Black History Month 2021 has been an eventful occasion at the Goldman School of Public Policy. One student organization, Black Students in Public Policy (BiPP) has been responsible for putting together a weekly speaker series on health and wellness, economic policy, politics, and social impact in the Black community.  In this episode of Talk Policy To Me, we hear from 7 students in BiPP who share their path to public policy and the ways that they are celebrating Black History Month.

For more information on the Black History Month Speaker Series, visit goldman.school/blackhistorymonth

Featured Students:

Izzy Clayter

●      https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabel-clayter-a2306485/

●      IG: izzyclay

Noah Cole

●      https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahchristiancole/

●      https://twitter.com/NoahColeCA

●      IG: Nocofosho

Rafael Henriquez

Kendrick Peterson

●      https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendrickmpeterson

●      IG: Kendrickmp

Sakeenah Shabazz

●      https://www.linkedin.com/in/sshabazz/

●      http://twitter.com/bazzberries

Denzel Tongue

●      https://www.linkedin.com/in/denzel-tongue/

●      https://twitter.com/quinoa_achebe95

Michael Wiafe

●      https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwiafe/

●      https://twitter.com/Wiafe2Wiafe

●      IG: Mwiafe

Featured music:

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” performed by Jada Holliday, Baylor University

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvCfNziHdDI&ab_channel=BaylorUniversity

Transcript

Colleen: [00:00:08] Hi there, Talk Policy To Me listeners. We hope you've all been well since our time off and that you had a restful start to the new year. Our team is working hard to produce exciting new episodes for the podcast that will be coming to you soon. But in the meantime, we wanted to take a moment to showcase some of the voices who have been active in shaping Black History Month at the Goldman School of Public Policy.

Reem: [00:00:28] Black students in Public Policy or BiPP for Short, is a student led organization that promotes the discussion of public policy issues as they relate to the black community while providing a social network for black students here at the Goldman School.

Colleen: [00:00:42] This month, BiPP hosted a weekly speaker series that focused on economic policy, health and wellness, politics, and social impact in the black community. We wanted to take a moment and hear from seven BiPP members about their path to public policy and how they're taking time to celebrate Black History Month in 2021.

Reem: [00:01:01] We hope you enjoy their responses as much as we did and encourage you to read more about the Black History Month programming this month at Goldman.School/BlackHistoryMonth.

Noah: [00:01:15] Hey, my name's Noah Cole. You might have heard me on the Talk Policy to Me podcast before I'm on the team as an audio reporter, and I'm also a first year MPP at Goldman, and I'm originally from Rancho Cucamonga, which is just outside of Los Angeles in California. Before GSPP, I was in Austin, Texas, working at Facebook as a legal analyst, and alongside that role, I also worked in the community as a nonprofit project coordinator at a nonprofit called Measure, connecting students at the HBCU in Austin with other local nonprofits to conduct community engagement research. And so it was through that work that I developed a real appreciation for more nonprofit based, community based public work and wanted to pivot back towards public policy. Over the last semester, what I really developed as my policy interest was policies within the area of democracy reform, super interested in policies that work to really reimagine our democracy and changed our structures and systems so that they're more reflective of the population that's increasingly diverse in the United States, increasing civic engagement among black and brown communities and removing barriers to the vote and protecting voting rights are issues that are really interesting and important to me. The way I'm celebrating Black History Month is through a lot of music and movies in place of, you know, not being able to hold in-person events. I think that that's sort of the medium that I'm really valuing right now. My brother and I just recently watched Judas and the Black Messiah, which is about Fred Hampton, and tells a story from the perspective of the FBI informant that was involved with the Black Panthers in Chicago. And it's a really interesting story, a really intriguing part of Black history that I wasn't completely aware of before watching the movie. And it's something that I really enjoyed. Beyond that, I'm trying to shop black, so I'm planning on going to Marcus Books, which is a black owned bookstore out here in Oakland, and really stock up on my books for the year. Music media, shopping black, and then planning this Black students in public policy speaker series has been a big part of home celebrating and so very excited to be involved on that level, and I'm having a good Black History Month so far.

Kendrick: [00:03:50] Hello, my name is Kendrick Marcellus Peterson, my pronouns are he/him/his, and I am a first year J.D. MPP student at the University of California, Berkeley. I am not really from anywhere because I am a military student, so my mom was deployed as well as my father at the same time. I was born in Kansas, but I'm all over the place and I usually say I'm from Las Vegas because that is where I spent the majority of my time. Before GSPP, I worked under Kimberlé Crenshaw at the Columbia Law School's African-American Policy Forum, kind of portraying the say her name campaign and also uplifting the stories of black women and more than just policy, but just in society, which was a really awesome experience. My policy interests revolve around impact litigation, also employment outcomes and post-secondary status and climate outcomes in regards to race and equity standpoints. I really love admissions policy and I definitely love kind of operating under the law with a policy minded skill set because that definitely helps understanding exactly what we can do to kind of make that system better. I am celebrating Black History Month by attending events that give me a little bit more insight into my culture as well as everything that I kind of just care about. And also just kind of emphasizing that because as Black History Month opportunities move out my way, which is a great time for sure. But yes, I think a lot of times the black experience is not uplifted in places, especially in policy and law, so I definitely am being more intentional, this Black History Month and finding those stories and uplifting that knowledge and then sharing it with my peers. Happy Black History Month.

Izzy: [00:05:40] Hey there, my name is Izzy Clayter. I'm a second year master of public policy candidate at the Goldman School of Public Policy and a member of BiPP, the Black Students in Public Policy at the Goldman School. Before policy school, I was working at a financial technology startup in San Francisco, and that definitely helped me kind of find my footing and being super interested in financial inclusion and financial justice as well as economic justice more broadly. This Black History Month, I am celebrating everyone black and every black business and organization that I follow. I'm really excited about the unveiling of Huey Newton Way in Oakland, and I will always give a shout out to the Huey Newton Foundation, which is doing great work on commemorating the contributions of the Black Panthers and our local history here in Oakland and every Black History Month. I always get really excited about kind of going down the rabbit hole of the Black Panther Party's historical legacy in the Bay Area. I'll always plug the Black Panthers is kind of being on the forefront of solidarity in the black community, black liberation and mutual aid within the black community. That's my two cents. Thanks for having me.

Michael: [00:07:00] Hi, I'm Michael Wiafe. I'm a first year master's of public policy student here at the Goldman School, and before I came to Goldman, I was actually an undergrad. I was a student at San Diego State University. I recently got my degree in political science. However, I've spent the past few years in education policy and specifically in student advocacy. So I've served as president of the California State Student Association, representing the students of the California State University. I also interned at the Public Policy Institute of California's Higher Education Center. I grew up in the Inland Empire of Southern California. However, I wasn't born in the United States. I was born in Gambie, Ethiopia, to a dad from Ghana and a mom from Zambia. And then when I was nine months old, they had the opportunity to attend college in the Inland Empire of California, and so that informs a lot of my worldview. My family came here for higher education, and I think that that is kind of what pushed me into the passion of higher education as a form of economic mobility. This month, I'm celebrating Black History Month, not only by diving into deeper black literature than I normally do, although this is something I plan on continuing throughout the year, but also being a little bit more vocal about my experiences, being more vocal about when it is clear that representation is not in the space that I'm in. I am not being shy about talking about when I'm the only person who looks like me in the room. I'm not going to be shy about talking about my experiences with law enforcement and police officers and how racialized it can be, how I've been pulled over by multiple police officers trying to find something wrong. And so I'm not going to be quiet about these experiences of specifically during Black History Month. Another thing is I've been engaging in events and trying to attend different speaker series. Of course, on top of the Black students and public policy series that has been organized being just more outwardly black and more outwardly who I am, but also more true to my roots and the experience that my community has, but also those who are outside of my community. I'm an immigrant to this country. And so that means that, you know, I think that my perspective on the black community is a little bit different, but I'm also a part of the black community. And so understanding that other people's experiences, even if they look just like me, could be completely different, just depending on where they're from, where their background is, and what experiences that they may have. So I think Black History Month is really a time where we can get together from all of our many different backgrounds and experiences and also celebrate our commonalities that we come from a background that, although has been oppressed, it still has a lot of diamonds and a lot of bright spots. And I think that we should celebrate their bright spots, not only the ones that have happened in the past, but the ones that we're creating on a daily basis and celebrate not only each other, but also celebrate ourselves.

Rafael: [00:09:54] Good morning. My name is Rafael Henriquez. I'm a first year MPP student at the Goldman School of Public Policy, and I'm originally from New York City. Before I got to Cal, I was working at a child welfare agency in New York City that focuses on the special medical population of children. I was also working at a community based organization to support recently arrived immigrants with learning English and accessing social services. My policy interests are housing, children and families, and social services. I hope to find policies and analyze policies that impact children and especially families by supporting them through difficult times. For Black History Month, I've been trying to celebrate a few different ways. I started a little book club with my partner, reading some of Dr. King's sermons, also spent some time listening to talks on YouTube and then really reflecting on them, listening to Malcolm X and Angela Davis, among others. Now, Hooks is another author that I've been thinking about a little bit as it relates to teaching. I'm a GSI this semester. Black music is something that I try to celebrate and learn about it all year. I'm donating contributing member to KCSM in the Bay Area and I just love learning about jazz and blues and the artists that really innovated in their time and have made contributions that lead to the music that we have today. I've tried to listen to the Black National anthem, lift every voice and sing every once in a while. It reminds me of my elementary school and middle school.

Colleen: [00:11:53] Here's a snippet from the Black national anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing, which Rafael just mentioned.

Denzel: [00:12:21] My name is Denzel Tongue, and I'm a first year amp student at Goldman. I'm originally from Oakland, California. I currently serve as an opinion columnist and writer for California Health Report, and I'm also a health equity fellow through Cal-IHEA. Before Goldman, I was the campaign coordinator with CIPC, where I led the Health for All campaign, and before that I was the health equity fellow with the Green Lining Institute. My policy interests mainly focus on health policy, and in the past I've really done a lot to help diversify California's health workforce and also just work to expand health care access, particularly to undocumented immigrants in our state. And I hope to kind of continue to do racial equity and health equity work. And I'm celebrating Black History Month by just trying to embody black excellence and in the ways that are safe and the ways that I can spending time with friends and family and just enjoying that joy.

Sakina: [00:13:20] My name is Sakina Shabazz. I am a first year MPP student at the Goldman School of Public Policy and I'm from San Diego, California, But I reside in Washington, D.C.. Before coming to GSPP, I worked at the Congressional Hunger Center here in the District of Columbia, where I managed the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows program, which is a fellowship for recent college graduates who want to do both field and policy work related to issues of hunger and poverty. I'm also an alum of that program, and I was in the program two years prior to becoming a full time staff member. And in between that time, I worked with an organization called DC Hunger Solutions, where I did SNAP outreach and advocacy for income eligible residents here in Washington, D.C.. As some of those things allude to. I'm interested in issues of food insecurity, hunger, poverty alleviation, economic security, and really anything that will allow people to live, you know, wholer, healthier, dignified lives that are financially secure and food secure. We have the infrastructure and programs to really tackle these issues, but oftentimes they are underfunded or not managed well. And so outside of caring deeply about these issues, doing advocacy around these issues, I want to make sure that they're well managed and that they are properly evaluated and that research is informing how to best operate them and also how to keep people with lived experience at the center of those developments. I am celebrating Black History Month by helping to put together the Speaker series that BiPP did. I'm listening to a lot of music and watching a lot of movies, partaking in super funny names that we find on Twitter and Instagram just to, you know, keep humor going. I think Black Twitter is an amazing entity that keeps the culture moving and keeps people informed but is also super funny. So I'm probably tuning in to that on a day to day basis. Even outside of Black History Month, what I would really like to be doing is going to the National Museum for African-American History and Culture here in D.C., but it's closed due to COVID. But they have some really fantastic online programs that I wanted to participate in. Hopefully when it's open, you know, we can continue to celebrate black people and black culture and black history every day. Even though Black History Month is a really rich opportunity for both folks within and outside of the community to celebrate and appreciate the black experience here in this country.

Colleen: [00:16:05] Talk policy To Me is a co-production of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy and the Berkeley Institute for Young Americans.

Reem: [00:16:13] Our executive producers are Bora Lee Reed and Sarah Swanbeck.

Colleen: [00:16:17] Editing for this episode by Michelle Pitcher.

Reem: [00:16:19] The music you heard today is by Blue Dot Sessions and Pat Mesiti-Miller.

Colleen: [00:16:24] I'm Colleen Pulawski.

Reem: [00:16:26] And Reem Rayef.

Colleen: [00:16:27] Catch you next time.