Mainstream cultural values are strongly influenced by film, television, and, more recently, social media. Pop culture shapes our worldview, making some things acceptable and others anathema. When it comes to issues of racial justice and equity, how has modern pop culture shaped prevailing narratives on the issue of reparations for Black people?
Film and culture critic Jonita Davis spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about her new story, “How Pop Culture Shapes Reparations,” published as part of the new YES! digital series “Realizing Reparations.”
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Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name. |
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