Adam Harris

So after the Civil War and after Reconstruction, there was obviously an intense sort of pushback to the progress that was made following the Civil War through Reconstruction.

Then after the Civil Rights Movement, there was an intense pushback.

And what we're seeing now is a pushback to much of the era of both Barack Obama's presidency, but then later the Black Lives Matter movement, which sort of intensified following the murder of George Floyd.

But it is important to note that even while we are experiencing the echoes of this history and we're experiencing the sort of nature of the sort of cyclical elements that are there, this also is a pretty unique iteration of it in the way that it is

Like in the context of the civil rights movement, there was intense pushback or even during the civil rights movement, right?

So much of the pushback, you know, it would come from states and it would come from extrajudicial forces.

But it was, you know, what the civil rights leaders were appealing to was the federal government to come and protect them.

Oftentimes, yeah, I don't think that we have seen a level of antagonism from the federal government who historically said,

You know, the federal government or the Supreme Court in the context of the Warren Court have been the thing that allowed Black folks to have some sort of support outside of the context of their specific geographic and political reality in a certain state or in a certain community.

And that now is gone.

There is no federal government to appeal to.

In fact, the federal government is the antagonist.

We could win, but we are very, very, very likely to lose if we keep treating this as business as usual.

You know, I've been thinking a lot about this.

I was recently in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and I bring my kids.

I'm from New Orleans.

That's my hometown.

My parents still live there.

There you go.

And I want my kids to have—I bring my kids often to New Orleans because it's a place that means a lot to me, and I want them to have a connection to that city.