Black Agenda Radio - 05.04.20

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: We’ll hear how upscale Black mothers from Detroit who move their families to the white suburbs are met with a barrage of micro-aggressions. And, Black former prison inmates have a hard time finding employment, or getting anybody to vouch for their trustworthiness.

In the last decade, “Black Lives Matter” grew from a hash-tag to a movement. But the question still remains: Whose lives – and deaths -- matter enough to make the evening news? Colgate University sociology professor Alicia Simmons did a study of corporate media to find out how newspaper and TV newsrooms treat police killings of unarmed Black people. 

The great Black activist and sociologist W.E.B. Dubois said Black life takes place behind a “veil” that serves as both a cloak and a shield against white attack. Professor Chasity Bailey-FAKhoury, at Grand Valley State University, in Michigan, did a study of Black families that moved from Detroit to the mostly white suburbs in search of better schools for their kids, but were met with a barrage of micro-aggressions by teachers and other parents.  Professor Fakhoury titled her study, “State of the Art: Living Within the Veil.”

It is well known that ex-prison inmates have a hard time finding work – especially if they’re Black. But sociology professor Sandra Susan Smith, of the University of California at Berkeley,  has done a study that found, even Black folks that have been to prison are sometimes reluctant to vouch for other ex-offenders who are looking for a job.