Who is Black America's Moral Emissary to the World?
by BAR executive editor
Glen Ford
"Dr. King and Obama
represent opposing moral and political camps."
The two days touch: Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday
observance and Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, January 19 and 20,
respectively. To many, the juxtaposition is self-evident confirmation of the
intersection of the two men's missions on Earth. Dr. King's journey, which
ended with his murder, and Obama's ascent to the presidency, are seen to merge
as the dates approach to form a perfect, tragic-glorious symmetry - a 48-hour
revelation.
The coincidence of the calendar makes for good copy and
grand sermons, but in fact reveals a great moral and political dissonance. It
is true that there could have been no Obama presidency had Dr. King and the
movement he sprang from not existed, but that simple fact of history does not
amount to a King benediction from the grave for Obama's moral character and
political policies. Indeed, Dr. King's life and words are indelible evidence
that he and Obama represent opposing moral and political camps.
Tens of millions of African Americans - who did not choose
the little-known Obama to be their champion, but supported him near-universally
at the polls once his candidacy had been made "viable" - will celebrate
vicarious attainment of power when Obama is sworn in. Yet when confronted on
Obama's political agenda, enough of which has been put in motion and otherwise
made plain since Election Day, few Black Obama supporters can mount a cogent
defense. "Better than McCain" doesn't cut it, anymore.
"Few Black Obama supporters can mount
a cogent defense of his positions."
When the New York Times describes the emerging Obama
administration as "center-right," there is not much for an honest progressive
to defend - and most African Americans are progressive on economic issues and
questions of war and peace. Beyond a ritual counting of the president-elect's
African American appointees, most African Americans seem oblivious to the
political nature of his Cabinet, his policy pronouncements and shameful
silences. More likely, they pretend to be oblivious so as not to lose that
once-in-a-lifetime feeling that happened when the Black man won.
Blacks who have taken on the task of defending Obama, often
wind up revealing themselves as persons of little moral or political substance,
in the process. New York's Dr. Leonard Jeffries is one of the more prominent
Obamists, a self-styled Pan-Africanist. In my second debate involving Jeffries,
in Baltimore, December 20 (the first was the week before, in
Harlem), he repeated his mantra, that Blacks should "study Obama-ology." I
asked him to define this area of study. "Obama-ology," said Jeffries, visibly
exasperated by my questioning of the obvious, "is the study of Obama. How he
raised so much money...how he used the Internet...."
Dr. Jeffries' response revealed his position to have no
political or moral content. He genuflected before Obama because the candidate
raised hundreds of millions of dollars (from whom and in return for what?) and
created an Internet network (to what end, beyond Election Day?). Most
importantly, Obama was a hero because he won. What else is there to know
or say?
"None of the Obamites were even minimally capable of
defending their guy's record."
At the Harlem debate, an Obama defender kept shouting into
her mic, "Obama won! Black people have spoken!" - as if any discussion of his
political positions was extraneous, or racially subversive, on its face. The
woman was a leader of the group that organized the debate, but like others in
her organization clearly did not really want a debate. None of the
Obamites were even minimally capable of defending their guy's record on the
bailout, his retention of George Bush's defense secretary and plans to expand
U.S. military manpower, his positioning of bankers at the controls of his new
administration's economic machinery, his support for AFRICOM, his key advisors'
advocacy of "humanitarian" military intervention - on not one point did
the Obama camp offer anything that could reasonably be called a defense,
coherent or otherwise.
It is not simply that the Obamites failed to muster a
defense in Harlem or Baltimore or other venues; admittedly, it is difficult to
defend the indefensible. What is most shocking - maddening - is their rejection
of any political or moral standard for evaluating the soon-to-be Black
president. All that remains is the fact of Obama's power and the delusion that
Blacks somehow share in that power. There is no thought of speaking Truth to
Power, and certainly no place for a moral compass in such a valueless void.
We can understand, then, how such people would imagine
Obama and Dr. King to be soul mates. The fact that one of these men fought his
whole life against the forces of militarism and economic exploitation, while
the other empowers, and is empowered by, bankers and militarists, does not
register on their anaesthetized moral and political sensors.
"There is no thought of
speaking Truth to Power, and certainly no place for a moral compass."
If the Obamites had more presence of mind, they would avoid comparisons with Dr. King, which can only redound to Obama's great
detriment. King's break with his onetime ally, President Lyndon Johnson, set
the standard for both political and moral behavior. When it became clear that
the War on Poverty was doomed by the war in Vietnam, which acted "like some
demonic destructive suction tube," devouring all available resources, King publicly declared
against the war. In doing so, he severed what had been the most productive
relationship between an American president and a Black leader in U.S. history.
But the war gave him no choice, since military expenditures made
"rehabilitation" of the American poor impossible. Both morality and politics
led to the same conclusion: the Movement could not coexist with war.
The lesson is directly applicable today, but Americans,
Black and white, find it difficult to recognize the characters. Obama is Lyndon
Johnson. National revitalization, including redress of historical African
American grievances, is impossible unless military expenditures are
dramatically reduced. But Obama is committed to putting 100,000 new pairs of
Marine and Army "boots on the ground," an expanded war in Afghanistan/Pakistan,
a beefed up AFRICOM, and a generally bigger U.S. military footprint on the
planet. This, in the midst of global economic collapse.
Dr. King would find creative ways to confront President
Obama's militarism, and to actively resist further diversion of public wealth
to the bankers. Were he to survey the current political scene, King would be
most impressed, not with the Obamas party plans for the night after his
birthday, but with the way that a daughter of Georgia salvaged Black America's
moral reputation at the beginning of Israel's assault on Gaza.
"Not all African
Americans have morphed into warmongering clones of Colin Powell and Condoleezza
Rice."
Cynthia
McKinney's attempted voyage of solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza
on the medical relief boat Dignity, rammed and almost sunk by Israeli warships,
reminds the world that not all African Americans have morphed into warmongering
clones of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Thanks to the presence of the
former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate on the
mission, millions
of Arabs have been made aware of a different Black America, one that is not
silent, like Barack Obama, in the face of a purposely inflicted human rights
catastrophe.
Cynthia McKinney is Black America's moral emissary to the
world. She exemplifies the Black America that consistently opposes U.S.
military adventures abroad, a people that recognize organized racism when they
see it, and therefore condemn Israel's treatment of Palestinians - the Black
America that Martin Luther King came from.
Some of us are still in our right minds. Hopefully, most
of the others will recover, sooner rather than later.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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