In Conversation: On The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto

Charles M. Blow has been a New York Times op-ed columnist since 2008. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Memoir and is a frequent CNN contributor. And in the summer of 2020, at the intersection of a historic pandemic and the nadir of protests against systemic Black-directed violence, he was compelled to write a new story. The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto (Harper Perennial) is a succinct, counterintuitive, and impassioned corrective to the myths that have for too long governed thinking about race and geography in America. The small steps have frequently failed; Blow posits it’s going to take an unprecedented shift in power to allow Black people to seize equality on their own terms. Drawing on both political observations and personal experience as a Black son of the South, he presents the most audacious power play to be made by his brethren in the history of this country – and a grand exhortation to generations of a people, offering a road map to true and lasting freedom. The San Francisco Chronicle called it “a must-read in the effort to dismantle deep-seated poisons of systemic racism and white supremacy.”

Touré is a writer, music journalist, cultural critic, podcaster, and television personality. He has published six books, including I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became An Icon and Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness: A Look At What It Means To Be Black Now. He also hosts the Touré Show, a weekly podcast. His broadcast career has spanned major networks and cable outlets, both as a host and contributor, including CNN, MSNBC's The Cycle, Fuse's Hip Hop Shop, BET's Black Carpet, Treasure HD's I’ll Try Anything Once, and MTV's Spoke N Heard.