Intersectional Black Power: CLR James on Capitalism and Race

Lawrence Ware and Paul Buhle Portside
To ignore race, C.L.R. James often said, in many contexts and many ways, was a disaster in any social understanding; only the ignoring of class would be worse. Or to put it in his own words: The race question is subsidiary to the class question, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial factor as merely incidental, is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental.

I'm a State Senator, and I'm Not Afraid of Race

By Pramila Jayapal The Nation
It's way past time for everyone, and certainly anyone who considers themselves a progressive, to center race in our conversations...I'm able to work on a broad range of issues that affect people's lives, while at the same time building trust back with discouraged people who feel like maybe they can start to trust government again.

Black Lives Caught in the Cross Hairs of Injustice

Re:Sound -- Third Coast Festival / WBEZ radio
As the movement for racial justice spurred by the seemingly endless series of police killings of African Americans grows we are reminded that the issues are not new, they are endemic in U.S. history. What happens after the headlines subside? The truth has been buried too often, and for too long and there can be no justice until these stories are resurrected, scrubbed of their racist falsehoods. U.S. history needs to be put right.

books

Bigotry 101: Why Haters Gonna Hate

Michael Hirsch The Indypendent
Here is bigotry as a systematic, total mindset having a special affinity for right-wing movements. The author explores its appeal, the self-image it justifies, the interests it serves and its complex connection not so much to antiquity as modernity, shaping the conspiratorial and paranoid worldview of true believers, elitists and chauvinists. It enables their hiding behind mainstream conservative motifs to support policies disadvantaging the targets of their contempt.

Friday Nite Videos -- June 19, 2015

Portside
Nightly Show Panel - Shooting in South Carolina. Bill Would Remove Confederate Flag in South Carolina. Neil Young: Rockin' in the Free World. Lacey Schwartz Talks 'Little White Lie.' Movie: Black and Cuba.

Lacey Schwartz Talks 'Little White Lie'

Filmmaker Lacey Schwartz talks about growing up white and Jewish in Woodstock, discovering at the age of 18 that her father was Black, and making a documentary film about this discovery and how it changed everything for her family. Screening and other information here. 

 

Movie: Black and Cuba

An award-winning documentary that follows street-smart Ivy League students, outcasts at their elite university, as they adventure to Cuba. Enthralling scenes of Cuban life including hip hop performances, block parties, and candid spontaneous encounters with AfroCuban youth. 

Subscribe to race