UPDATE, 2100 GMT:
I also spoke with BBC Coventry’s Phil Upton on Thursday morning about the Jacob Blake shooting, Black Lives Matter, and the divisive rhetoric of the Trump Convention.
Listen to Discussion from 1:27.40
ORIGINAL ENTRY: I joined BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine on Thursday to review the contrasting messages in the Democratic and Trump Conventions.
First we begin with the significance of the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, spurring protests in and beyond the city.
Listen to Discussion from 1:13.10
How do the marches for justice and rights, in the context of Coronavirus and the economic situation, feature in the election? We evaluate this through the calls for “hope over fear” — from Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Barack and Michelle Obama, and activists last week — v. this week’s Trumpian “culture of fear” theme.
America Unfiltered on RTE and BBC: A Trump Convention “To Instill Fear”
The other participant is Trump supporter Jan Halper-Hayes, who tries out a series of disinformation lines about the marches before admitting that Trump has failed “verbally” over the Coronavirus pandemic.
We have to start by clearing away misinformation and beginning with the basics….
Instead of whipping up violence, we have two ways to go. One way last week, in speeches not only by Democrats but by some Republicans, was dialogue over division, hope over fear, light over darkness.
What we have had in the last three days has been “America will not be safe” if Trump loses and “suburbs will be overrun by extemists and rioters”, i.e., people of color.
