| Black Agenda Report

Tunde Osazua and Netfa Freeman
First Somali Congressperson Legitimizes AFRICOM and US Drone War
13 May 2020
Rep. Omar recently commended the US war machine for increasing the “transparency” and “accountability” of its bombing of her native country. “Instead of this being an asset to expose AFRICOM and to the decolonization Africa, Rep. Omar validates the role of AFRICOM.”
Jamiles Lartey
New York Tried to Get Rid of Bail. Then the Backlash Came
13 May 2020
The no-bail movement was on a roll from Vermont and New Jersey to Alaska and Georgia – and then the lock ‘em up mob struck back. “Lawmakers in Illinois and Colorado are feeling confident that they won’t face the same kind of backlash.” The national drive to reduce jail and prison populations is…
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen
Coronavirus is Making the Case for Black Reparations Clearer Than Ever
13 May 2020
The COVID-19 crisis only heightens the urgency of black reparations, which is now more essential than ever. “To bring the native black share of the nation's wealth at least into equivalence with its share of the population would require $10 trillion to $12 trillion.”
Don Fitz
Can We Simultaneously Oppose Bayer/Monsanto’s Biotechnology and Support Cuba’s Interferon Alpha 2B?
13 May 2020
It is necessary to compare the use of biotechnology by food corporations with that of Cuba to decide if they are the same or fundamentally different. “Food imperialism fosters dependency but Cuba promotes medical independence.” Genetically engineered crops are a form of food imperialism. This…
Stansfield Smith
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s Coronavirus Threats and Government Incapacity to Handle a Pandemic
13 May 2020
The city’s Black mayor threatened Black house partyers with arrest, but ignored 500 un-masked white people protesting the Covid-19 lock-down. “Lightfoot opposed releasing those in Cook County jail who cannot pay bail.”
Patrick D. Anderson
On George Jackson and Julian Assange
13 May 2020
Both see the United States as the Empire, and they agree that it must be opposed. “Both believe science is the best means of opposing Empire and securing self-determination for the peoples of the world.”
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Leftists Jump the Corporate Democratic Ship, Leaving Sanders Behind
14 May 2020
History may record that the corporate duopoly dike was finally broken in the Time of Plague, with the defection of Bernie’s former sheep from the Democratic Party. “Meaningful victories require the shattering of the duopoly, a process that has now begun.”
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedomrider: Obamagate is Real
20 May 2020
Obama’s fans like to think of the First Black President as scholarly and above the fray of dirty politics, but he appears to have conspired with the FBI to set up the incoming administration. “Trump’s twitter rants about what he calls Obamagate are in fact accurate.” Donald Trump is a vile racist…
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
American Exceptionalism and the American Left’s China Double Standard
20 May 2020
The threat that the American Left sees in China aligns with the white supremacist underpinnings of American exceptionalism. “The American Left adopted a worldview that positions China as an existential threat to their goal of a better world.”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
War House hot spot: Infected West Wing
20 May 2020
Infector-in-Chief, Boss Tweet, Refuses to mask his lie hole. He insists on leaving out his snout— Normally affixed to CEO posteriors. He tests daily, garnering mostly False negatives. Having no taste, no smell, for bovine dung he dishes out; he goes on about the business of America—Business. A…