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Dr. Joy James on Kathleen Cleaver as a key architect, on the point of the Black Panther Party. watching the whole thing now (which seems to be about how Nixon used celebrity and academia to quell revolutionary habits), but had to share this bc a GEM.
"She reminded folks, 'GOVERNMENT BY CORPORATION wud be dominated by those who controlled resources, 15/20 yr plans'. BPP intellectual architects waged rebellion [on the] emergence of a governing CORPORATE STATE partnership w/ 'billions & billions of dollars to get rid of us'"
this is the interview Dr. James is, largely, quoting throughout: Kathleen Cleaver in 1997.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/interviews/kcleaver.html
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/interviews/kcleaver.html
"In colonial development, the colonial power creates a middle class, usually to control the colony for itself... So when you have the creation in Black america, physicians, managers, lawyers, judges, their education takes them away from the communities that created them." 1/2
"These are not like my parents' generation,... whose talents are confined to the black community through a regime of segregation. These are people who are trained in the major institutions and are able to use their talents in the corporate and business structures" 2/2
K Cleaver
K Cleaver
and "use their talents in the corporate and business structures" is... lol.. not a good thing. works for the empire. not so much for us.
the lecture is about much more than Kathleen Cleaver, tbh, but that part IS, indeed, crucial ~ a nucleus.
Dr. James: "since we nvr agreed to evaluate an ideological structure 4 abolitionism, anybody & anything at any time can claim abolitionist...severing frm working class black base tht sought autonomy frm the State...shifting leadership to elites, gov., nonprofits, to academics 1/
"so that the very definition of the term "abolitionism" is not decided by the people who are incarcerated or more vulnerable to the incarceration matrix. It is decided by the people who are part of the machinery..." 2/2
"and this then brings us to Angela Davis... so, she was never a member of the Black Panther Party. but if you read her memoir, she says she was a member of the Black Panther political party, which is B with three Ps... but at some point the third P drops off, so you just get BPP
"so you're reading is NOT that she was a member of the Black Panther Political Party, which was a kind of study group on campus, for intellectuals/grad students, but you remember the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Huey, Bobby, 2nd Amnd... we have right to defend ourselves
"those are 2 separate worlds. they will both to be radical phenomena, but this is where is where im in a quandary... what is the definitional norm of radical struggle? a study group? or having a 16 year old be shot in the back & have Huey say enough is enough?"
10 minutes. listen to this. timeline of how "the architects of revolutionary abolitionism have been turned into commodities... how violent the State is, its refusal of black freedom, & its ability to manipulate our own desires & sell them back to us."
first 40 minutes are her talk. the rest is a very good Q & A.
"it doesnt mean that they didnt care about the people. It just meant the way in which they make connectors to poor people who were incarcerated was through a kind of intellectual production which needed a star. once that unfolded, the radical politics, 4 me, began to disappear."
"i trust whatever surprises the academy, i don't trust what's on the menu of the academy... that doesn't mean i won't work with it, but it's the disruptor that i find brings in new energy, new thoughts."
"there's nothing in the academy that has revolutionary desire" -- Dr. James
"i keep looking to Kathleen [Cleaver], [third world nation inside of a country] it's a colony... is it going to look like a colony in which the elites reinforce structure, elites of a colonized caste or race, or can we organically organize to redefine structure? And i think... 1/
"in a competitive culture, the point is to be exceptional, the 1st black this, or the 1st trans this, 1st woman this, etc, and that positionally is supposed to offer protection, and the people who occupy those positions don't seem to be happy. they are pressed from all sides 2/
"as much compassion as i have for them, i try not to forget about class, bc then i can't think about poor ppl... i think about about my students & [the violence under institutions]... that is real suffering, but so is ppl living in public housing, dealing w/ NYPD, homelessness."
Dr. James on the limits of reform: "im like, what's the ideology? Then it's like, Intersectionality. & im like, no. That's additive. Are you a liberal? feminist? If i don't know you're ideological marker, we're not gonna work together just bc we have precarity... 1/
"material conditions are not going to be changed by people who have precarity, they're going to be changed by people with blueprints, and that's what we're missing...
it appears to me that the academy wants to study the phenomenon, but not offer a blueprint." - Dr. James
it appears to me that the academy wants to study the phenomenon, but not offer a blueprint." - Dr. James
"& that's where i see Davis' promissory discourse... being the primary black feminist architects, not delivering. like im grateful, i teach the work, etc... but, like, does it, i mean" *chuckles* "im sorry. it's not funny... u lie to children for a reason. u dont lie to adults."
im gonna stop tweeting every sentence, but my god the Q & A the Q &A !!! she is taking it home.
just watch this, y'all.
just watch this, y'all.
