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'No Revolutionary Act Is Without Risk': The Root Presents It's Lit! and Charles Blow Dance With The Devil You Know

Charles Blow hadnโ€™t planned to write a manifesto on reverse migration. In fact, the New York Times columnist and author of the bestselling memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones was just writing...thoughts. Suggested Reading Ryan Coogler, Cynthia Erivo and More Reveal Their Favorite Movies of All Time The History of Brandy and Monica’s Messy,…

Charles Blow hadnโ€™t planned to write a manifesto on reverse migration. In fact, the New York Times columnist and author of the bestselling memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones was just writing...thoughts.

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โ€œI just remember one night thinking, โ€˜Oh, this is a good idea.โ€™ And I just started writing thoughts,โ€ Blow tells us during this weekโ€™s episode of The Root Presents: Itโ€™s Lit! โ€œI just kept writing because it was in my headโ€”and you know, once you get it into your head, you have to get it out, otherwise itโ€™ll be lost...I kept feeling that, โ€˜Oh, my God, youโ€™ve been working on this book this whole time and you didnโ€™t know it because you have all these things that tie into this thesis.โ€™โ€

The thesis? That descendants of the Great Migrationโ€”we now-Northern Blacks, as it wereโ€”retrace the steps of our ancestors in an effort to consolidate our power in the United States. In essence, Blow is suggesting we reject the grand (and by virtue of Northern-style racism and redlining, somewhat failed) experiment of migration to re-engage with the Southโ€”The Devil You Know, as he titled his latest book. The โ€œBlack Power Manifestoโ€ was published in late January by HarperCollins, and its author makes a compelling case for a Black liberation movement that runs contrary to our 20th century migratory patternsโ€”and for many of us, our current sensibilities.

Image: HarperCollins

โ€œI was fascinated by this,โ€ Blow tells us, โ€œand it occurred to me that, you knowโ€”not that reverse migration was a new thingโ€”itโ€™s a very old concept...but thinking of it as using the constitutional tools available to youโ€”breaking no laws, having no armed insurrection, just using the tools and your feetโ€”you could seize power.โ€

The flipping of the infamously red Georgia, one-time seat of the Confederacy, to blueโ€”by however slim a marginโ€”arguably bolsters Blowโ€™s position. Indeed, the Louisiana-born journalist turned longtime New Yorker had made Atlanta his primary home by the 2020 election season, giving him a front row seat to what a concentration of Black votes (with the tireless efforts and tenacity of Stacey Abrams) can do for democracy.

Considering the fact that at this very moment, Georgia Republicans are trying to find even more creative ways to suppress the Black vote, one might understandably pause at the thought of engaging with unapologetic white supremacists on a local level. As Blow concedes, itโ€™s not for everyone. But donโ€™t delude yourself; thereโ€™s more than enough racism north of the Mason-Dixon lineโ€”itโ€™s just more nuanced.

โ€œWhat Iโ€™m suggesting is a revolutionary act,โ€ says Blow. โ€œNo revolutionary act is without risk and itโ€™s not without resistance. And either we can march every time someone gets shot by the police but have no real change in policies or any of the architecture that put those police officers in contact with those young Black and Brown men and women in the first place, or we can say, โ€˜No, no, no, weโ€™re about to change this whole thing,โ€™ right? And itโ€™s a choice we make.โ€

Hear more about the revolution Charles Blow is proposing on Episode 22 of The Root Presents: Itโ€™s Lit!: The Next Great Migration, With Charles M. Blow, now available on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, Amazon, NPR One, TuneIn, and Radio Public. Also available is a transcript of this weekโ€™s episode.

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