DISQUS

rikyrah · 2 years ago

Jill, you're too deep for me. I loved this post. I feel as if we're in this battle, and it's just time to snatch the baton; it's a new world. We have different faces of racism, and we have to maneuver it differently. We know that WEALTH is the true power in this world - something our elders really didn't grasp. Oprah has two and half BILLION dollars....so, quite frankly, she doesn't give a rat's ass anymore. And, I'm not mad at her. If HER show falters, she's always got the coins coming in from Dr. Phil and now, Rachel Ray. So, she's happy as a clam. Nobody who names their home Promised Land, is in a worried state of mind.


I was wondering if you caught Dr. Ron Walters on Bill Moyers this past weekend? He's always interesting.

Thomas Brooks · 2 years ago

Excellent post!


Since Oprah has IA, NH and SC on lock down, I am on my way to Nevada. No, I don't really think I am as influential as Oprah (smile), but I am going to Nevada for the 3rd time to do door-to-door canvassing for Barack.



Barack the Vote!



Thomas Brooks

Author, A Wealth of Family

Bruce A. Dixon · 2 years ago

I would fundamentally disagree with the author's statement that “the struggle has “migrated” from the street to the board room,” though that's precisely the way some of the black faces in the board room like to tell it. More accurately, at the end of the sixties, the board room doors swung open for the few that were already prepared to enter. On their way in the door they turned around to the rest of us in the street. They assured us that this was the next phase of the struggle, that marching, boycotting, grassroots organizing, and nearly everything that violated the law was obsolete, to buy from Black businesses, and that they'd be back to tell us how to vote every year or two.


A second generation of conscienceless black politicos followed at their heels, folks like Greg Meeks of NY and Artur Davis of AL and of course Harold Ford of TN, whose crossover to the realm of shills for big business has been so thorough as to leave room for only the most cursory nod to the train that got them there, let alone the sacrifices of ordinary folks who laid the rails and what motivated them.



The ascendancy of Obama, Patrick and the rest is a kind of fork off that branch, a slicker and more privileged generation who seek to renew their legitimacy by cynically evoking the ghost of movements past to cloak the fact that they offer nothing of substance policy-wise that would line up with the goals of those movements. This generation of co-opted “black leadership” relies on a a compliant media and the absence of black radio news to keep its place in the front pew among black folks, at the same time it sends messages to whites assuring them that it has nothing to do with those loud black folks in the street who make them uncomfortable.



Thus Obama helped register a six figure number of Illinois voters in 1992, but as a senator would not stand up to oppose the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Ohio in 2005. Thus he is for “universal health care” but against single payer, which is the only practical way to achieve it. He is supposedly”the peace candidate”, but vows he will not bring home the troops till at least his second term in office, intends to add another 100,00 bodies to the military and has advocated bombing Iran and Pakistan to show how tough he is. Thus he campaigned against the Patriot Act when running for the US Senate, but voted for it once in office, and voted for so-called tort reform that keeps ordinary citizens from suing wealthy corporations.



The alliance with Oprah makes eminent good sense for Obama, whose career at this moment is now built on the endorsement of corporate media who sell for him the PR packaged personae --- the celebrity, the non-threatening Negro to some whites, the “Joshua generation” guy to some blacks. It's a marketing proposition that dovetails with the practice of a master marketer, like Oprah, and appeals to large parts of the same audience.



It must be said that the corporate mainstream media are not fools, and they do not boost the folks who work in OUR interest. They boost the candidates who work in THEIRS. If Barack has, in their pages and broadcasts, metamorphosed into their darling “rock star” he has indeed been anointed. Some baton has definitely been passed to him. And not by us.

Jill Tubman · 2 years ago

Thanks rikyrah and Thomas! Bruce -- thanks for your insight. I'm not endorsing Obama per se (though as an African-American, my heart can't help but root for him to do well). I've got issues with all the candidates.

The Bag of Health and Politics · 2 years ago

On health care there are other ways than single payer (which would cost $6,700 per year per person indexed at 2007 dollars). For instance, if you create take all catastrophic cases out of the system--illnesses that cost 6 figure plus sums to treat (cancer, HIV, Crohn's Disease (what I have), Cystic Fibrosis, ALS, MS, Sickle Cell, Hemophelia, and the list goes on).But if you take those illnesses--which account for 60 to 80% of the cost of medical care--out of the system, then you lower the cost of insurance premiums to the point where a mandate is practical. I say roll all the catastrophic cases into the federal employee benefit plan. I think that might be able to get through the Senate, and I think that has the potential to get everyone in America covered within the next 5 years...I wrote about this more extensively on my blog.

NMP · 2 years ago

Jill, I have to co-sign with Rikyrah; this was really deep! A must share! You know Louis Farrakhan is often described as the one free negro in America. I couldn't help but think that Oprah Winfrey is demonstrating that she is in that most exclusive pantheon as well. For all the criticism she gets of not 'being down' with Black folks, she was the one negro willing to actually put something significant--a billion dollar industry--at stake to support a brother.

Phoebe · 2 years ago

Wow, I didn't know Ben Carson was a real person! I just finished watching season 4 of The Wire on dvd...

rikyrah · 2 years ago

Phoebe,


not only is he real, but he's a true American Hero. You should read his books; I'm sure they are available at amazon.com

ChitownS · 2 years ago

Bruce, I am in no way suggesting you choose a candidate simply because he can't get a cab and neither can you. I just think some of your comments are misguided at best, inaccurate at worst.


How do you propose we unify the democratic party? Which is more important the history (Clinton) or the future (Barack)? We know what the Clintons did (NAFTA and Welfare reform) to name a few. I recall that black folk were upset at both of those decisions from Bill's administration. So, again, do not go blindly into the fold of Barack supporters, but do understand that there are no perfect candidates in politics - ever!

Anonymous · 2 years ago

Way too much hateration on those who came before, IMO. Jessie Jackson Sr, Al Sharpton, and Andrew Young represent no one but themselves. The rest of us can't stand them either. Blame white media-- not us.
Makes you wonder how many of your facts are also wrong, since it's simple enough to find out that Diana Ross was never married to Berry Gordy.

Nita · 2 years ago

'Mahogany' was a great movie.


Owning your own legitimate business is self-empowerment, and should be encouraged. You're in control of your own destiny. You have a greater stake, and will work harder to become involved in order to protect that stake. Those who already have power will have to acknowledge that stake instead of dismissing you as only a consumer. I can't think poorly of people who are trying to come into their own. Isn't that part what all the marches are about, after all?



I agree with the disappointment that people have to 'tone themselves down'/'publically turn one's back' (a la Michael Jordan) in order to be accepted by the mainstream; but I believe it is possible to navigate that course and still bring something positive to the greater community.



As for Oprah and Obama, we'll see. I hope people are not disappointed when the first primary results are released.

Bruce A. Dixon · 2 years ago

I could not care less about achieving "Democratic unity" or choosing between Hillary and Barack, whom I think are Siamese twins.


"Democratic unity" is always achieved at the expense of Democratic voters, anyway. Democratic voters want the war to end, yesterday. Democratic candidates, except for Gravel and Kucinich want it to continue. Democratic 'unity' is being achieved by the corporate media portraying pro-war Democrats like Barack as antiwar.



Similarly on health care Democratic voters want single payer health care for all on the French, Canadian, Brit or Medicare model, but all the leading Democratic candidates want to prop up private insurers. Unity is achieved by banishing all discussion of single payer from the discourse visible to most voters, and by all Dem candidates mouthing the words "universal health care" several times in each speech.



This is a fake unity lubricated by lies and made possible because we have allowed ourselves to be bullied and demoralized out of envisioning a truly better world and pushing back the boundaries of the possible to make it happen. We have curtailed our expectations and shrunk our souls to the point where we police each other --- telling each other that we MUST choose between Hillary and Barack, between Democrat at Republican, to where we congratulate ourselves on our "realism" when all we are doing is meekly limiting ourselves to the choices our betters lay before us.



I am old enough to recall the tail end of the sixties. Our demands were plainly impossible, unreasonable and un-doable in the minds of our betters. That way lies struggle and the possibility of real change. That is the difficult path. The easy one is settling for the choices that the authorities offer you (Barack vs Hillary, Dems vs Repubs). The easy path is never a road to significant change. Not ever.