Cofounder of the black voter matters organization, and shes here with us today to talk about the black voter and the 2020 elections. Louisiana dash shah latasha, good morning. Guest thank you for having me. Vo host first, tell us what the black Voters Matter Fund is. Guest the organization started in 2016 because we wanted to shift the dynamics around how we were hearing the National Media talk about black voters. More importantly, we wanted to build more power in our communities so we could have more influence on policies impacting us. So we started the back Voters Matter Fund because what we felt is that in order to really have a robust democracy, you have to have an edge gauged electorate. And engaged electorate. And we would do work to engage voters on the ground level, on the local level so that they should shape policies and representation for their communities. Host so wt did your organizing approach look like this year . What didin you do out on t ground to get mor black voters
We were hearing the National Media talk about black folks. Vote but more importantly we wanted to build power in our community so we could have impact on policies that were impacting us. So we started black voters find and black in order to have a really robust democracy you have to do work to engage voters on the ground level, on the local level so that they could chip the policies, and take a chip representation for the communities. Why did your organizing approach look like this year . With did you do at on the ground to get more black voters to not only register, but the show up and vote. A couple of things. When we did start this, year we started into thousand 16 and we never stopped. One of our things is cant, stop wont stop. Oftentimes in the black community you often see people come around election time, right, and its not like if a friend who only close when they want something, you never excited to see them. But for us the way that we felt we would build power is that we woul
Worst is yet to yet to come do you think theyre right and how much worse can this get. Were obviously in a very deep crisis it is highly differentiated across the world and i think this is the most important point in the Asia Pacific Region the epidemic is getting under control the policies have been smart and effective in stopping the spread of the virus in china japan korea Australia New Zealand taiwan hong kong vietnam malaysia and so want in. Western europe and the United States the epidemic was not controlled effectively at all and in the us we have a complete mass because we have a. Failure of national leadership. Mass deaths. More than 110000 social unrest economic. Catastrophe and throughout most of the rest of the americas resilin for example. Back soko terrible terrible outcomes then the question is the rest of the world including russia including central asia including south asia including africa and the battle is on right now will it be more like the asia pacific experience
There is a piece in the journal of the American General Association Appoints out the more than half of the covid19 cases in chicago, nearly 70 percent of the death, involve black individuals. Although blacks make up only 30 percent of the population. Theres a story in the front page of the Washington Post today about contrasting the intensive care unit in Northern Virginia which is largely empty with the overwhelmed the hospital and largely black county on the other side of washington dc. So although recreations is or has a long history. It is not directly related to covid19, it is same to me that covid19 puts the next hard on some of the issues in this book. Host a fun today is to put this into historical context. And also reference to jews in the state of israel, theyve done done by the. The u. S. Recreations to japaneseamericans who in turn during world war ii. For that we will start with a philosopher has been the director in berlin, she is the author of learning from the germans.
As a Capacity Building and fellowship Building Program that takes 2530 individuals dedicated to Racial Equity and takes a yearlong process of developing skills. Teach lessons. Beach capacity and fellowship. Thats the deal. Our other partner is pages bookstore and now i will introduce from pages bookstore. [applause] hello everybody and thanks for coming. I am susan murphy, i own pages bookshop on grand river in the rosedale area. We are so happy to be here tonight and have jody talk about the book. If youve not read the book, its an easy read because its so engaging with the characters in the book. Jody is a Research Professor at the new york university. Previously at Cambridge University, she also teaches Bankruptcy Law at columbia. Shes an elected member of the council on Foreign Relations and a Technical Advisor to the bank for international settlements. Shes received a prestigious multiyear grant to research her book. Until 2014, she was a law professor at Cambridge University wher