Bakari Sellers Reflects on ‘My Vanishing Country’ and Systemic Racism

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bakari Sellers says the most important day of his life happened before he was even born; February 8 1968 when highway patrolmen opened fire on students protesting segregation in South Carolina, killing 3 and wounding 28, including Seller's father. Sellers, who became the youngest person to be elected to the South Carolina legislature, writes about how the trauma of the incident permeated his childhood in his memoir, "My Vanishing Country." Now a lawyer and CNN political analyst, Sellers joins us to talk about the effects of systemic racism and what the killing of George Floyd by police, more than a half a century after his father's shooting, tells us about the state of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, boated the number one wellness resort and spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine in 2024.
0:09.7	In August, three or four people sharing a cassita enjoy special vacation packages that include hiking, mindfulness, and fitness classes, in a garden setting on 4,000 verdant acres of nature preserve.
0:22.4	Check in to summer at Rancho LaPorta, Rancho LaPorta.com.
0:26.6	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:34.4	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:40.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:46.3	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and
0:53.2	devotion.
1:02.1	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:06.4	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:09.0	From KQED.
1:24.5	From KQED public radio in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
1:29.0	Coming up on forum this hour, we talk with Bakari Sellers, attorney and political commentator, who in 2006 was the youngest person to be elected to the South Carolina legislature.
1:34.9	In his new memoir, Sellers writes about how his father was shot and wounded at a civil rights
1:39.8	protest in 1968 and how he still has to fight for the same things his father did.
1:45.7	Then at 9.30, we look at why some of the ways that companies and celebrities are expressing
1:50.6	solidarity with protesters is ringing hollow, from corporations posting empty black squares on
1:56.8	Instagram to issuing statements to show they're on the right side of history. We examine performative allyship on social media.
2:03.9	Join us after this news.
2:08.8	Welcome to Forum.
2:11.6	I'm Mina Kim.
2:12.8	Lawyer and political analyst Bukari Sellers says the most important day of his life happened in
	...

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