You are the Makers of History!
  • Home
  • More Historic Pictures!
  • Books
  • Hit Us Up
  • Blog
  • Coming Events
  • Videos
  • Donations

Gun Control is needed for the Police/Military.  We need Political Ed.

2/25/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Its appropriate that we start this piece by quoting two giants who's great contributions to African liberation also advanced the overall struggle for human progress.  Kwame Ture, formally Stokely Carmichael, was fond of saying that "capitalism will make that which makes sense seem strange while making that which should be strange appear normal."  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. un-apologetically accused the U.S. of being "the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet Earth!"

Both quotes are central to this so-called debate raging within the U.S. about guns, who should have them, and whether preventing people from having easier access to them will make people safer.  First, to Dr. King's point.  We realize that U.S. propaganda is among the strongest in the world.  We also know that the ruling classes write the history of the societies they oppress.  So, it should surprise no one that the U.S. narrative that this country is a free and democratic country where if you work hard enough, everyone's dreams can and will come true is a lie that's believed by people on every continent on the planet.  Christians within the U.S. are taught from birth to believe that this country is blessed by God, above and beyond any other country, and people from outside the U.S. are also taught, and believe, this nonsense.  And, today, in this so-called free and democratic society, whenever you express a view that challenges that narrative, there are plenty of people who are going to feel completely comfortable questioning your sanity, despite the fact those people will have absolutely no intellectual basis to challenge your position.  If those people challenging you bothered to do even some cursory research of U.S. history, any of them with even an ounce of logic would have to accept that the entire narrative they believe and promote isn't true, has never been true, and can never be true.  

Without question, the U.S. was born on the most brutal, vicious, and terrorist violence known to human history.  Every descendant of the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere; that means Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc., are a clear reminder that their ancestors were systemically and violently wiped out by the terrorists that are officially titled "the founding fathers."  Every descendant of Africa is a reminder that the wealth of this nation was built on the backs of our ancestors and the maintenance of that wealth results directly from the continued exploitation of the African continent. Every women is a reminder that patriarchy is the floor plan of this backward society. And, every descendant of Europe is a reminder that working class White people continue to be pimped and exploited by the super rich to serve as shock troops and pawns for a ruling class agenda.  That is the real U.S.  If you know this true history, then you couldn't possibly be surprised that gun violence is a problem in this country today because you would know that it always has been a problem.  And, anytime you steal something, and murder people to protect your theft, you are going to forever be looking over your shoulder.  That's why people feel so attached to guns in this society.  They know the U.S. stands on a very unstable foundation.  And, the super rich have programmed White people to believe to their core that at any moment, the Indians will attack them (not the ruling classes) so they should always stay prepared to circle their wagons.  White people are also regularly programmed to think that at any moment, the enslaved Africans will revolt and attempt to slit their throats (not the necks of the ruling classes) and burn this plantation down.  These are the actual reasons the Second Amendment, as quiet as its kept, was pushed through in the first place.  It was always centered around oppressing our people and making sure white people had the guns to do it.  

Instead of understanding those truths, most white people in the U.S. who believe in gun rights today deny the deep white supremacist fears that guide their emotional dependence upon guns.  Instead, they argue that they have a right to guns so they can protect themselves from the tyranny of the U.S. government.  That's laughable to us African revolutionaries.  These entitled white people have never in their lives raised a finger to challenge U.S. tyranny.  In fact, they are the first ones to jump up to defend it while they have historically opposed our legitimate efforts to challenge it.  And, even if they did challenge it, as we hope one day they can get their heads out of the sand to do, the issue isn't one of them being able to have or not have access to buying guns.  It certainly isn't "law abiding people" having guns as opposed to "criminals" having access to them.  That's nothing except another fantasy argument put out there by the capitalist ruling classes to keep white people looking at us as the problem (or who they need to protect themselves from) instead of the rulers who cause their suffering in the first place.  

Clearly, there can be no serious question of gun control without centering that question around the guns and weapons controlled and operated by the state e.g. the government.  The U.S. government has more weapons than every other government on Earth.  That is an ill refutable fact.  And, that U.S. government has used those weapons against everyone on Earth.  That's another ill refutable fact.  The U.S. has killed millions of Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Panamanians, Libyans, Iraqis, Afghanis, Congolese, Angolans, as well as thousands of people each year who live in this country.  This is again, ill refutable.  If you asked the average person in the U.S. which nation is more violently oppressive against its people; the U.S. or Cuba, most people wouldn't hesitate in telling you Cuba. Even many so-called "progressive" thinkers in this country would struggle to properly answer this question.  If you actually compare U.S. police with Cuban police, U.S. police kill thousands of people every year.  Many of those people are unarmed and a disproportionate number of them brown people, Trans people, and people with mental illness.  Cuban police have only killed a few hundred people in 59 years since the revolution came to power.  Just for the record, records of U.S. police murders haven't been adequately tracked since 1959, but even the most conservative estimates would have to say at least 20,000 to 30,000 people have been killed by U.S. police during that 59 year time period.  High estimates would be as many as 60,000.  For Cuban police during the same time period, its no more than about 400 deaths.  Although most people may not have data, people generally understand these contradictions I'm pointing out.  That's why most people today in the U.S., don't trust the U.S. government, especially police agencies, military, etc.  And, the best testimony to the corruption activity inside of the U.S. military is those who have served within it.  So, with this backdrop, there's no question why people resist any idea of disarming themselves while the U.S. government continues to proliferate weapons of destruction against humanity.

That's not to say that the solution is people stockpiling guns.  That is without question not the solution.  People accumulating guns is without question a problem today because of the extremely low level of consciousness in the U.S. today.  Disproportionately, youth and people who live their lives with no interaction with guns at all, are the ones who suffer from gun violence in this society.  To stop this, what's needed is mass political education where people can begin to understand this true history of where this country actually came from, where this country is going, and why if you aren't a part of the super rich, you should separate yourself from that picture and start building something better.  Since this government is determined to insure its political and economic interests stay unhindered, unlike revolutionary Cuba, this political education isn't going to come from this backward capitalist country.  So, the only way we are going to have this mass political education is if we get the masses of people to become involved in independent revolutionary organizations and efforts that include a mass political education program.  Political education cannot happen on an individual basis, although we know that many of you apparently hold the naive belief that it can.  All one has to do is look at how ineffective this approach has been to see clearly that is a fantasy.  Our problem is the majority of people are not involved in any organization.  No process to organize their communities, their neighborhoods, not even their households.  You can see the problems with this clearly just by looking at your social media channels.  Whenever something happens, people react and are all over the place.  This is the manifestation of a disorganized society.  If we had mass organization, which would naturally have to include mass political education, then we would organize people, with and without guns.  That way, we could help people understand on a mass level that the purpose of their guns isn't for them to use against the most oppressed segments of society, but to organize to use them against their oppressors.  This is what the U.S. government is really afraid of.  And, this is the real discussion we should be having.  Not mental illness and/or whether you and I should have certain types of guns while no one is questioning why billions of our tax dollars are spent on neutron bombs that kill people, but leave buildings intact.  That gets to Kwame Ture's quote.  In this society today, its normal to pay for bombs to kill thousands of people.  Its normal for normally reasonable people to see no problem with denying schools funding to buy paper and pencils for students while then turning around in a day and having a knee jerk reaction that all teachers should have guns.  Let's break that down quickly.  In a school of 100 students, you can't afford pencils for all of them which would cost about $30.00, but the next day you want to buy Sig Sauer 9 millimeter pistols for them which will cost about $20,000.00.  That's just an example of Kwame's point of how insane people in this country are when again, no one is even mentioning the billions spent on military hardware to do what to whom?  Police hardware to do what to whom?

Gun control that isn't about disarming the state is another propaganda scam.  The issue isn't how many guns people have, its how politically ignorant the people are who have them.  If we had mass political education, people wouldn't even see the need to have 30 guns when they are so confused about why they need them in the first place.  The mass proliferation of guns is simply the result of living in a capitalist consumer society where everyone is guided by values of fear, where self esteem is determined based on possessions.  Where toxic male masculinity is permitted to operate unchecked.  All of this is addressed through educating your people.  When we do that, the value of people becomes dominant, unlike this society where people are viewed as commodities (thus making it easier to kill them).  When people value people, when people are humanized, instead of dehumanized, it becomes much more difficult to kill them in the nonchalant way we have become accustomed to seeing here today.  Plus, with mass political education, people are educated not only on how to value people, but how to work with people through difficult conditions.  Show me a person who is against organization and I'll show you a person who's organizing skills e.g. how to work with people through difficulty, are limited to non-existent because anyone with strong organizing skills knows this is our only solution.  Organization and mass political education creates a greater ability to resolve problems collectively and patiently.  Conflicts are de-escalated and reduced, thus decreasing the chances of violence and definitely decreasing people seeing the need to even have gun stockpiles in the first place.  In African societies, if an argument breaks out on the street, people are likely to get involved and the collective values and consciousness intervenes so that the person misbehaving is held accountable by everyone.  This means people who don't even know this person.  When myself and A-APRP organizers took a bus from Accra, Ghana, to Takaradi, Ghana, one of our cadre members, Baba Seku, changed seats on the bus to talk to one of the other organizers.  When the bus started to pull out, all the people on the bus yelled out to the bus driver because people thought Baba Seku was being left behind.  These people didn't know him.  They just have a high level of humanity that is completely absent within the U.S.  This is the type of collective consciousness that mass political education brings to a society and obviously, its this type of consciousness that creates true safety for all of us.  

So, start telling your white gun owning relatives, friends, etc., that they can't claim they need guns to protect themselves from government tyranny while they support this government's tyranny against everyone else who isn't them.  And, stop telling brown people not to have guns.  While we are literally being shot down like dogs on the street by everyone who wakes up frustrated because of their own pathetic lives, we need to get organized to address that oppression by any means necessary and available to us.  And, let's start telling everyone that the issue isn't bourgeois "right versus left."  The question is the people protecting themselves against the oppressive state and organizing themselves to create a society based on justice and forward progress for all living entities.  Until this is our priority, you will keep seeing mass shootings because mass shootings in the capitalist U.S. are as American as apple pie.

​
0 Comments

Can I Explain to You why Wakanda Triggers me So Much?

2/21/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
I saw the "Black Panther" movie on opening night last Friday.  I wrote a critical review of the movie, complete with spoiler alert, on Saturday morning and posted it on this blog.  Since Saturday, e.g. five days, almost 17,000 people have read or at least clicked on that article.  That's not even close to a record for readers for a blog article on this site, but its clearly the high mark for any article I've posted that centers Africa and African people particularly.  And, that fact is a pathway in understanding why that movie, despite its visual spender and excellence, continues to bother the you know what out of me.

Many of those 17,000 people had critical things to say to me in response to my critique of the movie.  I'm a revolutionary Pan-African political organizer and I've been one for a long, long time.  So, please don't miss what I'm saying.  I'm definitely not thin skinned.  Criticism is an essential and necessary part of the work I do and although its not always fun, I do accept and look forward to hearing sincere criticism because that shows me people care and want to see us do better.  In fact, we use criticism/self criticism as a major tool in our Pan-Africanist work.  And, because of my practice using it, that's what irritates me about much of what I've gotten back regarding my movie critique.  

If people had responded by offering counter ideological/philosophical arguments to the points I raised, I wouldn't have minded a bit.  I would have read their critiques and I would have done what I always do when I receive a balanced critique.  I would have thrown it around in my head until I figured out a way to concretely address it.  What's been irritating about the critiques of the last five days is there have been no well thought out and balanced assessment of my movie review or any of the critiques I've seen from my like minded comrade family members.  Instead, what I've seen is people saying our critiques aren't valid because I miss-named cast in the movie.  Are you serious?  That's the best you can do?  That's like me dismissing a doctor's correct diagnosis of my illness because he mistakenly called me by the wrong name once.  In other words that's absurd you'll.  I'm no popular culture expert.  If these people haven't done anything to contribute to our people's struggle for liberation, I probably have no clue who they are.  Just like most of you can't name 10 organizations who have struggled for our liberation on a militant and independent basis.  That irritates me.

I'm also ticked that a movie is made that is based on even a fictional Africa.  And, said movie has at its core a character who challenges the necessity to utilize Africa's vast mineral wealth to advance African people forward.  Yet, that character is portrayed as a person who says the right things, but behaves in a ruthless and inhumane way towards his own people.  This is the worst form of subtle movement murder because it sends the message that revolutionaries always talk good, but never follow through with behavior that's any different than that displayed by our oppressors.  Therefore, there's no reason to follow a revolutionary model because at the end of the day, it won't be any different than what we are dealing with today.  I'm irritated because this is a common theme in Hollywood movies.  Last year's "Selma" weaved in the same trickery, displaying Malcolm X as an intruding, arrogant, and egotistical person who only wanted to advance his personal resume by intruding on Dr. Martin Luther King's brave and selfless work.  It makes me remember the first movie I ever say about Martin Luther King in my youth.  That movie I believe starred Paul Winfield as King and Marc Anthony Williams as Malcolm X (for all you Hollywood purists out there, my names may not be entirely correct here either).  The Malcolm character in that movie was displayed as a bloodthirsty anti-white and insecure person.  And that movie was made in 1977 so don't tell me I'm imagining things when Killmonger's role in "Black Panther" triggers me.  In the course of over three decades of organizing my people, I have dealt with this dismissal and lack of trust in my politics from people on a regular basis and if you pay attention to the propaganda coming from these movies I'm telling you about, you can understand where a lot of this has been coming from.  Its all very irritating to me.

I'm irritated that an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is given a positive role in this movie.  This is the same agency that murdered Patrice Lumumba  in the Congo, Africa's most realistic mirror of Wakanda in real life.  After brutally overseeing the murder of Lumumba, the CIA did everything in its power to completely destabilize the Congo.  The CIA staged and oversaw the illegitimate overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah's government in Ghana in 1966, making sure to institutionalize lies about his government as its primary method of turning people against his governance.  They also staged overthrows of the Keito government in Mali in 1968 and were it not for Cuba's brave and selfless sacrifice in the 80s (something you nick pick critics of Cuba today truly have no understanding about), the CIA would have successfully contributed to making all of Southern Africa a racist apartheid haven.  The CIA continues to play a significant role in facilitating the continued neo-colonial dominance in Africa today.  From the assassination of Thomas Sankara in 1987 to the murderous and criminal overthrow of Qaddafi and the Libyan Jamihiriya in 2011, to the development of dozens of U.S. military bases in Africa to subvert mass resistance today, the CIA continues to do its thing in making sure Africa is ripe for the picking by imperialism while our people suffer as a result of their efforts.  With all that happening, I'm irritated as hell that so many of our people would champion a movie that portrays a CIA agent as a hero.  Amazing that we could do that and amazing that people clearly don't see what their agenda is here.

Finally, the most irritating thing of all is listening to so many of our people talking about "blackness."  What the hell is "blackness" anyway?  "Black Panther" and everything else that reflects our culture, is a manifestation of our relationship, good, bad, ignorant, indifferent, to Africa, period.  "Blackness", whatever that is, has very little to do with it.  Its our political, cultural, economic, social, and spiritual relationship to our mother Africa.  The only reason we are talking about "blackness" is because our slave master has disconnected us from our mother so we are crying over the pacifier (blackness) because we don't know where our mother is (Africa).  You can be mad about that.  You can deny it.  You can refuse to discuss it, but you will never be able to refute it, period.  And, just the fact that so many of you Africans, who want nothing to do with Africa in your every day lives, have felt completely comfortable attacking those of us who defend Africa when we see her misrepresented as this movie does, illustrates in a dysfunctional way just how African you really are.  Whether you know it or not.  Because otherwise, you would have absolutely no reason to care what we thought about this movie.  The fact that you do tells you more about yourselves than you are probably ready to realize.  And that last part I'm not irritated about at all.  Nope. Because all of that reaffirms for me that us crazy folks who talk about Africa 24/7/365 are actually winning after all.

​
1 Comment

Spoiler Alert: A Critical Review/Analysis of the Black Panther Movie

2/17/2018

7 Comments

 
Picture
I remember a great deal of anticipation within African communities in the U.S. when Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" movie was released in the fall of 1992, but with the presence of social media today, that buzz 26 years ago was nothing compared to the excitement being generated by Marvel's "Black Panther" movie.  "Black Panther" is opening this weekend to sold out theaters everywhere.  Like lots of people, I grew up idolizing and reading the "Black Panther" comic book in the 1970s and he was my favorite Avenger when reading that particular comic title.  Still, I've thought a lot in recent weeks about why people are so excited about this movie?  Clearly I'm involved, aware, and extremely active and supportive of my people's struggle for liberation and justice, yet I've wondered why people seem to be creating some sort of symbiotic bond between our people's struggle for justice and this fantasy Hollywood movie?  

I've concluded that part of this phenomenon is based in the strong image based appeal the movie has for our people.  Africans are used to seeing our people portrayed in all forms of media as buffoonish, and lacking character and especially dignity.  So, within that context, its not hard to understand the appeal of a movie that portrays plenty of strong, dignified, African people, living in Africa.  Its these types of images that the suffering souls of the ancestors living within our consciousness cry out for everyday.  And, "Black Panther" certainly had those images to offer.  Beautiful, intelligent, courageous, and confident African women.  Courageous, disciplined, and thoughtful African men.  A functioning and organized African society.  From church to school to television and movies, the message has been reinforced for us since birth that all of these conditions are not possible for our people.  That all we are capable of is chaos, death, and destruction.  So, for a people starving for dignity, the visual presentation of this movie is an injection of much needed adrenaline.

The other side of the equation is that for decades, Hollywood, California, U.S. has been, and continues to be, the primary conduit of imagery for the entire world.  The largest movie producing industry on the planet exists in Hollywood.  As a result, every country I've been too, and I've been to dozens of countries, not only has plenty of Hollywood films as a part of its daily dose to its people, but many countries have also set up their own movie industries based on the Hollywood model.  This is an important point because one of Hollywood's primary purposes is to serve as the primary education tool for millions of people e.g. what to believe, what not to believe, and how to see the world.  Most people are not engaging in regular and serious study of world events so their fundamental perspective of important affairs like the civil rights movement of the U.S., Africa, women's rights, LGBTQ communities, history, etc., are being shaped by what they see on television, movies, etc.  Forces who are interested in using the entertainment medium to shape public opinion, like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for example, have long been aware of this reality.  During the Black power and anti-war in Vietnam era of the late 1960s and early 70s, the mood and perspective towards military and police within the U.S. was predominantly negative.  The FBI engaged in extensive research around this issue and determined that the best way to change this was to use Hollywood to re-frame the images of police and the armed forces.  These efforts resulted in the FBI pushing for massive funding for television series like "Dragnet" and "Adam 12" which followed "The Untouchables" as television series that cast police and FBI as heroes.  Today, movies depicting military and police bravery are everywhere and this plays a significant role in how people see these entities.  You don't think that awful movie "American Sniper" wasn't an effective propaganda tool in humanizing U.S. troops who kill innocent people overseas while furthering the continued dehumanization of the people the U.S. is fighting in these unjust wars?  How many people do you know who watch movies like that compared to reading books on the political history of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.?

So, the "Black Panther" movie has to be seen as a part of the massive effort from Hollywood to craft images and shape consciousness.  That's why its important that we talk about the subtle and extremely damaging elements of this very visually satisfying movie.  The first major issue is the portrayal of Michael B. Jordan's character.  He is portrayed as the long lost cousin to "T'Challa" the Black Panther who was played by Chadwick Bozeman.  Jordan's character was born and raised in Oakland, California.  He grows up without parents and experiences life as many young African men experience it in this society which is built and maintained on our oppression.  As a result, he grows to learn his cultural ties to the fictional African country of "Wakanda" where the Black Panther comes from.  Jordan's mission is to go back to Wakanda and stage a coup against the King Black Panther so that Wakanda's minerally rich wealth can be used - the character's words - to "free up millions of people on Earth who look like me and you!"  This position is of course the classic Pan-Africanist position.  Africa is the richest place on earth as it relates to mineral wealth while Africans are the poorest people on earth.  This dichotomy exists because Africa's rich resources are not controlled by African people.  They are controlled by multi-national corporate interests that bleed the continent dry.  Meanwhile, African people exist everywhere on earth as non-producers.  So, the vision expressed by Jordan's character is only articulating what African nationalists and Pan-Africanists have been saying for centuries.  The problem is Hollywood's consistent trick of suggesting that any African who takes an uncompromising position against our oppression has to be either crazy in the head or just simply not a good person.  The very insidious suggestion is that the capitalist system, despite its flaws, is still the very best thing that Africans could ever hope for, so anyone who suggests otherwise is insane and cannot be trusted.  Anyone who has been active in revolutionary and African nationalist politics knows this is the sentiment we battle in our people's perceptions of us and our politics everyday.  So, we know how to recognize it when the Jordan character, articulating this need for African self-determination, is portrayed as a bloodthirsty and brutal person.  Because the inference is that although he says he wants these liberation goals, as articulated by his character in the end of the movie when challenged by the Black Panther during their final duel, he's really coming from a place of anger.  He doesn't have a vision of justice at all.  Just revenge for what was taken from him on a personal level.  He has no plan for African liberation.  He actually doesn't even really possess any integrity and values because if he did, he couldn't and wouldn't work with racist white mercenaries, as he does in the movie, to get back to Wakanda.  This is an often and very tired refrain of African militancy.  It comes from a place of anger and a desire for personal power and violence.  This backward and dysfunctional depiction of our militant struggle for justice was carried out very skillfully in the "Black Panther" movie.

Also, The Wakandan people have extensive mineral wealth and they have used this wealth in the movie to develop their society on a technological level that not only exceeds the rest of Africa, but the entire world.  The suggestion by Jordan's demented character (the dysfunctional revolutionary of course) is that this wealth needs to be used to advance Africa and African people as a whole.  This again is the general concept of Pan-Africanism in a very broad sense, but the movie's subtle reaction to this is to have the people of Wakanda declare nationalism for Wakanda, not Pan-Africanism for Africa.  The outstanding general of Wakanda, played magnificently by Leticia Wright, declares this in clear terms when she states that she is loyal to the country and the king's throne.  This entire element of the film is a subtle nod to U.S. nationalism and Africa's micro nationalism which each stand on the long discredited concept that "I got mine, you need to get yours" which would be ok if the conditions were level, but you got yours - as was articulated by Jordan's dysfunctional revolutionary character - "by stealing from my ancestors" so there can be no you steal to your hearts content and then once you use my wealth to establish your empire, then, we need to start talking about me having to earn my way through you.  This type of limited and extremely reactionary nationalism is the problem for African people not the solution.  From African countries fighting each other over trivial colonialist terms to Bloods and Crips fighting over false pride and land space they don't own, this type of false nationalism displayed by Wakanda in the movie is not for us, yet the movie presents it as something we should all strive for.  And, most damaging, at the end of the day, the movie's subtle suggestion is that African liberation is a good idea, but a dream that of course, can never actually happen.  I won't even discuss the insane concept portrayed in the movie of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent being some type of hero to Africa.  The CIA has blood on its hands for tragedy in Africa's past, current conditions, and future.

Finally, the portrayal of strong women leading the military, facilitating the world's cutting edge technological advancements, of course will seem overwhelmingly positive for a people starving for dignity, but at best, like much of what this movie has to offer, this is token advancement at best.  At the climax of the movie, its still the masculine men, through the epic battle between the Black Panther and Jordan's character, or the strange tribe of all men who rescues the women warriors, the same patriarchal messages come up supreme, that men are the rulers of society.

Now, this lack of dignity thing for African people makes it so we lash out for any sign of dignity we think we can covet.  As a result, many people who just don't have the time and capacity to develop an analytical perspective on things like this are going to be upset at this piece because they want to stay in that realm of enjoying the visual strengths of this movie.  I've already seen several references to not criticizing the movie.  To just enjoy what it brings us, but an oppressed people can never relax in analyzing the conditions around them.  An oppressed people can never afford to "let stuff slide."  These subtle messages are breaking away at our people's ability to see our own vision by suggesting to us how we need to see ourselves and our struggle.  And, those messages are not coming from us.  They are being directed at us because even if we are confused, Hollywood understands that its primary responsibility is to uphold the capitalist system that it is the propaganda arm for.  So, enjoy "Black Panther", but understand what is actually being presented.  The messages are overwhelmingly anti-African liberation and anti-Pan-African.  The ending of the movie is essential in making this point.  T'Challa traveling with his technological genius sister played brilliantly by Lupita Nyong'o, end up in Oakland, California, to engage the community where the cousin - the dysfunctional revolutionary played by Jordan - grew up.  T'Challa decides to buy some buildings there and develop some sort of community center where he enlists his genius sister to develop the technological program for the center.  When the "Wakandans" make a space ship appear, the children playing basketball stop to marvel at the vessel.  One of the children asks T'Challa if the ship is his and who he is.  This is one of the most telling parts of the movie to me.  Clearly, the only reason Africans from the continent would travel to a U.S. ghetto would be to make a connection with their long lost people there.  Even the most ignorant and vehement racist would be able to understand the logic of that.  Yet, in this scene, instead of providing the most logical answer for the situation, which would be something like "I am your brother, family, etc." T'Challa smiles and says nothing.  This is how the movie ends and its fitting for such a massive Hollywood propaganda film.  You oppressed Africans can talk about liberation all you want.  You can come to our Hollywood movie dressed in African outfits and other forms of cultural warfare against your oppression.  You can even organize programs before, during, and after the movie.  But, at the end of it all, you will not be organizing yourselves collectively to seize back the minerals we are stealing.  You will not be gaining control over your lives.  You will not be breaking down the barriers that keep you divided and keeps us on top.  The best you will get is a good feeling when you leave this theater and maybe some basic reform program for a few of you in some ghetto.  But, at the end of it all, we thank you for your ticket and we must excuse ourselves.  We have a trip to the bank to make.






7 Comments

Proof We are Winning:  Racists Don't Even have Swagger Anymore

2/11/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
If you are reading this blog, then you already know that without being modest, I bring the heat in this column.  Most so-called analysis within the capitalist paradigm today is basically the same type of thing e.g. this system is the best that there is and any problems that exist can only possibly be resolved within a capitalist context, if they need to be fixed at all.  You will get none of that neo-liberalism here.  No apologies and/or excuses for capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, none of it.  

If you know anything about any of those backward ideologies and practices, then you know that taking up a militant position against those things, as I do consistently here, is going to win you plenty of support, but also more than enough hatred.  I get more than my share of the latter.  Hate mail, threats, insults, you name it.  None of it bothers me much.  I know that Frederick Douglas was correct when he said power concedes nothing without a demand.  I've been upsetting racists for over three decades now and as a result, I've received a lot of negative attention from them for all that time.  In the 80s, that was nasty letters in the mail, notes on my door, and prank phone calls.  Today, with the internet and social media, its the onslaught of keyboard warriors.  The differences I've observed over the years represents the evidence in my mind of how much the quality of the racists making these attacks is steadily diminishing.  This isn't to say that these people today are any less dangerous and anyone who tries to glean that out of what I'm writing here doesn't know much about me or my work.  

Anyone who exposes racist ideology is dangerous. If for no other reason, but because the ideas they express are harmful to large segments of humanity.  People have suffered immensely from white supremacy.  The negative effects of this oppression lingers within communities for centuries in what scholars are calling "generational trauma."  What that means is the African descendants of slavery and colonialism still suffer severe psychological damage as a result of that oppressive institution and the fact many racists today either deny the impacts of slavery, some even suggesting slavery was good for African people, exacerbates this problem even more.  The same can be said for the descendants of the Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere and those who suffered during the holocaust in Europe.  All of this is compounded even more by the fact this suffering didn't wither away as some of these racists try so hard to suggest.  These systems of oppression are still operating with full impunity today, everyday.  Consequently, just the suggestion that this oppression is non-existent causes a trigger effect for oppressed communities.  Even if the people advancing the oppression denial, or the fallacious argument that Europeans are somehow more oppressed than brown people, are doing nothing more than making those verbal claims (meaning they aren't physically acting out against oppressed communities in any way), they're still very dangerous and what they are doing has a strong impact on oppressed people.  And, since we don't know who is just a keyboard warrior and who is the next Dylan Roof (killed nine African church worshipers in South Carolina in 2015), or Lucas Traini (shot several African immigrants last week in Italy), for most of us, the trauma of even a social media threat is real and extremely upsetting.

I'm coming at this from the vantage point of someone who has not only received these threats, etc, for a long time, but someone who has encountered, confronted, and engaged white supremacists for an equal amount of time.  So, I'm not someone who is going to get bent out of shape because some raggedy racist calls me the n word or threatens to do me bodily harm.  Been there and done that.  This is the reason I can tell you something definitely has changed.  I attended Fresno City College in Fresno, California, U.S. in 1980.  I was the president of the Pan-African Student Union there on campus.  Along with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MECHA), and the Native American Student Alliance, we pushed to block a racist concert from taking place at Ratcliff Stadium which was the college's sports facility.  The concert, was slated to be a racist celebration against Iran because the Iranian students had seized the embassy in Tehran, Iran, and held dozens of U.S. people hostage, as a part of Iran's revolution and protest against the U.S. puppet Shah of Iran regime which was being overthrown by the Islamic revolution at that time.  I was chosen as our spokesperson and I did several newspaper and television interviews denouncing the racist concert where the KKK was hired to serve in full white sheet regalia as turnstile security for the event.  Even today, no one is going to call Fresno, California, U.S., a hotbed of progressive ideas so you can just imagine what it was like almost 40 years ago.  I was bombarded with racist threats, notes on my door, and my car.  I was stopped on the streets there often and constantly harassed and threatened.  I had to physically defend myself several times during that period.  And even though I had to eventually move out of my apartment and seek refuge from some of my African comrades with a huge assist from the Indigenous community surrounding MECHA, the response from the white supremacists was the expectation.  That if you received a threat, the people who issued it would follow through.  And, people who I eventually encountered on a physical level made it quite clear to me that they were the ones who had made the threat(s) once we made physical contact.  Besides that, as disgraceful and stupid as these people and their ideas were, I at least respected the fact that they believed themselves and they were honest about it.  They were still cowards, as they have always been, but if they could get you outnumbered, they loved to preach about how inferior to them we were.  Today, these weak willed racists won't even admit that they are racist scum.  They try to couch their racism in this newly evolved belief that its white people who are being oppressed because there's African History Month and they don't have a designated month for white people.  I was snickering about this yesterday when I checked out of a hotel that had a monument in the lobby commemorating the people who had "built up this region."  These were of course Europeans who came here and invaded, stole, robbed, and murdered, but capitalist history dismisses all of that truth and calls them pioneers.  We all know these types of lying displays of history are everywhere in these settler colonies, thus eliminating the stupid argument that white people need their own designated history month.  Yet, these people today continue to make that claim.  And, when they make it, if you are able to respond with logic and history, they don't even have a legible response lined up.  This is overwhelmingly disappointing.  I mean, all you have to do to even quiet these people down is to challenge them on their intellectual knowledge of institutional racism.  Just name a few books and accuse them of never reading anything.  Since your accusation about their lack of reading is always accurate, the air leaks out of their balloons faster than it takes for a cop to pull a gun on a brown person.  Two years ago, I had one white man challenge me on line about an article I wrote on Che Guevara.  He told me he was going to come and see me.  I told him the schedule of my appearances is always on the very site he was looking at with my blog.  To this idiots credit, he did show up at my next workshop, but he didn't even have the courage to reveal himself to me.  In fact, the only reason I knew he was there was because some of the local organizers who had usually been the targets of his harassment notified me who he was.  Once I knew that, I tailored my entire presentation to weave in the contributions of Commandante Guevara and I took special note to shred the lies the imperialist media has told about Guevara and the Cuban revolution that this man (as well as many so-called progressive and revolutionary white people) are operating under.  After the event, I got absolutely nothing from this man who would "come to see me."

This cowardly element is not new.  Racists have always been that way.  What's new is they used to at least have some level of honesty about their hatred.  Now, they try to rationalize their racist beliefs with false intellectualism.  And, that's sad for them because they are clearly demonstrating that intellectualism is not their strong point.  Based on the ignorant statements they regularly make, and you can gauge this from the ignorant redneck from the rural Southern U.S. all the way up to the top levels of imperialist governments, these people haven't read one account of analytical history on anything.  This idiot Richard Spencer, the so-called "leader" of the so-called "alt-right" is a clear example here.  Even an intellectual lightweight like Roland Martin was able to trip up this racist idiot with simple historical points about the civil war and the role of Africans during that period.  This white men knew nothing about this, yet his entire position is built on his ignorant arguments from that period.  And, the fact he is raking in cash hand over foot to expound on his stupidity while those of us who can present strong and analytical arguments about what's wrong and what must be done cannot even motivate anyone to pay us gas money to come and present our arguments is a prime example of what white supremacy and privilege looks like.  And, so much for so-called white allies calling for people to listen to people of color.  I guess they only mean that when they don't actually have to do anything to ensure we are listened to.  But, I digress.

If you are in a relationship with someone and you call them out on something and they can't produce a cogent argument to defend themselves so they start making up things, we all know that people do that when they are desperate.  As it relates to white supremacists today, they exhibit that level of desperation all day, everyday.  As they should.  Now, for those of you who aren't actively involved in liberation work (that means you aren't doing organizational work because you can't do this work as an individual).  Many of you folks may have a hard time understanding the logic of this piece, but my soldiers who are doing serious organizational battle with other comrades everyday know what I'm saying here.  With the method in which they are advancing their weak position, these racists are demonstrating to us everyday that they are losing confidence in their abilities to maintain and support this oppressive system they love so much.  If you are doing this work against them, you should see this as a clear sign of the impact you are having on the stability of their backward system.  You should recognize that as a victory.  Let's keep it up.  We've practically got these fools writing fictional documentaries of history to attempt to uphold their mountains of lies.  What this should show you is its just a matter of time before it all comes tumbling down.




0 Comments

Unlike Many, Our Respect for the Black Panthers goes Beyond Talk

2/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
PictureTop picture is Brother Kent Ford of the Portland Black Panther Party at the free breakfast program in 1968/69. Bottom picture is myself and Comrade/Sister Jamiliah Bourdan at the All African People's Revolutionary Party free breakfast program in Portland in 2016
In 1969, Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton said "a lot of people talk about a free breakfast program for children.  We started one!"  Chairman Fred's comment was a poignant one.  Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) used to say all the time that if people aren't consistent, you don't have to deal with them.  This is a significant problem within the African liberation movement and all movements for justice.  Plenty of people talk an outstanding game, but there is usually very little to no follow up on anything.  As a result, what you get left with is hot air talk much of the time.  This is a sad reality that the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) has placed much emphasis on changing.  The way the A-APRP does this is by training its organizers in strong organizing techniques.  And, anyone who knows even the slightest thing about organizing work (not to be confused with mobilizing work - which is a completely different thing) knows that follow up is a key ingredient to successful organizing. 

​In 2013, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., I started talking to the people I was working with to start an A-APRP chapter in Oregon about the need for us to initiate a project that would boost up our community there.  The people I was working with at that time would always nod agreement, but I knew none of them had any real organizing experience and most of them really didn't see doing much beyond talking.

Still, I knew that Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton was correct when he said the people need "observation and participation."  Also, I had my ancestors within our Pan-African movement guiding my spirit.  So, with the help of a few of the new recruits circulating at that time, by the end of 2014, I believed I had convinced a couple of people to help organize an African only community meeting to present the plan I had crafted e.g. engaging the African community with a project aimed around organizing for self-determination.  I had done my research.  I had determined that the neighborhood where I wanted to center our work consisted of the area of Portland that had the highest concentration of African people (19% in a state that is only 2% African).  That neighborhood had the highest number of immigrants from Africa.  The highest percentage of people where English was a second language.  And, the lowest number of high school graduates and highest number of police calls in the city.  My plan; build community capacity to build a conscious zone where the people could solve their own problems without having state sanctioned terrorists known as police involved.  The African only meeting, held on December 22nd, 2014, in Portland, attracted almost 100 African activists and community members.  We presented our case for the work in the neighborhood.  We broke people into groups.  We had discussions.  And, we accepted input on our plan.  The verdict was that the people wanted a program that reached out to children, but they didn't want the same tired ineffective non-profit model.  They wanted something in the spirit of the Black Panther Party.  The idea made sense.  If we feed children like the Panthers did, we felt the children and the parents, would be very willing to listen to our political message that all Black people are really Africans and belong to the African nation and that until Africa is free, no African anywhere will be free.  After finding out that a good friend was concurrently opening a coffee shop in the very neighborhood we were targeting, I had a series of meetings with him about us being able to use his space for our free breakfast program.  He immediately agreed and then our preparations began.

I was able to initiate a series of meetings with some of Portland's best anarchists - not the mouth first variety that are everywhere in the Pacific Northwest.  I'm talking about people who understand the principled way in which European activists should support independent African liberation work.  These anarchists raised money for us, promised us regular food deliveries, and stayed out of our way.  I also worked with several African organizations in an effort to solicit their support.  This was an ongoing process.  Then the real work started.

In February and March of 2015 we went to work attempting to inform the community in question of our intentions.  We created flyers informing of the need for us to organize ourselves and that we were going to be there to help.  I conducted a canvassing training one Saturday, and we proceeded to start knocking on doors and signing up children to participate in our free breakfast program.  There were many problems.  And, I mean many, many, problems.  There were people who we had to ask to leave our organization because of their unprincipled behaviors.  Tons of time, energy, and emotions were spent around these traumas.  And, if you don't recognize the consistent trend of backbreaking organizational contradictions always appearing right when your work is about to reach its highest potential, then I have a seminar on cointelpro that you need to attend.  For two days per week, we consistently fed those children.  Dozens of them at a time.  Sometimes we would have plenty of food.  Often, I and others had to go to the store that morning to get things to cook.  Community support was outstanding, especially from those anarchists as well as friends from the newly organized Marilyn Buck Abolitionist Collective.  And, despite the many challenges, the constant physical presence of Portland Black Panther chapter founder Kent Ford at our breakfast program was a constant reminder to me of why I needed to wake up at 5am.  Why I needed to take time to prepare creative and innovative curriculum for the youth, and why we needed to keep the program alive.

Every week for a year we did keep that program alive.  There were additional canvassing sessions.  There were certainly additional contradictions and problems, especially with our own people.  Still, we persevered.  And, for an entire year, we held that breakfast program together until some issues with the property management company forced the coffee shop to close.  That didn't stop us though.  I remember a very cold Sunday morning in May of 2016 when I walked up and down Lombard Street in North Portland.  All I had was clipping of our work from the local media in a folder.  I was searching for a replacement center.  I found the Abbey Arts Center located in a church on Lombard.  I ended up talking to Sister Karen Ward who ran the church/community center.  By the time I left the facility that day, that wonderful woman had entrusted me with the key to their multi-purpose room and kitchen.  This led to our decision to evolve the breakfast program into an independent Pan-African school.  We tried our best to bring some of those other African organizations into this effort with us, but there was more drama and that coalition never materialized, but we did emerge with the School of African Roots (SOAR - even the name with that coalition group was a challenge to agree upon).  Although I'm in Portland no more, SOAR and the A-APRP still exist there and are still struggling to fight and organize for our people.  

Despite all the difficulty with this work, my experience was overwhelmingly positive.  There are the organizers who trusted my vision to the point where they got up at 4am and caught buses to try and help out with the program.  One organizer rode her bike every time to participate, even when it was 20 degrees out.  And, the children came.  Sometimes two or three.  Sometimes 20 to 30, but they came.  And, they still come to SOAR.  And, we will keep fighting to move forward with SOAR as we do with all our projects around the world.

I have pointed out several of the steps to bring about this work.  I did that not to bring attention to my personal role in the work.  If I wanted personal attention, believe me, I could think of much more effective ways to get it that would exclude all the trauma.  My point was to demonstrate the painstaking day to day work it takes to initiate and maintain a program like that.  And, to do that requires extensive follow up, patience, and determination, the hallmarks of effective organizing work.  If you have any understanding and appreciation of the Black Panther Party, then you know this is the example they provided to us.  We can never repay them.  We can never bring back Chairman Fred or Geronimo.  We cannot undo the trauma Assata experienced.  We cannot bring back Bunchy or John or Lil Bobby.  We cannot give Mutulu or Sundiata, or any of our heroes their lives back.  The only concrete way we can demonstrate our appreciation for what the Panthers sacrificed for us is to continue their shining example.  You can criticize our efforts to do that, but one thing is clear, our sincere efforts at demonstrating our commitment gives us a much better understanding and respect for what the Panthers gave.  Something all those people who came to meetings and took up so much space (but, never were willing to follow up with anything, even to the low level point of at least telling us they weren't going to do anything so reaching out to them further was useless) cannot possibly understand.

If we truly want liberation, all of this work is what's required to get it. And, if you aren't willing to do it, resign yourself to just being a blow hard.  We already know that about you.  Meanwhile, we wake up each day with renewed respect for our Panther elders and ancestors.  We plan to continue to honor their example until the fruits ripen into justice for all of humanity.


​​

0 Comments

Know the Fundamental Difference between Riots and Rebellions.

2/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last night, the predominantly European (white) and intoxicated revelers celebrating the Philadelphia Eagles football team victory in the SuperBowl, proceeded to riot and inflict significant damage on the city of Philadelphia.  This is a regular and common occurrence and response by the same predominantly white populace, whether its Philly, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or any city who's team wins a sports championship.  

We call these responses riots because the proper definition of a riot is a collection of people who collectively engage in spontaneous violence.  Of course, the actual reasons why this happens can easily be traced to the dysfunctional culture that exists within this anti-human capitalist society, that's another point for another article.  The point here is to expose the obvious contradiction where racist white society, always so quick to dehumanize African people for expressing our frustration against systemic oppression, are always silent when it comes to issuing any condemnation of their family members, and probably even themselves, for going out and engaging in violent and destructive behavior.  Just because a sports team won.  Or, as was the case a couple of years ago, when white folks rioted because the pumpkin patch ran out of pumpkins.

The clear difference between riots and rebellions is African people engage in systemic destruction, not over some stupid team winning a game or series, but because we are sick of being gunned down in the street by state sanctioned terrorists and having no due process where those terrorists are held accountable.  We have sat in countless courtrooms.  We have filed countless cases.  We have spent endless money we didn't have for attorneys and legal fees.  And yet, there is no justice.  So, we hit the streets to express our frustration.  This is not an example of destructive behavior for no clear reason, the definition of rioting.  This is a people's response to being oppressed.  So, this is a rebellion.  No different than the rebellions we carried out on the slave plantations.  In fact, these rebellions today are the off spring of those old slave revolts so its appropriate to label these juprisings as rebellions and/or slave revolts today.

Remember this clear distinction and use it when Europeans (and trained negroes) start in the next time we rise up.  When they start questioning our humanity and dignity for standing up against oppression, remind them that their people engage in public violence over no concrete reason so they certainly are in absolutely no moral position to question us for standing up against clear injustice.  And then, we have to remember that any type of spontaneous eruptions, even for justified reasons, are never going to achieve the progress we need and deserve.  Only an organized effort to liberate us will accomplish that.

These are things folks should contemplate as you watch the good white folks of Philadelphia remind us just how hypocritical this backward nation continues to be.
0 Comments

The "Me Too" Movement from an African Man's Perspective

2/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Unfortunately, the folks talking the loudest about movements today tend to be severely uninformed about how movements develop and how they prosper.  By definition, a movement is a mass phenomenon which means there are lots of people involved.  As is the case with the developing "Me Too" movement, that means millions of people.  In other words, just you and your keyboard warrior crew clanking away on the internet doesn't constitute a movement.  Movements obviously start out much smaller, but in order to grow and sustain, they must involve lots of people.  Another characteristic of movements is that they involve people of all types of political ideologies and consciousness because a prime tenet of movements is that they unite people around issues.  For example, people are uniting around "Me Too" to bring awareness about the systemic problem of sexual assault against women/femme people.  If there is one dominant ideology, that's not a movement.  By definition, movements involve people from many different ideologies.  So, you people who criticize(d) Occupy or the "Me Too" movement, or Black Lives Matter, or the Dreamers, or the people battling fascism in Europe, or the Africans fighting against neo-colonialism in Africa, because these movements "don't have clear objectives" demonstrate to those of us who know each time you say that you are clearly either not involved in organization and/or you are very new to it.  Plus, you haven't yet figured how to understand what movement building is all about.  

So, let's be clear that the "Me Too" movement isn't just a Hollywood, California, U.S. invention.  Its not the property of European (White) women, and it certainly isn't an opportunity for every human with a dangling penis to coop the legitimate suffering that women experience on a daily basis.  In my humble opinion, as a man, the "Me Too" movement is an opportunity to educate masses of people everywhere that women/femmes have the absolute right to determine what happens with and to their bodies in every respect of the word.  Its also the chance for women everywhere to lead concrete work to move from simple awareness to organizing structures and processes to empower women in ways that hold men/predators accountable.  

How all of this will look is going to be very different depending upon the conditions.  For  example, African women by and large are going to have a very different take on what the "Me Too" movement looks like for them.  Because of white supremacy, they, as well as Indigenous and Asian women, are not the women who are front and center to this question e.g. not the people who are getting all of the attention around it.  That doesn't change the fact that these brown women experience sexual assault more and on deeper systemic levels while most European woman continue to be completely oblivious to any problems until they impact them directly.  And, even though that last statement is true, that doesn't mean White woman are not suffering either, because they are.  As a result of these conditions, women from all walks will be continuing to determine how they want to shape their space within this movement.  As a man, I'll talk now about what role I believe I play in this process.

I believe its the responsibility of all men to recognize, admit, and commit to acknowledging that all of us have been trained by this backward capitalist system to view and treat women/femmes as property.  We have been raised since day one to view sex as our entitlement.  Most of us view the pursuit of sex no different than the pursuit of food.  Its simply a question to us of what we want and how we can get it.  That dysfunctional reality coupled with the violent and anti-human/woman sentiment that women have no agency, and therefore no rights that we have to respect, leads many men to believe that a woman who says no is actually disrespecting the man in taking that position.  Its important here to recognize that men have been programmed to believe this nonsense and that these backward values are institutional.  For example, the church is a primary propagator of these backward ideals.  The Christian Church promotes on a systemic level that women are property.  The entire basis of Christianity is fueled by this contradiction.  The book of Ephesians says that the woman is simply a creation of the man's rib and that the woman has the responsibility of "following the man as he follows the church."  These backward passages have been debated and justified over and over again, but clearly, the message is that women are the property of men, no matter how you try to dress it up.  And, Islam and other religions are in no position to gloat when it comes to their historical and practical relationship to this question.  So, men have the responsibility to challenge these backward systemic structures since we are the ones who benefit from them.  And, any man who refuses to do that is a coward and an enemy to justice, regardless of how many daughters you have, how you talk to your mother, and how you behave on a personal level in your romantic relationships.  The oppression of women/femmes is a byproduct of the capitalist system so it cannot be defined based on anyone's individual behavior.  It has to be evaluated based on our organizational work to eradicate it.  That's why understanding how movements are built is so important because if movements are the impetus for awareness and awareness is necessary for recruitment, we have to do this part of the work correctly because recruits are the necessary ingredient to provide soldiers to engage this fight on a protracted basis.  We men have a critical role to play here in doing the work with other men since we will naturally be the most stubborn resistance to any forward movement for women.

We as men have to understand this systemic question.  If we are clear about this, then we understand that systemic means women will perpetuate oppression against women just as many Africans perpetuate white supremacy.  For example, as African men, we cannot have contempt for the uncle tom who sells us out to the master for two bits of coin, but then raise up the backward thinking woman who cannot understand how so many women are being sexually assaulted (and blames the women for this).  

Finally, men are absolutely required to support and participate in anti-patriarchy study circles where we study this issue seriously as men.  This includes supporting women who are studying around this issue also.  This is where the advanced work around movement building happens.  We make sure our organizations have these study processes intact and institutionalized.  That way, when thousands of those millions who have been marching and going to have beers afterward come to the day when they decide just doing that isn't enough, we will have the structures in place to welcome them into the next level of political work.  If we truly understand the trajectory of this work, we will get busy building these structures.  We certainly won't be wasting valuable time, especially if we are men, criticizing the women who are marching.  When will the day come when we realize that us doing that exposes us as the frauds who really have no interest in supporting true women's liberation.  

Men, we need to stop expressing our negative views (and even our positive ones) about "Me Too."  Women don't have time to care about what we think about it.  They should be busy organizing and we should be supporting them by organizing the men.  That starts by creating a climate where support for women is expected and demanded, by men with no compromise.  That means participating in that anti-patriarchy work with an open heart and mind and a clear understanding of what the system has done to us in such a systemic and dysfunctional way.  As men, if we can start doing this work, instead of just having disease of the running mouth (and keyboard) about what we think women should be doing, this fight would advance much faster and much deeper.  Now is the time when we as men will get the chance to define our legacy.  We will either be judged historically as the generation of men who said no to the institutional oppression of women and that we will stand by side with them.  Or, we will be judged as a bunch of long winded cowards who have the backbones of toothpicks.

0 Comments

S - - thole Countries?  Why White Supremacy Fears Africa

2/3/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
To be honest with you, I wasn't the least bit offended when I heard the U.S. capitalist empire president had disrespected Africa and Haiti with insults recently.  I mean, what else does anyone expect him to say about anything?  Frankly, I am much more perplexed about why anyone with a clear mind would be surprised by anything those people say about Africa or any part of oppressed humanity.  

I don't think it is possible for me to care less about what that fool and anyone who agrees with him (that makes them classic fools) thinks about anything connected to my life.  You can listen to that man for 10 seconds and know that he has never read five pages of literature about Africa in his entire life.  The absolute only thought I have about him with Africa is my personal hope that however long he is empire president, he will not step foot on our beloved homeland, Haiti, or any country dominated by African people or any self-respecting citizens of humanity.  

I'm also not offended by the viral video of some half wit fool in Africa who expressed agreement with the empire president in his negative comments about Africa.  That individual from the continent is simply another of the long line of house slaves on the plantation who have figured out that they can make a name for themselves by aligning themselves with the master.  This ignorant slave also quickly exposed himself as having no serious analysis of Africa's conditions.  This is not a new trick for this type of sell out.  House slaves have been selling out for centuries so there is nothing to see there.  What is worth taking note of again is how anyone can say anything about Africa and African people and instead of us having the political sophistication to immediately compare their comments to their actual knowledge and data about us and our experiences, we are expected (and many of us automatically fall in line) to instantly hand our power over to the forces of reaction and confusion by giving them the floor to continue to denigrate our people.

Well, pardon us if we refuse to play that stupid game.  None of these people attacking Africa know enough information about Africa to fill the crack in my you know what.  And, that includes the idiots who parrot the white supremacy line against Africa, no matter what nationality those idiots are.  You see, there is a logical reason why these attacks against Africa continue to take place.  And, that reason is Africa and her children, despite the overwhelming odds against us, continue to move forward in our quest to unite our people and our continent - Africa.  This is happening despite the problems in Africa which are all the manifestation of a system put in place by the colonial invaders.  We challenge anyone to name one political and economic infrastructure in Africa today that wasn't established and maintained by the colonial and/or neo-colonial system to benefit the capitalist countries?  Since this is true, looking at the conditions in Africa and/or Haiti without understanding the causes of those conditions is like trying to figure out why a car won't start without examining any of the variants that determine how to start a car.  

Besides the above, our enemies know that regardless of the overwhelming obstacles they have institutionalized to stop us, from poverty and disease to police terrorism, we are still managing to wage continued resistance against their efforts.  Proof of this is in the 75 to 100 U.S. military bases they have established around the African continent.  From the drone manufacturing plant in Niger to the weapons training facility in Ghana to the attack facility in East Africa.  They are forced to lie and say those installations are there to protect the people of those regions, but everyone from the people who live near these U.S. installations to those of you in the U.S. who pay good tax dollars to fund those illegal facilities knows that the real reason for those military outlets has nothing to do with protecting Africans.  You know that the purpose is the same that it has always been.  To protect capitalist business interests which are dependent on cheap African natural and human resources.  The capitalists know that the people of Africa are rising up.  They know that Haiti, which is an outpost of Africa in the Western Hemisphere, has been standing up to imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism for the last 200 years.  They know that they have and are continuing to throw everything they have at us to keep us down and yet, we still keep coming.  All of this resistance affirms for them that their time is just about up.  And, that is why they have to continue to try and dehumanize Africa and her children.  It is their last ditch effort to maintain the psychological dominance over African people that they have relied on to operate their control over us for centuries.  They know we are waking up.  Despite their efforts to confuse our people into believing that we are not Africans.  That we don't even descend from Africa.  Those efforts are failing and they know it.  They know that soon, they will have little power to control our quest to find out more and more about our mother Africa.  And once this happens, they know they are soon to be finished.

So, no, I wasn't offended.  I think that the fact the empire president makes it a practice to attack Africans who stand up for justice is the highest compliment.  What better commendation is there than to be maligned by the forces who are real source of your struggles.  All that is doing is sending you the message that in-spite of the intentional efforts to portray you as being unable to exist with these great white hopes, the truth is your very existence is a serious threat to them.  And, they know it.

The day that these scum have something good to say about us is the day I start searching frantically to figure out exactly what it is that I am doing wrong.

1 Comment

    Picture

    Author

    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?"

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.