| Black Agenda Report

Teodrose Fikre
When Politicians Use Marginalized People as Human Shields
30 Jan 2019
Republicans advertise their institutional bigotry, but Democrats obscure their malicious actions with identity politics. “Democrats trot out a diverse army of mannequins as proof that they can’t possibly be racists.” There are few things as reprehensible as opportunists who use the pains of…
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
“BAR Book Forum: Tavia Nyong’o’s Afro-Fabulations”
30 Jan 2019
Nyong’o’s book seeks to “articulate the power of the critical and creative fabulation” of black social life. “Blackness refuses to conform to the dominant imprint of gender and sexuality.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
“BAR Book Forum: Tisa Wenger’s Religious Freedom”
30 Jan 2019
“Religious freedom” has always been partial, aspirational, and constituted by the systems of power that shape the society as a whole. “I wanted to know how religious freedom has intersected with the histories of race and empire in the United States.”
Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
30 Jan 2019
This week readers decided to comment on the 2020 Democratic Party primary, the US role in the recent Congolese presidential election, and the correct understanding of the role sexuality in shaping politics.
Jamiles Lartey
Marzieh Hashemi Says She Was Mistreated During US Detention
30 Jan 2019
Hashemi was denied halal food and had her hijab removed while held as “material witness.” “The warrants are issued in secret so we don’t know what they are based on.” An American newscaster for the Iranian government’s Press TV network, who was detained by the US government without being charged,…
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong
The U.S. is a Political Prison, Kamala Harris is a Prison Guard
30 Jan 2019
Harris protects police unions, the courts, and the stakeholders of the mass incarceration state.” Grand narratives of exceptionalism cannot hide the fact that the US maintains the most repressive and exploitative system in human history.”
by BAR contributor Ann Garrison Ann Garrison
DR Congo Post-Election: An Interview with Maurice Carney
30 Jan 2019
The Congolese people succeeded in forcing President Kabila to allow elections to choose his successor, but Kabila still rigged the vote. “The results were manufactured to protect the interests of the Kabila regime.” On New Year’s Eve, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) went to…
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: Trump, Democrats, and International Fascists Attack Venezuela
30 Jan 2019
Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government has been joined by fellow fascists around the world, including most of the Democratic Party. “Trump and Pompeo are behaving no differently than Obama and Clinton did in Libya.”
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
31 Jan 2019
Donald Trump is simply exercising an imperial mandate handed down to him by Obama, who put “humanitarian” lipstick on the white supremacist pig of American exceptionalism. “The darker peoples of the world understand clearly that what is at stake is the sovereignty of nations and people’s right to…
Chris Hedges
Goodbye to the Dollar
06 Feb 2019
It’s been a long time coming, but Donald Trump is speeding the dissolution of a US empire stitched together by an artificially exalted currency. “Trump has turned out, unwittingly, to be the empire’s most aggressive gravedigger.”