17 December 2020 — Black Agenda Report

You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class 

Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor 
The Black misleaders have been busy selling out Black people for half a century, but are still only barely tolerated by the rich man’s Democratic Party and its racist figurehead, Joe Biden.

Freedom Rider: Master Biden Speaks 

Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 
The civil rights groups’ rather basic requests for voting rights protections and the need for federal intervention to address police brutality were minimized and dismissed by the president-elect.

Racial Capitalism, Black Liberation, and South Africa 

Editors, The Black Agenda Review 
The phrase racial capitalism first emerged in the context of the anti-Apartheid and southern African liberation struggles in the 1970s.

When Austerity’s Chickens Came Home to Roost in the U.S., Bernie and “the Squad” were Unprepared 

Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor 
The theory of change that depicts the likes of Bernie Sanders and AOC as the leaders of the class struggle has failed to materialize in reality.

Imagine: The Town Crier’s Cabinet Selections 

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence 
Cut plastic cuffs from imaginations— Dream larger in dire situations… IMAGINE every cook governing— every governor cooking up people

Agenda 2021: Resist the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination 

Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist 
It is critical that the Black left understand U.S./European imperialism as a race project, and organize accordingly.

The Planet’s Problem from Hell: Samantha Power 

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 
As head of USAID, Power will be in perfect position to wield foreign aid as a cudgel for beating foreign heads of state till they bow to US empire,

Letters from Our Readers 

BAR Comments Editor Jahan Choudhry 
This week the incoming administration was on your minds.

BAR Book Forum: Yelena Bailey’s “How the Streets Were Made” 

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor 
The streets permeate dominant understandings of Blackness, and the life-and-death consequences of these perceptions are at the heart of this book.

BAR Book Forum: Grace A. Musila’s Book, “Wangari Maathai’s Registers of Freedom” 

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor 
Maathai’s approach to environmental conservation centers poor rural communities, especially women, and their need for fuel, fodder and income.

Democrats Deploy “Diversity” to Mask Renewed War and Austerity 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
The “new regime is just a return to the old regime of endless austerity and war,” said Duboisian scholar Dr Anthony Monteiro, an organizer with the Philadelphia Saturday Free School. “Under the new Democratic administration “we will have all this symbology of diversity and inclusion, except when it comes to ideology and policy,” said Monteiro, who expects “a single-mindedness when it comes to American empire.”

Biden and Trump Not That Different on the Issues 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
President-elect Joe Biden “is not even giving a nod and a wink” to Medicare for All, despite its huge popularity among both Democrats and Republicans, said Dr Margaret Flowers, director of Popular Resistance and longtime single payer healthcare advocate. “We can’t give Biden any honeymoon period,” said Flowers. “We’re not seeing a lot of difference between Biden and Trump in terms of their priorities.”

Boxing is a Window on US Race and Class Pathologies 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
Black excellence in boxing can be traced to the “battle royals” that pitted slaves against each other for the entertainment of white masters, said University of Houston professor Gerald Horne, whose new book is titled “The Bittersweet Science: Racism, Racketeering and the Political Economy of Boxing.” The book “uses boxing as a vehicle to talk about the larger story of exploitation, racism, white supremacy and organized crime,” said Horne, one of the Black liberation movement’s most prolific writers.

Black Agenda Report Presents The Left Len: “Barack Obama’s Legacy of Lies”

Left Lens Co-Hosts Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong join you live to discuss the Obama legacy and its continued impact on the struggle for peace, justice, and liberation.

On Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilderson III 

Selamawit D. Terrefe 
Afro-pessimism theorizes slavery as a social relation which distinguishes Blackness as a paradigmatic position antithetical to humans.

The Myth of the Perfect Victim 

Too Black 
The denial of Black humanity is essential to the order of racial capitalism, and dictates that Blacks deserve whatever treatment they get.

Mumia: Fear of Socialism 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
“Politicians have pulled out the fear card – socialism – to ensure that voters stay in their place,” said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner. “The term “still has a foreign ring” to US ears, but it’s actually “about as American as hunger, itself,” said Abu Jamal, in a commentary for Prison Radio.

Biden’s Victory Was Hardly a Win for “Democracy.” It Was Another Win for the 1%. 

Rajko Koundzic 
An authentic and organized mass movement is the only way to combat money-power and make progressive policies possible.

Could Unions Have Liberated Dixie from Racist Rule? 

Chris Wright 
The right-wing leadership of the CIO refused to seriously confront white supremacy in the South.

Top Haiti Cop Specializes in Counter-Insurgency Intelligence Gathering and Repression 

Kim Ives 
Léon Charles, Haiti’s new national police chief, is a mass killer dedicated to suppressing the nation’s poor majority.