Are These Black Leaders on the Cusp of a New National Movement?
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
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Summary
With everything going on these days—we’ll spare you the list of existential crises we’re currently living through—now seems like the perfect time to hear from two leaders who have a revolutionary vision of what this country could be.
Last week, in a special livestream event, Mother Jones reporter and columnist Nathalie Baptiste spoke to two fascinating politicians that may be on the cusp of a national movement. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is the youngest-ever mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. India Walton won a historic upset primary against a four-term incumbent and is the Democratic nominee for the mayor of Buffalo, New York.
They are from two different cities—over 1,000 miles apart—but both of these young Black leaders have put forward progressive agendas that have been called “radical.”
And right now, words like “radical” or “socialist” or “progessive” seem to have shifting definitions. For some, those words are interchangeable. So we hear from Mayor Lumumba and Walton directly: how do they define themselves? What do they consider the biggest obstacle to a robust socialist party in the United States? And this wouldn’t be a conversation during the years of the pandemic without finding out what, if any, guilty-pleasure TV shows are on their watch list. (Any Madam Secretary fans in the house?)
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's James West here, deputy editor at Mother Jones. |
| 0:05.8 | Regular listeners of the Mother Jones podcast will know that every now and then, we put |
| 0:09.8 | together a really interesting panel of smart people, put them on Zoom with one of our |
| 0:15.4 | journalists, and then broadcast the results on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. |
| 0:21.4 | Last week, Mother Jones reporter and colonist Natalie Baptiste spoke to two really fascinating |
| 0:26.9 | politicians from two very different parts of the country. |
| 0:31.2 | Mayor Chocuee Antalamumba is currently the youngest ever mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. |
| 0:37.0 | And India Walton won a historic upset primary against a four-term incumbent, and is now the |
| 0:42.7 | Democratic nominee for the mayor of Buffalo, New York. |
| 0:46.7 | As I said, two completely different cities. |
| 0:50.3 | But both young black leaders have put forward progressive agendas in their own cities. |
| 0:55.2 | Some even call them radical agendas. |
| 0:58.3 | And right now, words like radical or socialist or progressive seem to have shifting definitions |
| 1:03.8 | depending on who you're talking to. |
| 1:06.1 | For some people, they're even interchangeable. |
| 1:08.7 | So what does it mean to be radical? |
| 1:11.2 | How do these two young politicians define themselves and what appeals to their constituents? |
| 1:17.0 | What are the obstacles to a robust socialist party in the United States? |
| 1:21.8 | How many questions about how to shift their local movements to the national stage? |
| 1:28.4 | Now I was behind the scenes producing this particular livestream event, and I have to |
| 1:32.9 | say you have to wait right until the end. |
| 1:35.2 | And I'm not just saying that to get you to listen to the whole podcast, I promise. |
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