The Great Harlem Debate on Obama
Transcript and audio remarks by Glen Ford, Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Dr. Donald Smith
On Sunday, December 14, CEMOTAP and the Friends of Dr. Mtulu
Shakur presented a debate at Harlem's Salem United Methodist Church, centered
on the question: Was the Election of Barack Obama Good for Black People? Yes or
No?
Weighing in on the
"Yes" side of the argument were Viola Plummer, December 12 Movement;
Charles Barron, New York City Councilman; Dr. Leonard Jeffries, educator; Atty.
Malik Zulu Shabazz, New Black Panther Party.
Arguing the "No" position were Dr. Marimba Ani, author,
educator; Dr. James Turner, educator; Dr. Donald Smith, educator; and Glen
Ford, Black Agenda Report.
For more information, contact Dr. James McIntosh at CEMOTAP,
email: [email protected].
GLEN FORD
"When Black folks start imagining an Obama that does not
exist, we are in deep trouble."
Click the flash player below to hear Glen Ford's presentation at Harlem's Great Debate
{mp3}ford_harlem{/mp3}
Ever since Barack Obama became a candidate for president,
many of his unquestioning supporters have labeled his critics on the Left as
conscious or unconscious allies of, first, Hillary Clinton and, later, John
McCain. As a result, Obama was left free to gravitate as far to the Right as he
felt convenient - and he took every advantage of that freedom.
What we wound up with is a president-elect whose Cabinet
to-date is mostly a Clinton Cabinet - and worse.
Obama's military portfolio is in the hands of a
Reagan/Bush-One/Bush-Two war criminal, Robert Gates, whose crimes go back to
Iran Contra and the mining of Nicaragua's harbors.
Obama's economic mechanisms will be in the hands of the very
same robber baron bankers that set the stage for catastrophic meltdown through
their actions under both Bill Clinton and George Bush.
Nobody forced Obama to put together an administration that
even the New York Times describes as "center-right." (I think it's much
more Right than Center.)
Nobody forced Obama to break into a sprint to join Bush in
bailing out the bankers.
Nobody forced Obama to browbeat the Congressional Black
Caucus to reverse itself and support the bailout the second time around.
Nobody forced Obama to elevate Susan Rice - a fanatical
advocate of so-called "humanitarian" military intervention - to UN Ambassador,
a woman who wholeheartedly supports George Bush's war against Somalia, which
created what the UN has called Africa's "worst humanitarian crisis."
We don't have to wait any longer to know what kind of
president Barack Obama will be. His presidential appointments are presidential
deeds - and by those deeds we know him!
Barack Obama has chosen of his own free will to put his face
at the head of an administration whose most powerful portfolios - War and the
Economy - are manned by the worst thieves and warmongers available.
Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton looks like a
relative moderate in this Obama configuration. And that is bad news for Black
people, and the entire planet.
I maintain that this outcome - this "center-right"
government in-the-making - became all but inevitable early in the process, when
many Black progressives failed to challenge Obama even once on any important
political point, before or during the primaries, when it would have made a
difference.
This blind-faith, unquestioning Obamism abdicated all
leadership responsibility, allowing Obama to play to the Right to his heart's
content.
Obama faced no organized Black opposition to his call for an
expanded military - one hundred thousand additional soldiers and Marines - as
if that would not inevitably lead to more and bigger wars and less resources
for human needs.
When the effects of the subprime meltdown began to be felt
in earnest, Obama refused to endorse any kind of moratorium on foreclosures or
freeze on interest rates. His position was to the Right of Hillary Clinton and
John Edwards. But he paid no penalty, because there was no organized Black
criticism.
Meanwhile, those of us who warned of Obama's constant
rightward drift were damn near called traitors to the race.
The Obamites demanded that everyone withhold judgment until
after the election. Of course, by then it would be too late. It has been too
late for a very long time.
At any rate, Judgment Day has finally arrived. And we see
Obama taking great leaps and bounds to the Right. Farther Right than I ever
anticipated.
But, you know what? I'm not mad at Obama. He's just another
cynical center-right politician, doing whatever he can get away with.
The people I'm mad at are the ones who let him get away
with it - the people who still see their primary job as protecting him!
He's the president-elect of the United States. He's in bed
with billionaire bankers and war criminals, and folks want to protect him.
He doesn't need our protection. WE need protection from HIM!
But this seems to be very difficult for some many of our
folks to understand because, this entire experience has been...damaging.
It's one thing to get carried away on the strength of
hundred of years of pent up aspirations.
It's to be expected that wishful thinking might temporarily
get the better of us.
But when Black folks start imagining an Obama that does not
exist - an Obama who has made some kind of Covenant with us, the evidence of
which is nowhere to be found - then we are talking about a people who are in
trouble.
I've got to admit that I sometimes get totally lost in the
ill-logic that makes Obama good for Black people AND good for thieving bankers
AND good for war criminals - all at the same time!
But, Dr. Smith has passed on to me the latest writings of
Amiri Baraka, whose thought processes are believed by some to be a kind of
Rosetta Stone on all things Obama.
Baraka explains how Obama's choice of arch-Zionist and
former hedge-funder Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff - the gate keeper to the
White House - was a "very smart choice" and, by the way, good for Black people.
The logic goes like this: Rahm Emanuel will keep the other
Zionists with bad intentions at bay, off of Obama's back.
Amiri Baraka puts Obama's political choices in a whole new
light. Rahm Emanuel is not a dangerous Zionist. Oh no. He is the anti-Zionist,
who wards off the really bad Zionists. Like garlic.
Now we can understand why Obama needs George Bush's war
criminal, Robert Gates, as his Secretary of Defense. Gates is there to guard
Obama's far-Right flank against even worse war criminals who might be out
there, laying in wait.
The same thing goes for the Robert Rubin clones at Treasury
and the Council of Economic Advisors. There are actually even worse Wall Street
thieves lurking around, trying to create trouble for Obama and - by extension -
Black folks. Obama's bankers will keep the really bad bankers off balance - or
so the logic goes. And by this logic, Obama can and should surround himself
with all manner of villains, to guard his far-Right flanks against an even
worse class of villains.
The worst thing about Amiri Baraka's logic is that I sense
some of you actually agree with it.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected].
DR. DONALD SMITH
"For Mr. Obama to continue to attempt to convince black
people not to think about race is a deadly mistake."
Click the flash player below to hear Dr. Smith's presentation at Harlem's Great Debate.
{mp3}smith_harlem{/mp3}
Brothers and Sisters, I want you to know that the first
thing I did when I came into this church today, was to give my semi-annual
check to Black Agenda Report, to Glen Ford. If you're not reading Black Agenda
Report you're missing the most important political analysis about our people.
In memory of Professor Melvin Tolson: Resolved, that the
election of President-Elect Obama is not good for Black people.
President-Elect Obama is a man of many talents. He is
brilliant, with critical thinking skills, an amazing orator, able to inspire
and bring hope to millions in the United States and abroad. And he plays ball.
He was vastly superior to his opposition, and I voted for him. However, I am
not convinced that his election is good for Black people. My contention is
based on three major issues.
First, his personnel appointments. Second, the danger of a
post-racial philosophy. And third, cultural incompatibility.
Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, has been a strong
opponent of African liberation. He is closely allied to Zionist movements.
Right wing Israelis with the help of the U.S. government were major suppliers of
the munitions which the Afrikaner government used to murder and oppress Black
south Africans.
Emanuel also played a major role in unseating congresswoman
Cynthia McKinney. Now, you have to keep that in mind. The presidential chief of
staff, Rahm Emanuel is the eyes and ears of the president, and he can influence
policy decisions.
The next critical appointment is Lawrence Summers, a person
with great disdain for African people. Summers, the disgraced president of
Harvard, is the new director of the economic
advisory committee which, by the way, does not require confirmation by the
Senate. At Harvard, Summers announced that women were not as capable as men to
be scientists; that African studies is not a legitimate academic discipline;
and that the work of Cornel West was not sufficiently scholarly.
Yet his most egregious act took place when he was the chief
economist for the World Bank. Summers signed off on a memo that urged the
United States to send dirty industries, that is, toxic industries, to countries
where, according to Summers, people don't value clean air, where salaries are
low, and life is not as valuable. And which countries do you suppose these are?
- Black and brown countries.
There are other appointments that are questionable, even objectionable,
such as that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sat as First Lady as
Rwanda was being ravaged. Who as Senator from New York has introduced no
measures to cease the slaughter in Darfur and in the Congo We are not likely to see the new secretary
of state reverse the establishment of AFRICOM bases in Africa.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been referred to as a
kinder and gentler "shock and awe." It will be imperialism and capitalistic
interests as usual as people in the First World suffer and die.
The appointments that a leader makes, communicate
profoundly, where his head, if not his heart, is.
The second major issue is that of the post-racial philosophy
as espoused by President-Elect Obama and so-called liberal Democrats and independents.
Our African culture is the cement that has been responsible for and has held
our political and economic interests together. These were the words and wisdom
of Malcolm X and of Harold Cruse in his book, The Crisis of the Black
Intellectual.
Any socio-political philosophy that weakens the cultural
cement that has held us together threatens our very existence as a people.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it possible for Black
people to elect local and national politicians of African ancestry.
It is Black solidarity that turned many states from red to
blue and that enabled Senator Obama to become President-Elect Obama.
For Mr. Obama to continue to attempt to convince black
people not to think about race is a deadly mistake. It is black solidarity and
the black vote that has given us the strength to affect our lives positively.
As Mahalia Jackson sang, it is How We Got Over.
Cultural incompatibility. Mr. Obama, the prophet of the
Joshua generation, has read our history, and learned what the white
institutions have taught him. But he does not know our history. He does not
feel our pain. It is not in his genes.
Worse, in order to assure oppressors in America and
throughout the world that he can be trusted to protect their preferential,
unearned privileges, the president-elect generally ignores or deprecates the
great liberators of African people.
On the night of his election. Mr. Obama disrespected Dr.
Marlin Luther King Jr. by referring to him simply as "the Atlanta preacher."
Speaking at the funeral of the Queen of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks,
President-Elect Obama showed no feeling.
How could he not have been moved?
When he first became a senator, addressing the Washington
Press Club, Mr. Obama declared that his hero was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Surely a professor of law at the University of Chicago would have been aware
that Roosevelt cared nothing for black people, turned his back on the lynchings
pervasive in the South, and made no provisions for black land in his land
policy.
Mr. Obama delivered a harsh attack against Black men,
without addressing any of the social factors which leave our brothers jobless,
mis-educated, incarcerated and in poor health. There is little evidence of
cultural compatibility.
These are among the key reasons why I contend the election
of President-elect Barack Obama is not good for Black people.
Dr. Donald Smith can be contacted at [email protected]
DR. LEONARD JEFFRIES
"...The system that we knew as capitalism no longer exists..."
(Dr. Jeffries spoke in favor of the proposition that the Obama phenomenon is indeed good for black people. In the interest of meeting our publication deadline our audio and transcript cover only a portion of his 7 minute remaks. Dr. Jeffries' presentation can be heard in its entirety at FreeMix Radio, www.voxunion.com,)
Click the flash player below to hear an excerpt of Dr. Jeffries at Harlem's Great Debate.
{mp3}jeffries_harlem{/mp3}
“We have to understand what time it is, brother. Life has changed, transformation and rebirth and resurrection. No matter what Obama does in office, life is going to change, it's going to transform, and there's going to be rebirth. We need to have, Mumia Abu Jamal celebrates the fact, even if we can't get him off death row, and even if he goes to his reward he's got to celebrate the fact that he was here.
“He was here at the moment that the capitalist system collapsed. He was here when Wall Street (unintelligible). He was here and he can go to his reward knowing that he stood for that challenge. We have to understand what has happened, borthers and sisters. The system that we know as capitalism no longer exists. We have a chance to put in place an African system/ Wall Street as we know it no longer exists. We have the chance to put in place an African street.”
BAR is grateful to the funkinest journalist Dr. Jared Ball for recording the Harlem event. The full three hours can be heard at FreeMix Radio, www.voxunion.com. We also thank Dr. James McIntosh at CEMOTAP and all the panelists and participants who made it happen, and Davey D, whose Breakdown FM show features extensive audio excerpts from all the panelists, part one and part two.
Glen Ford and Dr. Jeffries will appear at Baltimore's Great Debate this Saturday, December 20. The event will be streamed live over the internet at a cost of $10. Details and signup are available at Living In Black Radio, www.livinginblack.com.