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Today's Stories February 11 - 13, 2011 Ramzy Baroud February 10, 2011 Kevin Gray Thomas H. Naylor Mike Whitney Marc H. Ellis Chase Madar James Ridgeway Dave Lindorff Jane Slaughter Salwa Ismail Gerald E. Scorse Paul Krassner Website of the Day February 9, 2011 Esam Al-Amin Vijay Prashad Chris Floyd Dean Baker Linn Washington, Jr. Mark Vorpahl David Macaray Steven Colatrella Roberto Rodriguez Andrew Taggart William A. Cook Charles R. Larson Website of the Day February 8, 2011 Dave Lindorff Mike Whitney Ralph Nader Gareth Porter Steve Breyman Surreal Politik: Arab Revolts and the Dream of Palestine Brett Warnke Ron Jacobs José Pertierra Tarecq M. Amer Mark Weisbrot Brian M. Downing Dennis Hans Linh Dinh Manuel Garcia, Jr. Website of the Day February 7, 2011 Tariq Ali Paul Craig Roberts John L. Esposito Bill Quigley Robert Fisk Barry M. Lando George Wuerthner Kara N. Tina José Pertierra Dennis Bernstein Russell Mokhiber Harvey Wasserman Website of the Day
February 4 - 6, 2011 Alexander Cockburn Esam Al-Amin Alison Weir Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Jeffrey St. Clair Robert Alvarez Rannie Amiri William Blum Linda Greene Danny Glover / Robert Sandels Jean-Bertrand Aristide Will Parrish Peter Lee José Pertierra Ronnie Cummins Monsanto Nation: Exposing Monsanto's Minions James Ridgeway Laura Carlsen David Correia Steven Colatrella Michael Leonardi Michael Shane Boyle David Macaray Fred Gardner P. Sainath Louisa Willcox Christopher Brauchli David Ker Thomson Missy Beattie Walter Brasch Wallace Shawn Charles R. Larson Samer al Saber Hugh Iglarsh David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend February 3, 2011 David H. Price Mike Roselle Franklin Spinney Dean Baker Joshua Farouk Georgy José Pertierra Daniel Gross Fidel Castro Dyab Abou Jahjah Michael True Charles R. Larson Website of the Day February 2, 2011 Vijay Prashad Tariq Ali Peter Lee Feriel Bouhafa Suzy Kassem Clarence Lusane Ralph Nader José Pertierra Thomas Naylor Khristopher Flack Linh Dinh Nick Dearden Website of the Day February 1, 2011 Esam Al-Amin Lana Asfour Corinna Mullin Paul Craig Roberts Gareth Porter Israel Shamir Michael Brenner Pothik Ghosh David Macaray James R. King Andrew Levine Adam Federman Daniel Crawford Ahmad Barqawi Website of the Day January 31, 2011 Stephen Soldz Kathleen Christison Mike Whitney Liaquat Ali Khan Pothik Ghosh Ron Jacobs Nicola Nasser Franklin C. Spinney Jonathan Cook José Pertierra Lawrence Davidson P. Sainath Charles R. Larson Website of the Day January 28 - 30, 2011 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Bill Quigley Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Jeffrey St. Clair Saul Landau Ranni Amiri Franklin Lamb Hezbollah is the New Government of Lebanon. Now What? Conn Hallinan Graham MacPhee Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Anthony DiMaggio Rahul Mahajan José Pertierra Jim Haber Ronnie Cummins Ramzy Baroud Joshua Sperber Sara Mann David Rosen Russell Mokhiber Sherwood Ross Robert Jensen Binoy Kampmark Liam Hysjulien Devon G. Peña David Macaray Harry Clark Laura Flanders Sherwood Ross Christopher Brauchli David Ker Thomson Missy Beattie Charles R. Larson Salinger, Still Unknowable Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend January 27, 2011 Tariq Ali Andrew Bacevich Don Monkerud José Pertierra Deepak Tripathi Laura Flynn Laura Flanders Russell Mokhiber Harvey Wasserman Roberto Rodriguez Website of the Day January 26, 2011 Jonathan Cook Michael Neumann Thomas H. Naylor Mike Whitney David Correia José Pertierra Edward Herman / Dave Lindorff Sergio Ferrari Stewart J. Lawrence A Left / Tea Party Alliance? Website of the Day January 25, 2011 Kathleen Christison Fred Gardner Maureen Murphy Winslow T. Wheeler Ralph Nader José Pertierra David Macaray Boadiba Russell Mokhiber Sam Smith Website of the Day January 24, 2011 Joann Wypijewski Steve Breyman M. G. Piety Mike Whitney Clancy Sigal José Pertierra Linh Dinh Dean Baker Martha Rosenberg Dave Lindorff Bouthaina Shaaban Website of the Day January 21 - 23, 2011 Alexander Cockburn Steve Hendricks Jeffrey St. Clair Laura Carlsen Peter Lee Melissa Checker Saul Landau / Patrick Cockburn Conn Hallinan Will Parrish José Pertierra Rannie Amiri Ron Jacobs Michael Leonardi Mark Vorpahl Heather Gray Ramzy Baroud Nicola Nasser Manuel Garcia, Jr. Christopher Brauchli Michael Winship David Macaray David Zlutnick Joe Allen Fidel Castro Rupal Oza Stephen Fleischman David Ker Thomson Christopher Carrico Missy Beattie Farzana Versey Charles R. Larson Larry Portis Doug Loranger David Yearsley Poets' Basement January 20, 2011 Cecilia Zarate-Laun Vicente Navarro José Pertierra Patrick Cockburn Russell Mokhiber Denis O'Hearn Ira Chernus Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Sam Smith Website of the Day January 19, 2011 Kathleen Christison Esam Al-Amin José Pertierra Dean Baker John Walsh Laura Flanders Joe Mowrey Stewart J. Lawrence Mickey Z. Carl Finamore Website of the Day January 18, 2011 Michael Hudson Mark Rudd Sasan Fayazmanesh Gareth Porter Jonathan Cook Ralph Nader Russell Mokhiber Mike Whitney Steve Breyman Clancy Sigal Website of the Day January 17, 2011 Frank Bardacke Andrew Cockburn Jason Hribal Bill Quigley Max Ajl William Loren Katz Andrew Levine Monica Lewinsky, Where Are You Now That We Need You ... Again? Max Kantar Yvonne Ridley B. R. Gowani Alan Farago Website of the Day January 14 -16, 2011 Alexander Cockburn Petra Bartosiewicz Jeffrey St. Clair Walden Bello Yvonne Ridley Thomas H. Naylor Rannie Amiri Jennifer Van Bergen Jonathan Feldman Alison Weir Conn Hallinan Saul Landau Fawzia Afzal-Khan Dead in My Tracks: Salmaan Taseer, the Mullah of Bourbon St and Freud's Uncanny Beatrice Lindstrom Stewart J. Lawrence Christopher Brauchli Sheldon Richman Richard Ward Ann Jones Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Alan Farago Jonathan W. Martin David Macaray Daniel Gross Kieran Manjarrez Laura Flanders David Ker Thomson Linh Dinh Yves Engler M. Shahid Alam Dr. Susan Block Ramzy Baroud Billy Wharton Ron Jacobs Eric Walberg Charles R. Larson Mark Scaramella David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend January 13, 2011 Neve Gordon Franklin Lamb Linn Washington, Jr. Rob Prince Sasha Kramer Joel Olson Dean Baker Nicola Nasser Russell Mokhiber Stephen Lendman Charles R. Larson Website of the Day January 12, 2011 Franklin Spinney Paul Craig Roberts Jennifer Loewenstein Vijay Prashad Tanya Golash-Boza Diane Shammas Manuel Garcia, Jr. Ralph Nader John V. Walsh Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day January 11, 2011 Alan Nasser / William D. Hartung Mike Whitney Israel Shamir Anthony DiMaggio Bill Quigley / Sam Smith Joseph Massad Randall Amster Laura Flanders Bouthaina Shaaban Website of the Day January 10, 2011 Alexander Cockburn Bill Quigley Paul Craig Roberts Chris Floyd Andrew Levine Shared Delusions: Obama Apologists and Tea Partiers Lawrence Davidson The New Radicals in Congress: Show Trials for American Muslims? Dave Lindorff Yvonne Ridley Fidel Castro Paul Hillier Carl Finamore Website of the Day January 7 - 9, 2011 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Helen Thomas David Rosen Kevin Alexander Gray Franklin Lamb Mike Whitney Will Parrish Chase Madar Christophe Wargny Ron Jacobs Murtaza Razvi Ramzy Baroud William Astore Raymond J. Lawrence Saul Landau Col. Douglas MacGregor Firmin DeBrabander Missy Beattie David Ker Thomson Fred Gardner Devon G. Peña Christopher Brauchli Walter Brasch John Blair Paul Hillier Tom H. Hastings Gerald E. Scorse Carla Blank Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend January 6, 2011 James Bovard Mike Whitney Dean Baker Yvonne Ridley Tom Engelhardt Michael Winship Russell Mokhiber Laura Flanders Website of the Day January 5, 2011 Richard Neville Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Israel Shamir Steve Breyman Ralph Nader Farzana Versey Martha Rosenberg Mike Roselle Dave Lindorff Danny Lucia Website of the Day January 4, 2011 Mike Whitney Ralph Nader Gareth Porter Lawrence Wittner After START: Where Does Nuclear Disarmament Go From Here? Christophe Ventura Russell Mokhiber Ray McGovern David Macaray Sheldon Richman Michael Simmons Website of the Day January 3, 2011 Eric Toussaint Patrick Cockburn Ann Robertson / William Blum Jean Casella / Harry Targ Linn Washington, Jr. Fred Gardner Lawrence Davidson Bouthaina Shaaban Website of the Day December 31, 2010 - January 2, 2011 Alexander Cockburn Goodbye to 2010, Year of the Tiger, Hello to 2011, Year of the Rabbit Jeffrey St. Clair Behzad Yaghmaian Thomas Naylor Christopher Brauchli Robert Bryce Joanne Mariner Will Parrish / Mike Whitney Ramzy Baroud Rannie Amiri Alan Farago Linh Dinh Martha Rosenberg Drug Industry: Interests in Conflict Franklin Lamb Ron Jacobs Brian Tierney Israel Shamir Jess Guh David Ker Thomson Missy Beattie Dan Bacher David Macaray Shepherd Bliss Charles R. Larson Dan White Joshua Sperber Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend December 30, 2010 Michael Teitelman Jennifer Van Bergen Douglas Valentine Jorge Mariscal Denis G. Rancourt Paul Craig Roberts Dave Lindorff Mary Lynn Cramer Anthony Papa Website of the Day
December 29, 2010 Bill Quigley James Bovard Stewart J. Lawrence Yvonne Ridley David Swanson John V. Walsh Fidel Castro Julie Hilden Website of the Day December 28, 2010 P. Sainath Jonathan Cook Paul Craig Roberts Jennifer Van Bergen Ralph Nader David Macaray Bill Manson David Krieger Stephanie Van Hook / Michael Nagler Mitchel Cohen Website of the Day December 27, 2010 Bill Hatch Uri Avnery Lawrence Davidson Allen Mendenhall Fred Gardner Mark Weisbrot Sherwood Ross David Michael Green Eric Patton Mark Scaramella Website of the Day December 24-26, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Chellis Glendinning Eugene Coyle Will Parrish Joanne Mariner William Loren Katz Brian M. Downing Michael Leonardi Ramzy Baroud Saul Landau Linn Washington Jr. Christopher Brauchli Rannie Amiri Ronnie Cummins Missy Beattie Linh Dinh Rev. William E. Alberts Harvey Wasserman Chris Genovali / David Ker Thomson Robert Roth Ron Jacobs Myles Hoenig Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend December 23, 2010 Bill Quigley / Peter Lee Gareth Porter Dean Baker Hayden Janssen Yves Engler Laura Flanders David Macaray Farzana Versey Website of the Day December 22, 2010 Joe Mangano Uri Avnery Jennifer Van Bergen Lawrence Wittner John V. Whitbeck Stewart J. Lawrence Linh Dinh Rebecca Solnit Franklin Lamb Sherwood Ross Website of the Day
December 21, 2010 Ralph Nader Larry Portis Sasan Fayazmanesh Sam Smith Sheldon Richman Alice Slater Julie Hilden Willie L. Pelote, Sr. Binoy Kampmark Laura Flanders Website of the Day
December 20, 2010 Pam Martens Patrick Cockburn Bill Quigley Bruce Jackson Max Blumenthal Mike Whitney Carl Finamore Greg Moses Fidel Castro Paul Craig Roberts John Severino Sama Adnan Website of the Day December 17 - 19, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Franklin Spinney Gareth Porter Clarence Lusane Eric Stoner John Carroll, MD Nick Dearden / Robert Alvarez Saul Landau Rannie Amiri Ramzy Baroud Chuck Collins Ron Jacobs Charlotte Dennett John Blair David Ker Thomson Sherry Wolf David Macaray Jennifer Van Bergen Martha Rosenberg Sam Smith Missy Beattie Harvey Wasserman Laura Flanders Randall Amster Ron Ridenour Dr. Suzy Block Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Day December 16, 2010 Alan Farago Dean Baker Peter Lee Jospeh Nevins Norman Girvan Michael Winship Robert Jensen Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day December 15, 2010 Diana Johnstone James Bovard Conn Hallinan Vijay Prashad Robert Weissman Stephan Salisbury Fred Gardner Joshua Frank Anthony Papa Steven Higgs Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers / Afghans for Peace Website of the Day
December 14, 2010 Norm Kent Mike Whitney Maximilian Forte Franklin C. Spinney Ralph Nader David Macaray Ali Khan / Lawrence Davidson Stewart J. Lawrence Cecil Brown
December 13, 2010 Patrick Cockburn Tariq Ali Jonathan Cook Israel's War on Children Uri Avnery Russell Mokhiber Patrick Bond David Smith-Ferri The December Review: Rubbish on Afghanistan Bob Sirois Danny Muller Randall Amster Website of the Day
December 10 - 12, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Peter Linebaugh Mike Whitney Thomas Volscho Joe Bageant John Barth, Jr. Jeffrey Sommers Jonathan Cook Robert Alvarez Rannie Amiri Franklin Lamb Dean Baker Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers Aurel / Pierre Daum Ramzy Baroud Michael Winship David Ker Thomson Ron Jacobs Christopher Brauchli Missy Beattie Dennis Loo Harvey Wasserman Ingmar Lee Thomas H. Naylor Farzana Versey Ronnie Cummins Sherwood Ross Don Monkerud Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson David Yearsley CP Newswire Poets' Basement Randall and Hahn Website of the Weekend December 9, 2010 Pam Martens Wajahat Ali Sasha Kramer Fatima Bhutto Jimmy Johnson Laura Carlsen Binoy Kampmark Anthony Papa Website of the Day December 8, 2010 Michael Hudson Patrick Cockburn Eric Walberg Mike Roselle Greg Moses Diane Christian Fidel Castro Linn Washington James McEnteer Website of the Day December 7, 2010 Chris Floyd Gareth Porter / Dean Baker Gregory Elich Ralph Nader M. Shahid Alam Dave Lindorff Information Terrorists? David Macaray Linda Ueki Absher Manuel Garcia, Jr. Website of the Day December 6, 2010 Michael Hudson Paul Craig Roberts The US Government's Frontal Assault on Freedom Mike Whitney Sasan Fayazmanesh Steve Breyman Davey D Neve Gordon Greg Moses Mark Weisbrot Ben Terrall Website of the Day December 3 -5, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Darwin Bond-Graham Andy Kroll William Blum Rannie Amiri Ray McGovern Saul Landau / Ramzy Baroud P. Sainath John Carroll, M.D. David Rosen Steven Colatrella Thomas I. Palley Francis Shor Russell Mokhiber Bank Power Mark Weisbrot John V. Whitbeck Sherry Wolf Ronnie Cummins Michael Winship Ron Jacobs Nilofar Suhrawardy Missy Beattie Bill Manson Linh Dinh Bruce E. Levine John Grant David Macaray Yves Engler / Charles R. Larson Scott Borchert Harry Clark David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend December 2, 2010 Michael W. Hudson Paul Craig Roberts Franklin C. Spinney Benjamin Dangl Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Russell Mokhiber David Macaray Ed Moloney Brian McKenna Website of the Day
December 1, 2010 Gareth Porter Wikileaks Exposes Complicity of the Press Paul Craig Roberts Russ Wellen Nikolas Kozloff Conn Hallinan Sheldon Richman Rich Broderick David Solnit Farzana Versey Charles M. Young Charles R. Larson Website of the Day November 30, 2010 Ralph Nader Paul Craig Roberts Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook Dean Baker James McEnteer Tom Engelhardt Sherwood Ross Gina Ulysse Bill Manson Website of the Day
November 29, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Israel Shamir Mike Whitney Lawrence Davidson Winslow Wheeler / John Carroll, MD P. Sainath Carl Finamore David Macaray Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
November 26 - 28, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler Ramzy Baroud Harry Browne Bill Quigley / Saul Landau Brian Cloughley Fidel Castro Francis Shor Steve Heilig Terrence Paupp Brenda Norrell Missy Beattie Linh Dinh Christopher Brauchli Eric Walberg Ellen Taylor Ron Jacobs Bill Manson Harvey Wasserman Walter Brasch Michael Dickinson Ingmar Lee Gwyneth Leech David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend November 25, 2010 Michael Hudson Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Sarah Anderson Karl Grossman David Ker Thomson Rajesh Makwana / Adam Parsons Charles R. Larson Website of the Day
November 24, 2010 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts James Ridgeway Invasion of the Body Scanners: Is TSA Spreading Cancer? Michael Scott Nick Dearden Russell Mokhiber Daniel Moss Farzana Versey Yasin Gaber Dan Beaton Website of the Day November 23, 2010 Pam Martens Patrick Cockburn Ben Rosenfeld / Franklin C. Spinney Dean Baker Ralph Nader Ray McGovern George Wuerthner Don Monkerud Clare Bayard Website of the Day
November 22, 2010 Michael Hudson James Abourezk Paul Craig Roberts Sasan Fayazmanesh Richard Forno Gary Leupp Martha Rosenberg Lawrence Davidson Patrick Bond Michael Dickinson Website of the Day November 19 - 21, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Mike Whitney Joanne Mariner Gareth Porter Karen Greenberg Thomas Christie, Pierre Sprey, Franklin Spinney et al. Rannie Amiri Dr. Jim Morgan Haiti's New Normal: Dispatch from Cite Soleil Lawrence Swaim Ramzy Baroud Ron Jacobs Robert Alvarez Russell Mokhiber P. Sainath David Macaray Carl Finamore Brian Tierney Franklin Lamb Gerald E. Scorse Joshua Brollier Missy Beattie Stewart J. Lawrence Brenda Norrell Christopher Brauchli Carol Polsgrove David Ker Thomson Dave Lindorff Jeff Deasy Bill Manson Clifton Ross Charles R. Larson Twain: the Last Word, One Hundred Years Later Richard Estes David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend November 18, 2010 Diana Johnstone Mike Whitney Behzad Yaghmaian Kenneth E. Hartman Norman Solomon Michael Winship Patrick Bond Joel S. Hirschhorn Website of the Day November 17, 2010 Vicente Navarro James Bovard Jonathan Cook Dean Baker Ralph Nader Nick Turse Sherry Wolf Alienation 101: the Online Learning Rip Off Judith Scherr Peter Certo Website of the Day
November 16, 2010 Pam Martens Richard Forno Gareth Porter Harry Browne Peter Lee Alan Farago Franklin Lamb Frank Green Sheldon Richman Thomas H. Naylor Website of the Day November 15, 2010 Michael Hudson Steve Hendricks Paul Craig Roberts Harvey Wasserman Lawrence Davidson Clancy Sigal David Macaray Tom Engelhardt Steven Fake Website of the Day November 12 - 14, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Dean Baker Gareth Porter William E. Alberts Bill Hatch Jonathan Cook Patrick Madden Mystifying the Crisis: Deadlock at the G20 Ramzy Baroud Rannie Amiri James Zogby Ron Jacobs Mark Weisbrot Tanya Golash-Boza Paul Wright Steve Early Martha Rosenberg Celia McAteer Larry Portis Michael Winship Brian McKenna Gerald E. Scorse Christopher Brauchli Roberto Rodriguez Dr. Susan Block J. T. Cassidy Linh Dinh Farzana Versey David Ker Thomson Phil Rockstroh Charles R. Larson David Swanson Saul Landau Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Day
November 11, 2010 Peter Linebaugh Paul Craig Roberts Licensed to Kill Bill Quigley David Macaray Dissing the Boss: the NLRB Files a Landmark Complaint on Free Expression in the Workplace Liaquat Ali Khan / Jasmine Abou-Kassem Dedrick Muhammad Robert Bryce Alan Farago Website of the Day November 10, 2010 Allan Nairn Dean Baker Nicola Nasser Missy Beattie Sergio Ferrari Patrick Cockburn Dave Lindorff Mumia: New Lawyer, New Round Sherwood Ross Joshua Frank Website of the Day November 9, 2010 Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Jordan Flaherty Afshin Rattansi Annie Gell Dean Baker Dave Lindorff Stewart J. Lawrence Walter Brasch Website of the Day November 8, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Thomas Healy David Swanson David Smith-Ferri Ralph Nader Ray McGovern Torture Sans Regrets: Bush's Confessions John Feffer Christopher Ketcham Website of the Day November 5 - 7, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Vijay Prashad Patrick Cockburn Darwin Bond-Graham
Mike Whitney Linn Washington, Jr. Rannie Amiri Ramzy Baroud Larry Portis Gary Leupp William Loren Katz Brian Cloughley Mark Weisbrot Rubén M. Lo Vuolo, Daniel Raventós / Pablo Yanes Joseph Nevins Neve Gordon Alan Farago Stewart J. Lawrence James R. King Ron Jacobs Franklin Lamb James McEnteer Richard Phelps Saul Landau David Ker Thomson The Long Argument Evelyn Pringle Joseph G. Ramsey Until Pigs Fly: the Morning After With Michael Moore Stanley Heller Missy Beattie Harvey Wasserman Billy Wharton Shamus Cooke Linh Dinh Windy Cooler Charles R. Larson Phyllis Pollack David Yearsley Website of the Weekend November 4, 2010 Doug Peacock Andrew Cockburn Iain Boal Paul Craig Roberts Chase Madar Dave Lindorff Russell Mokhiber Laura Flanders Website of the Day November 3, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Franklin C. Spinney Chris Floyd Dissatisfied Mind: Flickers of Hope in a Deadly Political Cycle William Blum Sheldon Richman Stephen Soldz Mark Weisbrot Stewart J. Lawrence Manuel Garcia, Jr. Election Night in Oakland Norman Solomon Website of the Day November 2, 2010 Vincent Navarro Ishmael Reed Uri Avnery Mark Driscoll Mike Whitney Linh Dinh David Macaray Randall Amster Wikilessons: War is a Joke, But It Isn't Funny Betsy Ross Yves Engler Website of the Day
November 1, 2010 Ted Honderich Steven Higgs John Ross Dean Baker Ralph Nader Justin E. H. Smith Marjorie Cohn Scott Boehm Brian Tierney Trish Kahle Martha Rosenberg Bathrobe Erectus: Feting Hugh Hefner Website of the Day
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Weekend Edition A Visit to ZoravilleThe Conservative Plot to Hijack Zora Neale HurstonBy CECIL BROWN Recently, in The Root, John McWhorter published, “Why Zora Neale Hurston Was a Conservative.” “I have always valued her for being America’s favorite black conservative,” he wrote. “If she were living today, she would gladly have peddled her wares on Fox News.” Why would a conservative like McWhorter need to recruit the most well known black writer as a member of a conservative movement? Why would a conservative academic like McWhorter find it necessary to claim one of America’s best-known folklorists and novelists as a member of a right winged group? Zora is not, of course, just any Black writer. Over the years, since her death in 1960, in Fort Pierce, not far from her hometown, Eatonville, Florida, her novels and folklore have dominated the literary scene and the social science disciplines. Just as her Mules and Men became a classic in folklore studies, her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God has become a classics in literature. In the 70s, Robert E. Hemenway published a biography, but now Valeria Boyd has published a recent one, Wrapped In Rainbows; Carla Kaplan has edited her letters. Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis recorded audio versions of her folktales, and PBS’s celebrated American Masters documentary series produced a an episode on her life in 2008. Documentary films have been made about her (Jump For the Sun, most recently). Zora even has her own postage stamp. In sum, since Alice Walker’s article in Ms magazine, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,” Zora has become the financial support of many white institutions. Indeed, what English department hasn’t thrived on a rich staple of Zora Neale Hurston’s work? She has been so thoroughly exploited by various ideologies that in 1991 Michele Wallace,asked in a seminal article, ,”Who Owns Zora Neale Hurston?” Recently, another white scholar, Glenda R. Carpio, has found some of her unpublished stories. For white scholarship, Zora is the gift that keeps on giving. We have to ask ourselves, is there any more than Zora can give? Apparently, there is. For now it seems that the exploitation of Zora has moved from the feminist left to a Right Wing ideologue like McWhorter. Interestingly, McWhorter’s article was not his first attempt to rehabilitate Zora as a Black conservativeness. A year ago, Summer 2009, he published an essay, five times longer in City Journal, in which he wrote:
If she ever appeared on the Jack Parr Show—or Fox News, for that matter—it would have been the first time a black appeared on the show hawking a book! For those of us who have long appreciated the feisty and gutsy writings of the novelist and anthropologist, the idea of Zora appearing on Fox News is not very funny at all. But McWhorter goes further than this ludicrous assertion. From McWhorter’s reckoning, if she were alive today, Zora would be against slavery reparations movement, she would not support affirmative action (or as he puts it, the “lowering standards based on pigmentation.”), and she would vote Republican “at least most of the time.” He imagines her in a room with, “Michael Steele, Ward Connerly, Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, and Star Parker.” What in God’s name would she be doing in a room with these guys? McWhorter presents very little convince evidence of his conclusions. Where is the evidence that Zora “held a fiercely asserted black conservative politics akin to Clarence Thomas?” To be sure, McWhorter’s is not the first person to make the claim that Hurston was politically conservative. In 1950, she came out against the Supreme Court’s Brown v. the Board of Education decision and everybody jumped on her. Zora’s Oscar Wilde-like quips about the Brown decision made headlines, but few people actually examined the reasoning behind her opinion. (What she was really saying.) Reported to have voted for a Republican candidate, she even supported the presidential candidacy of Robert Taft. (Taft, a Republican senator from Ohio, railed against the New Deal; he was educated at Yale, and Harvard where he edited the Harvard Law Review.) In his article, “The Political Incorrectness of Zora Neale Hurston,” Andrew Delbanco declared that when Zora “opposed the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, she confined herself to literary oblivion for decades to come.” In her book, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s Ann Douglass summarizes the matter succinctly, when she writes, “By the 1950s, Hurston had settled into a belligerent conservatism. “ I don’t have a problem with somebody attributing a conservative label on Zora, as long as they are willing to examine the contexts surrounding her actions. Why is it necessary for McWhorter to bring up an old charge about her being a Republican then? Back in the fifties, the Republican Party (and the Democratic Party) was different than it is now, for starters. What is the motive behind recasting Zora Neale as a black conservative? (Zora was the kind of person who said what was on her mind. She wrote her publisher, upon hearing that he was going to publish her novel that the excitement was “like when you look down and see your first pubic hair only greater.”) Zora undermines the myth, McWhorter says, that Black conservatives are opportunists, who parrot the white Republican Party line, and secretly hate themselves for not being black enough. His thinking seems to be that, if he could count Zora as a conservative, she would add gravitas to the Republican Party. Perhaps if I had not made the trip from San Francisco to Florida to visit her home town recently, I would not have been so riled by McWhorter’s take on one of my favorite folklorist. I arrived in Eatonville (located about thirty minutes drive from Orlando), a few weeks before the annual Zora Arts Festival that comes at the end of January. For starters, Eatonville should be renamed Zoraville, because she and the town have become one. She is the true literary eponymous heroine, just as Mark Twain is the eponymous hero of Hannibal, Missouri, and Thomas Wolfe is of Ashville, North Carolina. I stopped in front of the Zora Neale Museum and went inside. I was greeted my N.Y. Nathiri, the director, and main organizer for the Zora Neale Festival. In the course of our interview, she told me a story about how the Festival came to be and how Zora was revived as a spiritual leader for the town in 1990. She gave me a description of the town in the 20s when Zora collected the material for Mules and Men. Back in the twenties and thirties, what was Eatonville like? “Was it a shelter, a refuge against Jim Crow?” I asked her. “I would say you are right on point. We say Zora was a visionary in the way she regarded her people and her home community.” What I didn’t know about Eatonville was that there were several towns like this in the Jim Crow South. In her book, Zora Neale Hurston and the History of Southern Life, Tiffany Patterson chronicles how such black towns sprung up all across the South as ways of dealing with white racism. The background to why it was necessary for blacks to seek out all black towns is related to the civil war. After the war ended, many black ran to areas like Florida where they thought they would have a chance of freedom. According to Patterson, the small independent towns played an important role in Florida. “The end of the Civil War brought social chaos and economic instability to central Florida as throughout the South,” she wrote. “ The system of plantation agriculture that had dominated the region for generations was badly crippled by political upheaval, economic change, and social confusion. The beginnings of a free-labor system and declining cotton prices hit planters hard as they tried in vain to return to prewar production levels.” The South could no longer rely on cotton. Planters had to find new sources of revenue and a cheap, manageable labor pool. Since Northern and central Florida were both under-populated and under-developed, planters soon saw an opportunity to rebuild their fortunes in the lush green forests, with their virgin stands of pine and cypress. But what they needed was free Black labor. With the exploitation of black labor came Jim Crow. “More than sixty all-black towns emerged at the end of the Civil War,” she explained. “In these [independent towns,] African Americans could have a semblance of autonomy between the teeth and within the cavities of Jim Crow.” Like these towns, Eatonville sought to protect itself from Jim Crow. “Driven by the need to protect themselves from racial violence and to mitigate the abuses of economic exploitation,” Patterson concluded, “residents of some of these towns incorporated themselves as independent legal units.” In 1889, Zora’s beloved town of Eatonville got its start, when Joe Clark, and twenty-eight other black men, approached a white man named Eaton with a proposal. They wanted to enough land from Mr. Eaton to start a town. Mr. Eaton agreed to sell it to them. They called the town Eatonville and made Joe the first mayor. Zora’s ‘s father was the third mayor. She so admired Joe Clark, who was the first mayor, that she pattered one of her most famous characters Joe Stark after him. Of course, Hurston wrote all about this in her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine and in Mules and Men. Being a mayor of Eatonville was close to being a tribal king. What brought Zora and the town together was the highway incident. The Federal government wanted to bring an interstate highway through the town. “The problem was that since Florida was expanding, it was necessary to get the traffic from Daytona to (West) to St. Petersburg area,” Ms Nathiri told me as she walked me around the Hurston Museum. “The people in the next city, Maitland, a very toney community, didn’t want the highway to come through their town. They learned where the highway was going to do they pushed it down through Eatonville.” Although Eatonville was the first black town in America, she told me, “It didn’t mean anything to the white officials. But the people of Eatonville fought back.” “Zora was not well known to whites down here.” Nathiri added. “We thought we would find an acceptable way to preserve Eatonville. There are people all over the world who knew about Eatonville because of the writings of Zora.” The citizens formed a committee called the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community to show off the community’s ties to Zora Neale Hurston. The first festival was presented in 1990. Now over 200, 000 people come here from all over the world. At the first festival, the committee invoked the spirit of Zora Neale Hurston and invited notables like Alice Walker, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and other black celebrities. Since that time, the town has been covered by the fame of celebrating her achievement. This year the festival featured Ashford and Simpson and a special event on Haiti, reflecting Zora’s research. What did Nathiri have to say to the charges that Zora was a conservative? “She was a conservative in the sense that she wanted to conserve the qualities of a healthy community spirit,” she said. Zora didn’t believe in integration, she observed, because she died before the sit-ins and the desegregation of the South. Because she was raised in an independent town, she didn’t have to deal with white imprudence, she felt that Blacks didn’t need to integrate with whites to prove their worth. She got the label of being a “segregationist.” “In the context of the word, she was a creative person, who didn’t agree that we need integrating to feel full filled. Some integrationists…feel that she is an anachronism, a throw back, because she didn’t feel it was necessary to integrate with whites to have successfully run society.” McWhorter claims, that Zora had a “relative lack of interest in denouncing racism.” He profoundly misunderstands her art and work. As in her art, Zora’s approach to politics was indirect. As Susan Meisenhelder points out in “Conflict and Resistance,” Hurston took an indirect approach to race. “The reason Hurston takes an indirect approach to race,” Meisenhelder insisted, “stems from her dependence on white figures who exerted considerable control over her work. Hurston's patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason, for instance, literally owned Hurston's material and consistently pushed Hurston to express only the ‘primitive-ism’ she saw in Black culture.” McWhorter asserts that Zora was like-minded with Black conservatives because she didn’t take handouts. But McWhorter is wary of drawing attention to Zora ‘s white patronage. Why? Because the Harlem Renaissance, of which she was an important figure was supported entirely by white patronage. Why did the Harlem Renaissance fail, asked W.E. B. Dubois? It failed, he answered, because of white patronage, in which whites dictated the taste of the black writers. Black conservatives don’t like to think that most of the literature written by Blacks before the sixties depended on “handouts” (to use McWhorter own words) from wealthy whites. And they also know that handouts are another form of patriarchy, the daddy of philanthropy. Recent scholarship, such as Tiffany Patterson’s Zora Neale Hurston: a history of Southern Life,’ reveal just how depended Zora was on white financial support patrons. If McWhorter wanted to place blame on the tragedy of Zora’s life, he might have acknowledged that the fact that the very white people who pretended to help Zora were the same people who wrecked her literary life, her professional work, and caused her to have such a terrible (if you want to go there) personal life. In order to fight back against her white benefactors, Ms Patterson suggested that Zora “presented herself as a lovable "darky," one who thanks white folks for allowing her to collect folklore.” According to Ms Patterson, “Zora praised the magnanimity of her patron Mrs. Mason…Pouring on the charm of a lovable personality, Hurston paints herself as an Uncle Remus figure pleased to entertain the white world with her tales.” When the publisher Lippincott dropped Zora, the excuse Lippincott gave her was that the buying audience was not interested in reading about black people from black writers. What was Zora’s response? She published an article in The Saturday Evening Post called, “What White Publishers will Not Print.” This is not the action of a Black Conservative; as McWhorter would like us believe, but the work of a radical, revolutionary thinker. Conservative writers, like McWhorter, are not likely to show the financial relationship between the mode of production and ideology. It is true, however, that Zora did go astray from her literary mission, but it is quite understandable given the climate of racism in publishing. What conservatives don’t want us to see is that Black writing has been controlled by a white cultural industry, then and now. For example, Zora’s next publisher gave her an ultimatum: she would be advanced 500 dollars for a new novel, but all of the characters had to be white. Zora took the bait, and produced an unreadable novel, The Seraph on the Suwannee, in 1948. Not only did the book not sell, but also the authentic speech of African American characters that she had so lovingly crafted in her work was missing in action. Zora didn’t believe that integration was necessary because blacks already knew how to take care of themselves, and they didn’t need whites to tell them. McWhorter interprets this to mean that Blacks don’t want any handout from whites, which is a principle for the Republicans. Conservatives (White and Black) want us all to pretend that there is nothing special about African American culture that it is just like white culture—except, that Black is just a misinterpreted white culture. They want you to believe that there is no separate culture, that there is no such thing as a Black language, or Black expressions, or even Black music. In other words, there is no tribal life. McWhorter distils the results into a neo-conservative recipe for a Reverend Jim Jones type kool-aid. In the same way, conservatives would like to see Blacks give up their group identification, and dispense with the notion that Obama is a symbol of their group solidarity. But the Zora Neale Hurston Festival is a reminder that Zora was a revolutionary, and as N.Y. Nabiti put is it, “She was a visionary.” At the end of January every year, about two hundred thousand people from all over the country flock into Eatonville to celebrate the life and work of this author. When you see so many black people in the streets in this tiny hamlet, and buying Obama and Zora paraphernalia, are we supposed to believe that they are there because they want to celebrate a black conservative? McWhorter assertion that Zora “would not feel proud of Obama’s election” makes no sense. The black people of Eatonville think that Zora would have adored Obama. Indeed everything I saw in Eatonville belied McWhorter’s allegations that she is a conservative. In the streets of Eatonville today, there were so many vendors selling Obama pictures that one man retorted that if Obama had a nickel for every picture was sold of him, he wouldn’t have to collect his salary as president. If Zora were alive she would be at a big party with Angela Davis, Toni Morrison, Nelson Mandela and Obama. If she is a conservative, then so are David Walker and Malcolm X. No, McWhorter is dead wrong. Zora would be at her own festival. She would be celebrated, as the Queen of Authenticity, as she is known in her eponymous city, Zoraville. Cecil Brown is the author of I, Stagolee: a Novel, Stagolee Shot Billy and The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger. He can be reached at:
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