Black Agenda Radio for Week of October 14, 2019

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford

14 Oct 2019

NYT “1619 Project” More Pro-American Exceptionalism Than Anti-Slavery

The New York Times’ “1619 Project” essays on the arrival of African slaves in Jamestown, Virginia “is not a critique of American exceptionalism – it is an attempt to told slavery into American exceptionaism,” said Josh Myers, professor of African American Studies at Howard University. “Africans were not seeking to become Americans; they were seeking to be free,” said Myers.

Phony “Progressives” Follow Trump Lead on Venezuela

So-called progressives sound just like Donald Trump when they describe Venezuela’s elected government as a “dictatorship,” said Nicholas Evan Ayala, co-editor of Anti-Conquista. “A lot of Democrats pretend to be anti-war, yet fail to see that every intervention they advocate follows a long history of US evil…leading to the deaths of millions of people,” said Ayala.

Corporate Domination is Central to Food Issues

The lack of food outlets in Black neighborhoods is part of the larger reality of labor exploitation and corporate domination, according toAshante Reese, professor of anthropology at Spelman College and author of “Black Food Geographers: Race, Self-Reliance, and Fund Access in Washington, DC.” “A handful of corporations control nearly all of our food,” said Reese,” and the labor part of the problem “goes wholly unnoticed by most people” concerned with food issues.

Halt – Don’t Expand – Mass Incarceration in New York

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration supports the “No New Jails NYC” campaign to prevent the city from building 12 new prisons to replace the cells that will be lost when the infamous Rikers Island prison is finally shut down. “There will be jails everywhere in Black neighborhoods,” said Ben Ndugga-Kabuye, of the Alliance. “Jails and policing are a product of enslavement and capitalism, and they do not make our community safe in any way.”

Prisoners Scapegoated While Rich Loot Society

In an essay titled, “What Kind of Society Are We?” New York state prison inmate Donti Mitchell says citizens outside the walls should not be resentful that he is allowed to attend free college courses. “What really upsets me is how public education is being gutted. Society pays more for prison than education,” said Mitchell. “Stop being so gullible as to believe I am the cause of your problems.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

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