rev. 'icarus', the obama campaign, & the left

The Black Commentator: Rev. ‘Icarus’, the Obama Campaign, & the Left by Bill Fletcher, Jr. gives some insight into what Rev. Wright's real crime was and why certain folks got so mad.

maybe michael steele just really likes the princess bride?

Michael Steele on Obama's shifting the focus from Iraq to Afghanistan:
Well, if he is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Alright, because everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history has failed.

Huffington Post: Michael Steele Says Afghanistan Was 'War Of Obama's Choosing,' Not Something The U.S. 'Wanted To Engage In'

no, the obama campaign did not embrace che guevara

Carpetbagger Report: No, the Obama campaign did not embrace Che Guevera by Steve Benen

black iraqis in basra face discrimination

I just heard this on the radio as I was on my way to work and had to share...

Morning Edition, December 3, 2008 · The election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency was celebrated with special fervor by Iraqis of African descent in the southern port city of Basra.

Although they have lived in Iraq for more than 1,000 years, the black Basrawis say they are still discriminated against because of the color of their skin, and they see Obama as a role model. Long relegated to menial jobs or work as musicians and dancers, some of them have recently formed a group to advance their civil rights.

NPR: Full Story

Also, Third Resurrection has a number of posts about Black Arabs and racism in the Middle East. (Some of the same stories may also be found here: the black knight /Dec 5, 2008)

para votar pa' obama (la bamba)

And you can go over to Elenamary's blog to check out the Mariachi tune: Viva Obama!

hispanic governor, bill richardson, endorses obama over clinton

ABC News: Richardson: Obama's Race Speech Won Me

president obama and afro-latinos

Blacklatino.net: Will President Barack Obama make a difference for Afro-Latinos? by Christopher Rodriguez

obama speech in cairo

Huffington Post: Obama Speech In Cairo (VIDEO, Full Text)

steele and afghanistan round-up

I have to admit that I like Michael Steele a bit more than I "should". It's not just the entertainment value of his gaffes but I actually think adding his voice to the mix is healthy for the Republican Party and, in the very long term, for the country as a whole. Don't get me wrong... he's Republican, so on average I'm going to not like his positions. But I also wholeheartedly agree with Earl Ofari Hutchinson's observation:

For now though the RNC still needs Steele for the very reason he was plucked for the lead role in the first place. In the wake of Obama's smash White House win, he was the best hope to prevent a battered, beaten, and demoralized GOP had from being shoved to the netherworld of national politics. The GOP is still widely sneered at and dismissed as an insular party of unreconstructed bigots, Deep South, rural and, non-college educated blue collar whites. Steele gives the party an image sheen that is anything but white, rural and Deep South.

I would even say I'm slightly optimistic that the growing prominence of Black (and also Indian-American) conservatives might help turn the image into a reality. In the healthiest case, the Republicans would dump their race-baiting, Southern-Strategy-playing xenophobic elements and morph into an honest pro-business libertarian party.

I would also mention that this episode shows how Ron/Rand Paul style libertarianism is not uniformly scary but is more of a mixed bag. Yeah, they have their reservations about the Civil Rights Act (which is not a trivial problem) but they are also more critical of the US various "adventures" in the Muslim world and elsewhere (which is also not a negligible thing).

Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Steele got it Right about Afghanistan, But for the Wrong Reason
Fareed Zakaria Criticizes 'Disproportionate' Afghanistan War On CNN
Ron Paul Praises Embattled RNC Chief Michael Steele For 'Leadership' On Afghanistan
Jon Fleischman Is Latest GOP Official To Criticize Afghan War
Steele Summoned to Limbaugh's (Extremely) White House
Steele's Resignation Would Be a Catastrophe for Obama
Rethink Afghanistan

the dark knight: the rise of "the real" obama

Goatmilk: THE DARK KNIGHT: The Rise of “The Real” Obama

obama redraws map of religious voters

NPR: Obama Redraws Map Of Religious Voters by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

bill quigley: ten things the us can and should do for haiti

Common Dreams: Ten Things the US Can and Should Do for Haiti by Bill Quigley

One. Allow all Haitians in the US to work. The number one source of money for poor people in Haiti is the money sent from family and workers in the US back home. Haitians will continue to help themselves if given a chance. Haitians in the US will continue to help when the world community moves on to other problems.

Two. Do not allow US military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Hungry Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions have already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief - but do not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the people.

Three. Give Haiti grants as help, not loans. Haiti does not need any more debt. Make sure that the relief given helps Haiti rebuild its public sector so the country can provide its own citizens with basic public services.

Four. Prioritize humanitarian aid to help women, children and the elderly. They are always moved to the back of the line. If they are moved to the back of the line, start at the back.

Five. President Obama can enact Temporary Protected Status for Haitians with the stroke of a pen. Do it. The US has already done it for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Somalia. President Obama should do it on Martin Luther King Day.

Six. Respect Human Rights from Day One. The UN has enacted Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced People. Make them required reading for every official and non-governmental person and organization. Non governmental organizations like charities and international aid groups are extremely powerful in Haiti - they too must respect the human dignity and human rights of all people.

Seven. Apologize to the Haitian people everywhere for Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh.

Eight. Release all Haitians in US jails who are not accused of any crimes. Thirty thousand people are facing deportations. No one will be deported to Haiti for years to come. Release them on Martin Luther King day.

Nine. Require that all the non-governmental organizations which raise money in the US be transparent about what they raise, where the money goes, and insist that they be legally accountable to the people of Haiti.

Ten. Treat all Haitians as we ourselves would want to be treated.

Bill is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Quigley77@gmail.com

pray for obama

Apparently, in some Christian circles, a popular design on bumper stickers, t-shirt, mugs etc. has the words "Pray for Obama" followed by "Psalm 109:8". If you bother to look up the passage, you'd find the verse is: Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Ha. Ha. Very clever. Although if you look at the next verse, the passage becomes much more sinister: Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

I hope the FBI is watching these people.

unfit for publication: obama nation vaccination

You may have heard of Jerome Corsi's Obama Nation which represent's his attempt to "Swiftboat" the Democratic presidential candidate. If so you might also be interested in checking out the pdf of Unfit for Publication which is a point-by-point rebuttal of many of the dishonest claims in Corsi's work. Corsi himself seems to be a pretty foul kind of bigot who compares Islam to a virus and makes a number of negative comments about "rag heads" and Catholics.

obama inspires afro-brazilians

Al-Jazeera: Obama inspires Afro-Brazilians by Gabriel Elizondo in Salvador, Brazil

on joe (joseph) stack

The article Terrorism: The Most Meaningless and Manipulated Word by Glenn Greenwald takes a look at the Joseph Stack incident and uses it to underline some of the hypocrisy behind how the term "terrorist" is used today (to delegitimize Muslims).

When I first read about Joseph Stack flying a plane into an Austin office building which housed the local IRS office I pretty much saw him as a Tea Party terrorist. After reading the Joseph Stack Manifesto I have to admit that he does have some left-wing elements to his "ideology" but on balance he seems more like an ordinary "Joe" who has had a series of frustrating Kafka-esque experiences with the bureaucratic IRS. At the same time,there do seem to be some tea party types embracing him as an American hero after the fact.

In any case, even if this particular incident isn't the responsibility of someone clearly in the Tea Party camp, there have certainly been other warning signs that anti-Obama conservative backlash has been becoming more and more aggressive and has the potential for moving in violent directions. (see pray for obama and the murder of george tiller)

See also: I Am Not Saying Joe Stack Is A Teabagger, But He’s A Little Teaish By Casey Gane-McCalla

black presidents (part six)

It is likely that with the possible exception of occasional updates on Obama's candidacy, this will be the last entry in this series on Black presidents. I'd meant to comment on the topic of the current post especially after I realized that some folks were finding their way to Planet Grenada by trying to learn more about this subject anyway...

but Sondjata over at Garvey's Ghost already beat me to the punch with his entry: On These So Called "Black" Presidents

I'd heard this claim before because some of the Afrocentric bookstores I would frequent carried J.A. Roger's book "The Five Negro Presidents". Basically, the claim is that several of the past U.S. Presidents (not counting Bill Clinton) had some amount of African descent and were therefore only "passing" as white. (The candidates are Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge).

Personally I would not want to dismiss these claims without really looking at the evidence but in some cases the racial identification seems more rooted in negative campaigning in a racist society than on solid genealogical information. Furthermore, as Sondjata's post underlines, the fact that anyone could consider any of the candidates "Black" just reveals some of the extremely bizarre implications of the one-drop rule and the American construction of race.

See also:
5 Black Presidents by Dr. Leroy Vaughn
DiversityInc: Obama Wouldn't Be First Black President by Aysha Hussain

black presidents (part four)
black presidents (part five)

third party for african-americans (in ny)?

Race-Talk: A third party: The choice for the African-American masses by Frederick Meade describes the reasons behind the creation of the state-wide third party, the New York Democratic Freedom Party. (Primarily, a perceived neglect of African-American interests on the part of the Democratic Party, even post-Obama).

see also: top ten reasons why van jones should give up on obama and the democratic party and come home to the greens

capers funnye

For a different look at the relationship between Blackness and Jewishness, we can consider Rabbi Capers Funnye, a long time leader in the Black Jewish community, and a cousin of Michelle Obama.

BETH SHALOM B’NAI ZAKEN ETHIOPIAN HEBREW CONGREGATION 

The New York Times: Obama's Rabbi 

 Huff Post: Jewish Voices of Color Must be Heard 

Killing the Buddha: Meet Black Judaism

y tu abuela, a’onde esta?

La Chola (formerly Brownfemipower) recently linked to a post over at Waiting 2 Speak: Y tu abuela, a'onde esta? which touches on and fleshes out some of the gendered hassles faced by Afro-Latinas. especially in the contexts of personal relationships. The title is a reference to a poem by Fortunato Vizcarrondo (which is a central text in terms of Afro-Latino identity and which has appeared before on Planet Grenada in y tu abuela donde esta?)

The author over at Waiting 2 Speak also links to Latinopundit and the more explicitly political post: Barack Obama and Latinos: ¿Sí se puede?

Also check out:
obama and black latinos
nigger-reecan blues by willie perdomo (maybe it should be nigger-rican blues?)