Killer Mike is the perfect example of someone who uses radical language without having any real commitment to actual radical politics.

I went over the transcript from his appearance today on the New York Time's Sway podcast. Throughout the interview you can see how all over the place Killer Mike is when it comes to what his politics and how they inform his vision of liberation for Black people.

The first thing that jumped out to me is when he is talking about Erica Garner. You can see in this comment that his vision for the problem with the policing will be solved when police are better regulated and people "feel safe." This is classic liberal reformism.

That comment shows that Killer Mike doesn't see policing itself as the problem but rather how it is performed. This is not surprising given his familial connections to police but it is in direct opposition to any radical analysis what policing is in the United States.

He also talks about being influenced by Malcom X and MLK and then literally in the next comment admits to aspiring to become a billionaire. Later on in the interview he also admits to being capitalist even though he tries to dress it up into something positive

Malcolm was pretty clear when he said that "show me a capitalist and I'll show you bloodsucker" as was MLK when talked about the three evils of materialism, militarism, and racism. So how you can claim to be influenced by them and then admit to being an exploiter?

Throughout the interview Killer Mike employs terms associated with radical thought. He uses the word "proletariat" 12 times in the interview and even calls Biden, Clinton, and Trump oligarchs and yet offered no real critique of the capitalist system nor settler colonialism.

In fact he presents Black capitalism as the solution to the problems facing Black people through romanticizing Black Wall Street in Tulsa.

Killer Mike's politics are dangerous because they say to Black folk that we can get free through the very same institutions and ideologies that reproduce the inequality and injustice we experience. It's appealing because it doesn't require any divestment from capitalist logic.

It allows people to pursue becoming billionaires while also claiming to fight for the liberation of the people. Here is an article from @HalfAtlanta that articulates this well https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/killer-mike-atlanta-speech-ti-video-george-floyd-a9543551.html

Here is a link to the podcast https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-killer-mike.html?

None of this is to say that Killer Mike is doomed to be forever reactionary but his class position and the embrace by the mainstream make it hard for me to see him develop any real commitment to radical politics