A Pod Called Quest
A Pod Called Quest is a podcast taking on everything that people concerned about injustice care about from the wealth gap to voting rights, to police brutality, to reparations, to health and well-being, to climate change, to state repression and much more. Sage and Science want listeners to think with them about problems of injustice, just futures, and evidence-based solutions. Derrick Darby (aka Sage) is a philosopher. Christian Davenport (aka Science) is a political scientist and sociologist. Join our quest to impose logic as well as data on the struggle for justice in America and globally. Give us your time, we give you power, wealth, and culture.
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Episode 12 – A Pod Called Quest Goes to Dartmouth
Young people have been on the frontlines of social justice movements – from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee of years past to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. They have taken to the streets, the podiums, and to twitter in protests demanding freedom, justice, equality and much more. This pod is a deep dive into student activism, past and present, focused on identifying diagnosis prognosis, and means. The 1962 Port Huron Statement and Black Youth 100 project of the current period will be under our microscope.
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Episode 11 – Baby Archie, Royal Racism, and British/American Imperialism
For Episode 11, A Pod Called Quest begins with allegations of racism in the British royal family which made big news. Meagan Markle told Oprah that royals expressed concerned about what color baby Archie would be. Royal racism is only a surprise if we forget the United Kingdom’s imperial past, a past that was shaped by different kinds of violence – including economic violence – in its Caribbean colonies and at home toward black migrants. Claudia Jones, born in Trinidad, spent much of her life in the U.S. before being deported for her socialist political views. She moved to Britain and become a vocal critic of Britain’s treatment of Caribbean nations and immigrants. What lessons can we learn from her, not only about the UK but about the situation of Asians in the U.S. and the migrant crisis on its southern border?
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Episode 10 – Two Types of Violence: Political and Economic
For Episode 10, A Pod Called Quest gives you a tale of two violences. The second impeachment of Donald Trump puts political violence in the spotlight. What is political violence? What are examples? Many black voters are wondering whether the Biden administration will support a reparations bill. The debate will highlight historical and contemporary political violence: think slavery, lynching, and police shootings. What gets ignored but shouldn’t is economic violence. What is economic violence and why should we deal with it?
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Structural violence:
- Definition from Johan Galtung
- An Illustrated Glossary of Political Violence by Emily Ritter, Christian Davenport and Sequential Potential
- "The Unequal Opportunity Race" Short Video that Davenport/Science associated with Kimberle Crenshaw
- Review article by Christian Davenport (Science) on state repression
- Darby (Sage) in Black press interview
Episode 9 – What’s a Just Future in America? The Equity Trap and the 13%ers
For Episode 9, A Pod Calls Quest thinks about the future. Biden is President and racial equity is at the top of his agenda. He wants to deliver the goods to the black community. He wants to move America to a just future. But we need to ask what this means. And we need to ask how we get there. Who are the 13%ers? What trap have they fallen in? How can we avoid their mistake?
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- President Joe Biden's Executive Orders
- Derrick Darby and Richard Levy's "Postracial Remedies"
- Black percentage of the US population
- William Darity and Kirsten Mullen's "From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century"
Episode 8 – Arrest the President? Rappers already said this already, just rewind the tape, but what now?
For Episode 8, A Pod Called Quest takes up Trump’s seditious insurrection. Nearly 160 million Americans voted, Black women leaders and rappers turned Georgia from red to blue and secured the popular vote and Electoral College for Biden and the U.S. Senate for Democrats while the biggest loser, who just got fired, responded by inciting a failed insurrection that resulted in death of several people include a law enforcement officer. What happened in the people’s house? What would have happened if black people had done this? What should be done?
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Samples:
- Intelligent Hoodlum, Arrest the President around 2:20-2:30
- Ice Cube, Arrest the President around 1:11-1:21
- J-Live, I am a Man (American Justice), around 1:37-1:47
Episode 7 – It takes a nation of millions to hold us back, but does it take 20+ rappers and strippers to save democracy and set us free?
For Episode 7, A Pod Called Quest takes up the role of hip hop culture in democratic politics. The Atlanta hip hop community has been politicking hard: Jeezy and Gucci Mane got ready for a Verzuz battle at Magic City strip club as Stacey Abrams popped into the club on the big screen encouraging the patrons to vote in 2020; Big Boi fed poll workers; and Angela Barnes directed exotic dancers in a public service announcement to get out the vote. These are some examples of hip hop activism in a recent CNN story by Eliott C. McLaughlin. What role does culture play in politics? Why does hip hop have the spotlight? Can hip hop do it alone or must it be part of a larger movement of movements to hold political representatives accountable?
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CNN Article with Darby/Sage "How Atlanta rappers helped flip the White House (and they're hustling to flip the US Senate"
Errol Henderson's The Revolution Will Not be Theorized
Alvin Ailey
MF Doom obituary
Errol Henderson's The Revolution Will Not be Theorized
Alvin Ailey
MF Doom obituary
Episode 6 – Will Blacks Finally Get Reparations During Biden’s Presidency?
For Episode 6, A Pod Called Quest takes on black reparations. The murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many other black people that spurred a national and international reckoning with systemic racism and racialized violence has many people wondering whether the time for black reparations has finally arrived. In his victory speech, president-elect Biden noted that the African American community always had his back and he said that he would have their back as president. What does having our back mean? Does this mean reparations will be on the agenda during his presidency? Should all people that can prove their blackness and descent from slaves get a lump sum cash payment? Do calls for black reparations help or hinder pursuit of progressive efforts to address the plight of poor and working class people. Can black reparations abolish concentrated wealth? Can it put an end to intergenerational wealth transfers that keep the rich rich?
There is a lot here but less than 1% of the population controls almost 50% of the worlds wealth
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Black and White wealth positions across generations
Black and White children raised across different income groups and where they likely end us as adults
8 Graphs that Explain US Inequality
Black and White children raised across different income groups and where they likely end us as adults
8 Graphs that Explain US Inequality
Episode 5 – Biden's Transition to Power: Agency Review Teams, Who's at the Table? Who's not and What this says about the need for a Movement of Movements
For Episode 5, A Pod Called Quest takes a hard look at the role of agency review teams in Biden's transition to the White House. Now that the votes are in, and he has won the election, it's time to build his governing infrastructure. He got nearly 79 million votes (and counting). He campaigned on addressing racial inequity, the wealth gap, and the pandemic. Will citizens from communities disproportionately affected by racial injustice, economic inequality, and COVID-19 be drafted for these teams or will they sit on the sidelines cheering, hoping, and praying until the next election?
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Episode 4 – Georgia on Our Mind: Du Bois, AOC, Lowering the Race-First Flag, and Politics without Labels
For Episode 4, A Pod Called Quest uncovers Georgia's dark past, shedding light on W. E. B. Du Bois's insights about why it has as much to do with wealth as with race, and asks whether it's time to lower the race-first flag, eschew politics with labels (right v. left, red staters v. blue staters, democrats v. republicans, urban v. rural, progressives v. conservatives, blacks v. whites) and follow Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)'s lead by zeroing in on economic inequality, housing, healthcare, climate equity, education and other issues that everyday working people care about. The short-term play may be winning 2 U.S. Senate seats in Georgia. The long-term play is building coalitions that unify rather than divide and that empower us to uplift working people and pull American democracy back from the brink.
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| Du Bois' Georgia Invisible Empire |
Episode 3 – The Election, the Policing of Black Politics and how W. E. B. Du Bois's Darkwater provides the answer
For Episode 3, A Pod Called Quest will work on putting together the plan for identifying who and what needs to be protested against, lobbied, sued, oped-ed, petitioned, discussed and taught. Where should we look for a solution? We look at W. E. B. Du Bois's Darkwater: Voice from within the Veil. The book was published 100 years ago but it has all that we need to bring about a more just and equitable future.
Sketch of W.E.B. Du Bois by Juliet Seignious (2020)
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Link to Oped (Trumpism May have endangered democracy) in NJ.Com
Different aspects of democracy from the Varieties of Democracy Project
Link to W.E.B. Du Bois' Darkwater: Voice from Within the Veil
Different aspects of democracy from the Varieties of Democracy Project
Link to W.E.B. Du Bois' Darkwater: Voice from Within the Veil
Episode 2 – The election/coup/revolution/sham of 2020 & the Future of American Democracy
For Episode 2, A Pod Called Quest tries to figure out what is going to happen come election time and assess its significance. What do the people think about politics and economics right now and what does it mean for our democracy?
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Episode 1 – The Contract with or on Black America
For Episode 1 A Pod Called Quest jumped right into the controversy surrounding the rapper/writer/producer/cultural critic Ice Cube and his Contract with Black America. Cube argued that Black folk had been given a relatively raw deal from America and that they needed to find some way to improve that situation. One way he argued was to set up some kind of Contract with Black America (the first controversial point) and he was willing to talk to anyone about it - including President Donald Trump (the second controversial point). Is this a wise move? Is it possible? Is it foolish? Dr. Derrick Darby (Sage) and Dr. Christian Davenport (Science) dig in with some logic and some data.
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Ice Cube's Contract with America