Journalist Steven Thrasher’s second book, The Overseer Class, begins with a quote by James Baldwin from a 1967 essay in The New York Times, where Baldwin writes, “we feared black cops even more than white cops, because the black cop had to work so much harder — on your head.” To see the continuing relevance of that quote, look to the horrific murder of Tyre Nichols in 2023 — a Black man…
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Major military contractor and surveillance giant Palantir has posted a chilling manifesto on social media that calls for tech companies like itself to play a larger role in a dystopian future where imperialist and white supremacist powers are unleashed and Americans are increasingly subject to the whims of the surveillance state. The post contains 22 points it says were summarized from a 2025…
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I was appalled and sickened by the AI-generated image of the Obamas as apes on Donald Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5, 2026. Bear in mind that this shameless anti-Black vitriol came out on this year’s 100th anniversary of Black History Month. In response to the justifiable backlash to the racist image, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Please stop the fake outrage and report on…
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From the very beginning, the United States of America has been at war—not just abroad, but domestically. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with scholar and author Dylan Rodriguez about how the US operates as a nation in a perpetual state of internal war, and how the white supremacist legacy of domestic warfare has reached terrifying new heights in the Trump era.
Resource Links:
Purchase Dylan Rodriguez’s book White Reconstruction
Revolt against the carceral world
COVID-19 pandemic illuminates anti-Chinese racism and xenophobia
Why corporate media doesn’t talk honestly about racism
Credits:
Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Mansa Musa:
Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars. I’m your host Mansa Musa. In this country, in the United States of America. If we was to put alongside of Germany or any other fastest totalitarian government, it would not be no difference in comparison in this country. Today, we find ourselves in a place where we’re in the constant police, in the form of what they call ICE or any other police force. We find ourselves in a situation where all the institutions that’s in this country right now is being dismantled to the point where people don’t have no jobs, people can’t afford medical people are being forced into homelessness. In the face of all this, we find ourselves at the crossroad of making analysis of what this is and how do we go forward. Joining me today is a Dylan Rodriguez, professor of Media and Culture Studies and UC Riverside and one
Under Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gone on an explicitly fascist zag as it seeks to recruit 10,000 additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Robert Reich and others have detailed in recent weeks how ICE is now actively seeking to recruit extremist young men from gun shows, Ultimate Fight Club venues, rodeos, martial arts centers…
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Emmett Till is someone that we know through documentaries, writings, photos, and inadequate history lessons. Open Casket: Philosophical Meditations on the Lynching of Emmett Till draws us unsettlingly and lovingly close to Emmett Till, and to his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. George Yancy’s and A. Todd Franklin’s breathtaking new anthology brings us face-to-face with the disquieting sorrow of Black…
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