*UNLOCKED* CS 117: Black Pathology Realism (09/16/2018)

I recently put it up to a vote which Premium Bonus episode listeners would most like to see unlocked to free listeners, and our latest episode was the one most people voted for. So here it is.

In this episode, I take a concept created by author Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, and apply it to Black people to create a concept I call Black Pathology Realism, the idea that Black pathology and squalor is taken as such a given in society, by both Black and White people, that no one can truly even imagine a world where it doesn't exist, that it's just taken as the natural state of things. Something that can only be managed but not eliminated or cured. We discuss other things too, but we keep returning to that theme.

Discussed in this episode:

Thread by Tariq Nasheed showing the now-deleted tweet by Sophia A. Nelson blaming Black men for Serena's recent tennis loss while praising White men https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1039016711855329280
The book Capitalist Realism by Mark FIsher https://amzn.to/2QFNTaQ
The Wikipedia entry for Capitalist Realism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_Realism:_Is_there_no_alternative%3F
This link of Jake Tapper grilling Ocasio-Cortez on how she plans to pay for her radical socialist platform is interesting because of all the unapologetically proactive and socialist propositions she stands by in the course of a single interview. Think about how such things never happen in political interviews about the Black condition, which usually are just filled with empty platitudes and Civil Rights reminescing https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jake-tapper-grills-ocasio-cortez-over-how-to-pay-for-40-trillion-platform-guess-im-not-going-to-get-an-answer/
Compare that to this Beto O'Rourke speech that was being praised by Black and White people alike for being so brave and progressive on race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWmh-maevk
Two breathlessly romantic pieces memorializing a recently deceased woman who lured Nazi men to their deaths via seduction and even killed a few by her own hand. Compare it to the narrow range of historical resistance Beto O'Rourke was allowing himself to praise in Bla
ck people. From the Inquisitr: https://www.inquisitr.com/5063183/freddie-oversteegen-who-as-teenager-lured-nazis-into-a-forest-to-make-out-then-had-them-killed-dies-at-92/  From Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/freddie-oversteegen-dutch-resistance-fighter-who-killed-nazis-through-seduction-dies-at-92/2018/09/16/7876eade-b9b7-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.65fb9a70540e

Co-produced & edited by Aaron C. Schroeder / Pierced Ears Recording Co, Seattle WA ([email protected])

Opening theme composed by T. Beaulieu. Closing theme composed by Dustfingaz (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRazhu_)

I recently put it up to a vote which Premium Bonus episode listeners would most like to see unlocked to free listeners, and our latest episode was the one most people voted for. So here it is.

In this episode, I take a concept created by author Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, and apply it to Black people to create a concept I call Black Pathology Realism, the idea that Black pathology and squalor is taken as such a given in society, by both Black and White people, that no one can truly even imagine a world where it doesn’t exist, that it’s just taken as the natural state of things. Something that can only be managed but not eliminated or cured. We discuss other things too, but we keep returning to that theme.

Discussed in this episode:

Thread by Tariq Nasheed showing the now-deleted tweet by Sophia A. Nelson blaming Black men for Serena’s recent tennis loss while praising White men https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1039016711855329280
The book Capitalist Realism by Mark FIsher https://amzn.to/2QFNTaQ
The Wikipedia entry for Capitalist Realism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_Realism:_Is_there_no_alternative%3F
This link of Jake Tapper grilling Ocasio-Cortez on how she plans to pay for her radical socialist platform is interesting because of all the unapologetically proactive and socialist propositions she stands by in the course of a single interview. Think about how such things never happen in political interviews about the Black condition, which usually are just filled with empty platitudes and Civil Rights reminescing https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jake-tapper-grills-ocasio-cortez-over-how-to-pay-for-40-trillion-platform-guess-im-not-going-to-get-an-answer/
Compare that to this Beto O’Rourke speech that was being praised by Black and White people alike for being so brave and progressive on race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWmh-maevk
Two breathlessly romantic pieces memorializing a recently deceased woman who lured Nazi men to their deaths via seduction and even killed a few by her own hand. Compare it to the narrow range of historical resistance Beto O’Rourke was allowing himself to praise in Bla
ck people. From the Inquisitr: https://www.inquisitr.com/5063183/freddie-oversteegen-who-as-teenager-lured-nazis-into-a-forest-to-make-out-then-had-them-killed-dies-at-92/  From Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/freddie-oversteegen-dutch-resistance-fighter-who-killed-nazis-through-seduction-dies-at-92/2018/09/16/7876eade-b9b7-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.65fb9a70540e

Co-produced & edited by Aaron C. Schroeder / Pierced Ears Recording Co, Seattle WA ([email protected])

Opening theme composed by T. Beaulieu. Closing theme composed by Dustfingaz (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRazhu_)