#275 | The Poison Contains The Medicine: Ancestral Healing & Unintegrated Trauma w/ Dare Sohei

Intro: 7:44

In this episode, I speak with animist counselor and artist Dare Sohei. 

In the very beginning of this discussion, I ask Dare what the animism in animist counseling is. As they state on their website and elaborate on further in this interview:

Animism, briefly, is the felt sense that all matter, all bodies are inhabited with spirit, including non-corporeal bodies such as ancestors, beliefs and ideas, that exert influence on our bodies, actions and cultures. All of our ancient ancestors were animists, even though that term is more modern.

From there, Dare tells me how recognizing of our inherent relationships — whether they are secure or insecure attachments to our bodies, the land, ancestors, more-than-human life, and cultural somas (such as "white supremacy," and this thing we call "The United States of America") — can allow us to address the fundamental disconnection that is producing the crises we find ourselves in presently. This discussion gets a bit emotional for me towards the latter half, as we really dig into the deeper elements of this work, discussing trauma, death, relationship with our bodies, and ultimately where we stand in this time of trouble.

Dare Sohei is a queer mixed-race somatic educator, ancestral healing practitioner, and neurodivergent ritual animist who specializes in helping humans heal relationships with their bodies, the earth, their ancestors, and the more-than-human world. Dare has trained for many years in somatic movement practices, as a dancer/theater maker/trainer on Ohlone land in the SF Bay area, and has a long ongoing study/praxis into the human nervous system and trauma and how that relates to indigenous wisdom and medicine practices.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about Dare’s work on their website and at The Ritual as Justice School website: https://bodyaltar.org / https://ritualasjustice.school

- The music in this episode was produced by Eli Stonemets.

Video Segment:

#272 | Race Traitors: The Return Of John Brown In The Uprisings Of 2020 w/ Shemon & Arturo

Intro: 7:20

In this episode, I speak with political activists and commentators Shemon and Arturo, authors of several articles published at Ill Will Editions, including ‘Theses on the George Floyd Rebellion,’ ‘The Rise of Black Counter-Insurgency,’ and ‘The Return of John Brown: White Race-Traitors in the 2020 Uprising.’

Since late May of this year, cities across the United States have been rocked by numerous riots and demonstrations in response to the highly publicized police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. What makes this national movement unique, particularly in comparison to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, is not only the scope of these uprisings, but also the mass participation of the white proletariat. While still remaining a BIPOC-led movement, countless white people have engaged in militant anti-racism direct action in the streets, openly breaking with the social and institutional construct of whiteness that “continues to be the glue that holds bourgeois society together in the U.S.” Shemon and Arturo examine the conditions that have led to this historic moment of unrest in this country, and draw on several historical comparisons of class solidarity that have extended across racial lines. We also address the “Black counter-insurgency” that has emerged in the weeks and months since the initial uprisings in May, as addressed in Shemon’s article ‘The Rise of Black Counter-Insurgency.’

To quote from ‘The Return of John Brown: White Race-Traitors in the 2020 Uprising.’:

The question that has haunted the Black liberation movement is that of the white proletariat. Will it join the revolutionary struggle? Or will it defend class society? In Portland, white militants are fighting the state, on a local and federal level. Black militants are taking notice, watching, seeing if these whites are serious. The historic question for revolution in the US has always been: will white proletarians fight alongside Black proletarians? Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Kenosha are answering that question in the affirmative. 

Majority white cities have witnessed the most militant rebellions of this cycle so far. How do we explain this? The answer is that these cities have the weakest Black middle classes, weakest Black NGOs, and the weakest Black Democratic Party institutions relative to other cities like NYC, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. In Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, and Kenosha, the Black counter-insurgency has been sufficiently weak enough that these cities have produced the highpoints of the movement. (https://bit.ly/36TdPKK)

Episode Notes:

- Read Shemon and Arturo’s articles ‘Theses on the George Floyd Rebellion,’ ‘The Rise of Black Counter-Insurgency,’ and ‘The Return of John Brown: White Race-Traitors in the 2020 Uprising’: at Ill Will Editions: https://bit.ly/30TPz7l / https://bit.ly/34H49QM / https://bit.ly/36TdPKK

- The songs featured in this episode are “Theykome&Go” and “Do You” by Knxwledge from the album 1988: https://youtu.be/rRGPJhlN3Fc / https://youtu.be/T6V_bLUE2Vw

Video Segment:

#249 | Black Misleadership Class: Black America & The Presidents w/ Margaret Kimberley

Intro: 7:55 | Book Pre-sale

In this episode, I speak with Margaret Kimberley. She is the author of ‘Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents’ and is Editor and Senior Columnist at Black Agenda Report.

We begin this discussion with Margaret examining the role every United States president has played in perpetuating and reinforcing the white supremacist structure of the nation, including the most lauded presidents in U.S. history: Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Barack Obama, to name a few. From there I ask Kimberly to define the term she and others at Black Agenda Report have coined, the "black misleadership class": 

“Black Agenda Report was quite intentional in coining the term black misleadership class. The misleaders include Democratic Party politicians and allies in civil rights organizations, journalism, churches, and the foundation world. This group is entirely self-interested as they work to get funding for pet projects, well paid jobs, election to office, media attention, or all of the above. They are subservient to the Democratic Party and its donor class while giving the impression of working in the interests of black people.” (https://bit.ly/2ZCm9uU)

What role has this class of black misleaders played in subverting authentic political engagement towards equity,  justice, and liberty for non-whites in U.S. society? And also, what role have these misleaders played more recently in the subversion of the Bernie Sanders campaign and the elevation of Joe Biden as the candidate for the Democratic Party? And for what purpose? Margaret provides an excellent response to each of these important questions.

Margaret Kimberley is a New York-based writer and activist for peace and justice issues. Dr. Cornel West has called her “one of the few great truth tellers who, along with Glen Ford, Adolph Reed, Jr. and Bruce Dixon, preserved her integrity during the Obama years.” She has been an editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report since its inception in 2006. Her work has appeared in the Dallas Morning News, Consortium News, American Herald Tribune and CounterPunch. She is a contributor to the anthology ‘In Defense of Julian Assange.’ She is a graduate of Williams College and lives in New York City.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about and purchase ‘Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents’: https://bit.ly/2ZHqz3H

- Read Margaret’s Freedom Rider column at Black Agenda Report: https://bit.ly/2LX3YYP / https://blackagendareport.com

- Support her on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/margaretkimberley

- Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/freedomrideblog

- The song featured in this episode is “Sporting a&m” by Sporting Life from the album Hbcu Gameday.

#175 | Behind Every Lone Wolf: An Examination Of A Far-Right Insurgency w/ Shane Burley

In my second joint interview with [RS], we speak with Shane Burley​ -- journalist and author of 'Fascism Today: What It Is and How To End It.' Our discussion with Shane covers numerous topics, including the "Intellectual Dark Web" (or as Shane says "the academics that circle around Joe Rogan​ for some reason"); the pseudoscientific claims surrounding race, ethnicity, and IQ; and an examination of observable patterns within far right insurgency, as examined in Shane's recent piece in Commune Magazine​ 'A History of Violence,’ which examines the case of James Alex Fields — found guilty for the murder of Heather Heyer at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017 when Fields drove his car through a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heyer and injuring 28.

In Shane’s piece ‘A History of Violence’ and in this interview, Shane unpacks the observable patterns within far-right ideology and propaganda that has led individuals, like James Alex Fields, to commit seemingly random acts of violence, and how a combination of elements inherent in far-right ideology and propaganda cultivates a drive in alienated individuals to commit violent acts towards those perceived as an existential threat. In attracting alienated individuals and (in)directly encouraging them to act in ways that are violent and insurgent, the ideology of the far-right generates an imperative to commit acts of hate without necessitating any direct connection to any particular movement or ideology within the far-right, as has been the case with Fields. Shane describes the narratives that thrive within right-wing media spaces, including an examination of the pseudoscience of the “natural heritability” of intelligence — in relation to race and ethnicity — that continue to circulated within these spaces, as well as the media personalities that use racist, sexist, and chauvinist narratives to cultivate a base of followers, regardless of the wide range of scientific research that refute these claims on the matter. Also in this discussion, we address the government shutdown, workers rights, and the recent controversy surrounding the confrontation between Native elder Nathan Phillips and the students of Covington High at the Indigenous Peoples March last month.

Shane Burley is a writer and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon, who regularly reports on far-right movements in the US, as well as anti-fascist resistance, worker's rights, and class struggle. He is the author of ‘Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It’ from AK Press, and his work has appeared in places such as Jacobin, AlterNet, In These Times, Political Research Associates, Waging Nonviolence, Salon, ThinkProgress, ROAR Magazine and Upping the Anti.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about Shane and his work at his website: https://www.shaneburley.net

- Read Shanes recent piece ‘A History of Violence’ in Commune Magazine: http://bit.ly/BurleyCM

- Follow Shane on Twitter: https://twitter.com/shane_burley1

- Pick up Shane’s book ‘Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It’ from AK Press: http://bit.ly/BurleyFT

- The songs featured in this episode are the instrumentals of “Im Overflow” and “Bootleg” by Death Grips from the album Government Plates (Stems).

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO-ONLY VERSION:

#142 | Reckoning With Whiteness: Privilege & The Wounds Of Identity w/ Tad Hargrave

In this episode, I speak with writer Tad Hargrave about his work exploring, unpacking, and addressing the concept and social reality of “whiteness” — more broadly the roots, or lack thereof, of “white culture” as we understand it to be today.

Tad and I discuss the difficult subject of race, in particular the modern and the relatively recent (historically speaking)formation of the concept of “whiteness.” To be labeled and exist as a “white” person in our current era is to live with certain privileges within the dominant culture of North America — some of which are subtle, and many of which are not subtle at all. It is important to note that along with the privileges that come with existing as a white person in modern North America, to be "white" is also to lack a connection to the land and place white people reside in. Also, to be "white" is to bear unacknowledged wounds -- intergenerational traumas that inevitably stem from being the descendants of people that fled the brutalities of Europe during centuries of land enclosures, colonial expansion, and rapid industrialization. In the process of assimilating to the dominant culture of North America, North Americans of European descent shed themselves of their ethnic and cultural traditions and ties to their homelands, and instead adopted the racial identity and social category of “white.” Of course, I’m speaking in broad generalities when it comes to this subject, but I do think that by understanding the historical trends and events that have brought us to this time and place we are in, we can begin to have an honest conversation about the subject of race, as well as engage in the difficult task of unpacking the concept of “whiteness” and begin reckoning with what we may find in this exploration. Tad provides a nuanced and enlightening perspective in our examination of the concept of “whiteness" and superbly wrestles with the complexity of the subjects discussed in this episode.

Tad Hargrave is a man with an eclectic background. Tad is a founding member of several comedy troupes, dedicated almost two years of his life learning his ancestral language (Scottish Gaelic) in Nova Scotia and Scotland, runs a marketing website “Marketing For Hippies,” worked as the Executive Director of the Canadian branch of Youth for Environmental Sanity (a world renowned youth organization), and writes for the the blog “Healing From Whiteness: Remembering the Larger Story of History” — which is the basis of this discussion. Tad lives in Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.♰

♰ Source: http://bit.ly/2NDenI4

Episode Notes:

- Read Tad’s excellent essays on the subjects discussed in this episode at his blog “Healing From Whiteness” here: https://healingfromwhiteness.blogspot.com

- Learn more about Tad’s website “Marketing For Hippies” here: https://marketingforhippies.com

- Follow Tad’s page on Facebook “Dear White Men” here: https://www.facebook.com/DearWhiteMen

- The introduction features the voice of James Baldwin. Source: https://youtu.be/nAmL3F5uylo

- The songs featured in this episode are “What Can I Do (feat. Jonwayne)” and “Rough” by Samiyam from the album Pizza Party.