No, this of course isn't some tired retread of the baseless position that the central problem African people in the U.S. face is our "declining morality" as a community. That idiotic position will never grace these writings because we are very aware of Kwame Ture's correct admonition; "any analysis of the conditions of African people without including our enemies (the U.S. led worldwide capitalist/imperialist network)." The true moral threat facing us as a people within the U.S., and throughout the world, is the continued blurring of the lines between us establishing and maintaining our own morality and dignity, and repeated efforts by some of us to equate our morality with the (lack of) morality of this backward system that oppresses us.
Our people have provided the most principled, consistent, and justice based movements in the history of this settler colony known as the U.S. That's the reason why today, every other people seek inspiration from our movements and culture. This happens because this system of oppression was built and is maintained on African suffering on a worldwide basis. Consequently, no matter what happens, we will always be the X factor in this country. We will always be the one community that is always willing to burn thi splantation down to the ground. We are not like any other people here because our history is not like any other people here. This is why you will never see an overflow of U.S. flags hanging off houses in predominant African communities. This is all the result of our position in this country and this is a great thing, but there are some areas that reflect serious concerns for the future health of our people here.
A deep concern rising among our people is illustrated in how we as a people are using social media. All of these platforms are great e.g. Facebook, Intragram, YouTube, Twitter, etc. They are great because they permit us the opportunity to communicate with each other outside of the realm controlled by the capitalist media. Since we have these resources, we should be using them to transmit educational information designed to inspire and encourage our people to come together. Some of our people are using these resources for that very purpose, but far too many of us are using these resources to promote extremely reactionary relationships among our people.
Examples of the above are how many of you reading this have watched videos of police terrorizing African people? What about African people, particularly non-men, fighting each other for frivolous reasons. This is not to mention the multitudes of n word dominant material that is supposed to pose as comedy. How many of you have seen all of these examples? I can answer for you. All of you have, multiple times. In fact, a whole bunch of you have established regular practices of resharing, reposting, and promoting this nonsense on a regular basis. Meanwhile, there is so much positive information floating around the internet. I know this because I'd like to believe I contribute this is positive element of social media. Obviously, I regularly write and contribute articles like this one from this blog. I also record videos discussing this type of content and I know a large number of dedicated and dignified people who do the same. Yet, even if many of you see that work, and reshare and repost it, if we are honest, most of you aren't promoting that work nearly as much as the police terrorism videos.
There's no judgment being expressed here, although I haven't shared or reposted a single piece of reactionary imagery of African people that I'm indicating here. My point is to ask all of you, who if you are reading this it means you have some level of concern about the future of humanity, to consider something for a moment.
What I'm asking you to consider is would you start making a concerted effort to promote and advance positive material speaking to the dignity and integrity of our glorious African liberation struggle? I'm not saying we cannot have fun. There is plenty of African comedy that promotes positive messages as well. What I'm asking is for you to make an effort to encourage people to focus on positive material. To read more positive material. And, to watch more positive material. I'm asking how many of you are willing to commit to do that because just the fact most if not everyone is seeing the negativity is proof there are many more of us, including the so-called progressive folks, are spending a lot of time advancing us getting beat down, than us building up.
There are videos out here promoting African unity work all over the world. It will take some developing research skills to find them and understand the work that is being done. This work isn't just about entertaining you, but if you claim to want a better world, us being able to reclaim and redefine the narrative requires a much different focus than the one dominant today. I see too many so called progressive people who forward the most reactionary imagery and/or literature about African people, women, all oppressed peoples, to blame this phenomenon on working class people, low income people, etc. This is a problem that crosses class and race boundaries. The question you have to ask yourself is how much you are willing to change your behavior? Everyday, I see people who claim, for example, to believe that socialism isn't feasible and possible. Yet, those same people are often unwilling to change even the most basic of their behaviors to make a contribution to forward progress. My point in this instance is these socialism naysayers are the exact examples of why there have been struggles to change people's consciousness. Revolutionary struggle is about conscious raising. Its never been about coercing and forcing behavior on anyone. We believe in the importance of ideological struggle to advance our consciousness. Winning people over based on the correctness of our position. This is the principled way that consciousness is raised. So, consider this message a call to action for all of you. If you do care about the emancipation of women. African people. Indigenous people. Arabs, Asians, and European working people, then you will commit to stop resharing/reposting reactionary imagery and you will agree to start promoting positive imagery.
Of course, the publishing industry is a capitalist entertainment industry within the U.S. The people within that industry have told me repeatedly that my books are "good" stories, but "not the stories people want to read about." My responses to them are always that the reason people "don't want to read progressive literature" is because no one is promoting progressive literature. If you force feed people hot-dogs everyday for years, those people will not select a seafood buffet, even if you present it to them. So, the appetite of people today is focused and socialized around disrespecting women, African people, etc. And as a result of this dysfunction, no one is prepared to respect and desire to see content that is rising us up. The danger of this is our people are trained to think the foolishness if all we can produce. Young women are trained to think the same, etc. Every time you share one of those reactionary videos that show us losing, etc., you are contributing to this problem. No matter what you say. Its absurd to respond by saying you do it because if you didn't, someone else would. Instead, why not think that if you don't do it, maybe it will influence the next person you speak with not to do it. Why not believe we can change the tide in time?
We will see how many of us have the courage and discipline to change our behavior. We will see how many of us truly want to win the hearts and minds of the people away from the negative belief that we cannot win to the positive realm of victory because we are promoting information and images of positive change. By seeing that, we will see how many of you really want this change. Or, maybe, secretly, some of you possess some sick demented enjoyment out of seeing people suffer.
Our people have provided the most principled, consistent, and justice based movements in the history of this settler colony known as the U.S. That's the reason why today, every other people seek inspiration from our movements and culture. This happens because this system of oppression was built and is maintained on African suffering on a worldwide basis. Consequently, no matter what happens, we will always be the X factor in this country. We will always be the one community that is always willing to burn thi splantation down to the ground. We are not like any other people here because our history is not like any other people here. This is why you will never see an overflow of U.S. flags hanging off houses in predominant African communities. This is all the result of our position in this country and this is a great thing, but there are some areas that reflect serious concerns for the future health of our people here.
A deep concern rising among our people is illustrated in how we as a people are using social media. All of these platforms are great e.g. Facebook, Intragram, YouTube, Twitter, etc. They are great because they permit us the opportunity to communicate with each other outside of the realm controlled by the capitalist media. Since we have these resources, we should be using them to transmit educational information designed to inspire and encourage our people to come together. Some of our people are using these resources for that very purpose, but far too many of us are using these resources to promote extremely reactionary relationships among our people.
Examples of the above are how many of you reading this have watched videos of police terrorizing African people? What about African people, particularly non-men, fighting each other for frivolous reasons. This is not to mention the multitudes of n word dominant material that is supposed to pose as comedy. How many of you have seen all of these examples? I can answer for you. All of you have, multiple times. In fact, a whole bunch of you have established regular practices of resharing, reposting, and promoting this nonsense on a regular basis. Meanwhile, there is so much positive information floating around the internet. I know this because I'd like to believe I contribute this is positive element of social media. Obviously, I regularly write and contribute articles like this one from this blog. I also record videos discussing this type of content and I know a large number of dedicated and dignified people who do the same. Yet, even if many of you see that work, and reshare and repost it, if we are honest, most of you aren't promoting that work nearly as much as the police terrorism videos.
There's no judgment being expressed here, although I haven't shared or reposted a single piece of reactionary imagery of African people that I'm indicating here. My point is to ask all of you, who if you are reading this it means you have some level of concern about the future of humanity, to consider something for a moment.
What I'm asking you to consider is would you start making a concerted effort to promote and advance positive material speaking to the dignity and integrity of our glorious African liberation struggle? I'm not saying we cannot have fun. There is plenty of African comedy that promotes positive messages as well. What I'm asking is for you to make an effort to encourage people to focus on positive material. To read more positive material. And, to watch more positive material. I'm asking how many of you are willing to commit to do that because just the fact most if not everyone is seeing the negativity is proof there are many more of us, including the so-called progressive folks, are spending a lot of time advancing us getting beat down, than us building up.
There are videos out here promoting African unity work all over the world. It will take some developing research skills to find them and understand the work that is being done. This work isn't just about entertaining you, but if you claim to want a better world, us being able to reclaim and redefine the narrative requires a much different focus than the one dominant today. I see too many so called progressive people who forward the most reactionary imagery and/or literature about African people, women, all oppressed peoples, to blame this phenomenon on working class people, low income people, etc. This is a problem that crosses class and race boundaries. The question you have to ask yourself is how much you are willing to change your behavior? Everyday, I see people who claim, for example, to believe that socialism isn't feasible and possible. Yet, those same people are often unwilling to change even the most basic of their behaviors to make a contribution to forward progress. My point in this instance is these socialism naysayers are the exact examples of why there have been struggles to change people's consciousness. Revolutionary struggle is about conscious raising. Its never been about coercing and forcing behavior on anyone. We believe in the importance of ideological struggle to advance our consciousness. Winning people over based on the correctness of our position. This is the principled way that consciousness is raised. So, consider this message a call to action for all of you. If you do care about the emancipation of women. African people. Indigenous people. Arabs, Asians, and European working people, then you will commit to stop resharing/reposting reactionary imagery and you will agree to start promoting positive imagery.
Of course, the publishing industry is a capitalist entertainment industry within the U.S. The people within that industry have told me repeatedly that my books are "good" stories, but "not the stories people want to read about." My responses to them are always that the reason people "don't want to read progressive literature" is because no one is promoting progressive literature. If you force feed people hot-dogs everyday for years, those people will not select a seafood buffet, even if you present it to them. So, the appetite of people today is focused and socialized around disrespecting women, African people, etc. And as a result of this dysfunction, no one is prepared to respect and desire to see content that is rising us up. The danger of this is our people are trained to think the foolishness if all we can produce. Young women are trained to think the same, etc. Every time you share one of those reactionary videos that show us losing, etc., you are contributing to this problem. No matter what you say. Its absurd to respond by saying you do it because if you didn't, someone else would. Instead, why not think that if you don't do it, maybe it will influence the next person you speak with not to do it. Why not believe we can change the tide in time?
We will see how many of us have the courage and discipline to change our behavior. We will see how many of us truly want to win the hearts and minds of the people away from the negative belief that we cannot win to the positive realm of victory because we are promoting information and images of positive change. By seeing that, we will see how many of you really want this change. Or, maybe, secretly, some of you possess some sick demented enjoyment out of seeing people suffer.
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