The struggle against racist police violence has defined the political and social history of Southern California over the past six decades.
Throughout this entire time, KPFK Radio has stood head and shoulders above every other media outlet in the region by doing what real journalism is supposed to do - report what's going on. Consistently, only KPFK reported on the never-ending epidemic of police violence against communities of color. Just as consistently, all the other outlets turned a blind eye; except when the evidence was overwhelming.
Consequently, the prevailing narrative from mainstream outlets, year-in-year out, was the standard "a few bad apples" line. No serious analysis was offered that placed contemporary police violence as part of a continuum of domestic racist oppression, which it always has been - except on KPFK. No serious attempt was made to consider how we could dismantle the racist paramilitary regime in our presence, and actually have an honest justice system in our society - except on KPFK.
Not surprisingly, over the past three weeks, KPFK has provided brilliant, honest coverage of the national and local rebellion that followed the lynching of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. The station has also hosted a series of in-depth dialogues about strategies to end racist policing in America; how we might overcome the barriers to dismantling the forces of oppressive state violence; and what an alternative anti-racist approach to public safety might look like.
Here are but a few of the highlights from KPFK's talk shows over the past three weeks:
A great place to start is Sojourner Truth Radio hosted by Margaret Prescod, a show with as deep an understanding of the historical roots and ongoing reality of American structural racism as any in the land. Less than two days after the murder of George Floyd, Margaret spoke with Melina Abdullah, who is both a co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA and a member of KPFK's Beautiful Struggle collective. In their conversation, Melina foreshadows the national dialogue about defunding the police that would develop in the coming days by explaining why Black Lives Matter LA has long been calling for the wholesale divestment from the police.
On June 2nd, host Brad Friedman had an in depth conversation with Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, who wrote an article for The Nation the previous week-end entitled "The Only Solution is to Defund the Police."
On Sunday the 7th, Suzi Weissman had a scintillating hour-long dialogue with Yale graduate student Philip V. McHarris, who studies the racist roots of American policing. McHarris wrote an Op-ed for the New York Times on May 30th entitled "No More Money for the Police."
Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar is another exemplary show in the best KPFK tradition, consistently reporting on police violence against communities of color and placing this brutality in the context of America's deep, historically entrenched, structural racism. On Monday the 8th, Sonali was joined by Rosa Clemente, Executive Director of the Black-Latinx Organizing Project, to discuss "Demanding Transformation vs. Reforms in Police;" and two days later by Melina Abdullah, who elaborated on how to defund the police.
Law professor and Executive Board Member of the Innocence Project Ekow Yankah explained the common sense logic of defunding the police on Background Briefing with Ian Masters earlier this week. Yankah also addressed the unique case of the Camden New Jersey police force where the entire department was replaced a few years ago.
The Strategy Center has long been one of the Southern California institutions fighting against our local racist police forces. Eric Mann, the Executive Director of the Strategy Center. also hosts KPFK's Voices from the Front Lines. Eric and co-host Channing Martinez made a clarion call for defunding the police on their June 4th show. Then a week later, Eric and Channing were joined by Brigette Amaya, Gionna Magdelano, Kim Rochal, Angeles and Kassandra Soriano to read a letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District demanding no police in LAUSD schools.
Similarly, Margaret Prescod was joined on Wednesday the 10th by Joseph Williams from Black Lives Matter LA and Student Deserves to explain how policing in schools leads to the criminalization of students of color. In amplifying the need to get police out of LAUSD schools, Joseph outlined how that goal should be part of a broader strategy to defund the police.
But I want to end with Sojourner Truth because amidst all of KPFK's coverage of the on-going uprising, and alongside all of the great segments listed above which outline strategies for dismantling racist police forces and building social justice in their wake; Margaret made sure to do something KPFK has also done better than any mainstream media outlet - she and her frequent guest Professor Gerald Horne put it all in historical context. Truth telling is so empowering! Margaret and Gerald are masterful together!
Simply put, you can't find anything like any of this on any other media outlet (except, maybe, our sibling station KPFA up north). If ever a stretch of time proved why we absolutely need KPFK going forward, it's been these past three weeks. Why is that? Because as everyone reading this knows... if and when the rebellion dies down, every other major broadcast outlet will cease telling the truth about America's deeply-racist carceral state, except KPFK. The time will come, and it will likely come soon when KPFK will once again be a voice in the wilderness. But Margaret, Eric, Sonali, and the whole gang will be just as correct then as they are now.
These shows are a lifeline; they need to be heard. They are essential for the maintenance of an anti-racist social justice movement in Southern California and around the country. KPFK has kept the flame alive for sixty years. Now we need to keep this precious, fragile institution alive. Please tell all your friends, family, and co-workers about this brilliant radio station; and please donate what you can to KPFK.
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