In These Times
05-05-2017, 01:42 AM
Welcome to Interviews for Resistance. Since election night 2016, the streets of the United States have rung with resistance. People all over the country have woken up with the conviction that they must do something to fight inequality in all its forms. But many are wondering what it is they can do. In this series, we'll be talking with experienced organizers, troublemakers and thinkers who have been doing the hard work of fighting for a long time. They'll be sharing their insights on what works, what doesn't, what’s changed and what is still the same.
Maurice Weeks: My name is Maurice BP-Weeks. I am the co-executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (https://www.acrecampaigns.org/) (ACRE) and I am based in Detroit, Michigan.
Saqib Bhatti: I am Saqib Bhatti. I am the other co-executive director of ACRE and I am based in Chicago.
Sarah Jaffe: Your organization is just getting off the ground. Tell us about the idea behind it and why you're launching now?
Maurice: The idea behind the Action Center on Race and the Economy is that there is lots of really great economic justice work being done looking at the role that Wall Street plays in everyday people’s lives. What we do here at the Action Center on Race and the Economy is do that work that goes after Wall Street and corporations who we all know are extracting wealth from communities, with an explicitly racial justice lens.
Basically, the way that we have talked about economic justice work in the past on the left has been, when we bring race into the conversation, it is often through the lens of disparate impact. We say, “Bad guys do stuff at the top and it disproportionately affects people at the bottom.” What we do here at the Action Center on Race and the Economy is look at campaigns with a slightly different lens, saying that the actual function of how these companies operate is built on the extraction of wealth from people of color. It is not an afterthought. It is actually core to their business model. All the campaigns that we do live at this intersection of corporate accountability, Wall Street accountability, economic justice, and race with that particular lens.
More... (http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20104/interviews_for_resistance_money_for_our_streetsnot_for_wall_street/)
Maurice Weeks: My name is Maurice BP-Weeks. I am the co-executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (https://www.acrecampaigns.org/) (ACRE) and I am based in Detroit, Michigan.
Saqib Bhatti: I am Saqib Bhatti. I am the other co-executive director of ACRE and I am based in Chicago.
Sarah Jaffe: Your organization is just getting off the ground. Tell us about the idea behind it and why you're launching now?
Maurice: The idea behind the Action Center on Race and the Economy is that there is lots of really great economic justice work being done looking at the role that Wall Street plays in everyday people’s lives. What we do here at the Action Center on Race and the Economy is do that work that goes after Wall Street and corporations who we all know are extracting wealth from communities, with an explicitly racial justice lens.
Basically, the way that we have talked about economic justice work in the past on the left has been, when we bring race into the conversation, it is often through the lens of disparate impact. We say, “Bad guys do stuff at the top and it disproportionately affects people at the bottom.” What we do here at the Action Center on Race and the Economy is look at campaigns with a slightly different lens, saying that the actual function of how these companies operate is built on the extraction of wealth from people of color. It is not an afterthought. It is actually core to their business model. All the campaigns that we do live at this intersection of corporate accountability, Wall Street accountability, economic justice, and race with that particular lens.
More... (http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20104/interviews_for_resistance_money_for_our_streetsnot_for_wall_street/)