Black Lives Matter

On Music & Ideas host Sonya Green discusses Black Lives Matter and more with author, Green Party US Senate candidate and Seattle chapter Black Panther Party co-founder Aaron Dixon. Dixon is also the author of My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain. We are also joined by Seattle King County NAACP President, Gerald Hankerson. Hankerson was released from prison in 2009 after serving 23 years in prison. Then Governor Christine Gregoire granted him clemency. Since that time, Hankerson has built a reputation locally and nationally.

Photo courtesy: Flickr

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The Double Edged Sword: The Black Image TrayVon Martin and Marissa Alexander

The George Zimmerman verdict in the Trayvon Martin case makes us reflect on our perceptions of people within our own communities.  What perpetuates certain stereotypes of black men and women?

On one hand, Zimmerman was acquitted in Florida for “defending himself” by shooting and killing someone he allegedly felt threatened by.  On the other hand, Marissa Alexander, a black woman in Florida was sentenced to 20 years for firing a gun to no harm for allegedly defending herself from her husband whom she had a restraining order on.

Our guests on Music + Ideas:

• Dr. Daudi Abe, Professor at Bellevue College and Author of 6 ‘n the Morning: West Coast Hip-Hop Music 1987-1992 and the Transformation of Mainstream Culture
• Anne Slater, National Organizer for Radical Women and part of the Free Marissa Now Campaign

Listen here.

Photo of Trayvon Martin: Courtesy of Global Grind

Photo of Marissa Alexander: Courtesy of Time Magazine