KPFA - Hard Knock Radio

On this Hard Knock Radio episode, Davey D opens with “Ancestors” by guest Miko Marks, framing her long road to wider recognition as audiences rediscover Southern Soul, Americana, and country through mainstream moments—from Beyoncé’s country pivot to Ryan Coogler’s recent work. Marks traces her journey from a 2005 traditional country debut to an expansive roots blend—blues, gospel, folk, jazz—after shedding industry boxes that once demanded a narrow look and sound. She recalls being one of only a few Black women positioned in country at the time (alongside Reese Palmer) and how labels subtly pitted artists against each other. Maturity, friendship, and craft ultimately refocused her on finding her own lane. The conversation pivots to The Nine Lives of Barbara Dane, the award-winning documentary for which Marks will perform. She sees kinship with Dane—another Midwestern artist who fused art and activism, genre freedom, and courage in hostile times. Marks explains how political honesty enters her songs naturally, citing “Goodnight America,” a lullaby for the nation’s transgressions that some misread as anti-American. For her, it’s about acknowledgement, healing, and renewal. That theme flows into “Lay Your Burdens Down,” a response to today’s weight of hypocrisy and uncertainty, urging shared lifting of collective pain. Asked about country music’s receptivity to social commentary, Marks says the genre has grown but still struggles with “good-old-boy” biases and gender inequity. She welcomes Beyoncé’s country album for spotlighting young Black women—broadening who gets seen and heard. After stepping away from recording for 14 years—an act of resistance against industry games—Marks returned on her own terms, prioritizing audience connection and artistic freedom. She’s now preparing a traditional blues project (including a Christmas blues cut), underscoring that country and blues differ less in substance than in marketing; both are rooted in Black musical traditions. Davey D echoes Herbie Hancock’s line: at day’s end, it’s all Black expression. Marks closes by honoring her own ancestors—many of her family have passed—and inviting listeners to the Nine Lives of Barbara Dane screening at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater. Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Fund Drive Special: “Ancestors” and Chicago Raids appeared first on KPFA.

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Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Hard Knock Radio – October 1, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Leonard Peltier joins Hard Knock Radio from house arrest on Turtle Mountain, grateful to be home yet blunt about the political moment. He warns of rising fascism, culture-war censorship, and the real danger of global conflict, arguing that only broad, cross-racial unity can blunt the slide. While skeptical of both parties, he urges strategic voting and mass participation to defend what freedom remains. Asked about turning to Indigenous philosophies, Peltier says we can’t “go back,” but we can move forward by restoring principles that long predated the U.S.—healthy separation of religion and government, gender equity in governance, and land stewardship. He stresses Land Back as a practical goal: reclaiming federally controlled lands that rightfully belong to Native nations, but only through unity and invitation from tribal traditionalists. Peltier links the present to erased histories: Indigenous innovations in agriculture and health, matriarchal authority, and the trauma of stolen children—citing his own family’s story—to insist that truth-telling prevents repetition. He connects that erasure to current media silence around Gaza and calls for organized pressure on outlets that obscure atrocities. Reflecting on the late Assata Shakur, he underscores decades-long AIM/Black Liberation solidarity and insists that kind of principled alliance must deepen now. His heroes range from Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to the Panthers and Che, but he laments diminished eyesight and media access that make it harder to track today’s leaders. Still, his core message is steady: unity, disciplined nonviolence with a right to self-defense, and sustained public action—from demonstrations to strategic ballots. Peltier closes with three “jewels”: build unshakeable unity; show up—physically and politically; prepare to defend your communities lawfully while refusing to be provoked into violence. He’s clear that he won’t recant or soften his stance after decades inside—he plans to spend his remaining years speaking, organizing, and urging others to carry the struggle forward. Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Fund Drive Special: Leonard Peltier Speaks appeared first on KPFA.

When the streets of Portland lit up between 2016 and 2020, the world saw nightly battles between protesters, far-right groups, and federal officers. But for longtime organizer and writer Luis Enrique Marquez, those years were less about spectacle and more about community defense. His new book, Anti-Fascist: A Memoir of the Portland Uprising, documents the lessons, contradictions, and solidarity that defined the era. On Hard Knock Radio, Marquez sat down with Davey D to break down what went down in the Northwest—and why it matters now. Occupy ICE and Hard Lessons One of the most powerful flashpoints came with Occupy ICE. Portlanders set up encampments that literally shut down a regional ICE office. For Marquez, it was a turning point that showed everyday people could push back on one of the most feared agencies in the country. “We shut down ICE here in Portland, and it showed people across the country that you could fight back.” But there were complications. Closing a reporting site also meant some immigrants couldn’t check in, which may have sped up deportations. “We learned hard lessons—closing a reporting site meant some people couldn’t check in. That may have sped up deportations. We had to hold that.” Portland vs. the Feds By summer 2020, Portland had become the testing ground for Trump’s federal surge. Night after night, protesters faced off against militarized agents. What held the line wasn’t one group or ideology—it was solidarity. “The only reason we beat the feds was because liberals, progressives, and radicals all stood shoulder to shoulder.” Breaking Myths, Building Culture Marquez pushes back on corporate media narratives that paint antifascists as violent agitators. “Breaking a window isn’t violence. Violence is the system—ICE raids, prisons, police killings.” For him, the real story was about discipline and care: no one left behind, jail support protocols, conflict resolution, and a culture of accountability. Music also played a role—each chapter of his book opens with a playlist, because soundtracks carried people through the struggle. Facing Fascism, Together Marquez doesn’t mince words about the far-right. From Proud Boys brawling in Portland and Berkeley to ICE’s alignment with private security, he sees it as one ecosystem of repression. “You can’t separate the street fascists from ICE—they’re all part of the same machine.” Lessons for the Long Game For Marquez, the takeaway is simple: there are no heroes, only communities defending themselves. Every role matters—whether you’re on the street, cooking meals, writing, or running jail support. And with every copy of the book sold, $10 goes to One People’s Project to continue exposing fascist networks. “It’s not about heroes—it’s about communities defending themselves… We defend each other.” Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Anti-Fascism in Portland: A Conversation with Luis Enrique Marquez appeared first on KPFA.

Jeff Chang joins Hard Knock Radio to break down his new book, Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. We start with a truth many of us in Black and Hip-Hop communities feel instinctively: Bruce isn’t just “an Asian hero,” he’s a global underdog icon—postered up next to Ali and Marley, sampled and name-checked in rap, and embraced across barrios and blocks. During the pandemic, Jeff watched Bruce’s image reappear on Chinatown walls as a signal of pride, resilience, and a call for solidarity against anti-Asian violence. Chang clears up myths and centers history. Bruce Lee was born an American citizen in San Francisco’s Chinese Hospital in 1940—amid Chinese Exclusion-era racism and medical segregation. Birthright citizenship (14th Amendment) makes that possible; Chang notes how recent political attacks on birthright rules would have rendered Bruce deportable today. Another correction: Bruce didn’t train the Black Panthers—they just missed each other by a year—but his Oakland chapter was real: a Broadway school (now by “Bruce Lee Way”), students from Cal during the Free Speech era, and a deep Bay imprint. We track Bruce’s formative years in colonial Hong Kong: a privileged kid who grew up angry at apartheid-style British rule, learning Wing Chun amid rooftop challenge fights (bammo culture) while simultaneously becoming Hong Kong’s cha-cha champion and a child actor. His teachers (including Ip Man) pushed not just technique but philosophy; Bruce devoured texts and began shaping a practice grounded in balance, realism, and self-defense for everyday people. In Seattle, teaching turned him “American” in a new way. His first students—Jesse Glover, a Black kid brutalized by cops at 12, and Taki Kimura, a Japanese American crushed by wartime incarceration—made Bruce confront U.S. segregation and trauma up close. That classroom was cross-racial and political, long before slogans. Hollywood is the crucible. As Kato on The Green Hornet, Bruce fought stereotypes—begging for lines, writing a script, and refusing to play the silent servant. Kids wanted the Kato doll; studios still typecast him. He went back to Hong Kong, flipped the action genre with bare-hand realism (not cable-heavy wire-fu), and made the hero human and vulnerable. Those films landed squarely with Third World organizers in SF and beyond; theaters erupted during Fist of Fury. From Jackie Chan and Jet Li to today’s MCU and John Wick-style set pieces, the standard Bruce set—speed, clarity, stakes—still rules. Five key takeaways Bruce Lee’s U.S. birth amid exclusion laws ties his story to the 14th Amendment and today’s fights over birthright citizenship. He’s a bridge figure: embraced by Black and Brown audiences because his films dramatize the underdog versus empire. The Oakland/Seattle years matter—teaching built cross-racial solidarity and grounded his philosophy in real community needs. Hollywood resistance was activism: letters, rewrites, and public demos to challenge the “silent servant” box. He re-engineered action cinema: fast, plausible, low-trick choreography that made every hit feel earned—and risky. Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Fund Drive Special: Bruce Lee, Birthright, and the Making of Asian America — Jeff Chang on HKR appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Fund Drive Special: Chris Hedges Collection appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Dave “Davey D” Cook sat down with Oakland-raised investigator and former CPRA executive director Mac Muir, co-author (with Greg Finch) of Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing. The conversation moves from New York’s entrenched resistance to oversight to Oakland’s imperfect but real gains, and lands on practical reforms that could actually change outcomes on the street. Muir frames the book’s premise plainly: the system is “fixed”—structured to over-police Black and Brown communities and to sour officers against the public they serve. Because much of what happens inside internal affairs never reaches daylight, Cop Cop tells the day-to-day stories of complaints, investigations, and the quiet harms that don’t make headlines but shape lives. New York vs. Oakland. Running investigations in New York, Muir encountered “almost comprehensive hostility” to oversight inside a vast, insular NYPD. In Oakland, federal monitors and a stronger charter-based system created more leverage. It’s not the OPD of 2003, he notes, and he left “more optimistic” about the trajectory—while stressing that scandals persist and trust remains a multi-generational project tied to unaddressed history. The airplane-crash standard. Davey D pushes a comparison: when planes crash, investigators reconstruct every factor to stop repeats. Police killings and abuses rarely get that prevention-first treatment. Muir agrees: settlements tally damage after the fact; the work should be to prevent the next incident—down to the “everyday” harms of stop-and-frisk that, in New York, correlated with lower test scores for young Black men. Fear as policy—and PR. Muir walks through a lineage of fear campaigns: the 1960s fight against a civilian review board (fronted by a slick police-union ad warning that “your life” depends on officers never being second-guessed) and the 1970s “Fear City/Fair City” push that helped protect police budgets while schools and social services were slashed. Davey D recalls the fallout as a student—no after-school programs, more police, a cycle cemented by rhetoric. Why DOJ consent decrees aren’t enough. Federal interventions can force short-term box-checking, but they leave. The durable fix is local, charter-level oversight with real power over discipline. Chicago’s recent model, Muir argues, bakes civilian control into the machinery rather than renting it from Washington. Piercing the jargon. Investigations can’t accept magic words—“I feared for my safety,” “bulge,” “exigent circumstances”—as end-points. Muir’s method is to strip the lingo and reconstruct what an officer actually saw, heard, and did. If the facts don’t align with the claimed fear, the justification fails. Concrete reforms Muir backs: Civilianize internal affairs. Stop asking officers to police their colleagues; independent investigators produce better records and more credible discipline. Recruit (and retain) more women. Across decades of data, women officers show lower force and misconduct rates and disrupt corrupt networks; even male force use drops in their presence. Tie conduct to cost. Require malpractice-style insurance for officers (or cities). Premiums rise with misconduct, making repeat harm financially untenable. Stop the shuffle. Build systems that block problem officers from hopping jurisdictions; treat certification like a real license that can be lost. History, memory, repair. In Oakland, trust won’t be rebuilt without public reckoning: Panthers era violence, Bobby Hutton, 1980s killings—truth-telling forums matter for institutional legitimacy. Transparency under federal oversight helps, but acknowledgement is a community-level necessity. On slogans and politics. Muir calls “more Black officers” an overrated fix—representation hasn’t reliably altered outcomes—and says the “defund” frame backfires by suggesting no one answers 911. The through-line is not ideology but incentives and structures that reliably prevent harm. Asked...

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Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Hard Knock Radio – September 22, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

In the wake of the campus-rally killing of Charlie Kirk—and the immediate media sanctification that followed—Hard Knock Radio host Davey D sat down with media critic and author Jennifer L. Pozner to connect the dots between shock headlines, corporate deals, and a chilling new phase of state pressure on speech. The conversation opened with Davey D framing the moment: public grief and outrage quickly morphed into a climate where educators, journalists, and comedians faced swift punishment for even contextual criticism. Pozner, founder of Women in Media & News and author of Reality Bites Back, came ready with receipts—and warnings. From Late Night to a Larger Playbook The flashpoint was Jimmy Kimmel’s “indefinite suspension” from ABC after he mocked Donald Trump’s reaction to Kirk’s death. Pozner emphasized that Kimmel expressed condolences and rejected violence; the bit targeted hypocrisy and political score-keeping. That distinction matters, she argued, because satire’s job is to “punch up,” not coddle power. When regimes muzzle comics and censor journalists, she said, that’s the autocrat’s playbook. Pozner traced a throughline: FCC chair Brendan Carr publicly pressed ABC affiliates to preempt Kimmel and warned Disney there were “remedies” if they didn’t “do the right thing”—language Pozner called mob-boss talk from a regulator meant to protect the public interest, not police speech. The message: corporate compliance or regulatory pain. Lawsuits, Mergers, and the Price of Silence Beyond Kimmel, Pozner laid out a broader pattern she documents in her forthcoming graphic-nonfiction project (title in flux): frivolous lawsuits against outlets like ABC/Disney and CBS/Paramount, quietly settled not because they were strong but because multi-billion-dollar mergers and regulatory favors hung in the balance. Paramount’s settlement was followed by Stephen Colbert’s ouster and the axing of The Late Show franchise—then speedy merger approvals. Nexstar’s push to absorb Tegna, Disney’s pursuit of Fubo, and other deals formed the backdrop for what Davey D called “bending the knee.” The takeaway, Pozner said: for conglomerates, $15–$16 million legal payouts are pocket change if compliance unlocks billions. Whether executives personally like Trump is beside the point; profit over public interest rules the room. Hypocrisy and the Weaponization of “Offense” Davey D pressed on a common defense: if people get fired for offensive speech on one side, isn’t turnabout fair play? Pozner drew a firm line between community accountability for hate speech that harms vulnerable groups and the state using regulatory power to punish critics of those in charge. The first is public debate; the second is state censorship, and it’s the line democracies cannot cross. She also challenged the instant revisionism around Kirk, noting Turning Point USA’s Professor Watchlist and its impact on Black women scholars and others who faced harassment once targeted. That, she argued, fits the logic of stochastic terrorism: rhetoric that doesn’t issue explicit commands but signals violence to willing actors. Beyond TV: Control of the Press Itself Perhaps most alarming, Pozner said, is the White House seizing selection of the press pool, a function historically managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association to keep government from deciding who gets access. Hand-picking friendlier outlets is another step toward managed information and away from a free press. What Now? For Pozner, the response can’t be passive. She called for letters and calls (more effective than online comments) to Disney and other media owners; pressure on Congress to hold hearings on FCC overreach; and solidarity for journalists, educators, and comedians who hold power to account. Davey D underscored the urgency, noting that when you line up the suspensions, settlements, DEI rollbacks, and merger greenlights on a single page, the pattern is hard to miss. Follow Jennifer L. Pozner: @jennpozner...

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In this timely episode, Davey D speaks with civil rights attorney and author Alec Karakatsanis about his new book, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News. Alec unpacks how police departments deploy strategic storytelling and cultivate media partnerships to shape public perception of crime, fuel fear-driven narratives, and justify ever-expanding police budgets. The conversation opens with Alec defining “copaganda” and dissecting how misleading claims—like the idea that shoplifting forced Walgreens to close stores—spread through mainstream outlets with little scrutiny. He draws a direct line between these narratives and the billions funneled into policing while social services remain underfunded. Alec then reveals the powerful PR machinery behind law enforcement. The LAPD alone employs more than 40 full-time public relations staff whose job is to seed stories into local news cycles, often without balance or fact-checking. The result is a media ecosystem where police dictate the terms of public safety while obscuring their own violence and systemic failures. In the final segment, Alec points to Houston as a case study: after George Floyd’s murder, the police department quickly crafted a compassionate public image. Yet behind that façade, policies criminalizing and punishing poor and marginalized communities remained unchanged. It’s a stark example of how image management substitutes for genuine accountability. About the BookCopaganda is a sharp, uncompromising critique of how police shape the news we consume. Drawing on detailed research and his own legal work, Alec Karakatsanis shows how police narratives dominate headlines, deflect attention from structural harm, and uphold mass criminalization. The book challenges readers to rethink what they believe about crime, punishment, and who gets to control the story. About Alec KarakatsanisAlec Karakatsanis is the founder and executive director of Civil Rights Corps, a nonprofit that challenges systemic injustice in the legal system. A former public defender, he has led national campaigns to dismantle cash bail, expose police misconduct, and confront the legal system’s role in reinforcing racial and economic inequality. He is also the author of Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System. Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Alec Karakatsanis on Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News (Encore) appeared first on KPFA.

Today on Hard Knock Radio we bring you a special edition of Rootwork on KPFK, Thandi Chimurenga of Black Liberation Media sat down with Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson to discuss bold strategies for grassroots survival and resistance. Part of the ongoing Build and Fight Formula series, their conversation explored the urgency of self-defense in the face of rising authoritarianism. Build and Fight Formula 7 for Self-Defense Akuno urged listeners to think critically about recent executive actions taken by President Trump”moves that critics warn signal an alarming expansion of federal power. These include: National Guard federalization: On August 25, 2025, Trump signed an executive order creating specialized National Guard units to address civil disturbances. Unlike traditional deployments requiring governor approval, these units can now be activated directly by the president and the secretary of defense. Critics argue this circumvents the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of federal troops for domestic policing. Military deployment for immigration enforcement: In June 2025, Trump authorized the use of both National Guard and active-duty troops to protect ICE facilities and personnel from protestors”an unprecedented and controversial expansion of military involvement in civilian affairs. ICE budget windfall: A Republican-led Congress passed a massive immigration and border enforcement spending bill, allocating $160 billion to ICE, dramatically expanding its resources and reach. Organizations like the Brennan Center for Justice and Peoples World have described these actions as part of an authoritarian playbook”not the creation of a separate military force, but the political misuse of existing institutions under legally ambiguous authority. This conversation situates these developments within a broader strategy of grassroots resistance, offering listeners tools to analyze and confront state repression in this moment of deepening crisis. Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA 94.1 FM (airs weekdays 4″5 pm), hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. As a community-supported station, KPFA operates without corporate underwriting, keeping the focus on people-powered media. The post Build and Fight Formula for Self-Defense PT.2 appeared first on KPFA.

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Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Hard Knock Radio – September 12, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Host Davey D opens with “Am I Human?” and frames Samora Pinderhughes as a Bay-raised, Juilliard-trained composer/pianist/vocalist who blends jazz, R&B, and movement work. Samora embraces that lineage—crediting his parents’ community praxis—and talks frankly about maintaining integrity in an industry that rewards spectacle and “Black dysfunction.” The antidote, for him, is purpose and craft. On abolition, Samora widens the lens: prisons, policing, ICE, detention, border regimes, environmental racism, and food deserts are linked systems. Abolition isn’t just “no prisons,” it’s building funded, known alternatives and cross-movement solidarity—nationally and globally. He stresses having real answers (law, courts, community safety) and doing the homework so the art is grounded. Enter Black Spring, a “mixtape” built over five years. It’s meant as a soundtrack for this moment: some pieces chant-ready, some question-driven, others intimate—naming the nihilism younger folks feel and offering release and activation. He spotlights “Star-Blooded Work Song,” his flip on the national anthem prompted by Harry Belafonte. On tools and trends, Samora is proudly old school—anti-AI, pro-craft. Piano remains about harmony, rhythm, and the emotional center. Collaborations with Herbie Hancock and Robert Glasper taught him relentless curiosity and elite collaboration—while nudging his Virgo perfectionism toward flow without losing detail. He shows love for the contemporary jazz constellation (Thundercat, Kamasi, FlyLo, Kendrick), noting shared tradition with fiercely individual voices. Beyond music, Samora’s visual work is surging—an upcoming MoMA exhibition with two-channel experimental film he co-directs and scores. Community work runs through The Healing Project: narrative change by/for people impacted by the prison-industrial complex, co-ownership ethics, a traveling choir, “healing rooms,” and recent pieces like the Keith Lamar Suite (Keith also appears on “Am I Human?”). Politically, he’s “Team Zora/Zoran” in New York’s moment, riffing with Davey on culture as electoral counter-force. The convo lands on the Bay: Yerba Buena Gardens, Sat. Sept 20, 2pm, with Soul Development—maybe even a family cameo on flute. Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Samora Pinderhughes on Craft, Abolition, and the Soundtrack of Now appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, I sat down with Jelani Cobb—dean of Columbia’s Journalism School, longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, and a thinker rooted in Hip Hop’s habit of connecting dots across time. We talked about his new book, Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here (2012–2025). I called it “a book of books” on air for a reason: Cobb isn’t chasing hot takes; he’s building a historical map for a decade that feels like whiplash. Cobb traces the spark back to his first New Yorker assignment: the killing of Trayvon Martin. An editor asked him to “keep track of where this story goes.” He’s still following it. Trayvon becomes a tuning fork, the vibration that carries forward into Black Lives Matter, into the massacre at Mother Emanuel, into the mainstreaming of extremist politics that now shapes the courts, policing, and public life. “We’re seeing masked agents roaming the streets with license to racially profile,” he says, linking scattered headlines to a single drift of power. What separates this book from a clip file is the method. Cobb reports with history at his elbow. When he covered Sanford, Florida, he pulled the hidden thread to Harry and Harriet Moore—the NAACP organizers whose home was firebombed on Christmas 1951 for registering Black voters. When he sat through Dylann Roof’s trial, he read it alongside a 1947 lynching case previously covered in the same magazine. That’s the point: none of this started yesterday. To understand the “now,” you have to excavate the “again.” We spent time on pop culture because movies teach history to millions—often badly. Cobb argues you can’t sell “alternate histories” to a public that refuses to face the real one. He broke down Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained as a revenge fantasy that turns the final boss of slavery into a Black character—“morally unconscionable” in a system designed and enforced by white power. Then he pivoted to Spielberg’s Lincoln, pushing past the saintly portrait to the actual politics: agitation from Frederick Douglass, the pressure of Radical Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens, and a president whose true heroism was stubborn, lonely resolve to hold the Union together—not divine emancipation from above. The lesson isn’t to cancel the films; it’s to treat them as texts—with footnotes, counters, and context. Cobb’s title also carries history in its teeth. After the Stono Rebellion of 1739, South Carolina codified that “more than two Negroes outside the company of a white man” could be defined as insurrection. Centuries later, American law still leans on formulas that turn Black assembly into threat—“public mayhem committed by three or more,” the boilerplate of riot statutes. The title becomes a quiet indictment of how power names our gatherings, then polices them. The book moves in acts—Obama’s second term, Trump’s first, then the Biden years sliding toward a second Trump administration—and connects political weather to the culture we breathe. There are portraits and moments: Harry Belafonte’s hard, principled eye on presidents (“What made you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?” he once said when asked to cut Obama some slack), Ruby Dee, Amiri Baraka, the Ferguson uprising, Stacey Abrams’s voting fight, even D-Nice turning quarantine into a civic commons. Cobb engages Ta-Nehisi Coates on reparations and memory, not as a side note but as an argument for how policy and imagination meet. I asked whether he saw this crisis coming. He didn’t flinch. The rise of Trumpism and the Charleston massacre arrived within a day of each other in 2015, expressions of the same “redemptionist” current in American life—the old idea that white supremacy can restore itself through backlash. Cobb isn’t surprised we’re here; he’s concerned we don’t remember how we’ve gotten out of places like this before. That’s his closing charge: Study history strategically. Not to feel good. Not for trivia night. For tactics. What did people do to fight lynching? To win voting...

Host Davey D convenes SEIU 1021 organizer Jennifer Esteen and Women’s Economic Agenda Project director Ethel Long-Scott to unpack a seismic—and largely ignored—economic gut punch: 300,000 Black women cut from the federal workforce in the first half of 2025. Both guests frame the layoffs as part of a broader, deliberate restructuring—legal, political, and technological—that targets the very people who’ve long been the backbone of democracy and day-to-day governance. Long-Scott situates the moment historically: brief gains since the Civil Rights era met by deindustrialization and now tech-driven displacement. She argues the crisis is threefold—economic, technological, and political—and warns that silence from mainstream leaders, including Democrats, signals alignment with corporate power. Esteen ties the current playbook to “Project 2025” ambitions and a decades-old propaganda cycle—from “welfare queen” tropes to today’s algorithm-boosted crime feeds—that dehumanize Black women to justify policing and repression. Davey probes the media machinery: crime-only accounts and viral clips that caricature Black women, turning pain into content and policy fodder for militarized responses. Long-Scott calls it what it is—an escalated corporate dictatorship with fascist tendencies—arguing tactics won’t beat strategy; communities need strategy, political education, and unity. Chicago becomes a case study in counter-strategy. Esteen spotlights trusted messengers like CTU’s Stacey Davis Gates and notes on-the-ground resistance—from city leadership to creative blockades of ICE operations—backed by long-built coalitions. Locally, she points to Bay Area recall money, prosecutorial rollbacks, and ballooning public budgets to stress why politics matters: policy moves billions, daily. Both guests offer concrete pathways: deepen political education; defend humane policy (housing, food, childcare, dignified work); rebuild bonds fractured by displacement; and revive community models like the Panthers’ 10-Point Program—health, breakfast, protection, education—updated for a tech age. They close with calls to show up: hear trusted voices, organize childcare workers, support homelessness solutions, and refuse fear. The throughline: solidarity is the weapon, strategy is the shield, and Black women’s leadership remains the compass. Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post 300,000 Black Women Pushed Out of the U.S. Labor Force appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson. The post Hard Knock Radio – September 8, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.