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2Liberator, Vol. 7, No. 1 - January 2009Continued from Page 1policy, an end to second-class treatmentfor immigrants, to the cynical right-wingpolicies of Bush and the Republicans, aswell as the cynical policies of moderation and accommodation to racism of theClinton Democrats. The power of thisnew movement is expressed in the central slogan of the Obama campaign “Yeswe can,” which in Spanish is “Sí se puede,” the popular chant of the immigrantrights movement. It is the historical obligation of the young people who have ledthe Obama movement to lead and marchforward toward real equality now. King’sown words about the “fierce urgency ofnow” could not be more pertinent.Our biggest danger in the next period of time will be the pressure to holdour breath and leave it up to Obama to realize the promise of our hope. The youngpeople who are the Obama movementmust reject any assumption that Obamawill create the progressive change andimproved conditions that we so stronglydesire for our lives, our communitiesand the nation. It would be a dishonor tothe historic achievement of the Obamamovement to retreat now in the face ofvictory and to return to our daily lives asif our job is done.“This is no time to engage in theluxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism It wouldbe fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”To the question “When will you besatisfied,” King answered “we will notbe satisfied until justice rolls down likewaters and righteousness like a mightystream.” Our movement cannot be satisfied, so long as so many brilliant and talented black, Latina/o, Native American,and other minority students do not havethe opportunity to go to colleges like theUniversity of California or the University of Michigan where affirmative actionhas been outlawed, so long as the DreamAct is not passed and undocumented immigrant students cannot receive financialaid for college simply because they wereborn on the other side of the border. Wewill not be satisfied, so long as immigrant communities live under the threatof ICE raids, deportations, and harassment. We will not be satisfied, so long asour government continues to conduct awar in Iraq and to support the Israel government’s campaign of terror against thePalestinian people. We will not be satisfied so long as gay marriage is not legallyrecognized and there is state-sanctioneddiscrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.When we poured out into the streetson November 4, 2008 to celebrateObama’s election, we had a sense ofour own power and no one wanted thatfeeling to end. We caught a glimpse ofwhat our campus and our society couldbe—black, Latina/o, Arab, Asian, Native American and white, women andmen, LGBT and straight—united, andbreaking free from the oppressive weightof the reactionary, cynical attacks oncivil rights that our generation has livedthrough and struggled under our wholelives.Our feelings of pride and solidaritycame from the knowledge that the majority of Americans decided to vote inour own interests against fear, irrationality and racism, ushering in a new era ofhope, progress, and critical questioningof our society. We are right to be proud,and our renewed hope must be turnedinto collective action. The real hope liesin the power of our independent youthled civil rights movement, and it is ourjob to build that movement and makethose hopes real.The Obama Era—Renewal of King’s Dream or aNew Jim Crow? BAMN’s Call for Real HopeThe document that follows was voted on in draft form at the 11th BAMN national conference on May 24, 2008. The final draft was approved by theBAMN national leadership on the eve of the historic election on Nov. 3, 2008. This document is essential reading for anyone seeking to understandthe period of history we are living in and how to realize the new vision of hope that is sweeping the nation.I. The Obama Era1. The Obama Candidacy: On the Verge of an Historic Step Forward1. In the face of a downwardspiraling economic crisis, theAmerican people are on theverge of electing the nation’sfirst black president. Mostgenerally accepted predictorsof electoral success indicatethat Senator Barack Obamaof Illinois, the presidentialnominee of the DemocraticParty, should be elected the nextPresident of the United Stateson November 4.The likelihood of thisoutcome grows in the wake ofthe financial crisis of fall 2008,the gargantuan governmentbailout, and an overall Americaneconomy in decline—a situationwhich frightens most Americansand for which most Americansblame the policies and attitudesof the Republican Party andthe Republican administrationof George W. Bush. In thelight of these conditions,most political polls and mostpolitical commentators agreein predicting failure for theRepublican Party and successfor the Democrats in theNovember 2008 Congressionaland presidential elections.Should these indicatorshold true, the United States willbe inaugurating Barack Obamanext January as the nation’s firstblack president, and PresidentObama will be working witha relatively friendly Congressdominated by his own party.2. Almost all Americansrecognize that the election of thefirst black president would be anevent of historic importance.To millions of black andother nonwhite Americans itwould be far more than that. Itwould be an assertion of theirlong-denied rightful place inAmerican history, a milestonein the struggle against whiteracism and for equality. Tomillions of nonwhite people own rational self-interest and Obama victory as an inevitablearound the world, the election of their own most humane and consequence of the economicBarack Obama as the American large-minded principles. It crisis, tends to belittle the factorpresident would represent a would represent, even taking of the considerable abilitiesvindication of their own basic into account all necessary Barack Obama must have indignity and self-respect in a qualifications, truly a victory of order to have brought himself toworld still defined by racial reason against unreason.this moment in history.Given the role of racism ininequality and dominated byracism.3. Nor should the fact of the American history, Obama has toFurthermore, throughout economic crisis be used, as it be an unusually gifted politicianAmerican history white racism has been by certain political and, more than that, in a numberhas been a profound and commentators, to diminish of respects a rather remarkablepervasive force, decisively the significance of an Obama person indeed to be in thedistorting American politics victory, as if the economic position he is. He has to haveirrationally in a way that has situation would guarantee had a great deal of downrightundermined the ability of victory to ANY Democrat in this courage simply to make andmillions of Americans to act—stick to the decision to run forindeed to think—rationallyPresident against the abundanceabout their own economic andofcounterindicationsinsocial interests. Ever providingAmerican history and againstthe rich and powerful withabundant advice thatadivide-and-conquernow is not the time tostrategy to prevent unitedchange that history.mass struggle for socialMany commentatorsprogress, racism has,have remarked onWe declare our intention to defendover and again, beenObama’s “coolnessaffirmative action, integration and all thethe key factor inunderpressure,”delaying the victory gains of the previous Civil Rights Movement. his extraordinaryor securing the defeat We declare our determination to struggle for discipline,selfof human progress.control,anda society wholly free from the racist inequalitydetermination.Preciselyand segregation, discrimination and prejudice,becauseoftheHe has to haveimportance of the sexist abuse and degradation andfundamental human qualitiesinequality that stifles human potential and as a leader thatirrationalfactorof white racism inare strong enoughdulls the mind and spirit. We aim for anour history, Baracktoforcetheirintegrated society, a society of equalObama’s victory inway through theity and sister- and brotherhood wherethe November electionstraditional Americanthe ability of all is developed to the white blind spot that hasmust be recognized asfullest. We will struggle for thesefar more than a questionblinded millions of whiteof the victory of one veryAmericansspecificallyaims by any meansgifted, moderately progressivetotheleadershipqualitiesnecessary.black American or of hisof black people. Even a newmoderately progressive party.Great Depression would not beIt is a question of the American e l e c t i o nenough on its own to force lightpeople, in their majority, year. This attitude ignores the through that blind spot.asserting themselves on the side fact that a period of economicof what is rational in American crisis could easily provide ideal 4. For, over and over againhistory and against what has ground, as it has in the past, for in American history, racialbeen most irrational and ugly. the arousal of irrational racist and religious bigotries haveIt would represent a vindication fears—in this case especially overridden economic selfby the American electorate irrational fears of placing the interest and the exercise ofof their own progressive and presidency in black hands at reason in the political behaviorrational convictions—of their such a time. Also, explaining an of millions of white Americans.LIBERATORDECLARATIONOn the basis of such massirrationality, cultivated bydemagogues, the Slave Powerruled the country until a greatand bloody civil war brokeits hold. On the basis of thisirrationality, throughout ourhistory, worker’s strikes andunions have been dragged downto defeat. On the basis of thisirrationality, throughout ourhistory, poor and working-classpeople have supported leadersand parties whose policieshave made the poor poorer,intensified the exploitation oflabor, and increased inequalityand injustice.The challenge facing theAmerican people this year isprecisely the question whetherthe electorate is ready, inits majority, to set aside theirrationality of white racialprejudice in favor of therationality of their own urgentneeds and interests. Until now,the answer to that question inAmerican history has beenno. For a majority to changethat historic no to yes wouldrepresent far more than a tributeto Senator Obama’s undoubtedtalents as a leader of his ownparty and national electoralpolitician. It would represent farmore than the modest electoralshift to the left that SenatorObama and his party’s timidpolicies could accomplish.It would represent a majorbreakthrough in the politicalconsciousness of the Americanpeople themselves—and inparticular on the part of theAmerican workers, poor, youth,and minorities who share thegreatest frustration and angerwith the current economic andpolitical situation and bring thegreatest hopes and the highestexpectations to the Obamacandidacy and to the prospect ofan Obama victory.

Liberator, Vol. 7, No. 1 - January 200932. The Key Question: the Growing Political and Moral Maturity of the American People5. It is this factor—theimportance of the Obamacandidacytoassessingthe political character andconsciousness of the Americanelectorate, to determining thepolitical—and, in a sense,the moral—maturity of theAmerican people, that isthe decisive, the key, thefundamental question of thismoment in American history.This means that SenatorObama’s success in securing thenomination of his party in itselfrepresents a great step forward,for the Obama victory in thepresidential primary contestshowed that the progressiveranks of one of the two mainparties of the Americanelectoral system were preparedto insist that now is the time totake this step, and take this stepover against the determinedopposition of a section of theirparty’s national leadership.For an electoral majorityto make a similar decisionin the November generalelection, against a considerablesection of the nation’s politicalleadership and its demagogicscare tactics and over againstmuch of the weight of thenation’s real political history,would represent an even greatermoment in the raising of thepolitical consciousness of theAmerican people. For thisprogressive political majority tobuild the support for Obama to asufficiently massive proportionto impose their decision onthe nation’s undemocraticelectoral system, will representan accomplishment by theprogressive sections of theAmerican people that will tendto empower and embolden theAmerican people themselveson the basis of their own mostprogressive consciousness andimpulses.It is this self-assertion oftheir own progressive characterin a manner calculated to changehistory for the better that couldmake the November electionan historical moment of realdemocracy, surely incompleteand inadequate in itself, butin its potential full of hope.These mass-democratic andsomewhat defiantly progressiveelements in the mass movementsupporting Obama—in manyrespects in stark contrast to themoderately conservative andtimidly progressive character oftheir candidate himself—havegiven the Obama movementthe character of an excited andinspiring struggle for the causeof social justice. Candidate“Candidate Obama’s promises of a newbirth of hope in America may remain alltoo-comfortably vague and platitudinous.in keeping with the long, not very honesttradition of American electoral clichemongering. But millions of his mobilized andinspired supporters have in mind a very realagenda of hope for social justice, economicrationality, equality, an end to militarism andimperialist arrogance, and the empoweringof the disadvantaged and oppressed.”Obama’s promises of a new birthof hope in America may remainall-too-comfortablyvagueand platitudinous in keepingwith the long, not very honesttradition of American electoralcliche-mongering. But millionsof his mobilized and inspiredsupporters have in mind a veryreal agenda of hope for socialjustice, economic rationality,equality, an end to militarismand imperialist arrogance,and the empowering of thedisadvantaged and oppressed.3. The Obama Movement and the Question of Leadership6. BAMN congratulates theAmerican people, and especiallythe rank and file activists ofthe Obama movement, for thishistoric step forward and thebroad hope for progressivechange awakened with it.The realization of this hopedepends on the development, inthis new historical period, of newleadership, new organization,and new levels of consciousness.Thesenewdevelopmentsmust start with the inspirationand raised expectations ofthe Obama movement andwith the tendencies to deepenunderstanding of the nature ofmodern society and to reopenthe question of methods ofpolitical action provoked by theglobal economic crisis and thefailure of American militarismabroad.For BAMN, an organizationdedicated to rebuilding thestruggle for equality, it is crucialto appreciate the full meaningof this moment in Americanhistory. We must understand thedepth of the importance of thelikely election of Barack Obamaas president, but we must alsounderstand the limitations of theimportance of this election andthe dangers of overestimatingwhat this election alone canactually accomplish.7. Moreover, the ways in whichBarack Obama has conductedhis campaign bring out sharplythe differences between themethods of modern Americanelectoralism and the methodsnecessary to rebuild a massmovement for equality andsocial justice. At key momentsit has seemed as if a centralpremise of Senator Obama’s“The ways in which Barack Obama hasconducted his campaign bring out sharply thedifferences between the methods of modernAmerican electoralism and the methodsnecessary to rebuild a mass movement forequality and social justice.”electoral strategy has beenthe conviction that a blackAmerican could only be electedpresident by taking care to givethe impression that the strugglefor racial equality is no longeran urgent matter, no longer theongoing national crisis that itactually is. In American politicalhistory the failure of leadershipto recognize the practicalurgency of the question of racialequality has always meant afailure in theory and practice toaddress the overall question ofsocial and economic inequality.Yet the growing economicinequality in the United Statesand in the world is the mosturgent question of our time. Intrue terms, no leadership cansucceed which fails to placethis question at the center of itsconsciousness and action.Yet the electoral campaignof Senator Obama has beenall too like the campaign ofhis conservative rival SenatorMcCain in its failure to addressthis fundamental questionof growing inequality andgrinding poverty. It is hard toimagine what Senator Obama’sslogans about “new hope” and“fundamental change” mean in“In true terms, No leadership can succeedwhich fails to place this question [racialequality] at the center of its consciousnessand action.”a nation and a world in whichthe poor get poorer.8. The election of Barack Obamaas America’s first black presidentcould represent an importantdevelopment which couldfavor the accomplishment ofBAMN’s difficult historical taskof building a new independentcivil rights movement. Or,ironically, the negative featuresof his campaign’s attitudetoward the struggle for equalitycould mean that the victory ofSenator Obama and his partycould actually make it muchmore difficult for that necessarymovement to be built.Whether this developmentmakes our job easier ormoredifficult,BAMN’ssupporters must have as deepan understanding as possibleof this important moment inAmerican and world history.The future of the struggle forfull immigrant rights and thestruggle for affirmative actionand integration—and thereforethe struggle for equality inAmerica—will depend on ourability to orient BAMN’s workcorrectly in the face of this newturn in American history.While BAMN shares thesense of millions of Americansthat a victory for Barack Obamawould represent an importantstep forward in Americanhistory, the manner in whichthis victory is being achieved,in particular with regard to thestruggle for equality, makes it,however ironically, impossiblefor BAMN to endorse SenatorObama’s candidacy. The truthis that the Obama campaign’sambiguities, vacillations, andplainly wrong positions onthe struggle for equality raisegrave concerns, which BAMNhas an obligation to addresstheoretically and in the mostpractical terms possible. Theprogressive fighters for the newhope of the Obama movementdeserve nothing less of us.4. The Other Side of American History: the Role of White Racism;the Shamefaced Racism of the New Jim Crow9. To begin with, it is necessaryto confront the other side ofthe political polarization thatwe are witnessing in the faceof the imminent election of thenation’s first black president andthe evolution of the economiccrisis: a resurgence of racistirrationality.BAMN must pay extremelyclose attention to the ways inwhich the Obama candidacyhas become a target for themobilization by demagoguesof the racist forces in Americansociety. This racist mobilizationis especially dangerous becauseit has been driven, not by someright-wing paranoid fringe,but by national leaders of thetwo main parties in the courseof the mainstream nationalpresidential electoral processitself.Firstthepresidentialprimary campaign of SenatorHillary Clinton, at a certainpoint despairing of defeatingSenator Obama by any rationalandlegitimatestrategy,cultivated a set of coded appealsto the racist fears of white votersin the Democratic primaries.This did not produce electoralsuccess for Senator Clinton,but it did sanction the irrationalracist fears and hatred ofmillions of Democratic primaryvoters, whom Senator Clintonand her surrogates providedwith a supposedly respectablevocabulary in which to couchtheir racial prejudices.Then, as the fall presidentialcampaignofRepublicanSenator John McCain similarlydespaired of the success of anyrational strategy for winning theelection, the McCain campaignpredictably built on the uglyprecedentsestablishedbySenator Clinton.Republicanvicepresidential candidate SarahPalin was delegated the roleof demagogic attack dog. Atlarge campaign rallies at whichPalin absurdly accused SenatorObama of “palling around withterrorists,” elements in theRepublican crowds shoutedback “Terrorist!,” “Traitor!,”“Nobama! Nobama!,” and “Killhim! Kill him!”Meanwhile at his owncampaign rallies, McCainwas firing up his crowds witha litany of attacks on Obamapunctuated with “Who is thereal Obama?” The crowdshouted back the expected“Terrorist!,” “Traitor!,” and therest. Racist epithets abound inthe McCain-Palin crowds, andthe sale of racist memorabiliaat Republican and conservativeevents this year has beenreported in the news media.The McCain-Palin policyhas so emboldened the paranoidand racist elements in theRepublican Party that McCainhimself has been forced intoa series of public statementstaking a sort of polite, minimalexception to some of the moreextreme paranoias (obsessedrepetitions of the Internetslanders crazily claiming thatSenator Obama is actually aMuslim [ “extremist”] or anArab [ “terrorist”], because hismiddle name is Hussein). YetMcCain’s own public behavior(“that one” in the secondpresidential debate), the overlypolite and feeble character ofhis “dissociations” from theMuslim-baiting, his pretendingthere is some question whoObama really is, and hisrunning-mate Palin’s recklessrhetoric about “palling aroundwith terrorists” have at leastexploited, certainly encouraged,and to some extent spawned theirrational ugliness.WithunderstandableContinued on next page

4Continued from previous pageconcern, on 15 October, duringan exchange in the thirdpresidential debate on “negativecampaigning,” Obama himselfquoted the cries of “Terrorist!”and “Kill him!” at Palin ralliesand pointed out that Palin hadnot offered so much as a word ofobjection to this sort of behavioramong her crowds. In reply, notonly did McCain not condemnthe murderous language ordeclare that in the future hisrunning mate would object tocries of “Terrorist!” and “Killhim!” from her crowds. Onthe contrary, he ignored thesedeath threats against Obama,seemed to treat the peoplemaking them at his and Palin’srallies as an irrelevant, harmless“fringe”—for which he tookno responsibility—and gusheddefensively, rather pathetically,and unconvincingly abouthow “the people that cometo our rallies” are “the mostdedicated, patriotic men andwomen that are in this nation,and they’re great citizens,”as if the issue was excessivecriticism of demagogy, racism,and death threats. McCainthen defended his demagogicmethods by wrapping himselfin Hillary Clinton’s use of thesame demagogic methods inher Democratic Party primarycontest against Senator Obama.Both Clinton and McCainhave had to present their racistappeals in coded terms that mostwhite mainstream journalistsand academics have dutifullyaccepted as nonracist. This is asituation typical of the periodthat BAMN has characterizedas the New Jim Crow, one ofthe features of which is a public,official stance of embarrassmentover and opposition to openexpressions of racism, while thecoded and disguised racism thatis actually on the rise is not onlynot confronted and opposed butin fact increasingly sanctionedand promoted.History has shown thatthe toleration of coded,“respectable” appeals to racism12. After the first Revolutioncreated the nation as anindependent republic, threegreat mass social movementshave altered American historyfundamentally for the better.From the 1830s throughthe 1870s, the mass radicalabolitionist movement wagedan intransigent struggle thatculminated in the end of slaverythrough the Union victory inthe Civil War and the strivingsfor racial equality expressed inRadical Reconstruction. Bold,courageous, and independentabolitionistleaderslikeFrederick Douglass, WilliamLloyd Garrison, and JohnBrown confronted the nationwith new models of politicalaction and new definitions ofliberty, equality, and citizenshipitself.The great class struggle ofthe American labor movementthat came to assume mightyproportions in the decadesfollowing the Civil WarLiberator, Vol. 7, No. 1 - January 2009from the mainstream has themost terrible of consequences.Once antisemitism was treatedas a certain fashionable excessof nationalist zeal on thepart of the German politicalandintellectualelite—anunpleasantness, perhaps, buthardly a serious problem exceptamong a few crazed, irrelevantfringe fanatics. Then the fringewas the Nazi government. ThenAuschwitz and Buchenwald.Both Senators Clinton andMcCain have stood before thetragic memorials and muttered,piously, “Never again.” Buttheir behavior in 2008 hasdeclared, for all with ears tohear, the terrible message,“Again! Again!”10. Even though most pollsand most commentators agreein predicting the success ofObama and his DemocraticParty in 2008, the role of raceand racism in American historymakes clear that it would be amistake to take Obama’s victoryfor granted.Simply the fact that SenatorObama is a black Americanmeans that the usual predictorsare more likely to be wrongthan would be the case werehe a white candidate. Formillions of white Americans,it has always been difficult athistorical moments such as thisto set aside knee-jerk prejudicesand paranoias, fearing steps inthe direction of equality. Overand over again, many whiteAmericans have allowed theexercise of their right to vote tobe distorted by the racist appealsof demagogues urging them todefend what are actually unfair,irrational, and

the Shamefaced Racism of the New Jim Crow 3 5. How American History Has Really Changed for the Better 4 II. The New Jim Crow 6. A Balance Sheet: King’s Dream vs. a New Jim Crow 5 7. “Racism without Racists”/ ”Racists without Racism” 5