Hard Knock Radio Presents A 2016 Presidential Election Post Mortem

30 Fri Dec 2016

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Fascism, Anti-Totalitarianism, Civic Engagement (Activism), Police State, Presidential Election 2016, Racism (phenotype)

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Alicia Garza (b. 1981), Aryan Nations, Black Lives Matter, Davey D, DeRay Mckesson (b. 1985), Hard Knock Radio, KPFA, Opal Tometi M.A., Pacifica Radio Network, Patrisse Cullors (b. 1983), President Barack Obama, Thomas Linton Metzger (b. 1938), transcript

hard-knock-radio 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)

Davey D, host of Hard Knock Radio (Pacifica Radio Network)

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.

***

[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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Hard Knock Radio On the Unchristmaslike Spirit of Inner City Governments

26 Mon Dec 2016

Posted by ztnh in Civic Engagement (Activism), Mindfulness, Sociology, Underclass Debate

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Davey D, Hard Knock Radio, KPFA, Occupy Wall Street, Pacifica Radio Network, transcript

hard-knock-radio LUMPENPROLETARIAT—As we immerse ourselves in the holiday spirit, we observe how that Christmas spirit does not run very deeply in our society beyond our insular family circles. Despite the euphoric sense of virtue the charitable may feel, philanthropy and charity fail society when the structures of society, which caused the social ills are not changed and then fail to meet the needs of the neediest among us. Our neighbours and community members, who are forced to endure nights of freezing cold without shelter, represent the failings of our society’s sense of morality and responsibility.

“They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor” —2Pac

As homeless, or houseless, people are increasingly corralled and criminalised with little to no public supports, Hard Knock Radio confronts the hypocrisy of the City of Oakland in its treatment of the desperate poor, who have been denied usage of abandoned buildings, which apparently have been allowed for hipsters and middle- or upper-class inhabitants to use as artist spaces. And, sadly, the City of Oakland is one of the few American cities with some form of sanctuary status for its homeless population. But the Oakland Ghost Ship building fire has exposed an apparent double-standard, as we have seen hedonistic artists have been allowed by authorities to inhabit unused spaces, which had previously been denied to community organisers and the homeless since at least the days of Occupy Oakland. Speaking with SF Bay Area organiser Nita B, among other topics, Davey D discussed the Compassionate Sanctuary policies, which are ostensibly intended to support the needs of the homeless population, but which are now looking like they were merely “a publicity stunt” by an Oakland city official to get re-elected. Listen here. [1]

Messina

***

HARD KNOCK RADIO—[26 DEC 2016] [Unidentified woman: “This is KPFA in Berkeley; KPFB in Berkeley; KFCF in Fresno; and online at kpfa.org. Stay tuned for Hard Knock Radio.]

[Hard Knock Radio introductory audio collage] (c. 1:10)

[Non-specific introduction by host Davey D]

[News Headlines (read by Aileen Alfandary) omitted by scribe] [2] (c. 5:49)

[Hard Knock Radio segue audio collage] (c. 6:44)

[Unidentified music by Charles Bradley – “The World (Is Going Up In Flames)”] (c. 9:41)

DAVEY D: “Davey D, Hard Knock Radio, hangin’ out wit’ you this afternoon. Here we are; it’s the day after Christmas. We’re still in the holiday spirit. But it seems like, when you look at municipalities, they are anything but.

“In San Francisco, we’ve seen that police have resorted to confiscating, uh, instruments from street musicians, who depend upon this time of year to play, um, uplifting, very festive tunes. But you have some Grinch-like individuals, in particular those, who have been residing in the Westin St. Francis, who have been complaining. And we’ve seen the police confiscate the instruments of street musicians. Over in the City of Oakland, we have seen that the homeless encampments, that have been in existence as a way to show compassion for those, who have less, are now about to be removed in a reversal of what the original spirit and the original compassion was about. (c. 10:51)

“Joining us on the [phone] line is long-time activist, Nita B. And, Nita, we wanted to bring you to the show because you’re talking about an emergency action, that is being called to not only bring attention to what is going on in the City of Oakland, but also to help curtail an action, that you feel is definitely inhumane and unfair.

“So, let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on in Oakland with regards to the homeless.” (c. 11:24)

NITA B: “Well, this particular situation, that’s happening, um, it’s gonna be on the 35th-Peralta [homeless] encampment in District Three in west Oakland—north Oakland border that right before this election season Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who is the president of the City Council for the northern district [snip]

[snip]

[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 co-host Davey D, Monday, 26 DEC 2016, 16:00 PST. [N.B.: For some unfortunate reason, Hard Knock Radio usually removes their audio archives from public access two weeks after the initial broadcast date. In this case, the unfortunate reason can be attributed to an apparent inability or refusal to edit out the copyrighted musical selection, or secure fair use permissions.]

[2] KPFA News Headlines for Monday afternoon, 26 DEC 2016, read by Aileen Alfandary:

Netanyahu lashes out against US statements at UN, which reject Israeli occupation of Palestine
Russia expands search of military plane, which went down in the Black Sea, killing dozens, including journalists
Northern Plains: blizzard dumps eight to 15 inches of snow; hundreds endured blizzard at Standing Rock
President Obama and family wished a generic holiday greeting to the public
Kwaanza celebrations in the SF Bay Area
George Michael (singer) has died at age 53 of heart failure

***

[27 DEC 2016]

[Last modified at 09:36 PST on 27 DEC 2016]

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Free Speech Radio Presents Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor at Impact Hub (Oakland), On Two-Party Dictatorship, Socialism, & True Democracy

12 Mon Dec 2016

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Capitalism, Anti-Fascism, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Totalitarianism, Civic Engagement (Activism), Democracy Deferred, Free Speech, Philosophy, Political Science, Presidential Election 2016, Racism (phenotype), Sociology

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Anita Johnson, Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones (b. 1968), Barry Morris Goldwater (1909–1998), Bernie Sanders, Davey D, Donald John Trump (b. 1946), Dr. Barbara Ransby, Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Dr. Michelle Alexander (b. 1967), Fight for $15, Hard Knock Radio, KPFA, neoliberalism, Norman Solomon, Obama administration, Occupy Wall Street, Pacifica Radio Network, Stephen Kevin "Steve" Bannon (b. 1953), transcript, Two-Party Dictatorship, urban economics, Women's Magazine

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—At a recent presentation in support of Dr. Bill Ayers‘ new book, Demand the Impossible, Dr. Bernardine Dohrn encouraged everyone to attend an upcoming SF Bay Area presentation by radical scholar Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an associate professor at Princeton University and the author of a new book entitled From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (2016), “an examination of the history and politics of Black America and the development of the social movement Black Lives Matter in response to police violence in the United States. [Dr.] Taylor has received the Lannan Foundation’s Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book.” Dr. Cornel West has described her as “the most sophisticated and courageous radical intellectual of her generation.”

For those, who were unable to attend, free speech radio’s Women’s Magazine as well as Davey D, co-host of Hard Knock Radio, broadcast excerpts of the presentation, which was delivered before at Impact Hub in Oakland, California on December 5, 2016 by Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. This KPFA benefit was hosted by Hard Knock Radio co-host Anita Johnson. [1] (Working draft transcripts below.) Listen (and/or download) here [2]; and here [3]; and here [4].

Messina

***

KPFA BENEFIT—[5 DEC 2016]

Monday, December 5, 2016 – 7:30 pm
Impact Hub Oakland, 2323 Broadway (near Grand), Oakland
Advance tickets: $12 : brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838- 3006
or Books Inc (Berkeley), Marcus Books, Pegasus (3 sites), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore,Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway’s
$15 door

Winner of the 2016 Lannan Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book

The eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City have challenged the impunity with which officers of the law carry out violence against Black people and punctured the illusion of a postracial America. The Black Lives Matter movement has awakened a new generation of activists. In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.

“Ultimately, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation is an essential read for anyone following the movement for Black Lives. The text chronicles a portion of history we rarely ever see, while also bringing together data and deep primary source research in a way that lucidly explains the origins of the current moment.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“This brilliant book is the best analysis we have of the #BlackLivesMatter moment of the long struggle for freedom in America. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has emerged as the most sophisticated and courageous radical intellectual of her generation.” —Dr. Cornel West

“Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s searching examination of the social, political and economic dimensions of the prevailing racial order offers important context for understanding the necessity of the emerging movement for black liberation.” —Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s writings on Black politics, social movements, and racial inequality in the United States have been published in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, Jacobin, New Politics, the Guardian, In These Times, Black Agenda Report, Ms., International Socialist Review, Al Jazeera America, and other publications. She is assistant professor in the department of African American Studies at Princeton University.

Anita Johnson began her journalistic career at Youth Radio in 1994. She was the senior producer for YR’s weekly talk show on WILD 94.9, and served as senior producer for 106.1 KMEL’s Street Knowledge, hosted by Davey D. By 1997, she was submitting national segments to Marketplace and NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In 2000, Anita co-founded KPFA’s Hard Knock Radio, a public affairs program covering news, views and Hip-Hop. In 2009, with the assistance of The Association of Independents in Radio, she founded Beyond The Odds, a multimedia arts project created to illuminate the impact of HIV and AIDS on low-income and minority young adults (under 25), through the use of the Web. In 2010, she co-produced the documentary film CoInTelPro 101. A well-respected Hip Hop artist as well, she has performed with singer/guitarist Carlos Santana.

KPFA benefit

Learn more at KPFA.

***

WOMEN’S MAGAZINE—[12 DEC 2016] (synopsis)

““Deeply rooted in Black radical, feminist and socialist traditions, Taylor’s book is an outstanding example of the type of analysis that is needed to build movements for freedom and self-determination in a far more complicated terrain than that confronted by the activists of the 20th century.” —Michael C. Dawson, author of Blacks In and Out of the Left

Keeanga-Yamahtta is assistant professor in the department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Her book, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, won the 2016 Lannan Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book.

Taylor spoke on Monday, December 5, at Impact Hub in Oakland. She addressed the current crisis as well as the historical entwining of race and class in American politics, and possible ways forward for a multiracial working class-oriented social justice movement.”

[Women’s Magazine intro audio collage]

KATE RAPHAEL: “Good afternoon. Welcome to Women’s Magazine. I’m Kate Raphael. Even before the catastrophe of the elections, I was feeling pretty demoralised about the state of politics on the left in this country. And I felt like I needed to understand more about Black Lives Matter and the movement building around that, and how it relates to movements, that have been bubbling up, like the Fight for $15 and climate justice.

“And one of the books, I picked up to help me understand those movements and the context in which they’re operating, was called From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation” by Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor. I found it to be one of the most nuanced and thoughtful accounts and analyses of the moment we’re in, that I’ve read in a very long time.

“So, I was super excited when I saw that Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor was gonna be speaking in Oakland last week. And I was even more excited to realise that this was a KPFA-sponsored event. And, so, I would be able to bring you her talk as well as offer the chance to get her book or a copy of her talk as a thank-you gift for your pledge to KPFA this holiday season.

“Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is associate professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University. She received the Lannan Foundation‘s Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book for her book From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation.

“Feminist historian Barbara Ransby calls the book “a must-read for everyone who’s serious about the ongoing praxis of freedom.

“We are going to listen to a good bit of Taylor’s talk on Monday night, which focuses a lot on the election and its aftermath, but also touches on the themes, she explores much more deeply in her book. Before we get to that, I just want to let you know that you can get a copy of her complete talk on CD for a pledge of $75 dollars to KPFA. You can get the book, itself, for $80 dollars. Or you can get, both, the book and the CD for just $130 dollars, which is only about 35 cents a day. And I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

“I know a lot of people are having potlucks and listening groups, meetings to talk about what’s going on. This CD would make a great conversation-starter for one of those discussions. Your book group would definitely love to read this book and discuss it. You don’t need to wait until the end of the show to call and pledge your support for this radio station and this programme. Help keep us on the air. The numbers to call: 510.848-5372 or 1.800.439-5732, 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Or you can pledge securely online at kpfa.org. We deeply appreciate whatever support you could give us.

“Here is Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor speaking at Impact Hub in Oakland last Monday night [December 5th] at an event hosted by Hard Knock Radio‘s Anita Johnson.” (c. 4:33)

DR. KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: “I’m gonna talk about some of the themes in my book. But I’m gonna try to do so within the context, um, of the catastrophe—the election of Donald Trump. [snip (Women’s Magazine edited the following bit out of this broadcast.) So, um, so, I’m gonna try to combine both of these things. And we can talk more specifically about the book in the discussion. But I feel like, you know, given the issues, that I’ve written about, that actually this—the whole Trump thing, really, is something, that we have to try to engage with and understand. So, that’s some of the context behind the talk. Uh, okay. [Audience Member: “Yes!”] Okay. [chuckles]

“Um,] it’s difficult to comprehend how eight years ago, after the election of Barack Obama, the national conversation was whether or not the U.S. was going to become a post-racial society. Forbes magazine ran an editorial with the headline, Racism In America Is Over. Eight years later, any fantasy about the United States being a post-racial society has gone up in flames with the ascendance of Donald Trump to the highest office in the country.

[snip: see Hard Knock Radio transcript below for the full text of this speech excerpt]

“And the insistence of liberals to defend this agenda, the thin gruel of the Obama agenda, with only the most scant whiff of criticism leads to their own paralysis when the right does the same thing, but just on a larger scale.”

KATE RAPHAEL: “You’re listening to Women’s Magazine here on KPFA, 94.1 FM and online at kpfa.org. I’m Kate Raphael.

“We’re listening to talk by Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, that was at the Impact Hub in Oakland. Taylor is the author of a wonderful book called From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation. And we’re offering this book to you along with her talk as a thank-you gift for your pledge to KPFA of just $130 dollars, which is just about 35 cents a day. (c. 18:44) [snip] ” (c. 23:34)

DR. KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: “But there are other ways to measure discontent beyond polls and election results. We saw the first wave of discontent with Obama’s role with the emergence of Occupy Movement in 2011, and, then, the eruption of Black Lives Matter in the summer of 2014. Both were products of the widening gap of inequality in the United States. That inequality was at the heart of the Occupy Movement and its popularisation of class inequality in the U.S. though the slogan of the 99% versus the 1%. (c. 22:54)

“But this inequality was also important in how we understand the emergence of Black Lives Matter. Black Americans, of course, took the brunt of the economic crisis in 2008. It was, in part, how we understand the deep wells of support, that existed for Obama and his campaign’s ability to tap into the anger with the federal government’s abject disregard for what was happening in black communities.

“We cannot understand, for example, the social catastrophe happening across black Chicago, where it was just announced last week that there will be 700 homicides in that city, the vast majority of which affect young black people. You cannot understand that social catastrophe in Chicago without understanding the persisting effects of the economic crisis, that never really ended in many black communities. (c. 23:53)

“Chicago has the third-highest black unemployment rate of any major city in this country. It has the third-highest poverty rate of a large city in the United States. Its black middle class is being gutted because of municipal, state, federal budget cuts, that have wiped out public sector jobs in postal work, teaching, and other positions, that have historically been the bedrock of black economic stability. The breakdown of this civic infrastructure, in combination with the existing crisis of mass incarceration and what Michelle Alexander has called The New Jim Crow, the persistence of unemployment and underemployment and of under-resourced public services and institutions has created the pretext for deepening police presence in black communities and, as a result, is exacerbating all of the conditions, that justify the presence of the police in the first place. (c. 24:53)

“As living conditions in black communities have become harder, the police have been given license to respond with arrests and brutality. And, while the emergence of Black Lives Matter has exposed the extent to which violent policing is institutionalised in this country, it nevertheless continues. The police are on pace to kill 1,200 people this year, more than last year, when newspapers first began to count, and, substantively more than the 928 a year, the FBI had been suggesting as an average two years earlier.

“If you want to understand why the black vote was depressed compared to 2008 and 2012, it can be found in the inability of the American government to aggressively intervene and prevent the murder of black citizens by the state, whether it’s with the policing of black communities or the water crisis in Flint, the expectation that black Americans would be a firewall for Clinton was as offensive, as it was reflective of a kind of liberal contempt for the daily struggles of working class and poor people. (c. 26:09)

“There is just the expectation that, no matter what is happening in your life and how terrible things might be, and no matter how unresponsive the Democratic Party may be, you still have to vote for them.

“And, then, the bitterness directed at people when they don’t respond in such a way is even more contemptuous. This is true when liberals blame depressed black voter turnout for the election results. But it is also the case when they blame working class whites for, quote, ‘voting against their interests’, as if, somehow, voting for the neoliberal, yet civil, politics of the Democratic Party are in the interest of the working class. And, as an aside—[audience finally starts to respond with faint applause; it seems the audience consists of mostly nonplussed registered Democrats.] [5]

“Working class interests are never on the ballot in bourgeois elections. [scant applause and at least one cheer; the biggest audience reaction thus far]

“But, when it comes to the fate of ordinary white people, who, despite the media and academic fascination with it for the moment, these are people, who are also regularly ignored. We have heard all sorts of dime-store psychology about the so-called white working class, most of it thinly-veiled elitism. White workers feel entitled. They’re only interested in themselves. They are privileged. They are racist scum. They are just bad. (c. 27:30)

“In total, it reflects the political establishment’s contempt for the struggles of regular people. If you only read these reports or assessments, you would think there was no inequality experienced by white working class people, or that ordinary white people were just living the high life.

“But, when we consider the experiences of white working class people within the context of the attacks on working class standards, in general, we get a different picture. And what would happen, if we told the story of black Chicago and other black communities across this country? It’s part of the same story of what’s happening to ordinary white people.

“For example, there is the continuing crisis of opioid, or narcotic, addiction in this country. While people are quick to point out how differently it is received compared to the War On Drugs directed at black communities in the 1980s and ’90s, which is undoubtedly true, what does this crisis at this particular moment tell us about the conditions of working class life and working class people?

“There are two million people, addicted to opioids in the U.S. Half of those people are addicted to heroin. From 2009 to 2014, almost half a million people have died from opioid overdoses, a fourfold increase from 1999. Earlier this year, it was reported that their had been a decline in the life expectancy for white women and a plateauing of life expectancy for white men. In fact, it is unprecedented for life expectancy to reverse in a so-called first world country. (c. 29:20)

“In the United States peer countries, life expectancy is growing. Why is life expectancy for white women in decline in this country? Drug overdose, suicide, and alcohol abuse.

On transcending race (phenotype), or identity politics, and confronting class struggle

“So, if we told the stories of the destruction of working class black life alongside the stories of the destruction of working class white life, it could allow us to see that the anxieties, stresses, confusions, and frustrations about life in the world today are not owned by one group, but are shared by many. It would not tell us that everyone suffers the same oppression or exploitation. But it would allow us to see that, even if we don’t experience a particular kind of oppression, every working person in this country is going through something. Everyone is trying to figure out how to survive. And many are failing. (c. 30:23)

“If we put these stories together, we would gain more insight into how the white working class and poor have as much stake in the fight for a different kind of society as anyone else. We wouldn’t so casually dismiss their suffering as privileged because they do not suffer as much as black and brown people in this country.

“The privileges of white skin run very thin in a country where 19 million white people languish in poverty. Apparently, the wages of whiteness are not so great to stop millions of ordinary white people from, literally, drinking and drugging themselves to death to escape the despair of living in this so-called greatest country on Earth.

“If we put these separate stories together into a single story, we could make better sense of why socialism is rising in popularity. White people have taken to the streets over the last five years to protest the growing racial and economic inequality in this country. 13 million people voted for an open socialist. And many believe that if Sanders ran against Trump, he very well could have beaten him. 51% of 18- to 29-year olds say they are against capitalism. Even if they are not fully convinced of what should replace it, 48% of millennials support health insurance as a, quote, ‘right for all people’. And 47% agree that basic necessities, such as food and shelter are, quote, ‘a right, that the government should provide to those unable to afford them’. (c. 32:10)

“In the 1970s, 61% of Americans fell into that vague, but stable, category of the middle class. Today, that number has fallen to 50%. It is driven by the growing wealth inequality, that exists here. In the last year alone, the 1% saw their income rise by 7%. The 0.1% saw their income rise by 9%. In general, the richest 20% of households in the U.S. owned 84% of the wealth in this country, while the bottom 40% owned less than 1%. In other words, there are 400 billionaires in this country. They are the reason why there are 47 million poor people in this country. You cannot have untold obscene wealth, unless you have untold obscene poverty. That is the law of the market. (c. 33:06)

“And how does such a tiny percent of the population unjustly hold on to their wealth, even when millions agree that it should be redistributed? Racism, immigrant-bashing, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, nationalism. They get us to fight each other, while they horde their wealth.

“Our stories are not all the same. We do not have the same experiences. But our hardships often emanate from the same source—a market-based economy, that privileges the wealthy over the welfare and lives of the people who create that wealth. And they keep our stories separate from each other, so that we never understand the entire story, only our particular part of it.

“But, even with great effort to keep our side divided and confused, millions of people are coming to grips with the harsh reality of an economic system, that guarantees them nothing but a future of hardship and an inability to ever get ahead. But the knowledge, alone, of the existence of racism, inequality, poverty, and injustice does not necessarily equip our side with the political tools needed to fight the battles of today or to fight for a socialist future. (c. 34:32)

“We need struggle. We also need politics because we must contend with the political establishment, that wants to lower our expectations to believe that the existing society is the best that we can expect from humanity, that we dare not think beyond the existing parameters of electing a Democrat or Republican to change the world we live in.

“Clinton lost, in part, ‘cos she ran a campaign of low expectations, a campaign cynically pivoted around the notion that ordinary people shouldn’t ask for too much, and that we must be realistic about the possibilities. Donald Trump promised to change the world. And Hillary Clinton promised to make the trains run on time. Bernie Sanders, for all of the excitement, that his campaign generated for rightly demanding more, his commitment to remaining in the Democratic Party has effectively neutered his political revolution. Expecting the Democratic Party to fight for the democratic redistribution of wealth and resources in this country is like expecting to squeeze orange juice out of an apple.” (c. 35:50)

[host cuts into the playback of the audio recording to appeal for listener sponsorship of free speech radio KPFA]

KATE RAPHAEL: ” [snip]” (c. 41:31)

[host returns to the playback of the audio recording of the speech, but fast-forwarding to the Q&A portion of the presentation with Anita Johnson]

ANITA JOHNSON: “My first question is this. This past October marked the 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party. And the former chairperson of the Black Panther Party, Elaine Brown had an interesting, interesting perspective about Black Lives Matter in contrast, or in comparison, to the Black Panther Party. To quote her directly, it says:

I don’t know what Black Lives Matter does, so, I can’t tell you how it compares to what the Black Panther Party was. I know that the Black Panther Party was. I know that lives were lost, the struggle we put into place, the efforts we made, the assaults on us by the police and government. I know all that. I don’t know what Black Lives matter does. So, if you can tell me, I can give you my thoughts.

“End quote. Um, how would you articulate what Black Lives Matter does and, then, how does it also fit into the history of Black Resistance?” (c. 42:25)

DR. KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: “Well, I mean [transcription pending]

[snip]

[PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER. THIS TRANSCRIPT IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION.]

[snip] (c. 59:59)

Learn more at WOMEN’S MAGAZINE.

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow. Email us, if you would like to volunteer any transcription labour to the common stock of knowledge for the betterment of society.]

***

[Working draft transcript of actual radio broadcast by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and Hard Knock Radio.]

HARD KNOCK RADIO—[12 DEC 2016] (synopsis) “Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1 @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.”

[Erica Bridgeman(sp?): “—and 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley; 88.1 KFCF in Fresno; 97.5 K2ABR in Santa Cruz; and online at kpfa.org. The time is 4pm. Up next, Hard Knock Radio.”]

[Hard Knock Radio introduction audio collage]

DAVEY D: “Wutup, everybody? Welcome to another edition of Hard Knock Radio. Davey D, hangin’ out with you this afternoon. On today’s show, we’re gonna hear activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta talking about the police murders, the Donald Trump election, and the challenges, that wait before us. All that and more, coming up after the afternoon [news] headlines.”

[KPFA News Headlines (read by Max Pringle) omitted by scribe]

DAVEY D: “Wussup, everybody? Davey D, hangin’ out wit’ you this afternoon. You know? Being in the [SF] Bay Area, we are very fortunate because we have—we’re, we’re a hub. A lot of people from all walks of life, um, especially of the progressive persuasion, make it a point to roll through here and share their wisdom and insights, as to the happenings of the day.

“And, um, you know, a few days ago, we were blessed to have, um, activist, scholar, assistant professor of African American Studies over at Princeton University, Keeanga-Yamahtta. (c. 7:39)

“She came through and talked about the new book, From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation—a political analysis of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the history of policing and race in the United States—and, during the conversation, got into Donald Trump and the collapse of the Democratic Party—that’s right, the collapse of the Democratic Party—and, even more insightful, the failings of the Obama administration. A lot was covered in this incredible conversation, took place last week at the Impact Hub, here, in Oakland. (c. 8:21)

“I wanted to share that with you this afternoon, as we continue on in Week Two of our [free speech radio KPFA] Holiday Fund Drive. I want you all to pull up a seat. I want you all to open up your ears and your hearts and your minds and take in some of this information and, really, as you do that, appreciate the fact that in many places we don’t have the opportunity to accommodate the array of voices, that exist out in our community. You know; if we were on one of the corporate entities, it would be, like: Well, I’ve never heard of this person. But, if it’s Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, then we can hear that. And that can be good and bad, depending on where you sit.

“But there are so many young, brilliant, minds, that are out there, that are on the rise, that are making moves, um, and have shrewd political analyses of the situations at hand. And we need to make space for them. And these airwaves have been able to do just that. (c. 9:23)

“And, so, without further ado, let’s check out Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta speaking about black liberation, Black Lives Matter, the rise of Donald Trump, the failings of Obama, and the collapse of the Democratic Party, right here, KPFA, Hard Knock Radio, KPFA. Here we go.” (c. 9:43)

[Broadcast cut to audio from presentation by Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor at a KPFA benefit at Impact Hub in Oakland, CA, on 5 DEC 2016.]

DR. KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: “I’m gonna talk about some of the themes in my book. But I’m gonna try to do so within the context, um, of the catastrophe—the election of Donald Trump. So, um, so, I’m gonna try to combine both of these things. And we can talk more specifically about the book in the discussion. But I feel like, you know, given the issues, that I’ve written about, that actually this—the whole Trump thing, really, is something, that we have to try to engage with and understand. So, that’s some of the context behind the talk. Uh, okay. [Audience Member: “Yes!”] Okay. [chuckles] (c. 10:36)

“Um, it’s difficult to comprehend how eight years ago, after the election of Barack Obama, the national conversation was whether or not the U.S. was going to become a post-racial society. Forbes magazine ran an editorial with the headline, ‘Racism In America Is Over’. Eight years later, any fantasy about the United States being a post-racial society has gone up in flames with the ascendance of Donald Trump to the highest office in the country. (c. 11:09)

“Trump ran his campaign on a vile mix of fake economic populism with the worst and most naked race-baiting and demonisation of oppressed people seen in a presidential election, probably, since Goldwater—Barry Goldwater—in 1964. He referred to Mexican immigrants as rapists, drug dealers, and criminals. He seamlessly conflated Islam with terrorism, at one point, favourably retelling a false story about an American general dipping bullets in pig’s blood before murdering Muslim soldiers, as a worthy strategy in the ongoing and misnamed War On Terror. He has defended the use of racial profiling and advocated it as a national policing strategy.

Steve Bannon, alt-right (i.e., white supremacist) ideologue

“When you take these statements and include, at least some of the people he is nominating to be included in his cabinet, then what we are talking about is a dramatic shift from the optics of the nation’s first black president and a black family living in the White House to an administration, that will be openly hostile to the most basic aspirations of black people. Trump’s first act, as president-elect, for example, was to hire Steve Bannon, who has bragged about his associations with the so-called alt-right, or as we used to say, white supremacists, as his chief strategist.

“So, we are about as far from post-racial, as you can possibly be in this country. And it is reasonable to expect that, if, and when, Trump cannot deliver on his promises to bring jobs back to the United States, or when massive tax breaks to the rich don’t equate into a higher standard of living for ordinary people, that he and his cabal of racist rogues and reactionaries will double down on racism as an explanation. (c. 13:07)

It’s not only the alt-right, or white supremacists, but liberals, too

“And, so, how did this happen, that we have gone from the nation’s first black president to an openly racist billionaire, who is surrounded by bigots? Many people have described it in a way, that I would describe as simplistic. The best example of this, I think, is Van Jones, who has described Trump’s victory as a, quote, ‘whitelash against black voters’, almost characterising Trump’s victory as revenge for the election of Obama in 2008. (c. 13:38)

“A related version of this assessment is expressed when people, as an article in Huffington Post did last week, compare the rise of Trump to the end of Reconstruction, the reemergence of Republicans, as a period of redemption, when white supremacy became the actual law of the land and Jim Crow was imposed. There is a lot of history to unpack there. But it really is a simple rendering of a more recent history, that conveniently leaves the Democratic Party unscathed, while dramatically overstating the depths of conservatism, racism, and reaction in the country.

“The first problem with this narrative is that it promotes a mistaken story that African-Americans, somehow, have benefited from the presence of Barack Obama in the White House and those benefits have come at the expense of ordinary white people. (c. 14:34)

“This is a story, that has no basis in reality. African-Americans continue to experience unemployment at twice the rate of whites. 38% of black children continue to live in poverty. And a shocking 55% of black workers, mostly black women, make under $15 dollars an hour.

“It was precisely the inability of the Obama administration to improve the conditions of ordinary black people, that gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. This is the thin gruel, working class and poor black Americans have received from two terms of Obama. (c. 15:18)

“The second problem with the whitelash story is that it overstates the depths of white racism and conservatism, while simultaneously underestimating the white opposition to the Trump agenda. We certainly don’t want to downplay the extent to which racism played a critical role in Trump’s success. We have seen how Trump’s rise has unleashed violent white supremacists and given them the confidence to organise out in the open. There have been well over a thousand cases of hate crimes reported since the election, a number higher than even in the aftermath of 9/11. So, it cannot be underestimated. But it should not also be overstated. (c. 16:01)

“For example, there are numbers, that disrupt the narrative of a generalised right-wing sweep across the United States with white people universally lining up behind Trump waiting to receive their marching orders. [audience silence]

“58% of Americans, all Americans, think Obamacare should be replaced with federally-funded health care for all. Most Americans support raising the minimum wage. 61% support, at least, a $10 dollar minimum wage. 59% support a $12 dollar minimum wage. And 48% support a $15 dollar minimum wage, which has been demonised by Democrats and Republicans, alike. [audience silence]

“61% of Americans say the rich pay too little in taxes. This is an increase from 52%, who said that a year ago. 69% of Americans believe that providing affordable housing is important. 63% of Americans say money and wealth distribution is unfair. 53% of white people think the country still has work to do for, quote, ‘blacks to achieve equal rights with whites.’ 50% of whites say, quote, ‘blacks are treated less fairly by the police than whites’. 64% of white Democrats support Black Lives Matter; and 29% of them, say they, quote, ‘strongly support the Black Lives Matter movement’.

“Even 20% of Republicans think that the movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, will help achieve racial equality in the United States. So, how do we square this with the election, itself?

“We must begin with the fact that tens of millions of Americans didn’t vote at all. There are 238 million eligible voters in the United States. And, of that number, only 60 million voted for Trump. Now, on its own, yes, that is 60 million people, who voted for a vile, racist, and sexual predator. And, even within that number, five percent of people, who voted for Trump—something like 12 million people—said he was unfit to be president. [faint audience reaction]

“But, in the larger scope of things, it means that only one in four eligible voters chose Trump. This is hardly representative of what, quote, white people think. And it’s hardly representative of a right-wing sweep across the country.

On the two-party dictatorship of Democrats and Republicans

“But when your political choices are constrained within the parameters of the existing two-party system, voter discontent can go in one of three places: your party, the other party, or no party. American politics is always a dance between the three.

“In this case, the line of reasoning, that blames the loss of the Democratic Party solely on Fox News, FBI letters, race-baiting, bad messaging, um, or the, the evil Russians, means that there is no accounting or reckoning with the political shortcomings of the party. None of those explanations actually address how the party failed to connect with the basic ideas of fairness and justice, that are at the core of those statistics, that I read off.

“Instead, the Democrats ran on the idea that Trump was just too negative; he wouldn’t be a good role model, when in fact, according to Hillary Clinton, America is already great. It was a message, that was, and remains, completely out of touch with the reality experienced by millions of Americans. (c. 19:50)

“But when it’s the Democrats, who have been in power for eight years, overseeing the numbing inequity and injustice of the status quo, it made it difficult for them to argue for a radically different political agenda. Clinton promised to be the third term of Obama, failing to realise that, for millions of voters, two terms was enough.

“Eight years ago, Obama ran on the promise of hope and change. But, from the beginning, he seemed to be more interested in cultivating an image of bipartisan agreement with, uh, the Republicans. Instead of using his mandate to push an agenda based around the demands and needs of black and Latino working class voters, all who were responsible for putting him into office.

“For his first full year in office, Obama had a supermajority in Congress and squandered it. That’s exactly the reason why Democrats lost control of Congress in the first place. (c. 20:50)

“So, with big expectations and big hope come even bigger disappointment when you fail to deliver. Embedded inside of every right-wing backlash is the failure of the liberal establishment to deliver an alternative or a better way. You cannot understand the emergence of Richard Nixon without understanding the failures of the Johnson administration. From the incompleteness and inadequacy of the War On Poverty and the Great Society to the debacle of the Vietnam War, you cannot understand the rise of Ronald Reagan without understanding the failure of the Carter administration to address rising inflation, cripplingly high interest rates, and the erosion of working class living standards in general. (c. 21:40)

“In other words, the lesser evil always cuts the path for the greater evil. Where Obama used the machinery and logic of deportations to banish 2.5 million people from the United States, it has set the stage for Trump to do this in an even larger way. Where the Obama administration embraced the values of so-called choice and privatisation and gutting public education, Trump will do it in an even more fantastical way, that finishes the job of attempting to kill public education in this country. Obama’s failure to deliver any significant reforms for working class and poor people made a mockery of his attempts to tell people to vote for him in order to secure his legacy. (c. 22:31) [Note: The Women’s Magazine broadcast (see above) featured an edit, which cuts to a different part of the speech: “And the insistence of liberals to defend this agenda, the thin gruel of the Obama agenda, with only the most scant whiff of criticism, leads to their own paralysis when the right does the same thing, just on a larger scale.”]

“But there are other ways to measure discontent beyond polls and election results. We saw the first wave of discontent with Obama’s role with the emergence of Occupy Movement in 2011, and, then, the eruption of Black Lives Matter in the summer of 2014. Both were products of the widening gap of inequality in the United States. That inequality was at the heart of the Occupy Movement and its popularisation of class inequality in the U.S. through the slogan of the 99% versus the 1%.

“But this inequality was also important in how we understand the emergence of Black Lives Matter. Black Americans, of course, took the brunt of the economic crisis in 2007 and 2008. It was, in part, how we understand the deep wells of support, that existed for Obama and his campaign’s ability to tap into the anger with the federal government’s abject disregard for what was happening in black communities. [6]

“Chicago has the third-highest black unemployment rate of any major city in this country. It has the third-highest poverty rate of a large city in the United States. Its black middle class is being gutted because of municipal, state, federal budget cuts, that have wiped out public sector jobs in postal work, teaching, and other positions, that have historically been the bedrock of black economic stability. The breakdown of this civic infrastructure, in combination with the existing crisis of mass incarceration and what Michelle Alexander has called The New Jim Crow, the persistence of unemployment and underemployment and of under-resourced public services and institutions has created the pretext for deepening police presence in black communities and, as a result, is exacerbating all the conditions, that justify the presence of the police in the first place. (c. 25:02)

DAVEY D: “Wow. Wow! And bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! That is the voice of Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta, assistant professor of African American Studies at Princeton Univeristy, speaking at the Impact Hub last week, talking about her new book, From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation and addressing the election of Donald Trump and his rise, the collapse of the Democratic Party, and the failings of the Obama administration.

“I have said similar things over and over again. It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around it. But, so help me gawd, the folks from Ferguson were just in town last week. They were in town last week. And they had long said, they had long said, there was deep, deep dissatisfaction with what was going on in the White House. And they were saying this back before Mike Brown. And, when you went to those places, when you went to the Midwest and you went down south, you heard it over and over again. But it was something, that many people said: What choice do they have? Who else they gonna go for? It can’t be true. It’s an exaggeration. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

“Now, the facts are comin’ out. The numbers are being shown. The analysis is being put forth. And those voices, that have often been suppressed, usually, by corporate media, who had a punditry and consultant class, speaking on behalf of people, whose real thoughts and real sentiments were never being reflected. How could it, when you’re making a hundred thousand dollars a year sitting on MSNBC speaking to folks? You’re not really in the cuts with people day in and day out to really pick up where they’re comin’ from. (c. 28:23)

“But anybody who’s listening right now, who’s livin’ paycheck to paycheck, anybody out here, who is living on the margins, understands pretty clearly that it wasn’t all joy in Mudville. And I’m glad Dr. Yamahtta is really breaking this down. (c. 28:43)

[Davey D continues with his remarks, focusing on appeals for listener sponsorship of free speech radio KPFA, the world’s original listener-sponsored free speech radio station, which PBS and NPR later copied, but in a non-free speech manner with corporate underwriting.] (c. 29:21)

“We also have Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s entire speech, included in a robust package, KPFA Prayer and Protest Pack, which includes Ralph Nader, Chris Hedges, Bill Ayers, Eve Ensler, Ayesha Curry—that’s right, the wife of, uh, Steph Curry—and the sister, who you’re hearin’ now, Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. We’re asking for a $180 pledge for that. All this you can break up into easy installment monthly payments. Let me give out the phone number, folks. 1.800.439-5732. 1.800.439-5732. 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Or donate online at kpfa.org. Again, 1.800.439-5732. 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Or donate online at kpfa.org. (c. 30:35)

“And, before we go right back into the, um, another excerpt from this incredible speech, I wanna give a shout out to William in Fresno, who put up $600 dollars and said if we can get people to pledge and it comes up to a total of $600 dollars, collectively speaking, we get to keep his money from Fresno. And we wanna do that. In other words, we can double our efforts. 1.800.439-5732. 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Or pledge online at kpfa.org. A $75 dollar pledge gets you the [complete] speech, that you are listening to [excerpts of] right now. You can get this speech in a package, which includes Ralph Nader, Chris Hedges, Bill Ayers, Eve Ensler, Ayesha Curry, and many others for a $180 pledge.

[snip] (c. 31:39)

“Let’s go back and listen to another excerpt from Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, speaking at the Impact Hub about Black Lives Matter, black liberation, the rise of Trump, the collapse of the Democratic Party and the failures of Barack Hussein Obama. We’ll be right back.” (c. 32:00)

DR. KEEANGA YAMAHTTA-TAYLOR: “There is just the expectation that, no matter what is happening in your life and how terrible things might be, and no matter how unresponsive the Democratic Party may be, you still have to vote for them.

“Working class interests are never on the ballot in bourgeois elections. [scant applause and at least one cheer; the biggest audience reaction thus far]

“But, when it comes to the fate of ordinary white people, who, despite the media and academic fascination with them for the moment, these are people, who are also regularly ignored. We have heard all sorts of dime-store psychology about the so-called white working class, most of it thinly-veiled elitism. White workers feel entitled. They’re only interested in themselves. They are privileged. They are racist scum. They are just bad. (c. 33:26)

“There are two million people, addicted to opioids in the U.S. Half of those people are addicted to heroin. From 2009 to 2014, almost half a million people have died from opioid overdoses, a fourfold increase since 1999. Earlier this year, it was reported that their had been a decline in the life expectancy for white women and a plateauing of life expectancy for white men. In fact, it is unprecedented for life expectancy to reverse in a so-called first world country.

“In the United States peer countries, life expectancy is growing. Why is life expectancy for white women in decline in this country? Drug overdose, suicide, and alcohol abuse.

On transcending race (phenotype), or identity politics, and confronting class struggle

“If we put these separate stories together into a single story, we could make better sense of why socialism is rising in popularity. White people have taken to the streets over the last five years to protest the growing racial and economic inequality in this country. 13 million people voted for an open socialist. And many believe that if Sanders ran against Trump, he very well could have beaten him. 51% of 18- to 29-year olds say they are against capitalism, even if they are not fully convinced of what should replace it, 48% of millennials support health insurance as a, quote, ‘right for all people’. And 47% agree that basic necessities, such as food and shelter are, quote, ‘a right, that the government should provide to those unable to afford them’. (c. 38:03)

“In the 1970s, 61% of Americans fell into that vague, but stable, category of middle class. Today, that number has fallen to 50%. It is driven by the growing wealth inequality, that exists here. In the last year alone, the 1% saw their income rise by 7%. The 0.1% saw their income rise by 9%. In general, the richest 20% of households in the U.S. own 84% of the wealth in this country, while the bottom 40% own less than 1%. In other words, there are 400 billionaires in this country. They are the reason why there are 47 million poor people. You cannot have untold obscene wealth, unless you have untold obscene poverty. That is the law of the market. (c. 39:01)

“And how does such a tiny percent of the population unjustly hold on to their wealth[, even when millions agree that it should be redistributed]? Racism, immigrant-bashing, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, nationalism. They get us to fight each other, while they horde their wealth.” (c. 39:21)

DAVEY D: “Phew! I just want those words to simmer with folks for a minute. It’s 94.1 KPFA, Hard Knock Radio. That’s some raw truth this afternoon. Dr. Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor bringing heat, sobering heat, reflecting an anger, that so many people have right now, speaking and giving voice to folks, who have seen their voices, uh, ridiculed, marginalised, and not allowed to see the light of day because of a punditry class; there’s a consultancy class. There are stormtroopers for a 1%, that have blocked any sort of dissent from seeing the light of day.

“And I’m glad that she was able to come to the City of Oakland, to speak at the Impact Hub to a packed house and speak this truth. And we have these [free speech radio] airwaves to put it out there so folks can understand that they’re not alone in what they were feeling. (c. 40:35)

“A lot of people were made to feel bad, as they said: You know, I’m not really feelin’ what’s goin’ on with the choices. And how many of you all were browbeaten to death? Oh, what are you gon’ do? You have no choice. You’re an idiot. How many people heard that? Raise your hand, if people said that to you and looked down their nose and made you feel like was a piece of crap ‘cos you had a political analysis, that didn’t see the light of day, but, nevertheless, was something, that was true. And it was true for millions of people out there. The key to it: many people just stayed the hell on home. (c. 41:13)

“And it’s important that we understand that truth. It’s important that we start to listen to some of those voices and make the change, make the necessary adjustments.

“We’re just gettin’ started with the speech, folks. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet. It goes better. It gets deeper. It gets heated—it gets hotter. We have it for you. (c. 41:39)

[Davey D continued with his remarks, focusing on appeals for listener sponsorship of free speech radio KPFA, the world’s original listener-sponsored free speech radio station, which PBS and NPR later copied, but in a non-free speech manner with corporate underwriting.] (c. 41:50)

“Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, assistant professor over at Princeton University, putting out a new book called Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation. The key to her speech, here, this afternoon is talking about the rise of the Occupy Movement, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement were reflections of people not having their interests addressed and this widening gap of inequality. (c. 42:20)

“No, it wasn’t just a bunch of hippies wanting to, uh, pitch tents in the middle of your city. That wouldn’t have been allowed because in many of those places you had a homeless population and a marginalised population, that would have ran them out, if that was the case, if it wasn’t really resonating with the folks, that were in existence there.

“What you think Occupy Oakland was able to have a foothold in downtown Oakland, which is crime-ridden, had it not been for the population there? That was: Man, I feel what you sayin’. But that was something that we were gonna ignore—that mass inequality. (c. 43:03)

“And I’m glad this sister’s connecting the dots. I saw this when I was in the midwest. Folks are living in poverty. [7] We saw that in the crack era. People, that really studied the crack era, knew that there was a whole lotta folks across the board, that was addicted to crack. But they painted it as a black thing only and ignored that there was a lot of places, like in Cheyenne, Wyoming and, uh—what is that city up there in Idaho? I’m gonna remember the city, that’s right there, um—Boise, Idaho. It’s a lot of folks smokin’ that dope there.

“20 years later, you have people hooked up on heroin and opiates and all that. She’s breakin’ it down this afternoon. I want us to sit with that raw truth. And we have the opportunity to present it to you on these airwaves. (c. 43:53)

“We’re gonna have to do that. We’re at this crossroads now. We can’t go down this same path anymore. There’s a lot of people, that want us to stay exactly where we’re at. I think the time has changed. The time has come for this change [of progressives and others finally rejecting the anti-working class Democratic Party and the two-party dictatorship].

“And, so, one of the things, that we’re committed to doing here is providing those critical voices, providing that space for these conversations, making sure that these issues see the light of day. So, 1.800.439-5732. 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Or donate online at kpfa.org, as we—this is holiday season. All this is tax-deductible. You want your money going into the coffers of the military-industrial complex? Or maybe into an entity, that will speak out against it? I would encourage you to follow the latter. (c. 46:22)

“Let’s listen to a little bit more from Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. And I’ll come back and talk to you some more.” (c. 46:29)

DR. KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: “[Our stories are not all the same. We do not have the same experiences. But our hardships often emanate from the same source—a market-based economy, that privileges the wealthy over the welfare and lives of the people who create that wealth. And they keep our stories separate from each other, so that we never understand the entire story, only our particular part of it.]

“We need struggle. We also need politics because we must contend with the political establishment, that wants to lower our expectations to believe that the existing society is the best that we can expect from humanity, that we dare not think beyond the existing parameters of electing a Democrat or Republican to change the world we live in. (c. 47:29)

“Clinton lost, in part because she ran a campaign of low expectations, a campaign cynically pivoted around the notion that ordinary people shouldn’t ask for too much, and that we must be realistic about the possibilities. Donald Trump promised to change the world. And Hillary Clinton promised to make the trains run on time. Bernie Sanders, for all of the excitement, that his campaign generated for rightly demanding more, his commitment to remaining in the Democratic Party has effectively neutered his political revolution. Expecting the Democratic Party to fight for the democratic redistribution of wealth and resources in this country is like expecting to squeeze orange juice out of an apple. (c. 48:23)

“No, we must build independent organisations and political parties, that are not connected to the Democratic Party, that don’t rise and fall with the electoral cycle. We have to build organisations, that are democratic, multiracial, and militant with a foundation in solidarity—solidarity, meaning that, even if you don’t experience a particular oppression, it doesn’t matter because you understand that, as ordinary people, our fates are connected and that one group’s liberation is dependent on the liberation of all of the oppressed and exploited.

“And there are so many good examples of this happening now. And that’s important because an emboldened right, when we look at the intense political polarisation, that exists, we can see what an emboldened right can do. It becomes a source of attraction for people, who are frustrated about the conditions, that they face and the uncertainty, that exists in the world. But it also produces a certain response from the left. It is not an overstatement to say that in the last month tens of thousands of ordinary people took to the streets—black people, Muslims, Latinos, Arabs, Asians, Native people, and white people—to reject the [2016 presidential] election, to reject Trump, and to reject racism. (c. 49:45)

“At high schools and college campuses across the country, students walked out of classes and began to organise to declare their campuses sanctuaries for undocumented students and others, that Trump has threatened to use the power of the state to abuse.” (c. 50:04)

DAVEY D: “She’s still just getting started. Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, speaking at the Impact Hub. We have less than ten minutes in this show.

“It is so important that we have these types of conversations ‘cos it is what this show is about. It is what this station is about, ultimately and ideally—to give voice to the voiceless [i.e., the silenced and the censored]. To allow this space and allow these words to resonate with so many folks, that are listening. And some of these people, that are calling right now—thank you. (c. 51:30)

[Davey D continued with his remarks, focusing on appeals for listener sponsorship of free speech radio KPFA] (c. 51:50)

“We have to talk about the collapse and the failures of those we entrusted to do our bidding, who didn’t do our bidding, but used us and, then, pivoted, and then danced with the devil, literally, danced with Wall Street, danced with developers, danced with big pharma, danced with big agribusiness, danced with everybody but us. Now, culturally, they can communicate to us. I like that Obama, for example, might have rappers in the White House. That’s a cool thing. But it ain’t cool, if the policies, that the communities, which those rappers come from aren’t really being reflected in what gets pushed out. And you can’t give the excuse that he was being blocked by Congress ‘cos he didn’t do it when he had a supermajority the first two years. He didn’t do it. Remember, police brutality was on the docket then. Have we forgotten Oscar Grant was shot [by police] before [Obama] even got into office? And there was a robust movement. And that Andreas Grimes [sic] was shot in, in New Orleans? And there was a movement down there. And Robert Taylor, um—I’m gonna forget his name, Taylor—Tolan, Robbie Tolan was shot in Houston in front of his mom when the police thought that Robbie’s car was stolen. All those movements were kinda squelched down, in terms of how the pundits talk about what we know in those communities. They were out there. And people were demanding redress. This is when there was a [Democratic] supermajority in Congress and the Senate.

“Did we see any movement on that? No, we did not. (c. 53:30)

“And this is what the sister is talking about. This was simmering for a lot of people. But people went along, tried to figure it out. They even bought into the argument that chess, not checkers, was being played. And here we are. It looks like the chess game wasn’t in our favour, huh? (c. 53:48)

[Davey D continued with his remarks, focusing on appeals for listener sponsorship of free speech radio KPFA] (c. 54:00)

“We have to have these conversations. We should arm ourselves with the information, that will spark this. Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is giving us the language, is giving us a framework in which we can broach these conversations. It’s so important. (c. 54:17)

[Davey D continued with his remarks, focusing on appeals for listener sponsorship of free speech radio KPFA] (c. 55:01)

“[Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s] book is the winner of the 2016 Lannan Cultural Freedom Award. Her book is praised by everybody, from Cornel West on down. Michelle Alexander sees it as, like, this is what we need. In fact, I would say it’s like a continuation of where Michelle jumps off, in terms of just giving us framework.

“But we have to invest. So, it’s not just pledging to the station, but making an investment, so we can have these airwaves. In the upcoming months, it’s gonna be important for all of us. It’s going to be important for all of us to have access to some sort of media apparatus where we can speak truth to power.

“Do you know Donald Trump has talked about putting two new people in the FCC? And he wants to overturn net nuetrality protections, meaning that when we go online we’re not gonna have a free and clear internet. The thing, that people, that we were fighting against for five years is gonna be gone. These airwaves is going to be real important. The voices of folks, who have these political analyses—and more importantly, as in the case with Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. She’s giving you solutions. She’s talking about: Look, you gots to look at the poor folks, that live in Appalachia. You got to look at those poor folks, that live in the Pinoles, in the Sacramentos, rider’s[sp?] side, around that area. You gotta look at the folks in those poor, rural communities. And you have to marry the stories of inequality, that exists in the inner cities. Then, find out that you have the same string, or purse-holder, making life miserable for everybody.

“You can call them 1%. You can call them oligarchs. You can call them tyrants. But we’re gonna have to deal with that. There’s no getting around that. (c. 57:00)

“So, 1.800.439-5732. 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Thank you, Lily from Pittsburg. Thank you, Ellen from Alameda. Thank you, Margaret out of Bolinas. Thank you Judas from Lambertville, New Jersey. A lot of people are calling in. There’s too many names to read off. (c. 57:20)

[Davey D continued with his remarks, focusing on appeals for listener sponsorship of free speech radio KPFA] (c. 58:59)

“And I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for calling this afternoon. You understand the importance of having the voiceless be given voice. These airwaves will do that. And we promise to do that forever and ever and ever and ever, to quote Outkast. Mike [Biggs], Big Mike is smiling.

“1.800.439-5732. 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Pledge online at kpfa.org. I’ll say the words one last time. 1.800.439-5732. 1.800.HEY-KPFA. Pledge online at kpfa.org. I wanna thank everybody calling in. Thank you, Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for your speech. Thank you, Impact Hub. Thank you for everybody listening. Flashpoints, you take it away.” (c. 59:48)

Learn more at HARD KNOCK RADIO.

***

[1] Impact Hub, 2323 Broadway (near Grand), Oakland, California.

[2] Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving: Women’s Magazine, this one-hour broadcast hosted by co-host Kate Raphael, Monday, 12 DEC 2016, 13:00 PST.

[3] Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving: Hard Knock Radio, this one-hour broadcast hosted by co-host Davey D, Monday, 12 DEC 2016, 16:00 PST. [N.B.: For some unfortunate reason, Hard Knock Radio usually removes their audio archives from public access two weeks after the initial broadcast date.]

[4] Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving: Special Programming, this one-hour broadcast hosted by co-host Kate Raphael, Wednesday, 14 DEC 2016, 15:00 PST. [From listening to bits of the live broadcast, (c. 37:00) this sounded identical to the Women’s Magazine broadcast from 12 DEC 2016.]

[5] This is a KPFA benefit, which was likely attended by the usual aging Berkeley Baby Boomer demographic of gentle silver-haired souls, who lived through the 1960s and remain true to the spirit of social justice. But, being KPFA listeners, most accept the status quo two-party system. This particular audience demographic is typically much more enthusiastic when the speakers are far less (or non-) critical of their Democratic Party apologism.

Since at least 1999, the KPFA News Department has been dominated by a faction, which is aligned with the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. So, their reform-the-Democratic-Party-from-within ideology has resulted in KPFA and Pacifica’s News Departments filtering the news through a Democratic Party apologist lens, discouraging many free speech radio listeners from thinking of alternatives to the two-party dictatorship or the unresponsive Democratic Party.

Political commentators have correctly observed that Trump, actually, succeeded in usurping the language of working class populism, which Bernie Sanders had championed during the 2016 presidential primary elections. Obviously, it’s incorrect to say this is why Hillary Clinton lost the election, as she did receive millions more votes from American voters than Trump. Clinton lost the election because of the electoral college system, which can reject the national will of the American people, or rather they redefine the will of the people through the antidemocratic scheme of the electoral college.

But, certainly, Clinton’s failure to even pay lip service to working class populism further narrowed the already narrow two-party presidential contest, such that Trump was able to win the electoral college election, despite losing the popular vote (i.e., the real vote).

And, of course, Obama talked a good game during the 2008 election cycle. But, as many of us anticipated, he immediately turned his back on his constituency. Once in office, the Obama administration turned his energetic movement for hope and change into a private political action committee (PAC) with an email list, which never met again. Many liberals and Democratic Party apologists, such as Norman Solomon and Robert Reich, argued that the movement slacked off, that the people no longer pushed Obama in the right direction once he was in office. But that argument falls apart when we recall that by 2011, there was mass discontent with the status quo, even under the ostensibly progressive Obama administration, which coordinated a brutal nationwide crackdown against the Occupy Movement, which by late 2011 was going global. When Obama came into office in 2009, he did everything he could to cover for Wall Street. Not one white collar criminal went to prison, unlike during the 1980s with the Savings & Loan crisis under Reagan. But the Occupy Movement was never able to pierce the veil of the two-party dictatorship. They struggled with defining any political objectives and shunned the notion of allowing any spokespersons to emerge with a focused agenda. They were attacked, beaten, and their encampments obliterated by the Obama administration. Then, some weeks later, most of those same people, either, acquiesced in (or voted for) another four years of Obama and his antidemocratic, anti-working class Democratic Party. They were unable to imagine alternatives, or to call for opening up the presidential debates, or for ranked-choice voting, or proportional representation in Congress. In short, the Occupy Movement squandered its political power. It was important for many reasons. But this was an object lesson, which few activists or scholars (outside of the Green Party and other alternative political parties, such as the Peace and Freedom Party) have pointed out publicly until now by Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.

[6] Indeed, as a student of heterodox economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, I lived on the Troost line, Waldo Heights Apartments nearby the Presidential Gardens housing complex. And the poverty along Troost Avenue and to the east of the Troost line, the historically-dividing line of racial residential segregation was extreme. Many homes to the east of Troost were boarded up and abandoned. And many families living in the impoverished apartment buildings, multiple generations with their parents and grandparents all mired in intergenerational poverty and with the younger generations being given much opportunity to break out.

My spouse is an educator; and she worked in the Kansas City schools for a period of time, which showed her the most stressed classrooms with strained teachers barely able to contain the neediest children, even in early childhood education with extreme behavioural problems and needs. She doubted that, if she continued to work in that environment, she would be able to avoid changing and becoming as callous toward the kids as the overextended teachers with whom she was working had become. I don’t think all the teachers were like that. I also saw some of the warmest and loving teachers at my son’s elementary school, which was just west of the Troost line. But, as Davey D points out, there is extreme poverty in the midwest, which we too often ignore. The Democratic Party does not care about this poverty. Democrat politicians never even use the word poverty or poor in their speeches. Instead, they make vague references to the middle class.

***

[Steve Bannon image by Don Irvine, used via fair use and creative commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).]

[13 DEC 2016]

[Last modified at 12:18 PST on 22 DEC 2016]

Lumpenproletariat

~ free speech

Tag Archives: Hard Knock Radio

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Free Speech Radio Presents Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor at Impact Hub (Oakland), On Two-Party Dictatorship, Socialism, & True Democracy

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