Fighting For The Dream of Economic Justice

Coming up on today’s show:

• There is a new effort underway to renew Dr. Martin Luther King’s campaign against poverty. On this holiday honoring the late civil rights icon, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-director of the Kairos Center and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, discusses the new poverty campaign. Shaun King, a columnist at The Intercept and a social justice activist, reflects on the movement in the wake of recent racialized statements made by President Trump.

• A number of detainees taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allege that they have been threatened with solitary confinement for refusing to work in for-profit ICE facilities. Spencer Woodman is a reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and wrote about the growing practice of solitary confinement in ICE facilities for The Intercept.

• On Saturday, a false missile alert caused panic in Hawaii.  Within roughly 10 minutes, state officials were informing residents via social media that the alert was a false alarm, but it took 38 minutes before the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency formally take action to revoke the alert. Ankit Panda, senior editor at The Diplomat, an online news publication focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, joins The Takeaway to put Saturday’s false alarm into perspective. 

• A New York City program is taking a controversial approach to the opioid epidemic. They’re practicing “harm reduction” — a non-punitive approach to reducing the consequences of drug use. That means giving access to sterile needles, and, in the case of The Washington Heights Corner Project, providing a bathroom where users can safely inject drugs. Takeaway Producer Alexandra Botti takes us to Washington Heights, Manhattan, for a look at how it works.

• The 6th Annual Black Comic Book Festival took place over the weekend in New York City. Thousands attended the two day festival — some were drawn in by the upcoming Black Panther movie, while others were seeking to find deeper stories through comics. Sheena Howard, associate professor of communications at Rider University and author of the “Encyclopedia of Black Comics,” explores how black comics have evolved since the civil rights era. 

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich