Greg Palast: Mandela Barbie

[G_j]

The Mandela Barbie
Friday, 13 December 2013 10:25
By Greg Palast, Truthout | Op-Ed

I can't take it anymore. All week, I've watched Nelson Mandela reduced to a Barbie doll. From Fox News to the Bush family, the politicians and media mavens who body-blocked the anti-Apartheid Movement and were happy to keep Mandela behind bars, now get to dress his image up in any silly outfit they choose.

Poor Mandela. When he's not a doll, he's a statue. He joins Martin Luther King as another bronzed monument whose use is to tell us that apartheid is now "defeated" - to quote the ridiculous headline in the Times.

It's more nauseating than hypocrisy and ignorance. The Mandela Barbie is dressed to serve a new version of racism, Apartheid 2.0, worsening both in South Africa - and in the USA.

The ruling class creates commemorative dolls and statues of revolutionary leaders as a way to tell us their cause is won, so go home. For example, just months ago, the US Supreme Court overturned the Voting Rights Act, Dr. King's greatest accomplishment, on the specious claim that, "Blatantly discriminatory evasions are rare," and Jim Crow voting practices are now "eradicated."

..more..

[Solly Mack]

1. Hey! I added the link. Hope you don't mind.

Mandela Barbie

[G_j]

17. Thank you

I wasn't able to get back to add it.
Thanks Solly Mack!

[TomClash]

2. And I wonder why this is so?

Is it because the American ruling class is complicit in so many crimes against humanity they have to sanitize Mandela and exalt his forgiveness of white racism, whether institutional or not?

[Egalitarian Thug]

5. To co-opt and twist his memory into that of another Great Person who defended their rule

over the world. As Palast points out, just look at what they've done to MLK since killing him.

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. K&R It has been disgraceful. n/t

[Autumn]

4. Here's a sad rec.

Because it's true.

[Nye Bevan]

6. So it's somehow a problem that "the ruling class" praise Mandela and his legacy?

Surely it would have been worse if he had been vilified?

I'm just not sure what it would have taken to make Palast happy.

[Oilwellian]

9. Surely you're not that obtuse. n/t

[Nye Bevan]

10. I never claimed to be the brightest DUer.

But I have never shied away from asking what some consider to be silly questions when I do not understand something.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

13. They don't have an answer, which is why they attack you...

Palast puts apartheid being defeated in scare-quotes: "defeated". It clearly indicates that he thinks apartheid is alive and well in South Africa.

Except that it is not. There is no apartheid in SA - no governmentally mandated racial segregation. Further, SA is being run by the ANC, which has unfortunately been taken over by a group of increasingly corrupt power brokers who themselves are no angels. Their views on rape and HIV are repellant. Jimmy Carter said of one of them that speaking to him was the closest thing he'd ever come to hitting a Head of State.

But there is no apartheid.

So where do people who think SA has apartheid get off saying this? Worse, believing it?

It's the same place where FOX news gets all theirs - people who let their filters get so high that they imagine that they can bend reality to their will. And worse, when people try to explain simple facts of reality, this becomes evidence that the fix is in. And they come to the D.U. to bother Democrats over their fantasies of juvenile alienation and oppression.

But still, they're 100 times better than the dregs you see slimeing the chat rooms of FOX. They may hate President Obama with a white hot passion, but at least they're not racist.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[CreekDog]

21. You haven't claimed to be the brightest DUer?

You are smarter than I thought.

[billh58]

12. It is Palast's mission in

life to piss on almost everything.

[1000words]

14. He's been pretty spot on for quite some time now

Then again, he hasn't earned the "Distinguished Online Political Forum Contributor" credential you possess.

[billh58]

16. Meh... n/t

[spanone]

18. and you possess this credential?

[truedelphi]

7. Leave it to Palast to tell it how it really is. n/t

[BKH70041]

8. Are accessories available for purchase?

Perhaps a Necklace.

[Demeter]

11. That was Winnie the Ex Wife's gig

[bvar22]

15. DURec for Palast... one of the few Journalists remaining.

The conservative, privileged, entitled, 1% and their Mouth Pieces in Washington and the US Propaganda Outlets (MSM),
WILL remake Mandela in their own image.
"They" are very GOOD at that game.

Here is the (missing) link:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20614-the-mandela-barbie

[bvar22]

19. A morning kick.

I thought this would get a lot more Recs.

Oh Well,
This isn't the old DU anymore.

[G_j]

20. wouldn't you know

today's DU would find Palast under attack too! He was once highly thought of here for exposing so much of the election shenanigans. Things we would not have known, if not for his aggressive reporting.

Now, it seems any real journalist who rocks the boat is fair game.