Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of August 6, 2012
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Don’t Depend on Obama
“Whatever happens in November, our job doesn’t change,” said anti-racism activist Tim Wise, author of Dear White America: A Letter to a New Minority. “The symbolic value of a Black face in a high place does not necessarily translate into structural change.” A mass movement is necessary to force elected officials to address social issues, “because they are not going to do it in and of themselves.”
COINTELPRO Never Ended
The government’s Counter Intelligence Program of the Sixties was never shut down, said Larry Pinkney, former Black Panther and political prisoner. The Feds continue to plant provocateurs in activist ranks. “It’s the oldest trick in the book,” said Pinkney, “and the reason it has consistently worked is, we’ve got too many ‘sheeple’ out there who are about to find themselves in a situation where they have no Constitutional or human rights.”
Offshore Trillions
Measuring the global elite’s offshore cash stashes is “like estimating the size of a black hole,” said James Henry, author of Tax Justice Network-USA study titled “The Price of Offshore, Revisited.” Between $21 trillion to $32 trillion is hidden from tax collectors, said Henry, a former chief economist for the McKinsey consulting group. Developing nations are actually net lenders to First World countries, “to the tune of $11 trillion, which is exactly opposite the way global capital markets are supposed to function.”
Africa at Crossroads
“The African Union has proven itself incapable of resolving armed conflicts” in Libya, the Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau, said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. South Africa, the sub-Saharan powerhouse, is key to continental security. “It’s either get South Africa off the sidelines or invite in the United States or some outside power – and, obviously, the latter is too ghastly to contemplate.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Tuesday at 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
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Tim Wise is the white Michael
Tim Wise is the white Michael Eric Dyson - wowing the gullible with their ivy tower prattle.
Wise speaks of those whites on the Left who are still in awe of fact a black face is in the White House. In the midst of his musings on racism, white folks, and black folks, one detects Wise is a member of that awestruck club too. His entire spiel about Obama centered around making excuses and absolving Obama of all his transgressions.
Cornel West heavily criticizes Obama? Whitey please. West was a head cheerleader for Obama early on and like Tim Wise spent his time mouthing pyscho/socio babble to obsfucate the real 411 - that Obama was a neolib/con conman who would (and did) enact all the devil work Republicans desired but could never pull off. Only in the past year has West increased his criticism of Obama and given his track record, this calling out won't last long.
Like others black and white left leaning feckless wonders, Wise is quick to brush off Obama's horrendous record by saying he didn't expect much to begin with and proceeds to with his professorial discussion of the political process. Next, Wise says in so many words that people need to not focus on just election day but the other 364 days to develop movements to force politicians to act in their interests. Yes, people must hold politicians accountable. But by electing certain politicians, people expect the elected to act in their interests, to do those things on which they campaigned, and to NOT screw them over on not one, two, or three, every damn thing that would benefit said people. Folks shouldn't have to make it their second job to fight to the death to get even the simplest of shit from those they elected.
Wise excuses away black people's muted to non-criticism of Obama as a defense mechanism against white supremacy. Well, how's that working out for them? Not to good as we've seen black misleadershippers over the years lift their own boats on the rising tide and leave their constituents up the river without a paddle.
Wise is so busy patting himself on the back for his insight into racism and white supremacy that he comes off as another p.c. liberal who gives Obama and others like him a free pass.