The Black Commentator: An independent weekly internet magazine dedicated to the movement for economic justice, social justice and peace - Providing commentary, analysis and investigations on issues affecting African Americans and the African world. www.BlackCommentator.com
 
 
September 24 , 2009 - Issue 343
 
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On Obama’s Empire, The Media, Class, and Color: Time To Fight Back!
Keeping It Real
By Larry Pinkney
B
lackCommentator.com Editorial Board

 

 

Our backs are not merely up against the wall; we are being steadily plastered inside of it.

The corporate self-described ‘news’ media of this nation continues its insidious polemical war of disinformation, distraction, and omission against the unemployed, the working poor, and the masses of every day people nationally and globally.

The Obama/Biden/Rahm Emanuel administration, in concert with their Democratic & Republican Party colleagues are, in the very name of “hope and change” committing the most grotesque form of political and economic betrayal of the people of this nation. Trillions to Wall Street and corporate pharmaceutical executives but nothing but sugar-coated, meaningless rhetoric to the people! Ongoing raging, bloody, and expanding wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere but nothing but sugar-coated, meaningless rhetoric to the people! The slogan of this Obama / Biden administration should be: “Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way!”

While the administration prattles on about a supposed economic recovery taking place, unemployment and its concomitant social horrors are skyrocketing throughout this entire nation, and in communities of color this is particularly devastating. Oh well, “Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down!” Right? Wrong!!! The gap between the filthy rich and the struggling poor in ‘America’ has grown and is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. This is no mere accident.

You, the reader, may recall that the overwhelming majority of the ‘American’ people opposed the billion upon billions of dollars bail-out of the Wall Street barons and other corporate executives; but clearly the will of the every day people was crapped upon by the Obama / Biden administration and its Republicrat (i.e. Democratic and Republican Party) big wigs.

Presently the vast majority of people in this nation want single payer universal health care---no matter how the Obama administration and its corporate accomplices (including the corporate media) try to distort, obscure, and obfuscate this fact. Moreover, the majority of people in this nation want an end to the ongoing, unjust, and bloody U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere on this globe. Nonetheless, they rage on don’t they?

“Just a spoon full of sugar” will “help the medicine go down?” Not likely. There is nothing in the least bit “delightful” about the increased daily suffering of the people, and  this has increasingly begun to manifest itself and will continue to do so.  

All of the foregoing represents the machinations of U.S. corporate empire both internally and abroad. The needs of every day peoples of this nation and around the world are irrelevant to the empire.

For centuries now, color (i.e. pigmentation) in this nation has been effectively used to play a major role in dividing, subjugating and controlling people. This is still the case. Ironically now however, the color of and nebulous, sweet-sounding, sugar-coated rhetoric of this current U.S. President is being sought to be used to, in essence, dumb down and neutralize effective political resistance to his unconscionable support for and of the policies of the corporate U.S. Empire.

In addition to using color, economic class status or the lack thereof, is still being utilized by the U.S. Government in collusion with corporations to divide, subjugate, and control the masses of people in this country. This too, is where the corporate media plays an invaluable role on behalf of its government and corporate accomplices. This is a media that does not dare to disseminate informed information to the people; but rather it selectively seeks to form opinion for the people and thereby manipulate all of us.

The fact is that the avaricious U.S. corporate barons and the U.S. Government are, for all intent and purpose, one and the same; similar to the Democratic and Republican Parties who have different names but whose corporate masters are precisely the same. The reality is that the needs and wishes of the majority of people simply do not matter to them. It’s all about manipulation and control.

The next time you hear some misguided individual say that Barack Obama is a socialist, explain that Obama is a corporate welfare socialist (i.e. supporting the wealth and  welfare for the corporate barons----not the masses of people). It’s actually quite simple. Obama, like his predecessor G. W. Bush, believes in and practices Robin Hood in reverse (i.e. steal from the poor and give to the rich). The only difference is that this current U.S. President has a darker pigmentation and is thus far measurably more adept rhetorically than Bush ever was. Thus, he is also far more dangerous to the people while being of enormous value and benefit presently to the capitalist corporate elite. By the way, a corporate welfare socialist is in fact, when it comes to serving the needs of the majority of people, no socialist at all.

We must cease allowing ourselves to be hoodwinked and plastered in---the wall of political deception, ongoing, unjust wars abroad, and increasing economic emaciation of the majority of every day people in this land. Stop being confused by the Obiden (i.e. the Obama/Biden) political rhetoric or by the maneuvers and shenanigans of frustrated but equally dangerous right-wingers.

It is time to clearly define and articulate exactly what it is that we are struggling for. It is time to stand up, seize the historical moment, and fight back! We fight for a society and world of real economic and social equality for the masses of women, men, and children. We fight for an immediate end to the U.S. corporate empire’s wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. We fight uncompromisingly for single payer universal health care for all our peoples, devoid of corporate profit. We fight for full and decent employment and housing. We fight for judicial justice. We fight for real change and a different society. We fight for our own humanity! This is a protracted and ongoing struggle, and it is time to intensify it.

Onward then my sisters and brothers! Onward….

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self - authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

 
 
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