“Black History Is an Absolute Necessity.”
newrepublic.com
A conversation with Colin Kaepernick on Black studies, white supremacy, and capitalism

The interview is about an anthology book on black studies that he’s a part of. It also includes W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Angela Davis, Octavia Butler, Bell Hooks, Barbara Smith, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale. The ebook is available for free from Haymarket Books.

I.O.: You put this book together with two of the most prominent Black Marxists in the country, and most, if not all, of the featured writers are anti-capitalists. How did this collaboration come about?

C.K.: I’ve long admired Keeanga and Robin’s work as well as their uncompromising political analysis and understanding that Black liberation simply isn’t possible under capitalism. I think the anthology makes this argument quite well, and I hope it challenges readers to see that racism is not white supremacy’s only ingredient. White supremacy persists in part because of its relationship with capitalism, heteropatriarchy, ableism, and so on.

I.O.: What are you reading these days?

C.K.: No More Police: A Case for Abolition by Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie. Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie.

Edit: I’ve put this in c/news because I originally found this out via an article on The Hill and I was going to post that, but then I thought I’ll just post the original interview instead. It has a lot more information.

  • MF_COOM [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    That’s really not true at all. Most radlibs will list serious complaints about capitalism, but then say some shit like “but it’s the best system out of all the options”

    • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]@hexbear.netBEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Radlib is a term whose meaning depends on the person using it.

      To a DSA baby DemSoc, a radlib is someone like Elizabeth Warren, someone that coopts anti-capitalist criticisms into milquetoast, explicitly pro-capitalist reforms.

      To various kinds of commie, all forms of capitalist reformism or incrementalism might be criticized as radlib, so e.g. they might criticize Bolivia’s MAS as radlib (hopefully quietly and behind closed doors).

      I think we don’t know much about CK. It’s at least a good thing for “black liberation is incompatible with capitalism” to be a more popular sentiment.