“A taste of freedom is what I long for..”
-Denise Spencer .
Topic National Uprisings Against Police Brutality, George Floyd, Police Reform
Title: Rising Up Toward Freedom: Optimism and Hope
Participants: Denise Spencer, MAM, Master’s in Management
Broadcast Air Date: 06/12/20
Time: 5:15 PM (PST)
Station: KUCR 88.3 FM Riverside, CA
KUCR station page: http://www.kucr.org
Archive pages: https://soundcloud.com/stoppretending, http://www.dreport.org
Send comments about this segment to: comments@dreport.org
Segment produced in KUCR, the radio station of the University California in Riverside.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the sole responsibility of the respective speakers and do not represent the endorsed position of the UC Regents, UC Riverside or KUCR.
Discussion Topics:
- Did Covid-19 create a catalyst for change in this country and other countries?
- How do we create a new normal that is inclusive?
- This is a painful time, but it is also a hopeful time.
- We must be encourage by the bravery and tenacity of this upcoming youthful generation.
- The murder of George Floyd and the lives of all the people that were cut short will give us life and gives freedom.
- How do we build a world where the children of today do not get to know the kind of oppression experienced by the past?
- How has the police historically used violence to create and enforce the category of “people of color?”
- Why do some people tell us to wait and be patient for society to change, when we stand on the benefit of generations before us that were impatient and fought to change things for the better?
- The movement of protest is representative of the United States because “every community” is standing in solidarity in support that Black lives matter.
- Is this the beginning of revolutionary change?
- “A taste of freedom is what I long for…”- Denise Spencer
- We owe the mass movement of uprising our hope.
- How did the Covid-19 shelter in place protocols create a population of greater awareness?
- How do we make peace with the contradictions of aspiration stories of liberty and freedom, while understanding that the United States was built on legally supported inequality?
- Can the police be both good and bad?
- What is the effect being able to prove police abuse through video?
- Racism is a mechanism of control to help the people in the money maintain their status.
- The increments of change that we have seen in our lifetime come from the type of revolutionary action we see today.
- This is not the time to throw up our own roadblock in our minds, we must the people fighting for a better world.
- We owe it to people protesting on the streets, to let go of our [academic] rhetoric and join them.
- The days of oppression will end, we demand police reform.
- Why did the White House put a second fence?
“A taste of freedom is what I long for…It’s not a fairy tale we believe that there is going to be a happy ending. These [communities] are out there engendering their lives. We still have a virus to contend with. They are fighting against more than a police-state. They are fighting against a virus that is unseen that can also kill, symbolic of an administration whose agenda is unseen, that will also kill. So When I look at the masses, I am hopeful. I owe them that, to be hopeful…I need to support them by having faith that what they’re doing for all of us, we will see the results of. It’s a revolution that we are seeing, that we are a part of and that we can actively participate in come November, so it’s all of us together, marching to the polls, marching to ensure we get that change. Our eyes are all open now, everybody’s … We know what’s happening, we are all educated now, we all can see right from wrong… So yea, I’m hopeful , only because I see that change will come, I can see it on the horizon, like I’ve never been able to see it it before…”
-Denise Spencer
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