| Black Agenda Report

Russell Rickford
The Promise of Street Rebellions
03 Jun 2020
The flames burned both for Floyd and for the vanishing dream of a moral economy. “In America the processes of racial subjection and material dispossession are inseparable.” As we emerged from a weekend in which legions of protesters in Minneapolis and other cities faced extreme police aggression,…
Dante J. James
We Can’t Breathe
03 Jun 2020
Can and should America continue to breathe if it continues to suffocate African American people and our communities? “Leaders of grassroots black communities' demanding equality and justice are commonly perceived as enemies of the state.” "To be Black in America and to be relatively conscious is to…
Paul Butler
Policing in the US is Not About Enforcing Law. It’s About Enforcing White Supremacy
03 Jun 2020
If we had something approaching equal justice, would we still even be the United States? “Mr. Floyd was not human to these officers.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Sasha Turner’s “Contested Bodies”
03 Jun 2020
Mothers and infants consistently experience positive health outcomes when midwives are incorporated into healthcare systems. “Emergent professionals, governments, enslavers, and abolitionists seeking to control women’s reproduction discredited midwives and women as ignorant, unskilled, and…
BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and Robert Stubblefield
Why Hasn’t Amy Cooper Been Arrested? The Case of Pink Pussy Privilege
03 Jun 2020
While most advocates focus on police abuse of the black community, we must also hold accountable the people who call police and make false claims against black people. “Newspaper reports are replete with stories of white women harassing black people for having barbecues, selling water, having…
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
The Movement Gets BIG – and Its Enemies Reveal Themselves
04 Jun 2020
The decrepit racial capitalist order appears to be unraveling under the weight of coronavirus, economic depression, and a quantitative leap in people’s willingness to confront power through the politics of the street. “The Black Misleadership Class’s identification with Power has become all but…
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Headline News
03 Jun 2020
The world as we know it may be at the cusp of radical change, but right now it just looks like a blizzard of urgent headlines. “Louisville police shot dead the city’s beloved Black ‘BBQ Man,’ aka ‘Ya-Ya.’”
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Rebellion, Confusion, Scoundrels and Kente Cloth
10 Jun 2020
Black rebellion brings insecurity to those in power, as editors, mayors and even long dead criminals are being called to account. “Demands for community control and abolition must remain at the top of the list.” Everything has changed since the world witnessed George Floyd’s murder at the hands of…
Max Rameau and Netfa Freeman
Community Control Vs. Defunding the Police: A Critical Analysis
10 Jun 2020
Defunding the police might end the armed and uniformed force as we know it, but the ruling class will then hire mercenaries to protect their wealth and enforce their will. The police are a consequence of wealth, not the cause of it.” The intensity and scope of the mass rebellion that has gripped…
Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
10 Jun 2020
This week police brutality and racism in the United States and Brazil were on your minds.