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

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
 R.E.A.L. Youth Initiative Works for Prison Abolition
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
R.E.A.L. Youth Initiative Works for Prison Abolition
10 February 2023
Denzel Burke is Co-Founder and Co-Director of R.E.A.L.
When Movements Embrace Police Abolition, the Rich Resurrect “Reform”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
When Movements Embrace Police Abolition, the Rich Resurrect “Reform”
09 March 2021
“As soon as movements emerge that identify the normal operations of the police” and other capitalist institutions as the problem, the regime direct

More Stories


  • Raymond Nat Turner
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Dis-honest Broker
    01 May 2024
    "Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!NYC at Sister's Bookstore in Harlem, NY. The show was a celebration of National Poetry and Jazz…
  • VOA Burkina Faso mural
    Netfa Freeman
    Is U.S. Imperialism Maneuvering Toward “Humanitarian Intervention” in Burkina Faso?
    01 May 2024
    As Burkina Faso attempts to move away from neo-colonial domination by France and the United States, the possibility of intervention via "humanitarian" channels grows more likely.
  • Alliance of Sahel States
    The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa
    For the Defense of the Alliance of Sahel States, for Revolutionary Pan-Africanism
    01 May 2024
    The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa, calls on all of us to stand in support of the Alliance of Sahel States, which is clearing the way for the unification of Africa.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Palestinian Casualties in Gaza Mount
    01 May 2024
    The United States Congress and administration agree to allocate over $95 billion for wars around the world.
  • Report on New York Times memo on the Gaza war
    Ramzy Baroud
    Cruelty of Language: Leaked NY Times Memo Reveals Moral Depravity of US Media
    01 May 2024
    The recent leak of a New York Times memo reveals its unethical journalistic practices and the organization's commitment to upholding the state line on support for Zionism.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us