Your Black Scholar: The Illusion of Post-Racial America

The Illusion of Post-Racial America

By: Aman Gill

An Obama Victory Would be a Milestone, but Could Stall Struggles Against Racism

Forty-one years ago, racial tensions — festering since slave times — burst into the Long Hot Summer in the tristate area. Thirty-four died in Newark, but the most dramatic upheaval came from Plainfield, N.J., a quiet suburb 30 miles from New York City. Amid minor but widespread skirmishes spreading across the region, a lone police officer beat and shot a black youth in the boy’s neighborhood. The boy survived, but the cop, quickly surrounded by enraged community members, did not make it out of the neighborhood alive.

Ashanti Alston, a political prisoner activist with the Jericho Movement and former Black Panther who was a teenager in Plainfield at the time, traced the escalating plot for The Indypendent. “The thing about Plainfield that stood out from all the other rebellions was that folks made their way to a gun manufacturing place right outside of the city,” Alston says. “They came back to the community with rifles and it was a whole different ball game. It wasn’t until the National Guard came that they were able to retake the black community.”

Today, decades later, why does racial conflict no longer generate the same kind of heat? Not for lack of ignition. In Queens in November 2006, an undercover vice operation turned into an execution. A 50- shot cop fusillade killed Sean Bell, a young black man heading home on his final night as an unmarried man, and injured two of his friends, all unarmed. The murder won state sanction in April 2008, when a New York State Supreme Court judge accepted at face value the officers’ contention that they feared for their lives, making their killing fully legal.

The verdict generated both outrage and despair. Hundreds of people marched that afternoon and “Justice for Sean Bell” signs sprang up throughout the boroughs. But an Al Sharpton-led civil disobedience action in June that might have been the first in a line of battles instead turned out to be the denouement. Things died down.

It’s increasingly popular to argue that the fuel for unrest has disappeared because the problem of racism has receded into America’s past. This idea has long held sway on the right, but, paradoxically, it’s taken Barack Obama’s candidacy to elevate this persistent right-wing myth into conventional wisdom.

CIVIL RIGHTS UNFULFILLED
“The history he [Obama] needs to know is the history he rejects,” says Lenore Daniels, editorial board member of the Black Commentator, a weekly online magazine. “He rejects the whole Black Power movement: ‘Just the civil rights were fine, we’ll leave it at that, there was progress.’ [But] the Black Power movement is still relevant. That was a movement talking about economic equality, where King left off.”

Histories of struggles are written by the victors. The movements of 40 years ago had winners and losers and, like any war, are remembered more ideologically than objectively. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended Jim Crow and for the first time in U.S. history granted black people formal equality before the law, but failed to transform their lives day-to-day. After 1965, all wings of the movement turned to address this gap: King turned from law and morality to economics; Malcolm X’s militancy spread despite his assassination, Black Power was born, and the movement moved north.

Obama’s view of a united, post-racial America is in the tradition of how the political establishment — Democrat and Republican — responded to heightened militancy. There was forceful repression, but also a more subtle, ideological response. The language of Jim Crow segregationism gave way to political correctness and new coded terms like “war on drugs.” Those who were never allies of the oppressed lauded King and proclaimed the end of discrimination. And black elites, once viewed with suspicion, were welcomed to the table as long as they left their baggage behind. It was unsparing market capitalism for the rest of the community.

The result, as Columbia University historian Manning Marable puts it, is that “Jim Crow no longer existed, but in its place stood a far more formidable system of racial domination, rooted within the political economy and employing a language of fairness and equality.” Racism in America may not look like all-white police forces, dogs on black men or sound like speeches by white supremacist politicians. It’s more like a termite- infested house — political correctness and black representation in business, media and politics compose a nice-looking picture on the outside. But gashes in the façade expose structural disparities as racially aligned as ever. Statistical measures on rates of poverty, housing, employment and income are not far removed from their 1960s levels.

BLACK AND WHITE
At times, Obama sounds more like Richard Nixon than someone concerned with racism. At the 1968 Republican National Convention Nixon proclaimed, “To those who say law and order is the code word for racism, here is a reply: Our goal is justice for every American.” Obama’s response to the persecution of the Jena 6 nearly 40 years later sounded a similar note: “Outrage over an injustice like the Jena 6 isn’t a matter of black and white. It’s a matter of right and wrong.”

Obama did not dwell on the marks of racism, so clear to many of us, in the demography of disaster left by Hurricane Katrina. “I do not subscribe to the notion that the painfully slow response of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security was racially based,” he said. “The ineptitude was color-blind.” And Obama did not object to the Sean Bell ruling, saying, “The judge has made his ruling, and we’re a nation of laws, so we respect the verdict that came down.”

Obama’s candidacy is seen as an indication that racial barriers no longer exist in the United States. Indeed, the election of a black president would be an undeniable milestone in American history, forcing many white Americans to confront latent fears and distrust of black people. And many see progress in the fact that a black man can run a campaign in which race is incidental. Yet it’s taken Obama’s embrace of post-racialism, and concurrent distancing from traditional civil rights-style black leadership, to lend viability to his campaign. Some activists see him as the culmination of a trend over the last 40 years of black leaders moving away from the communities they’ve traditionally served and closer to the political and corporate power that dominates the Democratic Party.

MOVEMENT POLITICS VS. ELECTORAL POLITICS
Alston feels that since the 1970s, the face of mainstream black activism has moved from a base in communities to big money and corporate sway. “No longer do you have the real radical movement folks that were coming out of grassroots movements,” Alston says. “You have people tied to money, or tied to established political power. What I look at today is that the Sharptons, the Barack Obamas, the Jesse Jacksons and even a lot of these mega-preachers now are not leaders from the grassroots. They’re system leaders that were chosen by either political forces or corporate forces.”

After attending Columbia University, Obama put in three years as a community organizer working on a range of neighborhood issues in the largely black Southside of Chicago. But his trajectory afterward — Harvard Law School and a stint as a law professor at the University of Chicago — looks more like the record of black politicians rising up in municipal politics in the 1980s and 1990s than the résumé of earlier leaders like King, Stokely Carmichael or Angela Davis. As he entered politics, he increasingly relied on allies culled from the Chicago elite — after the 2000 Census, he had his state senate district redrawn to make it, according to Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker, “wealthier, white, more Jewish, less-blue collar and better educated.” The connections he cultivated with his new well-to-do constituents were vital to his successful 2004 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat.

As Democratic dominance of national-level black politics accelerated, communities’ sense of action eroded into the passive live-with-your-fate mode that presently defines U.S. democracy. “When we go back to the 1950s and 1960s,” Alston says, “that was the period when people were not relying on the Democratic Party, the party that black folks are so tied to [today]. People were in the streets, people voted through their civil disobedience and direct action and organizing.”

The key question is whether much of the agenda in the fight against racial inequality remains unfulfilled. If so, there’s plenty to drive modern-day movements, taking outrages like the Sean Bell verdict to illuminate the living economic inequality untouched by 1960s activism. If not, then what happened to Sean Bell is just an aberration that could have happened to anyone, of any class and any race, in a country that has finally fulfilled its egalitarian ideals. That may be an America to hope for, but it’s not the one we have today.

Originally Appeared In The Indypendent

Your Black World Speaks To Green Party Presidential Nominee, Cynthia McKinney

Interview with Green Party Presidential Nominee, Cynthia McKinney, by Tolu Olorunda.

For many, the name "Cynthia McKinney" is synonymous with loaded-descriptions such as "progressive," "activist," "relentless," "fighter," "frank," and "courageous."Cynthia McKinney has been described by political-prisoner and internationally-renowned journalist, Mumia Abu Jamal, as "bold," "outspoken," and a "woman of substance." Earlier this year, Black Agenda Report Executive Editor, Glen Ford, remarked on how Cynthia McKinney is - as perceived by him - "the only vehicle through which progressives can... begin the process of rebuilding a mass, Black-led movement for real social change." The once 6-term Georgian Congresswoman has since become a leading voice in the anti-war movement, anti-death penalty movement and human-rights movement. She is, without a doubt, a monumental structure in the landscape of Black activism. While in Congress, she fought aggressively for the rights of the financially-disempowered. In 2007, she decided to leave the Democratic Party, and become a member of The Green Party. It was also in 2007, when she decided to attempt a run at the presidency. On July 12 this year, Cynthia McKinney, alongside Rosa Clemente, was nominated as the Green Party's choice for President and Vice-President respectively. She has ever since, embarked on a journey to enlighten, inform and educate everyday citizens around the country, on what their alternatives - in this electoral cycle - are, and the essentiality of election-integrity. I had the distinguished opportunity to speak with Cynthia McKinney on her political-background, the role of Third Parties, and her "Power to the People" platform which has recently caught the attention of disgruntled electorates:

For those who don't know, when did your political journey effectively take-off, and what prompted it?

I started out at the Georgia House of Representatives in 1989, and was sworn in after the 1988 campaign -- but nobody thought I would win (the political pundits and the corporate press especially). And we were able to prove them wrong. From there, I participated in the efforts of the State of Georgia to make sure that every Georgian was counted in the census, because that meant more money would come to Georgia from the federal government. It also meant that we could expand the abilities to elect candidates of our choice -- for those of us who are underrepresented in the political process. So I participated in making sure that everybody in the state of Georgia was counted -- particularly in the Black communities, where the participation rate is lower. Through that, we could then seek the full application of the voting rights act, in making sure that the districts drawn on every level of government was one that included opportunities for Black voters to elect their candidate of choice. We then went, deliberately and methodically, through the process for City Council, County Commission, the State Legislature, and then the United States Congress. And of course, there was a lot of turmoil that was created at my insistence that we have what was put forward as the "Black Max Plan." That plan actually ended up helping more blacks get elected to office in the State of Georgia. From there, the issue was the war. I went to the floor of the House and spoke out against George H.W. Bush's War - with the bombing of Baghdad - and all of my colleagues got out and walked out on me. And they compared me to Julian Bond, who a generation earlier, had been punished because of his views against the Vietnam War. So I decided to run for Congress, because I saw the 'good ol' boys' of Georgia, trying to pick who the next Congressional member would be. So the governor and speaker of the House both had 'their candidates,' and I figured that the people should have their candidate and I decided to run. When I ran - because of my advocacy of the Black Max plan - I was likened to Angela Davis, and so the Julian Bond and Angela Davis characterizations (done by the corporate press) were supposed to be insulting to me, but they didn't know that Julian Bond and Angela Davis were heroes of mine. And that began my political career.

How did you make the transition from the Georgia House of Representatives to the United States Congress?

Well, it was an easy transition, because I learned the legislative process and parliamentary procedure in the Georgia Legislature. I also learned that inauthentic leadership can be easily co-opted, and that the elected leadership we had in the State of Georgia was ineffective in terms of changing the policy-outcomes and quality of life for the people of Georgia. At one time, we (Georgia) had the largest legislative Black Caucus in the country, but increasingly, the personalities that got elected were more interested in the positions, rather than wielding the powers on behalf of the community. So, we went from authentic to inauthentic leadership, and the challenge of our community is to ensure that our leadership is always authentic, and speaking to our hopes, dreams and aspirations; and pushing a policy-line that should increase our quality of life. If you don't see that in the campaign of a candidate, you won't see it in the administration of a candidate. And therefore, that candidate represents somebody else's interest; not our own. But we have not been easily capable of identifying authentic vs. inauthentic leadership.

Throughout your career, you've been an outspoken and vehement defender of human-rights. What is the state of human-rights in the world today?

It's abysmal. The states of human rights is abysmal in the world today, and a large measure of it is because of interference on the part of the United States, in the arsenal of economic and military power that it wields over people. The unwillingness of the American voter to change the leadership in Washington must come to an end.

As a member of Congress, you introduced legislations to unseal the records of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Tupac Shakur. Why was that important to you?

I think the public deserves the truth, and we know from the December 1999 trials, that a jury came back with the findings that the United States government was involved in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And in just the same way, the interested public hasn't been told the truth about Tupac Shakur, whose mother was a member of the Black Panther Party, and whose father-figure was - I believe - a member of the Black liberation army.

In 2007, you decided to take a public stance against the Democratic Party. What was the last straw for you?

Basically, on my birthday, March 17 of last year, I spoke in front of the pentagon, and my position continues to be vindicated, because now, the Democrats are complicit in the FISA Bill, the continual funding of the war, and the removal of impeachment bills from the table; and all the basic needs of the American people (single payer health-care system, subsidies for education -- so no child graduates with a student loan). Under the rulership of the Democrats and the Republicans, people don't have what they need.

Why did you feel the Green Party was best suited for the brand of activism you're involved in?

The Green Party has put support for reparations in its 2004 platform. They put recognition of the genocide against the indigenous people in this country on their platform. They put a statement against racial-profiling and police brutality on their platform. And this was all before I was ever associated with The Green Party. So I found a party that reflects my values.

You clinched the Green Party Presidential Nomination in July. How is the campaign so far; and how much has the "Power to the People" message resonated?

The campaign could always use more resources; so we ask people to please go to our website, runcynthiarun.org and donate, because we're up against a very powerful and mighty machine. And even the Gladiators, who were put into the arena against each other and certain animals, were giving swords to fight with. So if we are to defend the interests of the people, we at least have to have a mechanism to defend ourselves -- because we are going against the most powerful entities on the planet. So we have a lot of people agreeing with us, but we need them to go the extra step; and one is to vote for us and the other to donate to us -- so we can spread the good news about our plans even more. We want to kick-start a movement to inspire young people to get involved outside the two-party paradigm that boxes us into solutions that don't answer the problems that people confront in their lives.

What is the fundamental bedrock of the "Power to the People" platform?

It's the reconstruction manifesto, and we explain that we are in favor of the elimination of the drug-war, the elimination of prisons for profit, the elimination of U.S. militarism, a repeal of NAFTA and all other so-called free-trade agreements. We want a livable wage; we want a single-payer health-care system, and we want election integrity.

I want to pose two questions to you, which have been formerly directed at Sen. Obama. "In the first 100 days of your presidency, what would you do to close the gaps between Blacks and Whites in America"?

First of all, I would submit to Congress a budget that does exactly that. The disparities that exist in our country are longstanding, and they exist because there is a legacy of slavery that has not yet been addressed. And after slavery - which denied the right to read, education, life, liberty and identity to Africans who had been transported - there was a denial of the right to economic freedom. Then it moved from that to a denial of the right to physical freedom (incarceration). And with that came the convict slave labor program -- which was rampant throughout the country, particularly in the South. All of this came in the aftermath of slavery; and then of course you had the Jim Crow laws that were practiced across the country -- with the statute of Plessy v. Ferguson. So, basically, you have a story of disenfranchisement, down to a denial of identity and culture; and somehow, we survived. What the country now needs to do is to implement a massive program on education, economic enfranchisement and jobs. Instead of focusing the money on those who have, we should focus it on those in need.

Secondly, Cynthia McKinney, "What about the Black Community"?

That is the entire focus of the reconstruction platform, which includes the release of all political-prisoners. We know that we have to change the legal landscape in order for justice to prevail in this country, because the criminal justice system is criminal in its injustice at the moment. We know that the economic structure of this country has to be completely changed, because it is based on rewarding those who don't work, and taxing those who do. The cultural environment of this country has to change, because of the corporate domination and usurpation of Hip-Hop culture and the culture of young people.

What is your assessment of the overwhelming support Sen. Obama is receiving within the Black Community, and how do you plan on winning some of those votes?

Well, we're going to continue to stand on the values that we espouse, and if people are attracted to those values, they would support them, and if they are not, they will support the other side.

Finally, Senator Obama seems so be experiencing some obstacles in reaching Latinos. Do you plan on courting the Brown vote?

Well, my running mate is an Afro-Latina; a Puerto Rican from the Bronx. The circles that she has traveled in are young Black and Brown. So we would like to get as much of that vote as we can; alongside the white-progressives who are willing to support our ticket.


Watch Cynthia McKinney's Green Party Acceptance Speech:



This interview was conducted by Tolu Olorunda, Staff Writer for YourBlackWorld.com