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

Dr. King’s Televised Challenge to Obama: Tavis Smiley's Anti-War MLK
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
31 Mar 2010
🖨️ Print Article
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Since the onset of the Obama phenomenon, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birth and death days have been “polluted” by false and ahistorical comparisons between Obama and MLK. The two men represent opposite political poles: one, a radical opponent of imperial war and concentrated economic power, the other, an ally of Wall Street and commander-in-chief of “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” In focusing on King, the man of peace, Tavis Smiley’s PBS special corrects a history that has been distorted, sometimes beyond recognition – not the least by the revisionist and poseur in the White House.

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: El Jones’s Book, “Abolitionist Intimacies”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: El Jones’s Book, “Abolitionist Intimacies”
    18 Jan 2023
    This week’s featured author is El Jones. Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She teaches at Mount Saint Vincent University, where she was named the…
  • White Supremacy
    Jemima Pierre , Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús
    White Supremacy
    18 Jan 2023
    White supremacy should not be identified solely with self-proclaimed white nationalists. It is a centuries old, international, economic, and political system that cannot be eradicated with…
  • Masterminding Somalia's Misrule
    Dr. Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad
    Masterminding Somalia's Misrule
    18 Jan 2023
    Dr. Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad is a Somali Kenyan and Kenyan citizen. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Horn of Africa Studies and a specialist in political science, conflict…
  • Ukraine and Imperialism's Death Spiral
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Ukraine and Imperialism's Death Spiral
    18 Jan 2023
    Glen Ford spoke at a May 10, 2014 Ukraine teach-in sponsored by the International Action Center in the wake of the U.S. backed coup. His words were prescient and explain U.S. actions…
  • The Empire Provides A Paper Trail To The Conflict In Ukraine, No Matter What The Latte Left Says
    Jacqueline Luqman
    The Empire Provides A Paper Trail To The Conflict In Ukraine, No Matter What The Latte Left Says
    18 Jan 2023
    Ukraine is a challenge to those who claim to be on the left. War propaganda tells us to support U.S. imperialism, but even cursory knowledge of the facts shows that the U.S. and its allies provoked…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us