democracynow--2020-07-02--The Untold History of Mount Rushmore: A KKK Sympathizer Built Monument on Sacred Lakota Land

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : As the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in the United States , with a record 52,000 new cases in just 24 hours , President Trump plans to hold an Independence Day celebration Friday at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota , with a fighter jet flyover and fireworks , which are banned in the area due to extreme forest fire potential .
Some 7,500 people are expected .
And South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem , a staunch Trump ally , says people will not be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remain six feet apart .
AMY GOODMAN : Trump ’ s rally comes amidst a national debate on how to deal with statues and symbols that enshrine systemic racism .
Mount Rushmore itself is named after a gold rush lawyer and speculator .
The monument features the sculpted heads of four U.S. presidents — Washington , Jefferson , Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt — blasted out of the ancient granite between 1927 and 1941 by 400 workers , directed by sculptor Gutzon Borglum .
Earlier , he was recruited by the Daughters of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ memorial to Confederate leaders in Georgia .
Borglum was close to the Ku Klux Klan and was likely a member .
Mount Rushmore , in the region now known as the Black Hills , which is the sacred center of the Lakota people ’ s universe , and the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has ordered Trump to cancel Friday ’ s event .
Julian Bear Runner told The Guardian , quote , “ The lands on which that mountain is carved and the lands he ’ s about to visit belong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treaty signed in 1851 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and I have to tell him he doesn ’ t have permission from its original sovereign owners to enter the territory at this time , ” he said .
The government acknowledged tribal sovereignty over the Black Hills in two separate treaties and committed the land , quote , “ for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupancy of the Sioux.
” But gold was discovered there in the 1870s , and the Army drove the Indigenous people out .
Decades of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ settler colonists that followed ended with the Army ’ s brutal massacre of Lakota women , children and the elderly at Wounded Knee on December 29th , 1890 .
All of this comes as Indian Country has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic .
Well , for more , we ’ re going to Rapid City , South Dakota , not far from the Black Hills , where we ’ re joined by Nick Tilsen , president and CEO of the NDN Collective , a national organization dedicated to building Indigenous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota .
Nick , it ’ s great to have you back with us .
Can you describe the organizing that ’ s going on around President Trump ’ s Friday , July 3rd , visit and Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore and why you ’ re protesting ?
NICK TILSEN : Absolutely .
Great to be back on here , Amy .
The organizing that ’ s going on is about building , you know , a collective resistance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pushed by the president and by the governor to celebrate this falsehood of democracy that has not ever worked for us as Indigenous people , and it ’ s also ignoring this deep , deep history of white supremacy and oppression towards Indigenous people .
So we ’ re actively organizing young and old Indigenous people , and our allies , and bringing people together around building power and organizing in the community to counter that narrative and to counter the narrative that this is the shrine of democracy , when we really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of hypocrisy .
AMY GOODMAN : You said to The New York Times , “ Wherever you go to connect to God , that ’ s what the Black Hills are to the Lakota.
” Talk about the significance of Mount Rushmore , designed by a sculptor with links to , and maybe was a member of , the KKK .
Talk about what these four carvings of the heads of four presidents means .
NICK TILSEN : Yeah .
I mean , the Black Hills , or the He Sápa , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we connect to creator .
It ’ s the place we go pick our medicines .
Our people have been traveling there for thousands of years in following the actual star constellations to go to our sacred sites at different times , and so this place is very , very sacred to our people .
And so , the act of , one , stealing our land , and then carving the faces of four white men , who were colonizers , who committed genocide against Indigenous people , is an egregious act @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for it to be celebrated as the shrine of democracy , you know , some people don ’ t know — I mean , people talk about Abraham Lincoln as being one of the better presidents in the history of the country .
Well , you know , people don ’ t realize that , on one hand , he signed the Emancipation Proclamation , and then he also ordered the largest mass hanging in the history of the United States , when he ordered the hanging of 38 Dakota people after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minnesota .
And so , these parts of this history are the truth and the reality .
And so , this is an act of violence and aggression against us , and it ’ s also pushing this falsehood narrative about American democracy , when we actually really should be uplifting the truths of what happened throughout history and how those truths are directly connected to the disparities that exist today in society amongst Indigenous people .
AMY GOODMAN : Kristi Noem , the governor of South Dakota , said masks will not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be given out , and there will be no social distancing .
Thousands and thousands of people are expected to crowd in .
This , of course , follows the Tulsa event , this catastrophe for President Trump , where he said something like a million people might be turning out , and something like 6,000 did inside .
And now we have the images of his campaign staff removing social distancing stickers inside the arena .
And now we know that most of the campaign staff had to self-quarantine afterwards .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had to move his event from Juneteenth to the 20th because of outcry , on the 99th anniversary month of one of the worst massacres of African Americans in U.S. history , to Mount Rushmore , and President Trump , just this week , calling for the protection of Confederate soldiers , and the images of Black Lives Matter symbols being “ symbol [ s ] of hate .
Your thoughts of what he is trying to convey , and especially now with this fireworks display , when fireworks are banned in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NICK TILSEN : Yeah .
I mean , it ’ s astonishing to me , but I guess , in some ways , it ’ s not [ inaudible ] seen , you know .
Pushing this falsehood narrative and trying to wrestle up his base and pretending that rural America — right ?
— backs Trump , when rural America doesn ’ t back Trump , and so I think — and I think that this makes it actually like a very dangerous situation , when he ’ s pushing these narratives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s digging in deeper and deeper , and he ’ s using these symbols , these symbols of grave injustice , and couching them as part of the great American story and using it as an opportunity to try to catalyze his campaign forward , when , in reality — AMY GOODMAN : And your thoughts , Nick , on Trump tweeting , “ I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth 'Pocahontas ' Warren ( of all people ! )
Amendment , which will lead to the renaming ( plus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bragg , Fort Robert E. Lee , and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars , is in the Bill !
” him referring to her again as “ Pocahontas ” and then talking about preserving the names of these bases named after Confederate leaders ?
NICK TILSEN : I mean , it ’ s the reality that we have a white supremacist and a racist who ’ s the president of the United States currently .
And that ’ s why , when we mobilize and organize against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we ’ re mobilizing and organizing for the betterment of our nation , not just resisting a racist president , but that we actually are pivoting to actually building power , because we have to build a country that we all collectively believe in and are fighting for .
And so , it ’ s so important for us to come out not just in resistance of the president , but actually in the protection for the future that we ’ re all trying to build together in this nation .
AMY @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in early May , leaders of the Oglala and Cheyenne River Sioux refused a request from South Dakota ’ s Republican Governor Noem , a close ally of Trump , to remove checkpoints leading to their reservation , that they say helped to protect the tribe from the coronavirus — of course , especially in Navajo Nation in New Mexico , a hot spot for coronavirus .
This showdown that has happened around coronavirus , and now President Trump and his ally , Governor Noem , saying there will be no social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I mean , the tribes have been doing a great job in this region for protecting our borders , and using tribal sovereignty to protect our community and our people .
And we have seen , you know , the act of aggression by Governor Kristi Noem to try to limit tribal sovereignty and try to prohibit tribes ’ ability to protect their own community , when there ’ s already legal precedent in place that tribes already have tribal sovereignty to control who comes and leaves in their reservation , and we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of protecting our communities and our people .
And so , it ’ s egregious that there ’ s these aggressive attempts and attacks on tribal sovereignty for the sole purpose of pushing a false narrative that a global pandemic is not happening .
And so , we continue to dig in here , and our tribal leaders of Oglala Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe continue to step up in great leadership to continue to protect our communities and our people against these false narratives and against the global pandemic .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve heard about white supremacist militias in the Black Hills , a couple of dozen of these militias .
We ’ ve heard about the massive Klan march in the 1920s ; in this area of South Dakota , one of the largest chapters of the Klan existed .
If you can talk about that background and how you ’ re organizing for tomorrow ?
NICK TILSEN : Yeah .
So , I mean , the history of white supremacist groups in this region is well known , and so has this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And so there ’ s been , you know , extremes here .
And so , we will continue to organize and march .
We will do so without any fear , but with caution .
And so , you know , nowadays everybody tries to make threats to try to prevent people from organizing and protesting , but in our particular situation , we have been fighting for our land for thousands of years , and we intend to continue to fight for our land , without any — regardless of threats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are in the region , because we believe in the power of the creator and the power that exists amongst the elders and the young people to help to protect our communities .
And so — AMY GOODMAN : What do you want to see happen with Mount Rushmore , Nick ?
NICK TILSEN : Long term , we want to see Mount Rushmore closed as a national monument .
And the decision-making power on what to do with it needs to be transferred back to the Oglala — to the Lakota people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And finally , your own family ’ s remarkable history , going back to your great-grandmother , Meridel Le Sueur , the great writer ?
NICK TILSEN : Yeah .
You know , our family has been organizing for generations on both sides of my family , and really even here in the Black Hills .
In 1980 , my father and mother and many other leaders came together to organize the Black Hills Survival Gathering in this region , which was the convergence of a movement , of the environmental movement and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s still the roots of that organizing that continues to happen here .
So , yeah , I ’ m definitely honored to be a part of a family that has had generational organizing taking place .
AMY GOODMAN : Nick Tilsen , thanks so much for being with us , president and CEO of the NDN Collective , dedicated to building Indigenous power , citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota , one of the organizers of the protest at President Trump ’ s Independence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3rd .
Before we go to break — coming up , we ’ re going to be talking about vice president — former vice president , presidential candidate Joe Biden .
And then we ’ ll talk about what happened to Vanessa Guillén .
Stay with us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: As the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in the United States, with a record 52,000 new cases in just 24 hours, President Trump plans to hold an Independence Day celebration Friday at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, with a fighter jet flyover and fireworks, which are banned in the area due to extreme forest fire potential. Some 7,500 people are expected. And South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a staunch Trump ally, says people will not be required to wear a mask or to remain six feet apart.
GOV. KRISTI NOEM: We’ll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one, but we won’t be social distancing.
AMY GOODMAN: Trump’s rally comes amidst a national debate on how to deal with statues and symbols that enshrine systemic racism. Mount Rushmore itself is named after a gold rush lawyer and speculator. The monument features the sculpted heads of four U.S. presidents — Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt — blasted out of the ancient granite between 1927 and 1941 by 400 workers, directed by sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Earlier, he was recruited by the Daughters of the Confederacy to carve the huge Stone Mountain memorial to Confederate leaders in Georgia. Borglum was close to the Ku Klux Klan and was likely a member.
Mount Rushmore, in the region now known as the Black Hills, which is the sacred center of the Lakota people’s universe, and the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has ordered Trump to cancel Friday’s event. Julian Bear Runner told The Guardian, quote, “The lands on which that mountain is carved and the lands he’s about to visit belong to the Great Sioux nation under a treaty signed in 1851 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and I have to tell him he doesn’t have permission from its original sovereign owners to enter the territory at this time,” he said.
The government acknowledged tribal sovereignty over the Black Hills in two separate treaties and committed the land, quote, “for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupancy of the Sioux.” But gold was discovered there in the 1870s, and the Army drove the Indigenous people out. Decades of armed Indigenous resistance to the waves of settler colonists that followed ended with the Army’s brutal massacre of Lakota women, children and the elderly at Wounded Knee on December 29th, 1890.
All of this comes as Indian Country has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Well, for more, we’re going to Rapid City, South Dakota, not far from the Black Hills, where we’re joined by Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of the NDN Collective, a national organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. He’s a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Nick, it’s great to have you back with us. Can you describe the organizing that’s going on around President Trump’s Friday, July 3rd, visit and Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore and why you’re protesting?
NICK TILSEN: Absolutely. Great to be back on here, Amy. The organizing that’s going on is about building, you know, a collective resistance, because there’s this narrative being pushed by the president and by the governor to celebrate this falsehood of democracy that has not ever worked for us as Indigenous people, and it’s also ignoring this deep, deep history of white supremacy and oppression towards Indigenous people. So we’re actively organizing young and old Indigenous people, and our allies, and bringing people together around building power and organizing in the community to counter that narrative and to counter the narrative that this is the shrine of democracy, when we really feel like it’s a shrine of hypocrisy.
AMY GOODMAN: You said to The New York Times, “Wherever you go to connect to God, that’s what the Black Hills are to the Lakota.” Talk about the significance of Mount Rushmore, designed by a sculptor with links to, and maybe was a member of, the KKK. Talk about what these four carvings of the heads of four presidents means.
NICK TILSEN: Yeah. I mean, the Black Hills, or the He Sápa, in our language, is the place that we connect to creator. It’s the place we go pick our medicines. Our people have been traveling there for thousands of years in following the actual star constellations to go to our sacred sites at different times, and so this place is very, very sacred to our people.
And so, the act of, one, stealing our land, and then carving the faces of four white men, who were colonizers, who committed genocide against Indigenous people, is an egregious act of violence. And then, furthermore, for it to be celebrated as the shrine of democracy, you know, some people don’t know — I mean, people talk about Abraham Lincoln as being one of the better presidents in the history of the country. Well, you know, people don’t realize that, on one hand, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and then he also ordered the largest mass hanging in the history of the United States, when he ordered the hanging of 38 Dakota people after the uprising in Dakota territory in southern Minnesota.
And so, these parts of this history are the truth and the reality. And so, this is an act of violence and aggression against us, and it’s also pushing this falsehood narrative about American democracy, when we actually really should be uplifting the truths of what happened throughout history and how those truths are directly connected to the disparities that exist today in society amongst Indigenous people.
AMY GOODMAN: Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, said masks will not be required, though they’ll be given out, and there will be no social distancing. Thousands and thousands of people are expected to crowd in. This, of course, follows the Tulsa event, this catastrophe for President Trump, where he said something like a million people might be turning out, and something like 6,000 did inside. And now we have the images of his campaign staff removing social distancing stickers inside the arena. And now we know that most of the campaign staff had to self-quarantine afterwards. So, moving from Tulsa, where he had to move his event from Juneteenth to the 20th because of outcry, on the 99th anniversary month of one of the worst massacres of African Americans in U.S. history, to Mount Rushmore, and President Trump, just this week, calling for the protection of Confederate soldiers, and the images of Black Lives Matter symbols being “symbol[s] of hate. Your thoughts of what he is trying to convey, and especially now with this fireworks display, when fireworks are banned in the region because of forest fire potential?
NICK TILSEN: Yeah. I mean, it’s astonishing to me, but I guess, in some ways, it’s not [inaudible] seen, you know. Pushing this falsehood narrative and trying to wrestle up his base and pretending that rural America — right? — backs Trump, when rural America doesn’t back Trump, and so I think — and I think that this makes it actually like a very dangerous situation, when he’s pushing these narratives of white supremacy, and he’s digging in deeper and deeper, and he’s using these symbols, these symbols of grave injustice, and couching them as part of the great American story and using it as an opportunity to try to catalyze his campaign forward, when, in reality —
AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts, Nick, on Trump tweeting, “I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!” him referring to her again as “Pocahontas” and then talking about preserving the names of these bases named after Confederate leaders?
NICK TILSEN: I mean, it’s the reality that we have a white supremacist and a racist who’s the president of the United States currently. And that’s why, when we mobilize and organize against these narratives, we have to realize that we’re mobilizing and organizing for the betterment of our nation, not just resisting a racist president, but that we actually are pivoting to actually building power, because we have to build a country that we all collectively believe in and are fighting for. And so, it’s so important for us to come out not just in resistance of the president, but actually in the protection for the future that we’re all trying to build together in this nation.
AMY GOODMAN: When you talk about protection, in early May, leaders of the Oglala and Cheyenne River Sioux refused a request from South Dakota’s Republican Governor Noem, a close ally of Trump, to remove checkpoints leading to their reservation, that they say helped to protect the tribe from the coronavirus — of course, especially in Navajo Nation in New Mexico, a hot spot for coronavirus. This showdown that has happened around coronavirus, and now President Trump and his ally, Governor Noem, saying there will be no social distancing?
NICK TILSEN: Yeah. I mean, the tribes have been doing a great job in this region for protecting our borders, and using tribal sovereignty to protect our community and our people. And we have seen, you know, the act of aggression by Governor Kristi Noem to try to limit tribal sovereignty and try to prohibit tribes’ ability to protect their own community, when there’s already legal precedent in place that tribes already have tribal sovereignty to control who comes and leaves in their reservation, and we already have tribal sovereignty for the purpose of protecting our communities and our people.
And so, it’s egregious that there’s these aggressive attempts and attacks on tribal sovereignty for the sole purpose of pushing a false narrative that a global pandemic is not happening. And so, we continue to dig in here, and our tribal leaders of Oglala Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe continue to step up in great leadership to continue to protect our communities and our people against these false narratives and against the global pandemic.
AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen, we’ve heard about white supremacist militias in the Black Hills, a couple of dozen of these militias. We’ve heard about the massive Klan march in the 1920s; in this area of South Dakota, one of the largest chapters of the Klan existed. If you can talk about that background and how you’re organizing for tomorrow?
NICK TILSEN: Yeah. So, I mean, the history of white supremacist groups in this region is well known, and so has this been a hotbed for Indigenous resistance. And so there’s been, you know, extremes here. And so, we will continue to organize and march. We will do so without any fear, but with caution.
And so, you know, nowadays everybody tries to make threats to try to prevent people from organizing and protesting, but in our particular situation, we have been fighting for our land for thousands of years, and we intend to continue to fight for our land, without any — regardless of threats and regardless of white supremacist groups that are in the region, because we believe in the power of the creator and the power that exists amongst the elders and the young people to help to protect our communities. And so —
AMY GOODMAN: What do you want to see happen with Mount Rushmore, Nick?
NICK TILSEN: Long term, we want to see Mount Rushmore closed as a national monument. And the decision-making power on what to do with it needs to be transferred back to the Oglala — to the Lakota people of the region.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, your own family’s remarkable history, going back to your great-grandmother, Meridel Le Sueur, the great writer?
NICK TILSEN: Yeah. You know, our family has been organizing for generations on both sides of my family, and really even here in the Black Hills. In 1980, my father and mother and many other leaders came together to organize the Black Hills Survival Gathering in this region, which was the convergence of a movement, of the environmental movement and of the anti-nuclear movement. And there’s still the roots of that organizing that continues to happen here. So, yeah, I’m definitely honored to be a part of a family that has had generational organizing taking place.
AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen, thanks so much for being with us, president and CEO of the NDN Collective, dedicated to building Indigenous power, citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, one of the organizers of the protest at President Trump’s Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore on July 3rd.
Before we go to break — coming up, we’re going to be talking about vice president — former vice president, presidential candidate Joe Biden. And then we’ll talk about what happened to Vanessa Guillén. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Jamaican guitarist Lynford “Hux” Brown, age 75, died on June 18th.


democracynow--2020-07-02--Headlines for July  2, 2020

Headlines for July  2, 2020

The United States has set another grim coronavirus record , confirming nearly 52,000 cases of COVID-19 in just 24 hours .
Alaska , Arizona , California , Georgia , Idaho , Oklahoma , South Carolina , Tennessee and Texas all reported single-day record levels of the disease Wednesday , with hospitals in some regions already overwhelmed with patients .
In Arizona , Governor Doug Ducey ordered bars , gyms , movie theaters and water parks closed for at least 30 days amid an exponential rise in new infections .
Gov .
Doug Ducey : “ Our message to Arizonans today @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home .
If they do go out , we want them to mask up .
We want them to physically distance .
We want them to wash their hands.
” Governor Ducey spoke to reporters after meeting Vice President Mike Pence , the head of the coronavirus task force .
Pence is traveling to Florida today for talks with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis , who vowed this week he was “ not going back ” on reopening his state ’ s economy despite an exponential rise in new infections .
In California , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restrictions , shutting down bars and indoor dining in 19 counties that are home to more than 70 % of California ’ s population .
New York City has halted plans to reopen indoor dining at restaurants .
New York , New Jersey and Connecticut have ordered travelers from 16 states with high infection rates to self-quarantine upon their arrival .

The United States has set another grim coronavirus record, confirming nearly 52,000 cases of COVID-19 in just 24 hours. Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas all reported single-day record levels of the disease Wednesday, with hospitals in some regions already overwhelmed with patients.
In Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey ordered bars, gyms, movie theaters and water parks closed for at least 30 days amid an exponential rise in new infections.
Gov. Doug Ducey: “Our message to Arizonans today is clear: They are safer at home. If they do go out, we want them to mask up. We want them to physically distance. We want them to wash their hands.”
Governor Ducey spoke to reporters after meeting Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the coronavirus task force. Pence is traveling to Florida today for talks with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who vowed this week he was “not going back” on reopening his state’s economy despite an exponential rise in new infections.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday reimposed coronavirus restrictions, shutting down bars and indoor dining in 19 counties that are home to more than 70% of California’s population.
New York City has halted plans to reopen indoor dining at restaurants. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have ordered travelers from 16 states with high infection rates to self-quarantine upon their arrival.


democracynow--2020-07-03--"America's Moment of Reckoning": Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Cornel West on Uprising Against Racism

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The Quarantine Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , as we continue to look at the uprisings against police brutality and racism .
I want to turn to a conversation Democracy Now !
’ s Nermeen Shaikh and I had in early June with the scholars Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor of Princeton University and Cornel West of Harvard University .
I began by asking professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor to talk about the mass uprising and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how angry , desperate , rage-filled you would have to be to come out and protest in the conditions of a historical pandemic that has already killed over 103,000 Americans , that has had a disproportionately horrendous impact in Black communities .
I believe 23,000 or 24,000 Black people have died .
To put it more bluntly , one in every 2,000 African Americans in the United States has died as the result of COVID .
So imagine how difficult things have to be for people to come out in those conditions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ around police brutality , the continuation of police brutality , police abuse and violence and murder has compelled people to have to endure those conditions , because it is obvious that there is either nothing that our government can do about this or that the government is complicit and chooses not to do anything about this .
And I think that we have to add to that the crisis that is unfolding beyond police brutality in the country , as well , because we all know that the videotapes of police beatings , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So , the movement that grew out of the Ferguson uprising , that became Black Lives Matter , the conditions that led to that never actually ended .
And I think that what has reignited that is obviously the public lynching of George Floyd one week ago in Minneapolis , but also the conditions , the wider context within which that is spilling over .
And because of that wider condition of mass unemployment , of the death that has been caused by the pandemic , that this is not just — I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests around or against police brutality .
But we see a lot of — hundreds , if not thousands , of young white people in these uprisings , making these multiracial rebellions , really .
And I think that that is important .
Some people have sort of described the participation of white people as outside agitators , or I know that there are reports of white supremacists infiltrating some of the demonstrations .
And I think that those are things that we have to pay attention to , keep track of and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we can not dismiss in a widespread way the participation of young white people , because we have to see that what has happened over the last decade has gutted their lives , too .
And there has been some discussion about this with perhaps their parents ’ generation , with the description of deaths by despair .
CORNEL WEST : No , I mean , that ’ s ridiculous .
You know , you remember , Sister Amy — and I love and respect you so — that antifa saved my life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doubt about it , that they provided the security , you see .
So the very notion that they become candidates for a terrorist organization , but the people who were trying to kill us — the Nazis , the Klan — they ’ re not candidates for terrorist organization status — but that ’ s what you ’ re going to get .
You ’ re going to get a Trump-led neofascist backlash and clampdown on what is going on .
We ought to be very clear about that .
The neofascism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ imposition in the face of any kind of disorder .
And so we ’ ve got to be fortified for that .
AMY GOODMAN : Professors Cornel West and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor .
We ’ ll hear more from them in a moment , but first let ’ s turn to former Women ’ s March co-chair Tamika Mallory .
She spoke at a rally in Minneapolis days after the police killed George Floyd .
TAMIKA MALLORY : We are not responsible for the mental illness that has been inflicted upon our people by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who are in positions of power .
I don ’ t give a damn if they burn down Target , because Target should be on the streets with us calling for the justice that our people deserve .
Where was AutoZone at the time when Philando Castile was shot in a car , which is what they actually represent ?
Where were they ?
So , if you are not coming to the people ’ s defense , then don ’ t challenge us when young people and other people who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay — you are paying instigators to be among our people out there , throwing rocks , breaking windows and burning down buildings .
And so young people are responding to that .
They are enraged .
And there ’ s an easy way to stop it : Arrest the cops .
Charge the cops .
Charge all the cops , not just some of them , not just here in Minneapolis .
Charge them in every city across America where our people are being murdered .
Charge them everywhere .
That ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cops .
Do your job .
Do what you say this country is supposed to be about — the land of the free for all .
It has not been free for Black people , and we are tired .
Don ’ t talk to us about looting .
Y ’ all are the looters .
America has looted Black people .
America looted the Native Americans when they first came here , so looting is what you do .
We learned it from you .
We learned violence from you .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was what we learned from you .
So if you want us to do better , then , damn it , you do better .
NERMEEN SHAIKH : Tamika Mallory speaking in Minneapolis over the weekend .
Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor , if you could respond to her extraordinary speech , and also the way in which public officials , including liberal officials like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio , have responded to the protests , simultaneously saying they feel the pain of the protesters but condemning the violence and looting , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the demonstrations , and then the fact that there are many who have been calling for defunding the police in response to what ’ s happened here ?
I mean , one of the things that ’ s been so remarkable about the images everywhere are the kind of military gear that so many of these police officers are wearing .
I mean , one Democratic senator , Brian Schatz from Hawaii , tweeted Sunday in response , saying that he ’ s introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weaponry to local police departments .
Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor , if you could respond ?
And the reason why I say that is because it has been a strategy of cities across this country that have committed themselves to not investing in the civic and public sector infrastructure — so , public schools , public hospitals , public libraries — all of the things that make a city function .
Those have been systematically defunded , increasingly privatized .
And the way that cities manage the inevitable crises that arise from that , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with poverty , when combined with evictions and all of the insecurities that we see wracking cities across this country , the police are used to manage that crisis .
And that is why , in city after city , as other public institutions take financial hits , as other public institutions are defunded , it ’ s the police that always get to maintain their budgets .
And we look around now , where , because of the COVID crisis , every city is talking about massive budget cuts , but not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never have to incur layoffs .
They never have to incur budget cuts , because they are seen as the public policy of last resort .
Which is why — and this is the last thing I ’ ll say — the hypocrisy of someone like Andrew Cuomo or Bill de Blasio or any of these politicians coming on television , on their press conference , wringing their hands about the police , talking about these issues as if they are passive bystanders or just concerned citizens , and not elected officials who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who have the ability to punish the police , who have the ability to make budgetary priorities , who have the ability to shift resources in one direction or another , but they sit back and act as if they are just watching the train wreck in slow motion , and not that they are actually in control of the gears .
And this is part of the hypocrisy that is making people so angry , is that we have these people , elected officials , getting on television , talking about how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Say her name.
” Andrew Cuomo , do your job .
And I think that this is part of what is forcing people to feel that they have no other choice , no other response , than to rebel , because the levers and mechanisms of government that are supposed to attend to these issues have shown themselves to be completely broken .
AMY GOODMAN : Harvard professor Cornel West and Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor .
If you ’ d like to watch the whole conversation with them , as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to democracynow.org .
That does it for today ’ s show .
Democracy Now !
is produced by a remarkable team , in the studios and sheltering at home .
We want to thank each and every one of them .
Democracy Now !
is produced with Renée Feltz , Mike Burke , Deena Guzder , Libby Rainey , Nermeen Shaikh , Carla Wills , Tami Woronoff , Charina Nadura , Sam Alcoff , Tey-Marie Astudillo , John Hamilton , Robby Karran , Hany Massoud , Adriano Contreras and María Taracena .
Our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thanks to Becca Staley , Miriam Barnard , Paul Powell , Mike DiFilippo , Miguel Nogueira , Mike Burke , Hugh Gran , Denis Moynihan , David Prude and Dennis McCormick .
I ’ m Amy Goodman .
Thanks so much for joining us .
Stay safe .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue to look at the uprisings against police brutality and racism. I want to turn to a conversation Democracy Now!’s Nermeen Shaikh and I had in early June with the scholars Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor of Princeton University and Cornel West of Harvard University. I began by asking professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor to talk about the mass uprising and the police killing of George Floyd.
KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: Thank you, Amy, for letting me come on this morning to talk.
You know, I think part of what we are seeing is years and years of pent-up rage. Many people have referenced the 1960s, have referenced Ferguson in 2014, but I think it’s important to say that these are not just repeats of past events. These are the consequences of the failures of this government and the political establishment, the economic establishment of this country to resolve those crises, and so they build and accumulate over time. And we are watching the boiling over of that.
Imagine how angry, desperate, rage-filled you would have to be to come out and protest in the conditions of a historical pandemic that has already killed over 103,000 Americans, that has had a disproportionately horrendous impact in Black communities. I believe 23,000 or 24,000 Black people have died. To put it more bluntly, one in every 2,000 African Americans in the United States has died as the result of COVID. So imagine how difficult things have to be for people to come out in those conditions. So, I think that the buildup around police brutality, the continuation of police brutality, police abuse and violence and murder has compelled people to have to endure those conditions, because it is obvious that there is either nothing that our government can do about this or that the government is complicit and chooses not to do anything about this.
And I think that we have to add to that the crisis that is unfolding beyond police brutality in the country, as well, because we all know that the videotapes of police beatings, abuse, murder have never stopped. So, the movement that grew out of the Ferguson uprising, that became Black Lives Matter, the conditions that led to that never actually ended. And I think that what has reignited that is obviously the public lynching of George Floyd one week ago in Minneapolis, but also the conditions, the wider context within which that is spilling over. And because of that wider condition of mass unemployment, of the death that has been caused by the pandemic, that this is not just — I don’t believe these are just protests around or against police brutality.
But we see a lot of — hundreds, if not thousands, of young white people in these uprisings, making these multiracial rebellions, really. And I think that that is important. Some people have sort of described the participation of white people as outside agitators, or I know that there are reports of white supremacists infiltrating some of the demonstrations. And I think that those are things that we have to pay attention to, keep track of and try to understand. But I think we cannot dismiss in a widespread way the participation of young white people, because we have to see that what has happened over the last decade has gutted their lives, too. And there has been some discussion about this with perhaps their parents’ generation, with the description of deaths by despair.
So, we know that the life expectancy of ordinary white men and women has gone into reverse — something, by the way, that does not typically happen in the developed world. And it is driven by opioid addiction, alcoholism and suicide. And so, this generation, whose lives really — you know, if you’ve graduated from college, your life has been bracketed by war at the turn of the 21st century, by recession and now by a deadly pandemic. And so, I think we’re seeing the convergence of a class rebellion with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it. And in many ways, we are in uncharted territory in the United States.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dr. Cornel West, could you respond to what professor Yamahtta Taylor said? You agree that, of course, the murder of George Floyd was a lynching. You’ve also said that his murder and the demonstrations that have followed show that America is a failed social experiment. So could you respond to that and also the way that the state and police forces have responded to the protests, following George Floyd’s killing, with the National Guard called out in so many cities and states across the country?
CORNEL WEST: Well, there’s no doubt that this is America’s moment of reckoning. But we want to make the connection between the local and the global, because, you see, when you sow the seeds of greed — domestically, inequality; globally, imperial tentacles, 800 military units abroad, violence and AFRICOM in Africa, supporting various regimes, dictatorial ones in Asia and so forth — there is a connection between the seeds that you sow of violence externally and internally. Same is true in terms of the seed of hatred, of white supremacy, hating Black people, anti-Blackness hatred having its own dynamic within the context of a predatory capitalist civilization obsessed with money, money, money, domination of workers, marginalization of those who don’t fit — gay brothers, lesbian sisters, trans and so forth. So, it’s precisely this convergence that my dear sister Professor Taylor is talking about of the ways in which the American Empire, imploding, its foundations being shaken, with uprisings from below.
The catalyst was certainly Brother George Floyd’s public lynching, but the failures of the predatory capitalist economy to provide the satisfaction of the basic needs of food and healthcare and quality education, jobs with a decent wage, at the same time the collapse of your political class, the collapse of your professional class. Their legitimacy has been radically called into question, and that’s multiracial. It’s the neofascist dimension in Trump. It’s the neoliberal dimension in Biden and Obama and the Clintons and so forth. And it includes much of the media. It includes many of the professors in universities. The young people are saying, “You all have been hypocritical. You haven’t been concerned about our suffering, our misery. And we no longer believe in your legitimacy.” And it spills over into violent explosion.
And it’s here. I won’t go on, but, I mean, it’s here, where I think Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer and Rabbi Heschel and Edward Said, and especially Brother Martin and Malcolm, their legacies, I think, become more central, because they provide the kind of truth telling. They provide the connection between justice and compassion in their example, in their organizing. And that’s what is needed right now. Rebellion is not the same thing in any way as revolution. And what we need is a nonviolent revolutionary project of full-scale democratic sharing — power, wealth, resources, respect, organizing — and a fundamental transformation of this American Empire.
AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts, Professor West, on the governor of Minnesota saying they’re looking into white supremacist connections to the looting and the burning of the city, and then President Trump tweeting that he’s going to try to put antifa, the anti-fascist activists, on the terror list — which he cannot do — and William Barr emphasizing this, saying he’s going after the far left to investigate?
CORNEL WEST: No, I mean, that’s ridiculous. You know, you remember, Sister Amy — and I love and respect you so — that antifa saved my life in Charlottesville. There’s no doubt about it, that they provided the security, you see. So the very notion that they become candidates for a terrorist organization, but the people who were trying to kill us — the Nazis, the Klan — they’re not candidates for terrorist organization status — but that’s what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a Trump-led neofascist backlash and clampdown on what is going on. We ought to be very clear about that. The neofascism has that kind of obsession with militaristic imposition in the face of any kind of disorder. And so we’ve got to be fortified for that.
But most importantly, I think we’ve got to make sure that we preserve our own moral, spiritual, quality, fundamental focus on truth and justice, and keep track of legalized looting, Wall Street greed; legalized murder, police; legalized murder abroad in Yemen, in Pakistan, in Africa with AFRICOM, and so forth. That’s where our focus has to be, because with all of this rebellious energy, it’s got to be channeled through organizations rooted in a quest for truth and justice.
AMY GOODMAN: Professors Cornel West and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. We’ll hear more from them in a moment, but first let’s turn to former Women’s March co-chair Tamika Mallory. She spoke at a rally in Minneapolis days after the police killed George Floyd.
TAMIKA MALLORY: We are not responsible for the mental illness that has been inflicted upon our people by the American government, institutions and those people who are in positions of power. I don’t give a damn if they burn down Target, because Target should be on the streets with us calling for the justice that our people deserve. Where was AutoZone at the time when Philando Castile was shot in a car, which is what they actually represent? Where were they? So, if you are not coming to the people’s defense, then don’t challenge us when young people and other people who are frustrated and instigated by the people you pay — you are paying instigators to be among our people out there, throwing rocks, breaking windows and burning down buildings. And so young people are responding to that. They are enraged. And there’s an easy way to stop it: Arrest the cops. Charge the cops. Charge all the cops, not just some of them, not just here in Minneapolis. Charge them in every city across America where our people are being murdered. Charge them everywhere. That’s the bottom line. Charge the cops. Do your job. Do what you say this country is supposed to be about — the land of the free for all. It has not been free for Black people, and we are tired. Don’t talk to us about looting. Y’all are the looters. America has looted Black people. America looted the Native Americans when they first came here, so looting is what you do. We learned it from you. We learned violence from you. We learned violence from you. The violence was what we learned from you. So if you want us to do better, then, damn it, you do better.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Tamika Mallory speaking in Minneapolis over the weekend. Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, if you could respond to her extraordinary speech, and also the way in which public officials, including liberal officials like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, have responded to the protests, simultaneously saying they feel the pain of the protesters but condemning the violence and looting, as they say, that have happened during the demonstrations, and then the fact that there are many who have been calling for defunding the police in response to what’s happened here? I mean, one of the things that’s been so remarkable about the images everywhere are the kind of military gear that so many of these police officers are wearing. I mean, one Democratic senator, Brian Schatz from Hawaii, tweeted Sunday in response, saying that he’s introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to discontinue the program that transfers military weaponry to local police departments. Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, if you could respond?
KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: Yeah, there’s so many things to say about this. I think, I mean, one thing that becomes so apparent with the cops on the street, one, you understand — I mean, for most of America, you get a glimpse of why people are so angry. I mean, look at the kind of wanton, reckless abuse and violence that the police are instigating, and attacking people who are trying to protest. I feel like what we’ve seen over the weekend is a national police riot. And, you know, it’s no wonder. They feel emboldened by the white nationalism of the president of the United States and, really, the lawlessness of the Republican Party writ large. And so, it feels like we’re bearing the consequences of that.
But I think that there is a bigger issue about the cops that is also worth talking about, which is, why these police are never arrested, prosecuted, punished, really, even beyond just arresting and prosecuting people, but just punishing them as public servants for their kind of racist, abusive and violent behavior. And I think that, you know, regardless of what these elected officials have to say, I think that we’re actually going to see a lot more of this, which is why the conflicts will continue.
And the reason why I say that is because it has been a strategy of cities across this country that have committed themselves to not investing in the civic and public sector infrastructure — so, public schools, public hospitals, public libraries — all of the things that make a city function. Those have been systematically defunded, increasingly privatized. And the way that cities manage the inevitable crises that arise from that, when combined with unemployment, when combined with poverty, when combined with evictions and all of the insecurities that we see wracking cities across this country, the police are used to manage that crisis. And that is why, in city after city, as other public institutions take financial hits, as other public institutions are defunded, it’s the police that always get to maintain their budgets. And we look around now, where, because of the COVID crisis, every city is talking about massive budget cuts, but not to the police. The police almost never have to incur layoffs. They never have to incur budget cuts, because they are seen as the public policy of last resort.
And so, this is — when we talk about defunding the police, it is that the police should not be absorbing a third of the budget, as they do in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, while we’re closing public schools, while public hospitals don’t have the proper personal protective equipment. Look at the way that police are — the gear and the equipment that they have, compared to hospital workers dressing themselves in garbage bags, being forced to use the same N95 masks for weeks at a time. Look at the contrast between that, and then you understand what the actual priorities of the governing politicians and bodies are.
Which is why — and this is the last thing I’ll say — the hypocrisy of someone like Andrew Cuomo or Bill de Blasio or any of these politicians coming on television, on their press conference, wringing their hands about the police, talking about these issues as if they are passive bystanders or just concerned citizens, and not elected officials who have power, who have authority, who have the ability to punish the police, who have the ability to make budgetary priorities, who have the ability to shift resources in one direction or another, but they sit back and act as if they are just watching the train wreck in slow motion, and not that they are actually in control of the gears. And this is part of the hypocrisy that is making people so angry, is that we have these people, elected officials, getting on television, talking about how terrible this is, Andrew Cuomo saying, “Say her name.” Andrew Cuomo, do your job. And I think that this is part of what is forcing people to feel that they have no other choice, no other response, than to rebel, because the levers and mechanisms of government that are supposed to attend to these issues have shown themselves to be completely broken.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Professor Cornel West, if you could comment on what professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor said, and also the fact that some observers are saying that all of these emergencies occurring simultaneously — the economic emergency with over 40 million Americans now unemployed, the health crisis with the pandemic — that these could result — and then, of course, these protests across the country — that these could result in some significant structural transformation within the U.S., as occurred, in part, following the Great Depression and the protests of ’68? Do you agree with that? And if so, what kind of transformation do you think is essential?
CORNEL WEST: Well, I would just want to say, first, just ditto to what Sister Taylor said. And I want to say — of course, send my salute to Brother Bakari. He’s part of a family of political royalty with Brother Cleveland and others in so many ways.
But I think we also have to be very candid about the decadent leadership class, that when Sister Taylor talks about Cuomo and the others, absolutely. But, you see, we’ve had a Black leadership that has so sanitized and deodorized the Black freedom struggle that you end up with neoliberal politicians who have accommodated themselves to the Wall Street greed. That’s why they bail out Wall Street rather than everyday people. They have accommodated themselves to the killing machine of the Pentagon and State Department. That’s why they can vote for budgets where 53% of every cent goes to the military, and there’s no money left for investment in education, healthcare, jobs with a living wage. And we haven’t had enough organized voices to bring critique to bear on that kind of decrepit neoliberal Black leadership.
And Obama is at the center of it. The Black Caucus is at the center of it. Black professionals are at the center of it. And these cowardly Black celebrities — not all of them, but most of them — are at the center of it. So their lives become simply lives of luxury and exemplary of success, and have little to do with service to poor people, have little to do with sacrificing for working people.
So, when Martin King can say, “My country is the biggest purveyor of violence in the world,” that takes courage in '68, takes courage today. That's the kind of courage we need. Malcolm would be the same way. Fannie Lou, Ella Baker — these are not just names. They exemplify something that’s deep and rich in the history of a hated people who have taught the world so much about love. That’s my tradition, the greatness of Black people, not the cowardliness of Black people. We’ve got both in our community. But our tradition of telling the truth and being willing to live and die for justice, that is what is necessary in this moment of reckoning.
And we don’t — young folk hardly see it at all, hardly see it at all, because so many of the professionals have simply been bought off. They sold out. They’re indifferent. They’re too callous to the plight of their poor and working-class, not just Black, everybody, not just here, but around the world — the Wretched of the Earth, as the great Frantz Fanon wrote about with such power.
AMY GOODMAN: Harvard professor Cornel West and Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. If you’d like to watch the whole conversation with them, as well as Angela Davis and more, go to democracynow.org.
That does it for today’s show. Democracy Now! is produced by a remarkable team, in the studios and sheltering at home. We want to thank each and every one of them. Democracy Now! is produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Libby Rainey, Nermeen Shaikh, Carla Wills, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Adriano Contreras and María Taracena. Our general manager is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Miriam Barnard, Paul Powell, Mike DiFilippo, Miguel Nogueira, Mike Burke, Hugh Gran, Denis Moynihan, David Prude and Dennis McCormick. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us. Stay safe.


democracynow--2020-07-03--Angela Davis on Abolition, Calls to Defund Police, Toppled Racist Statues & Voting in 2020 Election

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : We turn now to look at the uprising against police brutality and racism , following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th .
The protests have helped dramatically shift public opinion on policing and systemic racism , as “ defund the police ” becomes a rallying cry of the movement .
Well , for more on this historic moment , we turn to the legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis , professor emerita at the University of California @ @ @ @ @ @ @ century , Angela Davis has been one of the most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States and an icon of the Black liberation movement .
I interviewed her in early June and asked her if she thought this moment is truly a turning point .
Now attention is being turned towards the symbols of slavery , the symbols of colonialism .
And , of course , any campaigns against racism in this country have to address , in the very first place , the conditions of Indigenous people .
I think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re seeing these demonstrations , but I think at the same time we have to recognize that we can not simply get rid of the history .
We have to recognize the devastatingly negative role that that history has played in charting the trajectory of the United States of America .
And so , I think that these assaults on statues represent an attempt to begin to think through what we have to do to bring down institutions and reenvision them , reorganize them , create new institutions that can attend to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Yeah , racism is integrally linked to capitalism .
And I think it ’ s a mistake to assume that we can combat racism by leaving capitalism in place .
As Cedric Robinson pointed out in his book Black Marxism , capitalism is racial capitalism .
And , of course , to just say for a moment , that Marx pointed out that what he called primitive accumulation , capital doesn ’ t just appear from nowhere .
The original capital was provided by the labor of slaves .
The Industrial Revolution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capital , was enabled by slave labor in the U.S .
So , I am convinced that the ultimate eradication of racism is going to require us to move toward a more socialist organization of our economies , of our other institutions .
I think we have a long way to go before we can begin to talk about an economic system that is not based on exploitation and on the super-exploitation of Black people , Latinx people and other racialized populations .
ANGELA DAVIS : Well , that might be one way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re going to need a lot more than truth and reconciliation .
But certainly we need truth .
I ’ m not sure how soon reconciliation is going to emerge .
But I think that the whole notion of truth and reconciliation allows us to think differently about the criminal legal system .
It allows us to imagine a form of justice that is not based on revenge , a form of justice that is not retributive .
So I think that those ideas can help us begin to imagine new ways @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — well , not structuring the prison , because the whole point is that we have to abolish that institution in order to begin to envision new ways of addressing the conditions that lead to mass incarceration , that lead to such horrendous tragedies as the murder of George Floyd .
AMY GOODMAN : The legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis .
When we come back , we ’ ll talk about the 2020 election and more .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
democracynow.org .
I ’ m Amy Goodman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking at the ongoing uprisings against police brutality and racism , following the police killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day .
Later in the program , we ’ ll hear from professors Cornel West , Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Tamika Mallory , but first we continue our discussion with the legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis .
I spoke to her in early June , a week before she received the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in her hometown of Birmingham , Alabama .
The institute made international @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rescinded the award due to Angela Davis ’ s support for Palestinians and the BDS movement .
That ’ s Boycott , Divestment and Sanctions movement .
After outcry , the institute reversed its decision .
Angela Davis formally received the award on Juneteenth — that ’ s June 19th — this year .
I asked her about the significance of what happened .
And , you know , while at first it was a total shock to me that they offered this award to me , and then they rescinded it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was an important moment , because it encouraged people to think about the meaning of human rights and why is it that Palestinians could be excluded from the process of working toward human rights .
Palestinian activists have long supported Black people ’ s struggle against racism .
When I was in jail , solidarity coming from Palestine was a major source of courage for me .
In Ferguson , Palestinians were the first to express international solidarity .
And there has been this very important connection between the two struggles for many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to be really happy to receive the award , which now represents a rethinking of the rather backward position that the institute assumed , that Palestinians could be excluded from the circle of those working toward a future of justice , equality and human rights .
AMY GOODMAN : Speaking about what ’ s going on in the West Bank right now and about the whole issue of international solidarity , the global response to the killing of George Floyd .
In the occupied West Bank , protesters denounced Floyd ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ el-Hallak , a 32-year-old Palestinian special needs student who was shot to death by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem .
He was reportedly chanting “ Black lives matter ” and “ Palestinian lives matter , ” when Israeli police gunned him down , claiming he was armed .
These links that you ’ re seeing , not only in Palestine and the United States , but around the world , the kind of global response , the tens of thousands of people who marched in Spain , who marched in England , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the world , as this touches a chord and they make demands in their own countries , not only in solidarity with what ’ s happening in the United States ?
And then I want to ask you about the U.S. election that ’ s coming up in November .
ANGELA DAVIS : Well , my position really hasn ’ t changed .
I ’ m not going to actually support either of the major candidates .
But I do think we have to participate in the election .
I mean , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I won ’ t vote for the Democratic candidate .
What I ’ m saying is that in our electoral system as it exists , neither party represents the future that we need in this country .
Both parties remain connected to corporate capitalism .
But the election will not so much be about who gets to lead the country to a better future , but rather how we can support ourselves and our own ability to continue to organize and place pressure on those in power .
And I don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which candidate would allow that process to unfold .
When we come back , we ’ ll speak to Cornel West , Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor , and we ’ ll hear from Tamika Mallory .
Stay with us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to look at the uprising against police brutality and racism, following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. The protests have helped dramatically shift public opinion on policing and systemic racism, as “defund the police” becomes a rallying cry of the movement.
Well, for more on this historic moment, we turn to the legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis, professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For half a century, Angela Davis has been one of the most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States and an icon of the Black liberation movement. I interviewed her in early June and asked her if she thought this moment is truly a turning point.
ANGELA DAVIS: This is an extraordinary moment. I have never experienced anything like the conditions we are currently experiencing, the conjuncture created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recognition of the systemic racism that has been rendered visible under these conditions because of the disproportionate deaths in Black and Latinx communities. And this is a moment I don’t know whether I ever expected to experience.
When the protests began, of course, around the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and Tony McDade and many others who have lost their lives to racist state violence and vigilante violence — when these protests erupted, I remembered something that I’ve said many times to encourage activists, who often feel that the work that they do is not leading to tangible results. I often ask them to consider the very long trajectory of Black struggles. And what has been most important is the forging of legacies, the new arenas of struggle that can be handed down to younger generations.
But I’ve often said one never knows when conditions may give rise to a conjuncture such as the current one that rapidly shifts popular consciousness and suddenly allows us to move in the direction of radical change. If one does not engage in the ongoing work when such a moment arises, we cannot take advantage of the opportunities to change. And, of course, this moment will pass. The intensity of the current demonstrations cannot be sustained over time, but we will have to be ready to shift gears and address these issues in different arenas, including, of course, the electoral arena.
AMY GOODMAN: Angela Davis, you have long been a leader of the critical resistance movement, the abolition movement. And I’m wondering if you can explain the demand, as you see it, what you feel needs to be done, around defunding the police, and then around prison abolition.
ANGELA DAVIS: Well, the call to defund the police is, I think, an abolitionist demand, but it reflects only one aspect of the process represented by the demand. Defunding the police is not simply about withdrawing funding for law enforcement and doing nothing else. And it appears as if this is the rather superficial understanding that has caused Biden to move in the direction he’s moving in.
It’s about shifting public funds to new services and new institutions — mental health counselors, who can respond to people who are in crisis without arms. It’s about shifting funding to education, to housing, to recreation. All of these things help to create security and safety. It’s about learning that safety, safeguarded by violence, is not really safety.
And I would say that abolition is not primarily a negative strategy. It’s not primarily about dismantling, getting rid of, but it’s about reenvisioning. It’s about building anew. And I would argue that abolition is a feminist strategy. And one sees in these abolitionist demands that are emerging the pivotal influence of feminist theories and practices.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain that further.
ANGELA DAVIS: I want us to see feminism not only as addressing issues of gender, but rather as a methodological approach of understanding the intersectionality of struggles and issues. Abolition feminism counters carceral feminism, which has unfortunately assumed that issues such as violence against women can be effectively addressed by using police force, by using imprisonment as a solution. And of course we know that Joseph Biden, in 1994, who claims that the Violence Against Women Act was such an important moment in his career — the Violence Against Women Act was couched within the 1994 Crime Act, the Clinton Crime Act.
And what we’re calling for is a process of decriminalization, not — recognizing that threats to safety, threats to security, come not primarily from what is defined as crime, but rather from the failure of institutions in our country to address issues of health, issues of violence, education, etc. So, abolition is really about rethinking the kind of future we want, the social future, the economic future, the political future. It’s about revolution, I would argue.
AMY GOODMAN: You write in Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, “Neoliberal ideology drives us to focus on individuals, ourselves, individual victims, individual perpetrators. But how is it possible to solve the massive problem of racist state violence by calling upon individual police officers to bear the burden of that history and to assume that by prosecuting them, by exacting our revenge on them, we would have somehow made progress in eradicating racism?” So, explain what exactly you’re demanding.
ANGELA DAVIS: Well, neoliberal logic assumes that the fundamental unit of society is the individual, and I would say the abstract individual. According to that logic, Black people can combat racism by pulling themselves up by their own individual bootstraps. That logic recognizes — or fails, rather, to recognize that there are institutional barriers that cannot be brought down by individual determination. If a Black person is materially unable to attend the university, the solution is not affirmative action, they argue, but rather the person simply needs to work harder, get good grades and do what is necessary in order to acquire the funds to pay for tuition. Neoliberal logic deters us from thinking about the simpler solution, which is free education.
I’m thinking about the fact that we have been aware of the need for these institutional strategies at least since 1935 — but of course before, but I’m choosing 1935 because that was the year when W.E.B. Du Bois published his germinal Black Reconstruction in America. And the question was not what should individual Black people do, but rather how to reorganize and restructure post-slavery society in order to guarantee the incorporation of those who had been formerly enslaved. The society could not remain the same — or should not have remained the same. Neoliberalism resists change at the individual level. It asks the individual to adapt to conditions of capitalism, to conditions of racism.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you, Angela Davis, about the monuments to racists, colonizers, Confederates, that are continuing to fall across the United States and around the world. Did you think you would ever see this? You think about Bree Newsome after the horror at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, who shimmied up that flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina Legislature and took down the Confederate flag, and they put it right on back up. What about what we’re seeing today?
ANGELA DAVIS: Well, of course, Bree Newsome was a wonderful pioneer. And I think it’s important to link this trend to the campaign in South Africa, Rhodes Must Fall. And, of course, I think this reflects the extent to which we are being called upon to deeply reflect on the role of historical racisms that have brought us to the point where we are today.
You know, racism should have been immediately confronted in the aftermath of the end of slavery. This is what Dr. Du Bois’s analysis was all about, not so much in terms of, “Well, what we were going to do about these poor people who have been enslaved so many generations?” but, rather, “How can we reorganize our society in order to guarantee the incorporation of previously enslaved people?”
Now attention is being turned towards the symbols of slavery, the symbols of colonialism. And, of course, any campaigns against racism in this country have to address, in the very first place, the conditions of Indigenous people. I think it’s important that we’re seeing these demonstrations, but I think at the same time we have to recognize that we cannot simply get rid of the history. We have to recognize the devastatingly negative role that that history has played in charting the trajectory of the United States of America. And so, I think that these assaults on statues represent an attempt to begin to think through what we have to do to bring down institutions and reenvision them, reorganize them, create new institutions that can attend to the needs of all people.
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think should be done with statues, for example, to, oh, slaveholding Founding Fathers, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?
ANGELA DAVIS: Well, you know, museums can play an important educational role. And I don’t think we should get rid of all of the vestiges of the past, but we need to figure out context within which people can understand the nature of U.S. history and the role that racism and capitalism and heteropatriarchy have played in forging that history.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about racism and capitalism? You often write and speak about how they are intimately connected. And talk about a world that you envision.
ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah, racism is integrally linked to capitalism. And I think it’s a mistake to assume that we can combat racism by leaving capitalism in place. As Cedric Robinson pointed out in his book Black Marxism, capitalism is racial capitalism. And, of course, to just say for a moment, that Marx pointed out that what he called primitive accumulation, capital doesn’t just appear from nowhere. The original capital was provided by the labor of slaves. The Industrial Revolution, which pivoted around the production of capital, was enabled by slave labor in the U.S. So, I am convinced that the ultimate eradication of racism is going to require us to move toward a more socialist organization of our economies, of our other institutions. I think we have a long way to go before we can begin to talk about an economic system that is not based on exploitation and on the super-exploitation of Black people, Latinx people and other racialized populations.
But I do think that we now have the conceptual means to engage in discussions, popular discussions, about capitalism. Occupy gave us new language. The notion of the prison-industrial complex requires us to understand the globalization of capitalism. Anti-capitalist consciousness helps us to understand the predicament of immigrants, who are barred from the U.S. by the wall that has been created by the current occupant. These conditions have been created by global capitalism. And I think this is a period during which we need to begin that process of popular education, which will allow people to understand the interconnections of racism, heteropatriarchy, capitalism.
AMY GOODMAN: Angela, do you think we need a truth and reconciliation commission here in this country?
ANGELA DAVIS: Well, that might be one way to begin, but I know we’re going to need a lot more than truth and reconciliation. But certainly we need truth. I’m not sure how soon reconciliation is going to emerge. But I think that the whole notion of truth and reconciliation allows us to think differently about the criminal legal system. It allows us to imagine a form of justice that is not based on revenge, a form of justice that is not retributive. So I think that those ideas can help us begin to imagine new ways of structuring our institutions, such as — well, not structuring the prison, because the whole point is that we have to abolish that institution in order to begin to envision new ways of addressing the conditions that lead to mass incarceration, that lead to such horrendous tragedies as the murder of George Floyd.
AMY GOODMAN: The legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis. When we come back, we’ll talk about the 2020 election and more.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re spending the hour looking at the ongoing uprisings against police brutality and racism, following the police killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day. Later in the program, we’ll hear from professors Cornel West, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Tamika Mallory, but first we continue our discussion with the legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis. I spoke to her in early June, a week before she received the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. The institute made international headlines last year when the institute initially rescinded the award due to Angela Davis’s support for Palestinians and the BDS movement. That’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. After outcry, the institute reversed its decision. Angela Davis formally received the award on Juneteenth — that’s June 19th — this year. I asked her about the significance of what happened.
ANGELA DAVIS: A lot has happened over the last period, including within the context of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. They have completely reorganized. They have reorganized their board. They have been involved in conversations with the community. Of course, as you know, the mayor of Birmingham was threatening to withdraw funding from the institute. There was a generalized uprising in the Black community.
And, you know, while at first it was a total shock to me that they offered this award to me, and then they rescinded it, I’m realizing now that that was an important moment, because it encouraged people to think about the meaning of human rights and why is it that Palestinians could be excluded from the process of working toward human rights. Palestinian activists have long supported Black people’s struggle against racism. When I was in jail, solidarity coming from Palestine was a major source of courage for me. In Ferguson, Palestinians were the first to express international solidarity. And there has been this very important connection between the two struggles for many decades, so that I’m going to be really happy to receive the award, which now represents a rethinking of the rather backward position that the institute assumed, that Palestinians could be excluded from the circle of those working toward a future of justice, equality and human rights.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking about what’s going on in the West Bank right now and about the whole issue of international solidarity, the global response to the killing of George Floyd. In the occupied West Bank, protesters denounced Floyd’s murder and the recent killing of Iyad el-Hallak, a 32-year-old Palestinian special needs student who was shot to death by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem. He was reportedly chanting “Black lives matter” and “Palestinian lives matter,” when Israeli police gunned him down, claiming he was armed. These links that you’re seeing, not only in Palestine and the United States, but around the world, the kind of global response, the tens of thousands of people who marched in Spain, who marched in England, in Berlin, in Munich, all over the world, as this touches a chord and they make demands in their own countries, not only in solidarity with what’s happening in the United States? And then I want to ask you about the U.S. election that’s coming up in November.
ANGELA DAVIS: Well, yes, Palestinian activists have long supported Black people’s struggle against racism, as I pointed out. And I’m hoping that today’s young activists recognize how important Palestinian solidarity has been to the Black cause, and that they recognize that we have a profound responsibility to support Palestinian struggles, as well.
I think it’s also important for us to look in the direction of Brazil, whose current political leader competes with our current political leader in many dangerous ways, I would say. Brazil — if we think we have a problem with racist police violence in the United States of America, look at Brazil. Marielle Franco was assassinated because she was challenging the militarization of the police and the racist violence unleashed there. I think 4,000 people were killed last year alone by the police in Brazil. So, I’m saying this because —
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, the president of Brazil, a close ally of President Trump. We only have two minutes, and I want to get to the election. When I interviewed you in 2016, you said you wouldn’t support either main-party candidate at the time. What are your thoughts today for 2020?
ANGELA DAVIS: Well, my position really hasn’t changed. I’m not going to actually support either of the major candidates. But I do think we have to participate in the election. I mean, that isn’t to say that I won’t vote for the Democratic candidate. What I’m saying is that in our electoral system as it exists, neither party represents the future that we need in this country. Both parties remain connected to corporate capitalism. But the election will not so much be about who gets to lead the country to a better future, but rather how we can support ourselves and our own ability to continue to organize and place pressure on those in power. And I don’t think there’s a question about which candidate would allow that process to unfold.
So I think that we’re going to have to translate some of the passion that has characterized these demonstrations into work within the electoral arena, recognizing that the electoral arena is not the best place for the expression of radical politics. But if we want to continue this work, we certainly need a person in office who will be more amenable to our mass pressure. And to me, that is the only thing that someone like a Joe Biden represents. But we have to persuade people to go out and vote to guarantee that the current occupant of the White House is forever ousted.
AMY GOODMAN: The legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis.
When we come back, we’ll speak to Cornel West, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and we’ll hear from Tamika Mallory. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-07-03--"What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?": James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass's Historic Speech

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : Today , in this special broadcast , we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass .
Born into slavery around 1818 , Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement .
On July 5th , 1852 , in Rochester , New York , Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches , “ What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July ?
” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies ’ Anti-Slavery Society .
This is the James Earl Jones reading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Voices of a People ’ s History of the United States , that ’ s edited by Howard Zinn .
The late great historian introduced the address .
FREDERICK DOUGLASS : [ read by James Earl Jones ] Fellow-citizens , pardon me , allow me to ask , why am I called upon to speak here to-day ?
What have I , or those I represent , to do with your national independence ?
Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice , embodied in that Declaration of Independence , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , therefore , called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar , and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us ?
I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary !
Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us .
The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common .
The rich inheritance of justice , liberty , prosperity , and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me .
This Fourth of July is yours , not mine .
You may rejoice , I must mourn .
To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty , and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems , were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony .
Do you mean , citizens , to mock me , by asking me to speak today ?
What , to the American slave , is your Fourth of July ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to him , more than all other days of the year , the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim .
To him , your celebration is a sham ; your boasted liberty , an unholy license ; your national greatness , swelling vanity ; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless ; your denunciation of tyrants , brass fronted impudence ; your shouts of liberty and equality , hollow mockery ; your prayers and hymns , your sermons and thanksgivings , with all your religious parade and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mere bombast , fraud , deception , impiety , and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages .
There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour .
At a time like this , scorching irony , not convincing argument , is needed .
O !
had I the ability , and could reach the nation ’ s ear , I would , to-day , pour @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of biting ridicule , blasting reproach , withering sarcasm , and stern rebuke .
For it is not light that is needed , but fire ; it is not the gentle shower , but thunder .
We need the storm , the whirlwind , the earthquake .
The feeling of the nation must be quickened ; the conscience of the nation must be roused ; the propriety of the nation must be startled ; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed ; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was James Earl Jones , reading the words of Frederick Douglass .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Today, in this special broadcast, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5th, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. This is the James Earl Jones reading the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, that’s edited by Howard Zinn. The late great historian introduced the address.
HOWARD ZINN: Frederick Douglass, once a slave, became a brilliant and powerful leader of the anti-slavery movement. In 1852, he was asked to speak in celebration of the Fourth of July.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS: [read by James Earl Jones] Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?
What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour forth a stream, a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
AMY GOODMAN: That was James Earl Jones, reading the words of Frederick Douglass.