Black Folk, Reject Fulani and Buchanan!

By Charles Barron <cbdynamics@igc.org>, 15 November 1999

They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but this is getting ridiculous. Where ever you find rich white males in the political mix, you'll find Dr. Lenora Fulani. It doesn't matter if they are left, right, wrong or racist. She has pushed Fred Newman, Tom Galisano, Abe Herschfield, Ross Perot, and now arch racist conservative Pat Buchanan for President. I guess it's pragmatism over principles for Dr. Fulani. It matters not that these men have done nothing for the Black community and as for Buchanan, his repugnant, vile views are diametrically opposed to any radical, progressive or civil rights agenda we've ever had. Buchanan, a defender of the pre-civil war south, the good ol' days for racist white folk, a staunch supporter of Reaganomics, a supporter of closing borders and stopping immigrants of color from reuniting with their families, is considered by many a racist, fascist bigot.

Dr. Fulani, who has considered herself a progressive independent, has spent years criticizing Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton for delivering the Black vote to the Democratic Party, and now she has the nerve to try to deliver Black folk to a racist backward thinking political misfit like Pat Buchanan. This is madness!

Buchanan Coming to Harlem

According to an article in the Friday, November 12, 1999 edition of the New York Daily News, Dr. Fulani, in her endorsement of Buchanan's attempt to win the Reform Party nomination for the White House, stated that, "I'm going to take Pat Buchanan to 125th Street in Harlem. We're going to have lunch at Sylvia's, I'm going to take him to speak at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network." She further stated that, "he is not a racist or a fascist or a bigot. He is not a hater." Nothing can be further from the truth.

Beware of Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

Black Folk! Harlem! Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing!! "Everything Black ain't really Black!" We must not allow Black leaders to peddle political views to us that will turn back the hands of time. I'll be the first to agree with Dr. Fulani that we need an alternative to the two party system of Democrats and Republicans, however, we don't want to go from the frying pan into the fire. Pat Buchanan and the Reform Party is not the answer. As Chairperson of the newly formed Black led multi-racial Unity Party, I firmly believe in independent radical politics. But how could you call yourself a progressive and support a regressive like Buchanan? Fortunately, I don't believe Black Folks are going to believe Fulani's hype on Buchanan. And fortunately, Dr. Fulani does not have much influence in the Black community. Lets stay politically vigilant and be critical analytical thinkers. When Buchanan comes to Harlem, lets hope he leaves with Dr. Fulani all by her lonesome and is not welcomed at the National Action Network's House of Justice. The House of Justice should not be contaminated with the stench of Buchanan. We should not give a platform to a man like Buchanan. Lest we forget, Buchanan was a columnist for Rupert Murdock's racist rage sheet called the New York Post. Anybody that Murdock gives a column to can't be for us. Buchanan reguarly castigated Blacks and Latinos in his column. From affirmative action to welfare reform to supporting the Confederate flag, he has dissed us badly. This is war. We need not provide a forum for a man whose views are well known and clearly anti-Black and anti-Latino.

Support Reparations

The new millennium will usher in election years 2000 and 20001. Black leaders will be cutting all kinds of deals with white led parties and their white candidates. Unfortunately, these deals will gain only them access and favor with these parties and candidates. Nothing will trickle down to the "hood" and make life better for us folk on a grassroots level. Let's not give them our votes so easily. Let's be intelligent voters. Political candidates should be given a Black political litmus test. That test should start with this question. Will you support Reparations for people of African ancestry in America and the worldwide African diaspora? We certainly deserve it. Everybody else is getting paid for America's and Europe's "Crimes Against Humanity." Why not us! In 1990, the USA paid Japanese Americans 1.2 billion dollars or $20,000 each for their containment in concentration camps during the WWII years, and the Congressional Black Caucus supported the Japanese. In 1952, Germany paid $822 million to Jewish holocaust survivors. America is paying the indigenous people, whose land they stole, millions in Reparations. No one deserves it more than they do. But why not us? We were enslaved from 1619 to 1863, the date of the so-called Emancipation Proclamation. That's 244 years of free labor for them and "pure-de-hell" for us. Then from 1863 to 1965, the date of Civil Rights legislation, represents 102 years of legal Jim Crow apartheid like racism. From 1965 to the present we still suffer from economic, political and social oppression. They owe us big time. Here's how they can pay us. How about no taxes for us to pay for the next 20 years? How about free education for our people from kindergarten to graduated school? How some land? How about a $50 billion down payment? That's for starters. They can take the $50 billion from the $260 billion bloated military budget, during this time of so-called peace. Where there's a will, there's a way. We certainly deserve it. No support for Reparations, no Black vote! Wouldn't it be great if we all united around that proposition? Congressman John Conyers and the Congressional Black Caucus has had a bill, HR40, stuck in Committee since 1989, on Reparations. Let's force Congress to deal with it. This is a serious "doable" issue.

We Need New Leadership

We should choose candidates based upon their positions on issues, not because a self-proclaimed Black leader is promoting and parading them among us. From supporting the KKK's right to march, to supporting Pat Buchanan for President and providing a forum for him in Harlem, Black leaders mut not be allowed to continue to confuse the masses.

We need new leadership, principled-centered, visionary, radical progressive leadership that supports the people over the party, principles over opportunistic egocentric pragmatism, that is honest, trustworthy and does not compromise the integrity and intelligence of the Black community. Let's bring back "Power to the People." Black folk, in the name of Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., reject Pat Buchanan and Dr. Lenora Fulani for her political hypocrisy. Let's keep it real, and remember, "the struggle may be long, but our victory is certain."