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


  • Five Myths of American Exceptionalism Killing the Left Part 1.
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Five Myths of American Exceptionalism Killing the Left Part 1.
    17 Jul 2019
    Adherence to American exceptionalism kills the left and then takes it to the Democratic Party-run graveyard for burial.
  • Gang of Four
    Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence
    Gang of Four
    17 Jul 2019
    I say, YAY,  I say, MORE,  I say, GO, Gang of Four!
  • There’s No Such Thing as a “Progressive Prosecutor” in a System Designed to Criminalize Blackness
    Gyasi Lake
    There’s No Such Thing as a “Progressive Prosecutor” in a System Designed to Criminalize Blackness
    17 Jul 2019
    Incremental changes are treated as if they are touchdowns when they are just moving the chains.
  • Why Are So Many Black Families Losing Their Land?
    Lizzie Presser
    Why Are So Many Black Families Losing Their Land?
    17 Jul 2019
    The Reels brothers spent eight years in jail for refusing to leave their plot of land in North Carolina.
  • Detroit Targeted for Massive Facial Surveillance
    Shea Howell
    Detroit Targeted for Massive Facial Surveillance
    17 Jul 2019
    A Black elected police commissioner was manhandled at a public meeting for protesting a draconian facial recognition scheme.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us