Protest against the xAI project in Memphis on June 17, 2025. Stu Boyd II-The Commercial Appeal
Fighting Trump’s racist attacks is obviously a necessity but that fight must include opposing the Black misleadership class and their collaboration.
Black Agenda Report has long pointed out that billionaire rule and its capture of the political process has made electoral politics a less and less effective means of meeting the needs of the masses of Black people. Now that Donald Trump has succeeded in exposing the rot in the liberal class that collaborates and capitulates to him and to his administration, it is necessary to also expose the worsening rot in the Black political class.
Donald Trump is vowing to send the National Guard and federal law enforcement to cities like Memphis, Tennessee, even when the cities in question make clear that they want no part of these plans. Trump is working with Tennessee’s republican governor, who approved the National Guard deployment, ostensibly to fight crime, even though Memphis mayor, democrat Paul Young, said he doesn’t want or need them, and therein lie several problems.
Anyone who believes in real democracy must side with Young and other mayors who have made clear that they do not want the National Guard in their cities. The power play is vintage Trump and an example of his determination to control everything from museum exhibits to college curricula to imposing tariffs without congressional approval. Trump wants to implement white power first and foremost. Smear campaigns against large cities and their Black leadership are just one method that he uses to exert his control. Trump even falsely claimed that, “CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!” It isn’t even the murder capital of the United States, but why let facts get in the way when demonizing Black people and stoking racist animus is the goal?
After changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, Trump posted the following on his social media site. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” He later tried to backtrack and said he doesn’t want war in Chicago, but the reality is that the staunch opposition of Illinois’ democratic governor made the move more difficult to pull off. Paul Young and other Black mayors are vulnerable if their cities are located in states governed by republicans and they can also be problematic for the usual reason, that is to say, they owe their positions to forces that act against the people’s interests.
Young exemplifies all of the worst tendencies of the Black misleadership class, including declaring his true allegiance not to his constituents, who are mostly Black, but to rich white people like Elon Musk. When Musk chose to locate an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) data center in Memphis called Colossus, the mayor went right along with the plan. The city didn’t even follow its own guidelines in informing city residents about a project that will pollute the city while also using enormous amounts of electricity and water, and thus endangering public safety.
Not only has Young made himself a partner of the world’s richest man and Trump’s sidekick, but like his counterparts, such as Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser, Young dissembles about whether he wants a federal law enforcement presence in his city or not. He says he doesn’t want the National Guard in Memphis but that he does want help from federal entities such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). What is a conscious Black person to do when double-dealing politicians must be exposed even as they make feeble attempts to fight Trump? Of course, we expose them and let the chips fall where they may.
The era of Black politicians actually practicing any sort of Black politics is long gone. Congressman and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is a case in point. Jeffries was well vetted for his position and he clearly takes his cues from the Democratic Party oligarchs who gave the seal of approval to his ascension. Jeffries' loyalties were made evident after the shooting death of Charlie Kirk. Kirk was a podcaster whose claim to fame was arguing right wing talking points with college students and amplifying racist talking points. After he was killed, republicans immediately elevated his memory to demigod status and Jeffries expressed the requisite and trite platitudes, “Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values.”
Of course, political violence is very much a feature of U.S. history, and as expected, Jeffries was simply mimicking the rest of his colleagues in dispensing feel good falsehoods. But that was not the worst action Jeffries and others took in the aftermath of Kirk’s death. The republican proposal to make Charlie Kirk’s birthday a National Day of Remembrance, passed unanimously in the Senate. Every single democrat in the Senate, including Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members Angela Alsobrooks, Cory Booker, Lisa Blunt Rochester, and Raphael Warnock, all voted to say that a man who called Martin Luther King “awful” and “not a good person” and who also said that passage of the Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake” and an “anti-white weapon” should be honored by the U.S. government.
Members of the House of Representatives had a little more fight in them than their Senate colleagues, with 38 abstaining by voting present and 58 voting no. Ninety-five House members joined republicans in favor and Jeffries was among them, along with CBC members Don Davis, Gregory Meeks, and David Scott. Two members did not vote and all other CBC members voted against the proposal.
Criticism of the Jeffries yes vote is understandable and necessary but there must be an acknowledgement of the ugly truth about his position and that of other democrats. The Democratic Party long ago gave up even the pretense of representing Black people or taking their political needs into account. Anyone who succeeds in climbing up the leadership ladder is highly problematic by definition. In short, only traitors to Black people will win the approval of the party oligarchy. The dismay expressed about the Jeffries vote to honor Kirk was naive at the very least.
Charlie Kirk gained in influence as he ramped up the racism in his remarks. Race-baiting has long been a hallmark of U.S. politics and Trump is diverting attention away from his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and the disastrous effects of economic policies by targeting Black people and their representatives. Black people in Chicago were resolute in their defense of mayor Brandon Johnson and organized to defend themselves and their city against a federal takeover. That resolve also made Trump’s plans more difficult to carry out and provided a lesson for the entire country.
Memphis is next on Trump’s hit list, and the people there must be supported nationally. Their mayor must be exposed for his treachery even as his people are defended. He cannot be allowed to straddle the fence in favor of the DEA while also claiming to be horrified by the presence of the National Guard. Alleged concerns about crime are still just dog whistles against Black people, and all must be united in this fight that will determine how free we will be in a country run by a would-be dictator and his liberal collaborators.
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.
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