[Marxism] "sectarian Black nationalists"

[Dbachmozart at aol.com]

Fred Feldman writes -

To hear  these fantasists tell it, whites support Obama only as the candidate
who  will definitively destroy the Black movement and silence Black  America
forever. Their vote has exclusively racist motivations.  As  for the Blacks,
to the extent that they rally to Obama, they are simply  fooled by talk of
"change."  But in reality, Obama is the white rights  candidate, David Duke
in Black drag (and David Duke himself, a rather  flexible Hitlerite, is quite
capable of considering this option for a  future campaign).
 
Fred, you're setting up a straw argument. Probably  the overwhelming majority 
of whites who support Obama do so for  basically the same reason that other 
whites support Hillary or Edwards -  Anyone But a Republican. They are 
supporting their candidate as much if not more  for what they HOPE that candidate will 
do if elected then what that candidate  has actually said/promised he/she 
would do. Furthermore, there are plenty  of white leftists who support one of the 
above because there is no  left-of-the-Democrats alternative. It's demagogic 
and untrue to accuse the  militants at Black Agenda Report and The Black 
Commentator (see two anti-Obama  articles below) of labeling all white supporters 
as having  "exclusively racist motivations", and that "Obama is the white 
rights candidate,  David Duke in Black drag". They are speaking of what effect an 
Obama candidacy  and Presidency would objectively have on the Black movement. I 
 would expect that this type of analysis would be most welcome on a Marxist  
discussion list.
 
I agree that if Obama gets the DP nomination, a possible  McKinney candidacy 
will have to employ different tactics than would be the case  running against 
another pro-corporate white hack. But as far as I can see, there  is NO GRASS 
ROOTS GROUNDSWELL from Black America for Obama, nothing  approaching the 
excitement and hopes aroused (and dashed) by the Jesse  Jackson/Rainbow campaigns 
of 1984 and 1988. Lots of Blacks in addition to  "fantasists" see and smell a 
fraud - after all, they have over three decades of  experience with the broken 
promises of elected Black Democrats as big city  mayors, congressional 
representatives and a few Senators and Governors. The  legacy of Black nationalism 
and Malcolm X remains strong among many of our  generation, and for a Marxist 
that I have long respected to so viciously attack  Black activists as "sectarian 
ideologues" for refusing to celebrate "a Black  face in a high place" is 
pretty damn depressing!
 
Dennis Brasky
 
Two articles on Obama from "the Black sectarians" of The Black  Commentator
 
 
_http://www.blackcommentator.com/_ (http://www.blackcommentator.com/) 
 
Larry Pinckney - 
Double-Speak, Barack Obama and Continuing U.S.  Hypocrisy
 
clip -
 
The superficiality and racism of white America is amply  shown by its current 
propensity to equate real economic and political  “change” with skin color. 
This is a fact, which for a certainty, does not  escape Mr. Obama or his 
handlers. As a college-educated white woman - Barack  Obama supporter - recently 
stated on national television, she wants to see the  “color” component of “
affirmative action eliminated ” because after all  (according to her) there is now 
color equality in America, and she  made it quite plain that she felt 
justified in her racist quest because, as she  proudly asserted, she is after-all, “
voting for Barack Obama, a black man” for US President.  In the very name of 
supposedly  empowering the people, Barack Obama and many of his supporters are 
actually  about the business of disempowering people, most especially Black, 
Brown, and  Red peoples.
 
Ironically, the one serious candidate of the people who is  outside of the 
joined-at-the-hip Democrat and Republican parties is  former US Congresswoman 
Cynthia McKinney, who had the guts and integrity to  leave the mire of the 
Democratic party and declare her support for the national  "Power To The People 
Coalition," which in turn supports her candidacy for US  President. For this, she 
has been outright ignored and/or repeatedly attacked by  the US corporate 
media. Much of  America, collectively, even in the  21st century, simply cannot 
abide integrity, only hypocrisy. Nonetheless, real  change and real 
power/empowerment must come not from cynical, corporate  and shiny insubstantial rhetoric 
that is, in reality, callously pimping and  manipulating the “hope” of 
people. Rather, it must come from systemic  change that begins with the people - 
who are fed up with the machinations and  hypocrisy of the Democrat and 
Republican parties. No matter what occurs in the  upcoming and ongoing corporate media 
circuses referred to as caucuses and  primaries throughout the United States, 
and no matter who the big corporate  media presents as the so-called “front 
runners” in these circuses of, for, and  by the Democrat and Republican 
parties, justice and integrity can never  emanate from an intrinsically unjust, 
amoral and hypocritical US system.  Moreover, when viewing the candidates of these 
parties, including the candidacy  of Barack Obama, it behooves all of us to 
remember and apply the age-old African  adage: “Beware of the naked man who 
offers you clothes.”
 
==============================
 
Obama and the American Dream
By Dr. Lenore J. Daniels, PhD
 
clip -
 
Obama’s mantra, “change,” was echoed by Clinton’s oh, yeah -  “change.”  
Yeah, that’s it.  And good number of other folks went to  bed, smiling. Change. 
But the corporations love Obama too.   Clinton has more  “experience” 
dealing with the corps, but they can love the new guy on the block  who doesn’t nag 
them (at least not as often and persistently as John Edwards or  Dennis 
Kucinich) with 60s mantra’s like “power to the people” or “hey, what  about the 
poor and working-class people?” According to The Hill,  three political aides on 
Obama’s payroll were “registered lobbyists for dozens  of corporations, 
including Wal-Mart, British Petroleum and Lockheed Martin,  while they received 
payments from his campaign, according to public documents  (_Lobbyists on Obama’
s ’08 payroll_ 
(http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/lobbyists-on-obamas-08-payroll-2007-12-20.html) ). Wal-Mart, a friend of  Hillary Clinton, who used to 
sit on the Wal-Mart Board, really loves the working  class!  BP and Lockheed 
really love war profiteering!  But Obama can  talk about foreign “terror” and “
terrorists” with the best of them.  He can  suggest “aggressive” talk with 
the Middle East  to the Chicago/Midwest AIPAC crowd back in March 2007.  He can 
support his  fellow Democrats’ Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism 
Act 1959,  too.  And maybe Obama was out of the senate that day shaking hands 
and  winning support from Will Daley, the son of shoot-to-kill Chicago Mayor 
Richard  M. Daley, the day S456: Gang Abatement Act passed without an actual 
vote.  
Yes, there’s so much of change in all of this - it  is nauseating. 
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