Debunking an illusion inhibiting the Black Struggle: A review of Jared Ball’s new book

Originally published by Nino Brown as part of the Liberation School of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Introduction In the wake of the most recent rebellions against racism and police terror, there were widespread calls to “support Black businesses.” These calls were another reiteration of what Jared Ball demystifies in his latest book: The Myth…

Read more

Book Review: The Prologue, The Prototype, The O.G. Hater

https://www.youtube.com/embed/3_awAF4Gjho Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 (Vol. 1, published in 2009). Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927 (Vol. 2, published in December 2020). Both volumes written by Jeffrey B. Perry. New York: Columbia University Press. Reviewed by Todd Steven Burroughs Hubert Henry Harrison had clearly spent too much time on the inside. After years…

Read more

BOOK REVIEW: “Same Old Devil”: In Time of National Turmoil, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Stephen Vittoria Recall A Nation Devoid of Justice

Murder, Incorporated: Empire, Genocide, Manifest Destiny. Book Three: Perfecting Tyranny. By Mumia Abu-Jamal and Stephen Vittoria. Foreword by Angela Y. Davis. San Francisco: Prison Radio, 385 pp., $27.   Reviewed by Todd Steven Burroughs THE ARC OF the radical universe is long, and Abu-Jamal and Vittoria are determined to extend it well into the 21st…

Read more

“Fire In The Hole: Why Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz Is Important To Creative Revolutionaries” by Fred Ho

It was announced Sunday night that Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, a political prisoner in the tradition of George Jackson and so many others, has added COVID to his fourth-stage cancer diagnosis. The following, written by Fred Ho, is from the prelude of Shoatz’s 2013 book, Maroon The Implacable: The Collected Writings of Russell Maroon Shoatz. Ho…

Read more

BOOK REVIEW: MALCOLM THE TENTH? MORE LIKE 7 3/8ths: THE POWERFUL PAYNE PAINFULLY PETERS OUT BEFORE PUNTING

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. Les Payne and Tamara Payne. New York: Liverlight. 537 pp., $35. Reviewed by Todd Steven Burroughs It must be great to be a renowned-but-recently-deceased Black writer, because your half-effort gets a full heaping of praise from the grave. In this case, history is not rhyming, but looping….

Read more