the ways in which prison abolitionists are using this particular moment to amplify their dreams of a world without cages; how prisons, policing, and surveillance serve as threats to the public health of low-income communities; and the unique experiences of Black immigrants, trans women, and survivors of domestic/sexual violence in the U.S. criminal legal system. Check out the rest of maya's series.

In the 26th episode of “The Activist Files,” Senior Staff Attorney Ghita Schwarz and Bertha Justice Fellow Lupe Aguirre are in conversation about how their work fighting abusive immigration practices has shifted during the pandemic. They discuss the injustices and inhumanity of the immigration detention system, particularly the conditions immigrants are experiencing during the pandemic, including 40 people living in one room and sleeping on rusted metal beds, the inability to social distance, and immigrants being threatened with pepper spray for protesting the right to make a mask. Ghita and Lupe also examine the economics that come into play when rural Southern towns rely on detention centers to support the local economy. They close by highlighting the advocacy around the #FreeThemAll campaign.

Resources: 

·      Dada v. Witte (LA)
·      Williams v. Horton (AL)
·      Tamayo Espinoza v. Witte (MS)
·      Detention Watch Network
·      #FreeThemAll
·      Los Angeles Times: Detainees at Otay Mesa Detention Center were offered masks, but only if they signed contracts

“We are left to wonder why we cannot see with foresight what we see so clearly with hindsight.” A Philadelphia-based federal appeals court wrote this in explaining why the New York City Police Department’s program of suspicionless surveillance of Muslims in the name of national security resembled destructive roads the country has traveled before, when targeting Jews during the Red Scare, African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement and Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Center for Constitutional Rights’ Legal Director Baher Azmy and Executive Director Vince Warren talk about how lessons learned in how the government has responded to crises, from the AIDS/HIV epidemic to 9/11 and now COVID-19. They discuss how this public health emergency will disproportionately harm the most vulnerable in our society with both overreach, such as allowing judges to close courtrooms, including for criminal procedures and habeas corpus, and under reach, by not allowing those in jails, prisons, ICE detention centers, and Guantanamo Bay to follow the CDC guidelines of social distancing the rest of society can practice.

While not minimizing the dangers to life and loved ones, this crisis still requires us to be skeptical and vigilant about how the government can manipulate this pandemic. To stay guarded, we are dedicating this month’s episode to hopefully seeing in foresight what we can clearly see with hindsight.

Resources: 

·       Michael Ratner

·       Camp Bulkeley

·       Haitian Centers Council, Inc. v. Sale 

·       The 9/11 Decade and the Decline of US Democracy

·       A note from the CCR family about COVID-19

·       The Center for Constitutional Rights Stands with the People Against the Corporate-Dominated Coronavirus Relief Package: The CARES Act Reaffirms a Deadly and Unjust Status Quo

The 24th episode of “The Activist Files” was the Center for Constitutional Rights’ first live podcast. The episode was recorded Feb. 28, 2020, at Studio Arte before a live audience and was the culmination of our Black History Month celebration.

For the episode, “How it Would Feel to Be Free: Southern Resistance to Race and Gender Oppression,” Communications Director Chandra M. Hayslett led a discussion about the fights for racial, gender, and LGBTQIA+ justice in the South with Lakeesha Harris, Reproductive Justice and Sexual Health Program Manager, Women with a Vision; Valencia Robinson, CEO and Founder, Mississippi in Action; and Quita Tinsley, Deputy Director, Access Reproductive Care-Southeast.

In this lively episode, the activists covered a wide range of topics, including the need to cross state lines to access abortions, how doctors are discriminating against LGBTQIA+ people, and the need to center trans Black women because of violence. The guests also highlighted some of their victories, including the legislation that’s been passed that removed nearly 900 individuals who had been forced to register as sex offenders from the Louisiana sex offender registry, and amicus briefs they’ve drafted that bring attention to the longstanding harms and segregations many Black women face in attaining equity in accessing comprehensive reproductive healthcare, particularly uninterrupted coverage for contraception. Lakeesha, Valencia, and Quita let us into their personal lives when they shared how they sustain themselves during the work:  Bourbon, Fireball, spades, and UNO are key! 

As always, the episode ended with “The Real AF,” but we recorded a special edition for the live podcast that focused on Black culture.

Resources: 

·       Jackson (documentary): With a single abortion clinic remaining in the state of Mississippi, the city of Jackson has become ground zero in the nation's battle over reproductive health-care. Jackson is an intimate portrait of the interwoven lives of three women in this town. Wrought with the racial and religious undertones of the Deep South, the lives of two women are deeply affected by the director of the local pro-life crisis pregnancy center and the movement she represents.

·       Everyone Loves Someone Who Had an Abortion T-shirt

·       Deon Haywood is the executive director of Women With A Vision.

On Episode 23 of “The Activist Files,” Staff Attorney Chinyere Ezie talks with Raquel Willis, activist, writer, Executive Editor of Out Magazine, and founder of Black Trans Circles, and Derecka Purnell, human rights lawyer, activist, writer, and Deputy Director of Union Theological Seminary Spirit of Justice Center, about their organizing and how they bring multiple identities into their advocacy, cultural, and coalition-building work. They discuss the unfinished project of liberation, how we must be rooted in struggle while recognizing who is being left behind, and understanding the spectrum of privilege and oppression that impacts each of us. They also uplift the value of political education and building empathy as an organizing tool, the necessity of seeking joy and restoration for continuing their work, and the importance of acknowledging burnout.

On episode 22 of “The Activist Files,” Donita Judge, Center for Constitutional Rights’ associate executive director, talks about reparations for Blacks with Dr. Ron Daniels, president of the National African American Reparations Commission, and past executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Marbre Stahly-Butts, executive director of Law 4 Black Lives and a member of the leadership team of the Movement For Black Lives Policy Table, who helped develop the Vision for Black Lives Policy Platform. 

Ron and Marbre discuss their respective platforms that demand for reparations for Black people – how they overlap and differ – the shifts in H.R. 40, the commission to study and develop reparations proposals for African-Americans Act, how tools, such as the New York Times’ 1619 Project and Ta-Neishi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations” published in The Atlantic, have caused a surge in the reparations movement; and the obligation for continue the work for reparations for Black people based of the legacy of activists who have been in this space since before the Civil War.

Resources:

·       National African American Reparations Commission 10-point Reparations Plan

·       Movement for Black Lives Reparations Now Toolkit

·       Queen Mother Moore

·       Dr. Iva E. Carruthers

·       Belinda

·       The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks 

On Episode 21 of "The Activist Files," Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Darius Charney speaks with Anthonine Pierre of the Brooklyn Movement Center and Marielle Shavonne Smith of Black Love Resists in the Rust, two leaders of Black-led grassroots organizations doing critical racial justice work on opposite ends of New York State. They discuss the strong similarities in police abuses happening in New York City and in Buffalo, their work to divest from harmful institutions and instead invest funds into their communities, the need for further transparency about and accountability for police misconduct, and how action from New York’s legislators and Attorney General could address these issues.

On Episode 20 of “The Activist Files,” Center for Constitutional Rights Staff Attorney Diala Shamas talks with Noura Erakat, author of the new book Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Through the lens of 100 years of struggle for Palestinian freedom, Diala and Noura discuss the relationship between law and politics, and the challenge of using the law to achieve justice. Linking Palestine’s struggle with other struggles, including the struggle for Black freedom, Noura discusses the tension that arises in trying to use existing legal tools to create a completely new reality, cautions against wielding law without a political movement, and touches on the legal push-back that has come with increased advocacy for Palestine. Diala’s and Noura’s conversation is about “unlearning” of legal frameworks, and “re-stitching” a new understanding, and is an important look at limits of law in social change.