Sep 20, 2026 · 49 min
Michael Harriot challenges America’s whitewashed history
Refried Beans | Court Pants (feat. Michael Harriot) | Sep 18, 2023
The episode connects current fights over accountability and public information with the longer campaign to distort American history.
- 1The hosts weigh transparency and misinformation risks in federal courtroom cameras and Hunter Biden’s IRS privacy lawsuit.
- 2Michael Harriot explains how Lost Cause propaganda reshaped education and why primary sources can recover suppressed perspectives.
- 3The episode links contemporary political rhetoric and cultural gatekeeping to enduring patterns of racism, sexism, and historical erasure.
Don't miss
Michael Harriot explains how the racist diagnosis of drapetomania turned enslaved people’s desire for freedom into supposed mental illness.
The brief
The news roundup examines the Mar-a-Lago documents case, Jeffrey Clark’s court absence, Hunter Biden’s IRS lawsuit, and proposed cameras in federal courtrooms.
The hosts debate whether televised proceedings could improve transparency or give misinformation and political manipulation a larger stage, while criticizing Donald Trump’s attack on liberal Jews.
Michael Harriot discusses Black AF History, using Black perspectives and primary sources to challenge sanitized accounts of America and the Lost Cause’s influence on schools.
Harriot explains how drapetomania falsely pathologized enslaved people’s desire for freedom, while his Drapetomania podcast reclaims that history and exposes its logic.
The episode closes with corrections, pet stories, small-business highlights, and listener submissions that turn the show’s good-news segment into a portrait of community.
Books & mentions
Some links are affiliate links — PodLume may earn a commission if you buy.
Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America
Harriot’s book expands the episode’s argument for confronting American history through Black perspectives.
Black History AF, The Unwhitewashed Story of America
A related candidate title presenting an unvarnished account of Black history and the United States.