| Black Agenda Report

Imani A. Wadud
BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s "In the Wake"
03 Mar 2021
We adapt to make life livable, to uplift ourselves, and through us we show our community that we are prepared for the mysteries of what the day will bring. “The work we do requires new modes and methods of research and teaching; new ways of entering and leaving the archives of slavery.”
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
03 Mar 2021
This week the blackout in Texas, the recent film on Fred Hampton, and Democracy Now’s international coverage were on your minds.
Azad Essa
Cornel West: Palestine Is a “Taboo Issue Among Certain Circles in High Places”
03 Mar 2021
West, considered one of America's foremost intellectuals, said he is confident that it is his criticism of Israel that cost him tenure at Harvard. "It is remarkable that one can criticize just about anything on an American university campus, including the US, but Israel is…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Long Live the Legacy of Lawrence Ferlinghetti!
03 Mar 2021
Ferlinghetti might have been God ‘cause he almost lived forever; and Jersey Boys—Allen and Amiri— lyricized Coltrane’s “Welcome” and are singing it for him with rhythmic cadences of Kaddish at the big convocation… Ferlinghetti might have been God ‘cause I bought his lil hardcover black bible with…
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Against Big Tech's Algorithmic Cancel Culture
03 Mar 2021
Project Censored Host Mickey Huff predicted that #CancelCulture warriors would be calling stations to complain about his opposition to Big Tech censorship, writes Ann Garrison. “They mostly use these tools against progressive movements, against people's movements, against communities of color and…
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
MANIFESTO: “The Crime of Being Born Black on American Soil”: Claudia Jones’s Statement Before Being Sentenced, February 2, 1953
03 Mar 2021
Claudia Jones’s arrests and eventual deportation were part of the expansion of the US government’s Cold War attacks on immigrants—Black immigrants included—who were affiliated with the Communist Party. “The Negro witness [William Garfield] Cummings laughed at the thought of his $10,000 Judas…
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Joe Biden: The Expect Nothing Presidency
03 Mar 2021
Biden’s brand of American exceptionalism has run up against the general crisis of the U.S. imperialist order. “Celebrations of Kamala Harris and Llyod Austin never come with real policy proscriptions for the masses of Black people.” Joe Biden’s administration can be more aptly characterized as the…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: The Minimal Minimum Wage
03 Mar 2021
Most Democrats either don’t want a minimum wage increase or are too afraid of bucking their party’s donor class. “Biden and the rest of the Democrats will never defy the people who butter their bread.”
Tina Vásquez
The Biden Administration Spent Black History Month Deporting Black Immigrants: Why Aren’t People in the Streets?
03 Mar 2021
Black immigrants are among the most vulnerable and we always have a target on our back and it has been no different under Biden. “We are demanding that the Biden administration welcome asylum-seekers with dignity.”
Zayid Muhammad
About the Ray Wood 'Confession'
03 Mar 2021
The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee speaks on Ray Wood’s deathbed 'non-confession' to crimes committed before and during the great leader’s assassination. “Wood continued to function as an undercover operative for at least six more years after Malcolm’s murder.” The Malcolm X Commemoration…