Angela Davis: Obama is in the black radical tradition

This statement has been met with shock by many on the left including Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report who has an article here. Ford thinks that Davis may have lost her mind over Obama.

Angela Davis is an elder icon among many black radicals. She was for a long time a member of the Communist Party and was also in the Black Panthers. She was even once charged with murder though her only connection to the killing was the purchase of some guns involved. She was found innocent. Davis had a long history of activism in fighting for the rights of blacks and also in opposition to the military industrial complex. However now it seems she is a well-behaved Obama supporter! More about Davis can be found here.

Ford notes that the delusional effects of the election of the First Black President has "warped and weakened the mental powers of some of our most revered icons ""–In a recent talk Davis called the Obama campaign a “victory, not of an individual, but of…people who refused to believe that it was impossible to elect a person, a Black person, who identified with the Black radical tradition.”

For Ford almost everything Obama has said and done is a repudiation of the black radical tradition. Ford notes that Obama rejected his former minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright who is in the black radical tradition. Obama agreed with Ronald Reagan that the sixties were characterized by excesses. As Ford remarks Obama should find Davis herself part of those excesses in the sixties and seventies.

As Ford points out Obama has not the slightest desire to belong to the Black radical tradition. In fact Obama in a national broadcast said “there is no Black America…only the United States of America.” For more see the full article.

Rush Limbaugh and other right wing talk show hosts should be able to have fun and get some mileage from Davis's comments.. Imagine even a former Black Panther and long time Communist says that Obama is a black radical.