Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Arsenic and Agrarian Racial Capitalism
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
07 Sep 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Margaret Kimberley · Arsenic and White Corporate Profits

The highly toxic herbicide and multi-purpose poison arsenic was key to the production of cotton in the United States and Mexico, and in the process sickened and killed a multitude of Black and brown agricultural workers, said Jayson Porter, a PhD candidate in history at Northwestern University. Arsenic “helped build the U.S. empire” and paved the way for the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ and large-scale cash crop farming, as well as the bioweapons used to decimate Vietnamese plant life and people, said Porter.

environmental racism

Related Podcasts

End colonialism
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
African Descendants and Just Transition in the Climate Crisis
24 April 2026
The first International Conference to Phase Out Fossil Fuels takes place i
Status Coup Flint
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Flint, Michigan Water Crisis Continues Without Repair or Justice
26 January 2024
Jordan Chariton is the founder of Status Coup news.
Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
08 September 2023
Maurice Carney is Executive Director of Friends of the Congo.

More Stories


  • The Ukraine Crisis Can't Save Biden
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Ukraine Crisis Can't Save Biden
    20 Apr 2022
    The U.S. propaganda victory over Russia will do Joe Biden and the democrats little good. Their willingness to act on their promises and meet the people's needs will be the deciding factors in…
  • Ukraine: A New Consensus on Whiteness?
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ukraine: A New Consensus on Whiteness?
    20 Apr 2022
    The Biden administration and corporate media cover up the existence of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine. They are disappeared from the official narrative in order to get public buy-in for…
  • MANIFESTO: Africa in the Post-War World, San Francisco, April 1945
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: Africa in the Post-War World, San Francisco, April 1945
    20 Apr 2022
    When a new international order came into being with the organization of the United Nations in 1945, African people proposed their own visions for the post war world.
  • The Battle Against COVID-19 in Shanghai: A Human Rights Disaster?
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Battle Against COVID-19 in Shanghai: A Human Rights Disaster?
    20 Apr 2022
    China's "zero covid" strategy prevented the large number of deaths seen in the United States. But the challenges of stopping the Omicron variant in Shanghai, a city of 25 million people,…
  • BAR Book Forum: Interview with Matthieu Chapman
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Interview with Matthieu Chapman
    20 Apr 2022
    This week’s featured scholar is Matthieu Chapman. Dr. Chapman is Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz.  His essay is “‘Away, You Ethiop!’: A…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us