Ep. 78: Defund School Resource Officers

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EQ: To what extent do schools need SROs? 

Guest: Megan Holyoke, Lincoln HS Teacher and shit-talker extraordinaire. Previous guest on IWL Episode 29 “Striking While Female”

We begin this episode by voicing our current thoughts on the #defundthepolice and #abolishthepolice moments. Listeners can rest assured that this discussion is not about any one officer but about systems. American policing is rooted in slavery and is now an integral mechanism in our public schools. To be clear, calling for a removal of police from schools is an explicit disruption to the school to prison pipeline. We are asking that the money spent on district partnerships with local police be used to fund social services such as counselors, nurses, social workers, etc. We continue to circle around the notion that white people continue to make excuses and uphold oppressive systems such as policing because they are afraid.

List of Resources Referenced:

Champagne & Real Pain:

🥂Restorative Justice Work

🥂The Advancement Project

🥂Minneapolis Public Schools Terminates Contract with Police Department

👎🏻White people who refuse to understand George Floyd protests

👎🏻People so set in their fear they can’t hear or listen to others

Do  Your Fudging Homework:

  • Annie: Rewatch 13th documentary

  • Hope: Read some of the links above; listen or read Stamped from the Beginning

  • Megan: Before you go outward, go inward to examine why you are so defensive

Ep. 73: The Police & Passive White Folks Are the Problem

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EQ: How do we make sense of the world in which we presently live? No, really - how? We need ideas. 

In this episode, Annie and Hope move through a range of thinking about current events in the US.

Some key points:

  1. For some white people this is their “awakening moment” what many experienced in 2012 with Trayvon Martin’s murder, in 2014 Michael Brown’s murder, in 2016 with Philando Castile  & Alton Sterling, 2017  Freddie Gray murder 

  2. We need white people to fight white supremacy (especially the “milk toast”, conservative types0

  3. Murder isn’t political. Stop making it that. Neither is Coronavirus for that matter

  4. To what extent is the white response to George Floyd’s murder performative?

  5. White people need to move from actors, to allyship, to being accomplices (see White Accomplices)

  6. We need the political will to address police brutality

  7. It is worth the risk to join the protests and stand up for Black lives

  8. We need to reimagine policing (maybe even abolish the police)

Learn More:

Champagne & Real Pain:

🥂white people who are doing the work and putting their bodies on the line; people of color who’ve continued to lead change 

👎🏻 The police!

Do Your Fudging Homework:

Follow us on Twitter @IWL_Podcast or Facebook: Interchangeable White Ladies Podcast

Lastly, don’t forget to pick up your copy of The Body is Not an Apology for the #readlessbasic book club

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