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

Spike Lee Movie Whitewashes Police Repression of Blacks
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
17 Sep 2018
🖨️ Print Article

Robin DG Kelly, the author and essayist, agrees with Boots Riley’s critique of BlacKkKlansman, the Spike Lee movie whose hero is a Black cop who spies on Black activists. “It basically erases state violence,” said Kelly, a professor of history at UCLA. Riley wants to “focus our attention on the larger question: What has been the function of the police in relationship to our struggles for land, bread, freedom, justice and power?”

Police Repression

Related Podcasts

BAR Radio Logo
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio January 23, 2026
23 January 2026
In this week’s segment, we cover state repression and regime change efforts.
ICE Protest
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
ICE Domestic Repression in Minnesota
23 January 2026
Mnar Adley is the founder and director of MintPress News, an independent media outlet.
Ilyasah Shabazz
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Shabazz Family Lawsuit Against the FBI and NYPD
03 October 2025
The investigation of the 1965 assassination of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Malcolm X, was compromised by the NYPD and the FBI from the very beginning

More Stories


  • COVID-19 in DRC: Hoping for the Best, Preparing for the Worst
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    COVID-19 in DRC: Hoping for the Best, Preparing for the Worst
    08 Apr 2020
    Deaths caused by the pandemic are likely to occur without assistance of any kind, without any administrative record, and without acknowledgment in the news cycle.
  • Mengele Medicine:  Death Panels of  Boss Tweet and Pence
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Mengele Medicine:  Death Panels of  Boss Tweet and Pence
    08 Apr 2020
    STOP! No testing! No testing for the infection— big, big numbers could threaten the $election! STOP! No testing for us poor, us working-class—
  • A Call to Action: Towards a General Strike to End the COVID-19 Crisis and Create a New World 
    Cooperation Jackson
    A Call to Action: Towards a General Strike to End the COVID-19 Crisis and Create a New World 
    08 Apr 2020
    We must make demands that will transform our broken and inequitable society, and build a new society run by and for us – the working-class, poor, oppressed majority.
  • Expect Police-Military Repression Amid the Crisis of COVID-19 and Its Aftermath
    Netfa Freeman
    Expect Police-Military Repression Amid the Crisis of COVID-19 and Its Aftermath
    08 Apr 2020
    The rulers are concerned about the class war becoming sharper in the current crisis and they are preparing to send in the military and police to quell dissent.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    08 Apr 2020
    This week you discussed Black Marxism and the Bernie Sanders campaign.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us