| Black Agenda Report

Paul Street
Uncle Sam was Born Lethal
21 Aug 2019
Donald Trump is indeed a neofascist, but the US was built on a mass murderous white supremacism that, until recently, was unapologetically genocidal. For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. – Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852
Wilmer J. Leon III
“Jay-Z” Did Not Sell Out, He Bought In
21 Aug 2019
Like the scorpion in the folk parable, it’s in Jay-Z’s nature to make a killing – at Kaepernick and the community’s expense. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice,and justice at…
Jake Johnson
Sanders Unveils Plan to “Fundamentally Transform” Criminal Legal System
21 Aug 2019
The presidential candidate calls for people to “stand together” to end the war on drugs and cut the prison population in half. “Sanders vows to ‘rebuild the communities that mass incarceration continues to decimate.’" Decrying America's status as the "world's leading jailer," Sen. Bernie Sanders on…
Quetzal Cáceres
Brown Misleader Dolores Huerta Can’t Stop Hustling for Neoliberalism
21 Aug 2019
The former farm workers organizer now fronts for corporate Democrats and cashes checks. “The problem, and the solution, is always a matter of role-models and optics, the stuff of identity politics.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Sabrina Strings’s “Fearing the Black Body”
21 Aug 2019
Fat stigma is rooted incolonial-era race science, and specifically in anti-blackness, says the author. “It is important for us to remember just how much of what passes for “classical” beauty is rooted in white supremacy.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Abigail Andrews’s “Undocumented Politics”
21 Aug 2019
Migration can take radically different forms depending on the political dynamics in migrants’ hometowns and in the destinations where they end up. “When local policing is arbitrary, immigrants grow cynical and withdrawn. By contrast, sanctuary cities can foster a sense of belonging.”
Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
21 Aug 2019
This week our readers discussed mass incarceration and slavery and the Sanders and Warren campaigns. We share your letters for “Fight Mass Incarceration Like Our Ancestors Fought Slavery” and “Why the Rich Want to Bury Sanders, the Not Really Socialist.”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dershbag / STOP /being so stubborn!
21 Aug 2019
I know you’re a Harvard Professor of law—legal legend,renown,celebrated, decorated,Dream Team alum Boston Celtic of the bar; New England Patriot— Lombardi Trophy— of Litigation And I’m just a Poet, licensed to practice in Golden and Empire states. Really, a warehouse worker, …
Schattenblick
Stripping Uncle Sam of His Protective Lies and Taboos
21 Aug 2019
Danny Haiphong and Roberto Sirvent analyze the "dual fantasy" that has ideologically upheld white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and the American war machine. “It remains taboo in the USA to describe America as an imperialist state.” A Review of American Exceptionalism and American…
by BAR contributor Ann Garrison Ann Garrison
Rwanda’s Dissidents, Dead and Disappearing
21 Aug 2019
Washington’s closest ally in Africa is a minority regime that kills and jails dissidents like Victoire Ingabire, who has lost many comrades. “I am not afraid of being assassinated because I know I will pass away with honor because I served my people.”