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

Is Barack Obama Good For Black People? The Great Debate in Harlem, Part 2 of 2
Bill Quigley
12 Aug 2009
🖨️ Print Article
On June 25, hundreds of black America's formost thnkers and doers gathered at St. Mary's Church in Harlem NY to ask and answer the question of whether Barack Obama was good or bad for black America. We here present some of the 5 to 7 minute presentations pro and con on whether Barack Obama is good for black America. Click the flash players to listen to or the mics to download them in MP3 format.

Glen Ford

The fact, says Dr. Jared Ball of Morgan State University and voxunion.com, is that Barack Obama did not emerge from the struggle of our people for peace and justice.  He has been imposed upon us by outside forces in answer to that struggle, not in fulfillment of it..

Charles Barron

 

While NY City Councilman Charles Barron disagrees with some of Obama's policies, he seems to draw a line around those who disagree with the president, calling them “intellectuals” who he says, do the hood no good.

 

Dr. Marimba Ani

Give the brotha a break?  Dr. Marimba Ani doesn't think we should give the American empire a break.  If anything, she notes, having a black man sitting in the big chair makes it harder to fight.

Charles Barron

 

argues that Barack Obama represents incremental but significant change, and even though the election was eight months ago, reaches back to compare Obama with McCain.

 

 

Viola Plummer

Barack Obama is a “yes we can” symbol of national unity for black people, says Viola Plummer.

.

 

Diop Olugbala

 

 

The Uhuru Movement's Diop Olugbala argues that a lesser evil is still quite evil. We can, he insists, do better.

 

Click here for part one of the Great Debate in Harlem, with Glen Ford, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Nellie Bailey and Dr. Gloria Browne Marshall

 

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


More Stories


  •  “Colonial Logics” Remained for Black Women in “Liberated” Zimbabwe
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    “Colonial Logics” Remained for Black Women in “Liberated” Zimbabwe
    22 Dec 2020
    Black women “posed a problem” for the Black government that replaced white rule in Zimbabwe, because their bodies were thought to “disturb urban space,” said Rudo Mudiwa, a PhD in
  •  Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power Meets African Liberation
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power Meets African Liberation
    22 Dec 2020
    In the political hotbed that was Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1967, US Black Power advocate Stokely Carmichael, who had not yet changed his name to Kwame Ture, made both friends and enemies among th
  • You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
    17 Dec 2020
    The Black misleaders have been busy selling out Black people for half a century, but are still only barely tolerated by the rich man’s Democratic Party and its racist figurehead, Joe Biden.
  • Freedom Rider: Master Biden Speaks
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Master Biden Speaks
    16 Dec 2020
    The civil rights groups’ rather basic requests for voting rights protections and the need for federal intervention to address police brutality were minimized and dismissed by the president-ele
  • Racial Capitalism, Black Liberation, and South Africa
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Racial Capitalism, Black Liberation, and South Africa
    16 Dec 2020
    The phrase racial capitalism first emerged in the context of the anti-Apartheid and southern African liberation struggles in the 1970s.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us