Bruce A. Dixon's blog

Does the Black Political Class Actually Protect or Defend Black People? If Not, What Do They Do?

Wed, 05/09/2012 - 14:43 — Bruce A. Dixon

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Do the black political class, our preachers, leading business people, and thousands of appointed and elected officials actually do us much good? Do they protect or defend us? Do they carry our wishes and will to the seats of power. Or do they just “represent” us by merely being there doing the bidding of corporate funders?

When Will First Lady Michelle Obama Denounce Wal-Mart's Criminal Practices?

Wed, 05/02/2012 - 13:26 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Michelle Obama has gained a priceless image as an advocate of exercise and healthy eating. While a previous First Lady was shamed off Wal-Mart's board, Michelle Obama has allowed the giant corporation to leverage her image in its drive to capture more corporate welfare and raise the 27 cents of every US grocery dollar it gets to 30, 40, 50 cents and more. But is it time now for Michelle to divorce Wal-Mart?

Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class?

Tue, 04/24/2012 - 21:28 — Bruce A. Dixon

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

If some racist made an inappropriate remark about the First Lady or her children our national "civil rights leaders" Obama fans all of them, would be all over that. But standing up for ordinary black children is something our leaders just don't do much any more. When was the last time you heard Sharpton, Jealous or any of that tribe inveigh against school closings and the creeping privatization of our schools?

School Closings Come To Atlanta This Week, To Your City Next Week: It's Time To Dump Arne Duncan

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 12:22 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

A national movement to save public education is coming to life, in the face of a decades-long bipartisan campaign to discredit, de-fund, destabilized and destroy public education. President Bush's Education Secretary said teachers unions were terrorist organizations. Obama's man Arne Duncan believes Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to education in New Orleans. Is it time yet to dump, and to dump on Arne Duncan?

After Troy Davis, After Trayvon Martin: What A Real Justice Movement Will Look Like

Wed, 04/04/2012 - 15:45 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

What would a real movement for justice in the wake of Troy Davis and Trayvon Martin look like? How can we actually engage the authorities, and the Obama administration with concrete demands to prevent the next Trayvon Martins? Our friends at the US Human Rights Network have a suggestion worth listening to....

Trayvon Martin, Troy Davis and the 2012 Election

Wed, 03/28/2012 - 15:31 — Bruce A. Dixon

Trayvon Martin Murder

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

When Obama likened Trayvon Martin to his imaginary son, and that there ought to be a national debate about something or other, what did that mean? It might mean that he wants the votes of those outraged by the murder, but Obama isn't prepared do do much of anything to deserve them beyond claiming to feel our pain.

Barack Obama, Democratic Expectations and the Magic Wand

Wed, 03/21/2012 - 11:06 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

What are the people who tell us President Obama hasn't got a “magic wand” really saying? That we have no right to expect a president to use the power of his office to address mass incarceration, the housing, foreclosure, student and consumer debt crises, or end our murderous colonial wars around the world? That we're immature and unsophisticated to demand or expect much of anything more than his pretty black face in that big white house?

Social Media Scam Alert: Top Ten Ways to Tell Kony is Phony

Wed, 03/14/2012 - 10:44 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Thanks to relentless promotion by corporate media, government, celebrities, right wing foundations & church groups, & politicians of both corporate parties, the Kony 2012 video has “gone viral.” Viewed on YouTube more than a hundred million times, it paints a vivid, simple picture, clear enough, its narrator says, for a 5 year old. But is it real, or is it propaganda, and for what purpose?

Like Bill Clinton, Obama Drives Crazy Republicans Even Crazier

Thu, 03/01/2012 - 16:01 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

When a right wing Democrat occupies the White House it does stranger things to Republicans than the full moon does to werewolves. If history is any guide, it doesn't do much positive for the rest of us either....

Giving Away the Store: The Black Political Class as Bystanders and Looters

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 17:02 — Bruce A. Dixon

Black Misleadership Class

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Dr. King once expressed the belief that we might be “integrating into a burning house.” Even that might not be so bad, one supposes, if we were actually fighting the fire. But is America's black political class even committed to fighting the fire at all, to alleviating poverty, to standing up for peace and justice? Are they only about prolonging their perks and careers? Are they firefighters? Or looters?

Why Record Black Male Unemployment Remains Invisible to the First Black President

Wed, 02/01/2012 - 14:44 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

State of the Union speeches usually throw bones in every direction, to every constituency that matters to a president. But even though black male unemployment is at record levels, even higher than when the president declared the “recession” over, it remains beneath the notice of the First Black President.

Black America Paralyzed, Powerless, Irrelevant: Year 4 of the Obama Era

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 11:08 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Next week will mark the third anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration, and the unveiling of his fourth budget. Already White House spokespeople admit that it will be bad news for black and poor Americans. In three years this president has investigated and prosecuted not a single Wall Street banker or institution, not held up the wave of foreclosures a single week, not addressed the issues of black unemployment or black mass incarceration. But black America has silenced itself to protect the career of the First Black President.

Will Black Mecca Bail Out Its Gentrifiers and Their Jim Crow BeltLine Streetcars?

Wed, 01/11/2012 - 13:51 — Bruce A. Dixon

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Hailed by “smart growth” advocates around the country, the Atlanta BeltLine, is a massive & racist gentrification scheme funded by diverting billions out of Atlanta's Public School budget to banksters and crooked developers. But those billions aren't enough. To bail out the BeltLine, the governor and Atlanta's black mayor want to levy a one-cent sales tax on Atlanta for streetcars and light rail most of black Atlanta will never ride, for Jim Crow streetcars, when black Atlanta neighborhoods don't even get 24 hour bus or train service. Can the black misleadership class really pull this off?

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Does the 2012 Election Mean Anything To African America?

Wed, 01/04/2012 - 16:52 — Bruce A. Dixon

With the First Black President having put social security cuts on the bargaining table before even being sworn in, ignoring record black unemployment and mass incarceration, and doubling down on every abhorrent Bush policy from imperial wars in Asia and Africa to letting corporate polluters and criminal banksters go unmolested, what is the 2012 election really about for black America? Bragging rights?

Georgia Prison Strike, One Year Later: Activists Outside the Walls Have Failed Those Inside the Walls

Wed, 12/21/2011 - 12:51 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

In December 2010 inmates in up to a dozen Georgia prisons either refused to leave their cells for work assignments, or were pre-emptively locked down by prison officials. They demanded wages for work, access to educational programs, fairness in release decisions, along with decent food and medical care. An ad hoc coalition sprung up to negotiate with state officials, and gained privileged access to Smith and Macon State Prisons. But the coalition has long since withered and died, without even issuing reports from its December 2010 fact finding visits. What happened? And what happens next?