Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio - 01.11.21

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: More and more, these days, we hear activists describe themselves as Black anarchists. But, what is Black anarchism. And, a Black author based in Europe says we all need to cultivate and make use of our “sensuous knowledge.”

 

But first – the white supremacist assault on the U.S. Capitol was aided and abetted by police officers. So says Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-Founder of the Washington-based Partnership for Civil Justice. The Partnership is demanding “a fully public investigation” into the way the cops responded to the massing of President Trump’s followers at the Capitol. African Americans are near universally agreed that, had Black people stormed the U.S. Congress in such a manner, police would have used deadly forced against them.

"Ebony "Sima Lee" Outlaw is an Afro-Indigenous womanist, emcee, poet, teacher and photographer, currently living in Baltimore. She also calls herself a Black anarchist – a description that has been adopted by growing numbers of Black activists. We asked "Ebony ‘Sima Lee’ Outlaw how she became attracted to Black anarchism.

A prominent Black writer and social critic, based in Europe, has produced a new book with a tantalizing title. Minna Salami is a public intellectual of Nigerian, Finnish and Swedish descent. Her latest work is titled, “Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone.” We reached Salami in the United Kingdom. Her book treats “sensuous knowledge” as a deeply political subject.

Black Agenda Radio 01.04.20

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: The old Year, 2020, laid bare the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. We’ll hear from Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace, who says electoral politics must be secondary to grassroots organizing. And, U.S. involvement in the African nation of Cameroon has created humanitarian crises on both sides of the the Atlantic Ocean.

 

But first – the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is in its 12th year of advocacy for Black self-determination, world-wide. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela says the Covid-19 epidemic and economic breakdown have exposed the United States as a power in decline.

Four years ago, Ajamu Baraka ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket. He then formed the Black Alliance for Peace, which has taken the lead in demanding the dismantling of the U.S. Military Command in Africa and an end to the police occupation of Black communities in the United States. Baraka was recently interviewed by Dr. Jared Ball on his influential podcast, “I Mix What I Like.” Baraka said electoral politics can be important, but only as a tool of grassroots organizing.

All but one nation in Africa is collaborating with AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa that was created by the George Bush administration but vastly expanded under President Obama. AFRICOM is deeply involved in the west African nation of Cameroon, where the United States supports a French-speaking government that is at war with both Boko Haram fighters and its own English-speaking population. Journalist Joe Penny has been covering the Cameroon conflict for The Intercept.

Black Agenda Radio - 12.28.20

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: hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from Covid-19, and the U.S. economy remains crippled, but China is nearly Covid-free and economically growing. A new book explores the vast differences in how the two social systems performed during the contagion. And, major league baseball claims it is embracing the old Negro leagues. However, a professor of Afro-American studies says something’s wrong with that picture.

 

But first – Paul Clark is a doctoral candidate in African and American Studies who’s been doing research on labor, policing and privatization in South Africa. Before the end of white minority rule, South Africa was a world leader in mass incarceration, along with the Soviet Union and the United States. Clark says South Africa continues to hold that dubious distinction.

Veteran activists Sara Flounders and Lee Siu Hin are the editors of an important new book, titled “Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China & the U.S.” It’s an anthology of essays by 50 writers, that explores why the United States has handled the virus so badly, while China was able to quickly bring the contagion under control. Sara Flounders says the real loser, is late stage capitalism.

 

Major League baseball has finally agreed to recognize the contributions to the so-called national past-time by the Negro baseball leagues, back in the time of segregation. The historically white franchises are now, in a sense, taking ownership of the Black baseball teams that they once excluded. Is that a good thing? We asked Josh Myers, a professor of Afro American studies at Howard University.

Black Agenda Radio 12.21.20

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: The post-colonial regime in Zimbabwe was determined to, literally, keep Black women in their place. We’ll speak with an author who has studied that era.  And, a new book details how sex was a leading item of political discussion among anti-colonial activists in the Dutch West Indies. 

 

But first -- Before famed Black Power advocate Stokely Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture, he made a big impression on freedom organizations in Africa – some of it good, some not so favorable. Back in 1967, Carmichael took part in several conferences on the continent, and offered a critique of how the Black Liberation movement was going on the continent. Toivi Asheeke is a post-doctoral fellow in the sociology department at Vassar College. He wrote an article titled, ““Black Power and Armed Decolonization in Southern Africa: Stokely Carmichael, the African National Congress of South Africa, and the African Liberation Movements.”

Rudo Mudiwa is a Phd in Communication and Culture, and currently a Research Fellow at Princeton University. Mudiwa is a native of Zimbabwe, and is critical of how the Black government that replaced white rule treated Black women. Dr. Mudiwa wrote a recent article titled, “Stop the Woman, Save the State. Policing, Order, and the Black Woman’s Body.”

In the years after World War Two, sex was the big topic of discussion among pro-independence activist in the Dutch Caribbean colonies of Aruba and Curaçao  

New York City University History professor Chelsea Shield has studied this era, and written a book titled “Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy after Empire.” We at Black Agenda Report had never heard of a colonial struggle in which sexual issues – including prostitution – played such an important role.

 

Black Agenda Radio - 12.07.20

 Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: It is now widely accepted that Black Americans are owed a debt for hundreds of years of slavery and racial oppression. But, can Reparations be a distraction from the work of Black liberation that needs to be done? And, how do you defund the police in a city like Baltimore, unless you can also assure the Black community that other ways can be found to deal with violence and crime?

 

But first – President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet is taking shape, comprised mainly of corporate and imperial political operatives. Rebecca Ann Wilcox is a community organizer and Phd candidate at the Princeton Theological Seminary, with a special focus on Race, Gender and Class Analysis. Wilcox believes that corporate Democrats are, in some ways, more dangerous than overt white supremacists.

Zuri Arman Kent-Smith is a Poet, writer and activist with a degree in Africana Studies and Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Kent-Smith has a particular interest in the question of Reparations for Black Americans. In the early stages of the Democratic presidential primaries, a number of candidates endorsed the principle of Black Reparations. But, does that mean the issue has become mainstreamed?

The grassroots youth organization called “Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle” have been deeply involved in Black empowerment activities in Baltimore, Maryland. Lawrence Grandpre is the organization’s Research Director. He was a recent guest on Dr. Jared Ball’s acclaimed podcast, “I Mix What I Like.” Grandpre agrees in principle with the demand for defunding of police. But he doesn’t think the Black Lives Matter organization has a clue how to sell the concept to the Black community.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.30.20

 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: New and updated terms have entered the vocabulary of Black liberation. We’ll speak with an academic and activist about critical race theory, racial realism and Afro-pessimism. And, we’ll take a look at the history and current struggles of quilombos, the autonomous Black and indigenous settlements of Brazil.

But first -- A globally important webinar on U.S. militarization of Africa, through its military command, AFRICOM, will be held on December 4. One of the panelists is Marie Claire Far-EYE, a Congolese member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Far-Eye currently lives in Great Britain, a country where, like the United States, most people are not even aware that the greatest genocide since World War Two is still unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Shameka Powell is co-director Educational Studies at Tufts School of Arts, and co-author of an essay titled, "Kissing Cousins: Critical Race Theory’s Racial Realism and Afropessimism’s Social Death.” These are subjects that are hotly debated in Black academic circles, and among some activists, but not the stuff of daily Black conversation. We talked with Prof. Powell about the relevance of Racial Realism and Afropessimism.

Brazil is home to the biggest Black population in the world outside of Nigeria, yet Blacks wield very little institutional power. Carla Maria Guerrón Montero is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Delaware. She’s done extensive studies of Black populations in Latin America. Most recently, Professor Montero immersed herself in the Quilombos of Brazil, autonomous settlements established to escape slavery and ongoing oppression of Black and indigenous people.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.23.20

 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: Community Control of police -- We’ll hear from two advocates of making cops accountable to the people. Colin Kaepernick demands freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal. And, a former political prisoner is briefly jailed for registering to vote.

 

But first – Native Americans say the holiday “Thanksgiving” is a celebration of genocide at the hands of European invaders, and should be replaced by a National Day Mourning.  We spoke with Nick Estes, an activist member of the Sioux nation who teaches American Studies at the University of New Mexico.

Black Psychology students at Bowie State University, in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, last week held a panel discussion on Police Brutality and Community Control of the Police. One of those that spoke was Netfa Freeman, an organizer with Pan-African Community Action, which is pushing for community control of the police. Freeman says police are a militarized force of oppression. 

Former Black Panther Party member Dhoruba Bin Wahad spent 19 years as a political prisoner. He told the Bowie State University panel that we need to create a national front of organizations, all demanding Community Control of Police.

Colin Kaepernick, the National Football League quarterback who has effectively been banned from playing because of his political beliefs, was part of a virtual press conference last week, demanding the release of the nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal.  Kaepernick says Abu Jamal’s continued imprisonment is a crime against humanity.

Former Black Panther Jalil Muntaqim spent 49 years in prison until he was released on parole in October. When Muntaqim returned to his family home in Rochester, New York, he registered to vote—a mistake for which he was briefly jailed. We spoke with Muntaqim’s cousin, Blake Simons

Black Agenda Radio 11.16.20

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: What happened when radical Black protesters found themselves surrounded by mostly white Democrats, in Washington, when the media announced that Donald Trump had lost the election. We’ll find out from the chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition.  And, we’ll talk with the author of a book on mixed race women, Mulattas, and how they are depicted in Brazilian and U.S. media.

 

But first – the corporate press has labeled virtually all Black protests as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, but the reality is that many organizations have taken to the streets against racism and the rule of the rich.  We spoke with BREE-YA Johnson, a masters student at George Washington University who is co-chair of Black Youth Project 100 in the nation’s capital.  We asked Johnson about BYP100’s relationship with local Black Lives Matter activists.

 

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations has organized a Black People’s March on the White House every year since Barack Obama was sworn in as president. According to Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela, this year’s demonstration coincided with the Saturday when the news media announced that Joe Biden had defeat President Donald Trump.

 

Wherever white supremacy has established itself, mixed race women have been used as symbolic weapons in maintaining racial oppression. Jasmine Mitchell is a professor of American Studies and Media and Communication at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. Dr. Mitchell is author of the book, “Imagining the Mulatta: Blackness in US and Brazilian Media.”  She says the Mulatta is depicted and exploited in similar ways by white power structures in both countries.

 

Black Agenda Radio 11.09.20

 

 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: Will a Joe Biden administration be an ally of the Black Lives Movement? Two of our guests say most emphatically, NO. How can the grassroots Black movement for social justice bring real power for Black people? We’ll talk with a young scholar who says the movement should follow a path of “communalism.” And, a Black people’s movement is making itself felt in Argentina, a country that long pretended that it had no Black population to speak of.

 

But first – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris pulled off a cliff-hanger victory over Donald Trump, last week, largely on the strength of Black voters. We spoke with Dr. Johnny Williams, a professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Williams says Joe Biden is no friend of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

 

Justin Lang is a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies at Brown University, and author of a scholarly article on former President Baraka Obama’s unsuccessful attempts to quell the movement to abolish prisons and the police. Lang predicts that a Joe Biden administration will also try to co-opt and confuse the Black movement.

 

The Black Lives Matter movement has spawned a number of political currents during its brief history. Shay Akil McLean espouses a politics of “communalism.” McLean is a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He wrote an article for Black Agenda Report on Black health. We asked McLean to explain what he means by “communalism.”

The South American nation of Argentina, like the United States, was founded on the dead bodies of native peoples and the labor of Black slaves. But, for centuries Argentinians have pretended that its Black population had died off. Erika Edwards has written a book that explains how Black Argentinians are resisting being written out of history. It’s titled, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law, and the Making of a White Argentine Public.”

Black Agenda Radio 11.02.20

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: In most nations in Africa, queer sex is against the law. We’ll talk with someone who wrote the book on the subject. Blackness is seen differently in the United States than in Latin America. But, as our guest explains, Blacks are at the bottom of the hierchy in both cultures. And, Mumia Abu Jamal has some thoughts on the elections.

But first – ever since the Black rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri, the age-old debate over revolution versus reform has been raging. Dylan Rodriguez is professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, at Riverside. Rodrizuez says reformism is just another form of counterinsurgency.

That was Professor Dylan Rodriguez, speaking from the University of California at Irvine. Rodriguez is author of the new book, “White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide.”

Black people are at the bottom of the social and economic rung in both North and South America. Jo-meera Salas, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Rutgers University, has written an article that argues on the different ways that Blackness is experienced in the Latin America, versus the United States. Salas’s focus is Latina Black girls.

In terms of the law, Africa may be the continent most hostile to queer folks. Thirty of its nations have laws against homosexuality. WUN-pini Fatimata Mohammed is a professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Georgia. Doctor Mohmmad is author of an article in the Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies, titled “Deconstructing Homosexuality in Ghana.

The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, has some thoughts on the elections. He doesn’t trust the polls.