The Black Myths Podcast

In this episode, we discuss the (partial) myth of profiting off Black Death. Although Black Death is certainly profitable, the claim is often an incomplete critique that misses other critical elements driving the profit—particularly, Black Rage. Using the recent essay published by co-host Too Black—"Laundering Black Rage"—as a framework, we investigate how regularly Black Death occurs and how many of the opportunities created to profit and benefit from Black Death are also generated by exploiting Black Rage. Without Black Rage and the labor that follows there would not be money for an organization like BLM global to hoard, book deals to cash in on, or diversity jobs to fill. More broadly, we discuss how money laundering functions via capitalism and thus precipitates the laundering of Black Rage to ultimately serve the class interests of white capital via the State. By understanding crucial the role Black Rage plays in this process the better we can recognize our own agency in reverse-laundering it.  Laundering Black Rage Pt. 1 https://blackagendareport.com/laundering-black-rage Pt. 2 (We will discuss this in part 2 of the series) https://www.blackagendareport.com/laundering-black-rage-part-2 Patreon patreon.com/blackmyths    

For part 2, we speak with Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly & Dr. Jodi Dean about their edited volume, "Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing." We discuss the writings of Grace Campbell, Williana Burroughs, Maude White, Thyra J. Edwards, Ella Baker, Marvel Cooke, Louise Thompson, Marvel Cooke, Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry. We analyze the select writings of Black communist women to further demystify Marxism by focusing on their day-to-day organizing. What is revealed is how they used Marxism (many within the Communist Party of the United States) to address the day-to-day material conditions of Black people including labor organizing, defense campaigns, International solidarity, and much more. Dr. CBS and Dr. Dean do a tremendous job of helping us understand just how essential black communist women were to the foundation of CPUSA and the push for Black Freedom throughout the 20th century. Pre-order the book: https://www.versobooks.com/books/4071-organize-fight-win Charisse Burden-Stelly: Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Wayne State University. She is the author, with Gerald Horne, of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Life in American History and the forthcoming book Black Scare/Red Scare. Jodi Dean: teaches political, feminist, and media theory in Geneva, New York. She has written or edited thirteen books, including The Communist Horizon and Crowds and Party, and Comrade: An essay on political belonging, all published by Verso. Support Our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/blackmyths

In this episode, we examine the myth that marxism is Eurocentric. Recently, Marxism has seen a resurgence of interest and criticisms across the political spectrum. We want to understand how most Marxists in the world are not white and not men yet some still view Marxism as Eurocentric. We are not interested in mounting a defense for a "dead white man" or converting you to be a cult follower of him. Our inquiry into whether Marxism is Eurocentric is not reducible to an intellectual question. Why did some of the most colonized nations throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America such as China, Vietnam (where they defeated both the French and the United States), Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Angola, Mozambique, Cuba and use some version of Marxism as a tool to help guide them towards freedom from their colonial masters if it's so Eurocentric? So for this episode, we explore the thought of Marxism beginning with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel, we unpack the origins of the term Eurocentrism and look at Black/Afrikan contributions to the discipline that stretched and advanced Marxism to the applicability of oppressed and colonized people. 00:00:51 - Intro 00:03:10 - Initial reactions 00:09:49 - Monologue 00:14:02 - Kwame Toure 00:00:51 - Eurocentric claims 00:18:42 - What is Eurocentrism? 00:27:03 - Eurocentric claims 00:39:24 - Who was Karl Marx? 00:45:06 - 3 primary of components of Marx: Materialist Philosophy 01:19:34 - Critique of Political Economy  01:45:39 - Marxist politics 01:51:45 - Lenin, the Colonial Question, and African Contributions 02:01:04 - Last thoughts   Sources https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QXoA8Tbw6GoYxC9qNWIMCcT6EtjKGOJ8

We discuss the myth of the crack baby that emerged from the MD Ira Chasnoff study on cocaine-exposed children and the subsequent media blitz on crack in 1985. We demonstrate how the crack baby is a media myth founded on bad science. We also examine how the crack baby myth fits within a larger counter-insurgency strategy emerging from the cold war.  Reading https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1c7CxOGLGE148gVSDLMPmppYDDBJNfuJt?usp=sharing

In part 2, we discuss the deeper mechanisms of how African Wildlife Conservation operates in Africa including the ecological factors. We dig into the neo-colonist components of how indigenous rights are co-opted to pit Africans against each other. We also discuss the necessary means to empower indigenous Africans to struggle to regain their land.  Dr. Aby Sène-Harper is a faculty of Parks and Conservation Area Management. She is a trained interdisciplinary environmental social researcher whose work advances socially and ecologically just approaches to managing public lands, natural and cultural resources in the US and in Africa. Her research lies at the intersections of parks and protected area governance, livelihoods, nature-based tourism, and Race and nature. Support Patreon https://www.patreon.com/blackmyths Land grabs and conservation propaganda https://africasacountry.com/2022/06/the-propaganda-of-biodiversity-conservation Western Nonprofits Are Trampling Over Africans’ Rights and Land https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/01/western-nonprofits-african-rights-land/ THE RED DEAL: INDIGENOUS ACTION TO SAVE OUR EARTH https://www.commonnotions.org/the-red-deal https://www.survivalinternational.org/

We sit down with Dr. Aby L. Sène to discuss African wildlife conservation as it's practiced by the west in Africa. Sène covers how African Wildlife conservation is another extension of European colonialism including militarization, enclosure, and primitive accusation. Essentially conservation serves as a front for colonialism.  Dr. Aby Sène-Harper is a faculty of Parks and Conservation Area Management. She is a trained interdisciplinary environmental social researcher whose work advances socially and ecologically just approaches to managing public lands, natural and cultural resources in the US and in Africa. Her research lies at the intersections of parks and protected area governance, livelihoods, nature-based tourism, and Race and nature.  Support Patreon https://www.patreon.com/blackmyths Land grabs and conservation propaganda https://africasacountry.com/2022/06/the-propaganda-of-biodiversity-conservation Western Nonprofits Are Trampling Over Africans’ Rights and Land https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/01/western-nonprofits-african-rights-land/ THE RED DEAL: INDIGENOUS ACTION TO SAVE OUR EARTH https://www.commonnotions.org/the-red-deal https://www.survivalinternational.org/  

We're taking a month off due to scheduling but we'll be back in July. Until then we want to leave you with this episode, “What’s Africa Got to Do with Me? This myth corresponds with some of the new episodes we have coming up so we thought this would be a good time to re-air it. Enjoy! Original description "Regardless of how one identifies, the facts are clear that the state of Africa has a tremendous impact on our daily lives. The resources stolen from Africa are sold as products in America, the exploitation of Africa funds the system that oppresses us in America, both of the American ghetto and African communities operate as neo-colonies for extraction, and the entire African Diaspora is sold myths of propaganda about each other. We establish these connections by digging into the book "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" by activist-scholar Walter Rodney. This episode is premiering on the day that would have been his 79th birthday. March 23rd, Is also our one-year anniversary as a podcast. Thank you to all of our supporters."

In part 2 of the myth Rooting for Everybody Black (Pt.3 overall of the Myth of Trickle Down Blackness), we continue our talk with Georgetown University Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, about his new book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else). This episode picks up right where we left off. Continuing with elite capture as our philosophical lens, we discuss the pitfalls of two additional popular phrases "All Skin Folk Ain't Kinfolk" and "Crabs in a Barrel." We also discuss if elite capture helps produce "bad people."  Book https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture Please support our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/blackmyths      

In this episode, we talk with Georgetown University Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, about his new book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else). In early 2021 we interviewed Taiwo about his essay of a similar name (Identity Politics and Elite Capture) to debunk the myth of trickle-down blackness --the concept that if a select group of Black people can gain access to elite spaces then the fruits of that access will magically trickle down to the masses of Black people. Pt. 1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-myth-of-trickle-down-blackness-w-ol%C3%BAf%E1%BA%B9-mi-o-t%C3%A1%C3%ADw%C3%B2/id1504205689?i=1000505786323 This episode picks up as part two of that conversation. With elite capture as our philosophical lens, we discuss the pitfalls of popular phrases like "Rooting For Everybody Black" and "All Skin Folk Ain't Kinfolk" that obscure class differences among Black people and allow a faux racial solidarity to dilute our politics. We also discuss if class suicide can weaken the negative impact of elite capture. Book https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture Please support our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/blackmyths    

In this episode 2, we continue to cover the fallacies of the popular phrase "The System is Broken" in our discussion with Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Knox College, Dr. Yannick Marshall, about his article "A Short Dictionary of Liberal Language on Policing." We discuss the following terms: Broken, begin to, both sides, change, deterrence, feared for his life, flawed or imperfect, healing, held accountable, legacy, know his heart, peace/peaceful, reform, supposed to, and tragic. We discuss the state and how it creates and absolves systems for white capital. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/5/25/a-short-dictionary-of-liberal-language-on-policing Support our patreon https://www.patreon.com/blackmyths