The Context

Stacey Abrams: DEI Is In America's DNA

American history is a story about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Stacey Abrams discusses why Americans should embrace and defend DEI as democratic values. She explains how DEI benefits all Americans, expanding participation in our democracy and access to the American dream.

Stacey Abrams is a political leader, lawyer, voting rights activist, and bestselling author. Abrams served in the Georgia House of Representatives for over a decade and as the Minority Leader from 2011-2017. As Georgia’s Democratic nominee for governor in 2018, she became the first Black woman to win a major party’s gubernatorial nomination. She is the inaugural Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics at Howard University and CEO of Sage Works Productions. Abrams has launched several organizations to protect and advance democracy, including Fair Fight Action, the Southern Economic Advancement Project, and most recently, American Pride Rises.

Jeffrey Winters: How to Beat Oligarchs at Their Own Game

Why do so many Americans think tax breaks for the uber-wealthy will help the average person? According to Jeffrey Winters, the answer is simple: oligarchy. Today Winters breaks down how massive wealth distorts politics, and what can be done to combat it.

Winters is professor of political science and director of the Equality Development and Globalization Studies (EDGS) program at Northwestern University. His research focuses on oligarchy in the US and around the world, historically and today. His forthcoming book, Domination through Democracy: Why Oligarchs Win, will be published by Penguin Random House later this year. Winters is also an expert on the politics of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.  He is an award-winning teacher, and his book Oligarchy (Cambridge, 2011) won the Luebbert Prize in 2012 for the best book in comparative politics from the American Political Science Association.

William J. Barber II: How an Anti-Poverty Movement Makes Extremists Tremble

The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, but millions of its citizens live in poverty. What prevents poor, low-wage, and low-wealth Americans from using democratic government to fight for a fairer distribution of resources? And how can they overcome the structures set against them? The answer is counterintuitive, but it's worked on other social issues in the past.

 Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, cochair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and a Charles F. Kettering Foundation senior fellow. He is a bishop with the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries and an executive board member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He is also a professor in the practice of public theology and public policy and founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.