An Amerikan Family: Assata, Tupac, and the Black Liberation Struggle

Revolutionary Left Radio

Breht O'Shea

Communism, Politics, Liberalism, Society & Culture, Philosophy, News, History, Leftwing, Socialism, Marxism

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2023

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Santi Elijah Holley joins Breht to discuss his book "An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created". For over fifty years, the Shakurs have inspired generations of activists, scholars, and music fans. Many people are only familiar with Assata Shakur, the popular author and thinker, living for three decades in Cuban exile; or the late rapper Tupac. But the branches of the Shakur family tree extend widely, and the roots reach into the most furtive and hidden depths of the underground. Whether founding one of the most notorious Black Panther chapters in the country, spearheading community-based healthcare, or engaging in armed struggle with systemic oppression, the Shakurs were at the forefront.

Drawing from hundreds of hours of personal interviews, historical archives, court records, transcripts, and other rare documents, An Amerikan Family tells the complete and often devastating story of Black America’s long struggle for racial justice and the nation’s covert and repressive tactics to defeat that struggle. It is the story of a small but determined community, taking extreme, unconventional, and often perilous measures in the quest for freedom.

Outro music: "LIFE" by Saba

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everybody and welcome back to RevLeft Radio.
0:09.3	We just finished our best up series in the month of June and now we're getting right back
0:13.3	on track.
0:14.3	Today with a wonderful, important episode with Santee Elijah Hawley, the author of a new
0:20.2	book on the Shakur family, titled, An American Family, The Shakurs and the Nation They
0:26.0	Created.
0:27.0	We talk about Tupac, we talk about his mother Afini, we talk about his stepfather who had
0:32.6	a huge impact on him Matulu.
0:34.5	We talk about the Black Liberation Army and the Black Liberation movements that appeared
0:38.8	in the 60s and 70s.
0:40.7	We have a long section on Asada Shakur.
0:44.5	Her run in with the US State, her prison break with her comrades, her exile in Cuba, Castro's
0:52.4	willingness to take her in and protect her from the US State apparatus, etc.
0:57.8	Just a really fascinating conversation.
1:00.3	I've long wanted to do an episode on Tupac, a long wanted to do an episode on Asada and
1:06.8	this book came out and I saw it was the perfect time to cover those figures and much more.
1:13.1	So this is a really, really interesting and important work that I highly encourage people
1:17.4	to go out, check out, support, ask your local library to get it in, ask your local bookstores
1:23.3	to get it on the shelves.
1:25.6	It's really, really great and this interview with the author, Santi, is wonderful as well.
1:31.5	I'm also really excited to let listeners know that I have been in discussions with the
1:36.4	friends and comrades over at Kursplebadeb who is behind leftwingbooks.net.
	...

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