Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ta-Nehisi Coates sat down for a chat today, on MLK Day, specifically because he and the organizers wanted someone who they felt embodied Dr. King's radical vision of the integration of racial and economic justice. It's about 50 minutes long, but please watch it - it's a fantastic talk.
Some highlights:
-AOC discusses her upbringing and how she was able to see the economic disparity that occurs simply because of location, plus some elements of liberal racism she had to deal with
-They talk about how the New Deal and redlining contributed to the gap in white and black wealth and how reparations are needed to overcome it
-They discuss resistance to Amazon
-AOC explicitly says that a society is not moral if it allows billionaires, not because of billionaires themselves necessarily being "bad people" but because of what it means for how society allows its wealth to be handled
-AOC goes into her understanding of democratic socialism, how portraying socialism as "big government" is a McCarthyist scare tactic, and how socialism is actually about establishing democracy within the economy such as through worker co-operatives
Remember how pessimistic TNC was when he went on Colbert? None of that here. He's basically fawning the whole time. It's pretty amazing overall.
Some highlights:
-AOC discusses her upbringing and how she was able to see the economic disparity that occurs simply because of location, plus some elements of liberal racism she had to deal with
-They talk about how the New Deal and redlining contributed to the gap in white and black wealth and how reparations are needed to overcome it
-They discuss resistance to Amazon
-AOC explicitly says that a society is not moral if it allows billionaires, not because of billionaires themselves necessarily being "bad people" but because of what it means for how society allows its wealth to be handled
-AOC goes into her understanding of democratic socialism, how portraying socialism as "big government" is a McCarthyist scare tactic, and how socialism is actually about establishing democracy within the economy such as through worker co-operatives
Remember how pessimistic TNC was when he went on Colbert? None of that here. He's basically fawning the whole time. It's pretty amazing overall.
