3 February, 2010 — Black Agenda Report

How Corporate Dollars Dominate the Black and Latino Conversation on Network Neutrality
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
The utter dependence of our “civil rights” organizations like the NAACP and LULAC upon corporate donations from Big Cable and the telecom industry has caused them to weigh into FCC rulemaking processes against network neutrality and for the continued digital redlining of black and brown communities. They are joined by a substantial cohort of black and Latino elected officials on the federal and other levels. What does this mean for minority communities, whose economic development depends on the availability of cheap, accessible broadband and a relatively free and open internet?
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/how-corporate-dollars-dominate-black-and-latino-conversation-network-neutrality

Freedom Rider: Show Trial
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
In order that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be denied even the formalities of American justice as we once knew it, the system itself must be eviscerated. “Phony concerns about security costs and whipped up fears of impending terror attacks are used to subvert the legal system that was once held up as a model for the rest of the world to follow.”
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-show-trial

Glen Ford on Black Realities and Delusion in the Age of Obama
video:
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/glen-ford-black-delusion-age-obama

Haitians in the Bahamas Harrassed, Hunted and Scapegoated
video:
Two centuries after the world’s most successful slave rebellion Haitians are still being punished, both in their own country and in the nations to which they emigrate. In the Bahamas, Professor alex Morely explains, Haitians are an underclass, over-policed, over-exploited, underpaid and under surveillance. The Bahamian ruling elite have learned to blame Haitians like Lou Dobbs blames Mexicans.
blip.tv/file/3169031

Omali Yeshitela at Black Is Back: Creating A Broad Social Movement Based in Our Black Communities
video:
Omali Yeshitela of the Uhuru Movement, convenors of the January 2010 Black Is Back conference in St. Petersburg explains that the 21st century successor to the Freedom Movement must be a broad social movement firmly rooted, among other places, in black America, and describes a little of what that looks like.
blip.tv/file/3168275

Eshu’s blues: An Open Letter to President Obama on Haiti
by BAR columnist michael hureaux perez
Even when claiming to speak to the nation and world about Haiti, Barack Obama winds up talking about America – and himself. The author writes, “Mr. President…”I am always astounded to see just what a shallow and pretentious presence your elevation to the national scene has become, even at this moment of colossal tragedy.”
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/eshu’s-blues-open-letter-president-obama-haiti

Obama Sec’y of Education Says Katrina “the Best Thing to Happen” to Education in New Orleans
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
If obscene utterances were a crime, education secretary Arne Duncan would be jailed for life. Like all disaster capitalists, he views poor people’s catastrophes as his own golden opportunities. In Haiti and New Orleans, Black lives were a small price for (someone else) to pay for the chance to create a new order “more advantageous to the rich.”
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama-secy-education-says-katrina-best-thing-happen-education-new-orleans

Ruling Provides New Hope for Felon Voting Rights
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
In what is being hailed as a landmark ruling, a federal court found that the criminal justice system is “infected” with racial discrimination. As a result, said the judges, disenfranchisement of felons is a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/ruling-provides-new-hope-felon-voting-rights

War Looms in Nigeria’s Oil Fields
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
A headless Nigerian state braces for renewed civil war in the Niger River Delta, where guerillas threaten “all-out” assaults on oil facilities. Attacks on vessels off the Nigerian coast are already comparable to Somalia.
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/war-looms-nigerias-oil-fields

Mainstream Media’s Tea Party Tryst
by Sikivu Hutchinson
White nationalism is the permanent American “populist” movement, one that never truly goes away. “Thinly disguised as saber rattling against big government, race-baiting propaganda has been revitalized as the Republican strategy for taking back the country.”
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/mainstream-media’s-tea-party-tryst

Protecting Haiti’s Interest
by John Maxwell
The “Big Three” tormenters of Haiti – the U.S., France and Canada – now posing as the quake-struck nation’s benefactors, ponder how to rebuild Haiti without Haitian input or permission. “France, the United States and Canada owe the Haitians billions in damages. It is not for them to tell the Haitians what to spend it on.”
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/protecting-haitis-interest

What Next for Haiti as “Recovery” Replaces Relief?
by Danny Schechter
The U.S. corporate media, the Empire’s mouthpieces, blame the powerless people and feeble institutions of Haiti for their plight. ”Few reviewed the history of Washington’s occupations and support for dictators as a reason for why the country was kept so poor and unable to run a relief effort when they needed to.”
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/what-next-haiti-”recovery”-replaces-relief