| Black Agenda Report

Robin D.G. Kelley
Yes, I Said “National Liberation”
02 Mar 2016
by Robin D.G. Kelley Peace is not just the absence of violent warfare; peace is justice: No Justice – No Peace. In Palestine and in the U.S., what we seek is a new and better world, not just a cessation of armed hostilities. So, “How did we move from a solidarity firmly rooted in the…
Maya Rockeymore
Did the People Who Took Home Oscars Really Deserve Them, Given How Biased the Process Was?
02 Mar 2016
by Maya Rockeymoore The people who control the selection of artists and project teams for Hollywood films are 96 percent white and 87 percent male. They are not smarter or more creative than the rest of us, but their worldview dominates the mass culture of the planet. Their “product” is “…
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: Bye Melissa
02 Mar 2016
by BAR editor and columnist Margaret Kimberley When Melissa Harris-Perry publicly announced her resignation from MSNBC, the cable network that serves as the Democratic Party's house organ, she vowed not to be tokenized or silenced. But of course, the rich owners can silence whoever they want…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Trash the Party: One Wing of the Duoploy Almost Down, One to Go
03 Mar 2016
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford The “non-racist” Republicans (as if such a thing exists) are threatening to bail out of the Party rather than share it with Donald Trump. Can Bernie Sanders’ Democratic followers share a Party with the corporate shill, Hillary Clinton? “Once the two-party…
Dr. Matthew Quest
Why Are Black Elites in the Caribbean and the US Rewriting the Legacy of Walter Rodney?
09 Mar 2016
By Dr. Matthew Quest The current government of Guyana, along with black elites across the Caribbean, and black U.S. apologists for Obama are rewriting the legacy of Walter Rodney to suit their own purposes, The Rodney they celebrate in statues and symposiums only vaguely resembles the man who…
Norman Richmond
Remembering Mama Africa Miriam Makeba
09 Mar 2016
Remembering Mama Africa Miriam Makeba Last week marked the 86th birthday of the late South African singer and Miriam Makeba, known to millions worldwide as “Mama Africa.” She “used her voice as a weapon in the struggle against apartheid” in her native land and came to personify the…
Solomon Comissiong
The Trump Movement: Not as Fringe as Some Might Think
09 Mar 2016
by Solomon Comissiong Donald Trump didn’t invent his racist followers – “U.S. society did.” Although “his rallies are like a gathering of racist village idiots,” they make up a huge proportion of the white population. “Even if he were to lose this presidential race, his followers will still be…
Charles Quist-Adade
The Coup That Set Ghana and Africa 50 Years Back
09 Mar 2016
by Charles Quist-Adade Nkrumah wanted to industrialize Ghana within a generation, and everything was on course until the Americans and their British cousins used some disgruntled and self-serving Ghanaian soldiers to stage that terrible coup on 24 February 1966. It was a major setback, not only for…
Caleb Maupin
Oil Price Manipulation and the Global Capitalist Crisis
09 Mar 2016
by Caleb Maupin The truly rich people – the ones who really run the capitalist world – are not the household names, or “the Illuminati, the Freemasons, or some secret society.” The bankers and big oil – the Lords of Capital – give the orders. “The alternative is when rational human beings run the…
David Bacon
Lead in Flint Water, Mold in Detroit Schools: An Anatomy of a Free Market Disaster 
09 Mar 2016
by David Bacon Detroit’s schools have been laid waste, and democracy in every majority Black city has been destroyed, as have the brain cells of children in Flint. “Michigan cities have been used as a laboratory for market-based policies and the most extreme forms of austerity.” Water, even…