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‘Black America has always been at the forefront of social justice’
The Black
is Back march and rally in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 7 was a step
forward for the Black liberation movement and for all antiracist
activists. The significance of this demonstration is not in the number
of people who attended, but in the program and slogans it put forward—for
immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, reparations for slavery,
universal health care, etc.
The
rally drew a crowd of several hundred to Malcolm X Park to hear
speakers such as Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report; antiwar activist
Cindy Sheehan; Pam Africa, leader of the International Concerned Family
and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Larry Hamm of
the Newark, N.J.-based People’s Organization for Progress; and chair of
the African People’s Socialist Party, Omali Yeshitela.
All
of the speakers condemned the Obama
administration for continuing the war policies of Bush and for
ignoring policies that favor the Black community or working people in
general. Many expressed their anger that they had supported him, only
to be let down by his political inaction. Another theme addressed by
speakers was the continuing role that racism against
oppressed nationalities plays in U.S. society—in spite of the
myth of a “post-racial” America supposedly made possible by
the election of the first Black president.
Below
are excerpts of the speech by Glen Ford, executive director of the
Black Agenda Report, to the Black is Back rally. Transcription is by
Marty Goodman.
By
GLEN FORD
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The way that America has treated us, has cheated us, has made us
suspicious of everything that the rulers do and everything that the
rulers say. [We] have a healthy disbelief, a wise disbelief. We
didn’t believe that they really meant what white settlers said.
Because our lives as slaves showed us that they were liars and we
have not trusted them ever since. So we have a
skepticism of the motives of the rulers of society. That is
our great asset. We don’t trust a word out of their mouths. We know
what has been done and what continues to be done to us … by them.
That’s why Black America has always been at the forefront of social
justice, at the forefront of peace, because we can’t live without
peace and social justice.
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Our
opposition to American aggression abroad has been documented ever since
they’ve been keeping track of Black public opinion. We have always been
on the human side of the equation. The most dramatic evidence of that
in my recent memory came in February 2003; that was about six weeks
before the invasion of Iraq. The Zogby
polling organization posed this question: would you favor an invasion
of Iraq if it would result in the
death of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.
In
answer to that question a strong majority of white men said yes, we
would be in favor of that invasion; bring it on, we don’t care about
the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians. One third of white women
thought that it was all right to slaughter thousands of Iraqi men,
women, and children. But Black Americans answered that same question
from a diametrically opposed viewpoint. Only 7% of African Americans
favored invading Iraq if it would result in the
death of thousands of men, women, and children out of uniform.
And
that’s not because Black people are smarter than white people or
anybody else in this country. It’s because we know what it feels like,
what it looks like, to be on the other side of the gun. We have a
righteous skepticism about the motives of this country’s rulers. That’s
what sets us apart in the United States. It is one our great
strengths.
And
we have consistently stood, until recently, stood strong on the side of
peace and social justice—until we got confused. We got confused when we
learned that there was a possibility that that house down the street
might be occupied by a Black man and that blew our collective minds. It
made us lose our righteous distrust, our righteous skepticism.
Some
of us went out of our minds and started thinking that we were the man.
And we collectively became neutered. We became passive. We were
neutralized as a political people. And all of a sudden war was all
right because a Black said it was a necessary war, and we went along
with that. All of a sudden it was cool to give the wealth of the whole
country away to the bankster class because a
Black man was signing the check.
When
Barack Obama became
a viable candidate for the presidency, we collapsed politically and
started worshiping the ground that he walked on. Not all of us, but too
many of us started doing that and treating him like an idol and an
icon. When Black people collapse there can be no progressive movement
in the United States. Our collapse in the
presence of this great trickster, Barack Obama, could not have come at a worse time historically.
Because just as we were collapsing politically, doing nothing, saying
nothing, neutralized, pacified, finance capital was collapsing here in
this country and around the world.
What
was the response from organized Black America to this collapse, what
was the response from the most political block in the entire U.S.? There was very little,
almost none. Because we were adulating Barack
Obama as he rescued George Bush’s bailout of
the banks, and he wasn’t even president yet.
We
adulated him as he dedicated the entire American state to the task, to
the mission, of saving the Wall Street casino. By March of this year,
according to Bloomberg’s financial services, the U.S. government under Barack Obama had
committed $12.8 trillion dollars—$12.8 trillion dollars, to bailing out
Wall Street. By July, that figure that figure had risen to $23.7
trillion dollars. The entire gross domestic product of the U.S. in 2008
was only $14.2 trillion. And here in July, months ago, the U.S. has already committed $23.7
trillion to saving the banksters.
And,
of course, they have saved Wall Street, they’re awash in money while
our joblessness continues to rise, and home foreclosures continue to
rise. The casino is humming, but the rest of us look like the other
part of Atlantic City. Y’all been there? Stone cold ghetto. Nothing
moving, except the casino. That’s the kind of country that Barack Obama has
committed us to….
We
have watched as the finance capitalist class has swallowed the American
state whole. They own it lock, stock, and barrel and into the future.
And we were collectively were paralyzed because a Black man was in the
White House. We watched as a Black man signed the biggest war budget in
the history of the human race.
The
time for watching and the time for waiting is
over. We are going to build a new movement from these small beginnings
because there is no choice for us. The call [for the Black is Back
rally and coalition] only came out seven weeks ago from the Uhuru movement. The same people who stood alone in
standing up to candidate Barack Obama back in August of 2008 by simply posing the
question, “What about the Black community, Obama?”
No
one else posed that question, no one else had the guts or the insight
or the manly and womanliness to pose that question. That question has
led to our gathering here. That question has led to the beginnings of
the building of a “Black is Back Coalition,” for peace, social justice,
and reparations. History is on our side. History is rushing down upon
us. We’re going to have to catch up with history, and I know we will
because I know our people.
We
have no choice but speak truth to power. It’s that way. Because the
alternative is political and even physical death. We will live because
we will resist. Power to the people!
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