Why Free Speech Costs More When You’re Black | Native Land Pod #98

On episode 98 of Native Land Pod, hosts Tiffany Cross, Angela Rye, and Andrew Gillum address the selective application of the first amendment, the right to free speech.

Our first guest, Karen Attiah, was (until recently) an op-ed writer for the Washington Post. She was fired last week after writing a post on social media that said she wasn’t going to mourn Charlie Kirk, a white man who promoted violence and vitriol. She did not celebrate his death or condone political violence. The Washington Post fired her for having a hot take, which is LITERALLY HER JOB as an opinion writer.

Our second guest is a White House Correspondent for AURN (American Urban Radio Networks), Ebony McMorris. In a viral clip, Trump refused to answer a question from Ebony during a press Q&A, and repeatedly insisted that she was “obnoxious,” reminiscent of previous incidents with Black female reporters like Yamish Alcindor, who seem to trigger the president simply by existing. Is this what the first amendment looks like for Black women in the newsroom?

One of you submitted a question about Jimmy Kimmel which ties nicely into our theme today, and tied to all of it is the sanctification of the life of racist rightwing commentator, Charlie Kirk. There was a House Resolution honoring Kirk that passed this week which many Democratic lawmakers voted “yes” on, including those in deep blue districts. Representative Jasmine Crockett noted that there were only two white Democratic representatives who voted “no.” Is this the return of the Dixiecrats?

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We are 404 days away from the midterm elections. Welcome home y’all!

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Thank you to the Native Land Pod team:

Angela Rye as host, executive producer, and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Tiffany Cross as host and producer, Andrew Gillum as host and producer, and Gabrielle Collins as executive producer; Loren Mychael and Jabari Davis are our research producers, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Thank you to Mark Cantin and Dylan Unger of the iHeart Video team and producing engineer Abu Zafar. A special thanks as well to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media.

Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.