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Podcast: Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast
Episode: Necessary Struggle with Barbara Smith
Description: Barbara Smith has been doing The Work for decades. Born into the era of Jim Crow, Smith joined the civil rights movement as a teenager in the 60s, volunteered at the Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland right out of high school, canvassed for housing rights, became part of the women’s movement after graduating college, and then co-founded a black feminist group called the Combahee River Collective in the 70s. The group grappled with issues of race, class, sex, and homophobia, and is credited with coining the term ‘identity politics’. A legendary and category-defying figure, we were lucky to hav...