Episodes
Monday Jun 28, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 06.28.21
Monday Jun 28, 2021
Monday Jun 28, 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: Which way is the reparations struggle going?
There is still no consensus among Black Americans on what the United States
must pay for centuries of slavery and oppression. And, Chicago is the city where
community control of the police is closest to becoming a reality. We’ll get an
update from a local activist.
But first – The United States government last week seized the website of the
Iranian news service Press TV and three dozen of that country’s other internet
outlets, claiming the sites were spreading “disinformation.” What gives
Washington the right to roam the planet, shutting down other nations’ information
services? We posed that question to Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the
Black Alliance for Peace.
That was Ajamu Baraka, national organizer wth the Black Alliance
for Peace.
In recent years, increasing numbers of white people have come to favor some
form of reparations for the harm Black Americans suffered under centuries of
slavery and discrimination. But there is still no consensus among Black people
on what kind of reparations should be demanded from the United States. Efia
Nwangaza is director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in
Greenville, South Carolina, and a longtime reparations advocate. Nwangaza is
trying to pull reparations supporters together in her state.
That was Efia Nwangaza, at the Malcolm X Center for Self-
Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina.
In Chicago, a majority of the board of aldermen now support community control
of the police. Jasman Salas is co-chair of the Chicago chapter of the National
Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the organization that is
spearheading the effort. Salas says women and trans people would greatly
benefit from community control of the cops
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 06.21.21
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Monday Jun 21, 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: Joe Biden made his international presidential debut at the G7
meeting, proclaiming that “America is Back,” and meeting the Queen of England. But
what does that mean for the future of the world? Journalist Richard Medhurst provides a
political analysis. And, New York State Assemblyman and former Black Panther Charles
Barron has mixed feelings on legalization of marijuana.
But first -- What’s the ultimate cost when Black social movements accept corporate
funding? This month, Dr. Joy James, professor of humanities at Williams College,
moderated a summit meeting of activists and organizers on Accountability in Social Justice
Movements. The founders of Black Lives Matter report they amassed $90 million, much of it last
year from corporate philanthropists following the George Floyd protests. What does the donor
class hope to get in return? Dr. James put the issue in historical perspective.
That was Dr. Joy James, speaking from Williams College.
The G7 nations held their annual meeting this month, to much fanfare. A gaggle of European
nations, plus the US, Canada and Japan, consider themselves to be world leaders. But another
way of looking at the G7, is a collection of white settler regimes and former and present colonial
powers. We spoke with Richard Medhurst, an independent journalist and political commentator
who was born in Damascus, Syria. Here’s how he views the G7.
That was Journalist Richard Medhurst, speaking from Vienna, Austria.
Charles Barron, the former Black Panther and current New York State Assemblyman
from the neighborhood of East New York, took part in a webinar on legalization of
marijuana, organized by the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and
Reparations. The session was called “Reefer Madness” – which kind of sums up
Charles Barron’s view of the matter.
Monday Jun 14, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 06.14.21
Monday Jun 14, 2021
Monday Jun 14, 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: US universities like to think of themselves as forces for the
public good. But we’ll speak with a Black professor who says American higher
education is a relentless gentrifyer that spreads police terror and low wages. And, a
Black Alliance for Peace activist says the United States is trying to isolate China
because Washington cannot compete with the Asian economic juggernaut.
But first – Too Black is a poet, writer and podcaster based in Indianapolis, who recently
authored an article in Black Agenda Report titled "From Black Wall Street to Black
Capitalism." Too Black says the business district of the Black neighborhood of Tulsa,
Oklahoma that was destroyed by whites in 1921, was actually more like a Black Main
Street than Wall Street, and employed very few Black residents at the time of the
massacre.
That was Too Black, a poet and writer speaking from Indianapolis.
Universities in the United States have become capitalist engines of extraction and
destruction in Black communities. So says Davarian Baldwin, a professor of American
Studies and founding director of the Smart Cities Lab at Trinity College, in Hartford,
Connecticut. Dr. Baldwin wrote an article in Black Agenda Report titled “In the Shadow
of the Ivory Tower.”
That was Professor Davarian Baldwin, speaking from Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut.
The Green Party recently took a look at Joe Biden’s First 100 Days in office, with a
focus on the new president’s war policies. One of the speakers was Julie Varaghese, of
the Black Alliance for Peace. Varaghese said the US is waging a Cold War with China
because Washington is losing the global economic competition.
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 05.31.21
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Tuesday Jun 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: Performance art used to be a sideshow of movements for social
change, but nowadays art has become central to political organizing. We’ll explore the
artistic side of mass mobilizing. And, the George Floyd protests of last summer, when
tens of millions of people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, have had
profound and sometimes strange effects on the ruling class and the institutions that
keep the rich in power. Now, even the CIA claims to be a benign, multi-cultural force for
good in the world.
But first – the Black Lives Matter movement has been enormously reinforced by
activists from the widest range of ethnic and racial backgrounds. But how can
organizers keep this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural army on the march for social change?
Kovie Biakolo is a widely published writer, editor, and scholar specializing in culture and
identity. We asked Biokolo what needs to be done to keep a mullti-cultural army on the
move.
That was writer and scholar Kovie Biokolo, speaking from New York City.
Performance art is an important part of modern political organizing. Troizel Carr is a
doctoral candidate in performance studies at New York University, and holds a teaching
fellowship at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. We asked Carr
about the role art plays in abolitionist organizing since the murder of George Floyd.
That was Troizel Carr, a doctoral candidate specializing in performance
studies.
The CIA – the guys that specialize in political assassination, overthrowing governments
the US doesn’t like, and lying to the public about EVERYTHING – is now trying to
package itself as a politically benign institution, staffed by “woke”young Black and Latino
intelligence agents. But anti-imperial activist Ramiro Sebastion Funez is using his
podcasting skills to strip away the CIA’s new camouflage. Funez calls it “Unmasking
Imperialism.” He interviewed Erica Caines, of the Black Alliance for Peace, who said
Joe Biden is also trying to act like he’s always been a friend of Black and brown folks.