Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
In this live episode, we talk about the hollowing out of the Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court has accomplished with its recent LOUISIANA v. CALLAIS ET AL. ruling. The court’s conservative majority found that the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race. In its wake, a number of southern states with white Republican-dominated legislatures have raced to redraw their electoral maps to further dilute the power of African American voters. We talk about the perfect storm of the erasure of history, faulty logic, and gaslighting that is turning the clock back on voting rights for Black Americans and what we can do in response. And we took viewers questions on a wide range of topics in the last half of the show.
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In this live episode, we talk about the hollowing out of the Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court has accomplished with its recent LOUISIANA v. CALLAIS ET AL. ruling. The court’s conservative majority found that the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race. In its wake, a number of southern states with white Republican-dominated legislatures have raced to redraw their electoral maps to further dilute the power of African American voters. We talk about the perfect storm of the erasure of history, faulty logic, and gaslighting that is turning the clock back on voting rights for Black Americans and what we can do in response. And we took viewers questions on a wide range of topics in the last half of the show.
Subscribe: Convocation.Substack.com
Follow on BlueSky:
https://bsky.app/profile/jemartisby.b...
https://bsky.app/profile/kkdumez.bsky...
https://bsky.app/profile/dianabutlerb...
https://bsky.app/profile/robertpjones...
Follow on Substack:
The Convocation- convocation.substack.com
Robert P. Jones- whitetoolong.net
Diana Butler Bass- dianabutlerbass.substack.com
Kristin Du Mez- kristindumez.substack.com
Jemar Tisby- JemarTisby.Substack.com










![Are We Hopeless?
FULL EPISODE: https://youtu.be/KU7vIdyo31Q?si=kwmwtAQ-JlJC1N-w
We love your comments. In fact, we led off our discussion by sharing our reflections on one particular comment.
Robby shared,
[This person was] finding themselves feeling a little jaded by the constant, “You wont believe what just happened now.”
And same thing, day after day, after day—kind of a Groundhog Day experience, and worried about getting caught up in the negativity, not being able to think about: What do we do?
How can we manage the chaos?
How can we manage our own responses to it, and try to get to do something productive in the meantime?
So we each shared how we approach our obligation to tell the truth—which necessarily involves a lot of “doom and gloom”—with the equally urgent call to hope and resilience.
We do these live episodes once a month, and the best part for us as hosts is interacting with you in real time.
So we devote about half the episode to answering your questions.
We’re curious: How do you resist feeling jaded when there’s so much bad news? How are you cultivating hope and resilience? Let us know in the comments.
A Live Q & A Session with The Convocation Unscripted
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The Convocation- convocation.substack.com
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Kristin Du Mez- kristindumez.substack.com
Jemar Tisby- JemarTisby.Substack.com Are We Hopeless?](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/53SDG0goLZw/mqdefault.jpg)