Wednesday, April 07, 2021

1+1 Margaret Kimberley on US Presidents &their anti-black racism & identity politics vs.class

 

On this episode of 1+1 our returning champion is Margaret Kimberley independent journalist, activist, and historian. Margaret is the senior columnist of Black Agenda Report, a member of the brilliant anti-imperialist group the Black Alliance for Peace, co host to Black Agenda Radio with Glen Ford the executive editor of Black Agenda Report and Left Lens with Danny Haiphong also a contributor to Black Agenda Report and a member of Black Alliance for Peace. on this episode since I didn't get the chance to have Margaret on for Black History Month, we returned to her brilliant book "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents" and discussed the legacies of the more outwardly right-wing presidents of the US, and how they used anti-black racism to get votes and their anti-black policies and legacies. We discussed Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump this time but we couldn't leave out Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama both who has an undeserved liberal reputation and both used anti-Black racism to advance their careers and push through a reactionary agenda. We went deep into Donald Trump's rise to the US presidency as well as his legacy and Margaret took the time to explain to me why Obama's scolding of "absentee black fathers" was just as ghastly and atrocious as Reagan's "Chicago woman" and Bush's "Willie Horton" ad. We also spent a good time pushing back against some of the narratives our colleagues in indie left journalism and the larger public engage when they want to downplay how explicit xenophobia was why Trump became the Republican frontrunner or why the Leave side triumphed in the Brexit referendum. Don't worry we acknowledge the legitimate reasons to hehe! but also discuss Trump's legacy, and how Joe Biden past and present used Anti-Black racism to advance himself and what to expect under his Administration and some of the awful policies already in place under Biden. And we didn't get the chance to talk too deep into this but I did ask Margaret her reflections around the increasingly very toxic/unhealthy debate which is bitterly dividing the left regarding identity politics vs. the class struggle, and the issue of racial reductionism and class reductionism but mainly the latter and how does Margaret view this and how to overcome this. Apologies in advanced we didn't get to go deep into this because Margaret had another appointment to get to but its something I'll make sure to invite her on to discuss at length as well as try to host a discussion with other previous guests on how to overcome this terrible bitter divide happening on the left. enjoy this episode of 1+1 and please do share widely, leave comments and check out Margaret and her team's work at the following links and do subscribe and donate generously to all :) . 1. https://blackagendareport.com/ 2. https://blackallianceforpeace.com/#ho... 3. for Black Agenda Radio here it is at Margaret's soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/user-92939733 4. become a patron to Margaret here and if you want to follow closely her work and media appearances here is the FB link https://www.patreon.com/margaretkimbe... & https://www.facebook.com/margaretkimb... 5. Margaret's own blog http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/ 6. Left Lens which she co-host with colleague/comrade/friend Danny Haiphong https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOxL... 7. and lastly folks if you haven't get Margaret's fine book "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents" if you've seen all my interviews with Margaret then need I say anymore