Native Identity & Belonging; Organizing in The Gig Economy; COVID & DC Schools

More Americans self-identify as Native American, according to the US Census Bureau. How identity intersects culture, race, history, and political power.

Ruth Anna Buffalo, member of the North Dakota House of Representatives and first Native American Democratic woman elected to the North Dakota Legislature, and citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, joins us to talk about a report revealing that there has been an 86.5 percent growth in the Native population in the US between the 2010 and 2010 census, with more people self-identifying as indigenous. We talk about the implications of these changes, and how there could be some positive outcomes from this, as it could signify growing political power, but also the issues associated with quantifying and assigning identity, which delves into a long-standing and complex issue dealing with the concept of race, belonging, and culture that has its roots with the dispossession and disenfranchisement of native communities in the U.S.

Matthew Telles, Instacart driver and organizer, joins us to talk about news that the company DoorDash is opening a new location in New York City, where it’s moving away from the contractor model and designating its workers as full-time employees in the subsidiary company known as DashCorps. We talk about how this could be considered a small victory for workers, since they will now be entitled a guaranteed wage, albeit a low one, and benefits usually denied to gig workers in the industry across the country, and whether we will see similar moves in other app-based companies.

Jamal Muhammad, host of the Luv Lounge radio show and the Old School Lunch Bag Mix on Square 1 radio, and Bomani Armah, hip-hop artist and educator, join hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber to talk about thousands of students getting sick with COVID-19 and more quarantined just days before the winter break, as DC Public Schools is dealing with a coronavirus outbreak, and a new bill introduced in Oklahoma that takes aim at the 1619 Project and which looks to dictate how the history of slavery is taught across the state.

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