Race, Workers, and Voter Suppression (Video)

Posted in Events  |  Tagged James Benton, Mark Gaston Pearce, Race and Economic Empowerment Project, Workers Rights Institute

Voter suppression in the United States has a corrosive effect on elections and participation in the political process. When combined with the steady erosion of workers’ rights, however, voter suppression creates a grave threat to democracy itself. 

In this November 2, 2020 dialogue, Mark Gaston Pearce of the Workers’ Rights Institute at Georgetown Law, and James Benton, director of KI’s Race and Economic Empowerment Project, discuss historical and contemporary instances of how voter suppression and decreasing workers’ rights intersect, often with devastating results. In contrast to repeated emphasis on voting as an ultimate expression of American citizenship, they argue that voting is a first step in the fight for political and economic power.

Watch the full video of the discussion.