In episode 37 of Politics with Pan, we sit down with Dr. Marlon Smith, Professor and Director for the Center for Africana Studies and Africana and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina Upstate, for a powerful and thought-provoking conversation on Black political power, activism, and justice in America.The episode opens with an in-depth discussion of Dr. Smith's groundbreaking "Erasure of Black Men" initiative, a series of fireside chats that confronts harmful narratives about Black men propagated without their voices or supporting research. Dr. Smith critiques what he calls "Anti-Black misandrist language," tracing its roots to biased white feminist academic frameworks that have been adopted into Black intellectual thought without critical examination. He explains how these narratives fail to reflect the lived realities of Black men and why restoring their voice is essential to addressing genuine systemic disparities across criminal justice, education, economics, health, and overall life outcomes.The conversation then shifts to the historical and systemic challenges uniquely faced by Black men in the United States. Dr. Smith breaks down the deliberate degendering of Black men during enslavement, explaining how lineage was traced through the mother rather than the father, denying Black men the patriarchal privileges afforded to white men. He discusses how the suppression of Black male voices over the past 30 years has created a crisis of self-definition, where Black men often measure their worth through external roles rather than intrinsic value. He also introduces the concept of "vulnerable spaces" as an alternative to "safe spaces," arguing that Black men need environments where they can take emotional risks and share their hurts without judgment.One of the most striking moments of the episode comes when Dr. Smith addresses how society only shows up for Black men after they have died or been irreparably harmed, referencing cases like George Floyd and wrongful convictions. He delivers a powerful statement that Black males' deaths are the most profitable things in the United States, benefiting industries like gun manufacturing and media while leaving Black men themselves without support. Dr. Smith also highlights that Black men earn between 56 to 76 cents on the dollar compared to white men, making less than white women, and calls for Black men to ally for themselves and organize around their own issues rather than seeking allies from other groups.The episode concludes with Dr. Smith's assessment of the current state of Black America in 2026, which he describes as one of "delusion and confusion." He unpacks the growing class divide within the Black community, where affluent Black families are moving to suburbs and disengaging from their original communities, churches are segregating by class, and the collective unity that powered movements like the Montgomery Bus Boycott has eroded.Throughout the episode, Pan and Dr. Smith move beyond surface-level discourse to challenge the systems, narratives, and internal divisions that have kept Black men marginalized, calling for a shift from maintaining inherited institutions to building new ones, and from seeking external validation to reclaiming the power to define, organize, and advocate for themselves.Follow Dr. Marlon Smith:📸 Instagram: / marlon.smith91 💼 Black Greek Speak: https://www.blackgreeksspeak.org/marl...

In episode 36 of Politics with Pan, host Christian sits down with Jeremy Peaches, Black farmer, agricultural entrepreneur, founder of Fresh Life Organic, and Houston's own 2026 version of George Washington Carver, for one of the most important conversations about Black wealth, food justice, and cannabis that the internet has ever seen. Jeremy was born in Greenville, Mississippi, raised in Houston, studied agriculture at Prairie View A&M University, interned with the NRCS, and has spent the last decade building urban farms, aquaponics greenhouses, and a farmer-owned grocery store in Sunnyside , one of Houston's most underserved communities.Christian and Jeremy break down exactly why Black communities across America continue to face food insecurity, why Houston lags behind cities like Detroit, Atlanta, New York, and Oakland when it comes to urban farming policy, and what it will actually take, beyond pop-up food distributions and Band-Aid solutions, to build real, sustainable food systems in cities where our people live. They discuss the USDA's long history of systemic discrimination against Black farmers, how the NRCS and Farm Service Agency gatekeep Black farmers out of federal grants and loans, and how heirs' property issues have caused generations of Black families to lose land that could have built generational wealth.The conversation then shifts to what may be the most important economic opportunity available to Black people right now, the cannabis and hemp industry. Jeremy and Christian make the case that Cannabis sativa L. is the last major crop in America that Black people still have a real chance to own, and they explain exactly why the 2018 Farm Bill created a legal loophole that flooded the country with THCA hemp, the same plant now carrying up to 18 years to life in Texas after the state's sudden criminalization. They expose the political war between Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott over legalization, call out the alcohol lobby's role in the THCA ban, and deliver a powerful message about why Black people cannot afford to miss this industry the way we missed tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane.The conversation then shifts to what may be the most important economic opportunity available to Black people right now, the hemp and plant-based agriculture industry. Jeremy and Christian make the case that industrial hemp is the last major crop in America that Black people still have a real chance to own, and they explain exactly why the 2018 Farm Bill created a legal framework that opened new doors for farmers across the country, and how recent state-level policy changes in Texas have reversed that progress overnight. They expose the political war between state lawmakers over plant-based agriculture regulation, call out the alcohol and pharmaceutical lobbies' role in shaping that legislation, and deliver a powerful message about why Black people cannot afford to miss this industry the way we missed tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane.They also get into the criminal justice angle, how thousands of people are sitting in Texas prisons right now over plant-based agriculture policy that shifted without warning, why California's reentry and rehabilitation programs after policy reform are a model that Texas refuses to follow, and why Jeremy believes the prison-industrial complex is the real reason reform keeps getting blocked at the state level. This episode also covers the pharmaceutical industry's grip on Black health, why natural and holistic medicine is making a comeback in Black communities, how urban farming and knowing where your food comes from is becoming the most radical act of self-determination in 2026, and what parents in inner-city Houston can do right now to get their children connected to agriculture, food science, and the soil.If you care about Black economic empowerment, food justice, hemp and agricultural policy reform, urban farming, this episode is required watching.

I’m sitting down with Dr. Patrice Allen, candidate for Texas State Board of Education District 4.We’re talking about why she’s running, the future of public education in Texas, what our children need from their schools, and the power the State Board of Education has over what millions of Texas students learn.We’ll also get into the politics of education, what Black students and families need from the system, and what leadership should look like at a time when public education is at the center of some of the biggest political fights in Texas.Tuesday on Politics With Pan.