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


  • BAR Book Forum: Lavelle Porter’s “The Blackademic Life”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Lavelle Porter’s “The Blackademic Life”
    25 Nov 2020
    Despite academia’s inherent racism, black scholars have figured out ways to work within these institutions.
  • BAR Book Forum: Erin Manning’s “For a Pragmatics of the Useless”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Erin Manning’s “For a Pragmatics of the Useless”
    25 Nov 2020
    Schizoanalysis opens up new alliances (approximations) in the uneasy overlaps of neurodiversity and black life.
  • Alexander Hamilton: An American Slave-Master 
    Bashir Muhammad Akinyele
    Alexander Hamilton: An American Slave-Master 
    25 Nov 2020
    The Broadway show is a fiction and bamboozlement: Hamilton was a depraved enslaver of people, just like most of the Founders of the White Settler State.
  • Our Vaccine Infrastructure Needs a Radical Overhaul
    by Ravi Gupta
    Our Vaccine Infrastructure Needs a Radical Overhaul
    25 Nov 2020
    Public health departments will be hard-pressed to overcome existing racial and class disparities in health care and to address to structural racism.
  • Ethiopia: The TPLF’s Precipitous Fall
    Dr. Fikrejesus Amahazion
    Ethiopia: The TPLF’s Precipitous Fall
    25 Nov 2020
    The TPLF was a “darling” of the West, especially the US and UK.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us