Allan Nairn: Trump and Republicans Use Legal & Physical Means in Attempted Coup Against Democracy, Labor Organizer: I Witnessed Bush Steal 2000 Election in Florida. You say that February 8th was the most important day of your life, but you weren’t even born yet. MY VANISHING COUNTRY A MEMOIR. Article by Michael Hariott from The Root Dot Com. We have made a lot of progress, but we still have so far to go. “Bakari Sellers’ My Vanishing Country is exactly the book we need right now.The issues he raises are deeply personal and important to me. You cannot tell me that those officers saw George Floyd as being human.

Sellers’ view of America is also shaped by his growing up in a working-class Black community of Denmark, which was not unlike many rural southern communities or even some predominately Black D.C. neighborhoods. There were stores, doctors, lawyers and other professionals that communities counted on. Sellers knew Clementa C. Pinckney, the church pastor and a member of the South Carolina state legislature where they both served. by Bakari Sellers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2020. His memoir, "My Vanishing Country," is out now. Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past, present, and future. What do we tell them?” These are questions in a crisis of conscience that is now facing the United States of America. We Learned It from You” Says Women’s March Activist Tamika Mallory, Part 5: Defund Police: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Says Budgets Wrongly Prioritize Cops Over Schools, Hospitals, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, “America Has Looted Black People. “All the promises that are supposed to be afforded to us are not afforded to us because of color, the low income, or immigrants,” Sellers said in a recent interview while explaining the title of his book. The elder Sellers went on to receive a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and served as president of Voorhees College in Denmark, S.C. The first time that my father was able to see my sister was actually on the prison yard. to your inbox each morning. “I refuse to let people take away my hope. Dr. Cornel West is with us from Harvard University, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor of Princeton University, speaking to us from Philadelphia, one of the cities where people rose up over the last week. Did you know that you can get Democracy Now! That’s the country that we live in. He is the son of Cleve Sellers, who was an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. When the shooting stopped, three Black students were dead, 28 students wounded. That’s Bakari Sellers, former state legislator in South Carolina, now author of his memoir. It’s called My Vanishing Country, released during the pandemic. “I refuse to let people take away my hope. Bakari Sellers, it’s an honor to have you with us. He was pardoned decades later. Do not tell my people to go home, do not ask for peace, until you are also asking for justice. Justice has to become a verb in this country, not just a noun.

Required fields are marked *. Yes, I would like to receive emails from Washington Informer Newspaper. But there was a knee to the back of his neck for eight to nine minutes. These are the systemic injustices and systemic racism that we’re highlighting and talking about. (You can unsubscribe anytime), [awesome-weather location="Washington, DC USA" units="F" owm_city_id="4140963" size="wide" forecast_days="3" hide_stats="0" background_by_weather="1" text_color="#fff"], Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker, Shaping of Bakari Sellers in ‘My Vanishing Country’. But the structure of America was not designed to ensure a lifetime of success for this type of neighborhood. Bakari Sellers, a CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history, examines the plight of the South's dwindling rural population of black working-class men and women. And so, until we start fundamentally giving Black folk the benefit of their humanity, we will still have these systemic problems that are now boiled over into the streets. Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program. Anchored in in Bakari Seller’s hometown of Denmark, South Carolina, Sellers illuminates the pride and pain that continues to fertilize the soil of one of the poorest states in the nation. The Geno Show M-F 10AM-3PM Photo: Geno Jones/Geno Jones. Bakari Sellers’ Invisible Black America. At the age of 22, he was the youngest-ever member of the South Carolina state legislature. The Orangeburg Massacre happened before the younger Sellers was born, but that’s still heavy family history.

Your email address will not be published. This autobiography gives Sellers a platform to share his anxieties and his concerns about what America holds for him, his wife and three children. When the shooting stopped, three Black students were dead, 28 students were wounded. I know Bakari Sellers. Drawing on his new book My Vanishing Country, he surveys the struggles that shape their lives: gaining access to healthcare, making ends meet as factories shut down, holding on to traditions … Three students were killed. And the list goes on and on and on. One of the central moments in the book is the Orangeburg massacre of 1968, when police opened fire on a crowd of students gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University to protest segregation at Orangeburg’s only bowling alley.

Copy may not be in its final form. “It’s my trauma and pain of living with that and carrying that burden and legacy all the way through the Charleston massacre, where my good friend Clementa Pinckney was gunned down.”. Sounds familiar? Perhaps. We Can’t Let Trump Steal This One, Biden Pulls Ahead in Georgia: Blue Shift Follows Years of Community Organizing to Expand Electorate, Puerto Ricans Vote to Narrowly Approve Controversial Statehood Referendum & Elect 4, Juan González: The Media Has It Wrong. Well, he has his memoir out; it’s called My Vanishing Country. And I grew up in a food desert, meaning that you couldn’t go two to three miles and get fresh fruits and vegetables, meaning that you probably have a higher propensity to have things like diabetes. We speak with Bakari Sellers about Orangeburg, 2020 and “400 years of systemic racism” in the U.S. AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Bakari Sellers into the conversation. Not only did they shoot my father. We Learned It from You” Says Women’s March Activist Tamika Mallory, Biden Takes Lead in Georgia & Pennsylvania, Moving Him Closer to Presidency, Biden Calls for Counting Every Ballot; Trump Claims Dems Are Stealing Election, Trump Campaign Faces Legal Setbacks in Election-Related Lawsuits, Trump Campaign Adviser: “Hopefully Amy Coney Barrett Will Come Through” to Help Trump Win Election, Philly Police Foil QAnon-Linked Plot to Attack Ballot-Counting Site, Bannon Calls for Beheading of Dr. Fauci &, Georgia May Have Two Senate Runoff Elections as Perdue’s Vote Count Falls, Int’l Election Observers: We Saw No Evidence to Back Up Trump’s Claim of Voter Fraud.