Eddie Glaude on the third founding of America (featuring musical guest Angela Predhomme)

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is an intellectual who speaks to the complex dynamics of the American experience.  His most well-known books, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, take a wide look at black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States, and the challenges our democracy face.  He is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  In his writings, the country’s complexities,  vulnerabilities, and the opportunities for hope come into full view. Hope that is, in one of his favorite quotes from W.E.B Du Bois, “not hopeless, but a bit unhopeful.” Glaude’s most recent book, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, was released on  June 30, 2020. Of Baldwin, Glaude writes, “Baldwin’s writing does not bear witness to the glory of America. It reveals the country’s sins, and the illusion of innocence that blinds us to the reality of others. Baldwin’s vision requires a confrontation with our history (with slavery, Jim Crow segregation, with whiteness) to overcome its hold on us. Not to posit the greatness of America, but to establish the ground upon which to imagine the country anew.” MUSICAL GUEST: Angela Predhomme is an American singer-songwriter and music producer. Her first album, Angela Predhomme, was released in 2008, and she has since released four more independent albums: Don't Wonder, Let It Fall, Will, and her most recent, Love. Predhomme also released a holiday EP in 2017 called Holidayolio. LYRICS: You've been denying it for years These are deep-seated fears It's not acceptance It's not inclusion It's collusion It's the lie It's there for all to see Implicit supremacy Why to hide it? Why deny it? Why the long face? Why the lie? If you're invited to a table That you build with your own hands It's not a bridge It's not inclusive It's exclusion It's the lie There's a serpent round the legs And its eyes your throat Feel it moving Feel it rising Feel the coldness Feel the lie If you decide your destiny And control identity You'll see the tightening Feel the grip Here it comes It's the lie Its the warped reality At the heart of the country It's the decay It's the wreckage It's the damage It's the lie The foundations are all rotten And the termites caused destruction The walls are caving The roof is failing It's coming down It's all a lie Somewhere in the wreckage In the rubble of the righteous Are the honest Are the real Is the pure Is the truth There's a reckoning to come When the sorting will be done Without derision Without division Without the hatred Without the lie The kiln is fired up Rage is burning hot Forge again In the fires In the flames Beat out the lie Build it for the third time Rising from the ashes Hope's renewed Hope's revived Hope's reborn Without the lie