Reparations: The Big Payback

In the premiere episode, Erika and Whitney ‘show us the money’, as they travel to the American crossroads of business and slavery, Wall Street. They get personal when they unearth the pain and shame of human bondage, hidden at the site of New York City's notorious African slave market and lost burial ground. The duo makes their argument in Black and White, when they crash a congressional hearing for Reparations Bill HR 40 and introduce the Rosa Parks of the reparations movement - Evanston, IL Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons. This groundbreaking episode concludes with a reimagining of a post-reparations America, that would allow for new possibilities, new leadership, and a new direction.

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Oh say can you FreakShow! Erika and Whitney become minstrel characters, “Mista’ Tambo n’ Mista’ Interlocutor,” to present the perverse-circus-sideshow oddities of America’s institutional and corporate racism. Star experts join them to bear witness and unveil slavery‘s toxic legacy, woven within modern corporate policies and legislation. Professor Adam Rothman chronicles the sordid history behind one of America's finest educational institutions, Georgetown University. Voting rights activist Desmond Meade disrupts the panhandle circus with Florida Amendment Four to restore voting rights to 1.4 million people with felony convictions. Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee illustrates how the sad perversities of fighting for systemic injustice persists. And the MLK of tipped wage workers, Saru Jayaraman, nails the corrosive tradition of tipping to slavery and the ongoing fight for fair wages within America’s largest private sector workers. Finally, Erika croons a new Swanee tune that makes the White Superiority hit list! “Step back Beyoncé!”

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Erika’s mother, Sammie Alexander, grabs the mic and tells the story of her Black experience, growing up, raising Black children and facing racism, but she drops the mic to deliver a dire prediction for Black America’s reparations in a red, white n’ blue future. Then billionaire Tom Steyer rolls his ‘money ball’ to expose the financial barriers that continue to limit the economic growth of Black Americans. And Dr. William Darity returns to teach a master class, on how reparations can make our country a more perfect union. Finally, former Flint, MI Mayor Karen Weaver, tells a dark water story about the challenges she faced getting compensation for Flint residents and why it may never be enough.

For more info about this episode, please visit https://reparationsbigpayback.com

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If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, how many miles will it take for reparations for America's enslaved descendants to find a home? Backed by Analog Players Society and Masta Ace's debut hit, Home In America, Erika and Whitney do a deep dive into their first season's journey and uncover shades of gray and pain in their unusual black and white partnership. But first, a Lord Of The Rings, epic-remix, monologue tells the story of the long, harrowing journey begun by reparations pioneers long ago. Then a new playlist is created to entice their favorite reparations warriors, and opponents, to reappear and bear witness to their reparations journey today. While the pair revisit their best hits, the duo is encouraged to make an all-out sprint toward their season's final destination, slavery's home, The Whitney Plantation in southern Louisiana. And, like the haunted place inspired by Toni Morrison's mythological "Sweet Home," this plantation tells the story from the slave's point of view. Finally, the pair retrace their steps, only to find themselves at the beginning of the end, in the mother of all lands, the great continent of Africa. Now in the belly of the beast, at the Cape Coast slave dungeons, they ask the ultimate question, can America go through the door of no return and come out the other side, whole? Or will America's impractical arrangement and immoral history destroy its own home from the inside out?

“Home in America” is by Analog Players Society and Masta Ace, produced by Ben Rubin. The single will be released on all platforms on June 18 by Ropeadope Records." "'Home in America" features NYC jazz greats: tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin (David Bowie/Blackstar), pianist Orrin Evans (the Bad Plus), bassist Dezron Douglas (Ravi Coltrane), and drummer Eric McPherson (Fred Hersch Trio).

https://www.analogplayerssociety.com/

https://benrubin.com/

https://www.mastaace.com/

https://ropeadope.lnk.to/HomeinAmerica

For more info about this episode, please visit https://reparationsbigpayback.com

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It's groundhog day in America. As Erika and Whitney mourn the brutal death of Andrew Brown Jr, another unarmed Black man shot and killed by police, they ask themselves; Does America have the willpower to make reparations to the descendants of slaves? To find answers they travel across the ocean to Poland to hear the story of 77-year-old Mr. Waldemar Ogrodniczak. His Polish parents were forced laborers in WWII, taken from Poland to Germany to build the Third Reich and now as an adult, Waldemar continues his decades-long search for redress and reparations from the German government. Meanwhile, Erika grabs the comedy mic and serves up a spicy monologue to demonstrate the perils of the begrudged debtor who avoids being confronted by the aggrieved creditor. "Stop triggering me, man!" Finally, natural-born genius Killer Mike, helps them to face the ugly truth, that America's biggest business is the business of race, and that business may be too big to fail.

For more info about this episode, please visit https://reparationsbigpayback.com

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.