Sherrilyn Ifill on Rebuilding Post-Trump: " It's Gotta Come Down to the Studs”
4/20/202656 min
Sherrilyn Ifill maintains that we need a cultural reset from the ground up. The renowned former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Howard University law professor has been in the trenches of defending civil rights for decades. Sherrilyn urges every American to confront the truth about what lives in our nation’s DNA, because she understands that threats to democracy go beyond Donald Trump’s embrace of the "raw animal core of this country"—they are everywhere in our culture. She joins Nicolle for a conversation about the uneven “neutrality” in media, America’s obsession with wealth, and how the Supreme Court, in ruling against the public interest and for maximum executive power, has become its own “Frankenstein monster.” Sherrilyn also reflects on the project before us in Trump’s aftermath: “part of what we have to do is to reexamine our definition of what it means to be a responsible citizen in this country.”
And a note to listeners: Tickets are now available for a live taping of "The Best People" with iconic documentarian Ken Burns at the 92Y in New York City. It’s happening on Tuesday, May 12th. You can learn more here: https://stage.92ny.org/event/ken-burns-and-nicolle-wallace
Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content and early access to new episodes of "The Best People."
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a Black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay.
Nicolle Wallace· Host0:20
When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at startwithhope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council Home to The Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, The Briefing with Jen Psaki, and more voices you know and trust.
Speaker 20:38
MS Now is your source for news, opinion, and the world. Learn more at ms.now.
Sherrilyn Ifill· Guest0:44
In every institution that we believed would be institutions that could resist and save us from going down the authoritarian rabbit hole, we have seen culture eat courage. We have seen culture eat integrity. We have seen culture eat ethics, and that is true at the Supreme Court as well. And so the resetting- Yeah ... that we have to do is, like, it's gotta come down to the studs, and we have to be having serious conversations now about what we want to see on the other side.
Nicolle Wallace· Host1:18
[upbeat music] When the history of this time is written, that history may very well say that the people, the ordinary people living in places like Minneapolis