The Black Myths Podcast

For part 2, we continue our sit down with Dr. Jemima Pierre investigating the situation in Haiti. In this episode we delve into the so-called "gang activity" in Haiti, leftist governments who have failed Haiti, the Global Fragility Act, and what is to be done to bring peace to Haiti.  Jemima Pierre is Associate Professor in the Departments of African American Studies and Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. She is also the co-cordinator for the Haiti/Americas team of the The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), a anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace of organization of the radical black movement.    Haiti and the Americas Syllabus https://www.blackagendareport.com/haiti-and-americas-syllabus#_czm6rl4s9rf0   Widespread Panic as Anti-Haitian Decree Goes into Effect in Dominican Republic https://www.latinorebels.com/2022/11/17/antihaitiandecree/   Support Patreon patreon.com/blackmyths

For this episode, we sit down with Dr. Jemima Pierre to discuss Haiti and its history of foreign intervention. Dr. Pierre explores the historical foundations that led to the influx of "gangs" in Haiti that the UN and US is now attempting to exploit as a justification for intervention. She demonstrates how Haiti has been under constant meddling since it's revolutionary inception.   Jemima Pierre is Associate Professor in the Departments of African American Studies and Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. She is also the co-cordinator for the Haiti/Americas team of the The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), a anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace of organization of the radical black movement.    Haiti and the Americas Syllabus (BAP) https://www.blackagendareport.com/haiti-and-americas-syllabus#_czm6rl4s9rf0   Support Patreon patreon.com/blackmyths

For part 2, we delve deeper into part 2 of co-host Too Black's essay, "Laundering Black Rage." We cover the three phases in which Black Rage is laundered to serve white capital via the state. We explore how the tragedy of Black Death is used to funnel Black Rage into commodity form. Throughout this process, we note how class interests within the African diaspora are fundamental to laundering Black rage into a flattened form. In our modern time, Black Rage becomes situated around Black celebrities and upper-class interests thereby cleaning Black Rage of it's militancy. We hope this analysis helps our listeners understand how Black Death cannot by itself explain why people are profiting and/or benefitting from the struggle.  Pt. 1 https://blackagendareport.com/laundering-black-rage  Pt. 2  https://www.blackagendareport.com/laundering-black-rage-part-2 Patreon patreon.com/blackmyths

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."