ATLANTA – In this critically insightful and compellingly robust conversation released as video and podcast, ACLU of Georgia’s political director Christopher Bruce and Georgia NAACP president Rev. James "Major" Woodall answer this question. “What happened to Ahmaud Arbery?”
Host Kenyatta Kinloch skillfully guides the conversation between the three of them, all of whom are African American men living in Georgia. Through posing poignant questions such as the one reflected in the excerpt below, Kinloch solicits insightful analysis revealing historical undercurrents that are very much present in the everyday lives of the Black families and community throughout Georgia and the nation.
“Does this case serve as an indicator to the current state of black bodies, not just in Georgia, but in America?” asked Kenyatta Kinloch, a 25-year-old African American man who hosts the ACLU of Georgia’s Liberty Is Peachy podcast.
“If we needed to see the black blood of Ahmaud Arbery draining in the street of Satilla Shores in Brunswick, Georgia, to know that black bodies are still dying and being violently attacked, and to be terrorized simply because of the color of your skin, then something is severely wrong with our conscience,” said Rev. James Woodall, Georgia NAACP president.
“Black people have always gone through this since we were brought over in slave ships in bondage, raped, killed, and just embarrassed in front of our communities and families. So, is it the current state of Black America? It’s been the state of Black America all along,” said Christopher Bruce, political director of the ACLU of Georgia. “And what we are trying to do right now is to make sure that this is not the future of America, that America actually owns up to its sins of doing wrong to the Black community.”
The podcast can be found on SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Radio Public, and Listen Notes.