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Pan-Africanism = Dignity and Respect, the Keys to Eliminating white supremacy

2/28/2016

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In organizing and working with African people in the West, I find that one of the largest obstacles we continually face is that African people in the U.S. have a really hard time acknowledging and accepting Africa in their lives.  There are multiple reasons for this issue.  First, all of us in this country are taught 24/7 that America is the center of the universe.  Since this country currently resides on top of the capitalist world, and capitalism dominates the world's economy, if people do not possess the desire and motivation to explore developing an understanding of the world on their own, there is nothing in this society that will encourage them to do so.  As a result, most people function with an unchallenged belief that everything they need, everything they have to have, and everything that matters to them is here in the U.S.  Second, Africa is continuously depicted as a place in need.  A place requiring help.  A place that doesn't contribute, but a place that needs assistance from the Western world at all times.  Since most people want to identify with a winner, that means people are going to unconsciously relate to the U.S. and not to Africa, in spite of what history tells us.

This is actually a worldwide phenomenon, not just something that occurs in the U.S.  While spending time in Ghana in December,I saw U.S. and Israeli flags everywhere.  In fact, anything associated with a winner, you see everywhere in Ghana.  The Jamaican flag is just as common as the U.S. and Israeli flags and the local people said this was because of people's admiration for Usain Bolt, the successful Jamaican sprinter.  Even the confederate flag was seen being worn by Africans in Ghana and upon questioning them why, their response indicated they had no historical understanding of what the flag symbol actually meant.  It was just something American.  Of course, from my viewpoint the American, Israeli, and confederate flag all mean the same thing to us.  The point is a dispossessed people will seek out a winning atmosphere because we want more for ourselves, our children, our society.

This is exactly the reason why Pan-Africanism is so important for African people.  And, I have never met the person, regardless of their nationality, that fails to understand the merits and necessity for Pan-Africanism in the lives of African people (and humanity) once they properly understand what it is.  The issue is most people have a very distorted and inappropriate understanding of what Pan-Africanism is and those people are talking and spreading that misinformation.  This is our challenge as getting the truth out is so difficult under these circumstances, but we will continue to use all mediums as our disposal, including this one, to present our arguments.

Pan-Africanism is not a back to Africa movement.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to refute that one lately.  Don't misunderstand.  We love Africa.  Many of us want to live there, including me, but our objective isn't simply about moving to Africa.  Doing that, without confronting the systematic oppression that keeps us downtrodden, does nothing to improve our collective conditions.  So, please don't reduce our magnificent work to simply suggesting a geographical move of African people is all that is needed.  Pan-Africanism is also not an anti-white movement.  There are various degrees of so-called Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism is certainly one element of that storied tradition, but Pan-Africanism is scientific and revolutionary also.  It recognizes the history and role of class struggle in our fight for justice so revolutionary Pan-Africanists could never accept the unscientific version of history that African people lived in complete harmony before the arrival of the Europeans.  We know that class struggle opened the door for relationships between exploitative Europeans and Africans to establish colonialism and the slave trade.  We know that those same class contradictions paved the way for neo-colonialism today.  We know that the real struggle is one of the haves and the have nots, but we can also never forget that the majority of the have nots look like us and there are specific reasons why that's so.  Pan-Africansim is about understanding that Africa is exploited because of its material worth and the dehumanization of its people makes the exploitation of human population possible also.  This has been the case for over 500 years.  And, the capitalist system today continues to rely on exploiting Africa to maintain its profits.  We know that in order for this system of exploitation to continue, it's essential to have Africans continue to look towards America and Europe for salvation because doing so keeps us from understanding that everything we need we already have right in Africa.  So, this is where being black comes in because the imperialists want us to relate to our skin color instead of our homeland because doing so prevents us from connecting with Africa and questioning why they are stealing all of its riches and we are left with nothing except black pride.  

Pan-Africanism is the highest stage of black pride.  Malcolm X, while visiting Guinea-Conakry and having dinner with President Sekou Ture, received a valuable lesson about this.  When he asked Ture to explain his decision to have a meeting with him, a visiting dissident in the powerful U.S., as well as Ture's nationalistic policies in Guinea, the Pan-African revolutionary responded that "our people need dignity more than money."  At first, Malcolm didn't fully understand Ture's response.  In Malcolm's eyes at the time, just like most of us today, if a country like Guinea has massive material wealth like the multitude of bauxite reserves that continue to exist there, why wouldn't Ture use it to enrich the country?  But, Malcolm was a fast learner and soon he understood Ture's message.  African people, wherever we are, must develop an understanding of who we are and we must use that knowledge to gain control of our lives.  When we do that, we will have much of what we are lacking today.  That was Ture's point.  That progress doesn't come from money and technology.  It comes from organization.  Sekou Ture understood that Africa's unification is the key to our salvation and that cannot be obtained by selling off our natural resources to the highest bidder.  Our dignity can only come from one place.  It must come from us understanding who we are and that our interests are directly related to the future of one place - Africa.  Once we understand this simple fact, the rest will come together for us.  Imagine a free, strong, and liberated Africa.  Just imagine it.  No images of starvation and helplessness.  Instead, a picture of a place that controls it's own destiny.  A place where people have to deal with Africa to have cell phones and computers.  Cars and gasoline.  Food and other essential products and services.  In this world, do you believe we would be shot down like dogs on the street when the system's very existence would depend upon its capability to interact effectively with us?  If you still don't get it, imagine the current reality where Chinese people throughout Africa enjoy preferential treatment everywhere they exist because of the power and influence their country represents.  Our problem is we do not have that and although we want to achieve it differently than the Chinese have, that respect is something that we need.  For us as well as everyone else who interacts with us.  

So, this is what Pan-Africanism will do for African people everywhere.  Regardless of whether you are in L.A. or Ethiopia.  Pretoria or Portland. Puerto Rico, Paris, or Philadelphia.  If you are African, you will be viewed and treated with respect.  If you think about it, there is absolutely no way this can be accomplished without a liberated and unified Africa.  Clearly, just creating pockets of wealthy Africans won't do it.  Ask any entertainer.  African actors are forced to boycott the worthless Academy Awards because of the lack of respect demonstrated against us.  If we had Pan-Africanism we wouldn't even need their recognition and because we wouldn't need it, that's why we would get it, often.  Even the most basic dating rules illustrate this.  Your mother hopefully taught you that if you are so easily available, to suggest no one desires you, then you will not be considered attractive.  A united and liberated Africa makes us attractive, most importantly to ourselves.  No more seeing ourselves as worthless and in the way of forward progress.  Then, we begin to see ourselves as being the motive force behind forward progress.  This changes everything.  Now our children not only want to learn about us, but it becomes the in thing to do because everyone wants to be us, not for the often dysfunctional reasons that we see today, but because we primarily project images of power and dignity.  

So, even if you don't understand anything about Africa.  Even if you think you don't want to know.  Even if you are born in Africa and you therefore believe you already know what you need to know.  Stop talking against Pan-Africanism.  Stop saying it cannot happen and start talking about the reasons why having it happen would be so important for us.  Even if you don't get it, you have to see how it will help us so stop working against us because when we win, you will benefit just like everyone else!  And, if you are not African, you will benefit because a free, unified, and liberated Africa, along with the same thing for Palestinians in Palestine, Native peoples in the Americas, etc., will be the only thing that will completely weaken and eliminate white suprmacy.  If you deisre this to happen, you must support this work as well because you must understand that until we have this, the world will be as Malcolm described it when he talked about the diner.  He talked about someone sitting at a table with no food isn't a diner.  Pan-Africanism gives us the power to order whatever we want!

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Marshawn McCareel.  How Demons Can Win Over Such A Positive Activist

2/25/2016

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As February winds to a close, I'm thinking about Marshawn McCareel.  This is the 23 year old African activist for justice who evidently and tragically took his own life on February 9th.  Although there were apparently no witnesses, his body was found on the statehouse steps in Ohio.  Marshawn died from a gunshot wound that is being ruled as self inflicted. Unfortunately, most people, including myself, became acutely aware of this situation as a result of the fallout from the social media posting of a demented so-called "law enforcement" officer who tweeted celebratory remarks about this young person's passing.  But, as I read farther into Marshawn's short life, I discovered just how much he was the real deal when it came to the activism work he was involved in.  Like many people today, his introduction to active participation in the movement started after the Mike Brown shooting in Ferguson in 2014, but he wasn't satisfied with just protesting.  Marshawn is credited with creating a program that focused on feeding people in his neighborhood once a month and shedding attention on the problem of houslessness.  He also was involved in highlighting issues of white supremacy and systematic racism in Ohio.  This was a young activist who truly found a niche from which to dedicate his time and life towards making a serious contribution.

The question many are asking is how such a young and accomplished person who inspired so many could at the same time be engaged in such a personal battle to maintain balance to the point that his desire to die outlasted his desire to continue?  And, how could something like this happen without anyone around seemingly having a clue about what was going on with young Marshawn?  My response is although I didn't know Marshawn, I can say confidently that this type of problem is probably more widespread than you think.  Most people who engage in activism work on any level understand that the work requires a lot of energy.  Any work that requires you to go against the grain of society, and when you are an activist for justice that is exactly what you are doing, is going to require you to face a ton of obstacles.  This is even more true when that work involves organizing dispossessed communities e.g. the African and other peoples of color, the houseless community, transgender folks, etc.  These communities are disaffected from the dominant society.  They are constantly attacked, to the point of reoccurring trauma becoming the norm.  The energy you are going to need to do the work you are going to have to generate on your own and the work you do will largely go undetected, even by the people you are working with.  In fact, if you are really someone who steps out and does outstanding work, as all indications appear Marshawn did, you can be prepared to receive very little consistent help, and a ton of well meaning, but very high maintenance people around you in your life.  Operating under these extremely stressful dynamics, coupled with all of the other dysfunctional aspects of this society that activists and organizers aren't immune from, I can imagine young Marshawn might have taken the approach that many people adopt in this society.  Take blow after blow, and keep trying to maintain your balance and move forward.  Put on a smile, as people said he always did, and keep trying to negotiate the tidal waves coming after you.  Unfortunately, this approach may appear to work for a time, but it will never work for the long haul.

The results of trying to keep putting out energy while receiving very little in return results in people becoming depressed and alienated.  Serious activism work is very lonely.  If you are consistent and successful at getting major work done, if you can move people in mass to achieve positive goals, its great for the communities you work with, but for you, it is probably going to set you up for consistent doses of that depression and alienation.  Most people struggle to accomplish even the most basic of tasks to get through the day.  Having a healthy relationship with one person is a challenge for many in this society.  Being able to maintain a job and get through the day is a lot.  If you are perceived as being able to consistently drive high quality work and accomplish difficult objectives on a consistent basis, most people assume you don't need support and/or encouragement.  They assume you are here to inspire and support them, not the other way around.  You end up becoming everyone's major source of energy and you are left with not even having anyone who you can express your fears and concerns.  Maybe this is some of what young Marshawn faced, maybe not.  What is universally true is we have to get much better at learning how to take pieces of the work and hold them, to the best of our ability.  We have to get better at valuing people and the contributions they make and not seeing the work simply as a mechanism to empower us through our individual challenges in life.  We have to get better at seeing people, all people, and not just thinking we are the ones who need support.  Everyone needs support.  No matter how strong and put together they appear to you.  Believe it.  They need to be told they are valuable people.  They need to know that you are there for them.  They deserve your loyalty and commitment as much as you deserve theirs.  We have to do all of these things because doing them is how we cultivate community and community is what we need.  Community is what's lacking in the work right now.  Like everything in this backward capitalist society, the work today is dominantly individualistic and isolationist.  We have to change that.  We have to learn how to create collective environments where people like Marshawn have people they can talk to who can embrace and encourage them.  Direct them to sources, qualified sources, who can help them address any problems they are having difficulty navigating through.  This is what a healthy community looks like.  This is what a socialist community looks like.

So, if we want to do something about what happened to young Marshawn why don't we start by deciding today that we will think as much about how we can change ourselves to reach out to someone as we think about wanting someone to reach out to us?  Let's think about how we can make a contribution as much as we talk about someone else needing to do something.  Post on social media something you are doing to help build capacity instead of just criticizing the work of others and/or expressing empty opinions that you have no work you are doing to support.  Think of someone who is always offering support to people.  Call that person and invite them to lunch or coffee/tea.  I guarantee you that if you do, you will be the only person reaching out to this high energy/profile person.  Even if all you can do is buy them a $1.00 cup.  Tell someone making a difference that you see them.  Encourage people and stop letting the slightest problems derail you.  If you want to help a doer like Marshawn, figure out ways you can help people like him and make a personal commitment to be present, all the time, even when the work gets tough.  If we start to seriously do these types of things we will foster the type of healthy environment we need.  Something like what happened to young Marshawn can be avoided if we try just a little harder to pay more attention to each other.

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The Unknown Relationship between Kwame Nkrumah and Malcolm X

2/21/2016

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Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah at the Harlem Rally honoring Nkrumah in in July, 1958.
Today marks the 51st commemoration of the assassination of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz aka Malcolm X in Harlem, New York.  This coming Wednesday marks the 50th commemoration of the CIA (criminals in action) sponsored coup that overthrew Kwame Nkrumah's democratically elected government in Ghana.  The close historical proximity of the downfall of these Pan-African giants is not coincidental although the history of the relationship between these two men is largely ignored and/or unknown.

March 6, 1957, marked the celebration of Ghana becoming the first colonized country in Africa to claim it's independence from Europe.  During his independence day speech, Nkrumah made it abundantly clear that Ghana's independence was nothing more than a paper declaration without the independence of the entire African continent.  From that day forward, a significant focus of Nkrumah's Convention People's Party was making Ghana the base of the African revolution. Liberation forces from all over the continent set up bases in Ghana and were provided resources to train and prepare for their liberation work.  Since Nkrumah's vision was a Pan-African one - meaning he understood that all people of African descent are Africans and belong to the African nation - an important aspect of this period included invitng Africans from all over the world to come to Ghana to help in establishing that country as that revolutionary Pan-African base.  Many people heeded this call.  W.E.B. DuBois and his wife Shirley Graham DuBois moved to Ghana.  Trumpeter Louie Armstrong came.  Academic Julian Mayfield moved there.  Poet Maya Angelou responded to the call.  Revolutionary organizer George Padmore, who remains probably the most unknown and significant contributor to African forward progress in the 20th Century, came to Ghana and became an adviser to Nkrumah's government.  Ghana became the shining star for the hopes of Africans everywhere and Nkrumah became an inspiration and symbol of a greater future for African people.  In July, 1958, Nkrumah came to the U.S. and a major rally was organized in Harlem to receive him.  Malcolm X was invited to participate in that rally and it was there that he was introduced to Kwame Nkrumah.  According to Nkrumah's letters, published in 1990 in the book "The Conakry Years", Nkrumah and Malcolm developed a relationship that they maintained until Malcolm's assassination in 1965.  Although he didn't provide much detail, according to Nkrumah's letters, the two of them stayed in contact during this period with Nkrumah advising Malcolm on an analysis of evolving political events.  Serious study of Malcolm's legacy reveals that he had a penchant for building relationships with revolutionary leaders/activists who's radical politics landed far outside the realm of the theology of the Nation of Islam.  Another example of this was Malcolm's invitation to meet Fidel Castro during the Cuban leader's visit to Harlem in 1960.  As he did with Nkrumah, Malcolm begged Elijah Muhammad for permission to meet both men.  Although Muhammad was not overly enthusiastic about these meetings, Malcolm was able to negotiate space to make these connections.  These political ambitions that Malcolm possessed speak to his evolving political consciousness and his growing radical beliefs which really explain his path towards leaving the Nation of Islam much better than the commonly held narrative that he left because of Muhammad's fathering of several children with secretaries within the Nation.  Malcolm was inspired by the radical Pan-Africanist ideals of Kwame Nkrumah and according to Nkrumah, they spoke about those ideals in that period between 1958 and 1964.  

After Malcolm broke with the Nation of Islam, he made his much publicized trip to Africa.  Much has been written and screened about his trip to the Middle East and his Muslim Hajj to Mecca.  The story of his letter detailing his evolution in his understanding of Islam has been repeated significantly for the last 50 years, but not much has been discussed about his trips to Africa.  Spike Lee's unfortunate 1992 film "Malcolm X" barely dealt with Malcolm's travels to Africa.  This is all interesting because between Nkrumah's letters, FBI and CIA files made public, and Malcolm's own diary, there is a lot to decipher about Malcolm's experiences in Africa in general, and Ghana in particular.  By the time Malcolm made it Ghana in 1964, his work to expose the racist hypocrisy of  the U.S. government was receiving significant press around the world.  Nkrumah, forced to balance a government system that possessed a strong grassroots desire for independence and liberation while being totally dependent upon the skills and resources of Britain and the U.S. to function, was torn between negotiating with the Johnson Administration for much needed material support and making a public connection with Malcolm.  So, while Malcolm was provided all the respect of a visiting diplomat in Ghana, there was no initial invite or promise of a meeting with Nkrumah.  It should be noted that while Malcolm was in Ghana, the American government made it clear to Nkrumah's Administration that they were very displeased at the favorable treatment Malcolm was receiving in Ghana and they would be very upset were Nkrumah to "disrespect them" by giving Malcolm any type of meeting or other official recognition.  Eventually, it was Mrs. DuBois, who at that time was the National Director for Ghanaian Television, who urged Nkrumah to ignore the threats of the U.S. and British governments and do the right thing, have a meeting with Brother Malcolm.  So, Nkrumah took the still extremely unusual step of agreeing as a president to have a meeting with a visiting dissident from another country, the most powerful country on the planet.  The meeting took place.  Malcolm, even in his diary, never revealed much about what was discussed.  There was another meeting when Malcolm returned to Ghana months later and Malcolm still wrote little about what took place.  He did make note in his diary of how much of an issue it was for Nkrumah, and Sekou Ture in Guinea, to decide to meet with him.  In fact, he talks about how when eating dinner at the Vila Syli in Conakry with Sekou Ture, he was able to ask the President of Guinea about the pressures involved in inviting him there.  Malcolm wrote that Ture, who he said was constantly adding food to Malcolm's plate while he talked to him, told him that "African people need dignity more than money."  Malcolm inferred that he took Ture's statement to mean that true African revolutionaries like Ture and Nkrumah were more concerned about principle than consequences.  

Despite never revealing much about their meetings, Malcolm was clearly impressed with what he experienced with Nkrumah.  Although his autobiography is full of references to his earlier association with Elijah Muhammad and his 1964 meetings with Prince Faisal in Saudi Arabia and Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt, it was his meetings with Nkrumah that Malcolm calls "the highest honor of my life."  It was also Ghana that Malcolm labeled the "fountainhead of Pan-Africanism."  Its no mystery that Malcolm's speeches, even before he left the Nation of Islam, started sounding more and more like that of a revolutionary Pan-Africanist.  His famous "chickens coming home to roost" statement days after John F. Kennedy was assassinated is a clear example.  Malcolm skillfully used the analogy of Kennedy's support for the illegal destabilization and overthrow of the Lumumba government in the Congo and the subsequent murder of Lumumba as a case of the violence Kennedy supported coming back around to hit him.  Patrice Lumumba was one of those youthful liberation movement persons who took up base in Ghana, heeding Nkrumah's call.  Lumumba considered himself a student of Nkrumah's and he took counsel from Nkrumah during the crisis in the Congo in 1960.  If Malcolm and Nkrumah maintained a relationship, doesn't it seem logical that Malcolm's words on December 1, 1963, about Kennedy - words that many people credit with expediting the break between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad - were influenced by the radical Pan-African analysis of Kwame Nkrumah?  And, after Malcolm came back from Ghana, his speeches were even more militantly Pan-Africanist.  The book entitled "The Final Speeches of Malcolm X" which represents - chronologically - the very last speeches Malcolm made in the two weeks leading up to his assassination, all have a decided focus on Africa and it's role in the liberation of people of African descent everywhere.  This reality, coupled with the fact Malcolm decided to name his new organization the Organization of Afro-American Unity - after the Organization of African Unity that Nkrumah had helped found the year before, say more about how much Malcolm was being influenced by Nkrumah's politics than anything Malcolm or Nkrumah needed to say about their relationship.  

For his part, Nkrumah wasn't revealing much either, but he did speak to one chilling aspect of their relationship in his letter to Julia Wright, the daughter of author Richard Wright.  In that letter, written a couple of years after Malcolm's assassination and the overthrow of his government in Ghana, Nkrumah, writing from Guinea-Conakry, tells Ms. Wright that his intelligence officers in Ghana had alerted him during the time Malcolm was in Ghana that they had intercepted "reliable" information that Malcolm would be assassinated once he returned to the U.S.  Nkrumah writes that he passed this information along to Malcolm during one of their meetings and that Malcolm responded with dignity and resignation to the news.  Nkrumah's reason for revealing this to Ms. Wright was he wanted Malcolm to stay in Ghana and help to build the work Nkrumah was engaging in.  Work we now know consisted of his recognition that the Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union, was a top down organization that would forever be controlled by neo-colonialism and imperialism.  Nkrumah, once he was in Conakry, saw that what was needed was a grassroots revolutionary Pan-African formation which he calls for in his 1968 released book "Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare."  That grassroots formation is the All African Committee for Political Coordination which consists of all the on the ground Pan-African liberation parties and movements.  Once consolidated, this formation would make up the All African People's Revolutionary Party.  Clearly, Nkrumah wanted Malcolm to participate in this work.  Three years after Malcolm was murdered another African leader who made a name for himself engaging in militant struggle against the racist system in the U.S. would come to Africa and meet with Nkrumah.  That man was the young Stokely Carmichael who, unlike Malcolm would decide to stay and become Nkrumah's political secretary in Guinea.  This young man would later change his name to Kwame Ture to honor Nkrumah and Sekou Ture and he would spend the last 30 years of his life working to bring Nkrumah's vision of the All African Committee for Political Coordination into existence.  In a telling revelation, Nkrumah revealed some of his early frustration with the immaturity of the young Carmichael and possibly the depths of the discussions and intentions he had with Malcolm when he expresses in one letter that "Stokely talks to much.  He's not nearly as mature as Malcolm was."

There is enough evidence available today to confirm that Nkrumah wanted Malcolm to move beyond the bickering with Elijah Muhammad so he could work directly with him to build Pan-African capacity.  What they actually discussed, planned, agreed upon, we may never know, but one thing is clear, they were working together, at least on some level.  So, on this 51st commemoration of Malcolm's assassination, we are secure in the knowledge that Malcolm was no more interested in returning to the Nation of Islam than a disillusioned lover who has been wronged is really interested in returning to that relationship.  He may have been unsure and without complete confidence in what he could do, but from an ideological perspective, Malcolm had clearly moved on.  And given more time and space, without the intense harassment that was instigated by the U.S. government, Malcolm probably would have moved to a higher level of revolutionary Pan-African work with a clear emphasis on the unity of Africa under scientific socialism.  And, with this week being the 50th commemoration of the overthrow of Nkrumah's government in Ghana by reactionary neo-colonialist thugs, we know that Nkrumah learned from the events of the Congo in 1960/61, and the overthrow of his government, that neo-colonialism is the biggest threat to African unity.  He knew that imperialism can only be destroyed by the masses of African people.  And, his work to produce an analysis that captured that was probably his greatest contribution to our forward struggle and progress.  Malcolm and Nkrumah played their part and made their contributions.  This week, I'm thinking about what we can do to build on the legacy they gave us.



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The Joys and Challenges of Building a Free Breakfast Program

2/20/2016

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In 2016, 51 years after their creation, the Black Panther Party continues to generate intense passion around questions of justice and forward progress for African people and all of humanity (I use 51 years instead of 50 because I count the Loundes County Freedom Organization from Alabama in 1965 as the inspiration that spurred the Oakland Black Panther Party the following year).  Unfortunately, much of what is being written and screened about the Panthers today attempts to recreate and/or ignore significant aspects of their true history.  For example, most of what is being discussed today focuses on their militant image e.g. the black leather jackets and berets.  The guns.  The actions inside and outside of the party by individual leaders.  Very little about the actual work the Panthers engaged in is being discussed and debated.  The Panthers developed programs focused on providing national food giveaways, sickle cell anemia screening, legal aide, grocery delivery to the elderly and physically challenged, and of course, their free breakfast program.  Not many people are talking about how the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) illegal and  terrorist counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO) against organizations fighting for justice in general, and African liberation organizations and the Black Panthers in particular, had a specific focus of attacking and undermining the Panther's free breakfast program.  In 1968, a memorandum from then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to field offices instructed staff that the Panthers had "no more than 800 core members" but FBI research had determined that "44% of African youth 25 and under had a favorable perspective of the Black Panther Party."  This last statement was of grave concern to Hoover.  He went on to charge the breakfast program as being "the main subversive tool they use to indoctrinate the youth."  After Hoover's memorandum was released, over thirty (30) Panther offices across the U.S. were invaded by police agencies.  Panthers were killed, beaten, and arrested, but what also happened is that the breakfast supplies in those offices were systematically destroyed. 

Since the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) in Portland, Oregon, made a decision to initiate a community defense project in 2014, we thought long and hard about how to introduce our work to the community.  We of course had the Panthers front and center to our thought process, but we also had the benefit of other African organizations such as the Convention People's Party of Ghana and their positive action campaign.  We knew of the Democratic Party of Guinea and their local councils.  The Committees in Defense of the Revolution in Cuba.  The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee's door to door organizing model.  We discussed how the Panthers received criticism from the left for the breakfast program.  Even some inside of the Panther Party - Eldridge Cleaver in particular - were very critical of the breakfast program as a reformist and bourgeois element of the party's work.  We understood those critiques, but we felt that we had a revolutionary vision for the work we wanted to do.  We did our research.  We discovered that the New Columbia neighborhood in North Portland was a good fit for our focused work.  Since Oregon has a long history of racist policies that excluded and encouraged Africans to avoid living in this state, and these policies are continued today through the systematic land grab known as gentrification, we didn't have many options.  New Columbia is the highest concentration of African people in Oregon.  It has a high percentage of federally subsidized housing and all the other social identities that made it perfect for us to focus our work.  Our intention was to use the breakfast program as an entry into the neighborhood.  We would be able to meet people.  If we were consistent, we would win the respect of the community.  This would enable us to add other pieces of the work that would help us get to our ultimate goal - raising the political consciousness of the community to embrace our revolutionary Pan-African program and work.  Similar to the logic used by the Panthers, we felt that if we fed children that could serve as a socialist model for the community.  We could help people see that we as a community can take care of our own needs and we can build up the institutions that will  create self-sufficiency for our people.  We envisioned having parents and community people become involved with the breakfast program, take more active roles within it, and become stakeholders in the work.  We believed this would lead to more projects of a similar nature in that neighborhood.  This would continue to create collective self-determination, positive socialist ideals, and a positive sense of organization and African community.  Also, it would develop a positive perspective of the A-APRP which would help create the conditions for recruitment of people into the party.

After almost a year of maintaining the breakfast program twice a week, here are some thoughts on what we have experienced.  First, if the work is done e.g. going door to door, talking to people, letting them know we are there, and being consistent at being there, people will send their children to participate.  We currently serve approximately 100 meals per month.  Second, people in the community will provide material support for this type of work.  This is essential since in order for this work to be productive, it must remain independent and community based.  This means it cannot be overrun by the non-profit industrial complex.  No system steering grants for our program.  We will build it slowly, but surely.  That is and was our pledge.  So, the children come and they come often.  There have been major challenges.  There is the constant pressure on the coffee shop owner of the Columbia International Cup to meet the challenge of staying open in a low income neighborhood.  At this point, it's no stretch to say that the owner's commitment to providing services to the community are as much his priority as selling coffee.  For all the "buy Black" advocates who truly believe capitalism can be given a face lift, the Columbia Cup is a business, unlike most of them, that is well worth supporting since he is giving back to the community in a significant way.  Other challenges have been related to us making a ton of errors and when I say that, I place myself at the front of the list.  Errors in planning.  Errors in expectations.  Errors in handling problems with each other.  We've made a lot of mistakes.  Plus, the fact this is a new chapter for the A-APRP meaning people who have joined are often very new to political work, organizing work in particular.  They are often unprepared to meet the challenges of this work, especially that of a revolutionary independent nature.  The daily challenges of building relationships, working through problems, and staying focused and committed, often prove to daunting for many people.  A lot of folks come into the work with a bourgeois sense of how institutions are built and progress is made.  We are taught to see the finished product.  We don't understand the sweat, blood, and tears, that goes into producing anything worthwhile.  Plus, many of us see conflict as something to avoid at all costs and/or something to embrace as a religion instead of understanding conflict is simply a part of life.  If we don't learn how to work through it, we can't get stronger and make progress.  So, besides a couple of people, we have struggled to maintain and develop organizers to consistently do the work.  Most leave the minute there is a challenge.  That has impacted and delayed our ability to develop a consistent political education program for the children.

The good news is that even with just a couple of dedicated people, including one comrade, a sister of course, who gets up at 4:30 or 5am to ride her bike, regardless of the Oregon weather, to the breakfast program on a consistent basis, we have developed a core political education program so that we are focusing on the children's self esteem on Mondays, while providing them with information and education on Fridays.  Another positive is the consistency of support from community members.  There are a core of people who continue to provide food and monetary donations.  You know who you are.  We love you for your support!  There are others who provide ideological support through making sure we get coverage in alternative media sources that positively uplift the work.  This is inspiring for us because it shows that people are paying attention.  Finally, the excitement and energy of the children, who continue to show up, is the best reward.  The children show a commitment to what we are teaching them.  They remember the Akan greetings they learn and the historical examples we provide.  They participate in our discussions around women, organization, and history, with enthusiasm and hunger.  In fact, the children provide all the motivation we need to figure out ways to navigate around any of the the challenges we face.

After 10 months of struggling to maintain the program, as was stated, we are starting to institutionalize aspects of the program.  We are still looking for committed organizers who understand our Pan-African mission.  This has been another challenge because when you are faced with the children at 7am, you learn quickly that all the initial energy will need to be generated by you.  This has proven challenging for some who revert back to what they know, and this is usually not the revolutionary Pan-African ideology/analysis of the A-APRP.  So, we need and want people who have some sense of balance in their lives.  People who have the ability to understand that they are needed to shoulder a part of this work and make a contribution to it.  People who can follow through without being told to do so every time.  If we had all the wrinkles worked out, we wouldn't need you.  So, we continue to recruit.  We also will always need donations to supplement the extent to which we run the program out of our pockets.  This is stressful, but desirable at the end of the day because we are independent and only need answer to ourselves.  The other phases of our original community defense focus are coming together.  Many of the local parents, we hope and believe partially inspired by our example, have decided they want a Saturday school in New Columbia.  So, the parents have invited us to begin organizing with them to plan out the development of that project.  We are currently participating and helping build that next level of work in that community. 

So, the Panthers called the breakfast program "survival pending revolution", but we see pancakes and eggs as political education tools.  While the children are eating, we are talking to them about how columbite tantilite, or coltan, is the mineral ore needed to power the cell phones they are looking at along with the computers they spend much time working and playing on.  We have discussions about how coltan is stolen daily from Africa at a rate of $400 U.S.D. per day.  We explain that is true for rubber, diamonds, gold, cocoa, uranium, bauxite, etc. and this is the reason Africa remains poor and the masses of African people, including those living in New Columbia, remain poor and oppressed.  This is our message about why we need Pan-Africanism and we have observed that these children have absolutely no problem grasping all of that while they sip apple juice.  We hear the parents telling us that they want their children with us because we feed them better food and we value their children.  We delight in listening to parents express that our revolutionary socialist message is healthy and desirable for their children.  And don't think the enemy isn't noticing.  We have managed our way through a number of sabotage efforts and as we grow, those efforts will also grow, but we have paid close attention to the groundwork the Panthers have laid out for us.  We know that the best weapon against our enemies is the political education of our cadre and thus, our people.  That's why we don't want just anybody in the A-APRP right now.  We want the most dedicated, committed, and selfless people to do this work. We need people who don't expect us to do everything without errors because that's unrealistic.  We need persons with a level of maturity who can stomach our errors and work with us to eliminate them.  We want people who can pick themselves up and keep coming after being knocked down.  People who understand that the work isn't perfect and the people doing the work aren't perfect, but we won't stop supporting each other.  We won't stop trying.  Understand something.  We respect the example our elders have provided for us.  We are convinced that we are going to build and develop the organizers we need and more importantly, we are going to organize our people for revolutionary Pan-Africanism (one unified, socialist Africa), one waffle at a time.  



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PBS Can't Educate Us about Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party

2/17/2016

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Being completely uninspired after watching the PBS Special "The Black Panthers, the Vanguard of the Revolution" I thought about where my feelings of disgust are housed, and what work I can do to productively address them.  I thought about the several conversations I've had with people this last week (after Beyonce's Super Bowl performance) about the legacy of the Panthers and Malcolm X.  Then I contemplated how I have spent my entire adult life within a revolutionary Pan-African political party which has required me to seriously study the legacy of our African liberation movements, organizations, and individuals.  I've organized and participated in hundreds of such events. I've written endlessly about the concepts and most importantly, I've had the privilege of working with thousands of people from all backgrounds, in developing consciousness around these concepts, e.g. pushing people to get involved and dedicate their lives to the work that the Panthers and Malcolm shed their blood for.  The only importance in mentioning this work is it helps me to contrast that to the perspectives of the people I've talked to this last week.  Each and everyone of them is not involved in organizational work.  In fact, they never have been.  Their point of view, at least the one they are articulating, is based primarily on viewing mostly motion pictures like the Denzel Washington movie in which he portrayed Malcolm X.  For most of these people, watching a documentary like the Vanguard Panther one is a serious effort in study around the subject.  So, in spite of the fact these folks know I've written extensively about the Panthers, have met and even worked with several key Panther leaders, and been mentored by these Panthers, these well meaning people sincerely believe that their research of watching the Vanguard Panther documentary equals, or even surpasses, my understanding of the Panther Party.  The fact I belong to an organization that is operating a free breakfast program similar to the one the Panthers operated in the 60s means little to these folks.  They believe what they know about the Panthers to be sufficient and even higher level than anything else being talked about out here.

Now please understand that I'm not the least bit offended by this reality.  I understand that the purpose of bourgeois education in this capitalist society is specifically to create the type of confident misinformation that dominates.  My reason for bringing this up is due to the concern that I believe that the atmosphere that exists where serious study and organizational work is so devalued and discredited is a part of a larger context that is focused on creating a different narrative of our existence in this society, this capitalist society.  Since I know the only way to gain a proper understanding of the complex deception that serves as business as usual in this system is to be dedicated to studying and working seriously against it, I know it is virtually impossible to develop a reliable understanding of any anti-establishment formation like the Black Panthers unless you are engaging in a regular and independent study process around these concepts.  If you are not, than you really have no choice except to subconsciously accept the version of history provided by the capitalist/corporate backed foundations that fund all programming broadcast on PBS.  You can believe you have an independent analysis all you want, but unless you are participating in an independent process designed to sustain that analysis, how can you possibly possess it?  Believing you do is like believing you understand what socialism is without reading one book about socialism.

There's no question in my mind that the agenda of the power structure is to taint the image of the Black Panther Party.  The capitalists realize most people are relying on what they produce for their information so as always, they are primed to provide it.  If you even study the history of corporate foundations in public broadcasting, you will find that their focus on the African liberation struggle was fueled in large part by their desire to curb the militancy that contributed to over 100 cities being burned after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.  McGeorge Bundy, Richard Nixon, David Rockafeller, and other members of the national bourgeois, created an agenda centered around using the Chevron and Ford Foundations to use their influence on PBS to help shape the narratives of African people around our conditions in this country.  After 50 years of those efforts, they understand today that the people are inspired by socialist concepts and that the Panthers have done more than any other single organization in this society to capture the imagination of people around a radical, revolutionary, vision.  So, understanding they cannot stop people's interest in the Black Panthers, the capitalist system takes the next logical step, they seek to shape that image in their likeness.  How they do this is by providing an image that suggests that the Panthers made a valiant effort in a previous life, but most of them realized the incorrectness of their position and "mellowed" out like Bobby Seale and Bobby Rush.  Others who refused to be tamed, like Huey P. Newton and Fred Hampton, well, you see what happened to them.  So, the message at the end of the day is if you don't want to end up like Huey, Fred, Geronimo, Assata, and Bunchy, you better find a better way to express your outrage.  You better find a way that ends with a solution that respects capitalism because that's really all there is.  You know that don't you?

They slyly suggest in the documentary that Huey P. Newton was a maniac, even capturing and presenting - completely out of context - some former Panthers saying that very thing.  Although there is no question that Huey's behavior after coming out of jail was often destructive, and no one should ever try and make excuses for his abuses, there is no question that someone as important as Huey P. Newton deserves a comprehensive assessment of their life.  Such a life cannot be dismissed by simply pointing out his dysfunctions.  The capitalist system certainly knows how to do this because they have done it for all the people they want you to respect.  That's why the story they tell about George Washington is one of his leadership capabilities and courage.  They never present him as the thug and slave owner that he actually was.  They never tell you that Abe Lincoln was divorced multiple times and failed at business numerous times.  They don't depict Andrew Jackson as the butcher and maniac who murdered countless Indigenous people.  And none of these people did anything to aid the advancement of society, at least not the portions of society that matter to us, whereas Huey P. Newton was one of the most critical figures of the 20th century.  His decision to form an early organization that was fearless and dedicated to confronting police on the streets with weapons 50 years ago is still a mind blowing concept when you consider that police still shoot us down like rabbits today.  I think you can effectively argue that there would be no people on the streets battling police terrorism today without his courageous example.  His courage in being out front in this work and risking everything to represent our dignity helped inspire an entire generation.  And you will be hard pressed to find credible people who will not rave about Huey's brilliance and leadership capabilities in those early years of the Panthers.  Huey's demons and drug abuse clearly got the best of him as it does many people, but even that has to be assessed by weighing the pressures he was under.  He was one of the major targets of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI counterintelligence program and if you know anything about the insidious nature of that dirty work, you know that it took its toll on everyone it impacted and Huey would have been at the top of that list.  So, no excuses for his tragic behavior at the end, but that doesn't diminish his courageous behavior at the beginning and people need to know as much about that as anything else because were it not for that courageous behavior you wouldn't even know who Huey P. Newton was in the first place. 

The decision to focus so much attention on Eldridge Cleaver's leadership period in the Black Panther Party is also unfortunate.  Many of us who are students of Panther history consider the period after Huey's incarceration, when Eldridge took over, as the most damaging period the Party experienced.  His emphasis on confrontation with the state exposed the party and made cointelpro efforts much easier to implement.  His ill-advised decision to ambush police officers on April 6th, 1968 led to 17 year old Bobby Hutton being killed and a loss of credibility for the party.  And his behavior was as abusive, if not more so, than Huey's.  Clearly, no small group of people with guns is going to be enough to challenge the U.S. government and Eldridge's suggestion that it was is more indicative of his personal ego and desire for revenge against the state than it is of a serious revolutionary program.  Unfortunately, his leadership got people killed and his pandering to the racist Mormon Church upon his return to the U.S. in the mid 70s speaks more about his lack of political education and commitment to our people's liberation struggle than it does anything else.  I'm old enough and have been doing this work long enough to remember how his reactionary turn in the 80s was constantly used to discredit the militant struggle era of the 60s.  The continued consistency of people like Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Angela Davis ,and others was ignored to focus on Eldridge's circus behavior.  Its no wonder that this documentary ignored the contributions of people like Kwame Ture to the Black Panther Party.  I remember being forced to have many conversations about Eldridge during that time when he would come through town on one of his money begging speaking tours.  On one of those occasions, he was chased from the Sacramento State University campus in 1983 by an onslaught of eggs and tomatoes that interrupted his speech.  I can only tell you that 33 years later, I not only don't regret that, but I'm proud that statement was made.  To my knowledge, he never came back to Sacramento to speak, thank goodness!  We always have the right to protect the integrity of our struggle.

So, we don't need PBS to educate us about the Black Panther Party.  There's no way they would do it correctly anyway because it's not in their interests.  The last thing they want is to inspire revolutionary consciousness.  Plus, as I've said, I have a group that has read much more indepth and comprehensive materials about the Black Panthers.  And we read not just to have knowledge, but to use the examples the Panthers gave us to inspire us to continue doing the work.  Over the last several years or so, we've read "Assata" by Assata Shakur, "A Taste of Power" by Elaine Brown, "To Die for the People" and "Revolutionary Suicide" by Huey P. Newton, "Seize the Time" by Bobby Seale, "Ready for the Revolution" by Kwame Ture, and other related books by people like Flores Forbes, David Hilliard, Ward Churchell, Jim Vanderhill, and others.  This is the best way to learn about the Panthers and their legacy.  From the primary sources who participated in that work and struggle.  To not do that is akin to relying on people who don't know or even respect you to give a balanced perspective of your life to others.  That's what you are doing by using sources like the Vanguard Panther documentary as your primary tools to understand the Black Panther Party.  We already know from the lips of Sister Elaine Brown that much of what she said was purposely left out of this documentary.  That tells me all I need to know. 







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Focusing on Beyonce is like Blaming your Car for Where you End Up.

2/14/2016

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She's not a revolutionary organizer.  She's not even a reformist activist.  She's a maga-entertainer.  In fact, it's safe to say that were it not for the masses of Africans who have hit the streets mobilizing against oppression that she never would have been inspired to do anything speaking to our conditions.  That means I couldn't ever look towards Beyonce for any perspective around our political situation.  Is she exploiting the tragedy of Katrina?  Is she trivializing the Black Panther Party?  I can't say that she is, but I can say that the narrative and perspective around important historical phenomenon such as the Black Panther Party and the capitalist sabotage that caused the suffering in the Gulf Coast in 2005 should come from qualified sources.  And for us, those qualified sources are the activist/organizers who made the sacrifices as Black Panther members.  So many of those brave souls are still around and articulating their versions of that history.  And those who aren't have writings available to explore their thoughts on that dynamic era.  So, there is absolutely no reason that anyone who seriously wants to understand who the Panthers were and what they did should be looking at Beyonce or anyone like her for those answers.  The same applies for Katrina.  There are numerous activist/organizers who were on the ground during the aftermath of the flooding from Katrina.  There is a multitude of written analysis around the government's coalition with private business interests and how those relationships facilitated the slow response to help the suffering people.  And, how that response was tied to an economic benefit for those who had a vested interest in driving the primarily African and poor population out of New Orleans.  So, why are people so focused on what Beyonce has to say about it?

Could it be that our consciousness and sense of value and validation is so conditioned by the values of the capitalist system that we subconsciously base what we hold dear on what the system tells us is important?  Beyonce is someone who has achieved material success within the capitalist system.  Quiet as its kept in activist circles, this is really the goal many of us have at the core of even our expressed anger at the system e.g. it's refusal to let us in.  So, under this premise, we grow to have respect for people like Beyonce because the ability to achieve success in capitalism is viewed as the criteria for relevance.  So, we view her performance at the Super Bowl and her song and video through an individualistic vision.  This last part is also a subtle manifestation of capitalism.  We relate to Beyonce as one person who decided to do what she did so therefore, we approach our praise and/or criticism of the performance based on her as an individual.  This happens because in capitalism we learn early, and have it reinforced 24/7 for the rest of our lives, that history is made by individuals.  So under this dysfunctional and unscientific perspective, the entire history of the Black Power movement of the 1960s can be viewed through the performance of a commercial entertainer.  And the millions of people who are interpreting this crucial history through this very limited vision, are doing so without even the slightest understanding of the real life experiences of the actual people who lived through that work.  Since we see things through individualist lenses, we don't see ourselves as the people making history.  That is something done by other individuals.  So, since we don't see ourselves as the makers of history, we are not prepared to defend our history against those who come to distort it.  Thus, I've heard a number of soft headed people this week refer to the Panthers as terrorists and promoters of violence without producing even the slightest shred of proof.  That's not the point.  I don't expect them to provide proof.  They have a different agenda.  What's of concern is our people don't even challenge them and many of us parrot their ridiculous version of our history.  If we are thinking in a healthy way, several basic questions should always arise when these rats come for us.  When and where did the Panthers engage in violent behavior?   Besides the one unfortunate incident where Lil Bobby Hutton was murdered, all the documented police shootouts against the Panthers e.g. Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, etc., were clearly instigated by the police.  This is true knowing that the police raided dozens of Panther offices and over three dozen Panthers were killed.  Even the intra-Panther violence can easily be traced to the instigation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and their carefully coordinated counter intelligence program against the Panthers in particular and African liberation organizations in general.  

It's clear that our energies are misdirected by focusing on Beyonce.  Instead, what is much more productive is for us to consider that it is the masses of people, not individuals - not even the ones who possess star power - who make history.  Beyonce didn't generate a single thing.  What she did was interpret our history through foggy lenses.  The Black Panther Party and our people who faced the horrible conditions from Katrina with dignity, provided what she worked with, albet in her own dysfunctional way.  So, we are the actual creators of our culture which those two examples illustrate continues to be one of resistance and courage against the capitalist oppression we face on a daily basis.  Beyonce is first and foremost about advancing her career.  In her business oriented vision, coming out with something "controversial" like the Panthers, police terrorism, Katrina suffering, etc., would contribute towards her artistic expressions, which of course, helps her career.  I can say this because she's not advocating people to join organizations and do work to liberate our people so I have to conclude that her career is the motivation for her actions.  The logical conclusion to that statement is if she thinks doing performances about pro-Americanism can have the same impact on her career, and she doesn't perceive a public backlash from her core African fans, she would do it.  And, that's the point we are missing.  We as the people control the direction of our culture.  Beyonce is simply a conduit for our experiences.  So, blaming, crediting, or otherwise making her the center of any expression of our people's resistance is the same as crediting/blaming your car for where you end up going.  

We are divided and dis-organized as a people and this is why our entertainers are with us one day and against us the next.  The solution here is for us to get better organized as a people.  If we do this, there is no question that the entertainers will be forced to fall in line.  Its not a question of artistic expression.  It's a question of what we want as a people because if the entertainers want our material support, they will put out what we want.  The fact that we as a people don't create and embrace the narrative of what the Panthers mean to us, it allows Beyonce and the series of propaganda pimps who have come out this week to sneak and create their own impression around this question.  What we need is for people to get directly involved.  There are far too many Face Book and Twitter revolutionaries.  Hardcore militants who can say whatever you want behind your keyboards without having to deal with the real challenges that face people who do real organizing.  This is harmful to us because while we are hiding behind our keyboards, we are not getting the real experience of organizing people.  As a result, we are not learning how to work through adversity.  That's why for many of us, the minute there is a problem, the only way we know how to respond is to attack each other.  The minute we have an issue, we are out the door.  This happens this way because actual revolutionary organizing, the type of work the Black Panthers did on a daily basis, requires much more than the keyboard revolutionaries are even remotely prepared to offer.  But, its the true dedication to working with people and building capacity that will create the type of consciousness and accountability that forces the Beyonce's of the world to think long and hard before they put anything out because they will understand they are not just individuals who can say what they want about us.  They are conduits of a proud and respected history.  There are plenty of examples of this type of artist.  Nina Simone.  Mariam Makeba.  Fela Kuti.  Steel Pulse.  Public Enemy, etc.  These folks understood they are a part of the people.  They are a part of the movement.  It isn't just something to highlight today and forget tomorrow.  So, instead of us talking so much about Beyonce, what she did, why she did it, what she missed, etc.  Why not talk about what we are doing to create mechanisms for us to move forward collectively as a people?  If we begin to seriously do that, the Beyonces will step into their proper role of using creativity to express the work we are doing in ways that will further advance it.  If we truly care about our future, and aren't just trying to find ways to compromise with oppression, that's the work we will continue to build.



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Stop Trying to Compare the Black Panther Party to your Terrorist Ku Klux Klan

2/11/2016

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Kent Ford with children during 1968 Black Panther Party free breakfast program in Portland, Oregon.
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Your's truly and comrade Jamilah with children during All African People's Revolutionary Party free breakfast program in 2016 in Portland, Oregon. Homage to the Panthers
The confusion and misinformation around this topic is so rampant that it certainly is intentional.  Let's start by saying nothing against Ms. Beyonce, but her Super Bowl performance hardly gets credit for "making the Black Panthers popular again."  For the masses of African people, the Panthers were already popular.  Actually, since we know the masses of people make history, not individuals, it is the people's undeniable thirst for justice which created the conditions that pushed and inspired Ms. Beyonce to present as she did in the first place.  Anyone who has a clear vision of history knows this, so we will use history to debunk this stupid, dishonest, and ongoing attempt to try and confuse people by comparing the glorious history of the Black  Panther Party with the terrorist and racist history of the Ku Klux Klan.  

First, the record must be cleared up as to how the Black Panther Party (BPP) originally came into existence.  The party actually started in Lowndes County Alabama in 1965.  The Student Non-Violent Committee (SNCC), working to challenge the racist hegemony in Lowndes County, gathered there to organize to help the African population empower themselves.  Lowndes County at the time was so racist that not one African had been able to successfully register to vote.  In fact, the violence against any Africans who tried was so rampant and unchecked that the people in the county and around Alabama called Lowndes County "bloody Lowndes."  This reality, coupled with the fact 80% of the African population in the county were unable to read and write, created the pathway for the SNCC organizers to make their contribution.  Descending upon Lowndes County, and led by Kwame Ture (formally Stokely Carmichael), SNCC engaged in an extremely dangerous and courageous mission to organize the masses of Africans in Lowndes County to reject the racist Democratic and Republican Parties by forming their own independent political party.  This party was called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO).  Since most of the people could not read it was necessary to create a visual symbol to familiarize the people with the new party and thus the picture of a black panther was chosen and from that point on, the LCFO was more popularly known as the Black Panther Party.  In order to properly protect the people from the violence of the terrorist KKK in that county, the decision was made by SNCC organizers to arm the members of the party who engaged in the voter registration work.  That meant voting in elections where the Black Panthers was participating required a highly visible and determined armed presence.  This is how the concept of an armed Black Panther Party was created and it was also some of the most important and impacting work carried out by SNCC.  Young people from all over the country came to Alabama during this time to support the SNCC efforts with the LCFO.  A young man from Oakland, California, named Mark Comfort was one of those young people.  As  it turned out, he was actually a friend of Huey P. Newton.  Comfort returned to Oakland from Lowndes County and told Newton about "these Black folks in Alabama who had an armed Black Panther Party" and Newton, inspired by the idea, decided to write SNCC and ask permission to use the symbol for the organization he would launch in October of 1966.  The  early years, pre-drug addicted Huey P. Newton was an honest and courageous organizer.  There is absolutely no question about that.  So, its no surprise that he admits this Black Panther history in his very own autobiography; "Revolutionary Suicide."

The Oakland formed Black Panther Party, which Kwame Ture came to play a critical role in helping expand once he started working with them in 1967, grew to have chapters in several states throughout the U.S.  Although most people connect the Oakland formed Panthers to the guns, black berets, and leather jackets that came to symbolize them from 1966 through 1971, their legacy is as much tied to their community building work such as the nationally coordinated free breakfast, free food, health care, and community schools programs.  Probably, their most important legacy, which isn't discussed hardly at all, is the dignity they provided to our people by standing up against oppression in a militant and uncompromising way, thus showing many of us that doing so is possible.  Still, the Panthers history is a complex one which requires intensive study and analysis.  I've had the privilege of meeting and talking to some of the most respected  and/or experienced Panthers such as Assata Shakur, Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), Elaine Brown, and of course, Kwame Ture who I worked with repeatedly.  All of them expressed a desire to see the Panthers studied and not idealized as is often done today.  The lack of systematic political education in the party and the extent to which the government worked to sabotage the Panthers (both of which worked hand in hand) are issues where the surface has only been scratched at this point.  In spite of that, it must be stated loudly and clearly that the BPP was an organization that contributed so much to the African community and to other communities as well.  Their work to build alliances and to spread a message of revolutionary solidarity is credited by the Indigenous community in helping launch the American Indian Movement in 1968, the Puerto Rican Young Lords around that same time, and the poor European Patriot Party as well.  Other groups like the Brown Berets also speak to that legacy.  Absent from any honest assessment of the Panthers is any violence against white communities.  In fact, above and beyond all the wonderful work the Panthers did to feed, clothe, and provide dignity and respect to African people by standing up against terrorist police agencies, the only documented instance where anyone European (white) was injured in any confrontation with the Panthers was the shooting and killing of Oakland police officer John Frey in October of 1967.  In that incident, its clear a struggle occurred between Frey, his partner who was injured also, and Huey P. Newton, who was also injured after the car he and Gene McKinney was traveling in was pulled over by the two policemen who each had a history of abuse against people in the African community.  Although the circumstances of what happened that night were cloudy enough to cause Newton's jail sentence to be commuted after three years, whatever happened there clearly cannot be classified as anything directed against the white community.  If anything, the legitimacy of why Newton's car was pulled over in the first place remains in question and the evidence suggests that Frey was killed by his partner's gun in a fracas that resulted from Newton's efforts to defend himself from abuse.  This lone and very questionable event hardly qualifies as anything adverse against the image of the Black Panther Party compared to the long bloody history of the Ku Klux Klan.  Founded specifically as an instrument to terrorize the African community, the klan, founded in part in Tennessee by Nathan Bedford in the 1868, was in his words formed to control the African masses.  With Africans being recently freed from slavery, the masses of white working class people were being manipulated by the developing capitalist elites to view the emancipated Africans as a threat to the security of white working people to maintain their jobs (the very same backward tactic the ruling classes are using against white working people today, stoking flames of fear against the Indigenous immigrant labor coming into the country).  So, from it's inception, the klan was about terror against the Africans.  Pulling membership from insecure white workers and slave patrol participants bent on protecting the financial interests of the plantation industry (these are the wonderful people who went on to form the nation's first police departments), their tactic was always going to be one of violence and terror to intimidate the African masses into submission.  From the 1870s onward to present day, the KKK has been about terror.  Often operating clandestinely within police departments (still a popular tactic they use today), the klan carried out acts of brutal terror against Africans for everything from moving into a nice house, interacting with Europeans on any level, to trying to exercise their rights, to just being somewhere at a certain period of time.  The numbers are impossible to narrow down to an exact figure, simply because the method in which the system sanctioned and protected klan members from accountability for their terror makes it impossible to resolve much of the violence they carry out.  An example of this is their murder of the three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964.  While searching for the bodies, SNCC and Congress of Racial Equality persons actually found the corpses of other missing Africans who had clearly been murdered and many Africans in the South can tell you similar stories.  These poor people's stories, who number in the thousands, has never been told and probably never will be.  What we do know is literary thousands upon thousands of persons have been murdered by KKK violence and the terror which has been inflicted on African people still burns in the psyche of the African masses even today for many people who have never seen an actual white sheet or cross burned.  This speaks to the legacy of this violent and terrorist organization.  It also speaks to the degree in which the klan's existence lives just outside the line of mainstream American society.  Or, as an elder once stated to me "the KKK is for the Africans who live outside the African community because the police take care of us who live in the communities."  This explains better than anything else why there is such a continued and concerted effort to justify the KKK's existence today and to minimize the impact of their terror and violence against so many people.  The klan has always been America's trump card against an African population that has never ceased to resist it's oppression.

So, these are just some of the reasons why dishonest persons are attempting to whitewash the brutality and terrorism of the KKK by trying to confuse so many of you into thinking there is no difference between the klan and the Black Panthers.  It must be understood and acknowledged that there is nothing coming out of the African, Indigenous, and every other community combined that even hints at a comparison to the KKK.  No violence.  No terrorism.  No intimidation.  Nothing.  The Panthers were inclusive and positive in their efforts to confront injustice.  The KKK is violent and intolerant in their efforts to control and terrorize our people.  Even the methods in which the government uses to deal with each organization is completely different.  Since the Panthers were about challenging the status quo of oppression against the African masses, the government targeted them for destruction and did everything they could to discredit, imprison, and murder Black Panther leaders/members.  On the other hand, klan members are often police members and are therefore protected by police agencies.  This explains why the murderers of the four little girls in the Birmingham church, Medgar Evers, the three civil rights workers, etc., were protected and permitted to live their lives in peace for many years although everyone in those communities knew exactly who had carried out those heinous acts.  It also explains why police murderers are protected the same way today.  And finally, it also sheds light on why the same people who are violently protesting a simple homage to the Black Panthers at a stupid football game spectacle are also the same types of people who support terrorist police without question or shame.  

So, fight back when you hear these stupid comparisons being made.  The Panthers are a shining star on the image of a racist country that oppresses African people as policy.  A much more accurate comparison, as I've suggested several times here, is the KKK and police agencies across the country.  Each entity is about control.  Each entity is about repression of the African masses and all other people fighting against oppression.  Each entity relies on the loyalty of the confused white working class masses.  And each entity is being used by the ruling capitalist elites to do its dirty work.  Your enemies will never tell your history correctly.  So, understand that its intentional that the "Selma" movie completely leaves out SNCC's contributions in Lowndes County.  Understand that you can expect the enemy to continue to attempt to assault the legacy of the Black Panther Party.  The party wasn't perfect.  The trauma and pressure experienced by Huey P. Newton during his imprisonment, and after his release, certainly led to his unstable behavior during the 70s, and 80s.  Look for our enemies to exploit every effort possible to attempt to discredit him, and thus the entire BPP, based on his unfortunate individual acts long after the party ceased to be a relevant organization.  Even still, remain strong in knowing that Huey's courage in founding and leading the Panthers in their early years, and the Panthers as a whole, cannot ever be discredited and they certainly cannot ever be compared to the grisly and violent KKK.  The people attempting to do that do not have the interests of justice and African people in mind.  Understand that and make a decision to study Panther history for yourself.  Without casting any statement and/or judgment upon the group(s) calling themselves the New Black Panther Party, you should be quite clear that this group is completely separate from the BPP from the 60s who the strong legacy in question represents.  Know all of this and stand up and teach our youth as we do.  If we do this, it won't matter what confusion our enemies attempt to spread.  This type of dignity is truly the lesson we should learn from the Black Panther Party.
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Who Cares what White America thinks about Beyonce's Performance?

2/8/2016

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FOX?  Rudy Guiliani?  Police agencies and unions?  Europeans (white) who support police?  They're all upset at Beyonce for her Halftime performance during the Super Bowl yesterday and for her video for her new song "Formations."  Let's say this in as clear terms as possible.  I know Africans on three continents and the Caribbean and I don't know a single one who gives one rip what any of those people think about how our people choose to express ourselves.  In fact, in our journey to deconstruct 500+ years of terrorism, I'm pleased to announce that I'm witnessing us getting quite good at caring as much about what people like that think about us as they care about what we think about them.  People like Guiliani, FOX News, police agencies, and all their supporters have provided an impressive resume of documentation proving their contempt and lack of respect for African people.  So, spar us with concern about their opinions about us.

As for Beyonce, I'm not a follower of her music per say.  I'm not simply because I just prefer more of an old school approach to music and performances.  I have actually seen her perform in person when I caught her act at the 2005 Essence Festival in New Orleans.  She has a great voice, is an outstanding dancer, and is clearly a very creative genius, but I still listen to Chaka Khan and Denise Williams, so Beyonce, and those from her generation, are just not my preference.  What's important is being able to assess Beyonce's Super Bowl performance within the context of Sekou Ture when he said culture is the sum total of people's experiences and is the method people utilize to define their legacy.  So, that means that culture belongs to the masses of people.  Translation; the cultural artist doesn't influence the masses of people, the masses of people influence the artist.  So, Beyonce's decision to use the biggest stage in the world to display an African women only presentation of suggested militancy with respectful tributes to the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X (the woman dancing into an X formation) is a reflection of the people's desire to see these images.  And make no mistake about it, there are many people who do want to see those images and this number is growing as we speak.  The capitalist power structure, always on alert to subvert any efforts to wake up the struggling masses, is always going to respond adversely to any statement made that challenges their hegemony.  Especially a statement made in their arena (no play on words intended).  So, the voices of European anger at Beyonce's work is nothing more than the expected backlash that is present whenever African people dare make any type of statement that isn't validated and controlled by the capitalist and white supremacist power structure.

African people are clearly under no obligation to show respect to police agencies because police agencies routinely show disrespect towards us.  Respect is a mutual thing.  You have to give it to get it.  And, we will never get respect from police because this entire system is based on the theft and exploitation of African people and the role of police is to serve as security guards for the capitalist system.  So, this is the reason police behave in ways that are so consistently against African people.  It's not personal.  It's not about singling out this one cop from another.  It's about the system's oppression of the African masses who, having this system built and maintained on our backs, represent the biggest threat to the safety and security of this system.  That's why the police will always do their work - which is to make sure we are repressed.  It's also why the propaganda mechanisms of the capitalist system e.g. people like Guiliani, FOX News, and the multitudes of white masses who mistakenly choose to ally themselves with the capitalist system against the African masses, will always waste no time in speaking out against any effort African people make to challenge the backwardness of this system. So, Beyonce is to be commended for her song, her performance, and for her video, but she is only doing what she should always do and what any African artist should be doing.  That's using their cultural skills to inspire and advance the position of the masses of African people.  When we properly understand this, we will know that this is really the purpose of having cultural artists and the fact that it is us who provide them with the resources to have material comforts is more the reason that they should be accountable to producing art that has messages that raise us up.  Since artists producing positive, inspiring, and status quo challenging art is a signal that the masses are waking up, we should expect the attacks.  As for us, we should reward our artists when they represent us properly by supporting that positive work meaning "Formations" is one of those songs we should support if it's message is what's being displayed in the video and during the performance.  In fact, any artist that dares challenge the system with their work deserves our full support.  This is the only way they will develop the capacity to continue to make uplifting work because if all you want to buy is "back that thang up" than that's all we can expect to receive from our artists.  As for the hatez, this is also a good thing.  The more they react, the more we know we are building capacity to win.
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Respect Every Person who Alleges Rape like they are your Daughter

2/5/2016

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I've wanted to write about this topic for a while now because I've been outraged by the blatant ignorance, arrogance, and insensitivity displayed by patriarchy influenced men and women against women who are sexual assault survivors.  What has me angered is how judgmental these folks are being about how some women react to rape trauma.  My frame of reference as a heterosexual man is the trauma I experienced at the age of 14 when three thirty-something European (white) men in San Francisco decided to take out their racist anger and frustration on me.  The result is I was beaten at a bus stop and hospitalized for three days.  The physical pain from that attack dissipated after a period of time, but the emotional trauma, I still live with today, forty years later.  I still remember clearly the numbness I felt from being pelted with the n word by those men repeatedly while they did their best to end my life.  The contempt that coated the way they kept saying that word to me couldn't have been any worse if I had killed their mother(s).  They used it so many times while inflicting harm upon my body that I still flinch today when I hear the word.  And that's whether someone near me uses it, I hear it in a song or movie, or if I just anticipate that I'm going to hear it.  In fact, the word for me came to symbolize the attack which is why all you apologists for the word may as well be speaking Mandarin Chinese to me when you try and justify it's usage.  The second jolting reference I retain from that day is the fact the attack occurred at a major public transit center where there were at least 20 people present at the time I was attacked.  All adults.  People with children who would have been my age at the time.  All of them European.  Everyone was staring at me being brutalized, but no one moved to help me.  No one even said a word in my defense.  At least not one I could hear.  That experience instilled a deep seated distrust of European people in my mind that caused me to recoil whenever a large group of them generated a loud response.  Like at sporting events or concerts.  It was not until a few short years ago that I was able to effectively move past that element of my trauma.

I'm not a woman.  I'm not transgender.  Although my physical presence today is one many people would characterize as imposing, and as a result, I don't typically have to deal with anyone attempting to harass me ever, I continue to understand the feeling of being attacked and traumatized.  Being dehumanized.  I also know that when those terrible things happen you don't always react right away.  And, everyone reacts differently.  Your brain acts to protect your emotional stability and often that means blocking out the trauma of the events from your subconscious mind.  I'm no trained psychiatrist, but I know from my experience that without parents who were equipped to support me on the emotional level that I needed after that attack, I had no one to talk to about the life changing experience I suffered that day.  So, my mind did what it was qualified to do.  It told me that something like that only happens to people for a reason.  And since my parents, bless their souls and sincere efforts, couldn't help me realize I was a victim, and what that meant, I concluded that the best response was for me to bury my feelings about the attack.  So, I never talked about it.  I never thought about it.  At least not consciously.  In spite of the fact my left eye was permanently damaged from the attack, I didn't disclose that to anyone for 30 years.  For a long time, I even tried lying to eye doctors about it until one doctor who cared enough decided to challenge question whatever story I made up to explain why my eye was challenged to focus properly.  That was my way of dealing with it.  So, don't tell me that just because women aren't coming out and accusing someone like Bill Cosby in a period of time that you deem appropriate that this represents proof that they are lying.  If you knew anything about how people deal with trauma, you would know better than to say stupid things like that.  And my experience didn't and doesn't contain any of the stigma that rape survivors carry.  There is still a large segment of this backward society who believe it isn't even possible for women to be raped because in the minds of these folks, women are basically objects for men's sexual pleasure.  On some warped and dysfunctional level, you can find some variant of this belief structure in scores of women and men in this world.  In other words, the burden of proof on rape is always on women.  This is even more so the case when they are accusing a celebrity.  A well respected celebrity.  The odds against them are going to be overwhelming.  Their entire sexual history, not just whatever happened between them and the accused, but every sexual encounter they have ever experienced, will be subject to public scrutiny.  

The other part that angers me is how dishonest people are.  If the rape survivor is your daughter, wife, friend, sister, mother, etc., you know damn well that you wouldn't permit anyone to place anything close to the scrutiny and shame on them that you place on women you don't know.  So stop being such shameful hypocrites.  And on a related note, people need to learn just the basic rudimentary aspects of rape before the spouting out occurs.  People like Damon Wayans look extremely stupid making statements like someone is not attractive enough to be raped.  Rape is a violent crime of power and domination.  Rape occurs using body parts, all types of body parts, as well as non-body weapons.  Common rape survivors are 85 year old women.  The bodies of dead people are raped.  Babies are raped.  Animals are raped.  So, blow up the vision that rape is a case of a guy being turned on sexually.  Get this through your heads   Rape is not a crime of physical attraction.  It's a crime of violence, intimidation, and domination.  Period.  So, start treating every person who says they were raped the same way you would treat your daughter if she makes that accusation.  This is important because if we want a community based upon justice, we have to create a system where celebrities and other people of privilege are held accountable the same way everyday people are held accountable. 

I am a strong and confident man who loves and respects myself.  Consequently, I have love for all people who have a desire to see a just world.  That means women, including transgender women, and everyone who fits the criteria I expressed about justice.  So, that means that anyone who commits rape, anyone who justifies rape in any way, here is a word of warning.  Our movement is weak today, but that will not be the case forever.  Right now these people may think their biggest problem is escaping terrorist police, but one day they will be running to the police in order to escape the wrath of an organized community that will no longer tolerate this nonsense. 
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It's February.  Stop Running African People.  Proudly Claim our History!!

2/1/2016

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It's February, 2016.  That means for all 53 years of my existence up to this point I and every other logically thinking person has been subjected to this annual stupidity.  Every year, the most ignorant and destructive elements of this society make every attempt to revive the tired argument that there is no need to celebrate African (Black) History Month.  They say there's no need to have such a celebration because it's discriminatory towards non-Africans (read Europeans).  It's divisive.  It serves no purpose.  In recent years the forces of reaction are even recruiting the most dimwitted of the slave plantation negroes to parrot their sickness for them.  We have no concern about the forces of reaction e.g. the European bourgeois represented by the capitalist elite and their spokespersons within the demopublican establishment and all the appendages of so-called media that serves as their mouthpieces.  For anyone with their eyes even slightly open, these people have done everything in their power to confirm their status as the enemies of African humanity so we are about as concerned for what they think about our views as they are about what we think of theirs.  Our interest is based solely on the misinformed public, especially the African masses, who lacking a clear revolutionary Pan-African analysis (our fault, not theirs), are often swayed into swishing around the talking points of our enemies at best, and accepting some of their logic at worst. 

Our enemies, and let us be clear - the capitalist system and everyone who attempts to represent it are enemies of our people and humanity - would have you believe that we live in some sort of "post-race" society where there is no need to even talk about injustice against African people, not to mention wasting time educating about the history of this backward country.  They even have the audacity to suggest that it is us who are the racists because we refuse to buy into their corrupt paradox of lies and confusion.  My stomach knotted up with nausea at listening to such ignorant "people" such as Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, etc. and the rest of the little rascals using sacred words like "reparations, slavery, and oppression" to dismiss and disrespect the daily suffering of the African masses.  Little rascals indeed in the areas of intellect, honesty, and integrity.  

There is absolutely no logical and feasible method in existence that can intellectually refute clear historical facts.  Nine out of 10 people in the U.S. today couldn't name 10% of the countries in Africa.  Couldn't speak five words from any language spoken in Africa.  Couldn't even name five languages spoken in Africa.  Are incapable of naming five foods eaten in Africa and God help them if they had to name five Ethnic Groups from anywhere in Africa.  This is astounding enough because this country is pretty much the only place on the planet where people are that unquestionably ignorant about the land base that contains some of the oldest civilizations recorded.  And the thing that makes this ignorance so incredible is that approximately 50 million inhabitants within this country descend from Africa because the wealth and history of this country is drenched in the blood of  colonialism and African slavery.  And, that's just the tip of the ignorance iceberg.  Those same 90% couldn't give you two cohesive sentences of who the people were who were here before 1492, five languages those people spoke, and probably any of the foods they ate outside of maybe fry bread.  Although these same folks probably couldn't tell you too much more about Europe, if anything, that doesn't have anywhere near the same impact because even in just mentioning Germany, Britain, France, Italy, etc., there is prestige, respect, and an understanding, even without details, that those places represent culture and civilization.  This doesn't exist for Africa and pre-1492 Americas because the agenda of manifest destiny and colonial domination to finance the development of capitalism required the 500+ year lie to remain in tact.  We weren't worth learning about because there was nothing worthy to learn.  This lie was the only way the masses of Europeans could be lulled into accepting the lie of white supremacy so they would support continued capitalist domination of our people's today.  That's why they tolerate state sanctioned murder against us.  Blatant disrespect and miss-education of our children in substandard schools.  Mass incarceration of our women and men in the face of clear indiscriminate sentencing.  And, daily disrespect and dehumanization against us. And us?  We have basically accepted their version of history too, at least on some levels.  That is the only thing that can explain why so many of us tolerate such injustice right?  In fact, its a fair statement to say a significant percentage of us are not even really interested in destroying white supremacy.  Some of us just simply want a place where we can exist peacefully within it. 

We can easily go on and on, but you get the point.  Anyone who fixes their mouth confidently to suggest studying African history is no longer needed is either a complete fool, a tool of the capitalist power structure, or probably a combination of the two.  But no problem.  Regardless of what the animals continue to preach, we can assure you, we will continue to educate our babies of the truth.  This is nothing except an empire.  A criminal enterprise built on the backs of our people and a whole lot of other people too.  And the beauty of it is we can teach them that simply by exposing them to the simple truth.  The foundation of this capitalist economy was built on the seed money accumulated by enslaving our ancestors.  Even your multi-national corporations like Barclays, Lloyds, Lehmen Brothers, J.P. Morgan Chase, Aetna, etc., have all had to admit that.  They didn't work hard.  They robbed, stole, and murdered to get on top and they remain on top today by continuing to support a system built on the same bloody principles.  This is why the children of Ghana speak correctly when they exclaim "when you eat chocolate, you eat our skin" to attempt to inform you of the cruelty of the cocoa industry. 

So, African History Month is here to stay.  Actually, for those of us who do this work, there is no African History Month, because that's every day.  We just look forward to February because the things we do and talk about every day are much more palatable to the people we want to reach who are primed to hear it in February.  So every day is not only African History, it's African Liberation Day.  To us, there is absolutely no doubt about this and really, we know that is true also for our enemies.  That's why they try so hard to quiet and marginalize us.  This is all we need to know to keep doing exactly what we are doing.

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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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