Podcasts about african american studies department

We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!Michelle Steinberg, National Fire Protection Association-wildfire division director joined Dan to discuss Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, Coming up May 3rd. 48 million homes in the U.S. at high risk of wildfire - easy steps to protect homes and communities from wildfire destruction.Gerald Early, Professor of Modern Letters in the African and African American Studies Department at Washington University and Author of "PLAY HARDER: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America - how Black Americans have shaped baseball." stopped by.Mike Deehan – Axios Boston Reporter checked in to discuss MBTA will use cameras to crack down on parking in bus stops and bus lanes.Caroline Cory - Mental Health Expert &Co-Author of "The Silent Pandemic". Why Teen Anxiety Is Skyrocketing and How Early Energy Work Could Save Lives.Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!

Class: The Afrocentric Paradigm Written by: Rev. Renaldo McKenzie, PhD Student Professor: Dr. Ama Mazama Date: October 31, 2024 Topic: Presentation on Afrocentrism and Afrocentricity: How does Sara Balakrishnan Approach Afrocentrism and Afrocentricity? How does she differentiate between the two? Recently, there was a discussion in one of the classes at Temple University in the Africology and African American Studies Department about who is “Afrocentric” or not, based on various measures of what is employed by the student in his/her own understanding of the texts concerning the foundations of knowledge and the corruption of cultures which persist. In fact, what seemed to have been unclear among the students was whether there was any difference between “Afrocentrism” and “Afrocentric.” Yet, no one mentioned “Afrocentrism”. Instead, the students, in my estimation, spoke of “Afrocentricity” as the highest political tradition of “Afrocentrism” or African liberation. Some students argued that Dubois was not “Afrocentric,” and Fanon was also because they were not centered on Africa and still relied on European traditions within their strategies. It was as if Dubois and Fanon were not significant because they were not “Afrocentric” enough. Regardless, what they were was part of a tradition we call “Afrocentrism”. Sarah Balakrishnan attempted to delineate between “Afrocentricity” and “Afrocentrism” in her article entitled, “Afrocentrism Revisited,” Africa in the Philosophy of Black Nationalism.” She does not make the mistake of downplaying the contributions of any to our history. However, it discusses the history and development of Africa and its struggle for liberation within the historical context. In a sense, Balakrishnan attempted to reconcile the divide between those who advocated for one kind of liberation and “Africanism” or “Africanity” for another and brought clarity to the debate by suggesting where and when “Africanism” and its rich tradition begins: transcending “Afrocentricity” to considering the rich historical and political traditions and contributions towards African liberation starting with the first evidence of African civilization. Balakrishnan's approach is macroscopic and broad or considers the general and the whole instead of looking at particulars or aspects of “African” reality to make the tradition and experience inclusive. Nevertheless, she makes a comparison between the whole/general that is “Afrocentrism” and the particular that is “Black Nationalism” and “Afrocentricity”. Balakrishnan splits “Afrocentrism” into political traditions or movements such as “Black Nationalism”/Garveyism and “Afrocentricity” or the “Afrocentric” movement, etc. In terms of describing “Afrocentrism” within the tradition or movement of “Black Nationalism”, Balakrishnan uses a Marxist notion of self to conceptualize how, through strategies or systematic means, Africans became dispossessed of self. So, the repossession of self through self-discovery and developing a consciousness of resilience defined the black nationalist movements of the 19th and early 20th century: Pan African Movement, Garveyism, Negritude, the Black Panther, and (Independent) Movements. According to Balakrishnan, In this sense, Afrocentrism belonged to a political tradition known as Black nationalism, having formed one of its earliest variations. Unlike in the European mold, the nation of Black nationalism did not emerge technocratically with the modern state. Rather, on the collective level, Black nationalism has concerned the African's dispossession of the self: an ontological alienation consequent of the continuous subordination of Black life to capital, whether through slavery, colonization, or apartheid. In the pursuit of self-repossession (self-sovereignty), Black nationalism seeks to infuse Blackness with meaning and personhood, with liberty and destiny. Renaldo discusses the full paper at https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal. Subscribe for free! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/support

Shaonta' Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Dartmouth College. She also holds affiliations with the African and African American Studies Department and the Consortium of Studies in Race, Migration, and Sexuality. She received her B.A in Sociology from the University of Washington, her M.A. in Sociology and a graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies from Middle Tennessee State University, and her PhD in Sociology from the University of Cincinnati. Her scholarship draws on Race, Religion, Social Movements, and Intersectionality literatures to explore how identity markers like religion inform Black political ideology construction. Shaonta's current book project examines the experiences of Black Christian Millennials during Black Lives Matter. Her research has been published in Sociology Compass, Humanity & Society, and Religions. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/luce-cohort-summer-2024 Visit Dr. Shaonta' Allen: https://linktr.ee/ShaontaTheSociologist

Find me and the show on social media. Click the following links or search @DrWilmerLeon on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube!   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Wilmer Leon (00:00): I am back. I'm back. I went to what I'm calling Cult Fest 2024, also known as the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That was a site to behold. But with all that said, president Joe Biden has decided not to pursue a second term for 2024. Without a primary, without an open process, vice President Kamala Harris has quickly become the Democrat's. Presumptive nominee. Is this democracy or a Bernie Sanders? Redo. Stay tuned. We're going to answer those questions, Announcer (00:41): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:49): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they are current, a vacuum failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between these events and the broader historic context in which they occur, thus enabling you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode, the issue before us is the 2024 presidential election and how the Democrats are selecting their nominee. My guest is Tom Porter. He's a lifelong activist and scholar, former dean of the African-American Studies Department at Ohio University, former director of the King Center in Atlanta, former host of morning conversations with Tom Porter. Tom Porter. Welcome back to podcast, my brother. (01:57) So Tom, as I said in the open President, Joe Biden has decided not to pursue a second term for 2024 without a primary, without an open process. Vice President Kamala Harris has quickly become the Democrat's presumptive nominee. I believe she has now amassed the requisite delegates in order to become officially the nominee on July 8th. Clinton advisor, James Carville, who is one tricky, somebody wrote a piece entitled Biden Won't Win, Democrats need a Plan. Here's one wherein he wrote, the Jig is Up, and the sooner Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders accept this, the better we need to move forward. But it can't be by anointing Vice President, Kamala Harris or anyone else as the presumptive democratic nominee. We've got to do it in the open, the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do. Tom, it doesn't appear, at least at this point that the Dems are listening to Carville Tom Porter (03:09): And they shouldn't. Wilmer Leon (03:10): Okay? Tom Porter (03:11): And they shouldn't. I remember the most important black labor leader in the country came out of a meeting with Clinton Carville and Al from, and he said, Tom, they're a bunch of fascists. It is the Clinton Wing that took over the Democratic Party under the leadership of the Democratic Leadership Conference, which was made of Southern governors, which has gotten the Democratic Party in trouble ever since. And what that means is that CarVal didn't want Kamala Harris. That's what that means. It had nothing to do with the open process and what have you. He would know open if he had a can opener, Wilmer Leon (03:58): But to his point about an open process, because further on in that piece, he talks about Clinton and Obama selecting, I think it was eight potential nominees, and that they needed to have regional town halls where these individuals would travel the country explaining their policies, introducing themselves to the electorate, and then based upon that, an individual would be, I think the term was selected, Tom. Tom Porter (04:30): Well, the effect of it is one of the things that Jesse Jackson and the Jackson campaign of 1984 is instructive and people should study that more. What Jesse found out that even though he was leading the other presidential candidates, that the rules of the Democratic party was stacked against him. It was called front loading. So for CarVal, they throw the word around democracy. First of all, the America's never been a democracy. It was born in slavery, genocide of Native Americans, and still the land from the Mexican. So the fact of it is it only had the possibility of becoming a democracy, and it has yet to come there. So what car is talking about it seems very, very interesting. But he crow controls the process, controls the day, and I'll guarantee you that Clinton and CarVal and that bunch are not going to have any kind of process that they don't control. And so it may look like it. I mean, it looks like Biden was chosen. He was number four. How did he get past three candidates and become number one? It wasn't open process. And I tell you one thing carve out and nobody else said anything because he was their choice because they wanted to stop Bernie Sanders. Wilmer Leon (05:52): There are those who say that Joe Biden was selected not to defeat Donald Trump. Joe Biden was selected to defeat Bernie Sanders, Tom Porter (06:03): And you are absolutely right. And that is what they have done. They did it with Jesse in 84. The whole Jaime thing was just that a hoax. Jesse never said it in any kind of way that was demeaning towards the Jews, but the JDL disrupted interrupted Jesse's announcement when he announced that he was going to run for president and hounded us, us being me, Florence Tate and Jesse, who were three people called the road team. When Jesse first started running in 84, they hounded us to JDO every place we went. And before we got secret service protection, it was Farhan and the FOI that protected us. So they were after Jesse from the beginning. It's instructed for people to read the platform of the Rainbow Coalition because Jesse has had the most progressive populous campaign in the 20th century. Wilmer Leon (07:00): I'm glad you brought that up. This takes us a bit off topic, but I think it is relevant because James Clyburn and a group of African-American leadership went in and met with Biden a couple of weeks ago, and that's when Clyburn came out with the line, we Riding with Biden. And one of the things that I said as a result of that was, what did you get for that endorsement When you walked into the room and you sat down with Joe Biden, did you put your own project 2025 plan on the table and say, look, Joe, here's what we need. Here's what we want. Here's what we demand. You're going to sign this or we're going to go back out here and tell people that you just fell asleep in the meeting. I don't know what they got for that. And based upon the way that this whole thing has gone, it seems as though they were once again on the wrong side of history. So for you to say that people need to go back and read the plan from the Jackson campaign, and then we can even go back to the black political, the Gary Conference, Tom Porter (08:15): Gary Convention, that Wilmer Leon (08:17): There's enough data. Go ahead. Tom Porter (08:19): Those are two documents that people need to read. Not only read, but they need to update them. That is the agenda that came out of the Gary Convention and Jesse Jackson's platform. Not only was Jesse's platform the most advanced in 1984, when I left the university, I was looking for something to do, so I decided to run for Congress and Jackie Jackson called me Jesse's wife and said, Jesse wants to meet with you. And I was in Cincinnati running for Congress, and I went to Chicago, spent the night at Jesse's house the day before 1983, and that's when Jesse asked me if I would work with him in the campaign. But I ran for Congress in Ohio and I ran in two counties that were 99% white and blacks and white in Cincinnati, which was a big city, said, don't go out there, show your literature, but don't show your face. Long story short, Mondell was at the top of the ticket. I got 2000 more votes than he did in Brown County and a thousand more than he did in Claremont County. He was at the top of stick. He was supposed to ticket, he was supposed to help me. The fact of it is it was just as populism that got basically these working class, mostly Republican whites to get behind Jesse because of his platform. It was a very populous platform to the left. Trump came along with a populous platform from the Wilmer Leon (09:52): Right, from Tom Porter (09:53): The right. And so the Democratic Party, instead of embracing Jesse's platform, which came out of the Gary Convention, instead of embracing it, they moved the leadership of the Democratic Party to the Democratic Leadership Conference and hired all of Jesse's people and gave them jobs which are meaningless jobs, moved the structure from the party someplace else. But these Negroes became deputy. This deputy, I call their names, but I don't want to, some of my still call friends, but they drank the Kool-Aid. And if you read some of the press around Clinton and his crew Al from, and James Carve, one theme was We don't need Jesse Jackson anymore. They marginalized Jesse so much so that in the convention in New York, Jesse didn't have a VIP pass. He had to come through the door like everybody else. That's Clinton and his crew, and Nancy Pelosi and Clyburn and all of the Negroes come out of that. Obama's position was to negate the progress and the black leadership that had gone before he calling Dr. King a simple country preacher, he couldn't carry Dr. King's dirty underwear. Wilmer Leon (11:12): Well, in fact, wait a minute. First of all is that negating the negation is the one question. And to your point, you can go and read President Obama's acceptance speech at the Nobel where he talks about Dr. King and then says, but I'm an American president. I have a different set of concerns that I must address. You don't quote Dr. King and then say, yeah, but you say, yeah, yeah. Tom Porter (11:43): But his job was to negate the advances that had been made and our responsibility, and this is what this generation of young people, when Joe Biden has to pass the torch, but not pass the torch, the Hakeem Jeffries and that crew, we have to negate them, which is called a negation of the negation, which is an affirmation of something at a high level Wilmer Leon (12:11): Because two negatives make a positive. Tom Porter (12:13): That's right. That's right. And so getting back to where we are now, of course Kamala Harris was not chosen as a result of some democratic process, and one would not expect that coming from the Nancy Pelosi, bill Clinton and them. And so the responsibility of this generation of young people and young people have actually shown from the mass worldwide protests around the George Floyd lynching, Greta and Climate can change the mass protests around the war and Gaza, the mass women protests around the world. There's a new populism that is emerging. And if Kamala Harris does not pick somebody to be the vice president to the left of her, she may have problems. Wilmer Leon (13:16): Now, when you say to the left of her, that's a very, very interesting designation because there are many who will say she is the left, that she was the left to Biden. And by the way, folks, Tom mentioned the Democratic Leadership Council, Joe Biden was an instrumental part of that as well. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Joe Biden, they were all Nancy Pelosi. They were all part instrumental parts of moving the Democratic Party from the left. They want to say center, but it was actually to the right. So Tom, what do you say to those that say, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, Mr. Porter, vice President Harris, it's to the left of Joe Biden. Tom Porter (14:03): It wouldn't be difficult. (14:07) I mean that's a distinction without a difference. They say Twi D and Twiddly dumb. She was as a black person, as a black person, she would have to be given the history that she is a part of, be the left of most white candidates. But at the same time, she was not on the left. And so for her to pick conventional wisdom is a bunch of Bs curse of all. Somebody's always been telling me, well, Tom, conventional wisdom or you don't understand real politics. I say, I'll tell you where you can go with both of those. So conventional wisdom says that she should pick somebody from a state that she needs a governor. The protests and the mass movements that are happening, the populous movements that are happening are to the left. And they're to the left because the Democratic party and the Republican party are so far to the right. But what used to be when we said left, we meant socialists or communism. (15:28) But the left today is anything left of the Democrat or Republican parties. But if she is to, there are two things that I think that are important now. One is the platform. One is the platform. I mean, she's going to be the vice president, the president nominee. That's a foregone conclusion because any of these other people who want to jump up, they can't go anywhere. What's this guy out of? West Virginia said that he was thinking about running, right? The base. Yeah. The base of the Democratic party is black and growing Hispanic, and he's not going to get any votes from them. And so for him to say that he might run and they know it. They know it. And that's why they use Clyburn in 2020 who just as he said, we riding with Biden, we know Joe and Joe know us. I mean some of that old coon foolishness. So they know they can't move without black folks. But the same time they hoping that they got other cly burns Wilmer Leon (16:45): And they know they can't move without black folks, but they never offer substantive legislation to demonstrate a commitment because for as much as they know they can't move without us. They don't want to appear to the broader demographic that they're with us. Tom Porter (17:11): Well, the fact of it is if they were true and honest, Jesse Jackson would've become leader of the Democratic Party just like Trump did. Obama could have become the leader of the Democratic Party, but that wasn't his job. His job was to look good. He and his wife while doing nothing, my daughter sent me a magazine cover the other day where Obama was on there, and it was something about the new generation of Kool. He was supposed to be the replacement for Miles Davis and Malcolm X, all of the black people. We considered to be cool just because they taught him how to dress and walk black and he could shoot a basketball. So he did not want to be head of the Democratic party. He liked his job. He had barbecues and all kind of black folks in the White House, and they line dance and did what they did, and then he came out and did nothing. So the key thing now for the Democrats, if they want to win, I wasn't going to vote for Joe Biden anyway, and I already said it, and anybody that co-signs what he did in Gaza, he could be running against the devil and I wouldn't vote for him or the devil, so I wasn't going to vote for him. (18:38) Kamala Harris, black people going on the glory, they went on the glory with Jesse Jackson. They went on the glory with Barack Obama because black people feel their late nationalism that when we get somebody black, we'll get a better deal if we get somebody white. But as they say, you might be my race, but you're not always my taste. But they're excited about Kamala Harris. They're all this money and black women on Facebook are putting on with camera. I don't have a problem with that. The problem is what's going to be the platform and is she going to choose somebody to the left of her a more populous candidate? Because if she's not going to do that, then what are we talking about more the same? And the other thing that the Democratic Party has to do in the new world that we live in, they've got to loosen the grips that the Israeli lobby has on the party. Wilmer Leon (19:38): What about, I want to quickly go back to the issue with the African-American women and this proclamation or this statement, this sentiment that Vice President Harris has earned the right to be the vice president. And that any attempt to either have a more open process or anything that might challenge that is a threat to black women, it's a threat to black womanhood. Your thoughts on these politics, this whole identity politics thing, because she's a black woman, now all of a sudden is hands off. Tom Porter (20:24): Yeah, I understand that sentiment, but I understand it. It's like with Obama, we knew we questioned Obama, but the black women said that Michelle would keep him in line. Remember that? Wilmer Leon (20:42): Oh yeah. Tom Porter (20:43): They said, Wilmer Leon (20:44): Because Michelle we're from Chicago. And when she said that, I said, oh, we got some straight gangsters up in this joint. We got some Tom Porter (20:52): Elkins. But it was also because she was darker Wilmer Leon (20:56): Than Tom Porter (20:56): Obama. And even though Obama himself said he was a mu mother, he was sure about one thing, and he really wasn't black. He was clear about that. So I understand the sentiment, but everything else in our politics we've got to be serious about. Wilmer Leon (21:20): Not sentimental. Tom Porter (21:22): Not sentimental. That's what Dr. King said and his great thing about power, he said love without power. He said, power without love is reckless, but love without power is weak, sentimental an anemic. And so I understand that everybody wants to see somebody. I'd like to see short guys run the world. I'm five six. Nobody's deeper than that. Wilmer Leon (21:53): No, Tom, it's taller than that. Tom Porter (21:57): You're absolutely right. So I understand the sentiment, but that's the reason why I tell people that you must study deeper. You can't be all form and no content because then you end up saying that Michelle is darker than Obama and therefore she'll keep him in line. They were both like Clinton and Hillary, which was their role model, latter Day Bunny and Clyde's. So I understand that sentiment, but unless they turn it into something, unless they talk about the platform, what is the platform going to look like? What is camera going to run on? I mean, I see her quietly distance herself from Netanyahu's visit. She's going to be in Indiana, but then she's going to secretly meet with him. It's not so much a secret. So we've got to be, these are very, very serious times. And as they say in my neighborhood in Ohio, now's not the time to be nut rolling. So these are very, very serious times. And so when we look at passing the torch, who are we passing the torch to? Not Hakeem Jeffries, not the rest of these niggas, Roland Martin, they're all getting in line. They're getting in line without even discussing the platform. Wilmer Leon (23:26): Well, first of all, could Kamala Harris get away with not meeting with Netanyahu, understanding the power of apac, not meet with Netanyahu and still win the election? Tom Porter (23:42): I think she could. Wilmer Leon (23:43): Okay. Tom Porter (23:44): I don't think, see, APAC has never been challenged, (23:49) And APAC represents that group in the Jewish community who attempts to control everything that they can, particularly in the black community, whether you're talking about the music, the culture, or what have you got to say it. We got to say it because if we don't say it, then we allow ourselves to be chumped. And the fact of it is, is that it's got to be challenged and she won't, but she can challenge it by who she picks and what the platform's going to be. In apacs power is basically through the media, the media and its money. It's not the numbers that they have that can put a candidate in office except maybe in New York City, but she won't. But that has to happen. We cannot allow a group of people to control significant aspects of our community and not say something about it. Wilmer Leon (24:58): Wait a minute. And to that point, to those that listening to this conversation, want to jump on the antisemitism train and accuse us of being antisemitic, APAC said, and you can go back and look it up in the newspaper, they were going to invest 100 million into the Democratic primary process to be sure that they would unseat or prevent from winning candidates whose politics were to the left, and that they deemed to be anti-Israel. That's not us making this up. That's them making the declaration. All we're doing is highlighting and calling your attention to what they said. So we're not making this up. Tom Porter (25:51): I let those kinds of conversations roll off my back that you anti-Semitic, the same way when somebody says, if we get into disagreement and the first thing they go to is you got a Napoleonic complex. And my answer to that, would I be wrong if I was tall? So you can't be afraid of all these things because they going to come at you anyhow. I said to Jesse, when the ING thing came up, I said, man, just don't cop to that. And some of the people who were around him told him to cop to that. It was the biggest mistake that he ever made because they never heard him said it, and he never said it in a derogatory way. About, on the other hand, in our first meeting in New York, Percy Sutton met us before we were supposed to meet with the Jewish leaders of New York with a yako on his head telling us how we had to talk and act in front of the Jews in New York. So look, I don't pay any attention to that. We have to challenge, we have to cash all checks when it comes to us. And it has to be a Pan-African perspective where we really, where the continent and blacks in the new world. We've got to challenge those things that oppress us because if not in this serious time, Trump them are going for all of the marbles. Wilmer Leon (27:18): Yes, they are. I mean, Tom Porter (27:19): They're going for all of the marvels, and there's enough Democrats, white Democrats who will side with that stuff. Because quite frankly, where we are right now, in order to solve the world's problems, we have to understand two things. Who's been in charge of the world for the last 400 years? White men look at the state of the world. They forfeited the right to run the world, but you're not going to give up just because you enslaved. A bunch of people stole the land from the Native Americans. If we give up, we'd have to give up what we got. It's too bad, but we not giving that up. And that's what trumped them. That's what Hitler was riding on. That's what Trump didn't riding on. We don't want to give. Democracy is what it means to pay reparations, give some of the land back to the neighborhood. What the hell with democracy? That's what they're saying. Wilmer Leon (28:13): I want to quickly go back to your point about challenging APAC and other type of organizations, and I want to tie it to what's going on in Gaza now nine months into that conflict. And the Zionist government of Israel has been taken a ass whooping for nine months straight. And so this whole mythology of the invincibility of the IDF, that they're this phenomenal military force and they're getting their ass whooped. And so the whole mythology behind this thing is being exposed. And so just as it's being exposed there, it's being exposed here. The question is, are we willing to do what we have to do to challenge that mythology in alliance with those that are fighting in Gaza? Does that make sense? Tom Porter (29:12): Sure, it makes sense. Well, the fact of it is, given the geopolitical alignment in the world today with China and Russia and Brazil and different formations coming together, even the EU who has been lockstep with Israel, the eu, it can no longer hold to that position because without Africa, Europe is broke in terms of the resources. And so the Israel, where it appears to be winning because of the devastation that it is reaping on the Palestinian people, there will be a reckoning, and it's coming slow, but it is coming even among the evangelicals who say that the rapture will come when Israel is safe and secure within its borders, and then Israel will be destroyed. Wilmer Leon (30:12): Look at Yemen. Look at what Yemen has been able to extract or the force that they've been able to exact upon in terms of their involvement in this process. A small Yemen is considered to be the poorest country in the world. They control the Red Sea. They're sending missiles 1200, 1400 miles across Saudi Arabia and decimating important ports that Israel controls. The whole dynamic is shifting. So with that, when you look, you've talked about the platform. I remember when the platform committee meetings used to be broadcast on television, and I used to sit and listen to 'em. I know I need to get a life, but I used to sit and listen to 'em. That's not happening anymore. So how does a candidate, Harris, what type of platform does she articulate having sat there for years while the Biden administration is involved in genocide, while the Biden administration has wasted trillions of dollars in Ukraine, how does she formulate a platform that takes us away from that failed, attempted world domination and moves us closer to the direction that the world is actually going as in bricks in the South and the Chinese? Tom Porter (31:47): Well, as if we look at the Middle East, Wilmer Leon (31:52): The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is what I was trying to get to. Go Tom Porter (31:55): Ahead. If we look at the Middle East, Wilmer Leon (31:59): Is that a reasonable question to Tom Porter (32:01): Ask? Not only is a reasonable question to ask, but it's a reasonable question to expect that it be answered. You can't allow a small country in the Middle East, which was settled by people who were not from, that had no connection to the original inhabitants of the Middle East to control the future of the Western world women. There's a movie called Rollover, and this was when the Arabs dominated the money thing through it started Kris Christoff and James Fonder and the Greenspan character played by Hume Cronin. At one point, the Arabs were not going to roll over the money, and Hume Cronin said, you are playing with the end of the world. That's where we're at. You can't allow a group of people since Jesus time to control your system in the way that these people do, because it won't work with people talking about if they leave the dollar, Wilmer Leon (33:26): Which they are doing, Tom Porter (33:28): Which they're doing, somebody else loses their influence because there's nothing back in the dollar to begin with talking Wilmer Leon (33:38): About other than more dollars. Tom Porter (33:38): Yeah, talking about only a paper Moon Wilmer Leon (33:45): And Tom, people really need to understand for it because it's not really being articulated here in the Western media. Again, the power of the bricks, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and now about seven or eight other countries have joined the organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, those two as quiet as is kept in the West man, they kicked the French out of Niger. You look at the development of the Sahel cooperation organization, man, they are kicking ass and taking names. They are finally moving beyond flag independence, and they are now actually taking control of their economies and they are taking control of their countries and they are kicking the west out. Tom Porter (34:42): The Palestinian leadership met for two days in Beijing. I mean the world, one of the most popular soap operas used to be. As the world turns Wilmer Leon (34:55): In daily city, Tom Porter (34:58): The world is turning. And quite frankly, it's turning away. Not so much from the West, but from the ways of the West. And they don't get it. They don't get it. You can't put sanctions on the whole world without putting sanctions on yourself. You can't tell people they can't come to America, and you'd be welcome in Panama and Costa Rica and Brazil. It doesn't work like that. Or you'd be welcome in Africa. It doesn't really work like that. You tell the people they can't come. Well, clues the borders work both ways. We can open 'em and close, and you can't. I mean, the policies are so stupid in the West. I mean, it's almost particularly in the United States because they have sold this white nationalism for so long, they'd actually believe it themselves. The world is going on without them. Wilmer Leon (35:52): And to their point, I'm looking up here seeing if I could put my hands on it, but I can't quickly, Dr. Ron Walters wrote a book a while ago, white nationalism, black Interests, and I strongly suggest that people get ahold of it. To your point about the policy and the borders, which they say that the Biden administration put Kamala Harris in charge of the borders. I was at the RNC and this woman, Latinos for Trump is who I was talking to. And she was talking about the border, the border. The Democrats have just, I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. You are not even talking about the American foreign policy in these countries that is decimating their economies and forcing these people to leave their countries to come here. And she looked at me very puzzled and quizzical, and I said, lemme give you an example. Chiquita Banana last week was convicted in federal court in Florida of having sponsored death squads in Guatemala. So Chiquita Banana, a US corporation is killing Guatemalans, torturing Guatemalans. And that isn't motivation for them to leave their countries. She didn't even want to touch that, didn't want to Tom Porter (37:18): Touch it. I mean, it's very interesting that Trump would say that the people who are coming across the border are taking jobs from blacks and Latinos. Who does he think are coming across the border? Wilmer Leon (37:33): Oh, I asked her about Haitians. I said, the United States. Thank you. Hakeem Jeffries, thank you Kamala Harris, thank you. Linda Thomas Greenfield, the United States is trying to rein invade Haiti. Where are the Haitians supposed to go? Tom Porter (37:51): I mean, the fact of it is we have got to make sure and say to anybody that says that they represent us. Hakeem Jeffries, John Clyburn, governor Wilmer Leon (38:06): Gregory, Gregory Tom Porter (38:06): Meeks. Gregory Meeks, that if you're going to represent us, this is the platform brother. I mean, you had Hakeem Jeffries and Jonathan Jackson down here in Maryland supporting the guy from that owns Total Wine and Liquorice who was running for Senator Now, I dunno, Wilmer Leon (38:28): David Tron. Tom Porter (38:29): Yeah. And also Brooke. I didn't have no dogging hunt. But how do you come down here in this neighborhood and you support a white candidate who was no more distinguished than Officer Brook for what? Well, I know what Johnson Jackson did. He's in the same business. He's a liquor distributor and by man owns Total Wine. But I understand that he paid off some of Hakeem Jeffries and John campaign debts. So I don't know. But that's not representing us. You're not representing us if you're not on the side of the Palestinians. If you don't believe in the two state Wilmer Leon (39:10): Solution, Tom Porter (39:11): You're not representing us. If you don't understand what's happening in Africa or Haiti or Cuba, 70% of the people in Cuba of African descent. So you putting sanctions on your own people, you can't be co-signing that. And we got to say this, we got to negate the negation. We, as Margaret Walker said, let a new race of men and women rise and take control. That's what time it is. Wilmer Leon (39:38): So how do we get the presumptive right now, democratic nominee, Kamala Harris as a woman of color, as a multi-ethnic woman, Jamaican and Indian, how do we get her to speak to those issues? Tom Porter (40:02): First of all, we got to energize the black community because they're counting on that. And we've got to say to black women, these are the issues that we think, and there are black women who agree with us. These are the issues that we think that are important to the black community, and we need to have townhouses. We got to not only reenergize our black community, but we need to reenergize a movement because the struggle's not over. And we've got to put before, we can't just say that Kamala, you black, and therefore whatever you do is cool because it's not cool. Wilmer Leon (40:45): But that's the narrative right now, we are so ecstatic, and I'm speaking in the global, we are so ecstatic now that she is in this presumptive position and they are saying that she has earned the right to be there simply because she's black, because she's a woman and because she's been the VP for four years. But when you go back to when she ran for the number one slot, she was the first one out the race. She had zero delegates. She got less than 5% of the vote. Black people didn't even vote for her. Wait a minute. And final point, Tulsi Gabbard torched her ass in 45 seconds. And folks, I ain't hating. I'm just putting out the data, Tom. Tom Porter (41:39): Well, I mean she's earned the right as much as anybody else, but that's not really saying anything. Wilmer Leon (41:46): Okay? Tom Porter (41:47): It's not ever saying anything. The question is, now you here and this is what we're saying. Wilmer Leon (41:52): So what you going to do? Tom Porter (41:53): Yeah, this is what we're saying. We already went through Obama with this stuff and see, we got to quit accepting this notion of the first black to do this. The only reason why, I mean, you take the question of black quarterbacks. The only reason why there were no black quarterbacks in the NFL until there were some had absolutely nothing to do with. There were black quarterbacks, quarterback at junior high, black high schools and colleges ever since. There were some. And so the fact that you decide to let us in don't have anything to do with it because we've earned the right, we've earned the right. Our ancestors paid the price for us to be any damn thing. We want to be in this country. But now, if you're going to represent us, this is what we need at this point. And if you can't do that, it's okay. Do like Biden did go sit next to him while he's fishing, but we have got to have more programs like this. Too many people are not rolling in the press. You have people who, when I was in radio, well, you got to do both sides. There's no good side to slavery. I'm not even going to attempt that one so Wilmer Leon (43:04): Well. In fact, Tom, I've always, particularly when I started talking about Palestine, and I'd get calls from Jewish listeners who would tell me that I'm not balanced. And I said, no, I'm not trying to be balanced. I'm the counterbalance. Because anything that the positions that you want to articulate in the narrative that you want to hear, you get it in the Washington Post, you get it in the New York Times, you get it in the LA Times, you get it on M-S-N-B-C-I-A, you get it on CNN all day every day. So I don't have to present that because it's already presented. I'm the counter to that. And I think I got that from you, by the Tom Porter (43:46): Way. Well, it's very, very interesting. I was watching the BBC yesterday and the BBC hosts was saying, Kamala Harris is black and Asian, as if these would become factors. And she had an affair with Willie Brown. I mean, first of all, she's running against the cat who's damn near serial rapist Wilmer Leon (44:12): And admitted as such. Tom Porter (44:14): But then nobody mentioned that JD Vance's wife was Indian. Nobody talked about Nikki Haley being Indian. It only comes up with his black people Wilmer Leon (44:29): Who I talked to at the convention and was an empty can just full of talking points. Go ahead. Tom Porter (44:38): And so we going have to, the black community is going to have to defend her even if she doesn't want us to defend her because they coming at her. Wilmer Leon (44:49): Oh, no question. Tom Porter (44:50): They're coming at her and somebody's going to slip up and use the N word. Wilmer Leon (44:56): In fact, when I was at the convention, I was on the floor right after they nominated JD Vance, and that whole process ended the day session. I'm doing my standup with the convention floor in the background. And this other news entity had allowed us to use their standup space. And as I'm wrapping up, I say, I find it interesting that a guy who just three years ago was telling America that Donald Trump was the next thing to add off. Hitler is now going to be standing next to this add off Hitler as his vp. I said, how does that happen? And when I said that, the guy who allowed us to use his space came up and said, you guys got to go. You guys got to go. And we said, well, wait a minute. So anyway, but I raised all that to say that question. I'm not hearing many people ask, JD Vance said that Donald Trump was the next thing to Hitler, and he's now standing next to his Hitler. Tom Porter (46:13): Well, I say this about JD Vance and I put it on Facebook that he is either the white version of the Spook who sat by the door or he is the opportunist of the highest order. And I think it's probably a combination Wilmer Leon (46:28): Of nation of the two. Tom Porter (46:29): Yes, yes, yes. And I think Trump may be a little bit concerned now because Trump is in hot water because people don't like him now. They tolerate him. You think Mitch McConnell lacks Trump? Wilmer Leon (46:44): No. Oh, well see, in fact, I'm glad you said that because my advice to the Democrats right now is just put together a clip, a montage of JD Vance, of Little Marco Rubio of what's the dude from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, all of these folks who were, most of whom were sitting in Trump's box last week at Cult Fest 2024, which is also called the RNC Convention, put a montage of them, of Lindsey Graham saying, he's a narcissist, he's a bigot, he's an idiot. All of those put all that language Cruz, all the folks that were in that box kissing his butt. They need to tell the truth. Tom Porter (47:40): And at the same time, the Democrats, they've got some work to do. Oh, where do you think all of those people who were supporting Bernie Sanders in 2020, it's one thing for Bernie Sanders to be with the party, but those people, that's the reason why I said if she doesn't really pick a populous candidate as Vice President running mate, or if the platform is not one that is of a populous nature, she's got serious problems. Wilmer Leon (48:12): Those former Bernie people are part of that new crew called the Dual Haters. They're part of that new crew that is saying, we don't want either of these buffoons talking about Biden and talking. Tom Porter (48:25): And the fact of it is a significant number of the American people didn't want either one of 'em either. Correct. It was the press and the polls. And I say to people that polls are designed to shape and mold public opinion not to reflect the truth of public opinion. And of course, the other thing that nobody's ever, we haven't looked at, who are these people in the press? How many of them are actually Republicans? I know Lester Ho is Now, I'm not saying he's a Trump, but I'm just simply saying, because the press has been very, very lack in covering Trump. I mean, he lies. They never say that he lied. We are going to fact check him. Why don't you just say he lied about this? He lied about that. That's, that's the operative word. He lied. Wilmer Leon (49:21): In fact, I'm glad you brought up the polls because that part of the conversation got away from me for a minute because, and I know that the whole issue with Kamala now has just surfaced. So current polling hasn't taken place yet and hasn't been analyzed. But when you go back to, in looking at the numbers, you go to real clear politics. Trump at 58.4, Kamala Harris at 32.9. Now she has gained traction over the last couple of days, but still 58.4 to 32.9, that's not where you want to be with four months out from the election. Tom Porter (50:14): Yeah, but I think she has ignored the polls. I remember again. Wilmer Leon (50:18): Oh, absolutely. Tom Porter (50:18): Absolutely. I remember, again, traveling with Jesse and Negroes always ask these questions. They don't ask these questions. And they said, well, let's face it Jesse Jackson, you can't win Reverend Jackson. You got no organization, all this kind of stuff. And at that time, it was seven candidates in the race, and Jesse said, I'm number three, at least four other candidates that'd like to have my place. And so I think she has to ignore the polls because the polls are all part of the establishment, and they got a dog in the, and what's on the agenda now? What's on the agenda now is whether or not capitalism can in fact solve depressing problems that are facing the world today. And I would say that it can't. And so then what is the solution? I mean, I'm not saying that I have a solution, but I can say, what ain't the solution because it hasn't worked. (51:19) And therefore we got to be trying something new with some new people. And so the changing of the guard and the passing of the baton includes the passing away from white men, the same white men that who've been running the world, and the same white women who've been aligned with them. The passing of the church means that we got to not go with these Negro leaders who've been appointed, but to find our own leaders and to elect our own leaders, and the ones that don't do what we want 'em to do, we punish them by not electing them. Again, Wilmer Leon (51:54): Final question to you then. As you look at Kamala Harris as the presumptive nominee, I've been saying it can't work by just changing the messenger and not changing the message. Tom Porter (52:12): Oh, absolutely. Wilmer Leon (52:13): Go ahead, Tom Porter. Tom Porter (52:14): I mean, absolutely. We've already been there before. We've been there with Obama. Obama had, in the first term, he had the House and the Senate. He did nothing. And so we can't just change the message, the messenger or be satisfied that the messenger looks like us. We can't have got the demand and insist that people who represent us at whatever level, they represent us from the city council to the Congress and what have you, that if you're going to represent us, represent us. And if you not get the hell out the way, Wilmer Leon (52:55): But Tom, so what do you say to those AKAs that are ski win and doing the electric slide behind Kamala Harris and saying, oh, no, no, no, you can't do that now. Oh, no, no, no. You can't say that now because you can't put that on her now because we have to get her elected. And if you play those cards now, you're going to put her in a very precarious position and we'll lose the opportunity to have the first woman as a president. So what do you say to them that will respond in that manner? Tom Porter (53:30): We don't need a first black woman president because she's black. It's like people who say people fought and died for the right to vote. That's a lie. I fought and I didn't die for the right to vote, not for the right to vote, but the right to vote for something and somebody that would represent me. And so as the old folks say, you might be my race, but you're not my taste unless you willing to do what the ancestors have done. The legacy that you've inherited is not a legacy of people who went along to get along. It's a legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer. It's the legacy of Dr. King. It's the legacy of SNC and Core. That's the legacy. And if you ain't in that legacy, then get the hell out the way. Whether you a KAI don't know nothing about Greek organizations because I'm gamma delta iota damn independent. But my point of it is, we could no longer listen to these kind of arguments. I mean, these arguments go slow, slow. They say go slow. I mean, Wilmer Leon (54:43): Yours will come by and by. Tom Porter (54:45): Yeah. But we are past that. The world is in a serious position. And last side, look, we're in the world whether we are talking about the environment, whether we are talking about violence in the street, whether we are talking about homelessness, whether we're talking about whatever we're talking about, black people are impacted about that. And if you ain't for that, then get back. And we have to say that. I mean, I have no problem with saying to people, including in my own family, now look, if you ain't going to do nothing, get the hell out the way. I mean, I say that to my daughters, my grandkids, my friends. If you ain't going to do 'em, don't come around me because that ain't my style. And my heroes were Dr. King and Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer. They weren't AKAs or Deltas. We didn't care nothing about any of that. And some progressive people were part of those organizations. But we can't, if she can't get elected on a platform that's a progressive platform than how is she going to govern as a progressive. Wilmer Leon (56:02): I want to thank my guests, brother Tom Porter. Man, thank you so much for joining me today. Tom Porter (56:10): It's been a pleasure, brother. Wilmer Leon (56:12): Folks, thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon and Tom Porter. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, follow me. Follow us on social media. You can find all the links to the show below in the description below. And remember, folks, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter here. Unlike a whole lot of folks, we don't chatter here on connecting the dots. I'm going to see you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Woman Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (57:05): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd FULL TRANSCRIPT Wilmer Leon (00:15): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. So here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the much broader historical context in which they occur. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between the current events and their broader historic context. This enables you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode, there are a few events that have occurred and transpired recently that I want to get into. First, the United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations. It's important to remember that Palestinian statehood was recognized by the UN General Assembly in November of 2012 when it was given non-member observer status. (01:23) The US has agreed to withdraw troops from a key drone base in Niger. The United States recently agreed to withdraw more than 1000 troops from Niger, which will have a dramatic impact on the United States posture in West Africa. US lawmakers have passed a draft resolution containing some 95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, also approving a bill that will allow Washington to hand Kiev assets that have been seized from Russia and paved the way for a ban on TikTok. So with all of these things that are going on, oh, and by the way, more than 40 Palestinian protestors were arrested this week at Yale University. The school said that 47 students protesting peacefully the school's investments in military weapons manufacturers were arrested and will be referred for disciplinary action, potentially including suspension. And we know that a similar action has been taken at Columbia. (02:35) So again, speaking as an African-American looking at our current circumstances as a community and in the much broader American imperialist context, I decided to call my guest and I asked him, what's on your mind right now? He directed me to a speech by Dr. Luther King, Jr. Entitled, honoring Dr. Du Bois. The speech was given at Carnegie Hall in New York on February 23rd, 1968, in commemoration and celebrating the 100th birthday of Dr. Du Bois. In this speech, Dr. King said that Dr. Du Bois recognized that the keystone in the arc of oppression was the myth of inferiority, and he dedicated his brilliant talents to demolish it. And as Dr. Du Bois was creating the naacp, Dr. King said at the same time, he became aware that the expansion of imperialism was a threat to the emergence of Africa. He recognized the importance of bonds between American Negroes and the land of their ancestors, and he extended his activities to African affairs after World War I, he called Pan-African Congresses in 19 19, 19 21 and 1923, alarming imperialists in all countries and disconcerting negro moderates in America who were afraid of this relentless, militant black genius. That was Dr. King. So this is going to be the basis of our conversation For this segment of connecting the dots, let me introduce my guest. He's a lifelong activist and scholar, former dean of the African-American Studies Department at Ohio University, former director of the King Center in Atlanta, and former host of morning conversations with Tom Porter. He is Brother Tom Porter, and as always, man, welcome back to the Tom Porter (04:47): Good evening. Wilmer Leon (04:48): So with that long introduction, Tom, what's on your mind, man? What do we need to be paying attention to? Tom Porter (04:57): Well, it's interesting how you started off, and I would paraphrase what you said was what so many people are guilty of. That is an analysis of the results, not an analysis of how the results were obtained since we actually are told by the Israeli government and our government and the Western government that October 7th, 2023 started the Israeli Palestinian conflict. (05:35) And then we do a real stretch and say we compare the events of October 7th to the Holocaust. And that's a stretch. One incident involved a couple thousand people, the other one involved the assassination murder of millions of people, but they would have you to believe that they're one and the same. And that is so important today. If we go back to the speech by Dr. King, among other things, he said, while honoring dubois, that black America will never be free until a long light, long night of imperialism is lifted from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. And he also said, in honoring Dr. Dubois, who was an admitted and a vowed and proud communist, Dr. King in speaking of communism, said that our blind anti-communism, read Vietnam, read Korea, read Afghanistan, that our blind anti-communism has led us into one quagmire after another. So what's on my mind is that we're in a quagmire. (07:09) Where does the African-American community go from here? If we look at the African-American community, it's leaderless. There are individual pockets of people and groups that are challenging the system. But if you look at the black caucus, the black elected officials, the black actors, the black musicians, there's no real leadership. We forget that the movement in the sixties was a movement of African people. It was a movement of black people in this country, but it was a movement that was a Black Panther party in Britain, black Panther Party in the Virgin Islands in Puerto Rico. So it was a movement of African people against imperialism, against colonialism and neocolonialism. Now, the leadership seems to be embracing that very few of our leaders have called for a ceasefire, for instance, in the Middle East, very few of our leaders speak forcibly about the environment or about police brutality or about the medical conditions of black people. And that extends to the leaders in Africa where you have thousands of people risking drowning in the Mediterranean weather to stay in their home country. And then you complain about the Chinese building roads and infrastructure complain that they're trying to take over. So that's on my mind. Wilmer Leon (09:18): Well, it's very telling that you talk about leadership, because when I think about leadership, I think about Dr. Du Bois. I think about Dr. King. I think about activists like Dory Ladner. I think about Mrs. Hamer and Paul Robeson. I think about the Tom Porters of the world. Now we're looking at athletes and musicians. The discussion is LeBron James better than Michael Jordan? You asked that question. Oh man, you can be in a bar and wind up with damn near a fight on your hands that people are so personally invested in that conversation. But ask them about Palestine, ask them about Niger. Ask them about Haiti, and you'll get glazed looks, gloss looks, or you'll get talking points from CNN and MSN. Ask somebody about Ukraine. And the first thing you're going to get is, well, Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian and a dictator, or ask them about Taiwan and China and all they want to talk about is a spy balloon. (10:47) And then you mentioned some of the individuals in the Black Caucus. Right now, the United States is looking to work with Canada and looking to work with France to reinve for the, what is it, the third time in 30 years, reinve, Haiti, Hakeem Jeffries, an African-American member of Congress is leading that charge. In my open, I talked about the UN and vetoing, the initiative to take Palestine out of observer status and make it a full fledged member of the un. Linda Thomas Greenfield, an African-American woman raises her hand as the representative of the United States in the UN against people of color. You've got General Lang. I just talked about what happened, transpired in Niger, a black general, the of africom. General Langley, a black man is trying to find a way to undermine the new government in Niger and keep those US troops. Your Honor, those are just a few examples of what we're missing, what we're missing. And Tom, we don't even miss it. Tom Porter (12:22): You're so right. But the fundamental question for me as a black man, as an African man, I mean, at my age, 84, I'm okay, but when I think about the future of my kids and my grandkids, what about their future? And it raises the fundamental question, can African African-Americans obtain freedom, justice, and equality in a society that's imperialist capitalists and politically, economically, culturally, and socially? For all intents and purposes, that's a nation of white supremacists from the top to the bottom. And so the question is, do we stay here? One of the mistakes that I think that we've made that our politics and our politics has been to challenge the society to let us in on it, (13:44) To give us an Academy Award and whatever, whatever, whatever. And we have to ask ourselves, as James Baldwin raised, who wants to integrate into a burning house. And so that thing's on the table, as we see America in decline in many significant ways, including its allies in Western Europe at the same time that who realizes more when you are in decline than the people who are in decline. And so it looks as if, and the situation in the Middle East is part of that, that the West United States feels that Africa has insignificant leaders and the people are not united. And that is true for African people in the United States till they're going back in for another helping, they're going back in for another helping. And they sense that black leadership is weak. Black leadership are going to do what they've been told every four years and vote for the Democrats. And if I say don't vote for the Democrats, I'm not saying vote for the Republicans. I'm saying vote your interests. Wilmer Leon (15:16): Talk about that binary thinking because I wrote a piece a while back, the dangers of binary thinking for the African-American community. And what prompted me to write that was listening to these discussions about, well, if you criticize Biden, then you are either obviously or by default, you are championing Trump. And no, both of them are not above beyond reproach. Both of them are in fact, in many instances, they're engaged in some of the same activities because we tend to get caught up in the politics of personality and we lose sight of the politics of policy, not really understanding that Julian Assange, Donald Trump started that process. Joe Biden followed up on it. That's just one example. So this danger of binary thinking for us, it's got to be Biden or Trump. We can't see beyond the two options that we've been provided. Tom Porter (16:29): Well, that has to do with the philosophical underpinnings of what makes a society go in America. There's a rare university that offers political economy. They offer economics and political science at the same time. It's a rare school that offers, of course, in dialectical logic, symbolic logic is basically the structure of arguments. That's what you're going to see in New York in the trial is that who can argue correctly, not who's correct, but who can argue structure the argument that makes a better case than the other one. It has absolutely nothing to do, whether there's a crook and a bomb that's on trial that shouldn't even have gotten this far. Fortunately, I took philosophy, symbolic logic from a person who was a scientific thinker. And so he taught it in a electrical way, which means that your thinking should be rooted in the interconnected of things, the relationship between things, not this or that, black or white, either or. It can be boan. Wilmer Leon (17:58): Well, hence this program, connecting the dots, always trying to find context and provide the interrelatedness between events so that you're much better able to engage in better analysis because the factors that you bring more factors into your equation. Tom Porter (18:26): Oh, I mean, you're absolutely correct, but that is the thinking. If you don't vote for Biden, it's a vote for Trump. And if you don't vote for Trump, then it's a vote for Biden. That doesn't make any sense at all. But people say, those are the choices that we have. No, we have another choice. We forget that we made the most progress when we didn't have a black caucus, when we didn't have many black judges. When we had, maybe we had one judge on the Supreme Court, very few black mayors because we struggled, we fought, we banged on the door and push the door in. And that's not happening. That's not happening anymore. So you talk to people and it's that binary thinking, but it's that in everything. It's that. It's that kind of thinking. And that's one of the real problems that you have in the educational system here, why Americas is lagging far behind in certain critical bodies of knowledge. Because I soon realized when I was in undergraduate school that many of my professors concealed more than they revealed. Wilmer Leon (20:11): They concealed more than they Tom Porter (20:13): Revealed than they revealed. I remember when I started teaching at Antioch, one of the books I used in the child development course was Thought and Language by ky. And another faculty member said that that was too difficult for graduate students. How can a book be too difficult for graduate students? But the book by ky, which is thought Language is all the rage now rave now in educational psychology and psychology circles. But then because he was a Russian and therefore assumed to be a communist, even though he was born, if I'm not mistaken, before the Russian Revolution. But that's where we are. But the point is, my point today is what are we going to do? Are we going to go down with the ship? Are we going to get off the ship? But that's the fundamental, Wilmer Leon (21:38): Are we going to take control of the ship? Tom Porter (21:45): That's a good thought. Wilmer Leon (21:47): Well, to me, it only seemed like a logical extension of the other two options that you provided, or at least since we're using the metaphor of a ship, are you going to create your own lifeboat? Tom Porter (22:05): Well, I think it's now time before serious call, given some of the emerging forces in Africa and Brazil and what have you, even in Venezuela that it's time for a new Pan-African movement, 21st century style. It is really time. And I just talked to somebody who was in Geneva on, there's a conference, UN conference on racism and civil rights. I don't have the correct title, but he's on his way back and he said he's going to brief me in person, but he was very optimistic about some of the things that he was seeing. But also obviously, so there's movement and we're in a transitional period on the planet. So there was a unipolar world, it was United States, and it controlled mostly through NATO and other relationships, the politics of Europe and the United States. But now you have the bricks, you have a number of, we live in a multipolar world and it is not just the bricks with China. (23:46) There are all kinds of different relationships between countries and Latin America and Central America. And they may not all be trying to get away from capitalism, but they're certainly open to the new changes that are going on in the world in their own interests. I mean, countries entering relationships with China, not because they want to become communists, but because they want to get some of what China has to offer and they realize that they've tried the West. And so you have all of these around the world, these various groupings and what have you, and we've got to internationalize our struggle. That's not new with me. He was Malcolm, even Dr. King understood that and some new progressive forces. And I'm encouraged by what I see around what's happening in the Middle East that these young students on these campuses across the country, and I think that Gaza may be the achilles tendon of Joe Biden. Wilmer Leon (25:10): Oh, I think you're absolutely right. Not only is Gaza the Achilles tendon of Joe Biden, but I also believe that one of the reasons why the Biden administration and so many other forces in the West are so adamantly behind this settler colonial genocidal project is because I believe they understand as goes the settler colony of Israel, so goes the rest of colonization, period. And that the end of this is the, that Tom Porter (25:58): One of these days, somebody's going to really take a real look at the relationship between Israel, not just in this country, but in the rest of the world, and where does its power come from and where's his strength come from? Why would Biden put his presidency on the line, but not just his presidency, he actually believes what he's doing is right. Wilmer Leon (26:32): Well, he is on record and folks can scream antisemitism if they want to. He's on record very clearly as saying, I am a Zion, which a proves the point. Not all Zionists are Jewish, and not all Jews are Zionists because he's Irish Catholic, but he's very clear on I am a Zionist. And contrary to the dominant narrative, Zionism and Judaism or Zionism and Judaism are not the same thing. And being anti-Zionist doesn't mean you're, and being anti-Zionist doesn't even mean it means you are anti-Zionist. But their vested interest in controlling that narrative, which by the way, they are dramatically losing control of as evidenced by what we're seeing playing itself out on our college campuses. They've lost control of that narrative. And I don't see how they're ever going to be able to reclaim that narrative. Tom Porter (27:52): Well, it's very clear that the forces supporting Palestine is growing, and the questioning, which never happened before, Israel was never questioned before in a way that it is being questioned down. But the question is because, well, let's be clear. You strike up a conversation with the average white person about Jews and you'll get some antisemitism. And of course, Hitler was white. He wasn't a Jew, he was white, European, Mussolini was, and the rest of the fascists in Europe were Caucasians. And so what would make this country send him a bunch of weapons in the middle of a situation where the whole world is saying, you shouldn't do that? Wilmer Leon (29:02): Well, what did Al Hague say? He said, Israel is our unsinkable aircraft carrier in the region. And so they saw in that colony a ideological and military base bastion region that they believed would be their space to project power and to control that space. Tom Porter (29:41): I don't have the answer, but it's an interesting question. The reason why I say it's interesting because the relationship is not making sense now, Wilmer Leon (29:51): Right? Tom Porter (29:53): It's not making a sense. When you stand alone at the un, you voted against something that the rest of the world was for, Wilmer Leon (30:04): And you're voting for genocide. We're not arguing borders. We're not arguing an issue on the maritime navigation of the seas. We're not arguing whether it's 12 miles or 14 miles from your coast where you get into international waters. We're not arguing access to mineral rights. It's genocide. And it's not even debatable. It's not even debatable because those such as Netanyahu that are being in Morich and Benny Gantz, we have their own language. They have made it very clear in their own statements in court, you would call that statements against interest. We got to take 'em for their word because they're saying things that are really against their interest Tom Porter (31:15): And doing things that are Wilmer Leon (31:16): And do it exactly. Tom Porter (31:18): But still, the question comes back what's on my mind? I care less about the fight between Trump and Biden and more about what are we going to do because we come out losing whoever gets in, and we need to be clear about that. If Biden will do what he's doing in the Middle East and Haiti and in Africa, what will he do for us? When the vote comes up? Wilmer Leon (31:54): To that point, Tom, the house has just passed a 92 billion military spending bill where they're going to send something like 62 billion to Ukraine. They're going to send, I don't know, 20 something to Israel. And of course, Taiwan, while people in the United States are having to make decisions between paying rent and buying food or buying medicine, the homeless rate or the unhoused rate in the United States right now is somewhere 800,000. And that's just based upon the number of people in shelters that's not actually dealing in addressing the number of people that are living either under bridges in tents living with other family members. The social in indices in this country are, the rate of suicide is on the rise, particularly among white men. The rate of depression among children is on the rise. I mean, I can pick a litany of things. Oh yeah, go ahead. Tom Porter (33:15): The Misery Index, which used to be something that they used to measure the conditions of black people and other people of color in this country, now it's extended to looking at the misery index among whites, because when we talk about homeless, and DC is rare where you see a significant number of black people who are homeless, but you travel throughout the rest of the country in rural Virginia, rural Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, and what have you really see some poverty that you've never seen. Wilmer Leon (33:57): So my question is 92 billion, and that's just this latest round of funding. And we don't seem to, we're paying for healthcare in Ukraine. We're paying for pensions in Ukraine when Americans can't get either. But where is the pushback and the outcry from the Congressional Black Caucus, for example? Tom Porter (34:27): It really isn't. I mean, that's the problem, is the deafening silence come out of black leadership at all levels. Even here in Washington, I don't think the non-voting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton has stood out, stood up for a ceasefire. Wilmer Leon (34:51): Nope, Tom Porter (34:52): I don't think the city council has called for a ceasefire. So where do we fit in all of this? That's the fundamental question for me Wilmer Leon (35:08): That it keeps going back to that, Tom Porter (35:11): Right? Wilmer Leon (35:14): The A DL is going to spend, I think the number was a hundred million dollars. I think that was the number on this upcoming election to unseat, if I'm off on that number, folks, I apologize. I was just getting it off the top of my head. I think it's a hundred million to unseat what are considered to be progressive Democrats. Now, in the 2020 election, and in the 2016 election, there was all this boohoo and crying and concern about Russian interference and Chinese interference and Iranian interference in our elections. Now you've got APAC getting ready to, or in the process, or they're in the midst of spending a hundred million dollars and not a moan, not a grip. Tom Porter (36:14): And the reason why is the influence, again, people always say the United States is supporting Israel. It is one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that in significant ways, Israel and the Israeli diaspora controls significant aspects of American business, cultural, social, and economic life. And that book hasn't been written well. Wilmer Leon (36:52): Oh, okay. Tom, sounds like my next book. Yeah, that Tom Porter (36:59): Book hasn't been written. And so from that stand, well, Wilmer Leon (37:03): If you could get it written, how are you going to get it published? Tom Porter (37:06): It's interesting question. (37:11) So the protection of Israel and its influencing the rest of the world is something that I think gets overlooked because Israel is perceived as a little small country in a sea of Arabs and what have you. But actually it is more powerful than any African country. It is probably more powerful than most of the countries in Latin and Central America. If you look at its military, its weapons, its technology, industry and what have you. And so it is significant among nations of the world in terms of its influence. And APAC is a part of that influence. So again, that's where my mind is these days. What are we going to do? And then how are we going to get there when we decide what we're going to do? But guess what? We got to do it. Wilmer Leon (38:29): I asked the question about if the book were written, how would it get published? And I was looking off at my bookcase because this book right here, the Israel lobby and US Foreign Policy by John Heimer and Steven Walt, I remember when this book came out and they damn near ran these boys out of town. I remember it was how long I tried to get an interview with Heimer or Walt and what those guys were damn near in hiding because the uproar of the publication of the book, the Israel lobby. Now, it's interesting too, Tom, that you just mentioned how powerful Israel is, but give me that analysis. While they can't defeat Hamas and they can't defeat Hamas, they're getting their hind parts whooped in Gaza, Iran just sent them a real serious message about mess around with us if you want to, and we'll reign missiles down on you for the next 15 years. And Hezbollah has not gotten into the mix. Ansar Allah in Yemen has shut down the maritime traffic in the Red Sea, and before Iran launched their retaliatory strike against Israel, they captured a cargo ship in the Straits of Horus to demonstrate to the United States, we will shut down the straits of Horus. We will shut down the Red Sea, and you won't get a drop of oil or nothing. So when you talk about the power of Israel, talk about it in that context or those contexts. Tom Porter (40:28): Well, I think the United States, Wilmer Leon (40:33): Is that a good question to ask? Tom Porter (40:34): Oh, it's an excellent question because, but what we see in the West Bank and in Gaza, it's the same thing we saw in Vietnam. Same thing we saw in Korea. Same thing we saw in Cuba. Same thing we saw in Guinea Basa in Angola and Mozambique and South Africa. That is, you could misjudge the sentiment to say that the Palestinians don't support Hamas. Some of that is probably true, but one thing that all Palestinians are clear about Wilmer Leon (41:29): Freedom, Tom Porter (41:29): Freedom, justice, and equality. And I think that is a mistake that they've made. And I think that is a mistake that they've made in Lebanon. That is, they underestimate, in fact, they have increased the number of young Palestinians and young Arabs throughout the Middle East in their hatred for both Israel and the West and down the road. Arab leaders are going to have to deal with that. The people not going to, Wilmer Leon (42:04): And that's a very practical reality because some people listening to this conversation, when you make that statement say, oh, that's because they're antisemitic, and that's because they hate Jews. No, they hate oppression and they hate oppressors. And no matter what color stripe or size they are, I hate the person that has his or her foot on my throat, no matter what size that foot is. And no matter what kind of boot they're wearing, that's what I hate. Tom Porter (42:44): I think they're making the same miscalculation around the students. I mean, you can lock up 40, you can lock up 50, you can lock up a hundred people, but you really can't lock up an idea. And unless you are willing to make certain changes, the idea is going to grow. I mean, it's small, but it's significant that a group of auto workers, I'm thinking it was in Tennessee. Wilmer Leon (43:13): It was in Chattanooga, Tennessee Tom Porter (43:16): Voted to unionize. They thought they had broken the unions, but the conditions of such among workers, white workers and black workers, that something has to be done because they're filling it when they go to the grocery store. I went to Costco to fill up my gas tank the other day, and because I have to use premium in my 1992 Volvo wagon, it cost me almost $60. Wilmer Leon (43:55): I have to put premium in mine. It was 85. Tom Porter (43:59): Wow. So everybody's beginning to feel the decline of this economy At the same time that they're saying that the economy is growing, you notice they never say use the word development again. That's kind of like binary thinking. They never use the word, they always use word. The economy is growing. That's a quantitative analysis. But a qualitative analysis would be, are you developing as a society or your school's turning out educated people? But if you just deal with growth, it's all about numbers. Wilmer Leon (44:51): It's all about numbers, primarily because when they come and tell us that the economy is growing, they're talking about the financialized side of the economy. So if you have a 401k program, then you're happy as a clam because over the last three or four, maybe five quarters, the financialized side of the economy is running like gangbusters. But we're not manufacturing anything in this country anymore. The manufacturing base in this country is on the decline because we've exported all of those jobs to China and to Vietnam and to India. So the wage, has there been wage growth in this country? No. And to your point about the unions, so Sean Fe comes out the head of the UAW. He comes out in January saying the UAW endorses Joe Biden. But that same day, he has to give another speech where he comes out and says, the rank and file of the UAW does not back Joe Biden, because they're more concerned about their paychecks, and many of them are going to support Donald Trump. That's Sean Fain. That's not me. That's the head of the UAW making that statement. And that's what goes to the, as you talked about, the UAW in all places, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and from Chattanooga, they're going to Alabama now to a Mercedes plant in Alabama. Now that's going to be a harder fight. They're going deeper south. But still, Tom Porter (46:54): How can you have the largest economy in the world and be a detonation Wilmer Leon (47:02): And debt to your, who you consider to be your primary enemy, which is China, Tom Porter (47:08): Right? But how can you be? There's some oxymoronic about that, right? Wilmer Leon (47:13): That Tom Porter (47:15): You have the largest economy in the world, but Wilmer Leon (47:19): You're a better nation, Tom Porter (47:20): Better nation, and people are seeking different ways of economically engaging with each other other than using the dollar. And yet you, but every day people are feeling it. Every day people are filling at the pump, at the grocery store, at Wilmer Leon (47:44): The a pack of chicken wings and a gallon of milk, Tom Porter (47:47): The doctor's office. I mean, if you can Wilmer Leon (47:51): Get in. Tom Porter (47:52): Yep, yep. Wilmer Leon (47:55): So, Tom, to your point, what are we to do? Tom Porter (48:02): Well, we used to have men and women who thought these things. A lot of people are writing books. I'm encouraged about some of the things, and there's a lot going on in the street. There doesn't seem to be a unifying theme. I mean, the Montgomery Bus boycott was something that significant numbers of African-Americans, the black people felt in the north and the South, because many of us had a two-state experience, born in the south, grew up in the north, and so on our yearly summer visits back home, we ran into what our brothers and sisters and kin folks were dealing with. And it was a spirit in the community that it was our time to fight back and to be independent and what have you. That spirit, you can see it bubbling up young people. I'm encouraged by young people because you really can't lie to them as easy as you can lie to everybody Wilmer Leon (49:28): Else. Not watching CNN and MSPC, Tom Porter (49:32): Without a doubt. Without a doubt. So I'm actually encouraged. On the other hand, I would encourage people to get a passport. You never know when you're going to need it. I think you ought to look for options, particularly for your grandchildren and what have you. And that's not unusual. People are leaving America, not just black people going back to Africa, but white people going to Europe, and some of 'em are going to places like Puerto Rico, Wilmer Leon (50:08): Right? Central and South America, Tom Porter (50:10): And say nothing of Africa. So people are leaving. And that's one option. That's one option that has always been on my mind and Wilmer Leon (50:25): Abandon ship. Tom Porter (50:27): No, get on another ship. Wilmer Leon (50:29): Well Tom Porter (50:33): Get on another ship. Let Biden and Trump and that group fight it out. They seem to be doing a pretty good job of battling each other. But on the serious side, we've got to raise significant questions wherever we can. We got to discuss these things wherever we can. We can't allow this leadership class that we have, and even some of the so-called progressive pundits, we can't simply allow them to get away with what they've been getting away with. And I'm grateful for programs like this and some other programs or a few other stations where people are speaking out and are being heard and are being heard. Wilmer Leon (51:30): Just really quickly, did you happen to see the fallout from the National Action Network Congress, a convention where folks went in protesting as Hakeem Jeffries was brought in to speak and folks were protesting Hakeem Jeffries and Reverend Sharpton called him Renta Coons, and did you see any of that? Tom Porter (51:58): No, but I'm not surprised. Wilmer Leon (51:59): Okay, then I won't go any further into it. Tom Porter (52:02): Well, but you raised an interesting point about the bankruptcy of leadership. They used to refer to Al Sharpton as Jesse on a budget. But Wilmer Leon (52:23): Lemme just quickly make one point, because one of the things that Reverend Sharpton was promoting or displaying, he was basically saying, look at. So he got Joe Biden to do this little video and supporting, thank you Reverend Al, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But so everybody's, wow. Look, Reverend Al got President Biden to zoom in to the National Action Network Convention, but nobody seems to want to talk about that 10 days after Biden was inaugurated. Biden had to be forced. And I mean, kicking, brought in, kicking and screaming to have a meeting with black leadership. And when he got on that call, he disrespected everybody on that call. But if you didn't see it, you didn't see it then so Tom Porter (53:33): Well, but the role of, again, it just points out the bankruptcy of certain African leaders. I mean, here you have, well, a two-way race between Democrats and Republicans. Two Democrats are running in the primary to become democratic senators. One's a black woman and one's a white man. Without discussing Dem merits of either one of them, why would Hakeem Jeffries, Anthony Brown and Jonathan Jackson endorse the white candidate? I mean, why would you do that? I mean, Jonathan Jackson is from Illinois. I understand that connection between he and David Cron is Itron Wilmer Leon (54:37): Cone, cone, David Tron in Maryland. Tom Porter (54:43): He owns total wine and liquors, right? And Jonathan Jackson is in the liquor business. He's a big distributor in the Chicago era. I don't get Hakeem Jeffries, who's in New York. The point of it is, where's the integrity? Where's the integrity? On the one hand, you talk black out of the side of your mouth, and I'm not in any mean pushing black nationalism. I'm simply saying, why would you get in that fight? I mean, why would you get in that fight? Obviously, Wilmer Leon (55:21): Angela also, Brooks is running, right? That's what I'm saying. A black woman, and why wouldn't you back her? Tom Porter (55:31): But why would you get in the race at all since you got you from another state? And you would not want that to happen to you when you were running? And so there's obviously a cash nexus. Wilmer Leon (55:50): Well, we do know that Hakeem Jeffries has received, I think, over a million dollars from APAC over his tenure in office. And the same thing with Gregory Meeks. He's another one that falls into that same camp. And both of them, along with the Vice President, Kamala Harris, they're all behind the Global Fragilities Act, which is being used as the rationale for the United States to rein, invade Haiti. Go figure. Tom Porter (56:32): Again, we have to do an analysis of how the results were obtained rather than the results. I mean, it looks like Haiti is a failed state. So how do you go from the first independent black Republic on the planet? Well, not on the planet, but in that era, because there were black leaderships. But how do you become that, given any slave who could get to Haiti freedom? I mean, how do you get defeating Napoleon then? How do you become the basket case, a basket case in the world? How does that happen? Why do they still old friends and see should be the other way around, Wilmer Leon (57:25): Way around? (57:29) Why is the United States wring its hands and going through all these machinations talking about we have to go in and stabilize this country when the United States is responsible for the instability? Why does the United States send $60 billion to Ukraine when the United States is the one that started the fight in the first place, and Ukraine is merely the proxy for the United States? Why is the United States saying we can't do anything with Netanyahu? Yes, you can. You call 'em and tell 'em, you're not giving in any more money. You are against genocide, but you send them the bullets, you send them the bombs, you provide the logistics. Same thing with China. Oh, Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan. Why are you trying to pick a fight with China? Who by the way, holds more of your debt than anybody else in the room? Why? Let's get to the cause, right? Tom Porter (58:48): Of course. I mean, again, the Haiti situation, it gets played out and we go in, why did the United States involve itself in the overthrow of John Butra? Wilmer Leon (59:06): What was his aired? John Beron aired, Tom Porter (59:10): Aired Wilmer Leon (59:11): Twice Tom Porter (59:14): A legitimately elected democratic leader who's very positive. Why do you place sanctions on Cuba? Only because you don't believe in what they believe in? Wilmer Leon (59:33): Here's another, and Tom Porter (59:33): Then get upset when they're successful in the biotech industry and what have you. And the list goes on and on and on. But because they don't think that people study history or read history, Wilmer Leon (59:53): The average Haitian makes less than $3 a day. Folks, you can look it up. The average Haitian makes less than $3 a day, but somehow they can walk around with $1,800 sniper rifles, military grade equipment Tom Porter (01:00:18): Where they get 'em from. That's the question that you asked. All of these militias running around the deserts of Africa, where are they getting these weapons from? Where do they get food from? Wilmer Leon (01:00:33): Right, right, right. Brother Tom Porter. Man, as always, thank you. Tom Porter (01:00:45): Thank you for having me. It's been a long day. Wilmer Leon (01:00:48): I know it has, and I appreciate you giving me your time today. I got to thank you Tom Porter so much, man, for joining the show today. Greatly, greatly appreciate it. Tom Porter (01:00:57): Thank you for having me. Have a good evening, Wilmer Leon (01:01:00): Folks. Thank you so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes each week. Please follow and subscribe, go to the Patreon account. We'll greatly appreciate you contributing to the program. We can't do this without your support, so please go to the Patreon account. The address for that is on the bottom of your screen. Also, leave a review. Share the show with those that you think will like it, and then those that you think will hate it, send 'em to 'em anyway. They might just surprise you. Follow us on social media. You can find again, all the links to the show are below in the description. And remember, folks, that this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. See you next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (01:02:08): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

Professor Gerald Early from the African and African American Studies Department at Washington University joins Megan and Tom talking about a night with him coming this Wednesday reconceiving the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Black Baseball exhibit.

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition. Co-promoted by the American Constitution Society The Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences Division, Professor of Sociology & African American Studies at UCLA, Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter coined the term ''Black Lives Matter.'' His books include Black Citymakers: How The Philadelphia Negro Changed Urban America, The New Black Sociologists, and Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life, coauthored with Zandria F. Robinson. He formerly served as the Inaugural Chair of UCLA's African American Studies Department and President of the Association of Black Sociologists, his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Social Science Research Council, and he has appeared across a wide array of print and broadcast media. In Radical Reparations, Hunter ventures beyond the contentious current debate about the country's responsibility for atoning for its earlier sins to lay out an ambitious but practical seven-point compensation plan for Black Americans. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 2/22/2024)

Wilmer Leon and Tom Porter discuss , as we exist in a political duopoly, what is the African American community to do when neither party is interested in representing its interests and the community does not seem willing to demand that they do.  The geopolitical landscape is changing from a unipolar world with the US as the unipolar hegemon to a multipolar world.  The US empire and neo-colonialism are struggling to survive.  This is a perfect moment in history for the African American community to coalesce with other oppressed peoples and implement change.   You can find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com. Transcript: Wilmer Leon (00:14): I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode of this program, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which these events occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. What are we to do when neither party is interested in representing our interests and we don't seem to be willing to demand that they do? For insight into this, let's turn to my guest. He's a lifelong activist and scholar, former dean of the African-American Studies Department at Ohio University, and former director of the King Center in Atlanta, and former host of morning conversations with Tom Porter. He's Tom Porter. Tom, welcome, and let's connect some dots. Tom Porter (01:21): Good morning and thanks for having me Wiler. Wilmer Leon (01:23): So Tom, there's a lot going on right now. There are certain times or moments in history when you look back at some time later and you say, wow, that was a pivotal moment. That was the time that changed the world, the industrial revolution, the first man on the moon, the assassination of Dr. King. I believe that we're in one of those moments right now, the transformation from a unipolar to a multipolar world with the US no longer being the unipolar hegemon, the US Empire and Neocolonialism are struggling to survive. Tom, with that being understood, your assessment of what I've just stated and what are we to do? Tom Porter (02:12): It's an interesting question. At the same time that the world is, and rightly so focused on the events that are happening in the Middle East, not dealing with it in terms of a historical context, but at the same time that this is happening, there's a big meeting in China celebrating 10 years of the Belt Road Initiative where countries from all over the world are there. We are at a pivotal moment in history and what's happening in the Middle East. It is a reflection of that. It's a reflection of something historically that was wrong from the very, very, the state of Israel was founded in 1948, not in the biblical times of old. And not only was it founded in 1948, and the question you have to really ask yourself, why did they simply allow the Jews to stay in Europe? That's an interesting question. So now if you look at what is happening in the Middle East and if you deal with the results and not how the results were obtained, that is the state of Israel is a geopolitical construct. (03:37) I say that because it was put where it was put, not because it had something to do with the Bible or history, but because it was a strategic move on the part of the West to solve a problem of what to do with the Jews in Europe and also to solve a problem of establishing a geopolitical body in the Middle East to checkmate the Arabs. But while this is going on, the world has moved on. It's no longer a duopoly. It is no longer the West that's dominating. It's not only China, but it's various other organizations and formations around the world in Africa and Latin and Central America, and even in Asia, all pointing in one direction that is trying to find a way to solve the pressing problems of today, which cannot be solved unless you have a multipolar world. Wilmer Leon (04:48): You mentioned the 10th anniversary of China's Belt and Road initiative in the fact that a number of countries from all over the world came to China in order to convene, and you had President Putin spending three hours meeting with President Xi, and this is a rarity. When Putin and Lavrov traveled, foreign Secretary Lavrov traveled together. Lavrov goes to meet with Wangee, the Chinese foreign minister, and they're talking about all kinds of trade initiatives. They're talking about security initiatives, all of this taking place, and the United States isn't in the room. That, in my opinion, speaks volumes about how the world has changed. Tom Porter (05:46): Well, the West is no longer the center of the world. The West is no longer the dominant force in the world, politically, economically and actually militarily because you have around the world, as I said, different organizations and formations and the west has been left out. I mean, take Israel for years. Yesterday the United States representative of the UN vetoed a proposition that was put on the table by Brazil, vetoed it as it has in the past, and that is whenever the subject of Israel misdeeds would come up at the UN and it would pass overwhelmingly, but it was vetoed by the United States. The problem is now that the world is not paying any attention to that veto. But what is also interesting in all of this, Wilma, is the presence of blacks out front representing this country. It was a black woman who vetoed it, Linda Thomas Greenfield. (07:09) Yes, it was Lloyd Austin who went to Israel, went to Israel, and then there was this deputy who I'd never heard of, this black guy who popped up and they always put us out front. We were always out front, but there's never any reciprocity, and that's one of the problems in the African world, including here in this country, is the lack of an understanding of reciprocity because there's no agenda. The last time there was an agenda was the agenda at the Gary Convention. That was the last time. I mean, for instance, everybody wants us to support their position, but we never ask them, what is your position on reparations? Not reparations in some little city out in Illinois that decides that it's going to give a few houses away, but reparations in the same sense that Israel got reparations, the Jews got reparations, the Japanese got reparations. We don't even put it on the table. Where's the black caucus in this? Do they have a position on what's going on in the Middle East? Do they really see any relationship between what's going on in the Middle East and what's happening to us in this country? Gentrification is nothing more than a move against black people to take land in the fifties and sixties. (08:42) They call it urban renewal. We call it negro removal when they put expressways through every major black community in this country that they could, and therefore separating not only black people in terms of communities, but also limiting the possibility that we would be able to act as a force, a unified force. Wilmer Leon (09:07): Go ahead. Tom Porter (09:07): So we don't make the connections between what is happening in the Middle East and potentially what could happen to us in this country as we are marginalized more and more. It's not just gentrification, but it's also the reduction of the quality of education and our school systems. It's also the quality of healthcare. It's everything that we consider the misery index, Wilmer Leon (09:42): And it's all of those things, the misery index that we keep being told that we can't afford to ameliorate or we can't afford to solve, but somehow we can find a hundred billion dollars to send to Ukraine. We can now have a president in Joe Biden who wants to send not only money to Ukraine, but now also send more money to the settler colonial state known as Israel. And you even have Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury, saying, oh, we can fight wars. We can afford to fight wars on two fronts. That's not a problem at all. Well, if we can fight a war on two fronts, then why can't we fight the war on poverty? Why can't we fight the war on homelessness? Why can't we pay teachers in this country who are supposed to be educating the most significant resource in our culture, our children? Then why can't we afford to pay them more? Why can't we fight those fronts instead of printing money in order to send to Ukraine and in order to send to the settler colonial state known as Israel? Tom Porter (11:06): Exactly. And the problem that I'm having in all of this Wilma, is, and as I talk with my friends, I say the fundamental question that we must ask ourselves today. What does all of this mean for us? Should we have representatives at the Belt and Road Initiative in China? I visited Palestine and Lebanon years ago in a delegation that was led by Jack odell, and one of the things that I admired about the Palestinians, even though they were in a large ghetto, they were organized. They had their own Red Cross, they had their own school system. They acted as if they were in exile. We act as if we belong to something, which each and every day is saying to us that you could stay here, but under our conditions, and we have to really ask ourselves, should we? The UN has already said that the conditions of black people in this country is similar to crimes against humanity. Should this woman who represents the United States represent us at the un or should we have our own? We have to connect ourselves to the forces that are moving forward, not continue to stay and plead each and every day for the devil to accept us in hell. Wilmer Leon (12:47): What I hear you saying there is we should be having an international Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. We should, as Mrs. Hamer did at the Democrat Convention because Mississippi would not seat black, a black delegation that we should create our own and take that to the United Nations. Tom Porter (13:16): Exactly. We have to act as we really are. We are people who are really in exile, whether we believe it or not, there was never any intention to free the slaves and there was never any intention when they were freed to honor that freedom in any meaningful way was never a 40 acres in a mule. I mean, there was never, they had no plan for black people of African descent in this country beyond slavery any more than they had a plan to give the land back to the Native Americans. They never had any plan, and they still don't have a plan. And we have been continuing in each generation, our politics has been focused on trying to convince the people who run this country that we are worthy of being a part of this piece of SHIT. Rather than saying, Hey, I mean it's like critical race theory. (14:25) Why should we be concerned about whether white people want to know about black people? We should be concerned about knowing about ourselves, knowing what our history is, what our history has been. It should be taught in every place that black people gather in the churches and the neighborhood houses and what have you, but we shouldn't be concerned about that. But if people seeking freedom would not be concerned whether or not they're enemies who have been their enemies and will always be their enemy because of the nature of the capitalistic system, they can't solve the problem of black people or the native Americans of brown people, of working people, of poor people within the confines of capitalism. It is impossible. Wilmer Leon (15:14): You mentioned putting black faces on the front of all of this. If we shift the conversation, for example to Haiti, that would be a perfect example of what you're talking about. It's Hakeem Jeffries who has been traversing the Caribbean, trying to convince Caribbean countries to join the US invasion of Haiti. I believe Kamala Harris was a part, I know she's not part of the CBC, but she was at one point that she also was down at Racom trying to convince Caribbean countries to back the US invasion of Haiti. And now they finally convinced Kenya to get on board and send a thousand Kenyan. So-called policemen to Haiti, and fortunately the Kenyan Supreme Court has said not so fast they think that this move violates the Kenyan constitution. But I just use that as an example of how African-Americans are put on the face. I call it minstrel internationalism because it's black face on white folks foolishness Tom Porter (16:37): Without a doubt. They haven't really asked anybody black to comment on what is happening in the Middle East. Only to say that I support the state of Israel or the state of Israel has a rhythm. Wilmer Leon (16:52): Right to exist. Tom Porter (16:53): Right to exist and right to defend itself. Well, that's an interesting question because it goes back to 1948. It's not like this is an old situation, and it was a land grab that the people who settled and formed the state of Israel were not from that part of the world world. Their history was in Europe. And that's why I say it was a geopolitical construct. I mean, they considered putting it where Uganda is, and then they were going to put it in Latin America. So they considered a number of different places. So there's nothing sacrosanct about the state of Israel because the other thing is they say that Israel is the only democracy in the, if in fact Palestinians were allowed to vote in elections in Israel, Wilmer Leon (17:57): They'd be outnumbered. Tom Porter (17:59): Yeah, they'd be outnumbered. But again, we have to ask ourselves, what does this all mean for us? Biden's making these crazy statements. What does it mean to us? What does it mean to us that we give Israel more money than we give the whole continent of Africa every year, but we take more out of the continent of Africa every year. Wilmer Leon (18:32): Go ahead, finish that. Tom Porter (18:33): Then we take out of any other continent. Wilmer Leon (18:36): And to that point, that's one of the things that motivated Niger to throw the French out of Niger, which was we have some of the most precious resources in our country that are extracted from our country every year and somehow some way we're one of the poorest countries in the world. And they were saying, we have to change that dynamic. And what did they do took, and you know what? I think this is a great place to talk about the difference between flag independence and real freedom. Because for example, when you look at Palestine, they have a flag. When you look at Niger, they have a flag. When you look at so many of these former colonial states, which are now neo-colonial states, they got their independence, which means they got a flag, they got a government to a great degree, they control a lot of their politics, but what they don't control was their economies. And when you control your economy, you then have real freedom. And that's what a lot of these resistance movements now are about, is controlling their, what did Gil Scott Heron say? When I control your resources, I control your world. Tom Porter (20:10): That's right. It's interesting because I'm constantly having to remind my friends from the Caribbean that who like to talk about we have our own flag, and I have to constantly remind them that brother and sister, that's just another place where the slave ship stop. Don't get this stuff twisted. And it's very important that we understand that because they are using, do you notice that people who were black Americans now refer to themselves as black American of Jamaican descent, black Americans, of what they were comfortable in being black Americans. And now that they understand that the country is using them, the Black studies movement was undermined by bringing reactionary Africans and people from the Caribbean into leadership. You don't have to take my word for it, do a survey. So because you can come here and don't have a commitment to the struggle of black people in this country, and you leave the real struggle that's going on in your country. So we're beginning to see that not only, but just notice this from now on, people who now say that I'm a black American and of so-and-so, but when you were taking advantage of everything that we had fought for, you were happy in being a black American. Wilmer Leon (21:37): But here's a point that I haven't heard anybody mention, and that is the Balfour Agreement from 1917, which is where the whole agreement to establish a colony in Palestine was agreed to in London. And one of the provisions of the Balfour Declaration was the civil rights and protections of the indigenous Palestinians will not be assaulted. They will be protected. In fact, if you read the Balfour Declaration, Israel isn't mentioned. All it talks about is a homeland for Jewish people in Palestine with a capital P. Tom Porter (22:33): That's interesting. But see, there you go, raising those vicious truths, Wilmer Leon (22:39): Connecting the dots, Tom Porter (22:43): Which is really so important that we understand, as Cabral would say, connecting the struggles that we understand the interrelatedness of the world in which we live, in which China talks about bringing the world together to solve pressing problems, Wilmer Leon (23:01): As does Russia, Tom Porter (23:03): Right? The West, basically everything is a matter of national security. They're motivated. The new justification for every dirty deeded that they want to do is it's a matter of national security. If black people really begin to push hard, they're going to say that it's a matter of national security that we have to deal with. Not that the issue that they're raising is not important. They're not even talking about unifying the world even to solve the problem of climate. They're not talking about peace. They're talking about war, strategic interests and what have you. They're not even discussing building a better world, because if they talked about building a better world, they would have to change the system. And I mean something as simple as trying to solve the climate problem. Well, you could always say that by so-and-so and so-and-So we're going to eliminate the use of automobiles and have more public transportation more. I mean, you can go some places in this country, like my state of Ohio, if you don't have a car, you can't get around. There's no rail system. I mean, one of the things about the east coast, you can go to Philly, you can go to New York, or you get in the Midwest, it gets tricky. Wilmer Leon (24:40): You can go to Europe and never need a car with trains and buses and subway systems. You can go to Europe and never need a driver's license. Tom Porter (24:54): It's a mess, I tell you. Wilmer Leon (24:56): But you know, I'm glad that you brought up war versus solving problems because going back to the meeting that recently took place in China, while that meeting was taking place in China and they were cutting economic deals, they were cutting development deals, they were talking about how to make the world safer and improve the world. Joe Biden was in the Middle East fanning the flames of war, encouraging Netanyahu to invade Gaza, telling him, I've got your back. Go ahead and go on in. And I found it ironic that a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month or so ago, we were looking forward to the Saudis signing a deal, an agreement to recognize the colony known as Israel. And then once Hamas went in and sent those missiles into the colony, the settler colony, Saudi Arabia said, no, that's probably not a good idea right now we need to sit back and reevaluate all of this. Tony Blinken goes to Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman makes him wait damn near an entire day before MBS sits down with Blinken sending a very clear message. The dynamic is changing Tom Porter (26:45): Because what the Arab nations have to deal with Wilmer Leon (26:50): Are the Arab people, Tom Porter (26:51): The Arab people, the Arab streets, and you got mostly all over the world. The population is getting younger and younger in Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia. It's getting young and younger, and they definitely want a better world, a world free from war. And what Biden and blinking and these people are all selling more war. Why would you send more military weapons to a country that's already just overburdened with weapons? And the thing that they don't mention in any of these discussions is that Israel has nuclear weapons that's always had them. And in contrast to when South Africa gained this political independence, the one thing that they had agreed to was to emulate their nuclear weapons. South Africa had nuclear weapons under apartheid, and one of their leading, if not leading most important trading partner was Israel. Was Israel. When people say Israel is an apartheid state, it has always supported apartheid. So that's not really, but a small step from supporting apartheid someplace else and instituting the same practices in your country. And Biden goes without any understanding, without any mentioning of the apartheid nature of Israel or in mentioning in a real meaningful, substantive sense, freedom, justice, inequality for the Palestinians. He didn't even mention the two state solution, I don't think. Wilmer Leon (28:47): No. What he did mention that he did in his last speech, he did utter the words to state solution. But what he did not do as he called for peace, he never talked about equality for the Palestinians. And he talked about democracy, but he never spoke about democracy for the Palestinians. Because if you talk, people need to ask themselves this question, what does it mean when Netanyahu or Ben or Mulch talks about an Israeli state? Nobody asks, what does that mean? And it's important for me to say right here, this is not an antisemitic conversation. This has absolutely nothing to do with Jews because this has everything to do with Zionism. And it's important for people to understand. Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists are Jews. So this conversation has nothing to do with antisemitism. It has everything to do with freedom and justice, not only for the Palestinians, because it has everything to do with freedom and justice for the world. Because if you solve that problem of the settler colonial state and the genocide that's being exercised in the settler colonial state, you can solve a lot of other problems at the same time. Tom Porter (30:40): Well, Israel will never be safe within its borders until it deals fairly with the Palestinians. I mean, you can't just, as Fanon would say, we rebel because we can't breathe. We rebel because we can't breathe. You have 2 million people pushed together in what is nothing but a ghetto. And then you're taking more and more of that each day. You're shooting more and more of them each day. We have to get beyond this notion that if we criticize Israel or if we criticize some behavior of some members of the Jewish community, that we will be accused of antisemitism. (31:29) We have to get beyond that. I mean, clearly they're going to anything that you say that is not in line with what APAC or one of those other organizations, you're antisemite. And so if you go for that, you will never say anything, even if it's in your interest. It's not in Hakeem Jeffries interest to be talking about, we got your back, Israel. They don't have your back. Where's the reciprocity? It's not in the interest of this black woman up in the UN doing the bidding of the United States by vetoing, by doing what the United States has always done. It is not in our interest. It is not an interest of black people. And you can't say that I'm doing my job because you can always leave your job. I mean, if you are doing something that's not in your interest, you're crazy. Wilmer Leon (32:30): You mentioned a world free from war, and I want to just reiterate the point that at that economic in China, they weren't talking about war. They were talking about peace. But what does Gil Scott Heron say? Ask them what they're fighting for and they'll never tell you the economics of war because you were asking about why is the United States sending more weapons into the region? The reason is Lockheed Martin makes a lot of money when they do Raytheon, which by the way, our Secretary of Defense sat on the board of makes a lot of money when they do. That's why these cluster munitions are being sent into Ukraine. Why? Because they've been sitting on the shelf for years because they've been banned internationally. They want to clear their basements and their shelves, say again, Tom Porter (33:34): Their inventory. Wilmer Leon (33:35): They want to clear their inventory why? So they can get contracts for new weapons. That's what a lot of this is all about. And because sending more weapons into Ukraine at this stage of the game isn't going to change the dynamics on the battlefield. That war is over. It's done. The only question now to answer is how much longer does the United States want to push Ukraine to continue to take this weapon? That's the only question. Tom Porter (34:07): And the fact is sitting, all these are matters into the Middle East, these ships and what have you. It's just a show and supporting the military industrial complex because the United States is not going to get involved in a war in a Middle East because it will inflame the whole Middle East and the state of Israel will cease to exist if that happens. So I mean, it is bs, but there's an old saying that capitalism can only grow under war, and socialism can only grow, can grow only in peace. And so the Chinese know that if we can build a better mousetrap, and we can't do that if we just trying to build up an army, what have you, we have an army, what have you, but we don't want to get in any kind of war at all. We're not going to get sucked into something. With Taiwan, we played a long game. The Taiwanese are Chinese people, and there's a difference between the government and people. So capitalism, the history of capitalism has been, war has been plundering, has been rape. That's the history of capitalism. It was founded Wilmer Leon (35:27): Markets and resources, markets, resources and labor. That's Tom Porter (35:34): We were both the market and the labor. Wilmer Leon (35:36): We, well, in fact, many will argue that that's one of the reasons why they had to end enslavement in this country was because they needed those enslaved individuals as customers. Tom Porter (35:52): That's interesting because that is basically what we are even in the country days, is consumers. (36:01) Consumers. And if we would stop, my godson has a book, the Myth of Black Buying Power, which is true. But the other side of that is that the strength that we do have is to withdraw participation in the game of capitalism except where necessary. That is real power. The guy who on the bus in Montgomery, he never quit lacking blacks, never quit discriminating against blacks in his mind. But he had to decide whether or not he was going to have a bus company or not, and he just held his nose and said, they can ride anywhere they want to ride. Wilmer Leon (36:48): Which is one of the things I always, and you were much closer to that than I was, than I ever could have been. I always felt that one of the mistakes that we made early in that game was getting back on the bus. Once we decided to not ride the bus. We should have sent the bus company into bankruptcy. Tom Porter (37:11): Right. And started our own. Wilmer Leon (37:14): Exactly. Exactly. Tom Porter (37:17): I mean, the history of black people in this country is that when we did our own, we had more power and greatest strength and greater community. You take the, I remember growing up with the Negro Leagues, it was nothing like it. And who cared about what Babe Ruth or somebody else was doing? Wilmer Leon (37:44): We had Hank Aaron, right? We had Josh Gibson. Tom Porter (37:47): The whole myth that black quarterbacks didn't have whatever it took to be quarterbacks, whatever were quarterbacks in every black high school to every black college in the country. They just wasn't playing in the NFL. Wilmer Leon (38:00): And look at the NFL today, Tom Porter (38:02): Right? And that is why the Negro Leagues, and that's a whole nother discussion about Jackie Robinson, not him personally, but the integrating of baseball had absolutely nothing to do, but fairness of being right by black people. It had to do with the fact that more people were going to see black baseball than was going to see white baseball. And whenever black baseball and white baseball meant black Wilmer Leon (38:33): Baseball, baseball won. Tom Porter (38:37): The same is true with the A, B, A and the NBA. More people were going to watch Dr. J and Artist Gilmore, they were going to watch the NBA. So we say we got to merge it. And it's so much that in America, it's like the difference between jazz and black music. Anybody can play jazz, but everybody can't play Wilmer Leon (38:59): Black music. Can't play black music. Well, it's interesting that you brought up the ABA and the NBA and comparing that to the integration of baseball, because when they integrated baseball, they didn't bring the black teams into Major League baseball. No, they did not. They brought the black players because if you bring the black teams, you have to bring black ownership. And I think it was Queen Mother Moore. And again, you may know that, you probably know that history a whole lot better than me, but I thought it was Queen Mother Moore in New York that kept advocating for don't take the players out of the Negro Leagues, integrate the teams. But when they went to the A, b, A and the NBA, the ABA was still, that was white ownership in the A, B, A. It was white ownership in the NBA. So what did they do with the A, B, A? They integrated players and teams instead of just players. Because if they had done the same thing with basketball that they did with baseball, a lot of those A teams would've folded. Tom Porter (40:08): You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. So same, we see the same thing playing out today, and they give us Jay-Z and Queen B give us Obama and Michelle. They give us all of these things. And at the same time that the life for the majority of black people in this country is getting worse because it's good that magic decides to give some black kid a scholarship, but that's not the same as quality education for all black kids. That's like a lottery. You get lucky if Magic knows you or jz. JZ gets to do the Super Bowl a halftime at the Super Bowl, but that doesn't mean anything to these black kids who are out in the street, who can't go to the Super Bowl, can't go to a local NFL game, Wilmer Leon (41:17): May not have a television in their home to watch the Super Bowl. Tom Porter (41:21): It doesn't really mean anything. And so this kind of tokenism and we get caught up in it. I mean, right now we're kind of caught up in what's that? Will Smith and Jada? Jada Ja Wilmer Leon (41:34): Pinkett. Tom Porter (41:34): I don't know what it's all about, and I don't really care because it's really not that important. It just really isn't that important. So we have to be very, very, Wilmer Leon (41:44): Or the discussion about Tyler Perry and what Tyler Perry is doing and how great it is for black people, even though he has a non-union organization in Atlanta, and we know what unions did to help create the black middle class. He made a lot of his money playing off of stereotypes of black people. Tom Porter (42:08): He still, I mean, I think about a week ago I saw one of his movies, it was late at night. I turned on a movie. It was why I got Married or something. And it's basically black people playing white people in black face. That's basically what it is. I mean, the kind of issues that they have and the kind of jobs that they have Wilmer Leon (42:31): And the responses and solutions that are provided are not ours. In fact, I remember Barack is saying They playing you better than you. Tom Porter (42:42): No question. Wilmer Leon (42:45): So here's the question, Tom, what are we to do? We're looking at 2024 right now. We're looking at Trump and Biden don't know if Trump's going to get there because he may wind up in jail. Don't know if Biden's going to get there. He doesn't really know where he is. So given that right now, that's what we have. They're talking about Robert Kennedy now has declared he's going to run as an independent. Dr. West has left the Green Party and he's running as an independent. So to those that are watching and listening right now, Tom, what are we to do in a duopoly where neither party is concerned about us and we don't seem to be concerned about demanding that they are. Tom Porter (43:46): One of the reasons why they had to derail Jesse's campaign had and the Democrats derailed his campaign and led by a segment of the Jewish community. People forget that when Jesse announced that he was running for president and the convention center in Washington dc, the Jewish Defense League interrupted his announcement. And everywhere Jesse went in those early days, and in those early days, he called it the road team. It was myself, Jesse, and Florence Tate, the press secretary. We were traveling from city to city, and the JDL was harassing us at every place that we went. And it was because of the nation of Islam providing us security of security that they backed off. I can remember our first meeting in New York with a Jewish community, Jewish leaders in New York. Percy Sutton met us backstage with a Yama Corps in his head explaining to us how we had to deal with how we had to relate with Jews. (45:09) So the Jaime thing, they never heard. Jaime and Jesse never used Jaime in a negative derogative way. I mean, the Jewish community would tell you, New York is theirs, so they don't have a problem. Ask Chuck Schumer, right? So they didn't have a problem with that. Ask Gregory Meeks. But the base of the Democratic Party was labor and the black community labor split. A lot of labor went for Donald Trump. Trump. Some went for Biden. The black community is the only community that has remained loyal to the Democratic Party. The Democratic party. There's nothing on the agenda that speaks to any concrete solution to what black people need and deserve nothing at all. So my position is I'm not going to focus on the less of two evils. That's evil. Yeah, evil is evil. And that's been going on for a very long time. And we've come up short. (46:30) We came up short with Obama. We came up short with Clinton. We came up with both of the bushes. We keep coming up short. The only person who sincerely attempted to address the issues of black people was Jimmy Carter. And of course it got him in trouble. So we have to begin to think it's good to run as an independent, and I'm glad to see Cornell West through that, but he does not have the base and the understanding and the clarity that Jesse had in the notion of a rainbow coalition and the Rainbow Coalition. We used to call it the domestic third world in the sixties, the unity of black, brown and yellow people and whoever else wanted to you because that's where the strength is. And so unless Cornell West could pull it off and he can't, but we must independently, we must have an agenda that says, if you want our vote, this is what we're going to do. (47:35) And if you're not willing to do this, then we're not voting for you because you're going to come up, which we're going to come up with snake eyes anyhow. Because when you get in, as Biden has done, he does a lot of symbolic stuff and he's got some symbolic clowns around him, Clyburn Sharp, Al, and this group and all the people. I mean, there's just some interesting stuff that's happening and we're getting left out of it. Nobody asks us what we think about any of these issues, how King Jeffries can speak about the state of Israel, but he can't speak about reparations. I mean, what good is he to us if he's not carrying our water? I mean, what good is Lloyd Austin if he's Secretary of Defense Wilmer Leon (48:31): And not defending us? Tom Porter (48:32): That's right. And all of these so that if they're not doing that and we have to call 'em out, we have to call out the Black Caucus. If you say you represent us, this is what we want you to do. We'd be better off without you. Wilmer Leon (48:48): And in the state of things today. In fact, I'm glad you mentioned the Black Caucus, because I've said for a very long time that when you look at the original, I think it was 13, when you look at the original Black Caucus and you look at where they came from, they came out of the struggle. They came out of the community and they came out of organizations and organic, many of them organic organizations within the community we're now a couple of generations removed from that. And I don't think that it's an accident that they are now less progressive, less effective than the original group that was known as the Conscience, conscience of the Congress Tom Porter (49:42): And less connected to the community because they're not funded by the community. They are funded by outside interests, and they no longer see that they have to represent us. They don't go home to their communities. You don't hear anything from, I don't know any members of the black community, somebody, I mean Meeks, I don't know anything about Black Caucus. Yeah, black Caucus. I don't even know them anymore. I used to know all of them. I used to participate, but it's nothing to participate in now. And we've got to have a whole new thinking that's in line with where the world is going, not where the world has been. So that we need to have both a domestic and international policy. We need to be connected with the Belt and Road initiative. I'm not talking about just black people in this country, and there are some African countries that are connected. Wilmer Leon (50:49): A lot of them are. Tom Porter (50:52): We've got to rethink what does Pan-Africanism mean today? Because it is still important. I mean, we've only been in this country a short while, so I mean, it ain't like we've been here for a long time. So as Africa is beginning to emerge, that we must emerge with it. We must have a new way of thinking about Pan Africans and what does it mean? And the Chinese are trying bit by bit to reorganize Ong and the African, Asian and Latin American conferences that used to take place in this country. I mean in the world, we have to rethink all of this, but we have to also in rethinking that realize that we need these formations in today's world. Wilmer Leon (51:46): We need these formations in today's world. And you talk about organizing, and a lot of people listening to this might say, well, what do you mean? Well, when you look at, for example, the L-G-B-T-Q community, they organized, they demanded, they got a president to come out, an African-American president to come out and support same-sex marriage. You look at the women's movement and they organized. They demanded, and they got an African-American president who very proudly and rightfully says, the first piece of legislation that I signed was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. And now you have folks that'll say, well, why is the African-American community complaining when there are African-American members of the L-G-B-T-Q community, there are black women that benefited from the Lily led better Fair Pay Act. There's a difference between being an indirect beneficiary of a policy. There's a difference between being an indirect beneficiary of a policy and being a direct beneficiary of a policy. Tom Porter (53:04): Well, as I say, I believe in reciprocity. And if you come to me, and I've experienced this before in the past, people asking me to support something, I said, where do you stand on the issues that affect black people? Don't come to me and say that our struggles are similar. I mean, I don't need to tell me that your struggle is similar to mine. I need you to tell me where you stand on those issues that impact me. When Kamala Harris was in Africa recently, the complaint of the Africans is that she spent more time trying to convince them why they should be involved with the LG community. I can never say that, right? Too many letters, but they complained that that's all she was talking about, the Africans. But where does this community stand? Wilmer Leon (54:03): Lemme just quickly interject that in that issue of L-G-B-T-Q on the continent, that issue was not an indigenous issue or an organic issue to countries on the continent. That issue was brought there by white evangelicals Tom Porter (54:26): Who Wilmer Leon (54:26): Went there and raised that and presented that as something that mattered in countries that didn't give a damn about it. Tom Porter (54:39): Again, as I say, we got to have a clear agenda, and it's got to be rooted in reciprocity, and it's got to be an agenda that impacts African people wherever they are. And because if you don't think about it in a large sense, what you'll get is what's happening to reparations. I mean, I think it's Evanston, Illinois, which has for some reason, they of doing something with reparations, and now they become a leader in the reparations movement. And then we have to watch these organizations in the black community because people are leading organizations today who 20 years ago were anti-socialist, were anti-communist, Ron Daniels and your mentor, I would say your mentor, but Ron Walters, they were part of expelling Ami Baraka from the Black Political Movement because he was a socialist. And yesterday Ron Daniel's organization was in Grenada supporting the anniversary of Maurice Bishop's movement. But 20 years ago, these people were on the opposite side. It's interesting that the MacArthur Foundation gave Ron Daniels $500,000. I don't know what for, but I know a leopard doesn't change its spots either. So they're bringing all of these people back. Al Sharpton, who used to be a snitch. How do you decide that you're not going to be a snitch? You go in and tell the people you were snitching to, I'm not going to do it anymore. (56:29) But these people, they have to justify. How do you come from that to where you presenting yourself as a leader? After Dr. King and all of the great speakers we have, it's easy for you to become a speaker. You can just plagiarize turn around Dr. King of Malcolm and what have you. So it's not Mr. Say, Mr. Do and what have you been doing in the past? So we got to take a look at the leadership and not be afraid to reject them. I think Barack Obama and his wife looked good. They were good representation of how middle and upper class blacks should look. Wilmer Leon (57:19): But what did they do Tom Porter (57:21): Right? Tom Wilmer Leon (57:22): Porter, I got to thank you as always, my brother. Thank you so much for joining me today. Big shout out to my producer, melody McKinley. Thank you so much, folks for joining Connecting the Dots podcast. I'm Dr. Wimer Leon. This is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. And remember, talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share my show, follow me on social media. You can find all the links on the show in the show description. I'll see you next time. Until then, treat each day like it's your last because one day you'll be right. I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Peace and Blessings. I'm out

Jesuits relied on enslaved labor for their missions in Missouri, including for the founding and sustaining of Saint Louis University. A three year research project uncovered this history. Now, Robin Proudie, a direct descendant, is working to preserve her ancestors' heritage and advocate for their commemoration. Christopher Tinson, chair of SLU's African American Studies Department, talks about what it's like to teach this history to his students.

John talks with Doctor Jason Nichols who is an award winning full-time senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park. They chat about the allegations against president Biden, the Trump indictment over classified documents, and 2024 presidential hopefuls. Then Sean from California calls to talk about Trump's indictment. And then John welcomes Mustafa Santiago Ali who is a thought-leader, strategist, policymaker and activist that is committed to the fight for environmental justice and economic equity. They discuss how people of color are disproportionally victimized by environmental and climate disasters and the Juneteenth holiday which he says celebrates the resilience of African Americans.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John discusses Republican 2024 candidates with Dr. Jason Nichols who is an award winning full-time senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park. Then John flashes back with memories and stories of Tina Turner. He takes calls from Bill in New Jersey on Tina and other classic concerts. Then finally - Comedy Daddy AKA Keith Price returns to chat about Tina as well. They take calls from Dean from L.A., Zack in Tennessee, and Mitch at Kent State on classic musicians and concerts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, May 24th, 2023. https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/who-warns-unusual-surge-severe-myocarditis-babies WHO Warns Of 'Unusual' Surge in Severe Myocarditis in Babies On Tuesday, the WHO issued an alert that there had been a rise in “severe myocarditis” in newborns and infants between June 2022 and March 2023 in Wales and England. It said that this was associated with the enterovirus infection, which rarely affects the heart. A UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times that 10 babies have been diagnosed in Wales and five have been diagnosed in England. The WHO said that “although enterovirus infections are common in neonates and young infants, the reported increase in myocarditis with severe outcomes in neonates and infants associated with enterovirus infection is unusual.” It said that in the same hospital (covering the South Wales region) over the previous six years, “only one other similar case has been identified.” WHO assessed the public health risk as low, but added that in certain situations, it “may be advisable to close child-care facilities and schools to reduce the intensity of transmission.” However, the WHO took down the alert on Wednesday. The Epoch Times understands that this could be because some of the numbers were not correct. The WHO did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment. Dr. Shamez Ladhani, Consultant Paediatrician at UKHSA, told The Epoch Times by email that “given a higher than average number of cases in Wales in the autumn/winter months in very young babies, UKHSA is investigating the situation in England to see if any similar cases have been observed here and whether there are any factors driving the increase in cases.” The UKHSA did not respond to questions about ruling out any links to the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. Public Health Wales at the start of May announced that it was investigating a cluster of severe enterovirus infections with myocarditis occurring in very young babies from the South Wales region. The cases occurred from June 2022 with a peak in November 2022 involving babies under 28 days old. Ten babies have developed myocarditis within this cluster. One baby remains in hospital, eight are being managed as outpatients, and one baby has died. Consultant pathologist and HART member Dr. Clare Craig told The Epoch Times that there’s “a massive question about whether or not these babies or the mums are vaccinated.” HART is an organisation that was set up to share concerns about policy and guidance recommendations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/nebraska-governor-signs-ban-abortion-and-child-transitions Nebraska governor signs ban on abortion and child transitions Nebraska became the latest state to enact bans on abortion and child gender transitions as Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) signed a dual measure Monday afternoon. Nebraska 's legislature passed the measure Friday, which will prohibit abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and ban genital and nongenital mutilation surgeries on children. The bill also gives the state's chief medical officer, Dr. Timothy Tesmer, the authority to determine restrictions on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Pillen called child gender transitions "Lucifer at its finest" at the signing ceremony. "All children deserve a chance to grow and live happy, fruitful lives," Pillen said in a press release before the signing. "This includes pre-born boys and girls, and it includes children struggling with their gender identity. These kids deserve the opportunity to grow and explore who they are and want to be, and they can do so without making irreversible decisions that should be made when they are fully grown." While the abortion ban goes into effect immediately upon Pillen's signature, the ban on transgender procedures will go into effect on Oct. 1. The abortion ban includes exceptions for rape, incest, and instances in which the life of the mother is at risk. Eighty-six percent of abortions in Nebraska occur before 12 weeks, according to state statistics. Primary sponsor state Sen. Joni Albrecht, fighting through tears, said, "I look forward to the day when every child is protected from elective abortions in our state." Nebraska joins a growing list of states that have passed abortion restrictions since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Twenty-seven states have attempted to pass such laws, but some states have been either held up by courts or hindered by a divided government. Last week, North Carolina and South Carolina took action to restrict abortion. From Nebraska to Texas we go… https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/05/23/texas-bans-diversity-offices-at-colleges-n2623589 Texas Moves a Step Closer to Banning Diversity Programs in Higher Education On Monday, Texas lawmakers passed a bill to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at state colleges and universities. If the bill were to become law, it would be the second state in the nation with such legislation, following Florida. According to The Hill, the measure requires the governors of each state university to ensure that there is no DEI office at the school and that preferential treatment is not given for “diversity hires.” Rep. John Kuempel, a Republican, said that “DEI is present in some form in almost every Texas campus” and that schools “must recruit the best people in every field regardless of race and gender,” according to the Dallas Morning News. The Texas House voted 83-60 in support of S.B. 17. The legislation heads back to the Senate, where it will decide to accept or deny changes made by members of the House. Last month, when the Senate passed its version of the bill, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick described the legislation as the “strongest pushback on woke policies in higher education.” “For far too long, academia has been poisoned by woke policies and faculty seeking to indoctrinate our students. Professors did not believe we would push back on their advances, but they were wrong. Students should be taught how to think critically, not what to think," Patrick said in a statement. https://freebeacon.com/energy/majority-of-united-states-faces-elevated-risk-of-summer-power-blackouts-amid-green-energy-push/ Majority of United States Faces 'Elevated Risk' of Summer Power Blackouts Amid Green Energy Push America's increased reliance on green energy in favor of coal and gas has a majority of the United States facing an "elevated risk" of summer power blackouts, according to a leading grid reliability watchdog. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) last week published its 2023 summer reliability assessment, which found that two-thirds of North America could face power shortages this summer during periods of extreme heat. That vulnerability, the watchdog group said, stems from America's increase in green power generation and decrease in fossil fuel power plants. While coal and natural gas plants can be turned on and off at the flip of a switch, green alternatives such as wind and solar rely on favorable weather conditions to operate at full capacity. If those conditions aren't met, power demand can outpace supply. "The system is closer to the edge," NERC director of reliability assessment and performance analysis John Moura said last week. "More needs to be done." Moura is far from the only expert sounding the alarm on America's unreliable power grid. Both state and federal officials in recent weeks have warned that high summer temperatures, combined with low nightly winds, could bring power blackouts across the country. "I'm afraid to say it, but I think the United States is heading towards a catastrophic situation," Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Mark Christie said during a May Senate hearing. Despite those warnings, President Joe Biden has moved forward with plans to accelerate U.S. coal plant retirements. With nearly half of America's coal power already set to disappear by 2030, Biden's Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month unveiled new standards that force coal and gas power plants to slash their carbon emissions by a whopping 90 percent between 2035 and 2040. In order to meet the near-impossible standards, those plants will have to spend big on infrastructure upgrades—costs that may prompt the plants to shut down rather than comply. "Coal is more than five times as dependable as wind and more than twice as dependable as solar when electricity demand is greatest," America's Power CEO Michelle Bloodworth said in a statement, "yet bad public policy and EPA regulations are forcing the closure of coal plants." In addition to his far-reaching fossil fuel regulations, Biden has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks and subsidies aimed at increasing electric car use. And in April, Biden's Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule that imposes strict tailpipe emission limits on vehicles sold—so strict that it effectively forces automakers to ensure that two-thirds of the cars they sell are electric by 2032. Those moves could also put strain on the nation's power grid. As more Americans plug in their cars instead of filling them up with gasoline, grids across the country will need to put out more power to keep up. The issue has already plagued some U.S. states—in September, for example, California urged electric car drivers to stop charging their vehicles due to power grid strain. Still, the ordeal did not stop state officials from moving full steam ahead with plans to outlaw gas-powered vehicles and eradicate fossil fuel power plants. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/mccarthy-warns-nowhere-near-deal-on-debt-ceiling McCarthy warns White House and GOP ‘nowhere near a deal’ on debt ceiling House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warned Republican lawmakers that his team is “nowhere near a deal” with the White House on the debt ceiling, ramping up pressure on President Joe Biden just nine days before the default deadline. In a closed-door meeting with GOP lawmakers on Tuesday, McCarthy told members a compromise on the debt ceiling was still far off, reiterating his position that he would not increase spending or raise the debt ceiling without conditions. Republicans emerged from the meeting wary of negotiators’ progress, telling reporters the talks are not going well so far. As part of the negotiations, the White House proposed late last week to limit next year’s spending to 2023 levels — an idea that was rejected by Republicans, who wish to return to 2022 levels. McHenry and Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), the top negotiators for McCarthy, emphasized that stance on Tuesday by calling on the White House to agree to cut spending. Meanwhile, some Republicans remain skeptical of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warnings that the country could default on its payments as soon as June 1, calling that date a manufactured deadline set by the Biden administration to accelerate a deal. Gaetz argued the United States is not at risk of missing its payments, noting the country has strong revenue that will continue coming in over the next few weeks. Instead, the Florida Republican said Yellen should appear before Congress to present “receipts and deposits” that prove the country is on track to default. McCarthy’s warning comes after the speaker met with Biden on Monday evening, marking the third meeting the two have held since restarting negotiations earlier this month. McCarthy called the meeting “productive” but noted the two are still far apart on finalizing a deal. Now for the rundown… https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-suspect-in-custody-after-allegedly-crashing-u-haul-truck-into-barriers-near-white-house?utm_campaign=64487 On Monday night, the driver of a U-Haul truck was taken into custody after allegedly slamming into security barriers near the White House. According to Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi, the truck crashed on the northern side of Lafayette Square at around 10 pm. Guglielmi said in a statement, "Shortly before 10:00 p.m. Monday, Secret Service Uniformed Division officers detained the driver of a box truck after the vehicle collided with security barriers on the north side of Lafayette Square at 16th Street." He added that there were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel and that the crash is under investigation but that the preliminary investigation reveals the driver may have intentionally crashed into the barriers. https://thepostmillennial.com/uc-berkeley-holds-segregated-graduation-ceremony-for-black-students-only?utm_campaign=64487 The University of California Berkeley hosted a black-only graduation ceremony for its non-white students at Zellerbach Hall on Saturday. In March, UC Berkeley’s African American Studies Department announced they would be holding their annual “Black Graduation” ceremony for students in May. According to the announcement, “The Department of African American Studies plans on hosting our annual Black Graduation ceremony, which is open to all majors and degree programs across the campus." https://twitter.com/i/status/1660362211636969473 - Play Video https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2023/05/22/super-woke-target-partners-on-its-new-gay-pride-line-with-designer-who-insists-satan-loves-you-n749804 So let’s check them off. By “them,” I mean just the latest corporations to put their “woke” beliefs ahead of customer loyalty, profits, and shareholders: Disney, Nike, Bud Light, BlackRock, Ford, and Miller Lite. The complete list is long — and it just got longer with the addition of the super-woke Target Corporation. Target has partnered with UK-based Satanist designer Abprallen on its new “Pride” collection, which features a “Cure Transphobia” sweatshirt, which bears the message “Cure transphobia, not trans people,” and other related items. Did I mention that Abprallen insists “Satan loves you,” “Satan respects pronouns,” and other uplifting [sarc] trash for your shopping pleasure? As reported by Breitbart, Abprallen mixes its affinity for satanism with its pro-LGBT activism, boasting on its Instagram page: “Satan loves you and respects who you are; you’re important and valuable in this world and you deserve to treat yourself with love and respect.”

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, May 24th, 2023. https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/who-warns-unusual-surge-severe-myocarditis-babies WHO Warns Of 'Unusual' Surge in Severe Myocarditis in Babies On Tuesday, the WHO issued an alert that there had been a rise in “severe myocarditis” in newborns and infants between June 2022 and March 2023 in Wales and England. It said that this was associated with the enterovirus infection, which rarely affects the heart. A UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times that 10 babies have been diagnosed in Wales and five have been diagnosed in England. The WHO said that “although enterovirus infections are common in neonates and young infants, the reported increase in myocarditis with severe outcomes in neonates and infants associated with enterovirus infection is unusual.” It said that in the same hospital (covering the South Wales region) over the previous six years, “only one other similar case has been identified.” WHO assessed the public health risk as low, but added that in certain situations, it “may be advisable to close child-care facilities and schools to reduce the intensity of transmission.” However, the WHO took down the alert on Wednesday. The Epoch Times understands that this could be because some of the numbers were not correct. The WHO did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment. Dr. Shamez Ladhani, Consultant Paediatrician at UKHSA, told The Epoch Times by email that “given a higher than average number of cases in Wales in the autumn/winter months in very young babies, UKHSA is investigating the situation in England to see if any similar cases have been observed here and whether there are any factors driving the increase in cases.” The UKHSA did not respond to questions about ruling out any links to the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. Public Health Wales at the start of May announced that it was investigating a cluster of severe enterovirus infections with myocarditis occurring in very young babies from the South Wales region. The cases occurred from June 2022 with a peak in November 2022 involving babies under 28 days old. Ten babies have developed myocarditis within this cluster. One baby remains in hospital, eight are being managed as outpatients, and one baby has died. Consultant pathologist and HART member Dr. Clare Craig told The Epoch Times that there’s “a massive question about whether or not these babies or the mums are vaccinated.” HART is an organisation that was set up to share concerns about policy and guidance recommendations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/nebraska-governor-signs-ban-abortion-and-child-transitions Nebraska governor signs ban on abortion and child transitions Nebraska became the latest state to enact bans on abortion and child gender transitions as Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) signed a dual measure Monday afternoon. Nebraska 's legislature passed the measure Friday, which will prohibit abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and ban genital and nongenital mutilation surgeries on children. The bill also gives the state's chief medical officer, Dr. Timothy Tesmer, the authority to determine restrictions on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Pillen called child gender transitions "Lucifer at its finest" at the signing ceremony. "All children deserve a chance to grow and live happy, fruitful lives," Pillen said in a press release before the signing. "This includes pre-born boys and girls, and it includes children struggling with their gender identity. These kids deserve the opportunity to grow and explore who they are and want to be, and they can do so without making irreversible decisions that should be made when they are fully grown." While the abortion ban goes into effect immediately upon Pillen's signature, the ban on transgender procedures will go into effect on Oct. 1. The abortion ban includes exceptions for rape, incest, and instances in which the life of the mother is at risk. Eighty-six percent of abortions in Nebraska occur before 12 weeks, according to state statistics. Primary sponsor state Sen. Joni Albrecht, fighting through tears, said, "I look forward to the day when every child is protected from elective abortions in our state." Nebraska joins a growing list of states that have passed abortion restrictions since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Twenty-seven states have attempted to pass such laws, but some states have been either held up by courts or hindered by a divided government. Last week, North Carolina and South Carolina took action to restrict abortion. From Nebraska to Texas we go… https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/05/23/texas-bans-diversity-offices-at-colleges-n2623589 Texas Moves a Step Closer to Banning Diversity Programs in Higher Education On Monday, Texas lawmakers passed a bill to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at state colleges and universities. If the bill were to become law, it would be the second state in the nation with such legislation, following Florida. According to The Hill, the measure requires the governors of each state university to ensure that there is no DEI office at the school and that preferential treatment is not given for “diversity hires.” Rep. John Kuempel, a Republican, said that “DEI is present in some form in almost every Texas campus” and that schools “must recruit the best people in every field regardless of race and gender,” according to the Dallas Morning News. The Texas House voted 83-60 in support of S.B. 17. The legislation heads back to the Senate, where it will decide to accept or deny changes made by members of the House. Last month, when the Senate passed its version of the bill, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick described the legislation as the “strongest pushback on woke policies in higher education.” “For far too long, academia has been poisoned by woke policies and faculty seeking to indoctrinate our students. Professors did not believe we would push back on their advances, but they were wrong. Students should be taught how to think critically, not what to think," Patrick said in a statement. https://freebeacon.com/energy/majority-of-united-states-faces-elevated-risk-of-summer-power-blackouts-amid-green-energy-push/ Majority of United States Faces 'Elevated Risk' of Summer Power Blackouts Amid Green Energy Push America's increased reliance on green energy in favor of coal and gas has a majority of the United States facing an "elevated risk" of summer power blackouts, according to a leading grid reliability watchdog. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) last week published its 2023 summer reliability assessment, which found that two-thirds of North America could face power shortages this summer during periods of extreme heat. That vulnerability, the watchdog group said, stems from America's increase in green power generation and decrease in fossil fuel power plants. While coal and natural gas plants can be turned on and off at the flip of a switch, green alternatives such as wind and solar rely on favorable weather conditions to operate at full capacity. If those conditions aren't met, power demand can outpace supply. "The system is closer to the edge," NERC director of reliability assessment and performance analysis John Moura said last week. "More needs to be done." Moura is far from the only expert sounding the alarm on America's unreliable power grid. Both state and federal officials in recent weeks have warned that high summer temperatures, combined with low nightly winds, could bring power blackouts across the country. "I'm afraid to say it, but I think the United States is heading towards a catastrophic situation," Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Mark Christie said during a May Senate hearing. Despite those warnings, President Joe Biden has moved forward with plans to accelerate U.S. coal plant retirements. With nearly half of America's coal power already set to disappear by 2030, Biden's Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month unveiled new standards that force coal and gas power plants to slash their carbon emissions by a whopping 90 percent between 2035 and 2040. In order to meet the near-impossible standards, those plants will have to spend big on infrastructure upgrades—costs that may prompt the plants to shut down rather than comply. "Coal is more than five times as dependable as wind and more than twice as dependable as solar when electricity demand is greatest," America's Power CEO Michelle Bloodworth said in a statement, "yet bad public policy and EPA regulations are forcing the closure of coal plants." In addition to his far-reaching fossil fuel regulations, Biden has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks and subsidies aimed at increasing electric car use. And in April, Biden's Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule that imposes strict tailpipe emission limits on vehicles sold—so strict that it effectively forces automakers to ensure that two-thirds of the cars they sell are electric by 2032. Those moves could also put strain on the nation's power grid. As more Americans plug in their cars instead of filling them up with gasoline, grids across the country will need to put out more power to keep up. The issue has already plagued some U.S. states—in September, for example, California urged electric car drivers to stop charging their vehicles due to power grid strain. Still, the ordeal did not stop state officials from moving full steam ahead with plans to outlaw gas-powered vehicles and eradicate fossil fuel power plants. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/mccarthy-warns-nowhere-near-deal-on-debt-ceiling McCarthy warns White House and GOP ‘nowhere near a deal’ on debt ceiling House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warned Republican lawmakers that his team is “nowhere near a deal” with the White House on the debt ceiling, ramping up pressure on President Joe Biden just nine days before the default deadline. In a closed-door meeting with GOP lawmakers on Tuesday, McCarthy told members a compromise on the debt ceiling was still far off, reiterating his position that he would not increase spending or raise the debt ceiling without conditions. Republicans emerged from the meeting wary of negotiators’ progress, telling reporters the talks are not going well so far. As part of the negotiations, the White House proposed late last week to limit next year’s spending to 2023 levels — an idea that was rejected by Republicans, who wish to return to 2022 levels. McHenry and Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), the top negotiators for McCarthy, emphasized that stance on Tuesday by calling on the White House to agree to cut spending. Meanwhile, some Republicans remain skeptical of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warnings that the country could default on its payments as soon as June 1, calling that date a manufactured deadline set by the Biden administration to accelerate a deal. Gaetz argued the United States is not at risk of missing its payments, noting the country has strong revenue that will continue coming in over the next few weeks. Instead, the Florida Republican said Yellen should appear before Congress to present “receipts and deposits” that prove the country is on track to default. McCarthy’s warning comes after the speaker met with Biden on Monday evening, marking the third meeting the two have held since restarting negotiations earlier this month. McCarthy called the meeting “productive” but noted the two are still far apart on finalizing a deal. Now for the rundown… https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-suspect-in-custody-after-allegedly-crashing-u-haul-truck-into-barriers-near-white-house?utm_campaign=64487 On Monday night, the driver of a U-Haul truck was taken into custody after allegedly slamming into security barriers near the White House. According to Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi, the truck crashed on the northern side of Lafayette Square at around 10 pm. Guglielmi said in a statement, "Shortly before 10:00 p.m. Monday, Secret Service Uniformed Division officers detained the driver of a box truck after the vehicle collided with security barriers on the north side of Lafayette Square at 16th Street." He added that there were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel and that the crash is under investigation but that the preliminary investigation reveals the driver may have intentionally crashed into the barriers. https://thepostmillennial.com/uc-berkeley-holds-segregated-graduation-ceremony-for-black-students-only?utm_campaign=64487 The University of California Berkeley hosted a black-only graduation ceremony for its non-white students at Zellerbach Hall on Saturday. In March, UC Berkeley’s African American Studies Department announced they would be holding their annual “Black Graduation” ceremony for students in May. According to the announcement, “The Department of African American Studies plans on hosting our annual Black Graduation ceremony, which is open to all majors and degree programs across the campus." https://twitter.com/i/status/1660362211636969473 - Play Video https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2023/05/22/super-woke-target-partners-on-its-new-gay-pride-line-with-designer-who-insists-satan-loves-you-n749804 So let’s check them off. By “them,” I mean just the latest corporations to put their “woke” beliefs ahead of customer loyalty, profits, and shareholders: Disney, Nike, Bud Light, BlackRock, Ford, and Miller Lite. The complete list is long — and it just got longer with the addition of the super-woke Target Corporation. Target has partnered with UK-based Satanist designer Abprallen on its new “Pride” collection, which features a “Cure Transphobia” sweatshirt, which bears the message “Cure transphobia, not trans people,” and other related items. Did I mention that Abprallen insists “Satan loves you,” “Satan respects pronouns,” and other uplifting [sarc] trash for your shopping pleasure? As reported by Breitbart, Abprallen mixes its affinity for satanism with its pro-LGBT activism, boasting on its Instagram page: “Satan loves you and respects who you are; you’re important and valuable in this world and you deserve to treat yourself with love and respect.”

John talks about the horrid lies and the EPIC FAILS during Trump's Town Hall appearance on CNN. Then he welcomes back Prof. Corey Brettschneider and they chat about Trump's TV Rally on CNN - Christopher from California calls to talk with them. Next, Douglas in Chicago and Blake in Indiana both call in the on CNN Town Hall Folly. And finally he interviews the award winning senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park - Dr. Jason Nichols on current news.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What do Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump have in common, even though they're not best friends? They believe in the people and the promise of America and are not ready to see it flushed down the toilet. Tucker's high-profile firing has a lot of suitors clamoring for his unique style of reporting the news. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out. If Patrick Bet-David has anything to say about it, Tucker will be the President of Valuetainment and will be shaping the face of media for the next 20+ years. In a newly revealed text message, ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson made a racist comment and said he found himself briefly rooting for a mob of Trump supporters to kill a person, according to the New York Times. #CNN #News See the text that may have gotten Tucker Carlson fired - YouTube Megyn Kelly is joined by Patrick Bet-David, Founder and CEO of Valuetainment, to announce his $100 million offer to Tucker Carlson to join his Valuetainment content company, how Tucker is a unique talent, and why Patrick believes in him, why the videos of Tucker didn't scare him away, and more. Patrick Bet-David Makes Tucker Carlson $100 Million Offer to Join His@VALUETAINMENT Content Company - YouTube Eddie Glaude Jr., chair of the African American Studies Department at Princeton University, and Jamelle Bouie, columnist for The New York Times, talk with Alex Wagner about what newly revealed text messages by Tucker Carlson say about the white supremacy Fox advocated through Carlson.  Controversial text reveals nature of Tucker Carlson's white supremacy on Fox - YouTube --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/seth-martin0/message

In this episode - John discusses the arrest of Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira who is accused of leaking classified national defense documents on the Ukraine/ Russia war to his friends on a gaming site called "Discord". He then brings in Prof. Corey Brettschneider to mull over and make sense of the many crimes of Donald Trump as well as other current legal news. Next he chats with the senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park - Dr. Jason Nichols about the new proposed "Ebony Alert". This is a bill that might help missing Black children and women get a similar amount of attention as white people who disappear. Then lastly - It's Miss Thea Harper and "The Minority Report". This time she discusses Shanquella Robinson, a Black woman, who was found dead in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico, where she and her acquaintances traveled for vacation. A viral video that emerged shortly after Robinson's death depicts another woman severely beating her in a hotel, while two spectators in the room recorded the incident. U.S authorities have declined to press charges.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John talks about new law in Idaho that restrict people from leaving the state to get an abortion. He then interviews the Senior Lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park - Dr. Jason Nichols and they discuss the 2 black democratic House lawmakers in Tennessee that were ousted by Republicans after they protested for gun reform. Next "Comedy Daddy" Keith Price returns and they talk about current politics including the indictment of Trump. They chat about the news with Bill in New Jersey, Brian in Oregon, and Jeff in Virginia.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John gives up a list of some truly hateful stories in the news this week: Republican lies about bank closings; school history books being changed to erase ethnicity; a stupid Nazi who threatens murder to a cop; and millions of GOP secessionists living in a hateful fantasy. Then he chats with Theresa in Washington on reparations and Dave in Washington on Katee Sackhoff in Battlestar Galactica. Next he speaks with Prof. Corey Brettschneider on Law and the Courts. And he interviews Dr. Jason Nichols - a Senior Lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park - on current events and politics. Then lastly Kat from Dallas calls in to explain why "WOKE" is a good thing. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John speaks with the award winning Senior Lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park - Dr. Jason Nichols. They discuss the GOP's hate driven response to immigration and how MTG uses hate to further her career. Then he interviews the world-leading criminologist Professor Matthew Williams about his new book " The Science of Hate: How Prejudice Becomes Hate and what We Can Do to Stop it".See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we explore the concepts of racialization and educational inequality in the field of comparative and international education. My guests are Janelle Scott and Monisha Bajaj who have recently co-edited the latest edition of the World Yearbook of Education. Janelle Scott is a Professor in the School of Education and African American Studies Department at the University of California at Berkeley and Monisha Bajaj is a professor of international and multicultural education at the University of San Francisco. https://freshedpodcast.com/scott-bajaj/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

As soon as he was overwhelmingly elected to a second term as Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis wasted no time re-planting a flag in the national culture war. It is widely assumed that DeSantis will be a candidate for President in 2024. It remains to be seen whether or not his attempts to alter the curriculum for the teaching of Black History will prove to be a winning strategy in the Republican primary or in a general election. But that curriculum has certainly been altered. The College Board — the non-profit educational organization which produces the Advanced Placement, or AP, course material at issue in Florida — contends it did not revise the curriculum because of political pressure. David Coleman, the CEO of the College Board, insisted in his interview last week with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that the revisions were made well before the Florida governor's criticisms. But those revisions were announced just a couple of days after Florida Gov. DeSantis blasted the original draft of the course as contributing to a leftist political agenda. Florida's Commissioner of Education described it as “woke indoctrination masquerading as education.” When the College Board first announced the Advanced Placement course in African American history last August, it garnered praise from scholars on the left. The revised version, released last week, deletes some of the most well-known contemporary voices in the African American canon, and delegates topics like Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory to a list of possible research topics, rather than as part of the course itself. The issue of what to teach and what to suppress in telling the story of our country's racial history became a cause celebre on the right. Gov. DeSantis has now expanded his attacks to encompass not just the high school AP course, but college and university curricula as well. Florida isn't the only state to have challenged the dimensions of what Black History should include. Nearly half of all states have passed legislation against Critical Race Theory, which before it became a hot topic, had only been taught in law schools.Today on Midday: Conversations with teachers who teach Black Studies in Baltimore high school classrooms. Plus, the perspective of the African American Studies scholar who coined the hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter. We begin with Patrice Frasier. She is the chair of the Social Sciences Department at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a city public school where she teaches American Government and African American Studies. Poly is one of 60 schools across the country selected to test the pilot AP African Studies course, and Ms. Frasier is one of the teachers who'll be teaching that course next year. Patrice Frasier joins us on Zoom… Then, Tom speaks with Damian Ford, a student support specialist who teaches Black literature at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Damian Ford joins us on Zoom… Tom's final guest today is Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter. He's the chair of the African American Studies Department at UCLA. Dr. Hunter joins us on Zoom from Los Angeles.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode - John talks about who will win the election for RNC chair and the witch hunt of Bill Barr and John Durham for the beginnings of the Russia investigation. Then he chats with Prof. Corey Brettschneider about new social media regulations and other current news. Next he interviews Dr. Jason Nichols who is a senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park. They talk about Kyrsten Sinema, Diane Feinstein, and the death of Tyre Nichols. And then finally a requiem for yet another anti-vaxxer taken by Covid 19 and a speech about Adam Schiff running for the senate.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John looks back and remembers his friendship with musician David Crosby as the world morns his passing. Then he talks with Prof. Corey Brettschneider about new revelations in the SCOTUS leaked draft opinion which ultimately overturned Roe vs Wade plus they talk about Brazilian revolts and presidential document scandals. Next he interviews Dr. Jason Nichols - senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park and they discuss Ron DeSantis. Then finally he chats with anthropologist, primatologist, actor, producer, writer, host and comedienne Natalia Reagan as she brings another segment of “Shit You Can't Say” featuring phrases w/problematic (read: racist) origins that should be kicked to the curb.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jordan T. Camp speaks with Thulani Davis about her new book, *The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom* (Duke, 2022), Black political thought, and the unfinished business of freedom struggles. Conjuncture is a web series and podcast curated and co-produced by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton for the Trinity Social Justice Initiative. It features interviews with activists, artists, scholars, and public intellectuals. Taking its title from Antonio Gramsci and Stuart Hall's conceptualization, it highlights intellectual work engaged in struggles over the meaning and memory of particular historical moments. Amidst a global crisis of hegemony, this web series curates conversations about the burning questions of the conjuncture. Thulani Davis is a professor and a Nellie Y. McKay Fellow in the African American Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Jordan T. Camp is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Co-Director of the Social Justice Initiative at Trinity College.

Subscribe to Quotomania on Simplecast or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate.  She is also president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation's largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities.Dr. Alexander's most recent book, The Trayvon Generation (2022), is a galvanizing meditation on the power of art and culture to illuminate America's unresolved problem with race and the challenges facing young Black America.  Among the fifteen books she has authored or co-authored, her poetry collection American Sublime was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2015.  Other works include Crave Radiance:  New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 (2010), Power and Possibility:  Essays, Reviews, Interviews (2007), The Black Interior:  Essays (2004), Antebellum Dream Book (2001), Body of Life (1996), and The Venus Hottentot (1990). Over the course of an esteemed career in education, Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for fifteen years and chaired the African American Studies Department.  She has been awarded the Jackson Poetry Prize, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the George Kent Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and three Pushcart Prizes for Poetry.  Notably, Dr. Alexander composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama.  Dr. Alexander is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund.From http://www.elizabethalexander.net/about. For more information about Elizabeth Alexander:Previously on The Quarantine Tapes:Elizabeth Alexander: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-062-elizabeth-alexander“Elizabeth Alexander”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/elizabeth-alexander“Elizabeth Alexander: The Desire to Know Each Other”: https://onbeing.org/programs/desire-know-elizabeth-alexander-2/The Trayvon Generation: https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/elizabeth-alexander/the-trayvon-generation/9781538737903/“Elizabeth Alexander: ‘We Can Never Give Up Hope'”: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/elizabeth-alexander-trayvon-generation-interview/

When we think of racism, we often think of actions, obstacles, systems. What we often overlook is the power of images, movement, art, and words. They represent the power of both harm and hope. Elizabeth Alexander in her new book, The Trayvon Generation, uses this prism to share poetry, art, and film. And along with her exquisite, evocative language, we find ourselves educated, provoked and challenged. Elizabeth is singularly equipped to tell us this story. She is a poet. Many were introduced to her when she read her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at President Obama's inauguration. She is a bestselling, award-winning author and is now the president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation's largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities. But at her core, she is an educator, having had that role as chair of African-American studies at Yale University. In her new book, that is just what she does. She educates us, and the poet in her delivers the education with lyrical beauty. Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. Her most recent book, The Trayvon Generation (2022), is a galvanizing meditation on the power of art and culture to illuminate America's unresolved problem with race and the challenges facing young Black America. Among the fifteen books she has authored or co-authored, her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2015 and her poetry collection American Sublime was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006. Notably, Dr. Alexander composed and recited “Praise Song for the Day” for President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration. Over the course of an esteemed career in education, she has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for fifteen years and chaired the African American Studies Department. Dr. Alexander is currently president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation's largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities. * Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this fifth episode of Black Work Talk's Season Two, Steven Pitts talks with Toussaint Losier, his co-host for the second mini-series of Black Work Talk on the Black Left. Toussaint is professor in the African American Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During this episode, we previewed the mini-series by presenting our definitions of the Black Left; discussing the importance of organizations and institutions to expanding the power and influence of the Black Left; and outlining some of the key challenges facing the Black Left.

St. Louis, Missouri: Cecilia Hegamin-Younger, PhD. Visiting Professor at the Washington University in St. Louis African and African American Studies Department finally releases her much-anticipated business classic – Being Bold and Driven: The Challenges and Victories of Building a Business. Which is the result of a joint project venture conducted by a large financial institution to determine the unique traits that differentiated successful financial agents from the unsuccessful ones. The project was based on three foundational questions: why are some financial agents struggling and others performing well? Are they doing things differently? If so, what are they doing that can impact their progression in developing their business? “This is a powerful book to read and reflect on the stories and layered experiences of individuals interviewed. Being Bold and Driven invites, guides and encourages success. I encourage professionals from other industries to also read and follow the brilliance and strategies this book provides” said Amy Hunter, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategist/Community Activist. “I didn't just learn from these pages, I couldn't wait to turn the page, I wrote in the margins, stopped, journaled and then with joy picked the book back up to finish. If you can only read one book that will shift your thinking, change your mind, and impact your life, I suggest this one. It is a must read and a transformational game changer.” Over 100 Financial Agents and Top Business Executives Interviewed Nationwide Get it on Amazon today!  

In this hour Stephen Henderson speaks with Eddie Glaude Jr, the chair of the African American Studies Department at Princeton.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!    Dawn Elissa Fischer, also known as the “DEF Professor,” is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State University, where she teaches courses on black popular culture, information technology and virtual ethnography. Dionne Bennett is an Assistant Professor in the African American Studies Department at the CUNY (City University of New York), New York City College of Technology. She is an Associate Director of the The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard University Hutchins Center. She was previously the institute's Director of Gender Studies and Social Advocacy and has been affiliated with the institute since its founding in 2002 by Marcyliena Morgan, Ph.D. 

Amira Rose Davis hosts a round table discussion with sports writers and scholars on the Black and African Diaspora at the 2020/21 Tokyo Olympics. She is joined by Bria Felicien, writer of the Black Sportswoman newsletter, Dr. Javier Wallace, the Race and Sport Postdoctoral Associate in the African and African American Studies Department at Duke University and Courtney Stith, co-host of the Diaspora United women's football/soccer podcast. They discuss the ways the Diaspora is on display at the Olympics, how athletes navigate multiple identities and finding joy amidst the Olympic chaos. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network. For show notes, transcripts, and more info about BIAD, check out our website: www.burnitalldownpod.com To help support the Burn It All Down podcast, please consider becoming a patron: www.patreon.com/burnitalldown For BIAD merchandise: https://www.bonfire.com/store/burn-it-all-down/ Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/BurnItDownPod; Facebook: www.facebook.com/BurnItAllDownPod/; and Instagram: www.instagram.com/burnitalldownpod/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ansari Podcast: Mahmoud Elansary and Professor Sahar Aziz discuss how the American government treated Muslims and reacted to the attack on 9/11. They talk about how the U.S government used 9/11 as an excuse to expand their power and abuse it on Muslims, knowing there would be no repercussions. They talk about how the government was able to do whatever they wanted to Muslims because Muslim Americans are weak and had no political power. Muslims were an easy target for the U.S. government. And whether the government still runs these sting operations on Muslims, also how people easily believed that Muslims were dangerous. Professor Sahar even gives examples of how these sting operations would go down. And how US agents would manipulate young Muslim Americans into becoming terrorists and/or join ISIS. They discuss Trump and the Republican base inciting hate for Muslims and Islam, and why they decided to sign the Muslim Ban. But how America sells billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia and is in its bets interest to be allies with Egypt, so Trump kept them off the Muslim ban. They also talk about how the CIA would Kidnapped and Outsource torture to Saudi Arabia and Egypt and why that is. Is Democracy and Islam Morally exclusive? Professor Sahar Aziz gives her perspective on how Muslims have been taught an over simplified and grandiose look at Islam that does not fit the reality and complexity and richness of Islamic history. Also what is Diaspora and what that Diasporas current situation is Find Out More About Professor Sahar Aziz Here: https://law.rutgers.edu/directory/view/8277 Sahar Aziz's scholarship examines the intersections of national security, race, and civil rights with a focus on the adverse impact of national security laws and policies on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in the U.S. She is a recipient of the Derrick Bell award from the American Association of Law Schools and served as a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution-Doha. Sahar Aziz is Professor of Law, Chancellor's Social Justice Scholar, and Middle East and Legal Studies Scholar at Rutgers University Law School. Professor Aziz's scholarship adopts an interdisciplinary approach to examine intersections of national security, race, and civil rights with a focus on the adverse impact of national security laws and policies on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in the U.S. Her research also investigates the relationship between authoritarianism, terrorism, and rule of law in Egypt. She is the founding director of the interdisciplinary Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights (csrr.rutgers.edu). She is also a faculty affiliate of the African American Studies Department at Rutgers University-Newark and a member of the Rutgers-Newark Chancellor's Commission on Diversity and Transformation. Professor Aziz is an editor for the Arab Law Quarterly and the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Professor Aziz teaches courses on national security, critical race theory, Islamophobia, evidence, torts, and Middle East law.

Michael breaks down the criminal indictment of Allen Weisselberg and the Trump Organization showcasing how rampant fraud and corruption within the company was part and parcel of the Trump business culture. But these charges are just the beginning as the Manhattan DA seeks to flip Weisselberg and ultimately hold Donald Trump accountable. Finally, Michael speaks with Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr., the Chair of Princeton University's African American Studies Department and one of this nation's foremost scholars on Black culture about the GOP's weaponization of Critical Race Theory.

Do you know how powerful your voice is? I do. It means everything. Today's episode describes how Black women athletes have used their platforms to advocate for fairness and justice throughout history. Dr. Akilah Carter-Francique is visiting with us from her post at San Jose State University, where she serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society, and Social Change. Dr. Carter-Francique is also an Associate Professor in the African-American Studies Department there, doing storytelling, teaching, and elevating her role as an educator, scholar, and activist. Akilah's journey through sport participation forced her both to the sidelines at times while positioning her for a proverbial seat at many tables. Finally, listen for the common thread of Black women's experiences and police brutality and the rallying cry to #sayhername. I would encourage you to visit the work of Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, founder of the African American Policy Forum and Director of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, to learn more about this campaign.

The hosts Dom & Fats interviews Dr. Jason Nichols, an award winning full time senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park, appears on FoxNews and also contributes to RocaNews. Be sure to stay tuned to new drama series coming soon, 'Life In Justice' written & directed by Dr. Jason Nichols.

The Chair of History and African American Studies Department at the University of Houston, Dr. Gerald Horne checks in to discuss the presidential transition process. Dr. Horne will also update us on the problems in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Guinea, The Ivory Coast, and Uganda. Dr. Horne will also talk about the NBA draft, the NFL & his books on Boxing & Jazz. Before we get to Dr. Horne we will examine the controversial police-involved shooting in central Florida resulting in the deaths of two unarmed Black teens. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reporter  Melissa Perry interviews the Chair of Northwestern's African American Studies Department, Professor Mary Patillo, about recent student  protests, President Shapiro's response, and Northwestern's history of  failed commitments to black students and faculty.

On this week’s show, Grace is joined by author, academic and activist Cornel West to discuss radical politics in the United States. West, a philosopher at Harvard’s African and African-American Studies Department, gives his views on Black Lives Matter, the “neo-fascism” of Donald Trump and the need to critique the role of American empire across the world. He also discusses how the Left can fight back against these morbid symptoms, by building a socialist spirituality, a culture of resistance and broad coalitions for social change which can transform the political landscape. A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.

A World to Win is a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world. On this week’s show, Grace Blakeley is joined by author, academic and activist Cornel West to discuss radical politics in the United States. West, a philosopher at Harvard’s African and African-American Studies Department, gives his views on Black Lives Matter, the “neo-fascism” of Donald Trump and the need to critique the role of American empire across the world. He also discusses how the Left can fight back against these morbid symptoms, by building a socialist spirituality, a culture of resistance and broad coalitions for social change which can transform the political landscape. A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!  Dawn Elissa Fischer, Ph.D. aka DEF Professor is an anthropologist  Dionne Bennett holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles where she studied in the Psychocultural Studies and Medical Anthropology Program. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Anthropology and Literature from Yale University.  She is an Assistant Professor in the African American Studies Department at the CUNY (City University of New York), New York City College of Technology. She is an Associate Director of the The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard University Hutchins Center. She was previously the institute’s Director of Gender Studies and Social Advocacy and has been affiliated with the institute since its founding in 2002 by Marcyliena Morgan, Ph.D. She was previously the Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of Detroit Mercy. She has been a fellow of Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, the Ford Foundation, and the UCLA President's Office.   

Today, we continue talking with Dr. Saundra Ardrey, a Professor of Political Science and Director of the African-American Studies Department at Western Kentucky University. Her teaching and research focus on voting and electoral behavior, specifically the political participation of women and minorities. She is also co-founder and co-director of the WKU Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, and established The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars at WKU, through which she helps create study away and study abroad opportunities for students ranging from tracing the Underground Railroad to developing service-learning projects around the world. Dr. Ardrey is well known across campus for these and other activities, including receiving a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant that led to co-creation of the first Women and Gender Studies program at the University of Limpopo. In 2019, she led the presentation “Suffrage for All,” which explored the history and legacy of the fight for universal suffrage in America. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dimestories/message

This season explores a major celebration in 2020: the 100th anniversary of Suffrage for Women, through the passage of the 19th Amendment, as well as the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment, which granted voting rights to all Americans regardless of race or color. Yet beneath the surface of these celebrations are essential conversations about race, gender, and voting that linger today – despite 100 years of all Americans having a say in politics. Joining us to explore these essential conversations is Dr. Saundra Ardrey, a Professor of Political Science and Director of the African-American Studies Department at Western Kentucky University. Her teaching and research focus on voting and electoral behavior, specifically the political participation of women and minorities. She is also co-founder and co-director of the WKU Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, and established The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars at WKU, through which she helps create study away and study abroad opportunities for students ranging from tracing the Underground Railroad to developing service-learning projects around the world. Dr. Ardrey is well known across campus for these and other activities, including receiving a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant that led to co-creation of the first Women and Gender Studies program at the University of Limpopo. In 2019, she led the presentation “Suffrage for All,” which explored the history and legacy of the fight for universal suffrage in America. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dimestories/message

Feeling comfy? Secure? Relatively unbothered by the state of the world? Then consider this: The President of the United States, who holds at his fingertips a devastating nuclear arsenal, also is bragging on television about acing a dementia test that involves remembering five whole words and counting backwards by seven. It’s one of a number of pleasant scenarios contemplated by Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. “What I am so impressed with in this administration is how dumb everyone is,” Molly quips. She and Rick muse about which rich scumbags will get shout-outs in those sealed Ghislaine Maxwell court documents. Prof. Eddie Glaude, the Chairman of Princeton’s African American Studies Department, ponders whether Trump is the worst president in 150 years—or the worst one ever. The Beast’s Michael Tomasky wonders which foreign government will attack our election this time. And Molly has a few words for all the media geniuses who think Donald Trump has totally changed his M.O. because he’s finally starting to acknowledge the pandemic: “The guy only has one tone, which is deranged.” Plus! Will Mike Flynn do donuts in a tank on the White House Lawn? Will Bill Barr literally wipe his ass with the Constitution, or settle for a metaphorical move? And what does this phrase mean? “Person. Woman. Man. Television camera. Sean Hannity. Bat shit cuckoo pants.”Want more? Become a Beast Inside member to enjoy a limited-run series of bonus interviews from The New Abnormal. Guests include Cory Booker, Jim Acosta, and more. Head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com to join now.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The famous black contralto singer Marian Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, after being denied the ability to perform down the street at Constitution Hall. And when she did, she transformed the monument into something more than a stone temple to Abraham Lincoln. She ushered in its new life as an active place for generations of Americans to continue the work to“bind up the nation’s wounds.”Hosted by Washington Post journalist Lillian Cunningham, the podcast episode features experts Molefi Kete Asante, head of the African American Studies Department at Temple University; Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”; and Post architecture critic Philip Kennicott.This is a special episode of the “Presidential” podcast series. In 44 chronological episodes, the “Presidential” podcast took listeners on an epic historical journey through the personality and legacy of each of the American presidents. Created and hosted by Lillian Cunningham, “Presidential” features interviews with the country’s greatest experts on the presidency, including Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers, historians and journalists. The full “Presidential” series is available to listen to here. Start listening at the very beginning, with the life of George Washington, or jump ahead to any president whose story you want to better understand.

What is the role of poetry in the midst of difficulty?On episode 062, Paul Holdengräber is joined by poet, scholar, and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Elizabeth Alexander. They discuss the importance of art, and in particular, how poetry can serve as a place to bring our deepest questions, even in the midst of trial.Elizabeth Alexander – poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate – is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for 15 years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, Alexander composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, and is author or co-author of fourteen books. Her book of poems, American Sublime, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 2015.The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander (The New Yorker, 2020)

Millions have taken to the streets to protest the police killing of George Floyd and systemic racism that black people are subjected to everyday. Wise One Dr. Eddie Glaude says we are seeing the accumulation of grief, disregard and contempt for black lives. He is the chair of Princeton's African American Studies Department and joins Tonya this week to parse out nationwide actions and to recenter black joy and resilience. Episode transcript here: shorturl.at/lpEF6

Millions have taken to the streets to protest the police killing of George Floyd and systemic racism that black people are subjected to everyday. Wise One Dr. Eddie Glaude says we are seeing the accumulation of grief, disregard and contempt for black lives. He is the chair of Princeton's African American Studies Department and joins Tonya this week to parse out nationwide actions and to recenter black joy and resilience. Episode transcript here: shorturl.at/lpEF6

Millions have taken to the streets to protest the police killing of George Floyd and systemic racism that black people are subjected to everyday. Wise One Dr. Eddie Glaude says we are seeing the accumulation of grief, disregard and contempt for black lives. He is the chair of Princeton's African American Studies Department and joins Tonya this week to parse out nationwide actions and to recenter black joy and resilience. Episode transcript here: shorturl.at/lpEF6

Millions have taken to the streets to protest the police killing of George Floyd and systemic racism that black people are subjected to everyday. Wise One Dr. Eddie Glaude says we are seeing the accumulation of grief, disregard and contempt for black lives. He is the chair of Princeton's African American Studies Department and joins Tonya this week to parse out nationwide actions and to recenter black joy and resilience. Episode transcript here: shorturl.at/lpEF6

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Tom Porter, former dean of the School of African American Studies at Ohio University; and Dr. Gerald Horne, holder of the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. The US is facing three major crises. The first is the COVID-19 virus. The second is the economy. The downturn or recession was already on its way, and now COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem. "Workers filed 2.1 million new unemployment claims last week, the Department of Labor reported ... The latest figure indicates that the pandemic has pushed 40.8 million Americans out of work in just 10 weeks," Politico reported on May 28. The third issue, which will be the focus of Monday's program, is the civil unrest surrounding the killing, some say lynching, of Mr. George Floyd last week by then-Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin.People keep asking, "How is this happening in America?" To which I say, it always has, just go to William Patterson's book “We Charge Genocide.” What's giving the perception of a rise or increase in this behavior is cellphone video. Let's analyze how this is being portrayed in US media with what seems to be fairly peaceful protests during the day, and then the evening sets in, and the antifa folks and other agents descend on cities and wreak havoc.Internationally, look at the impact: "People in cities around the world have marched in solidarity with demonstrators in the US, as politicians and public figures unite to condemn the killing of George Floyd," the Guardian reported Monday. This is the internationalization of racism and white supremacy in the US. Again, read William Patterson, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr. and others. "There were protests outside the US embassy in Copenhagen on Sunday, while hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Berlin for the second day in a row ... At least four solidarity gatherings were held in New Zealand on Monday, with massive crowds kneeling at a demonstration in Auckland," the Guardian noted. "In Australia, however, a demonstration planned for Tuesday afternoon in Sydney was cancelled on Monday, after people threatened to 'create havoc and protest against the event,' an organizer said on social media." Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump chastised the governors of US states during a conference call on Monday morning, calling their protest responses weak and saying Minnesota had become "a laughingstock all over the world," according to audio obtained by the New York Times.GUESTS:Tom Porter - Former dean of the School of African American Studies at Ohio University, former executive of Graduate Studies at Antioch College, former director of the King Center in Atlanta and lifelong activist.Dr. Gerald Horne - Holder of the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is one of the most prolific writers of our time, and his latest book is "Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music."Dr. Anthony Monteiro - W.E.B. DuBois scholar, founder of the Saturday Free School in Philadelphia, former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University and lifelong activist.Jon Jeter - Former Washington Post bureau chief and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is also an award-winning foreign correspondent on two continents.Dr. Shayla C. Nunnally - Associate professor with a joint appointment in political science and Africana studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of "Trust in Black America: Race, Discrimination, and Politics."Mark P. Fancher - Staff attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Through his work, he addresses racially disproportionate rates of incarceration, racial discrimination against public school students of color, racial profiling, attacks on the democratic rights of communities of color and abusive police practices.

After finishing her undergraduate career at age 22, Allyson Hobbs took six months off to spend time with her sister and her family. A former internship at Goldman Sachs helped her determine that investment banking wasn’t what she wanted to do, and she instead took a position in the advertising business. As she searched for her next steps, she took a chance on applying to graduate school, and developed a passion for a subject she hadn’t thought much about before. Today, Allyson is the Director of the African and African American Studies Department at Stanford. Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In the run-up to Super Tuesday, most folks backing former US Vice President Joe Biden didn't think he had the money or staff to win many of the 14 states in which voters were set to cast ballots. They hoped he could remain competitive with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and set up a brokered convention in July. Instead, Biden won a slew of states, pulling out several huge upsets. What are we to make of all of this? On Tuesday, we discussed the US sending $108 million in aid to Syria and what that really entails, along with tension between Turkey and Russia escalating in Syria after Turkey shot down a Syrian plane. A Wednesday story in MintPress News is entitled "France's Fingerprints Are All Over Terrorist Groups in Idlib Syria." What does all of this mean? According to MintPress, “There are numerous French terrorists in Idlib today, fighting to establish an Islamic state out of a small piece of secular Syria. Their dream is a Sunni utopia on the Turkish border, where they can enjoy the full support of the Turkish President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, who is the head of the AK party which is a Muslim Brotherhood party which has dominated Turkey for about 20 years.” We've been told that the War on Terror is against al-Qaeda. How can France, a US ally, be supporting terrorists in Idlib?The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments regarding a challenge to a Louisiana law whose opponents say it "would leave the state with only one doctor in a single clinic authorized to provide abortions," the New York Times reported Wednesday. Reporting on the case in October 2019, the Times said, "The case is the court's first on abortion since President Trump's appointments of two justices shifted the court to the right, and the court's ruling, expected in June, could thrust the abortion issue into the center of the presidential campaign." What are we to make of this?GUESTS:Tom Porter — Academic at the African American Studies Department of Ohio University and former director of the King Center in Atlanta.Dr. Gerald Horne — Professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including "Blows Against the Empire: US Imperialism in Crisis."Hannah Dickinson — Associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an organizer with the Geneva Women's Assembly.

In this special edition of Inside the Americas marking the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in the United States, we take a look at the plight of black farmers in the US, who are still suffering from racism today. We also examine the legacy of slavery with George Imongo Kintiba, lecturer at the African American Studies Department of the University of Maryland.

In the second of a series of conversations, we focus on the "how" of composition by bringing together a group of master practitioners working across a wide range of forms and media: acclaimed jazz flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell, who directs Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh; cultural historian Josh Kun, who holds a PhD in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley and is director of USC’s Annenberg School of Communication; and poet and scholar Chiyuma Elliott, a faculty member in UC Berkeley’s African American Studies Department and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. In a conversation moderated by UC Berkeley professor and jazz pianist Myra Melford, panelists share their ideas about what it means to compose.

The MENC initiative is meant to educate communities to adopt a nonviolent lifestyle in the way in which we were culturally trained by our ancestors, to love and care of our elders.  We have a big problem in our community with elder abuse.  We need your help in telling the stories for the scared and voiceless elders in your community.   There are resources and information online at: MNElderNonviolence.org to report abuse and get help.   It is your elder abuse stories that will bring about change in our community.  Please call  the elder abuse testifier voicemail at: 651.324.9561 or submit your story online at: mneldernonviolence.org under TAKE ACTION. Dr. Josie R. Johnson Bio: An activist for equality for over five-decades, Dr. Josie Johnson is one of Minnesota’s most celebrated civil rights leaders. She has been called a “trailblazer” and “The First Lady of Minnesota Civil Rights.” In the 1950’s and 1960’s she lobbied to pass Minnesota’s anti-discrimination laws, was part of a small group of Minnesotans who took part in the historic March on Washington and served as a community organizer for the Minneapolis Urban League, eventually becoming its director in 1968. In her career, Dr. Johnson served as a legislative liaison to the Mayor of Minneapolis during the Civil Rights upheaval, served as Chief of Staff for the Lt. Governor of Colorado, and worked as the organizer for the Jimmy /Walter Mondale campaign in Tennessee and Kentucy. Dr. Johnson taught in the African American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota and became the first African American appointed by the Legislature to the Board of Regents at the U of M. She served as the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and a Senior Fellow for the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs and directed their All-University Forum as diversity director.  The University of Minnesota created “The Josie R. Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award” in 1997 in her honor.   Recently, Dr. Johnson published her memoir, “Hope In The Struggle” and is often found throughout the community engaging youth in conversation about the love of community that was passed down from our ancestors.

Episode 79 What's on tap:  This episode brings you back to June 2013.  First up is once show regular, Derrick Riches.  Derrick and I talked at length about lighter fluid!  Do you use it??  In the 2nd portion of the show I had a chat with Dr. Akil Houston from Ohio University's African American Studies Department.  At this time, Paula Deen had just had her racial comments scandal hit and many sponsors were backing off her.  Dr. Houston and I spoke about the incident and we also talked about the "N' word and where it originally came from, the meaning and how it has evolved over time.  ENJOY!! Don't forget to RATE AND REVIEW THE SHOW ON YOU PODCAST APP!!! Want to hear more from this episode???  Click the link below to hear the full show Original Air Date: 6/25/2013 Original Full Show Link: CLICK HERE

Episode 79 What’s on tap:  This episode brings you back to June 2013.  First up is once show regular, Derrick Riches.  Derrick and I talked at length about lighter fluid!  Do you use it??  In the 2nd portion of the show I had a chat with Dr. Akil Houston from Ohio University's African American Studies Department.  At this time, Paula Deen had just had her racial comments scandal hit and many sponsors were backing off her.  Dr. Houston and I spoke about the incident and we also talked about the "N' word and where it originally came from, the meaning and how it has evolved over time.  ENJOY!! Don’t forget to RATE AND REVIEW THE SHOW ON YOU PODCAST APP!!! Want to hear more from this episode???  Click the link below to hear the full show Original Air Date: 6/25/2013 Original Full Show Link: CLICK HERE

Na’ilah Suad Nasir once wanted to be a first-grade teacher, and she ended up as President of the Spencer Foundation – the country’s largest foundation dedicated solely to education research. Along the way, she served on the faculty in the Education Department at Stanford, she was chair of the African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley (go Bears!), and she went on to be Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion there. She still holds a faculty appointment in Education and African American Studies at Berkeley. Na’ilah has been shaking up the academy for years, and as President of the Spencer Foundation, she is helping to make sure that education research serves the students who would benefit most. With humor and candor and a true sense of delight, Na’ilah talks with Eric about her career path, how she’s using communications to advance the work of the Spencer Foundation, and how she’s trying to change the traditional structures in the academic world.    

Na’ilah Suad Nasir once wanted to be a first-grade teacher, and she ended up as President of the Spencer Foundation – the country’s largest foundation dedicated solely to education research. Along the way, she served on the faculty in the Education Department at Stanford, she was chair of the African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley (go Bears!), and she went on to be Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion there. She still holds a faculty appointment in Education and African American Studies at Berkeley. Na’ilah has been shaking up the academy for years, and as President of the Spencer Foundation, she is helping to make sure that education research serves the students who would benefit most. With humor and candor and a true sense of delight, Na’ilah talks with Eric about her career path, how she’s using communications to advance the work of the Spencer Foundation, and how she’s trying to change the traditional structures in the academic world.    

It's day two of questions for Attorney General William Barr. Barr testified Wednesday that he thinks "there was spying" on the Trump campaign. He later said that he defined "spying" as "unauthorized surveillance … I'm not saying improper surveillance occurred. I am looking into it." With the long history of FBI spying, it's interesting how representatives of the two political parties respond, depending upon the perceived political advantage. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that Barr's words were motivated by political bias. "This type of partisan talking point may please Donald Trump, who rails against a 'deep state coup,' but it also strikes another destructive blow to our democratic institutions," Schiff said in a statement. On the other hand, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wants to get to the bottom of this.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has won his fifth consecutive term, with nearly all of the votes counted. Earlier this evening Tel Aviv time, the rival Blue and White alliance led by Benny Gantz conceded the race, though ballots are still being sorted. After the final tally, it will be up to President Reuven Rivlin to choose the party leader he believes has the best chance of assembling a parliamentary majority. But Netanyahu's Likud Party has a strong numerical advantage in being able to form a governing coalition.WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been the subject of a sophisticated spying operation in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up since 2012. WikiLeaks says video, audio, photographs, copies of private legal documents and even a medical report turned up in Spain, where a group threatened to start publishing the information unless they were paid 3 million euros. What's going on here? An image of a black hole has been revealed for the first time ever. The picture shows a bright halo of gas and dust, tracing the outline of a monster black hole. The images were taken in April 2017 by the Event Horizon Telescope, an international effort using eight linked radio observatories around the world. The black hole is about 55 million light-years away from Earth and is more massive than the sun. Black holes are collapsed stars whose gravity is so powerful that not even light can escape. Until now, images of black holes in space have been limited to simulations and illustrations. What does this signify, and how historic is it? GUESTS:Dr. Anthony Monteiro — Author, activist, DuBois Scholar and former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University. Nicole Roussell — Producer for Loud & Clear on Sputnik News. Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist. Dr. Willie Rockward — Chair and professor in the Department of Physics at Morgan State University. He also serves as the president of the National Society of Black Physicists.

After taking the weekend to pore over the Mueller report, US Attorney General William Barr has sent Congress his four-page summary of the "principal conclusions" from the special counsel's 675-day investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia. The bottom line according to AG Barr: "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."On the question of obstruction of justice, Barr writes that while Mueller's report "does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."Barr says he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence "is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense," noting that the government would have to prove such a case "beyond a reasonable doubt." Does this tell us anything new? Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) now says the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, will explore the "other side" in the Russia probe. His committee will investigate the actions of the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, including the FBI's use of a dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele. How can the Democrats say no if Graham wants to open his own investigation? What does this do to the relationship between the US and Russia?Also, President Donald Trump abruptly reversed decades of US policy Thursday by endorsing permanent Israeli control of the disputed Golan Heights, saying on Twitter that the area seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War is “of critical strategic and security importance” to Israel. The position is a political boon to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the two leaders met Monday at the White House, where Trump signed an official proclamation recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a disputed territory the United Nations considers "occupied" by Israel.Lastly, the city of Pittsburgh is continuing to see demonstrations following a not guilty verdict in the trial of a former police officer charged in the June 2018 death of an unarmed black teen. A jury found Michael Rosfeld not guilty Friday in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II. Rose was shot three times while running away during a traffic stop last June. Over the weekend, several protests occurred across the area and around the state. More demonstrations are expected this week, including a planned student walkout today at Pittsburgh Public Schools. There was video showing the deadly encounter. Why was Rosfeld not convicted? GUESTS:Dr. Gerald Horne — Professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including "Blows Against the Empire: US Imperialism in Crisis." Dr. Anthony Monteiro — Author, activist, DuBois Scholar and former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University. Attorney Fred Rabner, Esq. — Attorney in the Antwon Rose II case.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) apologized this afternoon for what many saw as anti-Semitic comments discussing links between AIPAC, as well as other Zionist lobbying efforts and money, and American policy output. She quote tweeted journalist and Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald, who said: "GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens punishment for @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib over their criticisms of Israel. It's stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans," and she added that McCarthy's motives were “all about the Benjamins.” When people asked what she meant, Omar tweeted, “AIPAC,” referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group that has spent millions sending lawmakers on visits to the Jewish nation over the years. What did Congresswoman Omar say or tweet, and was it anti-Semitic? A Virginia state legislator, Delegate Patrick A. Hope, who intended to begin impeachment proceedings against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, backed off today after African-American lawmakers demanded there not be a rush to oust Mr. Fairfax, who is black, over accusations of sexual assault while the state's white governor and attorney general are refusing to resign after they admitted wearing blackface in their youth. This situation is getting more complex by the day. Mr. Hope circulated a resolution on Sunday that would have directed a House of Delegates committee to determine whether allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Fairfax by two women, Meredith Watson and Vanessa C. Tyson, “constitute conduct sufficient to provide grounds for impeachment.” He had said on Friday evening that he would introduce articles of impeachment today if Mr. Fairfax, a fellow Democrat who denies the allegations, had not resigned by then. Mr. Hope backed down after a Sunday night conference call among House Democrats turned heated, according to two Democrats directly familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss party matters. Mr. Hope said on Twitter on Monday that discussions with his colleagues had “led to additional conversations that need to take place before anything is filed.” Members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, who have been agonizing over what to do regarding all three of the state's executives for over a week now, believe the claims against Mr. Fairfax should be litigated in a legal setting, not a political venue.Forty years ago today, Iranians engaged in a bloodless revolution. They overthrew Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Western-backed dictator, also known as the Shah. This made me reflect upon Mohammad Mosaddegh, the 35th prime minister of Iran, who held office from 1951 until 1953, when his government was overthrown in a coup d'état orchestrated by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and the United Kingdom's MI6. Anglo-American oil companies did not like, among other things, that Mosaddegh was nationalizing Iranian oil and raising the price per barrel so that he could raise the standard of living for the average Iranian. Sounds a lot like what the US is doing in Venezuela. Is there a comparison between the US-backed coup in Iran and the US-backed coup in Venezuela?GUESTS:Talib Karim — Attorney and executive director of STEM4US. Dr. Shantella Sherman — Historical researcher, technical writer, author of In Search of Purity: Popular Eugenics & Racial Uplift Among New Negroes 1915-1935 and publisher of Acumen Magazine.Joseph L. Graves Jr. — American scientist and the associate dean for research and professor of biological studies at the Joint School for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, which is jointly administered by North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and UNC Greensboro.Dr. Kathie Stromile Golden — Associate vice president for academic affairs and director of international programs at Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, where she previously served as director of the Delta Research and Cultural Institute. Executive director of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and director of the Graduate Assistantship Program.Dr. Anthony Monteiro — Author, activist, DuBois Scholar and former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University.Phil Wilayto — Writer, speaker and organizer based in Richmond, Virginia. He is a founding member of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, an all-volunteer community organization, and editor of the quarterly newspaper The Virginia Defender.

The Taliban says that the US has agreed on a draft peace plan that would see all foreign troops out of Afghanistan in the next 18 months. The draft agreement comes after several days of talks between the Taliban and US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar, aimed at ending the 17-year war. Khalilzad said the talks have been productive, and he plans to travel to Afghanistan to meet with government officials. The Taliban has so far refused to hold talks with the Afghan government, insisting that the US is the primary enemy. The deal reportedly includes promises from the Taliban that al-Qaeda and Daesh will not be allowed to use Afghanistan as a base of operations to attack the US and its allies. It's not clear when and if this draft agreement will be implemented. A new report by the Congressional Budget Office says the US lost $11 billion due to the government shutdown and predicts the federal deficit will rise to $897 billion this year. That would be a hike of $118 billion over last year's deficit. The CBO is also forecasting slower economic growth this year. The partial government shutdown lasted 35 days, but a deal was reached on Friday to extend funding for parts of the federal government until February 15. President Donald Trump has threatened another shutdown if he doesn't receive funding for a border wall. How much more damage can the American worker take? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the US is targeting Venezuela's powerful, state-owned oil company with tough sanctions. The US no longer recognizes Nicolas Maduro as president of the South American nation. As for possible US military action, National Security Adviser John Bolton echoed President Trump and said "all options are on the table" in Venezuela. Bolton again warned Maduro not to harm any US diplomats in Venezuela. But is Senator Marco Rubio really calling the shots in the US-Venezuela conflict? GUESTS:Dr. Marvin Weinbaum — Scholar-in-residence and director of the Middle East Institute's Center for Pakistan and Afghanistan Studies.Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression, who also writes at jackrasmus.com.Dr. William Spriggs — Professor in, and former chair of, the Department of Economics at Howard University who also serves as chief economist to the AFL-CIO. In his role with the AFL-CIO, he chairs the Economic Policy Working Group for the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and serves on the board of the National Bureau of Economic Research.Dr. Anthony Monteiro — Author, activist, DuBois Scholar and former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Jon Jeter, author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience; and Dr. Anthony Monteiro, author, activist, DuBois Scholar and former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University.Venezuela's senior military figures signal backing for President Nicolás Maduro, as Russia, China, Iran, Syria and Cuba have come down on one side. The United States, Canada and countries in Western Europe are on the other. Senior figures in the Venezuelan military came out in support of Maduro today, a day after the US said it no longer recognized him as the country's leader and backed the opposition's Juan Guaidó instead. The geopolitical fault lines are clear. The US has decided to ignore the democratic process in Venezuela and is working to overtly orchestrate a coup, while at the same time accusing Russia of violating US law and undermining the US democratic process. What does this mean going forward? The Senate took its first votes today on competing Republican and Democratic plans to end the partial government shutdown. The Republican bill includes funding for President Donald Trump's border wall, while the Democratic plan does not. The Republican bill failed 50-47. Republicans needed 60 votes for it to get a full vote on the floor. The Democratic plan lost 52-44, and likewise would have needed 60 votes were needed to continue. As this shutdown drags on and decimates the finances of federal employees and contractors, Trump's Commerce Secretary does not understand the angst surrounding the impact. Meanwhile, a new report titled "The Racial Wealth Divide" further examines US economic failures and highlights how the racial wealth divide has grown between white households and households of color. Since the early 1980s, median wealth among black and Latino families has been stuck at less than $10,000. Meanwhile, white household median wealth grew from $105,300 to $140,500, adjusting for inflation.President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen indefinitely postponed his upcoming congressional testimony yesterday, citing “ongoing threats against his family from President Trump” and his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani. Allegedly, the threats from the duo reached Cohen and his family as recently as this past weekend, according to a statement from Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis. Trump responded yesterday to the announcement, denying the allegations. “He's only been threatened by the truth,” the president said. When does a line get crossed?

It is Friday, so that means it is panel time!There's a lot that has transpired this week. Today, government workers missed their first payday of this shutdown. About a quarter of the federal government is going without funding until a budget is agreed upon, leaving 800,000 employees without pay. US President Donald Trump made an Oval Office presentation on Tuesday, and Democrats Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi provided their rebuttal. I don't think either of them moved the needle. Neither of them offered the American people anything new. I thought they both looked bad. The president made no mention of the national emergency during his Oval Office speech. Why not?Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei and also the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was apprehended in Vancouver on December 1. The US Justice Department sought the arrest as part of an ongoing investigation, and she is still in Canada and faces extradition to the United States. The Canadian government has said 13 of its citizens have been detained in China since Meng's arrest. Previously, only three of the detentions had been made known to the public. Today it is reported that a Huawei executive and a former Polish state security officer have been arrested in Poland on allegations of spying for China's secret service, raising fresh questions for the telecom group amid global scrutiny of its connections with the Chinese state. As the US wrapped up trade talks with China yesterday, are these events linked?The US says it has begun military withdrawal from Syria: it is reported that the American military has started withdrawing some equipment, but no troops yet. As I understand it, the equipment is being moved to Iraq. Last Sunday, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton said that the pullout was conditional — based on circumstances that could leave American forces there for months or even years.The “US is increasingly being seen as a joke,” said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, an Israeli think tank. “You cannot keep implementing such a disorganized policy, you cannot keep making such contradicting statements, without eventually being taken as a joke.” The confusion over US policy stems in part because Mr. Trump is seeking to navigate two seemingly contradictory missions — ensure the defeat of Daesh, the Sunni extremist group that once controlled a swath of territory across Syria and Iraq, while also downsizing American presence in the Middle East. Washington also says it wants to counter Iran, accusing Tehran of having a destabilizing influence across the Middle East.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration's Mideast policies and addressed a wide range of regional topics in a speech in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. Pompeo said that while Hezbollah is a major presence in Lebanon, the US will not accept this as the status quo. Pompeo added that US will not let Iran turn Syria into the next Lebanon and will act with diplomacy and partners to "expel every Iranian boot" from Syria. “America is a force for good in the Middle East … We need to acknowledge that truth, because if we don't, we make bad choices — now and in the future.” Pompeo said, “I'm standing today to have this discussion at the American University here in beautiful Cairo ... the AUC [American University in Cairo] is more than just a university. It is an important symbol of America's friendship with Egypt and what binds our people together.” Then-US President Barack Obama said in a 2009 speech at the same university, “I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress.”The United States refused to recognize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's legitimacy as he started a new term and urged rank-and-file government employees to empower the opposition. "The US will not recognize the Maduro dictatorship's illegitimate inauguration," National Security Advisor John Bolton tweeted. "We will continue to increase pressure on the corrupt regime, support the Democratic National Assembly and call for democracy and freedom in Venezuela," he wrote. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Venezuelans to work not with Maduro but with the National Assembly, which is controlled by the opposition but has been sidelined by a new Constituent Assembly created by Maduro's government. Your thoughts. GUESTS:Dr. Anthony Monteiro — Author, activist, DuBois Scholar and former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University.Tom Porter — African American Studies Department at Ohio University and former director of the King Center in Atlanta.

In this episode, Carey DeMichelis & Bea Jolley delve into the Canadian rhetoric of multiculturalism. The Kitchen Table discusses what multicultural discourses miss and mask. And we are joined by Tiffany King, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Michael Dumas, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the Graduate School of Education and the African American Studies Department.   Dr. King, Dr. Dumas, and the Kitchen Table draw our attention to the ways that performances of multiculturalism serve as a distraction from the changes needed and desired for and by Black and Indigenous peoples.

“The second you make someone laugh, it’s so much easier to get money out of 'em!” / Live from McNally Jackson NYC in January 2018!We discussed colorism at strip clubs, #MeToo issues, Spread Magazine, how being a stripper prepares you to write single panel comics, and a certain portrait of Aya's mom wearing a leopard print fur bikini holding a snake! / From I Was A Teenage Dominatrix to The Happy Hooker, classic sex work books have been limited to pretty one-dimensional points of view. In the 21st century, sex work books are as prismatic as the workers themselves. Join sex work journalist and podcaster Tina Horn for a panel on the exciting and nuanced ways sex work is being written about right now. Learn how strippers around the world represent themselves, on topics ranging from snacks to the male ego, in Jacq the Stripper's crowdfunded self published Striptastic. Learn why Aya de Leon chose escort characters as the protagonists of her Justice Hustlers crime series. Learn how Akynos uses both her blogging and performance art as activism. We'll be discussing everything from stigma to genre to branding to high heels in an effort to create a real and honest portrait of the modern literary sex worker. / Jacq the Stripper is a Canadian writer, comedian, stripper and illustrator. She lives in New York City with her wife and plants.Beaver Show, Striptastic, social media... / Aya de Leon is an author, teacher, and activist in the Oakland Bay Area. Kensington Books publishes her sex worker heist series, Justice Hustlers: Uptown Thief in 2016 (winner of Independent Publisher and International Latino Book Awards), The Boss in 2017, and The Accidental Mistress in 2018. She has received acclaim in the Washington Post, Village Voice, Tits and Sass, The SF Chronicle, and The Establishment. Her work has also appeared in Ebony, Guernica, Writers Digest, Huffington Post, The Toast, The Honest Courtesan, Essence, VICE, Bitch Magazine and on Def Poetry. She is also at work on a black girl spy YA novel called Going Dark, and an adult spy novel about FBI infiltration of an African American political organization. She teaches creative writing in the African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley, and blogs and tweets about race, gender, and culture at @AyadeLeon and ayadeleon.com. kynos is a New York raised stripper and performance artist. For the past decade she has been featured in showcases from New York to Europe. She is a proud sex worker and human rights activist. She has spoken at events such as the 2016 International AIDS conference in South Africa and the AWID conference in Brazil of the same year. Her film Whore Logic has been featured in film festivals such as The Sex Worker Film and Arts festival. She currently has a new bi-weekly variety showcase with her dance troupe Koffee every other Thursdays at Essence bar in Brooklyn. To support her artistic endeavors please support her current gofundme campaign and sign up for her patreon where she will feature writings and a podcast on topics pertaining to her life, sex worker rights and conversations around sex and sexuality. She is currently a grad student at Goddard College in Vermont. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this hour-long special, host Kica Matos welcomes Alicia Schmidt Camacho, Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration and the Associate Master for Ezra Stiles College, Tracey L. Meares, the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law at Yale University and Vesla Weaver, professor in the African American Studies Department and the founding director of the ISPS Center for the Study of Inequality. The three weigh in on a number of topics including the recent student unrest at Yale University; the University's decision to continue to name a dormitory after noted white supremacist John C. Calhoun, diversity at Yale and town-gown relations.