Freedom Rider: Obama, Mandela and Dangerous Mythology

By BAR Editor & Senior Columnist Margaret Kimberley

The Obamas’ visit to South Africa, for people of color on both sides of the Atlantic, is heavy on symbolism and photo-ops, but devoid of any substance for those who hunger and thirst for justice. The ANC won the flag at the end of apartheid, but South Africa’s white elite kept the land and the money, after allowing a few well-connected black faces into high places.

Let the world never forget that —paying in blood—it was little revolutionary Cuba that broke the back of the Apartheid regime. [/pullquote]

That history of struggle and the group identity it creates have not been limited to the American experience. The decades long fight against the racist apartheid system in South Africa was supported by millions of people in this country too. Jim Crow was America’s own apartheid. It is only logical that the sight of black people being treated cruelly in the name of white supremacy would elicit feelings of affinity in this country and around the world.

Nelson Mandela’s release from 27 years of imprisonment and his subsequent election as president created a surge of pride and joy among black people everywhere. Unfortunately we did not truly understand what we were witnessing. These events came about as a result of forces unacknowledged in America and they also came with a very high price.

Cuban artillery at Cuito Canevale.

The name of the Angolan town Cuito Cuanavale [5] means little to all but a handful of Americans but it lies at the heart of the story of apartheid’s end. At Cuito Cuanavale in 1988 Cuban troops defeated the South African army and in so doing sealed apartheid’s fate.

It is important to know how apartheid ended, lest useless stories about a miraculously changed system and a peaceful grandfatherly figure confuse us and warp our consciousness. Mandela was freed because of armed struggle and not out of benevolence. He was also freed because the African National Congress miscalculated and made concessions which have since resulted in terrible poverty and powerlessness for black people in South Africa. By their own admission, some of his comrades [6] concede that they were unprepared for the determination of the white majority to hold the purse strings even as they gave up political power.

Now the masses of black South Africans are as poor as they were during the time of political terror. The Sharpeville massacre [7] of 1960 which galvanized the world against South Africa was repeated in 2012 when 34 striking miners were killed by police at Marikana. The Marikana massacre [8] made a mockery of the hope which millions of people had for the ANC and its political success.

Obama’s recent visit to South Africa when the 94 year old Mandela was hospitalized created a golden opportunity for analysis and a questioning of long held assumptions about both men but the irrefutable fact is this. The personal triumphs of these two individuals have not translated into success for black people in either of their countries.

“ It isn’t true that black people benefit from the political success of certain individuals..”

The victory of international finance capital wreaks havoc on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. In the U.S. black people have reached their political and economic low point during the Obama years. The gains won 50 years ago have been reversed while unemployment, mass incarceration, and Obama supported austerity measures have all conspired to undo the progress which was so dearly paid for.

Cuban women volunteers in Angola.

Obama’s visit to Africa as Mandela lay critically ill brought very sincere but very deeply misled people to remember all of the wrong things. It isn’t true that black people benefit from the political success of certain individuals. It isn’t true that role models undo systemic cruelty or that racism ends because of their presence or that white people see or treat the masses of black people any differently when one black person reaches a high office.

The maudlin sentiment was all built on lies. Mandela fought the good fight for many years and is worthy of respect for that reason alone. But his passing should be a moment to reflect on his mistakes and on how they can be avoided by people struggling to break free from injustice. Obama’s career is a story of ambition and high cynicism which met opportunity. There is little to learn from his story except how to spot the next evil doer following in his footsteps.

It is high time that myths were called what they are. They are stories which may help explain our feelings but they are stories nonetheless and they do us no good.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as athttp://freedomrider.blogspot.com. [9] Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

Listen to us on the Black Talk Radio Network at www.blacktalkradionetwork.com

Source URL: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-obama-mandela-and-dangerous-mythology

Links:
[1] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/africa/south-africa
[2] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/africa/nelson-mandela
[3] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/africa/cuba-africa
[4] http://www.blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/southafrica_greets_obama.jpg
[5] http://blackagendareport.com/content/march-23-anniversary-beginning-apartheids-end-battle-cuito-cuanavale
[6] http://blackagendareport.com/content/how-ancs-faustian-pact-sold-out-south-africas-poorest
[7] http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960
[8] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/africa/marikana-massacre
[9] http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/
[10] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Ffreedom-rider-obama-mandela-and-dangerous-mythology&linkname=Freedom%20Rider%3A%20Obama%2C%20Mandela%20and%20Dangerous%20Mythology

ADDENDUM

Anticommunist Cubans have tried to this day to stain and muddle the memory of Cuba’s honorable and generous intervention in Angola, Namibia and South Africa against the Apartheid regime and colonialism/imperialism in general.

Below, in Spanish, a note that sums up the truth about the Cuban international solidarity effort:

oswalt en septiembre 24, 2010 a las 6:27 PM dijo:

antes que todo disculpen mi español

Creo que están alejándose un poco del verdadero motivo de la guerra de Angola, que no fue por ningún interés de gloria ni de honor para cuba, ni para ninguno de los cubanos, ni con ánimos de lucro y saqueo como ocurre en las guerras actuales, lo único que los cubanos trajeron de Angola fue, el amor incondicional de su pueblo y los cadáveres de sus muertos, en primer lugar fue para la liberación definitiva de angola y la desaparicion de una vez y por todas del regimen del Apartheid de las tierras africanas, los mas de 300 000 hombres y mujeres cubanas que pasaron por angola lo hicieron de forma voluntaria, incluyendo los oficiales del ejercito cubano, fue por el basico principo de solidaridad huma hacia un pueblo que lucha por su libertad, de esos mas de 2000 muertos cubanos se encontraban de todos los sectores sociales, murieron desde generales( como Raul Diaz Arguelles) y coroneles cubanos hasta sus propios hijos, los hijos del che y de otros comandantes del ejercito rebelde participaron en esa lucha, tanto es así que el hoy coronel de los servicios de inteligencia cubanos Alejandro Castro Espín hijo Vilma Espin Presidenta de la FMC y héroe de la República de cuba y del actual presidente y general de ejercito Raul Castro perdió un ojo en los combates de Luanda, creo sencillamente que han estado leyendo la historia de los mal intencionados, en cuanto a la educación te puedo asegurar que todos los que pelearon en Angola eran ya bachilleres ya que la educación en Cuba es gratuita y obligatoria.

Responder
(Part of a long discussion in the blog, La Ultima Guerra, dominated unfortunately by anti-Castro voices..)

Obama in Africa

by Stephen Lendman

Voice of America reflects raw imperial power. It broadcasts US propaganda globally. On June 26, it said Obama “arrived in Senegal, the first stop of a three-nation African trip, focused on supporting democratic progress, and increasing US trade and investment.”

It’s his second African trip. He visited earlier as a freshman Illinois senator. He told Kenyans, “I want you all to know that as your ally, your friend and your brother, I will be there in every way I can.”

He lied. He’s a serial liar. Democracy is verboten. Washington tolerates none at home or abroad. America comes to exploit. At issue is controlling Africa’s rich resources.

Obama’s visiting Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. He’ll return July 3. Why these countries? More on this below.

Controversy accompanies Obama. His one-week trip costs an estimated $100 million. At the same time, force-fed austerity harms growing millions at home. Poverty, high unemployment, hunger, and homelessness go unaddressed.

Obamanomics enriches corporate favorites and wealthy elites. Popular needs go begging to do so. Obama demands sacrifice. It’s forced on America’s most disadvantaged, unwanted and uncared for.

Foreign travel costs plenty. Hundreds of secret service, staff and others accompany Obama. Travel, accommodations, security and other costs are enormous.

Military cargo planes brought 56 vehicles. They include 14 limousines and three trucks. They’re specially built for security.

Bulletproof glass will replace hotel windows where Obama and his family stay. Entire floors are needed to accommodate security and staff traveling with him.

US fighter jets provide round-the-clock air cover. In 2011, estimated White House expenses were around $1.4 billion. They include staff, housing, travel, entertainment and perks.

Expenses rise annually. They’ve increased exponentially during Obama’s tenure. Perhaps they’ll approach $2 billion this year. Estimates exclude classified amounts.

What’s spent on Air Force One is secret. So are many other security related categories. Perhaps real White House expenses are double or more estimated amounts.

Americans pay plenty for presidents who betray them. Imagine what presidential largese could buy. America’s hungry could be fed. The nation’s homeless could be sheltered. Needy families could get free healthcare. Students hungry for knowledge could be educated.

Obama’s trip might have cost more. Initial plans included a Tanzania safari. Counterassault team protection against wild animals doesn’t come cheap.

Other Obama trips were criticized. Conservative estimates for his Hawaii vacations exceed $20 million. Perhaps they cost double or triple that amount. Air Force One’s estimated hourly rate is about $180,000.

Obama’s African visit reflects America’s scramble for its resources. They’re vast. They’re some of the world’s largest and richest.

They include oil, gas, gold, silver, diamonds, uranium, iron, copper, tin, lead, nickel, coal, timber, cobalt, bauxite, wood, coltan, manganese, chromium, vanadium-bearing titanium, and much more.

Continental agricultural lands are valued. So is offshore fishing. Senegal’s strategically important. It’s a regional hub. It borders Mali.

Washington provides military aid. The Pentagon trains Senegalese armed forces. America has an economic presence. Senegal’s eligible for preferential trade benefits. The African Growth and Opportunity Act provides them.

US exports include vehicles, machinery, plastic, rice, and textile goods. Senegalese resources are extensive. They include oil, phosphate, gold, iron, copper, uranium, chromium, nickel, zircon, titanium, limestone, salts, barytine and fish.

South Africa’s one of five BRICS countries. Others include Brazil, Russia, India and China. They comprise a significant economic and political block. They account for over 20% of world GDP.

They’re on three continents. They cover more than one-fourth of the world’s land mass. Their population exceeds 2.8 billion. It’s 40% of the world total.

They have their own Joint Business Council. It encourages free trade and investment. China and Brazil agreed to a bilateral currency swap line. It involves trading up to $30 billion annually in their own currencies.

Doing so moves almost half their trade out of US dollars. Other BRICS partners may make similar moves. They endorsed plans to create a joint foreign exchange reserves pool. Initially it’ll include $100 billion. It’s called a self-managed contingent reserve arrangement (CRA).

They plan their own Development Bank. Initial capital will be substantial. Each country may contribute $10 billion for starters. It’s to fund infrastructure and other development projects.

It’ll operate separately from Western international lending agencies. It’ll challenge their global dominance. BRICS prioritize multipolarity. Achieving it perhaps can end Western debt bondage.

BRICS have more global trade than America. They’re too important to ignore. They challenge US dominance. They trade increasingly in their own currencies. They may eventually end dollar supremacy.

Perhaps a supranational one or basket of alternatives will do so. BRICS prioritize political and economic solutions. They reject military ones.

China’s the world’s largest exporter. India’s an information technology powerhouse. Brazil’s a dominant agricultural exporter. It’s highly competitive. It has vast amounts of fertile land. It’s known as “the world’s biggest farm.” Russia is oil and gas rich.

South Africa’s the continent’s largest economy. Its resources are worth an estimated $2.5 trillion. It’s rich in gold, platinum, uranium, chrome and manganese ore, zirconium, vanadium, and titanium.

It trades extensively with America. It’s second only to China. The PRC is Africa’s largest trading partner. It’s growing at the expense of America. President Xi Jinping prioritizes increasing strong economic relations.

African nations see China as a healthy counterbalance. It challenges traditional American and other Western dominance. China’s rapid growth requires increasing amounts of many resources. Oil, gas, copper and others are needed.

Getting them creates competition and friction with America. Washington wants unchallenged global control.

AFRICOM was established to exploit the continent’s riches. Resource/mineral control defines America’s agenda. Securing them at China’s expense is prioritized.

Tanzania’s strategically important. It’s a regional hub. It borders eight countries. They include Kenya and Uganda to the north, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi to the west, and Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi to the south.

It borders the Indian Ocean. It’s south of the oil rich Horn of Africa. Its natural resources include hydropower, oil, gas, uranium, tin, phosphates, iron, coal, diamonds, gold, nickel land, rivers, lakes, wetlands, ocean waters, forest/woodlands, wildlife, and fish.

America’s interest throughout Africa is exploitation and dominance. It seeks it through the barrel of a gun. It prioritizes excluding China. It pressures nations to comply. It threatens, inveigles, and bullies. It relies more on muscle than diplomacy.

Beijing seeks strategic relations. It does so diplomatically. It seeks mutually beneficially economic ties. It offers lucrative no-strings investments. They’re too beneficial to refuse.

Obama likely plans more African visits. Others representing him come often. China’s omnipresent on the continent. In 2012, its trade totaled about $200 billion. It’s double America’s amount. Its investments are welcome.

They benefit countries receiving them. Beijing gets increasing access to vital African resources. Mutually beneficial relations assure them. China’s a welcome economic partner.

Washington has other objectives in mind. Brand Obama doesn’t sell well. “Hope and change” reflects unilateralism, bullying and conflict.

Global spying shows how America operates. China takes full advantage. It’s a reliable partner. It’s representatives are welcome when they arrive.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Remembering real heroes: Megdar Evers

Evers: Like Malcolm and Dr. King, he defined real courage and what the good fight is all about.

This is what liberaloids like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow are good for: they can come up with pretty nice information packages on matters that do not really threaten the status quo in social relations. Or matters whose adverse impact has long been absorbed and co-opted by the establishment. As our readers know, MSNBC, along with the Daily Kos, are literally appendages of the Democratic party, and as such, useless in terms of in-depth, out-of-the-bubble crusading journalism. MSNBC, in fact, is US television’s main barn for the medium’s Obamabots, which means that no real criticism of Barack Obama is ever permitted. This is too bad, not only because the mass American public, devoid of substantive information, on which so much depends, continues its long descent into confusion and political suicide. As this excellent segment on Megdar Evers proves, a genuine hero whose name should be a household name across the country, Maddow and her ilk can report clearly when they can, but much too often, they won’t—P. Greanville

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Why Black Liberals Need to Reclaim The Black Agenda From The Black Church

by Yvette Carnell

The Black Church’s central role in the African American Freedom Movement, is a myth. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “himself lamented the ‘apathy of the Negro ministers’ and their interpretation of Christianity,” writes the author. In fact, “the presence of culture crusaders, who substitute morality wars for politics, has a demobilizing impact on black movement politics.”

This article previously appeared in YourBlackWorld [10].

“The church never took a leadership role in the Civil Rights movement.”

Last week I wrote about [11] how the Black Church has neutralized black politics in America and made the case for the Black Church taking a back seat to black liberals. I argued this by noting that the Black Church 1) was never central to the Civil Rights movement and 2) is not a useful 21^st century model for leadership. This short critique raised some eyebrows that I intend to straighten in a longer critique of the Black Church and its detrimental impact on politics.

Firstly, it may be helpful to understand that I’m not trying to restrict the Black Church’s right to believe whatever it sees fit. The Black Church has every right to adhere to its own doctrine, but when it takes on issues like gay marriage, to the exclusion of other more pressing issues, such as income inequality and the wealth gap, it does its community a disservice. Also, when it aligns itself with right wing forces, as it did with the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, it engages in spectacle activism, where posing actually substitutes for politics.

Think about it: How many blacks are gay? At most 10 percent? Compare that to the number of blacks who are negatively impacted by income inequality, the non-existent economic recovery, or mass incarceration. See where I’m going?

“It engages in spectacle activism, where posing actually substitutes for politics.”

Adherence to morality politics is a dead end because it lays claim to resolving centuries old disagreements which can never be wholly resolved in the public sphere. Church doctrine casts homosexuality as a sin, while public opinion is increasingly supportive of gay marriage. There is no middle ground here since Christian literalists are not influenced by polls or rationalism. Nevertheless, the faithful are drawn to moralistic battles because, although their impact on politics is nominal, these skirmishes have an air of spiritual warfare that satisfy the psychic desire of some Christians to suffer as Jesus did, by fighting a battle that cannot be won in the material world.

This desire for spiritual warfare and reward in the afterlife, pushed by the Black Church for decades, is the main reason why the church never took a leadership role in the Civil Rights movement. King himself lamented the “apathy of the Negro ministers” and their interpretation of Christianity, going so far as to accuse the Black Church of leaving blacks “disappointed at midnight.”

But in my estimation, King was too measured in his criticism. Historically it has not only been the case that the Black Church has been unhelpful to black politics, the Black Church has actually been a hindrance to the progression of Black Politics in America. Noted sociologist E.Franklin Frazier observed that the accommodationist and nonconfrontational Black Church’s heavenly focus “offered no threat to the white man’s dominance.”

“The Black Church has actually been a hindrance to the progression of Black Politics in America.”

To play on a phrase from the 2012 presidential election: You didn’t build that. Even though preachers have long laid claim to positions of authority in black politics based on their organic linkage to the Civil Rights movement, it turns out that preachers were never central to the movement.

Furthermore, even though many of our activists and pundits – including Roland Martin, Rev. Al Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson – derive from the tradition of the Black Church, I don’t see very much that they, or anyone else in that tradition, have done to expedite the maturity of black intellectual political thought or sustain a movement which shows the capability of mobilizing popular support for programs to alter the political structure over time. The only church which even partially fits the bill would be Black Liberation theology, a strand of Christianity not practiced by the majority of black Christians. And if you’re going to make the case that the Black Church has been at all helpful to black politics, then you must make an argument that is under-girded by something more than sentimentalism.

The sad truth is that the only reason the Black Church ever had a starring role in black public life was because, before the Voting Rights Act, we had no political life. Now the presence of culture crusaders, who substitute morality wars for politics, has a demobilizing impact on black movement politics.

Prosperity gospel may’ve taken root at some black mega-churches, but such materialistic gospel is no threat to income inequality. In fact, such nonsense teaches parishioners that they do not need government at all to reach affluence. This sort of neophyte understanding of the role of government in public life helps explain why there is no class agenda in the black community and why black politics is so unfocused. It’s hard to take an active role in political life when you’re waiting for manna to fall from heaven.

Yvette Carnell [12]is a former Capitol Hill and campaign staffer turned writer. She is currently an editor and contributor to Your Black World and Founder of BreakingBrown. [12]You can reach Yvette via Twitter @YvetteDC [13]or on Facebook [14].

Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/content/why-black-liberals-need-reclaim-black-agenda-black-church

Links:
[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/roland-martin
[2] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/rev-al-sharpton
[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/michael-eric-dyson
[4] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/liberation-theology
[5] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/dr-martin-luther-king-jr
[6] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/dr-adolph-reed
[7] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/black-freedom-movement
[8] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/chick-fil-appreciation-day
[9] http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/creflodollar.jpg
[10] http://www.yourblackworld.net/
[11] http://breakingbrown.com/2013/05/why-black-liberals-need-to-take-back-black-agenda-from-the-black-church/
[12] http://breakingbrown.com/
[13] https://twitter.com/YvetteDC
[14] http://www.facebook.com/ydcarnell
[15] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Fwhy-black-liberals-need-reclaim-black-agenda-black-church&linkname=Why%20Black%20Liberals%20Need%20to%20Reclaim%20The%20Black%20Agenda%20From%20The%20Black%20Church
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Shameless Son Andy Young’s “Foreign Aid” Scam Evaporates Amid Charges of Malfeasance, Insider Dealing

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Former civil rights figure and ex-Atlanta mayor Andrew Young took part in a perfectly legal “foreign aid” scheme that might have used taxpayer money to start a private equity fund, but instead unraveled amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement. Let’s hope it’s the final act in Andy’s career as a corporate whore.

Andrew Young was a member of Dr. Martin Luther King’s team from the early 1960s till his 1968 assassination. He went on to stints in Congress, as UN ambassador, and two terms as mayor of Atlanta, and after that co-founded GoodWorks International, an “international business consulting firm specializing in Africa and the Caribbean. In plain language, an “international business consultant” is a high priced lobbyist, fixer, go-between and percentage-shaver for multinational capital. [3]

Young’s first big client was Nike. Amid mounting public outrage over labor practices in its global sweatshop empire, Young “toured” some of Nike’s Asian factories and produced a glowing whitewash report depicting hapy and contented Nike workers sitting on porches strumming guitars. Young went on to lobby for a number of African governments including Nigeria’s notorious kleptocracy under Obansanjo, and partnerships that included actors like Barrick Gold, a multinational mining corporation with operations deep in some of the ravaged and depopulated zones of the Congo, where seven milllion Africans have perished since 1996.

As successful practicioners in the nexus of corruption and parasitic rent-seeking that passes for business on the African continent, Andy Young and his partners were beneficiaries of a multimillion dollar grant from USAID the United States Agency for International Development. The so-called “foreign aid” money was used to fund a contraption called the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund or SAEDF, under the leadership of Andy Young and his longtime partner Carlton Masters. In theory, SAEDF was supposed to leverage that foreign aid money to create jobs and new businesses enterprises in Southern Africa. In fact, it didn’t create many jobs, or attract many investors, but it did spend a lot of its cash doing “business” with some of the governments and firms who were clients of Andy and Carlton, and managing to pay GoodWorks employees and associates outsize fees for services.

Ultimately, SAEDF failed to attract enough big investors to put their money alongside its grant. If SAEDF had been “successful” in attracting corporate and private investors, the federal government was ready to privatize it, allowing the board of SAEDF to turn the whole kaboodle into a private equity fund, the kind of contraption that made Mitt Romney a near-billionaire. For Andy and his crew, this would have truly been a happy ending. But it won’t happen now. The federal government seems about to pull the plug on SAEDF, and those with claims on its resources, including some of the GoodWorks cronies Andy hooked them up with, are fighting for their share of what’s left.

All in all, the New York Times article by Barry Meier and Ron Nixon [4] makes Andy and Carlton’s business practices sound pretty sleazy. But the fact is, the universe of US “foreign aid” is a sea of slime in which Andy and Carlton were at best middle-sized eels. Carlton Masters verifies this [5], claiming that lots of other players received much bigger gobs amounts of taxpayer money to play with than he and Andy did, and a longer time to pull it all together.

A large portion of, perhaps all of the millions SAEDF got from the US government will go to satisfy SAEDF’s creditors, including those whose dealings were shady, according to USAID, and the businesses with claims on SAEDF. There’s no criminal liability, so no one will even see the inside of a criminal courtroom. As Andy’s business partner infers, this is all business as usual.

Andy Young is in his eighties now, and has stepped down from SAEDF, and probably from GoodWorks as well, but the arc of his career is instructive. He started out as a close associate of Dr. King. When the doors swung wide to admit more black faces to the elite ranks of government and business, Andy Young rushed in, claiming a seat in Congress and UN Ambassadorship. As mayor of Atlanta, Young’s economic development plan consisted of bringing the 1996 Olympics to the city, necessitating the bulldozing of several entire black neighborhoods in the center of town, exacerbating the city’s already wide wealth gap between its white and black residents and kicking urban gentrification into high gear.

Young cynically rented his image as a civil rights figure to those in power to accomplish their objectives, and made a successful career out of it. He was a pioneer of today’s black misleadership class. It took a black figure at Atlanta’s helm with the kind of civil rights cred that Andy possessed to push this neoliberal agenda through. His government “service” complete in the 1990s, Andy did the same thing white former ambassadors and congress creatures do —- he became a lobbyist, corporate fixer and occasional pundit. It makes you wonder what Barack Obama will do after completing his second term.

Corrupt scholars like Peniel Joseph [6] like to claim that the work of Malcolm X, Kwame Toure and Dr. King led directly and inevitably to figures like Andy Young and Barack Obama. It’s a lazy, false and specious claim.

First of all, the claim is lazy because history is dynamic, and outcomes are conditional on an infinite number of factors. The only smart people who want you to believe any different are those with a big stake in portraying the present lineup of powers that be as inevitable. Secondly, the careers of Young, Obama and the entire black misleadership class stem NOT from the work of Malcolm, Toure or King, but from the tactics used to cut that movement short. It wasn’t so much COINTELPRO and police repression that killed the movement of the sixties and provided the guarantee that so far, nothing like that era’s insurgency has reared its head, it was government and business affirmative action, the advent of a small number of black faces in high places. That’s the common root that Andy Young, Carlton Masters and Barack Obama have — not the Freedom Movement, but the establishment’s strategy to cut it off, to neutralize it, to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

The good news is that Andy Young is over 80 years old now, and due for a rest. Let’s hope he goes somewhere and sits down, before he can do any more damage. The bad news is that our black misleadership class has lots more where he came from.

Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/content/shameless-son-andy-youngs-%E2%80%9Cforeign-aid%E2%80%9D-scam-evaporates-amid-charges-malfeasance-insider-dea

Links:
[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/black-misleadership-class
[2] http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/andy_young_shameless_son_0.jpg
[3] http://www.alternet.org/story/33068/andrew_young:_shameless_son
[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/business/southern-africa-development-fund-mired-in-debt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0&pagewanted=print
[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlton-a-masters/end-of-an-era-southern-af_b_3232440.html
[6] http://blackagendareport.com/content/dr-peniel-joseph-peoples-historian-or-establishment-courtier-part-two-two-peniel-joseph-vs-h
[7] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Fshameless-son-andy-youngs-%25E2%2580%259Cforeign-aid%25E2%2580%259D-scam-evaporates-amid-charges-malfeasance-insider-dea&linkname=Shameless%20Son%20Andy%20Young%27s%20%E2%80%9CForeign%20Aid%E2%80%9D%20Scam%20Evaporates%20Amid%20Charges%20of%20Malfeasance%2C%20Insider%20Dealing