Police “Reform” = Counterinsurgency
Attempts to “reform” the police through body cameras, so-called “community” policing and other such measures “all presume the continued presence of police” in oppressed communities, said Dylan Rodriguez, a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside. Reformists “want to trap and contain the political and social imagination of the people who are actually and politically engaged in uprising,” said Rodriguez, author of “White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide.”
Anti-Black Racism is Everywhere in the Americas
Anti-Black racism is not limited to the US, said Jomaira Salas, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Rutgers University and author of an article on Black Latina girls. “There’s anti-Black racism in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Colombia, said Salas. Young Black Latinex people “experience it before they get to the United States, and also after. But they may not have the language that exists here to describe” it.
Anti-Queerness in Africa is Complicated
Thirty African countries have laws against homosexuality, but debate still rages over whether homophobia is endemic to Africa or a European import. “Leftover colonial laws” against queerness are only partially responsible, said Wumpini Fatimata Mohammed, a professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Georgia and author of the article, “Deconstructing homosexuality in Ghana.” In societies that were already homophobic before colonization, said Ms Mohammed, “these colonial laws worked in tandem with homophobic societal norms.” American evangelicals also contribute to anti-queerness in Africa.
Mumia on 2020 Elections
The polls were wrong in 2016, and they may be wrong this year, too, said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, in an essay for Prison Radio. “Given the speed and power of social media, anything can happen in the blink of an eye,” said Abu Jamal. Plus, “It ain’t the voting that matters; it’s the counting.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
Dr. Jemima Pierre is a professor in the African American Studies and Anthropology Departments at UCLA.
Johanna Miller is Director of Education Policy at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Quinn Cozzens is a staff attorney with Abolitionist Law Center who joins us to discuss the issue of sentencing for felony murder in Pennsylvania.
The earth recently experienced its hottest days on record. Here in the U.S. Black people face the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
Black Agenda Report continues its commitment to reporting on events in Haiti.
