Guests: Bro Dr Toyin Agbetu and Kymone Freeman

More information, including some links for further exploration

Brother Dr. Toyin Agbetu, scholar and founder of the Ligali organization in Britain, along with We Act Radio’s Kymone Freeman, joined “Conversations Toward Repair” on October 12.

Bro Dr Toyin spoke about the cognitive dissonance caused by simultaneous presentation, from both the UK and the US, of a “we’re going to save the world” image with violence of white supremacy, an almost cartoon-like image of nobility coupled with the threat of total annihilation via nuclear weapons and other forms of military threat.

During the far-ranging conversation, Bro Dr Toyin mentioned Johan Galtung as originator of the “structural violence” concept. Learn more about Galtung and direct, cultural, and structural elements of the “triangle of violence.”

Conversation included white supremacy’s obsession with antisemitism, in history and in a celebrity story brewing in the US (before October 12 and since), with the term itself originating from its perpetrators. More on that history from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Kymone suggested that everyone should have the same information, regarding then-recent Tweets which continue to fuel argument around antisemitism, the role of celebrity, and demands that various people and groups repudiate opinions of an individual or organization. Some of those Tweets, beginning with Ye’s Oct 9 message about Jews, are posted here. “Conversations Toward Repair” will continue to focus on wider underlying issues, but the background is offered, as Kymone suggested, so that everyone has access to the same information, whether on Twitter or not.

We discussed the need to address bigotry without giving more prominence to those espousing it and the effort to keep focusing on bigger issues.

Even with us discussing him now — We’re not discussing the inequality faced by police brutality on the streets, against people like Chris Kaba in the UK, for example. They [celebrities] eat up our space — not just our time when we’re talking, but our space to analyze issues, and our headspace and with our spirit.

…music is key, it’s one of our most potent weapons…and we have to have a fight to reclaim it…. — Bro Dr Toyin

We also discussed differences in language, some of which can be attributed to differences between US vs UK English and some of which is based in philosophy: In the US, for example, some use expressions like “anti-Black racism” to make explicit what otherwise can disappear in more general language about bigotry or racism; Toyin prefers the expression “Afriphobia” so as not to adopt racialized language. More on his scholarly work.

We Act Radio is no longer maintaining website; material retrieved from Archive.org