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.