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

Anthony Monteiro in Harlem, May 31, 2009, When Obama Won, Did We?
Bill Quigley
10 Jun 2009
🖨️ Print Article

If no video is visible above, click here.  Was the election of the nation's First Black President a victory for our people in the long struggle against racism and empire? Or does it simply mark a change in establishment tactics that will make it even more difficult to press the case for economic justice, and an end to militarism and racism? Professor Anthnoy Monteiro, Distinguished Lecturer in African-American Studies and Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought at Temple University tells us the answer is easy to see, but hard to swallow.

 

In this brief talk at a Harlem event commemorating the life of Hubert Harrison, one of the pre-eminent black activists of the early 20th century, Monteiro expertly discerns the wreckage of our political landscape, and divines the difference between popular myth and facts on the ground. “

Obama's victory, he suggests, was the transient and temporary victory of marketing, symbolizing neither a new acceptance of black America's strivings on behalf of white America and her establishment, nor of rising black power. Go to the prisons in this country and tell us we have transcended race...” Monteiro demands. And while the black turnout in last November's presidential election was unprecedentedly high, turnout in the mayoral elections of Detroit and Philly, majority black cities for the better part of two generations, was well under 20%. So while black people were sold on Barack Obama, they have yet to be sold on the overall legitimacy of the American political system.

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


More Stories


  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Kagame Regime Must Not Be Allowed to Seize the Archives of the ICTR
    08 Jul 2026
    The records of the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda should not be surrendered to the Rwandan regime led by President Paul Kagame.
  • Navid Zarrinnal
    The Iranian Revolution and African Solidarity
    08 Jul 2026
    Iran's 1979 revolution was a victory for national sovereignty which also forged solidarity with African people.
  • Hanna Eid
    Sovereignty and Strategic Depth
    08 Jul 2026
    The U.S. and Israel treat negotiations as a weapon to destabilize and disarm the region, but Iran and Hezbollah have shown that real sovereignty requires connecting every front in a unified anti-…
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Detroit People’s Tribunal Takes Mask off ICE
    08 Jul 2026
    Activists gathered from various areas of Michigan to report on the excesses and brutality of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and local police, which…
  • Booker Omole
    Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Legacy Will Outlive US Imperialism
    08 Jul 2026
    Statement on the Funeral of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei by the General Secretary, Booker Omole, Communist Party Marxist Kenya.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us