| Black Agenda Report

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Corporate-School Reform VS Democracy Is Still the Issue in DC's November Election
23 Sep 2010
The mostly black District of Columbia has been run like a plantation, a colony for as long as anybody can recall. Habitual defiance of the democratic will of DC voters and residents is safe for Congress, where DC has neither a vote nor an effective voice. But DC' mayor was booted out after a…
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Barack Obama, Social Security and the Final Irrelevance of the Black Misleadership Class
10 Nov 2010
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon With a black president leading the charge to eviscerate Medicare, Medicaid and social security in the name of “deficit reduction,” what is there left of black politics? What is the relevance of so-called black leaders in the Democratic party, and the…
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
What's More Important For Black Leadership? Turning Off Fox News? Or Stopping the President's Cat Food Commission?
01 Sep 2010
While black political leaders and activists focus on turning off Fox News, and clownish disputes with Tea Partyers and the likes of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, are they missing something more important? Can any good come from a Democratic president reaching across the aisle to team up with…
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
We Know Tea Party Repubs Are Scary. But Are Democrats in Congress Worth Defending At All?
27 Oct 2010
By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon Four years ago, the nation prepared for a congressional transition from Republican to Democratic rule. Rather than point to the scaaaary tea party hacks, let's examine what the nation expected from Democrats in the Congress, and whether we got it... any of it…
Bill Quigley
Reclaiming the Dream and Brand Obama
01 Sep 2010
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR columnist Jared Ball A stroll through Al Sharpton's recent MLK-themed demonstration, in Washington,DC, was anything but a walk down memory lane. Gone were theprincipled voices of yesterday. "None were there to challengeObama, whose presidency has so far been…
Bill Quigley
The Most Visible Mulattoes: Drake and Obama Match Hip-Hop and Politics
08 Sep 2010
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR columnist Jared Ball Mulattoes are all the rage in some circles, for obvious presidential reasons. Deep political and social meaning is invested in the proliferation of luminaries of the 'two-worlds" kind - although little in the way of insight…
Bill Quigley
Reparations…for Present Injustice
21 Jul 2010
by Paul Street The author’s problem with African American reparations is that some of the demands seem to stop with the demise of Jim Crow. “Why stop with the 20th century?” Racist crimes that cry out for repair are constantly committed in the United States. “The very distinction between past…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Forget “Skip” Gates: There Are Real Differences on Reparations
12 May 2010
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford Harvard corporate henchman Henry Louis Gates’ attempt to absolve Europeans of blame for slavery is easily dismissed as an absurdity. But honest activists on the Black Left disagree on the debt that is owed to African Americans. Some think reparations are a…
Bill Quigley
Pardon You: Racism, Reparations and the Politics of Blame (as Explained by Henry Louis Gates Jr.)
11 May 2010
by Tim Wise Harvard Prof. Henry “Skip” Gates' attempt to blame the trans-Atlantic slave trade largely on Africans and to absolve Europe and America of their historical crimes is a “moral and intellectual absurdity.” The U.S. owes a debt to African Americans, and to lots of other people. “The…
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: The Dangerous Henry Louis Gates
28 Apr 2010
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley Harvard Prof. Henry “Skip” Gates has made it his life’s work to pander to whites by defaming Black people. In his latest blood-libel, Gates claims Africans share equal blame with Europeans for the centuries-long holocaust of the African slave…