Racism

Black Citizenship Forum: Black Citizenship And The Problem Of ‘Coloniality’

February 12, 2021 the Black Agenda Review, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Black Working Class, Capitalism, colonization, Racism

For this edition of The Black Agenda Review’s Black Citizenship Forum, political scientist Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni writes on the impact of the ongoing legacy of colonialism – through the idea and practice of “coloniality” – on present-day citizenship in Africa. Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni argues that coloniality provides the basis and justification for European exploitation of the world and that this was done through colonial legal orders, territorial boundaries, racial hierarchies, ethnic and tribal categorizations, and class identifications. Meanwhile, formal decolonization enshrined a neocolonial African comprador class enthralled to global capital and more than willing to exploit Black labor.

American Healthcare System Failed Black Americans

February 3, 2021 Nick, Progressive Martial Artist. Educate! Black America, health disparities, Medicare for all, Racism

There are certain policy positions that are such a slam dunk that if someone does not support them, I can’t take anything they say seriously, nor can I trust their judgement. Medicare for All is one of those polices. It is the most pro-black legislation in mainstream political discourse right now. Our black leaders, such as Jim Clyburn, teaming up with health insurance companies and Big Pharma, are why the state of healthcare in the African American community is so bleak, as I laid out in my previous article Liberals, for good reason, hold social wedge issues as their primary litmus test. Can you imagine a standard liberal Democrat supporting someone who is openly against gay marriage and abortion rights?

Toward A Revolutionary Left Framework On An Age-Old Debate

January 29, 2021 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! Bernie Sanders, Class war, Racism, White Supremacy

Activists in the U.S. have debated race and class for decades to no resolution. Nonetheless, in this moment of U.S. imperial decay and crisis, the debate over whether race or class takes precedence in the struggle for liberation from U.S. capitalist and imperialist domination rages on. Two prominent strands of the debate have emerged over the last year which intersect with the rise of Bernie Sanders-led “democratic socialists” and the uprising against racist policing led by the slogan “Black Lives Matter.” For many leaders of the Sanders camp, white supremacy is either a distraction or a secondary issue that can be addressed through the amelioration of class exploitation vis-à-vis policies such as Medicare for All.

Suspicion Of Chinese-Born Researchers Threatens US Innovation

January 29, 2021 Caroline Wagner, Consortium News. Educate! China, New Cold War, Racism, Scientists

The arrest of MIT engineering professor Gang Chen on Jan. 14 has drawn attention to the role of China in U.S. science and technology system. It’s not the first time suspicions have fallen on a Chinese-born scientist – Chen is a naturalized U.S. citizen – for work they conduct openly in the United States. The charges against Gang Chen – wire fraud, failing to report a foreign bank account and a false statement on a tax return – stem from failing to disclose Chinese funding for his research. MIT called the allegations “distressing,” and the school’s president and 100 faculty members are defending a Chinese university’s investment in MIT research. No evidence of spying has been made public, but a Department of Justice criminal complaint expressed suspicions that Chen’s loyalty may not be aligned with American interests.

Understanding The Politics Of Urban Apartheid In The United States

January 25, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Apartheid, Baltimore, Equity, Racism

Baltimore Maryland is a majority-black but hyper-segregated city. Following the uprising in Baltimore in 2015 in response to the police murder of Freddie Gray, Dr. Lawrence Brown, a public health expert at Morgan University, a historically black university in Baltimore, found that historical context and data were missing from the conversation about what was happening. Thus, he wrote "The Black Butterfly: The Politics of Race and Space in America." In this book, Dr. Brown describes the history of and the players who created the urban apartheid and how Baltimore became a template for many cities across the country. His book, available through Johns Hopkins University, provides the data, language and solutions necessary for the struggle to dismantle systemic racism.

Why Anti-Racism Must Be Anti-Capitalist

January 25, 2021 Zarah Sultana, Tribune Magazine. Strategize! Anti-capitalism, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Capitalism, Racism

Last summer we saw one of the largest anti-racist mobilisations in decades. In over sixty countries, protesters took to the streets in their thousands to demand transformative, lasting change. The Black Lives Matter movement calls for a fundamental shift in how our societies are organised: defunding police forces, ending the prison-industrial complex, opposing imperialist projects abroad, and destroying neo-colonial power relations between the Global North and the Global South. Racism and its brutal history are being discussed in a way that is unparalleled in my lifetime. As happens with every radical movement, the political establishment responded with both condemnation and co-option.

Revisiting The Popular Front

January 24, 2021 Harry Targ, Diary of a Heartland Radical. Educate! Activism, Anne Braden, Paul Robeson, Racism

Biographies can tell us about ourselves, where we came from, and where we might go. I recently read two narratives of the lives of extraordinary people and their times. I think their lives and politics are relevant to us today. The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976, by Paul Robeson Jr., chronicles the years of struggle in the life of the theatrical performer, singer, linguist, and fighter for human freedom. Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South, by Catherine Fosl, tells the story of a militant Southern woman who rejected the political culture of her day to fight for the liberation of African Americans, always insisting that Southern whites had to play a significant role in that struggle.

The Solutions We Seek Exist With We, The People

January 24, 2021 Elena Ortiz, Green Fire Times. Create! COVID-19, Indigenous Peoples, Inequity, Racism

Traditionally, indigenous communities did not measure time in a linear way. Everything was cyclic. All motion is cyclic. It circulates to the limits of its possibilities and then returns to its starting point. What is not resolved will reappear on subsequent rotations around the sun. Now, as we settle into the winter months, comes the time for reflection and introspection. We may be grateful for the victories of the past year, but we must also build strength and energy for what is to come. We are still in the darkness of the tunnel and cannot see the light ahead. Behind us is 245 years of a failed colonial project. Ahead of us, unseen, is the future. The tunnel is not infinite.

International Commission Of Inquiry On Systemic Racist Police Violence In The US

January 22, 2021 International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Popular Resistance. Resist! Accountability, Police violence, Racism, United States

The International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States launched its activities on January 18, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, opening with a meaningful introduction from Kerry McLean. In the four days that have followed, Commissioners have heard powerful testimony from family members directly impacted by systemic racist police violence against people of African descent in the United States, as well as from lawyers supporting their fight for justice.

Martin Luther King’s Radical Anticapitalism

January 21, 2021 Keeanga Yahmahtta-Taylor, The Paris Review. Educate! Capitalism, Martin Luther King Jr, Poverty, Racism

In a posthumously published essay, Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out that the “black revolution” had gone beyond the “rights of Negroes.” The struggle, he said, is “forcing America to face all of its interrelated flaws—racism, poverty, militarism and materialism. It is exposing the evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced.” But it had not started out that way. Over the course of a decade, the black struggle opened up a deeper interrogation of U.S. society, and King’s politics traversed the same course.

Can We Crack The Right’s White Bloc?

January 19, 2021 Marcy Rein, Organizing Upgrade. Organize! Canvassing, Racism, Right wing politics, White Supremacy

“I’m a Trump supporter,” the man told Danny Timpona, and went on to say that as much as he needed affordable health care, he absolutely was not in favor of any plan that included undocumented immigrants. “This country’s too damn free. We need to take care of our own people,” he said. That wasn’t the end of their conversation on a front porch in rural North Carolina. It was the beginning. Timpona shared a bit of his own story, said there were many people he knew and loved who’d moved here from other places. He asked the man what his experience with immigrants has been. Turns out a lot of the people he worked with were immigrants. “They’re hard-working, family-centered, love ‘em to death.”

Reclaiming The Radical Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 18, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Capitalism, Martin Luther King Jr, militarism, Racism

In the last years of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rejected duopoly politics and challenged the roots of the crises we face, what he called the triple evils of racism, capitalism and militarism. As many people active in the Civil Rights Movement moved into the Democratic Party, Dr. King taught that the movement must be independent of political parties and be "the conscience" of them. For this, Dr. King was shunned and hated. In this interview from MLK Day in 2015, Kevin Zeese and I spoke with Kymone Freeman, co-founder of We Act Radio in Washington,DC, JasiriX, an activist and artist out of Pittsburgh, PA, and Cat Brooks, an activist in Oakland, CA about the revival of the radical Dr. King and how they are continuing his work in their communities.

Martin Luther King’s Revolutionary Dream Deferred

January 17, 2021 Danny Sjursen, Truthdig archives. Educate! Capitalism, Martin Luther King Jr, militarism, Racism

We kill the most beautiful among us—anyone, it seems, who reveals the nastier, brutish elements of American society and has the audacity to imagine, demand even, a better path: peace, unity and tolerance. Abraham Lincoln, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and so many others. This year marks the 50th anniversary of King’s tragic assassination, and though countless publications will brim with commemorations and retrospectives of this misunderstood icon, most will miss the mark. Long ago co-opted and sanitized by mainstream political figures, the King of memory bears little resemblance to the radical, complex man himself.

Black Cops Warned About Racist Capitol Police Officers For Years

January 15, 2021 Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien, Pro Publica. Educate! Accountability, Capitol, Police, Racism

When Kim Dine took over as the new chief of the U.S. Capitol Police in 2012, he knew he had a serious problem. Since 2001, hundreds of Black officers had sued the department for racial discrimination. They alleged that white officers called Black colleagues slurs like the N-word and that one officer found a hangman’s noose on his locker. White officers were called “huk lovers” or “FOGs” — short for “friends of gangsters” — if they were friendly with their Black colleagues. Black officers faced “unprovoked traffic stops” from fellow Capitol Police officers. One Black officer claimed he heard a colleague say, “Obama monkey, go back to Africa.”

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