The Pitfalls of Liberalism

"The Black Revolution in America" by Grace Lee Boggs

In 1968, revolutionary freedom fighter Grace Lee Boggs wrote an essay speaking to the definition and need for a Black Revolution. She provides us with a grounded assessment of what a revolution in the US means for our collective work. In this episode, Revolutionary Baddies dissect her essay, which is featured in “Black Women: An Anthology” by Toni Cade Bambara. Grace Lee Boggs was a Chinese-American organizer, writer, and educator moving through and with the Black Liberation Struggle in 1940s- 1970s. She advocated for evolution and developed a reputation alongside her husband, James Boggs, who was also a revolutionary organizer in Detroit. More than ever, the political and economic climate is calling for a new sense of urgency and a deeper understanding of what a revolution requires.  Questions for our listeners Who will lead the revolution? Links for the show: Season 2. Episode 20 W.E.B.Dubois: A Rebel With A Cause. Full Documentary [https://youtu.be/I2_GVDDo0N8?si=iFXvIIC5uDI2TQu9] American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. Full Documentary [https://youtu.be/DV1YBgANZY8?si=uU8f4NRV_isHBobs] The Black Woman: An Anthology by Toni Cade Bambara [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157928.The_Black_Woman] The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker’s Notebook by James Boggs  [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2287278.The_American_Revolution] “Mortal Man”, Kendrick Lamar [https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/kendricklamar/mortalman.html] Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2467282/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] Instagram & Threads: @revolutionarybaddies Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RevolutionaryBaddies Patreon: patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies

The Pitfalls of Liberalism

The underlying theme of this season of Revolutionary Baddies is to articulate what makes a revolution. This analysis must include what destroys a revolution. Liberalism is the ideology that carries history of negotiating, obliging, coddling, pacifying, and coercing with imperialism. Liberalism is also the default political ideology of most Black people in this country. This essay, “The Pitfalls of Liberalism” by Kwame Ture was written in 1969 and carries lessons for all of us today. Building organization and unity towards freedom becomes impossible with liberalism unchecked. In the episode, Brittany and Dee Dee provide a relevant discussion of the ways we see liberalism play out today and how we can combat it.  Question for our listeners: How are you combatting liberalism? Links for the show: Season 2. Episode 19 Over 100 Campus Police Departments Got Military Equipment Through This Federal Program [https://www.theeduledger.com/home/article/15107343/over-100-campus-police-departments-got-military-equipment-through-this-federal-program] Stokley Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism by Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211858.Stokely_Speaks] Combat Liberalism. by Mao Zedong [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25431690-combat-liberalism] The Founding Fathers Feared Political Faction Would Tear The Nation Apart [https://www.history.com/articles/founding-fathers-political-parties-opinion] Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2467282/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] Instagram & Threads: @revolutionarybaddies Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RevolutionaryBaddies Patreon: patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies

"Give Light and People Will Find the Way" -Ella Baker

As Ella Baker gave her class valedictorian speech at Shaw University, she left these words and these words led her life. Arguably, one of the most effective and committed grassroots organizer of the 20th century. Ella Baker was an architect behind the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and a leader that believed in the power of everyday people doing extraordinary things. In this episode, Revolutionary Baddies attempt to capture this hero and how she navigated the decades of powerful change. From her time as a student at Shaw University, the oldest HBCU in the South, to her founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Mrs. Baker brought tenacity, resilience, clarity, and resourcefulness to her vision of freedom. Her life and legacy deserves celebration, study, and praise. Hope you enjoy! Links for the show: Season 2. Episode 18 The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51183428-the-love-songs-of-w-e-b-du-bois] The Slave Market by Ella Baker and Marvel Cooke, NAACP [https://www.crmvet.org/info/slavemkt.htm] Young Negroes Cooperative League [https://youtu.be/E_DB5lu5w_g?si=O2Y8_2aXHpbuCAXw] In Friendship, a fundraising organization founded by Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, and others [https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/friendship] Ella Baker and the Radical Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200217.Ella_Baker_and_the_Black_Freedom_Movement?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_10] Black Scare/Red Scare by Charisse Burden-Stelly [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123227063-black-scare-red-scare] Ella Baker Organizes NAACP Chapters in the South [https://snccdigital.org/events/ella-baker-organizes-naacp-chapters/] Royal Ice Cream Parlour Sit-In [https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/royal-ice-cream-sit-in-1957/] Southern Christian Leadership Conference, S.C.L.C. [https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/alliances-relationships/sclc/] Ella Baker’s Impact On Civil Rights Movement [https://sncclegacyproject.org/sncc-40th-anniversary-vol-02/] Congress of Racial Equality, C.O.R.E. [https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/alliances-relationships/core/] Robert F. Williams [https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/williams-robert-f-1925-1996/] Want To Start A Revolution? By Dayo F. Gore, Jeanne Theoharis, Komozi Woodard [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7157574-want-to-start-a-revolution] Freedom Summer by Doug McAdam [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/310386.Freedom_Summer] Black Visions: The Roots of African-American Contemporary Ideologies by Michael C. Dawson [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2293314.Black_Visions] Brother Hollis: The Sankofa of A Movement Man by Hollis Watkins [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34687627-brother-hollis] This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles E. Cobb Jr [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18210783-this-nonviolent-stuff-ll-get-you-killed] On The Freedom Side: How Five Decades of Youth Activists Have Remixed American History by Wesley Hogan [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44601334-on-the-freedom-side] Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2467282/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] Instagram & Threads: @revolutionarybaddies Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RevolutionaryBaddies Patreon: patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies

FREE THEM ALL and Other Abolitionist Thoughts

First things first. Free All Political Prisoners!! Secondly, this episode grants permission for all of us to dream and vision a world beyond policing and prisons. Prisons are American history, and we are yet to a place to recognize and dismantle that reality. Revolutionary Baddies hold a discussion surrounding the many many ways our capitalist determines who is punished and who are not. Through the decades of brainwashing propaganda regarding the benefits of police and prisons, combined with the capitalist opportunities of the private prison industry, plus our malapportioned government system has led to a recipe of injustice. Slavery still exists legally in the United States- which means our society should know and learn more about the many ways slavery still exists. At the same time, prison abolition is about visioning and implementing new systems and institutions that prioritize humanity. We deserve so much more. Questions for our listeners What  is a world without prisons? Links for the show: Season 2. Episode 17 Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66933.The_Wretched_of_the_Earth] FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS [https://www.thejerichomovement.com/prisoners] Why Crime Rates Are Falling Across The U.S. [https://time.com/7357500/crime-homicide-rate-violent-property-decline-trump-covid-19/] The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35403039-the-end-of-policing] They Lied About “Black on Black Crime”. Here’s The REAL Cause and Solution [https://youtu.be/7jiPWVxRjIo?si=x1sA_tcAnWKGYwP1] We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehesi Coates [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33916061-we-were-eight-years-in-power] The Experiment (2001) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250258/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_he%20xperiment] Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson by George Jackson [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/962568.Soledad_Brother] How the Attica Prison Uprising Started- And Why It Still Resonates Today [https://www.npr.org/2021/10/27/1049295683/attica-prison-documentary-stanley-nelson] The 1994 Crime Bill and Beyond: How Federal Funding Shapes The Criminal Justice System [https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/1994-crime-bill-and-beyond-how-federal-funding-shapes-criminal-justice] Durham Beyond Policing [https://www.instagram.com/durhambeyondpolicing/reels/] Critical Resistance [https://criticalresistance.org/] A Soldier’s Story: Revolutionary Writings of a New Afrikan Amarchist [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34734162-a-soldier-s-story] The Fertile Prison: Fidel Castro in Batista’s Jails by Mario Mencia [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1669587.The_Fertile_Prison] Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protest, and the Pursuit of Rachle by Derecka Purnell [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56626177-becoming-abolitionists] WARTIME, Fall 2025 by Black Men Build [https://www.blackmen.build/wartime-2025-build-with-us/] The US states with more places for incarceration than higher education [https://studee.com/discover/usa-prison-v-college] Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2467282/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] Instagram & Threads: @revolutionarybaddies Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RevolutionaryBaddies Patreon: patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies

Dear Mama: The Power of Black Motherhood

Happy Mother’s Day! The Baddies dedicate this episode to some of the greatest contributors to society- Black mothers. In this episode, Brittany and Dee Dee dive into their lived experiences of the mothers that raised them and  how dynamic and expansive our family structures could be. And just like everything else- Motherhood is political and worth our understanding. Hope you enjoy this episode.  All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17607.All_About_Love] We Live For The We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood by Dani McClain [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41190344-we-live-for-the-we] Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, Mai’a Williams [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25363234-revolutionary-mothering] Black. Single. Mothering: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging by Jamilah Lemieux [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205436019-black-single-mother]  The Negro Family: The Case For National Action [https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/webid-moynihan] Kahlil Gurban [https://poets.org/poem/children-1] Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2467282/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] Instagram & Threads: @revolutionarybaddies Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RevolutionaryBaddies Patreon: patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies