In Class with Carr

The first one hundred days of the second Donald Trump presidency saw an unprecedented campaign to dismantle institutional norms and accelerate structural transformation, evoking the spirit of the earliest days of American settler colonialism. Each executive order, policy decision and rhetorical outburst worked to normalize a vision rooted in theocracy, white nationalist fascism, and xenophobic fer...

The rapid success of Ryan Coogler’s film Sinners provides an ideal text for analysis through the Africana Studies Disciplinary Framework. As we explore some of the film’s central themes, it becomes clear how both the film itself and responses to it reflect intersections of the Social Structure and Governance Disciplinary Conceptual Categories. Rooted in self-determination—both as a cinematic work...

In a week when Harvard University marked the first full-throated act of resistance in U.S. higher education against the rising tide of institutionalized Trumpism, we are also reminded—through annual rituals of remembrance—of our enduring struggle for liberation. From the commemoration of Jackie Robinson’s debut in Major League Baseball to the District of Columbia's observance of Compensated Emanci...

This week, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch offered expansive public remarks that help reframe how we think about nationhood, identity, and responsibility to the group. While we often see ourselves bound by narratives tied to constructs like “nations,” Bunch’s assertion that there is no single U.S. narrative—that there are many stories—reminds us that our existence is both local and global, root...

In a week when the imposition of US tariffs by an increasingly unstable federal government weaponized by white nationalism pushes the US and global economies towards global recession and depression, the University of South Carolina Women’s Basketball Team highlights ongoing tensions between race, power, and control in U.S. society. While Black students make up only 10% of USC’s student body, they...

The white nationalist movement in the U.S., now overburdening its manipulation of the electorate to dominate the executive and legislative branches, has become both more emboldened and chaotic in response to growing opposition from the courts, media, and the public. This movement, recognizing its increasing anxiety, has resorted to distractions such as controversial trips, absurd executive orders,...

At the Second Annual Morehouse CANDLE Lecture and Forum, under the theme “Pushing the Limits of Education: Pedagogy for the 21st Century,” the documentary “Belonging Beyond Brown” prompted deep reflection on themes such as education, self-determination, class, race, and culture. The discussion reminds us that an Africana Studies framework offers a model for renewing African humanity and helping to...

The last generation that fought for world-changing liberation during the Human and Civil Rights movements of the 1940s-70s is determined to institutionalize the lessons they learned for future generations. JOIN KNARRATIVE: https://www.knarrative.com it's the only way to get into #Knubia, where these classes are held live with a live chat. To shop Go to: TheGlobalMajority More from us: Knarrative T...

"In a world increasingly shaped by different forms of nationalism, the decline of the US empire accelerates as white nativists defend grifters rushing to harvest government infrastructure, threatening US influence and power on the global stage. Meanwhile, formations like the European Union and countries like China, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and South Africa are quickly forging new paths, strengtheni...

The passing of Roberta Cleopatra Flack during the final week of Black History Month 2025 bracketed the close of an era of Cultural Meaning-Making that opened during a watershed generation of popular cultural self-determination in Africana Governance formations. JOIN KNARRATIVE: https://www.knarrative.com it's the only way to get into #Knubia, where these classes are held live with a live chat. To...

As we approach the close of Black History Month 2025, our focus remains steadfast on drawing from the wisdom of our ancestors and examples from today, seeking guidance on how we can and will take meaningful action to address the challenges we face—locally, nationally, and globally. JOIN KNARRATIVE: https://www.knarrative.com it's the only way to get into #Knubia, where these classes are held live...

As we enter the second half of Blackest History Month 2025, we reflect on themes of power, influence, culture, and resistance, particularly within the context of Black thought, history, and contemporary developments in the US and global social structures. The contrast between figures like Kendrick Lamar (highlighted during the Super Bowl) and Donald Trump illustrates how power often intersects wit...

During the second week of Blackest History Month, we continue to seek insights from Carter G. Woodson to fuel the momentum of historical memory as a device for breaking through the noise, distraction, and disruption of contemporary events. Neely Fuller Jr. (1929-2025), an early proponent of what has been labeled “Anti-Racist” thinking, contended in 1971 that “If you do not understand White Suprema...

As we enter US Black History Month 2025, we face the most severe crisis in white global nationalisms since World War II. In the United States, white nationalists are making good on their promise to try to destabilize the federal government and redefine the country. As Carter G. Woodson originally envisioned, this time must serve as a moment for reflection—an opportunity to consider what we should...

Since the November 2024 U.S. Presidential election, it has become increasingly common for Africans in the U.S. and others to invoke the phrase “Fool Around and Find Out.” And the U.S. — along with the rest of the world — is certainly finding out. As serious observers and commentators have noted for years, Donald Trump represents a resurgence of global political intolerance, white nationalism, and...

This week’s In Class session will explore the symbolic clash between two diametrically opposed worldviews—represented by Trump and King—and examine how challenging oppressive structures can lay the groundwork for dismantling them. JOIN KNARRATIVE: https://www.knarrative.com it's the only way to get into #Knubia, where these classes are held live with a live chat. To shop Go to: TheGlobalMajority M...

The United States is in the midst of a propaganda and disinformation war, fueled by plutocrats and tech moguls like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, who have harnessed technology for profit. Meanwhile, the American empire remains unchecked, its worst nationalist and jingoistic impulses amplified by political opportunism at the highest levels. The times demand serious, accessible intellectual work, b...

The passing of James Earl Carter Jr. [1924-2024] marks the close of not only a century-long life but the end of an entire political, cultural, and social era. Carter, the 39th President of the United States, was an “outlier” in the US Social Structure—an embodiment of the deeply rooted laboring class from the neo-Confederate South. His worldview and political philosophy were shaped by a unique fus...

“As the world braced for intensifying international conflicts between countries, corporations and cultural movements, the final week of 2024 also saw a notable intensification of class conflict within the ranks of the nativist MAGA movement, as tensions grew between its controlling elites and its increasingly vocal white nationalist base. Often referred to as a “MAGA Civil War,” this internal rift...

2024 is ending with Intensifying nationalist and populist movements capturing more electorates and elected officials in key countries around the world. In the US, the Republican Party is no exception, its intensifying battles between oligarchs and policymakers enabled by white nationalism previewing what is in store for the general US population in 2025. Meanwhile, the global social structure move...

This week we will use the origin story of Philadelphia Freedom Schools to revisit the essential components of an African education: The intergenerational transmission of knowledge, values and wisdom; the development of character, social responsibility and accountability; and the training of next and future generations to assume roles currently held by elders. By re-membering from the deep well of...

December 5th marked the centennial birthday of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe of Azania [South Africa], the revolutionary Pan Africanist founder of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and one of the most impactful thinkers, organizers and voices of the 20th century. The day was marked by retrospectives in South Africa and in other places across the world, including at Sankofa Video and Books in Washin...

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As energy from the 2024 US federal elections continues to recede and US and global social structures fight to cover the inexorable shift of economic and political tumult with a distracting and numbing facade of normalcy, we turn to three subjects that should anchor how we plan for seizing the momentum of memory in 2025: Black Institutions, Black People and Black Possibilities. JOIN KNARRATIVE: htt...