Obama has failed victims of racism and police brutality

 Police and black Americans: a relationship worse than in the 90s


Al Sharpton

 

A long and deep legacy of white supremacy has always arrested the
development of US democracy. We either hit it head on, or it comes back to
haunt us. That’s why a few of us have pressed the president for seven years
not to ignore issues of poverty, police abuse and mass unemployment. Barack
Obama
<http://time.com/4397600/obama-alton-sterling-philando-castile-speech-transc
ript/> said it very well, following the shootings of Philando Castile and
Alton Sterling, that some communities “have been forgotten by all of us”.

And now – in Dallas, Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights and beyond – this legacy
has comes back to haunt the whole country.

Obama and his cheerleaders should take responsibility for being so reluctant
to engage with these issues. It’s not a question of interest group or
constituencies. Unfortunately for so much of the Obama administration its
been a question of “I’m not the president of black people, I’m the president
of everyone.” But this is a question of justice. It’s about being concerned
about racism and police brutality.

I have deep empathy for brothers and sisters who are shot in the police
force. I also have profound empathy for people of color who are shot by the
police. I have always believed deliberate killing to be a crime against
humanity.

Yet, Obama didn’t go to Baton Rouge. He didn’t go to Minneapolis. He flew
over their heads to go to Dallas. You can’t do that. His fundamental concern
was to speak to the police, that was his priority. When he references the
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/black-lives-matter-movement> Black
Lives Matter movement, it’s to speak to the police. But the people who are
struggling have a different perspective.

The very notion that Dallas is the paragon of policing is something that
needs to be interrogated. The Dallas mayor said we have done nothing wrong,
but look at your history. Ask people in southern Dallas about the police.
Ask
<http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20131014-dallas-police-officer-not-ind
icted-in-fatal-shooting.ece>  Clinton Allen, an unarmed black man fatally
shot by the Dallas police in 2013. I was with his mother, Collette Flanagan,
the founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, last year. Countless people
came up and told us about all the struggles black communities are having
with the Dallas police.

Unfortunately, Obama thrives on being in the middle. He has no backbone to
fight for justice. He likes to be above the fray. But for those us us who
are in the fray, there is a different sensibility. You have to choose which
side you’re on, and he doesn’t want to do that. Fundamentally, he’s not a
love warrior. He’s a polished professional. Martin Luther King Jr, Adam
Clayton Powell Jr and Ella Baker – they were warriors.

Obama’s attitude is that of a neo-liberal, and they rarely have solidarity
with poor and working people. Whatever solidarity he does offer is just
lip-service to suffering but he never makes it a priority to end that
suffering.

Obama has power right now to enact the recommendations made after Ferguson.
Better training, independent civilian oversight boards, body cameras. But he
has not used executive orders to push any of these changes through.

This November, we need change. Yet we are tied in a choice between Trump,
who would be a neo-fascist catastrophe, and Clinton, a neo-liberal disaster.
That’s why I am supporting Jill Stein. I am with her – the only progressive
woman in the race – because we’ve got to get beyond this lock-jaw situation.
I have a deep love for my brother Bernie Sanders, but I disagree with him on
Hillary Clinton. I don’t think she would be an “outstanding president”. Her
militarism makes the world a less safe place.

Clinton policies of the 1990s generated inequality, mass incarceration,
privatization of schools and Wall Street domination. There is also a sense
that the Clinton policies helped produce the right-wing populism that we’re
seeing now in the country. And we think she’s going to come to the rescue?
That’s not going to happen.

The American empire is in deep spiritual decline and cultural decay. The
levels of wealth inequality and environmental degradation is grotesque. The
correct response to this is: tell the truth about what is going on. Bear
witness. Be willing to go to jail to fight for justice if need be.

When the system is declining, it can bring despair. That’s why Black Lives
Matter – and all other young people of all colors who are mobilizing – is a
beautiful thing. We are having a moral and spiritual awakening. It gives us
democratic hope. Its not about having hope but being hope. It’s time to move
from being spectators, to being actors.

 

 

EM

On the 49th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko" 

 

 

 

 

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