Those purported liberals and progressives that urge pragmatism and caution in the face of raging imperial warfare and Wall Street’s predations, must not feel their own lives are at stake. “If they did really believe that corporations were leading the planet to doom or that the fascists they are protecting us from are just outside the gates, would they really only respond by a few rallies and a vote for a Democrat?” Blacks and Browns are the folks living at Ground Zero.
The Professional Left Versus The Left of Us
by BAR editor and columnist Jared A. Ball
http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content%2Fprofessional-left-versus-left-us
“Black, Brown, Indigenous and working people need to abandon the conventions of the professional left and develop our own politics.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was partially right when earlier this year he dismissed the “professional left.” There is indeed a professional left, those whose entire careers and claims to fame are based on permanent liberal challenges to power and who arrogantly dismiss as immature, and worse dangerous, those who would push leftward beyond those limits. “Don’t go too far,” they tell us, “vote for us or THEY will get elected and thenwe’re in real trouble!” But that’s because liberals aren’t in real trouble. They don’t really believe that. If they did really believe that corporations were leading the planet to doom or that the fascists they are protecting us from are just outside the gates would they really only respond by a few rallies and a vote for a Democrat? Then maybe they are as “fucking stupid” as Rahm Emanuel said they are.
But to some the fascism warned of in all those faint allusions to totalitarian horrors already exists and the death camp trains have been running for decades with barely a peep from the professional liberals. Should we care about Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo when he never felt pressure enough to even lie about wanting to shut down the Corrections Corporation of America? Prisons and the racist legislation, hyper-policing, brutality and fraudulent judicial system that keep them filled are among the nation’s biggest businesses. Joblessness and poverty continue to worsen and even the tens of thousands dying from war abroad are more than matched by the deaths in this country resulting from public policies which deny adequate housing, food and health care to millions. When ratesof Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are found to be as high in Black communities in the United States as they are in war-torn cities overseas and children tell counter military recruitment workers that they might as well risk death fighting in foreign wars when they get shot at here at home since at least that offers the chance of health care and education who is really interested in more liberal threats of “it could be worse”?
“Prisons and the racist legislation, hyper-policing, brutality and fraudulent judicial system that keep them filled are among the nation’s biggest businesses.”
For Marcus Bellamy of the Arizona-based Black Organizing Network and Arizona Green Party this was the point of a series of events that took place this week in Phoenix. For Bellamy and co-organizers Arizona is the national “ground zero, the laboratory for the state testing out just how far it can go in terms of racial oppression.” According to Bellamy all the recent fuss over Senate Bill 1070 itself works to mask that “the migrant community is being used as a mere experiment in methods that can one day be used against the entire population – workplace raids, detention centers, extension of biometric data collection in prisons, the hiring of an armed volunteer force that enforces immigration law (which in any other country would be labeled a paramilitary force), integration of local and national police agencies along with cooperation from the National Guard in the name of ‘border protection,’ and so on may seem like an attack on the stereotypical ‘Mexican’ but will eventually morph into a blanket assault on anyone who defies the status quo.”
So sure, the professional left will undoubtedly tell us of all the small victories achieved in this week’s reversal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the passage of the Low Power FM Radio Act. And we are soon to hear more from the Black professionals, or “surrogates,” called upon by Obama to explain how Black people will benefit from the new tax bill. But who really cares if imperialism is gay or straight or if we are now to get more liberal/non-profit radio or if Black people will get extensions on unemployment benefits instead of proper jobs with proper wages? Black, Brown, Indigenous and working people need to abandon the conventions of the professional left and develop our own politics even if they be dismissed as immature, impractical and simple fantasy. Professional liberalism is no answer for us.
Several years ago Essence Farmer finally won her case in Arizona allowing her to run a natural hair braiding business without a license since cosmetology school does not teach that skill. This week Black Floridian barbers are beingraided and jailed by armed and masked agents for precisely that same licensing issue. “Ground zero” strikes again.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Jared Ball. Online visit us atBlackAgendaReport.com .
Jared A. Ball can be reached via email at freemixradio@gmail.com.
I know of Jared Ball and I must say that he is dead on in some areas.
However, where does his agenda or goals with regards to the empowerment of the people end.
I don’t think it’s the government that we have to worry about, it is the media.
Jared and Dr. West keep attacking Obama. However, every time Obama tried to introduce some aggressive legislation the media fired a shit storm in his direction.
I will not lie, the Bush tax cuts suck, however, think of the people who needed unemployment.
My thinking is simple, we have to crush the media.
I have never heard Sarah Palin say anything intelligent or worth while. But this bitch has the media on her side. Anytime this women has something to say the cameras are rolling.
I guess what i’m trying to say is this: The revolution must be televised in order for it to work. As long as people have their Wii games, Sunday Night Football and etc….we are in trouble.
Loverboy Obama sold out on tax cuts in this sense.. Who needed the extensions the most? The 99ers.. Who was being talked about when the debate hit fullswing and the legislation was proposed? The 99ers . Who DID NOT get an extension? the 99ers. Who’s still in trouble and facing uncertainties ? the 99ers?
This has been typical of Obama.. His idea of compromise is to throw the least of us under the bus and start negotiating… He’s done that with almost all his legislation.. As for media.. He’s been had media on his side.. but he refuses to use it.. Imagine if he went on just the urban radio shows each week to explain what he’s doing.. Imagine if he treated those outlets the way he does the Today Show or even Fox News?
Fox has 3 million viewers.. Tom Joyner talks to more than 3 million everyday? Hot 97 in NY talks to 2 million.. at any given moment.. His team shoud’ve been cultivating pipelines with those outlets.. I’m not sure he’s been on MSNBC as of yet.. If he grew those outlets the way he grew others maybe he wouldn’t have to worry about being shut down..media wise
The most disgusting thing is when the professional left lectures us about the value of “compromise”. They wouldn’t know what compromise was if it hit them in the face. Compromise is when both sides sacrifice something. Republicans haven’t sacrificed or even so much as budged from any position since Newt Gingrich became speaker in 1994. So basically, what the Democrats think they’re “compromising” over, they’re really just caving in and giving Republicans whatever they want. Then they call us idiots for being critical.
@Loveryboy
The American media is run by Israel’s right wing. CNN does “Black America”, hosted by a fair skinned black woman named “O’ Brien”, to study the negative behavior of blacks. No “Jew America” special? What was the ethnicity and religion of most of those Wall Street brokers who sunk our economy?
@Rob Thomas
That Jewish statement is funny, it kind of reminds me of when Marlon Brando said that he has seen the grease ball(Italians),the redneck, the nigger and the chink…but he has never seen the kyke….maybe that is a conidence or maybe it’s not….I know someone in the music business and they told me that Jews will literally censor certain comments made by them.
But I have to dissagree with you on the comprimise, they have to comprismise. Did you guys see how they ripped him in the media. Rob if you are educated enough to know who controls the media, you know that you have kiss up to the media as well.
Daveyd, you are right. Obama is disconnected and he seems to be timid.
About the media statement….Come on black man, you know and I know most of the people who utilize those media outlets problably won’t act the same way as people who watch Hannity, glen beck or the hukabee show. People are listening to those outlets that you mentioned for entertainment, however, the ones that mentioned are not designed for entertainment. At the same time, the only way for us to move forward is simple…we have to hit them where it hurts. Think about this, the civil rights war was fought in the media.
In addition, I am dissapointed in him because he is too concerned about how white america will view him. He has distanced himself from us if ask me. I think that he is afraid of how white america will view him if he is too friendly with us.
Obama was accused of being an elitist before he even decided to run for president. He wasn’t well liked or loved in Chicago. As you guys know a former black panther whooped his ass more than once because that guy was more connected in the community than Obama. Actually he wasn’t even going to win the senate. He only won because of his opponent sex scandal. Technically, he has never done shit(his opponent used this to defeat him). I think that he was hand picked by the system but hey, at least he isn’t as bad as most of the members of the system.
the point is: WE SHOULD NOT HAVE EXPECTED MUCH FROM OBAMA ANYWAY.
“Black, Brown, Indigenous and working people need to abandon the conventions of the professional left and develop our own politics”
It’s immature and arrogant to believe that they don’t already, and that the interests of these complex and scattered individuals is somehow united in a way that reflects Jared Balls personal ideological assumptions regarding them and their lives.
The political left “games” their constituency with bullshit confusing forked tongue language to bolster individual professional standing, and so do the rest of you people.
The only different is when marketing firms and professional politicians do it they get a pay check.
When you people do it , it’s because you simply LIKE it
You can go home now.
“Imagine if he went on just the urban radio shows each week to explain what he’s doing.. Imagine if he treated those outlets the way he does the Today Show or even Fox News? ”
I’m sure his advisers have graphs on consumer retention rates, attention spans, education level and conversion rates that shoots any conflicting idealism in the head before it even has the chance open its mouth.
@loverboy, I agree that they have to compromise, so to speak. But why make it sound like it’s some kind of mutual agreement? They’re caving in, period. Tell me whens the last time Republicans compromised on anything.
It’s a false choice to say that one can only support one style of change or governance. The Tea Party fools are as radical as they come but when it comes to national elections they are lock step with the republicans and can be counted on as a voting block. They play both conventional and radical political games simultaneously to great success. I do not see such political savvy from the “left of us”.
The lesser of two evils argument is, unfortunately, very real. Removing yourself from the process is not the way to make it better. Primaries are how the far right pushes it’s agenda, while the left’s answer to unresponsive political machines seems to be to stop voting and drop out. You can have hundreds of rallies but if they don’t result in voter turnout for your causes then you are getting the government you deserve. People with jobs and families may not attend as many rallies as the author would like but we vote. If the “left of us” would run some primaries and learn to operate both in and outside the system they might have some success. Next time there’s a rally try circulating petitions to get your candidates on the ballot.