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Miami Killing Fields

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 18:00 — Paul A. Moore
by BAR contributing editor Paul A. MooreMiamiLibertyCityMan
 
It is impossible to understand today's Black America, writes the author, "without understanding our past." Slavery, peonage, Jim Crow, lynchings, and constant racist oppression have hardened the hearts of many African Americans to the worth of others, and to their own value. Lethal violence on the streets of Miami takes place in an historical context, such as the fact that "Of the 455 men ever executed for the crime of rape in this country's history, 405 were Black men" The roster of harmful devices arrayed against Blacks today includes standardized tests deployed as weapons, destroying thousands of lives. And the dead on the streets are also victims of history.

 

Losing What We Never Had: White Privilege & the Deferred Dreams of Black America, Part 2

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 18:00 — Dr. Edward Rhymes

by BAR contributing editor Dr. Edward RhymesNegroesDepression

Modern political mythology, also believed by Blacks, maintains that Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the post-World War Two college and housing benefits for veterans were unmitigated boons for African Americans. However, in many ways, the opposite is true. The New Deal, largely shaped to appease racist southern lawmakers, actually codified Black inferior status, while elevating poor whites. And returning Black veterans got only a tiny fraction of the benefits of the GI Bill. President Johnson's Sixties War on Poverty effectively lasted only three years –  at the end of which, the hopes of the Black poor were smashed.

 

Freedom Rider: The United States of Israel

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 18:00 — Margaret Kimberley

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

FRProIsraelRally
The 4th of July is supposed to be a celebration of U.S. independence. But no one can honestly claim that the U.S. is independent of Israel and its immensely powerful domestic lobby. Certainly not the Congressional Black Caucus, all of whose members voted for a resolution charging Iran with "genocide" because of a deliberately misquoted statement by the Iranian president. Israel's interests override the truth every time. The pro-Israel lobby terrorizes presidential candidates, threatening them with political death if they utter a hint of criticism of the regime. Happy Independence Day.

Are Blacks Staying Away from the Military Because Mama Said So?

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 18:00 — Glen Ford

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

How to Destroy an African-American City in Thirty-Three Steps – Lessons from Katrina

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 18:00 — Bill Quigley

by Bill Quigley

How can we destroy a Black city? -  let us count the ways. Federal, state and local officials appear to have compiled a comprehensive list of destructive acts of commission and omission -  and pursued every possible tactic to permanently de-Blacken New Orleans.  The author is just as thorough in compiling a 33-count indictment of the city-killers, with the Bush Gang as chief conspirators.  The crimes against Black New Orleans are so malevolent, so unremitting, and on such a grand scale, they cannot have been the result of mere incompetence. The crime is premeditated attempted murder, motivated by pure racism and greed.

Racism in the Bleachers

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 18:00 — Dave Zirin

by David Zirin

The anti-Barry Bonds frenzy grows more crazed every day, as the he approaches his 756th homer. Fans unashamedly demand that pitchers do Bonds bodily harm, to stop him from becoming Alltime Homerun King. None will admit they are racist - No! it's the steroids, they say. But if steroids are illegal drugs to enhance the body, the death-wishing anti-Bond fanatics must be strung out on a more ancient mind altering drug: racism.  The author observes the same kind of "visceral, throbbing fury" directed at Bonds as hounded heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, a century ago.

Majoring in Minstrelsy: White Students, Blackface and the Failure of Mainstream Multiculturalism

Wed, 06/27/2007 - 20:00 — Tim Wise

by Tim Wise

blackface04_whiteboyz425px

White kids apparently
believe they have the right to mock and deride Black people, as a sport. When
they are caught in the act, they retreat to a position of "non-racism" - after
having committed profoundly racist acts. Putting on "Black" wigs and darkening
their bodies, these fiends who are going to become the leaders of "their"
country act out the historical narrative of conquest and dehumanization. White
youth hide behind "multi-culturalism" to solidify their social status, as
rulers of the world, while talkin' Black talk, and tryr'na do the Black walk.

Just Say NO to Vote Thieves on the Federal Elections Commission - Stop von Spakovsky

Wed, 06/27/2007 - 07:33 — Bruce A. Dixon
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by BAR Managing Editor Bruce A. Dixon

Georgia attorney Hans von Spakovsky was one of the architects of the Florida 2000 scam which deprived hundreds of thousands of black Floridians of their right to vote because their names resembled those of alleged felons.  325 of them had felony conviction dates occurring in the future.  But instead of languishing behind bars for violating civil and voting rights law, von Spakovsky is about to appointed to the Federal Elections Commission, in charge of writing and enforcing all federal elections law.  Where are Democratic leaders on the gradual rollback of voting rights, especially our Democratic presidential candidates?  And what can we do to make them hear us? 

Freedom Rider: Marianne Pearl is Black

Tue, 06/26/2007 - 18:00 — Margaret Kimberley

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret
Kimberleymariane_pearlvs_angelina_jolie

 The wife of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl, who was murdered in Pakistan by Al-Quaida associates, is Black.
Hollywood chose to cast her as a white woman, Angelina Jolie, for the film, A
Mighty Heart.  Jolie put on a curly
wig, and darkened her makeup - as if that changed the reality. The American
media machine cannot digest Black life, and can only package its semblance of
real life in white-face. Apparently, white people cannot stare "Others" in the
face, and must tell stories that have their own made-up existence featured.
What a shame.

Losing What We Never Had: White Privilege and Deferred Dreams, Part One

Tue, 06/26/2007 - 18:00 — Dr. Edward Rhymes

by contributing BAR editor Dr. Edward Rhymes

new_amsterdam

The larger white society is getting ready to hold a party, to celebrate the end of racism, and lean back on their white privilege for the rest of their lives. It is an ongoing story of constant revision of history, and writing Black people out it. "It seems that every four years we see our struggle and needs ignored," writes the author, an historian. Presidential years are key to the revisionist project, they define the "new era." What follows is betrayal, as whites made up a feel-good version of history to justify their past actions.

Whiteness as a Right of Passage

Tue, 06/26/2007 - 18:00 — Anonymous

by executive
editor Glen Ford

immigrants_19th_century_european

Poor people from poor countries populated America, and
then became "white." That was their right of passage. It is the saga of the
American immigrants, who now turn on the new immigrants, as they did on the
Black laborers who worked alongside them. They chose whiteness.  Now they turn on Mexicans - who are also not
of their race. Racism is the game. White supremacy is the object, and the at root of discourse around "legal vs. illegal immigration."  It has
always been.  White America is out to protect its hard earned whiteness.  But for Black America. the stakes are different.  Do we need a whiter America?

Miami Killing Fields

Mon, 06/25/2007 - 16:16 — Anonymous

by BAR
contributing editor Paul A. Moore

The body count in Miami and other inner-cities mounts
much faster than that in Iraq, but without the fanfare. Young lives are lost
daily. Valuable lives. Miami educator Paul Moore goes to every funeral, because
he has taught the students who have become the fodder of the killing fields.
Our "best and brightest," and those who could have been, are sacrificed daily,
and without mention. Murder is methodical, and a societal menace, that can only
occur with such frequency because the victims are Black.

Which Way On Low-Power Urban FM Radio - The Next Test for the Congressional Black Caucus

Thu, 06/21/2007 - 00:39 — Bruce A. Dixon

 

by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon

Any day now, the U.S. Congress will decide if the corporate media stranglehold on radio will be loosened by allowing community groups to operate low-power FM (LP-FM) radio stations at hundreds of locations. Black grassroots politics has been crippled over the last several decades by the near-extinction of local news, but many African American lawmakers appear to have adjusted nicely to corporate dominion over the airwaves. Huge blocks of the Black Caucus vote in synch with Big Media’s demands, in return for campaign contributions. Corporate media is out to scuttle low-power FM. Will the Black Caucus capitulate, again?

Freedom Rider: Supreme Injustices

Tue, 06/19/2007 - 18:00 — Margaret Kimberley

by Bar editor and senior
columnist Margaret Kimberley

SupremesDeathChairOur worst nightmares are becoming reality as George
Bush's U.S. Supreme Court strangles the very concept of due process and
nonracial administration of justice. In its latest frothings, the High Court
ruled that workers must be clairvoyant in order to win job discrimination cases
- requiring they file charges within 180 days of the offense, thus leaving no
room to prove a pattern and practice of discrimination. The justices affirmed
that potential jurors who oppose the death penalty - disproportionately Black -
can be excluded from capital cases, ensuring that "only racist, conviction
happy jurors sit in judgment."

Barack Obama’s White Appeal and the Perverse Racial Politics of the Post-Civil Rights Era

Tue, 06/19/2007 - 18:00 — Paul Street

ObamaBigWhiteGuyby Paul Street

Barack Obama's vaunted cross-racial appeal means whites have finally found a Black politician they feel comfortable with - in contrast to their feelings about the great bulk of African Americans. Is that a good thing? Emphatically not, since it is predicated on the belief that Obama isn't really "all that Black." Obama actively encourages notions of his own "exceptionalism" through his "deep willingness to accommodate white supremacy." His declaration that Blacks have already come "90 percent of the way" to racial equality signals to many that the days of having to listen to African American complaints are almost over - when nothing could be further from the truth.

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