Episode Notes: Covid-19 Demands a National Reckoning

Episode 293 featuring Professor Eddie Glaude Jr.  Watch / Listen 

Description: The U.S. already has over one million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and tens of thousands of deaths. Victims of the disease are disproportionately black and working class. What explains our failure to build a more caring state? Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. argues that we must grapple with the divides at the core of our society in order to reimagine the U.S. with a fully inclusive sense of “us.” “What we have to do is tell the truth about who we are. We’re not the best country in the world. We’re not the most powerful people on the planet. We’re fallen, finite creatures who in this moment in most cases are dying alone…” Glaude says. This week’s thoughtful conversation ranges from the impact of decades of Neoliberalism on the American consciousness to the need for a return to compassionate, human-centered governance, to Glaude’s forthcoming book, Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.

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Related Articles and Resources:

• Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Dr. Eddie Glaude 

•Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons For Our Own by Dr. Eddie Glaude (to be released Fall 2020)

•The pandemic will pass. Our grief will endure. -Op Ed by Dr. Eddie Glaude, for the Washington Post 

•Princeton University Department of African American Studies 

Guest Bio:

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is a scholar who speaks to the black and blue in America. His most well-known books, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, take a wide look at black communities and reveal complexities, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for hope. Hope that is, in one of his favorite quotes from W.E.B Du Bois, “not hopeless, but a bit unhopeful.” Other muses include James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Bobby “Blue” Bland. In addition to his readings of early American philosophers and contemporary political scientists, Glaude turns to African American literature in his writing and teaching for insight into African American political life, religious thought, gender and class. 

He is chair of the Department of African American Studies, a program he first became involved with shaping as a doctoral candidate in Religion at Princeton. He is the current president of the American Academy of Religion. Read More… 

Featured ‘Music in the Middle’ of the Podcast:  

Music in the Middle: “A Love Supreme / Exodus” by Rebel Tumbao’s released on Sacred Rhythm Music and Cosmic Arts. More information