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- 34 -matter when one glance at the U.S. without rose coloured glasses shows a very different story. So to trusthim on the basis of his skin tone alone under the assumption that he will enact a nicer, more democraticimperialism at home and abroad is dim-witted political thinking of the highest order. Especially since hisreputation on these issues can only be termed as pathetically compliant to Europocentric capitalism in its mostaggressive and virulent form. He differs little from his other presidential hopeful predecessors in that he talksone game and plays yet another in full view of a hopelessly gullible American public eager for some sort ofchange that will put more hard currency in their pockets, lower fuel and food prices and allow workingpeople to purchase more material goods that offer an illusory upwardly mobile social advantage.Obama and his team of sincere king-makers are more than happy to put on a stern yet objective demeanourwhen discussing bombing Iran back into U.S. corporate control or how proud he is to give the ApartheidState of Israel more money, more weapons and more moral support in their zeal to effectively eliminate theexistence of the Palestinian people from their ancestral territories.[iii] How this position can be reconciledwith “progressivism” escapes me. He’s only willing to negotiate with Arabs suffering from westernOrientalism provided they are willing to continue their function as defenceless walking targets of Arabgenocide and following their inability to resist any longer, readily become captive consumer fodder forAmerican manufactured commodities. Respect for their lives and lands are beside the point. Empires havenever entertained provisions for commonsensical and justifiable resistance to their rule. Only contempt,vilification and death are accorded to those who dare speak of freedom be they intellectuals, partisans orparents simply and heroically struggling to keep their children alive in times of quarrel.On the issue of murderous anti-African police brutality at home in light of the unconscionable acquittal of theofficers that executed Sean Bell on his wedding day in yet another case of police claims of inadvertent “contagious shooting,” Mr. Obama who claims to never have suffered from American racism has offered noacknowledgement of this all too often occurring injustice.[iv] This alone says volumes about how he and hisprospective administration would address ethical as well as lawful justice in the United States. As a consciousperson of colour I cannot reconcile his support for empire with his promises of “change,” especially since hehas yet to clearly define what that change would look like.Admittedly, I reside outside of the political mainstream not so much by choice as much as it is a matter ofpersonal integrity in the face of continual genocide. I stand opposed to the position of most American Africanintelligentsia in that I reject the choices imposed on us and actively seek actual, rather than theoreticalrepresentation from those that make claim to leadership positions within the communities to which I belong.For many of my contemporaries however, the illusion of personal and political power is sufficient primarilybecause such avenues are the paths of least resistance and in the short term offer an immediate return in theform of acceptance from the Europocentric power structure.This self-defeating position is shared and promulgated by many within the American African petit-bourgeoisiewho have long since adopted as their creed “Assimilation with Honour.” Sadly, the register is long of thosewho have cast their lot with the power structure despite the reality that the authority is on a variety of levels,classist, sexist, xenophobic and just plain wrong. Historically Madame C.J. Walker must head off this list,(she became the first female self-made millionaire in the U.S. for developing a process for “straightening”