Thomas Steininger in dialogue with Gibrán Rivera

The norms and values of our world are changing rapidly. The murder of George Floyd by a white police officer, after many similar incidents over many years, sparked a movement, first in the US and then around the globe. That we live in a world that was created by brutal European colonialism and supremacy is becoming a simple fact, rather than something utterly ignored. These are signs of a new waking up, “wokeness,” that is being disparaged by conservatives as a new form of thought policing.

Gibrán Rivera is an internationally renowned master facilitator. He has devoted much of his work and life to the idea of democracy and to the work of emancipatory politics in urban communities. He led community engagement work at Roxbury’s La Alianza Hispana, and, with Tuesday Ryan-Hart, he is currently running a conversation series on race called What Should White People Do? Gibrán is vitally interested in having all of us wake up, into a new way of being together that avoids the rigidities that continue the polarization that is so divisive.

Thomas Steininger, a white European coming from Central Europe, and Gibrán Rivera, who was born in Puerto Rico, which is still a US colony, talk on Radio evolve this week about waking up, wokeness, and how we can live together in a world in turmoil.