The riot on the Capitol building in the last days of Trump’s presidency was a powerful inflection point in an era of racial reckoning. In its wake, many pundits and politicians declared that “this is not America.” Our guest on At Liberty this week, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jeff Robinson, would disagree. The image of a Confederate flag paraded through the halls of the Capitol or cries to disavow an election with high Black voter turnout is America; it’s just not the one we like to talk about. 

In this episode, we speak with Jeff about how building a more equal nation must be rooted in dealing with the racist policies, practices, and attitudes that were calculated to keep people of color at a disadvantage. We’ll also talk about the ACLU’s multi-year plan to tackle some of those racist policies. 

“If you have a headache and you’re taking ibuprofen, you’re fine,” said Robinson. “If you have a brain tumor and you’re taking ibuprofen, you’re going to end up in the cemetery. And America has been prescribing and taking headache medicine for what is cancer. And we’ve been doing that for our entire history. And I think folks are finally waking up to the fact that we can’t do it anymore.”

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