|
Today's
Stories
March 31, 2009
Uri Avnery
The Deception Tango
Nicholas Dearden
A New Global Debt Crisis
Wiliam S. Lind
Another Lost War
David Michael Green
Who Says the GOP Doesn't Have a Plan?
Benjamin Dangl
Beyond Elections in the Americas
March 30, 2009
Michael Hudson
Financing the Empire: Do US Face G20 Mutiny?
Patrick Cockburn
What Next in Afghanistan?
Henry A. Giroux
Hard Lessons
Mike Whitney
Where's Eliot Spitzer Now That We Need Him?
Ralph Nader
Where's All the Money Coming From?
Paul Craig Roberts
Obama's War on the (Upper) Middle Class
Jeremy Scahill
The Logistical Nightmare in Iraq
Robert Bryce
The Cellulosic Ethanol Delusion
Jonathan Cook
Remembering Land Day in Palestine
Ray McGovern
Obama Bombs
Website of the Day
Hersh: Syria Calling
March 27-29, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Obama's Fall Guy
Arno J. Mayer
Too Big to Fail?
Michael Hudson
How the Scam Works
José Pertierra
Gesture for Gesture: How to Free the Cuban Five
Andy Worthington
A Letter to Obama From a Guantánamo Uighur
Mike Whitney
Geithner's Hog Wallow
Winslow T. Wheeler
What Does an F-22 Cost?
Souad N. Al-Azzawi
Iraq: Let the Numbers Speak for Themselves
Dave Lindorff
A Financial History Lesson
Ian Masters
The Zombie Presidency
Barbara Rose Johnston
Water Culture Wars
Jami Tarn
Smearing Tristan Anderson
Diane Farsetta
The Nuclear Industry Targets Wisconsin
David Ker Thomson Against Democracy
Ramzy Baroud
Netanyahu and the Future of the Peace Process
Rannie Amiri
Saudi Shiites' One-Word Demand
Wajahat Ali
Writer as Fighter: the Genius of Ishmael Reed
Nick Egnatz
Whatever Happened to the Fierce Urgency of Now?
Gregory A. Burris
The Insolents Abroad: a Defense of Iceland
Missy Beattie
This Land
Stephen Martin
The Broken Stone of Corporatism
Charles R. Larson
Obama, Smoking and Me
David Yearsley
How They Built Bach's Face (Is the Bard Next?)
Ben Sonnenberg
Won't You Please Get Thee Behind Me? Buñuel's Simon of the Desert
Kim Nicolini
The Mafia Without Moralizing: Garrone's Gomorrah
Lorenzo Wolff
Pat Boone Syndrome
Poets' Basement
Four Poems by Paulann Petersen
Website of the Weekend
Ann Coulter: a Portrait by Ben Tripp
March 26, 2009
Paul Craig Roberts
Is the Bail Out Breeding a Bigger Crisis?
Sharon Smith
Another Blow to Labor ... from the Democrats
Neve Gordon
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Shame
Patrick Madden
Why the Geithner Plan Will Fail
Gareth Porter
The Big Con on Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Why Do We Need a Health Insurance Industry?
Hannah Safran
The Israeli Resistance: "Ready to be Traitors"
Keith Newell
Will the Cellphone Please Take the Stand?
Todd Chretien
Behind the Green Collar
Nelson P. Valdés
When It Comes to Cuba and the Media Anything Goes
Website of the Day
G20 Meltdown
March 25, 2009
Robin Blackburn
Media Revolution or Mirage?
Conn Hallinan
Europe in Crisis
David Rosen
Sexting: a First Amendment Challenge for Obama
Jonathan Cook
Turkey's Fallout with Israel Deals Blow to Settlers
Dean Baker
Billions More for Failed Banks
Ron Jacobs
Karzai on a String
Russell Mokhiber
Corporate Liberals vs. Single-Payer
David Macaray
Slice and Dice on Card Check
Dave Lindorff
Geithner's Power Grab
Sarah Knopp
LA Teacher's Sit-In Over Layoffs
Website of the Day
How to Create an Animal Rights "Terrorist"
March 24, 2009
Robert Sandels
Obama and Cuba: Real Change or Minor Tweaks?
Harvey Wasserman
People Died at Three Mile Island
Franklin Lamb
Who Tried to Kill Palestinian Ambassador Abass Zaki and Why?
Michael Donnelly
Obama's Team of Losers
Norman Solomon
Denial and Evasion on Afghanistan
Elizabeth Schulte
The Stark Facts About Violence Against Women
John Goekler
The Most Dangerous Person in the World?
Nicole Colson
Is Justice Finally in Sight for Sami Al-Arian?
Global Balkans
NATO's 78-Day Bombing of Yugoslavia: Ten Years On
William S. Lind
Cat-and-Mouse Off Hainan Island
Website of the Day
Video: IDF Fired on Medics in Gaza
March 23, 2009
M. Shahid Alam
Capitalism From the Standpoint of Its Victims
Uri Avnery
Israel's Most Revolting Law?
Mike Whitney
Zombie Economics: Judgment Day for Geithner
Ralph Nader
Bush the Teacher
Brian Cloughley
Tilting at Afghan Windmills
Dave Lindorff
Toxic Bailouts
Amira Hass
The Rules of Engagement in Gaza: Open Fire on Rescuers
Chris Irwin
When Nonprofit Groups Go Bad
Binoy Kampmark
The Celebrity of Celebrity
Michael Dickinson
Tollbridge Over Troubled Waters
Website of the Day
State of the Birds
March 20-22, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
On the Edge of the Volcano
Paul Craig Roberts
When Things Fall Apart
P. Sainath
Slumdogs vs. Billionaires
Robert Weissman
Lessons From AIG
Saul Landau
Sliding Down in Anger: If We Bail Out the Banks, Why Shouldn't We Own Them?
David Michael Green
Obama and the Altar of Greed
Greg Moses
Winter Soldiers Come to Texas
Ron Jacobs
Pakistan in Turmoil: an Interview with Farooq Tariq
Michael D. Yates
A Nation of Immigrants
John V. Whitbeck
Happy New Year, Iran!
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Zuhair
Linn Washington Jr.
Supreme Test: the Latest Twist in the Mumia Case
David Ker Thomson
Actions: Things to Do Instead of Hailing the Chief
Laurent Jacque
Is the Euro Doomed?
Rannie Amiri
The Middle East's Jittery Monarchies
Reiko Redmonde /
Larry Everest
The Cold-Blooded Murder of Oscar Grant
David Macaray
The Myth of the Powerful Teachers' Union
Kenneth Couesbouc
Where has the Consumption Gone?
Martha Rosenberg
Meltdown in the Drug Industry
Alan Farago
The Recession, the Developers and Baseball
Missy Beattie
Still Waiting for Change
Richard Rhames
Invisible But Not Completely Insolvent
Stephen Martin
Barack and the Jets
Charles R. Larson
Impeach Obama!
David Yearsley
On Bach's Birthday
Lorenzo Wolff
Manic Levity
Poets' Basement
Three Poems by Gary Corseri
Website of the Weekend
Teachers for CEO Merit Pay!
March 19, 2009
Dave Marsh
Sir Bono: the Knight Who Fled From His Own Debate
Paul Craig Roberts
Was the Bailout Itself a Scam?
Mike Whitney
Why Business is Hysterical About Card Check (And Why America Needs It)
Sam Smith
The Economy in Two Eras of Democrats
Harvey Wasserman
The Crash of France's Nuclear Poster Child
Binoy Kampmark
Back Into NATO: the End of French Exceptionalism
Kathy Sanborn
Broken Culture: the Desecration of Iraq's Art Treasures
Christopher Brauchli
Taxing Problems
George Wuerthner
Permanent Damage From Temporary Logging Roads
Diann Rust-Tierney
New Mexico Abolishes the Death Penalty
Website of the Day
Bailout Plan: "Cross Your Fingers and Hope"
March 18, 2009
Michael Hudson
The Real AIG Conspiracy
Paul Craig Roberts
Israel's American Chattel
Nelson P. Valdés
Why Obama's New Cuba Rules Violate the Constitution
Jonathan Cook
Bedouin Villages Left in the Dark Ages
John Ross
The Death of the American Newspaper
Yifat Susskind
Where Are We Leaving Iraqi Women?
Dave Lindorff
Who's Calling the Shots Now?
Frances Moore Lappé
The City That Ended Hunger
Richard Grossman
Beware the Madoff Diversion!
Rev. William E. Alberts
On Being Whole Not Holy
Website of the Day
Three Weeks in Cuba: a Painter's Perspective
March 17, 2009
Michael Hudson
Mr. Bernanke Spreads the Fire
James G. Abourezk
Show Business:
AIG and the Posturing Democrats
Harry Browne
Ireland's Blast From the Past
Joanne Mariner
U.S. Human Rights Abuses in the War on Terror
Alan Farago
The National Ponzi Scheme
Dean Baker
Getting Lehman Bros. Wrong ... Again
Peter Morici
Cuts for Autoworkers, Bonuses for Derivatives Traders
Bill and Kathleen Christison
Obama and the Empire
Richard Gott
Victory for the Left in El Salvador
Walter Brasch
Dog Mutilations vs. Cosmetics
Website of the Day
Single-Payer Action
March 16, 2009
Pam Martens
Has a Comedian Just Saved America?
Uri Avnery
The Rape of Washington
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Witness Protection Program
Ralph Nader
Americans Want Justice for Wall Street Crooks
Nikolas Kozloff
Down But Not Out: the Latin American Right
John Walsh
Redbaiting on the Left
Ron Jacobs
A Call for Common Sense
Binoy Kampmark
The Case of Tim K
Stephen Fleischman
Coxey's Army Will March Again!
Christian Christensen
A 25-Year Misunderstanding: Springsteen's "Born in the USA"
Scott Handleman
Shooting Tristan Anderson
Website of the Day
Clean, Green, Sustainable
March 13 / 15, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
The Parable of the Shopping Mall
Peter Lee
What the Chas Freeman Fight Was Really About
Diana Johnstone
NATO's Global Mission Creep
David Harvey
Is This Really the End of Neoliberalism?
Petrino DiLeo
Inside Obama's Housing Plan: Will Millions be Left Out in the Cold
David Ker Thomson
Tender to the Earth
Eric Ruder
Massacre in Slow Motion: an Interview with Haider Eid on Gaza
Fred Gardner
Cannabidiol Now!
David Yearsley
Music Torture
Saul Landau
How Israel Gives Jews a Bad Name
Laura Carlsen
Drug War Doublespeak
Robert Weissman
We Told You So
John Goekler /
Merle Lefkoff
The Struggle in Saffron
Tom Barry
Imprisoning Immigrants for Profit
Kathy Sanborn
Money Out of Thin Air
Chris Mobley / Leela Yellesetty
Criminalizing Poverty:
the Jail Seattle Doesn't Need
David Michael Green
The Perils of Being Right and Wrong
Alan Maass /
Lee Sustar
A Socialist Moment?
Christopher Brauchli
Pity, the Poor Tax Collectors
Richard Morse
Clinton in Haiti
Lorenzo Wolff
Taking It From the Streets: From Springsteen to the Wu-Tang Clan
Poets' Basement
Springate and Johnston
Website of the Weekend
Hear the Buffalo
March 12 , 2009
Sharon Smith
Bottom Feeders at the Trough
Christopher Ketcham
Full Spectrum Penetration: Israeli Spying in the United States
Mike Whitney
Haircut Time for Bondholders
Ray McGovern
Obama Caves to the Lobby
Eric Toussaint /
Damien Millet
The Doublespeak of a Discredited IMF
John Ross
The War is Not Over
M. Reza Pirbhai
Men in Black: Another View of Pakistan
Chris Floyd
Lost Liberty Blues: Prisons, Profits and the Banality of Evil
Steve Early
Why Labor Doesn't Need a "House of Lords"
Quentin Gee
Hiding the Costs of Coal
Website of the Day
Amadee Coral Reef: a Spherical Panorama
March 11 , 2009
Mike Roselle
From Birmingham to Coal River: Why is the Environmental Movement So Timid?
Paul Craig Roberts
The Criminal Injustice System
Henry A. Giroux
Academic Labor in Dark Times
Nikolas Kozloff
The Death Cries of the Salvadoran Right
Norm Kent
I am Patient Number 380206011
Mitu Sengupta
Reforming the World Bank: Different Image, Same Tune?
Ludwig Watzal
The Structure of Israel's Occupation
David Macaray
The Battle Over EFCA Has Begun
William S. Lind
Rounding Up the Usual Suspects
Martha Rosenberg
A Merger From the Folks Who Brought You Vytorin
Website of the Day
American Indicator: One in Fifty Kids are Homeless
March 10 , 2009
Franklin Spinney
What Israeli Peace Process?
Vijay Prashad
What Did Hillary Clinton Do?
Stan Cox
There's No Free Lunch on Your Browser: the Internet's Energy Drain
Zoltan Grossman
Coffee Strong: Listening to the G.I. Voice at Fort Lewis
Reuven Kaminer
Pure and Unadulterated Racism
Jonathan Cook
Memoricide in the West Bank
Dave Lindorff
Business Rules
Brian McKenna
How Anthropology Disparages Journalism
Harvey Wasserman
Is This the End of the Age of the Automobile?
Corey Pein
He Told You So
Website of the Day
AIG and Systemic Failure: $1.6 Trillion in Insured Deriviatives
March 9 , 2009
Pam Martens
Madoff and the Sorkin Affair
Ralph Nader
Too Big...Period
Peter Lee
Meet Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: the US's Worst/Best Hope for Afghanistan?
Mike Whitney
Geithner's Charade
Peter Morici
Fixing the Banks: Treasury's Doomed Strategy
Dean Baker
Why Do We Need a Private Health Insurance Industry, Anyway?
Steve Ault
Kiss Thailand's Tolerance for Gays Goodbye
Stephen Lendman
Guantánamo Under Obama
Farooq Sulehria
Tennis Without Spectators
Belén Fernández
Chávez, a Cockfight and the Caracazo
Website of the Day
How Lincoln Learned to Read
March 6-8 , 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Harlots High and Low
Chris Floyd
Tangled Up in Karl
Uri Avnery
Remember Ophira?
Dave Lindorff
Kiss the Banks Goodbye
Mark Weisbrot
The Crisis vs. the Dogma
David Ker Thomson
Against Work
Phil Aliff
Soldier Suicides
Rebekah Ward
Georgia Injustice: Another Young Life Wrecked
Tracey Briggs
How Capitalism Feels in the Head
Dean Baker
Depression Nostalgia?
Daniel P. Wirt, M.D.
Remove the Handle From the Health Insurance Misery and Death Pump
Carl Finamore
The Recovery Plan: Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us
Wajahat Ali
The Pakistani Monster
David Michael Green
Smart is the New Stupid
David Macaray
The Minimum Wage Revisited
Michael Dickinson
On Financial Fools Day
Susie Day
Line in the Sand
Bob Sommer
Echoes of the Townhouse Explosion
Ben Sonnenberg
No Forgiveness for the Bourgeoisie: Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel"
David Yearsley
Sonic Fakery in "Slumdog" From the Mozart of Chennai
DC Larson
They're Writing Those Depression Songs, Again
Lorenzo Wolff
Live Truth: Music Sans Headphones
Poets' Basement
Dominquez, MacNeil and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
The Environment & Obama: a Conversation with Jeffrey St. Clair
March 5 , 2009
James G. Abourezk
This Time It's Mrs. Clinton's Turn
Kathleen and Bill Christison
U.S. Military Aid to Israel
Robert Weissman
Wall Street's Best Investment: Paying for Public Policy
Patrick Cockburn
My Day at the Terror "Charity"
William Blum
Being Serious About Torture...Or Not
Robert Fantina
From Iraq to Afghanistan: Augmentation All Over Again
Saul Landau
The Unseen Crisis
Benjamin Dangl
Striking a Blow Against the Beer Cartel: a Grassroots Victory in Utah
Christopher Brauchli
The New Leaders of the GOP
Website of the Day
The Angola 3: 36 Years of Solitude
March 4, 2009
Marjorie Cohn
Blueprints for a Police State
Mike Whitney
Blowing Up the Economy: How Securitization Lit the Fuse
Ron Jacobs
The Banality of Occupation: the Rand Papers
Ashley Smith
War by Another Name
Joanne Mariner
Obama's War on Terror
Dan Bacher
The California Water Wars: Why It's Not a Conflict Between Fish and People
Mark Engler
Will the Winds of Change Reach El Salvador?
Franklin Lamb
"What's Hezbollah Done for Us Lately?"
Cal Winslow
Slugging It Out in California
David Mandelzys
Apartheid Week
Website of the Day
Guantánamo: the Definitive Prisoner List
March 3, 2009
Conn Hallinan
Ethnic Cleansing and Israel
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Long, Dark Night of Pakistan
Brian M. Downing
The Changing Game in Afghanistan
Robert Larson
External Damnation: Companies are Designed for Destruction
Daniel P. Wirt, MD
Single-Payer Health Reform
Russell Mokhiber
Burn Your Health Insurance Bill!
William Loren Katz
Obama, One Ape and Two Newspapers
Kathy Sanborn
The Lazy Man's Guide to the Economic Crisis
Pauline Imbach
A New Start for the World Social Forum?
Christopher Ketcham
The Best Journalism You'll Write is Priceless
Website of the Day
The Surveillance Self-Defense Project
March 2, 2009
Andrea Peacock
A Poisoned Town's Shot at Justice
Paul Craig Roberts
Obama's Budget
Peter Lee
Pakistan Lurches Toward the Abyss
John Blair
Locking Down Big Coal
Peter Morici
Treasury's Flawed Plan for Citigroup
Uri Avnery
10 Ways to Kill Fatah
Michael Donnelly
Resistance to the War on the Wild
Fred Gardner
The Judge Who Ruled Marijuana is Medicine
Sonia Nettnin
Middle East Medical Mission Heroes
Andrew Lehman
A New Deal for the Web
Website of the Day
Pentagon Papers II?
Eric Holder and the Whitewashing of Racism
Tom Barry
Napolitano's Hard Line
Harvey Wasserman
Obama's Excellent Atomic Omission
Adam Turl
The Enemies of Unions and the Lies They Tell
David Macaray
When People are Fired Illegally
James McEnteer
Rush to the Rescue: Limbaugh's Secret Plan to Save the Economy
Website of the Day
The Carbon Casino
|
March 31, 2009
The Foundation of the Racial Divide
Economic Inequality
By DEDRICK MUHAMMAD
Greed, economic exploitation, and dehumanizing stereotypes of inferiority are the root of racism in the Western world. Brutal, racist exploitation in the United States and throughout the Americas has been the means through which Western European economies have been built. A belief in the inferiority of people of color justified this concentration of wealth in European hands. As Howard Zinn writes in his classic A People's History of the United States "These were the violent beginnings of an intricate system of technology, business, politics, and culture that would dominate the world for the next five centuries."
President Lula Silva brought to light the current racist global economic order during a visit from Prime Minister Gordon Brown of England. President Silva of Brazil, the country that was the primary destination of enslaved Africans during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, highlighted that the global economic downturn is the result of the irresponsibility and greed of white elites. Additionally, he noted, this greed has caused disproportionate suffering to the poor of the world, primarily people of color. President Silva's remarks have been mocked in much of the US press, ignoring his demand that global racial economic inequality be addressed as nations come together to rebuild the global economy.
The same week that President Silva highlighted the global racial wealth divide, scholars, activists, and experts from across the United States came to Washington DC to discuss the racial wealth divide in this country. During this Color of Wealth summit, it was highlighted that Blacks and Latinos have less than 15 cents for every dollar of wealth held by the median white family, exposing how economic inequality is the foundation of today's racial divide. During the two day summit, there was excitement about the opportunities to bridge the racial wealth divide with an Obama presidency that has recognized a greater role for government to play in increasing opportunity for all Americans. Yet in the opening roundtable of the summit, John Powell of the Kirwan Institue for the Study of Race and Ethnicity highlighted the historical failure of universal economic programs advancing racial equality. Powell noted that when policies fail to take into account institutional racism and the unique characteristics of disenfranchised minorities, often times greater racial inequality is created. For example, many of the great liberal programs of the New Deal exacerbated racial inequality.
From the time of the civil rights movement till today, those who highlight racial inequality are often portrayed as troublemakers creating racial divisions rather than problem solvers exposing racial division. One of those who was regularly criticized for being a troublemaker was Dr. Martin Luther King, killed 41 years ago this April 4th. Dr. King in examining the need to master ones' fears wrote: Courage and cowardice are antithetical. Courage is an inner resolution to go forward in spite of obstacles and frightening situations; cowardice is a submissive surrender to circumstance.
Too many white Americans have surrendered to the circumstance of racial inequality, blaming racial inequality on the inferiority of disenfranchised groups rather than the systemic disenfranchisement faced by these groups. In the past the rationale for racial inequality was a belief in the inherent mental deficiencies of people of color - today the rationale for racial inequality is belief in deficiencies of morality or the work ethic of people of color. Yet, there are some who are willing to go beyond the standard racial justifications of contemporary racism. Thousands of white Americans are showing this kind of courage by participating in a week of White Privilege Awareness events occurring March 30th to April 5th. In Washington DC Resource Generation will have a viewing of "Traces of the Trade", a documentary that follows white descendents of slave traders and their struggle with the privilege attained in their family through profiting off of the Transatlantic slave trade. The Global Awareness Project, also in Washington DC, will host a panel discussion as to how white privilege is an issue and challenge in the multi-racial Latino community. Finally there will be a national gathering in Memphis, where Dr. King was assassinated, to discuss and strategize how to courageously stand up to address white privilege and racial inequality.
It is an act of courage for people, particularly white people, to come together and look at racial inequality. Those with privilege need to be able to see it as part of the problem rather than blaming the disadvantaged as deserving of their fate. It is this type of courage that must be exemplified by world leaders and policy makers to build an economy that no longer has the racial wealth divide at its foundation.
Dedrick Muhammad works at the Institute for Policy Studies.
|
