Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Dr. King’s Televised Challenge to Obama: Tavis Smiley's Anti-War MLK
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
31 Mar 2010
🖨️ Print Article
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.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • New Toolkit Tallies Up Victories and Summarizes Strategies to Defund the Police
    Andrea J. Ritchie
    New Toolkit Tallies Up Victories and Summarizes Strategies to Defund the Police
    27 Jan 2021
    It is more imperative than ever to reduce the funding, power, weaponry, and reach of law enforcement agencies that are committed to protecting a white supremacist status quo.
  • We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops
    Mary Retta
    We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops
    27 Jan 2021
    The purpose of policing––to jail and kill Black folks––remains the same regardless of the officers’ race. 
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    27 Jan 2021
    This week our readers talked about the weakness of the U.S. left, the storming of the Capitol, and the crisis of U.S. imperialism.
  • BAR Book Forum: Maurice Rafael Magaña’s “Cartographies of Youth Resistance”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Maurice Rafael Magaña’s “Cartographies of Youth Resistance”
    27 Jan 2021
    Activist youth who weave deep histories of resistance together with anarchist, autonomous, and decolonial politics and urban culture.
  • BAR Book Forum: Andrea Allen’s “Violence and Desire in Brazilian Lesbian Relationships”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Andrea Allen’s “Violence and Desire in Brazilian Lesbian Relationships”
    27 Jan 2021
    Even those who are significantly marginalized act in ways that, unfortunately, inflict pain on others.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us