Mumia Abu-Jamal: South Carolina & "Project Niggerization"

South Carolina & "Project Niggerization"

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

South Carolina & "Project Niggerization"

[col. writ. 1/27/08] (c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

The polls have closed and cooled off in South Caroline, and Illinois Senator Barack Obama has won the laurels of victory, sending his two primary challengers into a bitter defeat.

But, time may teach us the lesson that this is a Pyrrhic victory, one which costs more than what was won.

That's because the Clintons cleverly utilized and unleashed a series of attacks meant to make him stumble, and worse, to inject into his campaign something that he has been trying to studiously avoid since Day 1 of his campaign.

That issue, of course, is Race.

For by using these tactics, Clinton essentially ceded the state of South Carolina, trying to make this 'one Black candidate', rather than the Democratic candidate.

As in chess, it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice a pawn if it enables one to win the game.

And Bill Clinton is, above all, a master politician. He has beaten odds many times in his presidential career, and if he can successfully besmirch Obama, then he closes the door to him elsewhere.

That's why the ex president made remarks about Obama's candidacy as little more than " a fairy tale", why Sen. Hillary Clinton (De,/ N. Y.) launched into the 'slumlord" reference, and why Clintonite (and New York Attorney-General) Andrew Cuomo disparagingly spoke of Obama as "shucking and jiving", code words all designed to ghettoize and indeed, niggerize Obama.

Again, time will tell how successful this tactic has been, but that it was launched by Clinton, a man called (in jest) 'America's first Black president,' is a measure of how far things have fallen.

Modern day China's founding father, Mao Tse-Tung once observed, "Politics is war without bloodshed."

Politics, in other words, is a dirty business. It brings out the worst in us, for often it is fueled by naked ambition, and the lust to win the 'game.'

The South Carolina primary contest has brought out, not just the rhetoric of war, but the tactics as well. And, as the saying goes, 'all's fair in love and war.'

Politics is war, in a sense, for resources, for influence, and more importantly, for power.

That said, (or, as the Clintons might put it, it ain't over, 'til it's over.

If the Clintons tactics prevail in the 'long game' (that is, in Super Tuesday (Feb. 5th), and primaries later down the line), then South Carolina will become a distant, unpleasant memory. It will become the stuff of political legend, similar in tone and tenor to when the first Bush campaign unleashed their Willie Horton ads (which might be subtitled: 'fear of the black rapist') which subliminally savaged his 'liberal' opponent, played on white fears, and led to victory. This tactic did not work in South Carolina, but what about other states?

"Slumlord", "fairy tale", "shuckin' & jivin'"... Boy, talk about the politics of personal destruction!

--(c) '08 maj

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, framed and in prison, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down soon. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia!