We Saw it Coming

About this episode

Maya Wiley discusses the threats to civil rights under the Trump administration and the importance of advocacy and voting.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the country's oldest civil rights coalition, has put a lot of work into documenting the Trump administration’s efforts to turn back the clock on civil and human rights progress within the United States. The organization’s president and CEO Maya Wiley joined Grounded for a wide-ranging conversation to discuss several interconnected threats to civil rights. We discuss the Supreme Court's decision that led to the erosion of the Voting Rights Act, ICE detentions of people based on appearance and language rather than actual status, and threats to the nonprofit sector broadly. Wiley emphasizes that these attacks reach ordinary people, not just powerful figures — and that civil rights advocacy and voting are the tools citizens have to fight back.

People in this episode

Hosts: Jon Tester, Maritsa Georgiou

Guest: Maya Wiley

Topics covered

• civil rights
• Voting Rights Act
• Trump administration
• ICE detentions
• nonprofit sector
• advocacy
• citizen engagement

Keywords

• civil rights
• Maya Wiley
• Voting Rights Act
• ICE
• advocacy
• Trump administration
• nonprofit sector

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Trump administration, ICE

Books & works: Voting Rights Act

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