Garvey, Du Bois, and the Scares of Their Time

In this episode, we cover the myth "Communism Made Me Do It." 'Communism Made Me Do It' is a tongue-in-cheek way of how the US blames radicalism for radicalism, instead of the US capitalist-led conditions that produce it. Since the Bolshevik Revolution, Communism, more than any other political ideology, is the boogeyman that allows radicalisms of different kinds, both anticapitalist and not, to be targeted by the US capitalist racist society. To help us debunk this myth we draw on the work of Wayne State University associate professor, Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly in her first single-author book Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States. She is a critical Black Studies scholar of political theory, political economy, and intellectual history. We discuss the foundational elements that make the United States an anti-communist anti-Black society including widespread repression and propaganda. As a comrade of the show, we celebrate the publication of her book.