What I Learned From Kevin Alexander Gray

In July 2015, when two Black Lives Matter activists challenged liberal candidates running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, the late Kevin Alexander Gray told me in an , 鈥淎ll candidates ought to have an agenda that deals with the issues that the Black community are grappling with right now, to include police violence, to include economics, to include all the issues that the Black Lives Matter activists raised.鈥�

Gray didn鈥檛 let anyone off the hook, including Vermont鈥檚 independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who had launched his first presidential campaign and was considered the most left-leaning candidate. 鈥淭hey ought to hire Black people to advise them in their campaigns,鈥� he said, 鈥渋nstead of just organizing a group of white men, which Bernie Sanders is guilty of doing too, and letting those people try to filter what it is that the candidates get.鈥�

Gray was a longtime civil rights activist and the author of multiple books, including (2008), and (2014). He on March 7, 2023, of a heart attack.

During the 2015 interview, Gray echoed what of the time were demanding of Sanders: Give racial justice as much weight as economic justice, because the two are so intimately linked, and failing to do so means accepting a racist status quo.

It was typical of Gray to forcefully make such connections, to have an intersectional lens, and to choose his values and ideals over what pundits deemed was the practical thing to do. It鈥檚 why I interviewed him many times over my journalism career, and it鈥檚 what I鈥檒l miss most about him.

About a decade later, the idea of 鈥溾€� began to be taken more seriously. But it was the analysis of Black thinkers like Gray, who had the benefit of a long arc of political activism, that pushed the idea forward, and that uplifted the economic justice demands of younger Black activists, like those leading the Black Lives Matter movement. Today, Sen. Sanders routinely calls out . He and other white liberal leaders had to be pushed into doing so.

Gray, who was for Jesse Jackson鈥檚 1988 presidential run, had also been critical of the nation鈥檚 first Black president, Barack Obama. The first time was in July 2010, when the Obama administration fired an African American official named from her position at the Department of Agriculture because of a right-wing effort to misrepresent a speech she made.

As usual, Gray didn鈥檛 mince words. He said to me, 鈥淚鈥檓 a Black man in America. This country is eaten up with racism and white supremacy鈥攚hich is the other term no one ever seems to want to use.鈥� It would be at least six years before the phrase 鈥渨hite supremacy鈥� finally became commonly used to explain the rise of Donald Trump鈥檚 white nationalist leadership.

But in 2010, Gray decried what he said was being dubbed 鈥減ost-racialism,鈥� and 鈥渢he sanitization of American history while Barack Obama is president.鈥�

His analysis was direct but also nuanced. 鈥淲e should defend [Barack Obama] when the attack is about him being Black and being Black as a disqualifier for being president or anything, because that is structural racism and white supremacy, because that is an attack against us.鈥�

Gray was not swayed by grand rhetoric. When Obama won reelection in 2012, analysts and pundits regaled as unleashed from the constraints of campaigning. The New York Times called it 鈥�.鈥� But when I for analysis, he said, 鈥淚 hear pundits and everyone lauding it as a progressive manifesto, but it鈥檚 far from that.鈥�

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got the prison industrial complex being fed by poor people, poor Black kids. 鈥� What the Black community needs and what poor people need are jobs programs,鈥� said Gray. 鈥淎nd those programs are not going to be forthcoming from this administration or this Congress just because they are talking about cutting.鈥�

In response to Obama uplifting sacrosanct government programs, like Social Security and Medicare, in his speech, Gray pointed out that the 鈥攃onvened in 2010 by none other than Obama鈥攈ad recommended cuts to such programs and recommended raising the eligibility age for Social Security to 67. Gray said, 鈥淚鈥檓 a 55-year-old Black man. The average life span of a Black man is . So why would you start there?鈥�

(In fact, Gray was 65 when he died鈥攁 fact that hit me hard as I listened to his archival interview.)

Gray asked about Obama鈥檚 second term, 鈥淚s he going to affirmatively defend FDR鈥檚 New Deal and Social Security, and a pension for people when they get old, or is he going to give it all up to the Republicans? That鈥檚 the basic legislative and policy question before we cheer and celebrate a line in a speech!鈥� In the end, Gray was right to question the president鈥檚 motives. By 2016, it became clear that Obama鈥檚 two-term legacy was less about progressive transformation and more about 鈥渢he benefits of practicality and compromise,鈥� as one analyst pointed out in .

Gray understood that change didn鈥檛 happen solely by electing Black people or even progressives of any race to positions of power. 鈥淧eople need to organize鈥攑oor people, working people鈥攖o put pressure on the government, at the local level and the congressional level,鈥� he said in 2013.

He pointed out that Obama had become more progressive on LGBTQ rights, for example, not because the president realized that equality was important on his own, but because he had been forced to evolve. Obama has 鈥渃ome a long way,鈥� said Gray. 鈥淎nd, of course, the reason he鈥檚 come so far on gay rights is because the gay community has worked its agenda鈥攊t鈥檚 filed lawsuits, it鈥檚 filed referendums, and it鈥檚 moved the issue forward to where it is mainstream and it鈥檚鈥� politically smart to be an advocate for equal rights.鈥�

Such powerful and elegant analyses were typical of Gray. He saw clearly the connections between grassroots pressure and politicians鈥� PR moves.

鈥淢ovements are connected to something long term,鈥� to me once. 鈥淲e have to rebuild organizations, we have to rebuild networks. 鈥� It鈥檚 got to be led by young people, but it鈥檚 got to include all people. It鈥檚 got to be multiracial, it鈥檚 got to be multi-issue. And that鈥檚 when movements take place, and that鈥檚 when change takes place.鈥�

As usual, he was right.

This article was produced by , a project of the Independent 麻豆社事件 Institute.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent 麻豆社事件 Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽TEDx talk聽of the same name.