May, 19 2011, 06:09pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Progressives Respond to Obama
AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org
Co-Executive Director of RootsAction, Allison said today: "Obama will need the support of progressives in his reelection bid, but the biggest issues -- from closing Guantanamo to ending war in Iraq to protecting the social safety net haven't been addressed." The group released a video today titled "Louder Than Words" featured on their webpage: RootsAction.org.
WASHINGTON
AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org
Co-Executive Director of RootsAction, Allison said today: "Obama will need the support of progressives in his reelection bid, but the biggest issues -- from closing Guantanamo to ending war in Iraq to protecting the social safety net haven't been addressed." The group released a video today titled "Louder Than Words" featured on their webpage: RootsAction.org.
KEVIN GRAY, kevinagray57 at gmail.com
Today is Malcolm X's birthday. Gray is author of The Decline of Black Politics: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama. He said today: "Cornel West for all his class contradictions isn't so far off the mark when he says 'Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men.' Obama's White House can have the black entertainment-minstrel class come to the White House through a revolving door because they're safe. Yet meeting with black leadership -- elected and not, to include the black press -- has to be done behind closed doors or with no record of what was discussed behind those doors.
"And in the face of depression-level unemployment in the black community, Obama's response to black critics is 'cut me some slack' instead of 'make me do it.'
"If Malcolm X were alive -- and had for the most part, the same politics he had at the time of his death -- no doubt Obama would repudiate Malcolm and his history quicker than he rejected Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan.
"Barack Obama is for protecting empire, structural white supremacy and the global capitalist elites, that's the job he volunteered to do. Malcolm was for the recognition of human and civil rights protections for all individuals."
Background: IPA news release, "Malcolm X's Legacy" which includes quotes from Malcolm X
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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