During the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Rev. Al Sampson helped to organize Chicago’s Black Mobilization Committee Against the War and regularly opened his church to anti-war rallies and other progressive actions. His Fernwood United Methodist Church, on Chicago’s far South Side, showed films like Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism and Fahrenheit 9/11. And Sampson’s church… return to article
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Reader Comments (11)Page 1 of 1 pagesGreat article, it’s about time black people woke up and smelled the coffee. Black people should really start taking the voting process more serious. I mean we should strive to learn our history in this country, once that has been done the right decisions will be made. I mean it is no mistake that blacks still vote 9/10 for democratic candidates. I am by no means saying that all democratics candidates mean us well, however the answer is definetly not running to the “Gran Ole Party”. I encourge every black person just to go back to the first George Bush Presidency and check out a guy named Lee Atwater…
Posted by Maria Holt on May 10, 2005 at 9:10 AM Black people are a diverse group. They have no more in common than the Irish or Jews (really less). The real demographic is NOT race based in any way - rather it is class based.
We should all leave this dead horse alone. AA should be eliminated and replaced with a class based analogy.
It past time to move on.
Posted by Ruth on May 10, 2005 at 11:11 AM I have long said that many AAs were not drinking Bush’s Kool-Aid, and your article confirms it. Additionally, those who HAVE either drunk the Kool-Aid or fed at Bush’s Faith-Based Money trough will have to shill his policies for him whether they are beneficiaries or not.
And Star “I used to fraudently take welfare before I was against it” Parker has never been a credible source of information regarding the AA community because she’s too busy trashing it for her own personal gain. Someone was definately drunk on Kool-Aid when they decided to give her a syndicated newspaper column.
Posted by Leutisha on May 10, 2005 at 4:47 PM Is it just me,or has anyone else noticed that Bush’s constituency has been reduced to big business interests and a bunch of dumb-ass pseudo-middle-class white guys who honestly believe the propaganda on Fox News?
Some mandate.
With thirty-seven people voting republican in the next election,I wonder how they’ll steal that one?
Posted by wwoods on May 11, 2005 at 6:35 AM All they will do is rig the election and say that 37,000 Republicans voted for them. Even if those Republicans punched the button that said “Democrat” - you know Diebold got those voting machines programmed.
People better ignore the machines and vote by absentee ballot, or mail-in ballot; it’s the only way to create and maintain a paper trail.
Posted by Leutisha on May 11, 2005 at 12:52 PM African Americans should try a new paradign: the next election, let’s vote WHOLESALE for a “moderate” , independent or even Republican candidate, put him/her in office, and effect change from the inside/out.
I know this sounds contrary to some previously considered strategies, but one of the worst tactics we can have is to be too predictable...and we are much too politically predicatable.
We need to openly dialoge some new approaches socially, ecomomically, and politically...not confining ourselves to previous tactics that do not seem to be giving us appreciable returns for our efforts (i.e. Democrates).
Posted by Horace D. Flournoy on May 12, 2005 at 3:10 PM Ralph’s Index
Number of Americans living in poverty: 35.9 millionPercentage of the U.S. population living in poverty: 12.5%
Number of Americans without health insurance: 45 million
Number of children uninsured in the United States: 27 million
Percentage of all children in the United States who lack insurance: 36.7%
Number of Americans who die annually because they do not have health insurance: 18,000
The only industrialized country that does not provide universal health care: United States of America
U.S. ranking in overall quality of health care it provides: 37th
U.S. world ranking in national expenditures on health care: 1
Number of infants born poor in the United States: 1 in 3
Number of years Bush has presided over an increase in child poverty without sounding an alarm: 3 years in a row
Number of full-time workers earning less than $8.75 per hour before payroll taxes: 1 in every 4
Comparison of average CEO pay to average worker pay in America in 1965: 26 times more
Comparison of average CEO pay to average worker pay in America in 1982: 42 times more
Comparison of average CEO pay to average worker pay in America today: 300 to 500 times more
Median CEO pay at large companies in the U.S.: $6,600 per hour
Amount the minimum wage would be if it had increased in tandem with CEO pay since 1990: $15.71
Percentage of the federal budget going to the military: 50%
Number of U.S. soldiers who have died to date in the illegal war and occupation in Iraq: Over 1,000
Number of Iraqi civilians the U.S. has killed in the illegal war and occupation in Iraq: Over 15,000
Percentage of Americans an AP poll found would consider voting for Ralph Nader if they thought he had a chance to win: 33%
Number of presidential candidates standing up to corporate power: 1
Name of the presidential candidate standing up to corporate power: Ralph Nader
Your job: Visit the website (www.votenader.org), contribute (in any way you can (email campaign, money contribution, volunteer, write your local paper) make sure Ralph runs in 2008, and vote for Ralph
Posted by Richard on May 12, 2005 at 3:44 PM Seems to me Black church leaders do just fine financially without any help from politicians, apparently the price for selling out is higher than the republicans thought.
With 15 million church members and their collective dollars under this umbrella I think its time Black church leaders separate from the democrats (via Jackson) and start an independent political party. The NOI and other lesser known Black religious, nationalist and community groups could get together under another umbrella and form a different political coalition and Black conservatives and entreprenuers could hook up and separate their interest from the republican mess. If the repubs and dems had to acknowledge and address the vast and varied interest of three independent Black political parties there is no way either would have the nerve to throw chump change at a bunch of preachers expecting them to bow down, pick it up and carry votes to their way.
Posted by theloneous on May 13, 2005 at 11:59 AM “Is it just me,or has anyone else noticed that Bush’s constituency has been reduced to big business interests and a bunch of dumb-ass pseudo-middle-class white guys who honestly believe the propaganda on Fox News?”
No, there are also, inter alia, some astonishingly stupid Jews who think Bush is their friend because (they erroneously believe that) he supports Israel. When they are lining up to be burned, gassed, or otherwise murdered and have their heads shaved for insulated boots, skin removed for lampshades, and have the gold removed from their teeth, by their putative neo-Christian benefactors, what will they think then?
There are only two kinds of republicans: 1) idiots, and 2) crooks, but, they come in all shapes, sizes, colors, religions, ethnicities and economic classes.
Posted by Lefty on May 18, 2005 at 11:14 AM I’m a jew who’s now inclined to side with Bush, just to be on the opposite side from Lefty.
Posted by margolis on May 18, 2005 at 3:21 PM Excellent article. I’m including it in my blog Planet Grenada
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