Why does hearing somebody get read for filth feel so intellectually and spiritually satisfying?

This week, I’m thinking through Jools Lebron’s read of Jeffree Star and asking what a read actually does. What distinguishes it from a reaction, insult, belittling someone, etc.? Because to me, those are their own things, separate from the kind of speaking-truth-to-power, punching up, and critical analysis that makes a read *a read.*

I also think about how there is something spiritual happening here too. We get into the read as catharsis and collective processing, the flow state of reading someone down, and what it might mean to understand that flow as a form of channeling memory, experience, and a part of Black history long before there was a term for it.

Chapters

00:00 Teaser

00:27 Welcome to Grounded

01:03 Finding Grounding: Back in Atlanta

02:20 Jools Lebron vs. Jeffree Star

07:38 What Makes a Read a Read?

11:07 A Read Is Intellectual

15:22 Why a Read Feels Spiritual

Works Referenced

W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903).

bell hooks, Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989).

Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851).

Malcolm X, “Message to the Grass Roots” (1963).

Jools Leabron @joolslebron

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Grounded with Dr. Iman is a podcast for people who like their big questions grounded in research. Each week, Dr. Iman AbdoulKarim, professor and scholar of religion and spirituality, takes on a question about this human experience we're all having, finding grounding somewhere between the spiritual and the intellectual.

Expect religion, spirituality, Black thought, culture, history, and whatever else the question requires.