Thinking Through the Organic Black Radical Intellectual w/ M1 Dead Prez

Africa World Now Project

[Note: This program was produced & recorded in 2017]

Needless to say, most of you are extremely aware that we are indeed living in a moment that implores each and every one of us to have a clear, resolute, and radical perspective of one’s own position in the current sociopolitical environment as well as develop strategies that are broadly informed to address present and coming forms of marginalization.

To be clear…the current systemic forms of violence—that is legal, physical, economic, cultural, political, and social—are not new phenomena to Africans and people of African descent. I say this because historically, the naked imposition of power as exhibited through the mechanisms of racial capitalism—chattel slavery; colonialism, neocolonialism; settler colonialism; Jim Crow; Apartheid—has often manifested itself in the material and nonmaterial life of the African world.

The difference today…by most accounts is the reconstitution of these older forms of marginalization in a new time and space. The idea of progress is wedded to the movement of time—history. The standard equation reads that the further away we move from something the smaller or the further away we move from that point.

So, this accepted understanding brings us to a deep problem…time is often materially bound to structures that are constructed to support various forms of social, political, cultural, and economic relations that are relative to the worldview of those who are in positions of perceived power or authority.

Being so, it becomes the work of the radical intellectual—the radical black intellectual in our case—to dig at the root of these structures…pushing the foundations of these structures, systems, and institutions to expand, include, or break!

I sat down with M1 of Dead Prez to explore his work, political activity, and the importance of the relationship between cultural production and strategy…in our current moment…

When then turn our attention to the International Decade for People of African Descent.

The UN General Assembly has proclaimed 2015-2024 as the International Decade for People of African Descent citing the need to strengthen national, regional and international cooperation in relation to the full enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights by people of African descent, and their full and equal participation in all aspects of society.

Today, we will contribute to this mandate by paying tribute to the people of African descent in the U.S. history month by listening to various speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the most often overlooked aspects of Dr. Martin Luther King in his evolution within the Black freedom movement is his ever evolving internationalism—and growth toward embracing a more radical fight against racism—imperialism—and colonialism…Although we have been inundated with sound bites and narrow frames of reference when exploring Dr. King…Dr. King’s activism in many respects was just as evolutionary as El Hajj Malik Shabazz—the ends on the same pole...Dr.King was living in revolutionary times that was grounded and guided by the foundation set by the work of towering international left activist such as Paul Robeson, W. E. B. Du Bois, William Patterson, James and Esther Jackson, National Negro Congress, an early more radical NAACP …In fact, it is often lost that Dr. King in his last book—was keenly aware of the importance of the international struggle.

With the help of a compilation produced by Dj Sese titled: Liberating Dr. King: The L is Coming, we will be exposed to Dr. King from a decidedly radical perspective (Big shout-out to @imixwhatilike).
Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Palestine, South Africa, and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples!

Enjoy the program…