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Black Agenda Radio - 01.23.23 Jan 23, 2023

Listen to Black Agenda Radio Live on Monday's @ 11AM EST on prn.live

Black Agenda Radio - 06.06.22 Jun 06, 2022

The effort to end qualified immunity in New York, rezoning and housing in Harlem, and the National Day Laborers Organinizing Network at the People's Summit.

Black Agenda Radio 05.23.22 May 23, 2022

Program description

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo advocates for Julian Assange
Book promotion for The Black Agenda, the late Glen Ford's anthology
Questions about NYPD fatal shooting of Rameek Smith

Black Agenda Radio 07.19.21 Jul 19, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: The President of South Africa maintains that the recent riots that
followed the arrest former president Jacob Zuma were actually part of an insurrection
against the state. And, some things seldom change when the two parties switch places
in the United States. President Joe Biden is just as hostile to China and Cuba as Donald
Trump was.
But first -- Broward County College in south Florida recently hosted a discussion about
the turmoil in Haiti, where the president was assassinated by a mercenary force from
Colombia. All the participants in the Browder College talk were Haitian Americans –
among them, professor Reginald Darbonne and author and activist Pascal Robert, who
emphasizes that class is an important part of Haiti’s historical dynamic.

That was author and activist Pascal Robert, speaking at Broward College,
in South Florida.

The continuity of US foreign policy, even as the Democrats and Republicans trade
places in the White House, is quite amazing. Although Democrats portrayed President
Donald Trump as representing everything they opposed, when Joe Biden took control of
the Oval Office he left Trump’s moves against China and Cuba intact, virtually
unchanged. That subject was explored by Sean Blackmon, of Sputnik Radio, in an
interview with Netfa Freeman, of the Black Alliance for Peace.

That was Netfa Freeman, of the Black Alliance for Peace, on Sputnik
Radio with Sean Blackmon and Jacqueline Luqman.

When former South African President Jacob Zuma was arrested on corruption charges,
housands of his followers rioted and looted in two African Provinces, last week.
President Cyril Ramaphosa claimed the disturbances amounted to an attempted
insurrection against the state. To dig deeper into this story, VAV Radio called o
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Detroit-based Pan African News Wire.

Black Agenda Radio 07.12.21 Jul 12, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up:, When Haitian president Jovenel Moise was assassinated,,
purportedly by a mostly Colombian band of mercenaries, the regime in Port-Au-Prince
promptly begged the United States to send troops to Haiti. President Biden initially said
“No,” but that could change any time, since invasions of Haiti have become a habit for
the U.S. over the past century. We’ll hear from Gerald Horne, the prolific author and
University of Houston professor, on the long and brutal history of U.S. and European
aggression against Haiti, the world’s first republic liberated by enslaved people.
But first – across the length and breadth of the US, states are passing or debating
Critical Race Theory. Or rather, white Republicans are busy making up their own
fantastic versions of what Critical Race Theory is, so that they can outlaw those who
dare to discuss issues of race in the United States. Here to explain the historical roots of
the madness, are Paul Macomb, a Haitian American philosopher and socioist currently
teaching at the University of West Virginia, and writer and political analyst Pascal
Robert, also a Haitian American. Pascal Robert:

That was Pascal Robert, the activist and writer, along with Dr. Paul
Macomb, of the University of West Virginia, at a webinar on Critical Race Theory as it
actually exists in the United States – as opposed to the fantasies in the minds of millions
of white Republicans.

The poor and oppressed majority in Haiti had been mobilized for many months,
demanding that president Jovenel Moise step down for a long list of crimes. And then
last week, Moise was cut down in his residence by a dozen bullets, purported at the
hands of Colombian mercenaries. Dr. Gerald Horne and Dr. Jemima Pierre spoke at a
webinar on “Haiti vs Imperialism and Necolonialism” a day before the assassination.
Their talk on Haiti’s history is especially valuable, because it provides a background to
understand today’s events on the island nation. Pierre is a Haitian American who
teaches anthropology at UCLA. Horne is a professor of History at the University of

Houston, and the author of over 30 books – many of which put HAITI front and center in
hstory.

Black Agenda Radio 07.05.21 Jul 05, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Whatever is wrong with the Democratic Republic of Congo, you can blame it on the United States, which has been running things ever since Washington helped kill Congo’s first elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, six decades ago. We’ll hear from the director of Friends of Congo. And, there will be one less King in Africa if a social movement in Swaziland is successful.

Dr. Yannick Marshall is a professor of Africana Studies at Knox College. The title of his latest article in Black Agenda Report delivers a blunt message: “Black Liberal, Your Time is Up.” We asked Marshall, who are these Black liberals that have called the shots in Black politics for so many years?

The strategic center of Africa is the Congo River basin – an area that has also been ground zero for massive genocides and half a century of U.S. imperial dominance. Maurice Carney is a director and co-founder of Friends of Congo, which advocates tirelessly for African liberation. Carney was interviewed by Tierney Sheree, of African Esquire TV.

In southern Africa, a broad social movement is determined to oust the King of Swaziland, one of the continent’s few remaining monarchs. Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan African News Wire, reports that Swaziland’s people are saying it’s past time for the King to vacate the throne.

Black Agenda Radio 06.28.21 Jun 28, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary
and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with
my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Which way is the reparations struggle going?
There is still no consensus among Black Americans on what the United States
must pay for centuries of slavery and oppression. And, Chicago is the city where
community control of the police is closest to becoming a reality. We’ll get an
update from a local activist.
But first – The United States government last week seized the website of the
Iranian news service Press TV and three dozen of that country’s other internet
outlets, claiming the sites were spreading “disinformation.” What gives
Washington the right to roam the planet, shutting down other nations’ information
services? We posed that question to Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the
Black Alliance for Peace.

That was Ajamu Baraka, national organizer wth the Black Alliance
for Peace.

In recent years, increasing numbers of white people have come to favor some
form of reparations for the harm Black Americans suffered under centuries of
slavery and discrimination. But there is still no consensus among Black people
on what kind of reparations should be demanded from the United States. Efia
Nwangaza is director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in
Greenville, South Carolina, and a longtime reparations advocate. Nwangaza is
trying to pull reparations supporters together in her state.

That was Efia Nwangaza, at the Malcolm X Center for Self-
Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina.

In Chicago, a majority of the board of aldermen now support community control
of the police. Jasman Salas is co-chair of the Chicago chapter of the National
Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the organization that is
spearheading the effort. Salas says women and trans people would greatly
benefit from community control of the cops

Black Agenda Radio 06.21.21 Jun 21, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Joe Biden made his international presidential debut at the G7
meeting, proclaiming that “America is Back,” and meeting the Queen of England. But
what does that mean for the future of the world? Journalist Richard Medhurst provides a
political analysis. And, New York State Assemblyman and former Black Panther Charles
Barron has mixed feelings on legalization of marijuana.

But first -- What’s the ultimate cost when Black social movements accept corporate
funding? This month, Dr. Joy James, professor of humanities at Williams College,
moderated a summit meeting of activists and organizers on Accountability in Social Justice
Movements. The founders of Black Lives Matter report they amassed $90 million, much of it last
year from corporate philanthropists following the George Floyd protests. What does the donor
class hope to get in return? Dr. James put the issue in historical perspective.

That was Dr. Joy James, speaking from Williams College.
The G7 nations held their annual meeting this month, to much fanfare. A gaggle of European
nations, plus the US, Canada and Japan, consider themselves to be world leaders. But another
way of looking at the G7, is a collection of white settler regimes and former and present colonial
powers. We spoke with Richard Medhurst, an independent journalist and political commentator
who was born in Damascus, Syria. Here’s how he views the G7.

That was Journalist Richard Medhurst, speaking from Vienna, Austria.
Charles Barron, the former Black Panther and current New York State Assemblyman
from the neighborhood of East New York, took part in a webinar on legalization of
marijuana, organized by the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and
Reparations. The session was called “Reefer Madness” – which kind of sums up
Charles Barron’s view of the matter.

Black Agenda Radio 06.14.21 Jun 14, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: US universities like to think of themselves as forces for the
public good. But we’ll speak with a Black professor who says American higher
education is a relentless gentrifyer that spreads police terror and low wages. And, a
Black Alliance for Peace activist says the United States is trying to isolate China
because Washington cannot compete with the Asian economic juggernaut.
But first – Too Black is a poet, writer and podcaster based in Indianapolis, who recently
authored an article in Black Agenda Report titled "From Black Wall Street to Black
Capitalism." Too Black says the business district of the Black neighborhood of Tulsa,
Oklahoma that was destroyed by whites in 1921, was actually more like a Black Main
Street than Wall Street, and employed very few Black residents at the time of the
massacre.

That was Too Black, a poet and writer speaking from Indianapolis.

Universities in the United States have become capitalist engines of extraction and
destruction in Black communities. So says Davarian Baldwin, a professor of American
Studies and founding director of the Smart Cities Lab at Trinity College, in Hartford,
Connecticut. Dr. Baldwin wrote an article in Black Agenda Report titled “In the Shadow
of the Ivory Tower.”

That was Professor Davarian Baldwin, speaking from Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut.

The Green Party recently took a look at Joe Biden’s First 100 Days in office, with a
focus on the new president’s war policies. One of the speakers was Julie Varaghese, of
the Black Alliance for Peace. Varaghese said the US is waging a Cold War with China
because Washington is losing the global economic competition.

Black Agenda Radio 05.31.21 Jun 01, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Performance art used to be a sideshow of movements for social
change, but nowadays art has become central to political organizing. We’ll explore the
artistic side of mass mobilizing. And, the George Floyd protests of last summer, when
tens of millions of people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, have had
profound and sometimes strange effects on the ruling class and the institutions that
keep the rich in power. Now, even the CIA claims to be a benign, multi-cultural force for
good in the world.

But first – the Black Lives Matter movement has been enormously reinforced by
activists from the widest range of ethnic and racial backgrounds. But how can
organizers keep this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural army on the march for social change?
Kovie Biakolo is a widely published writer, editor, and scholar specializing in culture and
identity. We asked Biokolo what needs to be done to keep a mullti-cultural army on the
move.

That was writer and scholar Kovie Biokolo, speaking from New York City.

Performance art is an important part of modern political organizing. Troizel Carr is a
doctoral candidate in performance studies at New York University, and holds a teaching
fellowship at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. We asked Carr
about the role art plays in abolitionist organizing since the murder of George Floyd.

That was Troizel Carr, a doctoral candidate specializing in performance
studies.

The CIA – the guys that specialize in political assassination, overthrowing governments
the US doesn’t like, and lying to the public about EVERYTHING – is now trying to
package itself as a politically benign institution, staffed by “woke”young Black and Latino
intelligence agents. But anti-imperial activist Ramiro Sebastion Funez is using his
podcasting skills to strip away the CIA’s new camouflage. Funez calls it “Unmasking
Imperialism.” He interviewed Erica Caines, of the Black Alliance for Peace, who said
Joe Biden is also trying to act like he’s always been a friend of Black and brown folks.

Black Agenda Radio 05.24.21 May 24, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: When millions marched for justice for George Floyd, corporate
philanthropy put millions of dollars in the hands of Black Live Matter founders. We’ll
explore the effect all that money had on the Movement. It’s not your grandmother’s
capitalism anymore. People now examine the role that race plays in the class conflict.
And, Blacks in the US are less likely to battle the cops, these days, than two
generations ago? We’ll explore how that happened.
But first – the movement for community control of the police is strongest in Chicago,
where the board of Alderman is poised to put the cops under the tightest leash in the
nation. Frank Chapman is executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and
Political Repression, which leads a strong community control coalition.

That was Frank Chapman, of the National Alliance Against Racist and
Political Repression, speaking from Chicago.

The racial nature of capitalism is now better understood, largely thanks to a rejuvenated
Black liberation movement. Justin Leroy is a professor of History at the University of
California, at Davis, and has co-authored a book titled “Histories of Racial Capitalism.”
Dr. Leroy says the US electoral system leaves the money classes, the capitalists, in
power after every election.

That was Justin Leroy, speaking from the University of California, Davis.

After more than 20 million people protested the killing of George Floyd and other victims
of police repression, last summer, corporate foundations poured millions of dollars into

the accounts of Black Lives Matter founders. Has all that money eroded the
revolutionary character of the Movement? We put that question to Imani Wadud, an
activist and doctoral student in American Studies at the University of Kansas.

That was Imani Wadud, at the University of Kansas.

Author, activist and researcher Elizabeth Hinton’s new book, “America on Fire: The
Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion,” shows that Black urban revolts
have dropped off dramatically since their peak in the early 1970s. Hinton explained why,
in an interview with fellow activist and author Keeanga Taylor.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.17.21 May 17, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Much of the radical activist sector of Black America is gearing up for an international tribunal in October, that will indict the United States for its many crimes against humanity. The US puppet states Uganda and Rwanda have caused the deaths of at least six million Congolese in recent decades, but Washington blames Congo’s troubles on Islamic extremists. The problem with that rational is, very few Muslims live in the Congo. And, we’ll have a report on the systematic poisoning of a small Black town in Florida.

But first – The lop-sided war between Palestinians and their Zionist occupiers has spread to the streets of Israel, where Arab citizens have taken to the streets. For an overview of the fighting in Israel and the occupied territories, we spoke with Sara Flounders, a longtime activist with the International Action Center, in New York City.

In October, a commission of jurists from =around the world will convene in the United States for an International Tribunal on US Human Rights Abuses. The organizing campaign leading up to October is called “In the Spirit of Mandela,” and was kicked off with a Webinar featuring Jihad Abdulmumit, a former Black Panther political prisoner and current co-chair of the Jericho Movement.

The United States is trying to blame the ongoing slaughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Islamic fundamentalist jihadists – despite the fact that hardly any Muslims live in that country. Kambale Musavuli spent years organizing in the United States. He’s now back in his native Congo, and working as an analyst for the Illinois-based Center for Research on Congo-Kinshasa. Musavuli says its not Muslims, but the US-backed governments of Rwanda and Uganda, that are to blame for the death of six million Congolese.

The mostly Black town of Tallevast, Florida, was a poor but hard-working community where most of the families owned their homes and found ways to educate their children. But the water, land and people of Tallevast were poisoned by industrial polluters, including some of the biggest names in the military-industrial complex. James Manigault-Bryant is a descendant of one of Tallevast’s founding families. Dr. Manigault-Bryant is now a professor of Africana Studies at Williams College. He wrote a recent article for the Boston Review, titled “Poisoning Tallevast.”

Black Agenda Radio 05.10.21 May 10, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: The US Census Bureau caused a big stir when it predicted that
Anglo Whites would become a minority of the US population by either the year 2042 or
2045. But, what impact will the huge Latino immigrant influx have on racial attitudes
deep into the 21 st century? We’ll explore that question. And, the South American nation
of Colombia is gripped by protest, as the US backed government attempts to impose a
harsh austerity regime. We’ll hear from a Black Colombian activist.
But first – the Covid-19 pandemic has worked vast changes in US life, but some things
remain the same -- such as the fact that women still do most of the housework, and
immigrants assume much of the burden of cleaning up the country. We spoke with
Nicole FROI-Oh, a Colombian-Brazilian journalist and researcher who authored an
article titled, “The Pandemic Housework Dilemma Whitewashed.”

That was journalist and researcher Nicole FROI-Oh.

Census Bureau data seem to show that white majorities will become a thing of the past
in the United States before the mid-point of the 21 st century, largely because of
continued immigration. However, what happens to that calculation if many of those
immigrants from Latin America insist on claiming to be white? Could that prolong the
existence of white majorities in this country? We posed that question to Professor
Shantee Rosado, of the Africana Studies and Latino and Caribbean Studies
departments at Rutgers University. Professor Rosado’s current book project is titled,
“Latinxs and the Emotional Politics of Race and Blackness in the U.S.”

That was Dr. Shantee Rosado, speaking from Rutgers University.

The South American nation of Colombia, where millions of Black people have been
driven from their homes in recent decades, is in the midst of a general strike against the
US backed regime. President Ivan DOO-Kay’s police and military have killed scores of
protesters. We spoke with Sharo Mina-Rojas, a leader of the Black Communities
Process organization in Colombia, which is manning blockades of the roads near the
largely Black city of Cali.

Black Agenda Radio 05.03.21 May 03, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host,
Glen Ford. Coming up: Haiti, a country whose popularly elected president was
overthrown by the United States in 2004, suffers under yet another leader imposed by
the US, who wants to change the constitution to make himself even more powerful. And,
the death of the dictator of the African nation of Chad has France and the United States
worried about how they’ll keep control of the volatile Sahel region.
But first – the corporate media would have you believe that President Joe Biden is the
spitting political image of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But veteran activist Margaret
Flowers, of Popular Resistance, rejects that comparison. Flowers says the Biden
presidency is as corporate as they get.

That was Margaret Flowers, of Popular Resistance, speaking from
Baltimore.

The Haitian people have been protesting almost non-stop ever since Jovenel Moise was
named president after winning only a small fraction of the nation’s voters in an election
fraught with irregularities, in 2016. Moise now proposes to change Haiti’s constitution,
so that he can rule with immunity from prosecution for crimes. We spoke with Daoud
Andre, a Brooklyn-based radio host and an organizer with the Committee to Mobilize
Against Dictatorship in Haiti. Andre says Washington calls the shots in Haiti.

That was Daoud Andre, of the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship
in Haiti, speaking from Brooklyn, New York.

For the past 30 years, the oil-rich, but dirt-poor, nation of Chad, in Africa’s Sahel region,
was run by Idris DAY-bee, a dictator backed by both France and the United States. But
DAY-bee was reported killed in combat with rebels, last week, and his son is now in
charge. Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African American Studies at the
University of Houston, is adept at interpreting political events around the world. Horne
was interviewed by Willmer Leon and Garland Nixon on Sputnik Radio.

Black politics is a vibrant force in the United States, including behind
bars. Bilal Abdul Salem Bey is incarcerated in Hutchinson, Kansas. He’s a member of
the New Afrikan Black Panther Party, and filed this report for Prison Radio.

Black Agenda Radio 04.19.21 Apr 19, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: The nation’s best known political prisoner will celebrate his 67 th
birthday later this month, if Mumia Abu Jamal survives his latest health crisis. And, most
people think of maroons as enslaved people that escaped to hideouts in the mountains.
However, history shows that maroons often found freedom at sea.

But first – George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police set off the largest
protests in US history. The trial of the cop charged in Floyd’s murder was still in
progress when police in a nearby town killed another unarmed Black man. In
Washington, Sputnik Radio host Garland Nixon spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific
writer and professor of African American Studies and History at the University of
Houston. Dr. Horne says Blacks have always been in conflict with the U.S. State and its
police.

That was Dr. Gerald Horne, speaking on Sputnik Radio, in Washington.

Justin Dunnavant is a post-doctoral student with a deep interest in Maroons, the
enslaved people that escaped captivity and established relatively free settlements in the
Americas. Dunnavant has researched enslaved and maroon communities in the
Caribbean, Central America and Africa. He’s written an article titled, “Have Confidence
in the Sea: Maritime Maroons and Fugitive Geographies.” Dunnavant says people that
escaped from slavery lived in lots of places besides up in the mountains, thanks to their
seagoing skills.

That was Justin Dunnavant, an expert of seagoing maroon communities.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, expected
that he would undergo heart surgery for blocked arteries last week. But the
Pennsylvania prison system won’t even tell Mumia’s family what medical plans they
have for responding to Abu Jamal’s health crisis. A number of his supporters gathered
for a press conference last Thursday, in Philadelphia, hosted by educator Marc Lamont
Hill. First up, was Mumia’s grandson, Jamal, who said the people’s movement – not
supposedly progressive district attorney Larry Krassner – would ultimately free Mumia.

Black Agenda Radio 04.12.21 Apr 13, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Gentrification is shrinking Black populations in cities across the
country. We’ll speak with a Black trans anarchist organizer who says poor folks need to
stop gentrification in its tracks, by taking over every vacant building. And, despite all the
high hopes among Black voters, President Joe Biden is already deporting huge
numbers of Black immigrants.
But first – David Stovall is a professor of African American Studies at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, and an organizer with the Peoples Education Movement. Dr. Stovall
is deeply involved in the fight to slow down and reverse the ongoing Black exodus from
Chicago. He’s author of an article titled, “Engineered Conflict: School Closings, Public
Housing, Law Enforcement and the Future of Black Life.” Dr. Stovall explained why he
thinks the conflicts affecting Blacks in the cities are “engineered.”

That was Dr. David Stovall, speaking from Chicago.

No big city has seen more gentrification and Black push-out than San Francisco.
Nevertheless, black trans anarchist organizer Jemma DeCristo is still there, in the city
by the bay. DeCristo is in full agreement with a recent Truthout article on the mostly
white and affluent folks that call themselves “YIMBYs.” These YIMBYs say “Yes” to the
proliferation of high cost housing in their own backyards and throughout the city. But
Jemma DeCristo says what the rich gentrifiers are actually saying when they call
themselves YIMBYs is, “Yes to white supremacy in my backyard.”

That was Jemma DeCristo, speaking from San Francisco.

SEE-ON Gurmu is Legal Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, or BAJI,
which advocates for the rights of Black immigrants to the United States. BAJI is part of
the Black Immigration Network. SEE-On Gurmu says the new Biden administration
immediately showed its hostility to Black immigrants

Black Agenda Radio 04.05.21 Apr 05, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Corporate Democrats and Republicans have long had a near-
monopoly on electoral politics. But the Black Is Back Coalition wants to put Black
Liberation in the U.S. electoral mix. And, the term fascism looks quite different from a
Black historical perspective. Ajamu Baraka takes an in-depth look at the subject.
But first – We’ll hear from Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, the 12 year-old Black
youth who was shot to death by Cleveland police in 2014. She’s joined with Lisa
Simpson, mother of Richard Risher, the 18 year-old shot dead by Los Angeles police in
2016, to demand accountability from the small group of people that control millions of
dollars in Black Lives Matter donations. The mothers are demanding a meeting with
Patrisse Cullors, Sean King and Tamika D. Mallory to address a whole range of
proposals on the future of the Black liberation movement. Ms. Rice is advised by activist
and academic Dr. Joy James and Fred Hampton Jr., son of the assassinated Chicago
Black Panther Leader. Rice says it’s time that the Black Lives Matter hashtag folks
answer to the Black community.

That was Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, speaking from Cleveland.

On April 10 and 11, the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and
Reparations will hold its yearly Electoral Campaign School – digitally, of course. Black Is
Back chairman Omali Yeshitela tells us how the electoral school became a yearly
feature of the Coalition’s schedule.

That was Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition.

The Black Alliance for Peace is one of the member organizations of the Black Is Back
Coalition. Alliance National Organizer Ajamu Baraka recently addressed the subject of
fascism. We think Baraka’s remarks are a useful addition to Omali Yeshitela’s position
on fascism.

Black Agenda Radio 03.29.21 Mar 29, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: There are many obstacles to Black American liberation. We’ll
speak with a young writer and activist who says one of the primary impediments to a
more powerful liberation movement is the Black elite, whose main goal is to prosper
under capitalism. And, we’ll take a look at the life and work of Audre Lorde, the poet and
Black feminist thinker.

But first – Transgender people attempting to migrate to the United States have a difficult
time, especially if they’re Black. A young woman who goes by the name Deborah “A” is
a national organizer for the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project – or, “BLMP,” for short.
Deborah “A” says the BLMP works through regional networks across the country.

That was Deborah “A”, of the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project.

It’s bad enough that Black liberation movements have always encountered massive
white American hostility, but elite sectors of Black America have often opposed mass
Black street action. Kandist Mallett is a columnist for Teen Vogue magazine. She’s
author of a recent column titled, “The Black Elite Are an Obstacle Toward Black
Liberation.”

That was writer and activist Kandist Mallet.

Jack Turner is a professor of political science at the University of Washington, and co-
editor of the book, “African American Political Thought: A Collected History.” Turner’s
contribution to that collection is a chapter titled, “Audre Lorde’s Politics of Difference.”
It’s a rich subject. Audre Lorde was an important Black poetic and feminist luminary who
was New York State Poet Laureate in the last years of her life. Professor Turner says Lorde clashed directly with President Reagan when the U.S. invaded the Caribbean
nation of Grenada, in 1983.

Professor Jack Turner, speaking from the University of Washington.

With U.S. media describing the past 12 months as the “worst year ever,” imagine if you
were locked up in even closer confines, with no defense against Covid-19 for a solid
year. Long term Pennsylvania prison inmate Segio Hyland filed this report for Prison
Radio.

And, here’s another report from a Prison Radio correspondent – Tabitha
Maynerd, incarcerated in Michigan.

Black Agenda Radio 03.22.21 Mar 22, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: the prolific radical professor Joy James speaks out on
decolonizing the Black movement in the United States. Dr. James urges activists to
condemn the militarization of US African policy, as well as militarized policing in Black
communities in this country. And, Great Britain, which grew rich through centuries of
global looting and mass enslavement, is now eager to deport thousands of Black
residents as morally unfit to reside in the United Kingdom.
But first – the United States and Europe are the wealthiest nations in the world, but
have done very poorly in coping with the year-long Covid-19 epidemic. So have most of
the former white settler colonies of Latin America. Layla Brown-Vincent is a professor of
Africana Studies at the University of Massachusetts, at Boston, and author of a recent
article titled, “The Pandemic of Racial Capitalism: Another World is Possible.” She says
that Cuba showed, early in the epidemic, that its practice of socialist internationalist
medicine is the global gold standard.

That was Dr. Layla Brown-Vincent, speaking from the University of
Massachusetts, at Boston.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Decolonial Feminist Collective recently
hosted an online interview with Dr. Joy James, the prolific author and Professor of
Humanities at Williams College. The talk was entitled, “Radicalizing and Decolonizing
Feminism.” Dr. James says the subject has revolutionary roots.

Dr. Joy James was interviewed by Jalessah T. Jackson, and Salome
Ayuak, of the Decolonial Feminist Collective.

Around the turn of the 21 st century, Great Britain began a wave of deportations of Black
residence with roots in Jamacia and other former colonies in the Caribbean. Luke De
Noronha, a writer who teaches at the University of Manchester, is author of the book,
“Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica.” According to De
Noronha, the British government claims it is only ridding itself of “foreign criminals.”

Black Agenda Radio 03.15.21 Mar 15, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The Black Is Back Coalition is made up of 15 organizations that work together on issues of mutual concern. We’ll hear from two activists who spoke at a recent Black Is Back Coalition webinar. And, if colonialism is dead, then why are European nations effectively doing border patrol thousands of miles deep inside the African continent? We’ll explore why so many African migrants are drowning at sea, while Europeans and Americans establish military bases all over the continent. But first – at least 25 organizations around the country are fighting to establish community control over the police. One of them is Pan-African Community Action, or PACA, in the Washington DC area. But PACA organizer Netfa Freeman says some activists mistakenly think that community control over the cops means keeping the blue “army of occupation” in place. In reality, says Freeman, community control is the best – and most democratic -- way to achieve both defunding and total abolition of the police.

That was Netfa Freeman, of Pan-African Community Action, speaking from Washington DC.

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations has been around since 2009 and is now made up of 15 organizations, all of which are united around a 19 point National Black Political Agenda for Self-Determination. The Coalition held a webinar, last week, on the subject: “Fascism, Neoliberalism, and the Way Forward.” We’ll hear from two of the speakers. Jihad Abdulmumit is chairman of the Jericho Movement, which fights to free political prisoners. And, Ajamu Baraka is national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace. We begin with Abdulmumit, followed by Baraka.

That was Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Ever since Barack Obama’s administration, the African continent has once again been crawling with European and American soldiers and foreign military bases. We spoke with Ampson Hagan, a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He’s been doing research on how Europeans, in partnership with the United States, have essentially extended their borders deep into Africa in order to keep Black migrants from getting anywhere near Europe. Hagan says the focus of this containment policy is the former French colony of Niger.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.08.21 Mar 08, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host, Glen Ford. Coming up: Calls are mounting to abolish the cops on US college campuses. And, where does the US get the right to dictate who governs Haiti? We’ll speak with a longtime fighter for Haitian sovereignty.

But first – It’s been confirmed that the nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, has been infected with Covid-19. Abu Jamal is a senior citizen prisoner, having spent the last 39 years in the Pennsylvania prison gulag. Longtime Mumia supporter Dr. Johanna Fernandez held a press conference to demand that Abu Jamal and all elderly inmates and political prisoners be set free. Fernandez was joined by Mumia’s movement doctor, Ricardo Alvarez, and Rev. Kieth Collins, who has known Abu Jamal since they were both youngsters in Philadelphia. Dr. Fernandez said setting Mumia freeis good medicine, as well as justice.

That was Rev. Keith Collins, speaking from Philadelphia.

The modern Free Speech Movement began on California college campuses in the
Sixties, and soon led to demands that campuses be free of police. But instead, cops have become even more deeply entrenched and militarized at US colleges, just as in the larger society. Dylan Rodriquez is a professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside, and he has plenty of experience combating the cops. Dr. Rodriguez says both the university system and its campus police are undergoing a crisis of legitimacy.

That was Professor Dylan Rodriguez, speaking from the University of
California, at Riverside.

The Haitian people have made it plain that they want to be rid of Jovenel Moise, the incredibly corrupt president imposed on Haiti by the United States. Thousands of Haitians have been in the streets for weeks, demanding that Moise step down. But the regime refuses to budge, and has responded with gunfire that has left dozens dead. Dr. Jemima Pierre is an anthropologist in the Department of African American Studies at UCLA, and an activist with the Black Alliance for Peace. Pierre was interviewed by Dr. Jared Ball on his influential podcast, “I Mix What I Like.” She says Washington is the source of Haiti’s misery.

Black Agenda Radio 03.01.21 Mar 01, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Some say the term fascism was born when Europeans started
treating each other the way they’d been treating the colonized people of the world for
centuries. We’ll discuss the subject with Omali Yeshitela, of the Black Is Back Coalition.
And, Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace, warns that you can’t effectively
fight police repression at home while condoning the U.S. acting like the policeman of the
planet.

But first – a new newspaper has hit the streets in Philadelphia, dedicated to the
liberation of the nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal. Pam Africa is
coordinator of International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. She
wants folks to sign a petition, in the newspaper, demanding that Philadelphia’s district
attorney stop standing in the way of Abu Jamal’s freedom.

That was Pam Africa, of International Concerned Family & Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Mumia has been confined to the Pennsylvania prison system for the past 39 years. He
filed this report for Prison Radio, in memory of Cicely Tyson.

At noon on Saturday, March 6, the Black Is Back Coalition for Social
Justice, Peace and Reparations will hold a webinar on “Fascism, Neoliberalism, and the
Way Forward.” The Democratic Party claims that it is a bastion of resistance to
Republican fascism – but it is the Democrats that are most eager to put limits on free

speech and access to the Internet. Black Is Back Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela
offers this analysis.

That was Omali Yeshitela, of the Black Is Back Coalition, speaking from
St. Petersburg, Florida.

The U.S. Peace Council recently held a joint webinar with the Venezuelan section of the
Committee for International Solidarity and Struggle for Peace. The event’s lead speaker
was Ajamu Baraka, national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Black Agenda Radio 02.22.21 Feb 22, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Black people in Britain go to prison at roughly the same rate as
African Americans, and British activists are also demanding prison and police abolition.
Dr. Gerald Horne says the United States is finding out that it’s no longer a uni-polar
world, with Washington in command of everybody else. And, we’ll hear two essays from
prisoners of the American Mass Black Incarceration Regime.

But first -- SAHM-ah Mcgona SEE-say is a Justice Fellow at the Center for
Constitutional Rights, and an organizer with the group called “Survived and Punished.”
Police claim they are the force that fights for the rights of victims. But in fact, says SEE-
say, the police, prosecutors and prisons only create more victims. She explains.

Many Americans are unaware that Black people in Great Britain have a long history of
urban rebellions against racist policing. We spoke with Dr. Elliot Cooper, a Research
Associate at the University of Greenwich, who sits on the board of The Monitoring
Group, which challenges state racism and racial violence. Dr. Elliott-Cooper is co-author
of a scholarly article on Britain, race and the criminal justice system, titled “Moral
Panic(s) in the 21 st Century.”

Dr. Gerald Horne is professor of History and African American Studies at the University
of Houston. Horne, a prolific author, was interviewed on a Sputnik Radio program
hosted Dr. Wilmer Leon the Third, in Washington. Dr. Leon noted that president Joe
Biden has been making noises about maintaining strong US economic sanctions
against governments he doesn’t like, and insisting that US allies go along with
Washington’s dictates. But, Europe seems tired of being bossed around the U.S, as Dr.
Horne explains.

This week, we’re featuring two items from deep inside the U.S. prison Gulag. Laura
Taylor is locked up in the Pennsylvania state penal system. She’s composed a
message to the guards that boss her around every day and night. Ms. Taylor calls it a
“Resignation Letter.”

Black Agenda Radio 02.15.21 Feb 15, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: A professor at Morgan State University sees today’s Black Americans as still living in the wake of slavery. He calls social activism “wake work.” And, a professor of theology believes t hat religion remains a great resource for social transformation, despite the great harm perpetrated by organized religion over the centuries.

But first -- Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, recently spoke at a webinar put together by the Dissenters organization. The subject: How the new Democratic administration is attempting to refurbish and strengthen the Euro-American world order, under the leadership of US Imperialism.

Dr. Corey Miles teaches sociology and anthropology at Morgan State University, in Baltimore. He says today’s Black US population is living in the “wake” of centuries of slavery, and that the work activists are doing now should be called “WAKE work.” “Wake” is not the same as “woke” – but Professor Miles says both concepts can be understood through Hip Hop.

Dr. Vincent Lloyd, a professor of theology and Africana Studies at Villanova University, says a progressive, liberationist theology can be useful to the movements against both police repression and U.S. imperial wars. However, Dr. Lloyd acknowledges that Christianity is a two-edged sword. Jesus is often called the Prince of Peace, but hundreds of millions have been killed or enslaved in the name of Christianity.

Black Agenda Radio 02.08.21 Feb 08, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Most Americans have been led to believe that the only purpose of political parties is to win elections. But a Black party in Maryland believes its main mission is to organize the people. And, Black people that immigrate to the United States from elsewhere in the diaspora inherit the historical legacies of Black Americans, but also bring their own perspectives on liberation. We’ll hear from a multicultural scholar, born in Nigeria.

But first – politically active Black teachers have created a 21st century version of “freedom schools,” to prepare a new generation for struggle. Peta [Peh-TAY] Lindsay is a California teacher and a founder of the Ida B. Wells Education Project.

The Ujima People's Progress Party has been organizing for about a decade in Baltimore and other Maryland cities. But, for Ujima, winning elections takes a back seat to grassroots organizing and political education – as organizer Nnamdi Lumumba explained on Dr. Jared Ball’s influential podcast, I Mix What I Like.

Kovie [KOH-vee] Biakolo [Bee-AH-kolo] is a writer and scholar, born in Nigeria, who specializes in culture and identity. Her recent article is titled, “We Can’t Talk About Immigration Without Acknowledging Black Immigrants." Biakolo says the period of the Harlem Renaissance was a turning point in Black American politics and culture, partly because of the influence of Black immigrants.

Black Agenda Radio 02.01.21 Feb 01, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Donald Trump told lies every day, but so did Democrats, who now have most of the microphones to themselves. We’ll hear from a former CIA analyst, who knows a great deal about lying. Mumia Abu Jamal has a commentary on the “American Way of Fascism.” And, we’ll discuss anti-Black racism in Brazil, and police brutality and corruption in Nigeria.

But first -- a report by the Institute for Policy Studies shows that the billionaire class in the U.S. has grabbed more money, in shorter time, during this pandemic and economic crisis than has ever been amassed in the history of the world. The crisis has given birth to 46 new billionaires, for a total of 660 super-rich oligarchs, while the billionaire class has added more than a trillion dollars to their already fabulous wealth. Omar Ocampo was one of the researchers that studied this explosion of billionaire wealth.

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton, of The Gray Zone, are serious journalists of the Left. They recently interviewed Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who has vigorously argued that Russiagate is a fiction concocted by his former employers and the Democratic Party to justify a New Cold War, and to provide an excuse for Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016.

Although the media these days refer to every Black activist and protest group as “Black Lives Matter,” today’s youth-based, Black-led movement is made up of many organizations. One of the newer groups is the North Carolina-based Assata Collective. We spoke with Crystal Eze (eh-zeh), a college nursing school graduate and member of the Assata Collective who has been organizing against police repression in both the United States and her birthplace in Africa.

Academics make up an important section of the current movement for social transformation. Dr. Ugo Edu teaches African American Studies at UCLA, and is a medical anthropologist. She’s done field work in Brazil, thinks that environmental justice should be at the cutting edge of the Movement.

Mumia Abu Jamal has been a political prisoner for more than two generations. But Abu Jamal is known around the world as a keen observer of current affairs. His latest essay is titled, “The American Way of Fascism.”

Black Agenda Radio - 01.25.21 Jan 25, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The people of Haiti have not been allowed to govern themselves since the United States overthrew their elected president, 15 years ago. We’ll get an update on the Haitian people’s struggle to take back control of their island nation. And, Not since the McCarthy era has the threat of censorship loomed so large in the United States. The Democrats seem intent on making it impossible to even discuss ending the rule of the rich.

But first -- The last time Joe Biden was part of the administration in power, the U.S. got involved in seven new wars. Black Agenda Report contributing editor Danny Haiphong has some predictions on how long it will take President Biden to start his own armed conflict.

Haitians continue to mount street protests demanding the resignation of president Jovenal Moise, accusing the U.S.-backed politician of massive corruption and brutality. We spoke with Daoud Andre, the Brooklyn, New York-based organizer of the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti.

The young political organizing group called the Dissenters last week held an online discussion of the prospects for war and political oppression under the new U.S. administration. One of the speakers was Ajamu Baraka, national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and a former Green Party vice presidential. Baraka said corporate politicians are anxious to impose a regime of censorship, so that Americans won’t be able to even discuss how to end the rule of the rich.

Also on that program was Robin D.G. Kelley, the activist, author and UCLA professor of history. He elaborated on Ajamu Baraka’s analysis.

Black Agenda Radio 01.18.21 Jan 18, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: We hear a lot of discussion these days about the history of genocide against Black Americans, but many people are still unaware that Black leftists presented a petition to the United Nations charging the U.S. with genocide, 70 years ago. And, Patrice Lumumba, the first elected prime minister of the Congo, was assassinated 60 years ago, with the collaboration of the United States. A group of scholars marked the occasion with a discussion of Lumumba’s political legacy.

But first – it’s been one helluva year, politically and on the public health arena. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held a national conference, last week, to sum up the changes and challenges that emerged in 2020. Black Is Back is a Coalition of organizations. Betty Davis is a New York City activist who chairs the Coalition’s Community Control of Education Working Group. She says Black folks need to seize control of their local education budgets.

Ajamu Baraka is a veteran activist who ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket in 2016. He’s national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, which is part of the Black Is Back Coalition. Baraka told the Coalition’s year-end conference that U.S. imperialism was clearly in disarray in 2020.

In 1951 Black entertainer and activist Paul Robeson and other Black leftists presented a petition to the United Nations demanding that the United States be held accountable for a long list of crimes against its Black population. The petition was titled “We Charge Genocide.” Last week, Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly joined other Black activists and academics to commemorate the events of 70 years ago, in an online seminar. Dr. Burden-Stelly is a professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Carleton College, and part of the team that produces BAR’s Black Agenda Review. She reminds us that U.S. government atrocities against Black people have never stopped.

Also present to commemorate the “We Charge Genocide” petition of 1951, was Dr. Trevor Ngwane, a lecturer at the Center for Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg. Dr. Ngwane is co-author of the book, “Urban Revolt, State Power and the Rise of People’s Movements in the Global South.” He says Black South Africa is quite familiar with colonial perpetrators of genocide.

Sixty years ago, the legally elected prime minister of the newly independence Democratic Republic of the Congo was assassinated as a result of plots orchestrated by the United States and its European allies. The Friends of Congo celebrate January 17 as Patrice Lumumba Day. To mark the occasion, activists and academics held on online seminar, moderated by Dr. Samuel T. Livingston, Associate Professor and Director of the African American Studies Program at Morehouse College. Among the speakers: Ludo De Witte, a Belgian sociologist and historian and author of his book, “The Assassination of Lumumba”; Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, a professor of African and Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Ira Dworkin, associate professor of English at Texas A&M University. Dworkin is author of “Congo Love Song: African American Culture and the Crisis of the Colonial State.” He Black Americans immediately recognized the assassination of Lumumba as a crime against all people of African descent.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.11.21 Jan 11, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: More and more, these days, we hear activists describe themselves as Black anarchists. But, what is Black anarchism. And, a Black author based in Europe says we all need to cultivate and make use of our “sensuous knowledge.”

But first – the white supremacist assault on the U.S. Capitol was aided and abetted by police officers. So says Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-Founder of the Washington-based Partnership for Civil Justice. The Partnership is demanding “a fully public investigation” into the way the cops responded to the massing of President Trump’s followers at the Capitol. African Americans are near universally agreed that, had Black people stormed the U.S. Congress in such a manner, police would have used deadly forced against them.

"Ebony "Sima Lee" Outlaw is an Afro-Indigenous womanist, emcee, poet, teacher and photographer, currently living in Baltimore. She also calls herself a Black anarchist – a description that has been adopted by growing numbers of Black activists. We asked "Ebony ‘Sima Lee’ Outlaw how she became attracted to Black anarchism.

A prominent Black writer and social critic, based in Europe, has produced a new book with a tantalizing title. Minna Salami is a public intellectual of Nigerian, Finnish and Swedish descent. Her latest work is titled, “Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone.” We reached Salami in the United Kingdom. Her book treats “sensuous knowledge” as a deeply political subject.

Black Agenda Radio 01.04.20 Jan 04, 2021

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The old Year, 2020, laid bare the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. We’ll hear from Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace, who says electoral politics must be secondary to grassroots organizing. And, U.S. involvement in the African nation of Cameroon has created humanitarian crises on both sides of the the Atlantic Ocean.

But first – the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is in its 12th year of advocacy for Black self-determination, world-wide. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela says the Covid-19 epidemic and economic breakdown have exposed the United States as a power in decline.

Four years ago, Ajamu Baraka ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket. He then formed the Black Alliance for Peace, which has taken the lead in demanding the dismantling of the U.S. Military Command in Africa and an end to the police occupation of Black communities in the United States. Baraka was recently interviewed by Dr. Jared Ball on his influential podcast, “I Mix What I Like.” Baraka said electoral politics can be important, but only as a tool of grassroots organizing.

All but one nation in Africa is collaborating with AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa that was created by the George Bush administration but vastly expanded under President Obama. AFRICOM is deeply involved in the west African nation of Cameroon, where the United States supports a French-speaking government that is at war with both Boko Haram fighters and its own English-speaking population. Journalist Joe Penny has been covering the Cameroon conflict for The Intercept.

Black Agenda Radio - 12.28.20 Dec 28, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from Covid-19, and the U.S. economy remains crippled, but China is nearly Covid-free and economically growing. A new book explores the vast differences in how the two social systems performed during the contagion. And, major league baseball claims it is embracing the old Negro leagues. However, a professor of Afro-American studies says something’s wrong with that picture.

But first – Paul Clark is a doctoral candidate in African and American Studies who’s been doing research on labor, policing and privatization in South Africa. Before the end of white minority rule, South Africa was a world leader in mass incarceration, along with the Soviet Union and the United States. Clark says South Africa continues to hold that dubious distinction.

Veteran activists Sara Flounders and Lee Siu Hin are the editors of an important new book, titled “Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China & the U.S.” It’s an anthology of essays by 50 writers, that explores why the United States has handled the virus so badly, while China was able to quickly bring the contagion under control. Sara Flounders says the real loser, is late stage capitalism.

Major League baseball has finally agreed to recognize the contributions to the so-called national past-time by the Negro baseball leagues, back in the time of segregation. The historically white franchises are now, in a sense, taking ownership of the Black baseball teams that they once excluded. Is that a good thing? We asked Josh Myers, a professor of Afro American studies at Howard University.

Black Agenda Radio 12.21.20 Dec 21, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The post-colonial regime in Zimbabwe was determined to, literally, keep Black women in their place. We’ll speak with an author who has studied that era. And, a new book details how sex was a leading item of political discussion among anti-colonial activists in the Dutch West Indies.

But first -- Before famed Black Power advocate Stokely Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture, he made a big impression on freedom organizations in Africa – some of it good, some not so favorable. Back in 1967, Carmichael took part in several conferences on the continent, and offered a critique of how the Black Liberation movement was going on the continent. Toivi Asheeke is a post-doctoral fellow in the sociology department at Vassar College. He wrote an article titled, ““Black Power and Armed Decolonization in Southern Africa: Stokely Carmichael, the African National Congress of South Africa, and the African Liberation Movements.”

Rudo Mudiwa is a Phd in Communication and Culture, and currently a Research Fellow at Princeton University. Mudiwa is a native of Zimbabwe, and is critical of how the Black government that replaced white rule treated Black women. Dr. Mudiwa wrote a recent article titled, “Stop the Woman, Save the State. Policing, Order, and the Black Woman’s Body.”

In the years after World War Two, sex was the big topic of discussion among pro-independence activist in the Dutch Caribbean colonies of Aruba and Curaçao

New York City University History professor Chelsea Shield has studied this era, and written a book titled “Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy after Empire.” We at Black Agenda Report had never heard of a colonial struggle in which sexual issues – including prostitution – played such an important role.

Black Agenda Radio - 12.07.20 Dec 07, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: It is now widely accepted that Black Americans are owed a debt for hundreds of years of slavery and racial oppression. But, can Reparations be a distraction from the work of Black liberation that needs to be done? And, how do you defund the police in a city like Baltimore, unless you can also assure the Black community that other ways can be found to deal with violence and crime?

But first – President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet is taking shape, comprised mainly of corporate and imperial political operatives. Rebecca Ann Wilcox is a community organizer and Phd candidate at the Princeton Theological Seminary, with a special focus on Race, Gender and Class Analysis. Wilcox believes that corporate Democrats are, in some ways, more dangerous than overt white supremacists.

Zuri Arman Kent-Smith is a Poet, writer and activist with a degree in Africana Studies and Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Kent-Smith has a particular interest in the question of Reparations for Black Americans. In the early stages of the Democratic presidential primaries, a number of candidates endorsed the principle of Black Reparations. But, does that mean the issue has become mainstreamed?

The grassroots youth organization called “Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle” have been deeply involved in Black empowerment activities in Baltimore, Maryland. Lawrence Grandpre is the organization’s Research Director. He was a recent guest on Dr. Jared Ball’s acclaimed podcast, “I Mix What I Like.” Grandpre agrees in principle with the demand for defunding of police. But he doesn’t think the Black Lives Matter organization has a clue how to sell the concept to the Black community.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.30.20 Nov 30, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: New and updated terms have entered the vocabulary of Black liberation. We’ll speak with an academic and activist about critical race theory, racial realism and Afro-pessimism. And, we’ll take a look at the history and current struggles of quilombos, the autonomous Black and indigenous settlements of Brazil.

But first -- A globally important webinar on U.S. militarization of Africa, through its military command, AFRICOM, will be held on December 4. One of the panelists is Marie Claire Far-EYE, a Congolese member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Far-Eye currently lives in Great Britain, a country where, like the United States, most people are not even aware that the greatest genocide since World War Two is still unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Shameka Powell is co-director Educational Studies at Tufts School of Arts, and co-author of an essay titled, "Kissing Cousins: Critical Race Theory’s Racial Realism and Afropessimism’s Social Death.” These are subjects that are hotly debated in Black academic circles, and among some activists, but not the stuff of daily Black conversation. We talked with Prof. Powell about the relevance of Racial Realism and Afropessimism.

Brazil is home to the biggest Black population in the world outside of Nigeria, yet Blacks wield very little institutional power. Carla Maria Guerrón Montero is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Delaware. She’s done extensive studies of Black populations in Latin America. Most recently, Professor Montero immersed herself in the Quilombos of Brazil, autonomous settlements established to escape slavery and ongoing oppression of Black and indigenous people.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.23.20 Nov 23, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Community Control of police -- We’ll hear from two advocates of making cops accountable to the people. Colin Kaepernick demands freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal. And, a former political prisoner is briefly jailed for registering to vote.

But first – Native Americans say the holiday “Thanksgiving” is a celebration of genocide at the hands of European invaders, and should be replaced by a National Day Mourning. We spoke with Nick Estes, an activist member of the Sioux nation who teaches American Studies at the University of New Mexico.

Black Psychology students at Bowie State University, in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, last week held a panel discussion on Police Brutality and Community Control of the Police. One of those that spoke was Netfa Freeman, an organizer with Pan-African Community Action, which is pushing for community control of the police. Freeman says police are a militarized force of oppression.

Former Black Panther Party member Dhoruba Bin Wahad spent 19 years as a political prisoner. He told the Bowie State University panel that we need to create a national front of organizations, all demanding Community Control of Police.

Colin Kaepernick, the National Football League quarterback who has effectively been banned from playing because of his political beliefs, was part of a virtual press conference last week, demanding the release of the nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal. Kaepernick says Abu Jamal’s continued imprisonment is a crime against humanity.

Former Black Panther Jalil Muntaqim spent 49 years in prison until he was released on parole in October. When Muntaqim returned to his family home in Rochester, New York, he registered to vote—a mistake for which he was briefly jailed. We spoke with Muntaqim’s cousin, Blake Simons

Black Agenda Radio 11.16.20 Nov 16, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: What happened when radical Black protesters found themselves surrounded by mostly white Democrats, in Washington, when the media announced that Donald Trump had lost the election. We’ll find out from the chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition. And, we’ll talk with the author of a book on mixed race women, Mulattas, and how they are depicted in Brazilian and U.S. media.

But first – the corporate press has labeled virtually all Black protests as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, but the reality is that many organizations have taken to the streets against racism and the rule of the rich. We spoke with BREE-YA Johnson, a masters student at George Washington University who is co-chair of Black Youth Project 100 in the nation’s capital. We asked Johnson about BYP100’s relationship with local Black Lives Matter activists.

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations has organized a Black People’s March on the White House every year since Barack Obama was sworn in as president. According to Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela, this year’s demonstration coincided with the Saturday when the news media announced that Joe Biden had defeat President Donald Trump.

Wherever white supremacy has established itself, mixed race women have been used as symbolic weapons in maintaining racial oppression. Jasmine Mitchell is a professor of American Studies and Media and Communication at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. Dr. Mitchell is author of the book, “Imagining the Mulatta: Blackness in US and Brazilian Media.” She says the Mulatta is depicted and exploited in similar ways by white power structures in both countries.

Black Agenda Radio 11.09.20 Nov 09, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Will a Joe Biden administration be an ally of the Black Lives Movement? Two of our guests say most emphatically, NO. How can the grassroots Black movement for social justice bring real power for Black people? We’ll talk with a young scholar who says the movement should follow a path of “communalism.” And, a Black people’s movement is making itself felt in Argentina, a country that long pretended that it had no Black population to speak of.

But first – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris pulled off a cliff-hanger victory over Donald Trump, last week, largely on the strength of Black voters. We spoke with Dr. Johnny Williams, a professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Williams says Joe Biden is no friend of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Justin Lang is a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies at Brown University, and author of a scholarly article on former President Baraka Obama’s unsuccessful attempts to quell the movement to abolish prisons and the police. Lang predicts that a Joe Biden administration will also try to co-opt and confuse the Black movement.

The Black Lives Matter movement has spawned a number of political currents during its brief history. Shay Akil McLean espouses a politics of “communalism.” McLean is a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He wrote an article for Black Agenda Report on Black health. We asked McLean to explain what he means by “communalism.”

The South American nation of Argentina, like the United States, was founded on the dead bodies of native peoples and the labor of Black slaves. But, for centuries Argentinians have pretended that its Black population had died off. Erika Edwards has written a book that explains how Black Argentinians are resisting being written out of history. It’s titled, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law, and the Making of a White Argentine Public.”

Black Agenda Radio 11.02.20 Nov 02, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: In most nations in Africa, queer sex is against the law. We’ll talk with someone who wrote the book on the subject. Blackness is seen differently in the United States than in Latin America. But, as our guest explains, Blacks are at the bottom of the hierchy in both cultures. And, Mumia Abu Jamal has some thoughts on the elections.

But first – ever since the Black rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri, the age-old debate over revolution versus reform has been raging. Dylan Rodriguez is professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, at Riverside. Rodrizuez says reformism is just another form of counterinsurgency.

That was Professor Dylan Rodriguez, speaking from the University of California at Irvine. Rodriguez is author of the new book, “White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide.”

Black people are at the bottom of the social and economic rung in both North and South America. Jo-meera Salas, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Rutgers University, has written an article that argues on the different ways that Blackness is experienced in the Latin America, versus the United States. Salas’s focus is Latina Black girls.

In terms of the law, Africa may be the continent most hostile to queer folks. Thirty of its nations have laws against homosexuality. WUN-pini Fatimata Mohammed is a professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Georgia. Doctor Mohmmad is author of an article in the Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies, titled “Deconstructing Homosexuality in Ghana.

The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, has some thoughts on the elections. He doesn’t trust the polls.

Black Agenda Radio 10.26.20 Oct 26, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Millions of young people in the United States now see themselves as agents of transformational change, and one of the best places to begin is by studying Malcolm X. We’ll talk with an activist student of Malcolm’s life and work. And, white nationalist militias seem to feel right at home in western North Carolina. A young activist from Gastonia says the whole country needs to undergo a process of DE-white supremafication.

But first – the world is reeling from the double whammy of Covid-19 pandemic and a global economic depression. The crisis has created an historic opportunity for the super-rich to massively restructure capitalist economies in ways that spell disaster for poor and working people. We spoke with Anthony Monteiro, a Duboisian scholar and activist with the Philadelpohia Saturday Free School.

The Black Radical Tradition has always emphasized that Black American liberation is part of a global struggle. Desmond Fonseca is a doctoral student of history at the University of California who has lately been immersing himself in the study of Malcolm X. Fonseca is greatly impressed with Malcolm’s writings, speeches and organizing work – especially in his latter years, when Malcolm was an outspoken advocate of Black American internationalism.

Lydia McCaskill is studying for both her Masters and Doctoral degrees at North Carolina Central University, and hopes to become a Constitutional Lawyer. But right now she’s a whirlwind of political activism in her hometown of Gastonia, in western North Carolina. McCaskill has launched a Stop Injustice Initiative.

Black Agenda Radio 10.19.20 Oct 19, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Black lives matter in prison, too, including homosexual Black lives. We’ll talk with an organizer for the abolitionist group “Black and Pink.” And, white supremacy is endemic in the United States, but a professor of Geography says anti-Blackness is spread around the world by Global Capital.

But first – activists in Minneapolis says their protests have been disrupted by dozens of men and women wearing orange shirts that clearly have a relationship with the police. We spoke with Jae Yates, of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar.

The ideology of anti-Blackness is mobile, and is spread around the world by global capital. That’s the thrust of an article by Adam Bledsoe, a professor of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota.. His article is titled, “The Anti-Blackness of Global Capital.”

How do Black LGBTQ inmates fare in the U.S. prison gulag? A good place to find out is in the pages of “Black and Pink.” Fatima Shabazz is one the publication’s founders.

Black Agenda Radio 10.12.20 Oct 12, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Activists in Greenville, North Carolina successfully demand community control of the police. And, we’ll hear from a psychologist who’s done a study of the varied ideologies held by Black women.

But first, Shannon Jones is co-founder of Bronxites for NYPD Accountability, which on June 4th led a protest in the South Bronx section of New York that was massively attacked by police, who claimed the marchers had violated a curfew. At least 61 marchers and bystanders were injured, according to a Human Rights Watch study. More than 250 were arrested, including Ms Jones. She says the cops had been waiting for a chance to crack down on the movement.

Activists have clashed repeatedly with police in the eastern North Carolina city of Greenville. The protests have been led by the Mapinduzi organization and the Coalition Against Racism. Mapinduzi spokesman Dedan Wha-Kee-UR-ee says Greenville’s government continues to reject demands for Community Control of Police, an independent prosecutor for police brutality cases, and that a police substation be turned into a People’s Resource center. However, the city did agree to end its involvement with the Pentagon’s 1033 program, that funnels military weapons and equipment to local police.

Dr. Ashlee Davis is the Supervising Psychologist and Coordinator for Diversity and Social justice Initiatives at Fordham University Counseling Center, in New York City. She’s author of a recent article, titled “Traditional Femininity Versus Strong Black Women Ideologies and Stress Among Black Women.” We asked Dr. Ashley, just what is

“Strong Black Women Ideology”?

Black Agenda Radio 10.05.20 Oct 05, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: We’ll talk with an activist-scholar we says anti-Black violence is not just endemic, not just in the United States but throughout Latin America. Political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal has a commentary on the people and system that took Breonna Taylors life. And, China has the only economy strong enough to pull the world out of recession, but the United States seems bent on waging a New Cold War. We’ll hear from BAR contributing editor Danny Haiphong.

But first -- The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparation, has marched on the White House every November since its formation in the first year of the Obama administration. The Coalition and its 15 member organizations will be in Washington on November 6, 7th and 8th, putting forward an independent Black politics. Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela tells us about this year’s Black People’s March on the White House.

The whole world watched as millions took to the streets to demand a halt to police killings of Black people in the United States. But Black lives are at risk everywhere in the Western Hemisphere, according to Jameelah Imani Morris, an activist scholar workin on her doctorate at Stanford University. Morris has done extensive work with Black youth in both the United States and Latin America.

Mumia Abu Jamal is the nation’s best known political prisoner, a prolific author and journalist, now in his 39th year of incarceration in Pennsylvania. Abu Jamal’s latest report for Prison Radio is titled, “Breonna’s Deathbed.”

Black Agenda Radio 09.28.20 Sep 28, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: An African political scientist assesses the damage inflicted by the United States military presence on the continent. An environment activist says saving the planet will require getting rid of capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy. And, a long-time prison inmate says the system is about revenge, not rehabilitation.

But first – Asha Noor is a Somali racial justice and human rights activist with the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative. Noor says the best way to deal wtih over-policing in Black America, is to abolish the police.

The Black Alliance for Peace last week held a Webinar on the U.S. global military policy and its impact on Africa. One the speakers was Aziz Fall, an African political scientist and member of the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa, or GRILA.

The movement to defend the Earth’s environment has, of necessity, become largely a movement against capitalism. We spoke with Yolian Ogbu, a student organizer of Eritrean descent who serves on the national operations team of the climate crisis organization This Is Zero Hour.

Christopher Trotter is a Black man who’s been behind bars for almost four decades. He filed this report for Prison Radio.

Black Agenda Radio 09.21.20 Sep 21, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: What do the AIDS and Covid-19 epidemics have in common? Both diseases were much more deadly to Black Americans than to whites. We’ll discuss the racist reasons for these high Black death rates. And, After hundreds of years on American shores, Black people are still fighting for basic human rights. We’ll talk with a Black astrophysicist who says “we all have the right to know the universe.”

But first – Chicago is arguably ahead of most heavily Black cities in two arenas of racial struggle: the fight for community control of police, and the long battle for reparations. Toussain Losier is a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, at Amherst. But he earned is PhD at the University of Chicago and has long experience as an activist in that city. Losier is author of a recent article, titled ““A Human Right to Reparations: Black People against Police Torture and the Roots of the 2015 Chicago Reparations Ordinance.” He’s well-acquainted with the young Black Chicago activists that told a United Nations agency in Geneva that the United States is guilty of genocide against Black people.

Black people are today dying in disproportionate numbers from COvid-19, just as they succumbed to HIV-AIDS at greater rates than whites, two generations ago. Darius Bost is a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah and a co-editor of “Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies.” Bost says white ignorance of actual conditions in Black communities led to mass deaths from AIDS. He’s written an article titled, ““Black Lesbian Feminist Intellectuals and the Struggle against HIV/AIDS.”

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein grew up in working class East Los Angeles, but she’s now a Theoretical Physicist, as well as a Feminist Theorist, at the University of New Hampshire. Doctor Prescod-Weinstein firmly believes that everyone has “the right to know the universe.” We asked her if she agrees that a physicist is one who tries to find out how WHAT IS, came to BE.

Black Agenda Radio 09.14.20 Sep 14, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Dr. Gerald Horne’s new book explores the roots of white supremacy and capitalism, centuries ago, in colonialism and the slave trade. And, Malcolm X changed the way Black people saw themselves and their place in the world. We’ll discuss a new book on Malcolm, title “Black-Minded.”

But first – a Minneapolis judge is moving towards jury selection in the second degree murder trial of the policeman that killed George Floyd, setting off protests that put tens of millions in the streets. At the height of the turmoil the Minneapolis City council talked about getting rid of their police force in its present form. But Sam Martinez, of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar Clark, says there’s been no movement towards defunding or abolishing the police, and what’s needed is community control of the cops.

Unprecedented numbers of Americans of all races now claim to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement. But Americans, in general, know very little about the historical development of white supremacy. Dr. Gerald Horne is a professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and author of more than 30 books. His latest volume is titled, “The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century.” If you want to understand why Black Lives don’t matter under the current system, says Dr. Horne, look to the events of five centuries ago.

More than a half century ago, Malcolm X left his indelible mark on the Black American mind. We spoke with Michael Sawyer, a professor of Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies at Colorado College, and author of a new book, titled “Black Minded: The Political Philosophy of Malcolm X.” Dr. Sawyer says Malcolm X shaped the modern era of Black politics – and his own way of looking at the world, as well.

Black Agenda Radio 09.07.20 Sep 07, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: A Black educator who put Africa at the center of his teaching is still impacting the profession, thirteen years after his death. And, some of the biggest fortunes in the world have been derived from poisoning generations of people and polluting the air, water and soil. We’ll examine the lethal history of arsenic.

But first – Joy James teaches political theory, feminist theory and critical race theory at Williams College. We spoke with Prof. James about her upcoming book, on what she calls “captive caretakers” of the Black community, and her recent article, “Airbrushing Revolution for the Sake of Abolition.”

When Dr. Asa Hilliard died in 2007, the former Dean of Education at San Francisco State University and Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University was mourned by thousands around the world. Hilliard was famed for advocating the African-izing of African American education. De Reef Jamison is a professor of African American Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He recently published an article, titled “Asa Hilliard: Conceptualizing and Constructing an African-Centered Pedagogy."

Arsenic. It’s a lot more than just the favorite weapon of sneaky murderers. Arsenic occupies a special place in the history of killer chemical agents – which is Northwestern University Phd candidate Jayson Porter’s field of study. As Porter explains, arsenic has played a huge role in agriculture, manufacturing and war, ending the lives of untold numbers of insects, plants and human beings in the process.

Black Agenda Radio 08.31.20 Aug 31, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m , along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Both the AIDS epidemic and Covid-19 inflicted disproportionate deaths in the Black community. We’ll explore the reasons why. And, the second volume on a biography of the most important Black activist and intellectual that you may never have heard of, is about to published. Stay tuned to learn why you MUST know the name and works of Hubert Harrison.

But first – U.S. politicians have for generations gained power by scaring white people with threatening images Black males. President Trump is running on a platform that essentially mimics the old newspaper headline, “Black Buck Runs Amuk.” Douglas Flow is professor of History at Washington University, in St. Louis. He’s written a book, titled, “Uncontrollable Blackness: African American Men and Criminality in Jim Crow New York.” “Uncontrollable Blackness” is a provocative title. Was it planned that way?

There’s nothing new about the high death toll Blacks are suffering from the Covid-19 contagion. Thirty years ago, the HIV-AIDS epidemic killed disproportionate numbers of Blacks. J.T. Roane is a Research Fellow at the Schomburg Research Center in Black Culture, in New York City. He wrote an article about AIDS and Black Philadelphia.

In the first quarter of the 20th century, an immigrant from the Virgin Islands named Hubert Harrison influenced a whole generation of Black activists, including Marcus Garvey, A. Phillip Randolph and the entire so-called “New Negro” movement. Activist and scholar Jeff Perry has spent more than a decade chronicling the life and works of Hubert Harrison, and will soon release the second volume of his biography, titled “Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality.”

Black Agenda Radio 08.24.20 Aug 24, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: It’s not September yet, so it’s still “Black August,” the month when we pay respect to political prisoners held by the United States. The Black Is Back Coalition recently held a national conference on political prisoners. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee runs a project and twitter account that empowers political prisoners to tell their own stories. And, a long-time prisoner of the state of California reports on how incarcerated people on coping with Covid-19.

But first – David West played for 15 seasons with the National Basketball Association, and is a two-time NBA All Star and NBA Champion. West is now living comfortably in California, serving as chief operating officer of the Professional Collegiate League, which aims to put money in college athletes’ pockets and prepare them for a future outside of sports. It’s long been common to hear Black folks say that high paid athletes should pool their capital to develop a stronger Black American economy and politics. We asked David West his take on that line of thought.

August is political prisoners’ month – a time to remember those captured while resisting U.S. government oppression, and to step up efforts to free those prisoners that are still behind bars. Jihad Abdulmumit is a former Black Panther who spent 23 years in prison. He’s now co-chair of the Jericho Society, and a member of the Black is Back Coalition for Peace, Social Justice and Reparations. The Coalition recently held a conference under the banner, “Fight for Black Power” and “Free All Political Prisoners.”

YOUR-gen Ostensen is the son of a former political prisoner. Ostenson is with the New York chapter of IWOC, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. He’s part of IWOC’s “Inside Prison Journalism” project and edits the organization’s twitter page, #PrisonsKill.

U.S. prisons are among the worst places to be during a pandemic. But Vice television news reporters recently shined a light on Covid-19 behind bars, and their revelations seem to have made a difference. Prison Radio has this report from the California penal system.

Black Agenda Radio 08.10.20 Aug 10, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Black Brazilians are dying by the tens of thousands from Covid-19, and from police bullets on the streets. Slavery was all about money, and insurance companies collected their share of the profits in human flesh. And, a Black scholar says mid-wives can help reduce the high rates of death among birth-mothers and their babies.

But first – activists around the country are commemorating “Black August,” in honor of the political prisoners who are still incarcerated, half a century after the crushing of the Black Liberation Movement. We spoke with Jihad Abdulmumit, the chairperson of the Jericho Movement, and a former Black Panther Party political prisoner who spent 23 years behind bars. The Jericho Movement is part of the Black Is Back Coalition, which this weekend holds its national conference – where Jihad Abdulmumit will speak on the significance of “Black August.”

Brazil has the largest Black population outside of Africa, and is among the top three Covid-19 hotspots on the planet, along with the United States. Brazilian social anthropologist Jaime Amparo Alves teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He’s written a book on Brazilian police terror against Blacks, and is busy raising funds for Black families caught in the coronavirus epidemic.

Dr. Amparo Alves notes that Blacks in Brazil and the U.S. have another thing in common: white supremacist presidents.

To send money to help Black Brazilian families survive the Coronavirus onslaught, Google UNEAFRO [OOH-Knee-Afro] Brazil. That’s U-N-E-A-F-R-O Brazil. https://benfeitoria.com/Covid19Brazil

Slavery in the United States was the nation’s biggest business by far, and all of the financial sectors got their cut of the profits. Dr. Michael Ralph, director of Africana Studies at New York University, says the insurance industry was central to how white masters measured the value of their human property.

Most people in the United States were born under the care of professional doctors and nurses. But mid-wives played a huge role in child-bearing, not so long ago. Dr. Sasha Turner, a professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, has written a book on mid-wives and the role they played in helping Black mothers give birth, during and after slavery in the Americas. Turner says mid-wife-ing – or mid-wiffery [whiff-ery] – was the norm before professional medicine took over.

Black Agenda Radio 08.03.20 Aug 03, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Activists have designated August 15th a national Reparations Day, with protests targeting Christopher Columbus and Donald Trump. A former political prisoner says folks are fooling themselves if they think Joe Biden will fix the criminal IN-Justice System. And, I’ll have some comments on Washington’s Cold War Against China.

But first – the institution of policing in the United States has been buffeted by the most massive demonstrations of the 21st century. The wave of protests began in Minneapolis, with the police killing of George Floyd. Adam Bledsoe is a Minneapolis native who teaches at the University of Minnesota. Bledsoe has put together what he calls a “Syllabus on the Minneapolis Uprising.”

The Brooklyn-based December 12th Movement is calling for a national day of demonstrations to demand reparations for slavery and racist oppression. Roger Wareham is a longtime activist and human rights lawyer.

Dhoruba Bin Wahad is a former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army political prisoner. He spent 19 years behind bars before his conviction was reversed. Bin Wahad talked politics on Dr. Jared Ball’s podcast, “I Mix What I Like.”

The wave of protests against U.S. policing and prisons has been keenly followed by the nation’s two million incarcerated people. Sergio Hyland filed this report for Prison Radio.

Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley took part in a globally-watched web event that called on Americans, especially, to say “No to the New Cold War.”

Black Agenda Radio 07.27.20 Jul 27, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The Black Is Back Coalition will make freedom for all political prisoners the top item at its upcoming national conference. And, What is the meaning of Pan-Africanism today, in a post-colonial world?

But first—the entire planet remains in the grips of the Covid-19 contagion. The United States has fared worse than any other developed country, economically and in terms of loss of life. Everyone TALKS about how bad things are in the Age of Covid, but it’s even more crucial to ask, What KIND of crisis is this? We posed that question to Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar.

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations holds its national conference on August 15 and 16. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela says the emphasis will be on the plight of political prisoners.

Many tens of millions of people of African descent live outside the Continent, but what does that mean, in political terms? We spoke with Jayne O. EE-FEK-WUN-EEG-WAY, a senior scholar at the Center for Genomics, Race, Identity and Difference at Duke University. She says the Africa connection means different things to different people.

Black Agenda Radio 07.20.20 Jul 20, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: a man born to imprisoned victims of a racist police vendetta recounts his life in the Move organization. And, today’s Black activists could learn something from the Maroons, who built communities of freedom outside the reach of the slave master,

Black nationalism is a potent political force, with studies showing that about half of Black Americans see themselves as a nation within a nation. Edward Oh-NAH-Chi teaches history at Ursinus College, and has written a book titled, “Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State.” Onaci says there have been calls for a separate Black nation for generations.

Mike Africa was born in a Pennsylvania prison, a captive of the long Philadelphia police vendetta against the Move organization, in 1978. After for decades behind bars, all of the surviving Move members are now free, as Mike Africa explains.

In North and South America and the Caribbean, there is a long history of escaped slaves establishing their own communities in far-off swamps and mountains. Willie Jamaal Wright is a professor of Geography and Africana Studies at Rutgers University. Wright wrote an article titled, “The Morphology of Marronage,” which explores the history of the people we call Maroons.

Black Agenda Radio 07.13.20 Jul 13, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: the Green Party gears up to take on the two corporate parties in November. And, the Movement for a Peoples Party plans to be on the presidential ballot in 2024, but its members are in the streets, today.

But first – by some measures, the current movement against police brutality is the largest political movement ever seen in the United States. But Clarence Taylor, a professor emeritus of history at Baruch College, in New York City, reminds us that brutal, repressive cops have been part of Americana for most of the nation’s history. Professor Taylor has written a book, titled, “Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City.”

When the corporate Democrats defeated Bernie Sanders’ first race for president, in 2016, a number of Sanders’ supporters left the Deocratic Party entirely, and formed the Movement for a People’s Party. Nick Brana is National coordinator for the M.P.P. Now Bernie Sanders has been forced out of the presidential race once again. We asked Nick Brana if Sander’s second defeat has resulted in a boost in recruitment for the People’s Party movement.

The Green Party held its national convention this weekend, and nominated party co-founder Howie Hawkins as their presidential candidate. Angela Walker, a Black activist from Milwaukee, is Hawkins’ vice presidential running mate.

Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberley is a Green Party activist, and BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka was the Green’s vice presidential candidate in 2016. Both Kimberley and Baraka spoke at the Party convention. First, Margaret Kimberley.

Black Agenda Radio 07.06.20 Jul 06, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: The Black Alliance for Peace steps up its campaign to get the
U.S. military out of Africa; a scholar takes a look at Kwaito music and young people’s
politics in South Africa; and, a new article celebrates the life and work of James Cone,
the father of Black Liberation Theology.
But first – the U.S. political establishment is still reeling from the nationwide wave of
demonstrations that followed the police killing of George Floyd. We spoke with Monifa
Bandele, a veteran activist from Brooklyn, New York, who sits on the policy table of the
Movement for Black Lives. Bandele says the ongoing protests are the result of years of
organizing.

The United States military has a larger presence on the African continent than Britain
and France at the height of their colonial empires. The Black Alliance for Peace is
escalating its campaign against AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa, which
is active in almost every nation on the continent. Alliance activist Tunde Osazua points
out that AFRICOM’s first big mission was the regime change attack on Libya, in 2011.

Dr. James Cone, the world-renowned theologian, died two years ago, but his work
continues to influence Black political thinking. Matt Harris is a PhD candidate at the

University of California, at Santa Barbara. Harris co-authored an article titled, "In the
Hope That They Can Make Their Own Future: James H. Cone and the Third World."
Harris says Cone is considered the father of Black liberation theology.

In South Africa, “kwaito” music is wildly popular with young people – just as is hip hop
among Black American youth. Xavier Livermon is a professor of African Diaspora
Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s spent years studying the kwaito music
phenomenon, and written a book, titled ““Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and
Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Professor Livermon says Kwaito music has
had a profound effect on South Afrian youth, whose 21 st century politics is quite different
than the young people who rose up against white minority rule in Soweto in 1976.

Black Agenda Radio - 06.29.20 Jun 29, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: A segment of Black America has long been obsessed with promoting images or spokespersons that are positive representations of “The Race.” But, has that ever worked as a Black strategy for empowerment? And, a scholar says it’s vital that everybody read, but warns that lots of western literature is bad for your mental and political health.

But first – In the wake of last month’s huge George Floyd protests, polls show that majorities of white people now agree that Blacks don’t get the justice they deserve in the United States. But, what about fairness in housing, health care, employment, and all other aspects of life? Amson Hagan is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of North Carolina. Hagan’s made a study of “deservingness” – what kinds of people Americans think deserve humanitarian care.

Black people – or, at least, some Black folks – have long invested a great deal of energy in putting forward a positive image to properly “represent” African Americans to the rest of the world. Dr. Brenna Greer is a professor of Social Sciences and History at Wellesley College. Greer has authored a book, titled, “Represented: The Black Imagemakers Who Reimagined African American Citizenship.” Many Blacks thought Bill Cosby, the comedian and millionaire, was an excellent image for Black America – until he was convicted on sex charges. Dr. Greer has some thoughts about Cosby and Black “representation.” The massive demonstrations against police racism that rocked the United States have also had a profound impact in Canada. Aparna Mistra Tarc is a professor of Education at York University, in Toronto. Dr. Tarc has written a book, titled, “Literacy of the Other: Renarrating Humanity.” She says, it’s not only a good time to protest, but also to get in some serious reading.

Black Agenda Radio - 06.22.20 Jun 22, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: It started in Baltimore, but now it seems that the government has spy planes over at least 15 U.S. cities; a Black scholar examines the role that rage plays in Black politics; and, we’ll take a look at the long history of African Americans’ engagement with the people of Haiti.

But first – the current wave of Black-led protests are the largest and most sustained since the 1960s. Joshua Myers teaches Africana Studies at Howard University. He’s author of the book, “We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989.” Dr. Myers rejects the idea that the current protests are unique to this particular moment in history.

RAGE is one of the engines that has kept the current wave of protests going, week after week. Nicholas Brady teaches Africana Studies at Bucknell University.

It’s been revealed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security deployed airplanes, helicopters and drones over at least 15 cities to spy on the latest wave of public protests. The U.S. military isn’t supposed to back up local police without specific presidential authorization. Police spies in the skies are nothing new to the majority Black city of Baltimore. A police spy plane was discovered operating in secret four years ago. Now it openly spies on the public, as Vanessa Beck reported to a Zoom conference of her organization, the Black Alliance for Peace.

Haiti has seen wave after wave of popular protest against a succession of governments imposed on Haiti by the United States. African Americans have had a close relationship to the people of Haiti since the island’s slaves revolted and declared independence in 1804. We spoke with Vanderbilt University professor Brandon Byrd, who’s written a book entitled, “The Black Republic:: African Americans and the Fate of Haiti.”

Black Agenda Radio - 06.15.20 Jun 15, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Black athletes earn billions of dollars for colleges, but who’s looking out for their interests? And -- solidarity. A veteran political organizer explains the meaning of the word.

But first – activists have been confronting local governments across the nation with lists of demands, mostly involving the police. Max Rameau is with Pan-African Community Action, which is calling for community control of the police In Washington DC. We asked Rameau why proposals to DEFUND the police have gotten so much more press coverage than community control.

Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, recently appeared on q podcast for Code Pink, the anti-war organization. Baraka agreed that U.S. advocates for peace overseas must also focus on police terror at home.

Bresha Meadows was 14 years old when she shot her abusive father to death in their home in Warren, Ohio. Meadows was threatened with trial for murder as an adult. Her case was championed by a number of criminal justice reform groups, including the organization called Survived and Punished. Ms. Meadows was allowed to plea to involuntary manslaughter charges, and was sentenced to a year in juvenile detention and six months in a mental health facility. Bresha Meadows is now 18 years old, free, and looking forward to her future.

Dr. Gabby Yearwood is a socio-cultural anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin. He recently authored an article titled, “Playing Without Power: Black Male NC-double-A Student Athletes Living With Structural Racism.” We asked Dr. Yearwood, Can’t a bunch of big, muscular, star athletes take care of themselves?

Black Agenda Radio - 06.08.20 Jun 08, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Among the demands on protesters lips and signs is Community Control of the Police. And, there’s nothing new about debates over the use of violence to get justice. A century and a half ago, some folks preached that the struggle against slavery should be non-violent.

But first – in some cities, protesters have zeroed in on corporations that have gotten too cozy with the police. We spoke with Dr. Brittany Friedman, a professor of sociology specializing in Race and Rights at Rutgers University.

Dr. Johnny Williams teaches at Trinity College, in Harford, Connecticut. He blames a self-serving Black leadership for selling out the poor.

The demand for community control of the police drew a thousand activists to Chicago, last fall. The conference was organized by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, chaired by veteran activist Frank Chapman. He says community control of police is a demand whose time has come.

It took thousands of atrocities, mass killings and other outrages by slaveholders before some white abolitionists finally recognized the necessity of violence to overthrow the system. Professor Jesse Olavsky is an historian at Duke University, and a scholar on resistance to slavery. She wrote a recent article about “Women, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Militant Abolitionism.

Black Agenda Radio - 06.01.20 Jun 01, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The civil rights movement was not totally non-violent, certainly not in bloody Mississippi. An imprisoned former Black Panther battles Covid-19. And, Black women’s rights to control their own bodies are still under assault, a century and half after slavery.

But first – It’s feeling much like the 1960s in America, with protests and clashes with police in scores of cities in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, in Minneapolis. One of those protests, in Newark, New Jersey, was led by Larry Hamm, chairman of the Peoples Organization for Progress. Larry Hamm is also running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Cory Booker. Hamm has been endorsed by Dr. Cornel West, the activist and public intellectual.

The U.S. civil rights movement may have been led by proponents of non-violence, but Black folks in Mississippi believed in defending themselves from racist attack. Akinyele Umoja is a professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University, and author of the book, "We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance and the Mississippi Freedom Movement.” In fact, he says most Black families in rural areas of the South owned guns.

Jalil Muntaqim is a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. Muntaqim has been behind bars for almost half a century, repeatedly denied parole. Now he’s battling Covid-19 in a New York prison hospital. For the latest on Muntaqim’s condition, we spoke with Jihad Abdulmumit, chair of the Jericho Movement

Slavery may have been abolished more than a century ago, but Black women still battle for the right to full ownership of their own bodies. Jill Morrison is director of the Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship at Georgetown University, where she is a law professor. Morrison has written an article titled "Resuscitating the Black Body: Reproductive Justice as Resistance to the State’s Property Interest in Black Women’s Reproductive Capacity."

Black Agenda Radio - 05.26.20 May 26, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host, Glen Ford. Coming up: A British Black activist remembers the Combahee River Collective, an historic gathering of Black feminists; an African scholar examines why the continent is still not free of foreign domination; and, Mumia Abu Jamal says the Covid-19 epidemic has laid bare the weakness of U.S. institutions.

The Black Is Back Coalition is marking its 11th year of activism by holding a school on Electoral Politics, via ZOOM, on June 13th and 14th. The Electoral School has become a kind of legacy program of the Coalition, according to Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela.

U.S. prisons are hot-spots for the Coronavirus, with many of the nation’s two million prisoners on lockdown. Mumia Abu Jamal is North America’s best known political prisoner. He says the whole country was left naked to the contagion.

Black people from across the African diaspora this weekend celebrated African Liberation Day. But the African continent is still not free. We spoke to Ndubuisi Christian Ani, a scholar at the Institute for Security Studies, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Suryia Nayal is Black feminist activist, trade unionist, psychoanalytic therapist, and Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Salford in Great Britain. Dr. Nayak recently wrote a paper on the Combahee River Collective and its continued importance to Black feminism, worldwide.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.18.20 May 18, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: What does genetic testing have to do with Reparations? A professor of anthropology makes the political connection. Hospital closings and endemic health problems have made rural America more vulnerable to the Coronavirus. And, Mumia Abu Jamal tells us what a pandemic looks like from behind the prison walls.

But first – Black America’s most prolific political author, Dr. Gerald Horne, has watched capitalist structures crumble under the impact of Covid-19 and the systems own contradictions. The professor of History and African American Studies says the pandemic has shaken global capitalism to its core.

Dr. Carrie Hemming-Smith, of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, is dismayed by the death toll from Coronavirus in rural America. She’s co-author of an article that shows rural counties with Black or indigenous majorities have the highest rates of premature death – and that was BEFORE the current epidemic.

Reparations for historical wrongs has emerged as a political issue, and genetic science now tells us more than we’ve ever known about our ancestors. But, can genetics become a useful tool for Reparations? We spoke with Dr. Jada Benn-Torres, of Vanderbilt University. She’s author of a recent paper, titled “Reparational’ Genetics: Genomic Data and the Case for Reparations in the Caribbean.”

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, has been experiencing the pandemic from behind bars in Pennsylvania. Prisons are hot spots of contagion, but Abu Jamal says it’s hard for individual prisoners to see the big picture.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.18.20 May 18, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: What does genetic testing have to do with Reparations? A professor of anthropology makes the political connection. Hospital closings and endemic health problems have made rural America more vulnerable to the Coronavirus. And, Mumia Abu Jamal tells us what a pandemic looks like from behind the prison walls.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.11.20 May 11, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The United States is in the grips of a health crisis and an economic crisis, but is the ruling class in crisis? A Black scholar says the oligarchy may be losing its grip. And, How do you sell Africa on the world market? You name a perfume after the continent, and make the commercial in Rome.

Joe Biden has finally come up with a presidential campaign platform tailored to Black America. He calls it the “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Plan. But Ajamu Baraka, the 2016 Green Party vice presidential candidate, doesn’t see anything to sing about in Biden’s plan.

Is the current crisis an economic collapse with a health component, or a health crisis that set off an economic meltdown? We put that question to Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar.

Half a century after most African nations emerged from colonialism, advertising agencies are busy marketing the continent and its people. Dr. Grace Adeniyi- Ogunyankin, a professor at Queens University, in Ontario, Canada, says Africa has been repackaged for the global market. She wrote an article that examined, among other things, a commercial hawking a perfume, called ‘Scent of Africa.” We asked Dr. Adeniyi- Ogunyankin why the perfume ad caught her attention.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.04.20 May 04, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: We’ll hear how upscale Black mothers from Detroit who move their families to the white suburbs are met with a barrage of micro-aggressions. And, Black former prison inmates have a hard time finding employment, or getting anybody to vouch for their trustworthiness.

In the last decade, “Black Lives Matter” grew from a hash-tag to a movement. But the question still remains: Whose lives – and deaths -- matter enough to make the evening news? Colgate University sociology professor Alicia Simmons did a study of corporate media to find out how newspaper and TV newsrooms treat police killings of unarmed Black people.

The great Black activist and sociologist W.E.B. Dubois said Black life takes place behind a “veil” that serves as both a cloak and a shield against white attack. Professor Chasity Bailey-FAKhoury, at Grand Valley State University, in Michigan, did a study of Black families that moved from Detroit to the mostly white suburbs in search of better schools for their kids, but were met with a barrage of micro-aggressions by teachers and other parents. Professor Fakhoury titled her study, “State of the Art: Living Within the Veil.”

It is well known that ex-prison inmates have a hard time finding work – especially if they’re Black. But sociology professor Sandra Susan Smith, of the University of California at Berkeley, has done a study that found, even Black folks that have been to prison are sometimes reluctant to vouch for other ex-offenders who are looking for a job.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.27.20 Apr 27, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: a Black scholar says Blacks will remain a subservient people if they continue making REQUESTS, rather than DEMANDS, of power. And, we’ll take a look at a state that where whites, Hispanics and Native Americans are all acknowledged celebrated, but Black people are erased from history.

But first – the state of Louisiana incarcerates more of its citizens per capita than any other place in the world, most of them Black. That Black prison majority is now mortally endangered by the coronavirus epidemic. The Black Is Back Coalition held a national teleconference, featuring two activists battling to free Louisiana’s prisoners from the Covid-19 death-trap. Belinda Parter Brown spoke first. She’s head of Louisiana United International.

It has long been fashionable in some Black circles to speak of all the racial “progress” that has been made. But Professor Anthony Farley, of Boston College Law School, has written a paper that maintains the system of slavery is still with us in the United States, and that Black politics often amounts to nothing but Perfecting Slavery.

New Mexico is among the least Black states in the country. But Dr. Natasha Howard, a lecturer on Africana Studies at the University of New Mexico, says the reason Blacks are scarce is because the state was for a long time very hostile to ANY Black presence. Dr. Howard wrote on article that focused on a mural on display at the University, celebrating Anglo Whites, Spanish-speaking people, and Native Americans, but leaving out Black New Mexicans entirely.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.20.20 Apr 20, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Public housing tenants have long suffered from poor services and ceaseless attempts to demolish their homes and scatter them to the winds. But the Coronavirus epidemic presents public housing dwellers with a whole new set of challenges. And, a South African journalist is doing what he can to make scientific concepts accessible in the languages spoken by Black Africans.

But first – the Black Is Back Coaliion held a national ZOOM conference on the COVID-19 epidemic, and how Black people can fight back. We’ll present two of the conference presenters. First up, Betty Davis, of New York City. Whether the challenge is public health, police violence or education, Black Power is the answer.

Philip McHarris is a PhD candidate at Yale Unversity who published an article in Essence Magazine titled “Public Housing Residents May Be Some Of The Hardest Hit by the COVID-19 Outbreak.” McHarris says life in the projects was hard enough, before the epidemic.

Centuries of colonization and white rule in South Africa left the Black majority behind in all areas of education. Today, under Black governments, the country’s African language groups remain largely shut out of discussions of science. SEE-boo-SI-so Bee-YAY-la is a South African communicator and journalist. He recently wrote article on decolonizing science so that it is accessible in the many language spoken by Black South Africans. Bee-YAY-la told of being assigned to write in the Zulu language about the discovery of a new species of dinosaur. The problem was, the vocabulary necessary didn’t exist in Zulu.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.13.20 Apr 13, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The coronavirus had caused people in authority to take measures they’ve never even considered before, like letting lots of folks out of prison. We’ll hear from a district attorney whose allowing 40 percent of his city’s prisoners to ride out the epidemic at home. A Black scholar says Black kids are kicked out of class in obscene numbers because slavery and Jim Crow are alive and well in the nation’s schools. And, we’ll hear how racism was behind the coup that ousted Bolivia’s first Native American president.

llinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has promised not to bring any more inmates into his state’s prison system due to the coronavirus epidemic. But Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center, says the prisons are already infected, and the state needs to free many more inmates from being trapped in a cage with the disease.

Chesa Boudine, the leftish District Attorney for San Francisco, has a personal interest in dramatically reducing the US prison population. His father is a 75 year old prison inmate serving time for his role in the 1981 Brinks armored car robbery – a political heist by white radicals and members of the Black Liberation Army. District Attorney Boudine told National Public Radio’s Terry Gross that he’s reduced the San Francisco jail’s population by 40 percent -- both to fight the Covid-19 epidemic, and because this country puts too many people in jail.

Dr. Justin Coles is a professor at the Fordham University Graduate School of Education with an emphasis on Urban Education and Critical Race Studies. Dr. Coles co-authored an article on mass suspensions of Black students, a long standing phenomenon that Cole says is a relic of slavery and Jim Crow.

Race was the main force behind last year’s coup that overthrew Evo Morales, the elected president of Bolivia, South America’s most heavily indigenous nation. That’s the assessment of Dr. TaTHAgatan RaVINdran, a professor of anthropology and sociology in Colombia who has done extensive research on Bolivia’s Native American majority. Dr. RaVINdran says the United States and multinational corporations also had it in for Morales, but racism is what brought Bolivia’s first Native president down.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.06.20 Apr 06, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The word “Strike!” is on the lips of activists in the United States and Europe, where capitalist austerity has shaped the government’s response to the coronavirus epidemic. We’ll talk with an American activist in Spain who’s an expert on rent strikes, and a student activist at the University of California who proposes a strike for the people’s social welfare.

Cooperation Jackson, the Black activist and workers cooperative organization headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, is circulating a call for a general strike and a list of demands that would reorganize the economy to protect working people. The strike would begin on May first -- May Day. We asked Cooperation Jackson spokesman Kali Akuno: How to you launch a general strike when much of the country is under a general lockdown?

Peter Gelderloos is an American anarchist activist, now living in Spain. He’s author of many books and articles, including a recent study of rent strikes throughout history. Gelderloos says strikes are the best response to the capitalist-controlled government’s behavior in the epidemic.

Graduate student teaching assistants at the University of California have been engaged in a series of protests over wages and working conditions. Semassa Boko is a Phd candidate at the university’s Irvine campus. He’s using his experience to help launch a strike in response to the epidemic and social crisis. Boko wrote an article on the concept of a social welfare strike.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.30.20 Mar 30, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: a young activist and writer explains why Bernie Sanders’ brand of socialism doesn’t measure up to the real thing. A call for change-makers to imagine the unimaginable. And, Mumia Abu Jamal says the system that put him in prison is coming apart at the seams.

But first – the superpower that wants to rule the world can’t even muster the resources to combat a virus, the lowest form of life on the planet. In Philadelphia, Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro says the American people have lost trust and belief in the system. We asked him if that fits the description of a crisis of legitimacy.

Joshua Briond is a North-Carolina-based activist and member of the Black Alliance for Peace who used to be an enthusiastic supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. But he sees the world differently, now. Briond recently wrote an article in which he related how he was finally introduced to authentic socialism with the words, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

If capitalism is in a late and fatal stage, after hundreds of years at the top, then what is to take its place? Minkah Makalani is an associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, who wrote a recent article titled, “The Politically Unimaginable in Black Marxist Thought.”

Mumia Abu Jamal is a former Black Panther who became an award-winning reporter in Philadelphia – before he became the nation’s best known political prisoner. Abu Jamal filed this report for Prison Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.23.20 Mar 23, 2020

This is the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Nellie Bailey, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: James Baldwin had a very long career, but never wrote an entire book about Africa. However, a Black scholar says Baldwin’s later works show a keen understanding of African liberation. And, should a female athlete be disqualified from competition if some people think she looks and performs too much like a man?

But first – Dr.Jared Ball has spent years disproving the proposition that the road to progress lies in harnessing Black consumers’ “buying power,” which supposedly exceeds a trillion dollars a year. Dr. Ball is a professor of Communications at Morgan State University and author of “The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power.”

The great writer James Baldwin is mostly known for his insights on race in the United States. But, according to Dag-Mah-Wee Woub-shet, a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Baldwin displayed a growing understanding of the African liberation movement in his later works. Professor Woub-shet wrote an article on the subject for the Journal of Contemporary African Art.

Sociology professor Ah-NEE-ma Ah-jeh-PONG, of Simmons University, specializes in exploring questions of gender and sports. Dr. Ah-jeh-PONG published an article, recently, that focused on the 2012 Olympic Games, where South African women’s track star Caster Seh-MEN-yah won a silver medal but caused a huge controversy by looking too “mannish.”

Black Agenda Radio - 03.16.20 Mar 16, 2020

This is the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Joe Biden, the corporate Democrat, has taken the lion’s share of Black votes, despite his long history of anti-Black politics. And, Black women with babies that could pass for white. Ain’t that a conversation-starter?

Ajamu Baraka, a veteran human rights activist who ran for vice president under the Green Party banner in 2016, and who is now lead national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, says much of the Black political class has allied itself with the rich and attempted to strip Black politics of any class analysis. This Black Misleadership Class backs Joe Biden for president, despite his record as a mass Black incarcerator, warmonger and friend of the banks.

Branko MAR-CHA-TEACH is a longtime journalist and author of the book, “Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.” MAR-CHA-TEACH thinks that Black voters have been opting for Joe Biden, not because they agreed with him on policy issues, but because they perceive Biden to be more electable.

White Supremacy makes itself felt in many ways. Sonita Moss is a Fullbright scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, who co-authored an article that focused on media fascination with light-skinned babies born to Black women.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.09.20 Mar 09, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The last of the Move 9 political prisoners is coming to New York City to celebrate his release from the prison gulag. And, two Black scholars talk about the books they have their students read – and whether the students appreciate or understand them.

Police violence against Black people in Britain looks very much like it does in the United States. Adam Elliott-Cooper is a Phd candidate in the Department of Geography at Kings College, in London. Elliott-Cooper’s doctoral paper draws upon years of interviews he conducted with leaders of Black organizations opposed to police violence. He concluded that women are the heart and soul of the movement.

Delbert Africa, the last of the surviving Move 9 defendants to be released from prison in the 1978 death of a Philadelphia policeman, is coming to New York City to celebrate the end of his 42 year-long ordeal. Among those who will be welcoming Delbert Africa and his Move political Family, is Gwen DeBrow, of the Campaign to Bring another political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, home.

Books I Teach is a regular feature of Black Agenda Report organized by BAR Book Forum Editor Roberto Sirvent. Boh-KAY Sah-EEsee is a Phd candidate at the University of California at San Diego. She exposes her students to a full range of books on subjects from Black feminist thought to political economy. We asked Sah-EE-see if her students arrive in her class with a comprehensive understanding of chattel slavery in the United States.

Another contributor to BAR’s “Books I Teach” feature, is Tee-AH-na Reid. She’s a PhD candidate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University where Reid conducts research in Black studies, Marxism, and feminism. Reid says she finds it useful to expose students to books about the appearance of the so-called “New Negro” in the 1930s.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.02.20 Mar 02, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: We’ll take a look at some of the earliest fighters against Black Mass Incarceration; the last of the Move 9 political prisoners has been released from confinement; and, a Black scholar discusses peace activism three generations ago.

The United National Anti-War Coalition recently held its annual national conference at the People’s Forum, in New York City. Black Agenda Report senior columnist Margaret Kimberley was one of the speakers.

Mass Black Incarceration has been the norm in the United States, ever since the abolition of slavery, and Black women have always been in the forefront of prison reform. Nikki Brown is a professor of history at the University of New Orleans. She authored an article in the Journal of African American History, titled “Keeping Black Motherhood Out of Prison: Prison Reform and Woman-Saving in the Progressive Era.” We asked Professor Brown why so many prison reformers belonged to socially conservative Black womens’ clubs.

The last of the surviving Move 9 members has been released from prison. Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, filed this report for Prison Radio.

Before there was a movement against the Vietnam War, there was a movement against US militarism and support for white colonial regimes. Charisse Burden Stelly is a Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Carleton College. She wrote an article for the Dubois Review, titled “In Battle for Peace During Scoundrel Time: W. E. B. Du Bois and United States Repression of Radical Black Peace Activism.”

We asked Professor Stelly, Who were the scoundrels during “Scoundrel Time?”

Black Agenda Radio - 02.24.20 Feb 24, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Bail has been abolished for some offenses in New York State, but people held on one dollar bail find it hard to get out of jail; A Black professor says Emmet Till and Trayvon Martin both died on the alter of white womanhood; and, Mumia Abu Jamal makes some comparisons between 21st century poverty and the Great Depression.

Most people think of environmental damage as having to do with pollution of the air and water. But Willie Wright, a professor of geography and African American Studies at Florida State University, in Tallahassee, says the landscape can also be damaged by using it to commit or conceal acts of violence against Black people. Professor Wright wrote an article for a radical journal on geography.

New York is one of several states that have abolished cash bail, which has been used to keep poor people locked up before they’ve even been convicted of a crime. But it’s often difficult to get out of jail, even if the bail is set at only one dollar. Amanda Lawson is a student at New York University and a co-founder of the Dollar Bail Brigade, whose volunteers have helped hundreds to navigate the jail bureaucracy.

Fifty seven years transpired between the murder of Emmet Till by white racists in Mississippi, and the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, in Florida. But Angela

Own-WATCH-ee, a professor at Boston University School of Law, says both Black teenagers were killed for much the same reasons. Professor Own-WATCH-ee wrote a paper for the Dubois Review, titled “From Emmet Till to Trayvon Martin: The Persistence of White Womanhood and the Preservation of White Manhood.”

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, sees parallels between low paid workers today, and during the Great Depression. He files this report for Prison Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.17.20 Feb 17, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black America has invested much of its energies in the promise of public education, but a Black educator wants schools, as we know them, abolished. And, Julian Assange is in the courts, fighting against extradition to the United States. Why are BOTH corporate political parties so intent in imprisoning the founder of Wikileaks?

Kansas City, Kansas, like most American cities, is the site of massive gentrification, forcing Black and poor people out of the urban core. But, in the past year, tenants in Kansas City have fought back, winning passage of a Tenants Bill of Rights. We spoke to one of the main organizers of the city’s tenant organization, Tara Rah-who-Veer. She said Kansas City tenants have made great strides in a short space of time.

Growing numbers of activists are calling for the abolition of prisons in the US, as vestiges of slavery that cannot be reformed. David Stovall is a professor of African American Studies and Criminology at the University of Illinois, in Chicago. Stovall says, not only should prisons be done away with, but schooling, as we know it, should also be abolished.

Hearings begin on February 24, in Great Britain, on U.S. requests to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, to stand trail on 18 charges that could put him prison for 175 years. Assange is currently being held in Britain’s Belmarsh prison, where he is reported in poor health. Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford says Julian Assange is a political prisoner of Empire, who deserves support, along with all the other U.S. political prisoners. Ford was interviewed on Randy Credico’s radio show.

Chuck Africa, the last of the MOVE 9 Black political prisoners convicted in the death of a Philadelphia cop back in 1978. That was cause for celebration for the nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, who has been locked up since 1981 in the death of another Philadelphia cop. Abu Jamal is jubilant that Move member is out of prison.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.10.20 Feb 10, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black women have taken the lead in calling for a basic makeover in health care in the United States, a profession that was largely built on experimentation on enslaved Black people, and which has failed to serve Black men, women and children, ever since. And, reading may be fundamental, but much of what young people read in school is a racist lie. We’ll talk with a professor whose reading list tries to correct the misinformation of US and world history.

Democrats and Republicans alike stood up and cheered at President Trump’s State of the Union Address, when he introduced Juan Guaido, the right-wing politician who last year proclaimed himself president of Venezuela. Nobody voted for Guaido, and Venezuela already had an elected government, but the U.S. recognized Guaido, anyway. American activists then occupied the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, to keep it from being taken over by Guaido supporters. They called themselves the Embassy Defenders. After almost a month-long siege, four of the Defenders were arrested. They face trial on February 11th, and could be imprisoned for up to a year and fined $100,000 each. One of the defenders is Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance. He says they’re being prevented from mounting an effective defense.

Black women in the United States are three times as likely to die in childbirth than white women, and Black American infant mortality is worse than in many poor countries of the world. Deirdre Cooper Owens is with the Department of History and the Humanities-in-Medicine Program of the University of Nebraska. She co-wrote a paper entitled, “Black Maternal and Infant Health: the Historical Legacies of Slavery.” Cooper Owens says much of modern U.S. medicine is based on medical practices devised during slavery.

It’s often said that reading is fundamental. But, what if most of what people read is historically wrong? Nana Osei-Opare teaches history at Fordham University. He submitted an article to Black Agenda Report’s “Books I Teach” feature. Osei-Opare has his students read a comprehensive list of authors and subjects, from the Kenyan Mau Mau, to South African liberationist Steve, former Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah, and radical writer and psychiatrist Franz Fanon. Near the top of the list is a book by Ruth First, who was assassinated by the white regime in South Africa.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.03.20 Feb 03, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The amazingly prolific and ground-breaking Black scholar Dr. Gerald Horne talks about untangling the racist distortions of history; a French writer and activist maintains that racism is baked into the culture of the colonial powers of Europe; and, we’ll learn about the deep connections between Black people’s religions on both sides of the Atlantic Oc

Erica Caines is an activist and writer in Ann Arundel County, Maryland. Caines has created a program that brings Black-themed books to children. She hopes to raise a generation of revolutionaries.

Dr. Gerald Horne is professor History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and a phenomenally prolific author. Horne’s scholarship has challenged long-held beliefs about the actual nature of the white American settlers war for independence from Britain. Dr. Horne recently appeared on a Washington Babylon podcast. He defended the New York Times’ 1619 project, which examined the origins of the Black presence in the English-speaking North American colonies.

The Black rebellion against the legitimacy of white domination rages on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Ro-KIGH-ah Dialo is a French journalist, writer and film-maker, and a host of Black Entertainment Television—France. Diallo says white supremacy is baked into the culture of France and all the colonial powers of Europe. Ufortunately, however, the French never experienced a civil rights movement on their own soil.

Eziaku Nwokocha perceived intimate connections between Black people’s religious practices in Africa and the Western Hemisphere. Nwokocha has earned a Phd in in Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylavnia, and she’s studying for her Masters degree in Theology at the Harvard Divinity School. She’s focused her studies on African and African American religions.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.27.20 Jan 27, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black women from across the French empire were instrumental in shaping the gobal liberation movement; and, Claudia Jones, a Black communist woman from Trinidad, put her mark on Black feminist politics.

The African People’s Socialist Party has been around since the Sixties. In a few days, the party will hold an important plenary session. Chairman Omali Yeshitela outlines his party’s overall world view.

The French colonial empire stretched across much of Africa, Asia, the South Seas and the Caribbean – and has not been fully deconstructed even in the 21st century. Annette Joseph-Gabriel is a professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. She’s written an important new book, titled ““Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire.”

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union and China were bitter rivals, competing for leadership of the communist movement. One activist that straddled the China-Russia divide was Claudia Jones, a Black woman from Trinidad who did much of her most important work in the U.S. Zee-Fang Lee-ou is a doctoral student at Cornell University. He’s written a paper, titled, “Decolonization Is Not a Dinner Party: Claudia Jones, China’s Nuclear Weapons, and Afro-Asian Solidarity.” Lee-ou says Claudia Jones was a political pioneer.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.20.20 Jan 20, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The Black Lives Matter period of confrontations with the cops may have petered out in much of the country, but the movement against police oppression is alive and well in New York City. And, a new book explores the interaction between US suppression of minorities at home and American military policy, abroad.

The FBI claims that it has revised its policy on targeting so-called Black Identity Extremists. However, many observers doubt that, including Yah-FAY-OH Ba-la-GON, a leader of the Dallas Texas-based Huey P. Newton Gun Club. The club urges Black people to arm themselves for self-defense.

In New York City, a coalition of organizatons is planning a new series of actions against police oppression in the city’s mass transit system. Sharon Jones, of Bronxites for NYPD Accountability, says the protesters will rally under the banner, F-T-P.

Anti-police brutality protesters often point to the collaboration between US cops and the counterparts in apartheid Israel. But author Stuart Schrader says the problem is a lot deeper than that. He’s written a new book, titled “Badges Without Borders:How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing.” It details how the US has learned to suppress rebellions at home and abroad, from Native American extermination and suppression of slave revolts, to becoming the policeman of the world.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.13.20 Jan 13, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black people in Great Britain go to prison in approximately the same rate as in the United States. We’ll take a look at the state of the human rights movement in that country. And, Black women in the United States suffer far more problems in giving birth, and after their babies are born. We’ll look into racial disparities in treatment of post-partum depression.

President Donald Trump brought the world to the brink of another Mideast War, with his assassination of a top general in the Iranian armed forces. But, political assassination is nothing new to Washington. We spoke with a renowned expert on international law. Francis Boyle is a professor of law at the University of Illinois. He says Donald Trump is guilty of many impeachable acts, but the Democrats aren’t charging him with his worst crimes.

Black people make up only about six percent of the populaton of Great Britain, but comprise a huge proportion of that nation’s prison population. Great Britain never experienced a civil rights movement on its own soil. But, Adam Elliot-Cooper, and Black activist and doctoral student at the Oxford University, says Britain’s human rights movement took place in its African and Asian and Caribbean colonies, during their struggles for independence. Elliot-Cooper says the British Empire’s oppression and exploitation of colonized people, world-wide, has come home to roost.

America’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, is co-author of a book detailing the litany of crimes committed by the United States in the course of its bloody history. It’s titled, “Murder, Incorporated.” Abu Jamal says the U.S. is living up to its reputation as an international assassin.

The United States has the highest rate of infant mortality in the developed world, and Black mothers die while giving birth at rates comparable to Third World countries. But Black mothers also suffer very high rates of what’s called post-partum depression, a mental health condition that is dangerous to both mother and child. Aneri Pattani is an activist and journalist. She wrote an article for Truthout, titled “Black Mothers Are Treated Less for Postpartum Depression Than Other Moms.” Pattani explains what post-partum depression is.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.06.20 Jan 06, 2020

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: New scholarship explores the lives of the first Africans to fall under European rule, half a millennium ago; and, the birth of hip hop, in New York City. A Black scholar claims that urban destruction under neoliberal capitalism laid the groundwork for the new musical genre.

The US assassination of a leading Iranian general threatens to bring the world once again to the brink of war. We spoke with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar.

The roots of Hip Hop music and culture have long been debated. Dr. Lisa Calvente teaches Intercultural Communications at DePaul University. She wrote a recent article for the political journal “Souls,” in which draws a straight line between neoliberal capitalism and the birth of hip hop in New York City.

Before Christopher Columbus ever set out for the New World, the Portuguese had been making raids on West Africa, and taking Black prisoners as slaves. Nick Jones is a professor of Spanish at Bucknell University. He’s written a book about the lives of those African captives of the Portuguese and Spanish empires. It’s titled, “Staging Habla de Negros: Radical Performances of the African Diaspora in Early Modern Spain.”

Black Agenda Radio - 12.30.19 Dec 30, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Community control of the police was a goal of the Black Panther Party that has now been taken up by activists, nationwide. Political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal says the Democrats have impeached Donald Trump, but they will not be able to bring him to justice. And, a professor of women’s and gender studies has some insights into Black Girl Magic.

The United National Anti-War Coalition – UNAC – is planning a series of peace offensives for the New Year. One problem with organizing against war, Is that most Americans don’t even know that economic sanctions are as deadly as bombs and bullets, and are a form of warfare. We spoke with UNAC organizer Sara Flounders.

Last month, more than 800 activists from around the country gathered in Chicago to reestablish the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, with a focus on fighting for community control of police. Making the cops accountable to the Black community was a goal of the Black Panther Party. We spoke with Shepard McDaniel, known as “Brother Shep,” a veteran of the New York City chapter of the Panther Party. He would have liked to have attended the Chicago conference.

That was Shepard McDaniel, or “Brother Shep,” formerly of the Black Panther Party in New York City. McDaniel is currently Community Affairs director for the Universal Zulu Nation

Justin 'Mujahid' Kaliebe is an activist doing hard time in the US prison Gulag. Kaliebe is not as well known as Mumia Abu Jamal, but he packs a powerful political analysis.

Aria Halliday is a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Halliday co-wrote an article in the Black political journal “Soul,” titled, “The Power of Black Girl Magic Anthems: Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and “Feeling Myself” as Political Empowerment.” We asked Prof. Halliday, just what is “Black Girl Magic”?

Black Agenda Radio - 12.23.19 Dec 23, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: What kind of impact did the long history of racial and political repression have on today’s Black movement? We’ll hear an assessment from an esteemed Black scholar. And, Black Agenda Report’s co-founder, Margaret Kimberley, talks about her new book on US Presidents and their relations with Black America, from George Washington to the present.

The United States played a huge role in the recent military coup in Bolivia, where the hemisphere’s first Native American government was overthrown, and replaced with a white, far right Christian regime. The Organization of American States, or OAS sided with the coup plotters, who claimed that there were major defects in October’s election, in which President Evo Morales was seeking a third term. Jake Johnston is with the Center for Economic and Political Research, in Washington. He did a study of what actually happened in the election.

The period of rabid anti-communism and Red-baiting, often referred to as McCarthyism, actually lasted much longer than the career of it’s namesake, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and was deeply rooted in matters of race. Charisse Burden-Stelly is a professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Carleton College, in Northfield, Minnesota. She wrote a compelling article in Soul, the Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, titled “Constructing Deportable Subjectivity: Antiforeignness, Antiradicalism, and Antiblackness during the McCarthyist Structure of Feeling.” We asked Dr. Burden-Stelly, What was this “McCarthyist Structure of Feeling”?

Margaret Kimberley, a co-founder, editor and senior columnist of Black Agenda Report, has written a new book. It’s titled “Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents,” and examines how each of the previous leaders of the United States dealt with the Black presence in the country.

Black Agenda Radio - 12.16.19 Dec 16, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The battle against school segregation was considered a great victory of the civil rights movement, but a Black author says one casualty of that struggle was Black college sports; the author of a new book says Chairman Mao was not paranoid when he said the Chinese Communist Party was infested with capitalists; and, a venerable institution for Black Liberation in South Carolina may have to close its doors and shut down its radio station.

School desegregation may have been a righteous cause, but Black college sports was one of the casualties. That’s the conclusion drawn by Derrick White, a professor of history at the University of Kentucky and author of the book, ““Blood, Sweat and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A & M, and the History of Black College Football.” White says Black colleges were out-performing white colleges in the 1940s and ‘50s, producing better athletes. But then, desegregation happened.

Mao Tse Tung, the father of the Chinese Revolution and the late leader of the Chinese Communist Party, famously warned that “capitalist roaders” within the Party were determined to turn the country capitalist. A new book by Zhun Xu, a professor of Economics at Howard University, says history has proven Chairman Mao to have been right. Prof. Xu’s book is titled, “From Commune to Capitalism: How China’s Peasants Lost Collective Farming and Gained Urban Poverty.”

For decades, the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination has fought on the side of the oppressed in Greenville, South Carolina, and the world. However, the bill collectors may be about to shut the center down, and silence its radio station, WMXP. We spoke with the Center’s director, veteran activist Efia Nwangaza.

The U.S. corporate media report almost nothing from the Syrian side in the 8-year-long war against US-backed Islamic Jihadists. Instead, corporate media parrot the version of events put out by the US government and its allies. The European media also black out the views of the Syrian government. Steven Sa-he-ou-ni is a Syrian American, and chief editor of the political journal MidEast Discourse. Sa-he-ou-ni recently appeared on the Taylor Report, on Canadian radio. Sa-he-ou-ni said the Italians are also censoring the news from Syria.

Black Agenda Radio - 12.09.19 Dec 09, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The corporate media claims that Medicare for All is a far left issue, but how could that be, when polls show that supermajorities of Americans are in favor of single payer? Supporters of political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal believe the legal barriers to his freedom are falling; and, a Jamaican-born scholar says Rastafarians are in the forward ranks of the global movement for Black liberation.

Another meeting between President Trump and other heads of state of NATO countries has ended in discord and confusion. However, Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace, says the disarray in the North Atlantic Treat Organization is not necessarily a bad thing.

Polls show that Medicare For All continues to garner support from huge majorities of Democrats, and even about half of Republicans. The future of health care in the United States is also a multi-trillion dollar economic issue. We asked Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance, if the corporations that profit from privatized health care are panicking at the growing popularity of Medicare for All.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal rallied in a number of cities last week, as part of a push to finally free the nation’s best known political prisoner. Linn Washington is a legal scholar who has closely followed Abu Jamal’s case. He took part in a teach-in in New York City

For most Americans, Rastafarians are associated with music and marijuana. But Dave Dunkley, a professor of Black Studies at the University of Missouri, says Rastas played a key role in the emergence of a global Black liberation movement. Dr. Dunkley has authored a number of books on the subject, and wrote a recent article about the man who is credited with founding the Rastafarian movement, Leonard Percival Howell.

Black Agenda Radio - 12.02.19 Dec 02, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Washington wins some and loses some in it global game of regime-change. Chicago has become the national hub of the movement for community control of the police. And, activists gear up to mark the 38th year of imprisonment of Mumia Abu Jamal.

Nationwide opposition to the government has paralyzed Haiti for months, but the Jovenel Moise regime refuses to step down. Daoud Andre of the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti, says the regime has resorted to importing mercenaries to assassinate protest leaders.

The US global policy of overthrowing governments that don’t do Washington’s bidding has had successes and failures, recently. We spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne, the renowned historian and amazingly prolific author.

Chicago has become the national focus of the struggle for community control of the police. Last month, 800 activists gathered at the Chicago teachers union hall for an historic conference to refound the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The Alliance was originally founded in 1973, but was later largely disbanded. However, the Chicago chapter held on, under the leadershsip of veteran organizer Frank Chapman. Mr. Chapman presided over the recent refounding of the Alliance, and he’s a happy man.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, are gearing up for an important event in Philadelphia, on December 9. It’s called “Youth Rise Up Against Empire,” marking 38 years of Abu Jamal’s imprisonment, during which time he’s written a number of books. Mumia’s latest book is a trilogy, titled “Murder Incorporated,” that explores the history of US imperial crimes. Abu Jamal says he was inspired by the work of the late Howard Zinn.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.25.19 Nov 25, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Much of what you read in the corporate media is pure propanganda, a fictionalized account of the world. Margaret Kimberley and other reporters unmasked these lies before a packed crowd in New York City; we’ll get a report on the racial dimensions of the struggle for socialism in Venezuela; and, activists say “F” the police and their brutal presence in the New York subway system.

Activist and author William C. Anderson says radicals should not bow to pressures to tone down their demands, just to get along with the Democratic Party. Anderson co-authored a book called “As Black as the Resistance,” and recently wrote an article for Truthout titled ,”No Matter Who’s Elected, We Must Keep Demanding More.”

Margaret Kimberley, co-founder and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report, teamed up with acclaimed journalists Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate before a packed house in midtown Manhattan. The subject was Propaganda – the lies that corporate media tell in service to US imperialism.

The socialist government that the late President Hugo Chavez brought to power in Venezuela 20 years ago is still standing, despite the efforts of three US presidents to overthrow it. Dario Azzelini is a visiting fellow at the Latin American Studies Program, at Cornell University. He’s an Italian who was raised in Germany and lived for years in a poor barrio in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Azzelini wrote a book, titled, “Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela,” in which he argues that workers and peasants are building socialism from below in that country. We asked him why the right-wing has not been able to mount a successful coup against the Venezuelan government, despite crippling US sanctions and total support for regime change from the American media and the two corporate political parties.

Shannon Jones is an organizer with Bronxites for NYPD Accountability, part of a coalition from across New York City that has mobilized against high subway fares and police brutality underground. The coalition recently brought a thousand protesters to confront the police in Brooklyn, under the banner of “F.T.P” We asked Shannon Jones what “F.T.P” stands for.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.18.19 Nov 18, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The Hispanic community has long been targeted by racists in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that anti-Black racism is not a problem among Hispanics; a new article highlights the internationalist thinking of women in the Black Panther Party; and, the coup in Bolivia – the fingerprints of the United States are all over it.

Supporters of the nation’s best known political prisoner are gearing up for an important event, December 7th, in Philadelphia. Suzanne Ross, of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, explains.

Benjamin Young is an interesting young scholar. He’s a professor in Cyber Leadership and Intelligence at Dakota State University, and was awarded a doctoral degree from the U.S. Naval War College. Considering his background, Young has unconventional interests: His doctoral studies centered on North Korea, and he recently wrote an essay for Soul, the Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society. The essay was titled, “Imagining Revolutionary Feminism: Communist Asia and the Women of the Black Panther Party.

Hispanics surpassed Blacks as the largest minority in the United States in the 21st Century. But minority status doesn’t necessarily mean that anti-Blackness is not a problem among Hispanics. We spoke with Janvieve Williams Comrie, a longtime activist who says racial justice and women’s reproductive rights are closely related.

The United States has been hostile to the government of Bolivia ever since Evo Morales was elected as that country’s first AmerIndian president. This month, right-wing forces and the military staged a coup against President Morales, forcing him into exile in Mexico. A white woman politician from a minority party declared herself president. Almost immediately, the Trump administration recognized the coup government – which is no surprise to Alex Main, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.11.19 Nov 11, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The Black Is Back Coalition recently marked it’s tenth year of agitation and organizing, with its annual march on the White House and a national conference in Washington DC; and, When did western Europe become wedded to the ideology of white supremacy? A Black scholar says the roots of anti-Blackness go back to the Middle Ages, when Black became synonymous with inferiority and evil in white minds.

Only two years ago, polls showed Senator Bernie Sanders was the most popular politician in the nation. But, these days, if the Democrat-oriented media mention Sanders’ presidential campaign at all, it is to malign and disparage him and his sweeping social and economic proposals. Sander supporters are calling it the “Bernie Blackout.” We spoke with noted political analyst Dr. Anthony Monteiro, a Duboisian scholar who works closely with the Philadelphia Saturday Free School. Monteiro says there’s a direct connection between corporate media treatment of Sanders and the general crisis of legitimacy afflicting late stage capitalism.

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with its traditional march on the White House, followed by a national conference. One of those who spoke was Jihad Abdulmumit, the chairperson of the National Jericho Movement, which fights for the rights of political prisoners. Abdulmumit is himself a former Black Panther Party political prisoner, and the Jericho Movement is a member organization of the Black Is Back Coalition.

In recent decades, scholars have dug much deeper into the historical roots of white supremacy in western Europe, and its spread throughout the colonized world. Much of that scholarship contends that white supremacy has its roots in the trans-Atlantic slave trade – that a racist ideology was created to justify the plundering of non-white peoples and the enslavement of Africans. But Cord Whitaker, a professor of English at Wellesley College, has written a book that maintains white supremacy goes back to the Middle Ages, centuries before Christopher Columbus. Whitaker’s book is titled, “Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking.“

Black Agenda Radio - 11.04.19 Nov 04, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Can a Black-Native American alliance bring the white supremacist, conquistador state to an end? An author and educator thinks so. Another writer believes that the climate crisis will create the political conditions that will defeat white supremacy. We’ll hear his theory, as well. And, political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal provides a lesson on the roots of the prison abolition movement.

Blacks have been voting overwhelmingly Democratic for more than two generations. For much of that period, the actual Black economic condition has deteriorated, relative to whites. But Joe Biden is running for president as if the past was great for Black people. We spoke with Malaika Jabali, a public policy attorney, writer, and activist, based in Brooklyn, New York. Jabali says the establishment Democrats are working on the wrong assumptions.

Scholars have written quite a bit about alliances between Blacks and Native Americans, resisting European conquest and enslavement in the Americas. But Tiffany King, an Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University, has written a book that argues that Blacks and Native Americans still pose a threat to what she calls “the conquistador white settler nation.” Tiffany King’s book is titled, “The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies.”

Climate change threatens to make much of life on Earth extinct, including human life. But educator and journalist Nicholas Powers thinks some good can come out of the mobilization to fight climate change. Powers is author of the book, “The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street.” Powers is also an associate professor of English at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. In a recent article for Truthout, Powers surmised that the climate crisis may create the political conditions to finally defeat white supremacy.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, presents this report on the roots of the current prison abolition movement.

Black Agenda Radio - 10.21.19 Oct 21, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Gay, lesbian and other LGBTQ persons have garnered more political support than ever. But what does that mean for poor Black and Brown LGBTQ young people who are homeless on the streets of New York? And, peace and national reconciliation may finally be on the horizon in Syria, after eight years of U.S.-regime-change warfare against that country. We’ll hear from Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace.

There can be little doubt that the U.S. empire is in deep disarray – and it’s not all about Donald Trump. Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar, says U.S. imperialism faces a multitude of crises, at home and abroad. Dr. Monteiro will be one of the speakers at Black Agenda Report’s 13th anniversary celebration, this Saturday, October 26th, at the People’s Forum, in New York City. The title of his talk will be, “Towards a Left that is Worthy of Black People and the Working Class.

Black Alliance for Peace lead organizer Ajamu Baraka will also speak at the Black Agenda Report anniversary affair. Baraka is an editor and columnist at BAR. We asked Baraka for his analysis of the situation in Syria, where the eight year long U.S. regime-change war appears to be unraveling. After years of collaboration with the United States, the Syrian Kurds have now realigned with the national government in Damascus. We asked Baraka if peace and national reconciliation is finally in the cards for Syria.

Black Agenda Radio - 10.14.19 Oct 14, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The struggle for adequate, quality food as an important part of Black self-determination; the fight against mass Black incarceration opens a new front in New York City; and, Venezuela is in an epic battle for socialism and national independence against the almighty Dollar.

The New York Times earned praise, and some criticism, for its recent “1619 Project” – a series of essays on the first Black slaves imported to Virginia, 400 years ago. We spoke with Josh Myers, a Howard University professor of African American Studies who delivered a lecture on the arrival of the first Africans in Jamestown. The question we posed to Myers was: If the arrival of Blacks as slaves in British America is viewed as the beginning of the Black saga, then the European colonial assault on Africa and most of the world is not part of the story. Black American slavery and oppression is depicted out of context.

U.S. sactions against Venezuela are ravaging that country’s economy, and have already caused the deaths of at least 40,000 people, due to shortages of medicine. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country’s deteriorating economic conditions. Nicholas Evan Ayala is co-editor of Anti-Conquista, a journal that defends the Venezuelan revolution. We began our conversation with Ayala by asking him to translate the publication’s title, “Anti-Conquista.”

Food stores have abandoned Black communities across the United States, forcing residents to eat badly or travel to other neighborhoods to shop. Ashante Reese is a professor of anthropology at Spelman College, in Atlanta. She’s written a book, titled, “Black Food Geopgraphers: Race, Self-Reliance, and Fund Access in Washington, DC.” We asked Professor Reese, How bad is the situation in what some people call “food desert” neighborhoods?

Activists in New York City are trying to prevent the construction of four new prisons in the different boroughs of the city, designed to replace the jail cells that will be lost when the infamous Rikers Island Jail is closed down. The “No New Jails” movement says now is the time to phase out mass incarceration, not replenish it. Ben NDugga-Kabuye is with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.

Donti Mitchell is a prisoner of the State of New York. In this report for Prison Radio, Mitchell asks the question: “What kind of society are we?”

Black Agenda Radio - 10.07.19 Oct 07, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: U.S. cops act like soldiers and U.S. soldiers think they are the police of the world. A Black activist explains the connection. And, another left activist says this is the year to take on the corporate Democrats on their own turf, and he’s targeted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is preparing to descend on Washington, on the first weekend in November, as the Coalition has done every year since Barack Obama’s first year in the White House. The arch racist Donald Trump is now the chief executive. But Black Is Back Chairman Omali Yeshitela says the enemy remains the same: U.S. Imperialism and white supremacy.

Mass Shootings, Militarism and Policing Are Chapters in the Same Manifesto.” So says the title of a recent article by Dereka Purnell, a movement lawyer, writer and activist. We asked Purnell how she came to that conclusion.

Another movement lawyer, Shahid Buttar, is running for Congress to unseat Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi in her home district of San Francisco. Buttar is a lifelong activist and former director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Until now, he had rejected electoral politics, but this year he sees an opening for the left. Buttar thinks his campaign is doing well.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.30.19 Sep 30, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Donald Trump has made the United States a nightmare destination for poor, non white immigrants, but a Black Canadian activist says her country is no safe haven; Philadelphia celebrates Muhatma Gandhi along with Martin Luther King; and, the leader of a small Caribbean country blasts the United States for its regime change campaign against Venezuela.

One could get the impression, from listening to today’s Black politicians, that African Americans don’t know or care much about what goes on in the rest of the world. We spoke with Professor Paul Ortiz, a professor of history at the University of Florida, and author of the new book, “An African American and Latinx History of the United States.” Ortiz says the struggle for Black liberation in the U.S. has always been international.

Immigration to the United States is way down, this year, as President Trump succeeds in making Coming to America a nightmare experience. Canada takes in even more immigrants, proportionately, than the United States. Black Canadian activist and writer Robyn Maynard is author of the book, “Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present.” She warns that her country is no safe haven for Black newcomers.

All this year, the Philadelphia Saturday Free School has been publicizing the life and philosophy of Muhatma Gandhi, the Indian national liberation leader. On Thursday, October 3rd, the Free School will hold a special program titled, “Mahatma Gandhi and Our Single Garment of Destiny: Our Inescapable Struggle for Peace and Justice.” Philadelphia Free School activist Jahan Choudry says any study of Gandhi must include Dr. Martin Luther King.

Heads of state from all over the planet journeyed to New York City last week to attend the yearly opening session of the United Nations General Assembly. Among them was Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of the tiny Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Prime Minister Gonsalves criticized the Global North for polluting and warming planet, denounced the US economic blockade of Venezuela, and celebrated new movement towards unity within the African diaspora.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.23.19 Sep 23, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Lots of African Americans don’t think of immigration as a Black issue. But a large proportion of people seeking to enter the U.S. come from the African Diaspora, and they may be getting the worst treatment of all. And, Black women with guns --- have always been willing to confront the enemy with force.

President Trump has taken weaponization of the dollar to new levels of financial aggression. U.S. economic sanctions use to mean the United States would not trade with a country targeted by Washington. Now it means the targeted country is forbidden to use dollars, the world’s reserve currency, and anybody that spends dollars to trade with the targeted country will also be punished. We spoke with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Dubosian scholar based in Philadelphia.

There has never been a time when U.S. immigration policy has not been shaped by race. Throughout U.S. history, Blacks have been unwelcome at U.S. borders, unless they arrived in chains. Ben Ndugga Kabuye is on the staff of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. He says U.S. immigration policy has always been shaped by anti-Blackness.

Jasmine Young is a doctoral fellow at the University of California’s Department of African American Studies, where she’s working on a manuscript titled, “Black Women with Guns: Armed Resistance in the Black Freedom Struggle.” Young says Black women have always been represented in Black people’s armed resistance to the racist powers that be.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.16.19 Sep 16, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black people get the worst health care in the United States, but we’ll talk with a doctor and author who says Blacks also pay more for bad health outcomes; and, a researcher on education says Black and brown students have every right to be outraged at the racist treatment they are subjected to in US schools.

Brazil has long been a killing ground for Black and brown people, but the carnage has increased with the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who some call the Donald Trump of South America. In just three months, police in Rio de Janeiro killed 434 people, most of them young Black men. We spoke with Joao Costa Vargas, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, at Riverside. Dr. Costa Vargas is from Brazil, and is author of the book, “The Anti-Black City: Police Terror and Black Urban Life in Brazil.” We asked him if Bolsonaro is encouraging police massacres of young Blacks.

We all know that Black folks are disproportionately given subprime loans by banks. But, Dr. Leslie Hinkson says, the same is true in healthcare. Dr. Hinkson is co-editor of the new book, “Subprime Health: Debt and Race in U.S. Medicine.

The corporate media has long been obsessed with violence in urban schools, but they seldom consider the violence that the schools exert against Black and brown students. Dr. Connie Wun is an analyst an researcher who advocates for women and girls of color. Dr. Wun wrote an influential article in The Feminist Wire titled, “Racialized and Gendered Violence Permeates School Discipline.” She begins the article with the plight of Jada Williams, an eighth-grade student in Rochester, New York.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.09.19 Sep 09, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The Green Party will hold a national conference on Eco-Socialism, this month in Chicago; The FBI’s dreaded Watch List is ruled unconstitutional in a federal court; and, we’ll hear about the method behind the madness of the whole arbitrary system of book banning in the U.S. Prison Gulag.

The rapper known as Jay-Z started out as a dope dealer in Brooklyn, went on to become a billionaire in the entertainment business, and was soon hob-nobbing in circles of wealth and power. Jay-Z recently interjected himself into the controversy over football players that refuse to honor the Star Spangled Banner anthem, in protest of police killings of Blacks. We spoke with Louis Jefferson, an activist from San Jose, California, who wrote a poem critical of Jay-Z that appeared in Black Agenda Report. It was titled, “Anthem 4 Rappers Wrapped in the Flag.” Some speculate that Jay-Z cut his deal to advise and provide entertainment services to the National Football League as part of a scheme to eventually own an NFL team. But Jefferson sees a larger political picture.

Green Party is gearing up for a national conference on Eco-Socialism, to be held in Chicago, September 28th. Anita Rios is co-chair of the Green Party National Committee.

Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford says the United States is always making lists of nations to make war against, or people to silence and incarcerate.

Prisons are constantly banning the books and periodicals that inmates are allowed to read, for what seems like the most arbitrary of reasons and often with no explanation at all. Many activists make the comparison with slavery, when it was a crime for enslaved people to read. We spoke with Britanny Friedman, a professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, specializing in criminal justice.

Donte Mitchell is a prisoner of the State of New York. He sees a Great Contradiction in the whole mass incarceration system.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.02.19 Sep 03, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Why are Muslims always part of the story when a mass shooting occurs, even when a white American is the perpetrator? We’ll discuss that question. And, Black women from across the Diaspora have produced an important book on Gender Studies in Africa

A bill that would require all students in the California state university system to pass a course in Ethnic Studies before graduating has been put on hold after meeting fierce opposition. Dr. Gilda Ochoa, a professor of Chicano/Latino Studies at Pomona College, was a key player in pushing for the legislation. Ochoa and her brother Enrique wrote an article calling for passage of the Ethnic Studies bill. She’s not happy that it’s been sidelined.

Most mass shootings in the United States are committed by white men. But Dr. Maha Hilal, co-director of the Justice for Muslims Collective, and an organizer with Witness Against Torture, says even when the perpetrators of mass murder are white, Muslims are somehow brought into the discussion. Dr. Hilal wrote an article for Truthout, titled “Leave Muslims Out of This. Let’s Discuss White Violence on It’s Own Terms.”

Cheryl Rodriquez is co-editor of a fascinating new book, titled “TransAtlantic Feminism: Women and Gender Studies in Africa.” Roderiguez’s co-editors are drawn from a range of countries in the African Diaspora, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Uganda. She says Black people are always seen as “the enemy” in the U.S.

Black Agenda Radio - 08.26.19 Aug 26, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Is it Colin Kaepernick versus Jay-Z, or rich capitalists versus a Black movement against racist police killings? And, white supremacist gunmen have slaughtered hundreds of people in the U.S. in recent decades, prompting some to demand extra powers for the FBI. But does the Bureau really want to catch the racist bad guys? We’ll explore that issue.

Three months ago, four U.S. activists were arrested for occupying the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, with the express permission of the Venezuelan government, after the Trump administration recognized the pro-coup politician Juan Guaido as that nation’s leader. The four Americans face up to a year in jail and heavy fines, if convicted. One of them is Kevin Zeese, a co-founder of Popular Resistance. We asked Zeese how the case is going.

Black Twitter has been buzzing about rapper Jay-Z’s recently announced collaboration with the owners of professional football. Jay-Z cut a deal to produce entertainment for the NFL and to consult on League racial policies. The move is widely seen as a betrayal of sidelined player Colin Kaepernick. We spoke with James Hill Jr., a writer and doctoral candidate at Northwestern University, who two years ago wrote an article for Black Agenda Report about Kaepernick and his “take a knee” initiative. Hill has some thoughts on the Jay-Z deal.

The constant drumbeat of mass shootings, many of them carried out by white supremacists, has prompted some people to call for giving enhanced powers to the FBI. But civil liberties activists disagree. Chip Gibbons is with the advocacy group, Defending Human Rights and Dissent. Gibbons says the FBI has plenty of authority to investigate and cause the prosecution of violent white supremacists, but chooses not to do so.

Black Agenda Radio - 08.19.19 Aug 19, 2019

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: We’ll take a look at the state of racism in Hollywood, and find out if Atlanta really is the Mecca for Black film-makers. And, When liberals call Donald Trump “un-American,” aren’t they playing the same chauvenist game as he is?

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held its national conference in St. Louis, this month. The Coalition was formed ten years ago, during Barack Obama’s first year in the White House. Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford is a co-founder of Black Is Back.

That was BAR executive editor Glen Ford. Omali Yeshitela is chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition, which is made up of a diverse group of radical Black organizations. Yeshitela is also the leader of the African People’s Socialist Party, which has long been intimately involved with the African liberation movement.

President Trump’s rhetoric gets raunchier by the day, as the 2020 election draws near. Some of Trump’s critics seem to think that calling him “un-American” is an effective argument. But political analyst William C. Anderson doesn’t think so. Anderson recently wrote an article for TruthOut titled, “Using Patriotism to Deflect Racism is a Deadly Mistake.”

Hollywood is a lot Blacker than it used to be, but that’s not saying much. Most Hollywood studios still work on the assumption that movies geared to Black audiences don’t make much money. Maryann Erigha is a Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at the University of Georgia. She’s got a new book out, titled “Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry.”

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