Letters from Our Readers

Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor

28 Nov 2018

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This week readers share their reflections on White America beyond its borders, challenge one writer’s take on Russiagate, and give their take on spirituality in the Black movement. This came through comments on BAR Book Forum: “Notes on a Foreign Country” by Suzy Hansen and Carrie Bremen’s “American Niceness”and “Malcolm X Would Say Russiagate is a Fool’s Game.” This week’s BAR Book Forum covered “Notes on a Foreign Country” by Suzy Hansen and Carrie Bremen’s “American Niceness”. The Book Forum’s examined the way White Americans appear to the rest of the world and whether they are actually as nice as they believe they are.

Oran Smitty writes:

“I’m a black man from California, living in the Middle East, and frequently travel to Africa, Europe, and Asia. The world view of white Americans is that they are crazy as hell, and violent. They are quick to state that to a black person because they feel comfortable doing so, knowing what black people have dealt with historically, and presently in Amerikkka.”

In “Malcolm X Would Say Russiagate is a Fool’s Game” Glen Ford exposes the Russiagate scandal as a trap fashioned by the Democratic Party in order to push more war and austerity. Preston Wigfallshares:

“I am confused about your position on “Russia-Gate” I agree with you that it is a distraction. My personal position is that the owners of our tax plantation are upset because only they are privileged to fool the gullible American public. Further, the indignation from the mainstream media given that our country has actually overthrown the governments of others is laughable. However, is it not Donald Trump who has kept this distraction alive? Had he and others not lied repeatedly about that meeting. Then this issue would have died. Had he not fired the FBI director. There would have been no Special counsel. So is it not the actions of the Trump administration that has kept this distraction going?”

Glen responds:

There is no question that lying comes as easy as breathing for Donald Trump. But he’s not lying about his lack of ‘collusion’ with Wikileaks and ‘the Russians’ to pilfer Clinton campaign chief John Podesta’s emails. The U.S. intelligence agencies’ memo of January 6, 2017, does not claim to present proof of collusion, only that the authors have ‘high confidence’ that it happened. Almost two years later, no proof has been forthcoming -- either publicly released or leaked -- despite the clear animus towards Trump within the CIA, which fears Trump cannot be depended on to back its regime change mania. If there were proof, it would have been leaked, in detail, long ago.

“What has been revealed in endless, sordid detail, is the bottomless sleaziness of the whole Trump entourage -- small-time hustlers trailing after their orange hustler-in-chief. Some of these encounters involved Russians (and Ukrainians) of similar low character and status. None of the schemes come close to the huge transactions brokered by Democratic hustlers during the brief period following Obama’s ‘reset’ of cordial relations with Russia, in 2009. Bill Clinton picked up a cool half-million dollars for a speech to a major Russian bank, and Hillary Clinton signed off on a multibillion dollar uranium deal with Moscow. John Podesta’s deal-broker brother Tony’s Podesta Group cashed in on the ‘reset’ with a contract to lobby for the interests of the ‘pro-Russian’ Ukrainian government -- the same regime that Obama and Secretary of State Clinton would overthrow in 2014. Indeed, one of the most striking aspects of the Mueller revelations is how marginal the Trump-associated players were in the global political influence game -- they were totally outclassed by the Democrat-aligned uber-hustlers! But, that’s the chintzy neighborhood where Trump operates. He’s a second-rate man, with third rate acolytes -- a guy that any intelligence agency worth its yearly appropriation could nail in a second if he had engaged in the predicate ‘collusion.’ But they haven’t, because Russiagate is a fiction – like Iraqi WMDs.”

Also, Faye Gringe shares:

“We are the most militant group in the U.S. Given our history, from Martin, to Malcolm, until now, we have built the most loving, conscious-of-self movement in history. But it is still embryonic, and has not found its legs. Malcolm, and the Nation of Islam started it, by making us look at how much we hated ourselves, but we have to finish it. We have to re-frame it. We have to fix ourselves by learning to love ourselves, and each other, and then they can't win because then, we'll die rather than be slaves; we'll stop equating freedom with money, cars, and control over others. That's the gift of love applied, systematically. “Spirituality has to become an integral part of our politics. Marx said, ‘the internal is primary.’ I've just expanded that tenet to include what is going on inside of us that manifests in our compulsion to commit physical and political suicide by aligning ourselves with our oppressors, spiritually, which means, down in our guts, no matter our politics. This pattern is as old as humanity, and we need to nip it in the bud once and for all. Then we won't find ourselves on this same merry-go-round in a hundred years.”

We appreciate this week’s thoughtful takes from our readers. Keep dropping us serious lines on the struggle.

Jahan Choudhryis Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

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