Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Harlem's Mae Jackson: When Obama Speaks, Whose Lips Move?
Bill Quigley
16 Jun 2009
🖨️ Print Article

If you don't see the video above, click here.

Mae Jackson is a New York City based writer, poet, dreamer and doer whose record of activism on behalf of her people stretches back to SNCC. A founder of Art Without Walls, an art program for the children of imprisoned women, she is well acquainted with the difference between surface change, and fundamental, revolutionary change.

Here are a few minutes of her address to the crowd at May 31, 2009 event memorializing the early 20th century Harlem activist Hubert Harrison, in which she lays out a clear understanding of whose lips move when our First Black President speaks. Referring to some of Barack Obama's widely acclaimed orations at the Democratic convention, atop Lincoln's tomb, and other places, she tells us

“..those wonderful speeches made by the young man from Chicago were actually crafted, that's written, by three young white men 25, 26 and 31 years old. We got the unfortunate opportunity once again to see the world through their eyes. Obama was the spokesperson. Same as when you buy a painting, that doesn't make you the painter...”

She explains how the establishment turned took the politics out of activism, neutralizing and de-politicizing young political activists by turning them into “community organizers."

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Jeremy Scahill , Jawa Ahmad
    Exclusive: Internal Documents Show Trump’s “Board of Peace“ Moving to Crush Palestinian Self-Determination
    24 Jun 2026
    Gaza proposals obtained by Drop Site show Trump’s board attempting to force a Palestinian surrender that Israel could not achieve in war.
  • Matt Sledge
    Prairieland Defendant Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Moving a Box of Antifascist Zines
    23 Jun 2026
    Anti-ICE activists received lengthy prison terms — including a 100-year sentence — in the first major trial of the NSPM-7 era.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Report June 19, 2026
    19 Jun 2026
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the increase in racist mob violence against Black and brown immigrants in Britain. First, we have a discussion of housing policy in New York, and why low and…
  • Rent rally
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Rent Regulation and the Housing Crisis for Black New Yorkers
    19 Jun 2026
    Many apartments in New York City are protected by rent regulations which determine how much rent can be charged and how much increases, if any, can be.
  • Burned Muslim owned business
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Racist Mob Attacks in Britain
    19 Jun 2026
    On June 8th, a knife attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the UK, was seen on video. The assailant was an African asylum seeker, and the victim was a local white resident. In the following days,…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us