Who Belongs?

Latest Episodes:

EP 33 - Storming the Capitol and the dilemma of Trumpism with john a. powell and Ian Haney López Jan 09, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs?, we hear from three thinkers and members of the OBI faculty — john a. powell, Ian Haney López, and Emnet Almedom — on the situation unfolding in the wake of the Washington D.C. riots. This past week, we saw remarkable scenes of violence take place at the country’s Capitol Building. Our guests will help us make sense of what happened, how race and class politics shaped the events, and what social solidarity can offer us moving forward. This episode is a recording of a live Q&A titled “Storming the Capitol: Trumpism’s Last Stand” which took place on January 8, 2021. The recording has been lightly edited for concision. john a. powell is the Othering & Belonging Institute director and Professor of Law. Ian Haney López is a Professor of Law and author of the book Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America. Emnet Almedom, an analyst at the institute, moderated this event. For a transcript of this episode, please visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/storming-the-capitol

EP 32 - The struggle against Islamophobia in France with Houria Bouteldja and Yasser Louati Dec 19, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs?, we speak with two activists based in France — Yasser Louati and Houria Bouteldja — about the intensification of Islamophobia and state repression unfolding in the country following Samuel Paty's gruesome murder. Our guests help us understand the current situation as it relates to the country's history of racist marginalization and terror attacks, what strategies affected communities must embrace to combat Islamophobia, and what this means for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Yasser Louati is a human rights advocate and head of the Justice & Liberties for All Committee. Houria Bouteldja is a decolonial activist, author, and founding member of the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic. The music heard at the introduction is “La carte de residence” performed by Algerian singers Sliman Azem & Cheikh Nourredine. For a transcript of this episode visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/Islamophobia-in-france

EP 31 - 'A Kick in the stomach': Lara Kiswani and Theresa Montaño on Newsom's ethnic studies veto Oct 15, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Lara Kiswani, Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center based in San Francisco, and Theresa Montaño, professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge, to discuss the efforts to develop an ethnic studies curriculum in California. On September 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 331 which would have made ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement across the state. For more than a year, Professor Montaño has been a part of an advisory committee tasked with drafting a model curriculum based on the anti-racist principles of ethnic studies. The curriculum provides sample lesson topics on things like housing segregation, Central American immigration, Filipino labor organizing, and indigenous struggles over land, just to name a few. Lara Kiswani’s organization, AROC, is part of the coalition promoting the inclusion of lessons related to the experiences of Arab Americans. The guests help us understand why ethnic studies is needed, why the bill was vetoed, and what comes next. For a transcript of this episode visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/why-newsom-vetoed-ethnic-studies

EP 30 - Can social housing provide a solution to a looming mass eviction crisis? with Carroll Fife Aug 13, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs?, we speak with Carroll Fife, an organizer, mother, and director of the Oakland office of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, also known as ACCE. Earlier this year, she was involved in coordinating the #Moms4Housing campaign in which the five Black women took over a vacant home on Magnolia Street in Oakland. She joins us to speak about the history of speculative housing and its impacts on the Black community, the looming eviction crisis, houselessness, and police violence. For a transcript of this episode visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/eviction-crisis-speculative-housing-carroll-fife

EP 29 - Trump attacks fair housing: What does the end of AFFH spell for integration? Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

Last week Trump announced he had eliminated an Obama-era fair housing rule put in place in 2015 to reverse patterns of residential segregation that have been in place for many decades. The move was widely seen as both an attack on integration and also a racial fear mongering strategy to appeal to his white base of supporters three months before the election. To talk about the purpose of the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, the consequences of its elimination, and what we need to do now to support integration we hear from two guests. The first is Richard Rothstein, who is the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. He's also a senior fellow at our Institute. The second guest is Stephen Menendian, our Assistant Director and co-author of the Institute's Racial Segregation in the San Francisco Bay Area report series. For a transcript of this interview visit: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/trump-attacks-fair-housing-affh

EP 28 - Settler colonialism, the insurrections of the 1960s, and today with Professor Gerald Horne Jul 28, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Gerald Horne, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and author of more than 30 books. Professor Horne has written on a spectrum of issues and events including the early settler colonial period of the US, the Haitian and Mexican revolutions, labor politics, civil rights, profiles of WEB Du Bois and revolutionary artist Paul Robeson, just to name a few. His most recent book is The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century. In our interview we focus the discussion on the uprisings of the 1960s, structural racism, and the transformative currents of today. For a transcript of the episode, please click here: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/podcast-settler-colonialism-insurrections-1960s-and-today

EP 27 - Can we have a future without police? with Professor Erin Kerrison Jul 02, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from Erin Kerrison, an Assistant Professor of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, to discuss her thoughts on transforming social structures and imagining futures beyond police following the murder of George Floyd. Professor Kerrison’s work investigates the impact of structural disadvantage, concentrated poverty, and state supervision on health outcomes of individuals and communities marked by criminal justice intervention. For more information and a transcript of this interview visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/future-without-police

EP 26 - Why are people around the world knocking down old statues? Adam Hochschild explains Jun 23, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from Adam Hochschild, a prominent historian, journalist, and a best selling author who wrote King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, among many other books. He's also a lecturer in Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Professor Hochschild gives us his take on the efforts around the world to topple statues and other monuments that memorialize historical figures known for their brutality and racism, including the campaign in Belgium to remove statues of their former king, King Leopold II, who plundered central Africa, leading to the deaths of millions of people. For a transcript visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/adam-hochschild-toppling-statues

EP 25 - "It's not just murder. It's terror." #GeorgeFloyd #Minneapolis May 30, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs? we’re bringing back john a. powell, our director at the O&B Institute, and professor of Law and African American studies at UC Berkeley, to talk about the ongoing events in Minneapolis following the police killing of George Floyd, and why he’s remaining optimistic about some of the glimmers of hope he sees in an otherwise very upsetting and traumatic situation. For a transcript visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/george-floyd

EP 24 - Prof. john a. powell on the clash over shelter-in-place, and the murder of Ahmaud Arbery May 08, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from john a. powell, a professor of Law and African American studies at UC Berkeley. He’s also the director of the Othering & Belonging Institute. In the interview professor powell offers historical context for the conflict over this question of when to reopen the economy, and the government’s authority to impose shelter-in-place orders. This issue has been framed as one that pits freedom against equality, but as profesor powell points out these two notions haven’t always been seen as in opposition to each other as concepts of freedom have evolved over time. We’ll also talk about the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the young Black man who was gunned down in February by two white men in Georgia.

For a transcript of the episode, please click here: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/podcast-freedom-v-equality-john-powell-clash-over-shelter-place-and-its-roots-slavery

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