Topic: Harlem Renaissance

The discussion introduces Carla Kaplan's book, "Miss Anne in Harlem," which explores the role of white women in the Harlem Renaissance. The term "Miss Anne" was coined by black domestic workers to refer to their white female employers. These women were often "rule breakers" who sought to "volunteer for blackness" as a way to escape the restrictions of white middle-class womanhood in the 1920s.

Author Isabel Wilkerson describes the "Great Migration," where millions of Black Americans fled the Jim Crow South for Northern industrial cities like New York and Chicago. This exodus was driven by the need for labor during World War I and the mechanization of cotton picking in 1927, which displaced agricultural workers. The hosts discuss the "Red Summer" of 1919 and the subsequent creation of "urban" identity, noting that Black migrants were often used as a wedge to drive down wages for white workers.

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s featured numerous queer artists and writers, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Gladys Bentley. Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has noted that the movement was as much a celebration of queer identity as it was of Black culture, though many elites maintained traditional public personas.

The co-option of political movements is examined, comparing the shift of the Tea Party from its Ron Paul libertarian roots to its current form with the evolution of Black Lives Matter. The discussion touches on how external forces historically influence black cultural movements, dating back to the Harlem Renaissance.