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 »
Category Archives: African/African-American history/politics/issues
Great article in The Nation Magazine: “Beer and Sympathy”
Gary Younge wrote a great article in the August 17, 2009 edition of The Nation about the “beer summit” that took place between President Barack Obama, Officer James Crowley and Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. I particularly liked these passages: Read the rest of this entry »
President Barack Obama Speaks to NAACP at Centennial
Obama had some nice words to say. However, I thought it was all empty rhetoric.
http://www.truthout.org/071709B
Reflecting on Dr. King’s Prophecy: Escaping the Burning House (May 25, 2008)
It’s been over 40 years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death. In mainstream media and dominant rhetoric, Dr. King is seen as a “black leader” who embodied the civil rights movement. While I’m not going to claim that I know everything about the civil rights movement, I do know that Dr. King was a much more complex individual than the way mainstream media portrays him. One facet of his complexity was his tendency to prophesize. I was listening to an old episode (around October of 2006) of Real Time with Bill Maher and musician/actor/social activist Harry Belafonte commented on the smuttiness of the 2006 mid-term election campaigns by referring to something Dr. King told him before he was assassinated – something that Harry felt was very prophetic and the prophecy that I see occurring today. Read the rest of this entry »
Blues African 