Revolution #148, November 23, 2008
A “post racial” America?
There is much hope among Black people broadly, as well as among many people of other nationalities, that the election of Barack Obama has brought a “new day” for the situation that African Americans face. A hope that with a Black President in the White House, there will be a major course change in the long, ugly history of racism and white supremacy in this country, which has meant so much brutality and suffering for Black people, from the days of slavery up to today. You could see this hope in the faces of hundreds of thousands of people who gathered at Grant Park in Chicago on election night for Obama’s victory rally—a huge multi-national gathering in one of the most segregated cities in the U.S. But on that same night, in the same city, there were vicious reminders that this is still America.
In Chicago’s West Side, Christina Ballard and Cornelius Voss were driving home on election night with young family members when white cops in unmarked vehicles came up alongside their car. According to a federal lawsuit filed by the family, when the children in the car cheered for Obama through the open car windows, the cops yelled “white power” and “n****r” and sprayed pepper spray into the car.
Also on election night, a group of family members, all under 18, were celebrating outside a West Side house when several cops discharged pepper spray near them. When the youth fled into the house, the armed cops battered down the front door, knocked down several people inside, and shouted racist insults. Niger Arnold, 31, was visiting her mother at the house, after spending the day working at a polling place. She told the Associated Press, “My mom’s blood pressure went sky-high. I couldn’t breathe. I was scared.”
Did Obama denounce these outrages by racist police in his “home city”? No. Did he speak out this summer when the Chicago police went on a murderous rampage, shooting 12 people (all Black and Latino) over a 3-week period, killing 6? No.
On the contrary, last April, when a New York judge acquitted cops who fired 50 shots at Sean Bell, a 23-year-old Black man, and killed him just hours before his scheduled wedding, Obama said, “We respect the verdict that came down.” At the same time, he warned people who were outraged by the verdict that “resorting to violence to express displeasure over a verdict is something that is completely unacceptable and counterproductive.”
A “new day” for Black people now that Obama has been elected? The cold truth is that the oppression of Black people is a major pillar of the capitalist-imperialist America—and this will continue as long as this system is in effect, no matter who is in the White House.
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