Women’s Spaces Radio Show with host Elaine B. Holtz with guests Susan Lamont on Petition for Effective Citizen Oversight of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Dr. Kim D. Hester Williams on Black Lives Matter: Historical and Feminist Perspective has been uploaded to the web archive. The show was recorded, broadcast in the North Bay and streamed worldwide over Radio KBBF 89.1 FM on Monday 6/8/2020 at 11 AM (repeats at 11 PM on KBBF) and repeat broadcast in Petaluma and streamed worldwide over Radio KPCA 103.3 FM on Wednesday 6/10/2020 at 11 AM.
Women’s Spaces Radio Show of 6/8/2020 with guests Susan Lamont on Petition for Effective Citizen Oversight of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Dr. Kim D. Hester Williams on Black Lives Matter: Historical and Feminist Perspective – Show ID: WSA200608
Listen to the show on its archive page at:
http://www.womensspaces.com/ArchiveWSA20/WSA200608.html
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Citizen Oversight of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office
Black Lives Matter: Historical and Feminist Perspective
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New as of 1/1/2020: Subscribe for Podcasts of the Show
via this link for iTunes or via this link for Podcasts.com
Featuring
1. Susan Lamont, Member, Evelyn Cheatham Committee To Support An Effective Iolero; Local Activist on Police Accountability
2. Dr. Kim D. Hester Williams, Professor, African American Literature, Sonoma State University; Author
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Our Featured Guests
1. Susan Lamont shares reasons why the Evelyn Cheatham Ordinance to Support An Effective IOLERO (The Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach), is necessary in our county for more accountability of the Sheriff’s Office. An online petition on Change.org has been started last Tuesday to encourage the County Board of Supervisors to pass the amendment to the ordinance for IOLERO or place it on the ballot in November, By the time of this show already 5,000 have signed the petition. Passage of this new ordinance for the County will give suppoena power to IOLERO to force the Sheriff to comply with requests for information and records. This is the time to act as protests against police brutality and racism continue for the 10th day in our county and around the nation and world. Listeners are urged to sign the online petition and also call their county supervisor to voice their support at (707) 565-2241. The history of IOLERO, the changes to make it more effective, and the link to the online petition can be found on the Committee’s website at https://socoeffectiveoversight.org/
About our Guest: Susan Lamont is a longtime peace and social justice activist, who is currently affiliated with Sonoma County’s Green Party, Police Brutality Coalition and Veterans for Peace. She is also a writer, poet and photographer.
Guest Links:
Evelyn Cheatham Committee To Support An Effective IOLERO link, information on the proposesd ordinance amendment and link to the online petition:
https://socoeffectiveoversight.org/
Making IOLERO Stronger Petition Link to Save Direct Democracy: Place Stronger Community Oversight of Law Enforcement on the Ballot Petition to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors at this link:
Change.org Petition .
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2. Dr. Kim D. Hester Williams returns to share how the the 9 -minute strangulation of George Floyd by a police officer as 3 police officers assisting him affected her as a Black woman, mother and educator. She draws our attention to the fact that the officer who kept applying his knee to George Floyd’s neck kept his hands in his pockets, as if this just another casual killing of a Black person, encouraged by historical racism in the USA and even the Supreme Court.. She reminds us of the Dred Scott decison in 1857, which in the majority opinion of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Taney stated:
“They [people of African ancestry] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery.”
Given the 400 year history of this White Supremacy attitude, and the laws to support it, Dr. Williams wonders if ten years from now we are not still addressing this divide among the people of this nation. She calls for a united front of black, white and all colors of skin together, against racism, and is hopeful at the response of white people in showing up and supporting the protests these last 10 days. She recommends some books about women of color feminism which we list below to further our education in this regard.
About our Guest: Dr. Kim D. Hester Williams is a Professor of English and American Multicultural Studies (AMCS) at Sonoma State University. She currently serves as Chair of American Multicultural Studies in addition to teaching nineteenth-century American literature, African American literature and culture. And is an affiliate faculty in Film Studies and Women and Gender Studies at Sonoma State University. She is co-editor, with LeiLani Nishime, of Racial Ecologies – a book collection of interdisciplinary essays on race and environment, published by the University of Washington Press in 2018. Her poetry is grounded in the long tradition of African American Womanist poetics. She is also currently an active member of the American Canyon So optimist Association, an organization that supports the economic empowerment and vitality of all women through education, training, and solidarity. Dr. Hester Williams takes great pride in merging her teaching, scholarship, and research about racial and gender equality with her commitment to community service, social justice, and enacting an equitable, sustainable society—in both personal and communal practice.
Guest Links:
https://english.sonoma.edu/faculty-staff/kim-d-hester-williams
Book recommended by our Guest:
This Bridge Called my Back; But Some Of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women’s Studies, an anthology of feminist studies. Co-edited by Akasha Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell-Scott, and Barbara Smith, 1982, Feminist Press. Wikipedia link
Dred Scott v. Sanford case of 1857, Majority Opinion by Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney https://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/865
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Check out important dates to remember in herstory at the National Women’s History Alliance
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Check links in case of postponement, cancellations, or restrictions due to pandemic precautions.
August 26 – November 8, 2020, Petaluma’s Participation in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, Petaluma Library and Historical Museum The Petaluma Museum Association’s suffrage exhibit has been rescheduled. This postponement has provided the opportunity to coordinate the exhibit’s opening reception with the national celebration of “Women’s Equality Day”. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, August 26th, 5 to 8 pm! The exhibit will be dedicated to our former Congresswoman, Lynn Woolsey, and our former Mayor, Helen Putnam, and we are delighted to report that Mayor Barrett will be attending the opening to bestow the honors.
https://www.petalumamuseum.com/2020/04/18/petalumas-participation-in-the-womens-suffrage-movement/
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January 25 through September 13, 2020, From Suffrage to #MeToo at Museum of Sonoma County. Please note: Fee is required for entry to museum. For more information visit https://museumsc.org/suffrage-metoo/
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League of Women Voters of Sonoma County has scheduled candidate debates and ballot measure discussions. See their webpage listing the events at https://www.facebook.com/lwvsonomacounty/
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Sonoma County Women’s Suffrage Project https://socowomen2020.org/
with Calendar of related Events at https://socowomen2020.org/calendar
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The Opening and Closing Theme song is with permission of the Composer and Singer Alix Dobkin:
The Woman in Your Life is You by Alix Dobkin from the album Living with Lavender Jane (Women’s Wax Works) – www.alixdobkin.com
Black Lives Matter by Lovely Hoffman from the Single Black Lives Matter (Release 2017 – 100 Decibels Music Group)
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For music purchasing opportunity:
Link: Spinitron.com Playlist for Women’s Spaces Show
Women's Spaces 