| Black Agenda Report

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: Transgender Rights but No Rights for Black People
18 May 2016
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley If you are Black in America, “driving, walking, riding a bicycle, being in a public space at the wrong moment, or even calling the police for assistance” can get you killed. President Obama doesn’t care about that, yet he puts the full force of…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Down with the Duopoly: The Republicans Have Split; Now It’s the Democrat’s Turn
19 May 2016
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford The split in the Democratic Party will become an unbridgeable chasm “when Sanders supporters are forced to recognize that the 40-plus percent of the Democratic base they represent cannot coexist with Hillary’s ‘truer and more fully explicit ruling class party,’ and…
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
For Michael Ratner
18 May 2016
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner We are proud to say that Michael Ratner was a friend of Black Agenda Report.
Solomon Comissiong
Fidel Castro & Cuba: Thorns In Side of US Imperialism
25 May 2016
by Solomon Comissiong Cuba is a hero nation, and “Commandant Fidel Castro’s legacy can never be undone; his internationalist and revolutionary history will serve as an inspiration forever.” The island nation and its leader confronted – and triumphed against – a giant neighbor whose wealth “…
Abayomi Azikiwe
Africa Liberation Day: Pentagon and CIA Continue to Destabilize the Continent
25 May 2016
by Abayomi Azikiwe African Liberation Day is always a cause for celebration – but also for sober assessment of how far off the goal of continental liberation remains. The great pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah warned that, if Africa did not unite, “imperialists would reverse the minimal gains made by…
Jaan Laaman
Prisoners’ Voices Blocked and Censorship in U.S. Prisons
25 May 2016
by Jaan Laaman Like many political prisoners, the author’s freedom of speech rights are routinely curtailed. “While prisoners do have a legal right to express their thoughts and report on issues and abuses, actually getting your words out is often very hard or impossible.” U.S. prisons operate…
Sam Husseini
Layers of Islamophobia: Rep. Keith Ellison Says He’s “Unaware” of Clinton Having Returned “Muslim Money”
25 May 2016
by Sam Husseini The only two Muslim members of Congress, Keith Ellison and André Carson, both Black, seem oblivious to Hillary Clinton’s history of distancing herself from Muslim Americans, and share her militaristic vision for the Middle East. U.S. discussions of Islamophobia “largely excludes…
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong
On the Challenges of Building a Principled Left Movement in Our Time
25 May 2016
by Danny Haiphong These are exciting – and frustrating – times. “The crisis of US empire has created ripe conditions for a revolutionary movement, yet no such movement exists.” Social forces opposed to capitalism’s predations multiply, yet too often fail to unify. “The task from here is to engage…
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: Georgetown Should Pay for Slavery
25 May 2016
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley If ever there was a clear path to reparations for the descendants of slaves, it is in compensation to the progeny of the 272 men and women sold South to save the Jesuit school that became Georgetown University. The institution’s $1.5 billion…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Crime “Prediction”: The Algorithms of Racist Injustice
25 May 2016
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford Mass Black incarceration wound up ensnaring too many white people in the gulags, bringing forth calls from within the establishment for “reform” to spare those undeserving of imprisonment. Digital science came to the rescue. “The U.S. criminal justice system…