June 16 - What is Driving the Rachel Dolezal Story; Not a Defeat for the ICC But a Victory for African Lawyers; The Millions of Victims of Sudan's Dictator; Educating Main Street About How Much They Are Being Robbed By Wall Street

Full Program

Part 1

We be begin with the story that has obsessed the media for the past week and speak with Chris Parker, a professor of Social Justice and Political Science at the University of Washington who is the principal investigator of the “Multi-State Survey on Race and Politics”. He joins us to discuss the case of Rachel Dolezal who was forced to step down as the head of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP because she identified with African/Americans although she was born to white parents. We examine the social media firestorm swirling around this story and try to understand what is driving the interest in a family squabble that has exploded into tabloid headlines and become fodder for television talk shows.

Part 2

Then we examine the damage done to the International Criminal Court following the escape from arrest by Sudan’s head of state who is charged with war crimes and genocide. Joining us is Akshaya Kumar, a Policy Analyst at Enough: The project to end genocide and crimes against humanity and co-author of an article at Time magazine “The Sudanese President’s Escape Highlights the Determination of African Lawyers”. We discuss the misplaced focus that sees this incident as weakening the ICC rather than it being a case of African judges and lawyers standing up against corrupt leaders in solidarity with African victims of one of the continent’s most notorious perpetrators of human rights abuses.

Part 3

Then we speak with Rebecca Hamilton, who covered the civil war in Sudan as a Special Correspondent for The Washington Post and is the author of “Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide”. She joins us to discuss the millions of victims of Sudan’s leader and their determination to pursue justice.   

Part 4

Then finally we examine the extraordinary lengths that House Republicans have gone to in protecting and enabling Wall Street speculators to make money for nothing by driving up the price of gas and food at the expense of the American consumer.  Marcus Stanley, the Policy Director of Americans for Financial Reform and a former Senior Economist at the U.S. Joint Economic Committee joins us to discuss the difficult task of educating Main Street about how much they are being robbed by Wall Street.