News In Context newsincontext

In this episode, we explore how engaging across our racial and class divides can help bring us together to care for and nurture our democracy.
My guest is Ian Haney López, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, and author of several books, including Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class, and Merge Left: Fusing Race & Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America.
López says strategic racism is a deeply corrosive force, and he’s is exploring how to counter its effects by encouraging people to come together across racial divides, so we can focus on our commonalities… develop shared understandings of what we want from democracy and our elected officials, and work together to improve society.
López developed the Race-Class Narrative Project and the Race-Class Academy to counter dog-whistle politics and build cross-racial and cross-class solidarity.
This is Part Two of our interview. Hear Part One at NewsInContext.net.

In this episode, we explore the strategic use of racism in electoral politics to divide citizens across racial and other differences in an effort to retain power and wealth.
My guest is Ian Haney López, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, and author of several books, including Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class, and Merge Left: Fusing Race & Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America.
López says strategic racism is a deeply corrosive force, and he’s is exploring how to counter its effects by encouraging people to come together across racial divides, so we can focus on our commonalities… develop shared understandings of what we want from democracy and our elected officials… and work together to improve society.
López developed the Race-Class Narrative Project and the Race-Class Academy to counter dog-whistle politics and build cross-racial and cross-class solidarity.
This is Part ONE of my interview with Ian Haney López. You can hear Part TWO next week.

In this episode, we explore a massive new study on improving the health of democracy. The Strengthening Democracy Challenge invited more than 30-thousand people to engage with 25 interventions. The goal was to find ways to reduce things like partisan animosity, partisan violence, and anti-democratic attitudes, and increase social trust and a willingness to engage with people across socially salient differences.
An intervention from the nonprofit, Civity, was one of 25 chosen from a pool of 250-plus… and it was number 1 at increasing social trust, number 2 in decreasing social distance and opposition to bipartisanshi, and number 4 in reducing partisan animosity.
Civity’s relational, story-based intervention also reduced support for un-democratic practices and helped people accept others from across the political divide.
We talk with researcher Robb Willer, professor of sociology, psychology, and organizational behavior at Stanford University; as well as Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab… and Co-Director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

In this episode, we explore the Bay Area housing market, and how mass corporate ownership of homes and apartments throughout the region affects communities and people trying to afford to rent or buy here.My Guest is Susie Neilson, Data Reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle - covering housing, domestic migration, and crime & criminal justice.Susie and a team at the SF Chronicle recently released a series of reports on corporate and LLC real estate - and created an interactive map of who owns property in the Bay Area, an amazing feat of data reporting.The SF Chronicle series also includes maps of the real estate owned or controlled by a handful of corporate LLCs that can be traced back to a specific power player.

In this episode, we talk with Melissa Weintraub, founder & co-executive director of Resetting the Table. Resetting the table focuses on building dialogue and deliberation across political divides, focusing on seemingly intractable differences that are breeding distrust, a lack of empathy, and marginalization. To learn more about Resetting the Table, and to view the film Purple – which uncovers humanity beneath our national conflicts - go to resettingthetable.org/purple.

In this episode, we explore concepts of privilege - and how they color our systems and perpetuate inequities. We also discuss how building relationships across groups in a community can help us begin to address these systemic issues, while at the same time forging connections and building trust.
My guest is Jacqueline Font-Guzman, vice president for diversity, equity, & inclusion at Eastern Mennonite University; and strategic vision director for the Center of Justice & Peace Building at EMU.