Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the host of Be Antiracist. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU…
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Historian Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley is the Gary B. Nash Professor of History at UCLA and the author of Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression and Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination.
Dr. Kendi and Dr. Kelley have a deep discussion on the roots of the modern American labor movements, racial capitalism, and how we can create an antiracist world that benefits all workers.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
QUESTIONS TO INSPIRE DIALOGUE
- Dr. Kendi talks about the conjoining of civil rights and labor battles over the years. What are some experiences you have had or witnessed in the work space that called for advocacy?
- Dr. Kendi and Robin D.G. Kelley spoke about the unionization effort among the Amazon workers and the renewed drive among Americans to unionize. How do you view unionizing? Have you been involved in unionization in any capacity?
- Racial Capitalism was a big takeaway from Dr. Kendi and Robin D.G. Kelly’s conversation. What are some of the changes you would like to see as far as labor rights are concerned? Have you or someone you know confronted racism in the work space?
- Robin D.G. Kelley talks about the history of our struggle with capitalism and how people tend to be enamored with wealth accumulation. Can you imagine an American society without capitalism, what do you think that would look like?
FURTHER READING + RESOURCES
- Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination by Robin D.G. Kelley
- Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression by Robin D.G. Kelley
- Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie
- Harlan County, USA by Barbara Kopple
- A History of America in Ten Strikes by Eric Loomis
- Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign by Michael K. Honey
- A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy by Jane McAlevy
- Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor by Steven Greenhouse
ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT
The Host
