bomb the suburbs by william upski wimsatt

Say what? Was Wimsatt caving in? After Glenn Beck’s relentless attacks had led to the resignation of his friend Van Jones? I decided to get Wimsatt on the record about his book, which he calls “a blueprint for building a Super Movement 2020-a 10-year plan to build progressive power.” This year, he’s been volunteering with -a national database of progressive voter guides in each state, as well as the Coffee Party-a lefty grassroots counterpunch to the tea party movement.Ī month ago, Wimsatt called me to say he’d written a new book, Please Don’t Bomb the Suburbs.

Putting his money where his mouth was, Wimsatt went on to cofound dozens of political organizations, including The League of Young Voters (originally called The League of Pissed Off Voters) and Generational Alliance. “To change history, you need to build organizations,” he declared in his sophomore effort, No More Prisons. In subsequent years, Wimsatt tried to transform his verbal bombs into political actions, but he couldn’t find any meaningful channels for changing government policies. I don’t remember what he said, but he made me feel like a giant capable of blowing up the system in order to end poverty and racism in America. At a reading, I watched him jump around the stage, bouncing his Jew-fro and screaming at the 20 or so young people that made up his audience.

“I want to live in an America without ghettos and suburbs,” Wimsatt wrote.

In it, he declared that hip-hop would liberate America from the suburban mentality-which was all about escaping from people of color, the poor, and having to deal with urban social ills. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Ī decade ago, when I first met William Upski Wimsatt, he was a 27-year-old, shit-talking graffiti artist out promoting a book called Bomb the Suburbs.

Bomb the suburbs by william upski wimsatt