Tavis Smiley, Drs. Julianne Malveaux and Cornel West
Princeton professor and Bennett College president debate the Democratic Party acceptance speech of Sen. Barack Obama.
Watch the full interview.
Archive for Politics
Democrats choose Obama in historic acclamation
DENVER - Barack Obama stepped triumphantly into history Wednesday night, the first black American to win a major party presidential nomination, as thousands of Democrats transformed their convention hall into a joyful, shouting celebration.
Michelle Introduces Who the Obamas Really Are: Just Like All
Michelle Obama gives an inspiring and intimate introduction to her family’s all-American success story. And: Ted Kennedy passes the torch.
Dead Prez Protest outside the Democratic Convention
Listen or watch at Democracy Now!
JEREMY SCAHILL: Perhaps more than any candidate in history, Barack Obama has seen an impressive array of celebrities line up to support him. Many of these figures are flying into Denver to cheer on Obama, as they have with high-profile advertisements.
The Brooklyn-based political hip-hop group dead prez was not among those artists invited inside to perform at the DNC, like Kanye West, Wyclef Jean and Black Eyed Peas. But the duo of M1 and stic.man is here in Denver performing at rallies and evening political gatherings. And they seemed right at home among the crowds in the Denver streets.
M1: Their political objectives are limited, and we know that they are surface, surface. We’re looking at a government who’s a paper tiger and someone who wants to participate in a paper democracy.
JEREMY SCAHILL: What do you make of this major embrace, as it seems, not just of hip-hop, but the whole entertainment industry, of the Obama camp?
STIC.MAN: It’s lack of understanding, the lack of political clarity, you know what I mean? And it’s marketing, you know what I mean? It’s like Barack is hot. He’s, you know—he’s the [blank] right now, so throw him on your jacket, you know what I mean? And, you know, it ain’t really deep. It’s just people riding the wave, you know what I mean? And that’s what hip-hop is being used for, is, you know, to sell products, to sell [blank] to us, stuff [blank] down our throat that might not necessarily be good for us. So some of the hip-hop people, you know, who do hip-hop, and this is our culture, we have to speak from the vantage point of people who want real power. And hip-hop is part of that. Barack wouldn’t even be in the position he’s in without the support of hip-hop. You know, and we—
JEREMY SCAHILL: So are you guys going to vote?
M1: Hell no.
STIC.MAN: Yeah, yeah, I’m going to vote.
M1: OK, cool.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Who are you going to vote for?
STIC.MAN: I mean, I’m voting with my art.
M1: Yeah.
STIC.MAN: I’m voting with my participation in rallies like this. I’m voting—you know what I mean?—in raising my son, you know what I mean, to recognize the truth about this system. I’m voting in so many ways, I don’t even got time to go to the booth in November.
M1: I’m voting for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Free ’em all. Feel me.
U.S. Rep Stephanie Tubb Jones Dead at 58
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said.
DemocracyNow! reports:
And Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones has died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was fifty-eight years old. In 1998 she became the first African American woman to represent Ohio in Congress. She was a leader in the fight against predatory lending practices and advocated for broadening healthcare coverage for low- and middle-income people. In January 2005, she led the fight in the House against certification of President Bush’s re-election, citing voting irregularities in Ohio.
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones: “I’m duty-bound to follow the law and apply to the law to the facts as I find them, and it is on behalf of those millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote, that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing to stand at polls for countless hours in the rain, as many did in Ohio, then I should surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress. This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning the victory of the President, but it is a necessary, timely and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy. I raise this objection neither to put the nation in the turmoil of a proposed overturned election, nor to provide cannon fodder or partisan demagoguery for my fellow members of Congress. I raise this objection because I am convinced that we, as a body, must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. I raise this objection to debate the process and protect the integrity of the true will of the people.”
Black Agenda Report: New York Times Attempts to Define and Dictate Black Politics
The Sunday magazine of the nation’s most influential newspaper predicts that Black politics as we know it is headed for extinction, that Barack Obama’s “brand of ‘race-neutrality’ shows Black politics is obsolete, and should be abandoned.”
Read Glen Ford’s analysis at Black Agenda Report.
Uhuru Movement Spokesman on NPR
Hear Tony Cox interview Diop Olugbala about Uhuru Movement’s recent action at an Obama rally here.
The Role Hip Hop Organizations and Groups Play in Politics
A report from the National Hip Hop Political Convention by Davey D via ThugLifeArmy.com
During the recently held Hip Hop Political Convention we had an explosive panel that addressed the issue of Electoral Politics and how they intersect with Hip Hop music and Culture. We wound talking specifically about the impact or lack of impact Hip Hop organizations have on the voting process.
Sitting on this panel were the following people;
Rev lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, Professor Lamont Hill of Fox news and Temple University, Tony Cani- Young Democrats, Honorable George Martinez of H2Ed and former elected Official & emcee, Rosa Clemente-Vice presidential candidate of the Green Party.
Obama’s Speech in Berlin - “A World that Stands as One”
OBAMA SPEECH TRANSCRIPT:
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (as prepared for delivery)”A World that Stands as One”
July 24th, 2008
Berlin, Germany
Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
First All-Women-of-Color Presidential Ticket in US History
The Green Party made history last week when it nominated the first all-women-of-color presidential ticket in US history. Former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who was the first African American woman elected to Congress in Georgia, won the Green Party’s nomination last Monday. She named longtime community organizer, journalist and former director of the Hip Hop Caucus, Rosa Clemente, as her running mate earlier this month. They both join us for a wide-ranging discussion on the 2008 race, the media, the impact of the hip hop generation and more. [includes rush transcript]
Paterson, at N.A.A.C.P., Warns of Racism’s Power
CINCINNATI — David A. Paterson, in his first major speech to a national audience since becoming governor of New York, said on Thursday that even as black Americans rejoice about the possibility that Senator Barack Obama could become president, they cannot lose sight of the serious social and economic ills that plague their community and should remain mindful of the racism that still exists.
A voice of reason.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Outsider’s Road Within
Mumia breaks down his take on Barack’s campaign and raises questions about its future.
It should surprise no one the candidacy of Illinois senator Barack Obama has evoked fascination, not least because of his presumed outsider status as a man at least partial African descent. It is this racial inheritance that accounts, to a considerable degree, for the fascination among both Blacks and whites posed by his candidacy. But as ever in America, race often hides as much as it reveals. For if Barack is an outsider to the American body politic because of his Blackness, he is too an outsider to much of Black America precisely because of his direct East African heritage, one unleavened and unmitigated by the 500 years of Black bondage, resistance, repression and rebellion that is at the heart of the African American experience and identity. In this sense Obama is a double outsider and has had to work out his own way into what being Black in America means.
Listen to the full commentary here.
More from Mumia
Obama to Bernie Mac: ‘Clean up your act!’
Bernie Mac made a surprise appearance at a Barack Obama fundraising event Friday evening — but given heckling from the crowd and a rebuke from the Illinois senator’s campaign for an off-color joke, the comedian may wish he’d just stayed home. Obama told Mac: “Bernie, you’ve got to clean up your act next time,” he said. “This is a family affair.”
Is it just me, or can Black men say anything that the Obama campaign won’t call inappropriate, unfortunate, Old School, etc, etc….?? I guess Obama, although being his good friend never knew Bernie Mac was so “hood”. This is getting a little ridiculous. He’s a comedian!! And a damn funny one.
What Tupac Told Kevin Powell
At his Wednesday night fund-raiser, Kevin Powell ”explained that drawing celebrities into his campaign is not just about self-promotion. It’s also his way of generating excitement about the race and driving voters, particularly young people, to the polls and into the political process.
Powell says he was inspired to reach young people by Tupac.
