First Of All with Victor Blackwell
Victor Blackwell brings a fresh perspective on the week's news with a focus on stories affecting communities of color.
Episodes
April 26, 2025 • 6 mins
“Real Women Have Curves” is making Broadway history, both in its casting and story. The musical puts the spotlight on a Hispanic, immigrant family at a timely moment in America. Ahead of the show’s official opening night, Victor speaks with director and choreographer Sergio Trujillo, and stars Tatianna Córdoba and Florencia Cuenca, about how they took what was originally a play and HBO movie starring America Ferrera - and made it a...
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April 19, 2025 • 43 mins
For the past 40 days, Pastor Jamal Bryant has been leading a Target “fast” over the retailer’s decision to pull back on DEI. He reveals to Victor what came from a meeting with the company’s CEO and plans for a “second phase” of boycotts.
Head Start has helped millions of low-income children get access to an early education. Now a Trump Administration budget draft calls for the elimination of federal funding for the program. Dr. D...
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April 12, 2025 • 42 mins
A new survey of how consumers feel about the economy confirms: the vibes are off. And we know the impact is disproportionately felt by people of color, trying to save for the future and retirement. Victor asks entrepreneur John Hope Bryant if he sees a way forward.
An immigration judge in Louisiana says pro-Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported. Members of Khalil’s legal team, Baher Azmy and Ramzi Kassem, te...
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April 5, 2025 • 42 mins
The rollout of President Trump’s tariff plans is generating a lot of anxiety on Wall Street and main streets across the country. Victor speaks with economist Valerie Wilson, who lays out the disproportionate risks people of color could face from Trump’s trade war. And Victor gets real-world perspective from Atlanta-based small business owner Felipe Arroyave, who is worried that the tariff whiplash is putting his American dream at r...
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March 29, 2025 • 43 mins
The Trump Administration is fighting to detain and deport Cornell student activist Momodou Taal. Taal’s attorneys, Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennett, have a warning about other foreign students they say are being targeted across the country.
President Trump says he wants to remove "improper ideology" from our nation's top historical and cultural institution, the Smithsonian. Pulitzer-prize winning historian of African American h...
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March 22, 2025 • 43 mins
The Department of Defense is getting heat for misfiring badly in their rush to scrub DEI from their websites. Former Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, joins Victor to share a warning about the military's diversity purge.
After a judge called out the "frightening implications" of President Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, Victor gets perspective from Jose Antonio Vargas, who made headlines after te...
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March 15, 2025 • 42 mins
A new executive order scaling back staff and functions at government entities, including the Minority Business Development Agency, dropped just hours after enough Democrats in the senate voted with Republicans to keep the government open. South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn voted "no" when the bill was in the House. He joins Victor to share his opinion of Senator Chuck Schumer’s leadership in this moment.
Plus, Victor speaks w...
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Would former President Barack Obama or former Vice President Kamala Harris have been able to get away with treating the President of Ukraine the same way President Donald Trump did? Independent journalist in Ukraine Terrell Jermaine Starr makes the point in a conversation with Victor and former U.S. Army Major General Dana Pittard about the contentious oval office meeting.
Plus, a Native American women's basketball team is caught...
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February 22, 2025 • 43 mins
A U.S. veteran in Arizona is facing deportation after being detained by immigration enforcement a month ago. That’s according to his wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, who joins Victor from outside the facility where Marlon Parris is being held to explain what happened.
Plus, Victor speaks with the President and CEO of the NAACP. Derrick Johnson reacts to an early legal victory against the Trump Administration's effort to end DEI ini...
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February 15, 2025 • 43 mins
Deb Haaland is the first former member of President Biden’s cabinet to jump back into campaign politics. If elected Governor of New Mexico, she would be the first Native American woman to be elected governor in the United States. She joins Victor to discuss her campaign, and react to the mass firings of federal workers at the Department of the Interior, which she led during the Biden Administration
The Trump Administration’s crus...
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The group “Arab Americans for Trump” is now calling themselves “Arab Americans for Peace” after President Trump announced plans to “take over” Gaza and relocate Palestinians. Bishara Bahbah shares a candid message to the man he worked to help elect president.
Plus, Victor speaks with the Chair of the National Labor Relations Board who was dismissed by President Trump. Gwynne Wilcox is now suing, and the case could go to the Suprem...
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February 1, 2025 • 43 mins
A sign of the times: Black History Month is here, and the White House and Defense Department have different views on how to celebrate. As President Trump and his administration purge "DEI" from the government and blame diversity for this week’s aviation disaster, Victor gets reaction from a supporter of the president - former Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron. Plus, a former pilot and airline manager explains why these DEI p...
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January 25, 2025 • 45 mins
Federal agencies are being told to eliminate all DEI offices and positions within 60 days. Michael Leach served as the first-ever Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at the White House under President Biden. He joins Victor to share his reaction to the dismantling of equity programs in government and corporate America.
Cities across the country are dealing with residents who are anxious over plans for a ramp-up in immigration enf...
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January 18, 2025 • 44 mins
Millions of American TikTok users are in limbo as a U.S. ban on the app approaches. Tareasa “Reesa Teesa” Johnson found viral fame on the platform after the success of her series “Who TF Did I Marry”. She joins Victor to share the impact of a ban on her career, community, and the livelihoods of other creators of color.
As Los Angeles fire survivors reckon with the destruction of entire neighborhoods, Victor speaks with Wilberta R...
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January 11, 2025 • 43 mins
As Los Angeles grapples with the devastation of wildfires, Victor highlights the helpers, and the impact on lives that you likely haven’t heard about yet.
There is a surprising number of inmates working as firefighters for little pay. A former member of the California program joins Victor to share what it takes to respond to fire emergencies.
Plus, the chief of the Pechanga Fire Department shares with Victor what he’s been hear...
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December 28, 2024 • 44 mins
2025 is almost here! Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal of “Earn Your Leisure” share their tips with Victor on how we can get our money right regardless of income, and discuss their upcoming book, “You Deserve to be Rich”.
Plus, Victor revisits stories we've been committed to covering on "First of All" in 2024 that will continue to impact us in the new year.
And later, Victor takes us behind the scenes of the new CNN film “Luther: Neve...
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December 21, 2024 • 42 mins
Congressman James Clyburn joins Victor to react to the deal to avoid a government shutdown. As a former leader of Democrats in the House, we get his thoughts on what made it into the agreement, what got left out, the path forward for Democrats next year.
Plus, Victor shares the story of a family separated right before the holidays. A man in Texas says his wife missed an immigration hearing as she recovered from giving birth to tw...
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December 14, 2024 • 43 mins
President-elect Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan says the incoming administration’s “mass deportations” will begin in Chicago, and he’s threatening any state and local officials who stand in his way. The Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, joins Victor to respond in his first national interview since Homan’s comments.
Plus, crack cocaine, made by cops, is a real thing that happened decades ago in Broward County. Victor speaks to th...
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December 7, 2024 • 42 mins
Federal work has historically been a ladder to the middle class for millions of Americans of all races, but especially Black people. Many of those government employees were watching closely this week as the co-leaders of the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency" or "DOGE" visited Capitol Hill to pitch their plans. Everett Kelley, the National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, joins Victor to re...
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November 30, 2024 • 43 mins
Walmart is the largest corporation yet to roll back commitments to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Programs. Victor speaks to DEI expert Shaun Harper about the impact, and whether we can expect more companies to follow.
Plus, Melvin Coleman of the Atlanta Black Chambers weighs in on what anti-DEI measures and a second Trump term may mean for entrepreneurs of color on this small business Saturday.
Later, music journalist and aut...
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