He called President Barack Obama an "Uncle Tom." Yes, he did. Green Party vice-presidential nominee Ajamu Baraka went there on Wednesday.
Baraka said that Obama was a disappointment who "allowed his commitment to neoliberal policies and a neoliberal worldview to undermine the possibility of greatness." The interview continued:
Baraka did not demure when confronted with his more strident comments about Obama, like calling him an "Uncle Tom.""If we were concerned and serious about how we could displace white power, we had to demystify the policies and the positions of this individual," Baraka said, referring to his attempt to "shock" people out of faith in Obama's transformative potential.
He conceded that his language sounded "inflammatory" to some, but said, "I stand by that."
I don't believe this requires further commentary. And for those wondering whether Mr. Baraka ever engaged in antisemitic conspiracy theories, well, take a look at what he said in an interview with "self-described 9/11 truther"--and don't gloss over what that means--Kevin Barrett on July 19, 2014.
"What do you think of this plane--Malaysian plane shootdown?" Barrett asks. "The U.S. media is putting out the possibilities of this being done by the Russians or by the pro-Russian Ukrainians, but President Putin's plane was flying through there shortly before this plane was shot down--it looks like Putin's plane may have been targeted. If so, obviously that wouldn't have been done by the Russians or pro-Russian separatists quote unquote, that would have been done by the Kiev Zio-Nazi government. Which is what it is--these Zionist Jewish oligarchs, billionaire criminal dons, are funding Nazi street thugs. These are the people who overthrew the legitimate democratically elected government of Ukraine and created a fascist junta, and they are the ones who would be the suspects, at least in my opinion--somebody shooting at Putin's plane, and yet the media doesn't even raise that as a possibility."
Baraka immediately engages with the idea and agrees.
"And when it's raised, it's raised as a conspiracy," Baraka responded. "I think that this is a--I was trying to find the citation, I remember reading, I can't remember who it was, someone wrote about three weeks ago that we should expect false flag, a major false flag operation in eastern Ukraine that's going to be blamed on the Russians. And that's exactly what has happened."
Finally, given that the Stein-Baraka campaign is courting Bernie Sanders voters, it appears Mr. Baraka hasn't exactly felt the Bern:
According to Baraka, the Sanders' campaign did not offer a genuine program for radical change (apparently, free education and free health care aren't radical enough) because it was tacitly committed to "Eurocentrism" and "normalized white supremacy.""As much as the 'Sandernistas' attempt to disarticulate Sanders 'progressive' domestic policies from his documented support for empire," Baraka said, "it should be obvious that his campaign is an ideological prop ... of the logic and interests of the capitalist-imperialist settler state."
Jill Stein's extremism is bad enough. The idea of Ajamu Baraka being one heartbeat from the presidency makes me feel something like the way I did the day John McCain picked Sarah Palin. And that's saying something.