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


  • The Bizarre Facebook Path to Corporate Fascism
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    The Bizarre Facebook Path to Corporate Fascism
    02 Aug 2018
    “The Facebook intervention is a qualitative escalation of the McCarthyite offensive.”
  • Rwandan Dictator Paul Kagame’s Paranoia Strikes Deep
    Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
    Rwandan Dictator Paul Kagame’s Paranoia Strikes Deep
    01 Aug 2018
    “Dissidents say Kagame shuttered houses of worship because they were the last spaces in Rwanda where people felt safe from his totalitarian grip.”
  • barbuda beach after hurricane irma
    Dr. Matthew Quest , Latino Media Collective
    Barbuda Fights Enclosures and Neoliberal Dispossession After Hurricane Irma
    01 Aug 2018
    The attempts by the neoliberal government of Antigua to dispossess and enclose Barbuda, where traditional communal land rights have persevered till this day, are continuing, but not without vigorou
  • Trump and the Politics of Neoliberal Distraction
    Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist
    Trump and the Politics of Neoliberal Distraction
    01 Aug 2018
    “If Trump decides to ‘throw a whistle-blower in jail for trying to talk to a reporter, or gets the F.B.I.
  • Freedom Rider: Russiagate Covers Up Black Vote Theft
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Russiagate Covers Up Black Vote Theft
    01 Aug 2018
    “The Democrats want our votes, but if we aren’t allowed to vote at all they pretend not to know.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us