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Melissa Harris-Perry: You're back with The Takeaway, and I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. For decades, WNYC's youth radio initiative, Radio Rookies, has proven that some of the strongest radio reporters out there haven't even graduated from high school yet. If you haven't heard of Radio Rookies before, here's Carolina Hildago, who is the producer of Radio Rookies here at WNYC.

Carolina Hildago: Radio Rookies has been around at WNYC for, we're in our 23rd year. What we do is we work with young people, mostly teenagers and also young adults, and we give them radio equipment, we give them a stipend and we help them develop stories around issues that they want to speak on, things going on in their community. A lot of the stories they're always personal. Some get more personal than others. Sometimes they want to go out into the world and talk to experts and other people, but all of these stories are rooted in their personal experiences and what they want to say to the world about their neighborhoods, their communities, their lives.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, these young journalists are between the ages of 16 and 24, and they've come from all over New York City. They spent the past few months developing story ideas, learning interview skills, and learning how to use the audio equipment, maybe most important of all, learning how to make a great story for the radio waves.

Rainier Harris: Craig Lewis was one semester away from getting his graduate degree. One night he fell asleep studying for a final. Then, a loud banging sound woke him up.

Craig Lewis: I opened the door yelling, "Why y'all been on my doors? It's 5:00 in the morning. Are you crazy?"

Rainier Harris: It was the police.

Craig Lewis: They was like, "Craig, yo, we got a warrant for your arrest." I'm like, "Warrant?"

Rainier Harris: Craig was a student at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. He had a scholarship, a job as a grad assistant basketball coach, and he was about to get his MBA. His next stop was law school. He said he asked to see the warrant.

Craig Lewis: It said racketeering, the RICO, narcotics, narcotics on the playground, firearms, discharging firearms. I'm looking at them I'm like, "Yo, bro, this doesn't make sense, sir."

Rainier Harris: Craig was sure it was a misunderstanding. He told his girlfriend he'd be back in time for dinner.

Craig Lewis: I ain't see her for another two years.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I was so excited to speak with two of the newest Radio Rookies.

Folashade Olatunde: My name is Folashade Olatunde.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Folashade is from Mott Haven in the Bronx.

Rainier Harris: My name is Rainier Harris.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Rainier is from Ozone Park in Queens. Now you heard the first minute of his work just a moment ago. Rainier's reporting explores how young people's lives are affected by a secretive database the NYPD uses to label people as gang members.

Rainier Harris: In my junior year of high school, I joined this public policy youth fellowship in Midtown at the Center for youth Innovation called the Youth Justice Board. We run on a two-year cycle, and our topic- we do topics that concern youth policy issues in NYC. In the past I've done absenteeism just in high school attendance or homelessness, and then a year I joined, we did digital surveillance and our main focus was the gang database. It stuk with me, because I remember learning about it and I was like, "Wow. It is this secret thing that not a lot of youth know about and is really impacting them." From there, I just became really obsessed with it.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I still appreciate the intellectual and professional approach, but I understand that you were able to see some parallels between your own lived experience and those are some of the people that have been caught up in this so-called gang database.

Rainier Harris: Yes, absolutely. The parallel is really were I'm Black, like most of the people who are on the database. I'm a Black man, again, like most of the people on the database. When I interviewed one of the main people for the story, Craig, I had realized that like me, he was sent to private school in order to "Escape," in a way. Escape the clutches of NYPD and surveillance, and all the things that are associated with the tough stuff with growing up Black. I was just really struck by the fact that Craig- he tried to, but he couldn't really get away, because of circumstances outside his control.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What were you most surprised that you found in your reporting?

Rainier Harris: I would say how hard it impacted him, in that-- How hard it really throws away your life, because again, I'll go back to Craig, wanted to be a lawyer and he wanted to set up a law firm. The whole thing with law is that I also was interested in law when I was younger. My brother's 11 years older than me, he's a lawyer himself and was a big law guy. Craig wanted to be that and he didn't get the chance to. Not because of what he did, but because he had friends and because he grew up and had friends like every other kid did, and because of that it came back to bite him, permanently.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Folashade, you told a very personal story in your reporting as you chose to really share this story of rebuilding your relationship with your father who has been incarcerated for much of your life. Why that story?

Folashade Olatunde: The reason why I wanted to tell the story of my dad being incarcerated is because I feel like we always hear the story from the parent's perspective, like a single mom or a dad being in prison, but sometimes we forget about the child and the trauma that it causes the child too. You don't really hear too many stories about that.

Melissa Harris-Perry: How did you begin that process of building that story without making it exclusively narrative. It's really a reported story. Where did you start with that?

Folashade Olatunde: I started doing voice diaries of visiting my dad after 12 years, and just taking the listener on a journey of what it's like to have to go visit a parent in prison. Actually make the person walk in my shoes, in a way.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What did you want to be sure that your listeners were going to take from that? I so appreciate your point that you wanted to take us along on that journey. You wanted us to feel, to see what you were experiencing and what you were particularly subjected to by the system to have to experience as a child, as you describe it now, the trauma. What did you want to be sure that your listeners took away from your reporting?

Folashade Olatunde: I wanted listeners to take away that the child is very much affected too, and that the system needs to change, because it's not really helping. It's more of dividing the world than connecting the world, and I also want people to know that, yes, it's trauma, but you can get past it.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I spoke with Carolina Hidalgo about what motivated some of the stories that you and the other Radio Rookies were telling, and she talked to me about the summer of 2020 about Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd, and about the uprisings. I'd love to hear from both of you about what that summer was like for you and how maybe it informed your reporting.

Folashade Olatunde: The way that it informed my reporting is it helped me to just see how the system is really still just not helping society at all, and also it helped me to realize that I have to also be the change in my community, so that it can change and fight for justice and sign petitions, and do what's right for society.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Rainier, how about you? How did that summer of 2020 affect both what was your experience like and how did it affect your reporting?

Rainier Harris: Well, when the summer of 2020 happened, it really-- Of course, it stopped everything and it was a big moment for everyone. At that time I had just started freelance writing a little bit and I prompted a lot of examination of media and how the media was reporting on the death and its consequences. I think what mattered a lot to me was how to actually make change through reporting, and that it's not just reporting the same stuff about police or not just propagating the same stuff about what is making us safe or not safe, but actually examining and why we believe that in the first place.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What kind of change are you hoping to make through your reporting?

Rainier Harris: Well, I hope people can pay attention a bit harder. I hope people can think a little bit more about why we say-- Well, what do we mean by 'Safety,' and say for who? Because it's really not safe for everyone, and why it is that way? I hope people start thinking about that a lot harder.

Carolina Hidalgo: Folashade, do you think about wanting to be a change-maker with your reporting or primarily a storyteller or a little bit of both?

Folashade Olatunde: A little bit of both. I want to share the stories of the people who feel voiceless, but I also want to show those people that they have the power to stand up for what's right, and we can overthrown this system that is opressing all of us.

Carolina Hidalgo: Okay, this is also for both of you. What was the most exciting and what was the crazy hardest part of creating these stories?

Rainier Harris: The hardest part was easily finding the people. I do like a good treasure hunt, just not when it's for people and for months. I think finding the people who would be the right way to tell the story, that really captured the essence of what I'm trying to say was the hardest. Wait, what was the first part of the question?

Carolina Hidalgo: Oh, what was the most exciting and what was the hardest? Although maybe by calling it a treasure hunt, maybe it was a little bit of both.

Rainier Harris: Yes, that was probably the most exciting. I think, doing the actual interview and hearing people actually tell their truth and tell it candidly was really exciting, because then it was unfiltered. It was the truth.

Carolina Hidalgo: Folashade, most exciting and absolute hardest part.

Folashade Olatunde: The most exciting was being able to put the story together and see how it works to put a story together. The hardest part was getting people to be able to be a part of the series, and also being really personal and vulnerable. That was also hard too.

Carolina Hidalgo: Yes, I can imagine. Folashade, you are just about a month or so from graduating from college. What's next for you?

Folashade Olatunde: What's next for me is I'm going to keep writing. I'm going to keep pursuing journalism, and making a difference in my community and hopefully in the world too.

Carolina Hidalgo: Rainier, you are going to finish up just your first year of college. You got plenty of time left to do studying and building, but I'm wondering where we might have a chance to learn more of your great reporting.

Rainier Harris: Well, I'll be in college, sleeping, deciding on what I'll study eventually, doing some reporting that I'm going to be excited about. Then hopefully when I'm out of college, I can make the big bucks in public radio. Totally.

Carolina Hidalgo: We'll have a talk about those big bucks and public radio, because there's two different things there. One is big bucks and one is public radio, but it is great work and we appreciate the work that you all have brought. Rainier Harris and Folashade Olatunde, thank you for your great reporting, and many thanks to Carolina Hidalgo for putting it all together.

Rainier Harris: Thanks, Carolina.

Folashade Olatunde: Thank you, Carolina.

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[00:13:51] [END OF AUDIO]

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