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

Letters from BAR Readers, Week of Oct 20, 2018
Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
21 Oct 2018
🖨️ Print Article
more of the same
Email and other feedback from our readers. Join the conversation at comments@blackagendareport.com.

This week readers wanted to talk about "MLK Disrupted for Justice” and " The Long Night Has Fallen on Supreme Court”. Readers engaged with the historical legacy of Dr. King and the Democratic Party’s complicity in the regressive direction of the Supreme Court.

In the radio segment "MLK Disrupted for Justice” Glen Ford interviewed political scientist Jeanne Theoharis, author of A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History, on the sanitization of Dr. King by opponents of today’s black resistance movements and the reality of King’s disruptive politics deeply offending the powerful in his era.

Paul Cianfrocca comments:

“Could it be that the reason the deep state killed Dr. King is so that they could rewrite his history and co-opt it for their own use? In his last years, he was speaking out more against the Vietnam aggression and other U.S. violence. They couldn't allow that to be the thing he became best known for.”

In "The Long Night Has Fallen on Supreme Court" Glen Ford gives an overview of the decades long Democratic Party cave-in to GOP Supreme Court appointments because of the two parties’ shared allegiance to oligarchy.

Wallace Nixon tells us:

“Ever since the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council by the Clintons the Democrats have become cross-dressing Republicans. They abandoned New Deal policies, abandoned minorities and have made every effort to win back the Reagan Democrats who were white working class voters. They have no principles or consistent message. They are just competing for votes with the other party. Booker T. Washington didn´t have much use for them and neither did W.E.B. DuBois. Marcus Garvey had no use for them, neither did Elijah Muhammad, Malcom X or Huey Newton. What we didn´t learn from the experience of Fannie Lou Hamer we should have learned from how they treated Cynthia McKinney. Democrats are active and almost open collaborators with the other party. It is a game of three-card Monte where all the players but the public know what is going on.”

Ron Williams says:

“I agree with everything in this article, however to save all your criticism for the Democrats and 100% ignore the Freight Train heading one way driven by the Republicans is a very bad thing. The American system is designed to have a Strong Right/Republican party and a Weak Left/Democratic party. That is the setup.”

Glen Ford responds:

“We all know that the GOP, the White Man's Party, is the enemy. The problem is, too many Black folks forget what Malcolm said about foxes and wolves both being canines and think the Democrats are our friends.”

It’s great to see engagement with the history of King, Malcolm and other elders of the Black freedom struggle this week. Expect another set of letters and responses next week. Remember your letters make BAR a forum for new ideas on the Black Left.

Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

 

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


More Stories


  • Moroccans Protest Normalization of Ties with Israel
    Peoples Dispatch
    Moroccans Protest Normalization of Ties with Israel
    07 Dec 2021
    Governments choose to make deals that often do not reflect the wishes of the people. Normalization of relations with Israel elicited protests in Morocco, the latest state to
  • Barbados: the Long Road to the Republic
    Richard Drayton
    Barbados: the Long Road to the Republic
    07 Dec 2021
    The nation of Barbados recently became a republic, severing its ties with the British crown. The road to independence began years earlier as part a wider Caribbean movement.
  • China is Not Colonizing Africa
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    China is Not Colonizing Africa
    01 Dec 2021
    International media cannot be trusted to give accurate information. Skepticism is especially warranted when China is the topic and allegations of colonizing Africa make headlines.
  • Interview: Malcolm X and Young Socialist, 1965
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Interview: Malcolm X and Young Socialist, 1965
    01 Dec 2021
    A 1965 interview with Malcolm X demonstrates how his encounters in Africa had a profound impact on his thinking about the domestic struggles of Africans in the Americas.
  • U.S. military outposts, port facilities, and other areas of access in Africa, 2002-2015 (Nick Turse/TomDispatch, 2015)
    Dina M. Asfaha, Tunde Osazua
    Eritrea Versus AFRICOM: Defending Sovereignty in the Face of Imperialist Aggression
    01 Dec 2021
    The rapid expansion of AFRICOM on the African continent should be a cause for concern as African nations are quickly surrendering their sovereignty to the US.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us