A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.
One step backward: last month, the Obama administration sabotaged the Durban II anti-racism conference, by first watering down the event's language and then refusing to participate. The first Black president of the United States created a coalition of European and white settler regimes - the same powers that inflicted centuries of racist terror on the planet - in defense of the racist Israeli regime. One step forward: Obama expects to steal a public relations coup by joining the UN's Human Rights Council - where he will doubtless pursue the same status quo policies..
Hypocritical Obama “Two-Step” on Human Rights and Racism
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“The president thinks he can wash away the shame of his sabotaging of one United Nations anti-racism conference, at Durban.”
Last month, President Obama insulted people of color at home and abroad by boycotting an international conference on racism, known as Durban II. The shameful U.S. action opened the door for Washington’s allies to also pull out of the event, creating a spectacle in which the European and white settler regimes that were responsible for unleashing African slavery and the color-line on the world in the first place, sabotaged a conference to combat the legacies of their crimes. The Durban II affair was doubly bizarre, in that it was orchestrated by the first Black president of the United States. The common perception was that the primary beneficiary of the U.S. boycott, was Israel. But in fact, President Obama betrayed all the victims and the descendants of victims of the racist terror that ravaged every corner of the planet for centuries before Israel was ever founded – not the least of which are the African American descendants of slave trade. Obama’s main operative in sabotaging the Durban II conference was Samantha Power, who sits on his National Security Council. Power and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice are the administration’s principal advocates of so-called “humanitarian” military intervention, primarily in Africa. Both women have very selective definitions of the term “genocide,” effectively absolving the U.S. of genocide or crimes against humanity while endlessly lobbying for military action against Sudan and other nations in Africa.
“In both foreign and domestic policy, Barack Obama’s doctrine is, Let bygones be bygones.”
Last month, as Samantha Power assured American Zionists that the U.S. would protect Israel from condemnation at the Durban conference, she said her boss would find another venue to explain to the world his “commitments to combating racism and discrimination.” That venue is almost certainly the Human Rights Council of the United Nations – which the United States recently joined after snubbing the Council for years under the Bush regime. President Obama assured United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he would work through the Human Rights Council on issues of racial discrimination – after he boycotted Durban II. So, this is what Obama is up to. The president thinks he can wash away the shame of his sabotaging of one United Nations anti-racism conference, at Durban, by joining another organ of the United Nations – the Human Rights Council. Sometime soon, the White House public relations machine will pour on the hype, announcing that Obama has ushered in a “brand new day” in U.S. human rights policy by joining the Human Rights Council. And as sure as the sun rises, the same organizations that lamented Obama’s behavior surrounding Durban II, will issue press releases full of praise for the administration. It is also just as certain that the United States will use its new seat on the Human Rights Council to protect Israel from righteous condemnation for its racist treatment of Palestinians, and to block any calls for reparations to African nations and African descended peoples for the monstrous crimes of slavery and colonialism. In both foreign and domestic policy, Barack Obama’s doctrine is, Let bygones be bygones. Effectively, that puts him on the side of those who profit from racism, past, present and future.
Dr. Jemima Pierre is a Black Agenda Report contributing editor and a Professor of Global Race in the Institute of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ) at the University of British…
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