Episodes
Monday Feb 22, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 02.22.21
Monday Feb 22, 2021
Monday Feb 22, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Black people in Britain go to prison at roughly the same rate as
African Americans, and British activists are also demanding prison and police abolition.
Dr. Gerald Horne says the United States is finding out that it’s no longer a uni-polar
world, with Washington in command of everybody else. And, we’ll hear two essays from
prisoners of the American Mass Black Incarceration Regime.
But first -- SAHM-ah Mcgona SEE-say is a Justice Fellow at the Center for
Constitutional Rights, and an organizer with the group called “Survived and Punished.”
Police claim they are the force that fights for the rights of victims. But in fact, says SEE-
say, the police, prosecutors and prisons only create more victims. She explains.
Many Americans are unaware that Black people in Great Britain have a long history of
urban rebellions against racist policing. We spoke with Dr. Elliot Cooper, a Research
Associate at the University of Greenwich, who sits on the board of The Monitoring
Group, which challenges state racism and racial violence. Dr. Elliott-Cooper is co-author
of a scholarly article on Britain, race and the criminal justice system, titled “Moral
Panic(s) in the 21 st Century.”
Dr. Gerald Horne is professor of History and African American Studies at the University
of Houston. Horne, a prolific author, was interviewed on a Sputnik Radio program
hosted Dr. Wilmer Leon the Third, in Washington. Dr. Leon noted that president Joe
Biden has been making noises about maintaining strong US economic sanctions
against governments he doesn’t like, and insisting that US allies go along with
Washington’s dictates. But, Europe seems tired of being bossed around the U.S, as Dr.
Horne explains.
This week, we’re featuring two items from deep inside the U.S. prison Gulag. Laura
Taylor is locked up in the Pennsylvania state penal system. She’s composed a
message to the guards that boss her around every day and night. Ms. Taylor calls it a
“Resignation Letter.”
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 02.15.21
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: A professor at Morgan State University sees today’s Black Americans as still living in the wake of slavery. He calls social activism “wake work.” And, a professor of theology believes t hat religion remains a great resource for social transformation, despite the great harm perpetrated by organized religion over the centuries.
But first -- Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, recently spoke at a webinar put together by the Dissenters organization. The subject: How the new Democratic administration is attempting to refurbish and strengthen the Euro-American world order, under the leadership of US Imperialism.
Dr. Corey Miles teaches sociology and anthropology at Morgan State University, in Baltimore. He says today’s Black US population is living in the “wake” of centuries of slavery, and that the work activists are doing now should be called “WAKE work.” “Wake” is not the same as “woke” – but Professor Miles says both concepts can be understood through Hip Hop.
Dr. Vincent Lloyd, a professor of theology and Africana Studies at Villanova University, says a progressive, liberationist theology can be useful to the movements against both police repression and U.S. imperial wars. However, Dr. Lloyd acknowledges that Christianity is a two-edged sword. Jesus is often called the Prince of Peace, but hundreds of millions have been killed or enslaved in the name of Christianity.
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 02.08.21
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Most Americans have been led to believe that the only purpose of political parties is to win elections. But a Black party in Maryland believes its main mission is to organize the people. And, Black people that immigrate to the United States from elsewhere in the diaspora inherit the historical legacies of Black Americans, but also bring their own perspectives on liberation. We’ll hear from a multicultural scholar, born in Nigeria.
But first – politically active Black teachers have created a 21st century version of “freedom schools,” to prepare a new generation for struggle. Peta [Peh-TAY] Lindsay is a California teacher and a founder of the Ida B. Wells Education Project.
The Ujima People's Progress Party has been organizing for about a decade in Baltimore and other Maryland cities. But, for Ujima, winning elections takes a back seat to grassroots organizing and political education – as organizer Nnamdi Lumumba explained on Dr. Jared Ball’s influential podcast, I Mix What I Like.
Kovie [KOH-vee] Biakolo [Bee-AH-kolo] is a writer and scholar, born in Nigeria, who specializes in culture and identity. Her recent article is titled, “We Can’t Talk About Immigration Without Acknowledging Black Immigrants." Biakolo says the period of the Harlem Renaissance was a turning point in Black American politics and culture, partly because of the influence of Black immigrants.
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 02.01.21
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Donald Trump told lies every day, but so did Democrats, who now have most of the microphones to themselves. We’ll hear from a former CIA analyst, who knows a great deal about lying. Mumia Abu Jamal has a commentary on the “American Way of Fascism.” And, we’ll discuss anti-Black racism in Brazil, and police brutality and corruption in Nigeria.
But first -- a report by the Institute for Policy Studies shows that the billionaire class in the U.S. has grabbed more money, in shorter time, during this pandemic and economic crisis than has ever been amassed in the history of the world. The crisis has given birth to 46 new billionaires, for a total of 660 super-rich oligarchs, while the billionaire class has added more than a trillion dollars to their already fabulous wealth. Omar Ocampo was one of the researchers that studied this explosion of billionaire wealth.
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton, of The Gray Zone, are serious journalists of the Left. They recently interviewed Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who has vigorously argued that Russiagate is a fiction concocted by his former employers and the Democratic Party to justify a New Cold War, and to provide an excuse for Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016.
Although the media these days refer to every Black activist and protest group as “Black Lives Matter,” today’s youth-based, Black-led movement is made up of many organizations. One of the newer groups is the North Carolina-based Assata Collective. We spoke with Crystal Eze (eh-zeh), a college nursing school graduate and member of the Assata Collective who has been organizing against police repression in both the United States and her birthplace in Africa.
Academics make up an important section of the current movement for social transformation. Dr. Ugo Edu teaches African American Studies at UCLA, and is a medical anthropologist. She’s done field work in Brazil, thinks that environmental justice should be at the cutting edge of the Movement.
Mumia Abu Jamal has been a political prisoner for more than two generations. But Abu Jamal is known around the world as a keen observer of current affairs. His latest essay is titled, “The American Way of Fascism.”