Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Arsenic and Agrarian Racial Capitalism
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
07 Sep 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Margaret Kimberley · Arsenic and White Corporate Profits

The highly toxic herbicide and multi-purpose poison arsenic was key to the production of cotton in the United States and Mexico, and in the process sickened and killed a multitude of Black and brown agricultural workers, said Jayson Porter, a PhD candidate in history at Northwestern University. Arsenic “helped build the U.S. empire” and paved the way for the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ and large-scale cash crop farming, as well as the bioweapons used to decimate Vietnamese plant life and people, said Porter.

environmental racism

Related Podcasts

Status Coup Flint
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Flint, Michigan Water Crisis Continues Without Repair or Justice
26 January 2024
Jordan Chariton is the founder of Status Coup news.
Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
08 September 2023
Maurice Carney is Executive Director of Friends of the Congo.
The Climate Crisis, Part 2
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
The Climate Crisis, Part 2
08 September 2023
Forrest Palmer is a native of Los Angeles, California who is now an electrical engineer residing in Houston, Texas.

More Stories


  • Gabrielle Emanuel
    A vaccine trial is called 'unethical' and a 'unique' opportunity. What's its fate?
    28 Jan 2026
    A controversial hepatitis B vaccine study, funded by the U.S. but paused by Guinea-Bissau, has become a flashpoint in the political battle over vaccine safety and scientific integrity. In the January…
  • Indrajit Samarajiva
    Wolves Crying Wolf (Canada, Denmark, etc)
    28 Jan 2026
    Nothing demonstrates the hypocrisy of the "rules-based order" faster than seeing its enforcers shocked that the rules could ever bind them.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio January 23, 2026
    23 Jan 2026
    In this week’s segment, we cover state repression and regime change efforts. While the corporate media parroted state narratives about a popular uprising in Iran, all evidence indicates that recent…
  • ICE Protest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    ICE Domestic Repression in Minnesota
    23 Jan 2026
    Mnar Adley is the founder and director of MintPress News, an independent media outlet. She joins us from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Donald Trump's ICE enforcement is used as domestic police…
  • Iran
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    U.S. and Israel Attempt Regime Change Against Iran
    23 Jan 2026
    Nina Farnia is an assistant professor at Albany Law School in New York. She is a legal historian, focusing on the role of modern imperialism in U.S. law and politics, and a member of the Anti-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us