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
  • omnibus

Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
03 Mar 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Letters from Our Readers
Letters from Our Readers

This week the blackout in Texas, the recent film on Fred Hampton, and Democracy Now’s international coverage were on your minds. We share your letters for “Freedom Rider: No Human Rights in Texas,” “Judas and the Black Messiah: A Missed Opportunity,” and “Democracy Now Provides Cover to State Department Propaganda Campaign Against China.”

“Freedom Rider: No Human Rights in Texas” by Margaret Kimberley examines the failures of politicians, the media, and the economic system in meeting the needs of ordinary people in Texas.

Bill Rood writes:

“Margaret's comments in the article are spot on.  I especially like her subtle criticism of AOC, ‘Stupid politicians, tit for tat attention seeking, and feel-good fund raising are not the point of the matter.’ Certainly Cruz is worthy of criticism for his callousness, but what else is new? The same is true of AOC's grand-standing. What else is new?

“What's new is the now glaring evidence of Texas' underlying failures in maintaining its infrastructure and safe-guarding the welfare of its people. There is simply no refuting the observation that the upper Midwest and Canada did not suffer similarly, which is not to brag that political systems there are any better. All are driven by the profit motive. Texas utilities saved a lot of money by ignoring the unpredictability of Texas winter weather and preparing accordingly, and the Energy Reliability Council of Texas failed in its regulatory capacity.”

In “Judas and the Black Messiah: A Missed Opportunity” Dante James critiques the recent film for its pessimistic and apolitical of Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party.

Anti-Racism Media writes:

“Dante James says it right, a lost opportunity. The continuation of the controlled narrative is evident from the lens of the story. The lens is that of a Race Manager. The Power of the Spirit of Self Determination is given only glimpse. The window from which we are allowed to see is the uplifting of the controlled narrative. The controlled negro. The Proxy Racist has been given the story. The Revolutionary Spirit is relegated to sound bytes of slogans.... yeah you right Dante, more than a missed opportunity, you have called out what should be obvious, Black Power is the threat to the control apparatus.”

“Democracy Now Provides Cover to State Department Propaganda Campaign Against China” by Danny Haiphong argues that the show has become a reliable platform for uncritical regime change propaganda aimed at the enemies of the US state.

Stanley Laham writes: 

“I began to suspect that something was amiss with a Democracy Now since the mid 90s. Their approving coverage of the Clinton Administration’s perfidious neoliberal assault on Haiti totally surprised me. At first I thought it was an honest misunderstanding of what was really going on. A policy supported by a completely bought off Black Caucus led by the corrupt Maxine Waters. I wrote repeatedly to DN and Amy Goodman trying to elucidate what was really going on. After a few attempts I came to the same conclusion pointed out by this article.”

Nina Felshin writes:

“Very brave of you, Danny, to tackle this subject. Very few, if any, have spoken out about her shocking positions on China, Syria, Russia, etc. How about a follow up piece that explores what's behind this? If it is about "following the money," how about digging into that and exposing it? I've also noticed that she most frequently references the MSM these days, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal,  and even the Atlantic Council.”

Struggling against imperialism in progressive circles remains a constant challenge. A serious US left will oppose imperialism in all its forms.

Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report.  He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comme  nt by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

Comments

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
21 April 2021
This week pro-Zionist censorship and police brutality were on your minds.
Letters from Our Readers
by Jahan Choudhry, Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
07 April 2021
In "On Anarchism and Black Revolution" Peter James Hudson examines the historical roots of critiques of anarchism a
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
31 March 2021
This week the U.S. state’s propaganda and the Black elite were on your minds.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
10 March 2021
This week Pan Africanism and the Black Panther Party were on your minds.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
24 February 2021
This week you discussed the struggle against the dollar and neocolonialism.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
17 February 2021
This week color-blindness on the left and the Black Misleadership Class were on your minds.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
10 February 2021
This week you discussed the multilayer crisis facing American people.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
03 February 2021
The federal government’s stimulus payments and the role of black police officers were on your minds.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
27 January 2021
This week our readers talked about the weakness of the U.S. left, the storming of the Capitol, and the crisis of U.S. imperialism.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
20 January 2021
This week the uprising in Washington and Du Bois’s writings on the Soviet Union were on your mind.

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    White Power
    17 Sep 2025
    The power structure in the U.S. can be boiled down to a system of might, and white, making right. Donald Trump has exposed its rotten foundations and the two-faced collaborators who keep it running.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: U.S., The Caribbean, and the Future, Tim Hector, 1984
    17 Sep 2025
    “There has been divide and rule in the modern Caribbean with a vengeance, all in the interest of US hegemony over the economic, military and political destiny of the Caribbean as a whole.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Neocolonialism in Africa, from the IMF and the World Bank to the International Caucasian Court for Prosecuting Africans
    17 Sep 2025
    These are remarks prepared for a 09/16/25 Covert Action webinar on Neocolonialism in Africa.
  • Jon Jeter
    How Charlie Kirk’s Murder Exposes Free Speech as a Tool for American Exceptionalism
    17 Sep 2025
    The assassination of a far-right demagogue raises the question: when does 'free speech' become a tool for inciting violence? Nations like South Africa and Brazil have decided that some speech is not…
  • Africa Climate Summit
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Africa Climate Summit Reflections Part 2: The Youth Are Getting Restless…and That’s a Good Thing
    17 Sep 2025
    “The youth are getting restless. I can't hear you, Let them hear you all the way to Washington, The youth are getting restless, Own creation, The Youth are Getting Restless, And once again a nation,…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us