Pulitzer Prize winning Nicholas Kristof on Inequality, Mass Incarceration, and Social Justice for Native Americans - a podcast by Share Our Strength

Why is it so important to restore Native American autonomy? Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof and Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health Director Allison Barlow join host Billy Shore to talk about poverty, education, and the struggle for social justice in Native American communities. “The Bureau of Indian Education schools only have a 53% high school graduation rate! We are failing them way before they fail us,” suggests Kristof. “One of the greatest prides for parents on a Native reservation is to celebrate their child’s high school graduation. If children there aren’t graduating from high school, it’s because of generations of trauma on top of a really ineffective education system,” Barlow says. 

 

“Just during COVID, we’re going to have tremendous lessons coming out of Native American communities for the world, especially around the value systems of honoring and protecting community over self,” predicts Barlow. “We as a country have had this narrative that when people struggle, it’s because of a lack of personal responsibility and bad choices. When a child born in a certain county has a life expectancy shorter than that of Cambodia, that’s not because that infant is making a bad choice. It’s because we as a society are making bad choices about healthcare, education and jobs,” says Kristof.




Join us for this powerful conversation about the role of collective responsibility in the struggle for a more equitable society.

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