In
the Cold War days, American newspersons liked to repeat a purportedly
popular Soviet street critique of the two main state newspapers:
There is no news in Pravda ("truth," in Russian), and
no truth in Izvestia (Russian for "news").
There is very little truth or news in the wholly
embedded U.S. media's Iraq war telemarathon, as we wrote last week
in "Onward
Embedded Soldiers: The corporate media's deputized war coverage":
They
are acting out collective white fantasies, unconstrained by any
pretense of professional ethics, purposely placing no distance
between themselves and the "national interest" as defined
by their Leader. They have been deputized, and are grinning like
Barney Fife of Mayberry. The Pirates play them like a piano, but
it's a song they enjoy as much as the Bush men do - for now.
Ella
Baccouche expresses a sense of violation at the hands of corporate
media and their Bush-masters.
These
are, indeed, sad times for all humanity on this small planet when
respect for international law has been killed and our only international
institution (a.k.a. the United Nations) has failed us by allowing
white supremacists with their 
humongous
arsenal of various weapons of mass destruction to ram their version
of liberty down the throats of yet another non-white sovereign
nation. I feel that I share a deep sense of anguish and despair
with the majority peoples of the world in witnessing this tragic
event unfold before our very eyes. The belligerent hypocrisy of
the white American government must be understood and condemned
for what it really is, a rogue nation. The idea of providing liberty
and democracy to Iraq is preposterous. Hello. You cannot give
something you do not possess in the first place.
All
of humanity is and has been suffering the psychological warfare
from the white racist corporate media's relentless bombardment
of "images" and "words" of mass destruction
(propaganda). We are being invaded on all fronts and they are
devastating our sense of morality by making it seem like slaughter
on a grand scale is acceptable. They are ripping apart our spirits,
leaving us with a feeling of despair and helplessness. But, thank
God for Black Commentator which is on the frontlines of resistance,
refusing to become a victim of the racist discourse-setting media,
which can be predicted to always constrain the range of possible
public discussion. 
thinks out of the box as again evidenced by Dr. Nzito's fascinating
tour of the white racist psyche, informing us on how their make-believe
virtual world becomes institutionalized.
In
his brilliant
analysis, "War
and the Great White Disinformation Machine" (March 27),
University of Miami assistant professor Kweli Nzito explicated the
interaction of racist media and racist audience.
According
to racist logic, lies can be transformed into truths abroad by
sheer military force or economic strangulation or both. At home,
a public gullible to the propaganda onslaught is all that would
be required. After all, it is their interest that the Administration
seeks to defend. To accomplish this is no mean task, and must
require that a concerted campaign of disinformation precede the
evil deeds that will follow. Lies would normally resist their
transformation into truths by any rational means. So long as a
constituency of like-minded racists can be molded and maintained
- and that has rarely been a problem - racist policies will continue
to thrive and war would continue to be rationalized as a legitimate
tool of American foreign policy.
Derrick
Gibson juxtaposes the actual psychological warfare waged
jointly by U.S. media and the organs of the Bush state, and the
so far nonexistent foreign germ warfare attacks that Americans
are conditioned to fear.
Black
Commentator appears to have an innate ability to give voice to
the timely truth that needs to be told. Contemporaneously with
my review of your latest edition on the delusion the embedded
media is fostering upon the nation, one lone embedded reporter
discovered the strength within to lift his head from out the sand
and actually see the world for what it is.
The
last few days, all major US networks have been in a tizzy discussing
a video that depicted the Iraqi president in a meeting with several
men and one woman - whom they constantly referred to as "Dr.
Germ". The obvious implication being once again that Iraq
was preparing to use weapons of little destruction (let's face
it: there has never been any mass destruction from germ warfare)
against the "Coalition of the Greedy, Bought and Coerced".
After days of attempts to inflame irrational fears, this one reporter
finally said, "Not sure what video you are seeing, but the
one I saw actually had an Iraqi female cabinet member and not
the germ warfare specialist." The unrepentant anchor - Wolf
Blitzer - was forced to concede the error, but no additional thought
was given to this new detail. Where were the follow-up questions,
such as: This evil oppressor has women in his government? Can
Kuwait or Saudi Arabia say that?
This
brief interlude of reality was quickly snuffed before it was allowed
to infect the viewers with truth and the next video clip showed
British soldiers doing their best "NYPD" impression
with a door-to-door, presumed guilty search for weapons. The beat
goes on.
So
determinedly delusional are the corporate media that, despite operating
budgets in the hundreds of millions, they manage to lose encyclopedias
of facts from recent American history, involving momentous events
that they themselves covered. Saddam Hussein's rise as a proxy regional
warlord for the United States is one such missing piece of history,
a fact that has become dead, cold and invisible to the corporate
media just 12 years after the relationship was sundered by the first
Gulf War. Among the national broadcast media, only not-quite-corporate
PBS seems to remember whose bottle the Saddam genie popped out of.
Stephen
Billock picks up the trail of Bush-media lies.
I
inadvertently came upon this program last night on PBS. I had
only seen the last part which disclosed the role the Pirates played
in not only getting us into this mess but also lining their pockets
beyond belief in the process. Many in this group led by Richard
Perle before he "resigned" have had unlimited access
to the TV news media since the 9-11 attacks. They have been seen
attempting to link Saddam to these attacks despite there being
no proof. This lie has been highly successful mainly because Bush
often refers to the attacks in the same sentence when speaking
about Saddam. The success of this lie can be measured by a news
item disclosing that the vast majority of the US Marine Corps
believe that Saddam was the perpetrator.
Another
lie was when they also linked Saddam to the anthrax attacks. This
falsehood was short-lived when the FBI rained on their victory
parade by disclosing the disease was domestically produced. None
of these frauds against facts would be successful without the
collusion of our mainstream news media, which airs "a lie-a-day
and two on Wednesday."
(The
quotes are a bit of plagiarism on my part. I remember a story
told to me by a black co-worker. He said, "The colonel on
the ol' plantation got his mint juleps six days a week but on
Wednesday he got piss." The big difference in this analogy
is our government and media are dispensing "piss" to
us seven days a week since the 9-11 attacks.)
recommends that readers visit the PBS Frontline
site, "The
Long Road to War," a chronicle of Saddam's CIA-sponsored
rise to power following the overthrow of a nationalist Iraqi regime
in 1963. Frontline's facts are known to every serious journalist
in the world, and readily available to every member of the U.S.
corporate media, yet appear as revelations to a nation that prefers
a diet of delusions.
Richard
Wilcox sends greetings from Tokyo.
Great
commentary on the corporate media, racism etc. While a terribly
sad and frightening topic, your commentary was also very witty
(we need that too).
Mr.
Wilcox works closely with non-governmental environmental organizations
in Asia.
Hunting
"sand niggers"
At
least three million people of Arab descent live in the United States.
reader Zonica is one of them.
I
absolutely love your latest article in Counterpunch.
Just a few days ago, I was telling my husband how horrible it
is that a bunch of racist white guys are murdering innocent brown
people. You see I am one of those people. I am not an Iraqi but
I come from the same ethnic/religious group as the Shi'ites. I
told my husband that this is colonialism all over again. This
invasion (it's not a war) is being put on, as Robert Fisk, says
"not by the coalition of the willing" but by an "Anglo-American
force". Fisk couldn't have got it more right.
Thank
you for a great article, keep up the fabulous work!!
British
journalist Robert Fisk writes for The Independent (UK).
M.
Johnson, another
reader of Arab parentage, writes to us from Hawaii.
I
just finished reading (after sending it to friends and soon-to-be
enemies) another in a series of brilliant articles. I am surprised
that no one seems to catch the pun-in-waiting as to "embedded"
(in bed, duh). Also, your evaluation of our giddy media is right
on and I must congratulate you for getting "vampirish"
and Paula Zahn in the same sentence. One thing I frequently notice,
being an actual son of a "sand nigger," and damn proud
of it, is that most Middle East "experts" are not only
white, 
but
Jewish (Friedman, Pipes, Ledeen, Miller, Schwartz, Lewis, Emerson,
Gold, etc). This same expertise extends to the topics of Arabs
and Islam, and of course terrorism, as if people who actually
have roots in this region, or are themselves Arabs or Muslims
could not possibly know as much of these things as, say, some
Jewish guy from Brooklyn. It is not unusual therefore to turn
on CNN (or any other network) and see Aaron Brown or Wolf Blitzer
chummily interviewing a fellow Zionist (and of course challenging
nothing) and presenting the resultant propaganda as revelation.
As
to Leon Harris, he is like most other Black pundits, anchors,
talk show hosts and journalists allowed on Fox, CNN and MSNBC:
a White Republican in blackface.
Mr.
Johnson must have anticipated this week's
cartoon. It is also true that the corporate media does not consider
political Zionism to be a professional hindrance to "objective"
reporting from the Middle East. Thus, the Israeli government is
often "embedded" in corporate newsrooms.
It
is further true that CNN's Leon Harris has the political insight
of a local weatherman, minus the intellect. We single out the most
egregiously grinning Black anchors for special scorn because they
represent a double insult to African Americans: first, they revel
in the role of front persons for a racist ideology; second, they
appear ridiculous in the process - some, like Harris-at-war, more
ridiculous than others. This is truly a perversion of the old term,
"credit to the race."
Bruce
Tomczak reminds us that the current war fits neatly in the American
historical pattern.
This
corporate media will sell us all down the river if we aren't vigilant.
And you are so correct in calling this attack on Iraq another
racist war. Think of all the ones the U.S. has engaged in. I think
Bush almost slipped and said this in his press conference with
Blair.
Keep
up the incisive observations and fine writing. I admire your passion
and candor.
The
United States is now engaged in a racist foreign war as its primary
national project. That road leads straight back to home, writes
a reader named Russell.
Your
recent article about embedded reporting should be a call to arms
for all people of color. There is obviously a racial bias to this
perspective of white is right. I hear many undertones to comments
about this slaughter and it is obvious that the statements are
aimed at anyone that is not lily white. The Nazi's with their
super race hideousness would feel right at home with this Bush
Regime.
This
Nation's assault on the red man and enslavement of the black man
should at least steel us against such an unethical attack on people
of color everywhere on the planet. The African Nation's have been
pillaged for their assets and millions of their people forced
into starvation or denied medical services to the point of extinction
or just mowed down by U.S. supplied weapons. We are considered
"useless eaters" by this self-anointed elite and we
will be eliminated so that they might have even greater excesses
at the expense of our very lives.
Jean-Paul
Godon, of Paris, France, would like some clarification of the language
employed by .
It
should come as no surprise to you that some French citizen out
there finds himself in agreement with the spirit and content of
your "Onward Embedded Soldiers " article. I can understand
that from a strictly US perspective you refer to "White America"
much like Michael Moore does to "Stupid White Men".
To be sure, I note that you are careful to often use the words
"White" and "America" together, but statements
such as "white violence seems arbitrary to sane human
beings. We understand racist behavior largely through the repetitive
patterns of the pathology -- how "white folks act"
maybe need the same qualification.
My
point is that there are many white people outside of the US (and
also inside, I believe) who would very much appreciate not being
confused, solely on account of their color, with the gang of people
you (In my view rightly) oppose. Looking at the issues world-wide,
I guess generalizations along color lines simply do not work when
dealing with the situation in Iraq, for instance. As a matter
of fact, this situation also makes me uneasy with the notion of
being a "Westerner", on account of what two of the so-called
"western" countries are doing out here. (The present
US administration and the British Labour government probably see
each other as the vanguard of "bona-fide (!!)" White
Westerners, alas.)
As
for me, I need no category to thank you for your article.
France,
of course, has its own murderous history, including the death of
up to one million Algerians in the War of Independence (1954 - 62).
However, unlike the United States, the French nation and culture
were not born in slavery and wars of extermination.
We
share part of our response to Mr. Godon, regarding how "white
folks act."
The
phrase "how white folks act" is a working generalization
used by generations of African Americans to describe patterns
of white behavior. In a racist society, members of the dominant
race exercise - act out - their power over the oppressed in mutually
recognizable ways: that's "how white folks act." White
exceptions are notable, but not very useful for learning how to
make life less difficult or painful.
We
suspect that non-whites in France employ similar working generalizations.
Who's
gonna take the weight?
Just
as many white people believe that racism is a simple matter of individual
likes and dislikes, so the term "segregated society" is
conveniently misunderstood as limited to Jim Crow social and spatial
arrangements. Institutional racism remains a mystery to most
of those who are privileged by it - including many white Americans
who consider themselves progressives. They wonder why African Americans
do not flock to anti-war rallies in numbers at least proportionate
to the Black population.
Donna
J. Warren is no stranger to predominantly white organizations -
she ran for Lt. Governor of California last year on Green ticket.
In her March 27 Guest Commentary, "Are
Black People Pulling Their Anti-War Weight?" Ms. Warren
listed four "good reasons" that anti-war sentiment among
the Black public, leadership and media has not translated into large
numbers at demonstrations.
1. Black people remain under the prison industrial complex in
proportions far greater than our proportion of the population.
2. White activists do not share leadership with, and are not willing
to follow the lead of people and organizations of color.
3. The movement against the war on Iraq fails to recognize the
continuing war on communities of color. White activists continue
to ignore issues that speak to the experiences and struggles of
people of color.
4. Current demonstrations, disproportionately white and middle
class, are done by those who can most easily take the time and
expense to travel to major anti-war events.
Ms.
Warren asked, as did
in a March 13
issue," Why should it be assumed that African Americans will
come when white people call, for any cause?"
Americans
live in very different worlds. In much of Black America, police
state conditions have existed for some time and people of color
are disproportionately subjected to poor schools, inadequate jobs,
poor health care, and poor housing. The White anti-war movement
needs to recognize these facts, and work with Black activists
to bring an end to America's war on our communities.
reader Sheveevyah compliments Ms. Warren on her
"powerful commentary."
I
have written to thank her for making this clear to even those
of us who would otherwise question ourselves, motives and seemingly
lack of response. Instinctively we do not respond to the massa's
call. Just cuz he sick don't make us sick. And even if we're both
sick, the source of infection and point of inoculation are different.
He can't relate and won't seek to and quite frankly I could care
less if he does. This is ours to address. We must apply the salve.
We must turn everything inside out, to get a better view, a different
reference point, in order to understand the historical impact
of racism on our behavior as a collective family. And then, we
must turn from this external reference point, turning outside
in, to liberate and elevate ourselves according to our standards
and definition for key attributes of a free people.
Why
Pick On Condi?
At
the tale end of The Issues column of last week's
we featured an item titled, "A Skeeza? Not our Condoleezza?"
The story was keyed to rightwing Black Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory
Kane's irate attack on poet Amiri Baraka, who characterized Condoleezza
Rice as a "skeeza" in a speech at Coppin State College.
Kane
got very upset. Apparently believing he could chase Baraka's skeeza
hoodoo from Condoleezza's person by denying the charge three times
in quick succession, Kane wrote:
It
is something Rice certainly is not. Baraka knows she's not. Those
blacks who laughed, giggled, tittered and applauded when Baraka
said it know she's not.
Puff
- she's not a skeeza! We at
have no direct knowledge of Condoleezza's personal proclivities,
and deny having any prurient interest in the woman - three times,
if necessary. However, Erin Sublett, of Houston, Texas, was taken
aback by our treatment of the Condoleezza item.
What
exactly was the point of the "Condoleezza's a Skeezer"
account? I'm not sure it was necessary or up to the high standard
of relevance that I love
for. Also, I'm not sure where you stood on Baraka's remarks or
Kane's rebuttal. Glad it was a blip at the end of another one
of your outstanding pieces.
Fearing
that we had impetuously alienated a sensitive and intelligent reader,
we made haste to reply:
Dear
Ms. Sublett:
The Condoleezza item is what was called a "kicker"
in broadcast news - a short, unconventional, sometimes humorous,
human interest item at the end of the lineup.
Having given the straight explanation, we are
sure you are aware that we have great disdain for the woman. It
would be silly for us to pretend otherwise. We have made our political
case on the matter many times. We also believe that columnist
Kane's nonplussed reaction to Baraka's crowd-pleasing insult -
which Baraka probably employs at each of his campus speaking engagements
- was indicative of an ancient mindset among many African Americans,
one that paralyzes the community in pretense and false celebration
of non-existent victories.
The young people at Coppin know exactly what
older Blacks know: Rice is a paid mercenary for the enemy. The
vernacular has other names for that. Kane's reaction was remarkably
lame. He appeared ridiculous. It was as if someone had called
his mother a whore, and he answered the insult with three denials:
"No, she's not. You know she's not a 'ho. You know
it!"
So yes, there was more than wicked playfulness
in our placement of the Condoleezza item, made possible by columnist
Kane's sputtering defense of her. We would have had a harder time
justifying a simple account of Baraka's insult. Kane's column
spread Baraka's characterization of Rice as a "skeeza"
far beyond Coppin's campus, the equivalent of a kid telling the
schoolyard, "Did you hear that Bobby called Jimmy's mother
a 'ho?"
We just couldn't pass it up.
No
sooner had we composed a response to Ms. Sublett's letter, than
another arrived from Deonna Moore, of Fairlawn, Ohio.
While
I am opposed to this war due to the fact that it is more personal
gain than "to rid the world of evil," I think that Baraka's
comment about Condoleezza Rice being a "skeeza" was
unnecessary. There are other ways to get your feelings and opinions
across than to use derogatory and slanderous words. I am also
disappointed to have read that blacks encouraged his remarks.
I am not a fan of the Bush administration. However,
when I see black people trying to be successful, I try to be as
supportive as I can. I know that people have called Condi an "Uncle
Tom," and other names. I respect her for the fact that she
has an important job in a hated administration. We, as black people
need to stop tearing one another down. I think that she is handling
her position well considering her circumstances. I have never
heard anything about her personal life in the press, and from
what I see, she is consumed by her duties and this war. Baraka
needs to look up words and find the definition before he opens
his mouth. After reading the article in the Baltimore Sun and
the NY Times in depth, he truly made an idiot out of himself.
I would not be a bit upset if Ms. Rice did not pursue a Defamation
of Character suit against him.
Feeling
utterly Condi'd out, we took comfort in the arrival of an email
from Chris Citko.
God
bless you. You are completely right! Bush-devil exploits most
brilliant black people for his imperialism!
Let
us pray for peace!
Amen
to that! For a more complete exposition of 's
stance on the National Security Advisor, see "Condoleezza
Rice: The Devil's Handmaiden," January 23.
World
recoils from U.S.
The
sheer destructiveness of America's rampaging military belies the
inherent fragility of the U.S. position in the world, resting as
it does on an artificial dollar supremacy that must ultimately evaporate
based on the realities of a deteriorating American economy. Shock
and Awe cannot coerce the planet into doing business with a rogue
nation. Bush's naked bid for world domination will surely accelerate
a planetary withdrawal from entanglement with the U.S. wherever
possible - the thrust of 's
March 20 commentary, "They
Have Reached Too Far: Bush's road leads to ruin for himself and
his Pirates."
Although
they are incapable of realizing it, the Bush men have revealed
themselves to the world - the audience for Shock and Awe - as
grotesquely ugly, brutish, irredeemably repugnant human beings
whose touch must be avoided under all circumstances. Every plan
and project of individuals and nations will be shaped by having
witnessed a racist America raining fire on a weaker people - and
reveling in the crime.... The Pirates have accelerated the processes
of their own ruin.
Catherine
Wright, of Henderson, Nevada would like to see the same light that
we see at the end of a long and bloodstained tunnel. But she fears
what will happen to Americans in the interim.
In
paraphrasing the words of one of your readers - Regina Tillman,
Issue 34 - your newsletters provides for food for my soul. Please
keep keeping on because what you give is so needed during this
horrible time of history, this naked aggression against Iraq under
the guise of liberating Iraq. With the passage of Patriot I and
Patriot II on the horizon, I am in the process of printing all
of your back issues - so that I can reap some solace during the
upcoming battle of darkness and depravity that will occur in this
country. Thanks for .
The
Fire Right Now
In
our March 13 commentary, "Racism
and War: Perfect Together,"
made its most forceful presentation on the racist nature of the
planned invasion of Iraq, the opening battle of a Permanent War
with the goal of shattering "history, itself." We dismissed
those who implicitly absolve white America of complicity in this
centuries-long pattern of racist aggression, by claiming that the
white multitudes are "brainwashed" by an evil corporate
media. Contemporary Americans, we wrote, "know more about the
crime that is about to be committed in the Middle East than Germans
ever knew about the conduct of their government in World War Two.
They are less innocent of what is going to be done in their name
and with their consent than any population in the history of armed
aggression on the planet Earth." Bush acts with the generally
informed consent of a majority of white America. They know as much
as they feel they need to know - and that was quite enough to give
Bush a free hand, even before the media became embedded.
The
criminal enterprise on which the United States is embarked - the
ghastly equivalent of a live-fire, multi-megaton Fourth of July
celebration of the New American Century - is the end product of
a society shaped by genocide and slavery. White America sees the
world through the eyes of the mass murderer and slaveholder. Were
it not so, there would not exist the grotesque disconnect between
white American public opinion and the opinions of mankind, shared
generally by Black America. Bush would not be possible.
Chris
Herz writes as an intimate of the war mongering masses.
I
am a white male voter, one of the few who did not cast his ballot
for the selected president. But I agree with every word of your
wise article of the 13th.
Most
of my contemporaries are entirely convinced that things went way
too far in the sixties. They want affirmative action nowhere but
in the prisons. They are quite convinced that "their"
God placed "their" oil under Iraq's sands. And they
are quite prepared to kill any and all who might get in the way.
My
heart is filled with joy to see them exposed before all the world
for the Fascists that they really are. Even their fellow whites
in Europe cannot stand them.
As
if on cue, Helmut Schlieger sent us this note, from Germany.
Thanks
for your clear stand on the new campaign. It may well be future
generations will look back on the American people with the same
harshness of judgment with which many of us look back on the 1930s
Germans.
And
thus we see the actual direction of political globalization
in these harrowing times, as C. Lee, an African American, finds
common ground with Helmut, a German.
I
think your commentary was one of the best analyses of white America
that I've read in awhile. White Americans are the only people
I know that want to be loved by the world, yet do everything they
can to make the world hate them.
Denothra
Rose writes with suggestions to our reading list.
Thank
you for your astute observations. I have not read any thing regarding
this fabricated war that was as on target as your analysis. Not
since Dr. Bobby Wright in his book, "The
Psychopathic Racial Personality" described the warped
thinking that has embodied white American racial policy toward
persons of color, have I seen anyone write so clearly on this
subject.
For
years African Americans have been trying to make sense out of
American racial policy, but have come away scratching our heads
because there is no sense to be made of this.
Thank
you for coming on out and saying what has been on the minds of
people of color regarding American racial policy: These people
are crazy!
David
Elliott says the article "could not have been more on-point."
Mr. Elliott also offers reading suggestions.
Your
excellent article on Racism & War could not have been more
on-point. It should be required reading for all Black people in
this country to help remove the blinders that most of us have
on. We need to see and understand the very tenuous nature of our
existence and how dangerous the pathological disease of "white
supremacy" actually is. I would recommend that all of your
readers pick up a copy of The
Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing.
This landmark work gets to the very essence of white supremacy
and explains in detail how it is deeply rooted in racism.
Please keep up your excellent work.
High
time to charge Crimes and Misdemeanors
As
we reported last week, "Congressman John Conyers, dean of the
Congressional Black Caucus, is methodically examining the case for
a bill of impeachment against George Bush." Reader Kurt Kiebler,
for one, wishes Conyers would hurry up.
I
am glad to hear that Representative John Conyers is finally hearing
from the public the proposal to impeach the president. As far
as I know, he is the only representative to stand up and do so.
When Rep. Conyers was in Kansas City, he indicated he had a high
stack of proposals and was waiting for the right time. In these
days of "shock and awe," I believe the time is now.
Fort
Lauderdale's Al Buono is also impatient.
International
lawyer Francis Boyle's brief, in which he charges Bush with "'a
long Train of Abuses and Usurpations' against the Constitution
since September 11, 2001 is available in the January
17 issue of Counterpunch. But it struck me in reading your
report that John Conyers is not taking this as seriously as he
should, as all the Democrats in House and Senate should be taking
this. It needs some momentum and the Black and Progressive Caucuses
can provide that. Perhaps he can enlist the aid of Kucinich and
Pelosi - and Barbara Lee of course.
This needs some heat and quickly before Bush
claims some sort of victory and his minions "find" the
WMDs and nuclear weapons which he and Blair claimed were buried
in the desert.
Bush
will "find" whatever he arranges to find - and the embedded
media will stamp his validation ticket.
The
road well taken
Carole
K. White is lucky enough to live within broadcast range of WABC-TV's
"Like It Is," the venerable Sunday program hosted by Gil
Noble. "Like
It Is" has been a New York institution for around 30 years,
during which time Gil Noble has imparted more relevant information
through a larger number and broader spectrum of Black leadership
than any program in the nation. There exists no Black broadcast
entity with a comparable history and value. The show is a Black
National Treasure and, for that reason, constantly in danger of
elimination.
We
thought this preamble would provide proper context for Ms. White's
letter to .
Just
a note to tell you how much I am enjoying "The BlackCommentator.com."
I came upon it in a round-about way. In watching Gil Noble's "Like
It Is," with Cynthia McKinney today, I decided for the first
time to email Mr. Noble regarding my deep appreciation of the
day's program and the valuable information that I gained from
Ms. McKinney. On his website there is a message board. On the
message board there was a link to your site. I have now forwarded
that link to several of my closest friends.
I
cannot tell you how important your work is to me. I had started
to wonder if there were any African Americans in positions of
influence that were willing to tell "the other side"
of this nonsensical war and its deeper, darker meanings. You and
your guest commentators have taken all of my "wandering feelings"
and put them into words that exactly express my concerns. Until
I came upon your sight, the NY Village Voice was the only other
journalistic endeavor attempting to give some kind of check and
balance to this heavily (and falsely) weighted war. You can be
sure that I will be a regular visitor to your site.
Lydia
Thomas, of Riverdale, Georgia, came to
via a different route, one brilliantly illuminated by Alexander
Coburn and Jeffrey St. Clair.
I
discovered your publication several weeks ago from a link on the
Counterpunch
website and cannot tell you how much I enjoy reading it. Your
articles are always so well-written, insightful, relevant and
revealing!! After reading each issue, I find myself sending certain
if not every article to those of my friends without Internet access.
Keep up the work you're doing; our community
desperately needs an alternative to the otherwise biased and bought
media we see, hear and read.
This
has truly been a week of discovery for .
However, Greg McDonald had to go all the way to Guadalajara, Mexico,
to find us.
I
discovered your work when issue 26 was linked in Counterpunch
and have read ever since. In case you're keeping track of the
diversity of your audience, I'm a 31-year-old white male from
Alabama and currently read you from Mexico, where I am a teacher.
Every day I see in the "news" one more example of the
mask coming off of the USA and I think about how things couldn't
possibly get worse. Then I read
and the (all too few) other speakers of truth on the web and am
reminded that there are, still, people back home who are fighting
the lies.
Keep
it up!
We
hope it does not seem that we are intentionally poaching Counterpunch's
most intelligent readers. It has just worked out that way, for which
we are grateful.
Mary
Anne Cummings is a newcomer, too.
I
am only recently acquainted with your commentary, but have been
truly impressed by the depth and thoroughness of your analysis
and insight. Apart from the obvious intelligent and informed nature
of your columns, I find them also hopeful... maybe because truth
is so skillfully expressed, it seems that it will prevail
sooner or later over the "forces of darkness". And also
such a relief!
Then I go back to the MSNBC website.... ARGGHH!
Big mistake!
Unforeseen
consequences
Victoria
signs her letters, "Cheerio." Therefore, we do not believe
she sees the world as darkly as this letter might indicate.
I
love your magazine. I found it recently on Liberal
Oasis. It's one of the few things keeping me alive right now
as America descends into a police state. I do think black folks
will probably do better than almost anybody in this climate because,
hey, you're used to the police state. You've been dealing with
it for, oh, about 400 years. Keep on keepin' on. All of us depressed
liberals need Black Commentator to keep us from blowin' our brains
out.
We
feel compelled to caution Victoria that such comments could lead
the Bush men to conclude that elimination of
will cause massive suicides among liberal whites - a result that
the Pirates would welcome. Please do not give the crazy people ideas
that they might misprocess. We prefer not to go out like that.
Dear
Anonymous Educator
Finally,
we respond to a writer who must remain anonymous, for reasons that
will soon become clear. This person teaches at an historically Black
university where, the writer reports,
is "widely distributed." The teacher, who is not tenured,
objected to a statement in the March 20 issue: "Although most
white Americans appear to know nothing at all about anyone except
themselves…." ("They
Have Reached Too Far: Bush's road leads to ruin for himself and
his Pirates.")
"Ignorance,"
the educator counters, "is universal" and "the obliviousness
of my white and black students is completely equal, and equally
astonishing. On this, they are united. Replacing one prejudice with
another gets us nowhere," said the teacher.
On
this critical point, the writer is fundamentally wrong. The Black
students are surely aware that white racism is a powerful, evil
force in the life of the nation. This knowledge is what sets them
apart from most of their white peers, and allows them to see
the world more clearly. It is the difference that separates
the Black American polity from the white. This clarity, which is
denied most white people, allows Black intelligence to flourish
even in poverty and informational deficit, while white racism destroys
the cognitive capacities of afflicted individuals and nations as
surely as the most virulent cancer.
The
teacher cannot recognize or value this cognitive capacity in his/her
Black students, because he/she does not understand the nature of
racism. And it is not simply because the teacher is white. Were
that true, there would be no future for the United States outside
of Tim McVeigh's twisted Oklahoma City visions.
There
is hope for American white folks, yet. Some of them. But our teacher
needs to do some serious self-examination, as do many of his Black
co-educators.
Keep
writing.
In
addition to the sites mentioned above, BC gratefully acknowledges
the following organizations for featuring our commentaries during
the past month:
HipHop-Elements
www.hiphop-elements.com/
Take
Back The Media.com
www.takebackthemedia.com
Sons
of Afrika
www.sonsofafrika.org
U.N.
OBSERVER & International Report
www.unobserver.com
Black
Electorate
www.blackelectorate.com/
