While they say cut DEI, we say build Black Community Control of Education

In this episode of Black Power Talks, we explore “Black Education and the Struggle for Anti-Colonial Free Speech.” 

Upon his return to office, United States President Donald J. Trump amplified the attacks against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.  His administration has renamed institutions for confederate figures and overturned previous diversity initiatives inside government employment.  President Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from educational institutions with DEI programming.  This is the fourth and most intense wave of attacks against African-led education initiatives in recent years.  

As DEI initiatives, Critical Race Theory and Black Studies come under attack, today’s guests agree the solution is to build power in the hands of the African community, to struggle for Black Community Control of Education.  The speakers make the appeal for African students, intellectuals and culture workers to become African working class intellectuals; to actively use their knowledge and intellectual abilities to challenge colonial capitalism.  The martyred Black Studies scholar Walter Rodney defined this as the process of being “grounded” and called such people “guerilla intellectuals.”

On this episode, we are joined by:

• Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party
• Betty Davis, Chair of the Black is Back Coalition Education Working Group.  Sister Betty is a veteran of the Ocean Hill Brownsville struggle.
• Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly Associate Professor of History at Wayne State University, author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States
• Dr. Robin Kelley, Professor of History at UCLA author of many books including Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Race Rebels and Our History Has Always Been Contraband
• Dr. Yusef Doucet, poet, english professor co-leader of the JOKO Collective

This episode is the outgrowth a June 2024 webinar that was co-sponsored by the Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition and the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations and co-hosted by myself, Dr. Matsemela Odom and Mwezi Odom, Secretary General of the African People’s Socialist Party and Chair of the Hands Off Uhuru Fight Back Coalition.

The complete webinar can be found at The Burning Spear TV Youtube Page.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida.