Barack Obama, Sinead O'Connor and the spirit of Rebellion
Some thoughts on August 4th...
August 4th is here. You know what that means…….Barack Obama, The 44th president of the United States. will be celebrating his birthday. Today, well wishes and greetings from far and wide will be bestowed upon him. They will acclaim him as the first Black president of the United States. They will marvel at his class and grace and impeccable eloquence. They will proclaim his flawless track record in the White House with the only blemish being the beige suit he wore to a cocktail party. The inevitable accolades hide a fundamental truth, Obama was not a maverick, nor was his track record in the white house flawless. In fact, it was just as riddled with crimes and betrayals against the working class and the oppressed as those of the other presidents before him. From the broken promises over codifying Roe V. Wade, to the incessant pandering to Wall Street big wigs and lobbyist, Obama reneged on his vow to bring “hope and change” to the next generation and continued the long tradition of US presidents doing the bidding of the capitalist hegemony.
While people like Obama receive their accolades, while they are alive no less, the real mavericks, the people who risk it all to speak truth to power must wait until after they passed to get the glory they rightfully deserve. One of those people is Sinead O’Connor, who recently died last Saturday. O’Connor, know later in her life as Shuhada' Sadaqat, was a maverick and a warrior for the marginalized and the oppressed until her final days. From speaking out against the oppression and colonization of Palestinians by the Israel settler colonial state, to her undying support for the LGBTQ+ community, O’Connor risked her career, her reputation, and even her life to speak truth to power.
One instance of this was the iconic moment on Saturday Night Live where she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II and exclaimed “Let’s Fight the real Enemy.” Even though this moment was a little before my time, it became so notorious within Corporate influenced popular culture, that even ostensible liberals were distancing themselves from her. Saturday Night Live reprimanded her in several ways, one by the host of the episode refusing to thank her in his closing speech, two by banning her from performing on Saturday Night Live, and three by having Joe Pesci, who was the next week’s host, degrade her and put a ripped photo of Pope John Paul II back together again. SNL being the standard bearer for liberalism, helped dictate popular opinion of O’Connor’s act and led her to receiving death threats and her career was never the same afterward. Living in the pre-social media era where information about the horrors of the Catholic Church was not as readily available, many of us were brainwashed by the slander leveled at her by mainstream corporate media and believed all the worst lies.
As time had passed, all the transgressions of the Catholic Church became known to the general public as thousands of victims courageously came forward to share their trauma with the world. As it turns out, Pope John Paul II, the same Pope John Paul II that was put on a pedestal years ago, was complicit in the cover up of the sexual abuse, refusing to defrock several bishops who engaged in the robbery of so many children’s innocence. The exposure of so many involved in the Catholic Church vindicated Sinead O’Connor and showed the value of sticking to your principles, no matter what threat it poses to your livelihood.
Sinead O’Connor’s spirit lives on today in people who are not afraid to call out the crimes of the US capitalist class. Organizations like the Uhuru movement are currently being indicted for “Spreading Russian propaganda” when all they’re doing is speaking the truth about the US proxy war and the unnecessary lives and resources it has wasted. The US corporate media is working overtime to justify sending billions of dollars to fund a Neo-Nazi controlled government while its own citizens are struggling to pay their rent, their loans, and their medical bills. The age of social media has allowed the crimes of the US ruling class to be exposed in ways not previously capable, as a result the Big Tech corporations are now working with the government to silence people who speak out against the US frequent war crimes as evidenced by the crackdown on Tiktok of people calling out the Pro-Ukraine propaganda. Corporate media and “Big Tech” social media companies will tar and feather Anti-Imperialist activists in the same way Sinead O’Connor was tarred and feathered while at the same time uplifting the very people who uphold the status quo, like Barack Obama and Pope John Paul II. It is imperative, now more than ever to push back as hard as possible, it is critical to be a Sinead O’Connor in a world filled with Barack Obamas.