Panel Discussion — Racial Justice Beyond Trump
How does the country move forward with a meaningful racial justice agenda beyond the Trump years that pushed back against democratic institutions in general and racial justice in particular? How do we address setbacks posed to racial justice over the last four years as well as institutional racism that persists and has never been addressed in the nation’s history? This panel brings together thought leaders in the areas of voting rights, technological futures and immigrants’ rights to discuss where we should focus racial justice efforts for the Biden administration, and how everyday Americans can re-imagine ways of healing the fractured soul of our nation.
Hosted by Bakari Kitwana, Executive Director of Rap Sessions, Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. With: LaTosha Brown (Black Voters Matter), who considers our urgent need for a Department of Democracy that would protect voters, the cornerstone of our democracy; Mutale Nkonde (AI for the People), who thinks out loud about the ways technology works against Black and Brown Americas via protests, political engagement, social media and criminal justice; and Greisa Martinez Rosas (United We Dream), who challenges us to think broadly about the ways that reinstating DACA is the floor and not the ceiling for bringing justice to the 11 million undocumented immigrants who call this country home.
Panelists
Bakari Kitwana, an internationally known cultural critic, journalist, activist, and thought leader in the area of hip-hop and Black youth political engagement, is Executive Director of Rap Sessions, which conducts town hall meetings around the nation on difficult dialogues facing millennials. A Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard, Kitwana co-founded the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention and is co-editor of the new book Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People.
LaTosha Brown, an Atlanta-based award-winning organizer, philanthropic consultant, political strategist (and jazz singer) with 20+ years’ experience in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors, co-founded Black Voters Matter Fund, a power building Southern based civic engagement organization; is principal owner of TruthSpeaks Consulting, Inc., a philanthropy advisory consulting firm; and is the founding Project Director of Grantmakers for Southern Progress.
Mutale Nkonde is an AI Policy advisor of the UN, member of the Tik Tok Advisory Board and CEO of AI for the People, a non profit communications firm that seeks to change tech neutrality narratives. Prior to this, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act to the US House of Representatives. Nkonde holds fellowships at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame and is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Greisa Martinez Rosas is the Executive Director at United We Dream, a national nonpartisan, membership-based organization of immigrant youth and allies that advocates for the dignity and fair treatment of undocumented immigrant youth and their families. The co-founder of the Texas Dream Alliance, she has been a Fellow with the League of Young Voters, a 2018 Fellow with the Opportunity Agenda Communications Institutes, and has organized immigrant youth, students and workers for the passage of pro-immigrant policies at the local, state and national level for the past decade.
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