A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
The nation's oldest civil rights group claims it is ready to confront militarism and demand that Obama supporters get the “change they voted for.” So do Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who is virtually an administration operative. So does Big Labor. We'll believe it when we see it. But, the Tea Party is another story.
NAACP Confronts Tea Party, But Will It Challenge Obama?
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“If racists were actually purged from the Tea Party, it would disappear.”
The NAACP is a bundle of contradictions – but, by virtue of history, it is our bundle, to criticize when necessary and, when possible, to support. For the corporate media, which virtually invented the Tea Party, the NAACP’s resolution demanding that the various Tea Party outfits disassociate themselves from racists, was the big news of the NAACP convention. Of course, if racists were actually purged from the Tea Party, it would disappear, since race is its reason-for-being as a white nationalist phenomenon. White American nationalism celebrates the fruits of genocide, slavery, aggressive war and empire, and is therefore inherently racist. Lots of non-Tea Partyers are also American empire worshippers, including the Black imperial commander-in-chief, himself, Barack Obama. But the NAACP limits the scope of its criticism to those Tea Partyers that use racist language and images in public – especially when that language is directed against the First Black President.
It is part of the Black man and woman’s burden to confront racism wherever it rears its head – which, in the United States, is everywhere and often. But, in the case of the Tea Party, my question is this: at what point will Black folks be able to say, We beat them? Will it be when the the Tea Partyers go back to using racial code words instead of loud and rowdy redneck-talk? Is that all it would take to arrange a truce with racists, that they be more polite about it?
“Wells Fargo destroys whole Black neighborhoods in the bright light of day.”
After all, the NAACP is all made up with Wells Fargo, the Black community-killing corporation that destroyed untold thousands of African American families through systematic predatory lending. The NAACP first sued Wells Fargo, but then dropped the case after the corporation agreed to allow the civil rights group to review its lending practices. And, oh, yes, there was another aspect of the deal: Wells Fargo would be a co-lead sponsor of the NAACP’s convention. All it takes is a fat check and a world class institutionally racist corporation that undermined the very survivability of Black communities from coast to coast, gets to bask in the glow of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. And, why not? The executives of Wells Fargo are not the kind of guys to say the N-word in public. They just destroy whole Black neighborhoods in the bright light of day.
NAACP chief Ben Jealous also plans to hook up with organized labor in Washington, October 2, where, he says, "marchers will demand the change they voted for when Barack Obama was elected." Jealous says the country needs to "create jobs and stop moving money out of education and into wars and prisons." Well, that's something worth supporting. I'm sure this weekend's National Peace Conference, in Albany, New York, will endorse the October 2nd March, and the August 28 events in Detroit, sponsored by the United Auto Workers and the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But, after three years of blind Obama worship, I find it difficult to believe that Ben Jealous and Jesse Jackson – much less the shameless administration operative, Al Sharpton – are finally prepared to make real demands of the First Black President. That goes for Big Labor, as well. However, many of us in the line of march will be speaking Truth to Power, loud and strong and not very politely. We'' see if the NAACP is really down with that. For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
This week’s featured author is Sami Schalk. Schalk is Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Her book is Black Disability Politics.
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