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.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    No it doesn’t. Criticism of capitalism is completely consistent with liberalism. Call me when he embraces a positive alternative.

    • LibsEatPoop [any]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      No it’s not. Liberals, if they criticise capitalism, always clarify they mean crony capitalism or predatory capitalism or something else like that. And follow that up by talking of some good, idealised capitalism that is actually necessary.

      • MF_COOM [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        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.netB
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          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.

      • MF_COOM [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        Disagree. What do you think a radlib sounds like? That’s exactly what they would say. Without embracing a positive alternative to capitalism you can say whatever you want it doesn’t matter.