Why We Still Need to Talk About White Supremacy

It’s been three months since George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minnesota. The movement prompted an outpouring from lawmakers in Canada and Australia, and protests started in countries that share the United States’ colonial history. Now that the protests have started to slow down, how do we enact effective policies? The Black Lives Matter movement is calling to redirect police funding toward education and public services. Ideas that once seemed radical are now being discussed by politicians both on the local and federal levels. Historian Nell Irvin Painter and anthropologist Christen Smith join Ray Suarez to talk about the global Black Lives Matter movement, policing in the Western Hemisphere and why it’s important to understand the role white supremacy has played in building our institutions. 

 

Nell Irvin Painter, American historian, artist, author of numerous books including The History of White People and Professor of American History Emerita at Princeton University

Christen Smith, Associate Professor of Anthropology and African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, founder of Cite Black Women and author of Afro Paradise: Blackness, Violence and Performance in Brazil

 

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.