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My thoughts on ‘Showdown in Desire: The Black Panthers take a stand in New Orleans’
February 19, 2010
Black History Month Special: “Big Man,” a founder of the Black Panther Party and the first editor of the Black Panther newspaper, reviews an excellent new book telling the story of the shootout in September 1970 between the Panthers and the New Orleans PD in the Desire public housing development through the words of the people who lived it.
Minister JR from Haiti, Part 2: The feel of a plantation
February 16, 2010
An old school relentless plantation-style colonialism governs the country currently through mostly white non-governmental organizations just as well as through armies like those of the U.S. and U.N. that control the flow of resources. – MULTIMEDIA BONUS: Listen to Davey D’s interview with Minister of Information JR immediately after his return from Haiti.
Ninth Circuit strikes down Washington state’s felon disfranchisement law in landmark voting rights case, a fitting tribute to Dr. King
January 15, 2010
In a precedent-setting decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state of Washington’s law barring felons from voting on Jan. 5, just in time to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, for whom the issue of voting rights for the disenfranchised was a top priority. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the law violates the federal Voting Rights Act.
Harry Reid and the demagogues
January 13, 2010
The idiotic controversy that is the focus of the nation’s media and which claims Nevada Sen. Harry Reid uttered racist comments is mind boggling in its obtuseness. Democrats and honest Republicans, white and Black, cannot seem to gather the moral energy and mental clarity to call the Republicans who are promoting this issue by their true name: demagogues.
The struggle ain’t over
December 31, 2009
The struggle ain’t over. Those who’ve given in to the euphoria of the moment need only speak with young people in the hood. Try telling them how far we’ve come from the lynchings, trained attack dogs, our leaders murdered and shut up in these pens on trumped up charges. Those youngsters will tell you that’s the same shit they see every day.
Blacks in talk radio: an interview with Black program director and talk show host Rob Redding
December 16, 2009
In this conversation between two young Black men who are passionate about the potential role of radio in the Black community, Minister of Information JR begins: “Rob Redding is one of few Black program directors at a mainstream talk radio station: KMLB in Monroe, Louisiana. He is also syndicated on XM Radio and on Green 960 AM in the Bay Area.”
Reverse images: The acrimonious debate on race in Cuba
December 15, 2009
Recently the cold war against Cuba was ratcheted up when an acrimonious debate broke out over the issue of racism in Cuba and for the first time the issue of Brazil was thrown into the mix. The brouhaha began when scores of prominent African Americans, many of whom should have known better, put their names to a petition calling upon the Cuban government to release a dissident from prison.
A journey to publishing access: POOR Press books for 2009
November 10, 2009
POOR Press will be releasing its new books and introducing their authors at a benefit – “Talk-Story Circle on Land, Migration, Occupation and Resistance” – at Galleria de la Raza, 2857 24th St. at Bryant in San Francisco, this Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 6 p.m. Enjoy good food, DJ, performance and scholarship for $5-$15 or whatever you can spare.
‘Oakland Lockdown’
October 21, 2009
Using footage from local policing activity in Oakland, intimate interviews with marginalized residents who have been imprisoned or impacted by the imprisonment of close family members, “Oakland Lockdown” brings to light the trauma, destruction and frustration experienced by those who remain repetitively wreaked by the economic, psychological, social and moral stigmatization of criminalization.
Paul Robeson, a great human being
October 8, 2009
Paul Robeson was an extraordinary and versatile individual, world famous during his lifetime, who has been deliberately erased from the dominant myth of U.S. history for speaking the truth about conditions both domestic and abroad – his opposition to racism, fascism and colonialism and his support for civil and human rights, democracy, national liberation, socialism and the day-to-day resistance of working people of all lands to oppression, knowing that his fame would allow these messages to be more widely heard.
Stand with Van Jones!
September 6, 2009
The right wing bullies at Fox News – Glenn Beck and his ilk – are going after a man known for years of progressive work in the Bay Area: Van Jones. Van’s real crime? He’s the triple threat: He’s Black, he’s effective and he is empowering the people in this country who have the least resources.
Black August 2009: A story of African freedom fighters
August 3, 2009
Black August is a month of great significance for Africans throughout the Diaspora, but particularly here in the U.S. where it originated. “August,” as Mumia Abu-Jamal noted, “is a month of meaning, of repression and radical resistance, of injustice and divine justice; of repression and righteous rebellion; of individual and collective efforts to free the slaves and break the chains that bind us.”
82-year-old Black farmer arrested, charged with making terrorist threats
May 17, 2009
Harry Young, an 82-year-old Black farmer from Owensboro, Kentucky, was arrested and released on $50,000 bond in connection with allegations of threatening U.S. Department of Agriculture employees – terroristic threatening. It all stems from a contested foreclosure and sale of his family farm in 2005.
The facts: How Israel orchestrated the real Geneva ‘hate fest’ against Black and Brown people
May 14, 2009
Two days before the United Nations Durban Review Conference (DRC) officially convened, anti-racist demonstrators from every continent and nearly every struggle in the world filled the streets of downtown Geneva. Most were unaware that for nearly two years, hundreds of militant pro-Israeli activists and the Israeli Foreign Ministry had been coordinating their plans to sabotage the DRC.
The Obama-Nation
February 12, 2009
Will the Obama-Nation become an abomination if it fails to
stop the bombing of nations? From Gaza to Afghanistan, the
American people must take a stand and tell Obama to forge
a better plan to free the land.
Dr. King shows us the way to end poverty in America
January 21, 2009
The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act to fund “green” resident-led recovery projects is inspired by Dr. King’s proposal for ending poverty: a public works New Deal-like program assuring full employment.
Skin folk and kin folk
November 14, 2008
By now, I am sure that you are aware of the fallout over the Nov. 4 election results that passed Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution to make marriage legal only between one man and one woman. No doubt many of you reading this op-ed were a part of the 69 percent of Blacks who supported the measure.
On the question of Pacifica and racism
September 26, 2008
A new KPFA policy essentially bans all listeners from the station except those that management deems “authorized” and it permits police to remove anyone not authorized. KPFA recently called the police on an unpaid staff person, Nadra Foster. The calling of police by any progressive organization or institution is a racist act by definition. If anyone should be banned from the station, it should be the present management, which needs to be replaced immediately.
KPFA’s Nadra Foster
September 21, 2008
It is a sad commentary when the management of KPFA Radio, a nonprofit dedicated to social justice in my hometown of Berkeley, Calif., calls the police on a staff member who volunteers her time, donating talent and skill to bring the mission of that organization to bear.
Open letter to the KPFA staff, paid and unpaid
August 27, 2008
I was outraged to hear that my “daughter,” Nadra Foster, was attacked, brutalized, hogtied, arrested and charged with trespassing, resisting arrest, assaults on police, and other charges, with bail set at $81,500!