#1537 All Your Faves Were Radicals (Beyond Martin Luther King Jr)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2023
⏱️ 72 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 1/14/2023
This Martin Luther King Day weekend, we take a look at a wider range of Black radicals who all helped build the unfinished Civil Rights Movement and who our history either whitewashes or demonizes to fit the narrative of American Exceptionalism™ marching us inexorably toward perfection.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: The dangers of whitewashing black history | David Ikard - TEDxNashville - Air Date 6-18-22
Equipped with the real story of Rosa Parks, professor David Ikard highlights how making the realities of race more benign and digestible harms us all -- and emphasizes the power and importance of historical accuracy. This talk was filmed at TEDxNashville.
Thomas Ricks is the guest on this special January 2023 fundraising episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.
Ch. 3: #ilovemalcolm: Tariq Ali on Malcolm X at Oxford - rosaluxnyc - Air Date 3-23-15
At "I Love Malcolm: Legacies of Love and Liberation" on February 14, 2015, organized by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office, Tariq Ali discusses the impact of Malcolm X's debate at Oxford University in 1964.
Ch. 4: The Radicalism of Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. Du Bois - Communist Party USA - Air Date 2-26-20
WEB Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr are two 20th-century giants in both the struggle for African American equality and the liberation of oppressed people worldwide.
Ch. 5: The Socialist Anti-Imperialism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Left Anchor - Air Date 1-18-21
Today we are hoisting up an episode from the archives in celebration of MLK Day. We discuss King's advocacy of democratic socialism and his argument that civil rights were inadequate without an equal share of economic production.
Ch. 6: Whitewashing 101: How To Rewrite Black History - Second Thought - Air Date 2-18-22
It's Black History Month, so it's about time we talked about the recuperation of Black radicals like Dr. King and Nelson Mandela. Everyone and their mother likes to claim MLK as their own, and use his words as a rhetorical weapon.
Ch. 7: Why the US government murdered Fred Hampton - Vox - Air Date 6-2-21
What we aren't taught about the Black Panther Party.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Frederick Douglass' journey from slave to leading figure of 19th-century American thought.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 9: Final comments on the producers who made this week's topics come to life
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: Composite image of black and white photos. Top: Martin Luther King Jr. talks with Malcom X. Bottom left: Portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois. Bottom Center: Rosa Parks’ mug shot. Bottom right: Button with the words “All Power to the People” surrounding Fred Hampton’s head.
Credit: MLK and Malcom X; W.E.B. Du Bois; Rosa Parks; Fred Hampton button | License All Images in Public Domain
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left Podcast in Witch on this Martin |
| 0:08.1 | Luther King Day weekend. |
| 0:09.1 | We shall take a look at a wider range of black radicals who all helped build the unfinished |
| 0:14.5 | civil rights movement and who are history either white washes or demonizes to fit the |
| 0:19.4 | narrative of American exceptionalism, marching us inexorably toward perfection. |
| 0:24.5 | Clips today include a TED Talk by David Ickard, the Chancide Vega Show, a speech by Tarek Ali, |
| 0:31.2 | Communist Party USA, Don't Be Brightened, Left Anchor, Second Thought, and Vox, with an |
| 0:37.6 | additional members only clip from the history of Indian and Africana philosophy podcast. |
| 0:43.8 | I am the proud father of two beautiful children, Elijah 15 and Octavia 12. |
| 1:00.0 | When Elijah was in the fourth grade, he came to me, came home from school bubbling over |
| 1:06.9 | with excitement about what he had learned that day about African American history. |
| 1:12.8 | Now I am an African American cultural studies professor and as you can imagine African American |
| 1:20.0 | culture is kind of serious around my home so I was very proud that my son was excited |
| 1:25.0 | about what he had learned that day in school. |
| 1:27.6 | So I said, what did you learn? |
| 1:29.6 | He said, I learned about Rosa Parks. |
| 1:32.7 | I was okay, what did you learn about Rosa Parks? |
| 1:36.7 | She said I learned that Rosa Parks was this frail old black woman in the 1950s in Montgomery, |
| 1:45.4 | Alabama and she sat down on this bus and she had tired feet and when the bus driver |
| 1:52.0 | told her to give a receipt to a white patron, she refused because she had tired feet and |
| 1:58.5 | it had been a long day and she was tired of oppression and she didn't give a receipt |
| 2:03.4 | and she marched with Martin Luther King and she believed in non-violence and I guess he |
... |
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