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

White Supremacy Goes Back to the Crusades
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
12 Nov 2019
🖨️ Print Article

The roots of western European anti-Blackness lie in the Middle Ages, in the Crusades to seize Arab lands, said Cord Whitaker, a professor at Wellesley College and author of “Black Metaphors: How Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking.” It was during this era that “you started to see the idea that darkness of skin, blackness, denoted potential evil,” said Whitaker. “It was still not the racial ideology we have today, but it was an important step in getting there.”

white supremacy

Related Podcasts

NYPD gang database
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
NYPD Gang Database Targets Young Black and Latino Men
28 February 2025
Proposed legislation in the New York City Council, Intro 798, seeks to end the NYPD’s Gang Database, ensuring that individuals unjustly labeled as
Black Agenda Radio
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio August 9, 2024
09 August 2024
In this week’s segment, we examine why there are violent racist and Islamophobic riots in Britain.
Refugees welcome signs at a rally
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Racist And Islamophobic Riots In Britain
09 August 2024
Roger McKenzie is the international editor of the UK-based Morning Star Online, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world.

More Stories


  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Breaking it Down with Barron: The New York City Mayoral Race, New York City Politics, and a Primer for an Independent Black Revolutionary Polity
    30 Jul 2025
    Charles Barron dissects the NYC mayoral race, Mamdani’s struggles with Black voters, and why independent Black radical politics are essential.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Killing the Kennedy Center softly for the Reich?
    30 Jul 2025
    "Killing the Kennedy Center softly for the Reich?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
    Palestinians are Not Starving in Gaza. They are Being Starved!
    30 Jul 2025
    The Israeli government isn’t failing to feed Palestinians in Gaza. They are deliberately starving them. Starvation is their weapon.
  • Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    Exporting Repression: Haitians And Kenyans Are Both Fighting Neo-Colonial Representatives of U.S.-Led Imperialism
    30 Jul 2025
    The U.S. exports repression like a global franchise, outsourcing violence while claiming benevolent intent. Kenyan police, trained by American forces and armed with U.S. equipment, are now occupying…
  • B’Tselem
    Our Genocide
    30 Jul 2025
    B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, makes clear that a genocide is taking place in Gaza. But their observations are not in any way unique. Millions…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us