Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Anthony Monteiro in Harlem, May 31, 2009, When Obama Won, Did We?
Bill Quigley
10 Jun 2009
🖨️ Print Article

If no video is visible above, click here.  Was the election of the nation's First Black President a victory for our people in the long struggle against racism and empire? Or does it simply mark a change in establishment tactics that will make it even more difficult to press the case for economic justice, and an end to militarism and racism? Professor Anthnoy Monteiro, Distinguished Lecturer in African-American Studies and Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought at Temple University tells us the answer is easy to see, but hard to swallow.

 

In this brief talk at a Harlem event commemorating the life of Hubert Harrison, one of the pre-eminent black activists of the early 20th century, Monteiro expertly discerns the wreckage of our political landscape, and divines the difference between popular myth and facts on the ground. “

Obama's victory, he suggests, was the transient and temporary victory of marketing, symbolizing neither a new acceptance of black America's strivings on behalf of white America and her establishment, nor of rising black power. Go to the prisons in this country and tell us we have transcended race...” Monteiro demands. And while the black turnout in last November's presidential election was unprecedentedly high, turnout in the mayoral elections of Detroit and Philly, majority black cities for the better part of two generations, was well under 20%. So while black people were sold on Barack Obama, they have yet to be sold on the overall legitimacy of the American political system.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Donald Trump and Zelensky
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gerald Horne Analyzes Trump's Ukraine Policy
    14 Mar 2025
    Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian currently holding the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Dr. Horne is a prolific author…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Mahmoud Khalil and the Criminalization of Anti-Zionism
    12 Mar 2025
    The influence of apartheid Israel extends all over the world. Its supporters demand that anyone expressing anti-zionist viewpoints be ostracized, harassed, or arrested. Now, zionists have added…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Essay: The Caucasian Problem, George S. Schuyler, 1944
    12 Mar 2025
    “While we may dismiss the concept of a Negro problem as a valuable dividend-paying fiction, it is clear that the Caucasian problem is painfully real and practically universal.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Podcasting Star Mario Nawful Talks to Rwandan President Paul Kagame
    12 Mar 2025
    High-profile X podcaster and Elon Musk protégé Mario Nawfal recently produced some slick propaganda with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. His team repeatedly asked me to record a six-minute response…
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The Fog of Class War
    12 Mar 2025
    A class consciousness among the working masses, one that takes the issue of race seriously, is critical at this moment. Still, the democrats are working to disrupt this effort to organize against the…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us