Black Agenda Radio - 01.13.20

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black people in Great Britain go to prison in approximately the same rate as in the United States. We’ll take a look at the state of the human rights movement in that country. And, Black women in the United States suffer far more problems in giving birth, and after their babies are born. We’ll look into racial disparities in treatment of post-partum depression.

President Donald Trump brought the world to the brink of another Mideast War, with his assassination of a top general in the Iranian armed forces. But, political assassination is nothing new to Washington. We spoke with a renowned expert on international law. Francis Boyle is a professor of law at the University of Illinois. He says Donald Trump is guilty of many impeachable acts, but the Democrats aren’t charging him with his worst crimes. 

 Black people make up only about six percent of the populaton of Great Britain, but comprise a huge proportion of that nation’s prison population. Great Britain never experienced a civil rights movement on its own soil. But, Adam Elliot-Cooper, and Black activist and doctoral student at the Oxford University, says Britain’s human rights movement took place in its African and Asian and Caribbean colonies, during their struggles for independence. Elliot-Cooper says the British Empire’s oppression and exploitation of colonized people, world-wide, has come home to roost.

 America’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, is co-author of a book detailing the litany of crimes committed by the United States in the course of its bloody history. It’s titled, “Murder, Incorporated.” Abu Jamal says the U.S. is living up to its reputation as an international assassin.

The United States has the highest rate of infant mortality in the developed world, and Black mothers die while giving birth at rates comparable to Third World countries. But Black mothers also suffer very high rates of what’s called post-partum depression, a mental health condition that is dangerous to both mother and child. Aneri Pattani is an activist and journalist. She wrote an article for Truthout, titled “Black Mothers Are Treated Less for Postpartum Depression Than Other Moms.” Pattani explains what post-partum depression is.