Monthly Archives: November 2008

Obama and Malcolm X

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So, let me get this straight: Al-Qaeda number two man Ayman al-Zawahiri ridiculed US president-elect Barack Obama as a “house Negro” in an Internet audio message. Okay.

Aside from the obvious possibility (probability, in the minds of some) that this was an elaborate forgery perpetrated by Western intelligence agencies in order to deepen the wedge dividing Blacks in America from the Islamic world (not that Al Qaeda in any way represents a standard for measuring the Muslim world), what if Dr. al-Zawahiri actually said that?

Dr. al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician. His “boss,” Osama bin-Laden, is a wealthy Saudi Arabian construction company heir. They were never “house servants” or “field servants” in The Big House. No. They grew up enjoying all the privileges of official residents of The Big House. But, so for that matter, did Cuba’s Fidel Castro and his revolutionary companion Dr. Che Guevara. And as far as that goes, so did William Ayers, of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Weather Underground-fame. So, just being privileged at birth, per se, is no curse.

Dr. al-Zawahiri insulted President-elect Obama (who worked his way up from humble beginnings) and other prominent Black Americans who have held high office in the U.S. administration with the term used by the late Muslim Black militant Malcolm X. Brother Malcolm used the term to describe slaves he said were more loyal to their white masters than they were to their slave brothers and sisters. Slaves who would betray their own best interest–freedom from slavery–in order to hold on the comforts they received living in the slavemaster’s house. Continue reading →

Bush’s Africa ‘Glass’ Half-full

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Dr. Jendayi Frazer

If you ask me, Pres. George W. Bush’s middle initial stands for “Worst-President-in-history.”

But even a broken clock which has stopped running will show the correct time twice every day.

And so, maybe, perhaps, possibly, it might be conceivable, and I might consider it within the remote realm of credulity that there is one area on the 24,896 square miles on the face of the Earth where this president’s policies did not produce a dung-heap. Lucky for him and for us it’s a big place. So looking at a world map, a “C-grade” in Africa, helps average out the numerous “Fs” and “D-minuses” he’s earned everywhere else, including the United States.

Dr. Jendayi Frazer, the outgoing Deputy U.S. Secretary of State for Africa says that when it comes to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Africa he’s done a good job. If you ask me again, I’ll concede: Pres. Bush’s Africa “glass” is half-full, rather than half-empty.

“The story is very positive and perhaps as positive as the ‘60s,” Ambassador Frazer told members of The Trotter Group of African American columnists and commentators at the State Department Nov. 12. “I think that the ‘60s were a very promising and positive time on the continent in general in terms of the dynamics of the continent and certainly this is a period that is even more so.” Continue reading →

Obama and Farrakhan

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Obama

I could not have written what I’m about to say here one month ago, not even two weeks ago. As a colleague who is acquainted with some of the details I’m about to discuss told me at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer, this revelation could have amounted to be a “deal-breaker” in this year’s Presidential election outcome.

Imagine that. Realizing that the only impact you can have on the election of the President of the United States might be to ruin a candidate’s chances, not because of a wrong-headed policy or a fiendish act, but because of an innocent observation.

You see, that’s just what the xenophobes, and Islamophobes, and Neo Cons who’ve been dominating the politico-intellectual discussion in this country for the last zillion years, wanted to get their hands on this election cycle–an Obama-Farrakhan link.

I searched on-line this week. Hundreds of purported “Obama-Farrakhan” connections came up. One was a magazine cover from Trinity United Church of Christ. It had mug shots of a dozen or so people, including Sen. Obama and Min. Farrakhan, placed randomly. Another showed a photo of the two men’s wives in a group. In that shot, Mother Khadijah Farrakhan and First Lady-elect Michelle Obama weren’t even standing on the same row, let alone next to one another.

The Obama-Farrakhan-haters have got zilch!

But I kept my counsel. No, just as I wrote months ago, that as far as this election cycle was concerned, Muslims in America were persona non grata–unwelcome, unacceptable–I understood that the only constructive thing I could do would be to keep my mouth shut. Until now that is. Continue reading →

America turns “Green” for Obama

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“…a Dream” 8-28-08 Denver

In many places, ambulances and other emergency vehicles approaching any intersection can literally cause red traffic lights ahead to turn green in their direction.

Throughout his life and especially his political career, obstacles, impediments “red lights” if you will, have continually turned “green” so that Barack Hussein Obama could proceed without having to slow down, without breaking his stride.

Now, with the landslide political mandate President-elect Obama was given by the voters Nov. 4, the entire nation did not turn “blue” (as in “red states” versus “blue states”), rather the entire national body-politic showed the Illinois senator yet another Green Light, this time directing him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.

I’m not any more superstitious than the next person, but my reading of the signs and omens in this presidential campaign have been crystal clear.

There was a time when the President was not inaugurated until March 20, following the election every four years. At some point a decision was made to shorten the “Lame Duck” season of the incumbent and to hasten the swearing in of the new Chief Executive, and the date was moved up two months to Jan. 20. When that date was set, no one even dreamed that there would be a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday being observed each year on the Third Monday of January, and that every four years that holiday would fall on or near Inauguration Day.

This year Inauguration Day will be on a Tuesday, the day after the King Holiday observance. For my money, I could never in a million years imagine the presidential inauguration of a U.S. Senator who voted against the King Holiday Bill, who hails from Arizona, the only state in the Union which does not recognize the King Holiday. The calendar gods could have no part in such an arrangement. A green light for Sen. Obama. Continue reading →