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

Spike Lee Movie Whitewashes Police Repression of Blacks
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
17 Sep 2018
🖨️ Print Article

Robin DG Kelly, the author and essayist, agrees with Boots Riley’s critique of BlacKkKlansman, the Spike Lee movie whose hero is a Black cop who spies on Black activists. “It basically erases state violence,” said Kelly, a professor of history at UCLA. Riley wants to “focus our attention on the larger question: What has been the function of the police in relationship to our struggles for land, bread, freedom, justice and power?”

Police Repression

Related Podcasts

BAR Radio Logo
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio January 23, 2026
23 January 2026
In this week’s segment, we cover state repression and regime change efforts.
ICE Protest
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
ICE Domestic Repression in Minnesota
23 January 2026
Mnar Adley is the founder and director of MintPress News, an independent media outlet.
Ilyasah Shabazz
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Shabazz Family Lawsuit Against the FBI and NYPD
03 October 2025
The investigation of the 1965 assassination of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Malcolm X, was compromised by the NYPD and the FBI from the very beginning

More Stories


  • If Breonna Were White…
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    If Breonna Were White…
    06 Oct 2020
    In an essay titled “Breonna’s Deathbed,” political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal asks if the Louisville cops that killed Breonna Taylor would still be free if they had shot to
  • Anti-Blackness Throughout the Americas
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Anti-Blackness Throughout the Americas
    06 Oct 2020
    Anti-Blackness is the common denominator underlying Black people’s high rates of death from poverty, disease and police violence on both continents of the western hemisphere, said Jame
  • Black Is Back Coalition to March on White House
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Is Back Coalition to March on White House
    06 Oct 2020
    For the 12th consecutive year, the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will march on the White House, November 7, this time under the themes “Black Power Matters,
  • The Politics That Led to the “Worst Debate”
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    The Politics That Led to the “Worst Debate”
    01 Oct 2020
    The incoherence of the Biden-Trump debate will be repeated every election cycle until Blacks and progressives break with the corporate duopoly.
  • The Blue Wall Of Silence
    Aurin Squire
    The Blue Wall Of Silence
    30 Sep 2020
    A majority of New York City cops are non-white, but their union endorsed the re-election of Donald Trump, with no loud protest from the darker ranks. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us