Make it Plain''s first live recording, a Reasoning Room conversation at the Legacy Centre of Excellence in Birmingham. Kehinde and Busayo Twins discuss the King's visit to the Caribbean and lack of apology or reparations for slavery. Then Kehinde reckons with having worked with the disgraced Russell Brand.

The conversation then opens up the future of Black education, the founding of BRIDGE Black Studies, and includes audience questions on community organising and sustaining local work. What does meaningful reparative change—and education rooted in community—look like to you?

Find out more and support BRIDGE Black Studies https://bridgeblackstudies.com/

Visit the Legacy Centre of Excellence: https://www.legacycoe.co.uk/

Join Harambee OBU: www.blackunity.org.uk

Live event produced by Charlene Carter-James at the Legacy Centre of Excellence

Written and hosted by: Kehinde Andrews and Busayo Twins

Edited by: Kadiri Andrews Artwork by: Assata Andrews

Kehinde wasn't going to pod, after just getting back from Aotearoa/New Zealand, and being delayed because of food poisoning. After giving all the details (even the unpleasant ones) about the trip he explains he had to come from his sick bed after seeing Oriel College, Oxford were hosting He Who Shall Not Be Named, the supposed "whistelblower" in the Prof Jason Arday tragedy, for a discussion on how DEI is runing higher education.

Kehinde connects the dots between the Doctrine of Discovery, settler colonialism, DEI backlash, and the intellectual roots of anti-Black thinking in Western universities. He also brings Nobody Can Give You Freedom into the conversation, using it with his sons to unpack Malcolm X, the "wicked race of devils" chapter, and why uncomfortable ideas matter when you're trying to understand power and what's happening a Oxford.

In this episode, Kehinde explores:

• Why the Oxford event is more than bad optics—and what it reveals about university culture

• The meaning of DEI and EDI in the UK and US, and why the debate is often a coded attack on Black and Brown inclusion

• How "meritocracy" can be weaponized to protect whiteness • How Enlightenment philosophy and modern academia continue to shape racial hierarchy

• What colonial "treaties" and Aotearoa/New Zealand reveal about recurring global patterns

• Why independent Black institutions like BRIDGE Black Studies matter now more than ever

Kehinde also reflects on the Jason Arday scandal, recent reporting that challenges the plagiarism narrative, and why the bigger issue is not one professor, but a system that keeps making space for racist ideas while claiming neutrality.If you care about Black studies, higher education, colonial history, or building institutions outside the plantation, this is essential listening.

Byline Times article on Jason Arday being cleared of plagiarism: https://bylinetimes.com/2026/10/21/jason-arday-again-cleared-of-plagiarism-as-his-attackers-launch-an-independent-inquiry/

Find out more and support BRIDGE Black Studies https://bridgeblackstudies.com/

Join us for Make it Plain live at the Legacy Centre in Birmingham, Nov 6, 6pm: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-reasoning-room-tickets-2002813353655

Join Harambee OBU: www.blackunity.org.uk

Written and hosted by: Kehinde Andrews

Edited by: Kadiri Andrews

Artwork by: Assata Andrews

Kehinde opens explaining he's been busy and sick, so is late to the Nikole Hannah-Jones conversation. Before diving in he launches the new Black Studies Centre BRIDGE, that we has founded with Dr Dionne Taylor, who was also shown the door at Birmingham City University. Keep your eye out for updates as we take Black Studies back to the community.

Black education is not just about test scores, and this episode makes the case with force. Kehinde turns a viral controversy around Nicole Hannah-Jones into a much bigger question: what do we actually mean when we say we care about our children, our schools, and our communities? He unpacks the backlash over Hannah-Jones' decision to send her daughter to a local public school, then widens the lens to expose the deeper tension between individual privilege and collective responsibility. Along the way, he gets personal, drawing on his own experience with underfunded schools in Birmingham, the realities of Black children navigating hostile institutions, and why "good schools" often still aren't safe, nurturing, or truly liberatory.

You'll discover:

Why the debate over "local school vs private school" is really about class, access, and who gets protected, how school funding, segregation, and structural inequality shape outcomes long before a child sits an exam Why Saturday schools and supplementary education mattered so much in Black communities

What gets lost when education is reduced to credentials, university access, and job outcomes

Why building independent Black institutions may matter more than trying to survive broken ones

Kehinde also connects the conversation to the launch of Bridge Black Studies, a new independent center created after his exit from Birmingham City University, and explains why this moment is about building outside the gatekeepers, not waiting for permission. If you care about Black education, community responsibility, or the limits of respectability politics, this episode is essential listening. It is sharp, candid, and deeply personal, with big questions about how we protect our children and build something better for the next generation.

Find out more and support BRIDGE Black Studies https://bridgeblackstudies.com/

Read Nikole Hannah Jones piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html

1619 Project: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html Join us for

Make it Plain live at the Legacy Centre in Birmingham, Nov 6, 6pm: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-reasoning-room-tickets-2002813353655

Join us for the Harambee OBU Annual General Meeting 21st October 2.30pm https://HarambeeOBUAGM26.eventbrite.co.uk Join Harambee OBU: www.blackunity.org.uk

Written and hosted by: Kehinde Andrews

Edited by: Kadiri Andrews

Artwork by: Assata Andrews