| Black Agenda Report

Paul Street
Beyond Twelve Years a Slave
11 Mar 2015
by Paul Street At the heart of American history lies an essential truth: the U.S. became an economic superpower based on the super-exploitation of Black slaves, to whom it owes reparations. In his new book, Edward Baptist calculates that “nearly half the nation’s economy activity derived directly…
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
My Wise Country Cousin on Logo Leaders
11 Mar 2015
4by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner Why, dey otta hab logos on dey suits Tellin’ de wurl how deys in cahoots— Maybe den dem lil’ Negroz unnerstan Dat logo leaduhs is workin’ fo’ de ‘man?’ My Wise Country Cousin on Logo Leaders by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner Off wit smokin…
by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
Depravity at the Highest Level: Obama Prepares the Boil from Selma – Part I
11 Mar 2015
by BAR editor and Columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and Kevin Berends Barack Obama journeyed to Selma, Alabama, one of the poorest places in a very poor state, to urge Black people to reflect on how much progress has been made over the past 50 years. If they had actually done so, they might have…
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: Obama’s Final Insult to Michael Brown
11 Mar 2015
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder bestowed impunity on the killers of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, and then journeyed to Selma, Alabama, to explain how great it is to have Black faces in such high places. Half a century has…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Obama’s Selma Song: America Is Not Racist – It’s Just Ferguson
12 Mar 2015
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford No matter how many Black people are shot down in the streets by cops, no matter how far Black people fall in the relative to whites in the economy, Barack Obama has always denied that racism is endemic to the United States. He amended that slightly, in Selma this…
Bill Quigley
Top Ten Arguments for Raising the Minimum Wage
19 Mar 2015
by Bill Quigley The American state provides every imaginable support and subsidy for the capitalist class, but balks at mandating wages sufficient to provide a decent life for workers. “No corporations rely on the mythical ‘free market,’ so why should workers?
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong
Obama's Selma Celebration Speech: Another Brand For US Imperialism
16 Mar 2015
by Danny Haiphong President Obama milked the Selma commemoration for all it was worth, depicting the events of 1965 “as a symbol of American exceptionalism.” For this month’s participants, the contradictions of the occasion were acute. “While some didn't march in the Selma celebration because of GW…
Abayomi Azikiwe
Burkina Faso Courts Allow Exhumation of Thomas Sankara Remains
16 Mar 2015
by Abayomi Azikiwe During his four years as head of a revolutionary government in Burkina Faso, Captain Thomas Sankara captured the imaginations of Marxists and Pan-Africanists throughout the world. He was assassinated by treacherous comrades in 1987. The exhumation of his body could shed light on…
George Joseph and John Tarleton
Testing Public Education to Death in New York
19 Mar 2015
by George Joseph and John Tarleton The real teaching crisis in New York is “the failure to keep experienced and highly capable teachers and allow them to do their jobs.” The exodus of veteran teachers is by design. So-called “reformers” want to “transform teaching into a deskilled, low-wage job…
Ajamu Nangwaya
Exuberant Irrationality Driving Afrikan-Canadians’ Support for Deputy Police Chiefs
19 Mar 2015
by Ajamu Nangwaya The late Maya Angelou supported Clarence Thomas for U.S. Supreme Court Justice, because he’s Black. Afro-Canadians are making the same mistake in endorsing two Black cops for police chief in the nation’s largest city, Toronto. Both Black officers are supporters of “carding,” the…