/06/23 02/06/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> are close allies to inform them, conditions were not conducive for constructive visit at this time. amy: u.s. secretary of state tony blinken has canceled a plan trip to china after the

discovery of a high altitude chinese balloon flying across the united states. on saturday, u.s. fighter jet shot it down. we will look at what this incident means for u.s.-china relations. then the european commission and builds a plan to set up a special center at the hague to prosecute russia for the crime of aggression for its invasion of ukraine. we will speak to longtime human rightsttorney ed brody. >> vladir putin ould be precutedor warrimes an agession and even ife is notrresd, todathese cres wl ng overis headorever the qution is ether th massiv a welme justi respse aund the hror puti has on ukraine will also by powerful western actors. amy: plus, we will speak to the pioneering legal scholar kimberlé crenshaw about her work on intersectionality and critical race theory as the college board removes her writings from the required curriculum for its ap african

american studies class. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodma a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck early this morning in south turkiye, killing more than 1600 people in turkiye and neighboring syria, though the death toll is expected to keep rising. dozens of powerful aftershocks followed, including a second seven point five magnitude earthquake in southeastern turkiye. the epicenter of the initial quake is near the city of gaziantep, which houses hundreds of thousands of syrian refugees and where the unhcr runs one its largest operations. both the government- and rebel-held areas of northwestern syria reported large casualties. this is a survivor speaking from

the aleppo region. >> there were 12 families trapped here and no one managed to get out. so far no one has come here to see where people are. there is no civil defense. we have been working with our hands since 3:00 a.m. amy: the pentagon shot down a chinese balloon off the coast of south carolina saturday, several days after it was first spotted over montana -- a state that's home to a major military base and silos holding scores of intercontinental ballistic missiles. the high-altitude balloon's appearance over the united states prompted secretary of state antony blinken to cancel a planned trip to beijing, accusing china of unacceptable and irresponsible spying. china's defense ministry claimed the balloon was a weather research station that had blown off course and accused the u.s. of an obvious overreaction. on capitol hl, republican leaders were quick to accuse

president of weakness, saying failed to shoot down the balloon quickly enough. a pentagon official responded by telling reporters there were at least three similar incursions of chinese surveillance balloons during the trump administration. we'll have more on this story after headlines. in the occupied west bank, iseli forces shot and killed at least five palestinian men earlier today during a raid on the city of jericho. the killings came as israeli troops raided the aqabat jabr refugee camp, which has been under siege for more than a week. this is a camp resident who witnessed the violence. >> they went in and did not have a specific house in mind. they targeted the whole camp and started from the entrance onwards with their ill doing and then they left. houses on the side of the camp were targeted as if they were criminals while they were asleep in their houses. amy: this follows the killing of 26-year-old abdullah sami qalalweh.

meanwhile, tens of thousands of people held rallies in 20 cities across israel on saturday to demand israel's far-right government cancel plans to severely limit the power of the judiciary. it was the fifth straight week of protests. in iran, supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei has pardoned tens of thousands of prisoners, including people involved in recent anti-government protests, according to iranian state news outlets. in related news, the award-winning filmmaker jafar panahi has been released from prison on bail after he went on hunger strike protesting his detention. the 62-year-old was arrested in july for speaking up about another director, mohammad rasoulof, who'd been imprisoned a few days earlier for criticizing police violee. in iraq, human rights groups are demanding justice for tiba al-ali, a 22-year-old youtube star who was killed by her father last week. the two were reportedly in a dispute involving al-ali's decision to live alone in

turkiye. she was visiting iraq when her father strangled her to death. rights advocates are calling on the iraqi government to enact legislation against gender-based violence as no current laws criminalize domestic violence. this is activist hafsa amer speaking from a protest in baghdad sunday. >> she was a famous person, well-known on social media, just as there are many women who don't have a voice and cannot make their voices heard, we're here to represent the but comes who don't have a -- victims who do have a voice. amy: in other news from iraq, loved ones of environmentalist and water protector jassim al-asadi are demanding his safe return after he was kidnapped by an unknown armed group near baghdad last week. al-asadi is the head of the group nature iraq which fights for the protection of the country's southern wetlands and a recipient of the goldman prize. former president of pakistan and military chief pervez musharraf died sunday at the age of 79. he died from a rare condition in dubai, where had been living in

exile since 2016. musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup and resigned in 2008. the end of his rule came following a tumultuous year in pakistan, which saw the growth of militant groups and the assassination of prime minister and political foe benazir bhutto. musharraf suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule in 2007. he was a key ally to the u.s. and president george w. bush in his so-called war on terror following the september 11 attacks. in 1999, he planned an attack in the kargil region of indian-controlled kashmir. over 500 indian soldiers were killed and at least 400 pakistani soldiers, though some estimates place the numbers much higher. at least one woman and four children drowned sunday after a boat carrying some 40 refugees from turkiye sank off the greek island of leros. this came just days after another eight refugees, including a pregnant woman and her four-month-old baby, died off the italian island of lampedusa. survivors said they had

experienced extreme cold, dehydration, and didn't have food after days at sea. their boat had departed from tunisia last week. in britain, tens of thousands of nurses and emt's launched a coordinated strike today, the largest labor action in the history of the government-run national health service. more strikes are planned during the week, as health workers ramp up their demands for a living wage as the u.k. sees its worst inflation in four decades. this is a striking nurse. >> i think we will find it harder and harder to recruit, harder and harder to retain step. a lot of people have left the profession because they are so disillusioned. we're looking at the future and that is what this is all about. amy: in chile, wildfires have killed at least 24 people as some 260 blazes raged in the center and south of the country over recent days, fanned by dry winds and temperatures reaching as high as 104 degrees.

officials said sunday 270,000 acres have been scorched. this is an evacuee in the region of la araucanía. >> i left my house with only the clothes i was wearing. i put on a pair of slippers and tights and left the house. there was no time to set up a firebreak break. i think everyone here went to the same situation. the winds changed fast and every thing suddenly started to burn. amy: a record-breaking arctic blast sent temperatures plummeting across much of the northeastern united states and parts of canada on saturday. in new hampshire, mount washington recorded the nation's coldest ever wind chill at -108 degrees fahrenheit. the death of an infant was reported in western massachusetts from a falling tree. meanwhile, in texas, the austin american-statesman issued a rare front page editorial condemning officials for their response to last week's ice storm, which left over 150,000 austin

residents without power. 10 people were killed across the southern u.s. by the storm, seven of them in texas, and some 460,000 people lost power. the democratic national committee approved a radal overhaul of the primary calendar, making south carolina the first primary contest of the 2024 presidential election, replacing the iowa caucus. primaries in nevada, new hampshire, georgia, and michigan will then follow. the new voting schedule is intended to give more weight to voters of color. but new hampshire and georgia continue to oppose the changes and have not yet moved their primary dates. they have until june to do so and will face sanctions if they refuse to comply, including losing half their delegates. in missouri, death penalty abolitionists are calling on republican governor mike parson to cancel tuesday's planned execution of leonard "raheem" taylor, a black man who has always maintained his innocence. taylor was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder

over the 2004 killing of his girlfriend and her three young children. witnesses say taylor was 2000 miles away from the scene of the crime at the time of the murders. taylor recently spoke from prison with missourians for alternatives to the death penalty. >> no, i didn't. i d not. not only did i not commit the crime, but like i said, there was no motive. i had no reason to commit the crimes. i wasn't even in the state of missouri when these murders took place. amy: attorneys from the innocence project say taylor's lawyer effectively abandoned him, providing an incompetent defense at trial. they're asking governor parson to delay the execution until a thorough investigation can be completed. and the 65th grammy awards were held in los angeles sunday night. beyoncé made history, winning her 32nd statue, making her the most awarded artist in the history of the grammys. viola davis won for the audiobook of her memoir "finding me" and joins the exclusive egot club, having won all four major

entertainment awards -- an emmy, grammy, oscar, and tony. kim petras and sam smith also made history, becoming the first openly trans and non-binary duo to win a grammy, bringing home an award for their hit "unholy." first lady jill biden presented the iranian singer with the new song for social change special merit award, which has become an anthem for the iranian uprising. the singer was arrested after the song went viral, is out on bail awaiting trial. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show looking at u.s.-china relations after president biden ordered the pentagon to shoot down a high-altitude chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of south carolina saturday. the balloon is believed to have first entered u.s. airspace in alaska and was then spotted in montana, which is the home of

malmstrom air force base, a major u.s. nuclear weapons site. on friday, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken announced he was postponing a trip this week to china where he was scheduled to meet with china's foreign minister. blinken spoke on friday. >> confident this is a chinese surveillance balloon. once we detected the balloon, u.s. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information. we communicated with the prc government directly through multiple channels about this issue. members of my team consulted with other agencies and congress. we also engaged are close allies and partners to inform them of the balloon. we concluded conditions were not conducive for constructive visit at this time. amy: china has criticized the u.s. for shooting down what beijing has described as a civilian airship. on friday, a spokesperson for the chinese foreign ministry -- "the chinese side regrets the

unintended entry of the airship into u.s. airspace. it is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. the airship deviated far from its planned course." u.s. divers are now searching the waters off the coast of south carolina for remnants of the downed balloon to learn more about its mission. a second chinese balloon has been spotted in latin america. it is widely known that the u.s. and china have been conducting surveillance on each other for years using spy satellites, hacking, spies, and other means. over the weekend, republican lawmakers blasted president biden for allowing the balloon to fly across the united states, but the pentagon has revealed chinese balloons also entered the continental united states at least three times during the trump administration, as well as once before under biden. this all comes just days after the philippines agreed to allow the u.s. military to expand its military footprint in the former u.s. colony as part of washington's efforts to counter

china. we are joined now by nicholas bequelin. he is visiting fellow at yale law school's paul tsai china center. previously worked at amnesty international and human rights watch. we welcome you, nicholas bequelin. if you can start off by going through what happened this weekend, both the downing of the surveillance satellite -- which is i think believed to be about three buses long -- and also blinken deciding to cancel his meeting in beijing with president xi. >> that's right. i think the u.s.-china relation is really at the lowest point we have seen in decades. what started as an incident of surveillance balloon really has turned io a much bigger issue

on the world's geopolitical stage. the balloon was spotted by the u.s. military, which is something that you expect. countries spy on each other. the question we have to ask ourselves is why did the u.s decide to make it public? and in making it public, basically seal the fate of that rekindling of the u.s.-china relationship with a visit by secrety of state blinken to china where he would be meeting with president xi jinping ahead and preparing the ground for a meeting between president biden and president xi jinping. i think once the issue of the spy balloon was in the public eye, it was just a matter of time before the world -- were of words between the two, the

discourse was reignited and ultimately the balloon was going to be shot down. so the real question here is why do we have this sort of public fear over the spying activities of china, which are, you know, there's a very long history of it and of course the u.s. also spies on china -- although, we have to admit one country is a democracy and the other is a one-party dictatorship. but nonetheless, on the international stage, countries do spy on each other. the question we have to ask ourselves, what is gained from the rekindling of the u.s.-china relationship? is it making americans safer? is it making the world safer? is it going to help us tackle climate change or technology, rekindle economic growth? i don't think there has been

much thinking about this. this inflection point i think is very worrying for th future of the relationship and sort of future of global politics. amy: it it is clear what happend was, i mean, the satellite balloon came to the aleutian islands, alaska, went down through canada came through idaho, montana, made its way across the country. this has happened before again and again and again, mainly under the republican administration of trump but people did not see it with their naked eye. biden had to respond because in montana, and a billings, they were taking pictures of it. but the question is, why do you hold a some of the one between lincoln and president xi? is it just during peaceful times or is it during times of great conflict where you what to resolve something? so what about blinken and that would be at the behest of president biden canceling a

meeting at this critical juncture >> >> i think the u.s. policy predating this incident has been to contain china, to take also the measures diplomatic, military, intelligence in order to prevent the rise of what it sees as a peer competitor of the united states. china is an autocratic regime. it has military -- it wants to reshape the international border. the u.s. thinks it has to stop this. it has clearly said its ambition is to remain the only superpower , remain number one. and of course this is viewed very dimly in beijing. you have to put this incident back in the context of the long

relationship between u.s. and china from beijing's perspective, have to go back to 1999 when u.s. bombed the chinese embassy during the war. you have to put it in context with looking back at 2001 when u.s. spy plane was down after collision with chinese jet. you have to put it back in context because the u.s. is conducting a lot of military maneuvers near the chinese coast around taiwan. so from beijing's perspective, this is not an equal fight. this is not peer to peer. china feels bullied by the u.s. they see this as another step in that direction. the question is, all right, if the u.s. really is committed to

remaining the only superpower and the top superpower, will all the problems in theorld disappear? i think that is a really magical thinking i think that by refusing to engage with china, by refusing to talk with china, by not egging the conditions conducive to meeting between biden and xi, that you somehow magically are going to solve all the problems that are urgent and that needs to be addressed. the two countries need to speak to it other. what we have seen with this balloon incident is a lot of theatrics that justify just the opposite. amy: let's talk about what is happening between the u.s. and china. you have china having a relationship with russia -- and some are accusing it of supporting russia in some ways, though it has also held back from supporting the invasion, has exit criticized the invasion. and you have secretary of

defense austin in the philippines announcing that u.s. military bases would be increasing their, clearly this has to do with china, the increased militarization from south china sea to the philippines. can you talk about the significance of this? >> this is extremely significant . the announcement by the philippines that it would up the number of naval bases for the u.s. is just the latest of some major tectonic shifts in geopolitical relations in the region. you also have a new alliance between japan, australia, the u.s., and india. you have new economic trad deals. you have security arrangements between india and the u.s. india for a long time has been trying to remain neutral but now it is sort of leaning toward the u.s. because of the perceived

danger from china. so there is a very deliberate, concerted attempt by the u.s. to encircle china and to prevent it, to dissuade it -- that is the idea -- of closing a conflict in the south china sea by trying to militarily take over taiwan or just gaining influence in the indo pacific, which the u.s. -- its area of influence. and relevance to national security. there is no denying that we have to be very wary of a one-party state dictatorship ambition. and under xi jinping, china has absolutely horrific record on human rights and on other matters. look at the uighurs. up to one million people thrown into labor camps.

look what happened in hong kong, which was a national security load that led to the arrest of hundreds of peaceful protesters and opposition lawmakers. so there is no doubt china wants to disrupt the world order, once to make it more comfortable for dictatorship and one-party system. and that should be opposed. but the problem is, do you oppose it better by not looking at china? that seems to be the biden administration's strategy. we have to be very careful because feeding the seeds of resentment is not a good policy. we have seen with russia. russia is no peer competitor to the u.s. but it can create a huge amount of problems. we have seen it with turkiye, the same thing. is that what we want from china? we want a weekend china that is

always under the u.s. in terms of comparative power? that is pretty much a given, actually, but w want that to be resentful against the u.s. and against the west and see the possible conflict in the future. amy: can he talk about china's relationship with russia -- i mean, at the same time, it looks like president xi in the last months has been trying to smooth over waves with the united states. and then also talk about what you think will happen with taiwan. >> let's start with russia. i think what we see with russia is cna feels very isolated on the international stage. and it sees a looming conflict -- not military. it lists very strong geopolitical conflict with the u.s. it cannot afford to lose an ally

like russia. at the same time, its economy and its opening to globalization into the world cannot afford to cut off relationship with the west. they have to remember that china mostly traits with the u.s., traits with the u.s. at its highest point historically come and with europe. they don't want to lose this. they have to have this fake neutrality where they don't engage in support with russia but actually sort of continue to trade normally. the fact that china aligns itself or sort of has this -- with russia is a concern. but how do you address it? do you try to convince cnao peel off support to russia and putin or do just declare them as enemies and refuse to speak to

them? i think that is one of the questions that has to be out and we have not seen much from the u.s. administration at the moment. amy: and taiwan? >> taiwan is really a huge issue. there is absolutely no doubt that china has ambition to reclaim taiwan as its own. and it has not put a military solution off the table. that is extremely worrying. what is equally worrying is the fact the u.s. habasically abandoned the terms of the coexistence with china on this issue, which is we leave the status quo and we will respect some redlines. such as taiwan declaring independence or stationing u.s. troops on taiwan or taiwan taking one of the -- taking

military action. but the domestic politics in the u.s. at the moment with the position to china being basically the only clue,hey only common area between the democrats and republicans means there is -- amy: and the media, by the way. >> and the media. there is constant escalation of how to be stronger, who is going to be the strongest toward china and on taiwan with a string of very high-profile visits, diplomatic visits to taiwan, which are bound irritate china and in call a response from china which then calls a response for the u.s. and so on. you have this tit-for-tat escalation, which is i think very dangerous because this is how every major war starts, basically, by some incident that runs out of control. the u.s. does have an interest

in keeping taiwan free and avoiding a military conflict there. but again, isn't the best way to do that to actually have a sorrow and large diplomatic relationship with, you know come disagreements? having diplomatic relationship with another country does not mean you agree with it. amy: you mean with china having this static relationship with china. >> that's right. what the obstacle to actual -- the g7, what we saw in indonesia couple of months ago, when xi and biden met, led to sewing a relationship and hoping things could be normalized and would be guardrails of the relationship and the two countries would oid misunderstanding that can parallel into a conflict and possibly into a china -- military conflict. this is off the table now.

blinken will not go to beijing which means there will be no preparation for a meeting between the two heads of state. and we are really at a very, very damaging inflection point in the u.s.-china relationship. the message here that i want to convey, really, is, yes, the u.s. will and can remain the sole superpower, the number one. china is not going to catch up with the u.s. it does not have the assets, the resources. it does not have the global influence. it does not even have the innovati of the u.s. but do you want to keep china in a position where it feels permanently aggrieved and increasingly belligerent? amy: and doesn't want superpower in the world also destabilize the world -- and doesn't one superpower in the world also destabilize the world? >> that's right.

we have seen a long history of the u.s. intervention around the world and geopolitical play that one of the recurring themes is the overconfidence that the current administration has the solution for a particular problem. we know what we must do. we know that to solve the iraq problem we must have regime change and everything is going to be fine. we know the approach to the middle east should now run through this or that. and now we have the same culture, you know, confidence about we know what china wants. we know how it is run. we know how to stop it. and anyone who disagrees with our approach has to be pushed aside and ignored. i think that is the trade of american foreign policy over the

decades and always a worrying sign because very often it has ended badly. amy: nicholas bequelin, thank you for being with us, visiting fellow at yale law school's paul tsai china center. previously with amnesty international and human rights watch. coming up, we speak to human rights attorney reed brody about the european commission's plans to set up a special center in the hague to prosecute russia for the crime of aggression for its invasion of ukraine. what has been the u.s.'s response of setting up a special unit to look at the crime of aggression being war? stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "99 red balloons" by nena. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the european commission has announced plans to launch a center to prosecute russia at the hague for the crime of aggression for invading ukraine nearly a year ago. >> russia must be held accountable in court for its crimes. prosecutors from ukraine and the european union are already working together. we are collecting evidence.

and as a first step, i am pleased to announce that an international center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression in ukraine will be set up in the hague. this center will coordinate the collection of evidence. it will be embedded in the investigation team which is supported by our agency. so we will be ready to launch work rapidly with ukraine and the group and with the partners of our joint investigation team, as well is with the netherlands. the perpetrator must be held accountable. amy: that was ursula von der leyen, the president of the european commission. we go now to longtime human rights attorney reed brody. he is author of "to catch a dictator: the pursuit and trial

of hissène habré." he is joining us from spain. welcome back to democracy now! can you talk about the significance of what is being set up and what you think needs to be understood? >> well, the first thing to be understood is that there already is the largest war crimes investigation in history going on right now in ukraine. ukrainian prosecutors have opened tens of thousands of cases. the international criminal court has opened its largest field operation ever. you have 15 countries that have opened up their own investigations war into war crimes. you have this joint investigative team of seven countries, but all of these

investigations are looking at war crimes and crimes against humanity. they are not looking at the crime of aggression. and so the proposal has been made to create a special tribunal for the crime of aggression. and this announcement by ursula von der leyen is just a precursor to that. it is to set up a center to collect evidence on the crime of aggression. now, why is it that none of these massive investigations by ukraine, by the international criminal court, by other countries into war crimes and crimes against humidity are looking at aggression? it is because right now there is no court that has jurisdiction to process- prosecute the crime of aggression. and why is that?

at nuremberg, the trial of nazi leaders after world war ii, the crimes against peace, aggression was considered to be the supreme international crime, the worst crime, the crime that paves the way against all the other crimes. what happened is in the aftermath, the big victorious powers, they did not want to have the crime of aggression. they did not want their wars to go before an international court, to go before a judge. so the international criminal court, as it stands today, only has jurisdiction over war crimes , crimes against humanity, and genocide unless the alleged aggressor state both ratifies the icc treaty and consents to

icc jurisdiction. and that carveout for the crime of aggression was specifically fought for and won by the united states, by france, and by the united kingdom. so the reason the icc today cannot investigate the crime of aggression is because the u.s., france, united kingdom, and others did not wanted to do so. and now there is a call to have a special tribunal on aggression. obviously, the aggression is the worst inrnationa crime. and another attractiveness of the idea of a special tribunal for aggression is that it's a leadership crime. right now the investigators who are looking at war crimes will also have to build the case to show that russian leaders, including vladimir putin, have

command responsibility for those crimes. that they either gave the orders for those crimes or they acknowledge the crimes were being committed. they did not step in to stop those crimes. aggression is a leadership crime. it goes straight to the top table. it is a very easy crime to prove. russia has, i think we can agree, illegally, in violation of the u.n. charter, committed war of aggression against ukraine. vladimir putin is the person who directed that aggression. so it is a fairly easy crime to prove. now, i think we can all agree that this is a crime that should be prosecuted. the question really is, how? and many people are looking at, including the former icc prosecutor who you had on your show, are saying, wait a second,

let's not just make a special tribunal for ukraine. if we are going to prosecute the crime of aggression, let's amend the rules of the international criminal court so that it can prosecute aggression the same way it prosecutes war crimes and crumbs against humidity regardless of whether the aggressor state has agreed to the statute of the icc and consented to have its citizens, within the icc's jurisdiction. so the same with international criminal court is not looking at russian crimes in ukraine, even though russia is not joined the icc or is looking at american crimes and afghanistan even though the u.s. has not joined the icc, the argument is, let's not change the rules just for this case. let's change the rules forever so that aggression not only by

russia against ukraine but any cases of aggression can be prosecuted. amy: finally, i want to go ck to your examples of the nuremberg trial. u.s. prosecutor at nuremberg in november 1945 robert jackson said, let me make clear that while this law is first applied against german aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve a useful purpose, it must condemn aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now and judgment. why is the u.s. even allow what is taking place now to take place at the hague, this proposal? >> well, i mean, this is one of the reasons the u.s. is not out in front on this proposal because i think an policymakers understand that this could come back and bite them. they understand the inherent double standards involved here.

i mean, the icc in general and the whole international justice architecture in general is seen particularly in the global south as being riddled with double standards. the icc has opened up this massive and welcome investigation in ukraine, but why don't we see the same kind of massive investigations in other places? the case of alleged israeli crimes in palestine has been sitting on the table for several years and is going nowhere. the alleged american crimes and afghanistan from back 2002 have been "de-prioritized" by the icc. and of course the case of aggression, i mean, we all in

thinking about this think about the u.s. and british invasion of iraq, which was considered by most legal scholars to be illegal. so you do have this -- again, prosecute, investigate vladimir putin for war crimes for aggression, but let's do it in a way that ensures these tools of international justice can also be used when appropriate against powerful western actors. amy: reed brody, thank you for being with us, war crimes prosecutor and been involved in looking at war crimes in many different areas, author of "to catch a dictator: the pursuit and trial of hissène habré." to see our full interview with him on the book, go to democracynow.org. reed was speaking to us from spain. next up, we speak to the pioneering scholar kimberlé

crenshaw about critical race eory after the college board removes her writings from the required curriculum for its ap african-american studies class. back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break] amy: "move" by beyoncé featuring grace jones and tems. on sunday night, beyoncé made history, winning more grammys than any artist in history. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we ended today show with

kimberlé crenshaw, to talk about her work on intersectionality and critical race every after the college board removed her writings from the required curriculum for its ap african-american studies class. the college board recently revised its curriculum for an advanced placement african-american studies course and removed black lives matter, slavery reparations, and queer theory as required topics, while adding a section on black conservatism. the new curriculum was released on the first day of black history month and came after floras republican governor ron desantis vowed to ban the ap black studies class and for the schools and what is education departnt because he said the course "lacks educational value." desantis is expected to enhance his plans to run for president -- announces plans to run for president. teachers are facing creasing concern about whether allowed to

clude in their curriculum on friday we spoke to two professors who does whose work has been removed from the new curriculum. e. patrick johnson and keeanga-yamahtta taylor who both teach at northwestern, as well as to harvard kennedy's will professor khalil gibran muhammad . today we're joined by another one of the banned professor kimberlé crenshaw, coined the term intersectionality to study the overlapped termination people springs. executive director of the african-american policy forum, professor of law at ucla and columbia university. joining us from new york after receiving the winslow medal, the yale school of public health's highest honor. it recognizes outstanding achievements and public health

leadership, scholarship, or contribution to society. congratulations, professor crenshaw come on that honor. some consider it an honor now to be banned, though they are infuriated by it, and i'm wondering what your thoughts are now? to be clear, the college board said they made this decision, for example, to exclude your work from the required course before desantis made this last statement a few weeks ago. >> yes, yes, well, thank you. it is good to be back. i think the focus of the debate so far has perhaps misdirected the conversation by discussing whether to ban or i would say benching of our required text come optional text came at the behest of governor desantis. the reality is that there has been anti-woke legislation since

basically president trump said, "stand by, proud boys, i've got something for you." and what he came up with was a ban on a whole range of racial justice and equity ideas and practices and policy. that got rescinded as soon as president biden took office, but then it became a state-based strategy. at this point come upwards of 42 states have considered banning certain set of ideas, certain set of practices and concepts under the frame of anti-woke-ness or anti-crt. it doesn't matter much whether the college board came to these decisions to weeks ago or two months ago. this conversation has been going on for nearly two years if not more. you don't become a

billion-dollar corporation by not paying attention to the market. the market indicators told the college board that this new course that they were hoping to promote -- and interestingly enough, the opportunity for the course came after the george floyd activation drove so many people and it is streets and they were demanding more information about structural racism, more information about intersectionality, more implicit bias. the same motivation that made people demand it also sparked a backlash in this legislation. so of course the college board new about it was not of course the college board agitate some kind of awareness. we don't have to speculate about it. they told is that. when the course was announced this summer, some of the advocates for the course went to great pains to say this course was not crt.

the effort was to distinguish it as much as possible. in reality, what that was signaling was a ftness in the resolve to step forward with the ideas that have been associated with crt. that is structural racism, the movement toward a black lives intersectionality. there was the opportunity, the motivation, and there was ultimately the content elimination -- or i will say benching -- of some of these ideas. that is what we should be talking about, not when the memo went out. amy: professor crenshaw, i want to quote columnist eugene robinson wrote, "educators must not allow the phrase critical race theory to be used to blacklist scholars the same way the word 'communist' was used in the mccarthy era. black history is our collective history as americans. it must be told -- in full." i think it is very interesting

also in light of today to talk about the new mccarthy era given the house speaker kevin mccarthy. it give me your thoughts. >> i was delighted to see someone noticed this posted as you know, amy, i have been talking about this since 2020. i have been saying the whole anti-crt, anti-woke approach to legislation is a very old idea. it is basically an idea that says greater attention to equity, greater attention to equality effectively amounts to reverse discrimination. it is antiwhite. this is a far right talking point that was not often expressed in polite company until effectively barack obama was elected and then president trump and now it has become mainstream. and the way it has been made mainstream is by stoking fears

about a set of ideas that most people could not tell you one thing about except for the fact they have been told to be afraid of these ideas, that it is taking something away from them, and they should repudiated. that is classic form of mccarthyism. what makes it is so disturbing is the fact people who know better, people who know this history were willing to sit it out, to think that it was going to go away when the conversation changed or to think they could outrun the shadow saying, we don't do critical ce theory. without paying attention to what critics said critical race theory was. all of these ideas, but more importantly, amy, they said they're going after public education. they said they're going after universities. so nobody can be surprised when suddenly this effort to stomp out critical race theory turns out to make antiracism

unspeakable, to make queer studies undoable, to make intersectionality one of the most widespread concepts across disciplines, something that college-directed students can not take or can only take if the state allows them to. anybody who's concerned about our democracy, anyone who is concerned about authoritarianism has to wake up and pay attention to this because this is how it. happens. amy: i want to go to the congressional black caucus chair speaking after caucus meeting at the white house thursday with president biden and vice president harris. >> we were here, as you know, to discuss the importance of public safety, policing and. we are doing this in part in response to tyre nichols, a

young man who should be alive today, a person who was a son and a father who loved photography and skateboarding. we have agreement on how we will continue to work forward both from a legislative standpoint as well as executives and community-based solutions. but the focus will always be on public safety. public safety for all community's. because we understand it is about the culture of picing and keeping all communities safe and all of us should be able to agree that bad policing has no place in any american city. amy: so that is the congressional black caucus chair steven horsford with a group of cbc congressmembers who just met with harris and biden. of course you had vice president harris speaking at tyre nichols

funeral where she called for the passage of the george floyd justice in policing act. and i think cory booker yesterday, one of the key people pushing that, all but conceded that is not going to happen. maybe smaller points will happen, for example, chokeholds except in life-threatening situations -- one police claim their lives are threatened. setting standards for no-knock warrants, limit transfer some military equip me to local departments. but i am bringing all of this up in relation to this because black lives matter, which blew up in response to the killing of young black men and women, is now not required in curriculum. >> this is why we need to listen very carefully tomorrow to see if there president backs up his

conversations with a clear directive to the american people , the question of police brutality is a vital concern. and the effort to promote the value of black lives cannot be silenced and cannot be sidelined. the movement for black lives, the mobilization that took place in 2020 was the largest mobilization in american history. we all know there is no chance of pushing forward any fundamental change, any kind of serious legislation to address our social problems without an active social movement that creates frame alignment, that creates the notion that this is an important issue. what pain signal the movement for black lives, that the problem of police brutality is less significant than it needs to be than taking it out as a

required reading in a course on african-american studies. so it is up to the president, it is up to leadership to step into this, to reverse this faction that basically has tried to make racism unspeakable, to reverse the accommodationism that is at play when profit motives come into tension with the basic imperative of african-american studies, which is to understand the condition not simply asn assortment of fun facts but as the material interests that need to be understood in order to transform this country into the multiracial democracy that it truly claims to be. amy: he referring to president biden tomorrow night, tuesday night, giving the state of the union address. then he will be launching a 20-state post-state of the union blitz with his cabinet to discuss the economic agenda.

what do you think needs to be the message conveyed throughout this country right now? >> well, i think the message needs to be conveyed that we are about to go into a political period that is not unlike the political period in 1876, not unlike 1968 in which race is on the agenda whether explicitly or implicitly. the democrats have never really been effective -- amy: 30 seconds. >> the atwater made it clear that race wagoing to be use as a political cudgel. this is the opportunity to prepare americans to support the idea behind multiracial democracy, not all race to get into the way, and say what they stand for once and for all. amy: professor crenshaw, thank you so much for being with us, executive director of the african american policy forum.

professor of law at ucla and columbia university. that does it for our show. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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