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

Arsenic and Agrarian Racial Capitalism
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
07 Sep 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Margaret Kimberley · Arsenic and White Corporate Profits

The highly toxic herbicide and multi-purpose poison arsenic was key to the production of cotton in the United States and Mexico, and in the process sickened and killed a multitude of Black and brown agricultural workers, said Jayson Porter, a PhD candidate in history at Northwestern University. Arsenic “helped build the U.S. empire” and paved the way for the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ and large-scale cash crop farming, as well as the bioweapons used to decimate Vietnamese plant life and people, said Porter.

environmental racism

Related Podcasts

Status Coup Flint
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Flint, Michigan Water Crisis Continues Without Repair or Justice
26 January 2024
Jordan Chariton is the founder of Status Coup news.
Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
08 September 2023
Maurice Carney is Executive Director of Friends of the Congo.
The Climate Crisis, Part 2
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
The Climate Crisis, Part 2
08 September 2023
Forrest Palmer is a native of Los Angeles, California who is now an electrical engineer residing in Houston, Texas.

More Stories


  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Ben Passmore’s Book, “Black Arms to Hold You Up”
    17 Dec 2025
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Ben Passmore. Passmore is the author of the ongoing comic book series Daygloayhole, as…
  • Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
    Your Anti-Communism Problem—and Mine
    17 Dec 2025
    ‘Anti-Communism Week’ is a legal blueprint for crushing dissent. By labeling social justice activism as terrorism and empowering a new national task force, the state is preparing for the most intense…
  • Jon Jeter
    Kenya’s President Attempts to Close Budget Gap by Selling Citizens’ Health Data to the U.S.
    17 Dec 2025
    Kenya is auctioning its sovereignty to foreign powers. The final item on the block is the genetic data of its own people.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    A People’s Orientation to the Praxis of People(s)-Centered Human Rights: Proposed Approach and Application
    17 Dec 2025
    The West's concept of human rights has always justified imperialism. The People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework offers a radical alternative—a practical tool for oppressed people to define their…
  • Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    BAP Backgrounder: U.S. Racist Immigration Policy Toward Haiti Reinforces Imperialism and Weakens Popular Sovereignty
    17 Dec 2025
    U.S. immigration policy is the domestic arm of its foreign policy. The attack on Haitian migrants is a direct consequence of Washington's ongoing war on Haiti's sovereignty, making their defense a…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us