Thursday February 2, 2023

Today on Sojourner Truth we begin by paying homage to the life of Tyre Nichols as civil rights leaders including: Reverend Al Sharpton, speak at his funeral on Wednesday, contextualizing the significance of his death at the hands of black police officers. We are joined by civil rights icon Zoharah Simmons who will be discussing the response from educators and civil rights organizers to the rejection of an advanced placement course on African American studies for high school students last month by Florida's department of education, under the leadership of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Initially Florida tried to ban the course entirely, but after weeks of backlash and even a potential lawsuit the College Board released the official curriculum for a new Advanced Placement course in African American studies on Wednesday, the first day of Black History Month. However, critics point out that the newest iteration of the course is now missing several themes and voices from Black scholars that were originally presented in a pilot program already being taught at dozens of schools this year across the country.

The month of January culminates in what is being proclaimed globally as the deadliest period of fighting between Israel and Palestine in years in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports Israel has killed at least 42 Palestinians in this month alone, including 8 children and an elderly woman. The deadliest Israeli raid in the West Bank took place on Thursday January 26, when Israeli forces raided the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, killing 10 people. It was the deadliest Israeli raid in the West Bank in two decades. We discuss these latest developments in the Israeli-Palestine conflict with Michael Kalmanovitz, founding member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

We will also hear our weekly Earth Minute segment from the Global Justice Ecology project on carbon offset realities for major U.S. corporations. Our Earth Watch guest joining us to delve into a deeper discussion of carbon offset and its impact on climate change is researcher Jutta Kill, whose current research focuses on analyzing the role of carbon markets in the emergence of the Green Economy concept where natural complexity and diversity are transformed into "natural capital" – the re-defined "nature" of the Green Economy. Her recent writings explore how in the process, rules-based environmental legislation and fines for violation of environmental regulation are being replaced with incentive-based regulation and fees that buy the right to destroy or pollute.