Referring to Obama as the "master propagandist", Baraka writes how Obama is being used by ruling class elites much like M. L. King was used back in the 1950s and '60s, to contain and co-opt Black resistance. However, they soon learned that King was not so easily co-opted. Thus, King had to be assassinated when he attempted to link up the anti-Vietnam War movement with the Civil Rights Movement.
Today Barack Obama in his role as the President of the U.S. and chief spokesperson for the white ruling class, and as a representative of the “new” black professional-managerial class, has been assigned the task to explain and legitimate the ongoing subjugation of the black poor and working class five decades after the reform legislation of the 60s.And later in the essay the author concludes:
The message that Obama’s speech was meant to convey was that despite killer-cops, mass incarceration and grinding poverty no one should be confused: you will not split black folks away from the state because these black folks belong to us.
And judging by the paucity of criticism or even discussion of the Department of Justice’s decision last week not to indict Wilson and the unrestrained praise of Obama’s speech in various black media outlets, it is once again mission accomplished for the propagandist in chief.
