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

More Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Trump and U.S. Hubris Undid the Plan for Iran's Destruction
08 Apr 2026
The U.S. has been temporarily rattled in its regime change effort against Iran. Iranian resistance, hubris on the part of the U.S., and Donald Trump’s personal instability combined to undo a twisted…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
The Twilight of Western White Power Will Usher in the Dawn of a New Global Civilization Without Systemic Degradation and Dehumanization
08 Apr 2026
A conversation focusing on U.S. actions against Iran explains why the imperialist drive for domination will actually lead to a superpower becoming much less powerful.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Is the US Anti-Caribbean? How to overcome it then, Tim Hector, 1997
08 Apr 2026
“...it is like a knee-jerk reaction in the U.S – this consistent, insistent and persistent anti-Caribbean policy in the U.S. from 1776 to the present.”
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Iran’s Nuclear Rights
08 Apr 2026
Most of the world would be at greater ease if Iran had a nuclear bomb.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
A Sigh of Relief…But Breathing Easy is Impossible in a Circumference of U.S. Empire (Or, the Perpetual Relevance of Frederick Douglass’s Prescription for Resistance)
08 Apr 2026
The ceasefire brings a sense of relief but not safety. Iran showed that the empire is not invincible, but the US commitment to the doctrine of hegemony has not changed.

Related Podcasts

More Stories