Episode 71

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Published on:

11th Jun 2023

Kakhova dam explosion and Fatima Muhammed at CUNY

This week on Black Diplomats, I start off with news about the Kakhova dam explosion in the Kherson region that has claimed at least 5 lives and is causing a massive ecocide in the area.  

For on the ground coverage, please read these articles that break down what is going on:

The New York Times: U.S. Official Says Spy Satellites Detected Explosion Just Before Dam Collapse

The Moscow Times: Norwegian Seismologists Detect Explosion Signals From Ukraine Dam

The Kyiv Independent: Zelensky: 'Russia needs to bear full responsibility for ecocide'

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My featured guest this week is Nerdeen Kiswani, a Palestinian organizer from New York City and close friend of Fatima Muhammed, the CUNY law graduate student who delivered the student address at this year's graduation. As you all know by now, Fatima’s speech was unfairly criticized for its strong stance against white supremacy and Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians. Of course, it’s all bullshit and untrue. 

You can listen to it here. The time stamp is 1:16:54-1:28:30.

Nerdeen, who delivered CUNY Law School graduation address, also drew criticism and accusations of antisemitism for her remarks, which challenged the very white supremacy and Israeli apartheid Fatima did recently. 

We spoke about that, why everyone should stand up for Palestine and more. Enjoy.

Here is Nerdeen’s full biography: Nerdeen Kiswani is a Palestinian organizer from New York City. She is the founder and chair of Within Our Lifetime - United for Palestine, a community organization revitalizing the revolutionary spirit of the Palestinians in exile in pursuit of liberation. Nerdeen has spoken for the Palestinian cause at events and conferences worldwide and has organized rallies with tens of thousands of attendees in support of Palestine.

Nerdeen recently graduated from the CUNY school of Law and has organized successful campaigns on and off campus to pass a resolution by the student government and faculty of CUNY Law to cut all ties and divest from all israeli institutions that service the occupation. The resolution also defends the right for Palestinians to resist colonization and calls to protect Palestinian speech. In 2021 Nerdeen led a campaign that successfully defeated a proposal to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism which it equates with anti zionism. 

While her organizing led to Zionist organizations orchestrating character assassination campaigns against Nerdeen demanding she is expelled, in the summer of 2021 CUNY Law issued a statement defending Palestinian activism and denouncing anti-palestinian hate. Not only was this the first statement of its kind from a U.S. law school,  contrary to the zionist demands to discipline Nerdeen, she was chosen to be the commencement speaker at her graduation, marking another victory for those fighting for Palestine and our refusal to be silenced. 

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About the Podcast

Black Diplomats
The world is full of black people, but when the mainstream media talks about the world, we hardly ever hear from them. Black Diplomats—a podcast dedicated to international politics and culture from the perspective of people of color—is going to...
Founded in 2020 and led by Terrell Jermaine Starr, Black Diplomats is the go-to podcast for those who want relatable content on global affairs that doesn’t center the perspectives of white male experts.

Few foreign policy shows are led by Black people or center the opinions, experiences and expertise of people of color. Black Diplomats is one exception. Guests are mostly people of color and people who are indigenous to the regions the episodes focus on.
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Terrell Starr

Terrell Jermaine Starr is the senior reporter at The Root, where he writes about the 2020 election and foreign policy, mostly U.S. relations with Ukraine and Russia. He is also the The Root’s 2020 correspondent and is tasked with interviewing presidential candidates and traveling to communities around the country to see who voters are eyeing to cast ballots for during the 2020 primary and the general election.

Some of the people Starr have conducted sit-down interviews with include U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former U.S. Congressman Beto O’Rourke, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, U.S. Senator Cory Booker and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, among other politicians.

Before working at The Root, Starr was at Foxtrot Alpha, a blog that focuses on military, technology and policy. Prior to that, he worked for FUSION as a national political correspondent covering the 2016 presidential campaign. He lived Ukraine as a Fulbright fellow, and Georgia as a Peace Corps volunteer. Starr has over four years of experience living in the former Soviet Union and more than eight years working as a reporter. Starr uses his media skills to break down Russia-U.S. relations in ways that make him not sound like a Washington hack. He is a frequent guest and co-host of the popular podcast In The Thick and his work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Mother Jones and Buzzfeed.

Starr is a regularly sought after speaker on U.S.-Russian relations, Ukrainian politics and the intersection of race and politics in America.