We are publishing a transcript of Dr. Anthony Monteiro’s opening remarks from the Saturday Free School’s October 26, 2024 session on The Upcoming Election and BRICS. The Free School meets every Saturday at 10:30 AM, and is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube.
Good morning everybody. We’re ten days out from what could be one of the most important elections in modern American history, and important for reasons that many people are not aware of. And certainly the general commentary and the mainstream media is not sensitive to what I think is the main meaning of this election.
And that is the alignment of forces and the realignment of political forces going forward. I did an interview with Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Radio and, you know, she started the interview asking about Obama and his, you know, I’ll use this language to begin with—his imploring Black men to get out the vote for Kamala Harris. And the problem of Black men’s lack of enthusiasm for her, he thought, was that they were male supremacist and misogynist. Which is not unusual coming from him. He has made a career; actual career of attacking Black men. From his election campaign in 2008 to one of the first speeches he gave in Chicago at a Black church in 2009, where he said in effect that the problem—Black men create a problem for themselves and hence for society.
Of course this goes back to Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk and of course to Baldwin in so much of his writing. And it is the white supremacist trick, or move, to transfer the problem and all of the problems to Black folk, and now to Black men. This line of attack became central to Black radical feminism going forward. And it has done damage to the unity of genders among Black people. That is of course, the ideological framing of the problem.
The decline of Black men over the last 30 years has been something that few politicians, not to mention social scientists want to talk about. The poorest group in society are Black children. The next poorest group are Black men. In some ways, their poverty carries a qualitatively different character to Black children, because Black male poverty is something like a death march. Because once—and we’ve seen it as we’ve gone around Philadelphia. Once men reach a certain age, probably in their 20s—young Black men—and they’re locked into poverty, they can never get out. So it is qualitatively different. But then the entire society turns on them. I mean literally turns on them, everything from the police to the schools; we see it in the schools, to society in general, including the Black misleadership class. And you know, the thing is they know it. They know it. And if you, you know, go to certain neighborhoods—and you don’t have to, you know, walk up and ask anybody—you have eyes to see. When you see tens of Black men just standing on a corner, standing outside a store, just walking aimlessly. You realize that these men are on a death march. Their life expectancies are far below the general life expectancy in the society.
Well at any rate Obama, to endear himself to the white establishment; and that’s what his career has been, generally. To be made a celebrity in the white world. And then so-called, his strategy is to transfer the celebrity from white people to Black people. In other words, and this, you know, this is among many oppressed groups. Certainly Black people, “Oh Barack Obama is accepted by white people. He must be doing something right.” That’s that double consciousness. And then it works so strangely and in such a hilarious way sometimes. “Oh he must be, he has to be a genius. White people accept him.” And then something kicks in and say, “Wait a minute, white people accept him.” It’s something wrong with this calculus, you know. But that’s what he is. And he’s attacked Black men, in spite of the crisis that they find themselves in. And there’s always an audience among Black and white elites for this type of rhetoric, you know. And so when he speaks he has generally gotten wide applause. While Black poor men are standing in the corner, standing outside homeless and so on. You can go into certain Black churches, and this is a critical thing of Black churches. And we have to, you know—the ideological development of the Black church, of some Black churches since the Civil Rights Movement. Where they have turned their backs on the poor and on young men.
Just one other thing as an example. I was saying to some people this morning that when I graduated from Lincoln University. It was founded, first Black college in the nation, founded in 1854 as a college to educate Black men who were going into the ministry. And it was male, and then after the Civil War and Reconstruction, it took on the name Lincoln University after President Lincoln. And, you know, all Black colleges that are named after someone are all named after Abolitionists or union officers. For example, Fisk University where Du Bois got his undergraduate degree, is named after Fisk who was a colonel in the Union Army. Howard University is named after all another Union officer and such. Wilberforce is named after the Methodist Minister who opposed the slave trade. So it’s quite an interesting thing to think about, that Black colleges that are named for someone are all named for anti-slavery figures. I don’t think that exists anywhere else in this society. But nonetheless we were begun as a male college and we remain so up until the middle 60s. And a small college which graduated some of the major figures in Black and African history.
In fact, two presidents of African nations graduated from Lincoln. The first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. And the first president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe. Both graduated from Lincoln. The first Black who was on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, graduated from Lincoln. Langston Hughes, the great poet and writer and Poet Laureate of Black people, coming out of the Harlem Renaissance, graduated from Lincoln. And even though when I went there we only had about 600 students, we felt that we were the smartest student body and the most revolutionary student body in the country.
I think we were, I mean, like if somebody came from Harvard or Yale and talking trash. I can’t explain just how much contempt we had. First of all for any Black person that went to a white University. That was Uncle Tom written all over it. But that’s the way we roll. By the way Gil Scott Heron graduated with us too. So we had this proud history. And no one was against us becoming co-ed. You have for example among historically Black colleges, some that were always co-ed. Some that began as let’s say all male and became co-ed, like Lincoln. And others who have remained single sex. Spellman remains a women’s college. And it’s a good thing. Morehouse remains a male college. Fisk was always co-ed. Howard University was always co-ed. What they would call A&Ts, that is Agriculture and Techinical, were always, like North Carolina A&T. And that’s where the great debate between Du Bois and Booker T. Washington kicked off: should Black people have universities that teach a general liberal arts curriculum? Does everything that, you know, college for us meant, you know, like Booker T. Washington said: you got to learn to do something with your hands. So you can go to Tuskegee University and take up horseshoe fitting. You know, it’s just the complete—and he was funded to do that.
But so, I was talking, we were just rapping and stuff. Now, Lincoln University 70 percent of the students are women. Young men are so far behind. From the beginning, from elementary school, they cannot even get into a college, especially a historically Black college. And then you know, fraternities and sororities are a big thing at Black colleges. It’s what they call the Divine Nine—that’s what Kamala Harris was trying to tap into. The divine nine are the male fraternities and the female sororities. I mean, it’s a very interesting thing, you know. What they do, how they conduct themselves. I think it’s gone a little bit too far, but anyway. It’s gotten so bad that they are thinking about decertifying male fraternities at Lincoln because the male students cannot even get a C average. Is this because of them? Or has this long Death March been imposed on them?
I say that to say that in the face of all of this, Obama, whom I do not consider to be a Black man. By that, by a Black man we mean two things. And have always meant this. Not your physical skin. It meant a legacy that goes back to slavery, you know. And having lived under Jim Crow laws. So Obama, neither your parents have a legacy back to slavery and none of them lived under Jim Crow laws. So his sensibility, I don’t care how you cut it, is not Black. And if you study him, it’s all fake. In fact he had to hire an actor to teach him how to stroll, get his stroll on, yeah. I mean it’s deeper than deep. Now you know, I consider myself to be a teacher, I teach people how to get they strolls on you know (laughs), in the unique Philadelphia way. But even that, he’s fake. He’s a complete fake and a dilettante. Same thing with Kamala—you not Black. I mean yeah you down with Black people, you more down with Black than Obama is, you understand? She really is. But, you was raised in Canada.
I mean, really. So, it is a funny thing. But anyway, on whose authority did Obama attack these Black men in Pittsburgh, calling them misogynists? And of course everything that’s wrong with the social reality can be traced back to somebody Black, a Black man, you know, we’re the most homophobic, transphobic, misogynist, irresponsible. All of that is us. If you want to know everything wrong and backward in society its name is: Black man.
And so, Black men are very angry. I mean, they talk about the angry white man, they ain’t seen nothing. The only difference between the angry Black man and angry white man—well first of all the Black man is angrier and these white men are more armed, which you know, makes them extremely dangerous. And they got more motorcycles and you know, all that stuff. They don’t listen to good music either.
But I say that to say that Margaret [Kimberly] asked me about that in the interview. And I said first of all Barack Obama’s a spent political force. And she brought up then Bill Clinton. I said he too is a spent political force. And the next question is, if the most visible, the most recognizable leaders of that party are spent, is the party not a spent force? And if the Democratic Party cannot hold its base together, especially the Black vote and more particularly the Black male vote; then can that party long exist as a national political force?
I would argue that the significance of this election is the way the various political and social forces are aligning themselves in such a way that neither party will be the same after the election. Each of these parties, and I think ironically the Democratic Party more quickly than the Republican Party.
It is to the advantage of the Republican Party that they produced Trump. And, you know, everybody in the Republican Party is not a follower of Trump. But all of them know that if they have a future as a politician for the time being, they have to identify with Trump because he realigned the party from a class point of view. Making it now what the Democratic Party claimed it was: the party of working people and Black people. Now the Republican Party is more the party of working people, and increasingly of Blacks and Latinos. But without policies that serve Black and Latinos and working people, the Republican Party will not be able to hold that.
So and then of course, you know Trump is so against what he thinks is socialism that he cannot adopt the policies that will do anything for this base of his election. So I think—I’ll just, you know make a long story short. The significance of this election is neither Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. The significance is the realignment of masses of people. Nowhere more dramatic than among Black men. Nowhere more dramatic. So much so that a few thousand, by a few I’m talking about 20, 25,000, maybe 30,000 Black men in the city of Philadelphia can decide who the next president will be. Because Pennsylvania will decide the next president, I believe. And Philadelphia decides which way Pennsylvania goes. And the Black vote decides Philadelphia.
So in a situation like this, a relatively small group of Black men, and I want to emphasize Black men. And you know, Purba and I talk about this all the time—ain’t nothing wrong with talking about Black men. It does not make you a misogynist to talk about the problems of men or Black men. I’m a Black man and I’m proud of it, you know what I’m saying. So don’t try to shame me like I’m the cause of all the oppression in this society. Some people even go back to say “Black men, y’all the cause of slavery.” I mean now that’s, they done got that deep in some narrative. But it’s nothing wrong with pointing out this highly alienated, highly impoverished, deeply enraged and deeply angry group in this society can decide who the next president will be.
All eyes right now are on Pennsylvania. All eyes are on Pennsylvania because Pennsylvania will decide the election. I think the other thing is that it is so extraordinary how quickly the Kamala Harris campaign collapsed. I mean it went up so quickly and you know that’s why at the convention they were talking about the politics of joy, you know. Now it’s the politics of “I don’t know what’s gonna happen, if I can hold this thing together,” you know. But she can’t. And Margaret was asking me about Kamala and she said well she doesn’t have the political skills of Obama or Clinton, Bill Clinton. I said well, I don’t think it’s only a matter of political skills. She was asked to do the impossible. She didn’t know it was impossible at the time. But as it turns out, the impossible. To become a candidate of change while you’re the Vice President in the administration that is the administration of “Let’s keep everything like it is,” you know. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be in that situation. That’s why she comes off as so indecisive. Because every week they have to change her narrative. Okay. So she probably has some skills, maybe not great skills, but you know, money can change a lot of things, and she got over a billion dollars so you know, they could, you know, brand her and advertise her and market her in ways that could win. But not this time. Not this time.
And then, all of the contradictions within the society are a part of this election. Like they say, and this is a false—”Obama’s legacy is on the ballot.” I have the misfortune of, you know, staying up late and looking at all of this on MSNBC. And, you know, all of these talking heads and so-called political experts, you know. It went from “Obama’s legacy is on the ballot,” now this week “fascism is on the ballot,” and then they shifted that to “Hitler’s on the ballot.” Yeah, they went to Hitler now. So, I mean it’s great comedy, I can tell you, “Hitler’s on the ballot.”
So, they’re flailing. And the thing is that all of the polls are saying the same thing. Her campaign collapsed. They don’t want to admit it, but it’s collapsed. And it was dramatic, and it was sudden. I guess this is the way these things happen. She just couldn’t—and they don’t know how to reconstitute, to get it back where it was in August. And they probably can’t. It’s still going to be a close election. No matter what side wins, the nation is so divided, there will be something that looks like a civil war. I sometimes used to think and I still think as this logic unfolds, it probably look like a pre-revolutionary situation. And by revolution I like to be clear. What I am talking about is a democratic revolution where the people say, “We must take power. We must take power.” And by taking power we’re talking about their replacing the current ruling elite. What form that will take is not clear.
A civil war seemingly at this time would be the more natural outcome in the immediate sense. The country is divided. Each side sees this as a zero sum game. The Trump people will not negotiate a compromise with the Democrats. In fact Trump has said the opposite, “I’m going to go after you all. I’m going to lock you up if you can. I’m going to investigate your taxes.” In other words, “Everything y’all did to me, I’m going to do to you.” So that’s not a recipe for, you know, a united government. And the Democrats, if they get in, we’ve seen already what they’re doing by shutting down dissent, shutting down people’s accounts on Twitter or Facebook, or shutting down podcasts and so on. They have already taken major steps towards criminalizing dissent and they will probably continue that because they are the party of empire. It is no other way to look at it. And of war.
And this is what makes it so complicated with Trump who—see, people are looking for a moral center. Not just a political center, not just a candidate. And that’s why, you know, the issue in the end is character. But character in the sense of a moral character. And so I’ll just end here. I think at this point it looks like Trump will win. There are commentators who believe he could win a popular majority, that he will rack up such numbers in places like New York and New Jersey, even though he doesn’t win those states. And in the South and in Pennsylvania and big states like these, that he could win a popular majority as well as an electoral college victory. That the Democrats will lose the Senate and Republicans will hold on to the House. Well, saying that—Republicans holding on. Even talking that way when in a lot of ways, the Republicans or a big part of the Republican Party are Trump followers. And so that party is fragile.
But then what will be the policies? What will be the moral center? Trump running around here talking about, he wants Netanyahu to do what he has to do. That is a descent into immorality. In the face of children being bombed. I know a lot of people, like Jerry, say “I can’t go there with you, man.” I’m down with you on Korea, the Korean Peninsula and all that. But man once you start talking like that, it is so morally disgraceful. You see, that’s that default to whiteness. So the white thing—”we’re gonna have it all ways,” you know. “And anything I say.” But dog, it ain’t working that way in this world, you know. And then of course Santanu’s gonna talk about BRICS and all of that. The world has changed. Even Israel has to realize that Iran could wipe you off the face of the earth, with a quickness. So chill. Act like you know, and then, you know, a whole number of things. I’ll stop there. I would recommend maybe if you have time, listen to that interview I did with Margaret.
Avant-Garde: A Journal of Peace, Democracy, and Science 
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