The midterm election is on November 8, 2022. The country, especially Black voters, has the power to contest the placement of 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate. 

In honor of Black History Month, we discuss the history of Black voter suppression and evaluate how Malcolm X’s 1964 speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet'' still maintains significant relevance today and why the power of the Black vote is just as important now as it was then. What is black nationalism? Why has political efficacy been historically lower among Black voters? Why is Dr. Cornel West so obsessed with “neofascist gangstas in the White House”?! Join us as we try to find answers to all these questions and more on this week’s episode!

We’d love to hear your feedback, thoughts, and suggestions on what you’d like to hear for future episodes. Shoot us a note at 2beesinthetrap@gmail.com.

Hive Mind

Recommended reading and resources:

• Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams
• One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson
• Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West
• Race Matters by Cornel West
• Say It Louder!: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy by Tiffany Cross
• Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Gender and American Culture) by Barbara Ransby
• Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy by Darryl Pinckney
• Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Dr. Henry Louis Gates
• The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is