“Respect the Office?” Absurd!_ on Soapbox
Guest: Margaret Kimberley
Topic: Black America and the U.S. Presidents
This week, Cindy chats with writer Margaret Kimberley about her latest book: Prejudential, Black America and the Presidents about the tragic legacy of U.S. presidents and their relationships to blacks. From slavery to Jim Crow, to the “New” Jim Crow of the prison industrial complex, not one president has a positive record on this question.
Cindy and Margaret also discuss the bizarre reverence and preoccupation the people in the US have with the Rogue’s Gallery of racists and murderers that have infested the Oval Office and reject the claim that “even if you don’t like the current president, you have to ‘respect the office.'” B.S.!
“This book is an effort to shed light on the truth. . . . To the extent that our leaders embody aspects of who we are as a people, studying how each president has participated in our nation’s complicated and often shameful treatment of black people is as good a place as any to start.” — Margaret Kimberley from the Preface
“Margaret Kimberley gives us an intellectual gem of prophetic fire about all the U.S. presidents and their deep roots in the vicious legacy of white supremacy and predatory capitalism. Such truths seem more than most Americans can bear, though we ignore her words at our own peril!” — Cornel West, author of Race Matters
PREJUDENTIAL is a concise, authoritative exploration of America’s relationship with race and black Americans through the lens of the presidents who have been elected to represent all of its people.
Throughout the history of the United States, numerous presidents have left their legacies as slaveholders, bigots, and inciters of racial violence, but were the ones generally regarded as more sympathetic to the plight and interests of black Americans—such as Lincoln, FDR, and Clinton—really much better? And what of all the presidents whose relationship with black America is not even considered in the pages of most history books? Over the course of 45 chapters—one for each president—Margaret Kimberley enlightens and informs readers about the attitudes and actions of the highest elected official in the country. By casting sunlight on an aspect of American history that is largely overlooked, Prejudential aims to increase awareness in a manner that will facilitate discussion and understanding.
Check out Margaret’s latest column for Black Agenda Report:
This show was broadcast on March 1, 2020.
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