Vantage Point
A National Disgrace: Joblessness and Fratricide in America’s “Dark Ghettos”
The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) is gearing up for a Day of Direct Action June 17th in Washington, D.C. to demand an end to the War on Drugs and mass incarceration and call on President Obama to invest in marginalized urban inner-city Black communities across the nation. While ending the war on drugs as a devastating racially-biased policy is essential, we in IBW have always insisted that overcoming joblessness and economic underdevelopment is ultimately the key to combating the crime, violence, fratricide and mass incarceration that have become the scourge of America’s “dark ghettos.” According to a study by the Community Service Society, “the unemployment rate for African-American men in New York, age 16 to 24, was 33.5 percent” at the height of the Great Recession. That figure is likely closer to 50% when young Black men who are no longer looking for work …
Will Blacks Be Screwed by Immigration Policy Reform?
As the “Gang of Eight” Senators in the U.S. Congress prepare to outline their proposals for comprehensive immigration reform, there is alarm in some quarters of the Black Diaspora that the legislation they put forth may harm the interests of people of African descent. We cannot stand by and let this happen. In the Declaration of Intent to Heal Black Families and Communities, the Action Agenda for State of the Black World Conference III, we state: “IBW favors just and equitable immigration reforms which respect the interests of people of African descent. We do not view it as a ‘Kum ba yah’ exercise but a matter of critical importance to the interests and aspirations of people of African descent in a pluralistic society.”
Because people of Latin/Hispanic origin constitute the overwhelming majority of the estimated 11 million undocumented residents in the U.S., immigration reform has largely been viewed as …
End the “War on Drugs” and Mass Incarceration: Invest in America’s “Dark Ghettos”
End the “War on Drugs” and Mass Incarceration
Invest in America’s “Dark Ghettos”
[For publication the week of April 1, 2013]
April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King stepped to the podium of the Riverside Church in New York to vigorously proclaim his opposition to the War in Vietnam. It was one of the most powerful orations among numerous remarkable speeches delivered during his brief but extraordinary life. In articulating a persuasive moral and practical framework for his stance, Dr. King said: “… I knew America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and attack it as such.” Equally disturbing for King was the disproportionate impact of the …
Will Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act Survive?
Crossing the Edmund Pettis Bridge Again
Will Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act Survive?
(For Publication the Week of March 25, 2013)
A few weeks ago I made my annual Pilgrimage to Selma, Alabama for the Bridge Crossing Jubilee which commemorates “Bloody Sunday,” the occasion when civil rights activists and concerned citizens first attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery in March of 1965 to demand the restoration of the right to vote. Some 600 marchers were brutally beaten, trampled and turned back by a phalanx of State Police as they sought to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Scenes of peaceful marchers viciously beaten by agents of government sworn to protect them shot across the nation and the world, seen by millions of people – provoking sympathy, empathy and outrage. A few weeks later, Martin Luther King, John Lewis and a host of leaders and activists from …
The State of the Union: President Obama Ignores Crises in America’s “Dark Ghettos”
[For publication the week of February 18, 2013]
Last week, once again President Barack Hussein Obama mounted the podium at the Capitol to deliver the State of the Union Address to a Joint Session of Congress, the nation and the world. By all reasonable measures the address was an impressive center-left, moderate-liberal agenda on domestic issues like jobs, the minimum wage, infra-structure repair, energy, early childhood education, tax reform, deficit reduction, gender equity, marriage equality, immigration and gun security – a policy prescriptions vastly superior to the dangerous/extremist positions of the radical conservatives and Tea Party obstructionists. President Obama’s Inaugural and State of the Union messages vindicated the massive march on ballot boxes by people of African descent and a Rainbow Coalition of constituencies and interest groups to repel the repugnant assault of the right-wing Neanderthals. As I wrote in the weeks preceding the 2012 election, President Obama was clearly …
Amilcar Cabral in the Contemporary Context: The “Struggle Against Our Own Weaknesses”
To view the Press Release on this Presentation, Click Here
By Dr. Ron Daniels, President, Institute of the Black World 21st Century and Distinguished Lecturer, York College, City University of New York, USAFirst, to the Honorable Pedro Pires, former distinguished President of Cape Verde and President of the Amilcar Cabral Foundation, Officials of Government, Officials of the Foundation and assembled Speakers and Panelists, I consider it a great honor and privilege to be afforded an opportunity to share a few ideas on the relevance of the thought and theory of Amilcar Cabral in the contemporary context on the occasion of the Commemoration of his 90th Birthday.
Second, it is important to state that I do not approach this subject with the pretense of being a theoretician or expert on the work of our beloved late
…
The Cruel “Hoax” of Emancipation
On New Year’s Eve, African Americans from around the country gathered in Black churches for “Watch Night” Services, the tradition of reenacting the watch of enslaved Africans December 31, 1862, as our ancestors eagerly awaited the day that the Emancipation Proclamation would officially become law; the moment they could proclaim “free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we’re free at last!” As I noted in a previous article, in fact hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans had already liberated themselves by abandoning plantations and fleeing to the camps of the Union Army; a movement that did not go unnoticed by President Lincoln. Nonetheless, the jubilation was justified because the Proclamation officially sanctioned the acts of self-liberation and “freed” those who had remained on the plantation. But, in many respects “emancipation” would prove to be a “cruel hoax” that ultimately left millions of formerly enslaved Africans in a state …
A Year of Destiny for Africans in America
[For publication the week of January 1, 2013]
Africans in America should be aware that 2013 is a year of great significance. It will mark the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Medgar Evers and the 50th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington. The question is whether 2013 will be a year of superfluous commemorations, ceremonies and celebrations, or will it be a year of destiny for Africans in America where we create new history? The recent State of the Black World Conference III was organized around the theme – State of Emergency in Black America: Time to Heal Black Families and Communities. We selected this theme to emphatically declare that we have yet to achieve the “dream” so brilliantly articulated by Martin Luther King, against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial a half …
The Re-Election of Barack Obama: This Time “Access” Will Not Be Enough
Anyone who follows my writings and work is aware that leading up to the critical 2012 presidential election, I relentlessly urged Africans in America to “march on ballot boxes and mobilize for State of the Black World III” (SOBWCIII) as the “Black imperatives” of the day. Faced with the vicious and virulent machinations of the Tea Party dominated conservative extremists, I argued that President Obama was not the perfect choice but the “better choice” for Black people. The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) deliberately positioned SOBWC III after the election in order to assess the impact of the outcome of the election on the interests and aspirations of Africans in America and the world.
November 6, Black folks marched on ballot boxes with a determination reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement, turning out in record numbers to deliver 93% of our votes to Barack Hussein Obama. Far …
Two Black Imperatives: March on Ballot Boxes and Mobilize for State of the Black World Conference III
(For publication the week of September 17, 2012)
As some of my followers are aware, I am an occasional Guest Radio Talk Show Host, periodically sitting in for Warren Ballentine, Mark Thompson and Rev. Al Sharpton on Radio-One, SIRIUS/XM networks as well as WWRL AM in New York. In taking to the airwaves in recent weeks, a major goal has been to engage the audience in conversations about the critical presidential election and make the case that there is a political imperative for people of African descent and progressives to vigorously work for the re-election of President Obama. This has not always been an easy task because some listeners are disappointed that President Obama has not overtly addressed the myriad crises afflicting Black communities and in some instances has pursued foreign policy options that are similar to those of George W. Bush. Despite these shortcomings, I have emphatically contended that …
- A National Disgrace: Joblessness and Fratricide in America’s “Dark Ghettos”
May 7, 2013 - Will Blacks Be Screwed by Immigration Policy Reform?
April 16, 2013 - End the “War on Drugs” and Mass Incarceration: Invest in America’s “Dark Ghettos”
April 2, 2013 - Will Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act Survive?
March 27, 2013 - The State of the Union: President Obama Ignores Crises in America’s “Dark Ghettos”
February 16, 2013 - Amilcar Cabral in the Contemporary Context: The “Struggle Against Our Own Weaknesses”
January 16, 2013 - The Cruel “Hoax” of Emancipation
January 6, 2013 - A Year of Destiny for Africans in America
January 1, 2013 - The Re-Election of Barack Obama: This Time “Access” Will Not Be Enough
December 10, 2012 - Two Black Imperatives: March on Ballot Boxes and Mobilize for State of the Black World Conference III
September 18, 2012
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The War On Drugs Is A War On Us
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