Running Mate Podcast: How The Black Lives Matter Movement Is Shaping The US Election

Running Mate is a US election podcast – just for Brits. In our third episode, we look at how the Black Lives Matter movement is shaping the election campaign in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and recent shooting of Jacob Blake, which has prompted protests across the world.

Host Graeme Demianyk speaks to Taryn Finley, who is HuffPost’s Black Voices Editor, and Ja’han Jones, a HuffPost reporter and creator of the Black Hair Defined project.

Taryn explains why policy promises to address inequality and injustice feel like “lip service” when Black communities face over-policing, de facto segregation in schools and cities such as Flint still don’t have access to clean water.

She says: “I think we’re going to see a lot of pandering. I’m really bracing myself, and I’m pretty sure a lot of Black people are bracing themselves for that. I think a big part of that is because I’m not sure if people really are listening to Black voters, because we refer to Black voters as this monolithic group. The Black vote.”

Ja’han explains Donald Trump’s not-very-subtle attempts to stop Black people from voting, including a Republican $20 million litigation budget to fight Democrats on voting issues. He says: “Trump himself said that his election hinges on the success of these lawsuits that are intended to curb access to the vote. So he’s not really being coy about what the strategy is.”

We also speak to HuffPost justice reporter, Ryan Reilly, about Trump’s efforts to portray largely peaceful protests as riots where looting is rife: “There’s all of this effort to condemn the Black Lives Matter movement when in reality it is a movement. It’s not really an organisation. No one’s directing these things to happen. There are a ton of different moving pieces and individual choices involved here. It’s not like there’s one key figure who’s saying: ‘Do this, do that, do this’.” 

Listen to the third episode of Running Mate above. There’ll be a new episode to download every Monday – find it by searching for Running Mate on any good podcast platform, and get involved in the conversation on social media by using our hashtag #HPRunningMate.