| Black Agenda Report

by BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka
Beyonce and the Politics of Cultural Dominance
10 Feb 2016
by BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka Beyonce and her dancers perform in pseudo-Panther gear, pretending that resistance to the state is a matter of fashionability. “It is incredibly naive to think that anything subversive or even remotely oppositional to the interests of the capitalist…
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: America’s Endless Wars
10 Feb 2016
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley There is no “peace” wing in either the Democratic or Republican parties. “Not only has Obama declared unending war against the rest of the world, but so has the rest of the two party duopoly.” When the warmongers scream “Jump,” the only question…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Throw Off the Dead Weight of the Democratic Party
11 Feb 2016
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford “Blacks haven’t transformed the Democratic Party by our overwhelming presence. Instead, the Party has transformed us – and overwhelmed our radical politics.” The best result that can occur from the Sanders campaign would be that it leads to a split in the…
Lacino Hamilton
Incarcerated Lives Matter
10 Feb 2016
by Lacino Hamilton The struggle against mass incarceration has gained broad support in recent years. However, “as long as reducing the incarceration rate is confined to fiscal pressures, little attention, if any at all, will be paid to the root cause of mass incarceration (racism), or how…
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Black Political Discussion On the 2016 Presidential Race is Wider and Deeper Than in 2008 or 2012
11 Feb 2016
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon 2008's black political discussion around presidential politics was all about silencing black noise over housing, jobs, unemployment, education, justice and peace. Be quiet we told each other. White folks will hear you and not vote for Obama. By 2012 we shut…
Patrick Bond
World Bank Punches South Africa’s Poor and Coddles the Rich
17 Feb 2016
by Patrick Bond Despite abundant evidence of pro-corporate bias, the Bank endorses the government’s “sound policy” on redistribution because Bank researchers cannot grapple with the core problem that best explains why South African capitalism causes poverty and inequality: extreme exploitation…
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong
Know Thyself? Why Individual and Internal Political Struggle Is Necessary in A Movement
17 Feb 2016
by Danny Haiphong The author traces his development as a “self-identified Asian-American” actively engaged in revolutionary politics. “It became clear that neither reactionary racist ideas nor the conditions that produce them could be eradicated without a transfer of power from the capitalist class…
Shea Howell
Repeal Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law
17 Feb 2016
by Shea Howell Michigan Governor Rick Synder has agreed to testify before a congressional committee about his role in poisoning the people of Flint. The evidence is incontrovertible. Snyder’s emergency financial manager law is designed to disenfranchise local citizens, and “has been used almost…
Tom Stephens
The Flint River Lead Poisoning Catastrophe in Historical Perspective
17 Feb 2016
by Tom Stephens The takeover of Michigan’s majority Black cities by emergency managers was the direct cause of the poisoning of Flint. However, the legal groundwork for the crime was laid a generation ago in two court cases that “established de facto environmental policy to allow such…
Mark P. Fancher
Colonialism in Michigan’s Little Africa
17 Feb 2016
by Mark P. Fancher The rulers of Michigan believed the quickest path to economic development was to place the state’s Black cities under the control of a single, appointed emergency manager. The policy is domestic colonialism in practice, “an implicit – but distinct – embrace of the idea that…