Apathy Is Not An Option

The ballot initiative process can be used to pass laws when legislatures refuse to act, but in Florida, a new statute, HB 1205, is threatening the survival of this process — and the broader movement to protect U.S. democracy. Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Avner Shapiro and political science professor Daniel Smith break down the SPLC’s efforts to fight HB 1205 and protect direct democracy in Florida.Apathy Is Not an Option is a production of PRX and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nichole Hill and Mark Pagán are the senior producers and editors, and Jade Abdul-Malik is the associate producer. Terence Bernardo handles sound design and mixing. Alexandria Beightol is the host. For the SPLC, the executive producers are Cassandra Douglas and Julian Teixeira, and Kali Robinson is the associate producer, with assistance from technical producer Neil Parekh and senior producer Jennifer Lazarus of Digimentors. From PRX Productions, the project manager is Edwin Ochoa, and the EP is Jocelyn Gonzales. Visit splcenter.org and follow us on social media to learn more, take action, and support the work of dismantling white supremacy and advancing racial and economic justice.

Andre Perry, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Community Uplift, joins Apathy Is Not an Option during Black Business Month to highlight the importance of Black entrepreneurship. Beyond simply celebrating Black-owned businesses, Perry pushes us to understand the systems that will enable Black entrepreneurs, and the communities that surround them, to truly thrive.Apathy Is Not an Option is a production of PRX and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nichole Hill and Mark Pagán are the senior producers and editors, and Jade Abdul-Malik is the associate producer. Terence Bernardo handles sound design and mixing. Alexandria Beightol is the host. For the SPLC, the executive producers are Cassandra Douglas and Julian Teixeira, and Kali Robinson is the associate producer, with assistance from technical producer Neil Parekh and senior producer Jennifer Lazarus of Digimentors. From PRX Productions, the project manager is Edwin Ochoa, and the EP is Jocelyn Gonzales. Visit splcenter.org and follow us on social media to learn more, take action, and support the work of dismantling white supremacy and advancing racial and economic justice.

An expert in confronting “hard history,” professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries joins Apathy Is Not an Option for a conversation on the importance of engaging with the United States’ complete history — the good and the bad — during its 250th year. As the nation looks back on its past and imagines the future to come, Jeffries highlights why historical truth matters, what the Black freedom struggle teaches about democracy and how understanding the past can help us resist apathy in the present.Apathy Is Not an Option is a production of PRX and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nichole Hill and Mark Pagán are the senior producers and editors, and Jade Abdul-Malik is the associate producer. Terence Bernardo handles sound design and mixing. Alexandria Beightol is the host. For the SPLC, the executive producers are Cassandra Douglas and Julian Teixeira, and Kali Robinson is the associate producer, with assistance from technical producer Neil Parekh and senior producer Jennifer Lazarus of Digimentors. From PRX Productions, the project manager is Edwin Ochoa, and the EP is Jocelyn Gonzales. Visit splcenter.org and follow us on social media to learn more, take action, and support the work of dismantling white supremacy and advancing racial and economic justice.

The United States’ 250th year is a time for celebrating, reflecting and looking ahead to envision the nation’s next milestones. Apathy Is Not an Option talks to the SPLC’s Rivka Maizlish about how to honestly reckon with the past on this important occasion, with further insight from professor Carol Anderson on learning from historical struggles to create a better future. That future will be shaped by young people like recent high school graduate Harper Walton-Mouw, who joins us to discuss what the 250th means to her generation.Apathy Is Not an Option is a production of PRX and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nichole Hill and Mark Pagán are the senior producers and editors, and Jade Abdul-Malik is the associate producer. Terence Bernardo handles sound design and mixing. Alexandria Beightol is the host. For the SPLC, the executive producers are Cassandra Douglas and Julian Teixeira, and Kali Robinson is the associate producer, with assistance from technical producer Neil Parekh and senior producer Jennifer Lazarus of Digimentors. From PRX Productions, the project manager is Edwin Ochoa, and the EP is Jocelyn Gonzales. Visit splcenter.org and follow us on social media to learn more, take action, and support the work of dismantling white supremacy and advancing racial and economic justice.

What does it take to protect a community from being pushed off its own land? This week on Apathy Is Not an Option, Sapelo Island advocate Josiah “Jazz” Watts joins attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Economic Justice litigation team to break down the fight to preserve one of the last intact Gullah-Geechee communities in the South. As developers push for expansion and rising property values threaten generational land ownership, longtime residents have been forced into court to defend their culture, history and right to remain.Apathy Is Not an Option is a production of PRX and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nichole Hill and Mark Pagán are the senior producers and editors, and Jade Abdul-Malik is the associate producer. Terence Bernardo handles sound design and mixing. Alexandria Beightol is the host. For the SPLC, the executive producers are Cassandra Douglas and Julian Teixeira, with assistance from technical producer Neil Parekh and senior producer Jennifer Lazarus of Digimentors. From PRX Productions, the project manager is Edwin Ochoa, and the EP is Jocelyn Gonzales. Visit splcenter.org and follow us on social media to learn more, take action, and support the work of dismantling white supremacy and advancing racial and economic justice.