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Emmett Till, White Lies, and the Methodology of White Supremacy

1/27/2017

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The badly disfigured body of young Emmett Till lying in his coffin in his 1955 funeral. His mother insisted on an open casket and her courageous decision to do this, at what had to be great pain for her, helped bring attention to the plight of oppressed Africans
So, 62 years after she was the reason 14 year old Emmett Till was brutally and savagely murdered, this white woman - Carolyn Bryant - decides its time for her to admit something Africans have known since that night in 1955 when young Emmett was tragically murdered in Money, Mississippi.  Well, apparently, she actually came forward in 2007 and acknowledged that Emmett Till never touched her or said anything in her presence, but who's counting.  The point is those of you from fried brain Lil Wayne to your dizzy brained daddy who claim today that white supremacy is a figment of our imagination, this case is a classic of example of just how insidious and systemic this system of oppression is.  

First, let's acknowledge the fact that a young African child was savagely killed.  And that this young child represents generational trauma of young Africans savagely murdered for no reason other than to intimidate us out of our humanity.  This is true from Emmett Till to Tamir Rice.  Then, let's acknowledge that European women have been lying and causing the deaths and incarcerations of African people for centuries which explains why you could only see a small representation of African women at your marches last week.  White woman like Carolyn Bryant have consistently and systemically chosen white supremacy over justice and solidarity with oppressed peoples.  Then, we should look at the fact that this white woman chose the privilege to never speak about this atrocity for 52 years!  How was she able to get away with this, especially since she was lying all the time?  Because our lives don't matter!  That's why.

Its not as if no white people knew she was lying until 2007.  Immediately after the trial in which her husband and his brother - the murderers of young Emmett - were acquitted, the two of them admitted in an interview that they had brutally killed the innocent young man.  And, they were paid $3,000.00 for that interview, a hefty sum 62 years ago, thus continuing the American tradition of profiting off of African suffering ala Darren Wilson, the murderer of Mike Brown in Furgeson in 2014, George Zimmerman, the murderer of Trayvon Martin in 2012, etc.

What this all means is that no one had any decency and commitment to holding these people accountable.  So, while young Emmett (or Oscar, Eric, Sandra, etc.) had their life cut short needlessly, some cowardly white people, some murderous white people, were permitted to live out their lives, profiting from cold blooded murder, in peace and without even being so much as challenged about their role in a gruesome murder.

This is a long standing theme in this white supremacist society.   That's why every time I see one of those cannabis shops and the young European people working in them, making money, I want to see that place burn to the ground.  White people can get rich on selling weed while thousands of us rot in jail for doing the same thing.  Another glaring example of white supremacy and don't say that the white youth are selling weed legally because that's just a question of white interests lobbying to make weed legal, something they never had any interest in doing before they were able to position themselves to profit off of it.  

I don't know why after 50 years Carolyn Bryant decided to finally admit that her cowardly and vicious lies against one of our youth caused him to violently lose his life.  I don't even care why she decided to admit it because I knew she was lying already.  I knew she was lying when I was 14 and three grown white men jumped me and beat me until I was hospitalized.  Yet, she's never been held accountable for her despicable actions.  In fact, I understand that this barbaric woman has profited further from an autobiographical piece that she's written that she was able to contractually deny her publishers the right to publish before she dies.  What a filthy coward.  I hope she started talking only because she hasn't been able to sleep for decades because of her guilt.  And, if the stress of all that kills her its still far to little too late.  That's all true because what she did represented what happens everyday all over the world.  White people act in dysfunctional ways, we die, they profit, and they are never held accountable.

So, next time you are wondering why people are protesting think about all of this.  The next time you are wondering why there is a race problem, think about this.  The next time you try to pass the blame for all of that on the people who are trying to do something to change these conditions, think about all of this.  Your country, your flag, your worthless values, none of it is worth the words being used to write about it.  And like the disgusting Carolyn Bryant, I hope each and every one of you who believe in this lie cannot sleep a wink until the backward system you love so much comes crumbling down all around you.   
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Punching Racists and the How White Ego Surpasses Real Work

1/25/2017

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In the 1995 movie "Higher Learning", African students led by the character played by actor Ice Cube, just defeated a group of neo-nazis in a fist fight on campus.  Actor Omar Epps, celebrating the victory with the brothers, brags about punching one of the Hitler troops and beating him down.  The Ice Cube character, sitting down brooding, permits this to happen for a few moments before retorting (I'm paraphrasing) "everything in here they own.  This furniture, this school, you...We're behind enemy lines dawg!  One beat down will never compare to 400 years of captivity!"

If you understand what that statement means to us Africans, and other oppressed people, then you shouldn't have any problem understanding why those of us who live this struggle aren't joining those of you who are celebrating some victory of sorts (in your minds) because that white supremacist got sucker punched.  We aren't celebrating because like the line in the movie, we know that one white coward sucker punching another white coward does absolutely nothing to alleviate any oppression anywhere (anyone who sucker punches is a coward).  And to the multitudes of so-called conscious Europeans, of course mostly men, who claim the punch is an inspiration to people everywhere who oppose white supremacy, you should be very careful in making that statement because by doing so, you expose just how little work you are actually doing to dismantle oppression (and how little you understand about how oppression works).

In 1968, a bunch of well meaning, yet egotistical and arrogant White youth within the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) announced an event called "Days of Rage."  The idea, a sincere effort that wasn't very well thought through, proposed to have thousands of White youth come into the City of Chicago and wage war against the City during the Democratic National Convention which was taking place there that year.  When word of this "action" got out, Black Panther Leader Fred Hampton immediately denounced the idea.  When he did so, scores of all knowing White men came down on him, accusing him of being afraid to confront the state.  They made these accusations against the man the state set up and murdered one year later.  

What those Europeans in SDS failed to understand about Chairmen Fred's message was that their planned adventure in Chicago, that Hampton called "Custeristic" was an adrenaline rush for these ego driven White men and that the consequences of their actions would be borne by the already besieged Chicago African community.  Clearly, Hampton's fears were realized.

Its in this same tradition that we criticize the "'Custeristic" sucker punch against that white supremacist scum.  Its amazing that all those know everything White people apparently don't know enough to decipher that besides their egos being calmed, that lone punch probably only makes things worse for our people.  All these alienated and disaffected White youth who no one is organizing will see that punch as further proof that they need to rally behind those people who their dysfunction tells them are trying to stand up for them.  As a result, that action, instead of intimidating them out of a life of white supremacy, will certainly further entrench them within it.  Then, when they go out to exert their frustration, its not all you know everything White boys that they are going to be seeking out.  Its going to be us they seek out.  Its going to us they shoot down in cold blood.  Its going to be us they shoot up in churches, fast food restaurants, or schools.  So, we know you don't really care anything about that, or at least you aren't experienced and informed enough to think about it, but we are thinking about it because unlike you, we are sincerely interested in ending oppression against our communities.

We think about it because we know these people first hand.  We have gone up against them for centuries.  Unlike you, our experience with them isn't driven by ego and adventure.  Its driven by horror.  Our families are former slave families from the South.  I grew up with stories about night-riders and terror.  Then, right on course, I had my own experiences with that terror.  I organized with others, learned skills, and we got good at being able to defend ourselves, but our defense against them wasn't ego driven.  it was survival driven.  In September of 2016, I helped organize security for some good organizer folks where we faced off against armed and organized white supremacists every day for two weeks.  I stared these people down nightly and stayed alert, prepared to lose my life if they attacked the people I was there to defend.  So, excuse me if the last thing I need are phallic challenged keyboard warriors who arrogantly try to tell me why its important to stand up against white supremacists.  That right there is laughable.  What we need is for serious people to start hitting those neighborhoods, those white neighborhoods, and talking to those disaffected youth.  What we need is for Europeans to start getting your people and organizing them against this system so that they stop attacking us.  What we need is for you to stop thinking you can tell us anything about white supremacy because we have more information about it in our last bowel movement than you will ever have your entire life.  Fred Hampton was right in 1968 and we are right today.  By refusing to organize white people, engaging in macho driven fantasy accounts of standing up against oppression, and by spending time arguing with us instead of engaging in that organizing work, all you are doing is reaffirming how ineffective and useless you are to any real meaningful work.  In fact, some of you present so many problems for us that when it comes to identifying threats against us, it is very difficult to see you as any better than the neo-nazis.  In 1994, Khalid Abdul Muhammad said on the Phil Donahue show that he believed "there is a little bit of Hitler in all White people."  I remember watching that, laughing, and thinking how much I disagree with him.  Today, as I've gotten older and gained more experience, I still don't believe that statement, but I gotta be honest, its getting harder and harder each day.
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The Left and its Contradiction with African Self Determination

1/22/2017

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I read and digested the comments of large numbers of Face Book friends yesterday and this morning.  African friends who live all over the world who participated in the women's march protests which took place yesterday across the U.S., Europe, Africa (although not reported much of course), etc.  The themes expressed by these young, not so young, women, men, non gender brown folks were consistent.  Everyone is glad and excited that people are apparently waking up some, but there was still this dominant feeling of alienation that was being discussed.  The feeling that although people were there among thousands, they felt alone.  They felt this way because brown people have centuries of experience to tell us we cannot trust a mobilization of Europeans that appears to be ready to confront injustice.  And, the evidence that this mistrust is legitimate is present in the red flags our folks saw yesterday that reminded us that most Europeans are certainly not on the same page that we are.  Sane brown folks won't be posing with police, anywhere, but Europeans commonly do because our perspective of the police and this society is very different.  Many more of us know that the U.S. and all capitalist countries are empires that have been built and maintained off the backs of our peoples so we know the change we need is much deeper than just who holds an elected office.  We know the institutions of this society, like the police, don't represent us.  Still, the real contradictions go even farther than that.

As people come together to grapple with how to build capacity to fight back against those who wish to continue to oppress humanity, the forces who push multi-racial organizing as the solution continue to ignore clear historical facts.  Don't get me wrong.  The concept of all of us working together in one organization is a wonderful concept and it will be great when we can function socially, politically, etc., on that level, but that day is a very long way off for some very scientific reasons.  Brown people are powerless in this world today.  And, although most  Europeans are powerless also, most Europeans don't see themselves as more aligned with our interests than they do with the interests of the capitalist classes, who look like them.  Consequently, as long as this class contradiction exists, we can never trust them to represent our interests, especially when history is full of examples of their unwillingness to ally themselves with us over their masters (Europeans voting in mass for trump is just one example of this).  And, this is an issue all the way from the petti-bourgeois European women who marched yesterday all the way to the socialists and anarchists who see themselves as the vanguard (or something) of the struggle today.  They don't speak to our realities.  We study and struggle to understand the concepts that Lenin, Marx, Trotsky, etc, articulated and include much of their analysis within our ideological frameworks where it fits.  Where it fits!  They, on the other hand, know nothing about Nkrumah, Ture, Cabral, Sankara, Fanon, or any of our cultural and ideological figures, unless they are attempting to force them within the Marxist-Leninist framework.  As a result, they do not understand how to see the world from our standpoint and they fully expect (whether consciously or unconsciously) us to see the world from their standpoint.  European/White socialist and anarchists have been expecting us to join their circles and just rise above or wait for them to advance beyond their racist disposition for centuries.  Sorry, we have much better things to do.  

The basis of this contradiction I believe is one of respect.  Europeans have it and we don't.  So, the question is how do we get respect?  I do not believe people respect you because its the right thing to do.  Think about that bully who terrorized your life.  They never stopped doing it because they should stop doing it.  If they stopped, it was because you, or someone, did something to force them to stop.  I don't think we will ever be respected until the world has no other choice except to respect us and that means us having to do something to force that to happen.  Clearly, most of our so-called European allies don't understand this because if they did, they wouldn't react with the level of indifference and/or intimidation that they do when assertive and independent Africans exert ourselves.  That has been my experience.  Europeans everywhere are always talking about how people need to listen to brown folks and accept our leadership, but what I learned a long time ago is what that really means is listen politely to us (so you can look like you are being humble), but only until the point you disagree.  Then, you will do what Europeans have been doing for centuries.  Exert your white supremacist option to ignore our assertions while expressing whatever you believe to be superior.  I see this everyday because I operate and organize from a Pan-African perspective which means Africa is primary in my work and socialism will not be compromised.  As a result, I always enjoy observing so-called European allies, even some of you who claim to be so close to us, wither away whenever we tell you something that's clearly grounded in truth that you don't want to hear.

So, I'm not waiting on Europeans to do anything.  I'm organizing African people for revolution.  If Europeans want to sincerely do something, demonstrate that willingness by moving towards organizing your people against white supremacy and capitalism.  That requires you to do a lot more than just mobilizing for events, no matter how great the events.  But, even if you start doing outstanding organizing work with your communities, we will applaud you, but we are going to continue doing what we do with our people because we know that's our only safety value.  You have proven we cannot depend upon you for anything.  And, we know that once we have a free, unified, socialist Africa, you will have absolutely no choice except to respect us.  You will then have to listen to us.  We know this so although we are excited at the prospect of European/White people finally appearing to be moving in the right direction, don't be offended if we keep one eyebrow raised.  We definitely need to see more.  A lot more.  And while we observe you, we will continue organizing our people.  Once we achieve Pan-Africanism, if you are still working in the right and sincere direction, then we can sit down together and talk about working together, but until that day, us trusting you would be akin to a chicken accepting a fox'es invitation to join his community.  Of course, there will always be some chickens who take that risk, but most of us are going to have to pass.

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The Inauguration, Mass Protest, and Rock Em, Sock Em Robots

1/20/2017

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I have to admit, I've enjoyed waking up early this morning and chronicling the number of people who appear to be losing their minds today in this country at the reality that an idiot is being sworn in as president.  One out of every five or six social media posts are focused and well thought out, but the bulk majority of people are apparently experiencing a diarrhea of the keyboard meltdown.  Believe me, its not my intention to make light of people who are experiencing severe anxiety about what is to come, but you cannot expect those of us who survive systemic racism and oppression every day of our lives to stop and drop everything we are doing because some of you can finally see what its like to feel as if you have no say so in your destiny.

For the bulk of these people, this weekend is probably scheduled to be heavily fueled by artificial stimulants and this includes those of the chemical variety as well as the physical.  By physical, I mean all of the folks who are acting as if hitting the streets this weekend is an orgasm inducing activity.  The big event is here!  It reminds me of the game I had as a youth called Rock Em, Sock Em, Robots.  I've noticed that the game has recently been revived so that some of you who believe the world was created 20 years ago may even know what I'm talking about.  Its a game where a boxing ring consists of two plastic robots who are faced off against one another.  One is red and the other is blue (ironically).  Each side of the ring has two controls which control each hand of each robot.  Pressing the right control extends the right fist, etc.  The objective is to knock the block off the opposing robot.  Since the robot's head operates on a crank, once its knocked off, or up, you simply press it back into place and continue the game.  I used to play this game with my friends for hours.  Each of us knocking each other's block off repeatedly with the winner finally winning by usual totals of 100 knock offs to 95, etc.  At this rate, you would have thought the game would have had a short life span, but the game outlasted me and I remember being a teenager when I noticed, without any emotion, that my mom had found the game, intact, under my bed and thrown it into the dumpster outside that someone had set up for whatever land grabbing gentrification project they were engaged in around San Francisco at that time.

I recall this game because much of the adrenaline inspired activities of this weekend will function much like that Rock Em, Sock Em, Robot game.  The state will place a shameful amount of much needed resources into police departments that are poorly trained and extremely dysfunctional.  Like they always do.  Racist and patriarchal ideology will be the guiding force for these police when they take to the streets dead set on defending the interests of the capitalist system because, well, because that's what their masters always tell them to do.  Meanwhile, in contrast to the heavy preparation and organization that these gestapo forces will put into play, the civil disobedience forces will do what they always do, take to the streets with very little coordination, practically no planning, no training,and with no clear objective.  Instead of being scientific and materially based, their actions will be most likely driven by individual personalities and ego.  It has to be this because most of the people participating will not belong to any organizations with any programs.  Instead, the model will be simply to show up and to stand up and confront the state for a day, in time to conclude early enough in advance to enjoy the rest of your weekend of course.  Oh, and to keep that Face Book open for the next show up event, if you can make it.

The probable result will be many people will get worn down by the beast and hopefully, no one gets seriously hurt.  The good thing will be that many people will realize that we will need a much higher level of organization if we are ever going to make an imprint against the state apparatuses and those people will start looking for those forces who are struggling to build that capacity.  In the interim, we encourage people to be safe and use your heads.  Don't place those who are not able bodied, elderly, children, etc., in unnecessary harm because you are on an adrenaline fueled ego trip to strike back at your mommy...er, the state.  Maybe, you could even consider planning a meeting to talk about how you can take your protests up a notch.  Instead of just showing up, do just a little planning.  Just a little.  How to shutdown the commerce in the city you exist in and how to do it with supply lines and shifts so that you can do it for a while.  Long enough to shake up the capitalists a little and not just the working poor who are just using the streets and public transportation to get to their families after working their low paying jobs.  Maybe you could plan how to use all your social media knowledge to capture the moment and the narrative in a collective and coordinated fashion above and beyond what you usually do on an individual level?  If we can make it through this weekend and beyond with at least a small number of people picking up on the need to step up the game it will be a victory.  And, if we can do that with minimal damage to people, than from a revolutionary perspective all the anxiety you are feeling today will be worth it in the long run.  But, if we come out of this weekend doing the same old insane things, approaching the struggle like Rock Em, Sock Em, Robots, than you better get accustomed to that anxiety because its not going anywhere any time soon.


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Buffoons, Clowns, and the African Circus Creatures around Trump

1/17/2017

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There's a lot of strong and passionate discussion and opinions circulating within the African community about Martin Luther King III meeting with Donald Trump this past weekend and comedian Steve Harvey having a similar meeting with Trump previous to that.  Both men came out of their respective Trump meetings praising the billionaire's sincerity.  Both are suggesting that we should recognize and accept Trump's victory so we can plan around working with him since he will soon become the country's 45th president.

The criticism against King III, Harvey, and a host of other people who are taking similar positions needs deeper analysis and focus.  First, to the notion that anyone has to accept Donald Trump, what's clear is that almost half of the qualified voting public in this country didn't vote for Trump or Clinton.  That's a clear message that the majority of people didn't prefer either one of them.  Its also a gateway into the thinking many of us advance that we are under absolutely no obligation to believe that our only world option is the demopublican parties and the capitalist system.  The first rule of political struggle is you must gain leverage.  The problem with African people in this fight in this society is we don't understand that principle.  And, as a result, we are always positioned as beggars to the power structure when we have a great deal of power that we simply just aren't organized to utilize.  In other words, since Trump (and really any other president) hasn't given you any reason to trust or believe in him, in fact, he's insulted and ridiculed you openly and repeatedly, you should claim your dignity and insist that you owe him and his administration as much respect as they are providing to you - and the answer to that is 0.  

And even if you decided as King III and Harvey suggest, that we have to bargain with Trump, you cannot do that from a position of weakness.  Your bargaining can only come from organizing a mass movement that holds Trump, and any capitalist office holder, accountable to your interests.  By accountable we mean your movement is strong enough to create consequences for them if they don't deliver.  You know, things like shutting down their shipping of products.  The capitalists don't like that when their money is impacted.  History is full of examples of them backing down immediately when that happens.  Do some research on that and you can start with the Montgomery Bus boycott.  Unfortunately, Harvey and King III don't understand this.  They believe that just them sitting at a table, with nothing behind them, is enough to garner some concessions from a egotistical idiot who clearly doesn't know what he's doing.  They are operating under the classic illusion of bourgeois analysis, that individuals make history, not the masses of people.  And, if you are a conscious student of history, you will be able to see very soon how wrong they are when nothing tangible comes from their grinning and buck dancing with the master.  

Of course, the problem here isn't what many well-intentioned, yet misinformed Africans are referencing.  I've heard more than a few African woman say the problem is the weakness of men as opposed to African women who would never compromise for Trump or anyone else.  Although I understand and agree with the sentiment they are expressing, from a materialist standpoint, it doesn't measure up.  Oprah Winfrey did her own buck dance in support of working with Trump through Twitter recently for example.  Instead, I would suggest that the real problem is that these Africans we are talking about are not people who made their name in the trenches of fighting for African liberation in an organized fashion.  Martin Luther King III is simply someone who has been riding the coattails of his parents for decades engaging in no real concrete efforts to build capacity for us to fight back with any teeth against our enemies.  And Steve Harvey is simply an entertainer who has created fame for himself by grinning and pleasing White America and anyone else who is charmed by his extremely unfunny brand of humor.  When you attempt to measure these people up against the organization and capacity builders like Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Shirley Graham and W.E.B DuBois, Marcus and Amy/Amy Garvey, Carmen Periera, Patrice Lumumba, the Black Panther Party, Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Ture, Assata Shakur, etc., then it becomes immediately easy to understand why Kking  III and Harvey are so weak in the knees, licking boots so easily, and completely confused about how real change takes place.

I briefly watched a segment on "NBA Tipoff" yesterday where Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith, former NBA players, were at the Civil Rights museum in Atlanta.  The show was in commemoration of the King holiday.  The format was designed to depict the three NBA players as commentators on the movement, yet all three of them had about as much concrete information about our history as you could use to fill a thimble.  So, what we were left with was the European man who works with them on NBA telecasts serving as the guide and facilitator while those three idiots consistently gave their subjective and uninformed analysis of the movement that created the conditions for them to even be sitting there in the first place.  Yet, this is the society we live in where comedians, talk show hosts, and basketball players are portrayed as the experts of our liberation struggle.  There are of course plenty of real expert organizers and activists who will never be spotlighted because their work is about challenging this system, not legitimizing it.  So, you should not be confused by Steve Harvey's buffoonery.  Our strength lies in the same place it's always existed.  In our ability to come together, organize, and make a demand based on our collective determination.  If you don't leave MLK weekend with anything else this year, understand that last statement.  Even with the best intentions, all Harvey and King III can do is get promises and even if Trump, Obama, Clinton, or Donald Duck are sincere in their promises, we would be fools if we relied on that as something concrete for the future of our babies.  Our movement is our only safety net, our only salvation and these celebrities and assorted clowns are not going to understand that because they have never participated in that realm, but its your responsibility to understand it.  And, its your responsibility to participate in that realm if you really want us to have any type of voice that truly means something for our future.


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Pay Attention: Colin Kaepernick is Proving the Value of Organization

1/16/2017

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Even within the two second attention span capacity produced by the capitalist system's mind-numbing propaganda mechanisms, surely - whether you follow professional football or not - you remember Colin Kaepernick.  He's the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.  And before several months ago, his claim to fame was leading his team  within five yards of a Super Bowl victory in 2012 (the power outage Super Bowl after Beyoncé's performance) and then leading the team within five yards of another trip to the Super  Bowl in 2013.  In 2016, Kaepernick became famous and infamous for his courageous decision to refuse to stand for the singing of the national anthem before every football game.  Despite the fact the song and the country it represents are riddled with contradictions around racist suppression and oppression, many people in the sports world, political realm, and even within the African community, took turns taking shots at Kaepernick for his bold stance.  Kaepernick continued his protests before every game this season.  He was blamed by pundits for the reduction in professional football television viewers.  And although he returned to his starting position on the field, and played reasonably well for the most part, his team was a dismal failure so consequently, much of the attention that he garnered in September dried up by the end of the season, despite his consistent stance and the efforts by athletes on other football teams, in professional basketball, and even in college and high school sports to emulate his example.

​Still, regardless of the fact many of you (especially those who weren't familiar with Kaepernick before the protests) have moved on, forgetting about him for the most part, its important to bring attention back to him and the efforts he continues to make to raise the question of police terrorism against African people and the need for mass movement to address these injustices.

​First, we should commend Colin for his consistency.  One of the biggest problems I've seen in this work and the most frustrating thing for me in movement building is the overwhelming number of people who talk, talk, talk, but engage in  absolutely zero follow through to make their words a living reality.  In fact, I would argue this problem is one of the very biggest we face in challenging our enemies because while they plan how to assault us, and ALWAYS follow through with their plans, we love to take up space engaging in intellectual masturbation while usually doing nothing to actualize our visions.  This is why its important to continue to highlight Colin Kaepernick and the work he is doing because that footballer is building.  He's putting his money and his energy where his mouth is.

​Several months ago he pledged to contribute money towards the communities that are struggling against oppression and since that time he has contributed an estimated $300,000 per month towards causes engaging in organizing work.  He's held a number of camps for hundreds of African youth in the Bay Area where he's been connecting them with Black Panther Party leaders and other respected persons from our glorious struggle.  This work alone brings tears to the eyes of a seasoned organizer who knows the value of connecting the wisdom filled head of our people to the energy charged bodies of our communities, but Kaepernick isn't finished there.  He's donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the water protectors in North Dakota, demonstrating again the unbreakable ties between the African and Indigenous struggles despite the very carefully crafted efforts of imperialism to derail those efforts with vicious and misleading propaganda (of which many of you are so unwittingly willing to perpetuate).

​What Kaepernick is doing is planting seeds.  Building capacity for increased consciousness around who we are as a people and what we must do to improve our conditions.  This is the type of organizing work that is desperately needed among our people.  Now, I can already hear the haters and naysayers complaining about his conciliatory comments about the imperialist U.S. military and some of the other reformist elements of his work, but the critiques are simply demonstrating how little they understand about consciousness building and revolutionary work.  In other words, despite their efforts to come off as the most revolutionary in the crowd, to the trained eye, they are revealing how little they are actually involved in any day to day organizing work.  The true revolutionary organizer understands that it doesn't matter in the least what work is being done because unlike many of the verbal experts, we actually work with our people so we have learned that our people deserve respect.  They are qualified to make the right decisions about what needs to be done in our communities.  We know that our job is simply to provide that spark and the people will take up the lead and handle everything else.  So, we don't spent a single moment telling people what they should do.  We just say everyone has to do something.  We are focused on getting people involved because we know the majority of our people are not involved in any organizing work.  The majority of us are just flapping our yams.  So, we realize that once we get more people involved, people's actual experience will dictate to them the course of action they feel we need to take and their work will provide them the basis to engage that work.  So, with that solid understanding, we know that Kaepernick's work is solid and that he is making a great contribution.  We also know that as he does his work, he is being exposed to more and more of our cultural reality which is the tool shed from which we build our consciousness to strike back against the beast.   So, as he becomes exposed more and more to ideas coming from our African culture e.g. wearing shirts honoring the Black Panther Party, Fidel Castro with Malcolm X, etc., those ideas will challenge him and advance him beyond his initial level of understanding about the imperialist military.  This is how conscious raising works, but you have to engage in the work to understand that.  Kaepernick is doing that, everyday.  And, you can too.  You don't need to be a millionaire to do it and anyone who tells you that you do is running a scam on you to get your money.  We have plenty of scammers fooling our people.  We run a wonderful school for African children with a shoe string budget.  We are feeding our children intellectually and spiritually while black power pimps are convincing many of you that $500,000 that you contributed them isn't enough to start a school for our youth.  You go for that scam because you have no organizing experiences.  Kaepernick is gaining his and we await you so that we evolve from talk to action.  Something our people sorely need and anxiously await.
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Sentimentality Won't Sway Many of Us On Obama's Legacy

1/11/2017

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Yes, I watched as much of his farewell speech as I could stand, which wasn't much.  He wasn't saying anything he hasn't said over and over before, but when emotion is the driving force from which we view these types of things, its easier to hear it differently each time.  And, I get where the sentimentality comes from, even from many so-called radicals and even some who claim to be revolutinoaries.  I get it.  I am an African in the U.S.  And I'm an African who is very much aware of the degree to which white supremacy has framed this world.  So, I'm not beyond being able to understand how a people who have been downtrodden, oppressed, and spat upon for centuries could find inspiration in a man, a family, that looks like them.  That walks like them.  That talks like them and that, at least on the surface level, even appears to sometimes be treated like them.  I understand the desire to defend Obama from the legitimately racist attacks that have been aimed against him for the last eight years.  The birther movement and all the manifestations of it, including the non-stop mocking of Michelle Obama in this society's continued outward contempt for African woman.  I'm African too so I feel all of that, much deeper than most of you who think you are feeling it.  Still, there's something very wrong with viewing Obama through any type of sentimental view and that's the part that prevents me from being able to do it.  And this is connected to the fact that despite the feeling that he is experiencing the same types of things that all of us experience, which is a major reason why so many of you believe you relate better to him than previous presidents, I know that he really isn't.  And, that's the part that gets smothered beneath all this talk about symbolism and what our children see in him, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, etc.

For example, one of the things that perplexes me, particularly about all the so-called "Black Nationalists" and race people within the African community is how so many of those folks who project to abhor anything that is even seminally connected to anything European, often have absolutely no interest in Africa at all.  This is interesting to me because it just seems logical that if you wanted the opposite of everything European, Africa would be the natural place for you to focus.  I mean, Africa is the Black manufacturing facility in the world.  Everything Black comes through Africa, yet these folks often have little interest in anything African.  And that same contradiction is at work as it relates to Obama concerning this so-called symbolism argument.  What I'm saying is if African people in the U.S. really want symbols to bring them pride in ourselves as a people, wouldn't Africa be the logical place to look for that?  There have been African presidents in Africa since the 50s.  There are African, or Black societies in Africa.  There is a history that extends back thousands of years.  The world's first known university is in West Africa.  All of the worlds major religions e.g. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all benefitted from major contributions from Africa while having virtually no experiences in Europe at all.  Africa has thousands of languages and outstanding food and art, yet, most of these African folks never even look towards Africa.  It would seem that if you really wanted something to enrich your children, that would be the first place you would look.  Of course, the reason why people aren't looking to Africa is because in today's dominant capitalist world vision, Africa is a loser and the U.S. is the winner.  This explains why Obama, and not Africa, represents the symbol these people want because Obama won the high seat in the winner circle.  And, in our sick, oppressed, and colonized mindset, there is no higher seat than the seat at the master's table.  So, whether we recognize it consciously or not, I'm arguing that the fascination with Obama and the symbolization he represents is tied up into our secret desire to pass inspection from capitalist America.  To finally have a seat at that master's table.  Obama's victory suggested to everyone that this is possible and that's really the symbolization that people are looking for.  And, after hundreds of years of being denied that seat, this is totally understanable, but that doesn't make it any less despicable.  

The greater problem is that our emotional perspective on the Obamas has made it difficult for us to see the true legacy of his presidency.  We are not willing to address the cold reality that all of the major obstacles to our health, safety, and ability to live such as the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex, state sponsored terror against African people, and the miseducation of our young people, have worsened under Obama's tenure.  In fact, all of these crippling systems have tightened their grip against our people under his watch.  Internationally, Obama has overseen the largest proliferation of a U.S. military presence in Africa in history - approaching 100 U.S. military installations in Africa.  And all this manifestation has done is turn Eastern Africa, particuarly Somalia, into chaos while Africa's shining light - the Libyan Jamihiriya - was blown into oblivion by Obama, taking with it their outstanding Sahara desert potable water facility that was supplying quality water to millions of people.  So much for an African supporting African self-determination.  Obama's strong support for the imperialist policies of the International Monetary Fund ushered in the elimination of social services throughout the continent which paved the way for ISIS inspired groups like al Shabad and Boko Haram to step in and attempt to fill in those gaps in dysfunctional ways.  Under this landscape, Michelle Obama holding that stupid sign about "bringing our girls back" was absurd considering her husband's adminstration, with its bombing of Libya and its accerated drone strike programs, killed more African and Arab children than Boko Haram could manage in the next 20 years.  

When the dust settles and the sentimentality wears off, what we will have left is a sobering reality where Africa and African people have been pushed back by the Obama administration.  And what we have to show for all that suffering is him leaving us by saying we need to understand each other.  Tell me one time in history where African people haven't understood our European family?  We have spent centuries raising their children, cleaning their homes, carrying their luggage, entertaining them, watching their culture thrive, and learning their version of history and the world.  When is it again where we haven't understood them?  We have spent centuries being nothing except patient with them.  While the majority of them couldn't tell you the slightest piece of information about us that isn't tainted by dysfunctional stereotypes, we can tell you everything about European people because our existence in this society has always been about knowing and understanding European people.  Our survival here depends upon it.  So, for him to say that last night is typical of the sham he has been running for eight years.  And, the fact many of you who support him will explain it away, as you explain away all of the work he has done to advance imperialism, is testiment to just how bambozzled we allow ourselves to be.  You people are willing to pay an extremely high price for this feel good symbolization you keep talking about.

Obama gets no pass on any level.  He is/was president of the U.S.  That means his primary job is to advance capitalism, imperialism, and white supremacy.  To advance patriarchy.  He gets a shining grade in all those areas.  And none of the fantasy symbolism or pride you think you feel from his presence (and his rise to the throne of imperialism) can change that.  And for you so-called radical people, for you to entertain any level of that at all only makes room for a subtle justification of his existence which is exactly what imperialism depends on you to do.  I'm a rebellious slave.  I don't want to aspire to be in the master's house.  I want to burn it down.  Can you imagine Nat Turner talking about how he identified with his slave master on some level?  That he was inspired by him on some level?  As Malcolm X told us 50 years ago, we really need our head's examined.

Even al-Queada apparently had a better understanding of our people than many of us do.  They issued a statement a few months after Obama's first election that said "Barack Obama isn't the correct manifestion of what a man of African descent should be in the U.S. Malcolm X was that man."  Its sad that al-Quaeda is apparently able to have a more sober and legitimate view of our people's conditions than many of us.  You keep searching for that feel good spot and symbolization.  While you do that, I'm looking for the kerosene.  


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Why We Aren't Mobilizing any Anti-Trump Actions

1/10/2017

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This little known picture is a shining example of sterling and historical revolutionary organizing. The late Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), fourth from the right, shortly before his death. Standing in front of the Democratic Party of Guinea headquarters with fellow A-APRP cadre from Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Gambia, and Senegal. Without Kwame's quiet and consistent work in Africa for 30 years, the conditions that permitted me to just do A-APRP work in Tanzania probably wouldn't exist. He is no longer here, but the example he gave still contributes to our struggle and helps us get stronger!
Virtually since the moment I stepped back inside the U.S. last month I've been un-indated with questions, requests, and statements about what the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is doing to protest Trump being sworn in as U.S. President on January 21st.  Where are our events?  What will we be doing?  What positions will we be pushing?  I can't speak for every A-APRP chapter, but I'm pretty sure that the answer to all those questions is going to be we aren't doing anything particular to Trump taking office.  Since many of our chapters are outside of the U.S., its a given that they have much larger concerns and work than who occupies the highest bourgeois office in this country.  And, even our chapters inside the U.S. have much work to do.  None of this is to say that we do not support the wide variety of protest actions that will be taking place across this country.  We definitely support all those actions.  In fact, if you are any type of protest, social justice, reform and challege the system type of organization worth the space you occupy, you better be out there raising all types of hell.  Again, we respect and encourage your efforts to challenge the system and attempt to hold it accountable to justice.  So, please repeat that last refrain several times to yourselves so we can move past it.

For us, the question is a larger one.  Our politics are revolutionary which means we are not interested in challenging the system to hold it accountable.  We are only interested in dismantling the system through a mass revolutionary process.  So, since revolutionaries focus on the system, not the issues the system creates, we are not concerned about who the U.S. president is because regardless of who it is, we still want to overturn the entire system.  Actually, we have never made a statement about any elected official, either in the U.S., Africa, or anywhere else because we are always focused on the system.  We are always attempting to get the masses of people to focus on the system.  So, we won't be offering any specific focus on  Donald Trump, Barack Obama, or who they appoint or appointed.  Even if they appointed a current grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan we wouldn't react to that besides to say that at least they are being open about the racist system that this has always been.  In other words, since we have been telling you for decades that the system is the problem, nothing the system produces surprises us.  And, we don't depend upon events and occurrences to inspire us.  We are inspired by our revolutionary ideology which comes from the historical struggle of the masses of African people.  Our allegances are to them, not this backward system.  This system balances itself on our backs.  So, when we fight, we are fighting for a better world for our future generations and we know that no system that advances capitalism, no matter who the president is, can ever be for our people.

So, what will we be doing about Trump?  The answer is the we will doing the same thing we always are doing to fight the capitalist system.  We will be engaging in the methodical and tedious work of attempting to promote the revolutionary political education of the masses of African people.  This is our strategic approach because we know that every African that we win over is one less African there to serve imperialism.  We know that our struggle isn't just a fight against Trump because he is simply a symptom of our problem and if we were to focus on him we would be accepting the narrative provided to us by elements of the capitalist system.  Then, we would be getting all wrapped in the solution being getting the right person when the actual solution is getting the right system.  Our message is that the right system is one unified socialist Africa and that creating that empowers Africans everywhere while also helping our allies who are also fighting against imperialism because a united socialist Africa weakens imperialism and makes it much harder for it to continue to oppress other people.  So, by taking the strategic approach that we do, we are automatically helping the Indigneous people's of the Western Hempmishere.  We are automatically helping the Irish struggle.  The Palestinian and Filipino struggles.  

This is our work and revolutionary work is never event oriented.  Its about creating structures.  Its about building relationships, strengthening work being done on the ground.  So, while mobilization activists often are individualistic people who aspire personal advancement in the struggle (notice how many of them always have the work they are doing centered around them as individuals), you will find that revolutionary organizers never have the work centered around them.  Instead, their work is focused on creating space for others to develop their organizing skills.  This requires a focus instead on studying the conditions of the struggle so that budding organizers learn points of attack and how to sustain their work.  Revolutionary organizers, in order to be successful, always have to be patient.  They always have to understand that being slighted is a regular aspect of their work because what's most important is the work, not them.  And, revolutionary organizers are never seeking personal attention.  They don't want fame or money.  They just want to empower the masses of the people.  Nothing else.  These people understand that even if they have to start over, they are starting over at a higer qualitative level of production.  They have a dialectical and historical materialist perspective to guide their work, not an emotional or ego driven approach.  They are consistent.  So consistent that the best revolutionary organizers are routinely taken for granted.  Even ignored, possibly disrespected on a regular basis.  And, they are ok with all of that because again, its not about them, its about the work.  These people don't mind those slights because all they care about is after they are no longer there, the skills and work they put in place will still continue.  Its not important who makes this happen, only that it does.  Revolutionaries understand this.

So, you will probably see our cadre out and about, but if you do, its not because we are caught up in the emotion of the moment.  In fact, if you pay close attention to us, you will probably see us out there building relationships because that's what we do.  You see, to us, the real objective isn't whatever happens on January 21st, but what happens afterward.  What we are able to build to further strengthen our revolutionary work.  What efforts we can make to further concretise our capacity.  We will be doing that work once Trump is president and long after he's dead and gone.  

And, if you don't see us out there, don't assume its because we aren't doing anything.  Rest assured.  We are always doing something for our people.  No, we aren't inside watching  "Good Times" reruns.  Instead, we are talking to high school students.  Speaking at colleges and universities.  Working with the youth at our freedom schools around the world.  We are collecting names.  Writing and distributing articles.  Studying.  Following up with people.  Mentoring people.  All of the daily elements of our work focused around encouraging people to join this struggle, if not in our party, in some organization working for justice.  We are even recruiting people to join the protests if that's where they want to be.  

We have to help create the conditions for people to have somewhere to go and something concrete to do after January 21st.
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I'm No Reformist, but If I Was, I would See 2017 as My Year

1/9/2017

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Just to be clear, unlike many of you, I don't believe the U.S. capitalist system can ever be reformed.  I see it as the empire it is, built on slave labor and stolen Indigenous land.  My viewpoint is influenced by my spending approximately 65% of my time on this earth being committed to revolutionary transformation.  To me that's working within the African revolution to achieve Pan-Africanism which we define as one unified socialist Africa.  I know you don't understand my work and that many of you don't even believe such work exists.  I just returned from Tanzania, doing some of that work.  The year before, I was in Ghana doing that work.  I've been in a number of geographical areas in Africa, Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, and throughout the united snakes of amerikkka, doing this work for decades.  I know that as Gil Scott Heron accurately said "the revolution won't be televised" so since the capitalist media is never going to promote our revolutionary work, I know why you don't know anything about it.  And, since I do, I don't need your validation or understanding.  That's work you need to do if you want to seriously understand and the data is readily available to you,  but the point here is a different one.

Since you do believe that this system can be saved and/or transformed, I can't for the life of me understand why you aren't grabbing the bull by the horns right now and getting to work?  I mean, if I was a reformist, like you, I'd be fired up right now.  Things are clearer now than they've been in quite some time for those of you who wanted to believe this country was ever built on morality and justice (as many of you mistakenly believe).  Instead, what many of you seem to be doing is lamenting the future.  Whining.  And, wallowing in a state of depression.  If you suffer from any type of chronic depression, I'm not talking about you because what you need to be doing is getting treatment.  You are not in the space to do organizing work.   I'm talking to the many of you who call yourselves activists, organizers, etc.  Those of you who always say its time to hit the streets.  You should be seeing today as your time for several reasons.  First, since you supported Obama and you believed in him, you get to acknowledge that this system has spent the last eight years disrespecting him, his family, and in actuality, the masses of African people in the process.  As a result, I don't see why anyone should be talking now about "working with" this idiot.  I'm talking to you because I don't work with any of them, but if I was you, I would be trouncing all over that rhetoric.  To hell with respecting that fool, his family, his values, any of it.  If I was you, I'd be spitting on all of that.

And, I wouldn't be just doing that with a limited focus on the one day that he is sworn in.  I'd be focusing on building a true mass movement.  You have so much to work with.  Don't you realize that almost half of the eligible people who could have voted didn't even bother?  And, do you realize this has always been the case?  What this should tell you is a major portion of the population is completely alienated and disenfranchised from the entire facade of so-called democracy.  All those people are telling you in plain English that they don't believe any of it.  Trump, Clinton, Green Party, none of it.  Why aren't you gearing up to engage all those people?  You have so much reform stuff to work with to do so.  The Affordable Care Act?  For every liar who claims the system bankrupted him, you can easily identify thousands, you can start with my 29 year old daughter, who that (far from the free universal socialist healthcare we believe in) system gave the opportunity to see a doctor when they needed.  You can quickly dispatch of the insane narrative that a shady billionaire businessman who exploits illegal immigrant labor and exports jobs is going to find jobs of any real value for people in this country.  A high school student could dispel that nonsense.  And, where is the mass movement against the white supremacist, patriarchal, homophobic, etc., elements of this system?  Its mind boggling why so many of you aren't out there making any of this come together in the form of a movement.  I know some of you are working as hard as you can, but those who are doing the work know that there are far too many people who are just lamenting, complaining, engaging in immature and disruptive behavior when you should be seeing this time as the time for you to get into some serious work.

And, by serious work we don't mean bumping your gums on social media.  We mean doing on the ground work.  Building relationships.  Working together.  Strengthening your commitment to your work by engaging in serious and collective study.  Building strong coalitions.  Look, I've been doing this for a minute so I know all about all the people who say they are going to do something and then they disappear (unless you are FB friends with them.  Then, they appear as if they are leading the fight).  I know.  Most people have no discipline and their follow up skills are about as polished as a pigeons.  Still, since we never know who is going to be the next Kwame Nkrumah, Shirley Graham DuBois, or Malcolm X, our job is always to have the foundation ready to pull people in and to engage the work that needs to be done, minus all the drama that currently dominates much of our time and energies.  

So, just wondering what you all are going to do.  Many of you are so quick to dismiss revolutionary organizing, but one thing you can be absolutely sure about.  We are going to continue with our work and we don't need the capitalist media to do it.  We can easily track our progress in building revolutionary consciousness and we will continue to increase our work forward.  We're worried about you though.  Don't you think its time to overcome the fragility?  Stop worrying about playing fair.  This is war and you need to get to work friend.  Believe it or not, we're actually pulling for you because your victory is our victory.  The more people involved, even with reform, means a fertile field for revolutionary work for those who grow to realize this system is an empire.  And, since we have to crawl before we can walk, before we can run, revolutionaries need a strong reform movement to bolster the work to achieve revolution.  So, time to stop feeling sorry for yourselves and get to work.  Let's get creative and for God's sake, let's have some fun organizing against these fools.  You can't do any worse than you doing right now.  And all they have are a confused 25% of the population.  That other 75%, not to mention the entire rest of the world, is just waiting for you friend?

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Maulana Karenga and the murders of Bunchy and John at UCLA

1/4/2017

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With the annual Kwanzaa celebration coming to a close on January 1st, we were again subjected to the usual condemnations of Kwanzaa founder; Dr. Maulana Karenga - from people who insist he is/was a police informant and that he orchestrated the murders of Black Panther leaders Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins on the UCLA campus on January 17th, 1969 (along with other Panthers who were allegedly killed by Karenga's people e.g. US Organization members).

Ironically, the people who are accusing Karenga of being a police informant are unwittingly helping the police do their work.  Its very unfortunate, but I've been seeing these accusations since the 1970s and no one is ever able to present more than circumstantial evidence indicting Karenga.  Since the basis of the Federal  Bureau of Investiation's (FBI's) counter intelligence progrram (COINTELPRO) was spreading inaccurate information and creating an environment of accusations, hysteria, and confusion within the African liberation circles, the resulting confusion 40 years later is understandable.  Also, most people making accusations today haven't even bothered to read COINTELPRO documents, which are so readily available today in so many formats that its insane that so few people have actually studied them.  This a problem and it demonstrates how the recent U.S. presidential election and the idiot who won aren't the only examples of people who can con their way to the top.  Information and facts mean nothing in today's society within the U.S.., including within so-called activist communities.  The only thing that seems to matter is ego, but there are enough true revolutionaries out here who intend to shut that foolishness all the way down.  And, the way to do that is by speaking the truth.

So, we start with understanding that Maulana Karenga started the US Organization in 1966 in Los Angeles in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts rebellion.  Karenga articulated that US was meant to mean "us against them, meaning the slave masters" although many people have consistently claimed that US was short for United Slaves, which Karenga has always denied.  The objectives of US was/is to advance the notion that African people cannot have political and economic revolution and change until we relinquish ourselves of the cultural and spirtual oppression that has been reaped upon us for over 500 years.  Consequently, US came to promote African cultural practices to attempt to provide us with our own value systems.  Karenga created the Ngusu Saba principles and the Kawaida concepts are what he orgnaized Kwanzaa around when he introduced it late in 1966.  US had other components, including an extremely disciplined and militarized element known as the Simba Wachukas.  They were the enforcement arm of US.  

Now, I understand clearly that many African people don't like Maulana Karenga.  And, his history of wheeling and dealing in Los Angeles and the more than surface evidence of many closed door meetings with the city's power brokers in order to cut deals for his benefit cannot be ignored.  Also, the fact that he was convicted and served time for torturning African women is obviously a very serious issue, but what people have done is taken those legitimate concerns about Karenga and stretched them into accusations that he cooperated with police to sabotage the African liberation movement when there is absolutely no evidence of that.

What we do know is that the FBI had people placed in high level positions in every African liberation movement in existence. Their metholodogy to do that was to sit down this brother or this sister who had pending convitions against them for unrelated issues.  The deal offered to them was either infiltrate and do the will of the police to disrupt our organizations, and get paid in the process, or go to prison.  Of course, many, many, people chose the former option and FBI documents released under the 1974 Freedom of Information Act reveal that US, along with the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, and every other group, had dozens upon dozens of these people actively working, not for the objectives of the organizations, but in the interests of the police state.  In the case of US, the police had also done their research.  Anyone who knows anything about Los Angeles knows there is a strong gang culture in that city.  The FBI knew this.  They knew that US was recruting members into the Simba Wachukas from the gang groups who had a history of opposing the people who were being recruited into the Panther Party.  In fact, Bunchy, the founder of the  L.A. BPP chapter, was a long time leader of the Slausen Renegades in South L.A. The FBI knew that this reality made Bunchy very disliked by the forces being recruited into the US Organization and the national police agency concocted a campaign to antagonize those strong emotions.  The FBI sent insulting messages to Karenga that were designed to make him believe that the messages were coming from Bunchy and the BPP.  They also sent similar packages to Panther leaders.  They had their informants consistently feed Karenga with information designed to pour oil on the fire and vice versa.  When Karenga and/or Bunchy made efforts to meet and squash the developing beefs, the role of these police informants was the block such meetings from taking place. Many efforts to resolve this conflict were made from both sides, but the efforts were always disrupted and the people who were there, like Erika Huggins, Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), Elaine Brown, Karenga, etc., have spoken and written extensively about this.  The objective of  COINTELPRO was "to prevent a coalition of Black organizations from coming together."  And, in doing so, an environment of open hostility and antagonism was fostered.  This created an explosive situation where the history of violent confrontations between many of these new activists made new violence entirely possible and inevitable.  

The events of January 17th, 1969, are well documented and if people are going to make accusations they should know those events backwards and forwards, so I won't repeat them here.  I will say that without the work of the COINTELPRO those events wouldn't have taken place and the subsequent conflicts between US and the Panthers wouldn't have taken place either.

So, if your argument is that Karenga was egotistical, self serving, opportunistic, and immature, you will hear no response from me, but if your argument is that he was a police informant, I will respond by telling you that although he had plenty of them in his organization, there is no evidence that he himself was one.  That's an important distinction because the claims against Karenga's character, although often repeated, have never carried the momentum that the police allegations have.  In fact, most people don't even know Karenga spent time in prison for abusing women.   So, if that was it, than people would just take whatever position they desired against Karenga and the movement as a whole would not be impacted, but what the police allegations actually do is bring in an entirely different element.  With that, now the environment of distrust of organizations is embraced and this is why 40 years later there are still very hard feelings and emotions surrounding the work of US.  For example, although I don't personally celebrate Kwanzaa, I have to acknowledge that this activity, more than any other single activity, has brought Africans in the U.S. closer to Africa, even if in a superficial sense this is true.  And the closer they get to Africa, whatever way that happens, the easier the conditions are for me to do my Pan-Africanist work, but if people are down on Kwanzaa because of the police allegations against Karenga, than this gets in the way of all of us trying to do our work and that is exactly what is happening.  That's why you are helping the police if you spread this nonsense because you are making it harder to organize our people.  

Also, it needs to be said that since  Karenga did do prison time, that's further evidence that he was never a police agent since we have already established that the motivation for being a police informant in the first place is to avoid having to do time.  The police don't send their informants to prison because that eliminates the incentive of these people to inform.  In other words, you can dislike Karenga if you choose to.  You can decide to consider him worthless to our liberation struggle if that's what you want to think, but stop doing the work of the police by accusing him of being the police.  You have not offered any additional evidence against him being the police then has been offered to support similar claims against Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, etc.  Our leaders at that time were young, inexperienced, egotistical, and very naive about the depths to which this U.S. government is willing to go to stop any potential movement being oganized against its interests.

The other aspect of Karenga that isn't discussed that needs to be said is often, the people repeating these claims against him are not actively working to build any organization working for our people's liberation.  And by working we mean building an actual organization with people doing things to increase our organizing capacity.  I don't mean whatever you do on social media.  That's not organizing.  I say this because whether you like Karenga or not, that man is organizing.  Whether you believe in his philosophy or not, that man is putting in work.  And, I know that as long as he's doing that, you are doing that, all of us are doing that, then the conditions are being established for us to move forward.  And, that has absolutely nothing to do with whether we agree with him or not and anyone who thinks that doesn't understand organizing work.  Our objective as revolutionaries has to be to get everyone in an organization working for our people.  We needn't worry about how good the organization is and anyone who thinks we do doesn't understand organizing work.  You see, if you truly have faith in people's abilities to determine what's best for them, then you don't need to paternalistically decide for them what organizations and philosophies are relevant.  They can do that for themselves.  So, that's why I learned that if someone tells me they don't agree with Pan-Africanism and they want to join the Nation of Islam or US, we never argue with them.  Instead, we offer them a ride to the nearest Nation of Islam Mosque.  We do this because if they decide they don't really agree with the Nation of Islam the only way they can really make that determination is by understanding the Nation themselves right?  So, our people can decide what's legitimate and what's not.  We don't need to worry about doing that for them.  What we do need to do is encourage them to get involved because they can't do anything until they do that first.  So, instead of bashing Karenga, we should be encouraging people who agree with Kwanzaa to not just support Karenga's concepts for six days a year, but to join US and do it wholescale.  Everyone in an organization gets us moving in the direction we need to go in and Karenga is organizing so although I don't agree with him - if I did I would belong to US - I still agree with Sekou Ture when he said "bad organization is better than no organization."  I also know that most people in the U.S. at least will have a very difficult time grasping what the All African People's Revolutionary Party's work is all about.  We aren't about reformist work, being in the media, having buildings in the U.S.  We don't knock those who are doing those things, but we are about building a worldwide fighitng force of Africans dedicated to revolutionary Pan-Africanism and building a worldwide political party to guide us to that objective.  That's why I spent December of 2015 on the ground in Ghana working with our organizers there to do our work.  That's why I spent December of 2016 on the ground in Tanzania working with our organizers there to do our work.  That's why I spend every day in between working in Oregon with our organizers on the ground to do our work.  That's why we are doing this everywhere, but some of you won't be able to see it until you get acclimated to organization work e.g. the discipline of it, the critical analysis skills, the growth in understanding and organizing experiences.  You can only get this by participating, not through social media.  You can only get this through working with people to build infrastructure to organize effectively, not through social media.  So, whatever you think about Karenga, my point about him is at least he has demonstrated over the last 50 years that he understands that much.  Social medai should be nothing more than a tool to help with real organizing.  It cannot substitute for that organizing.  Everyone who engages in serious organizing work, within an organization, understands that.  The only people who don't are those who are not involved in serious organizing work.  So, if you really believe the police should be dismantled, stop doing their work for them.  Learn what you can from Karenga and leave the rest alone.  If you don't like him or what he represents, the best thing you can do is contribute to the organization that lines up with your beliefs.  Let's spend more time in 2017 doing that instead of spreading urban legends that do nothing except serve our enemies.




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    I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle."  Our brains are muscles.  Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve.  Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"

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