Category: The African World

The current issue is always free to everyone The horror of the Katrina disaster did not unleash a mass upsurge. In witnessing the abandonment of hundreds of thousands of people, their dispersal into near anonymity around the country, and the efforts to demographically alter the Gulf Coast with the removal of the poor, the Black,…

The current issue is always free to everyone As we go deeper into the 2008 election season, I continue to be struck by the politics of symbolism that surround the race for the Democratic Party nomination. Perhaps if I were not as fearful as I am about both the situation in Iraq and the potential…

The current issue is always free to everyone An occupation; settlers; a “security wall”; an indigenous resistance: It almost sounds like Palestine, but it is the Western Sahara, officially known by 80 countries as the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. Located on the northwest corner of Africa, south of Morocco, west of Algeria, and north (and…

The current issue is always free to everyone The report this past week confirmed what veterans’ advocates have been saying for some time: one quarter of the homeless are veterans! While this came as a shock to many people, anyone of age at the time of the Vietnam War would not have been surprised at…

The current issue is always free to everyone I was thrilled by the tremendous mobilization surrounding the now infamous Jena 6 case in Louisiana. Credit must go to radio personalities such as Michael Baisden and Tom Joyner, as well as Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, in addition to the work of the NAACP, for…

The current issue is always free to everyone There is something that periodically emerges in politics that I call the “maniac factor.” It is the phenomenon where a government (or set of leaders) demonstrates that it is out of touch with reality even from the standpoint of their own interests. Such maniacal views and practices…

The current issue is always free to everyone When I realized that Frank [not his real name] was a mercenary I was stunned. He is such a nice and down to earth guy! Forgive my naiveté. I grew up thinking of mercenaries as the mean Hessians who fought for Britain in the US War of…

During the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s I would hear or read hair-raising stories about political repression against progressive activists and human rights advocates in places such as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and, yes, in Haiti. In fact, a verb “disappear” became a noun “the disappeared,” to describe the victims of political…

Thus, we have the case of the cancellation of the speaking engagement of one Bishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned human rights activist and one of the chief architects of the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission. To the surprise of many, Bishop Tutu’s speaking engagement at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota was cancelled, apparently…

The current issue is always free to everyone The African World by BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Bill Fletcher, Jr.is a new column on BC that will appear on a regular basis. Recognizing the historic significance of the Presidential campaign of Senator Barak Obama and the deep meaning that this has for many Black Americans, I…