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.
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.
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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.
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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.
To me, the CPC is "radlib"
Mom said it's my turn to be the websites one leftist
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