Trump’s Power & the Rule of Law (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE PBS | Official
July 15, 2025
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28sQyweAPRs
Robin D.G. Kelley | "The Black Radical Tradition Against
Fascism and Genocide: The Long Durée."
April 16, 2025
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT9ZCYxPfkc&t=56s
April 16, 2025
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT9ZCYxPfkc&t=56s
In this wide-ranging lecture at UMass-Amherst, acclaimed historian and African American studies scholar Robin D.G. Kelley places our current authoritarian moment within the larger historical context of Western imperialism. Kelley gives special focus to how the African American freedom struggle drew explicit connections between fascism and colonial domination abroad and authoritarian repression and state violence against people of color at home. He also shows how the Black radical tradition has always been, as it is today, at the forefront of battles against genocide and fascism.
Kelley
is the Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S.
History and professor of African American studies at the UCLA.
The event took place on April 3, 2025.
The event took place on April 3, 2025.
https://www.anativeson.org/p/dread-and-imagination
Dread and Imagination
by Eddie Glaude, Jr.
July 14, 2025
A Native Son
Substack
All weekend I have been thinking about the state of the country. Of course, I do that every day. But over the last few days, with the passage of the so-called “big beautiful bill,” the images out of Texas after the flood, the battles with ICE in California, and the tears of those caught up in the massive layoffs at the State Department, I have been struggling with this feeling of dread (sententia timoris): that these people are hellbent on destroying the country as we know it and that the pain is only going to get worse.
They are doing this out of greed and hatred—often driven by an ideology that believes that government is, by definition, an intrusion on individual liberty AND a view that holds that this country must remain white. I said recently on MSNBC that we need to stop beating around the bush when it comes to what ICE is doing. This isn’t about criminals that threaten public safety. ICE’s charge is clear: it is to make America white again.
But we also need to be clearer about what these people are doing with government. In the name of efficiency and smaller government, they are shredding what’s left of the American social contract. Honestly, I do not know what they take to be our obligations to each other or their understanding of the role of government in ensuring a baseline standard of living for every American. It feels like they want to hurl us back into a state of nature and let the “survival of the fittest” determine who will live and who will die. Meanwhile, the uber rich sit back and watch it all, like a battle royal, tossing pennies to the victors.
It seems that three basic values guide their approach: a view that equates liberty with selfishness, an idea of safety that aligns with harsh policing of “radical others” and military dominance abroad, and a commitment to keeping certain white people at the top of the food chain and maintaining the illusion that other white people might join them. None of these provide a stable foundation for a robust idea of the public good.
Instead, we end up with raw power dictating the distribution of benefits and burdens. With working people barely keeping their noses above water and blaming other working people, usually Black people and people of color, for their problems. With so-called cultural issues stoking resentment. All the while these people gut mechanisms to ensure that our food is safe, defund education and public health. Leave the country vulnerable to catastrophic weather events due to climate change (a change they deny, because they are in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry). Pass tax policy that redistribute wealth upward to the richest of the rich. Allow the physical infrastructure to crumble and the cultural infrastructure to shatter into pieces.
Americans must be clear about what these people are doing and what motivates it all. If we keep treating their policies as if they are rational attempts to govern as opposed to deliberate attempts to dismantle government, we will be complicit in destroying the country.
We must also give voice to a compelling vision that counters the dystopian world these people want to create. But honestly, that becomes difficult to imagine when I see the hysteria around the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. I could give less than a damn about his political self-description. The phrase democratic socialist confuses matters more than it clarifies. Plus, I have grown tired of fighting political battles on the terms of the 18th or 19th century. Watching Democratic party leaders line up to defeat him, let’s me know that our problem isn’t just Donald Trump’s Republican party.
What I want is a clear articulation of the values that ought to animate our way of life. Why can’t we talk about state-owned grocery stores in areas that are food deserts? Why can’t public transportation be free? What is wrong with public colleges and universities being basically free? Why can’t every child in this country, no matter their zip code or the color of their skin, be guaranteed a quality education? What is the problem with a living wage? Why is American health insurance so damn expensive and why can’t every American be guaranteed healthcare? Why are rents sky high? And housing so scarce? Why can’t we invest in the American people—all of us? Not simply those who have the means or the right skin color!
If all of this is a threat to the American way of life, we have to ask ourselves what the substance of that life is, such that we are willing to allow so much misery and suffering in our midst.
I want us to imagine a different America. To step outside of the constraints of the current political configurations and dare to be bold enough to say, with our chests, that every American deserves a living wage, a quality education, and healthcare. That these values are baseline to what it means to live in this country. And these commitments aren’t reducible to some 19th century ideology meant to scare folks and render the world in certain terms. They simply reflect basic decency and love of neighbor.
This has been my response to that feeling of dread: to let my imagination wander without the constraints of the politics of these dark days.
July 14, 2025
A Native Son
Substack
All weekend I have been thinking about the state of the country. Of course, I do that every day. But over the last few days, with the passage of the so-called “big beautiful bill,” the images out of Texas after the flood, the battles with ICE in California, and the tears of those caught up in the massive layoffs at the State Department, I have been struggling with this feeling of dread (sententia timoris): that these people are hellbent on destroying the country as we know it and that the pain is only going to get worse.
They are doing this out of greed and hatred—often driven by an ideology that believes that government is, by definition, an intrusion on individual liberty AND a view that holds that this country must remain white. I said recently on MSNBC that we need to stop beating around the bush when it comes to what ICE is doing. This isn’t about criminals that threaten public safety. ICE’s charge is clear: it is to make America white again.
But we also need to be clearer about what these people are doing with government. In the name of efficiency and smaller government, they are shredding what’s left of the American social contract. Honestly, I do not know what they take to be our obligations to each other or their understanding of the role of government in ensuring a baseline standard of living for every American. It feels like they want to hurl us back into a state of nature and let the “survival of the fittest” determine who will live and who will die. Meanwhile, the uber rich sit back and watch it all, like a battle royal, tossing pennies to the victors.
It seems that three basic values guide their approach: a view that equates liberty with selfishness, an idea of safety that aligns with harsh policing of “radical others” and military dominance abroad, and a commitment to keeping certain white people at the top of the food chain and maintaining the illusion that other white people might join them. None of these provide a stable foundation for a robust idea of the public good.
Instead, we end up with raw power dictating the distribution of benefits and burdens. With working people barely keeping their noses above water and blaming other working people, usually Black people and people of color, for their problems. With so-called cultural issues stoking resentment. All the while these people gut mechanisms to ensure that our food is safe, defund education and public health. Leave the country vulnerable to catastrophic weather events due to climate change (a change they deny, because they are in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry). Pass tax policy that redistribute wealth upward to the richest of the rich. Allow the physical infrastructure to crumble and the cultural infrastructure to shatter into pieces.
Americans must be clear about what these people are doing and what motivates it all. If we keep treating their policies as if they are rational attempts to govern as opposed to deliberate attempts to dismantle government, we will be complicit in destroying the country.
We must also give voice to a compelling vision that counters the dystopian world these people want to create. But honestly, that becomes difficult to imagine when I see the hysteria around the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. I could give less than a damn about his political self-description. The phrase democratic socialist confuses matters more than it clarifies. Plus, I have grown tired of fighting political battles on the terms of the 18th or 19th century. Watching Democratic party leaders line up to defeat him, let’s me know that our problem isn’t just Donald Trump’s Republican party.
What I want is a clear articulation of the values that ought to animate our way of life. Why can’t we talk about state-owned grocery stores in areas that are food deserts? Why can’t public transportation be free? What is wrong with public colleges and universities being basically free? Why can’t every child in this country, no matter their zip code or the color of their skin, be guaranteed a quality education? What is the problem with a living wage? Why is American health insurance so damn expensive and why can’t every American be guaranteed healthcare? Why are rents sky high? And housing so scarce? Why can’t we invest in the American people—all of us? Not simply those who have the means or the right skin color!
If all of this is a threat to the American way of life, we have to ask ourselves what the substance of that life is, such that we are willing to allow so much misery and suffering in our midst.
I want us to imagine a different America. To step outside of the constraints of the current political configurations and dare to be bold enough to say, with our chests, that every American deserves a living wage, a quality education, and healthcare. That these values are baseline to what it means to live in this country. And these commitments aren’t reducible to some 19th century ideology meant to scare folks and render the world in certain terms. They simply reflect basic decency and love of neighbor.
This has been my response to that feeling of dread: to let my imagination wander without the constraints of the politics of these dark days.
AMERICA IS A FASCIST STATE
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxism fascism is at the far right wing of the traditional left–right spectrum.
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxism fascism is at the far right wing of the traditional left–right spectrum.
AMERICA IS A ROGUE STATE
A nation or state regarded as breaking international law and posing a threat to the security of other nations.
A nation or state regarded as breaking international law and posing a threat to the security of other nations.