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Mae Jackson is a New York City based writer, poet, dreamer and doer whose record of activism on behalf of her people stretches back to SNCC. A founder of Art Without Walls, an art program for the children of imprisoned women, she is well acquainted with the difference between surface change, and fundamental, revolutionary change.
Here are a few minutes of her address to the crowd at May 31, 2009 event memorializing the early 20th century Harlem activist Hubert Harrison, in which she lays out a clear understanding of whose lips move when our First Black President speaks. Referring to some of Barack Obama's widely acclaimed orations at the Democratic convention, atop Lincoln's tomb, and other places, she tells us
“..those wonderful speeches made by the young man from Chicago were actually crafted, that's written, by three young white men 25, 26 and 31 years old. We got the unfortunate opportunity once again to see the world through their eyes. Obama was the spokesperson. Same as when you buy a painting, that doesn't make you the painter...”
She explains how the establishment turned took the politics out of activism, neutralizing and de-politicizing young political activists by turning them into “community organizers."
Margaret Kimberley spoke with Jennifer Bates, an organizer with the BAmazon Union, at the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) which was recently held in Nashville, a…
An end of the year radical Black reading list from the editors of The Black Agenda Review.
Ajamu Baraka reports back from the four-person delegation from the US Peace Council, where he serves on the Executive Committee, to Beijing and Shanghai China hosted by the Chinese People’s…
NGOs and other climate profiteers treat Somalia as a poster child for global warming.
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Lucas de Lima. de Lima is Visiting Lecturer in English at Mount Holyoke College. His…
