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

Obama's America Joins White Walkout From UN Conference on Racism
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
29 Apr 2009
🖨️ Print Article

walkout

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Click the flash player to listen to or the mic to download a copy of this Black Agenda Radio commentary.
The former and present colonizers and enslavers of the world - Europe and its white settler colonies - rose in bogus indignation to denounce the Iranian president's remarks on Israeli racism. But it was a sham and farce, part of the choreographed Obama White House plan to wreck the Durban II international anti-racism conference. "In sabotaging Durban II, Barack Obama succeeded in avoiding coming to grips with grievances registered against the United States, eight years ago."

 Obama's America Joins White Walkout on UN Conference on Race

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Of the 15 nations that either boycotted or walked out of the anti-racism conference, in Geneva, only two – Poland and Finland – were not tainted by or products of colonialism and the slave trade.
What a spectacle it was! Diplomats from the colonizing countries of Europe and the white settler regimes they founded rose in indignation in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, to denounce a Persian leader for racism. Envoys from France, Britain, Spain and Denmark, whose nations are responsible for orgies of rape and pillage that killed untold millions in the centuries-long European war against the darker regions of the planet, pretended that their sensibilities had been assaulted by a speech from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The irate Europeans joined with their brothers and sisters in historical genocide and mass murder, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden – kidnappers of nations, invaders, enslavers of whole peoples – who had boycotted the Geneva conference on racism, commonly known as Durban II. The world is stained with oceans of blood because of these Europeans, yet they have the nerve, the gall, to attempt to demonize the Iranian president for the words he spoke about Israel. Leading the sabotage of the conference was the United States, along with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and, of course, Israel – the European settler colonies that became nations on the bones and stolen land of previous inhabitants.
What a display of unbounded arrogance! Of the 15 nations that either boycotted or walked out of the anti-racism conference, in Geneva, only two – Poland and Finland – were not tainted by or products of colonialism and the slave trade. All the rest are complicit in the death of millions, and most continue to profit from their crimes.
”Most of the world considers the slave trade to have been a crime against humanity.”
The object of European and white settler anger, the Islamic government of Iran, has not attacked anyone in several hundred years. Its president told the conference that an entire nation was made “homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering ... in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine." Most of the world agrees with that assessment – just as most of the world considers the slave trade to have been a crime against humanity. But that verdict is not accepted by the governments of the nations that built fabulous wealth on commerce in genocide.
The walkout in Geneva was all but choreographed by the United States and its Zionist partners, who began subverting the conference from the moment Barack Obama was sworn into office. The U.S. and its allies made sure that President Ahmadinejad’s speech would get lots of corporate media attention. He was the only head of state to address the conference, that day; nobody else came.
In sabotaging Durban II, Barack Obama succeeded in avoiding coming to grips with grievances registered against the United States by delegates to the previous international anti-racism conference, in Durban, South Africa, eight years ago. The U.S. was supposed to report last week on progress made in fighting residential housing segregation, police brutality, the crimes associated with Katrina, and other American racial problems. But it was more important to Barack Obama to whitewash Israel. Now we know who serves whom.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

 

 

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


More Stories


  • Destroyed cars in Israel
    Bryce Greene
    Shielding US Public From Israeli Reports of Friendly Fire on October 7
    06 Mar 2024
    Following the Al-Aqsa flood, media reports blamed the Palestinian resistance for well over one thousand deaths. As the dust settles, reports have since emerged indicating that the IDF killed…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 1, 2024
    01 Mar 2024
    This week we hear about Haiti - the 20th anniversary of the US coup against President Aristide, and the impending U.S. occupation. But first, the Abandon Biden campaign created in the…
  • Abandon Biden campaign rally
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Abandon Biden Campaign
    01 Mar 2024
    Jaylani Husseini joins us to discuss the Abandon Biden campaign, the results of the Michigan primary uncommitted campaign, and Israeli war crimes in Gaza
  • Protest sign saying shame on Kenya
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Moise Assassination Investigation, 2004 Coup, and the Impending Occupation of Haiti
    01 Mar 2024
    Dahoud Andre joins us to discuss the latest indictments in the 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise, the 2004 coup against Aristide, and the latest US plan for the occupation of Haiti.…
  • Cop pointing gun at Aaron Bushnell
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    What Aaron Bushnell Had to Teach Us
    28 Feb 2024
    Aaron Bushnell was desperate for the world to know what was happening to the people of Gaza. So much so that he died by his own hand, publicly, and in a painful way. But Palestinians are dying…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us