Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 11, 2017
Universities Nurtured Ideology of Slavery
A group of Black students at the University of Chicago is demanding the institution acknowledge its financial roots in the slave system and make reparations to the Black community. Kamm Howard, co-chair of N’COBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, supports the students’ demands. Howard said U.S. universities “laid the moral, intellectual and so-called scientific foundation for the institution of enslavement. They produced tons of pseudo-science that led to the dehumanizing of African people.”
Puerto Rico Crippled Before Hurricane Hit
Harsh austerity measures imposed by a federal financial oversight board set Puerto Rico up for disaster, said Lara Merling, a researcher for the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. A new study shows about 1,000 more deaths resulted from Hurricane Irma than were officially reported. “It’s not surprising that the Puerto Rican government had no ability to respond” to the storm, as a result of the spending cuts, said Merling.
International Commission Probes U.S. Police Impunity
Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally challenged young Black man who died in a hail of Milwaukee police gunfire in 2014, was among those that testified at hearings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in Washington. Cops have killed thousands, “but there has been no justice in any of these shootings,” said Hamilton. “We are fighting for our children’s lives who are no longer here.”
The U.S. Supported Anti-Black Forces in Libya
It should have come as no surprise that the same “rebels” the US supported in its 2011 war against Libya are now selling Blacks into slavery at auction, said Robin Philpot, who published Maximillian Forte’s influential book Slouching Toward Sirte. Assassinated Libyan leader “Muammar Gaddafi made it very clear that Libya was committed to African unity” under his government. U.S.-backed “rebels” targeted Black Libyans for death and detention – and now, enslavement.
Mumia Thanks His Supporters
Activists gathered in Philadelphia to march, attend teach-ins and demand freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal, who has spent 35 years behind bars in the death of a policeman. From his confinement, Mumia told supporters, “Through it all, I have never felt alone. Behind brick and steel, I felt your love…ever present.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
“The struggle has to be more than simply a declaration of our significance as human beings, as in the term ‘Black Lives Matter,’” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Bac
Breya Johnson, co-chair of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) in Washington, DC, said her organization enjoys a “working relationship” with the local Black Lives Matter chapter, but
A significant portion of Black males are “contrarians” that take positions at odds with the general Black political consensus – while Black women tend to take the communal approach.
“Kamala Auntie” and Joe from Scranton will do as little as possible so that “nothing will fundamentally change” that would halt endless wars and the Race to the Bottom.
The Biden-Harris administration is good news for corporations, cops, war profiteers and banks too big to fail, but offers nothing to save the people and planet from multiple rises.
