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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
â..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...â
She explains how the establishment turned took the politics out of activism, neutralizing and de-politicizing young political activists by turning them into âcommunity organizers."
This weekâs featured author is Naa Oyo A. Kwate. Kwate is associate professor of Africana studies and human ecology at Rutgers. Her book is White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black ExclusionâŚ
The Fujimori regime forcibly sterilized thousands of people in Peru and the victims are still fighting for justice.
Libya exemplifies the terrorism inflicted upon African nations by US/NATO imperialism. Twelve years after the Libyan state was destroyed it is still under sanctions which devastate that country.âŚ
African liberation will not be realized without Pan-African unity and socialism, as Kwame Nkrumah made clear at the founding of the Organization of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union.
