Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 287

The Tight Rope: Rakim – The Humility of Hip Hop's Greatest M.C.

'Legendary M.C. Rakim goes deep with The Tight Rope hosts Tricia Rose and Cornel West about the state of hip hop, the origins of his rhymes, and the roots of his pure imagination. Plus, the professors weigh a whistleblower's allegations about nonconsenting hysterectomies in a private ICE detention facility.'

The New Yorker Radio Hour: Keith Knight of 'Woke'

.Woke, a new comedy on Hulu, is inspired by the life of its creator, Keith Knight. The show, which blends reality and animated fantasy, follows Keef, a Black cartoonist who is on the cusp of mainstream success when an ugly incident with the police changes his life. Suddenly, Keef is learning about racism from a chatty trash can and other talking cartoon objects, and he experiences a belated political awakening. Knight describes his work to his fellow-cartoonist Emily Flake as “accessible yet subversive.” “Making people laugh and then punching them in the face with a serious issue is the way to work,” he says.' -- The New Yorker Radio Hour

A Black Nationalist Upbringing Fueled A Criminal Justice Reformer: Meet Dawn Blagrove

'Dawn Blagrove identified her life's work at an early age. As a young girl growing up in 1970s segregated Milwaukee, she read Sam Greenlee's novel The Spook Who Sat By The Door. It tells the story of a Black CIA operative who goes undercover within the system and takes what he learned back to his Chicago neighborhood to help young people start a revolution. The book was one of many Black nationalist texts she read that informed her early awareness that structural racism is baked into American society. Her parents also laid a strong foundation for her activism. They both had ties to the Black Panther party and worked hard to teach her about the parts of American history she would not learn about in school. Today, as the executive director of Emancipate NC, she educates communities in North Carolina about the power they have to change the criminal justice system. State of Things host Frank Stasio talks to Blagrove about what that work looks like in the midst of a national movement for racial justice and how the seeds planted in her childhood have come to fruition in her career.'

Coffee & Books with Marc Lamont Hill: Mychal Denzel Smith Breaks Down His Book; 'Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream'

'Coffee & Books host Marc Lamont Hill is in conversation with New York Times best selling author, Mychal Denzel Smith, dissecting his recent book; Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream.'

Fragile Democracy: Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina

'James Leloudis, professor of history at UNC Chapel Hill, and Robert Korstad, professor of public policy at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy, join Dean Judith Kelley to discuss the implications of voter suppression on the upcoming election and the complicated legacy of voting rights in the state. Jim and Bob are co-authors of the recently released book Fragile Democracy: The Struggle Over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina.' -- Sanford School @ Duke 

Sanford School @ Duke · Fragile Democracy: Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina

Arundhati Roy on Freedom, Fascism & Fiction

'Author, activist, and novelist Arundhati Roy joins us from Delhi to discuss her new collection of essays, Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. Roy is well known for her impassioned political writing, as well as her two novels, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and The God of Small Things, which won the Man Booker in 1997. She talks with us about the rise of Indian nationalism, Modi’s descent into fascism, the oppression of Muslims in India, and the role of fiction and literature in the world today. Also, Yaa Gyasi, author of Transcendent Kingdom, returns to recommend Saidiya Hartman's groundbreaking Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals.'

LA Review of Books · Arundhati Roy on Freedom, Fascism & Fiction

QZ Africa Editor Yinka Adegoke on the Current State of China-Africa Relations

'Yinka Adegoke, Africa editor of the online financial news site Quartz, is closely following the unfolding debt crisis in Africa and China's role in the situation. He joins Eric & Cobus from the Quartz newsroom in New York to discuss the financial crisis and how it's impacting the broader China-Africa relationship.' -- The China Africa Project

The China Africa Project · QZ Africa Editor Yinka Adegoke on the Current State of China-Africa Relations

What the Pandemic Has Meant for Division of Labor in the Home

'Despite men spending more time at home since March, domestic responsibilities are disproportionately falling on women, everything from doing the housework to teaching their children. In some cases, working women have had to reduce their working hours 4 to 5 times more than their male counterparts. For more on this unequal division of labor,  The Takeaway spoke to Caitlyn Collins, assistant professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, and Pattie Cohen, national economics correspondent for the New York Times.'

Confronting Gentrification on 'Alice Street'

'A new documentary tells the story of how the creation and erasure of a local mural catalyzed an anti-gentrification coalition in Oakland, California. Director Spencer Wilkinson joins us to discuss the film, Alice Street, which is screened at the Urbanworld Film Festival.'-- All Of It

'Empathy Fatigue' Leads To More COVID Deaths

'Eight out of 10 American COVID-19 deaths have been among people older than 65; the rest of the dead are disproportionately Black.  Olga Khazan, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World, talks about how 'empathy fatigue,' the point in a mass tragedy where we no longer see victims as individuals but statistics, is heightened by racism and ageism in our society.' -- The Brian Lehrer Show