The New Dark Age

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

If Americans understood how poor they actually are – on a par with Latvians and Romanians, according to newly released data – they would dump the Democratic Party. With “more black children in poverty than white children,” it’s past time for African Americans to rid themselves “once and for all of their useless political party” which only pretends to fight for working people in election years.

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

What happens to middle aged white men with only a high school education when white skin privilege is no longer enough to secure a safe haven in the racial pecking order of America? Many members of this cohort seem to be caught in a death spiral.

by Dr. Walter C. Farrell, Jr. Phd, M.S.P.H.

The future of public education is not guaranteed. A corporate-financed “Cartel has infiltrated every level of the political structure by utilizing targeted campaign contributions and has cultivated major backing among public education’s traditional supporters.” The privatizers target heavily minority school districts and do not hesitate to manipulate data “to show fraudulent academic gains.”

by Thomas C. Mountain

Republicans and Democrats at the Benghazi hearings collaborated to disguise what the U.S. was really up to in Libya: regime change and the empowerment of Islamic jihadists in north Africa. As a result of the U.S.-NATO aggression, “fanatics from the entire region have a haven to rest and recuperate, and rearm, before returning to the front lines to commit more murder.”

by Charles Kambanda 

Paul Kagame, the military leader of the Tutsi minority-dominated regime in Rwanda, has engineered a constitutional coup to keep himself in power – mocking his Euro-American sponsors’ claims that Kagame is a force for democracy in Africa. The rewritten constitution would give the strongman “a chance to rule for 17 years after 2017” – effectively making him president for life.

Kick the Cops Out of Schools

Parents and citizens outraged at the manhandling of a 16 year-old female high school student by a white policeman in Richland County, South Carolina, are pressing for dismissal of all charges against the victim and dismissal of the teachers and administrators “who allowed that cop to maintain a reign of terror in that school for years,” said Efia Nwangaza, director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville. The policeman has already been fired. “We will be organizing people’s movement assemblies throughout the state to build the Dignity in Schools Movement, to get cops out of schools,” said Nwangaza. “The call is for culturally competent counselors in, cops out.”

Black Pre-Schoolers Pushed Into School-to-Prison Pipeline

African American kids make up 42 percent of students suspended and expelled from U.S. pre-schools, and a majority of those suspended more than once, according to a study by the Center for American Progress and the National Black Child Development Institute. “If we’re pushing children out as early as 3, 4 and 5, then of course we will see some of the things we see in K-12,” when the harms inflicted on Black kids “throughout their educational careers” propel them into the criminal justice system, said researcher Maryam Adamu.

Newark Police Review Board Faces Moment of Truth

The Civilian Complaint Review Board crafted by Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka must have broad subpoena power, said Larry Adams, vice-chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, one of the community organizations that is to be represented on the board. “If it can’t look into the records of individuals, if it can’t look into the records of the organization, then it is very difficult to provide oversight. And, that’s essentially what these bodies have floundered over in other cities,” said Adams. Community organizations would prefer to have “the authority to impose discipline upon the police,” but that power will reside with the mayor-appointed police director.

Massive Voter Suppression In Haiti

Haiti held presidential elections on October 25, following disastrous legislative elections this summer that were wracked by violence perpetrated by allies of the U.S. backed government. The failure to punish those responsible for the repression on August 9 produced a “catastrophically low” turnout of 20 to 30 percent in October, said Brian Concannon, of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. His interpretation is disputed by Pierre Labossiere, of Haiti Action, who was part of a human rights and fact-finding mission to the island nation. Labossiere believes supporters of the Family Lavalas party of former president Jean Bertrand-Aristide, who was deposed in a 2004 U.S.-backed coup, turned out in huge numbers in October, but that many were denied access to the polls. He predicts that vote tallies to be released this week will show Lavalas was able “to overcome a lot of these fraudulent practices that were carried out.”

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR BLACK AGENDA RADIO