| Black Agenda Report

Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
The State and White supremacy: The Inextricable Link
08 Jul 2020
The demand for “justice” by the public had the ironic result of re-legitimizing the state as an institution that could in fact render justice – but only an empowered people can establish a just order. “It is the settler state, and the corrupt colonial/capitalist system and the interests that it…
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
The Great American Firewall: On the Question of Censorship
15 Jul 2020
It should not surprise anyone that China would take protective measures against the threat of U.S. imperialism in the realm of cyber technology. “Censorship in the United States is rampant but the Great American Firewall is rarely discussed.”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Hooey-hooey—Boss Tweet gotta GO!
15 Jul 2020
Hooey-hooey—he gotta go— Hooey-hooey—he gotta go! He mocks and jokes about the plague And earned a date at The Hague He lies and brags ‘bout the tests Thousands die, he beats his breast! Hooey-hooey—he gotta go— Hooey-hooey—he gotta go! A parasite, con and leech A racist quack pushing bleach An…
Tunde Osazua
AFRICOM and the Guise of Terrorism
15 Jul 2020
If AFRICOM’s mission is to fight terrorism, then why have terror attacks increased five-fold since the US began its military occupation of the continent? “Entities that threaten a liberated, autonomous Africa are the real terrorists, and the United States is the biggest terrorist in the world.”
Paul Street
Shelter in Race-Class Place
15 Jul 2020
Black Americans are told to shelter in savagely unequal places where the necessities of life are scarce and Covid-19 is most lethal. “Americans need to understand race beyond just the color of faces in high places and symbols in public spaces.”
Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
Letters from Our Readers
15 Jul 2020
This week you had the Democratic Party, Libertarianism, and Native American relations with African Americans on your minds.
Jade Bentil
BAR Book Forum: “Black Study and Abolition”
15 Jul 2020
The books in focus explore the ways an anti-black world tries to interdict the possibilities of Black life, and how Black people resist and overcome such assaults. “I don’t know of any Black scholar that would be able to do the work we’re endeavouring to do now without the brilliance of Toni…
Kathryn Bedecarré
Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
15 Jul 2020
Does the belatedness and ubiquity/banality of allyship echo an anxiety about the enormous restraint that African Americans have exercised? “What is the difference between a yard sign that says BLM and a yard sign that says ‘Assata is welcome here?”
Mike Elk
How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
15 Jul 2020
White labor leaders are failing to understand non-traditional organizing that has developed from viral social media movements. “On July 20 Black Lives Matters activists intend to hold strikes and work stoppages in more than 25 cities.” During George Floyd’s funeral on June 9th, Black dockworkers…
Riva Enteen
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
15 Jul 2020
The Democrats are likely to put forward a Black woman prosecutor to legitimize the mass incarceration plague that Joe Biden helped inflict on Black America. “Until we accept that the Democrats will never deliver, we will not look at alternatives.”