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.
lmao at everyone in here criticizing him for not being radical enough. just the statements here and who he's willing to publish/be associated with would put him to the left of....basically every public figure in America except Boots Riley? like OK yeah sure he doesn't articulate every single point you are after who fuckin cares it's much more cool than not
He was crucified for kneeling during a sportsball game like i don't blame him for not being like "i'm a radical communist death to amerikkka"
Bout to say that feels like instant shooting by a convenient crazed MAGA 4chan doomer with CIA/FBI funds
Now I actually understand why all of that happened. The people who orchestrated the outrage probably knew all of these things about his politics.
I think his relative radicalization has come about post-controversy, but I could be wrong.
I'm pretty sure if he said anything "too leftist" some chud would take it upon himself to take him out for ruining football or some shit
There was a lot of outrage because he wore a Castro and Malcolm X shirt and had pig cop socks a while back.
i remember getting grounded for a day for arguing with my mom about that shirt lol.
You should be proud you were cool enough to be a Marxist when you were young enough to be grounded, I sure wasn't :(
aww thanks! i hadn't read any marx yet was was just a tiny anti imperialist who thought socialism was when you got food and healthcare and education and unions lol. younger me was pretty cool though, ever the contrarian.
Damn that just makes me realize so many people get the most general idea of leftism and just never progress past it at all. Kind of makes me sad really.
I would take one Kaepernick over 1,000 “Marxist” academics like Zizek who will prattle on and on about philosophical concepts that do absolutely nothing for actual working people.
Hmmm that is a super interesting perspective I think I will definitely dig deeper into the Panthers
having the whole country hate you cause youre black for like a year is prob enough to push you into sicko territory
If the MSM is going to declare you to be a left-wing ideologue, there's nothing left to do except to own it.
He's Based and Hot? thats a rare combi these days.
Someone get him to speak with Lewis Hamilton pls. Could you imagine the
of F1 fans if the greatest F1 driver ever was a MarxistI know the podcast hosts that run People's Programs in Oakland have mentioned him on their podcast a couple times.
Kinda strikes me as a pre-Moncada Barracks Castro type. Not a criticism, of course.
Nah sounds like a radlib. Reading western "Marxist" intellectuals doesn't mean shit.
Saying stuff like "Black liberation simply isn’t possible under capitalism" takes him pretty firmly out of radlib territory
No it doesn't. Criticism of capitalism is completely consistent with liberalism. Call me when he embraces a positive alternative.
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.
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"
Yes? That’s clearly not what Kaepernick is saying? Do you think he’s implying that he doesn’t want black liberation?
Edit: And your comment is literally just saying what I said but put a different way. I said liberals, when they criticise capitalism, dress it up as only a flawed version of the system, in order to justify maintaining capitalism.
You said “no that’s not true. Liberals love to criticise capitalism but always claim it’s the best there is.”
Which is exactly what I said.
Right, and you're calling Colin a radlib here. So do you think that, after what you've read Colin say, he'd still prop up capitalism as the best economic system for black liberation?
I said he sounds like a radlib, happy to be proven wrong. Saying "he'd prop up" anything doesn't really make sense, he has no power. But it's entirely likely that instead of embracing a positive alternative his conclusion to the idea that black liberation is impossible under capitalism is just malaise.
Happy to be proven wrong, I've just never seen him positively embrace an alternative to capitalism. The bar has to be higher than just complaining.
Bro take the L. Kapernick is well beyond radlib in this interview. Basically said "we have to get rid of capitalism if we want liberation." That's not a critique on capitalism it an outright attack on it.
I agree, the bar needs to be higher than just complaining. I’d say working on and promoting a book by two Marxists that is filled with essays by prominent American socialists and is published by a small but well-known leftist publisher (for free) is a step beyond just complaining.
Listen, even if he is a radlib, he is clearly the raddest of all Libs and the world would be much better if all Libs were like him.
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.
radlibs do that because they have incoherent politics. Anti-capitalism is fundamentally untenable with liberalism. Radlibs are liberals who accidentally got some based politics mixed in from their social sphere.
Criticism of capitalism, yes. Entirely disregarding it and saying that liberation is incompatible with capitalism, no.
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.
You're missing the part where the radlibs make sure to shit on AES so that people don't get the impression that they're a mean bad tankie
Bad take, the whole idea of Marxism is applying it to your current conditions which in this case is black liberation in our current time.
Lumping the analysis done by those who have studied Marx with an interest in black liberation with 'Western "Marxists"' that you're clearly using as a pejorative is lumping the most radical type of thinker in the US, black liberation groups, with a number of less serious, typically white groups.
What is the point in being so dogmatic here that you're willing to sling mud at a widely known public figure talking about Marxism and anti-capitalism in an overwhelmingly good way because he wasn't anticapitalist enough or didn't explicitly say communism will win and lay out exactly how to accomplish that
" Reading western "Marxist" intellectuals doesn't mean shit"
so what all black americans should move to africa if they want to contribute to marxist theory? fuck me for having ancestors who were kidnaped.
No, you can be a cool Marxist, but in the western intellectual sphere being a Marxist alone doesn't really mean much - most academics who use the term Marxist aren't even socialist they just use Marxism as a critical lens.
The nooo dont read marxist theory its sooo like whitey mcmayoid is literally a liberal plot to undermine communist thought, you should not treat marx and other philosophers as gospel, but like use it to build a movement that is based on your current conditions and that includes religion, history and economic relations of your country. So Congolese Communism will be inherently different and tailored to congolese people than English Communism.
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