Black Diplomats

Hello everyone, Mike here, the producer of Black Diplomats. We have a couple of short announcements this week, so I thought I’d jump on your feed for the update.

Terrell is dealing with a family emergency right now, so our regular episodes are postponed for a couple weeks. Please keep him in your thoughts.

In more lighthearted news, we recently received a grant from the Ploughshares Fund to do a series on the Iran nuclear deal and the nuclear program in North Korea. Ploughshares has supported a lot of great people and a lot of great causes over the years, and we are genuinely proud to be welcomed into their community. We’re working on those episodes now, look forward to hearing them later this year.

Thank you for listening!

After 100 years of lobbying the US government has finally recognized the Armenian genocide, carried out by the Turkish government in the transition out of the Ottoman empire.

On this episode of Black Diplomats host Terrell Starr talks to Sophia Armen, a scholar and activist who lost eight members of her family in the genocide. She is the third generation of activists in her family who have fought to keep the memory of those bloody days alive.

Armen talks about some of the details of the systematic removal of Armenians from Turkey, and reminds us that Hitler looked to the program as a model for his final solution.

Terrell talks about his experience learning about how race functions in the Caucasus. They recognize the global nature of empire that underpins it all, and how different groups of oppressed people can work together to achieve reparations and healing.

Thank you for listening!

The Republic of Georgia has a storied history in the heart of the Caucasus mountains.

Host Terrell Starr first went there after the fall of the Soviet Union when they were still struggling to figure out a new way of life. In today’s episode of Black Diplomats he talks about that critical time, for him and for the nation of Georgia. He talks about living in the region as a Black man, and how he found ways to connect with his neighbors.

Then Terrell talks to Eka Gigauri, a native Georgian who serves on the board of Transparency International and has been watching the political crisis in Tblisi with a close eye.

Terrell wrote an article for Foreign Policy magazine on the situation last week and was eager to get up to speed with someone on the ground.

These two old friends reminisce on the past, give us a tour of what Georgians have built in their country, and talk about what they’re looking forward to.

Music by Tall Black Guy and Quintet Urmuli.

Thank you for listening!

This week on Black Diplomats we’ve got a new format and new guests, but have faith - we’re still taking aim at white supremacist imperialism, and there’s nothing new about that.

We’re all about giving platform to people who don’t get invited into mainstream media, and we’ve done a great job of it. We also want to broaden the foreign policy conversation by bringing in new audiences. One of the barriers for a lot of folks is basic context and geography, so we’re going to start filling in some blanks.

Host Terrell Starr will be opening the show with news highlights and a little context for the interview, including his personal stories, racial analysis, policy expertise, and historical information. These bite-sized segments help make sense out of the news and cut through the propaganda.

Our guests segments will be a little shorter, but we still won’t be talking to any Ukrainian ‘elites’!

Journalist and filmmaker Olga Tokariuk brings us the perspective from Kyiv, where there isn’t any evidence of panic, or any surprise at Putin’s bluster. Eilish Hart is a journalist and researcher who writes about the former Soviet Union. She’s been keeping a keen eye on Alexei Navalny, and joins us to explain his recent hunger strike that ended on April 23.

We hope you enjoy the new format!

Thank you for listening!

Black Diplomats takes a deep dive into the global struggle for human rights with an episode about LGBTQ+ pride in Russia and Eastern Europe. As activists build their movement, they watch government propaganda, religious authorities, and far-right extremists join together to protest every step toward equality, often with violent results. Pride parades are celebrations in many places around the world, but in Georgia and other former Soviet states Pride is still dangerous and rainbow flags are an act of rebellion.

Our guests today are three of the loudest rebels. Mariam Kvaratskhelia is an organizer with Tblisi Pride, Svetlana Zakharova is a Russian activist fighting on multiple fronts, and journalist Maksym Eristavi is carrying the narrative of their movement all over the world. Host Terrell J. Starr marched in the Kyiv Pride parade in 2019, where he planned to meet up with Eristavi in person, but the crowd was too big for them to find each other.

They agreed this was a good problem to have.

This brilliant panel talks about the battle for civil rights, how the Black Lives Matter and Pride movements intersect, and what self-care means when you’re a protestor...in a pandemic.

Svetlana Zakharova is a feminist, LGBTQI activist and human rights defender based in Russia.

She holds two MA degrees, in International Relations and Gender Studies. Svetlana has five years of work experience with Russian LGBT Network, the largest LGBT organisation in Russia as a Communications Manager. Since November 2017, she is a Board member of the Russian LGBT Network.

Mariam Kvaratskhelia has dedicated herself to LGBTQI advocacy and rights campaigns. As an organizer with Tblisi Pride she is on the frontlines, and often meets with other activists around Europe to network their movement for change.

Maksym Eristavi is a journalist and human rights advocate in Eastern Europe. Featured on NowThis, Gaycation by VICE, Voice of America, BILD, and many others, Maksym explores the intersection of identity politics, disinformation, and Russian colonialism. He has traveled widely and spoken about his work in the UK and Sweden, and at a hearing of the United States Senate.

Find out more about Black Diplomats at our website or support Black-lead journalism at our Patreon.

To learn more about Terrell, please visit terrellstarr.com.

To read some of Terrell’s work on foreign policy, download the Black Diplomats Digital Primer.

Black Diplomats’ logo was designed by Antoinette Childs.

Black Diplomats’ theme song is by Tall Black Guy.

Thank you for listening!