Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio 10.12.20

 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: Activists in Greenville, North Carolina successfully demand community control of the police. And, we’ll hear from a psychologist who’s done a study of the varied ideologies held by Black women.

 

But first, Shannon Jones is co-founder of Bronxites for NYPD Accountability, which on June 4th led a protest in the South Bronx section of New York that was massively attacked by police, who claimed the marchers had violated a curfew. At least 61 marchers and bystanders were injured, according to a Human Rights Watch study. More than 250 were arrested, including Ms Jones. She says the cops had been waiting for a chance to crack down on the movement.

Activists have clashed repeatedly with police in the eastern North Carolina city of Greenville. The protests have been led by the Mapinduzi organization and the Coalition Against Racism. Mapinduzi spokesman Dedan Wha-Kee-UR-ee says Greenville’s government continues to reject demands for Community Control of Police, an independent prosecutor for police brutality cases, and that a police substation be turned into a People’s Resource center.   However, the city did agree to end its involvement with the Pentagon’s 1033 program, that funnels military weapons and equipment to local police.

Dr. Ashlee Davis is the Supervising Psychologist and Coordinator for Diversity and Social justice Initiatives at Fordham University Counseling Center, in New York City. She’s author of a recent article, titled “Traditional Femininity Versus Strong Black Women Ideologies and Stress Among Black Women.” We asked Dr. Ashley, just what is

 “Strong Black Women Ideology”? 

Black Agenda Radio 10.05.20

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: We’ll talk with an activist-scholar we says anti-Black violence is not just endemic, not just in the United States but throughout Latin America. Political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal has a commentary on the people and system that took Breonna Taylors life. And, China has the only economy strong enough to pull the world out of recession, but the United States seems bent on waging a New Cold War. We’ll hear from BAR contributing editor Danny Haiphong.

But first -- The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparation, has marched on the White House every November since its formation in the first year of the Obama administration. The Coalition and its 15 member organizations will be in Washington on November 6, 7th and 8th, putting forward an independent Black politics. Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela tells us about this year’s Black People’s March on the White House.

The whole world watched as millions took to the streets to demand a halt to police killings of Black people in the United States. But Black lives are at risk everywhere in the Western Hemisphere, according to Jameelah Imani Morris, an activist scholar workin on her doctorate at Stanford University.  Morris has done extensive work with Black youth in both the United States and Latin America. 

Mumia Abu Jamal is the nation’s best known political prisoner, a prolific author and journalist, now in his 39th year of incarceration in Pennsylvania. Abu Jamal’s latest report for Prison Radio is titled, “Breonna’s Deathbed.”

 

 

Black Agenda Radio 09.28.20

 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: An African political scientist assesses the damage inflicted by the United States military presence on the continent. An environment activist says saving the planet will require getting rid of capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy. And, a long-time prison inmate says the system is about revenge, not rehabilitation.

 

But first – Asha Noor is a Somali racial justice and human rights activist with the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative. Noor says the best way to deal wtih over-policing in Black America, is to abolish the police.

The Black Alliance for Peace last week held a Webinar on the U.S. global military policy and its impact on Africa. One the speakers was Aziz Fall, an African political scientist and member of the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa, or GRILA.

The movement to defend the Earth’s environment has, of necessity, become largely a movement against capitalism. We spoke with Yolian Ogbu, a student organizer of Eritrean descent who serves on the national operations team of the climate crisis organization This Is Zero Hour.

Christopher Trotter is a Black man who’s been behind bars for almost four decades. He filed this report for Prison Radio.

 

Black Agenda Radio 09.21.20

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: What do the AIDS and Covid-19 epidemics have in common? Both diseases were much more deadly to Black Americans than to whites. We’ll discuss the racist reasons for these high Black death rates. And, After hundreds of years on American shores, Black people are still fighting for basic human rights. We’ll talk with a Black astrophysicist who says “we all have the right to know the universe.”

 

But first – Chicago is arguably ahead of most heavily Black cities in two arenas of racial struggle: the fight for community control of police, and the long battle for reparations. Toussain Losier is a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, at Amherst. But he earned is PhD at the University of Chicago and has long experience as an activist in that city. Losier is author of a recent article, titled ““A Human Right to Reparations: Black People against Police Torture and the Roots of the 2015 Chicago Reparations Ordinance.” He’s well-acquainted with the young Black Chicago activists that told a United Nations agency in Geneva that the United States is guilty of genocide against Black people.

Black people are today dying in disproportionate numbers from COvid-19, just as they succumbed to HIV-AIDS at greater rates than whites, two generations ago. Darius Bost is a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah and a co-editor of “Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies.” Bost says white ignorance of actual conditions in Black communities led to mass deaths from AIDS. He’s written an article titled, ““Black Lesbian Feminist Intellectuals and the Struggle against HIV/AIDS.”

 

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein grew up in working class East Los Angeles, but she’s now a Theoretical Physicist, as well as a Feminist Theorist, at the University of New Hampshire. Doctor Prescod-Weinstein firmly believes that everyone has “the right to know the universe.” We asked her if she agrees that a physicist is one who tries to find out how WHAT IS, came to BE.

Black Agenda Radio 09.14.20

 

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: Dr. Gerald Horne’s new book explores the roots of white supremacy and capitalism, centuries ago, in colonialism and the slave trade. And, Malcolm X changed the way Black people saw themselves and their place in the world. We’ll discuss a new book on Malcolm, title “Black-Minded.”

 

But first – a Minneapolis judge is moving towards jury selection in the second degree murder trial of the policeman that killed George Floyd, setting off protests that put tens of millions in the streets. At the height of the turmoil the Minneapolis City council talked about getting rid of their police force in its present form. But Sam Martinez, of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar Clark, says there’s been no movement towards defunding or abolishing the police, and what’s needed is community control of the cops.

 

Unprecedented numbers of Americans of all races now claim to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement. But Americans, in general, know very little about the historical development of white supremacy. Dr. Gerald Horne is a professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and author of more than 30 books. His latest volume is titled, “The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century.” If you want to understand why Black Lives don’t matter under the current system, says Dr. Horne, look to the events of five centuries ago.

 

More than a half century ago, Malcolm X left his indelible mark on the Black American mind. We spoke with Michael Sawyer, a professor of Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies at Colorado College, and author of a new book, titled “Black Minded: The Political Philosophy of Malcolm X.” Dr. Sawyer says Malcolm X shaped the modern era of Black politics – and his own way of looking at the world, as well.

Black Agenda Radio 09.07.20

 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 Black educator who put Africa at the center of his teaching is still impacting the profession, thirteen years after his death. And, some of the biggest fortunes in the world have been derived from poisoning generations of people and polluting the air, water and soil. We’ll examine the lethal history of arsenic.

 

But first – Joy James teaches political theory, feminist theory and critical race theory at Williams College. We spoke with Prof. James about her upcoming book, on what she calls “captive caretakers” of the Black community, and her recent article, “Airbrushing Revolution for the Sake of Abolition.” 

When Dr. Asa Hilliard died in 2007, the former Dean of Education at San Francisco State University and Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University was mourned by thousands around the world. Hilliard was famed for advocating the African-izing of African American education. De Reef Jamison is a professor of African American Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He recently published an article, titled “Asa Hilliard: Conceptualizing and Constructing an African-Centered Pedagogy."

 

Arsenic. It’s a lot more than just the favorite weapon of sneaky murderers. Arsenic occupies a special place in the history of killer chemical agents – which is Northwestern University Phd candidate Jayson Porter’s field of study. As Porter explains, arsenic has played a huge role in agriculture, manufacturing and war, ending the lives of untold numbers of insects, plants and human beings in the process.

Black Agenda Radio 08.31.20

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m , along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Both the AIDS epidemic and Covid-19 inflicted disproportionate deaths in the Black community. We’ll explore the reasons why. And, the second volume on a biography of the most important Black activist and intellectual that you may never have heard of, is about to published. Stay tuned to learn why you MUST know the name and works of Hubert Harrison.

 

But first – U.S. politicians have for generations gained power by scaring white people with threatening images Black males. President Trump is running on a platform that essentially mimics the old newspaper headline, “Black Buck Runs Amuk.” Douglas Flow is professor of History at Washington University, in St. Louis. He’s written a book, titled, “Uncontrollable Blackness: African American Men and Criminality in Jim Crow New York.” “Uncontrollable Blackness” is a provocative title. Was it planned that way?

 

There’s nothing new about the high death toll Blacks are suffering from the Covid-19 contagion. Thirty years ago, the HIV-AIDS epidemic killed disproportionate numbers of Blacks. J.T. Roane is a Research Fellow at the Schomburg Research Center in Black Culture, in New York City. He wrote an article about AIDS and Black Philadelphia.

 

In the first quarter of the 20th century, an immigrant from the Virgin Islands named Hubert Harrison influenced a whole generation of Black activists, including Marcus Garvey, A. Phillip Randolph and the entire so-called “New Negro” movement. Activist and scholar Jeff Perry has spent more than a decade chronicling the life and works of Hubert Harrison, and will soon release the second volume of his biography, titled “Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality.”

 

Black Agenda Radio 08.24.20

 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: It’s not September yet, so it’s still “Black August,” the month when we pay respect to political prisoners held by the United States. The Black Is Back Coalition recently held a national conference on political prisoners. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee runs a project and twitter account that empowers political prisoners to tell their own stories. And, a long-time prisoner of the state of California reports on how incarcerated people on coping with Covid-19.

 

But first – David West played for 15 seasons with the National Basketball Association, and is a two-time NBA All Star and NBA Champion. West is now living comfortably in California, serving as chief operating officer of the Professional Collegiate League, which aims to put money in college athletes’ pockets and prepare them for a future outside of sports. It’s long been common to hear Black folks say that high paid athletes should pool their capital to develop a stronger Black American economy and politics. We asked David West his take on that line of thought.

August is political prisoners’ month – a time to remember those captured while resisting U.S. government oppression, and to step up efforts to free those prisoners that are still behind bars. Jihad Abdulmumit is a former Black Panther who spent 23 years in prison. He’s now co-chair of the Jericho Society, and a member of the Black is Back Coalition for Peace, Social Justice and Reparations. The Coalition recently held a conference under the banner, “Fight for Black Power” and “Free All Political Prisoners.”

YOUR-gen Ostensen is the son of a former political prisoner. Ostenson is with the New York chapter of IWOC, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. He’s part of IWOC’s “Inside Prison Journalism” project and edits the organization’s twitter page, #PrisonsKill.

U.S. prisons are among the worst places to be during a pandemic. But Vice television news reporters recently shined a light on Covid-19 behind bars, and their revelations seem to have made a difference. Prison Radio has this report from the California penal system.

Black Agenda Radio 08.10.20

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 Brazilians are dying by the tens of thousands from Covid-19, and from police bullets on the streets. Slavery was all about money, and insurance companies collected their share of the profits in human flesh. And, a Black scholar says mid-wives can help reduce the high rates of death among birth-mothers and their babies.

 

But first – activists around the country are commemorating “Black August,” in honor of the political prisoners who are still incarcerated, half a century after the crushing of the Black Liberation Movement.  We spoke with Jihad Abdulmumit, the chairperson of the Jericho Movement, and a former Black Panther Party political prisoner who spent 23 years behind bars. The Jericho Movement is part of the Black Is Back Coalition, which this weekend holds its national conference – where Jihad Abdulmumit will speak on the significance of “Black August.”

 

Brazil has the largest Black population outside of Africa, and is among the top three Covid-19 hotspots on the planet, along with the United States.  Brazilian social anthropologist Jaime Amparo Alves teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He’s written a book on Brazilian police terror against Blacks, and is busy raising funds for Black families caught in the coronavirus epidemic.

Dr. Amparo Alves notes that Blacks in Brazil and the U.S. have another thing in common: white supremacist presidents.

 

To send money to help Black Brazilian families survive the Coronavirus onslaught, Google UNEAFRO [OOH-Knee-Afro] Brazil. That’s U-N-E-A-F-R-O Brazil.  https://benfeitoria.com/Covid19Brazil

 

Slavery in the United States was the nation’s biggest business by far, and all of the financial sectors got their cut of the profits. Dr. Michael Ralph, director of Africana Studies at New York University, says the insurance industry was central to how white masters measured the value of their human property. 

 

Most people in the United States were born under the care of professional doctors and nurses. But mid-wives played a huge role in child-bearing, not so long ago. Dr. Sasha Turner, a professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, has written a book on mid-wives and the role they played in helping Black mothers give birth, during and after slavery in the Americas. Turner says mid-wife-ing – or mid-wiffery [whiff-ery] – was the norm before professional medicine took over.

Black Agenda Radio 08.03.20

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: Activists have designated August 15th a national Reparations Day, with protests targeting Christopher Columbus and Donald Trump. A former political prisoner says folks are fooling themselves if they think Joe Biden will fix the criminal IN-Justice System. And, I’ll have some comments on Washington’s Cold War Against China.

 

But first – the institution of policing in the United States has been buffeted by the most massive demonstrations of the 21st century. The wave of protests began in Minneapolis, with the police killing of George Floyd. Adam Bledsoe is a Minneapolis native who teaches at the University of Minnesota. Bledsoe has put together what he calls a “Syllabus on the Minneapolis Uprising.” 

 

The Brooklyn-based December 12th Movement is calling for a national day of demonstrations to demand reparations for slavery and racist oppression. Roger Wareham is a longtime activist and human rights lawyer. 

 

Dhoruba Bin Wahad is a former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army political prisoner. He spent 19 years behind bars before his conviction was reversed. Bin Wahad talked politics on Dr. Jared Ball’s podcast, “I Mix What I Like.”

 

The wave of protests against U.S. policing and prisons has been keenly followed by the nation’s two million incarcerated people. Sergio Hyland filed this report for Prison Radio.

 

 Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley took part in a globally-watched web event that called on Americans, especially, to say “No to the New Cold War.”