Why Paul Robeson Matters. New from @stew312856.
From that article:
Last week saw the publication of two columns that showed how liberals and leftists continue to misrepresent Paul Robeson, the legendary artist and intellectual giant. First up was Simon Callow in the New York Review of Books, who replayed talking points dating to the Cold War to portray Robeson as a naive African American and willing dupe of Joseph Stalin.
Those charges stemmed from 1949, when Robeson traveled to France to attend a Soviet Union-sponsored Paris Peace Conference. According to this account in Smithsonian:
After singing “Joe Hill,” the famous ballad about a Swedish-born union activist falsely accused and convicted of murder and executed in Utah in 1915, Robeson addressed the audience and began speaking extemporaneously, as he often did, about the lives of black people in the United States. Robeson’s main point was that World War III was not inevitable, as many Americans did not want war with the Soviet Union.
Before he took the stage, however, his speech had somehow already been transcribed and dispatched back to the United States by the Associated Press. By the following day, editorialists and politicians had branded Robeson a communist traitor for insinuating that black Americans would not fight in a war against the Soviet Union.
Historians would later discover that Robeson had been misquoted, but the damage had been almost instantly done. It was the beginning of the end for Robeson, who would soon be declared “the Kremlin’s voice of America” by a witness at hearings by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Paul Robeson was one of the first African-American film stars. His filmography includes:
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A day before BLACK PANTHER is released, we should remember Robeson and
also ditch this idea that this is some amazing blockbuster first.
Eddie Murphy?
BEVERLY HILLS COP -- one, two and three.
Beverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American action comedy film directed by Martin Brest, written by Daniel Petrie Jr. and starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop who visits Beverly Hills, California to solve the murder of his best friend. Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Ronny Cox, Lisa Eilbacher, Steven Berkoff and Jonathan Banks appear in supporting roles.
This first film in the Beverly Hills Cop series shot Murphy to international stardom, won the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Motion Picture" and was nominated for both the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1985. It earned $234 million at the North American domestic box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 1984 in the U.S.
Let's also remember 1998's BLADE:
Blade is a 1998 American vampire superhero film, directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer loosely based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name.[4] The film stars Wesley Snipes in the title role with Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristoffersonand N'Bushe Wright in supporting roles. In the film, Blade is a vampire with human traits who protects humans from vampires.
Released on August 21, 1998, Blade became a commercial success by grossing $70 million at the U.S. box office, and $131.2 million worldwide. Despite mixed reviews from film critics, the film received a positive reception from audiences and has since garnered a cult following.[5] It was followed by two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, both written by Goyer who also directed the latter.
We need to remember those things for a number of reasons -- but especially because fools like Kareem Abdul-Jabar write nonsense like this:
Then, with the political backlash against black advancement in the '80s and '90s came a lull in black action heroes, with most appearing as buddies to white cops (48 Hrs., Lethal Weapon, Running Scared), suggesting racial tensions were more for comic relief than an urgent problem.
Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
15 years ago today Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the historic protest against the Iraq war
Today is the 15-year anniversary of the largest protest event in history – the Feb. 15, 2003 demonstrations against the imminent US invasion of #Iraq. On this occasion we republish an article detailing concerns that drove millions to take the streets.
Why so little coverage of today?
Well, it's not like the press can call us treasonous -- that is what some of them called us in 2003, remember?
"Treason." To protest an impending war was "treason."
To protest a war being built on lies was "treason."
We knew.
The 'experts' didn't know, but we did.
That's why we turned out in the largest numbers ever around the world.
Because we knew this was an illegal war. We knew we were being lied to.
And the press spat on us, lied about us, called us names.
That same press isn't interested in telling us today about the protests.
They sold the IraqWar.
They sold it with lies as well as with character attacks on us.
Remember, they're about making money, not about telling the truth.
And the truth about what they did 15 years ago doesn't fit with their image of 'truth tellers' today.
Meryl Streep was no where to be found 15 years ago. But today she whores her ugly ass to prop up the press as some wonderful body out to protect us. To do that, she has to appear in a film that lies and that's set in the early 70s which says a great deal -- all bad -- about the press itself.
We stood together 15 years ago and we were a rebuke to the governments wanting war and to the press selling it.
Our actions were evidence that it was obvious all along that the Iraq War was built on lies.
Honoring us, remembering us, today would be to indict themselves.
So they instead they try to disappear us.
Because we did make a difference.
We hoped to stop the war before it started.
That we failed at.
But we were a living testament against the war.
And we were right.
And that doesn't just sting them to this day, it's helped prevent larger wars, it's made them scared to get honest about troops stationed here and there.
15 years ago on this day, millions of people took to the streets across the world to protest against the invasion of Iraq. The Anti-War movement at the time, predicted huge unrest and instability in the Middle East and Iraq if an invasion where to take place. Sadly proven right.
The was very important ad showed large numbers of people in US and UK didn’t accept the lies and propaganda of the warmongers. The movement also politicised a generation of activists such as myself who were outraged by the sheer barbarity of the war in Iraq and the lies told.
The protests 15 years ago mattered and they matter to this day.
To get the war they wanted, they had to lie. They lie to this day.
Take the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The fighting in Iraq is over, but the task ahead is enormous. The UN stands with Iraqis as they build a country that is committed to unity and inclusivity. bit.ly/2suKWlA
The fighting is over?
Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) just reported:
At least 15 people were killed, and two were wounded
in recent violence:
A bomb killed
a cattle rancher in Muqdadiya.
A sticky bomb in Ilam killed
one person.
In Baghdad, a bomb at a market left two
wounded.
Thirteen
militants were killed in airstrikes on Tal Afar, near Mosul.
But, hey, the fighting's over.
Once again, it's don't believe what's happening, believe what we tell you is happening.
Iraq held a fundraiser in Kuwait. They wanted between $88 and $100 billion dollars. They only got $30 billion. Worse, not all of that was a gift/donation -- that figure also includes loans.
REUTERS reports:
Iraq received pledges of $30 billion, mostly in credit facilities and investment, on Wednesday from allies but this fell short of the $88 billion Baghdad says it needs to recover from three years of war.
[. . .]
“If we compare what we got today to what we need, it is no secret, it is of course much lower than what Iraq needs,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a news conference.
The following community sites -- plus PACIFICA EVENING NEWS, BLACK AGENDA REPORT, GORILLA NEWS and LATINO USA -- updated:
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