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.
Nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression and exclusion are an integral part of the neoliberal order.
The 1971 raid marks a nationwide militarization of police relations with Black protest groups and Africa Americans as a group.
“If DA Krasner wants to embrace anti-racist principles…then he needs to take an honest look at the facts of Mumia’s case.”
The film framed Hampton as a victim instead of a pro-active freedom fighter and revolutionary.
By the end of its run, Freedomways had become something close to a journal of record of the mid-to-late 20th Century African American freedom movement.
