A Call For Black Responses To Our Dire Times

Kristin Powell calls on Black people to take the latest Black Census. "This is our nation, despite the fact that this nation has been anti-Black in how we've experienced it, and it really is our vision for this country that is going to make it a country that is best for everyone," she says.

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FEATURING KRISTIN POWELL - The Trump Administration’s Equal Opportunity Employment Commission recently sent a letter to Fortune 500 companies warning against hiring employees with the goal of increasing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The EEOC office has been accusing institutions of discrimination against white people and is currently investigating Nike for anti-white bias.

As we come upon the sixth anniversary of the historic racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police in Minneapolis, the Black Futures Lab is readying a launch of its third Black Census Project. 

Kristin Powell is the Executive Director of Black Futures Lab and Black to the Future Action Fund, which exists to advance Black grassroots and political power. With over a decade of community organizing experience, she has led winning justice campaigns and developed organizers nationwide. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the third Black Census.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: So, it seems so bizarre that we have a federal government today that is doing its best to not just reverse course on the advances, the modest advances that were made toward racial justice, but is actively promoting white people, very explicitly throwing its weight behind affirmative action for white people. But I suppose we shouldn't be terribly surprised. How do you respond to the state of affairs today where the federal government is championing whiteness so overtly? 

Kristin Powell: Yeah. I don't think it's bizarre. I think it's the playbook. If you have ever read the book "White Rage" by Carol Anderson, she goes through every point in history where Black people in America, where Black people have made any sort of racial justice progress, there is a white rage backlash that comes in a fury, and we're seeing that again. 

We saw that after the Great Migration, we saw that after Reconstruction, we saw it after Brown versus Board of Education, and we're seeing it again. And so even though that is the playbook, it's still infuriating that we have not just a government that is anti-Black, but that doesn't believe it works for its own people, and is escalating fascist policies that is creating a dictatorship that we didn't ask for.