Black Agenda Report The weekly magazine of Black political thought and action
Issue for Dec 12 – Dec 18, 2007
Dear Doug:
Feel free to use any of our pieces, with proper credit to author and site.
In Solidarity,
Glen Ford, Executive Editor www.BlackAgendaReport.com
All stories are available at: www.BlackAgendaReport.com BAR-produced stories:
Oprah & Obama: Corporate Marketing for a Corporate Campaign by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon Two of the best marketers in the U.S. teamed up for a three-state extravaganza of vapid, substance-devoid entertainment posing as presidential politics. Oprah Winfrey – a certified genius of self- salesmanship – and the faux progressive, fraudulent anti-war candidate Barack Obama wowed crowds in South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire in a mega-media celebration of celebrity, itself. Political theater has devolved to theater without politics. Corporate “journalists” behave like sports “color” commentators, minus real stats and facts. Next stop: Broadway – if the world doesn’t explode before curtain-time.
Freedom Rider: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Neocon in Black Face by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley The young, attractive Somali woman has become a darling of the American corporate media. Ayaan Hirsi Ali started out as a heroine to a portion of the Dutch public, who rewarded her with a parliamentary seat for denouncing all things Muslim. Apparently, flagellating one’s own non-white, non-Christian people is a sure route to success in Europe, just like in the U.S. Ms. Ali lost her halo in The Netherlands when it was discovered she had lied on her immigration papers, but was soon recruited into the self-hating Black grouplet at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, where she pretends to be a “scholar.” America – what a country! Denounce your own people, and they’ll make you a star.
Wal-Mart: Evil At Any Price A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford The conventional wisdom is that Wal-Mart’s low prices and low wages are a simple matter of math – that one leads inevitably to the other. Unions and progressive researchers have repeatedly shown, however, that even the most marginal increases in Wal-Mart prices – a penny an item – would fund substantial raises and/or good health care for workers, with no effect on the mega-corporation’s competitiveness. The core reason for Wal-Mart’s dogged resistance to wage and benefit increases is much more sinister: as a matter of policy, it discourages employees from considering Wal-Mart as a career. The Arkansas-based mega-firm’s business plan is pure evil: provide jobs that few will want to hold on to long enough to make demands on the company.
Religion’s Role Inconsistent with Romney’s Fairy Tale Speech by BAR contributing editor Mel Reeves Mitt Romney encouraged folks to think of him as the second-coming of John Kennedy, when he announced plans to speak frankly on questions about how his Mormon faith might influence him as president. However, instead of easing the minds of concerned citizens, Romney embedded himself deeper in the Christian Right, calling for a jihad against “secularism” while simultaneously distorting the history of religion and politics in the United States. Like the elders of his church, Romney is unapologetic for the racism that lay at the heart of Mormon doctrine for almost all of its history. In this regard, even Southern Baptists – a denomination born of pro-slavery politics – have a better track record.
Other stories:
Bush to New Orleans Dispossessed: “Merry Xmas – Now Get Lost!” New Orleans’ public housing stock largely survived Katrina, infuriating the privatizers that control government policy at all levels in the United States. How could the ethnic and class cleansing of the city proceed to its ultimate conclusion while thousands of fundamentally sound public housing units still stood, threatening to shelter and re-anchor the unwanted poor? What rationale could be provided for dispensing billions of dollars to subsidize the entrance of “new” populations – and to line the pockets of George Bush’s and Mayor Ray Nagin’s corporate sponsors? The answer came as a Christmas present from Washington: We’re going to knock all your houses down before New Years. And we don’t need a good reason.
Barack Obama and The Audacity of Deception: The Manufacture of Progressive Illusion by Paul Street Barack Obama and his corporate handlers are masters of smoke and mirrors. Obama claims to have bumped his Afro-centric pastor from his official presidential announcement to “protect” the minister, rather than to shield his own candidacy. Obama implies that Hillary Clinton is a tool of corporate money, when he is a cog in the very same machine. He tells a Black audience that his own conception was made possible by civil rights struggles at Selma, Alabama, 1965, and Birmingham, 1963 – but Obama was born in 1961. And he claims a vote for him is the equivalent of joining the anti-war movement. Of course, real anti-war activity isn’t that easy – what comes easy for Barack Obama, is lying.
‘White’ Values vs. ‘Black’ Values by Khalil G. Muhammad Bill Cosby’s hectoring lectures on Black “responsibility” and morals are nothing new. “The ‘Cosby’ role at the start of Jim Crow was first played by Booker T. Washington” – and lots of white folks loved him for it. Later, W.E.B. Bois was derided by his white social science peers as a Negro with “a chip on his shoulder” when he argued that “pathology knows no color” and that the roots of Black social problems lay in the conditions in which Blacks were forced to live. These same whites, many of them noted “reformers,” prescribed all manner of interventions to save white youth from lives of squalor and crime, but dismissed Blacks as products of stunted “moral development” and “poor parenting.” History often sounds like a broken record.
Vick Behind Bars by Dave Zirin Michael Vick haters will never be satisfied – and neither was the judge who sentenced the football star to nearly twice the prison time recommended by the prosecution. Google, the great online people- gatherer, pops up ad for "piss on Vick" and "neuter Vick" t-shirts whenever one enters the word “Vick” on an email subject line. New Media, it appears, is a great disseminator of hate. Vick’s confessed abuse and killing of dogs rates greater public condemnation than the abandonment, abuse and death of human Katrina victims. Twenty-three months in prison isn’t enough – folks publicly call for Vick’s electrocution, while pretending they aren’t serious.
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