| Black Agenda Report

Netfa Freeman
Community Control of Public Safety: Building a Transitional Program for Power
16 Jun 2021
Why is more effort is put into trying to discredit CCOP, while the ruling class is pulling all stops to hoodwink the public with actual reformism, like the George Floyd Act. “The system and its minions will never create anything that challenges the function of its police.”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
16 Jun 2021
“Ain’t no power like the power of the people— ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop!” bouncing off summer skyscrapers; ricocheting off resistance Millenia righteous… Centuries overdue… So, what the bleep is Joe Munchkin? Another Mitch The Witch For The Rich? Kentucky turtle Kabuki…
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
REPORT: Murdering Women in Nigeria, Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, May 1930
16 Jun 2021
British colonial officials turned their guns on women in two Nigerian towns in the 1920s, to put down protests against “head” taxes and levies on market stalls, killing scores. “Some say that the women’s uprising was the first major challenge to English colonial power in Nigeria and West…
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Independent Media is Political, Too: A Defense of “State” or Publicly-Funded Media
16 Jun 2021
It is imperative for independent journalism to serve as the media arm of a movement that opposes the privatization of information and works toward the development of a public media apparatus. “Only fifteen percent of revenue for public broadcasting outlets comes from the federal government; the…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Ride: How Not to Celebrate Juneteenth
16 Jun 2021
Juneteenth has become the latest iteration of liberal capture of Black politics, opportunistic virtue signaling, and the intentional misrepresentation of America’s history. “An opportunity to discuss resistance against oppression has been turned into a substance-free feel good day.”
Chris Gelardi
Hacked Emails Give Unfiltered View Into the DC Police Gang Database
23 Jun 2021
“Police can call you a gang member because they observed you with other gang members, who they declared gang members because they were with other gang members.” “The Gang database fuels the surveillance, and sometimes deadly policing, of poor Black and Latino communities.”
Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin
Why We’re Fed Up with Weak Excuses for Accepting Awards from the Empire
23 Jun 2021
How should we respond when people of color who've spent a lifetime cussing the empire start curtseying to it instead? “Accepting an award from the literal head of the empire reeks of disingenuity for those who ‘educate’ others on ‘doing better’ when it comes to anti-racism.”
Stephen Sefton
Nicaragua's Benedict Arnolds – Political Opposition as Organized Crime
23 Jun 2021
Under Nicaraguan law, it is a crime to seek foreign interference in the country's internal affairs. “The current investigation is likely to determine whether or not the violent opposition were planning another coup attempt in the context of this year's elections.”
Nicholas Brady
Juneteenth: “The Day is Ours”
23 Jun 2021
It seems inevitable our own holiday will be sold back to us by the same corporations that profit from exploiting black lives. “The actions of the nation are empty, but the actions Black people take to empower themselves truly matter.”
Gregory P. Downs
The Hidden History of Juneteenth
23 Jun 2021
“We knowed what was goin’ on in [the war] all the time,” said Felix Haywood, dismissing the notion that his fellow Texas slaves were ignorant of the Emancipation Proclamation. “Ending slavery was not simply a matter of issuing pronouncements, but of forcing rebels to obey the law.”