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Dear Friends,
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Today is U.S. President Barack Obama's birthday. See below a link to an essay by the diwtinguished African-Amercisn
activist and journalist Bruce Dixon the web site Black Agenda Report that expresses my view better than I could say it myself.
Mr. Dixon refers to the listserv for SNCC veterans and supporters thst serveral of my old "Lefty" friends subscribe to.
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The U.S.A. is in the gravest political and economic crisis of the last 70 years -- yes, greater than the crises of the
1960s that our entire bipartisan elite is so hopelessly "stuck" in. In this context I am so over the hype about Mr. Obamas
being "The First Black President."
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<br>
Alex Walker
<blockquote>
<strong>
Posted on The Black Agenda Report, July 21, 2010.<br>
<a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/tea-partyers-fox-news-negativity-against-president-are-these-really-black-americas-most-pres">
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Tea Partyers, Fox News, "Negativity" Against the President? Are These Really Black America's Most Pressing Problems?
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By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
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On July 19, an item popped up on the email listserv of SNCC veterans and supporters.
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Like anything on these kinds of mailing lists, it was the opinion of
whoever posted it, no more and no less. But it pretty much summed up the
current strategic thinking of a lot of what passes for African American
political leadership, our black intelligensia and a lot of
self-identified activists. It was bright red and in bold typeface
several times normal size, and before going out to the triple digit
number of subscribers to the SNCC list, it had obviously been forwarded
to hundreds more. It went like this, (only much larger):
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<div style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">
We call on ALL who support President Obama to take action. On August
4th, the President's birthday, we ask those who support him to wear any
campaign item from the Presidential election as a demonstration of our
ongoing support. Bring out your old campaign paraphernalia.
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If you don't have caps, buttons or tee shirts, wear a red, white, and
blue tri-color ribbon or clothing on August 4th. If nothing else, this
simple demonstration of support for our President will provide a
counteraction to the negativity that spews forth daily. We can do this.
YES WE CAN. YES WE WILL.
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Mark Your Calendar for August 4th! Pass the word on...
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As far as most of the black leadership class --- most of our pastors,
politicians, professors and such tell it, those are our marching orders.
On the president's birthday, we're all supposed to break out those old
Obama stickers, shirts and hats, and like the citizens of Oz in The Wiz,
we'll flaunt red, white and blue on the president's birthday. Thus we
will show our united opposition to the flood of racist invective against
the president. We will demonstrate that we are Thus black America will
demonstrate that we are the president's millions strong shield against
the torrents of “negativity” that issue forth daily from the likes of
Fox News and the tea party. That'll show 'em.
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Am I the only one who thinks this is just plain dumb? Are the number one
problems of black America really the insults and negativity directed at
the president by a bunch of crazy people who are not even in power? Are
these the times of Shakespeare's Richard III, when the only political
yardstick that mattered was whether and how much you did or didn't love
the king? Why should Fox News, the tea party, and insults and negativity
directed at the president even rank among black America's top ten or
twenty problems? And if black America is called upon to make some kind
of united political statement in this season of unprecedented
joblessness, homelessness, family debt, privatizations and mass
incarceration, is flying the red, white and blue to support the
president really the most useful thing we can do?
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. . .
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About Bruce Dixon:
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Bruce Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and based in
Atlanta, and will not be wearing red white and blue any time soon. He's a
member of the state committee of the GA Green Party. A habitual
troublemaker and incorrigible activist, Bruce Dixon has been comforting
the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable since 1968.
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As a rank and file member of the Black Panther Party in 1969-1970, a
1970s rank-and-file union activist in a string of factories, plants and
workplaces, a 1980s community organizer in what were then some of the
nation's poorest neighborhoods, to organizing and consulting through the
1990s Dixon has built an impressive record of service in and to the
cause of human liberation.
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In 2002 he began writing articles for Black Commentator, the predecessor
of this publication, and broke the first accurate analyses of the
phenomena around the election of Denise Majette over Cynthia McKinney in
Georgia that year.
As managing editor at BAR Dixon is chiefly responsible for maintaning
this web site. He currently resides in metro Atlanta.
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Read the whole essay at:<br>
<a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/tea-partyers-fox-news-negativity-against-president-are-these-really-black-americas-most-pres">
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/tea-partyers-fox-news-negativity-against-president-are-these-really-black-americas-most-pres
</a>
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