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

White Supremacy Goes Back to the Crusades
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
12 Nov 2019
🖨️ Print Article

The roots of western European anti-Blackness lie in the Middle Ages, in the Crusades to seize Arab lands, said Cord Whitaker, a professor at Wellesley College and author of “Black Metaphors: How Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking.” It was during this era that “you started to see the idea that darkness of skin, blackness, denoted potential evil,” said Whitaker. “It was still not the racial ideology we have today, but it was an important step in getting there.”

white supremacy

Related Podcasts

BAR Radio
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio September 11, 2026
11 September 2026
In this week’s segment, we discuss the 55th anniversary and legacy of the 1971 Attica prison revolt. But we begin with the history of W.E.B.
Gerald Horne
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Gerald Horne, "Black and Red: Du Bois and the Afro American response to the Cold War, 1944-63"
11 September 2026
Our guest is Dr.
Patriot Front in DC
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Opposing Patriot Front and White Supremacist Groups
10 July 2026
Daryle Lamont Jenkins is founder of One People’s Project, which seeks to combat and exp

More Stories


  • Julian Assange in a police vehicle
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Support for Julian Assange As He Fights Extradition to the U.S.
    21 Feb 2024
    BAR Executive Editor Margaret Kimberley recorded this statement of support for Julian Assange as he began his fight against extradition to the U.S.
  • Mary Ann Shadd Cary and The Provincial Freeman
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Emancipation, the Nadir and Pan-African Awakenings
    21 Feb 2024
    The reactionary backlash after emancipation plummeted the nation into an extended state of racial tumult in the United States, contributing to an expanding political awareness of the global…
  • AFRICOM Director of Intelligence with Sudanese military professionals
    Black Alliance For Peace
    AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #50
    21 Feb 2024
    The Black Alliance for Peace AFRICOM Watch Bulletin has the latest news from the African continent. AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #50 delves into the ongoing war in Sudan which created a dire…
  • Palestinian children stand amid the rubble of destroyed buildings
    Ramzy Baroud
    The Injured Gaza Boy and His Drawing: Do Palestinians Have the Right to Self-Defense?
    21 Feb 2024
    It is interesting how the colonizers and the colonized continue to build relations and solidarity around the same old principles. The Global South is, again, rising in solidarity with the…
  • Protest banner
    Palestinian Youth Movement
    Free Palestine. Stop Cop City.
    21 Feb 2024
    It is clear that Stop Cop City represents one of conjunctural spear tips for expanding the existing systems of counterinsurgency that span Africa, Asia, and the Arab world.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us