http://audioport.org en-us **Hard Knock Radio: Davey D & Dr. Rosa Clemente** On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D welcomed back Dr. Rosa Clemente to discuss her growing seminar series, "The Black Puerto Rican Radical Tradition," which has attracted over 100 participants by centering Pan-Africanism and Puerto Rican nationalist history in a way mainstream media consistently ignores. Both hosts connected the seminar's popularity to a broader, state-driven campaign to erase Black and Brown history from schools, universities, and even embassy walls " pointing to gutted humanities programs, banned books, removed museum exhibits, and the forced takedown of a Kehinde Wiley painting at the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. They argued that this erasure is not passive but coordinated, designed to strip communities of the political imagination needed to resist. The conversation then turned to electoral politics, with Clemente delivering a pointed critique of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calling both anti-Black for laughing off "wokenism" and pledging partnership with the NYPD " reversals of commitments made during their campaigns. Clemente declared herself done with electoral politics entirely, warning that progressive-branded candidates who erase Blackness from their politics will ultimately fail communities of color the same way centrist Democrats have. She closed by sounding the alarm on Puerto Rico's deepening water crisis, where municipalities go without water every other day while San Juan's hotels remain fully supplied " a stark illustration, she argued, of colonialism operating in real time. --- **5 Key Takeaways** 1. **Political education is an act of resistance.** Rosa Clemente's "Black Puerto Rican Radical Tradition" seminar demonstrates that community-led political education " outside of institutional settings " is filling a vacuum deliberately created by state-backed curriculum erasure. 2. **The erasure of history is systematic, not incidental.** From school boards to PhD programs to embassy walls, Davey D and Clemente documented a coordinated effort to remove Black and Brown history, political traditions, and even vocabulary from public life. 3. **The COVID generation needs grace and engagement.** Students entering higher education today came of age through a pandemic, the George Floyd uprising, and two Trump terms " leaving many politically beaten down, socially withdrawn, and over-reliant on AI. Educators must actively create spaces for them to find their voice. 4. **Progressive politicians are betraying their base.** Clemente's critique of AOC and Mamdani centers on a pattern of making radical promises to Black and Brown organizers, then abandoning them within months once elected " with no accountability mechanism in place to push back. 5. **Puerto Rico's water crisis is a colonial crisis.** With municipalities receiving water only every other day while San Juan hotels go unaffected, Clemente framed the island's infrastructure collapse as a deliberate political choice " and called on listeners to follow the Feminist Collective of Puerto Rico, which has been doing frontline mutual aid work since Hurricane Maria. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Pacifica Audioport Podcast Generator mrdaveyd@gmail.com (Davey D/Hard Knock Radio) omaclay@gmail.com (Audioport Admin) Mon, 31 Aug 2026 01:00:00 EDT mrdaveyd@gmail.com (Davey D/Hard Knock Radio) Mon, 31 Aug 2026 01:00:00 EDT http://audioport.org/index.php?op=program-info&program_id=336485 http://audioport.org/index.php?op=program-info&program_id=336485&file_id=380403 **Hard Knock Radio: Davey D & Dr. Rosa Clemente** On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D welcomed back Dr. Rosa Clemente to discuss her growing seminar series, "The Black Puerto Rican Radical Tradition," which has attracted over 100 participants by centering Pan-Africanism and Puerto Rican nationalist history in a way mainstream media consistently ignores. Both hosts connected the seminar's popularity to a broader, state-driven campaign to erase Black and Brown history from schools, universities, and even embassy walls " pointing to gutted humanities programs, banned books, removed museum exhibits, and the forced takedown of a Kehinde Wiley painting at the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. They argued that this erasure is not passive but coordinated, designed to strip communities of the political imagination needed to resist. The conversation then turned to electoral politics, with Clemente delivering a pointed critique of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calling both anti-Black for laughing off "wokenism" and pledging partnership with the NYPD " reversals of commitments made during their campaigns. Clemente declared herself done with electoral politics entirely, warning that progressive-branded candidates who erase Blackness from their politics will ultimately fail communities of color the same way centrist Democrats have. She closed by sounding the alarm on Puerto Rico's deepening water crisis, where municipalities go without water every other day while San Juan's hotels remain fully supplied " a stark illustration, she argued, of colonialism operating in real time. --- **5 Key Takeaways** 1. **Political education is an act of resistance.** Rosa Clemente's "Black Puerto Rican Radical Tradition" seminar demonstrates that community-led political education " outside of institutional settings " is filling a vacuum deliberately created by state-backed curriculum erasure. 2. **The erasure of history is systematic, not incidental.** From school boards to PhD programs to embassy walls, Davey D and Clemente documented a coordinated effort to remove Black and Brown history, political traditions, and even vocabulary from public life. 3. **The COVID generation needs grace and engagement.** Students entering higher education today came of age through a pandemic, the George Floyd uprising, and two Trump terms " leaving many politically beaten down, socially withdrawn, and over-reliant on AI. Educators must actively create spaces for them to find their voice. 4. **Progressive politicians are betraying their base.** Clemente's critique of AOC and Mamdani centers on a pattern of making radical promises to Black and Brown organizers, then abandoning them within months once elected " with no accountability mechanism in place to push back. 5. **Puerto Rico's water crisis is a colonial crisis.** With municipalities receiving water only every other day while San Juan hotels go unaffected, Clemente framed the island's infrastructure collapse as a deliberate political choice " and called on listeners to follow the Feminist Collective of Puerto Rico, which has been doing frontline mutual aid work since Hurricane Maria.