Send us a text

April 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the #BaltimoreUprising, a series of protests sparked by Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore Police custody in 2015.

Baltimore has long reflected America’s racial and political anxieties, making the Uprising a frequent subject of academic analysis. In this episode, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle’s Lawrence Grandpre and Dayvon Love critique two books: Beyond Black Lives Matter by Cedric Johnson and Invisible Weapons by Marcus Board Jr.

While Johnson critiques BLM and Board affirms it, both argue that Baltimore’s working-class grassroots were misled by neoliberalism, rendering their responses to Freddie Gray ineffective. This view overlooks successful grassroots political interventions by groups like LBS, which led protests during the Uprising and continues to advance community-driven agendas. By oversimplifying Black identity as manipulation by elites—whether through neoliberalism (Johnson) or patriarchy (Board)—both books fail to capture the political and ideological complexity of Baltimore’s working-class Black communities. They also neglect to examine how academic detachment can distort analyses of Baltimore, Black life, and Black politics.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

Despite media fearmongering about crime in cities, violent crimes like shootings and murders have declined nationwide in 2024. In Baltimore, murders have dropped even as police departments claim to be understaffed and demoralized, yet many still credit the police for the decline.

Dayvon and Lawrence reveal that grassroots community organizations, not police or the nonprofit industrial complex, have driven this change. By reallocating funds from traditional nonprofit channels to grassroots efforts, these groups have addressed conflicts upstream. However, public health nonprofits and pro-police entities have tried to take credit for this work while perpetuating narratives that pathologize Black communities.

They argue that framing Black-on-Black violence as a product of internalized self-hatred and anti-Blackness, combined with traditional public health and policing strategies, risks worsening the problem. Instead, culturally affirming programs that redirect anger into pro-community action are key to long-term violence prevention.

Finally, they critique the Left’s generic “defund the police, fund public health approaches” rhetoric, which undermines grassroots violence prevention efforts. They assert this reflects the Left’s discomfort with engaging working-class Black communities and politics.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

In his book The Squad, journalist Ryan Grim provides an account of the experiences of “The Squad,” a group of progressive legislators elected to the House of Representatives, as they attempted to govern. Their journey—from election victories to struggles with Republicans and Democratic leadership—is widely praised for its detailed investigation of the electoral and political “inside baseball” of the left. Grim’s role as a critical figure in independent left media, through appearances on shows like Breaking Points and his publication Drop Site, further enhances the book’s value as a vantage point for those interested in evaluating the rising establishment “Left” as a tool for advancing the interests of Black people and the Black community. It helps readers take stock of where the Left stands, where it might be going, and whether it can serve as a vehicle for achieving the Black community’s goals.

In conversation with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle Director of Research Lawrence Grandpre, LBS Director of Public Policy Dayvon Love examines The Squad to uncover critical insights about both the Left and media analysis. Love highlights how the book reveals that, despite high-profile victories over Democratic Party establishment figures, the political Left suffers from a stunning lack of infrastructure. He links this to the Left’s general failure to prioritize building political machinery and institutions. Grim’s analysis of the Left’s frustration with concepts like Tema Okun’s “white supremacy culture” reflects the frustrations of grassroots advocates, who have seen anti-racism abstracts used by some to center conversations on personal feelings rather than delivering political outcomes for the communities they claim to serve.

However, Love also critiques Grim’s analysis, particularly his dismissal of cultural frameworks. In addressing Okun’s “white supremacy culture,” Grim, like many on the Left, overcorrects by rejecting tools like African-centered analysis for political work. This is evident in his dismissal of Leonard Jeffries, the uncle of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whom Grim labels an “antisemite.” This overlooks valid concerns Black community advocates have raised about white advocates monopolizing resources intended for the Black community under the guise of representing their interests. By dismissing such critiques as “antisemitism,” Grim ironically mirrors the tactics he criticizes liberals for using—employing blanket accusations to sideline political conversations that challenge entrenched interests.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

Over the past decade, reparations have shifted from a fringe issue championed by Black nationalists to a mainstream topic in Democratic and nonprofit circles.

In Baltimore, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS) has advanced a reparations agenda rooted in Black community control, challenging assumptions of the broader movement. LBS Director of Research, Lawrence Grandpre, interviews Director of Public Policy, Dayvon Love, about his Nonprofit Quarterly article advocating for reparations centered on building Black institutional capacity and political power, inspired by John Henrik Clarke’s concept of “nation management.”

Dayvon connects this approach to LBS’s work using cannabis tax revenue in Maryland to pursue reparations for the War on Drugs. They critique the national focus on cash payments and nonprofit-led efforts, arguing these reflect both racist fears of Black public money management and an internalized belief that Black advancement requires white validation. This stance, they assert, contradicts the Black nationalist reparations tradition aimed at transferring power to Black communities.

Finally, they highlight political victories in Baltimore as evidence that Black communities can achieve meaningful reparations without sacrificing community control.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

In the conclusion of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle's Post-Election Analysis, we share a panel discussion hosted by Baltimore Racial Justice Action (BRJA), held the week after the election.

Moderated by Julia Scott, the panel featured:

• Lawrence Grandpre, Director of Research at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle
• Andy Ellis, Chairman of Baltimore for Democracy and 2026 Green Party candidate for Governor of Maryland
• Charlie Carter, long-time Baltimore community and political activist

Discussion topics included:

• The Left's anxiety around wielding power and the emotional toll of politics and criticism
• Likely outcomes of the 2024 election
• Using third parties to gain leverage over the Democratic Party
• The tension between class-first political models and the legacy of Black community activism

While the panel focused on Baltimore and Maryland, its insights offer valuable lessons for progressives nationwide, especially as they pivot to state and local politics after Republicans took control of all three branches of the federal government.

For additional resources, visit the BRJA website at bmoreantiracist.org, including a library of 13th of the Month videos on anti-racism and anti-oppression topics.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

Trump has won the election—again. But why? Lawrence and Dayvon delve beyond the data, drawing on their on-the-ground experience to contextualize the results. They highlight the Democratic Party’s failures on issues like criminal justice, expungement, housing policy, and maternal health, connecting these shortcomings to voter frustration and the collapse in turnout that cost Kamala the election. They end with a call to rethink reliance on the Democratic Party, which, as history shows, is likely to respond with a retreat to the “rational center” and a rejection of “identity politics.”

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

Kamala Harris released her Black Male Opportunity agenda amid discussions about lower support from Black men compared to Black women, with even Barack Obama criticizing "the brothers." In this episode, we examine how Harris balances appealing to Black men while avoiding policies directly targeting them. We also critique her cannabis legalization strategy, which may hinder Black male entrepreneurship, and question whether her focus on capitalism and neoliberalism truly empowers Black men.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

In this episode, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle Director of Research, Lawrence Grandpre, critiques the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) framework, showing how it centers Eurocentric norms of trauma—focusing on individual and family experiences—while neglecting African-centered views of cultural and political trauma.

We discuss how institutional responses to ACEs in Black communities often blame the community and rely on clinical interventions, instead of addressing the collective conditions of oppression that lead to childhood trauma. Drawing on The Body Keeps the Score, we argue that trauma-informed approaches can reflect the politics of whiteness, encouraging children to pathologize their parents rather than seeing them as victims of racialized oppression.

We also examine troubling elements in trauma solutions, such as partnerships with police and reactionary martial arts training, and how childhood trauma assessments have been used to justify predictive policing against Black youth.

Ultimately, we reveal how the ACEs framework risks pathologizing Black communities under the guise of liberatory politics, echoing stereotypes from the Progressive Eugenics Movement. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of revolutionary body movements, like Capoeira Angola, and social movements in fostering the collective agency needed to move beyond trauma-informed politics.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score has become a global sensation, shaping mental health services and public conversations by centering trauma. Originally aimed at improving doctor-patient relationships, trauma-informed analysis has evolved into a political tool, with some advocating for its use in resource allocation to historically oppressed communities. But can focusing on a community's trauma truly empower them? Many grassroots Black practitioners are now questioning the emphasis on trauma in discussions about serving the Black community.

In this multipart series, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle’s Director of Research, Lawrence Grandpre, introduces van der Kolk’s ideas, contrasting his view of trauma with African-centered concepts of communal and political trauma. Eurocentric, individualistic views of trauma often obscure more complex, holistic understandings of wellness. We also critique a key defense of trauma-informed care, arguing that claims of “objective” neurological effects of trauma reflect cultural and political biases more than scientific fact.

This analysis warns that centering trauma risks pushing oppressed people to politicize their suffering in order to elicit guilt and political concessions, ultimately glorifying trauma rather than fostering community-driven solutions. Trauma-informed politics can place decisions about how Black communities should address trauma into the hands of white liberal institutions, diverting focus from Black self-determination as the long-term solution to the root causes of trauma.

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Send us a text

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)