Last night a Palestinian friend of mine forwarded a poster to me that had a picture of a US aircraft dropping a bomb on a baby carriage with the words GAZA at the bottom. An artistic truth in more than one way. Mulling this over in my head I came to a very worrisome realization. We may be on the verge of something that is very very bad for black folk in America.
Up until now, or better put, the possible near future, the ammunition and other war making hardware sold to Israel has been done under the signature of a white male president and his lackeys. The demonization of the Palestinian people and their cause has flowed from the mouths of white men and women for the longest time, with a few cul-lud folks chiming in with a ""yessa massa." every now and then. The majority of black folk however have been at least wary of the whole Israeli-Palestinian situation. Most call for at least a "balanced" approach to the situation. Those of us who are more political are far more supportive of the Palestinian cause, even though we are also critical of how it has been carried out. We remember that the PLO had the back of the ANC when our brothers and sisters were under the Apartheid government of South Africa.
We are now faced with a possibility that there will be a black man in the oval office, signing off on weapons sales to Israel that will be used to kill Palestinians. This bothers me. It bothers me a great deal. Many leaders of the Palestinian movement cite Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement of the United States as inspiration for their struggle. How ironic and perhaps damaging to the reputation of black folk, that a beneficiary of the Civil Rights struggle may be directly to blame for the deaths of innocent Palestinian children, women and men?
How ironic and perhaps damaging to the global reputation of black folk in America, that they would have supported this candidate uncritically by upwards of 90% in every election he's been in which would probably grow to 100% in the case he is the Democratic nominee.
How ironic and perhaps damaging to the global reputation of so called radical black folk most, if not all of whom are strongly pro-palestinian and who have rightly and correctly lambasted the hypocrisy of the US for it's unwavering support of Israel, have been conspicuously quiet about this support of Israel by Obama who has even shown himself willing to go out of his way to let Jews and Israel know that he'll keep those radical black folk in check in order to gain the White House.
If Obama wins the White House with the overwhelming support of blacks of all stripes and continues to help fund the Israeli war machine, how would we answer the Palestinian who asks us why we supported such a person and policy? The most likely honest answer would be "because he was black."
If American Imperialism has a black face, a black face supported by the masses of black people, then what does it say about the moral compass of black folk in general? What does it say about the principles that black America claims to have? Will it mean that the entire "struggle" was simply to get in on the game? To get a piece of the pie?
These are some serious questions. Meanwhile, I remain very nervous about the prospect of Obama giving a news conference after the latest Israeli incursion and proclaiming that the Palestinians must do x,y and z and accept the taking of a,b, and c land. That's not a good look.
Technorati Tags: 2008 US Elections, Barak Obama, critique
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