U.S. Affairs

The tragedy of Zimbabwe and the misguided support some African intellectuals and leaders still give the Mugabe dictatorship as we saw today with the tepid resolution passed at the concluded AU summit in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egpyt betrays the current poverty of African nationalism.

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Africa and the world at large are reacting to Senator Obama's victory as the presumptive nominee in the U.S. Democratic Party electoral contest with mixed emotions. Parts of Africa have been gripped by Obamamania and many would like to believe it ushers a new day for the US itself and its relations with the continent, the ancestral homeland of the senator's father. Others contend it will be business as usual, that putting a black face in the White House will not change the imperial policies of the United States. Such views are heard most loudly in the Middle East.  read more »

It has been a gripping, grueling electoral contest watched with bated breath by the nation and the wider world. The once inevitable victor, the long anointed leader, loses to an upstart, an insurgent candidate too young to have participated in the defining and divisive political battles of yesteryear. Change seems to trump experience, the future to overtake the past. But the trounced older leader refuses to accept the younger opponent's incredible, historic victory.  read more »

Senator Barack Obama has done it!  read more »

The sensationalist media inquest into Sen. Barack Obama's associations has cheapened the national debate. It has also exposed the hypocrisy and double standards of the conservative media.

Fox News, which has championed this "guilt by association," questions Obama's fitness for office because of his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

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These are definitely not the best of times for Gloria Steinem and the “gender trouble” radicals in her flock.  read more »

The eruption of race in the current American presidential campaign has been a reminder of its volatility in American history and politics. The decision of Barack Obama to run for the Presidency has seen him transformed from an African American freshman United States Senator to a national figure whose political fortunes have become tied to the possible transformation of American political culture and its life.  read more »

"Are the legitimate political institutions of our societies in a position to redress even the most perilous situations by democratic intervention in the process of actual decision making, as traditional political discourse keeps reassuring us, despite all evidence to the contrary?"

István Mészáros

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By now it is old news that Africa's supposed lack of civilization, history, and culture was conjured up to justify the enslavement, and later the colonization of millions of Africans.  The venerable historian of Africa, Basil Davidson, summed it up best when he argued,

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I had promised myself that I would not write another piece on Obama because I don't care much for politicians and I care even less for American presidents. The possibility of having a black man in a white house in Washington DC hasn't changed my mind. However, I decided to betray myself when I belatedly stumbled upon Alice Walker's piece "Lest We Forget: An Open Letter to My Sisters Who Are Brave."

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In a recent article, Tarisha L. Stanley asked the question: ‘‘Can a mammy be a mammy if she builds girls' schools in Africa?'' This simple question captures the complex range of issues raised by Oprah's philanthropy.  read more »

"Stigmatizing the uncounted as backward, dangerous, etc., then, is the best way to ward off a more profound evil': the emergence of a popular subjective force that would be capable of opposing the sterility of comfortable self-perpetuation. . . .

Steve Corcoran  read more »

I met black America for the first time in 2005, after three years of living and teaching in America, and one year before I returned to Canada. The long journey to this eventful meeting started in my father's library in Isanlu, a small town in central Nigeria. I came of age in Nigeria as the locust decades of military despotism and civilian kleptocracy set in, destroying everything including what used to be known as the middle class.  read more »

After Iowa and New Hampshire the nation will now finally entertain the very real possibility of an African American president. Or rather, a president who happens to be African American.

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When I learned that the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright was going to give a speech at Michigan State University on February 7^th, I spread the word to friends and colleagues I knew would love to hear Barack Obama's pastor speak. Of the half dozen or so people I mentioned his name to, none of them had heard of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, let alone his spiritual connection to Barack Obama. I prepared a question to ask Rev. Dr. Wright, but as it turned out, I did not need to ask the question. Such was the freestyle nature of the luncheon with Rev. Dr.  read more »

Good morning, Buenos Dias! I am Cathy Cohen and on behalf of the planning committee I want to welcome all of you to Race Sex Power: New Movements in Black and Latina/o Sexualities Conference. We all want to thank you for coming to what we believe is an historic gathering of artists, activists, academics, individuals, groups, and communities to discuss the intersection and manifestations of race, sex, and power in its many forms in Latina/o and Black communities.

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4 April 2008 marks the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We still tend to focus our image of Martin delivering his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial, at the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. However, civil rights was not the only issue that divided America in the 1960s. By 1966, U.S. military forces in South Vietnam amounted to 184,000; by January 1969, 536,000 U.S. troops were stationed in that country. For black Americans, the war had a direct impact upon every community.  read more »

The over the top coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and now Barack Obama's San Francisco gaffe, especially in the conservative media, signals growing GOP concern about the electoral implications of Senator Barack Obama's call for racial healing and reconciliation.

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On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we would do well to remember an observation by the civil-rights organizer Ella Baker: "Martin didn't make the movement, the movement made Martin."

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Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.

We gather on the eve of the 40^th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King. This is a moment when, across this country, there is renewed reflection on the life and work of Dr. King. One area that will more than likely gain little attention is that of foreign policy and international affairs.

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