QUEENS (CBS/AP) ― Three police officers went on trial Monday in the death of an unarmed man killed in a barrage of 50 bullets on his wedding day. Lawyers for the officers didn’t dispute the degree of firepower in the now-infamous killing of 23-year-old Sean Bell.
At least one out of every three women in the world is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime and one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape. Trafficking, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, dowry murder, honour killings and female infanticide are other aspects of the problem….
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Bruce Dixon
Is the Barack Obama campaign actually what it claims to be - the heir to and continuation of an historic and broad-based transformative movement for social change? What exactly are the differences between a social movement, a political candidacy, and a marketing campaign? How do we begin to unravel how much of Obamarama is movement and how much is marketing, and where will the promised and hoped-for “change” actually come from, if it comes at all?
WASHINGTON — Hoping to put an end to a month of confusion and dismay, Rep. John Lewis on Wednesday said he’s switching his support from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, blamed by many Democrats for their loss of the White House in the 2000 election, said on Sunday he is launching another independent campaign for the White House
Commentary by TAVIS SMILEY
Senator Barack Obama and the State of the Black Union 2008
Tom Joyner Morning Show
Thursday, February 14, 2008
By now many, if not most of you, have either read or heard about the letter faxed to me by Senator Barack Obama yesterday to officially inform me that he would not be attending the State of the Black Union symposium next Saturday, February 23, in New Orleans, live on C-SPAN. The letter was apparently made public on the Internet by the Obama campaign.
This morning a few thoughts now about the letter, about Senator Obama and for that matter, about Michelle Obama.
On the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz), take time to listen to Black leadership at its best. Both brilliant, and sorely missed.
“OnApril 25 1961, two giants of African American history faced each in a debate on the nature of racism in America and possible solutions. The discussion between brings into sharp focus many of the issues that still plague this country. ” - Democracy Now!
and then go here to hear/read an account of his assassination from Yuri Kochiyama, Japanese-American activist and friend of Malcolm X.
Bartlett’s announcement Tuesday was greeted as historic by the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington, D.C., gay rights group that says Bartlett is the first openly gay black legislator in the United States.
A speech by Amiri Baraka, recorded earlier this month in Newark via Black Agenda Report
Give Obama a break, some of his supporters argue. He’s got to get elected first. Till them he can’t be seen acknowledging the needs of Black America for job creation on a vast scale, for an end to foreclosures, the repeal of No Child Left Behind, the equitable rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, and lowering of the prison population and cutting military budget to free up money for these and other human needs.
Poet, playwright and longtime activist Amiri Baraka has a different take on the Obama candidacy, and the responsibility of the politically conscious. In this speech he cautions those who imagine Obama will make a difference without a strong left movement pressuring and pushing him further and faster than he and his corporate backers really want to go.
“Even if there’s gonna be a black president,” said Baraka in Newark early this month, “if we don’t do nothin’ he won’t do nothin’… the less we do, the less we can expect Obama to respond to us…”
Baraka took to task those who criticize Obama without actually organizing anything on the ground in their communities.
“The question,” he said, “is what will you do, where will you go with the one opening that they leave you which they claim is democracy.”
An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba’s president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.
The rules have changed a bit for political reporters, especially those with high profiles, and some players haven’t realized it yet.
Sorry Obama, Black America is not “90 percent of the way” to equality.
Corporate media, which conceal much about the state of things beyond our borders, work hard to obscure the facts of life for Americans too, including the state of black America. In this year of symbolic firsts and “never befores” Black Agenda Report offers a useful index of how life is lived for hundreds of thousands of families in our communities.
Antiwar Democrat Donna Edwards joins us to talk about her defeat of eight-term Congress member Albert Wynn in Tuesday’s primary vote. The Maryland race had been described as “a bellwether contest in the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party.” If Edwards wins in November, she’ll be the first African American woman elected to Congress from Maryland. [includes rush transcript]
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With Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton almost even in delegate counts, the two Democratic presidential candidates will focus on several weekend contests and then a trio of primaries in the Washington area next Tuesday.
Donna Edwards contest against the corporate-friendly House incumbent Al Wynn is one of many key Dem primary races this election.
Wild Roots Media
