Channel Changer: Can BET be Saved?

Channel Changer
Three Years Ago, Reggie Hudlin Came To Save a Troubled BET.
But Has He?

By Teresa Wiltz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 4, 2008; M01

NEW YORK -- To understand the irony, skip back four years: Reginald Hudlin, Hollywood director and comic book nerd, is ensconced with his close friend, firebrand cartoonist Aaron McGruder, gleefully penning a graphic novel, "Birth of a Nation." The book features as its villain the network mogul "John Roberts" -- a black billionaire with a complete willingness to sell African Americans down the river to make a buck.
Not coincidentally, "John Roberts" looks a lot like billionaire Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television.


Skip forward to the present: Now Hudlin's dividing his time between Los Angeles and New York as BET's president of entertainment, the man in charge of the images tumbling from the cable network's airwaves. His critics blame him for serving up a steady diet of the same old same old: poisonous, stereotypical images of blacks, specifically rap videos featuring scantily clad vixens and blinged-out gangstas.


On the Internet, Hudlin is the target of a savage cartoon sendup, portrayed as the morally challenged programming head for "Black Evil Television" -- a parody created by none other than McGruder, his former friend.
And in Washington, protesters camped for months outside the home of Hudlin's boss -- network CEO Debra Lee -- each and every weekend, chanting "Enough is enough.
"

"Right now, Reginald Hudlin and Debra Lee preside over a media empire that perpetuates every negative stereotype about black men and black women that we fought against," says the Rev.
Delman Coates, the Prince George's County pastor behind the campaign against BET. "And they have to be held accountable.


"The reality is, if Reginald Hudlin were white, more black leaders and more black organizations would be raising an outcry. But for some reason we give black people a pass for participating in our own exploitation.
"

Last month, Coates, in conjunction with the Parents Television Council and onetime BET video programmer Paul Porter of Industry Ears, released a study analyzing adult content on two BET video shows, "106 & Park" and "Rap City," along with MTV's "Sucker Free" -- prime-time programs that they charge are marketed to and viewed by children. Among the conclusions: In March, on the shows cited, there was one instance of adult content -- references to drugs, sex or violence -- every 38 seconds.


The next step in the "Enough Is Enough" campaign: pressuring BET advertisers to pull their sponsorship.


All of which says: It's a tough time to be Reggie Hudlin, the supposed savior of BET.


Mention that to Hudlin, and he bristles. To his mind, BET's critics are haters who can't appreciate the hard work he's put into the network. The rap videos, he says, are but a small portion of the programming that the network offers. "To me, when you look at the portfolio [of shows], the intent is very clear," he says over lunch in Manhattan, looking aggrieved.
"So why are you criticizing me?"

As Hudlin sees it, he's fighting the good fight, trying to change the public image of African Americans, one show at a time, with family-oriented programming such as the newly announced gospel video countdown, "106 & Gospel"; "Black Panther," an animated series based on a comic book he writes; and "Brutha," a reality show about a group of singing siblings trying to make it in the industry.


"This is a place where you can effect a world of difference, literally a world," says Hudlin, who with his brother Warrington made the popular movies "House Party" and "Boomerang" in the early '90s. "You can just sit around and be a complainer. Or you can roll up your sleeves and get to work.
"

Those sleeves would be cashmere, attached to turtlenecks color-coded to match his horn-rims: brown one day, black the next. Hudlin's on the short side, broad in the chest. Gray streaks his hair and goatee, but he retains the air of the baby-faced hipster he once was.


Talk to him about work, and in particular BET, and he's defensive and uptight, taking umbrage at the questions asked, intensely focused on spin. "You're bumming me out with your questions," he tells a reporter. It's as if he takes the criticisms personally. But get Hudlin talking about anything else -- the "Black Panther" series that he writes for Marvel Comics, getting married in Jamaica, the wonder of his little girl's traffic-stopping 'fro -- and he loosens up considerably. His sense of humor floats to the surface.


At 46, Hudlin is of the same generation that shaped Barack Obama, riding the cusp between Boomers and Gen X'ers, post civil rights movement and "post-racial." He comfortably straddles the line between Harvard (where he earned his bachelor's degree) and the 'hood (East St. Louis, Ill., where he grew up), a hip-hop head weaned on P-Funk and Prince, sci-fi and Marvel Comics.


Now he's riding the cusp between the old BET and the one he envisions for the future. Today, Hudlin and his network are at a critical juncture.


After nearly three decades in the business, BET is battling its image as a purveyor of stereotypes at the same time it's trying to position itself as a global player. Last month the network launched BET UK, its first real venture into international waters. (Next stop: South Africa in 2009.
)

Now, after nearly three years on the job, Hudlin says he has started turning around the network, pushing it to the next level, from a surplus of music videos and syndicated reruns to scripted, original programming. At the same time, he and Lee point out that they've got a business to run, and that they'd be foolish to ignore the ones buttering their bread: that prized demographic of 18-to-34-year-olds. Young people, who, he says, "get it." BET's critics, he says, do not.


"What we do involves black youth culture, and black youth culture has always been vilified," Hudlin says. "That's the business we're in. I understand there's always going to be some level of vilification . . . and I'm not having it.
"

Hudlin is squeezed between making profits and making a difference. Observes a BET producer who declined to be identified for fear of losing his job: "You can criticize BET all you want, but it's about money. . . . You put all these high-minded, socially conscious programs on and your profits dip, you're right out of there.
"

BET, founded in Washington in 1980, emerged in the aftermath of the black-power '70s, riding a crest of hopes and expectations as the first black network. In the early days -- also the early days of rap -- the network was a family affair, with all ages tuning in. It was "Video Soul" with a genial Donnie Simpson and the wholesome Sherry Carter. It was nighttime newscasts with a sober-looking Ed Gordon. It was talk shows and Teen Summits and Mandela Freedom Fund Telethons. But along the way, things shifted. Newscasts shrank to sound bites. Hip-hop, or at least, commercial rap, morphed into something else, something harder and crasser. Videos took on a dominant role.


Being the first means being saddled with a certain amount of baggage. "BET is unique because it is the custodian of the airwaves for all black people," says Hudlin's brother Warrington. "It is a burden, a double standard. History places that on you. . . . BET hasn't done anything that VH1 and MTV haven't done. But people don't expect VH1 to be our channel.
"

Age-old dilemma. As Langston Hughes pointed out in 1926, "The Negro artist works against an undertow of sharp criticism and misunderstanding from his own group and unintentional bribes from the whites. 'Oh, be respectable, write about nice people, show how good we are,' say the Negroes. 'Be stereotyped, don't go too far, don't shatter our illusions about you, don't amuse us too seriously. We will pay you,' say the whites.
"

Former Friends

At a recent daily taping of "106 & Park," BET's video countdown show, a plethora of hip-hop players and wannabes float in and out of the studios on West 57th Street in Manhattan. A giant screen displays rapper Rick Ross's latest video, "The Boss." In it, two half-naked women crawl over Ross's massive, tattooed chest, interspersed with dreamy clips of diamond-encrusted rings and stacks and stacks of hundred-dollar bills.


Ross raps:

Who gives a [expletive] what a hater gotta say

I made a couple million dollars last year dealing [expletive]

The video fades out. In its place is a segment featuring black-and-white newsreel footage of Martin Luther King Jr., the Mall and a narrator intoning, "I am the March on Washington.
"

But it's the gangsta-rap videos that had BET critics such as Coates, of Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, camped outside Lee's Northwest home from last August to mid-April on weekends, chanting, "BET, SUCH A DISGRACE! BET, UPLIFT THE RACE!" (A New York-based sister church similarly is still protesting each weekend outside the Manhattan home of Philippe Dauman, CEO of BET's parent company, Viacom. Dauman declined to be interviewed for this article.
)

People protesting on his boss's front lawn is just one of Hudlin's problems. Ratings have dropped significantly, according to Derek Baine, senior analyst for SNL Kagan: Average household daily viewership dropped from 353,000 in 2006 to 316,000 in 2007. (But a popular show like Keyshia Cole's does much better.) The network reaches nearly 90 million households.


Then there's Paul Porter, a former BET video programming director who left the network in 2002, who charges that payola was, and is, a regular part of transactions at the network. On any given Friday, he says, he would receive a FedEx box stuffed with as much as $15,000 in cash. (Porter now heads Industry Ears, an advocacy group that participated in the "Enough Is Enough" BET survey.
)

Hudlin vehemently denies any knowledge of, or involvement in, alleged payola at BET. As for Coates's protest, he says, "it's such misplaced aggression that doesn't deal with the root of the problem. They're attacking someone [Lee] who cares a great deal about all the things that they care about.
"

He'd rather talk about his successes: "We have expanded the breadth and depth of programming on the network in a very short time. We're far from done. But I think the work we've done so far on the network should be celebrated.
"

As evidence, Hudlin points back to a 2005 telethon to raise money for Katrina victims; a two-part town hall special, "Hip Hop vs. America," aired in the wake of the Don Imus brouhaha; a reality TV show featuring R&B starlet Keyshia Cole and her dysfunctional family; a documentary series produced by writer Nelson George, "American Gangster"; an "American Idol"-style gospel show, "Sunday Best"; and "BET Honors," an awards show for prominent African Americans.


Between 2003-2007, BET has doubled its programming budget. Last year, Hudlin and his crew announced plans to release an impressive lineup of original programming -- 16 shows, including an animated series about the Carthaginian general Hannibal to be produced by Vin Diesel. In April they announced programming for the 2008-09 season that includes a courtroom reality show and a dating show. It'll also boost its news programming with two shows: "The Truth With Jeff Johnson," a news talk show, and "Unreported," an investigative series.


But several shows announced last year have yet to air or have died quick deaths. "Judge Mooney," a sendup of courtroom shows featuring veteran comic Paul Mooney, was canceled days before its scheduled October debut. The ambitious "Wifey," a drama starring Queen Latifah as a widowed music industry executive, remains unscheduled. The pilot was directed by Hudlin, an unusual move for a network head.


To be sure, television programming is an exercise in experimentation. As Lee put it, "Some things fall by the wayside," while Hudlin insists that most of the network's pilots do make it on-air.


BET's shows that have aired are a mixed bag.


"Take the Cake," a live interactive daily game show starring Tocarra of "America's Next Top Model," only lasted a season. "Hell Date," a mash-up of dating shows that features a dwarf in a Devil suit, doesn't exactly advance the cause for quality programming. "We Got to Do Better" has come and gone, as has "Socially Offensive Behavior," a kind of "Candid Camera" for the 21st century, starring comic D.L. Hughley. "Read a Book," a satirical animated short by Washington rapper Bomani, came under fire by critics who said the video perpetrated negative stereotypes, and inspired the "Enough Is Enough" campaign.


A firestorm of controversy started last fall when BET debuted "We Got to Do Better," based on a Web site, "Hot Ghetto Mess," which casts a jaundiced eye at tacky African Americans, taking the "America's Funniest Home Videos" approach.


Critics like Gina McCauley, an Austin attorney, charged that the show catered to offensive stereotypes. She launched an online protest with her blog, "What About Our Daughters," and some Internet advertisers pulled their support for the show.


Observes Hudlin's mentor, the television pioneer Steve Bochco: "He's had to completely change the culture there, which is always a complicated chore. He has to grapple with a very, very anemic budget. When you look at what he's been able to do and the context of those challenges, you have to say he's doing a wonderful job. He needs more time to accomplish what he's set out to do. You don't turn those ships on a dime, big heavy corporate cargo vessels.
"

Hudlin has hurt feelings along the way. Mooney says his show was abruptly pulled without explanation and Hudlin never returned his calls. "I thought he was a king," Mooney says. "I had no idea he was a slave." (Both Hudlin and Lee maintain that the show was killed because it didn't test well with focus groups.
)

His feet are to the flame. A few years back, Hudlin joined forces with comic strip artist McGruder to produce the cartoon version of McGruder's "Boondocks" on the Cartoon Network. The show takes frequent potshots at BET.


Today Hudlin and McGruder, once close friends, no longer speak. And Hudlin himself became the target of two "Boondocks" episodes. (The episodes, which the Cartoon Network decided not to release, are now making the rounds in the Afrosphere.
) Hudlin is cast as the bow-tie-wearing "Weggie Rudlin," who declares, "My Harvard education tells us that our goal is to take all the [expletive] reality TV shows that MTV made five years ago and make them black!"

And yes, Hudlin still has an executive-producer credit on the show. And no, he's not going to talk about what happened, or how he feels about being skewered by his onetime friend/protege. Nor will McGruder comment.


The comedian Orlando Jones, director and producer of the upcoming BET animated sketch show "BUFU," says Hudlin "did everything right. He went to Harvard. Now he's been charged to change the stereotypes for people who think BET is the chitlin circuit network.
He's like, 'I've never done anything in my life that's stereotypical, and now I'm that guy?' "

In the 'Ghet-to'

Hudlin grew up in East St. Louis, Ill., a city with a rich artistic past: Lillian Gish, Josephine Baker, Miles Davis, dance pioneer Katherine Dunham and bluesman Albert King all called it home. But by the time Hudlin came of age in the late '70s, East St. Louis, once dubbed an "All America City," was rapidly unraveling, the victim of riots, factory closings and virulent street gangs. A city that he affectionately sends up in "Birth of a Nation," where he and McGruder imagined what would happen if East St. Louis seceded from the union. (Hint: chaos.
)

Hudlin's description of East St. Louis? "Ghet-to.
"

Still, his is hardly your standard by-the-bootstraps story. Hudlin's mother was an educator. His father, who died in 1998, was an insurance agent who served as president of the Chamber of Commerce, ran the local community college -- and turned down an invitation to run for mayor.


"My family was very educated; we have people with PhDs," says Hudlin over lunch at an upscale midtown Manhattan brasserie. He pauses, and then adds this caveat, as if to establish his 'hood bona fides: "But we collected grease on a stove. Both my parents were real products of the Depression: Real, real hard work, never throw something away that you can use again.
"

From an early age, he knew that he wanted to be a filmmaker. As a kid, he spent hours drawing comic books and hanging out at the community arts center that Dunham created in the heart of the ghetto, studying martial arts while his mom took dance classes. Films entranced him: Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz," Charles Burnett's "Killer of Sheep." But it was Ken Russell's rock opera movie "Tommy" that clinched it for him: the surreal rush of music and imagery.


With visions of directing a funk opera starring George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, he headed off to Harvard, where he majored in visual and environmental studies, a multidisciplinary honors program that combined film, photography, graphic arts and architecture. After college, he joined up with his older brother Warrington, a Yale grad who was working as an independent filmmaker.


"I was doing work that was important, but not commercial," says Warrington, co-founder of the Black Filmmaker Foundation. "He said, 'What you're doing is good, but it's about time to make some money.' He always had a much stronger commercial instinct.
"

But Hollywood is notoriously fickle. After his film successes, Hudlin turned to TV, directing shows including Bochco's "City of Angels," "Bernie Mac" and his good buddy Chris Rock's "Everybody Hates Chris." Rock says he was a little surprised when Hudlin took the BET gig.


"He's got good taste," Rock says. "There's the Reggie who thinks like a director, and the Reggie who thinks like an exec. On the one hand, he's got real artistic taste. And then on the other hand, he's got real pop taste, 'This'll sell, this'll work.
' "

'Ching-Ching'

Cold, hard commerce is in the house.


From up on high in the Hammerstein Ballroom, in a box reserved for corporate muckety-mucks, Hudlin sits, head bobbing to the beat, taking in the cross-pollination of hip-hop and fashion, of industry and art. There are dudes lining up along the front row, doing the retro rap thing, all flattops and neon, looking just like Kid 'n Play did when Hudlin directed them in "House Party." Hudlin spots them and laughs.


Here, at the taping of BET's "Rip the Runway," booty-shaking is in short, and tasteful, supply. Instead, cash is the theme du jour. Pharrell, backed up by N.E.R.D., is rapping about "hundred-dollar bills" while models sporting ruffled Zac Posen evening gowns prowl the catwalk, affecting a studied indifference.


Then there's Missy Elliott, plugging her new single, chanting, "Ching-ching, getting paid over here," as models sporting duds from her fashion line bounce around the runway. From there, Flo Rida takes to the stage, name-checking Nelly's line of Apple Bottom jeans while models strut and preen, sporting, um, Apple Bottom jeans.


Over the course of the night, Snoop Dogg and Nelly, accompanied by their entourages, make their way up to the box, to pay their respects to Hudlin and Lee. To kiss the ring.


At the end of the day, it's all about doing business.

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Obama Drama, Sean Bell & The Latino Vote-Immortal Technique pt2

Breakdown FM Interview w/ Immortal Technique pt2


Obama Drama, Sean Bell & the Latino Vote

This is pt2 of our interview with Immortal Technique.
Here he starts off by talking about his goals with his newly launched 'Police State Chronicles' project. This is the endeavor Technique has which involves him collecting stories of police abuse which he hopes to deliver to the United Nations.
Drop him an email at policestatechronicles@yahoo. comfor more information.


Next, Immortal gives a serious run down on the recent drama surrounding Presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
He talks about the importance of Obama's formner pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright speaking his truth about America's oppression and how historically America has crushed perspectives like his by labeling them anti-American, pro-communist or ridiculous.


Immortal talks about the corner Obama has been backed into and lays out why he thinks Hillary Clinton and the Republicans have worked together behind the scenes to try and cripple and ultimately take away Obama's presidential bid.


Immortal concludes this interview by talking frankly about the Latino vote and the role it will play in the 2008 elections.
He talks about the meetings Republican candidate John McCain has had with California governor Arnold Scwartznegger and how that may possibly lead to McCain obtaining a sizeable portion of the Latino vote.
He noted that slowly but surely McCain has been making moves behind the scenes and Obama will have to do a lot more than have New Mexico governor Bill Richardson at his side to attract those voters.



Breakdown FM Interview w/ Immortal Technique pt1

Breakdown FM Interview w/ Immortal Technique pt2

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Jay-Z sets up trust Fund for Sean Bell’s Kids

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Democrats Finally Cave In and Make Friends w/ Fox News

New York Times

May 2, 2008

By BRIAN STELTER
Standing in front of a television camera last week, the chairman of
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign, Terry McAuliffe, uttered four words
that the Fox News Channel would not soon forget.


"Fair and balanced Fox!," he exclaimed, noting that the network was the
first to project Mrs. Clinton's Pennsylvania primary win.


Fox executives could not have asked for a more rousing endorsement.
The
next day it showed up in promotions.


All of a sudden, the once-frosty relationship between Fox News and the
Democratic candidates seems to have grown warmer. Mrs.
Clinton and Barack
Obama, who steadfastly refused to attend Fox-sponsored debates last year,
are now giving plenty of interviews as they court Fox's viewers, who are
largely white, conservative and undecided.


"It's probably true that we appeal to white working-class voters," said
Brit Hume, the network's Washington managing editor and the host
of "Special Report." "The candidates are going where the voters are.
"

Conversely, Fox seems to have softened its stance toward the Democrats,
mindful of the intense viewer interest in the prolonged primary season.

Although Fox News remains firmly in first place among news channels, CNN
has crept up in the ratings on primary nights.
So Fox wants to appeal to
people who might otherwise flip the channel in search of more time with
the Democrats.


In short, Fox News and the Democrats abruptly find each other useful.


"I think the candidates are starting to realize that they need to reach
the people who we reach already," said Marty Ryan, the network's executive
producer for political programming.


Last year the Democrats declined most of the network's interview requests.

Barack Obama rejected the network for so long that the show "Fox News
Sunday" resorted to a public demand in March, showing a weekly "Obama
Watch" clock that counted the days since the senator had promised an
interview and failed to make good.


Then the thaw came. Mrs.
Clinton has been on Fox 10 times this year, and
Mr. Obama has appeared seven times, compared with three times for Mrs.

Clinton and two times for Mr. Obama last year. Mr.
Obama appeared on "Fox
News Sunday" last week, perhaps in pursuit of moderate voters in Indiana
and North Carolina.


On Wednesday and Thursday, Mrs.
Clinton was questioned for an hour on "The
O'Reilly Factor," whose host, Bill O'Reilly, is something of a poster boy
among liberal voters who think of Fox as the media arm of conservatives.


"You're a polarizing personality," Mr.
O'Reilly chuckled during the
interview. "You're like I am, and I hate to say that," he said.
(Perhaps
the same words could have been said to him by Mrs.
Clinton, though they
were not.
)

The first part of the interview set a year-to-date viewership record
for "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research, with 3.
66
million people tuning in, about one million above average.


Political calculations are evident on both sides.
With Fox leading the
coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
's remarks, it was logical for
Mr. Obama to appear on Fox and respond.


"In the end, they don't do it for us — they do it for themselves," said
Chris Wallace, the host of "Fox News Sunday," referring to the Democrats
and their decisions to come on the show. He said that he assumed that Mr.

Obama's "defeats in Ohio and Pennsylvania convinced him that he needs to
reach out to blue-collar, moderate and conservative Democratic voters.
"

On Sunday, when Mr.
Wallace will interview Howard Dean, the chairman of
the Democratic National Committee, it will mark the first time in 18
months that Mr. Dean has agreed to an interview on Fox.


Although Fox's surveys show a big constituency among Republicans, whites
and males, the network is by no means devoid of Democratic viewers.
With
an election studio dressed in flag-blue window frames and red-striped
walls, Fox tries to play the patriotism card, hoping to attract viewers
from both parties.


Perhaps because the Democratic race is so close, Fox faces stiffer
competition for viewers than it did in the last presidential election
cycle.
This year CNN and, to a lesser extent, MSNBC have challenged Fox
among the 25- to 54-year-olds coveted by advertisers.
Yet the gains by CNN
and MSNBC have largely come on primary nights, while Fox's viewers return
reliably every night, making Fox by far the most popular cable news
channel.


In any given hour, nearly one million viewers are watching Fox News,
compared with about 600,000 for CNN and 380,000 for MSNBC.
The consistent
ratings have long been a boon for its parent, the News Corporation, whose
cable segment has posted a 23 percent increase in profit in the last
quarter of 2007.


To keep posting a healthy profit, the network realizes it has to stay
nimble.
After CNN scored some primary night ratings victories in January,
Fox modified its election coverage, switching to the moniker "America's
Election HQ" from "You Decide 2008." The network introduced a new 5 p.m.

hour of political coverage starring two youthful anchors, and a weekend
show called the "The Strategy Room.
"

Fox's popularity is a point that its executives lean on to wave off
complaints about political bias — and to lobby the campaigns for
interviews and debates.


"Why would they want to eliminate the largest audience in news? That would
be stupid," said Shepard Smith, the anchor of "The Fox Report.
" He said
the candidates had moved toward the political center as the general
election neared, "and that's where we are.
"

Last year, under pressure from liberals, the candidates declined to attend
debates sponsored by Fox.
This prompted Jay Leno to joke on the "Tonight
Show": "How are you going to stand up to terrorists when you're afraid of
Fox News?"

The controversy divided Democrats, with some arguing that the candidates
should boycott Fox altogether because of the network's perceived bias.

That viewpoint cropped up again this week on left-leaning Web sites like
Daily Kos as Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton made their appearances on Fox.


Mrs. Clinton's campaign has distanced itself from the anti-Fox camp.
Days
before Mr.
McAuliffe's comment, Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania
and a Clinton supporter, said that Fox had done the "fairest job" covering
the race and had "remained most objective of all the cable networks.
"

And Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mrs.
Clinton, said the campaign had
received a "fair shake from Fox when we've been on the network.
"

Mr.
Obama's aides have been more reticent, and some supporters say
privately that Fox has been the most aggressive in covering the
inflammatory comments by Mr. Wright. Mr.
Obama's own complaints about the
sound bite coverage of his former pastor at times seemed directed toward
Fox.


Before Mr.
Obama's appearance on "Fox News Sunday," an unnamed Obama
adviser told the Web site Talking Points Memo the campaign was "clear-eyed
about Fox's role in the dissemination and amplification of Republican
talking points.
"

But neither candidate has criticized Fox in public.
"Fox clearly takes on
a conservative bent or slant in its coverage," said one aide, who asked
for anonymity to avoid angering other media organizations.
On the other
hand, "with Fox," he said, "at least you know what you're getting.
"

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BDFM: The Police State of New York-An Interview w/ Immortal Technique

Breakdown FM Interview w/ Immortal Technique pt1

http://odeo.com/audio/19088983/view

We caught up with Immortal Technique who gave us an incredible 2 part interview. The first focuses on the recent Sean Bell verdict and New York's lack of reaction. He breaks things down and talks about how and why the big apple has become a police state.

Immortal makes the connection to what has been happening with out of control police here in NY and the growing facism throughout the rest of the world-in particular Latin America.

Immortal Technique Speaks Out on Police Brutality

by Immortal Technique


Please forgive the mass mail. It is not often that I find it so unequivocally necessary to write everyone on my personal mailing lists and express the words that we often think and wish we could vocalize but that remain inaudible.


Recently, someone inquired about what they thought were a series of blogs that I released on myspace and on other websites. At first I was confused until it dawned on me that I have never explained to anyone how I keep a journal, almost a book's worth I would say, of personal stories that detail events in my life. These stories are written without the anger, pain, sadness or bitterness that often clouded my vision at the time that these things happen. I usually only release the politically charged ones to the public, because I am not in the habit of sharing personal stories about my life, unless it is with my inner circle that gets a chance to read some of the entries at times… However, the events of the past week have provided a reason for me to bring up a story about my youth. I pray that those who I am just as close to in mind, heart, spirit and Revolutionary cause may be able to understand and hopefully identify with.


I grew up in Harlem during a time when the Apollo had underground Rap acts performing there every weekend, when Morningside park wasn't a place where you wanted to be without a weapon, and where they used to fight pitbulls on the steps after dark. I can remember when to the West, Grant's Tomb used to throw huge Jazz festivals, and they would incorporate upcoming Hip Hop acts as well. This was all during the era of struggling Black businesses, the sunset of redline district ratings, and what would become known as the golden age of Hip Hop. New York City was not the police state that it is now, and while some see the city's past as a lawless criminal haven, there was a balance in the fact that there was more culture rather than a contrived tourist attraction that nets corporations money, but that threatens to remove much of the current population. All that said, I think it would naïve to think that just because all this is true, that the old New York was better. Because I couldn't say that to someone who lost their child to gang violence, drug addiction, murder, or a bevy of other issues that used to claim so many more lives than they do now. However the problems haven't gone away. They've simply been masked in many areas and increasing the prison population hasn't resolved the fundamental problems of social imbalance that are the root cause of many of these issues.


I was very young and unable to articulate what I can now but I remember everything. As God has blessed me with one of the best memories out of the people I know. To remember things in detail is difficult for some people but when thoughts are ingrained into my mind, they can be recounted effortlessly. Even more so often I guess because I often wrote them down in detail as a child. As all children when I was young I got into my fair share of trouble, but much more so as a teen and a young adult than as an adolescent who was more concerned with just playing stickball, arcade games (remember those?), Street Football, and talking to girls in the neighborhood.


Behind the tomb of the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, on 122nd Street in what is now gentrified West Harlem, there is a small park. The park extends from what would be 123rd street all the way to 125th where it ends and a bridge carries the remaining road parallel alongside the Westside Highway and above what was once was the empty meat market district. The park is has a paved path with a row of benches on its side leading up to a playground where for as long as I can remember a large diverse community of people gathered over the summer. Blacks, and Latinos, including Mexican's, Puerto Rican's and Dominican's from the Harlem and the Washington Heights Community have traditionally set up BBQ's and family picnics there. The entire area was then, and still is, littered during warmer days with people who allow their children to play together in the jungle gym and swing area. I remember watching people of all ethnicities having a good time there when I was young.


Across the street from the park there is a strip of sidewalk that follows the scene I just described towards a Bridge. Like a lonely admirer, the street never joins with the park but rather continues on it's own as a path as it proceeds over the bridge up to 135th street.


On a summer day when I was about 13 years old, I was walking down this exact same path with three of the kids from around the way, Jay, Angel, and Mark. We were walking through the park, laughing, making jokes and just basically having fun. We we're drunk or high or scheming on anyone, we didn't harass any females, or spit on someone we thought looked at us wrong. We brought no cause to even notice us besides the faint laughter heard from a distance as we cracked jokes on one another. Usually we just walked through the picnic area to see if there were girls there or played stickball with one of our other homies Dominican Chris (RIP) who I shouted out on the "One Remix" at the end of Revolutionary Vol.2. On this one occasion we thought we'd walk back down the path opposite the park and go down a street called Tiemann to get to 125th. I saw the long open road that followed the park, turned to the fellas, and bet that I could beat any of them to the end of the road in a race. We went back and forth, talking shit for a minute, until finally, betting a quarter water and some 25 cent cookies on the winner of the race, we all took our mark and then we ripped down the street. Just some innocent kids enjoying a summer day running through a park. I remember seeing my lead come and go as the other competitors struggled to obtain lead and excel.


As we finished the race, (Angel beat us all), we slowed our run to a jog and then stopped to rest in front of a row of steps. But no sooner had we stopped running when another competitor who had obviously been watching our race very carefully joined our group. The police cruiser pulled up right next to us in what can only be described as an unhealthy speed to try and stop a car in front of anyone let alone children. It slightly came onto the curb but didn't jump it completely. The cops barked for us to all "FREEZE!" I can remember feeling nervous at first and then all that fear subsiding because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong at all. The cops then ordered us all to come to the car, and we all did so quietly and reluctantly, all of us except Angel. He backed away from them towards a set of stairs that led down to another street. The cops immediately asked us who we had robbed, they asked us what we took and where we had hidden it. "I didn't steal anything," I answered back and was told to shut up. "The only reason niggers and spics run is when they've stole something" was the response the cop in the patrol car.


I had seen the cops rough people up before. There is a deli near my old apartment that for many years during the 90's was a famous coke spot that everyone from college students, junkies and business people frequented. But those were drug dealers from the hood. In Hip Hop we glamorize the drug trade sometimes, but I always understood the harsh reality of that world. I saw cops rob drug dealers before and they beat down a few drunk people on the street who were talking reckless, but I hadn't seen them talk to children like that. They came to my elementary school once, only a few years earlier, to talk to us abut safety and drugs. So while it wasn't the first time I had seen or heard the police get physical or confrontational with people, it was the first time it was directed at me personally. There they were calling me a nigger and a spic and accusing me of stealing something when all we had done was what their kids did in their all white community 15 miles out of New York or in a Queens suburb, race each other in a fuckin' park.


But that was just the half of it. When Angel came back, away from the steps they all of a sudden seemed interested more in him than of the rest of us. "What the fuck did you step back from us for?" they asked.
"Why'd you run away?"

They ordered him to come towards the car. When he obeyed, the cop who was riding shotgun grabbed him by the neck and yanked him halfway inside the vehicle, leaving his little feet dangling in the air.
The cop driving slapped him in the face and growled "what the fuck are you running for? What the fuck did you steal?"

We all watched in disgust and horror at the sight of our friend being mangled by these grown men with the power of life and death over us. They asked us how old we were and I clearly remember that we each went down the line saying, "13, 12, 14, 13" and I think back on it now, noting how small we must have really been in comparison to these police officers. He then asked Angel to give him his mother's phone number to find out where he lived, he asked him over and over, and then one of them yelled at him "don't lie to us!" He didn't pose any threat to them in any way shape or form, and yet they felt the need to keep hitting him. They even pulled out the top of their nightstick and banged it against his head. We all started yelling about how we didn't do anything and again they told us all to shut up. Finally, they then let him go and told us that if we didn't steal anything and we weren't guilty than we didn't have anything to fear from the police.


We walked back to our block silently, but there was a quiet attitude in Angel that I hadn't seen before, he was not just left without words, he seemed to be silent inside. He wasn't as badly bruised as I thought he'd be.
He had a few marks and his face was red but there was something behind his face looked like it was broken…

I am going to leave that story at this point for now, and not go far into detail about explaining to my father how useless it was to look for their badge numbers or about how this was just beginning of my abusive relationship with NYPD, who only 3 years later pulled guns on me outside of an 86th street train station because they claimed my green jacket matched the description of a robbery suspect. I could really tell a whole chapter of these stories. Almost getting killed by cops, but by then I was already a criminal, which coincidentally doesn't mean that a summary execution of me was in order.


Scooter Libby is a criminal, he broke the law, and so did Oliver North. But I'm sure if someone shot them both tomorrow that person wouldn't be exempt of the charges because of the victim's status. I watch people often implant these ideas in our mind to justify what happens to drug dealers, to thieves, to people that come from a community that is persecuted or to people whose politics are adverse to our own. We are media-trained to see ourselves as a threat, rather than the system as one. Perhaps that's why even when the cops are of color they feel more threatened by a Black or Latino person. They feel like they're less concerned with the consequences of doing this is in our communities vs. other places where they'd be more accountable for their actions by the governing council.
Who all need to be voted out by the way, immediately!

When I went to school the next day I talked to my classmates about my crazy weekend and I found shock and disbelief from some of the white students, those who came from a more affluent background but the few Black and Latino kids were more understanding and we even shared stories of their own with each other, but not with the rest of the class, we felt like they thought the police were their friends. Imagine that… Sharing stories about police brutality in 7th grade.


I know that it's been a horrible week for anyone out there that was looking for some sort of justice in New York. Some of us hate marching. We're tired of it. And many others wanted us to riot, as if destroying our own neighborhoods would do anything for us. Others talked about destroying other neighborhoods, rich white neighborhoods, as if that wouldn't bring about the wholesale slaughter of our people. Some say that this would at least highlight the difference in the way police deal with people of color from the inner city vs. other communities. Some said blood needed to be shed, and that we must expect to incur losses, and we shouldn't be squeamish and look ahead. But these are the same "hardcore activists" that have never seen bloodshed or violence the way I have. And if we are all for sacrificing lives on the altar of Revolution then the question to be asked is, if there was only one life to sacrifice to bring attention to this police state, and it was your son, or daughter or husband who was father to them both, would you give them up? I can guarantee that while the Bell family is happy to receive the love and support from the community and the help of so many organizations to expose police corruption and seek justice, that they would trade it all to have Sean Bell back… If I was them… I would too.


Sean Bell's murder isn't just about race. Although it is important to point out that that the idea that one cannot be prejudice against their own race is just ridiculous because there are glaring examples of it present in our everyday lives all the time. But I firmly believe this is much more about power. The power of a growing authoritarian state who will protect it's praetorian guard at all costs, a city who values some lives over others, that doesn't mind paying out as long as the PBA can spin the issues and use whatever legal maneuvering with a retiring judge to make the decisions it finds favorable. It is about the power of a government to torture or kill a human being and not have to answer to the people that its supposed to represent. If our only claim to democracy is the vote we somewhat take part in as a nation 25 times every century, and not the foundation of it's institutions, then are we not truly a democracy in name only? But I am not here to preach to the choir, I actually presented this old journal entry of mine because I want to hear YOU SPEAK… We NEED to hear you speak.


I wanted to take this opportunity to make this an open forum for people from all walks of life, all races, sexes, religions, persuasions and ethnicities to speak on their experiences with police abuse. In response to the Sean Bell killing and various other issues facing this nation Other Revolutionaries and I are working on coming up with more proactive solutions to the problem s our communities are facing. Telling these stories is a way to communicate more with one another. Marches are good to show solidarity and display the numbers of a community but they are just one tool in the arsenal that we have available to us as a people. Communication is another, and as we search for non-traditional ways to battle the system, to take it beyond complaining and press conferences, as we take it beyond the predictable means of typical protest, a greater network is necessary to establish. We are not defenseless, we are not sheep, and we will not be placated "civilians" whose diversified skills and ability to structure ourselves with military organization will be allowed to go to waste. Networking is key. (Post it either here or join the network on myspace. com/immortaltechnique) where this has already started.


Please feel free to post a personal account from you or your family's experience with Police brutality, whether you are in NY, LA, Seattle, Toronto, Russia, China, Japan, The Middle East,Chicago, Jersey, Atlanta, Miami, The West Bank, Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, or somewhere off in Latin America, in the 3rd World, where the police are the military and they are 10 times worse towards the people. Write us here from everywhere...

While we keep fighting, I and other Rebels of all walks of life make moves. So I want to hear from you, to hear your experiences so that we can learn from them, speak to one another, and form a stronger alliance. People know me as a Rapper but I see that as I always have only piece of what I am, music is really just a small part of my life, it is only the beginning of what I have begun working on.
Communication is an essential component in all types of warfare, releasing this piece of my journal and asking for you to speak on stories of your own is part of a much larger action planned to increase Communications all while moving our other projects ahead…

R.I.P. Sean Bell.


But remember, that he will only Rest In Peace when we bring those that murdered him and the state which basically sanctioned his execution, to justice. We must be well- trained, disciplined, sober, vigilant and ready for action when it comes. We remember the many that fell before Sean, and those that are still to come because this will never stop unless we take action to stop it. We are taking action this is just the first step.


We are the people. We are the Revolution.


Respectfully Submitted,

Immortal
Technique

9:05 AM - 5 Comments - 11 Kudos - Add Comment

Breakdown FM-Dead Prez-Rosa Clemente Interview About Sean Bell

We caught up with dead prez two days after the horrific Sean Bell verdict which acquitted the police officers who shot him 5o times. The group had just given a rousing performance in Amhearst, Mass and took time out to break down how we should be viewing things in the aftermath. Both M-1 and Stic said they weren't surprised by the verdict because America has a history of never administering justice to those they oppress.


We also caught up long time activist Rosa Clemente, Hip Hop Pioneer Popmaster Fabel and former Presidential candidate Jared Ball.
All of them offered up keen insight and overstanding to the Sean Bell situation and police terrorism..

We also premiered a new song from rapper Jasiri X about Sean Bell


Listen to Breakdown FM Interview by Clicking the link Below

http://odeo. com/audio/18939243/view

8:30 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Two Compelling Articles on Barack Obama and His Pastor

Here are a couple of articles that effectively look at the recent dust up between Barack Obama and his Pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Personally I have long maintained that there's no way I would've denounced or distanced myself from my pastor. It was a red flag for many when Obama tried to explain away Pastor Wright who is well known and enjoys a lot of popularity in many Black circles, in particular among church folks.


From my vantage point Obama should've put his foot down early on and drew a line in the sand and simply said those are his opinions, not mine and kept it moving. He got off to a shakey start when he disinvited Wright from his campaign launch. I felt Obama was trying to explain himself and Pastor Wright way too much and to way too many people who quite frankly don't give a damn about him or Black people in general. Obama tends to tip toe around a lot of stuff to the point that it appears he has no backbone and is pandering instead of being a decisive leader and sadly that strategy blew up in his face.


For example, instead of emphatically insisting that people look and listen to the full sermons for themselves, Obama tried to dismiss them and wish them away.
He could've pointed out how Wright's words were out of context and posted the video on his campaign website to defuse the controversy while simultaneously exposing Fox News' disengenious agenda.


Obama could've reached out and had other African American along with the white ministers from United Church of Christ which Trinity Church is a part of to defuse this. He already had people like Common speaking out. Heck Trinity has 5000 thousand members, that entire congregations could've stepped up and defended the Church and Wright. Obama did too much explaining and as a result an opportunity to bring people together and discuss difficult issues was lost by him trying to bury this.


Not only did Obama come across as pandering to a really fickle group, but he also comes across as one who was brought to his knees by Sean Hannity and Bill O'reilly of Fox News who set out to trip him up on this issue from jump street and are now crowing real loud about this defeat they handed him

Lastly I will say this... when Rev Wright spoke at the NACCP he was brilliant. He made his case.. There was nothing more to say. He clarified his position and ideally should've moved on.


Unfortunately, When Hillary Clinton's aid invited Rev Wright to the National Press Club he took the bait and walked into a firestorm. I'm glad he spoke up and out. I agree with him on many of the issues he raised for the most part.
But I didn't like him playing for the cameras by doing Omega Psi Phi hand gestures and pruning.. That's where he came off looking clownish... It's not the Rev Wright I've come to know and love.


In any case I was tired of the tip toeing..Obama having to 'be quiet' in order to win over some white folks who don't like him or us was troubling.. No matter what he did they were gonna find fault.. If you recall they were starting to jam him up about the rappers supporting him.. Next it would be the designer shoes he has on..At some point ya gotta say take it or leave it.. Politics aside the man has done everything he was supposed to do for this campaign.. He played the game and in the end the folks he was supposed to be courting the most have not come to support him over Hillary.. In short Obama is seen as just another Negroe and yesterday Rev Wright gave him what comedian Paul Mooney used to call 'that Negroe wake up call'...

Davey D



Jeremiah's Failed Crusade
By William Jelani Cobb

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, Jeremiah Wright has just
been awarded a construction contract.
And that's the best case scenario --
in light of his weekend blitz of media appearances there are many doubting
that Wright's intentions were benign.
Assuming they were, the reverend's
appearance before the National Press Club highlighted his naive belief that
he could redeem his reputation by talking to the same people who were
responsible for distorting it.


Let's be clear: Wright has been wildly mischaracterized and defamed.
It's a
natural instinct to respond to the kind malice that has been directed at him
for the past six weeks. You see a fire, you want to throw water on it.
But
this situation is more akin to a grease fire, which means that you have to
respond to it in a way that runs counter to your instincts.
Instead, Wright
opened the faucets and the flames have spread far beyond their original
boundaries.


In the wake of his appearance you heard disparate rumblings that are growing
into a chorus of condemnation.
The difference is that these jeers are now
coming from black people.
He started out with the enmity of misinformed
whites who knew him only through the manipulated soundbites that had been
looped ad nauseum (but which were, until now, dying down.
) But now he has
done nothing to diminish their scorn and has gained the contempt of a
growing number of black folk who feel that he has single-handedly ruined our
chance to have a black president.


That perspective isn't accurate, but it is increasingly common only a day
after that appearance.
Writing in the NY Times, Bob Herbert accused Wright
of vengefully sabotaging Obama with the press conference yesterday; Errol
Louis in the Daily News gave Wright the benefit of the doubt and said that
"He couldn't have done more damage to Obama if he tried.
" I received an
email from a friend who referred to it as "black-on-black crime" another
speculated that he was secretly on Hillary Clinton's payroll.
And then there
are the innumerable crabs-in-a-barrel references cycling around the
internet.
I'm not prepared to say that Wright was out to destroy Obama's
candidacy (though that may well be the outcome) but it was entirely
predictable that people would draw that conclusion.


It has to be unspeakably difficult to hear oneself lambasted and defamed for
weeks on end but Wright entered that conference with a flawed agenda: the
commercial media exists to exacerbate controversies, not defuse them.
The
degree of truth in his words was nearly irrelevant; what matters is the way
in which those words would inevitably be consumed, filtered, repackaged and
distributed.
If the media operated on the basis of people's good intentions
we would have far more mutual understanding and they would have far less
money.
This might have been minimized had Wright called Roland Martin, Ed
Gordon, Gwen Ifill and done a roundtable of responsible black journalists or
even stopped after the Bill Moyers interview he did days earlier.
But in
addressing the National Press Club the reverend was like a man who had lost
$10 to a card hustler but decides to play again in an attempt to break
even.


Wright was also likely buoyed by a false confidence in his own communication
skills. He is a brilliant preacher but a podium is not a pulpit.
He has
spent the last 36 years in an arena where people literally say "amen" to
your opinions, one where your credibility is virtually unquestionable.
But
yesterday he was talking to journalists, people who are, by definition,
skeptical and start with the premise that if someone in public is talking,
there's a good chance they're telling a lie.
Anything Wright said was grist
for the machine.
He was playing an away game without recognizing that he
lost home field advantage the minute he left his pulpit.
Anything he said
beyond "Jesus loves you" would be used against him.


It's been argued that Wright felt Obama threw him under the bus with his
Philadelphia race speech, but a moment's reflection would reveal that those
words constituted anything but a political stiff-arm.
In Philadelphia Obama
offered as subtle and daring a defense of Wright as he could have and far
more than any other politician would have given in the situation.
(Jocelyn
Elders and Lani Guinier were dispatched by Bill Clinton for offenses far,
far less damaging than Wright's video clips have been to Obama.
)

The irony is that less than twenty-four hours later Wright got to see what a
real denunciation looks like.
Obama has been painted into a corner, in large
measure a victim of his own attempt to place Wright into context.
It looks
all but certain that Wright will be looked at by a large segment of black
America as the man who tried to ruin a dream.
It will be a vast distortion
of Wright's distinguished legacy but its what people will believe.


And, as any one of the media in the room could have explained in the
national press club, perception is reality.


William Jelani Cobb is an associate professor of history at Spelman College.

His most recent book is The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays.
He can
be reached at Jelani9@aol.com

----------------------------------------------------------------


The world views of Rev.
Jeremiah Wright and Sen.
Barack Obama were incompatible from the start, just as the mythical American Manifest Destiny world view is directly at odds with the facts as perceived by Blacks in the United States. Wright finally forced Obama to choose sides in the conflict of racial/historical visions, and in doing so, performed a service on behalf of clarity. Obama lashed out in a startlingly personal manner, calling Wright a "caricature" of himself and linking the minister to forces that give "comfort to those who prey on hate." Rev. Wright exposed the flimsy tissues of so-called "race neutrality" in a nation founded on racial oppression.


Obama's 'Race Neutral' Strategy Unravels of its Own Contradictions

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

"Obama positioned himself at the political/historical fault line alongside the defenders of the Alamo and American Manifest Destiny.
"

http://www. blackagendareport. com/index. php?option=com_content&task=view&id=603&Itemid=1

Things fall apart; some things, like an ill-tied shoelace, sooner than others.
Barack Obama's strategy to win the White House was to run a "race-neutral" campaign in a society that is anything but neutral on race. The very premise - that race neutrality is possible in a nation built on white supremacy - demanded the systematic practice of the most profound race-factual denial, which is ultimately indistinguishable from rank dishonesty. From the moment Obama told the 2004 Democratic National Convention that "there is no white America, there is no Black America," it was inevitable that the candidate would one day declare the vast body of Black opinion illegitimate.


That day came on Tuesday, April 29, when a battered and (truly) bitter Barack Obama made his final, irrevocable break with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose televised Black Liberation Theology tour de force the preceding Friday, Sunday and Monday had laid bare the contradictions of Obama's hopeless racial "neutrality." It was the masterful preacher and seasoned political creature Wright - not the racists who had endlessly looped chopped snippets of the reverend's past sermons together in an attempt to make him appear crazed - who forced Obama to choose in the push and pull of Black and white American worldviews. Obama was made to register his preference for the white racist version of truth over Rev. Wright's, whose rejection of Euro-American mythology reflects prevailing African American perceptions, past and present.


"Rev. Jeremiah Wright laid bare the contradictions of Obama's hopeless racial 'neutrality.
'"

Obama was less than eloquent. "All it was is a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in truth," said Sen. Obama, low-rating Rev. Wright's remarks at the National Press Club, in Washington, the morning before. Rev. Wright had become a "caricature" of himself, said the wounded candidate - another way of calling the minister a clown.


Under questioning from reporters in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Obama swore up and down that he had never before, in 16 years as a member of Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ congregation, observed his pastor behave in such a way. The declaration rang patently false, as even a red-state Republican white evangelical observer would have recognized Wright's Press Club performance as that of veteran pulpit-master with a vast repertoire of church-pleasing moves and grooves to draw upon, all of them honed over decades for the entertainment of his parishioners - including Obama. But the senator was intent on giving the impression that Rev. Wright was - unbeknownst to Obama - a Jekyll and Hyde character, whose statements "were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate.
"

An amazingly Bush-like turn of phrase! The man who married Barack and Michelle and baptized their children is now rhetorically linked to Osama bin Laden or the Ku Klux Klan.


Clearly, this is what panic looks and sounds like when Obama's flimsy tissues of "race neutrality" are stripped away. He berates Rev. Wright and other Black voices for self-centeredness in failing to strike a balance between African American grievances and whatever ails white people. "When you start focusing so much on the historically oppressed," said Obama, "we lose sight of the plight of others." Obama is desperate to convince these "others" that he rejects anything that smacks of an Afro-centric worldview, as represented by Rev. Wright. "What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that contradicts what I am and what I stand for.
"

Rev. Wright succeeded in drawing a line in the sand, whether that was his intention or not, daring Obama to take his stand on one side or the other. Race "neutrality" - an impossibility in the actually existing United States - went out the window as Obama in extremis positioned himself at the political/historical fault line alongside the defenders of the Alamo and American Manifest Destiny. As dictated by the logic of power, Obama furiously maneuvered toward "white space," shamelessly taking cover in a kind of populist white patriotism that has always branded Black grievances as selfish, even dangerous distractions from the larger national mission. Rev. Wright's "rantings" amounted to "a complete disregard for what the American people are going through," said Obama. "What mattered to him was him commanding center stage.
"

"Obama's flimsy tissues of 'race neutrality' are stripped away.
"

Obama had belabored the same theme in his Philadelphia speech on race, a few weeks earlier - a widely applauded piece of oratory that was at root an exercise in moral equivalence that equated white and Black grievances in the U.S., as if history and gross power discrepancies did not exist. Obama is as quick as any smug corporate commentator to dismiss as the ravings of extremists and those who "prey on hate" the very idea that U.S. imperialism is an historical and current fact. Chickens cannot possibly come home to roost in terroristic revenge as a response to American crimes against humanity, since "good" nations by definition are incapable of such crimes. It is beyond the pale to contemplate that the United States has Dr. Deaths on its covert payrolls dealing in ghastly biological warfare - the AIDS genesis theory.


In order for his race-neutral strategy to appear sane, Obama must constantly paint a picture of an America that does not exist. This cannot be accomplished without mangling the truth, assaulting the truth-tellers, and misrepresenting America's past and present.


Since Obama's candidacy is predicated on minimizing the pervasiveness of racism in American life, it is necessary that he cast doubt on the legitimacy of those with race-based grievances. Otherwise, he would be morally compelled to abandon his neutrality and side with the oppressed minority. Thus, he announces in Selma, Alabama that Blacks "have already come 90 percent of the way" to equality - a non-truth by virtually any measurement. He says the "incompetence was color-blind" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, thereby deracializing all that occurred in New Orleans from the moment the winds died down to this very second. He claims that 1980s Ronald Reagan voters had understandable grievances due to "the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s," in the process cleansing the Reagan victory of any racist content.


Race neutrality requires that Barack Obama become a cleanup boy for racists, historically and in the present day. At the same time, Obama is driven to loath most those people and facts that might lead to divisiveness.
America's worst enemies are not the racists, but those who point out the facts of racism, as Obama explained in mid-March in Philadelphia:

"Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
"

Rev. Wright and his ilk, by this reasoning, are Public Enemy Number One, standing in the way of the racial harmony that is the natural order of things in Obama's mythical America.


"Obama must constantly paint a picture of an America that does not exist.
"

Ironically, in practice, race-