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In the U.S. today, immigrants, students, visitors and even U.S. residents — are facing exclusion, militarization, detention, rendition, and elimination of basic due process rights. Are our media doing enough to sound the alarm? In recent weeks, the government has detained students like Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, apparently over their support for Palestine. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongfully exported to El Salvador, is being held at the notorious CECOT mega prison. We’ve also seen widespread ICE operations, random visas revoked and ideologically-driven attacks on the funding and functioning of our institutions of higher education. Our guests on this month’s Meet the BIPOC Press live and work at the intersection of these issues: Maria Hinojosa is the co-anchor and Executive Producer of Latino USA, and producer of the Pulitzer-prize winning podcast, Suave — which is just out with a second season. She is a Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at Barnard College. Chenjerai Kumanyika is a Peabody Award-winner, creator and co-host of Uncivil, and creator and host of the podcast series Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD. He is also an Assistant Professor of Journalism at New York University. As the Republican regime moves towards authoritarianism, will the media stand for democracy before it’s too late?
“What’s being taken advantage of in this moment is the painting of a picture of people who are, to use that 1990s term, ‘super predators,’ therefore, they deserve nothing, no due process. It’s not true. But if you only consume media that is coming from the Trump administration, you are convinced that all of these people who are being taken out of the country are terrifying.” – Maria Hinojosa
“The idea that the Trump administration, an administration that started an inauguration with a Sieg Heil, they’re the ones who are going to enforce concerns about antisemitism? No, look at my students. Look at the students of Columbia, the universities all across the country . . . we are the ones taking concerns about antisemitism seriously.” – Chenjerai Kumanyika
Guests
• Maria Hinojosa: Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalist & Founder, Futuro Media; Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence, Barnard College.
• Chenjerai Kumanyika: Peabody-Prize Winning Audio Journalist, Uncivil & Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD; Assistant Professor Journalism, NYU
Transcript
Show full transcript
Transcript available 4/21.
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*Recommended book:
“Once I Was You” by Maria Hinojosa. Get the Book
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Related Laura Flanders & Friends Episodes:
• BIPOC Press for the People: Bursting the Corporate Media Bubble: Watch / Podcasts-Listen: Episode
• Crime & Migration: An Abolitionist Plan for Immigration Justice: Watch / Listen: Episode
• Not Wanted at Harvard? BIPOC Media on Claudine Gay, Anti-Zionism & Diversity in Education: Watch / Podcast-Listen: Episode and Full Uncut Conversation
Related Articles and Resources:
• Universities are scared of Trump. Princeton spoke out – and others should join us. By the Daily Princetonian Editorial Board, March 19, 2025, Daily Princetonian
• Ice director wants to run deportations like ‘Amazon Prime for human beings’, by Marina Dunbar, April 9, 2025, The Guardian
• AP wins access to White House events after judge rules government can’t bar its journalists, by David Bauder, Associated Press, PBS News
• The Conservative Activist Pushing Trump to Attack U.S. Colleges, by The Daily podcast of the New York Times
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