Black Agenda Report

The Next Test for the Congressional Black Caucus
by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon
Any day now, the U.S. Congress will decide if the corporate media stranglehold on radio will be loosened by allowing community groups to operate low-power FM (LP-FM) radio stations at hundreds of locations. Black grassroots politics has been crippled over the last several decades by the near-extinction of local news, but many African American lawmakers appear to have adjusted nicely to corporate dominion over the airwaves. Huge blocks of the Black Caucus vote in synch with Big Media’s demands, in return for campaign contributions. Corporate media is out to scuttle low-power FM. Will the Black Caucus capitulate, again?

Freedom Rider: Supreme Injustices
by Bar editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Our worst nightmares are becoming reality as George Bush’s U.S. Supreme Court strangles the very concept of due process and nonracial administration of justice. In its latest frothings, the High Court ruled that workers must be clairvoyant in order to win job discrimination cases – requiring they file charges within 180 days of the offense, thus leaving no room to prove a pattern and practice of discrimination. The justices affirmed that potential jurors who oppose the death penalty – disproportionately Black – can be excluded from capital cases, ensuring that “only racist, conviction happy jurors sit in judgment.”

If Bush-Cheney Can’t Be Impeached, Nobody Can
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
By allowing the opportunity to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney to slip away, Democratic Leadership – and the ineffectual Congressional Black Caucus – are complicit in the death of the rule of law in the United States. There is hardly a law that has not been broken by the Bush gang in their six-year crime spree – a massive criminal conspiracy that began with the theft of the 2000 election and continues with impunity under a Democratic Congress. The Black Caucus, whose constituents would support impeachment “in an instant,” tremble like Chihuahuas under the gaze of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Other stories:

Barack Obama’s White Appeal and the Perverse Racial Politics of the Post-Civil Rights Era
by Paul Street
Barack Obama’s vaunted cross-racial appeal means whites have finally found a Black politician they feel comfortable with – in contrast to their feelings about the great bulk of African Americans. Is that a good thing? Emphatically not, since it is predicated on the belief that Obama isn’t really “all that Black.” Obama actively encourages notions of his own “exceptionalism” through his “deep willingness to accommodate white supremacy.” His declaration that Blacks have already come “90 percent of the way” to racial equality signals to many that the days of having to listen to African American complaints are almost over – when nothing could be further from the truth.

The Scramble for Africa's Oil
by Christopher Thompson
The Pentagon is embarked on a massive effort to militarily secure African oil assets for the United States. Under cover of the so-called “war on terror,” the U.S. is deepening its military ties to “friendly” African regimes, enhancing their capacity to deal with internal dissidents and external rivals. From the Horn of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea and the Niger Delta, the Americans bolster authoritarian regimes and flaunt U.S. air, naval and “special operations” power. Even the FBI has gotten into the act, performing interrogations of hundreds of “suspects” swept up in Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia and brutal suppression of internal foes.

World Still Failing Sub-Saharan Africa
by Rajesh Makwana
Despite all the rich-country rhetoric about alleviating poverty and disease in Africa, AIDS deaths are accelerating and the number of Africans subsisting on less than a dollar a day has barely changed in seven years. Soon, 250 million people will have no access to clean water. Yet the International Monetary Fund claims Africa’s economies are enjoying robust growth – good news only for corrupt elites and multinational corporations, with almost no “trickle down” to the people. Economic growth seems wholly disconnected from “the provision of basic human needs.” The so-called “free market system” does not work, except for those who control the market.

The Slow Slide to Barbarity on the Border
by Laura Carlsen
The basic elements of a horror story are being assembled on the U.S. southern border, which in the next decade or so may become the scene of perpetual low-level warfare. An “American Militarized Security Zone” is slowly taking shape, fueled by racist rhetoric and a fortress mentality that can only lead to transformation of the U.S.-Mexican border into a permanent battleground. In an extrapolation of current realities into the future, the author presents a nightmare scenario of a garrisoned region where “body-counts” and marshal law are the order of the day.

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