WeAreMany.org: Featured Audio

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a professor at Princeton’s Center for African American Studies and author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, was forced to cancel two speaking engagements following her May 30 commencement speech at Hampshire College, where she called President Trump a “racist, sexist megalomaniac.” After Fox News covered the speech, she received more than fifty emails, some containing threats of violence, including “lynching and having the bullet from a .44 magnum put in my head.” These types of threats are part of a pattern of far right intimidation and violence—including the murder of two people in Portland for standing up to an anti-Muslim racist, and the murder by an “alt-reich” white supremacist of a Black university graduate in Maryland—that has been given a boost by Trump’s election. “The threat of violence, whether it is implied or acted on, is intended to intimidate and to silence,” wrote Taylor in a statement about the threats against her. She added: “The true strength of our side has not yet been expressed in its size and breadth, and so they believe they are winning. We have to change this dynamic and begin to build a massive movement against racism, sexism, and bigotry in this country. I remain undaunted in my commitment to that project.”

Trump famously broke with Republican orthodoxy by criticizing free trade deals and promising to champion manufacturing workers. He also denounced surviving Cold-War era institutions like NATO—causing some pundits to worry that he would undermine the post-war agreement that placed the U.S. at the center of a “liberal” imperial order. But the core of his economic policy—cutting taxes and reviving domestic industry—is designed to benefit the billionaires and former generals who dominate his cabinet. Questions remain as to how far Trump will go with the protectionist measures that undo free-trade policies his base supports (he’s already backed off on some); or to what extent his sabre-rattling posture will translate into new wars or deeper escalations of existing ones. This talk will discuss the degree of continuity—and discontinuity—of Trump's domestic and international economic and military policies, and what that means for the world.

A University of Texas fraternity holds “border” themed party where attendees wear construction gear, ponchos, and sombreros. Czech composer Antonin Dvorak utilizes a well-known Black spiritual as the basis of his most famous symphony. GM names one of its most iconic brands after a famous Ottawa chief, Pontiac, who led a resistance against European conquest. A white songwriter writes one of the most famous and searing songs about racism--Billie Holliday’s "Strange Fruit." The mixing of peoples, languages and cultures internationally has created great art, literature, and music. But it is also the case that the culture and language of oppressed people have been suppressed, their culture often ridiculed and misappropriated in offensive ways. It’s often easy to see when culture is being mis-appropriated. But is all cultural borrowing, or “appropriation,” bad? This talk will explore these questions.