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
  • omnibus

Freedom Rider: Black Demands for the Biden Administration
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
10 Dec 2020
Freedom Rider: Black Demands for the Biden Administration
Freedom Rider: Black Demands for the Biden Administration

The Black Misleaders give the impression of exercising black empowerment when they are in fact only promoting themselves.

“The needs of the people are diametrically opposed to those of the donor class and their black misleader minions.”

What do black people need most right now? The list is a very long one and includes living wage work, affordable housing, protection from killer police, relief from student loan debt, and the establishment of a publicly run health care system.

If the black political class have their way none of these issues will be addressed in any serious way. Apparently, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are most concerned with human resources issues. They want to make sure that black people are appointed to cabinet level positions in the Biden administration.

It is fine for black people to be part of the revolving door of government that brings insiders to cushy positions in the White House. That is, after all, how the system functions. But it is another thing entirely for the attention of all black people to be focused on whether or not some already prominent and highly paid individuals become the new black faces in high places.

“The Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP are most concerned that black people are appointed to cabinet level positions.”

There are some 48 million black people in the United States and nearly all of them have been impacted by the many dislocations created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ironically named essential workers are in fact the most vulnerable as they must choose between earning a wage to survive or risking exposure to the virus. Then there are people who can’t work at all. They are unemployed and Congress did nothing to extend the additional $600 per week which ran out in July. The public sector suffers too as mass transit systems in New York, Boston, Washington, San Francisco, Chicago and every large city have announced disastrous cuts in service unless they receive emergency funding. The employed and unemployed alike will have a hard time getting to or looking for jobs. Of course, it must always be pointed out that COVID-19 has been far more lethal to black people, with death rates 2.8 times higher than for whites.

The worst and most deadly racial disparities involve law enforcement and the carceral state. It is still true that black people make up half of all those incarcerated in the country and despite being only 13% of the population, are one-third of all thoses killed by the police.

“Black death rates are 2.8 times higher than for whites.”

In the face of these crises why is appointment to high office such a priority for the people who claim to represent those who are suffering so badly? The black political class, the misleaders, are just doing what they were created to do. They give the impression of exercising black empowerment when they are in fact only promoting themselves. They will never speak to the myriad of issues that are crushing black life because doing so puts them in the position of biting the hands that feed them.

If Joe Biden were to be as Bernie Sanders called him, the most progressive president since Franklin Roosevelt, there would be no question that the pandemic suffering would end.

If the Democrats lived up to even a little of their reputation as the party representing the needs of working people they would develop an unprecedented program of governmental intervention. They would bail out the states and cities, replace the income of the unemployed, end evictions and foreclosures, and develop a health care system that met the needs of the public. 

They don’t even go through the motions of advocating for these and other issues. Instead the black political class go right along with phony outrage about black cabinet appointments. 

That is why black people must ask themselves what they would like to see. Kamala Harris cutting ribbons and being sent to represent Biden in countries he doesn’t want to bother visiting won’t put food on anyone’s table. 

“The misleaders will never speak to the myriad of issues that are crushing black life.”

Black Americans must reach a consensus about their own needs and do so without input from the people who won’t even pretend to put up a fight. Donald Trump’s antics and claims of a fraudulent election are still garnering too much attention. All eyes should be fixed on Biden and not the man who will leave Washington on January 20. The austerity that started with Clinton and moved on with Obama will be passed to Biden and the misleaders will again play their shameful role in a sordid tale if no one speaks out.

The presidency is a powerful office. If he wants to, Biden can make every fatal encounter with police subject to federal instead of local prosecution. He can issue an executive order forgiving student loan debt. Biden can direct the Department of Labor to stop wage theft, including the misclassification of workers as managers which deprives them of overtime pay. The new president can do all of these things without congressional approval and that is what the CBC and NAACP ought to demand but won’t.

A Democratic White House always brings opportunities to those with the right connections. But what of the 48 million other people? Is being rid of Trump all they can expect? In his victory speech Biden said, “The African American community stood up again for me. They always have my back, and I’ll have yours.”

But talk is cheap. Biden can’t promise rich funders that “nothing will fundamentally change” while also taking action that black people desperately need. The needs of the people are diametrically opposed to those of the donor class and their black misleader minions. The people are going to struggle. The question is whether it will be a basic struggle to survive or one which can bring much needed change.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and she regularly posts on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com. 

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected] 

Black Misleadership Class

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


Related Stories

Is The “Conscience of the Congress” Unconscious?
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
Is The “Conscience of the Congress” Unconscious?
30 November 2022
The Congressional Black Caucus has strayed far from the politics of its original members.
DC Government’s Racial Equity Plan is Elite Capture by The State
Pan-African Community Action PACA
DC Government’s Racial Equity Plan is Elite Capture by The State
30 November 2022
Racial inequity is the result of racist and capitalist policies and can't be defeated by the self-interested Black political class. 
Grandstanding: Mayoral Candidate Karen Bass Says She Can Solve LA’s Homelessness Crisis
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Grandstanding: Mayoral Candidate Karen Bass Says She Can Solve LA’s Homelessness Crisis
27 July 2022
As the late Glen Ford said, the Black misleadership class has no shame.
You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
27 July 2022
The Black misleaders have been busy selling out Black people for half a century, but are still only barely tolerated by the rich man’s Democrat
The Black Misleadership Class Attempts to Obfuscate their Carceral State Correlation with the Bogeyman of “white wokeness"
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
The Black Misleadership Class Attempts to Obfuscate their Carceral State Correlation with the Bogeyman of “white wokeness"
14 December 2021
At a time that we need more justice and access to democracy, the Black Misleadership Class is fighting for more prisons and tawdry police refor
The US “Left” Has Repositioned Itself on the “Right” – Aligned with Capital, War and Repression
Riva Enteen
The US “Left” Has Repositioned Itself on the “Right” – Aligned with Capital, War and Repression
08 July 2021
The most dangerous component of ‘MSM’ fake news is arguably propaganda by omission.
Black Liberal, Your Time is Up
Yannick Giovanni Marshall
Black Liberal, Your Time is Up
01 July 2021
You are here to show your black skin so that you can claim the mantle of authority on anti-Blackness that white liberals have bestowed upon you.
The Great “Awokening” and Ruling Class Uses for Racial Grievance Discourse 
Pascal Robert
The Great “Awokening” and Ruling Class Uses for Racial Grievance Discourse 
09 June 2021
The Black political class is wedded to the centrist Democrats for its “fatback and biscuits” patronage.
The Class Collaboration of “Justice” 
Erica Caines
The Class Collaboration of “Justice” 
29 April 2021
After the guilty verdict, the clarity that was collectively growing became squandered with the words “it’s not justice, it’s accountability.”
Freedom Rider: Andrew Cuomo and the Black Political Class
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Andrew Cuomo and the Black Political Class
31 March 2021
Black politicians shamelessly rallied to Cuomo, ridiculously comparing him to Emmett Till and the Central Park Five, in hopes that he will dispense

More Stories


  • 20 Years After Iraq, Corporate Media Defends US War Crimes But Obsesses Over Trump Trivialities
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    20 Years After Iraq, Corporate Media Defends US War Crimes But Obsesses Over Trump Trivialities
    22 Mar 2023
    Liberals and the media give great attention to Donald Trump's legal problems that are related to his personal life, but they cover up for the war crimes he and other presidents committed.
  • ESSAY: Currency Crisis in the West, 1965
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Currency Crisis in the West, 1965
    22 Mar 2023
    A 1965 article from Kwame Nkrumah’s journal The Spark highlights the role of monetary policy – and the US dollar – as an instrument of imperialism and neocolonial rule.
  • The Fabulist Arrogance of US Power
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Fabulist Arrogance of US Power
    22 Mar 2023
    The U.S. reserves for itself the right to commit crimes all over the world with impunity. It even passed a law giving itself the right to invade the Netherlands to rescue any US citizen or ally ever…
  • Avotcja’s Love…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Avotcja’s Love…
    22 Mar 2023
                                                                         
  •  BAR Book Forum: Nanjala Nyabola’s Book, “Strange and Difficult Times”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Nanjala Nyabola’s Book, “Strange and Difficult Times”
    22 Mar 2023
    This week’s featured author is Nanjala Nyabola. Nyabola is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us