| Black Agenda Report

Selamawit D. Terrefe
On Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilderson III
16 Dec 2020
Afro-pessimism theorizes slavery as a social relation which distinguishes Blackness as a paradigmatic position antithetical to humans. “It is hard to be a slave and feel that you are worthy, truly worthy, of your suffering as a slave.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Grace A. Musila’s Book, “Wangari Maathai's Registers of Freedom”
16 Dec 2020
Maathai’s approach to environmental conservation centers poor rural communities, especially women, and their need for fuel, fodder and income “Gender logics that frame women as moral boundary markets for cultural nationalism restrict the possible range of identities women can embody.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Yelena Bailey’s “How the Streets Were Made”
16 Dec 2020
The streets permeate dominant understandings of Blackness, and the life-and-death consequences of these perceptions are at the heart of this book. “Even Breonna Taylor was not safe in her own home from the way the streets have shaped perceptions of Blackness and Black rights.”
BAR Comments Editor Jahan Choudhry
Letters from Our Readers
16 Dec 2020
This week the incoming administration was on your minds. We share your letters for “Freedom Rider: Black Demands for the Biden Administration” and “Biden and Trump Not That Different on the Issues.”
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
The Planet’s Problem from Hell: Samantha Power
16 Dec 2020
As head of USAID, Power will be in perfect position to wield foreign aid as a cudgel for beating foreign heads of state till they bow to US empire, writes Ann Garrison. “Having successfully advocated for US-led NATO wars in Libya and Syria, Power set her sights on the tiny, impoverished East…
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Agenda 2021: Resist the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
16 Dec 2020
It is critical that the Black left understand U.S./European imperialism as a race project, and organize accordingly. “The Black internationalist stance must be seen as fundamental to our movement building work.” The ascendancy of neoliberal forces to the executive branch of the U.S. state…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Imagine: The Town Crier’s Cabinet Selections
16 Dec 2020
Cut plastic cuffs from imaginations— Dream larger in dire situations… IMAGINE every cook governing— every governor cooking up people puzzles—right livelihood alchemy… Imagine noble collective leadership Not repeatedly recycled depleted uranium mummies buried in bowels of the War House; Imagine more…
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
When Austerity’s Chickens Came Home to Roost in the U.S., Bernie and “the Squad” were Unprepared
16 Dec 2020
The theory of change that depicts the likes of Bernie Sanders and AOC as the leaders of the class struggle has failed to materialize in reality. “The development of diverse faces in high places within the state has temporarily disarmed the Black consensus on peace and social justice.”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
Racial Capitalism, Black Liberation, and South Africa
16 Dec 2020
The phrase racial capitalism first emerged in the context of the anti-Apartheid and southern African liberation struggles in the 1970s. “Cedric Robinson neither invented nor coined ‘racial capitalism.’”
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Master Biden Speaks
16 Dec 2020
The civil rights groups’ rather basic requests for voting rights protections and the need for federal intervention to address police brutality were minimized and dismissed by the president-elect. “Politicians love to use a beat down of black people as a signal to white people.” Joe Biden is…