Nationwide unrest has forced the black quisling class to reveal themselves as agents of the racial and economic status quo, writes Margaret Kimberley.
By Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Report
The nationwide protests have forced the black quisling class to reveal themselves as agents of the racial and economic status quo.
The aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police has created a national political crisis. The revulsion caused by this latest killing caught on camera spawned protests in Minneapolis and all over the country. Black people are the angriest, knowing they are at risk of the same treatment and because most police killings rarely result in convictions.
But the mass actions present a problem for the rulers. Anger boiled beneath the surface after years of the race-to-the-bottom austerity regime, the worsening economic collapse in the wake of the Covid-19 quarantine, and another Democratic presidential primary rigged by that party’s donor class to defeat the prospect of even minimalist reforms.
While black people led the way, they were joined by many white people too. They are also angry about Floyd’s death and are primed to rise up against the injustices that are expanding and becoming more deeply entrenched against them as well. While Covid-19 created a health crisis it also left millions unemployed with nothing but meager benefits and a one-time payment of $1,200.
The System Rose Up
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. (Twitter)
When these groups began a nascent campaign of solidarity, the system rose up against them in an effort to delegitimize them all. The story of Floyd’s cruel death began to take a back seat in the corporate media. Suddenly the propagandists who pose as journalists became concerned about the presence of white people in the protests. Who were they? Where were they from? What did they want? Were they “antifa” or anarchists or white supremacists?
They were quickly joined by the political class of black misleaders who did the bidding of their patrons by dismissing the acts of rebellion. St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter fired the first shot when he declared that every arrested protester was not from his state. But in fact the opposite was true, and 85 percent of arrestees were Minnesotans . Carter sheepishly responded that he had received bad information. The obvious and easily proven inaccuracy makes that assertion highly unlikely.
He and others began using very dangerous talking points. They claimed to grieve for Mr. Floyd and expressed a desire to see justice done while also saying that white protesters were using the demonstrations for nefarious ends. They even evoked the “outside agitator” trope from the bad old days of Jim Crow segregation. They pleaded for peaceful protest or no protest at all and some of them told outright lies.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was among the worst. She accused protesters of disgracing her city, George Floyd’s memory and Martin Luther King’s legacy all in one fell swoop. She told them, “Go home.” According to Madame Mayor every protester was snatching liquor, setting fires and pulling knives on the police. The rebellion was dismissed as criminality and despite any claims of concern for George Floyd, she proclaimed every participant a scoundrel.
For good measure she added, “If you want change in America, go and register to vote!”, as if that act has magical qualities to make bad things disappear. Voting usually produces nothing more than mediocre sell outs like Keisha Lance Bottoms. It certainly won’t end police violence.
National Urban League President Marc Morial. (Twitter)
The heights of the most shameful lies were reserved for Marc Morial, former New Orleans mayor and president of the National Urban League, and Susan Rice, former U.S. national security adviser. In separate interviews they both accused the Russian government of instigating discontent. “If it is white supremacists, if it is Russians, if it is other foreign actors who’ve tried to exploit the pain and exploit legitimate protests, then this is a new level in our country, and they should be arrested and prosecuted as well,” said the overly dramatic Morial. Rice said the protests were, “Right out of the Russian playbook.”
It is hard to believe that either of them really believes anything they said. They are opportunists and cynics and they are joined at the hip with the Democrats’ donor class. These black quislings obey everyone except their own people. Their con game is to give a pretense of black empowerment while doing the bidding of others. If that means repeating disproven propaganda, then so be it.
The underlings and their patrons are afraid. They know that if young black and white people find common cause they may march for other reasons too. They may lead general strikes, demand an end to war or try to resurrect the Occupy movement. It is better to cast aspersions now instead of risking needed change that would undermine their positions.
Silent About Police Violence
George Floyd protesters in Miami react to police firing chemical irritants on May 30, 2020. (Mike Shaheen, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
That is why they eagerly establish curfews and say nothing about the police violence against protesters. There are no white supremacists in these actions, and they invoke the dreaded words to stoke fear and confusion. The spontaneous rebellions are but a first step in establishing real grass roots organizing that must focus on police violence, political corruption and a system which puts black people most at risk of dying in a pandemic, being arrested for little or nothing, or earning a starvation wage if any wage at all.
The Black Alliance for Peace campaign, “No Compromise, No Retreat” shows the way. The BAP candidate pledge will expose the likes of Keisha Lance Bottoms. Demanding that they demilitarize the police and investigate all police killings will bring about important organizational work. Their days of using their positions to undermine the popular will end only when a strong organizing apparatus forces them out.
All eyes must be focused on them, and less so on Donald Trump. There is no antifa organization, it is instead a political idea of how to fight fascism. His mutterings about it being a terrorist group should be ignored. His ravings about “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” at the White House trigger panic but black mayors and their friends who seek to divert attention from their own corruption pose far bigger problems.
The misleaders assisted in foisting Joe Biden upon Democratic Party voters. While Trump did his usual routine of ginning up his followers with political red meat, Biden appeared in a black church and spoke of police stopping imaginary knife wielding attackers by aiming to shoot for the legs. This deranged and dangerous nonsense is the result of high-level treachery amongst the black political class and is as dangerous as any Trumpian nonsense.
The joint disparagement of grass roots protest by the misleaders and corporate media prove that it has the potential to bring real change. That is why they become shriller by the day and it is why the people must act in opposition to them all.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and she regularly posts on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
This article is from Black Agenda Report.
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There have been protests by the white children of the rich in most of their vacation enclaves. But, these are second vacation homes, not areas with actual power. Protesters have smartly been aiming to shut down big business in downtown Manhattan and Fifth Avenue, and Barclay’s Center/downtown Brooklyn. Protesters rightly think that NYC-area economies can’t function because transportation can’t run, helicopters and drones and swarms of police cause additional chaos, and businesses are forced to close and board up their windows. Go ahead, you don’t have to live here, just Google “BLM” and “protests” and “Hamptons” (or wherever) and you’ll see. Also, Princeton? Are you kidding? That’s a college town, not much else. Ditto with Harvard and Yale. And all three cities have lots of protests (by the young). Kimberly is correct, younger whites are listening to principled Black leadership like never before, and younger Blacks and whites remain in the streets. More analysis Kimberly–thank you!
I’m so sick of misleaders and when you are cutting strings sometimes you have to cut ones close to home. But if ever possible, please avoid that because it could be a mistake that later on you will regret. Still, I’m so sick of misleaders and I thank the author of this article – Ms. Margaret Kimberley. I thank her for her courage to tell the truth even when it doesn’t make us feel good.
BK
“There is no Antifa organization, it is instead a political idea of how to fight fascism.” Kimberley is in denial to the point of being delusional. Head to Portland or another of the other fast-degenerating, liberal-run cities and they’re there in their black shirts and masks using tactics that they purport to despise, fighting fascism by adopting the tactics of the fascists.
Too many are willing to substitute the status quo for the uncertainty of chaos. Look at history to see how that is likely to play out.
Clearly you are the one who is deluded and uneducated about Antifa. As Margaret correctly points out, “Antifa” stands for anti-fascists, period. There are different collectives, sections, groups, organizations, that collectively refer to themselves as anti-fascists, Antifa. The group you refer to in your comment as Antifa, for your information, are Anarchists. They wear black and smash windows or symbols of capitalism. They are the Anarchist Block. Now that I have educated you, perhaps you owe Ms. Kimberly an apology. The last thing you ought to do is to get your information from Donald Trump; he is very ignorant if you don’t know that yet. BTW, Antifa are real heroes because they stand against fascists of all sorts and fight them. And that is a good thing.
After I finally find out where and how I lost countless socks, umbrellas and sunglasses over the years (behind the couch? dropped in the street? left on the counter of Bartell Drugs?) upon my death I will ask God how so many world leaders became traitors. You know, like third world presidents described in John Perkins’ “Confessions of An Economic Hit Man”, I’d want to know, say, if it was a direct bribe–maybe a call girl– they just couldn’t resist, or maybe the promise of a board of directors spot for a family member, or perhaps could it have been that guy on a moped whizzing by and saying, “Beautiful daughter you have, Mr. President… Oh yeah, and we also have the video of you and the call girl”.
In a communist world, John Perkins book (which I have read) would be taken off the shelves and he would be imprisoned or shot.
Pretty much how Julian Assange has been treated by the US and Britain.
Dennis, there is no communist world.
In the US, books of dissent never reach shelves, and there are no constitutional rights in court.
Who knows, you might find some answers in the late Mr. Epstein’s little black book.
This is a nice piece by Ms. Kimberley.
However, when Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are donating a billion dollars and millions of dollars to your cause you know it’s no longer all that radical or a threat to the status quo. What we’re seeing is essentially an identity politics movement, which is good for what it’s worth, but much, much more is necessary by way of substantive CLASS warfare.
As far as I know, and I could be ignorant on this, I don’t hear the BLM protesters chanting any mantras or making any demands for Med4All, living wages, debt jubilee, or ending the Washington-Zionist military machine.
DH – I think that you’re right on all counts, depressingly so. That’s not to say that there aren’t many, like Ms Kimberley, Glen Ford and so on over on Black Agenda Report, for example, who fully support the essentially revolutionary changes, those that the corporate-capitalist-imperialist power class really want to prevent (Oh no – real taxation!! loss of power!). But I, too, wouldn’t be at all surprised if this latest attempt to make real changes in the fundamental, deeply rooted racist structure at every level, in every sphere of this society ended up focusing more on “Diversity Politics” than in it being a true route to the very very necessary alteration of the whole edifice.
And with Nov looming you know the Blue Faces will be jumping all over the bandwagon with the “H & C” crapola – all nicey and huggy (Biden after all) but business and an unchanged grotesquely unequal society as usual.
I agree entirely (and I’ve protested alongside the BLM movement).
Until the issue of socio/economic inequality is addressed, I fear that all the police reforms in the world will have very little long term impact.
“The underlings and their patrons are afraid. They know that if young black and white people find common cause they may march for other reasons too. They may lead general strikes, demand an end to war or try to resurrect the Occupy movement. It is better to cast aspersions now instead of risking needed change that would undermine their positions.”
Margaret addresses this issue very clearly seeing the possibility of this as the beginning of something bigger. As the Wobbly slogan says, “An injury to one is an injury to all”.
Regarding her comments of Atlanta mayor, Keisha Bottoms, the author of this article, Margaret Kimberley, is wrong. In Atlanta and cities elsewhere, many of the ‘protesters’, black or white, were just hell raisers. That is not to say that all were. There have been peaceful demonstrations with mixed races. And yes, voting does matter. In addition to reading the above article, I took the time to read two articles from the Black Agenda Report. The articles I read, if printed in a white media, would be considered racist. And they are.
No racial progress made here/there.
“many of the ‘protesters’, black or white, were just hell raisers” – tell us how you know this. Compared to the police who seem to be attacking peaceful people, even shops, the protesters are remarkably restrained. You have a national police violent riot going on. When will you understand that?
Then you got Obama telling everyone to vote Democrat, when Democrats are already Mayors in the cities with the most troubles!
Pssssh
The members of those communities (Princeton, Hamptons, etc.) would never allow large Black protests and would be the first to call on the police riot squads to prevent any such action.
Obama turned out to be Bush in blackface.
Biden v Trump. Like choosing between small pox and cholera.
Yes, Obama’s 1st and 2nd administrations were in reality Bush 3rd and 4th.
Now we have a choice between Dotard and Retard, representing the Republicrat and the Demoplican parties, respectively.
I always favored ” Nacilbupers”and “Tarcomeds”, Nathan Mulcahy, which rather effectively captured the intentional backwardness of the legacy wings of the War and Money partly.
I thought Clinton v. Trump was like cowflop v. horseflop.
Have not been able to decode Nacilbupers v. Tarcomeds.
Though choice.
Smallpox, no treatment, kills approx 30% of infected. *BUT* if you survive, it appears you are immune for life.
Cholera, OTOH, is treatable (usually doxycycline works) *but* you can get again, and again, and again. Wiki-p say death rate is less than 5% “but may be as high as 50%” — nothing quite like precise statistics!
Fortunately, market economics works because humans are rational actors with accurate information. (1.)
So, v apt metaphor, Ms Cordell.
1. Footnote goes to The Onion.
Ms. Kimberley cuts through all the crap like a hot knife through butter.
There was one glaring omission though – BO. After the election of ’08 the cry went up “Is this the end of racism in the US?” Anyone with half a brain knew that was bunk, and Obama’s victory was as much a reaction to the Bush presidency as anything else. Obama, of slight physical form and scholarly demeanor was non-threatening to most whites who remain viscerally afraid of empowered blacks (i.e. the woman in Central Park.) Lebron James, big and strong with a visage that does not engender thoughts of a peaceful heart or gentle nature has used some of the wealth that has come his way to work for social change. Would white voters have voted for him in the same numbers they did for Obama? Not hardly.
Perhaps what I just wrote is slightly OT or tangential, but Mr. Obama struck the mold for black quislings, as pointed out by Glen Ford, Cornell West, and many others. “Make me do it!” My dear Mr. (former) President: your electoral victory was the most clear-cut and overwhelming in many an election cycle. That statement of betrayal was like a dagger in the heart.
I can’t speak for any of the others put down in this ‘rant.’ But I did watch and listen to Keisha Lance Bottoms, mayor of Atlanta. And she does not deserve the slanderous attitude of this writer.
The writer is right about Joe Biden…nobody really wants him or Trump for president.
And reading the above article, and another article from the Black Agenda Report, it would almost seem that anyone black who is successful is accused of being an Uncle Tom.
Divide and conquer is the oldest strategy. Black + White is what the establishment is afraid of. As long as we are at each other’s throats we won’t unite to fight THEM.
So very true. And historically clear – one of the if not the main reason that the white slave owning class (bourgeois) went out of its way to create back in the 19th-20th centuries “white supremacy” and deliberately included the poor, working, hardscrabble whites, of whom until then many had seen African Americans as akin to themselves (the free ones at least). Often the poor whites knew that some of their ancestors had been brought over (not always willingly) from Britain as indentured servants. Yes, the indentures had a time limit but they could be treated, and usually were, with violence and the females often raped.
The slave owners and their fellow bourgeois whites feared more than anything a combination, a joining of forces, a deep recognition of their shared deprivation by the rich whites of whites and blacks (and possibly Natives) – thus the conscious, and dreadfully, successful effort to create in the poor whites a belief that blacks were lesser beings; that they the poor whites had “much in common” with the slave owners, the white supremacists even as they were kept in a deprived condition.
For all concerned and this country’s development and treatment of its peoples and the peoples across the world, profoundly depressingly the white bourgeois’ efforts at attracting the white poor worked.
Very good points about the quislings in every minority, seeking personal gain as Misleaders for those in power. The “disparagement of grass roots protest” also shows that any ill-directed anger should be replaced by direct action. Those who break windows should make well-equipped strikes on the facilities of mass media and oligarchy, and disappear.
Margaret Kimberley is one of the few (Aaron Mate`, Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore, Kyle Kulinski, etc) who recognized that Russiagate was dangerous BS from the start. She doesn’t get the credit others do, for some reason.
Atlanta is a majority Black city, and Mayor Lance Bottoms concern is protecting her businesses, which hardly makes her a traitor. Realistically most riots from protests (by design?) end up with the destruction of Black small shops and businesses, and the Black communities are worse off after “their voices are heard”. For Black protests to have any real impact, they would have to spread (or start) in the powerful white communities; there would be no need for violence, just a huge Black presence protesting would get attention. Rather than protesting in places like Newark and Camden or other majority Black cities, moving the protests to Princeton or Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons might have a salutary effect. Otherwise the rich and powerful will laugh and wait for the voices to subside, like always.
We humbly submit our later founder, Robert Parry, to that list of Russiagate skeptics as he is generally acknowledged as the first to be so.
Yes, Michael888, it is wonderful to see Margaret’s articles here and, as well your suggestion that the protests be taken to the home areas of the elites is most delicious.
One imagines that a protest outside the Obama enclave, or Pelosi’s digs would be most interesting.
Although, were Bezos, Buffet, Gates, or Zuckerberg to wake up and find legions of disgruntled at their doorsteps, it is likely that the police would respond with great determination, vigor, and lively spirits.
Of course, those lobbyists,Wall Street Bankers, and MICCI MATT types, very likely (such a useful and multi-purpose pairing of words, often coupled to evidence-free assertion) reside in gated communities and travel by limousine or helicopter, insulated from and far above common experience, so they might find the whole thing more of an annoying inconvenience than a “teaching” moment.
Further, most on the lower classes, and this, at heart, IS about class and class war, protest in their own areas of residence because they cannot afford to travel to the more swank, well-manicured pastures of leasure and merit.
Mark Blyth is correct that the Hamptons are not defensible solely with “private” security.
However, were the exclusive enclaves threatened, were the rich and famous at “real” risk, of exposure to large gatherings of hoi paloi, governments, state and federal would, definitely, send in the troops.
Would carnage result?
What lessons would be learned?
Would rich and poor learn the same lessons?
Simply in terms of personal cost?
Indeed, what you suggest would make clear that divide and conquer rule, setting the many against each other, has always been the strategy of the rich.
It migh even make clear, that the real divide is between the elite, obscenely rich few, with their police and military servants (service? To whom and for what?) and the many, the class war that virtually everyone, for hundreds of years, has tried to pretend did not and does not exist.
Yes, institutionalized, systemic racism has lit the fuse, but it is class warfare that is the mother of all bombs.
DW
If protesters show up at Martha’s Vineyard and the like, the establishment will only bring on bigger guns. They’d be “forced” to protect wealthy white “civilized” people from the “savage” protesters. The language is old, but the idiotic ideology is the same.
Yes Ms Kimberley is always a to the point observer and writer and has helped reveal the fabrication of the Russiagate charade (which incomprehensibly but yet expectedly rumbles on on NPR – they cannot let it drop, perhaps because they fear [?] that their listener-ship their “foundation” funding will melt away).
And yes – the reality is the attacks on businesses and what not would be far more understandable and politically pointed, effective were they to be effected in bourgeois neighborhoods rather than within African American ones, already very deprived. But HOW would, could such attacks be done given that the Po-Lice would do all (along with the Nat. Guard plus tanks, I do not doubt) to prevent such???
Because if there is anything that you can be sure of, it would be that the property of the overwhelmingly white middle-middle to haute bourgeoisie classes would be protected and lethally (to the protestors) against all odds.
Yes, right in front of Obama’s mansion in Martha’s Vineyard would be a perfect start.
see: townandcountrymag.com/leisure/real-estate/a30169311/barack-michelle-obama-buy-marthas-vineyard-house/