by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Since the onset of the Obama phenomenon, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birth and death days have been “polluted” by false and ahistorical comparisons between Obama and MLK. The two men represent opposite political poles: one, a radical opponent of imperial war and concentrated economic power, the other, an ally of Wall Street and commander-in-chief of “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” In focusing on King, the man of peace, Tavis Smiley’s PBS special corrects a history that has been distorted, sometimes beyond recognition – not the least by the revisionist and poseur in the White House.
Black adults must not allow “Hollywood to fill in the blanks” in our children’s understanding of Black history.
The question of where to search for the histories of Black people in the diaspora, is of paramount importance. “Freedom and unfreedom are not binaries.”
Even in the era of the “African-American” tag, there’s no shaking black – because James Brown made it cool to be black.
It appears that lies and/or false narratives are being used to rationalize this latest heinous act that may also result in another senseless war.
Had WikiLeaks existed in 2002, a patriotic officer like Chelsea Manning might have leaked the official intelligence reports and stopped a war.
