OUR FUTURE NOW! PODCAST EPISODE # 8
The BLM movement to transform this country: Defund and Reinvest is the title of the eight episode of Our Future: Now! A National Children’s Campaign Podcast. The show’s co-host Jonah Gottlieb and Natalie Mebane interview Devin Del Palacio, Chair of the Black Council for National School Board Association, member of Tolleson Union High School District Governing Board, and Vice President of the West Valley NAACP; along with Anthony Rogers-Wright, a national racial and climate justice advocate.
To listen to the Podcast, you can go: here. It can also be heard on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts and at the National Children’s Campaign and Parentology websites.
During the nearly 28-minute episode they discuss the Black Lives Matter movement to combat systemic racism that has been occurring in America for 400 years, which has gained new momentum in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and countless others. They interview covers the push for policing reform indepthly and explains what defunding the police would really look like at both the federal and local level. At the heart of the conversation is a sense or urgency to not settle for half measures to address America’s longstanding mistreatment of black people.
Below is a guide to key points in the podcast:
- At 2 minutes 30 seconds: Rogers-Wright talks about when Floyd told the police officer that he couldn’t breathe that in many ways it was a metaphor for the black experience in America from lynchings to environmental racism that has the community living in toxic areas that cause asthma. Black people literally can’t breathe in our country.
- At 3 minutes 40 seconds: Del Palacio talks about how COVID-19 has also forced people to confront the disease of racism that has afflicted America since its inception, because many of the things that distracted them were unavailable (e.g. sports, concerts, etc.) due to the shut downs. He says we have reached a tipping point where many white people are realizing they have a role to play in changing things in profound ways.
- At 5 minutes: Gottlieb talks about how the demands for racial justice goes well beyond policing reform, which is why the National Children’s Campaign endorsed the Movement For Black Lives’ Week of Action that was sweeping in its demands for change.
- At 5 minutes 55 seconds: Del Palacio talks about how the entire system needs to be uprooted because when it was designed it wasn’t built for black people. In fact, it was built to negatively impact the lives of black people.
- At 6 minutes 20 seconds: Rogers-Wright talks about how a lot of pressure is being put on the environmental movement to up their game to confront the systemic racism that impacts black and brown people with projects like the Keystone Pipeline. We must reinvest in communities that have been neglected and mistreated. While defund the police might not poll well, the reality is their budgets continue to increase while violent crimes continue to go down and other important priorities remain underfunded.
- At 8 minutes 30 seconds: Mebane talks about how defunding the police is about taking those large budgets and reinvesting them into preventative measures like dealing with people who have mental health issues. The militarization of the police is clear example of excessive spending that needs to end, especially since those heavily armored pieces of equipment are often used against protestors instead of our enemies aboard.
- At 10 minutes 10 seconds: Del Palacio talks about encouraging people to research their local budgets for things like schools and the police funding, and to determine if those large line items align with the priorities of the community. Maybe if you open a school you can close a prison. For example, Arizona spends $4300 per pupil and $21,000 per inmate. They have private prisons that need to have 90% occupancy rates, which means they are creating a taxpayer funded system to profit off incarceration.
- At 11 minutes 30 seconds: Rogers-Wright talks about how the criminal justice system also includes courts where public defenders are underpaid and overworked, which forces them to make terrible deals, often for people of color. Massive transformation is needed to fix a system that is fundamentally flawed. That is why examples like Camden, New Jersey where the entire police force was successfully disbanded and started again from scratch, which should give hope to those that say big changes can work.
- At 13 minutes 55 seconds: Del Palacio talks about what could be done with schools in Arizona if they enjoyed the type of huge budgets that are given to police departments. Underfunded school districts attract fewer people to live in them and fewer business to operate in them, so in many ways investing in schools helps improve communities. It also matters if you get young people involved on school boards who have a real vision for change and improvement. Education is the one tool we can use to change our society for the better.
- At 15 minutes 30 seconds: Rogers-Wright talks about the policing reform bill that has been introduced by Congresswoman Karen Bass. He points out the parts of the bill that don’t go as far as activists want. For example, the issue of reducing funding is never addressed, there is no oversight of how the money is being spent, and there is no prohibition against the military training the police.
- At 16 minutes 50 seconds: Mebane talks about how the bill includes an anti-lynching provision, which was necessary because Senator Rand Paul objected to it as stand-alone legislation by arguing that murder is murder, so the bill was unnecessary. He fails to understand that lynching is also domestic terrorism designed to instill fear in black people.
- At 18 minutes 15 seconds: Rogers-Wright talks about meeting with Congresswoman Bass to discuss these issues and while he thinks much more must be done than is included in the bill, he commends her for advancing the reform agenda.
- At 20 minutes 30 seconds: Del Palacio talks about how his great, great grandfather was a slave and how disgusting it is that we are still debating something like lynching after all these years. He points out that people must reach out to their political leaders at all levels of government to demand change.
- At 23 minutes 10 seconds: Rogers-Wright talks about how the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution to create a transformative model for cultivating safety in the city, which is the type of reimagining that needs to happen. Minnesota is also adopting another approach that is starting to happen around the country, which is standing up to police unions who have been a huge impediment to any sort of reform.