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


  • Death of a Torturer
    Ramsin Canon
    Death of a Torturer
    26 Sep 2018
    Jon Burge gleefully coerced confessions from black men to get them convicted of crimes they often hadn’t committed and keep them in cages for the rest of their lives.
  • BAR Book Forum: Daniel Raventós’ and Julie Wark’s “Against Charity”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Daniel Raventós’ and Julie Wark’s “Against Charity”
    26 Sep 2018
    Conspicuous charity is one way of making great wealth seem respectable and even blessed in religious terms.
  • BAR Book Forum: Micol Seigel’s “Violence Work”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Micol Seigel’s “Violence Work”
    26 Sep 2018
    The author shows why racist police brutality has survived and even grown despite every attempt to integrate, oversee, educate, and otherwise reform the police.
  • A Publicly Owned Bank for LA?
    Glenn Daigon
    A Publicly Owned Bank for LA?
    26 Sep 2018
    A city-owned bank could extend the credit lines of community banks and credit unions to offer loans to low-income residents and help bankroll affordable housing.
  • Wilson Goode Way
    Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence
    Wilson Goode Way
    26 Sep 2018
    “You lit the fuse, I stand accused You were the first for me But you turned me out baby (you dropped a bomb on me) Baby, you dropped a bomb on me…”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us