By N Oji Mzilikazi
1 November 2016
Tag: Barack Obama
Emancipation 2016: The Economic Game
By N Oji Mzilikazi
7 August 2016
Power respects power. Economic empowerment/economic success lends itself to accessing power.
Failure of a race, ethnicity or community to be empowered economically ensures they remain powerless, weak, marginalised, exploited, and the footstool of others.
Economics is at the heart of anti-Black racism…
Charles Barkley: Ignorance Personified
By N Oji Mzilikazi
18 July 2016
On the heels of four off-duty Minneapolis police officers working security at a WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx game leaving their posts on account of the players’ wearing pregame warm-up jerseys that carried the message of change, the names of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling who were shot to death by the police, and Black Lives Matter, ESPN sports journalist Bomani Jones delivered commentary that deserves not just acclamation, but being tweeted and retweeted.
Jones made the point: “You are not obligated to speak simply because you are good at doing something with a ball. That can lead you into some disastrous places.”
Time and time again, we’ve been exposed to personalities and celebrities pontificating on subjects and issues in which their understanding borders on the ignorant. But in their mind, and given a platform, they have Solomonic insights. When those persons are Black, their diarrhoea of the mouth becomes hurdles for people of African descent, as well as ammunition for those bent on sustaining inequalities; denying empowerment and social justice for the race…
To Rectify Damage, Reverse Our Paralysis (Part 3)
Black public figures are just as opened to bias and discrimination as any of us…
TO RECTIFY DAMAGE, REVERSE OUR PARALYSIS
(Part 3)
By N Oji Mzilikazi
Originally appeared in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 24, Number 12 June 12, 2014
What is the purpose of education for the children of enslavement and colonialism who bear multitudinous psychological, educational and economical scars from centuries of inhumane and unbridled exploitation, torturous suffering, dehumanization, racism, discrimination and hatred, if not to make us whole?
Yet the scars of colonialism; internalized racism and self-hate have many believing it’s all about becoming privilege, being a cut above others of the race, achieving “white gaze” – validation and approval of whites – escaping the constraints racism placed on Blackness…
Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas: What An Arsehole!
Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas: What An Arsehole!
By N Oji Mzilikazi
January 24, 2012
It’s a long-standing tradition for the winning teams of America’s major league sports to visit the White House and meet the President. The Boston Bruins won Hockey’s Stanley Cup in 2011, its first since 1972. Their White House visit was scheduled for January 23, 2012.
Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, the playoff MVP and winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy decided to put his politics ahead of the team. He refused to join his teammates at the White House.
His asinine statement on the NHL website, couching his hatred for President Barack Obama included, “the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people.”
George W. Bush spent 8 years in office. It was under Bush’s reign that anti-terror legislation and the like started to undermine civil liberties.
Obama inherited a system that was in a deficit, a tailspin and full of holes. Obama succeeded in bringing about the demise of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the biggest act of terrorism on American soil. Obama succeeded in bringing American troops home from Bush’s ill-advised and illegal war in Iraq.
And Thomas dares to act as if Obama is responsible for the pickle jar America has found itself in. Tim Thomas is an arsehole with a capital A.