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.
“White settlers were convinced that the lands they appropriated in the ‘dark continent’ and other lands were theirs by right.”
“Brazil`s terrocratic regime continues producing black dead bodies in astonishing scales without disturbing the normalcy of everyday political life in this country.”
“The Young Lords saw the Black Panthers trying to get justice for Black people, and they knew they needed to do the same thing.”
“We must develop a new appreciation for the centrality of slavery, in the United States and elsewhere, in the emergence of modern capitalism.”
“Postal banking can be profitable through economies of scale and the elimination of profit-taking middlemen, as postal banks globally have demonstrated.”
