Antiwar, anti-drone protest on April 3, 2013 in San Francisco, California. (Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
One argument that’s prevalent in certain circles is that mostly white people, particularly males, care about drones. This argument has become pretty prominent in the age of Obama. It’s typically made by Obama supporters to shut down critics of his counterterrorism policies, such as drone strikes. It’s an asinine argument that marginalizes nonwhite antiwar voices and provides a multicultural veneer to empire. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: anti-war, antiracism, black, black politics, civil liberties, drone warfare, empire, Farea al-Muslimi, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, International Law, Kill List, liberals, Pakistan, race, racism, Somalia, targeted killing, War, war crimes, War on Terror, white people, Yemen
“Justice for Alan” poster. Part of Justice for Alan Blueford campaign in Oakland. (Photo Credit: IndyBay)
While the death of Trayvon Martin has largely fallen off the public radar, the killing of black people by police officers, security guards, or armed vigilantes continues unabated. On May 6, Alan Blueford, an 18-year-old African-American male who was about to graduate from Skyline High School, was shot three times by two Oakland police officers. Oakland police stopped and frisked Blueford and his two friends that night for drugs or weapons. Shortly after, Blueford ran and the police chased him. During the chase, police claim Blueford fired at them to which they responded with three shots. A fourth shot was fired into an officer’s foot, which police also claimed came from Blueford.
However, according to witnesses, investigators, and a coroner’s report, Blueford never shot at the police. There was a pistol found at the scene but it was never fired and it’s unclear whether it belonged to Blueford. In addition, Oakland Police Department (OPD) admitted that the fourth shot was a self-inflicted wound. One of the officer’s shot himself in the foot but initially blamed it on Blueford — a kid who never shot them. On the bright side, the Oakland community has shown their outrage at the killing in the form of robust activism. There is now a “Justice for Alan Blueford” campaign with support from Occupy Oakland.
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Tags: Alan Blueford, Emmett Till, extrajudicial killing, Human Rights, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Occupy Oakland, OPD, police brutality, racism, Rodney King, stop and frisk, systemic racism, Trayvon Martin
Map of Africa, Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
As the U.S. supposedly winds down in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is increasing its shadow wars in Africa. Since 9/11, under the guise of fighting terrorism, the U.S. expanded its military presence in Central Asia (with the invasion of Afghanistan), the Middle East (with the invasion of Iraq), and the Horn of Africa — regions that are predominantly Muslim. In 2003, the Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) was established to carry out civil-military operations in the Horn of Africa to counter terrorism. Its base is at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the only major U.S. military outpost in Africa. In 2008, the U.S. created the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) to coordinate its military operations on the continent, even though it’s headquartered in Germany. Under the rubric of the Global War on Terror, the U.S. military and CIA have been spreading their forces throughout Africa to fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. However, there are deeper geopolitical reasons motivating Washington’s militarism in Africa. This increased militarism is destabilizing Africa and exacerbates human suffering on the continent. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, AFRICOM, air wars, Camp Lemonnier, China, CIA, Djibouti, drone warfare, drones, empire, espionage, Ethiopia, hegemony, Human Rights, imperialism, Libya, Mali, NATO, natural resources, oil, secret prisons, shadow war, Somalia, special operations, Uganda
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Kenneth Harding, Jr., the long list of African-American males killed by racist police officers or vigilantes goes on. On the evening of February 26, 2012, that list got longer. In Sanford, Florida, a suburb of Orlando, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old African-American male, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a half-Latino/half-white self-appointed neighborhood watch captain. Zimmerman claimed he shot Martin in self-defense. He was recently arrested, charged with second-degree murder, and the case is still in court.
Like so many cases of state or vigilante violence against people of color, this is an example of systemic racism. Systemic racism — a system of power and inequality in which one racial group subjugates another racial group. This is why there are massive levels of inequalities (in housing, employment, education, etc.) between whites Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Amadou Diallo, Copwatch, Emmett Till, Florida, Fred Hampton, George Zimmerman, Johannes Mehserle, Kenneth Harding Jr, Medgar Evers, Oscar Grant, police brutality, race, racial justice, Rodney King, Rose City Copwatch, Sanford, Sean Bell, systemic racism, Trayvon Martin
Stop Kony 2012 poster. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Within a matter of days, the film “Kony 2012”, put out by the NGO Invisible Children (IC), went viral. In the beginning, the film highlights the brutality of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian militia group in Uganda led by a man named Joseph Kony. The LRA is known for committing massive human rights violations, such as using child soldiers, murder, mutilation, abduction, and sexual enslavement of women and children. Most of the film, though, focuses on IC’s efforts to bring Kony to justice and encourages viewers to take part in the campaign. What IC explicitly advocates is U.S. military intervention in Uganda to apprehend Joseph Kony.
I could not help but cringe as I watched this film. For one, it reeked of a disturbing white savior undertone. Ugandans were not portrayed as agents of their own liberation. Rather, they (particularly the young boy Jacob) were portrayed as helpless victims in need of Western do-gooders to save them with charity rather than solidarity and empowerment. As an African-American, I could not help but be offended by this. Many Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, AFRICOM, Barack Obama, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, imperialism, Invisible Children, Kony, Kony 2012, militarism, Obama, Rwanda, Uganda
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Wall Street is a highly influential financial district but its history is rarely talked about. In order to understand the largesse of Wall Street and the system of global capitalism, it is crucial to know Wall Street’s history. Wall Street was founded on slavery and, to this day, it remains a key pillar in upholding racial inequality and economic oppression.
New York City was a Dutch settlement known as New Amsterdam in the Dutch colonial province called New Netherland during much of the 17th century. Through the Dutch West India Company, the Dutch utilized labor of enslaved Africans who were first brought to colony around 1627. The African slaves built the wall that gives Wall Street its name, forming the northern boundary of the colony and warded off resisting natives who wanted their land back. In addition, the slaves cleared the forests, built roads and buildings, and turned up the soil for farming. Slavery was not a phenomenon limited to the southern American colonies. Northern colonies, such as Boston and New York, participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, African-American, African-American history, anti-capitalism, black, capitalism, economic injustice, economic justice, global economic crisis, goldman sachs, Occupy Wall Street, OWS, racial segregation, racism, slavery, trans-Atlantic slave trade, unemployment, Wall Street
As an African-American male, people have wondered why I chose to study Arabic and am involved in anti-war and pro-Palestinian activism. It’s an image that people are not used to seeing. However, if I were to just stick to fighting on so-called “black” issues, such as civil rights and poverty (which I do, as well), then people probably wouldn’t be so curious. To me, the connection between the black freedom struggle and working in solidarity with other oppressed people around the globe is crystal clear. However, not everyone sees it that way. The black freedom struggle and the struggle for Palestinian self-determination is part of a broader post-colonial struggle for global justice and human emancipation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: anti-war, black liberation, colonialism, economic injustice, Human Rights, IDF, International Law, Israel, Middle East & North Africa, Palestine, radicalism, struggle, War, war crimes
