Alberta, Julio/July 2009
17
ALTERNATIVA Latinoamericana
ENGLISH SECTION
Imperialism with
a Black Face
ENGLISH
If Barack Obama succeeds in winning the
presidency, Black America will be put to a test that
will define its political and moral character for
generations. We will discover if African Americans
are really the kind of progressive, compassionate,
humanity-loving people that Martin Luther King
thought we were, that Malcolm X was so confident
we were, and that the political record up to this
juncture in history seems to indicate we are.
The African American reputation as the most
consistently progressive ethnic group in the
United States will stand or fall according to how
Blacks comport themselves, politically, under a
Barack Obama administration. Obama has not
earned the Black vote; he has in fact treated
African Americans very shabbily, singling them out
for cultural criticisms that he would never direct
against whites, Latinos or Asians. So-called Black
"leadership" has abdicated all claim to the title, by
failing to make even the most modest demands of
Obama. As a consequence, Obama owes Blacks
nothing, having promised them nothing. But that
has not mattered for the vast majority of African
Americans, who, like their timid leaders, have paid
little attention to issues of substance during this
campaign. Rather, they are consumed by
centuries of pent-up aspirations to see a Black
face in the highest place in the land.
"The world will come to hate him as they have
other American presidents."
If that day comes, as conventional wisdom says is
likely, the test of African American morality, good
character and collective wisdom, begins. The time
for blindly rooting for The Brother will be over. The
many voices of an evolving planet will suddenly
intervene to make their own demands on the
American presidency. And unless Obama turns
out to be the fictional "Spook Who Sat by the
Door" - a closet progressive and Race Man whose
been fooling the Imperialists and Warmongers and
Lords of Capital and Reagan Democrats and all
the other bagmen for corruption he's been
sucking up to - he will respond as the corporate
politician and military expansionist that he is. He
will close ranks with the same finance capitalists
that are cannibalizing the last remnants of
American industry, as he has many times publicly
promised to do. He will leave the Bush Gang's
multitudinous crimes uninvestigated and
unpunished - a promise repeated just days ago -
thus leaving intact a veritable pirates' map for
future criminality. (Why not in his own
administration?) And he will rush to maintain the
momentum of American Manifest Destiny, just as
he has repeatedly said he would, had only Blacks
and progressives been listening.
Barack Obama has given his solemn word
that he will substantially increase the U.S. military
budget, and will follow the Bush Doctrine of
preemptive attack if he deems it in U.S. interests.
He will continue to militarize Africa through the
U.S. Africa Command, Africom, which he heartily
endorses. He will spread America's grasping
tentacles deeper and further around the planet -
and the world will come to hate him as they have
other American presidents. It is at this point, and it
won't be long, that African Americans will have to
decide: Are they prouder that there is a Black face
in the nation's highest place, than they are
ashamed that imperialism's face is Black?
Glen Ford (Black Agenda
Radio, www.indymedia.org
)
"
The time for blindly rooting
for the Brother will be over."
There is no
doubt that history has
been made, `for
reasons that go
beyond the obvious
`first Black' aspect of
race.' 2008 was the
first year in modern
history that Blacks
made no demands on
the Democratic
candidate - and
consequently, were
promised nothing.
This was the election
cycle in which the
Black who began as a
supposed `underdog'
became the most
heavily-funded
candidate of all time.
There are many
lessons to be learned
- but few of them
palatable to folks still drunk on ObamaL'aid.
`
This generation will have to
learn from damn near scratch
what a real social movement
looks like.'
Without question, the nation has
experienced an election of historical significance,
for reasons that go beyond the obvious `first
Black' aspect of race. This has also been the
most-hyped presidential campaign in U.S. history,
if for no other reason than the simple fact that
every presidential campaign is more hyped than
the last, since hype is what corporate media sells.
But what has the experience taught us?
We have learned that a large and decisive
national minority of whites can be persuaded to
vote for a certain kind of Black man for president
if that Black man possesses the following
characteristics:
A family history that includes no African
American lineage, and is thereby untainted by the
negative cultural baggage associated with North
American slave descendants. (This is similar to
the special white dispensation afforded in past
generations to Afro-Caribbean baseball players.)
An eagerness to embrace racist political
icons such as Ronald Reagan, while vociferously
denying that white racism is and has been
`endemic' to America. This man must also be
willing to without hesitation denounce, repudiate
and otherwise vilify other Black individuals - even
those who have been personally dear to him - at
the first sign of white displeasure with that person.
A compulsion to telegraph whites that he
shares their disdain for Blacks as a group. This
specially endowed individual must be prepared to
castigate Blacks in every arena of life, from
incompetent child-rearing (the cruelty of fried
chicken breakfasts) to failures of Black
manhood (acting like `boys' rather than
responsible adults), the shame of Black female
promiscuity (stopping black girls from having
babies out of wedlock is `the single biggest
thing that we could do to reduce inner-city
poverty') and Blacks' collective lack of good
hygiene ('You know what would be a good
economic development plan for our community
would be if we make sure folks weren't throwing
their garbage out of their cars'). But the Black
man who would woo white presidential votes must
have the smarts and discipline to never, never,
never subject whites to such egregious, blanket
group criticisms.
`This specially endowed
individual must be prepared to
castigate Blacks in every arena of
life.'
He must possess an imagination fertile
enough to declare that Blacks have already come
`90 percent of the way' towards racial equality -
a statement without statistical validity based on
any social or economic indexes, but one which
assures whites that
their long suffering
at the hands of
bothersome Black
complainers is
nearly over. This
Black president-to-
be must implicitly
promise that his own
election will provide
the missing ten
percent, and bring
the race issue
definitively to a
close.
We have
learned that whites
took the candidate's
words to heart, en
masse. A CBS/New
York Times poll
taken one week
before the election
showed that 68
percent of whites believe that Blacks and whites
`have about an equal chance of getting ahead' in
American society. This fantastic conclusion was
clearly inspired by Barack Obama's singular
success, since less than half of whites gave that
answer in July. Even more astonishingly, 43
percent of Blacks said the same thing -a
response unlike any ever recorded in the history
of professional polling, and totally divorced from
Black realities. We have learned that Obama-
L'aid kills healthy Black brain cells.
We have learned that Black politicians and
activist-poseurs have an infinite capacity to
celebrate not having engaged in struggle with
Power, and that the Black masses can be made
drunk by the prospect of vicariously (through
Obama) coming to power. Having failed to make
even the mildest of demands on Obama in return
for unquestioning support, Black misleadership
vowed they would press for firm commitments on
issues of importance to African Americans once
Obama had passed the final hurdle. (White
progressives who were similarly self-neutered
during the campaign also promise to begin acting
like real people's advocates, any day now...just
you wait and see.) We have already learned that
`Progressives for Obama' of all ethnicities, who
failed to put pressure on the candidate early on,
when it might have made a difference, are full of
crap.
`Sixty-eight percent of whites
believe that Blacks and whites
`have about an equal chance of
getting ahead' in American
society.'
We have learned that even in failure and
collapse, the Lords of Capital are smart enough
to know they desperately need a new face, and
are willing to bankroll the Black man who can
provide it. During this election cycle we learned
that capital can switch its party allegiances in an
instant, first vetting and then jump-starting the
Black candidate who would become the biggest
campaign spender in U.S. election history, by far.
In 2008, the Democrats became the party of Big
Capital, whose choice was Barack Obama. We
have learned that capital is never blind to color,
when it can be used to capital's advantage.
We have learned that this generation will
have to learn from damn near scratch what a real
social movement looks like - which will be doubly
hard, since they have been misled to believe that
this year's frenzied electioneering was actually a
`movement.' Now it is over, and one Black man is
moving - into the White House, having never
promised his Black supporters a single thing of
significance. But of course, hardly anyone Black
made any demands of Obama.
Some folks never learn that Power concedes
nothing without a demand.
Glen Ford (Black Agenda
Radio, www.creative-i.info)
The Obama `08 Phenomenon:
What Have We Learned?