| Black Agenda Report

Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Joe Biden and the Black Misleaders
06 May 2020
The black misleadership class has no shame, only narrow ambitions. They are now called out to rescue the man who looks very much like a loser. “Stacey Abrams couched her criticisms of Trump with criticisms of Xi Jinping and blather about defeating communism.”
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Whose Crisis?: When the People Lose, the Corporate Parties and the Rich Win
07 May 2020
The Democratic Party is a servant of corporate capital and cannot possibly be converted to a people’s party. The rise and demise of Bernie Sanders proves the point. “The people were force-fed the reality that the United States has no health care system capable of defending the public against…
Stansfield Smith
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s Coronavirus Threats and Government Incapacity to Handle a Pandemic
13 May 2020
The city’s Black mayor threatened Black house partyers with arrest, but ignored 500 un-masked white people protesting the Covid-19 lock-down. “Lightfoot opposed releasing those in Cook County jail who cannot pay bail.”
Don Fitz
Can We Simultaneously Oppose Bayer/Monsanto’s Biotechnology and Support Cuba’s Interferon Alpha 2B?
13 May 2020
It is necessary to compare the use of biotechnology by food corporations with that of Cuba to decide if they are the same or fundamentally different. “Food imperialism fosters dependency but Cuba promotes medical independence.” Genetically engineered crops are a form of food imperialism.…
Patrick D. Anderson
On George Jackson and Julian Assange
13 May 2020
Both see the United States as the Empire, and they agree that it must be opposed. “Both believe science is the best means of opposing Empire and securing self-determination for the peoples of the world.”
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen
Coronavirus is Making the Case for Black Reparations Clearer Than Ever
13 May 2020
The COVID-19 crisis only heightens the urgency of black reparations, which is now more essential than ever. “To bring the native black share of the nation's wealth at least into equivalence with its share of the population would require $10 trillion to $12 trillion.”
Jamiles Lartey
New York Tried to Get Rid of Bail. Then the Backlash Came
13 May 2020
The no-bail movement was on a roll from Vermont and New Jersey to Alaska and Georgia – and then the lock ‘em up mob struck back. “Lawmakers in Illinois and Colorado are feeling confident that they won’t face the same kind of backlash.” The national drive to reduce jail and prison…
Tunde Osazua and Netfa Freeman
First Somali Congressperson Legitimizes AFRICOM and US Drone War
13 May 2020
Rep. Omar recently commended the US war machine for increasing the “transparency” and “accountability” of its bombing of her native country. “Instead of this being an asset to expose AFRICOM and to the decolonization Africa, Rep. Omar validates the role of AFRICOM.”
Dean Spade and Roberto Sirvent, BAR Contributors
BAR Abolition & Mutual Aid Spotlight: Alisa Bierria
13 May 2020
In light of the pandemic, we have seen an extraordinary emergence of mutual aid strategies around the world. “If states can release thousands of people from jails to avoid worsening a pandemic, do we even need jails at all?”
Jennifer S. Leath
BAR Book Forum: Symposium on Sarah Haley’s "No Mercy Here"
13 May 2020
Georgia’s convict leasing system was created to devour Black people of both genders. White women defended the sterilization of Black women presumed to be inherently lascivious alongside the lynching of Black men presumed to be inherent rapists.”