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.
“Both have attempted to serve the people and important lessons can be gleaned from their efforts.”
“An alternative league would be the antithesis of the NFL and also take its cue from ‘Bingo Long’s Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings.’”
“Marx blamed the rulers of colonialism and those that exploited Irish workers for lower wages when they got to England, and not the exploited Irish worker.”
“The Panthers spoke out about the ravages of capitalism and aligned themselves with anti-imperialist and anti-colonial forces from Vietnam to South Africa to Palestine.”
“Hundreds of activists in the 1970s left behind families, friends, jobs, and their identities in order to disappear into the underground.”
