Season 2, E11: Unpacking Why Copaganda is Dangerous with Journalist Reina Sultan

Media featuring cops has been a staple of North American film and television culture. Heck, who didn't grow up watching Law and Order on A&E? However, during the George Floyd protests, copaganda was identified as a widespread tactic of the police and media. Officers kneeling with protestors in performative displays of solidarity online. People worldwide became increasingly aware of how pieces of popular culture (*cough, police lip-sync challenges on TikTok, cough*) tried to be more sympathetic to the police without showcasing the real cost of policing to marginalized bodies. And it's not hard to see why.

For this week's episode, we have invited Reina Sultan, a Lebanese-American Muslim freelance journalist and one of the co-creators of 8 to Abolition. She is a PIC [prison-industrial complex] abolitionist and anarcha-feminist working to dismantle white supremacist cis-heteronormative patriarchy systems. Her work can also be found in VICE, WYV, Bitch Mag, ZORA, and Teen Vogue - to name a few.

In this week's episode, we discuss the following:

• What is copaganda?

• How can we begin to ask more questions or have better media literacy when it comes to copaganda

• Is all cop media copaganda - how and where do we draw the line?

• Is Paw Patrol ACAB? How are kids’ films and TV shows being infiltrated by copaganda and having discussions with your kids earlier on what they should know?

• How do we put an end to copaganda or can we, realistically?

• Then we play a game called "Cop or Not a Cop?"

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Further Reading on this Topic!

1. When ‘Cops’ Forced Ugly Copaganda Down America’s Throat - The Daily Beast

2. How 70 years of cop shows taught us to valorize the police - Vox

3. NSW Police Are Being Slammed On TikTok For ‘Copaganda’ - Junkee

4. Even the best cop shows fall into "copaganda" – helping the real-life police more than survivors - Salon

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Click here for the full episode transcript.