18. Unarmed: The Enduring Fight For Black Lives in America

After the shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his murderer, George Zimmerman, Alicia Garza created a Facebook post saying: "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter, Black Lives Matter." Growing up in a mixed-race household, Alicia’s understanding of race was influenced by her upbringing. In 2013, Alicia co-founded the Nobel Peace prize nominee Black Lives Matter movement, in response to incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against Black people.

In this episode, we explore the legacies of racial inequality and how the struggle for racial justice has endured for centuries, in spite of the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. While slavery is known to have existed centuries before throughout the world, we unpack what makes slavery in America distinct and how the history of slavery still influences our present.

In our season 2 finale, we also dive into a key manifestation of systemic racism — the racial wealth gap — and how financial, educational, housing, employment, and other inequities between Black and white Americans cost the U.S. over $16 trillions of dollars in economic loss each year. On the podcast, we ask ourselves the difficult question posed by Martin Luther King: “Where do we go from here?”

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts:  Professor Clayborne Carson, Director, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University; and Christy Clark-Pujara, Associate Professor of History, Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Host: Hazami Barmada, Founder and CEO, Humanity Lab Foundation.

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This episode is made possible with the support of Vodafone Americas Foundation. To learn more about their programs and how you can support their network of partners, visit vodafone-us.com

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Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media.

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