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<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>"Dr. King rejected U.S. empire, and broke with President
Lyndon Johnson over the "inter-related" issues of foreign war and and domestic
poverty. There is not a shadow of a doubt that King would denounce Obama in the
strongest terms, were he alive, today."</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>The Black Mis-Leaders' Love-Fest with Power on the
Mall</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>by BAR executive editor Glen Ford</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>“<EM>Proximity to Power has always been </EM>their<EM>
Dream.”</EM></STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>For those who seek an independent Black politics that is
faithful to the historical Black consensus for peace and social justice, the
inclusion of President Barack Obama in the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on
Washington is a desecration. The ancestral sanctum is to be utterly defiled by
the presence of the very personification of imperial savagery and a ballooning
domestic police state.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>Of course, the organizers of this monumental
self-debasement – this obscene groveling at the feet of Power – see Obama’s
participation as the ultimate testimony to Black progress. Proximity to Power
has always been <EM>their</EM> Dream. Dr. Martin Luther King serves as a mere
prop in the ceremony, which seeks to draw a straight line from the 1863
Emancipation Proclamation, through the 1963 mass march, to the First Black
President’s embrace of the 2013 commemoration – a kind of holy
trinity.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>For the Black Misleadership Class, the great social
movement in which Dr. King played such a pivotal role was brought forth, not to
confront Power, but to integrate it. President Obama is the perfect blending –
the literal embodiment of Black Power, in the warped worldview of the 2013
organizers. Dr. King has no place in this abomination, except to mark the
tolling of the bell on his dream to overcome the three evils inherent in
imperial capitalism: racism, militarism and materialism.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>It is a funereal occasion.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>“<EM>For those that spent much of the next 50 years
jockeying for greater opportunities to join structures of power, there is no
shame in hosting the nominal head of Empire at a great public
ceremony.”</EM></STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>Not that the actors were so different in 1963. But, back
then, the grasping Black classes had not yet been launched on the trajectory
that would give them a stake in the imperial order. Their status was still
aspirational. Years of tumult would unfold – and Dr. King’s assassination –
before the system would deign to offer serious silver to the Judases in his
entourage and the larger movement. For those that spent much of the next 50
years jockeying for greater opportunities to join structures of power – the
“<U><A
href="http://www.scu.edu/ethics/architects-of-peace/Belafonte/essay.html">burning
house</A></U>” that Dr. King feared he was leading his people into – there is no
shame in hosting the nominal head of Empire at a great public ceremony. Rather,
such an event is the pinnacle of success – especially for folks that imagine
they have a special, complexional relationship with His
Highness.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>It has been so long since the dissolution of the Black
Freedom Movement, the pretenders to Black leadership have forgotten how to speak
the language of struggle. Non-violent “direct action,” Dr. King’s preferred
<U><A
href="http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">tactic
to</A></U> “create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community
which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue,” has
degenerated to mean simply <U><A
href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/it-was-good-blacks-expressed-frustration-obama-–-don’t-call-it-“direct-action”">marching
down a street</A></U> on a sunny day.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>The 1963 march was not an example of direct action –
quite the opposite. The purpose was to gather as many people as possible for an
orderly and “dignified” demonstration of the movement’s mass following and broad
support – and then get them out of town by sundown, as promised to the
powers-that-be. The last thing the organizers wanted was that a quarter million
marchers create a “crisis” in the heart of Washington – a scenario that Dr. King
hoped to organize in the summer of 1968, but was interrupted by an
assassin.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>“<EM>The pretenders to Black leadership have forgotten
how to speak the language of struggle.”</EM></STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>The 1963 march was so accommodating to the Kennedy’s
demand for orderliness, Malcolm X dubbed it the “Farce on
Washington.”</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>“It ceased to be a black march; it ceased to be
militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to be impatient,” <U><A
href="http://www.blackcommentator.com/42/42_malcolm.html">said Malcolm</A></U>.
“In fact, it ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, an outing with a festive,
circus-like atmosphere....”</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>It was also the biggest show of massed humanity in the
history of the Nation’s Capitol – which certainly made the intended impression.
But, accommodation with Power is not what created the movement that brought the
throngs to Washington for the one-day “outing,” nor did strolling in the park
carry that movement forward in the ensuing years of confrontation with
power.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>The 1963 March on Washington was sanitized by the
organizers, themselves, whose goal was to impress the nation – including other
Black people – with the size and the breadth of the forces the leaders could
call on at that point in time. It did not seek confrontation <EM>on that
day</EM>, although its immensity served as implicit warning that masses of
people were deeply committed to social transformation, and might not always be
so orderly.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>“<EM>Accommodation with Power is not what created the
movement that brought the throngs to Washington.”</EM></STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>In that sense, the event on the Mall was quite
<EM>unrepresentative</EM> of the movement. It was, as Malcolm described from the
sidelines, “a festive, circus-like atmosphere” – but it also occurred smack in
the middle of years of mortal combat with the “system.” When the march is taken
out of the context of what happened before and after, all that remains is the
“picnic” and the self-censored, deliberately non-confrontational speeches – most
notably Dr. King’s vague “dreaming.” Which perfectly suits the needs of today’s
Black Misleadership Class, who have no intention of confronting Power – ever! On
the contrary, they cling to the garments of Power, in the person of the First
Black President, and wrap themselves in the flag of Empire.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>Dr. King rejected U.S. empire, and broke with President
Lyndon Johnson over the "inter-related" issues of foreign war and and domestic
poverty. There is not a shadow of a doubt that King would denounce Obama in the
strongest terms, were he alive, today. Yet, those who pose as his political and
moral descendants hug the presidential scorpion to their
bosoms.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>Malcolm’s critique of the 1963 March does not seem so
dated if one substitutes the words “Obama” or “Democrats” for “white
liberals”:</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>“The white liberals [Democrats/Obama] control the Negro
and the Negro vote by controlling the Negro civil rights leaders. As long as
they [Democrats/Obama] control the Negro civil rights leaders, they can also
control and contain the Negro's struggle, and they can control the Negro's
so-called revolt.”</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>This August 28<SUP>th</SUP> will be a day of control and
containment – amid a love-fest with Power.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG><EM>BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
</EM><U><A
href="mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com"><EM>Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com</EM></A></U><EM>.</EM></STRONG></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>