by Kemet Mawakana (aka “The Seven-Foot Poet”)

by BAR editor and senior
columnist Margaret Kimberley

The latest flare-up between Barack Obama and Hillary
Clinton shows how inane their battles-about-nothing have become - the
inevitable result when there's no substantive difference between the
contestants. Much of Obama's campaign has been tailored to appeal to "Reagan
Democrats," the kind of "white people who vote for Republicans when it is
clearly not in their interest to do so." This time, however, he appeared to be
criticizing the narrowness of small town white folks' worldviews, giving
Clinton and Republican John McCain all the ammunition they needed to attack him
from the Right. As hard as he tries, Obama seems not to understand how and
where to kiss a redneck.

by Mel Reeves

If Martin Luther King were to return 40 years after
his assassination, he might not recognize himself. Revising and repackaging Dr.
King's politics in order to render the human rights leader harmless, even
quaint, is a twice-yearly game played mainly by those who would preserve the
very system MLK sought to overcome. While old enemies of Dr. King, like
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, spin convoluted myths that
totally distort American history and Dr. King's central place in it, the two
Democratic contenders paint superficial pictures of King's time and mission.
The best antidote for revisionist histories of Dr. King are the words of the
man, himself.

A Jazz & Justice Tribute by
Dr. Jared Ball

Paul
Robeson was the son of an escaped slave, who became an all-American
athlete, and one of the first three black graduates of Columbia
University Law School. After discovering that he would only be
allowed to research the cases white lawyers presented, he began a
career as an actor on stage and movies, a singer, and political
activist. Robeson wrote and spoke more than a dozen languages
fluently, and sang in ten more. While earning six and seven figures
a year in the Depression as an artist, he began openly raising money
for political causes, and by the late 1940s he was a full time
fighter for the rights of black and oppressed people. Robeson was
severely punished for his activism, but remained defiant and
unrepentant to the end of his days.

Dr.
Jared Ball, professor of Communications at Morgan State University
also hosts Jazz and Justice every Monday on WPFW Radio in Washington
DC. Black Agenda Report is happy to make available here the audio of
his Jazz and Justice tribute to Paul Robeson, a stunning example of what we at BAR call "the Other Black Radio", broadcast on .March 31,
2008.

by BAR executive editor
Glen Ford

The global capitalist system is way past recession,
beyond old definitions of depression; it has lost all cohesion and is,
essentially, beyond salvaging. Unable to produce anything but horrific and
perfectly predictable bubbles, incapable of tallying up its collective assets
to within any order of magnitude, the defeated organism turns on itself. The
latest scheme to redeem the system would bulldoze overpriced bubble housing -
destroy much of the inventory - in order to produce scarcity and eventual price
stability. Capitalist health through amputation - a solution that can only be
attempted a few times.

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The consequences of vast and growing U.S.
economic disparities are fatal for the poor - and getting worse. In the space
of 20 years, affluent Americans have increased their longevity relative to the
poor, and may have reaped most of the benefits of the medical knowledge
accumulated during that era. The poor received some health benefits from social
programs, but not enough to offset the advantages of money and education.
Overall, from infants to the elderly, one's life chances in the U.S. have
everything to with economic status.

Click the flash player below to hear the audio of this Black Agenda Radio commentary.  Broadcasters and others desiring a downloadable MP3 of this commentary should  visit the Black Agenda Radio archive page.

{mp3}077x_gf_poor_die_quicker{/mp3}