Ep. 60 - Electoral & Radical Politics 3.0 ft. Stephanie Skora

Building on the first and second installment of the Electoral
& Radical Politics series with activists and alderpeople,
BrownTown talks electoral politics, grassroots organizing, and
everything in between with Stephanie Skora, creator of the
popular "Girl, I Guess" Progressive Voter Guide. With everything
that is 2020 as the backdrop, the team breaks down the Cook
County General Election ballot, Chicago politics, and the role of
and opinions on voting within movement circles. In this third
installment, BrownTown leans hard into into the much-loved voter
guide, using it as a site to discuss topics ranging from
progressive shifts in popular opinion, factions within the
two-party system (Tea Party in 2010, democratic socialists in
2018), inaccessible language, literal fascism, and vote shaming
in 2020). Originally recorded October 1, 2020.


Stephanie shares her background creating the guide (originally
with her friend Ellen Mayer) and the differences between Chicago
municipal, Democratic primary, and general elections. The team
breaks down ballot items such as the Fair Tax Amendment and the
importance of judges (peep #TrappedByToomin, Judges Matter,
Injustice Watch) set to the backdrop of coronavirus, summer
uprisings, and an already high voter engagement. Each give their
opinion on vote shaming amongst the normally politically
inactive, vote-dodging amongst the highly politically active, and
how to understand voting as simply a tool and by no means the
path to liberation. Once again, they wrap by exploring the
current state of next year's Chicago city budget and a
re-energized call to defund the Chicago Police Department, noting
the 87% of Chicagoans who are calling for it, despite an
unwilling Mayor Lightfoot.


With everything that is 2020 as the backdrop, how do we work
towards actual liberation while participating (begrudgingly) in
the current violent settler colonial system? Or do we? Here's
their take. Originally recorded October 1, 2020.


GUEST
Stephanie Skora is a Chicago-based unapologetic femme, a
statistically middle-aged genderqueer trans woman, a lesbian
reclamationist, and an anti-racist, anti-Zionist white Jew
practicing her spiritual tradition through the Religious
Anarchist Jewish practice. Born with some pretty bad paperwork
errors, raised in a deeply conservative suburb of Chicago,
Illinois, and brought up in a sheltering, faux-liberal, and
Zionist family with an abusive parent, Stephanie had the making
of an activist from an early age. Stephanie is a renowned
educator, organizer, researcher, and non-profiteer whose work is
recognized and sought after across the United States, and in the
Midwest in particular. Her activist work centers radical queer
and trans justice, liberation for Palestine, and the dismantling
of antisemitism, while employing black liberation and decolonial
praxes, and works towards building and teaching survival in a
society and culture hostile to all forms of queerness, transness,
and racial resistance and life. She is currently the Associate
Executive Director of Brave Space Alliance, and serves as Board
President for the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender
Diversity.


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Follow Stephanie on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Stay up to
date with her work at StephanieSkora.com.


Opinions on this episode only reflect David, Caullen,
and Stephanie as individuals, not their organizations or places
of work.


Episode Correction: The electoral college is part of
the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2 and
3.


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CREDITS: Intro song "(We Don't Need This)
Fascist Groove Thang" by Heaven 17. Outro song You About
to Lose Yo Job (Remix) by iMarkkeyz and DJ Suede using
original video with Johniqua Charles. Audio engineered by Genta
Tamashiro.


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