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Join us for an evening with Malaika Jabali, in conversation with Kamau Franklin, to discuss Jabali's new book, IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S CAPITALISM: Why It’s Time to Break Up and How to Move on, a biting, brilliant, and often hilarious guide to socialism for budding anti-capitalists who want to avoid further heartbreak and do better. This event will be held in the Fourth Floor Gallery of Decatur Library.

About the Book:

Jabali, Columbia Law School graduate and Senior News and Politics Editor at Essence, offers a biting, brilliant, and often hilarious guide to socialism for budding anti-capitalists who want to avoid further heartbreak and do better. Although socialism has captured mainstream attention in the U.S. in the past decade because of the popularity of Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Socialists of America, Jabali’s anti-capitalist stance crystalized while studying Black history as an undergrad, where she came to learn about the many women and people of color who practiced and preached anti-capitalism, and just how much capitalism was built on slave labor and anti-Blackness. IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S CAPITALISM debunks myths, centers forgotten socialists of color who have shaped our world—from Dolores Huerta to Martin Luther King Jr.—and proves that socialism is not all Marx and Bernie Bros. It can actually be pretty sexy. Think of Jabali as your tough-love new best friend who is ready to give you the tools you need to know what a healthy relationship could be, issue by issue—from healthcare and housing to the whole concept of American democracy—with our new bae: socialism.

Given the lack of books available that center people of color and women at the forefront of socialism, Jabali was immediately moved to tackle this subject, saying, “I just hadn’t really heard of anyone doing anything like this before. The socialism stuff I read is dense and probably boring for most people. And Black people or other POCs are rarely centered. In fact, it’s been treated as a white, elite phenomenon. My earliest lessons on socialism came from other Black people, and I wanted to share that experience.”

With digestible explanations and colorful illustrations, often surprising graphs and stats, and even some Drake memes, this book will show you that we need to build a world that’s safer, kinder, cleaner, healthier, and more equal. And that this isn’t a utopian dream—it’s within our grasp, if we collectively decide to call out capitalism for what it really is and wake up to a better future. Fun, smart, and inspiring, think of IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S CAPITALISM as the hottest new relationship in your life and the most beautiful book to prop onto your shelves.

About the Author:

Malaika Jabali is the Senior News and Politics Editor at Essence Magazine. Her writing has appeared in The Root, Teen Vogue, The New Republic, and The Guardian, where she was a columnist. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was an Articles Editor for the Columbia Journal of Race and Law, and an M.S. from the Columbia University School of Social Work. Her first political feature, "The Color of Economic Anxiety," won the 2019 New York Association for Black Journalists award for magazine feature. She is a licensed attorney who has written laws and worked in housing policy for the New York City Council and the former Co-Chair of Operation P.O.W.E.R., a grassroots organization based in Brooklyn focused on bringing Black radical politics to New York City.

About the Moderator:

Kamau Franklin is the founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Kamau has been a dedicated community organizer for over thirty years, beginning in New York City and now based in Atlanta. For 18 of those years, Kamau was a leading member of a national grassroots organization dedicated to the ideas of self-determination and the teachings of Malcolm X.