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.
Afro-pessimism theorizes slavery as a social relation which distinguishes Blackness as a paradigmatic position antithetical to humans. 
The denial of Black humanity is essential to the order of racial capitalism, and dictates that Blacks deserve whatever treatment they get.
An authentic and organized mass movement is the only way to combat money-power and make progressive policies possible.
The right-wing leadership of the CIO refused to seriously confront white supremacy in the South. “The demand to abolish the police needs to be sharpened.”
Léon Charles, Haiti’s new national police chief, is a mass killer dedicated to suppressing the nation’s poor majority.
