systemic racism

The Juxtaposition: Juneteenth Edition 2024 06/12/2024

Rev. Mark Hughes hosts an episode of The Juxtaposition.

From Mark Hughes:

Juneteenth causes us to reflect on Reconstruction and our nation's earliest efforts at reparations. As reparations initiatives across the country expand, policy makers have been mum on our policy for THREE BIENNIUM. They have instead implemented a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission was established to examine institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination caused or permitted by State laws and policies. Let's talk about it.

Guests include Michele Olevra, Esq. who is part of the General Legal Council at the Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Melody Mackin who is a Commissioner at the Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org

US Freedom Fighters in Vermont: A Discussion of US Wars Against the People at Home and Abroad 06/04/2024

From the organizers:

The Burlington Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Ubuntu Freedom are pleased to introduce the Black Alliance for Peace to the Burlington area. Speakers discuss the connections between the violent repression of student encampments, and what's happening in Haiti, Palestine, Congo, Sudan, and the Sahel, and the historic violence and repression experienced by people of African descent in the US.

Speakers include:

Mama Pam Africa, who as a member of MOVE (www.ultraculture.org/blog/2013/05/06/john-africa-move-organization) witnessed the City of Philadelphia drop a bomb on MOVE headquarters in 1985 killing 11 members of her move family including 5 children. Pam has led the fight for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal for 42 years.
Russell Shoatz, III., son of veteran Black Panther and Black Liberation Army General Russell Maroon Shoatz who was a Political Prisoner for 50 years, spending 25 years in solitary confinement.
Artist YahNé Ndgo, who helped build the Black Alliance For Peace and Ubuntu Freedom, helped liberate Maroon and fights for Mumia and other political prisoners.
Tone, BAP Boston organizer who also fights for the release of Political Prisoners, including Mumia and Kamau Sadiki, and organizes with BLM Boston.

The Juxtaposition: Issues Affecting Black Folks and Black Folks Effecting Change: How’d That Work Out For Us? 05/08/2024

Host Rev. Mark Hughes host an episode of The Juxtaposition.

From Mark Hughes:

For the first time in 247 years, a Vermont Equal Protection Constitutional Amendment is up for debate on the House floor. Though we know that it will be decided in the courts, this constitutional amendment could lay the groundwork in creating a state legal approach to equal protection that assists Vermont in its ability to create survivable policies that correct disparate outcomes caused by systemic racism and other forms of oppression. It is possible that this constitutional amendment may assist Vermont in providing broader civil rights protections in the face of national threats. These protections could likely be expanded to some who are currently unprotected. This and more…

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org

The Juxtaposition: Third Reconstruction 04/10/2024

From Mark Hughes:

Some say that the second reconstruction occurred after the civil rights movement. Are we in the middle of the third one? Hosted by Rev. Mark Hughes.

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org

The Juxtaposition: Fall Back - Go Deep 03/13/2024

From Mark Hughes:

If the Legislative Biennium was a football game, you could say that we are going into the 4th quarter right now. So if our team is Racial Equity and Justice (RE&J) it's not looking like we winning? Why is it that the team is facing such stiff competition these days? Did we not train well enough? Do we have the right folks on the team? Are there folks on the team that are a detriment to the team? Are we being outplayed?

Go Team RE&J!

Join Rev Mark Hughes to talk about the crossover of the legislative season. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org

The Juxtaposition: Backwards Day! 02/14/2024

From Mark Hughes:

In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. constitution, the second reconstruction amendment, was created to provide citizenship, equal protection, due process, and certain privileges and immunities for the formerly enslaved. Over the past 155 years the Equal Protection Clause has faced backlash and resistance and has scarcely fulfilled its promise of equal protection to us Black folks. Now the Equal Protection Clause is being turned against us, challenging corrective and reparative economic policies designed to correct what government policies have caused. Is this Backwards Day?

It is the state's responsibility to protect us where the federal government won't. We must amend the constitution to make it so. Let's run a sanity check on this with a legal perspective. Peter, where you at?

Host Rev. Mark Hughes, Executive Director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, chats with Peter Teachout, a Professor of Law, Constitutional Law, at Vermont Law School.

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org

The Juxtaposition: Demographics 01/10/2024

From Mark Hughes:

Host Rev. Mark Hughes, Executive Director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, discusses Demographics.

Demographics is defined as “statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it" (Oxford Dictionary). Systemic racism is a political and economic divide along racial lines. Mitigating systemic racism requires us to measure various outcomes by race population demographics. When the governor opened his State-of-the-State with the word “demographics”, you can imagine our excitement! After all, racism is a public health emergency, right? But wait...

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org | vtjp.org

The Juxtaposition: All Systems Go 10/11/2023

From Mark Hughes:

Host Rev. Mark Hughes, Director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, discusses issues affecting Black Folks and Black Folks effecting change. There is a matter that should all be deeply concerning to all Vermonts and we have grappled with it for far too long – the racial disparities that exist in all systems of state government. The Attorney General and the Executive Director of the Human Rights Commission acknowledged this in a report 6 years ago!

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org

The Juxtaposition: Mental Health and the Public Health Emergency 09/13/2023

From Mark Hughes:

Host Rev. Mark Hughes, Director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, discusses mental health and the public health emergency around racism.

For more information visit: VTRacialJusticeAlliance.org

The Juxtaposition: First African Landing Day 2023 08/09/2023

From Mark Hughes:

Host Rev. Mark Hughes, Director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, chats with Aidan Argraves, VRJA Intern, about First African Landing Day and the upcoming event happening on August 26 at the Intervale.

For more information visit: https://firstafricanlandingvt.org/