Radicalizing Jackson with Chokwe Antar Lumumba

It’s yet the latest installment in our ongoing series on the left and electoral politics. Dan’s guest is Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. Last year, Mayor Lumumba pledged to make Jackson “the most radical city on the planet.” Lumumba, who comes out of a decades-old revolutionary black nationalist movement, is serious about that. But he also faces serious challenges: Jackson is a majority black city which, like many such cities, has much of its wealth appropriated by its largely-white suburbs. The human and infrastructural needs are enormous, and the tax base is thin. This is precisely why so many on the left have found what’s going on in Jackson to be so interesting, and why Dan was eager to invite the mayor onto the show.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism by Nisha Kapoor. And Hara Hotel: A Tale of Syrian Refugees in Greece by Teresa Thornhill. And please make a contribution to support the long-run viability of this show at Patreon.com/TheDig