The New Dark Age

Black Agenda Report the journal of African American political thought and action

Yes, Obama is “Engaged” – in a Colossal Crime
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Corporate media pretend to measure degrees of presidential “engagement” with the Gulf crisis – an “oceanic version of Chernobyl.” Such conversations are totally disengaged from the overarching reality that screams from the depths of the sea: “Huge corporations are empowered to seek profits with absolutely no regard for the consequences to Earth or Man.”

Black America, Corporate Media and the Siege of Gaza
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
This weekend, heavily armed Israeli military forces intercepted a flotilla bearing relief supplies for Gaza in international waters. The intention of the crew and passengers, who hail from more than a dozen countries and include a number of Israeli Jews, was to run the more than three year old blockade of food, trade goods, medical supplies and construction materials to the 1.5 million people of Gaza, the world’s largest open air prison, to force US corporate media to cover the slow motion starvation imposed upon Gaza by the US and its client state of Israel, and ultimately to end the siege.

Freedom Rider: BP Rules
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
BP and the mere humans that run it remain “in charge” of the scene of their crime, despite President Obama’s protestations to the contrary. “The Coast Guard only allows as much media access as BP will allow” – proof that the Obama regime treats the multinational corporation’s interests as paramount even to its own. BP has nothing to fear “because they know who is boss.”

Obama and the Charter School Sugar Daddies
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
As hedge funds spin their financial webs to spur charter school expansion and President Obama bullies states to lift caps on charters, “right-wing foundations are attempting to swallow whole the entire school district of Washington, DC.” For a $65 million donation, the Wal-Mart family and other fat cats demand DC schools drop union rules – and threaten to take back the money if the voters change administrations.

Obama’s Scheme to Kill Public Housing and Give the Land to Banks
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
For the Obama administration, every bit of public space and property is “on the table” – subject to privatization. Transfer of public wealth to private hands seems a White House obsession. Next on the auction block: the nation’s public housing stock. “This is gentrification and urban displacement on a gargantuan scale.”

The “Predatory Buccaneer” and the Overpopulation Lie
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR columnist Jared A. Ball, Ph.D.
The logic of the world-stealers leads inexorably to genocide. Thus, the vast miseries that are the inevitable result of imperial mega-theft must be blamed on the victims who insist on continuing to breathe. There is no overpopulation, and “Mother Nature is not the problem. Predators and imperialists are.”

Eshu’s Blues: Make Them Drink It
by michael hureaux perez
The Earth bleeds from a deep wound in the Gulf of Mexico, and humanity suffers the agonies of a thousand cuts – many if not most of them inflicted by the United States and the corporations it serves. What is a progressive to do? “We must begin by conducting a militant defense of the public sector of the economy through whatever grassroots community and labor organizations at our disposal – once again, with the notable exception of the ‘democratic’ party.”

AFRICOM and the ICC: Enforcing international justice in Africa?
by Samar Al-Bulushi and Adam Branch
The United States, which has never joined the International Criminal Court for fear that it might be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, is gearing up to use the ICC as a pretext to act as world gendarme. “The ICC risks becoming the latest pawn of US military strategy on the continent…in particular in conjunction with AFRICOM”

Texas School Board Disappears Race History
by Linn Washington, Jr.
The South is rising again – at least according to the narratives of books vetted by the Texas Board of Education. Right-wing icons and shibboleths are in, the struggle against racism is out. “It is unlikely that students will receive Education Board sanctioned instruction about the May 1916 lynching on the Waco, TX City Hall lawn that was attended by 15,000 spectators.”