Monday, November 13, 2017

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: OBAMA-NATION-REVISITED: Donna Brazile Sells Out, A Sad Way To End A Career


Samuel Zalanga:

Wow! I have just finished reading your piece below, and I must tell you that I had some of the same experience as you expressed or saw below:

(1)  When I finished my NYSC at Aba in 1971, I was asked to give a speech at the local Rotary Club about my experience and prospects for Nigerian unity.  I gave them a piece of my mind, that despite all appearances, national unity was not a given.  I faced a little "anti-Yoruba" push-back in the Tennis Club that I frequented, and also saw some intra-Igbo ribbings when they would epitheticially describe each other in what I guess was some form of "amanjakiri".

(2)  I finished five years of Vice-Chancellorship in Ijaw-land twenty months ago, and despite the fact that my mother is Ijaw, my YORUBA "father-origin" still painted me as an OUTSIDER, and ANY Yoruba that got appointed was considered as if I was showing favoritism.

For example, the local National Union of Journalist visited me in 2013 and commended what was going on:


However, when some time later, I did not appoint one of them as the University PRO - but a Niger-Deltan - I got their ire:



Haba!
   

and in my last few days as VC:



Interesting, my country Nigeria, I knew thee not until I lived among you for seven years now!  So when you write that:

QUOTE

At least I now realize that many of us in Diaspora probably enjoy distant pontification but have to admit that we did not have the courage to live through the kind of challenges here and understand their complexity and inner workings. For certain reasons, just based on my own experience here, I now have utmost respect for Africans who in spite of all the challenges remain in the continent and doing their best to make a difference. Many of us cannot survive in the environment for months. One fellow Fulbrighter came to one of the Southeastern universities in Nigeria, but in less than a month, packed quietly and returned to the U.S. because she could not cope with the realities on the ground. More about that later.

UNQUOTE

And there you have it!



Bolaji Aluko
Shaking his head



On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 7:01 AM, Samuel Zalanga <szalanga@gmail.com> wrote:
I just came across this discussion that was initiated by Professor Kwame I assume, if my reading is correct. I have no historical repertoire of knowledge like Professor Assensoh and all others but this conversation provoked my thoughts. I share Kwame's concern and I saw the discussion on CNN of Donna Brazile's book. Yes, I felt very uncomfortable with some of the details and it may be that she definitely wanted to make money. I remember Carl Jung saying that much of what we know in this world is about the outside world. We are still trying to understand the complex inner-making of human beings. So her behavior can be interpreted in different ways, as Professor Assensoh indicated.

I am currently in Nigeria serving as a Fulbright Scholar for a year. Prior to the commencement of the fellowship, I completed ten weeks of Carnegie Fellowship in Federal University Gashua, Yobe State  (northeastern Nigeria) and now I am in Southeastern Nigeria. For close to twenty four years now since I left Nigeria, this is the longest time I am staying in the country and it is opening my mind to so many things that I could avoid when I am here for a relatively short time. At least I now realize that many of us in Diaspora probably enjoy distant pontification but have to admit that we did not have the courage to live through the kind of challenges here and understand their complexity and inner workings. For certain reasons, just based on my own experience here, I now have utmost respect for Africans who in spite of all the challenges remain in the continent and doing their best to make a difference. Many of us cannot survive in the environment for months. One fellow Fulbrighter came to one of the Southeastern universities in Nigeria, but in less than a month, packed quietly and returned to the U.S. because she could not cope with the realities on the ground. More about that later.

Regarding the whole discussion about how the Republican and Democratic Party treat black people and using skin color and racism as a framework of analysis, with all sense of humility, I used to think that way but I have jettisoned that mode of analysis in the nursery school of critical social and historical analysis based on honest careful observation. I think there is danger is starting an analysis by looking at "appearances" and end it there. During my graduate school days, I spent an inordinate amount of time on understanding theories of the state in capitalist society and their implications for politics and society. The whole way that Professor Kwame framed the discussion makes me remember the difference between instrumentalist and structuralist schools of Marxist analysis of the state. In particular, the work of Ralph Miliband and Nicos Poulantzas. Miliband tries to understand the state and society by looking at the people managing the state i.e., personalities. By looking at their  social characteristics, presumably, we can arrive at who they are and how they behave while in office in terms of decision making and policies. Poulantzas on the other hand said no, that is a wrong way to understand the capitalist state. For him, we should start by understanding the structure of society and how that produces certain institutions and the kind of people that manage the offices and  the constraints and opportunities  that they face. He would not reduce the decision of state officers to simple whimsical choice or voluntarism of the personalities managing state offices. It is for this reason that he developed the concept of "relative autonomy of the capitalist state" which allows him to account for concessions made by the state in capitalist society to either oppressed or minority groups, even when such concessions may on the surface appear against the desires of the ruling classes.

I have taught social equality, urbanization and a course titled "peoples and cultures of the United States." I have contributed a lot financially to President Obama's first election. They even sent me an invitation card to attend his official inauguration. I was however never never misled even as at that time, given what I knew of  the American state, society and history through teaching, that the appearance of a "Black Political Messiah" in office known as Obama will solve the problem of Blacks, minorities or the working classes. To think so in my view, is to fail to appreciate the structure and process of Americans society historically. The U.S. President in theory is powerful but in practice he is not as powerful as the president of other countries. Take for instance the question of infrastructure. China is increasingly having better infrastructure than the U.S. They have an authoritarian government and therefore once they are convinced about something, they can proceed to implement it quickly while in the U.S., the presumably high educated, richest and democratic country, a necessarily needed project or problem that will cost say three million dollars initially, will be debated and for partisan reasons governed by the short term desire for reelection and other concerns, they will delay the project until it costs 100 million dollars.

Anyone who assumed that the mere emergence of a particular individual in a political office will solve the race problem, ignoring the history, state and structure of U.S. society I believe has not gone deep enough in his or her analysis. Whatever the oppression that Blacks face in the U.S. and other parts of the world, when one checks the history of Western societies from the time of Ancient Greeks to the French Revolution and beyond, he or she would find situations where white people equally oppressed or treated fellow whites like trash. As discussed in the Melian Dialogue by Thucydides, it is about power. And when some of power and others do not have it, I do not care what race or region of the world we are talking about, I will say expect some landmines. It is not about the skin color per se. Using skin color to exploit or oppress others, is just one particular moment or expression of power and domination. Unless there is a hidden dimension of the foundation of that white supremacy, the oppression cannot survive long. If you are white in some parts of Appalachia and you are fifty or more years but literate, how far can you sustain your sense of white supremacy in an information or knowledge economy. We need to move generalizations to understand the complex inner workings of exploitation and oppression over time. 

There are several ways to put my arguments into empirical test. First, there was a time I reviewed a documentary film on "China Towns" in the U.S. I was amazed at how some Chinese terribly oppress other Chinese. The older immigrants terribly exploit the new immigrants. If it were not because of U.S. laws, it would have been even worse. The mere fact that they were both Chinese did not prevent one group of Chinese from "thingifying" other Chinese but using them as means to their ends and not as people who have ends of their own.  

Second, if one checks the history of the Black community in the United States, and this is a sensitive issue because often people do not want to go there, we will see how within the Black community many Black leaders take advantage of poorer Blacks and use them as a stepping stone to acquire wealth by serving as "brokers" between the Black and White community. On the surface such Black leaders are serving as voice to the Black community, but deep down, they have become bourgeosified and are using their positions to take advantage of other Blacks or minorities.j They have internalized the "ideals" of bourgeois society. Indeed, back in the U.S. in my office, I have a documentary on a time when some Black people in America had their own Black slaves. If the problem of one human being oppressing the other is a mere question of skin color, those free slaves would not get into the slave business of getting their own black slaves to cultivate their own lands because they also want to acquire wealth. Forget about Christianity and all that. It all depends on how people interpret the Bible. Martin Luther was not supported by all Black Churches if even all Blacks at that time were denied civil rights. Many of the pastors would rather have Martin Luther King Jr. keep quiet so that they can enjoy the status quo. It was the courageous ones that supported him. The question then is, why did these Black people feel comfortable with the system even if they knew it was oppressive.

Then now I am in Nigeria, and Africa. Across Africa, one cannot look with all honesty and ignore how fellow Black leaders have treated their citizens like trash. I have some documentary films I purchased in Nairobi on how Kenya got into the elections violence of years back. It is amazing to see how African elites can treat ordinary citizens.  If African elites fought against white colonial rule, there is a fundamental difference between the generation of Nkrumah, Cabral, Samora Machel, Mandela etc. with the current generation of African leaders. Even pan-Africanism today has metamorphosed into neoliberal pan-Africanism. The people of Africa want African Americans to come to Africa, but when you search deeply what the purpose for such invitation is, is that they just want the money they will make from tourism or the investment brought by African Americans. Try to come and settle in an African country as an African American and in the name of Pan-Africanism try to pursue a political leadership program. A person can be qualified but at that juncture he or she will see that having the same skin color is not enough. 

The point I am making is a reality when you are here on the ground. If skin color per se was the issue, these leaders in Africa, will be the most compassionate to fellow citizens. Some of them are from lowly backgrounds.Just think of what Robert Mugabe is doing. How can I identify with such a person in the name of having the same skin color with me. I am sorry, I cannot. There is a documentary I reviewed where when Mugabe tried to use the land issue to cover his failures and make Blacks fight whites, a white man left his mansion for the laborers to occupy. He went and built a round house with no iron doors and said this is where he was born and he will die in Africa; Mugabe can take the land. The Blacks got the land but which group of Blacks got it (cronies) and what did they accomplish with it to promote inclusive development so as to morally justify the takeover? Mugabe is an embarrassment to Black leadership. We cannot cover it by using skin color.

My interest was drawn to a statement by one of the progressive gubernatorial candidates in Anambra State of Southeastern Nigeria, where an election will be held this coming Saturday. He said that when he wins the election he will grant citizenship to all persons who establish residency in the state and pay taxes according to state law. Remember that he is saying that to refer to other Nigerians. This is an acknowledgement of "social exclusion." I am welcomed in Nnamdi Azikiwe University but as someone whose hometown is Bauchi and Yobe, I cannot ever get a teaching position here if I was looking for one, just as it would be difficult for an Igbo person to get one in another part of Nigeria. I will never get a teaching position even in Bauchi State of Nigeria where I was born because I am an infidel. This is the reality on the ground. 57 years after independence, you are treated as refugee. And there are Muslims who will never get teaching position in some Middle Belt region Universities  of Nigeria because they are  perceived and treated like "heathen, gentiles, people living in darkness and lost." Is this the way that the Black race will build a continent, civilization or their nation. If Whites have oppressed Black people and may continue do so in sophisticated ways, but how long is it going to take us to understand that dong the same thing they did to us to our own people, or even worse, does not give us the moral grounds and authority to condemn them?

I am here on the ground and believe I have no reason to believe that simply because I meet an African in power who is Black like me, just because he or she is not white, he or she will treat me as a human being with full dignity. Some will do that and I have encountered such people, but they are very few. If they are many, how can one justify the suffering of the people in the continent when elites are lavishing in luxury?  For those who are not familiar, the category of mediation that informs the discourse of many Nigerians is ethnicity, religion, gender, region. I grew up in Bauchi and my father is from a state called Yobe but God forbid for me to think in terms of  the conceptual cocoon that this is my identity and that is all. No, the human is the starting point for me. What does it mean to be human and what do I owe my fellow human being? Staring with such a framework allows me to engage different human beings from different cultures.  I will never allow myself to back to the prison of thinking in the exclusive category of my ethnicity of birth.

I had an extensive discussion with the Fulbrighter that came to a Southeastern university in Nigeria and quietly escaped because of the disrespectful way she was treated. She quietly left the country through Enugu airport, to Abuja, Addis Ababa, Dublin and then Los Angeles. She is committed to Black history and identity etc. But now she could not get along with her fellow Blacks in Africa and even the same gender. I told her that these things are so complicated. There are individual whites who even though white have demonstrated more sincere commitment to  the dignity of Black people than some Black people. And when you add to this the horror stories of the tension between African immigrant students with some African American students in some public schools in the United States, you wonder why they cannot get alone given that they are all Blacks. I am not blaming one side by any means but I am overwhelmed by the phenomenon. My daughter did a radio documentary on this issue which was aired on Minnesota Public Radio and she received a national award for that. She was wrestling with the issue of having most of her friends being White. I once asked my children why the great majority of their friends in school are Whites. They told me that it was easier for them to get along with the White students, but it was not that they hated African Americans. What I understood form the conversation for what it was is that it is about lack of mutual respect. I am interested in that because my friend of over 23 years in the U.S. is an African American. We were roommates in the University of Minnesota and he wrote  me while in Nigeria to ask that he wants us to be roommates when I arrive the United States, which I consider to be a great honor. It was through him I became specially interested in the struggle of the African American community early. Steve and myself can sit down and talk freely. It is always easy for me to visit him for vacation and we can remember our time together.

To conclude, this whole discussion reminds me of Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program.Some scholars equate: "The Critique of the Program" with "The Critique of the Golgotha Program" because of certain similarities. Just as some Christians assume that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ immediately resolves all problems because of the power of the Holy Spirit, similarly some people see the revolution by the oppressed or theappearance of certain personalities in power as immediately and automatically resolving all problems, as some assume the appearance of Obama alone will change things; or as in Nigeria, the emergence of someone called "President Buhari" will totally eliminate corruption even if he claimed. This suggests a lack of understanding the structure and process of the workings of society. Corruption in Africa is perpetuated because of personal rule and patron-client relationship and this has become virtually institutionalized. People expect to get things only when their person is in office. You cannot quickly change this state of mind, when most of the ordinary people standstill expecting a miracle. Many underestimate the deeply rooted nature of Africa's problems and are because of gullibility easily persuaded that because a person uses progressive language as inthe critique of the Gotha program, such a person should be trusted that he or she will literally solve the problem. 

 Do not expect the appearance of just some people at the top to automatically solve our problems. As Thomas Piketty argues in his book "Capital in the 21st Century" there is nothing inherently in capitalism that says it should care about human dignity or equality etc. When African leaders quietly embrace capitalism or when minority leaders in the U.S. embrace it and remain agnostic about its internal contradictions, do not expect a miracle please.  It is progressive social movements that brought about the relative sense of justice that is perceived to exist in Western societies. Without the women's struggle, without the civil rights struggle, without workers' struggle, without the struggle against apartheid by socialmovements (see: Have You Heard From Johannesburg'), there will not have been the social structural changes and institutions that we take for granted.  But today, capitalism has succeeded in subverting that. Whether it is here in Africa or the U.S. most people are more concerned about getting ahead, unlike as in the 1960s where people are struggling for civil repair in the structure of society. And when you add to that Herbert Marcuse's concept of the "Culture Industry" where the mass media promotes the unlimited expression of sexual desire and romantic love as the ultimate goal of life, the minds of many young people or even adults is consumed by that and so only a small percentage of the population have the desire to invest in social struggles aimed at civil repair and socially transforming society, which I believe is what Professor Kwame is  genuinely concerned about. 

For example, one day I went to one African American barber shop and heard people having conversation about the struggles in the U.S.. There was one person at the margins but the great majority were justifying if you have the opportunity to accumulate then pursue and make your own "utopia." I intervened in the conversation and they were shocked to realize that I could cite example to them that the little rights that they have today, were made possible by Black leaders who saw beyond personal self aggrandizement. When one hears Martin Luther King Jr. saying that he can see the promised land but he is not going to be there with the people, this is a person consumed by the struggle. Martin Luther had the options of cooperating with the system to live a comfortable life as an individual. I always tell people that without the struggle of the civil rights movement I will not have enjoyed some of my rights today in the U.S. I do not believe that people will go to church and pray and then come down from the mountain as Moses did in the past  and say God gave them a revelation to give Black people like me more rights or dignity. It is struggle. Even here in Africa, merely critiquing the West or those in power, irrespective the erudite nature of such critique, without trying to understand the complexity of structure and process of African societies run by fellow Black people and how to transform it, there will be little progress. Frankly, looking at my age and Nigerian society, but also the situation in many African societies, I am tired of seeing elites immaculately dressed or preachers speaking with divine authority. I have seen and heard many of such since I was young as the son of an evangelist but in my eyes, all such talks have produced nothing impressive. I am amaze at how some people are still gullible enough to take those politicians or preachers seriously. If something has been there for fifty or more years and it has not created the kind of positive transformation promised, what new thing is going to reorient or reignite the system if there are no broad-based progressive social movements. Religion has expanded and flourished at the very moment when the moral and ethical fiber of African societies have weakened, amidst a situation where there are no already well -establishedinstitutions.  We will have economic growth and all those kinds of things in Africa but the benefits will only go to a small percentage of the persons.

I understand all the oppression of white racism and Western society, but it is not about skin color. I have seen oppression here, in my country of birth Nigeria locally, but it is not white people that are operating. I have seen oppression in my state of birth, fifty more years after independence. Just this Sunday, someone gave me a ride to church and he was castigating the north of Nigeria as taking everything and hating Igbos. This for him is why he supports IPOB and why the road from the Southeast to the North is bad. This is so in spite of President Jonathan being in power. My driver to the church was speaking with a lot of energy about the North. It did not look we were going to church to experience the love of Jesus.  I told him that if IPOB  (Ingenious people of Biafra) was for justice as were the Zapatistas, I can join them but what they are talking about is on blood ancestry and not the universal language of justice. But I warned him, and he was caught unawares, that when I did my NYSC in Imo states decade ago when he was just a baby, and they organized a farewell for us in Aboh  Mbaise Local Government Headquarters, where I served in the social welfare office, I told the people in the gathering my piece of mind when they told us that we are agents of national unity in Nigeria given that most of us came from the northern part of the country. When it was my time to speak, I told them that this may not be true. It may not be true because during my stay with them, I learned about a saying that: If an Mbaise man and a snake are coming to your house, leave the snake and attack the Mbaise man.  I was in my twenties then but I now feel proud of my courage then to tell the officials of the local government that such a statement is dehumanizing and I do not have to be an Mbaise man to understand even as a young person that there was something wrong in such a statement. So I told the person taking me to church that this statement was not said by Sokoto people or Hausa people in Northern Nigeria against Igbo people. It is Igbo people saying it against fellow Igbo people in the same state. He was shocked and I noticed he feltembarrassed because what I said was not false. During my stay here, I now truly believe that there is oppression with all Nigerian ethnic groups and within all religious groups. Religion and ethnicity are essentially used as labor market strategies. Initially the struggle is between one religion, region or ethnic group against the other. But then once that is taken care of, within the religion, region or ethnic group, the strong oppress the weak. Let me warn all Nigerians that given the problems you have in that country, even if every family is given a local government or a state of its own, with the current mindset, where justice and fairness are not taken seriously, some will exploit some. My driver here told me about situations even members of one family disagree based on the struggle for accumulating limited resources. You will find these problems in every region of country. We must not forget what Goran Hyden said,  "No Shortcuts to Progress: African Development Management in Perspective."

The National assembly in Nigeria has wardrobe and hardship allowance. But I see women sweeping the road when I go to the university to teach here and I ask, do these women not deserve better to be paid hardship allowance? Just as there are whites who think they are superior to Blacks, there are Black ethnic groups across Africa who see themselves as superior to other fellow citizens whose ethnic groups is different. Let us be honest about this. I remember reading from Professor Ochonu's book "Colonialism by Proxy" where one African traditional ruler on tour with a British colonial official in one part of Nigeria, said to the colonial official when he saw the indigenous people coming out of their communities to attend meeting with the colonial official accompanied by a traditional official, the traditional official said in Hausa "Ga Shanun mu suna zuwa" translation --- There are our cattle coming.  According to Ochonu's account, the colonial officer wrote of his disappointment given that they thought they came to civilize Africa, as Kipling, said, "The White man's burden." But the traditional ruler was not sharing that colonial vision, whatever its authenticity. I have no reason to believe that simply because someone is black if he or she has power, he or she automatically cannot oppress another person who is also black. There are examples all over the world. Many Nigerian ethnic groups in the U.S. do not get along with each other. They just reproduce their fear of each other in Africa in the U.S. If any ethnic group across Africa can claim inherent superiority over other ethnic groups, that framework of reasoning to justify such belief could be used by White supremacist to justify their superiority over other races. All one needs is to logic of reasoning informing the framework of reasoning and develop his or her own justification. Of course this will be moral and ethical duplicity. 

If Africans do not get their acts together and struggle against the ruling classes, we should not expect these corrupt elites will transform Africa in the interest of the common person. So also, we should never expect that we will wake up and because someone is in office, the appearance of such a political Messiah will transform the condition of Blacks or minorities in the U.S. In fact many minority elites have sold out their consciences. They have been co opted. Even in religion, people fear the god of the market than the Abrahamic God because for the god of hte market, justice and penalty is immediate and certain. Many minority elites have become bourgeosified but they think just distant criticism can solve the problem. I remember when Bill Maher, one of the talk show hosts in the U.S. made this statement, he received negative reaction but I see something similar happening in Africa now. Maher made the point that the terrorist were more courageous than Americans. America fire missiles from far away expecting to make impact or damage to the enemy or the target (i.e., problem). But the terrorist just make up their mind and go right up to the target and explode their bomb. People in the U.S. were angry for him saying that. Having been here for sometime, I sometimes contemplate on in my hotel room whether, we African scholars in diaspora approach Africa's monumental problems the way America fire missiles and drones from a distance hoping to make impact on the target. Can we really transform Africa this way. I will continue to ponder on this but my stay here is a truly a deeply reflective one for me. The culture industry has persuaded them them to see the struggle to personally get ahead to pursue the American Dream as the key thing, and not the struggle for broad social repair or transformation of society. 

Like Fanon, who abandoned his practice of psychiatry in a hospital in Algeria to join the struggle to transform the  social and political environment and institutions that consistently cause the patients to develop mental health problems after they are cured in the hospital, I feel now that if there was a truly progressive movement, doing that is far better than just engaging in distant pontification. But I understand how this is an existential conundrum given that we have limited time to live and the way things are in many African countries is that you can dedicate your life to fight for justice and die for it, but there is little legacy built on you. See how Mandela stood firm during his trial and see how some Black Africans forgot about all the ideals he stood for. It is truly humbling and painful to see the conditions of fellow Africans after being independent for more than five decades. 

My lamentation from the social margins of Africa of the 21st century.

Samuel


Samuel Zalanga, Ph.D.
Bethel University
Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Reconciliation Studies,
Office Phone: 651-638-6023

On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 10:55 AM, kwame zulu shabazz <kwameshabazz@gmail.com> wrote:
Kwabena,

The US government is at war with its Black citizens. African Americans have been in a centuries-long genocidal state of emergency. The methods of oppressing Native Americans and African Americans have changed. The methods now are generally less brutal because we the oppressed have constantly resisted white brutality. We continue to resist but the two most oppressed groups in America remain last by most quality of life indicators. In fact, the incarceration rate of Native Americans is higher than the African American race. What has remained constant is that the group who did the oppressing (white people), still control the economic, political, juridical systems.

Also see:

"Have black historians been wrong all along? With American racism and black history, there are no happy endings" by Donald Earl Collins


kzs

On Nov 12, 2017 7:07 AM, "Kwabena Akurang-Parry" <kaparry@hotmail.com> wrote:

Kwame,

I enjoy the across-the-table- banter! May be you should periodize, nuance, and problematize what you have quoted before you polish them as incontrovertible truths. Some were put out there in 1922 and 1960s. It seems to me that you are saying that nothing has changed in America regarding politics and race, but that to me is a stretch.

Kwabena

Professor Kwabena Akurang-Parry, PhD

Director Kwabena Nketia Centre for Africana Studies

African University College of Communications

Adabraka-Accra, Ghana


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of kwame zulu shabazz <kwameshabazz@gmail.com>
Sent: November 12, 2017 4:17 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: OBAMA-NATION-REVISITED: Donna Brazile Sells Out, A Sad Way To End A Career
 
Kwabena,

Yes, both parties agree on white power and Black subordination. They only disagree on method. In fact in his last book, "Where do we go from here," Martin Luther King said the white liberal was no better than the KKK. Du Bois put the matter more bluntly:

"The two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a 'gentleman's agreement' of non-recognition, no matter how we vote ... May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either the Republican or the Democratic Parties." -- W.E.B. DuBois (1922)

The GOP sold out Black people way back in 1877 (Tilden-Hayes Compromise) which led directly to nearly 100 years of Jim Crow. So every US president until the 1960s was explicitly anti-black and sanctioned white genocidal racial terror. 

That takes us to the 1960s when Eisenhower authorized the assassination of Lumumba (supported by JFK). Next we have LBJ shutting down the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party (MFDP) a vibrant Black grassroots challenge to the racist white terrorists who controlled the democratic party in Mississippi. 

The Clintons evil acts stretch back to 1980s when Bill Clinton sold out Black people to co-found the DLC. The DLC was behind Bill Clinton's anti-black policies aimed at attracting racist white people--the Omnibus Crime Bill and "welfare reform." Hillary Clinton was a key booster for the racist DLC.

kzs

On Nov 11, 2017 4:59 PM, "Kwabena Akurang-Parry" <kaparry@hotmail.com> wrote:

Wow clever categorization of democrats! Donna Brazile is complicit and H & B Clinton "are sophisticated racist/white supremacists and enemies of Black!" 


Professor Kwabena Akurang-Parry, PhD

Director Kwabena Nketia Centre for Africana Studies

African University College of Communications

Adabraka-Accra, Ghana


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of kwame zulu shabazz <kwameshabazz@gmail.com>
Sent: November 11, 2017 2:40 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: OBAMA-NATION-REVISITED: Donna Brazile Sells Out, A Sad Way To End A Career
 
Brother Kwabena,

No. But Brazile is certainly complicit--a matador for white power. Hillary and Bill Clinton are sophisticated racists/white supremacists and enemies of Black people. 

kzs

===
THE NEUTRAL SCHOLAR IS AN IGNOBLE MAN. Here, a man must be hot, or be accounted cold, or, perchance, something worse than hot or cold. The lukewarm and the cowardly, will be rejected by earnest men on either side of the controversy." Fredrick Douglass, "The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered" (1854).
===
EVERY ARTIST, EVERY SCIENTIST MUST DECIDE, NOW, WHERE HE STANDS. He has no
alternative. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of man's literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of national and racial superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. This struggle invades the former cloistered halls of our universities and all her seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. The artist elects to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice! I had no alternative! - Paul Robeson, speech about the Spanish Civil War at the Albert Hall, London,on 24th June 1937


On Sat, Nov 11, 2017 at 7:05 AM, Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kaparry@hotmail.com> wrote:

Do  you mean that Donna Brazile is a sophisticated racist and a white supremacist? 


Professor Kwabena Akurang-Parry, PhD

Director Kwabena Nketia Centre for Africana Studies

African University College of Communications

Adabraka-Accra, Ghana



From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of kwame zulu shabazz <kwameshabazz@gmail.com>
Sent: November 11, 2017 11:08 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: OBAMA-NATION-REVISITED: Donna Brazile Sells Out, A Sad Way To End A Career
 
Yes, Democrats prefer the polite, sophisticated variant of racism/white supremacy. Meanwhile, African Americans still catching hell. 

All Black Lives Matter, 

kzs

On Saturday, November 4, 2017 at 6:36:11 AM UTC-5, Bolaji Aluko wrote:

My People:

Donna Brazile's book-writing move is shocking.  Clearly, she indeed wants to earn a few shekels, not minding that she would be throwing Obama, Clinton, and the Democratic Party under the bus.

It is her career she has thrown under the bus, I think.

And there you have it.



Bolaji Aluko




HUFFINGTON POST


Donna Brazile Sells Out, A Sad Way To End A Career

Her new book will only hurt the party she claims to love.

11/03/2017 

Only a few weeks ago I signed a petition to keep Donna Brazile on the Democratic National Committee (DNC). I defended her as a good Democrat who worked hard over the years to elect Democrats. What a difference a few weeks make.

Today I am sorry for signing that petition. She has not only bought into the Bernie Sanders campaign story for profit, selling her book, but has hurt the Democratic Party she claimed to love when she spent years as vice-chair of it.

Brazile is too smart not to know releasing her book now wasn't going to be used by Republicans to block out everything wrong they are doing from tax cuts for the rich to covering up the disgusting behavior of Trump and his campaign. She knew she was going to set Democrat against Democrat once again and for that many will never forgive her.

What is amazing to me is in trying to trash Hillary Clinton for saving the Democratic National Committee she actually throws President Obama under the bus. He was president and controlled the party operations after 2012. He left it millions in debt and owing money to banks. He left Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) in charge knowing she was a disaster, just look at the mid-term elections. He could have changed the leadership of the Party at any time but didn't want to bother. As early as 2008 he started Obama for America as the way to go around the Party. Now all that is known but did Brazile have to throw him under the bus for it now when he is finally working in tandem with Eric Holderhis former Attorney General to raise money to rebuild state parties and win legislative seats for Democrats fighting gerrymandering.

Let's start with facts. The DNC, which Brazile claims rigged the primary for Clinton, was the organization saying to states it was OK for Sanders to run in their primaries even though he was not a Democrat. Sanders himself said were he not allowed into the Democratic Primary he couldn't have run. "He was deemed "extremely disgraceful" by Donna Brazile, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, when he said "In terms of media coverage, you had to run within the Democratic Party," he observed, adding that he couldn't raise money outside the major two-party process. The DNC shared its voter lists with him and he knew that was the only way to get them he could afford. In the middle of the primary he fired some staff for stealing Hillary's voter information from the DNC. Both campaigns signed agreements with the DNC to raise money. They both had the right to set conditions in those agreements with how the money they raised would be spent especially considering how the DNC was broke and had a record of squandering its money under Wasserman Schultz. Sanders really didn't care about that as clearly he never had any intention of raising a nickel for the party. One fact that people need to remember is Clinton won the primary by nearly 4 million votes. There was no way to rig that. Sanders's goal was always to tear down the party and that is obviously still his goal if you listen to the leadership of Our Revolution, the group he started after the campaign.

So what does Brazile accomplish by having Politico release a snippet from her book? Maybe she hopes Sanders supporters will run out to buy it? Maybe she hopes Republicans who hate Hillary and Obama will buy it? Maybe she hopes to get hired now that she has trashed the DNC, Obama and Clinton. Whatever it is she has effectively ended her career as a Democrat.

Over the years I have crossed paths with Donna Brazile many times at Democratic events. We were never friends but acquaintances and she would occasionally comment on columns I wrote or comments I made in the press. I don't expect to hear from her after this column.

What she has done as we move toward the 2018 elections for Congress, governors and state legislatures is try to reignite the fire between the Clinton and Sanders wings of the Democrat Party and re-litigate the 2016 election hurting the Democratic Party which is just beginning to recover. I see that as a career-ending move, even if she makes a few shekels from her book.

Democrats have a real chance to move forward beginning with wins next Tuesday in New Jersey and Virginia. We have a slew of great candidates who announced they are running for Congress next year and great candidates running in the 36 state governor's races, as well as for state legislature. While the DNC is still struggling to raise money, individual Democratic candidates are doing well, as are the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). The DNC has hired Jess O'Connell as CEO and she comes with a strong record of accomplishment from EMILY's List. So despite Brazile's nasty and from the excerpts I have seen half-truths, Democrats will prevail. The Democratic Party and our candidates will stand up to Trump, McConnell, Ryan and Steve Bannon and the hate they spew. Grassroots Democrats will be working hard to ensure decency, equality and telling the truth will once again prevail in the government of the United States.


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