I know it's taken me a while to get to this, but I wanted to thank Frank for sending us this example of both Mumia's work and the influence of Chomsky on us all. -- On Thu, 22 Feb 2001 19:47:44 frank scott wrote: >'BUBBA' GOES TO HARLEM >By Mumia Abu-Jamal, M.A. >#496 Column Written 2/13/2001 >All Rights Reserved > >News Item: Former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, stung >by criticism stemming from the almost $600,000 a year >costs of his offices in mid-town Manhattan, has sought >offices in the city's uptown Harlem district, where >costs are expected to be half the mid-town rate. > >Not since the slim, ascetic Muslim Minister, Malcolm >X, strolled Harlem streets, has the chocolate colony >seen such excitement. This time, an ex-president, one >both loathed and loved, comes to Harlem to establish >his base of operations, and by so doing, has >demonstrated the twin, contradictory sides of his >political persona. > >Former president Clinton has, in his long 8 years at >the helm of the U.S. Ship of State, presided over an >explosion in the crippling prison industrial complex, >the expansion of the U.S. death penalty, and the >related contraction of the constitutional right to >habeas corpus, all of which have had a demonstratively >injurious effect on America's Black population. In >order to obtain his office, he traded in Black death, >by overseeing the state murder of brain-damaged death >row captive, Ricky Ray Rector; in order to retain his >office, he leapt to betray the Black bourgeoisie, by >the abandonment of high justice dept. candidate, law >professor, Lani Guinier, and former Surgeon General, >Dr. Joycelyn Elders. > >That said, Clinton remains a genuinely beloved figure >in Black America, so much so that when he was attacked >by his political adversaries on the right, Blacks felt >almost as if they were attacked, and were, by far, the >most vigorous in his defense among American >constituencies. America's perhaps greatest living >writer, Toni Morrison, went just a tad beyond >hyperbole when she affectionately dubbed the Arkansan >"America's first Black president." > >Beyond his almost legendary political skills, there >must be other reasons for this weird political >courtship between African-Americans and Bill Clinton. >It's not his much-vaunted upbringing in poverty, for >despite the conventional wisdom, several U.S. >presidents (for example, Garfield, Andrew Johnson, and >Andrew Jackson) had an impoverished youth. > >It seems like it's not so much Clinton, the man, as it >is Clinton, the man who spent his youth on the >periphery of the Civil Rights Movement and adulthood >in the proximity of the largest generation of Black >professionals in U.S. history. > >It is therefore a case of interaction, and as Clinton >courted the black bourgies, he studiously ignored the >wretched suffering, imprisonment, scapegoating, and >cop repression against the black poor in the urban >centers. > >And the black bourgeoisie, following their own class >interests, joined him in either ignoring or damning >the so-called "black underclass." For what else was >that so-called Welfare Reform but more war on the >poor? > >Now, as the nation's former chief executive takes up >digs in Harlem, the bourgies once again preen at their >new neighbor, while for the poor, it just means more >gentrification, and therefore a harder struggle to >afford rapidly rising rents. > >It's about time millions of African-Americans learned >who their real friends are.(c)MAJ 2001 > >****************************************************** >This column may be reprinted and/or distributed by >electronic means, but only for non-commercial use, and >only with the inclusion of the following copyright >information: > >Text (c) copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights >reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author. > >Get Mumia's columns by email: http://www.MumiaBook.com >****************************************************** > >Mumia Abu-Jamal is the author of three books: 'Live >from Death Row', 'Death Blossoms', and 'All Things >Censored'. A new biography, 'On A Move: The Story of >Mumia Abu-Jamal', is available at www.MumiaBook.com > Get 250 color business cards for FREE! at Lycos Mail http://mail.lycos.com/freemail/vistaprint_index.html