Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

The Black "Progress Narrative" is Self-Defeating
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
27 Apr 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Margaret Kimberley · The Black “Progress Narrative” is Self-Defeating

“When we think we’ve made progress, we are blinded to the ways we have not,” and wind up affirming our slave-like relationship to power, said Anthony Farley, a Visiting Professor at Rutgers Law School and author of a recent article titled “Perfecting Slavery.” Blacks must make demands, not requests, when confronting Power. “Requests requires you to recognize the authority of the person you are making the request of,” as if he is your legitimate master, said Farley. Demands affirm one’s dignity and determination to prevail.

#Black Liberation Movement

Related Podcasts

 Black Political Party Puts Grassroots Organizing First
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Black Political Party Puts Grassroots Organizing First
08 February 2021
Although the Baltimore-based Ujima People’s Progress Party has engaged in electoral politics during its decade of operations, its focus is grassroo
 Activists Seed Public Schools With Black Liberation Curriculum
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Activists Seed Public Schools With Black Liberation Curriculum
08 February 2021
The Ida B Wells Education Project has begun “centering Black liberation movements” in the classroom curriculum of a growing number of public school
 Black Is Back Coalition: “Black Power Matters”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Black Is Back Coalition: “Black Power Matters”
16 November 2020
“The struggle has to be more than simply a declaration of our significance as human beings, as in the term ‘Black Lives Matter,’” said Omal

More Stories


  • Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Trayvon and White Madness
    21 Oct 2026
    As Black Agenda Report is poised to celebrate its 20th anniversary, we reprint Glen Ford's commentary on the killing of Trayvon Martin and the impunity provided to his killer in a criminal justice…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Democratic Party Still Hates the Left
    21 Oct 2026
    The Democratic Party is terrified of even small liberal reforms and will not abide left leaning democrats thwarting their plans for austerity and neoliberal orthodoxy.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Calypso as Comment, Gordon Rohlehr, 1979
    21 Oct 2026
    “So the calypso ceases to be entertainment on a trivial level and becomes a vehicle whereby the society is going back and searching for its soul.”
  • Jacqueline Luqman
    The World Rises Up Against the U.S. Neoliberal Order
    21 Oct 2026
    The protests spreading across Spain, India, France, Chile, and other countries are responses to the global neoliberal order of austerity, privatization, and deregulation.
  • Belen Fernandez
    Israel’s Lebanese Land Grab
    21 Oct 2026
    Under the guise of a farcical “pilot zone” project to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, Israel is pursuing a scorched-earth strategy while entrenching its occupation.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us