S E1278: In Class with Carr, Ep. 278: America on the Ropes
In Class with Carr
Knarrative
4.9 • 972 Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2025
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The United States once again finds itself metaphorically “on the ropes,” staggering beneath the weight of white nationalism and nativist logics, elite-driven legislation, electoral political theater, digital mass media distortion, and deepening economic, social, and cultural divides. Buffeted by increasingly powerful international forces, is the idea of a US counterpunch more delusion than reality? Can the various groups in the US rediscover their best moments of clarity of collective purpose in order to push back oppressive forces, or have both the country and the people in it already punched themselves out?
The two-week ritual corridor from Juneteenth to Independence Day is symbolized by the 1910 Jack Johnson–Jim Jeffries “Fight of the Century,” where African racial pride met white panic in full and deadly public view. Today’s avatars —from politicians to marching bands defying the narrative—continue to represent resistance. Like Bobby Blue Bland’s silken lament in “I Pity the Fool,” the momentum of memory to be found in our cultural meaning-making enables unfiltered introspection on shame, resilience, and the never-ending determination to renegotiate the ever-fracturing terms of the US social structure.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | this is karen hunter and welcome to in class with car this is a space where during the pandemic |
| 0:07.7 | we imagined what it would look like to teach a class online that would be for the world and it |
| 0:14.4 | started with a simple question can i press record it was a question that i asked of the people's professor |
| 0:19.9 | dr gray car At the time, |
| 0:22.0 | he was the head of Africana Studies at Howard University. He's still teaching the world. And in this |
| 0:26.8 | space, we have been going strong since 2020. And it has been amazing. So tune in to In Class |
| 0:33.8 | with Carr. And thank you for joining us. You can follow us by the way at |
| 0:37.9 | Narrative with a K. Join us Narrative with a K. The K is silent like knowledge. K |
| 0:43.0 | N-A-R-R-A-T-I-V-E narrative.com. If you want to have a deeper relationship with us, |
| 0:49.5 | join us there. Stay tuned. |
| 1:00.9 | I pity the fool. |
| 1:07.0 | I said, I pity the fool. |
| 1:30.3 | Well, I pity the fool yeah I said I pity the fool that falls in love with you and expect you to be true Oh, I've been to fool |
| 1:32.3 | Look at the people |
| 1:38.3 | I know you wonder what they're doing |
| 1:42.3 | They're just standing there |
| 1:46.0 | Watching you make a fool of me |
| 1:49.0 | Look at the people |
| 1:52.0 | I know you wondering what they're doing |
| 1:56.0 | They're just standing there |
| 1:59.0 | Watching you make a fool with me. |
| 2:02.6 | Oh, I pity the fool. |
... |
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