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
June 28, 2025 • 44 mins
One family's legacy is closely tied to the Supreme Court ruling that just gave President Trump more power by restricting lower courts. Victor speaks with Norman Wong, the great-grandson of the man whose case led to a landmark decision on birthright citizenship more than 100 years ago, Wong Kim Ark.
Plus, Florida's tribes are speaking out against construction of a migrant detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz". The Chai...
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June 21, 2025 • 44 mins
Right now, a journalist who has reported on immigration issues in Georgia for years is facing deportation after being arrested while covering a protest. Mario Guevara’s attorney says he is in the U.S. legally yet remains in ICE custody. Victor speaks with Guevara’s lawyer, Giovanni Díaz, along with Alondra Madrigal who works closely with Mario as a reporter with MG News and Guevara's son, Oscar Guevara Saenz, who is also a photojou...
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June 14, 2025 • 42 mins
Flag Day is marked by “No Kings” protests nationwide as President Trump hosts a massive military parade. DC Councilmember Christina Henderson, who is also the daughter of an Army veteran, joins Victor.
Plus – Victor speaks to Black Marine veteran Phillip E. Thompson. He’ll explain his recent article for the Washington Post saying young Americans of color should “pause and reassess” service in the military.
Later, you'll hea...
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June 7, 2025 • 43 mins
Job Corps is a lifeline for thousands of low-income students, and there is bipartisan concern about a Trump administration effort to close the program. Victor speaks about the legal fight now underway with Donna Hay, President and CEO of the National Job Corps Association.
After claiming it was impossible to bring back a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the U.S. to face federal criminal ch...
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May 31, 2025 • 42 mins
19-year-old college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal was wrongfully pulled over in Dalton, Georgia recently. She spent weeks in ICE detention. One of her supporters through this ordeal is a Republican. Georgia State Representative Kasey Carpenter joins Ximena and Victor to discuss his opposition to her detention, and their push for meaningful immigration reform.
Plus, the fight over Massapequa High School's Native American mascot...
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May 24, 2025 • 43 mins
5 years after the murder of George Floyd, changes made in an effort to make police departments more accountable are being reversed by the Trump administration. Victor speaks with Michael Harrison, an independent law enforcement investigator who has been following police reforms in Minneapolis and cities across the country.
After the Mayor of Chicago touted the diverse staff in his office, the Justice Department announced that t...
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May 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin returns to defend the Trump administration's move to expedite refugee status for White South Africans while broadly suspending most other refugee programs. Victor also presses her on alleged plans for a reality show featuring immigrants, and her claims about protesters at an ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey.
Plus, Monique Pressley joins Victor to ...
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May 10, 2025 • 44 mins
The Trump administration narrative around the arrest of the Mayor of Newark takes a turn when a Department of Homeland Security official floats the possibility of arrest for members of congress who are accused of “body slamming” immigration agents. Victor speaks with the DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Tricia McLaughlin. And just hours after leaving custody, Mayor Ras Baraka responds to McLaughlin’s claims and his arres...
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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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