LUMPENPROLETARIAT—At a Project Censored event, Hard Knock Radio‘s Davey D gave a set of remarks, reflecting upon the looming Trump Presidency, as the electoral college votes in favour of Trump.  We need more journalists, people in a special position to observe local and global events, to speak out and provide a synthesis of sociopolitical and socioeconomic developments.  We may not agree with everything uttered, but we value independent voices.

In this particular speech, Davey D gave, perhaps, the loudest condemnation, even if only a whisper, which we’ve ever heard from him, in terms of an outright rejection and condemnation of the Democratic Party.  But he also offers much-needed critique of the political apathy and complacency amongst liberals and progressives and many others on the left, when it comes to engaging in the sort of civic engagement in public with other likeminded people, which actually translates into political action and political power.  Listen here. [1]

Messina

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HARD KNOCK RADIO—[30 DEC 2016]  [Station ID by Pedro Reyes]  [Hard Knock Radio introductory audio collage]  (c. 1:15)

ANITA JOHNSON:  “Wussup, fam.  You are tuned to Hard Knock, here on the Pacifica Network.  On today’s programme, Oscar Grant as well as the rise of Trump.  All this and more ahead.  So, keep it locked.”  (c. 1:28)

[KPFA News Headlines omitted by scribe]  (c. 6:50)

[Hard Knock Radio segue collage] 

“And, again, you are tuned to Hard Knock, here, on the Pacifica Network.  Up next, we speak to Hodari Davis, the National Program Director for Youth Speaks, the nation’s leading presenter of spoken word, arts, and education.  Hodari joins us to discuss the Eighth Annual Oscar Grant Vigil on January 1st at the Fruitvale Bart Station.  Hodari, once again, welcome to the programme.”

HODARI DAVIS:  “Thanks.  It’s great to be here.  [snip] ”

[Hodari Davis interview omitted by scribe]  [2]

(c. 22:35) [music break]  (c. 25:19)

ANITA JOHNSON:  “And, again, you are tuned to Hard Knock, here, on the Pacifica Network.  Up next, we’ll hear a talk, featuring Davey D at the Project Censored 40th Anniversary event.  In this talk, he explores the rise of Trump, the collapse of Clinton as well as Barack Obama.  All this, and more, ahead, so, keep it locked.” (c. 25:38)

Davey D speech, at Project Censored 40th Anniversary, on looming Trump Presidency

DAVEY D:  “I think one of the things, that we wanted to talk about, obviously, is what has happened, uh, this past month, or this past week.

“I think many people woke up Monday morning, figured that they’re gonna have, uh, conflicted feelings.  You’re gonna make history, in the sense that a woman would be in the White House for the first time.  But, at the same time, this woman in the White House was very problematic, uh, with her corruption and a lot of things, that I think that social justice advocates, we would be in opposition to, you know, her, um, her record on war; some of the things she hasn’t talked about, her cozy relationship with Wall Street; all these different types of things, I think folks were mentally preparing themselves to deal with, at the same time, celebrating the fact that a woman made it to the White House.  (c. 26:40)

“So, I think, like most people, when things happened on Tuesday, we were watching.  And, at least where I was at, people were thinking, like,

They’re just stretching this out.

“Because they’re like,

It’s real close.  It’s real close; and it’s still like at 80%  Or:  80% of the precincts checked in and, if Detroit comes through with all their votes, then she’s gonna take Michigan.  And, if Philadephia comes through, she’s gonna take Pennsylvania.

“And people were sitting there thinking, like, Yeah, she’s gonna win, because, up ’til that moment, they kept saying, It was a walk in.  All these pundits were walkin’ around sayin’, She has a 98% chance, and a 100% chance, and all these different, um, predictions.  And, at the end of the night, homeboy Donald Trump won.  (c. 27:29)

“And people were sitting there, like, What the f—. [audience laughs; apparent edit cut]  And, then, people got scared.  And, then, reality hit.  And, at that moment, that reality hit, many of us had to humble ourselves.  And what I mean by that I mean by that, if we haven’t humbled ourselves, we’re gonna have to, if we’re gonna move forward.  [scant applause]

“What do I mean by that?  [applause continues to trickle]  Um, I went to Cleveland for the RNC.  I’ve been to most of the conventions, since 2000, or maybe ’96, I started going.  So, I covered a lot of ’em.  Went at my own expense.  The [radio] station didn’t pay for it.  Uh, but this is something, that’s important.  In fact, it was my church, that was like, This is important.  Somebody needs to be in Cleveland to find out what’s going on.  And, so, they raised the money.  And we went out there.  (c. 28:26)

“Now, out of all the conventions, that I covered, one that stands out, where folks were just excited—I mean it was magical; it was just—people were just, you know, amped up in ways, that I had never seen before—was 2008 in Denver with Barack Obama.  I mean it was excitement.  For all his flaws, that we can now look at and point at, it doesn’t erase how people felt in, uh, September or August of 2008.  I remember.  When he gave that speech at the stadium, all kind of people were crying.  I saw tears coming out of their eyes.  And I remember the tears, that people shed at his inauguration, which I went to.  I saw people, that were 90 years old, who were saying, I waited all my life to see this, and tears in their eyes, and just were so happy because they felt that a corner had been turned in these United States.  (c. 29:26)

“Barack Obama captured the imagination of people because he had a slogan: Hope and Change.  And many people bought into this.  And coming off of the eight years of George Bush, many of us were susceptible to it.  And we did things, like we looked at some of his policies, as he was talking and some of us got pricked and said:  That don’t sound right.  And, if you recall, people said:

He’s playing chess, not checkers. Give him a chance. He’s gotta do this to win. And, once he gets in, he’s gonna flip the script.  (c. 30:03)

“So, all those emotions were there.  But the excitement, that led to people dancin’ in the streets of Oakland, dancin’ in the streets of New York, dancin’ in the streets of Chicago was something, that we can never erase.

“Fast forward eight years later; in Clevaland, the only other time I seen people this excited was with Donald Trump.  And that’s something, that we’re gonna have to deal with.  Except, the difference was I didn’t see black and brown people.  I didn’t see—well, I saw a lot of women.  But I didn’t see the women, that I know is social justice advocates.  I didn’t see a lot of LGBT folks.  I saw folks, who were angry; poor folks, who were pis— off, who felt like things had changed too fast and they were left behind; folks, who were in the Rust Belt, that had been ignored; folks who were f—— pis— off and were looking for somebody to blame for their economic misery. (c. 31:02)

“And, so, the excitement came when this political creature, who is actually a cultural, um, a cultural star, a cultural phenomenon, a reality TV star came in their midst and said:

Check this out. I got a ‘Hope and Change’ thing for you all. But it’s ‘Fear and Blame’. And the reason why your life is messed up is because of the Mexicans, because of the blacks, and because of the Muslims.

“And people got excited.  I stood in that arena, where the Cleveland Cavaliers play, and saw ten thousand people chanting—build a wall!—and just getting excited; and that excitement rivaled what I saw in Denver, but with a whole different energy.

“And, when I came back, I said to myself—and I said it publicly; I said it at report-backs; I said it to my church folks—I said:

This dude is gonna win. Make no mistake about it. And, if you—

“And I said there’s gonna be three things, that’s gonna lead to him winning:

One, the folks, that got behind Bernie Sanders weren’t gonna get behind Hillary. And, if they did, they wasn’t gonna bring the enthusiasm.

“And, having covered the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton campaign in ’08, one of the things, that I kept hearing from the Bernie people was that Hillary was cheating. (c. 32:31)

“Now, at that time, people said—they got offended.  Donna Brazile, from CNN, was, you know, like:  How dare you say that.  People just dismissed that.  But, if you had gone on that campaign trail in ’08, the complaints, you heard from the Bernie people [in 2016] were very similar to the complaints, that the Obama people had about Hillary in ’08.  So, I’m hearing these stories, and I’m like: That’s sounds pretty similar to what took place in ’08.

“So, I believed what they were saying, not because I, politically, could get down with where they’re at, I just had heard those stories before.  And I knew that that was her get down, that there was some shadiness going on.

“And the bottom line was that people may have, strategically, said: Yeah, we’ll do it.  But they weren’t gonna bring that energy, that you saw with Bernie Sanders, with 37,000 people showing up at a march here, and 50,000 there.  You weren’t gonna have that.  More importantly, the question, that needed to be answered: Would people, especially, a lot of these Millennials—young, white Millennials—were they gonna stand on line for six hours for Hillary Clinton, the way that black folks and people of colour stood on lines for six hours to vote for Barack Obama, which they did in Cleveland two years, you know, two election cycles?  I just didn’t see that happening.  So, that was conclusion one.  (c. 33:55)

“The other thing was around the Black Lives Matter people.  Now, there had been a lot of shenanigans, in terms of how Black Lives Matter was going to be presented to the public.  And part of the disinformation was to overlook, um, the founding of that movement with Alicia Garza, Opal, and, um, Patrisse.  And kind of distill it in this guy named DeRay, who comes out of Baltimore, because he was more friendly-like.  He was from Teach For America.  He kind of had these corporate connections and was like: Let’s go along with Hillary.  So, they were kind of, like, this is BLM.  And, in fact, anybody, who was black, who was protesting was automatically associated with that.  (c. 34:42)

“And, so, what they could do was, they could kind of mainstream the Black Lives Matter movement and, then, kind of defang what they were asking for and make it seem like this is an organisation to go along to get along.  And, so, there were a lot of people, that were comin’ up with critiques.  And they were like: Oh, yeah, that organisation is trying to lead the masses to the Democratic Party. They’re gonna be a front for Hillary—all this sort of stuff. (c. 35:06)

“So, what was ignored was BLM had spent a year, or the movement for black lives—’cos there was a collection of people, who had spent a year putting together a robust, incredible, um, agenda, you know, for the masses.  If you got a movement for black lives, it’s well-researched, well-principled.  It was something you could jump into, if you was an individual.  You could do it as a group.  It connected it to its history.  And it showed you organisations, that were already doin’ it.  It ranged from political prisoners to their stance on the Middle East, all sorts of things.  Incredible.

“That was removed from the news.  And had you read those, that movement piece, that agenda, you would’ve known that they weren’t about to wind themselves up around Hillary.

“So, my understanding was, you know, it’s a leaderless movement.  You can’t have one person say: This is gonna happen.  But my sense was most people ain’t really gonna be ridin’ for her from that movement as well.  And the more that the campaign was goin’ and the less you heard about some of these very egregious police shootings, in a physical, tangible way, you knew that those were two main groups, that Obama might’ve counted on, in terms of demographic, that Hillary wasn’t gonna have at her disposal. (c. 36:27)

“So, the suggestion was:

If you want her to win, you’re gonna have to phonebank and volunteer and door-knock; and you’re gonna have to understand how these elections work, that California is gonna be a given.  It’s gonna go blue, unless there’s something catastrophic, that happens.  But you’re gonna have to put in some work.

“And many people nodded.  And they was like:

Well, these people need to know better.  

“And everybody had this whole thing about trying to be right, trying to be logical, like:

They need to know. The Millennials need to understand that social security is gonna be—

“And I was like: 

People are gonna do what they’re gonna do based upon their understanding. Those Bernie Sanders people, maybe some of them have nice houses, that they live in with their parents and can withstand the economic storm under a Trump.  So, they wasn’t gonna have the same sense of urgency.  (c. 37:22)

‘Black Lives Matter didn’t want a two-party system anymore’

“The BLM folks were very clear in that they didn’t want a two-party system anymore.  And they were like:

We need to have clarity that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and others have represented—what I would call, and I think people have coined before—a form of ‘friendly fascism’, that they will do some evil sh–.  But they’ll do it with a smile. And they’re able to hide it behind cultural signifiers.

“So, Obama will have rappers at the White House.  And he will brush his shoulders off, like Jay Z.  And Michelle [Obama] say she likes Beyoncé.  So, we forget that he deported three, four, you know, 2.5 million people.  Right?

“And I want you to bookmark that because this is what I’m talkin’ about: We gonna have to humble ourselves.  We’re gonna forget that he did that.  We’re gonna forget that he got rid of Gaddafi and did regime change, and what was really behind that.  And we could go on and on.  We’re gonna forget that, you know, the police got more money.  We’re gonna forget that he didn’t really advocate to have punishment—all these different things, that we could look at, his relationship with Wall Street—all this stuff.  We just gave it a pass.  (c. 38:35)

“But the thing was: if you didn’t work for her, my sense was, she is going to lose.  And many did not work for her.  I came back and said: You all volunteering for her? 

Nah, because the guy from the New York Times, whatever his name is, Nate Silver said she’s gonna win. And someone else said she’s gonna win. And this one said she’s gonna win.

“And my sense is this, just as a journalist: numbers are good; numbers have their place.  But they don’t tell the whole story, unless you actually go there.  Going to Cleveland and seeing bikers, big ol’ Hells Angels-looking bikers, that, you know, were sitting there:

I like Donald Trump. That’s my guy. We are going to put him in the White House.

Man, for real?

You damn, right!

“Like, you know, you saw enthusiasm from people like that.  That’s—I was like, that don’t show up in the numbers.  That doesn’t show up when you had, like the day before the election, when I had people on from Ohio and they was like, well, these bikers are on the freeway getting people to vote.  It didn’t explain that there was a dissatisfaction in the Midwest, who were like,

There’s no discernible difference between Bush and Trump and Obama, in terms of what I’m dealing with.

“Now, in California, many of us are—you know, we’re living here; we’re doin’ okay, especially, if we’re livin’ in San Francisco or Oakland.  We’re doin’ better than they are in the Midwest.  And, so, for us, there may be a discernible difference.  But, for many people, for many people, it was no difference.  It was no difference, in terms of what their experience had been from one president to the next.  And a lot of that dissatisfaction showed up in 2012.  And the people, that delivered Ohio to Obama, had told him to his face.  Like,

People do not like you right now. But, because of the racism, that is showing up, they’re probably gonna vote for you just so they can, at the end of the day, point a finger at racists and say ‘you lost’. But they’re not really ridin’ for you like that. (c. 40:49)

“And that was important to understand because, maybe, had people really been on the ground, they would’ve said, you know:

There’s dissatisfaction; and the vote will probably not be as robust and won’t have the numbers, that they did before.

“Is this making sense, what I’m saying?  So, all these things were kind of in play.  And, then, you add to the fact that, since you can’t really tell dissatisfaction, that people are, kind of like: Yeah, I’ll vote for you—but you can tell by body language, that they’re not really gonna get up.  If there’s a Warriors game on, or a Cavaliers game on, you know, the World Series or anything, they be like,

You know I got other things to do. If Empire is on, I’m ‘a watch that before I go out and stand on line for six hours.

“In Michigan, they had been telling Hillary: You need to show up.  She never showed up because her numbers said she won.  And people were dissatisfied. (c. 41:43)

“So, at the end of the day, we saw what happened.  And here we are.  Right?  We’re asking: How did she lose the Rust Belt?

“And, just as a side note, there’s a documentary, that came out, maybe ten years ago, of the Aryan Nations—were they neo-Nazi; I think they might have been neo-Nazis or Aryan Nations.  Tom Metzger was on there.  And he’s saying: You know where it’s going to jump off?  I mean he was pretty confident when he said it.  He said:

The Midwest is where it’s gonna jump off. It’s where we have our people at. It’s where they’re waiting to really set things in motion. It’s where they are judges. They are bankers. They are lawyers.  He said: The Midwest is where this is gonna happen.

“That’s the Rust Belt.  And, so, when you combine all these facts, here we are. (c. 42:30)

“Now, when I said that we had to, kind of, humble ourselves—and I’ll close with this—I think for the past—before even Obama—we, as social justice folks, have made the same excuses, that we see being made now.  When people—you talk to Trump supporters, and they go, you know, he groped a lot of women.  [The response is:]

He’s not perfect. You know, I mean he’s—c’mon.  What candidate is perfect? You gotta go for the greater good. You gotta put that behind us.  Or: They’re lying.  They’re exaggerating. He didn’t really do all that. The media always is trying to get after our guy.

“Have you not heard those excuses?  But have we not made them, or seen people around us for darlings on the left?”

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  “Yes.”

DAVEY D:  “Have we not made them ourselves?

You know, this woman did A, B, C, and D.  She cheated!

“We tell people to have integrity.  And we found out through these [leaked Podesta] emails that there was no integrity.

She’s not perfect. She’s not a prefect candidate. You gotta look for the greater good. You don’t want Trump. You want her.

“Right?  So, we kind of play that game.  As I pointed out before, when I said bookmark those deportations, we have been playing that game when people’s lives were upended.

“I’ve been on a panel one time—and I recall it was in New York—during the 2012 election, and I had brought up the fact that, you know, I’m conflicted with Obama ‘cos he’s deported twelve million people—I mean he’s deported all these people.  And there was a Ph.D. professor sitting next to me: Well, they shouldn’t have come here illegally.  And I kind of looked at her—it was a sister from one of these colleges.  And I was like a pundit:

How can you say that? I mean it’s not like these are people that are not connected to families. I mean you’re talkin’ about parents, sons, daughters, uncles, families were disrupted.

“And her response was:

If it’s that important, how come Eva Longoria isn’t talkin’ about it?

“And what that said to me was—and this is the other thing, that we have to be humble about—is that we have a blindspot for people, who are talking to students, people who are getting on TV, who were doing 30-second soundbites of people’s culture and history.

“And, if we have not made an intentional act for us to be very, very familiar with the comings and goings and the histories and the political understanding that folks in our community have, then we’re missing a big boat.  And we will wind up being, I guess, on the left, but making some pretty stupid ass statements about other people.  Is this making sense, what I’m saying? (c. 45:28)

“I’m looking at them saying: How in the hell do you not know what deportations do?  But you’ll be surprised how many people ride that train to the polls.

“And, so, when people were scared in 2010 and 2012 and 2014, we didn’t have millions of people in the streets.  Nobody held their hands around the lake, even as they were ignoring their brown brothers and sisters being deported.

“We have the situation in Standing Rock.  Right?  People are inspired.  But our candidates didn’t say anything about it.

Well, she’s not perfect. She can’t do it. She’s in an election.

“But those are the very people, that we are depending upon to vote for her.  So, you can’t even give a shout out, like, you know:  A shout out to all those water protectors, that are holding it down. When I become president, I’m gonna make sure I got your back.  You didn’t say that.

“I was talking to somebody earlier.  That’s because we made excuses for people in our lives, who serve two masters.  And, in this case, her master was Wall Street.  In this case, her master was Big Business.  In this case, her master was corporations.  And we gave it a pass. (c. 46:38)

“We didn’t hold them seriously accountable.  But, now, here we are.  And the question is: Where do we go from here? What’s the next steps?  We can do the protesting now and try to get the Electoral College to change.  And we can have a Million Mom March in D.C. during the inauguration.  All that stuff will be good.  It will be an indication of our dissatisfaction.

“But what are we gonna do to really stop the team, that he has in place?  Rudy Giuliani and that crazy, um, that crazy police officer, the sheriff—”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  “Arpaio.”

DAVEY D:  “No.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  ” [inaudible] “

DAVEY D: “Yes.  Those people are gonna be in his ear.  So, they’re gonna have national Stop and Frisk.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  “John Bolton.”

DAVEY D: “You know, John Bolton.  See?  So, they got a team, that’s in place.  And my question is, for us, what’s our team lookin’ like?  Not our team, necessarily, on the federal level, but locally?  Do we control []?  Do we control Oakland up and down?  Do we control San Francisco?  Do we have people, that will sit there and fight the same fight that we’re fighting on the street side?  And as journalists?  And as academics?  And as activists?  Do we have people, that are representing us legislatively?  To make sure when they say, we’re gonna do a Stop and Frisk [programme] nationally, we have people goin’, nah, not in this city. This is gonna be a new type of sanctuary city of no Stop and Frisk in any of these nine counties.  Have we locked it down like that?

“Are we involved in any sort of movement to move us in those directions?  What we’re gonna have to do is be ungovernable, to quote my friend Rosa Clemente, in every way possible.  The fight is here.  Many people have romanticised about this moment.  There’s been people that said: You know, if we only had somebody who was tyrannical, it’s gonna unite people.  Here we are. (c. 48:41)

“And you know what I see people doing?  I see some people uniting.  Bu t I see a lot of other people applying for overseer-ship.  I’ll be an overseer. I’ll be a gate-keeper. Let me in Mr. Trump; I’ll keep the masses down in my respective community.  That’s something, we need to be concerned about.  We’ already seen people line up—those blacks and those Mexicans and those Muslims, that have been rollin’ for Trump.  And he has them.  They’re gonna be the overseers.  They’re gonna be the ones that, I will put the masses down for you, mastuh.

“So, how are we going to really fortify our team?  Is what we need to be looking at, since we’re at that moment.  How are we preparing ourselves?

“People said: We need a revolution.  What does that look like?  Is it peaceful?  How many of us go to the gun range?  How many of us know how to shoot a gun?  Are we shooting it, like in the movies?  Or do we really know how to hold it, so we don’t get the kick-back?  Do we have the ammunition?  Are we training?  Do we do martial arts?  Do we stay in shape?

“When the health care is gone, are we now talking about cooperative economics?  So, if he says, no more Obamacare, are we gonna be like, it’s alright; we got our own doctors and lawyers here?  We’re good.  Have we set that up?  Because we’re at that moment now.  And there’s going to be a lot of desperate people.  How do we quell the fears?  Living in Oakland, you know what desperate people do?  Desperate people look at you and go:

Yo, son! Run those sneakers. Run the jewels. Run your house. Run your—

“Right?  They will rob you.  People will do what they need to do to survive.  Are we prepared for that sort of chaos, because it’s within this chaos that I think they’re gonna ferment, because they’re building an economy around law and order.  Their ecosystem will be based upon:

We need a lot of criminals to go to jail, so that we can give jobs to these poor folks, that were in the Rust Belt.

“And they’ll say:

You know what your new job is? You’re gonna be a little gatekeeper for the [petty] criminals, that we caused the chaos in your communities, that led to them doing those sorts of things.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  [inaudible comment, perhaps:  ‘They did that in ’93 in Ohio.’]

DAVEY D:  “There you have it. [applause]  (c. 50:54)

“So, the slogan Crime Pays will have new meaning.  It will pay them.  And they pay some of us, who are like, you know what, I might as well be a jail-keeper, get my fifty thousand dollars and call it a day. I think I can forget about it.

“I’ll close by saying this:  Somebody hit me up on email and said, you know, all this violence, all this rape and pillaging, that’s going on in the community now—we’re not talking about Trump coming in—all the stuff that’s happening, I’m just gonna go leave the cities and live in the country. And I’m gonna get away from it.  Kanye West, go to another country.

“You can’t hide from a place you’re invested in.  We’re invested in this empire in many ways.  It’s built upon slavery, genocide, rape, and pillaging.  You can’t escape it.  You think when we go to other countries, they’re gonna be like [endearing tone],

Oh, you’re an American? [agitated tone] You’re the one, that caused the problems, that we have now. [audience laughter]  You don’t get a pass.

“And even if you’re black, you don’t get a pass.  It used to be, if you was black, they gave you a pass.  But, no:

You had Obama up there. You put him into office, so you don’t get a pass, either.

“It used to be, if you was a woman, you’d get a pass.  But, no: 

You was rollin’ with Hillary. [incredulously] You don’t get no pass. Condoleeza Rice preceded her; you don’t get a pass. You’re an American. You’re part of the empire. And the only reason why you’re concerned about the world now is because it’s hitting you in the a–.  But, guess what, we’ve been poor for the past two, three, or four decades. We’ve been without, while you had.

“And, so, we’re gonna have to humble ourselves and figure out how we’re gonna reconcile that.  I would say we’re gonna have to be honest.  We’re gonna have to hold people accountable like we’ve never held them before.  We’re gonna have to fight in ways, that we’ve never dreamt of.  We’re gonna have to spiritually align ourselves, so that our willingness to fight is fearless—” (c. 52:57)

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  “That’s right.”

DAVEY D:  “—like you are not afraid to make that sacrifice.  You’re not afraid to die.  We’re reminded [inaudible] about the [Black] Panthers.  They just had their 50th Anniversary.  Many of ’em are doing 30 and 40 years in jail.  You ready to make that sacrifice?  Many people are, like

You know it’s good you all did that. But I need to go to Starbucks and read about it, go to a movie night, maybe have a conversation. But I ain’t willing to make that sort of sacrifice. [3] 

“You’re willing to give your life.  Many people aren’t.  Many people are trying to situate themselves in a economy, or an ecosystem, that now will no longer have Obama, but will have Trump.  So, we can make money speaking about Trump.  We can make money writing books about Trump.  We can be a pundit, that talks in opposition of Trump.  But that’s about as far as it’s gonna go. (c. 53:52)

“And the big battleground will be media.  And the reason why you have a Trump is because of the corporate media.  So, the first thing, we should start doing is dis-attaching ourselves from it and not giving them anymore credence. [audience applause]

“One of the things, that was interesting is how they framed the voting patterns.  And this is what the [corporate] media does.  It’s called divide and conquer.  So, the headline is:

54% of white women voted for Donald Trump.

“And, you know, you’re sitting there, like,

God d—, what the —-? I mean he did all this groping and raping. It’s white women, that caused him to get elected.

“But, as media people, your supposed to

Let me check these statistics, if we’re gonna go by their statistics.

“So,

Oh, 54% voted for Romney. 53 for McCain. 56 for Bush.

“So, there’s always been a majority of women, white women, who voted for the GOP.  Now, that tells us that if, you know, you have a family and aunties and nieces and grandmoms—there’s work to be done.  You know?  Your family members, they’re gonna have to be spoken to.  But we have to be very clear that the person, who put them in office is probably not some of the folks in this room—at least, I hope not.  Right?  I’m assuming these are folks, that are fighting for liberation and a better tomorrow. (c. 55:22)

“But the way that the media framed it, would have people comin’ out, like

We can’t trust you all at all. You all voted 54%.

“But they’ve done that for the past 20 years.  The other thing:

30% of Latinos voted for Trump.

“So, now, you have folks lookin’—

Man, these brown folks, man, they sold us out.

“You gotta look at the record.

Oh, there’s always been 30%, that have been in the GOP side.

“So,

It ain’t my man, Jose, who lives in the store in Fruitvale that did that. That’s some other cat. Maybe it’s a class thing. Maybe it’s a religion thing. I don’t know. But it ain’t the folks, that we rollin’ with.

“So, if you go back to the headlines—and, if I had a slide, I’d show you—it’s like Obama got 74% of the Latino vote—what the headline said.  Trump got 30% of the Latino vote.  See how we start to—

What? 30%?! Let’s roll.

“But nobody did that when Obama said he had 70%.

“So, these are the things, that media is doing to us right now.  And we’re gonna have to be aware of those types of shenanigans and more to come because it’s gonna be a divide and conquer.  It’s gonna be the emergence of a buffer class, that’s going to speak on our behalf, that’s gonna culturally sound like us, culturally look like us, but support policies, that are far, far away from our values.  (c. 56:46)

“So, you’ll have somebody sitting there, saying:

I love Jay Z. I have my pants saggin’. And we need Stop-and-Frisk.

“So, you’re gonna have that.  You’re gonna have a woman sit up there, like,

I know second– and third-wave feminism. Women need equal rights and equal pay. But we don’t need no choice. We need the Supreme Court to gut Roe v. Wade. A real woman doesn’t get an abortion.

“You’ll have that sort of rhetoric coming from a mass media regulator and people will buy it up, if we’re not careful.” [applause]

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  ” [inaudible] ”

DAVEY D:  “There you go.

“So, I’m just gonna leave you with those few things.  Um, we’re gonna be talkin’ about Trump for a long time.  But, hopefully, we’re doing some things to change things around.  This could be the death knell.  Or this could be an opportunity to really turn this around.  I’ve always said that Goliath always loses.  And I really mean that.  Goliath never wins the fight.  He’s big.  He’s cumbersome.  He’s terrifying.  All it takes—if you have five smooth stones, all it takes is one in between the eyes, and he loses.  What’s your aim like?  Are you practicin’ with that slingshot?  And a slingshot comes in many forms.  But we are gonna win.  And, in the words of Kendrick, we gon’ be alright.  Thank you.” [applause] (c. 58:10)

[music break:  Hard Knock Radio theme by Brown Buffalo]

[snip] (c. 59:59)

Learn more at HARD KNOCK RADIO.

***

[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Hard Knock Radio, this one-hour broadcast hosted by Anita Johnson, Friday, 30 DEC 2016, 16:00 PST.

[2]  During Anita Johnson’s interview with Hodari Davis, she cited Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s recent KPFA speech and Dr. Taylor’s critique of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration.  But Mr. Davis seemed to dodge any questions, which may be critical of the Democratic Party.  Of course, the focus of his interview was the Oscar Grant Vigil.  But, of course, it’s important for Ms. Johnson to raise broader political questions about political power, which, for pacifists, mainly falls into the category of electoral politics.

During the interview, Mr. Davis cited the “whitelash” argument, which “Van Jones aptly described”.  But that’s a flawed analysis of Trump’s rise to power—not only because Hillary Clinton won the people’s vote, but lost the electoral college vote—because it doesn’t fully explain the socioeconomic dynamics at play in the United States.

And, of course, Dr. Taylor had recently obliterated that whitelash argument during her recent speech in Berkeley, which Ms. Johnson hosted.  So, it was surprising, or disappointing, that Ms. Johnson didn’t reiterate that argument to Mr. Davis.  She could have shown him (and the audience) how that line of argumentation about a whitelash against the Obama Presidency, which ostensibly translated into a backlash election of Trump.  That argument is symbolised by prominent liberal (Democrat apologist) Van Jones, whom Dr. Taylor cited in her speech.  That liberal argument, preoccupied with identity politics, misses deeper questions about class, which transcend racism or white supremacy.

[3]  This phenomenon of political apathy, in Marxian philosophy and political economy, is related to the problems associated with a bourgeois or petit bourgeois mentality, which lacks class consciousness.  Antonio Gramsci has described the concept of false consciousness, which also helps explain how defeatist or acquiescent attitudes toward the antidemocratic and anti-working class status quo are held by otherwise intelligent groups of people, who are capable of apprehending.

People of conscience, such as Davey D (or, perhaps, yourself, dear reader), must call out the contradictions, the injustices, and the corruption of the spirit, which permeates society, and with which we must all contend, individually or in groupings, if we are to advance the cause of socioeconomic justice.

***

[31 DEC 2016]

[Last modified at 18:39 PST on 7 JAN 2017]Save

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