It’s been two years since George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin. The protests that followed launched the US – and, in a way, the world – into a new stage of racial reckoning that the US is still in. Some new laws have been passed, and some old statues finally toppled.
But the system holds. On the 2nd anniversary of George Floyd’s killing, I’d like to share a beautiful interview with Toluse Olorunnipa and Robert Samuels who have just released a book on George Floyd.
Attacks on Palestinians have intensified during the holy month of Ramadan again – they resemble what we saw last year. And the year before.
I’ve written a lot about Palestine but it’s time combine several things that I’ve partly mentioned in my previous episodes and focus this one on something rather obvious: the concept of erasure.
We know that political turmoil – on top of devastation of a 20-year war – after the Taliban took power in August 2021 is a big factor in this crisis.
But we also know what one other factor that could immediately alleviate this suffering of the Afghan people is: these are the frozen funds that belong to the people of Afghanistan, and that are kept in mostly U.S. accounts. Hear about all this from the first civil society women’s delation that visited Afghanistan recently.
What would it take to negotiate a peace settlement in Ukraine?
What could Vladimir Putin see as a way out of this?
What role is the US currently playing here?
What’s happening with China?
And what’s the state of journalism and the mainstream media as the war in Ukraine is happening?
As the war in Ukraine has started, we have seen some absolutely hypocritical statements made by U.S. officials.
But they’re only hypocritical if we know a bit of the context here.
And when we do, we are much better equipped to construct our own moral compasses, without any help from the U.S. This is what I illustrate and explain much better in my episode.
If we believe that peace in Ukraine is possible, we have to ask what it would look like. What could a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia be?
Listen to what Anatol Lieven from The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has to say.
Can we talk about the war in Ukraine and its complexities without being shut down or accused of minimising its horrors?
I think that is possible indeed – yet not that easy.
In my second episode, I talk about (1) racism in the media, (2) the overtness of racist and xenophobic immigration policies when it comes to accepting refugees, and (3) the difference between what-about-ism and saying, “this, too” when it comes to the war in Ukraine.
Justina Poskeviciute 