Monday, March 22, 2021: Name It: Anti-Asian Femicide with Margo Okazawa-Rey

Hyun-Jung Grant 51

Soon-Chung Park 74

Sun-cha Kim 69

Yong-Ae Yue 63

May they rest in peace and power

Today’s show is intended to help us understand better the complexity and nuances of what happened in Atlanta and the anti-Asian violence around the country.

All the victims above were murdered by a 21-year-old misogynist, racist white man.  “He is a devout Christian; he did not have a racial motive. He is a self-admitted sex addict.” 

We have heard similar expressions of sympathy, tolerance, and excuse too many times.  Long’s is consistent with the common storyline of the majority of mass shooters in the US: young, white men with access to guns, committing violence in the name of real or perceived grievances. Aside from racial differences among the shooters, all are MEN.

This  latest incident is part of the nearly 3800 reported incidents of hate violence against  Asians since March 2020. Buried in these aggregated statistics is the fact that women have been  victimized at  twice the rate of men. 

Last week’s murders are all part of the gendered, anti-Asian violence. But there’s more. Of the 6 Asian women, 4 were Korean immigrant women.

Make no mistake: Long’s violence is unequivocally racist and misogynist. Let’s call it what it is: Anti-Asian femicide. The deliberate killing of Asian women because they are women and Asian. 

And the bigger story of anti-Asian violence in the US is that it started in the 19th century against the first arrivals and has continued unabated, periodically more direct and more violent. It’s deeply rooted in economic and military policies and interests of the US and the political rhetoric and actions of national leaders. Anti-Asian violence clearly directs us to connect the dots: between US foreign policies and domestic policies; between white supremacist racism and misogyny.

Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min 

About the Guests

Rev. Deborah Lee is the Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity organizing faith communities for immigrant justice and ending criminalization and incarceration and is based in Oakland Chinatown.  She is a founding member of Women for Genuine Security and the International Women's Network Against Militarism.

Esther is an organizer with Red Canary Song since 2019, a sex-workers-led grassroots collective that does massage worker outreach in NYC and pushing for the full decriminalization of sex work. She is also currently a consultant at The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center and the Communications Associate at The Bronx Defenders. 

Tammy Kim is a freelance reporter and essayist, a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, and a co-host of the Time to Say Goodbye Podcast. She previously worked as a social-justice lawyer and is active in the labor movement. etkwrites.tumblr.com /@etammykim

Recording of the Red Canary Song Vigil for 8 Thursday 18 March 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfyJWmXytbY 1:38:00 min

Ways to support:  https://www.redcanarysong.net/atlanta

Butterfly Asian and Migrant Worker Support Network

https://www.butterflysw.org/

Monday, February 15, 2021: Jovelyn Richards hosts The Space Between Us

 Women's Magazine host of The Space Between Us

Jovelyn Richards interviews internationally known and acclaimed writer/activist/cultural theorist Judy Grahn.

Judy Grahn takes us into her latest work: Descent to The Roses Of A Family; A Poet's Journey into Anti-Racism and Personal Social Healing. Find the book online, in hardcover,  as an ebook or at your local book store.

Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min 

Knowledge is Power - KPFA Winter Fund Drive

KPFA celebrates Black History featuring the work of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes in a special gift to everyone who donates to KPFA in our Winter Fund Drive.

Thank you!

Monday, November 30, 2020: Imagining a Post-“45” US and the World with Vylma V, Jovelyn Richards, and Margo Okazawa-Rey

Welcome everyone to Women’s Magazine!  I’m Margo Okazawa-Rey, your host. Today is the 5th Monday so three of us hosts of WM Jovelyn Richards, Vylma Ortiz, and I decided to team up.  

We’re here to discuss our observations about the incoming administration and most important, share our vision of a feminist future under Harris and Biden. We will be answering three questions during the show. At the end, we will invite you to share your thoughts via email to Women’s Magazine. In the meantime, think along with us your answers to the questions.

• What are our reactions to the  presidential transition and, based on what you see, what can we expect from the incoming administration?
• What do we want the Biden-Harris administration to create that will ensure women will  thrive? 
• What signs will show us we are on the right road to our vision? What should be our underlying values?

Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min 

Monday, April 29, 2019: Kimberle Crenshaw, Kenyette Barnes and Margo Okazawa-Rey - Misogynoir and sexual abuse of Black Women

Two recent true-crime docu-series about the sexual abuse by well-known singers have rocked the mainstream world. HBO's "Leaving Neverland" about Michael Jackson and Lifetime's "Surviving R. Kelly" about acclaimed singer and producer R Kelly are causing another round of contentious debate in this time of #MeToo. Despite the revelations and decades-long public discussions of the alleged abuses of these two popular cultural giants, the documentaries seem finally to be breaking through the denial of the last 25 years. But even so, there is resistance to hold the two accountable. This is partly because of Jackson and Kelly's beloved status and partly because of the country's history of lynchings and incarceration of black men based on transgressions fabricated by white women. This history is further complicated by the fraught history of white feminists failing to include race and racism centrally in their analyses of sexual violence. Both factors complicate accusations against black men. So today Lisa Dettmer presents the views of three black feminist women who have have been working to address the denial of abuse in the black community and who discuss how white supremacy and Misogynoir can help prevent this abuse of black women by black men from getting the attention it deserves.

In the first half of the show we will hear clips from a new podcast called "Intersectionality Matters" by renowned feminist and legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw who talks with #MuteRKelly co-founder Kenyette Barnes about her movement to expose R Kelly’s serial abuse of Black women and girls.

And then in the second half of the show renowned scholar, activist, and author Margo Okazawa-Rey talks to legal scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw about how to understand and address the complex problem of sexual abuse and related trauma in black communities.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, is professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, and is a leading authority in the area of Civil Rights, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. Her work has been foundational in Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. And she is the co-founder of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), a think tank that works to dismantle structural inequality. Margo Okazawa-Rey is Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women's Leadership and Professor of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and of Public Policy at Mills College. She also is one of the original members of the Combahee River Collective.


Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min

Monday, April 22, 2109: Jovelyn Richards and Who Gets to be Seen As an Artist?

In today's program Kate Raphael speaks with two powerful African American artists. First is an interview with Nell Painter. In the next segment we hear from Jovelyn Richards.

BBQ Becky & Permit Patty go on trial!

Jovelyn Richards, host of The Space Between Us on Women's Magazine, brings her play, 9-1-1 What's Your Emergency? The Verdict to La Pena next weekend, April 26-27. The first act of 9-1-1 What’s Your Emergency? premiered at La Peña Cultural Center in September 2018 as an artistic response to the local 9-1-1 calls that made BBQ Becky and Permit Patty infamous on a national level. In this second act, framed as a courtroom drama, Jovelyn asks, should these calls be seen as hate crimes? You - the audience - get to weigh in on the verdict. The show will be performed with a multicultural cast and a jazz orchestra. In our interview, we discuss how sexism blends with white supremacy to lead white women to call the cops on Black and Brown people's expressions of love and intimacy. Jovelyn's shows always sell out so get your tickets early. Tickets are $20-$25.

"My goal is to take a traditional courtroom and change it into an indigenous practice." -Jovelyn Richards

Today is Earth Day and National Poetry Month. The show begins with a reading of the poem "Rise" by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna. Continue listening for a recording by Adrienne Rich after the first interview. Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min

Also on today's show:
Nell Painter

Event:
Oakland Comedy Dash
May 17th and 18th throughout downtown Oakland and Old Oakland
tickets and locations at Eventbrite

Monday, October 29, 2018: Reflections on Pittsburgh

Prophetic and Profound

Prophetic and profound voices making sense of hate-driven violence and charting paths to liberation.

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min

We will listen to moving reflections on the latest mass shooting, this one at a Pittsburgh synagogue, and consider how fighting the patriarchy can bring an end to hate violence.

Also on today's show:

Ntozake Shange

Kshama Sawant

Monday, October 16, 2017: The Space Between Women and Mental Health/Mental Illness

Jovelyn Richards hosts her live call-in show, The Space Between Us. Today the theme is the space between us, mental health and mental illness. Jovelyn's guests are Diane Jeanette who created Women and Spirituality and Sylvia Toy St Louis, artist and co-founder of Jump! Theatre. They talk about they personal experience with mental illness.

In the second half of today's show Tracy Camp, mathematics professor at Laney College and Kathleen Tarr, lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University join the Space Between Us to talk about the play, Thomas and Sally currently showing at Marin Theatre Company. Guests and callers explore the extreme controversy surrounding the exploitation and rape of children and women that the play romanticizes. Today's show is also joined by an Anonymous guest who auditioned for the role of Sally. Kathleen Tarr with five others comment on the play in the HuffPost article Reflections on the Rape Of a Slave Girl.

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min

Monday, August 28, 2017: Queer Feminist Antifa member and Phoenix Soleil on using NVC for talking about racial justice

This Monday on KPFA Radio’s Women’s Magazine we will hear from a local Queer Feminist anti fascist organizer who will discuss the importance of the antifa and the misogynist aspects of the white supremacist movement.

And we will talk to Nonviolent Communication and Buddhist practitioner Phoenix Soleil about her upcoming workshop, How to Have a Difficult Conversation about Racial Justice in the Workplace at the Impact Hub Oakland, 2323 Broadway, Oakland, CA on September 7th from 9 am-1pm on how to have those difficult conversations about Racial Justice in the workplace.

Click here to listen to entire show. 59:50 min