When one recognizes the substantive difference between being supposedly black due mere partial pigmentation versus being black by virtue of color, consciousness, and collective memory it becomes crystal clear that Barack Obama, wily servant of the corporate / military elite, is by no means black. Rather he is, as Reverend Edward Pinkney [no relation] poignantly stated on a recent radio program: �Impersonating a black man.� Obama is a descendant of U.S. slaveholders, not slaves; nor does he genuinely empathize with the plight of masses of ordinary, every day, Black, Brown, White, Red, and Yellow peoples who are being savaged by the corporate elite�s banks and insurance companies, etc., while simultaneously being used as so much cannon fodder in bloody foreign wars, at the behest of the military elite of this nation. Indeed, Barack Obama is the corporate / military elite�s 21^st century �novocaine� to the masses of people.���

�To be Black in America is (in fact) an unflinching necessity,� which means that: �Beyond mere color, being Black is first and foremost a conscious political, social, and economic commitment to the struggle for the betterment of the descendants of the Black slavery holocaust in what has now become the United States of America, in conjunction with other people of color and humanity as a whole.� Barack Obama is anything but black. He is the epitome of the 21st century Willie Lynchisized �house Negro;� and in this instance, White House Negro.

Sadly, but certainly not surprisingly, the U.S. corporate media overwhelmingly and shamelessly, bombarded and deluged Black America and the U.S. citizenry at large with the myth that then U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama was somehow substantively different from those who had occupied the White House before him. He certainly was not and is not. He is the willing and active servant of the corporate and military elite, and who like a well trained slave, speaks the Euro-centric King�s English of his masters whose interests he serves, at the expense of every day people of all colors. As he serves his corporate and military masters economic and political interests, he hides behind his pigmentation�his so-called blackness. Indeed, to be black and head of the U.S. Empire is an irreconcilable contradiction in terms.

This man, Barack Obama, who escalates the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere, who urges the continuation of the unconstitutional & anti civil liberties Patriot Act, and who extends the international U.S. program of kidnapping known as �rendition,� cynically and opportunistically dares to feign admiration and respect for the assassinated peace and �civil rights� activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who in his day, opposed the very disgusting and hypocritical actions which Barack Obama is so vigorously purveying.

We should have collectively known who Barack Obama really is when he, in complicity with the distorting and obfuscating U.S. corporate media, publicly and opportunistically castigated his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, to the boundless glee and approval of his corporate and military puppet masters and political handlers. We should have collectively known who this man really is when he publicly derided black men, as if black men, and in particular black fathers, must accept total responsibility without being accorded total economic, social, legal, and political human rights by and in this society; and as if the deep wounds of slavery and ongoing and worsening economic exploitation and deprivation have somehow mysteriously simply disappeared today. As long time political activist Ralph Poynter so clearly puts it: �There can be no legitimate responsibilities without concomitant rights.� We should have collectively known who this man really is when in his inaugural speech he praised those who had �traveled across oceans in search of a new life� and �settled the West,� as if these alleged settlers and their so-called �new life� on this continent did not directly result in the genocidal holocaust of millions upon millions of Indigenous Native peoples, and the degradation and destruction of their cultures and way of life right down to the present day.

We should have collectively realized that Barack Obama did not and does not represent change, but the continuation of the �American� myth; while ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red and Yellow peoples are ruthlessly exploited and discarded by Obama�s corporate and military masters. This is all being carried out under the �guise of reform� which is, as the Soledad brother George Jackson wrote, nothing more than de facto �fascism.� Barack Obama is a gift to the corporate / military elite, not the people of this nation and world.

Back in the April 19, 2007, issue of The Black Commentator, I warned of the enormous danger posed by Barack Obama, when quoting the words of former Oakland, California, City Council member Wilson Riles, I wrote, �Obama has signaled where he stands�he passed the powers-that-be vetting. For example, he took neoconservative pro-war Senator Joe Lieberman as his Senate mentor, voted to re-authorize the Patriot Act, blames concentrated Black poverty on �cultural issues� and not on white supremacy, and he favors keeping troops in Iraq and keeping the bombing of Iran �on the table� Obama is not the one.�� In the January 17, 2008, issue of The Black Commentator, I noted that, �Whereas Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. abhorred the U.S. war in Vietnam and elsewhere in the world, Barack Obama, cloaking himself in the guise of a �peace� candidate has repeatedly stated his support for �unilateral� military actions in other nations�This is not the position of a candidate of PEACE. It is the position of a candidate promoting a PIECE of war.� Moreover, in the January 31, 2008, issue of The Black Commentator, I wrote that Barack Obama is a �deeply corporate / military U.S. Presidential candidate� who �has called for �unilateral� military actions in other nations.� Repeatedly and continually, throughout the year 2008, and beyond, I attempted to sound the alarm�but most of the corporate media, supposed �progressives,� the petty bourgeois black elite, and much of the so-called black intelligentsia disgracefully embraced the pro-corporate, pro-military, and pro-apartheid Zionist candidacy of Barack Obama; instead of honestly, intelligently, and quickly stepping away from the confines of the salivating foxes and wolves of the Democrat and Republican Parties respectively.�

Whirlpool Corporation and Other Corporate Scoundrels �

Even as the Obama / Biden / Rahm Emanuel regime, under the guise of �reform� makes an enormous gift of profit to the corporate elite of insurance companies, et al; U.S. corporate greed is on an unprecedented rampage with the people of this nation as its front line targets and economic hostages. And as the corporate media spouts nonsense about a so-called �jobless economic recovery,� the masses of people of all colors throughout this nation lose their homes, educational opportunities, etc. and any viable hope of a decent, dignified life. Especially does this horror hit home with Black America.

U.S. corporations from the infamous Blackwater Corporation (which has now conveniently renamed itself)--to the corporate banking and insurance elite--to Whirlpool Corporation, headquartered in the de facto apartheid township of Benton Harbor, Michigan---function with enormous disdain for every day people and virtual impunity.

For example, the Whirlpool Corporation, headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, despite its phony �Whirlpool Code of Ethics,� clearly supports workplace abuse, and demeaning and racist 21st century--Willie Lynch style activities against Black workers at its corporate headquarters in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Recently, in this instance, it is reported that a white male Whirlpool supervisor �gave an African American female employee a letter so incredibly racist and demeaning, most companies following an ethics would act immediately to fire the supervisor. But not Whirlpool.� Instead, the black female worker was fired and the racist male supervisor kept. The enormous economic and emotional pain, distress, and degradation that this black female worker is being put through by Whirlpool Corporation is absolutely unacceptable by any human standards. It should be kept in mind that this is certainly not the first time that Whirlpool Corporation has demonstrated its contempt for decency, justice, and fair-play. And this pattern on the part of Whirlpool Corporation must be forthrightly exposed and rejected.

It should be remembered that Whirlpool is a national and international corporation, and all justice-loving people, irrespective of color, should be appalled at this corporate behavior on the part of Whirlpool Corporation. THE TIME HAS COME TO BOYCOTT WHIRLPOOL products nationally and internationally.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The peoples of the United States of America, and indeed the entire world are at a perilous crossroad. We must act locally, nationally, and internationally to struggle for an end to the Obama / Biden / Rahm Emanuel regime�s perpetual war, subterfuge, and fear mongering.

We must face and act upon the fact that Barack Obama has unequivocally demonstrated that he is an enemy of every day people and a friend and ally of the corporate / military elite. We can no longer bury our heads in the proverbial sand. Our own futures and those of our children and their children are at stake. Blackness is so much more than a mere color. It is an attitude which envelopes the real advancement and uplifting of all of humanity.

Onward brothers and sisters. Onward to do what must be done!��

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.