Black Agenda Radio - 02.25.19

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: A new book lays out the real relationship between the police and Black America. It’s titled “Your Enemy in Blue”; a new and deeper look at Eleanor Bumpers, the Black grandmother killed by New York City police 34 years ago; and, a grandfather with a radio show speaks up for the common people in Zambia, southern Africa.

Much of the world is appalled at the U.S. attempt to provoke a coup in Venezuela, and to put opposition politician Juan Guaido in the presidency. In New York City, the December 12th Movement demanded that the United Nations condemn Washington’s violations of international law. Roger Wareham is a human rights attorney and a member of D-12.

The Black Alliance for Peace also condemns the Trump administration’s regime change policy in Venezuela as a white supremacist assault disguised as a humanitarian intervention.The police are no friend to the Black community in the United States, says author Kristian Williams, who’s written a new book. It’s titled “Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America.”

Thirty-four years ago, Eleanor Bumpers was killed by police in her public housing apartment in The Bronx, New York. The cops that shot-gunned the grandmother to death claimed she threatened them with a kitchen knife. Bumpers became a symbol of police disregard for Black lives. LaShawn Harris was a child in that Bronx neighborhood when Bumpers was cut down, in 1984. Harris is now an Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University. She recently published a comprehensive study of the life and times of Eleanor Bumpers, in the political journal “Souls.” The article is titled, “Beyond the Shooting: Eleanor Gray Bumpurs, Identity Erasure, and Family Activism Against Police Violence.”

Deep in the countryside of Zambia, in southern Africa, a man in his sixties called “GoGo Breeze” holds forth on one of the country’s most popular radio shows. Harri Englund is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He’s written a book titled “Gogo Breeze: Zambia’s Radio Elder and the Voices of Free Speech.” We asked Professor Englund why an African elder with a radio show rates scholarly attention.