Why Liberals Excuse Antifa’s Violence — and How Blacks Are Pushing Back

On Aug. 21, I joined Kathy Barnette on her Philadelphia-area radio show to talk about my work on Antifa. It was our first conversation together.

Ms Barnette is a Black conservative who ran in the 2022 Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, a race ultimately won by Dr. Mehmet Oz, who later lost to Democrat John Fetterman. In 2023, she served as a grassroots director for Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign.

Raised in poverty in rural Alabama after the end of Jim Crow, Barnette has shared publicly that she was born after her mother — then only 11 years old — was raped.

In our discussion, I explained how liberals have either excused, supported or ignored Antifa’s violent extremism. The group is falsely presented as “anti-fascists” opposed to racism and hate, when in reality, they are a militant movement that uses political violence, including maimings and killings against their opponents.

We also talked about a viral moment earlier this week in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where black residents stood up to Antifa race-riot agitators and forced them out of their neighborhood. The clash offered a rare glimpse of people rejecting outside extremists who seek to exploit their communities for a political agenda.