Episode 7: Bianca Cunningham
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Bianca Cunningham, Campaign Director at the Action Center on Race and the Economy and a co-founder of the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus of DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America. The three of us began the episode by exploring different dimensions of the war in Ukraine. We continued with Bianca elaborating on why she thought socialism was the way to best address the issue of structural racism. Later, she spoke about the need to re-imagine community safety and provided examples of how strong relationships among community members could solve “safety” issues without resorting to the use of the police. Finally, she detailed the efforts of DSA members who are state legislators in New York, who employ a two-prong approach to building power: operating as a socialist caucus in the New York State Legislature and delivering constituent services in New York City in ways that actually organize residents instead of the residents becoming passive service recipients.