| Black Agenda Report

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Tamika Nunley’s “At the Threshold of Liberty”
02 Jun 2021
How Black women gave the term “liberty” its meaning and expanded the scope of liberty in the nation’s capital during the nineteenth century. “Washington, D.C. was southern in orientation even it was an important site of antislavery activism for abolitionists.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Justin Podur and Joe Emersberger’s “Extraordinary Threat”
02 Jun 2021
Western media outlets, NGOs and powerful governments allied with the United States work in unison to deceive people about foreign policy. “Never underestimate how convincing, formidable and dishonest the propaganda apparatus is that supports US imperialism.”
Adofo Minka
Jackson Mississippi’s Black Ruling Class Collaborates to Give Cops Cover to Kill
02 Jun 2021
The “radical” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has presided over the police killing of eight Black citizens since 2017. “The Jackson 8, those Black folks killed by the Black led police state, should not be forgotten.”
H. Claire Brown
How Corporations Buy—and Sell—Food Made With Prison Labor
02 Jun 2021
The small world of prison food production is a microcosm of the American food system, which all too o#en functions as a race to the bottom. “Prison labor is punishment first and foremost.” In 2011, Leprino Foods, the $3 billion company that supplies all the mozzarella to Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and…
Robyn Maynard
Toward a Police-Free Future in Canada
02 Jun 2021
The defund movement shows the way to divest from violence and repression, and invest in safety and life-affirming services. “In Canada, more than 70 defunding related events took place over the summer of 2020.” It’s been one year since the police publicly executed George Floyd in Minneapolis, and…
Laura Correa Ochoa, Maria Cardenas and Tianna S. Paschel
The Colombian State Is at War with Its People
02 Jun 2021
State violence is a daily occurrence in rural areas and particularly in Black and indigenous territories. “Race and racism have shaped the most recent wave of repression.”
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Lab Leak Theory and Anti-China Mania
02 Jun 2021
Most virologists still believe that COVID-19 is far more likely to have originated naturally, but US espionage and disinformation agencies disagree. “The World Health Organization should be permitted to finish its work without political interference.” It has suddenly become popular to say what was…
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Return of the Lab Leak Conspiracy Shows Biden is a Democrat with Trumpian Characteristics on China
02 Jun 2021
Now Biden and his top allies have given credence to the lab leak conspiracy, as they escalate their confrontation with China. “U.S. intelligence pins blame on China for domestic ills and labels that country a ‘national security’ threat.”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Knife Edge: Living with Domestic and Economic Violence, Andiaye, 2013
02 Jun 2021
Andiaye, a tireless advocate for the rights and welfare of women in Guyana, agitated against the system’s “way of organizing the economy which creates poverty and then criminalizes it.” “The life of this woman cannot be transformed except if we confront the power relations that underlie both the…
Otobong Inieke
African Financial Independence is a Threat to Imperialism
02 Jun 2021
Africa has been a net creditor to the rest of the world for decades, and must find ways to hold on to its capital. “Many African leaders promote foreign interests over domestic ones.” The Plan for Financial Sovereignty