Every Week We’re Making Plain What’s Happening in the Black World and Interviewing Guests You Need to Hear.
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We launched S2 of the Make It Plain (MIP) Podcast to coincide with the historic founding of the Organisation of Afro-America Unity (OAAU). Malcolm X announced the establishment of the OAAU at a public meeting in New York's Audubon Ballroom sixty years ago, on June 28, 1964.
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Make It Plain (MIP) is an independent media platform, the editorial wing of Harambee OBU (HOBU), and a go-to-hub for Black radical politics.
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The host, Kehinde Andrews, teaches as a professor at Birmingham City University (BCU) where he co-led with Dr. Dionne Taylor the set-up of the first and only award-winning Black Studies BA + MA program in Europe, the chair of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity (HOBU), and editor-in-chief of Make It Plain. He is the author of "Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century" (2018), its prequel "The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World" (2021) and his latest "The Psychosis of Whiteness: Surviving the Insanity of a Racist World" out in Sept 2023.
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W: www.make-it-plain.org, www.blackunity.org.uk
IG: @makeitplainorg @kehindeandrews @harambeeobu
X: @makeitplainorg @kehinde_andrews @HarambeeOBU
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Written and hosted: Kehinde Andrews
Executive production: Weyland McKenzie-Witter
Coordination, socials + publishing: Oliver Luke Taylor
Socials input: Djeneba Deby Bagayoko
YouTube: Kadiri (Kehinde's son)
Theme music is "Patience" by Weyland McKenzie and AyChibs
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BROKE-ISH X MIP MASHUP: KEHINDE'S POLICE INTERVIEW, "COCONUT TRIAL," GOING BACK TO BLACK, BLACK RADICAL TRADITION, PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS W/ERIKA BROWN - S2 EP10
Season 2 · Episode 10
Friday, September 6, 2024 • Duration 01:33:25
In this week's Black World News,Kehinde nearly got arrested. The police, a Black police officer (at that) politely invited Kehinde for a voluntary interview at the police station about a video he put online. The video was posted on YouTube two months ago called It's not a Crime to Call a "Coconut" a "Coconut." Posted in response to Marieha Hussain's arrest for carrying a placard during a pro-Palestine demonstration, depicting the faces of former Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman, the former Tory home secretary, alongside coconuts under a tree on a beach. Since then she lost her job and was charged with a racially aggravated public order offense.
Marieha's trial is next week: September 12, 2024, at 10 am, at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, and the rally will be around 9 am. Kehinde plans to be there. - In this week's official guest interview, Kehinde is joined by Erika Brown, co-host of the Broke-ish podcast, for a mashup between Make it Plain and Broke-ish podcasts (the recording will be available on Broke-ish at a later date).
They explore with respectful dialogue and disagreement: how to embody the values of the Black radical tradition in their work and podcasting and consider what public sociology and public scholarship are, and how they fit in as Black radical public intellectuals. They talk about the good, the bad, and the in-between.
This podcast conversation has been partly funded by a grant Erika received from the Jane Nelson Institute for Women's Leadership at Texas University. - Erika Brown started working in corporate America when she was 20 and built a career of almost 25 years in Marketing and Product Management. From the time she was a child, she vowed that no one would know more about her money than her. Erika lives with her husband and two daughters in suburban Dallas, TX where she enjoys chicken on the bone as much as possible. Erika is a PhD student in sociology at the Texas Women's University.
Broke-ish is about being broke—broke and Black in America. About all the unbelievable *ish that America has done to Black people to keep us in this broke-ish state. How we've been in ways that personal finance tips and traditional financial literacy can’t fix. - BLACK WORLD NEWS LINKS
Harambee Organisation of Black Unity (Marcus Garvey Centre + Nicole Andrews Community Library, Birmingham, UK) https://www.blackunity.org.uk/
CAP25 - Convention of Afrikan People - Gambia - May 17-19, 2025 (Everyone's Welcome*) On Malcolm X’s 100th birthday, the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity is bringing together those in Afrika and the Diaspora who want to fulfill Malcolm’s legacy and build a global organization for Black people. This is an open invitation to anyone. *On the CAP Steering Committee, we have a Marginalized identities group that looks at LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized identities within Blackness, to ensure all Black people are included. https://make-it-plain.org/convention-of-afrikan-people/
BUF - Black United Front Global directory of Black organizations. This will be hosted completely free of charge so if you run a Black organization please email the name, address, website, and contact info to mip@blackunity.org.uk to be listed. - SOCIALS
BLACK STUDIES DEGREE SHUT DOWN, INTERVIEW WITH BLACK STUDIES DEGREE STUDENTS - S1 FINALE EP14 RERUN
Season 2
Friday, August 30, 2024 • Duration 45:11
This week we're rerunning the final episode from S1 of the MIP podcast with a (first on the pod) cameo appearance from executive producer Weyland McKenzie-Witter explaining the rerun. In short, it's due to the award-winning undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Arts) in Black Studies (which Kehinde co-created) being shut down by Birmingham City Uni (BCU). A life-changing and grounding break course. This is an institutionally racist move that continues the attack on Black thought in higher education. FYI: BCU is still running the Master of Arts in Black Studies degree program for Sept 2025/26 entry.
In the interview from 2023, Kehinde Andrews asks a mixture of Black Studies undergraduates and MA students; hearing testimonies from Eileen, Nae, Esther, Laura, Fonce, and Charlotte, from all three Black Studies degree courses at Birmingham City Uni about their experiences on the courses. The students featured are Eileen, Nae, Esther, Laura, Fonce, and Charlotte. - BLACK WORLD NEWS LINKS Kehinde speaks on the BCU's undegrad Black Studies course cancellation https://x.com/kehinde_andrews/status/1827358975085453638 - GUEST LINKS
Harambee Organisation of Black Unity (Marcus Garvey Centre + Nicole Andrews Community Library, Birmingham, UK) - Eileen, Nae, Esther, Laura, Fonce, and Charlotte (IG) (X) @makeitplainorg @weylandmck @inhisownterms @farafinmuso : (Blog) (YT) - -
S2 EP1 - GEORGE THE POET: "Coconuts," the Black Vote, "Track Record," Hip Hopaganda, Rejecting MBEs + More
Season 2 · Episode 1
Friday, June 28, 2024 • Duration 01:11:51
WELCOME BACK TO THE MAKE IT PLAIN PODCAST - Thanks for coming back! If you slept on S1 you can return to our earlier episodes (S1 was funded by the Evens Foundation in Europe, themed on Black Studies, featuring Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberlee Crenshaw, David Harewood + more).
This is S2, and we're taking a slightly different tact than S1. We'll still be interviewing official guests in academia, politics, and elsewhere. What's new is that we'll also be talking to interesting people on the ground from organizations on the Black United Front (BUF, a directory of Black orgs across the globe that Make it Plain has begun developing). - In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews makes plain the House Negro nonsense of the coconut trial of Mariah Hassan, a person who was charged with carrying a placard that pictured Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts. This isn't up for debate, this is not a criminal offense it's a defense of the Black radical intellectual tradition.
Kehinde also makes plain the general election, the ways you can and can't represent as a Black MP, and the myth and propaganda of the Black Vote. Not discounting our influence in marginal seats, the myth of the Black vote is a really bad way of understanding Black political power. Kehinde makes plain a better (local, national, and global) way of understanding politics through a Black mass membership international organization. - In this week's official guest interview, Kehinde Andrews talks with George the Poet (featuring his son in the background hehe) about his new book Track Record. George shares a section of the book that never made it to his book, "The Anti-Afrikan." They also discuss, turning down an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) honor, despite it "opening doors" and networking opportunities (but the question is, "which doors?" and"whose doors?"). - George the Poet AKA George Mpanga is a multi-dimensional man with lived experience and a London-born spoken word performer of Ugandan heritage. His innovative brand of musical poetry has won him critical acclaim both as a recording artist and a social commentator. George is also a husband, father, and Cambridge graduate. - - - - (IG) (X) (IG) (X) @makeitplainorg @weylandmck @inhisownterms @farafinmuso : (Blog) (YT) - -
S1 FINALE EP14 - BLACK STUDIES W/BLACK STUDIES DEGREE STUDENTS: "Ethnic Cleansing" in the Carrribean, Privy "Colonial" Council, David "No Reparations" Cameron, Being a BCU Black Studies Student + more
Season 1 · Episode 14
Friday, November 24, 2023 • Duration 01:02:35
In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews discusses a current case in Barbuda being fought about the construction of a new private airport and beach developments by largely US, UK, and Chinese foreigners. It's a fight by local "land defenders" against foreign multinationals carving up the island for tourism, "freedom," and tax reduction purposes. Developers are destroying the island's resources, including food security, culture, and livelihoods This case is part of a larger problem with the Carribean's legacy as slave colonies. - Check out the MIP YouTube Channel - This is going to be the final episode of Season 1of MIP's Black Studies Podcast Series, we hope you've enjoyed it! To wrap it up, this week Kehinde Andrews asks a mixture of Black Studies undergraduates and MA students from all three Black Studies degree courses at Birmingham City Uni (@MYBCU) about their POVs of the course. The students featured are Eileen, Nae, Esther, Laura, Fonce, and Charlotte. The courses are pretty much all female students currently. - BLACK WORLD NEWS LINKS
S1 EP13 - BLACK STUDIES W/DR. KADIAN POW: "COCONUTS & COONS", KADIAN'S NEW BOOK ON BLACK FEMALE IDENTITY, TEACHING BLACK STUDIES, BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES, BLACK WOMEN & SEXUAL SHAME + more
Season 1 · Episode 13
Friday, November 17, 2023 • Duration 01:13:14
In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews discusses the MET police's nonsense claim that the use of the political term "coconut" is a hate crime following a MET tweet (since removed) in the form of a protest poster of Rishi "Rish" Sunak and Cruella Vader-man. He argues that terms of political critique like "coconut" and "coon," which point out agents of White Supremacy especially if they are Black and Brown aren't racist terms and slurs. We must continue to defend our history, language, political critique, and ultimately our Black political thought. - Check out the MIP YouTube Channel - In this week's guest interview, Kehinde Andrews talks with Dr Kadian Pow about her part-autobiographical book "Stories of Black Female Identity in the Making: Queering the Love in Blackness." It looks at how different aspects of love have shaped Kadian's Black feminine identity, from family lessons to romantic love to love of Blackness and community. Using anecdata from early life to her 30s, tracing themes of feminism. They also discuss her teaching Black Studies, her Black-owned business, respectability politics, and her transition from being a former born-again Christian.
Her new book also part-inspired a mini summit event next Saturday, November 25th at Birmingham City University (BCU Curzon Building, B4 7BD) called "Black Women & Undoing Sexual Shame" (18+), organized by Black Ballad, event tickets are available here (For support: if you're a BCU student email Kadian.Pow@bcu.ac.uk and if you need help email support@blackballad.co.uk). - Kadian is currently a lecturer in Sociology and Black Studies at Birmingham City University (BCU), where she teaches courses in both Sociology and Black Studies with Kehinde Andrews (and his former PhD student). Her interest includes Black feminism, intersectionality, TV and social media, the sociology of Black natural hair, sexuality, and queer studies. She's also the creator of Bourn Beautiful Naturals (BB Naturals), a Black-owned solution-based skincare company. - - - @luddite_in_training (IG) @kadianpow (T) @kehindeandrews (IG) @kehinde_andrews (T) @makeitplainorg @weylandmck @inhisownterms @farafinmuso : (Web) | (YT) -
S1 EP12 - BLACK STUDIES W/DAWN BUTLER MP: Criminalizing Dissent, Reparations Washing, Dawn's Book on Purpose, Labour's Racism, Surviving Cancer, Policing, Kemi Badenoch + more
Season 1 · Episode 12
Friday, November 10, 2023 • Duration 01:12:39
In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews rants about reparations washing, and the recent case in point of Lloyd's of London's "slavery" report; why he'd need to report himself under the new UK gov plans to criminalize dissent that also directly focuses on Muslims, which essentially conflates extremism with radicalism, and more on Israel-Palestine. - Check out the MIP YouTube Channel - In this week's guest interview, Kehinde Andrews talks with Dawn Butler Labour Member of Parliament (MP) about how she navigates work as a Black female MP. Since day she has managed to represent, talk the truth, and most importantly stayed Black while doing her job in parliament—one of the Whitest places—despite the advice when she first came into parliament of "not to be too Black."
She's therefore an amazing example of what we need to see more of from politicians in electoral politics. In this interview, she offers examples, like THE coup ran against her when she ran for deputy speaker, of how she manages and balances the impact of engaging with the constant gendered and racial reminders that arise for a Black Woman in one of the UK's Whitest and highest-profile workplaces. - Dawn Butler a Labour Member of Parliament for Brent Central, London, the third Black woman to be elected an MP, the first ever to speak at the dispatch box and the first Black female chair of the women’s Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). She's the author of "A Purposeful Life: What I’ve Learned About Breaking Barriers and Inspiring Change" (2023). She was named the "most promising feminist under 35" by New Statesman magazine, honored as MP of the year at the 2009 Women in Public Life Awards, and was named one of the 25 most influential women in the UK by Vogue in 2020. - BLACK WORLD NEWS LINKS
S1 EP11 - BLACK STUDIES W/NELS ABBEY: King Charles, Reparations, Working Independently, Hip Hop MBA, Uppity, Dominique Samuels + more
Season 1 · Episode 11
Friday, November 3, 2023 • Duration 01:01:29
In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews discusses the "end" of Black Employment Month aka Black History Month, King Charles' unapologetically White speech during a recent state visit to Kenya, what is and isn't authentic reparatory justice, and the ongoing White psychosis of the British royal family. - In this week's guest interview, Kehinde Andrews talks with Nels Abbey. They discuss amongst many tings, his formative years in foster care and boarding school and his working years from asset banker to media exec. They also discuss, topical news including the current UK's most diverse yet most far-right government in history, Nel's new book out next year The Hip Hop MBA uses hip hop as a model for how we think about economics. his new event Uppity a monthly forum for discussing Black issues in Black communities with the first event The Trial of Dominique Samuels happening earlier this week at The Africa Centre. - Nels Abbey is a former asset management banker turned public intellectual, medical executive, broadcaster, satirist, author of "Think Like A White Man: A Satirical Guide to Conquering the World . . . While Black" (2019) and The Hip Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from Rap’s Moguls (out spring 2024) and most recently founder of "Uppity: An Intellectual Playground For The Refined & The Boujee." - Guest: @nelsabbey (IG + T) Host: @kehindeandrews (IG) @kehinde_andrews (T) Podcast team: @makeitplainorg @weylandmck @inhisownterms @farafinmuso - King Charles stops short of apology for ‘abhorrent’ colonial violence in Kenya https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/king-charles-stops-short-of-apology-for-british-colonial-violence-kenya
S1 EP10 - BLACK STUDIES W/PATRICIA HILL COLLINS: Saluting Our Sisters, Intersectionality, Black Feminism, Afrofuturism + more
Season 1 · Episode 10
Friday, October 27, 2023 • Duration 01:16:22
In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews discusses the theme of Black Employment Month AKA Black History Month "Saluting Our Sisters," the past and present overlooking of Black Women, and the importance of the Black feminist standpoint in understanding the world better. For example, why we mobilize more around the public spectacle of anti-Black violence against predominantly Black men that leads to liberal reforms and why we need to also look at the private violence that predominantly affects Black women, such as deaths in childbirth. Focussing on both will lead to more radical solutions. - In this week's guest interview, Kehinde Andrews talks with Patricia Hill Collins about her new book “Lethal Intersections: Race, Gender, and Violence,” the appropriation of intersectionality and what it is and isn’t, navigating her career in academia, the “public intellectual” and what it will take for Black people to be free.
Patricia Hill Collins is a distinguished US professor emerita of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the author of numerous award-winning books including her best-known and fundamental title "Black Feminist Thought" (originally published in 1990) and more (see below). She was the first ever elected Black female to be president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). This week Patricia was the winner of the very prestigious Berggruen Philosophy Prize, the first Black person to win this prize. - Black women four times more likely to die in childbirth https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59248345
Feminist Icon Patricia Hill Collins Becomes First Black Winner Of $1 Million Berggruen Prize - Patricia Hill Collins @kehindeandrews (IG) @kehinde_andrews (T) @makeitplainorg @weylandmck @inhisownterms @farafinmuso - Black British Book Festival, Southbank Centre
S1 EP9 - BLACK STUDIES W/ABDUL ALKALIMAT: Black Studies Past, Present and Future, Origins of the Movement, Activism, Scholarship + more
Season 1 · Episode 9
Friday, October 20, 2023 • Duration 01:10:55
In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews discusses the 14-year-old Black male being held in a headlock and tasered to the ground by a UK police officer and the problem with Black Employment Month aka Black History Month. - In this week's guest interview, Kehinde Andrews talks with Abdul Alkalimat, Black Studies OG and professor emeritus of African American Studies about what is Black studies, his books “The History of Black Studies” (2021) and “The Future of Black Studies” (2022) the battle for Black Studies in the US and the UK, and Black students today and our future.
Abdul Alkalimat (PhD University of Chicago) is one of the founders of the Black Studies movement, involved in the Black Radical Congress and Institute for the Black World, and a professor emeritus (retired) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He was one of three founders of the Organisation of Black American Culture (OBAC) and served as its first chairperson. - Outcry as shocking footage shows police tasering 14-year-old boy https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-taser-black-teenager-birmingham-b2431070.html
S1 EP8 - BLACK STUDIES W/BEVERLEY BRYAN: Black Women in History, Israel-Palestine Conflict, Black Power, Black Education, Heart of the Race + more
Season 1 · Episode 8
Friday, October 13, 2023 • Duration 01:17:00
In this week's Black World News, Kehinde Andrews discusses how we can understand the Israel-Palestine conflict through the prism of Black radicalism—understanding the universal of the world through the particular of Blackness—to see the world differently. - In this week's guest interview, Kehinde Andrews talks with Beverely Bryan about Black women in the movement and in Britain, teaching and Black Studies in the Carribean, US, and the UK, Black women organizing, and the future of Black community education on the ground.
Beverley Bryan is a retired professor of language education at the University of the West Indies for over 20 years, heavily involved in the Black Power movements and Black orgs in Britain (Black Panthers, early Black British Feminism, founding member of Brixton’s Black Women’s Group (BWG), Black Arts Workshop and Black Supplementary Schools), and co-author of recently republished Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain.
Heart Of The Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe How Olive Morris Fought for Black Women’s Rights in Britain Nigrescence (Negro to Black conversion theory) The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Frederick Engels Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain by Amrit Wilson - Beverley Bryan @kehindeandrews (IG) @kehinde_andrews (T) @makeitplainorg @weylandmck @inhisownterms @farafinmuso -
CAP25 - Convention of Afrikan People - Gambia - May 17-19, 2025 (Everyone's Welcome)
On Malcolm X’s 100th birthday, the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity is bringing together those in Afrika and the Diaspora who want to fulfill Malcolm’s legacy and build a global organization for Black people. This is an open invitation to anyone.
Global directory of Black organizations. This will be hosted completely free of charge so if you run a Black organization please email the name, address, website, and contact info to mip@blackunity.org.uk to be listed.
Make it Plain is the Editorial Wing of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity
BLACK WORLD NEWS LINKS It’s not a crime to call a "Coconut" a "Coconut."
Professor Kehinde Andrews explains why the terms Coconut, House Negro, Coon, and Uncle Tom are vital expressions of Black political thought that should be celebrated and not policed. Drawing on work in his book 'The Psychosis of Whiteness' this is a handy guide through the use of the words complete with many examples.
Delving into the music scene and iconic films from his childhood, as well as crucial political and economic moments in history, this book provides the backstory of where we are today. Honest, thought-provoking, and passionate, Track Record is a ground-breaking memoir by one of the UK's most unique voices.
The award-winning and critically acclaimed podcast from George the Poet delivers a fresh take on inner-city life through a mix of storytelling, music, and fiction.
CAP25 - Convention of Afrikan People - Gambia - May 17-19, 2025
On Malcolm X’s 100th birthday, the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity is bringing together those in Afrika and the Diaspora who want to fulfill Malcolm’s legacy and build a global organization for Black people. This is an open invitation to anyone.
Global directory of Black organizations. This will be hosted completely free of charge so if you run a Black organization please email the name, address, website, and contact info to mip@blackunity.org.uk to be listed.
Policing terms like House Negro insults Black political thought
"Terms like Coconut, House Negro, and Uncle Tom are not, and never were racial slurs. To view them as such is to fall down the rabbit hole of 'reverse racism'."
The Death of White Sociology by Joyce Ladner - Guest: Abdul Alkalimat Host: @kehindeandrews (IG) @kehinde_andrews (T) Podcast team: @makeitplainorg @weylandmck @inhisownterms @farafinmuso - THE PSYCHOSIS OF WHITENESS
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