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.
“The revolutionary heroes of May 19th would find Sharpton and his clique not just repulsive, but criminal as well.”
“The ideology I’d like to dismantle makes every black person the same as every other black person, assumed to be a man or woman under the age of sixty-five.”
“Concepts of able-mindedness are historically based within gender and racial norms of masculinity and whiteness—with damaging and deadly results for black people.”
“We demand that the Congressional Black Caucus take a public stand in opposition to AFRICOM.”
“Kabila was always just a creature of the foreign powers underneath him.”
