The conceptual and practical use of racial capitalism by many young activists who were shocked and ignited by their exposure to the events that spurred Ferguson, the uprising in Baltimore, continual state violence at the hands of a hyper militarized police force…and the many reflective actions produced in settler colony seeking to still become a nation-state…has taken on a life that I would argue is less a tool of analysis, but simply a catch phrase. The work to bridge the gap in intellectual engagement and the work it necessitates once understood, is still wide. However, this work is not something that Africana thinkers and activist have shied away from. The long tradition of radical thought and revolutionary practice is found in the cultural membrane of African peoples wherever they are found. The struggle—internal and external—to express and evolve ones’ full humanity is the eternal beacon that motivates Africana social, economic, political, and cultural life—whether consciously or unconsciously. So, what is racial capitalism? What did Cedric Robinson mean when he highlighted and explored the development of racial capitalism? Cedric Robinson challenged the Marxist idea that capitalism was a revolutionary negation of feudalism. Instead capitalism emerged within the European feudal order and flowered in the cultural soil of a Western civilization already thoroughly infused with racialism. Capitalism and racism, in other words, did not break from the old order but rather evolved from it to produce a modern world system of “racial capitalism” dependent on slavery, violence, imperialism, and genocide. In addition to this, Robinson was acutely aware of Du Bois’s articulation of racial capitalism in his work Black Reconstruction, where he wrote that “The giant forces of water and of steam were harnessed to do the world’s work, and the black workers of America bent at the bottom of a growing pyramid of commerce and industry; and they not only could not be spared, if this new economic organization was to expand, but rather they became the cause of new political demands and alignments, of new dreams of power and visions of empire, Today, we will take a deep dive in expanding and solidifying our understanding of racial capitalism in the context of this temporal space we call…right now…with Robin D.G. Kelley. Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor of History and Black Studies & Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA, and current Chair of the Department of African American Studies. He is author of a number of books, which include Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times; Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression; Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class; His latest book project is tentatively titled, The Education of Ms. Grace Halsell: An Intimate History of the American Century. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native, indigenous, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people. Enjoy! Image: Johana Londono