Timestamps Opening Dialogue 0:00 Introductions 1:44 Infrapolitics and identity politics 6:15 Going from small acts of resistance to organized strategic initiatives 8:30 Movement towards culture-first politics 14:15 College campuses and the types of political action occurring contemporarily 20:55 Why is a racial narrative appealing to people in a position to shape the public? 27:54 Summarization of concepts covered so far Q&A Begins 32:12 Discussion universal student loan forgiveness and means testing 35:40 January 6th Storming in DC, policing and extremism 43:48 Obama 45:46 American Labor Party Renaissance? 52:29 Anthropocentrism, academia and neo-liberalism 57:00 Is there value in electoral organizing? Let’s examine Georgia’s senate flip 1:03:15 Framing of COVID’s effect on people of color in the media 1:05:48 Two party polarization and American democracy 1:08:45 Conclusion and Adolph L. Reed Jr's upcoming projects
Haha I love when Professor Reed apologizes after his answers. He never really needs to, but it is always endearing. Thanks for the interesting interview!
It seems like McDonald's program to place more black and Hispanics in its upper management (and programs like it) is sort of a "trickle down integration" that will help the working class as much as trickle down economics did.
Are you arguing, on that basis, that minorities should work in even smaller numbers in upper-management positions at those corporations and others like it? I apologize if I'm constructing a straw man, but the way you present your argument makes that inference highly plausible.
@@hughmac13 Think it's affirming the consequent - ceteris paribus, raytheon and management shouldn't exist, but it's probably better they don't discriminate while they do
@@hughmac13 I'm arguing that putting, as Cornell West does, "black faces in high places" does nothing to ensure a fairer workplace top to bottom and, moreover, satiates management that they are "woke." The point is that these organizations assume, like the country did after electing Obama, that having a black person at the top will filter down, but it never does.
@@darensweeney5925 I'm familiar with brother Cornel's dictum, and I agree, with respect to the development of democracy in the workplace and with the notion that such initiatives are intended primarily to satisfy the board's, shareholders', and management's desire to feel and appear "woke." But I still suspect that beneficial change can be effected by creating more upward minority mobility. It makes a difference, in the first place, in the lives of the people directly affected; and if the initiative were on a sufficiently large scale I think it would produce social and cultural change-albeit more slowly than other universal-scale projects. For those reasons I hesitate to dismiss such initiatives wholesale, even if the intentions are spurious. The more a minority middle class is normativized the better, in my opinion.
This was done already and is used as a mechanism of control. Blacks were used on plantations to police other blacks. Polish people were used in the same fashion in the Nazi camps. Southern trustees were prisoners who did the same thing. The gate that is being kept closed is class related and the means to keep a minority safe and exploitable is largely psychological. Simplistic measures like this are highly effective and never benefit the masses.
Democracy and equality are the same thing, namely everyone having equal control by virtue of owning equal wealth. And so, as everyone has a different ability to produce wealth, the only solution is for everyone willing to keep only enough for a comfortable life.
Agreed. But it is being criminalized in the classroom. I was thinking of holding a teaching session in the park but have had trouble finding shareable materials. Any ideas or sources?
I would say its the opposite, because the notion of race was created to justify economic exploitation where you had the creation of class levels of people under slavery.
@@Windsofchange99 I’m glad you said that. All that you mentioned was what I was addressing. Many people think as you do, but race is indeed ordinary to gender and class. Race was applied to economic exploration but it was created much earlier than that by Europeans. Creating race in the US was a class solidarity project, and all classes benefit from the racial hierarchy today. Class based revolutionary politics are just a newer tactic of the dominant racial group to attempt wide stepping the real solutions. And their desire to sidestep comes from the fact that they do is race-based.
@@Betmas2 I would say the notion of rave and capitalism came about the same time. Race science became popular around the same time the british east india company was created and colonialism became strong. The problem with the race first approach is that, at least the way I see it, it doesn't provide any kind of structural historical analysis of what kinds of developments occur within any give societies and globally. It comes off as "race was created just because" implying that people just naturally like people who look like them and want to put themselves on top of others. Now I can be cynical and say maybe thats true but that creates two problems: 1. It no longer posit racism as a social phenomena but an inherent thing within humans that just biologically and psychologically occurs regardless of context and 2. it doesn't provide an outlet for good long term cooperative solutions amongst people of different ethnicities but rather a "stick to your own kind" outlook which I've seen many poc argue albeit for somewhat understandably historical reasons. You don't have to deny the existence of racism to say class can better help you understand and solve these problems because class analysis is at the core of any society at any given historical period as it forms the very background we operate in. Race and racism at its core is what happens when you scale up prejudice on a societal and economic level. To think there is more to it is magic thinking.
@@Windsofchange99 I understand many people still think that, however it’s incorrect. And even if it was, race is now primary and has been for 600 years. Avoiding race first only results in supporting the ruling class.
Timestamps
Opening Dialogue
0:00 Introductions
1:44 Infrapolitics and identity politics
6:15 Going from small acts of resistance to organized strategic initiatives
8:30 Movement towards culture-first politics
14:15 College campuses and the types of political action occurring contemporarily
20:55 Why is a racial narrative appealing to people in a position to shape the public?
27:54 Summarization of concepts covered so far
Q&A Begins
32:12 Discussion universal student loan forgiveness and means testing
35:40 January 6th Storming in DC, policing and extremism
43:48 Obama
45:46 American Labor Party Renaissance?
52:29 Anthropocentrism, academia and neo-liberalism
57:00 Is there value in electoral organizing? Let’s examine Georgia’s senate flip
1:03:15 Framing of COVID’s effect on people of color in the media
1:05:48 Two party polarization and American democracy
1:08:45 Conclusion and Adolph L. Reed Jr's upcoming projects
Haha I love when Professor Reed apologizes after his answers. He never really needs to, but it is always endearing.
Thanks for the interesting interview!
Adolph killing it as usual. He's razor sharp so naturally he's relegated to the hinterlands by the bourgeois, self-appointed social justice dingbats.
It seems like McDonald's program to place more black and Hispanics in its upper management (and programs like it) is sort of a "trickle down integration" that will help the working class as much as trickle down economics did.
Are you arguing, on that basis, that minorities should work in even smaller numbers in upper-management positions at those corporations and others like it? I apologize if I'm constructing a straw man, but the way you present your argument makes that inference highly plausible.
@@hughmac13 Think it's affirming the consequent - ceteris paribus, raytheon and management shouldn't exist, but it's probably better they don't discriminate while they do
@@hughmac13 I'm arguing that putting, as Cornell West does, "black faces in high places" does nothing to ensure a fairer workplace top to bottom and, moreover, satiates management that they are "woke." The point is that these organizations assume, like the country did after electing Obama, that having a black person at the top will filter down, but it never does.
@@darensweeney5925 I'm familiar with brother Cornel's dictum, and I agree, with respect to the development of democracy in the workplace and with the notion that such initiatives are intended primarily to satisfy the board's, shareholders', and management's desire to feel and appear "woke."
But I still suspect that beneficial change can be effected by creating more upward minority mobility. It makes a difference, in the first place, in the lives of the people directly affected; and if the initiative were on a sufficiently large scale I think it would produce social and cultural change-albeit more slowly than other universal-scale projects.
For those reasons I hesitate to dismiss such initiatives wholesale, even if the intentions are spurious. The more a minority middle class is normativized the better, in my opinion.
This was done already and is used as a mechanism of control. Blacks were used on plantations to police other blacks. Polish people were used in the same fashion in the Nazi camps. Southern trustees were prisoners who did the same thing.
The gate that is being kept closed is class related and the means to keep a minority safe and exploitable is largely psychological. Simplistic measures like this are highly effective and never benefit the masses.
thanks professor Reed
Democracy and equality are the same thing, namely everyone having equal control by virtue of owning equal wealth.
And so, as everyone has a different ability to produce wealth, the only solution is for everyone willing to keep only enough for a comfortable life.
CRT must be taught.
Agreed. But it is being criminalized in the classroom.
I was thinking of holding a teaching session in the park but have had trouble finding shareable materials.
Any ideas or sources?
Race is primary to class
I would say its the opposite, because the notion of race was created to justify economic exploitation where you had the creation of class levels of people under slavery.
@@Windsofchange99 I’m glad you said that. All that you mentioned was what I was addressing. Many people think as you do, but race is indeed ordinary to gender and class.
Race was applied to economic exploration but it was created much earlier than that by Europeans. Creating race in the US was a class solidarity project, and all classes benefit from the racial hierarchy today. Class based revolutionary politics are just a newer tactic of the dominant racial group to attempt wide stepping the real solutions. And their desire to sidestep comes from the fact that they do is race-based.
@@Betmas2 I would say the notion of rave and capitalism came about the same time. Race science became popular around the same time the british east india company was created and colonialism became strong. The problem with the race first approach is that, at least the way I see it, it doesn't provide any kind of structural historical analysis of what kinds of developments occur within any give societies and globally. It comes off as "race was created just because" implying that people just naturally like people who look like them and want to put themselves on top of others. Now I can be cynical and say maybe thats true but that creates two problems: 1. It no longer posit racism as a social phenomena but an inherent thing within humans that just biologically and psychologically occurs regardless of context and 2. it doesn't provide an outlet for good long term cooperative solutions amongst people of different ethnicities but rather a "stick to your own kind" outlook which I've seen many poc argue albeit for somewhat understandably historical reasons. You don't have to deny the existence of racism to say class can better help you understand and solve these problems because class analysis is at the core of any society at any given historical period as it forms the very background we operate in. Race and racism at its core is what happens when you scale up prejudice on a societal and economic level. To think there is more to it is magic thinking.
@@Windsofchange99 I understand many people still think that, however it’s incorrect. And even if it was, race is now primary and has been for 600 years.
Avoiding race first only results in supporting the ruling class.