Going to be on the Marc Steiner show later on this afternoon talking about the book. I’m hoping to use that as the opportunity to talk a little bit about Occupy Baltimore and the potential role of hip-hop and other cultural forms. While there are a number of critiques to be made of the book, one fair critique is that it doesn’t really deal with examples of how hip-hop produces a different type of politics as opposed to simply reproducing something that already exists. I’ve begun work on a project that seeks to not only use hip-hop to build political awareness and activity locally, but also seeks to contribute in a specific sense to the call for open source projects that I believe should be one of the primary goals of the Occupy Movement.

Oh.

In related news I was on NPR the other day talking about Herman Cain’s chances. In short, I believe Herman Cain has a real chance of making a dent in the election. The GOP is for all intents and purposes the White Party, but I believe whites could pull the lever for Cain with absolutely no problem, given his ability to show he’s “one of them.” But if he steps outside of the box black conservatives are generally placed in–by speaking truth to power about racism for example–he’s done. He was on the precipice given his recent comments about Perry’s camp retreat (which is simply one of dozens of places with racist names). But he stepped back from the abyss quickly.