18 March 2020 — Black Agenda Report

Freedom Rider: COVID-19 Covers Up War and Financial Collapse

Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
COVID-19 is not just a health emergency. It has exposed the causes of inequality and suffering in this country.

Late-Stage Imperial Omni-Crisis: Death by Virus and Internal Contradictions

Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
The epidemic reveals the stark truth, that the US dismantled and privatized its public health system, to fatten the pockets of the oligarchy and render working people more helpless and dependent.

Sanders Gets Swallowed by the DNC Machine: It’s Time to #DemExit

Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Only the demise of the Democratic Party can free up the potential of the people to resolve the many problems created by capitalism and imperialism.

“Virus or No Virus, We Can’t Lose Our Voice”: Cheri Honkala on Frontline Communities

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Coronavirus is just an extension of the war that we’ve been forced to fight under capitalism.

Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 16, 2020

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Black Misleaders Put Their Own Class Interest Above Black Health /Voters Favor Medicare for All, But Think Biden is “Electable” / Racial Voyeurism and Light-Skinned Black Babies

Ruling-class Remedies

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
If you’re feeling exceptionally feverish
or feverishly exceptional
pull a tight-fitting, cherry red MAGAT
cap over your forehead and eyes.

Debtors of the World, Unite!

Hannah Appel
Debt’s ubiquity is a burden, but also an opportunity.

The Roots of Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Resistance in the US

Robin D.G. Kelley
The militant white supremacists of the current generation are either products of, or influenced by, the “third Klan” of the 1970s and 1980s.

Letters from Our Readers

Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
This week there was much discussion on the Sanders campaign, the black misleadership class, and the Covid-19.

BAR Book Forum: Kenneth Janken’s “The Wilmington Ten”

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
The case of the Wilmington Ten was one of the most egregious instances of injustice and political repression from the post-World War II black freedom struggle.

BAR Book Forum: Clarence Taylor’s “Fight the Power”

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
Only policies that provide people with authority to hire and fire police, investigate, conduct hearings and decide punishment will end police brutality.

Racial Voyeurism and Light-Skinned Black Babies

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Black babies born to Black mothers are often treated by media as “miraculous, or a gift from God,” writes Sonita Moss, a University of Pennsylvania Fulbright Scholar and co-author of an article on public fascination with the phenomenon of blue-eyed children of brown-skinned parents. “Whiteness and Blackness have been diametrically opposed to each other for so long,” such babies “bring up a lot of discomfort” and attract “racial voyeurism.”

Black Voters Favor Medicare for All, But Think Biden is “Electable”

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
“In all the states that have voted so far, Medicare for All, which Biden is explicitly against, wins a majority of voters” in exit polls, said Branko Marcetic, journalist and author of “Yesterday Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.” Marcetic noted that, when President Obama and vice president Biden were trying to forge a “Grand Bargain” with the GOP, “Biden basically rolled over and let Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans just trample over him. He gave them everything they wanted.”

Black Misleaders Put Their Own Class Interest Above Black Health

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
In their zeal to push Joe Biden for president, said Ajamu Baraka, the former Green Party vice presidential candidate, “the Black Misleadership Class is concealing class contradictions, not only in the broader US society, but within Black America. They know that Black people would benefit if there were Medicare for All, but because of short-term class interest, they choose to mobilize Black opinion behind Biden.” Baraka, a BAR editor, predicts that “Blacks will disproportionately suffer” from the coronavirus epidemic.

Elon Musk Is Acting Like a Neo-Conquistador for South America’s Lithium

Vijay Prashad and Alejandro Bejarano
The billionaire is leading the scramble for Bolivia’s lithium resources under a coup government.

The Great Bernie Bust

Daniel Lazare
It is now all but certain that Joe Biden will be the Democratic candidate.

The New White Moderate: Political Coercion, Liberalism, and the Failed Electoral Strategy

joshua briond
A democracy is not just being “allowed” to “choose” your representatives, but having representatives that actually align with peoples material interests.

Calm Down About Coronavirus and Follow Africa’s Lead

Mark P. Fancher
Europe – not Africa – is the current epicenter of the disease.

Prisoners and Coronavirus

Noelle Hanrahan
Prisoners and guards are at much greater risk than the general population.

COVID-19: The Monster is at the Door

Mike Davis
The danger to the global poor has been almost totally ignored by journalists and Western governments.