Necessary Struggle with Barbara Smith

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Msnbc, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Government, Politics, Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening?, Withpod, Versant, Ms Now, News, Society & Culture, Versant Media

4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2020

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Barbara Smith has been doing The Work for decades. Born into the era of Jim Crow, Smith joined the civil rights movement as a teenager in the 60s, volunteered at the Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland right out of high school, canvassed for housing rights, became part of the women’s movement after graduating college, and then co-founded a black feminist group called the Combahee River Collective in the 70s. The group grappled with issues of race, class, sex, and homophobia, and is credited with coining the term ‘identity politics’. A legendary and category-defying figure, we were lucky to have a chance to talk with Barbara Smith about her journey, what it’s like to be watching this moment, and why she says she’s optimistic about the struggle. RELATED LINKS: The Problem is White Supremacy by Barbara Smith (June 30, Boston Globe) How to Dismantle White Supremacy by Barbara Smith (Aug 21, The Nation) Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (2000) Combahee River Collective Statement Follow Barbara Smith on Twitter

Transcript

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0:00.0	My status as a black person has changed during my lifetime.
0:06.7	My social status as a black person.
0:09.0	I'm not talking about did we get to full liberating.
0:11.5	I'm not saying that at all.
0:13.0	But the fact that I could walk into the front door of a restaurant or a hotel during this
0:22.1	part of my life and for some decades in the past, whereas when I was born, I was not
0:28.0	allowed to do that.
0:29.8	And those are not like be all and end all goals for liberation.
0:35.9	But it's very hard to get to the other bitter goals when there is a calcified, rigid system
0:43.4	of second-class citizenship.
0:46.4	Hello and welcome to Wise This Happening with me, your host Chris Hayes.
0:56.1	Guys, huge news.
0:59.1	I'm in another podcast closet today.
1:01.2	Maybe you can hear a different sound of a different closet with different clothing in
1:05.5	it.
1:06.5	Maybe it's more vacant or maybe it's better.
1:08.7	I don't know.
1:09.7	I'm going to have to find out myself when I listen to myself.
1:13.5	But still not in the studio though, I haven't gone to 30 Rock for the television show.
1:18.8	The audio studio I think is a bridge too far in terms of bringing in engineers for that
1:22.7	understandably.
1:24.1	So here we are, my voice in our closet setup.
	...

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