Black Agenda Report
 Logo of BAR | |
 Home page of BAR on April 29, 2025 | |
| Founder(s) | Glen Ford, Bruce A. Dixon, Nellie Bailey, Margaret Kimberly, and Leutisha Stills |
|---|---|
Editor-in-chief | Margaret Kimberley[1] |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Country | United States |
| Website | www |
Black Agenda Report (BAR) is a Black American news outlet and radio program launched in 2006.
Content
Black Agenda Report concerns topics such as "women's rights issues, history, business, sports, and entertainment" from a Black American perspective.[2] It is an independent, alternative,[3] Black-owned,[4] left-wing publication which denounces both the Democratic and Republican parties, positioning itself as an outsider.[5] Its associated website publishes political commentary and reporting in both blog posts and more extensive articles.[6]
History
Black Agenda Report was founded as a radio and TV program in 2006 by Glen Ford, Bruce A. Dixon, Nellie Bailey, Margaret Kimberly, and Leutisha Stills.[7] Ford had previously worked at the program Black Commentator, but left in 2006 to form the Report with other previous staff members.[2][8] During the presidency of Barack Obama, journalists of the outlet severely criticized the president and accused him of being backed by corporations.[9][10] Along with Facing South, the Report was the only media outlet to provide major coverage of the 2010 Georgia prison strike.[11]
Criticism
Netherlands-based investigative journalism group Bellingcat described BAR as one of several blogs and websites that "routinely promote pro-Assad conspiracy theories", in regards to the website being given the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity, an award presented by the pro-Assad group Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, describing one of its fronts, the Syria Solidarity Movement, as anti-semitic and fascist. Bellingcat also criticized the website for claiming the Sudanese revolution was a regime change operation.[12]
Other publications have criticized BAR for denying the Persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Coda Story identified the website as part of a fringe group of leftists who deny the persecution, citing a January 2020 piece by contributing editor Danny Haiphong, who denied the existence of "concentration camps" in Xinjiang after a tour of the country.[13] World Magazine also criticized editor and columnist Margaret Kimberly for denying the existence of internment camps, in which she tweeted: "These are lies. There is no evidence of Uighur ‘concentration camps.’ More hybrid war against China." Kimberley also appeared on the Chinese state-controlled television network CGTV, where she stated that the US was "in no position to talk about human rights in China or anywhere else" due to its high incarceration rate.[14]
African-American studies scholar Molefi Kete Asante has opposed the BAR as a Marxist publication contrary to Afrocentricity and Pan-Africanism, deeming it a '"black" Marxist propagandistic instrument that is both anemic and corrupt.' Asante furthermore alleged to have received ad hominem attacks from Ford and BAR in response to his criticisms.[15]
References
- ↑ "Contact Us". Black Agenda Report. 4 August 2017. Archived from the original on April 29, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
- 1 2 Claflin 2022.
- ↑ Chin 2013, p. 55.
- ↑ Chin 2013, p. 68.
- ↑ Jones 2024, p. 14.
- ↑ Katel 2008, pp. 13, 24.
- ↑ West & Buschendorf 2014, p. 212.
- ↑ Risen 2021.
- ↑ Dyson 2016, pp. 25–26.
- ↑ James 2009, p. 471.
- ↑ Park & Gleeson 2014, p. 74.
- ↑ Davis, Charles (2019-09-30). "Pro-Assad Lobby Group Rewards Bloggers On Both The Left And The Right". bellingcat. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
- ↑ Thompson, Caitlin (2020-07-30). "Enter the Grayzone: fringe leftists deny the scale of China's Uyghur oppression". Coda Story. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
- ↑ Cheng, June (October 13, 2020). "Xinjiang deniers". WORLD. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
- ↑ Asante 2020, pp. 12–25.
Bibliography
- Asante, Molefi Kete (2020-01-23). Radical Insurgencies. Universal Write Publications. ISBN 978-1-942774-03-7.
- Chin, Jeremiah (2013-01-01). "Lockdown for Liberty: Black Masculinities, Mass Incarceration and Labor in the Georgia Prisoners Strike". Law Journal of Social Justice. 4: 54.
- Claflin, Ed (2022). "MEMORIALS". Fellowship. Vol. 84, no. 2. GLEN FORD. ProQuest 2644084250. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
- Dyson, Michael Eric (2016). The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-544-81180-5.
- James, Joy (2009-07-01). "The Dead Zone: Stumbling at the Crossroads of Party Politics, Genocide, and Postracial Racism". South Atlantic Quarterly. 108 (3): 459–481. doi:10.1215/00382876-2009-003. ISSN 0038-2876.
- Jones, Joseph (2024-05-10). "How the (Digital) Black Press (Still) Counters Hegemony, Redeems Democracy, and Cultivates Care". Howard Journal of Communications: 1–22. doi:10.1080/10646175.2024.2351116. ISSN 1064-6175.
- Katel, Peter (2008). Race and Politics. CQ Press. doi:10.4135/cqresrre20080718.
- Park, John; Gleeson, Shannon (2014-02-03). The Nation and Its Peoples: Citizens, Denizens, Migrants. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-10368-2.
- Risen, Clay (2021-08-18). "Glen Ford, Black Journalist Who Lashed the Mainstream, Dies at 71". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
- West, Cornel; Buschendorf, Christa (2014-10-07). Black Prophetic Fire. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-0353-4.