The Power and Persistence of BLM with Alicia Garza

The Black Lives Matter co-founder discusses how recent social movements are challenging Americans to press for real change. 

Power is an active and ever-evolving element in American politics and an animating force in American culture. The act of seeking it, discovering it, fighting for it and defending it is the drama of a democracy. Yet it’s not always so apparent. 

There are times in American history when the pervading power dynamic is largely taken for granted. Now is not one of those times. 

The crises of recent years, along with the spread of new technologies, have disrupted the status quo and brought power struggles of all sorts into the open. Those denied power — whether because of their race, their gender or their immigration status — are staking a claim to it. These struggles are shaping politics at all levels in a very real way and touching American lives on an individual basis. 

For this week’s episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza discusses how she and others are pushing to rebalance power in this country, especially when it comes to Black Americans. In conversation with The 19th’s Erinn Haines, Garza discusses the role that activists have played in the shifting of power and the forces that are working to stop or even reverse that shift.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph