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<h1><b>In the Spirit of Malcolm and Robeson, Indict the U.S. at the U.N.
</b></h1><font size=3>February 15, 2008 By <b>Glen Ford</b> <br>
Source:
<a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=527&Itemid=1">
Black Agenda Radio</a> <br><br>
Thursday, February 21, marks the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of
Malcolm X. It is appropriate that, on this date, 250 American human
rights organizations will challenge the U.S. at the United Nations for
violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, a treaty the U.S. ratified in 1994. Arrogant American
contempt for the UN does not insulate it from treaty obligations, which
have the force of law. This year's treaty-mandated U.S. report to the
U.N. refuses to acknowledge the racial disparities witnessed by the whole
planet in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the fact of racist police
brutality, or the majority non-white nature of the American prison gulag.
The challenge to the official American report to the U.N. is also a
salute to the legacies of Malcolm X and the great Paul Robeson, who urged
African Americans to transform the domestic fight for "civil
rights" to a global battle for common "human rights."
<br><br>
It is a shameful indictment of American political culture that, even
though the United Nations headquarters is physically located in the U.S.,
on the east side of Manhattan island, it might as well be in Sri Lanka or
New Delhi when it comes to U.S. media attention. What the U.N. does is
considered important news in most of the world, especially in the
developing and formerly colonized world. But American media, much of it
headquartered within walking distance of the United Nations, most often
behaves as if the world body doesn't exist. <br><br>
Racism and imperial chauvinism are at the root of thinly veiled U.S.
disdain for the United Nations. The U.N. was founded, in 1945, as a
creature of the winners of World War Two. The cards were stacked in the
United States' favor, with America and its ideological allies arrayed
against the Soviet Union in the U.N. Security Council, and much of the
planet still under European colonial rule. With decolonization in Africa,
Asia and the Caribbean, the U.N. became a much more "non-white"
environment. Membership now includes nearly 200 countries. Apparently,
that's way too much "color" for the white American comfort
zone. <br><br>
The American delegation to the U.N. will be even more discomforted on
February 21st and 22nd, when the U.S. will be taken to task on its own
domestic race relations. Many Americans don't know, or don't care, that
international treaties to which the U.S. is a part have the force of law
within the United States. One of those treaties is the International
Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted
by the U.S. in 1994. Yet this is only the second year that Washington has
even bothered to issue a report to the U.N. on the state of race
relations in the U.S. - a report that the U.S. Human Rights Network calls
a "whitewash." <br><br>
The Human Rights Network is a coalition of 250 activist groups across the
nation. They charge the Bush administration with being "utterly out
of touch with the reality of racial discrimination in America."
Washington fails "to even acknowledging the disparate racial impact
on people of color of Hurricane Katrina." Police brutality against
people of color is totally neglected in the official American report,
which also sidesteps the question of why 60 percent of U.S. prison
inmates are non-white. Muslims and people of Arab descent are targeted
for draconian roundups and other pressures, in violation of the spirit
and letter of the treaty, while Native Americans continue to suffer under
the "legacy of colonialism and racial discrimination in the
U.S." <br><br>
Many Americans conveniently forget - or just don't give a damn - that
racial discrimination violates a host of international laws. It is
fitting that the U.S. will be confronted with many of these violations on
Thursday, February 21st, the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of
Malcolm X. It was Malcolm who insisted that what were then called
"civil rights" were really "human rights" to which
all people's of the world were entitled. In this, he picked up the banner
waved by Paul Robeson and other African Americans of the Left, in the
late 1940s, with their petition charging the United States with genocide
against Black Americans. Malcolm's voice infused the Black Freedom
Movement with an internationalist perspective; he called for African
Americans to stand up as citizens of the world, rather than act like an
isolated minority begging favors from a hostile domestic majority.
Malcolm's legacy, and Paul Robeson's legacy, still challenge African
Americans to grow up, to transcend Jim Crow politics, and to finally take
their places on the liberation side of the world stage. <br><br>
<br><br>
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. <br><br>
<br><br>
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.comThis e-mail address is being protected
from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it.<br><br>
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