by BAR
contributing editor Rudolph Lewis

There is a general feeling among whites, says the
author, that they have won the racial battle and can now "do and say almost
anything they please." No more need to pay careful attention to Black
complaints and arguments. African Americans were lulled into the belief that
the Civil Rights Movement had changed everything, when in fact, power
relationships have remained largely the same. Republicans and Democrats join
hands in preserving a status quo that preserves white supremacy. Nevertheless,
Blacks today have advantages that DuBois and King could not have dreamed of,
and must use them to produce fundamental change.

by BAR
contributing editor Jeffrey Buchanan

There is no more graphic
place to understand institutional racism than New Orleans. On one side of the Monticello Canal, which separates Black and white
communities, there is a levee. On the Black side, there is no levee at all. It
is only a matter of time before the Black people of the Carrollton-Hollygrove
neighborhood are washed out. They have been inundated by rain many times, while
their white neighbors are kept dry, thanks to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The conservation of white life, and the deliberate sacrifice of Black life, is
a fact of life. The U.S. government builds zones of protection for whites, but
leaves African Americans at the mercy of the mighty river.

by the Sacramento Area Black Caucus

Two years have gone by, and Black America has failed
to respond in any coherent fashion to the catastrophe that we call Katrina: the
death of a Black city. It was in that place that the United States proved, once
and for all time, that Black life had no value, and that the loss of Black life
was considered an improvement of the social condition. We are now effectively
exiled, scattered around the nation, without the center that was our beloved
city.  Whites of all classes see our
exodus as an opportunity to reinvent history, without us in it. The Black
misleaderhsip class has failed us miserably, having no idea how to mount a
defense for the hundreds of thousands swept away by deliberate government
policy. These traitors must be ejected from our ranks.

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

White people, in the majority, don't think they
are racist - but they are. Zogby's poll could not avoid the conclusion: white
folks think they are superior, the definition of racism.  They are convinced that race relations have
been getting better over the last ten years, and will improve further in the
next decade. Of course, white people will not have to give up any power to
achieve this goal; it is a gift. The delusions of white America are amazing,
and shape a world view that threatens human existence. White academics
constantly explore the psyche of Black people, but never their own - the people
in power. The Zogby poll shows that whites harbor deep problems, that can kill
us all, if they are not cured.

by The
Honorable D'Army Bailey, BAR contributing editor

The man who rescued Memphis' Lorraine Motel, site of
Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, from decline and ultimate sale to
developers, found in the end that Black intrigue would sully the entire
project. The plan was to turn the motel into a museum that would serve as a
nexus for activities "to
help carry out the unfinished business of the civil rights movement,"
especially among the youth. Instead, says the author, the project was hijacked
by Black opportunists in league with white businessmen, and now gives away tens
of thousands of dollars to cronies - part of the "pattern of corporate
financial control of our civil rights institutions and heritage."

by Jorge Mariscal

About 8,000 permanent resident aliens already
enlist in the U.S. military every year, an influx that partially offsets the
dramatic drop in Black recruitment since George Bush began his wars. The
Pentagon hopes to swell these ranks through a program with the acronym DREAM,
that "would tie permanent legal residency to military service." Conceivably,
the author writes, passage of the DREAM Act could provide green cards "to the
some 750,000 undocumented military-age youth" - a portion of whom, the Pentagon
hopes, would join the military. Desperate for recruits, war planners put their
own twist on an immigration bill: "Uncle Sam Wants You."