Palacio Podcast
Hearing Many Voices: Ina Parker-Hicks, Expatriate in Berlin
Hearing Many Voices will be a series of conversations that PalacioMagazine.com is launching today around the issues of the day. Last week, we published a feature opinion piece titled “Looting Is Not Change and A Riot Is Not A Revolution.” Ina Parker-Hicks, an expatriate from Long Beach now living in Berlin, Germany was straightforward in her opinion about that essay. Ms. Parker-Hicks felt it was tone-deaf to what was happening on the ground.
The Berlin resident inspired me to rethink my words and more importantly to reach out to her for her long-distance perspective on the events here in the United States. Ms. Parker-Hicks is a former Long Beach Resident of forty years who moved to Berlin two-years ago. In a recorded Zoom interview, Ms. Parker-Hicks spoke about her feelings when she first heard the news about the murder of George Floyd, the reaction of her Berlin friends, and her ideas for where we go from here.
Editor’s Note: Listening to Ms. Parker-Hicks and others about my essay last week, I have grown more convinced that we are at a tipping point but we’ve have been here for some time. This time is different because the context is so much more desperate: we are in the middle of a Pandemic and millions of people are unemployed and economically shell-shocked. Millions of people are angry at a long line of abuse by not only police but our entire legal system. Most importantly, I believe, millions of people are angry and frustrated that our political and economic system continues to fail to address the needs of people above capitalism. As I said in the podcast, we are being presented with another opportunity in a long history of opportunities to radically change America. I hope we all rise to that opportunity.
If you would like to learn more about the issues of the day, visit the website of Black Lives Matter Long Beach at blacklivesmatterlbc.wordpress.com/
Ina Parker-Hicks in Her Own Words
“Ina Parker-Hicks is an accidental activist of causes that affect and matter to her children. A Long Beach native who puts salt on ice cream. An unconventional adventurer she works as a dominatrix and fetish model to support her butter habit.”
The European Perspective
If you are interested in how Europeans see the events happening in the United States, here is a sample of media outlets:
- Al Jazeera Media Network
- ANSA (Italy)
- BBC (England)
- CNN Europe
- ZEIT Online (Germany)
- France24
- The Guardian (England)
