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

Black Agenda Radio for Week of September 21, 2015
22 Sep 2015
🖨️ Print Article

What Price Reparations?

Based on calculations by University of Connecticut researcher Thomas Craemer, reparations to African Americans for slavery would cost between $5.9  trillionand $14.2 trillion. Prof. Craemer’s formula multiplies the number of hours worked by every enslaved man, woman and child above the age of five, at prevailing unskilled labor wages, with interest compounded at three percent per year. It is widely recognized that the surplus produced by slave labor allowed the United States to rapidly develop into a world economic power. “You could look at this as a start-up loan that the United States took out with African Americans – and never repaid,” said Craemer.

The Afro-Americanization of “Momma Emanuel”

In 2011, a suburban Washington DC police officer shot to death Nigerian-American college senior Emanuel Okutuga. The cop was never charged with a crime. The youth’s mother, whom activists call “Momma Emanuel,” became a mainstay of demonstrations against police violence. “She’s a tower of strength,” said Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, the renowned whistleblower and activist with the Hands Up Coalition-DC, who is also an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. Momma Emanuel “now feels very African American,” said Coleman-Adebayo. “When she talks about white supremacy, she now understands what she’s talking about.”

New “WikiLeaks” Book shows U.S. Runs Amuck in Latin America

Diplomatic cables from the Bush and early Obama administrations document years of U.S. subversion and attempts at regime change in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras and El Salvador, according to The WikiLeaks Files, a new book by three analysts for the Center for Economic and Policy Studies. The U.S. funded right-wing NGOs that tried to topple the Venezuelan government, said co-author Dan Beeton. For example, a U.S. diplomat in Caracas cabled his superiors to report: “The streets are hot, and all the people organizing these demonstrations are our grantees.” Beeton cannot imagine that the U.S. would tolerate “Chinese or Iranian funding of NGOs that put up street blockades in Washington, DC.”

Post-Katrina Documentary: “Fear No Gumbo”

Kimberly Rivers-Roberts, the New Orleans filmmaker and hip hop artist also known as Queen Kold Madina, is raising funds to complete Fear No Gumbo, her new documentary on the city’s incomplete recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Her first film, Trouble the Water, depicting events during the first five days after the storm, was nominated for an Oscar and won several awards at the Sundance Film Festival. The new project aims to show “that the recovery isn’t over, even ten years later.” Rivers-Roberts considers her film “an educational piece to get people back to the table, get some positive change, and get the Lower Ninth Ward rebuilt.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://s63.podbean.com/pb/0e1ceb9d43f29a04d28ed6781f676f62/56002c4d/data2/blogs18/277790/uploads/BAR_092115.mp3

More Stories


  • Djibo Sobukwe
    FIFA, World Cup 2026, Sports and the Contradictions of US/EU Colonial Hegemony 
    15 Jul 2026
    Haiti qualified for the World Cup on the anniversary of its revolution, the DRC brought the spirit of Lumumba to the pitch, and Iran wore pins for children killed by U.S. bombs, proving that football…
  • Kit Klarenberg
    Exclusive: Fergie Chambers Facing US Extradition Over Dubious ‘terrorism financing’ Charges
    15 Jul 2026
    The Grayzone has reviewed a sealed indictment for pro-Palestine donor Fergie Chambers, who was arrested in Spain on dubious money laundering charges concocted by the Trump DOJ. His partner accuses…
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Attacks in South Africa Undermining the Country and Africa as a Whole
    15 Jul 2026
    Parallels can be drawn between MAGA in the United States and retrograde elements domestically, as well as other Western imperialist states.
  • Gary Wilson
    Pentagon Turns Earthquake Into Occupation of Venezuela
    15 Jul 2026
    The same U.S. sanctions regime that gutted Venezuela's hospitals and left its buildings in ruins now lands Marines at its airport in the name of earthquake relief, which is not rescue but occupation.
  • Sondos Asem
    Senior UAE and regional officials referred to ICC over role in Sudan atrocities
    15 Jul 2026
    Coalition of NGOs accuses foreign officials, primarily from the UAE, of aiding and abetting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Darfur.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us