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 Black Working Class Must Defend Itself, Not the Black Misleadership Class
    Ujima People’s Progress Party
    The Black Working Class Must Defend Itself, Not the Black Misleadership Class
    21 Apr 2021
    Black political power is gained by expanding independent Black political institutions and bases around agendas not endorsed by the ruling elite. 
  • What Police Impunity Looks Like
    Eric Umansky
    What Police Impunity Looks Like
    21 Apr 2021
    They came into his own home and took his life for no reason.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    21 Apr 2021
    This week pro-Zionist censorship and police brutality were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Alaina E. Roberts’ “I’ve Been Here All the While”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Alaina E. Roberts’ “I’ve Been Here All the While”
    21 Apr 2021
    Five Indian nations brought their Black slaves on the Trail of Tears and it was Black labor that helped them rebuild.
  • BAR Book Forum: Kathryn Yusoff’s “A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Kathryn Yusoff’s “A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None”
    21 Apr 2021
    Climate change is materialized through a racialized praxis, and those materialities of race produce racialized climates of survival.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us