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Why You Don't See Us at the Anti-Trump Rallies

4/30/2017

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All the news feed reports on these pro/anti rallies against fascists and white supremacy, or whatever you want to call them, read like these gatherings are the cutting edge of the struggle against inhumanity.  And I'm not throwing shade at those of you participating in those rallies.  I understand the emotional pull to challenge these anti-human values by showing up whenever and wherever they appear.  I'm just here to tell you why you won't be seeing large numbers of African people at these events.  Sure, some of us will show up because like all other people, we are a diverse people, but the masses of us will not be participating.  And for any people claiming to be truly concerned about eradicating white supremacy, no matter what your nationality, you should want to know why the people mostly impacted by white supremacy aren't leading up that charge to show up (especially if you are African).

We are often talking about the need to be scientific and strategic in our organizing work.  We say that all the time understanding that many of us approach this work from the exact opposite pole e.g. emotionally charged participation.  Of course, emotion is important and has its place, but we will not defeat the enemies we face relying on emotion.  So, despite the fact many people are still riding that emotional train, we will continue to write about it because enough people read this site, and others like it, that we know our analysis and actions are having a positive impact.  

The first issue is that the right wing reactionaries objectively incorporate more science in their approach than many of you so-called left activists.  The reactionaries are doing more organizing - door to door building relationships - work than you are.  And, I would argue that their approach with these so-called "pro-Trump" rallies is another way they are being much more strategic than you are.  You should never want to have your entire strategy based on reacting to your enemies and that's exactly what you all are doing when every time they say they are going to be somewhere your entire agenda is showing up to prevent them from doing so.  You are playing entirely into their hands.  Can't you see they are setting the stage for you to show up so that they can organize against you.  This is what they are doing by attempting to exploit that young woman in Berkeley by obtaining and rebroadcasting her alleged pornographic appearances in videos.  Please don't miss the point.  As far as I'm concerned, that young woman can do whatever she wants.  Her personal life isn't my point. The point is now they have many of you reacting to that, posting and running around talking about her rights to do porn if she wants.  This is exactly what they want you to do because now the focus is on some sort of ill relevant moral argument while the capitalist/white supremacist/patriarchal system continues on unabated.  

Then, they've now got lots of you reacting to them organizing gun clubs or whatever it is they are supposed to be doing.  Do you see a sorry trend here?  The entire narrative is being set by your so-called enemies.  I say so-called because many of you are doing so much work that is advancing their agenda that its hard sometimes for me to tell who's side you are on.  And, its even harder for me to convince revolutionary  African organizers that you are on our side.  Its not that we don't understand their tactics.  We were and continue to be the targets of these people and their tactics before you even knew they existed.  The only difference is because we have so much experience with them, we are much more effective at operating in spite of their terrorism than you are.  We have an extensive body of work that demonstrates that, but many of you don't appear to be that interested in growing in this work.  Still, we are here for those who are interested, wherever you are.

Anyway, some well intended folks, of which there are clearly many of you out here, may ask what it is you can do to be productive?  We say again that instead of reacting to this scum at every turn...I have to just say, I was sufficiently amused by the postings of many good people from my old town Portland yesterday about some clown march they had there.  People were highly upset at some white piece of trash who marched around yelling the n word.  I mean people were really hurt and offended by this guy as if Europeans had declared some moratorium on the use of the n word and this guy violated some 5000 year ban by using it.  Again, some people are so soft I have to explain.  I don't use the n word and I haven't used it in over three decades, so please don't take this to mean I'm saying the n word is not a problem.  What I'm saying is the n word is as much as part of the history of this world as anything else you can think of.  That word has been profitable for centuries from hair products using it 100 years ago to popular culture songs using it today.  Its been that way since the establishment of colonialism and the subsequent financing of industrialization through the exploitation of African people 500+ years ago.  The entire time, dehumanizing African people has been the method in which capitalism has maintained its dominance over 6 billion people worldwide.  So, pardon me if I choose not to be the least bit concerned if one two bit, lacking a bath, brainless piece of rat manure decides to walk out on a Portland street with the rag of capitalism draped from his disgusting shoulders yelling the n word.  When some of you see that your emotions overwhelm you.  You have to practice not letting that happen because that's exactly what they want you to do.  When I see that trash man I don't wonder anything about him because he can't touch my power.  In fact, I know the real reason he's out there is because the capitalist system is robbing him of his power and he doesn't have the brain matter or courage to do anything about that so he directs his cowardly anger towards the African masses because he can without consequence (today at least).  So, I don't wonder anything about him.  Instead, I wonder about you.  Why it is you can so continuously get caught up in the trap his handlers are setting for you?  Why it is that you don't engage a strategy to beat those creatures to the punch and instead of just marching in parades, you start going door to door to talk to those communities of people before the white supremacists can get to them?  Why it is that you aren't talking to those communities about how this capitalist system is playing all of us against one another and why we need to decide to not continue letting them win at our expense?  Why you aren't building institutions to teach people how to organize against this system?  Why you don't see that if we don't start building relationships with people we aren't going to change anything?

I know the answer to those questions, but what's important is that we make sure everyone knows the answers so we can start behaving differently, more productively.  Newsflash!  We know this society is racist to the core.  The largest impediment for us is that so many people don't know that.  So, in a way, we are looking at these fools coming out as an opportunity for us to more effectively do our organizing work because with them out there, its much harder for our people to deny the truth.  That means its even harder for people in white communities to deny it because its your families, co-workers, neighbors, etc., who are out there yelling in support of Trump and the capitalist system.  So, I'm wondering why you are reacting to all of this like little helpless children instead of taking the bull by the horn and attacking the problem head on by doing real organizing work?

Trust me.  I don't care what those people say or what their shirts say, etc., they don't want a race war.  If they did, they would come to the suffering African and Indigenous communities with that message.  Their objective is to side rail you and the reason not many of us are out there is because after 500+ years of this trauma, we know that.  Or, at the very least, we know that if there are lots of police, that's not where we want to be.  Its where we can be effective. I know some/many of you are new to this work.  Five years ago when you were ignoring those of us who were then trying to tell you what was happening, you weren't engaging in ways that would enhance your experience levels.  Well, Sekou Ture said that its not where you are, its how far you have come.  So, maybe you should use all of this to sit down and really consider when it becomes time for you to take a real journey doing the real work that needs to be done?  Ii mean, isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing the same way over and over and expecting something different to result?


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Ruby Ridge and Glaring Contradiction of White Supremacy

4/28/2017

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Following a common script, I was 1am just now and I couldn't sleep.  My mind was racing.  Thinking of all the things I'm about ready to explore to engage organizing work in Sacramento.  I decided to tune in Netflix.  You know, watch something, for a bit, settle down, and eventually go back to sleep.  I chose the documentary on the Ruby Ridge standoff in 1992 where the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had a standoff and shooting incident with white separatist Randy Weaver and his family.  Weaver's wife and son were killed in the standoff while an FBI agent was also killed.  

After watching that presentation, I'm so angry that sleep is now completely out of the question so instead, I will express the reasons for my anger - here.  Before watching the documentary, I was already well aware and irritated by the fact the Ruby Ridge incident had gotten all of the publicity it has received for the last 25 years.  What I just watched intensified the anger I hold for the hypocritical and cowardly nature of the people who govern this society and the multitude of European (White) folks who continue to validate and support this living, breathing, contradiction that passes as a civilized society.  I mean the Weaver family and Ruby Ridge, along with the WACO standoff in Texas the next year, serve as two of the lynch pins in the development of the anti-government and widely white supremacist militia movement which has grown a great deal over the last two decades.  Hundreds of thousands of white people across this land use the Ruby Ridge incident to justify being anti-government and much of this discontent served as the ground swell that grew into the movement that elected Donald Trump.  At the same time, these are the same people who if you dropped an African or Indigenous family into the slot the Weaver family occupied in the Ruby Ridge incident, these same people would be saying what happened was justified because the family disobeyed the law.  This is the common narrative used by these people to justify the killing of Mike Brown in Furguson in 2014 by police, despite the fact there is no evidence young Mike violated any laws.  He was walking down the middle of the street unarmed when he was shot and killed.  Its the same justification those same people use to dismiss all of the state sanctioned violence against African people that occurs every day, all day, all the time.  Yet, one White family is wrongly killed by the federal police and those same people still provide them un-compromised support, despite the fact Randy Weaver evidently (and without much doubt) sold sawed off shotguns, a clear violation of federal, not state, law, which is the reason the incident escalated in the first place.  My anger stems not only from the contradiction that White people are always given all of the benefits of the doubt - where is the documentary that humanizes Akua Njeri (formally Deborah Johnson, the partner of murdered Black Panther Leader Fred Hampton in 1969) - and they are also given the opportunity to tell their story in a way that elicits empathy for their situation, something we never get.  The facts are Weaver allegedly broke federal law and he without question befriended a white supremacist group near his family's compound in Northern Idaho.  I can just hear FOX News now if an African family was a face for the Black Lives Matter movement as the Weavers are for the militia movement, and someone from that family had a credible allegation of selling sawed off shotguns and that family had socialized regularly with Bloods or Crips sets.  Yet, it has been 25 years of crickets regarding these contradictions about the Weaver family from the "Make America Great" crowd as well as the liberal white left and the so-called revolutionary white left.  Yes, we include the radicals.  Pardon us if we cannot often tell the difference between you and the rest of your white family.  You are so irritating.  While we fight white supremacist violence as a way of life, you are so egotistical you have actually convinced yourselves that reacting to white supremacists and going where they assemble to beat them up is more revolutionary than figuring out how to reach and organize them before they are organized by white supremacist organizations.  So, you are in some ways more irritating than the white supremacists, but that's a different discussion for a different time.  

Please don't be mislead.  I would expect nothing less of the majority of white people and FOX news then the contradictions illustrated above.  This country was founded on theft and murder and the entire narrative for the last 500+ years has been to deny that and the oppressive system it built and maintained, so I expect no less from this system, but I grieve at this hour for the daily victims of this two-faced backward beast.  I feel the pain of those parents of the victims of police terrorism who's children are dehumanized.  I feel the pain of those African transgender victims who are dehumanized while white victims of the system of martyred.  Don't get me wrong.  I find it difficult tonight to have much sympathy for Randy Weaver.  At least he got to walk away from the standoff, something the MOVE family didn't get to do in Philadelphia in 1985 when the police there dropped C 4 on their house, killing almost everyone, including children, something the feds made clear they didn't want to do doing the Ruby Ridge incident.  Still, he and his deceased wife were just a couple of poor, confused, white people who found it convenient to, at least on some level, point fingers at us for their problems, nothing new to see there.  On the other hand, the FBI are known and convicted terrorists who could tell me the sky is blue and I'd have to question it.  So, no question in my mind that the Weavers were victims, despite my minor irritation with them.  I say minor because my main anger is reserved for the people in power who pull the strings and manipulate the thinking of everyone in this world.  Its those people who craft and maintain white supremacy and they build the institutions that ensure that oppression functions in a systemic way.  

So, instead of going back to sleep, I'm up thinking of how screwed we are in this society.  How Emmet Till was brutally murdered for nothing and the White woman who caused it all has been protected from having to deal with it for decades.  I'm up thinking about the Brown, Gurly, Garner, Bland, Martin, and thousands of other families who's executioners are treated like folk heroes while any form we utilize to question that is criticized, which really means don't question it at all.  Mostly, I'm thinking how much we have had 500 years of consistently inhumane treatment to demonstrate to us that there is absolutely no way we will ever fit into this system and why we should never want to do that in the first place.  But, don't read any of that to mean I'm demoralized.  Quite the opposite.  I said I couldn't sleep because my mind was swirling, thinking about work I need to do.  All this night has done is solidify just how much that work is necessary.  And if I need to lose a few hours of sleep to gain that perspective, that's a worthy investment any night of the week.
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Social Media, Concerts Seen, And How We Answer that Question

4/26/2017

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Its not that there's anything wrong with social media asking what bands you have seen.  Its an interesting enough question, especially for strong music lovers like myself, but what's even more interesting is how these social media trends happen in the first place?  Who decides these questions and what marketing strategies do they employ that repeatedly get so many people focused on their agenda?  

I'm sure most of you understand already that much of this, whether that's its intent or not, distracts people from maintaining a vision of core issues that are directly impacting our lives.  Still, I already suffer from so many people transferring their insecurities onto me e.g. they might be pretty one dimensional so they want to categorize me as a one sided militant firebrand.  Not true.  I'm a complete person.  So, I'm going to do what I do and take the what concerts have you seen theme a little farther, a bit higher, by talking about what well known people I've encountered in the course of doing liberation work.  Tthat way, I can make a point while having fun, something some people want to believe is impossible for me to do.

I can tell you that I've introduced Tupac Shakur, before I honestly knew who he was, in 1991 at our African Liberation Day rally in Sacramento (see the youtube video of such with me standing behind the stage - 26 years younger).  That performance almost didn't happen as myself and the rally coordination team that day were talking about closing the rally down because of a previous rapper who had irritated the crowd with hood set inspired lyrics.  I was talking to a few of the organizers behind the stage about shutting it down when Tupac approached me and informed he had been invited by his friend to perform with him after his friend had been invited by a Bay Area party organizer.  He told me in a very polite, yet confident manner, that if he were permitted to perform, he would bring the crowd back around in a positive direction.  We decided to let him perform and it was one of the best presentations I've ever seen.  He was true to his word and that was my Tupac experience.  Then there were the times I coordinated security for double lectures involving rapper KRS-1 and the venerable Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael).  I organized security for Kwame's speaking tours often and these double lectures intensified the excitement by combining the celebrity atmosphere that encompassed KRS-1 with the very real and sometimes potentially violent political opposition that sought to silence the principled voice of Kwame Ture.  These occasions required an intense presence, a strong plan, and a constant willingness to place my body on the line, which I and others sometimes had to do.  I always enjoyed the dinner time afterward where we would have a collective Eritrean, West African, or soul food meal.  Everyone always ate, no matter how much money you did or didn't have.  That was family.

I'll always cherish getting the chance to meet Harry "Pombo" Villegas and Assata Shakur (see youtube video) in Cuba.  Pombo was the bodyguard for Che Guevara.  He joined the Cuban revolutionary war at age 17.  He fought in that war and then traveled with Che to the Congo to fight imperialism there.  Then he accompanied Che to Bolivia and after Che was assassinated there, Pombo was one of only three combatants to escape Bolivia alive at the urging of Salvador Allende from Chile (who of course would also be assassinated a few short years later).  Yet, Pombo wasn't finished.  He went on to carry the legacy of Che's work in Africa by fighting courageously in Angola.  By the time I met him he was telling me he would fight imperialism again if they let him.  A true warrior that no Hollywood movie could begin to depict.  

Assata was equally as exciting to meet.  Having known about her since I was in high school.  She was an icon to me, but after spending a few hours with her, I've honestly never met anyone who could make me laugh harder.  Her ability to play the dozens is legendary and I'm proud today to say that I'm one of the few people in the U.S. who has sat and ate dinner with one of this government's most hated living persons.  We will always love and protect you Sister Assata!

I once bodyguarded for Angela Davis.  I have sat on panels with Leonard Jeffries, Maulana Karenga, and Nation of Islam Western Regional Minister Tony Muhammad.  I also served as security for Dr. Betty Shabazz, the widow Malcolm X.  I had the chance to tell her how much her husband influenced my life and she was impressed enough with my knowledge of him to affirm that he was my ideological father as I had claimed to her.  I served the same function for her daughter Atallah a few years before and relayed the same story to her.

And, in the course of doing this work I've had the opportunity to work with Mutabaraka, Boots and the Coup, Dead  Prez, Public Enemy, Paris, and many others.  I got to eat lunch with Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), and in 2015 after African Liberation Day, I ate dinner in the residence of the family of Thomas Sankara in Washington D.C.  In spite of my insistence otherwise, his brother was determined to pay for the meal.  Recently, I've had Colin Kaepernick comment on articles I've posted about him on this very blog while he reposts them on his social media sites.

Without trying, I've been fortunate to have all of these opportunities with all of these amazing people.  There are more that won't be mentioned for various reasons, but I've met them not because I paid to see them, but because I was involved.  Since I've been involved, I've learned how to think - critically.  My point to all of this is we should be always thinking about how we can take what social media gives us and bring it back to the struggle for justice.  We should challenge the urge to be influenced by forces that don't have our best interest at heart.  Everything we are thinking about has been prepared for us to think it and we have to fight back against that in everything that we do.  Our experiences are not defined by what we have seen from others.  We are defined solely by what we do.  Especially what we do to make a difference.  And, with all the creative souls out here, we can produce messaging that is fun, fresh, and exciting.  So, just think of that next time you are asked to do something on social media because if we don't start crafting our own messages then we are destined to fulfill Martin Luther King's age old axiom.  "Those who don't believe in anything are doomed to fall for everything."



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DNA Heritage Tests:  Adding Confusion to Our Identity Struggle

4/23/2017

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As a result of my consistent declaration that we are Africans I get asked all the time if I've had a DNA test done.  And within the current popular culture context its a fair question because in many people's minds, doing these tests has become the thing to do to establish your heritage aka who you are.  On the surface, the premise makes sense.  The technology on DNA has advanced a great deal in recent years.  DNA information is now used to establish everything from heritage connections to crime resolution.  So, if you wanted to know the origins of your history, why not take this test and eliminate any doubt?  And due to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the emotional pull to do this is stronger for Africans, especially those of us in the Diaspora (outside of Africa) than any other people since our direct lineage to our history has been wiped out.  In other words, descendants from Italy, Germany, Finland, Norway, Russia, China, Peru, etc., have a much easier time, and a much clearer connection, to their history than Africans in the diaspora.  Since slavery was a business, we are commodities.  As a result, just like you probably couldn't produce receipts for all the products you purchased last year, there are usually no records of our ancestors being bought and sold for kegs of molasses, sugar, or guns and ammo.  As a result, without scientific evidence, it is virtually impossible for us to know if our origins are Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Sudan, etc.  This is especially confounded because the slave trade pulled Africans from all over Africa to West Africa to be sold to the Western Hemisphere.

So with all of this being the reality for us, I'm sure even the most ignorant and rabid racist, in a short fit of logical thinking, can understand how we Africans would serve as the most obvious customer base for this new DNA test that can tell us where we come from.  That's not saying everyone else wouldn't want to do it also.  Its just saying that no one else have the experiences we have.  Like the humiliating one I experienced in the 5th grade when my teacher asked us to ask our families where we came from before coming to the U.S.   I asked my parents, but all they knew was Louisiana.  And they didn't have the context to put that in its proper historical place so when I had to deliver on the assignment, and I panicked and placed my flag in the country of Poland, that wasn't fun.  I will always remember the deep laughter that filled that room, including that of my teacher.  I will never forget how I felt like I was nothing.  So, a DNA test to discover your origins would be something that appeals to a wide range of people, but it is the Africans who would have a drive beaten up from our souls to obtain this information.  

Unfortunately, for our poor and suffering people again, this DNA test is not an answer for us.  The biggest problem is these tests are products and like every other product in the capitalist system the objective of the companies offering these tests is to make money.  Consequently, they will market these tests to do just that.  And like any marketing job, when you break it down, you can easily determine that there is much missing from the advertising message. In other words, heritage and/or history, is much different than just the biological strands that run through your blood stream.  And that's all DNA is.  The blood strains that run through you.  Think about it.  People have babies with people all the time for all types of reasons, often not good ones.  As a result, many of these people and their families don't end up playing significant roles in the lives of the children they produce.  If this isn't happening than all that person can represent in your history is a one off biological participation trophy.  This is certainly not the pedigree that defines who you are, but that's what you get from DNA testing.  So when they tell you that you are 75% West African and 20% British, all that probably means is some British colonizer/rapists played their role in your families colonial and oppressed history, but in my view, it would be absurd to claim that this 20% is any part of the definition of your identity.  

Your identity is always much more than the biological components that add(ed) seed to your family's physical legacy.  Your identity is the culture that your family and your people established to define and carve out your existence in the conditions they struggled to push your people through.  This is what legacy is.  How they did that and the methods they contributed in the process.  This is much more than who laid down and slept with who and it can never be reduced to just that.  So, if I was some of you, that's why I'd define my identity as that 75% West African who I know fought against our subjugation as a people, including against that 20% British colonizer/rapist.  Its a political definition of my history and identity because the biological one can never properly define who I am today.  I know nothing, nor do I need or desire to know, about that 20% British colonizer/rapist other than that they are the reason I'm sitting where I'm sitting today.  I also don't have a burning desire to have to know if that 75% is Wolof, Yoruba, Fante, Mandinka, or Fulani.  They all fought - together - for our dignity.  This is I know because I'm here.  And the fact I'm here is proof that somebody survived rape and brutality to allow us to continue.  Someone survived beatings and brutality so we could survive.  I don't need a test to tell me that because my history has already done that.  The minute I stepped off the plane in Africa I knew that.  Malcolm, Marcus, Harriet, Kwame, Sekou, Patrice, Amilcar, Assata, and Carmen, already told me that.

Since this is such an emotionally charged issue, I realize many people who read this will miss 60% of the point here.  They will read that they are being attacked for getting an DNA test so let me try and make that point clear.  Some of you may have some definite scientific information on that 20% that confirms they could have played a positive role in your history.  If that's the case, obviously, you should claim that and the scenario above wouldn't apply, but overwhelmingly, most of you who are Africans know absolutely nothing about any other strains that run through your DNA (or the African ones for that matter) so you will need to closely examine that and let science and history guide you on that, not emotions.  Either way, if you want to go ahead and buy the test do it.  If that makes you feel better to get one than do it.  The point here is that a DNA test isn't going to tell you who your people are, only who most of them slept with.  Who your people are is much more complex than that and you shouldn't sell yourself short on that very critical question.  Me?  Don't look for me to be getting a test.  I don't need it.  I've known who I am and who we are for quite some time now.


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Colin Kaepernick:  Punishing the Rebellious Slave - 2017 Style

4/22/2017

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I admit that even if I had never evolved into the political organizer/activist that I am today, I would have been a huge fan of Colin Kaepernick.  I grew up being able to walk to Candlestick Park in San Francisco.  My entire identity as a young man was the 49ers,  Giants, and Warriors.  Although my life priorities today don't permit me to follow sports the way I sometimes wish I could, I do try and keep up.  In 2012 and 2013, Colin Kaepernick led the 49ers to within a few yards of a Super Bowl victory, and to within a few yards of a repeat appearance in the Super Bowl respectively.  That time frame was a period of readjustment in my life, having found employment after spending a long and frustrating period with job instability.  So, I sought solace in watching 49er games during those two seasons and I became a huge Kaepernick fan.  My daughter and I talked about him often; me about his play-making abilities and his heart for the gridiron battle.  Her, about his looks.  

With that backdrop, it shouldn't be any wonder how his emergence as a principled voice for African/world liberation and justice has quickly cemented him as my favorite football player ever.  Despite whether he ever suits up again or not.  But, we have to talk honestly about that suiting up again part.  From all corners of the world, racists, racist apologists, reactionaries, and people who are just plain intellectually lazy, have bent over backwards to paint a sickening picture that argues that Kaepernick remains unemployed (as a free agent football player) simply because of his "diminished" on field capabilities.  This is an absurd argument.  The 49ers newest coach even attempted to provide a scientific analysis about Kaepernick's run first quarterback skills being unsuited for most football teams that prefer a passer that can stand back there and find a receiver to throw to.  Its a great sounding argument, but it doesn't hold any water under scrutiny.  For the football minds, you know damn well that Kaepernick completed 60% of his passes last year and threw 16 touchdowns to only four interceptions.  Those are good numbers under any circumstances and there are plenty of quarterbacks who are employed who cannot match them.  Plus, Kaepernick's ability to make plays with his legs alone is more than enough to cause any number of quarterback starved teams to ring his phone.  In other words, the conventional logic of these apologists is that a quarterback who has led his team to within yards of winning it all.  A quarterback who has solid passing credentials (almost 80 career touchdowns and only 30 interceptions).  And the best legs in the NFL, isn't worthy of a job, any job, with any team?

The fact quarterbacks like Brock Osweiler, Geno Smith, and Tim Tebow have gotten free agent contracts is proof of how ridiculous this situation is.  Now, I realize that the NFL is a capitalist business which means monetary interests will surpass anything else.  What I mean is before the next season starts, some desperate team will probably offer Kaepernick a contract.  He's too skilled for that not to happen, but that doesn't change the fact the reason he's sitting without a team right now is solely because of his political work.  His refusal to stay quiet.  His bold and courageous calling out of white supremacy.  And his activism to provide resources and support to people fighting against imperialism all over the world.  His activities bring embarrassment upon this society that is dedicated to maintaining this facade of freedom and democracy.  Everything Kaepernick has done over the last year has blown that foolishiness up.  He's being systemically punished and kept out of football for his politics the same way Craig Hodges was blocked from receiving an NBA contract after his calling out of George Bush (for the Iraq war and white supremacy) at the white house after his Chicago Bulls were there to celebrate the championship with Bush Sr.  Kaepernick is being called out the same way Muhammad Ali was banished from boxing for his stance against the Vietnam war and his refusal to serve in the U.S. military.  

Its perfectly acceptable for football fans to express how much they wouldn't want Kaepernick to be on their team, but to argue he's unemployed because he's not good enough?  Weak.  He's unemployed because he's too good for a league and a country that prefers to promote a dishonest image of itself instead of addressing the inequities that fueled Kaepernick's protest in the first place.  And, like everything else, people can fool themselves, but justice loving people all over the world are not confused.  This man has stood up and announced that he is going to do so, even if he loses football in the process.  As we recently passed the so-called Easter holiday.  The time that supposedly reflects a man who was murdered in order to stand up for principles of truth and justice.  In light of the example Jesus provided us, its more than a little ironic that Kaepernick is a living example that compares significantly to those values.  

So, all of you people who wish to hide behind your lies - one person even told me they aren't against Kaepernick and his right to protest, they just don't want "politics in sports", I guess its easy to ignore the fact the U.S.. military owns professional sports - you aren't fooling anyone.  Its 2017, but the conditions here have never changed.  The slave that stands up against the master will be punished.  It doesn't matter though.  More of us, following Colin Kaepernick's example, are willing to pay the price for principle.  And as this phenomenon continues to grow, there will reach a point where our victory is inevitable.  This is the true reason Kaepernick is currently unemployed and its also the true reason why he will always be my favorite athlete.  Whether he ever throws another touchdown or not is immaterial to that.

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The White Right/Left:  Confused on Legacy of White Supremacy

4/20/2017

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The recent tragic shooting in Fresno, California, U.S., like all violence against humanity, is a terrible tragedy for the families and communities of the victims.  In this instance, it appears that an African man has committed the killings against European (White) community members because they are White.  I say appears because the information I have at this point is coming from the capitalist media and as a practice, I don't believe anything they say about anything, but so far, this seems to be the scenario.

Like trained monkeys, whenever something like this happens, the White right and left, continuing to be extremely difficult for us to tell apart, begin to pontificate about how any single incidence of violence by an African against any Europeans is comparable to 500+ years of systemic violence by Europe and her children against  Africa and her children (not to mention the Indigenous people and all other Brown communities).  We of course have no interest in diminishing the pain of those who are suffering in Fresno, but we also refuse to dismiss the suffering of the African masses.  These incidents do not compare qualitatively and certainly not quantitatively.  

In fact, it can be said that if a martian ship landed on this planet 1000 years from now after all life was eliminated and those martians were presented with evidence of what happened over the last 500 years, without having any prior knowledge, those martians would have to come to a couple of conclusions.  First, whatever violence Africans inflicted against Europeans, whether organized, random, whatever, was understandable in light of the systemic oppression Africans experience.  Second, those martians would have to start asking what took the Africans so long to retaliate and why they didn't do it more often.

Any other argument is nothing short of a well veiled apology for white supremacy and capitalist oppression.  This system was created based on stealing from Africa.  And I mean stealing everything.  Mineral resources, people, etc.  The theft has been taking place as policy for those 500+ years and it continues.  A standard byproduct of this oppression is that African people have been dehumanized on an equally systemic basis so as to justify this oppression.  It has been necessary to create a vision that African people somehow deserve this suffering in order to make the suffering acceptable to all of us.  Under these barbaric circumstances, any human would have to understand that at some point, the people suffering this treatment would start striking back.  And no one could blame them for doing so.  It also must be said that as sad as it is for those who suffer, there really are no innocent victims because everyone participates in this exploitative system, oblivious at best to it.  At worse, unconcerned about it.  So, with those conditions in place, it would be extremely naive to expect to have a safe environment for yourself and your family when large segments of the population are forced to live under unsafe conditions as a way of life.

Franz Fanon talked about African people being unable to break the chains of mental slavery until we organize and strike back against the enemy who has inflicted systemic violence against us.  I'm not arguing in support of these people who randomly kill police or everyday White people.  If you pay any attention to the themes in my writing, you would know by now that I am for organized resistance, not random one offs.  My point is anyone who examines the conditions of this society has to acknowledge that these types of things are going to happen because of the oppressive situation that exists.  And, if you don't like to see these things happen, then start educating the White community about why they shouldn't be protecting white supremacy and capitalism.  If you do that, then maybe these African people who decide to commit these one off acts would not see all of white society as compliant in our oppression.  That would be a much more productive use of your time then what you are mostly doing now; engaging in a false and extremely dangerous facade intellectual racist activity of trying to pretend that one violent act against any white person is the same as 500 years of violence against millions of African people.  

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Union or Not, Why So-called Right to Work is Not Good for You

4/17/2017

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I work as a staff member for a labor union so my perspective is without question biased, but my vantage point ensures my bias is based in principles of truth and justice and I can give you solid evidence of that.  I say that because a lot of you, or at least your co-workers, families, and friends, are confused if they think so-called right to work laws are good for working people in the U.S.  And we know lots of working people believe this because these laws have been passed by the public on a state by state basis in 28 U.S. states and Guam.

Wait, you say.  If the majority of people in the majority of states voted for this thing and its called my right to work, how can it be a bad thing?  Lets start by defining exactly what we are talking about because there is no question that many people are being manipulated by a carefully crafted messaging campaign that has been perfected by the people who are experts at knowing how to craft a manipulative message (we'll tell you about them in a minute).   So-called right to work laws have been around for quite some time.  The first state to institute these laws was Florida in 1943.  The premise behind these laws is that people having to pay Union dues is some sort of violation of people's personal rights, but before you get caught up in the subjective element of that statement, lets examine some facts.  Yes, its true that workplaces that are unionized require everyone hired in that workplace to pay Union dues as soon as they are hired.  I can already hear the reactionary voices complaining that this in itself is a violation, but the reason this requirement was placed into existence is because every one of those employees benefits from the work the Union does on their behalf, regardless of whether they support the Union or not.  So, although you probably know people who say "my Union doesn't do anything for me" these people are shortsighted and uninformed.  They are no different than the people who pay taxes and say nothing is done to represent their taxes.  They say this while driving down streets and highways that are cleared, cleaned, directed, and lighted from tax revenue.  They say this while receiving their mail everyday from a Postal service that is funded by tax revenue.  They say this while living in communities that are serviced everyday in every way by tax revenue.  Well, the same is true of the Union.  Again, we refer to Sekou Ture's axiom that "based solely on what comes out of our mouths, we are all equal."  In other words, people can say whatever they want, but the reality is if you did a side by side comparison of the 28 states with "right to work" laws imposed to the 22 states where Unions collect dues from everyone who is hired in Unionized places of work, the workers in those 22 states have higher wages, better health care, and safer work conditions 100% of the time.  Not 50%, not 75%, 100%.  Why?  Because so-called right to work laws have most recently been promoted by big money employers like the Walton family (owners of Wal Mart) and Charles and David Koch, the owners of Koch Industries.  Besides the U.S. military, these two companies are the largest employers in the U.S. and Wal Mart is the largest in the world.  These people are billionaires several times over and they got that way by perfecting the art of keeping wages down, down, down.  That's why you have to subsidize Wal Mart, the largest corporation in the world because they pay 35% of their full time workers so little that these people are forced to collect food stamps to survive which you and I pay for.  So, as a strategy for keeping wages down systemically, these greedy criminals took up the so-called right to work mantle and begin implementing it, based again, on some clever marketing techniques.  They have created these ballot measures state by state so that you can have the option of receiving all of the benefits of belonging to a Union without having to pay Union dues.  Their marketing line is that you can say the $80.00 a month in Union dues and spend it on something else you value while throwing in the zinger that you should definitely do this if you don't believe in that immigration reform, LGBTQ support, or anti-white supremacy, patriarchy work your Union is engaged in.

The tragedy of this is people, mostly European (White) working class people, are buying this garbage hook, line, and sinker.  And, that's why 28 states have adopted it.  Meanwhile, what the marketing isn't telling you is that the workers in those 28 states have lost on average $6,100.00 in annual wages, while doing the same work.  What they aren't telling you is those workers have had to pay 13% more in health care for less coverage and that their work safety has decreased by 50%.  They also leave out the piece that poverty in all of those 28 states has increased (as a result of all of these impacts mentioned here) by 13% on average in each of those states.

They also aren't explaining that the corporation's end game really isn't to put money in your pocket (by saving you Union dues), but to reduce the revenues of your Union so that they don't have the resources to fight the corporate efforts to place you into poverty.  Look, I get it.  People are cash starved and looking for every way to stretch their dollars, but eliminating your Union dues is a bassackwards way to do this.  The reason why you are cash strapped in the first place is because wages have been stagnant for working people in this country since the 1970s while corporate profits continue to set historical records.  Even still, if you look at what you pay to belong to a Union and compare that amount to what you have gained by having a Union negotiate on your behalf, I assure you that you will see that your monthly dues is the best investment you can make in your family's future.  

The Koch  Brothers and Wal Mart don't want you to look at your life with that type of vision and forward thinking.  They only want you to look at today because if you do, you will completely miss the screw you job they are putting on you.  And, this has absolutely nothing to do with how you feel about Unions, whether you had a bad Union in the past, or even how racist Unions have historically been (because they have been racist).  This is true because despite these contradictions, we still are better off with them than without them.  Besides, to argue that we should abandon Unions because they are racist or because we had a bad experience is dishonest on your part.  The church is reaped in racism, yet many of you stay committed to it.  You have daily bad experiences after a night getting drunk, yet very few of you never take a drink again.  So, please stop it with that foolishness. In fact, every institution we have encountered under capitalism causes us trauma, yet you people arguing against Unions continue to regularly demand inclusion in the rest of this society that has never accepted us.  Here, we have an institution - Unions - that we seriously need to demand inclusion in and you are ready to throw it out without even thinking seriously about it.  All you are doing is being a mouthpiece for the people trying to place you in economic slavery and you are doing that without even having enough sense to be compensated at least.

This analysis also has nothing to do with whether you work for a Unionized work place or not.  Even if you have never had a Union job and will never have one, so-called right to work will be terrible for you also.  Why?  Because lowering wages will have a ripple effect in every element of society.  Have any of you noticed that good service is hard to come by these days?  Do you ever wonder why?  Could it be that most of these places, being non-Union, do not have to negotiate working conditions with their workers?  Consequently, they under staff, overwork, underpay, and basically tell you just spend your money despite the poor experience.  And none of this is the fault of the workers in that non Union work place.  I recently had a personal experience that underscores this point.  Working for a Union, I enjoy outstanding health care benefits.  The Local I worked for in Oregon provided us comprehensive Kaiser coverage that included eye care.  The Union I worked for also covered many of the Kaiser workers.  The Eye care workers were not covered, but since many of their co-workers, were, they  benefited in terms of how they were compensated, etc.  The reason why is if Unionized workers drive up their wages, there is a systemic impact on non-Union workers receiving similar benefits.  Obviously, if no one is Unionized and all wages are down, this phenomenon isn't happening.  So, yet another example that supports my point, but because of this situation, I have grown accustomed to the fast and efficient service I'd received for eye care at Kaiser in Oregon.  A service that was at a high level because of the degree in which those workers were taken care of, which as I mentioned is the direct result of their benefiting from their employer being what we call a Union shop.  On Saturday, I went for an eye care appointment here in California.  I still work for the same organization, but the benefits are a little different and the eye care provider is not Kaiser, but a stand alone company.  The place I went to have my exam was not a Union shop and my experience clearly represented the difference in quality.  This shop was understaffed (the benchmark of non-Union shops) and I had to wait over an hour past my scheduled appointment time just to see the doctor.  The receptionist and the Optometrist were extremely apologetic, but instead of taking something out on them that they have no control over, I used the opportunity to explain the dangers of so-called right to work and to express to them how much I want a society where they wouldn't be exploited in this same way.  They both agreed profusely and thanked me for my analysis and patience.  

The key to that society is Unions.  Not corporate type organizations, but real grassroots Unions that engage in a relentless struggle for the workers.  A labor movement that will effectively link up with workers movements all over the world to do the same.  A labor movement that will become a part of the worldwide movements against white supremacy, patriarchy, and homophobia.  That's what we need, not this right to work scam.  In 1979, about 35% of the work force in this country was in a Union.  Wages were higher and the difference between worker wages and those of corporate CEOs was a ratio of 45 to 1 (45 CEO dollars to every one by the worker).  Today, the Unionized work force is below 10%.  The ratio between CEO wages is about 375 dollars to every one dollar earned by workers.  You don't think there is a direct correlation with the increase in so-called right to work states?  If you don't, then you deserve exactly what is coming your way if so-called right to work becomes national law as those idiots in Washington are working for right now.



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Learning How to Ensure People are there for You

4/8/2017

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I admit that I'm sitting here writing this on my 55th birthday because penning this will provide some personal comfort.  You see, I had a confirmation incident happen this morning that made it clear to me that I'm really tired of being there for people who are never there for me.  That's it.  And, I know many of you know what I'm talking about and if you don't, its probably because you are the person who is always using all everyone has to offer while providing little in return.  

I completely get that this is an exploitative system.  Therefore, I understand that people with limited economic capacity have to take advantage of every opportunity they have, which isn't often.  Still, there is a fine line between taking advantage of limited chances and using people.  And, even the most so-called conscious person can easily adopt a "hustler" mentality where they see you, without meaning to, as a means to an end.  I acknowledge that this has been a problem for me my entire life and its time to stop it.  You see, like many of you, I put myself out there for people as a regular practice.  Can I buy your dinner (because I know you would have difficulty doing it yourself)?  Can I mentor your son?  Can I give you a ride?  Can I confront someone for you?  Can I be a friend by stepping up to the plate in the way you need?  I do all those things, all the time.  Regardless of the consequences I reap as a result of doing it.  So, I can't blame anyone else for that piece, but I can say that my momma was right when she said "you gotta give something to get something."  That means we all should make that effort to think about what we are doing and is it self service motivated all the time?  Do we think of all the elements and how things impact others?  All good people should include that complete analysis in everything we do.

So, I know that we train people how to treat us so I'm writing this to declare that my time of being used in this way is over, humanity.  Don't get me wrong.  Being a generous and selfless type is who I really want to be so I'm never going to be that person who sees every person as a vehicle.  What  I'm saying is I'm going to be there for the people who are there for me.  I'm not going to say who you are, because you know who you are.  You are wonderful and selfless people.  You are that person who helped me out of a legal jam.  The person who came down here with me and helped me move.  The one who constantly called and texted to check on me after Portland drama in December.  The comrade who organized that wonderful karaoke night.  The wonderful person who recently expressed your concern about not hearing from me on social media in a little while.  That comrade who consistently checks on me along with my friends here who do the same.  I can go on and on, but you get the point.  I'm closing ranks with my people and I'm good with that.  Quality over quantity.

And I encourage you good people to do the same house cleaning.  If you are always there for people, but none of them ever even see the necessity to invite you out for a 25 cent mint, then cut those people loose.  And remember that some of these people we are talking about are probably decent people, but they have been socialized to see the world and people through a very dysfunctional lense.  You people who are in this category, I realize its hard to hear, but you need to be thinking about that.  The incident I referenced this morning involves a person who I think fits in the good person, bad practices category, but just because that's the reality, it doesn't make it ok.  Do better.  How the hell are you going to create a new and better world when you perpetuate the backward values of exploitation against the people who come through for you?  How do I know that?  Just invoke one third of the enthusiasm for people who need your help that you invoked when they were helping you.  Take the same initiative, follow up, concern.  You know what I'm talking about because you do it perfectly when you need support.

Typically, I use this space to address social matters in society. I rarely, and I mean very rarely, express personal stuff as I'm doing here, but this is important.  We can't keep looking at using people's resources like the multi-national corporations look at using the world's resources.  Just use it up and go to the next thing.  Let's learn to appreciate each other.  Even if we are unable to continue to engage with each other as friends, comrades, lovers, etc.  We should take the extra step to try and maintain civility and mutual respect.  If we don't make that effort we can be the best social media revolutionaries we can muster.  We can shape whatever narratives we wish, but we will never change anything beyond the sorry state its in right now.  So, my pledge to all of you is I won't take you for granted.  For those who have made sincere efforts to reach out and maintain contact, especially those who have done so in an effort to express support and love for me, I see you and appreciate you, all of you.  I am working on keeping in touch the same way because you matter.  Keep doing what you are doing and I'll do the same.  For the rest, do some work you'll.  You can do better.  Ok.  I'm done.  And, I do feel like I'm in a much improved state.  So, back to writing about the political stuff.  Now I'm off to enjoy my birthday!

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Can Millionaires Be Good People?  Yes, When Dogs can Fly

4/7/2017

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​I was having an extremely interesting conversation with the young African at our annual African Liberation Day commemoration in Oakland last May.  He followed me outside to express his excitement about the presentation I had just given the audience about practical ways that Pan-Africanism will benefit Africa, Africans, and all of humanity.  He followed me out to let me know that his father had lived in Ghana working directly for then President Kwame Nkrumah in the early sixties.  The young person told me that his dad worked as an accountant for Nkrumah.  Now, I get emotional when talking to people about Nkrumah's enormous personal sacrifices in leading Ghana as Africa's base for liberation from 1957 until he was viciously overthrown in a CIA (criminals in action) coup in 1966.  So, I was moved when this young man began to get emotional talking about the love and respect his father held for Nkrumah.  The passionate point this person wanted to make to me was that people accused Nkrumah of being a dictator and of stealing all of Ghana's financial resources.  The person was so agitated in talking about how his father, being responsible for doing the books for Nkrumah's government, was adamant in stating over and over that Nkrumah's accounts were constantly overdrawn because of his ongoing commitment to using whatever resources were available to help the struggling people of Africa.  The exact opposite of someone who is stealing resources.

And that's exactly why a basic understanding of how capitalism works makes it abundantly clear that the fantasy image of the huge hearted millionaire is not based in reality.  The concept defies the logic of capitalism.  You start a business and that means you have to produce a product or service.  Whether you are producing cell phones or BBQ dinners, the people who do the work to produce what you produce have to get paid.  In a capitalist system, it will cost you so much - say $30.00 USD to make a cell phone or 30 cents to make a dinner, but you will charge $500.00 for that phone or $13.00 for that BBQ dinner.  So, for anyone who passed basic math, here's how the formula works:  You as the worker produces 20 BBQ dinners per hour.  That means in an eight hour shift, you produce $260.00 for your employer.  That's $2,080.00 per day while they pay you, let's say $12.00 an hour, or $96.00 per day.  This of course means they make almost 50 times the profit each day from your labor.  Now, despite the fact they do manage the work conditions you exist in to make all this money for them, is there anyone out here who is actually stupid enough to try and argue that they are taking 50 times the risk and 50 times the effort than you are as the exploited worker?  And, more important to this question, is there anyone who would actually argue that anyone who can exploit someone to that degree is a person with a strong human foundation?  A person who values people over money?  Nothing more needs to be said there.

That model above is exactly how people become millionaires and billionaires folks.  And, don't waste your time talking about the exception to try and make it the rule.  Don't use professional athletes in the U.S. because that is only a few hundred people at best.  Rich people get there by cutting costs, paying people less, cheating people, having no conscious, and being 100% focused on making money, not solving the problems of society.  Don't agree?  Show me a person who got rich through business in the capitalist system and I will show you a person who has a trail of wage theft against workers, poor working conditions, exploitation, racism, patriarchy, and all forms of oppression lining the pavement where their money was made.  This is true because the super rich don't own the labor, the worker does and the people who have money in capitalism got it by benefiting from this system which was seeded and launched through the ultimate exploitation - the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the theft of Indian lands.  Most of the large landowners today didn't get that land from working for it.  They got it from illegal settlement programs that discriminated against brown people and benefited rich Europeans thus propelling them into access of the stolen resources that they were able to parlay into these riches.  This is undeniable and ill refutable.  And, this is the reason all of you black power pimps who continue to attempt to put make up on capitalism and pretend as if your money making scam is actually something designed to benefit our people are either fooling yourselves or you are just as morally corrupt as the real capitalists. Even some well meaning people are convinced that starting small hand to mouth businesses is the way to accumulate wealth.  How is that working out for all of you who believe that?  Don't even bother answering because we already know.  You are struggling every day to keep the lights on and gas in your car, despite your high flying rhetoric.  Without exploitation there is no wealth, period.  And we can prove that in any and every scenario because we understand economics.  

So for all you people who are waiting for some millionaire/billionaire to create wealth for you.  To provide you with a plan to enrich your lives.  You should just go ahead and buy that swampland someone is trying to sell you also.  The minute you choose money over people your values turn wack and once that happens, you lose the right to claim goodness.  

When we have a society where systemic obstacles are eliminated and education is universally free.  Health care is universally free.  When everyone who wants a job is guaranteed by law the right to have one.  When all the systemic obstacles are eliminated like racism and patriarchy which prevent people's movement and upward progress, then we can start talking about life being about choices.  Then we can say that those who have acquired more have earned it.  But, until we have all of that - which is socialism by the way - then what you have here is the same old master slave system.  And no matter how people try to reinvent it and justify it and those who benefit from it, most of humanity is never going to be fooled.  People are openly expressing their desire for socialism every day.  The millionaires try desperately to fool us with their propaganda for the time being, but their time is running out and all the things they are doing in the world today are clear evidence of that.

The true role models, the real people you should want your children to emulate, are those who choose justice over wealth and fame.  





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Tips to Keep the Evil Forces from Stealing Your Sincere Joy

4/4/2017

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Since making my physical move last month, I've had several good hearted and well meaning people reach out to me to inquire about the progress of my move.  I greatly appreciate all of you and your genuine concern is a motivating factor in my writing this piece.  You see, in spite of the continued efforts by right wing reactionaries and equally confused people on the so-called left to ignorantly (and with racist foundation) categorize Pan-Africanist revolutionaries as "Stalinists" or "Leninists," one of the many fundamental differences we Nkrumahist/Tureists have with Marxist/Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, etc., is that we do not believe that the single modus of movement is the class struggle.  We certainly believe class struggle is a critical element that is driven by the scientific basis of dialectical and historical materialism, but unlike the others, we believe that ideology is an equally compelling compoinent in the struggle for justice.  We believe its so relevant because it provides complex analysis and context for the class struggle.  That's why we believe there is no successful struggle for justice without the correct ideas because we know ideas drive action and action makes change.  

So, without positive ideas, there can be no positive actions.  Or, as the old African proverb says "everything is political and all things political are defined by ideas."  It is overwhelmingly important to understand this because right now, the primary struggle we are actually engaged in is the struggle over ideas.  In fact, the central fight is one of winning the hearts and minds of humanity over to ideas of justice and human progress over those of greed/exploitation and the continued dominance of the capitalist/imperialist network, led by the united snakes of amerikkka.  And there is absolutely no way we can win this battle if we are not mentally and spiritually healthy.

For example, a major reason for my personal move was to fulfill some aspects of my life that were previously lacking e.g. being surrounded by, and being able to regularly engage with, people who look (and think) like me.  Also, I realized that waking up and seeing the sun everyday is very important to me while I confront the evils of this society.  There's much more, but the point is its important for all of us to be in touch with what's going on inside of us at all times and we can't do that if we are numbing ourselves by being high, drunk, etc., all the time.  Even substituting religion for reality is harmful, and none of that is to knock those who are utilizing those methods to make it through the day.  Its just important that we begin to have a discussion about what is taking place.  One of the major weapons of imperialism is to demoralize us and convince us that anything short of surrendering our spirits to the will of our enemies is fruitless.  In other words, many of you actually believe that victory isn't really possible and once you believe that, imperialism has won you over and made you an unwitting pawn in its continued conquest of the planet.

Don't succumb so easily.  You are worth much more than that.  One of the first tips to defeat this negative effort to dominant us is for everyone to agree that we will consciously struggle to be honest with ourselves at all times.  This means acknowledge your fears and figure out how to find others who have the same fears so that you can talk about how to overcome them.  And that doesn't mean eliminating the fear.  That's impossible. It means figuring out how to continue to fight in spite of the fear.

Second, acknowledge your weaknesses and engage in the same process and while you are at it, practice working through problems and not running from them.  You can't really hide from your fears and weaknesses.  You can attempt to cover them up, but if you think about what they are, you will have to acknowledge that they have consistently and without fail prevented you from reaching your potential over and over again so if you think hiding them is helping you, obviously, that's not an effective strategy.  What will be effective is acknowledging them, discussing them, uniting with others who also have them, and figuring out how to overcome them.  And overcoming them is simply defined as not letting them win without a fight.

A core feature of this process is learning how to recognize your victories.  One of the major struggles for those who fight for justice is we routinely step right over our most cherished victories, with virtually no acknowledgement of them, while choosing to dwell forever on our mistakes.  We do that to ourselves individually and we certainly mirror this behavior in our organizations collectively.  What we must start doing is demanding that we spend more time on our victories than we do on our failures and to do that we have to understand that our failures generate more space because we are much more focused on them.  We have to practice turning all of this around.  The way we do it is by being intentional about our victories.  For example, if you are struggling with a drinking issue or a drug issue.  If you use those numbing effects daily, if you decide you want to stop and you go 24 hours without doing any of those things, that's a major victory!  Its not a minor thing, but a major thing.  So, learn to make a big deal about it.  You don't have to tell anyone else, but inside of yourself, do something nice for you when you achieve this goal if its nothing except buying yourself a Chai tea and having a one minute ceremony to recognize you for what you have achieved.  And, no, having no money is no excuse because you can plan for these types of celebrations e.g. "on the first I'm going to go 24 hours without doing that thing and I'm going to celebrate by buying myself a cupcake."  You can plan that six months in advance if you need to.   The important thing is to follow through and do it.  

Here's what I'm talking about.  I got an email from a comrade in the All African People's Revolutionary Party Ghana chapter earlier last week.  He told me that we held an event in Accra, Ghana, and students from Cal State University, Sacramento (my ala mater) were in attendance while visiting Ghana on a fellowship.  He mentioned that one of the students had told him that she had read my novel "The Courage Equation" and that she loved it.  He cleverly suggested that I contact the students since I have just recently moved back to Sacramento so that I could talk to them when they return to Sacramento about the A-APRP.   I emailed the young student and several days passed with no response.  Finally, I received an email from the student expressing that she hadn't responded because she was overwhelmed at having been contacted by the person who wrote the book she loved so much.  This probably means nothing to you, but 24 hours later, I'm still very high from her message.  It doesn't matter that the publisher I used to publish the book is a criminal who is stealing 100% of my royalties and because he a bankrupt piece of rat manure, there's nothing I can do about it short of beating him to a pulp.  And, since the white supremacist/capitalist system would throw me in prison if I did that, its clearly not an option.  Still that doesn't matter.  It also doesn't matter that more than a few African woman have made it a point of criticizing my decision to have a young white woman as a central element (not the central element) of my novel online, etc., despite the fact not one of these women (by their own admissions) issuing the critiques have even bothered to read my book.  What does matter is that I wrote the book to inspire people that we can win and the fact a young African woman gets that (as all of the African women who have read the book get it), is all that matters.  That's a major victory against the haters, morale destroyers, and naysayers against humanity.  Its my victory and I am completely relishing and enjoying it.  I try to do this often.  I did it when I came off probation in November (for interceding with a domestic abuser).  I did it when I got the position here.  And, I'm doing it today.  It's not important that you understand my celebration or that you respect it.  What's important is that you learn how to have your own on a regular basis so you can learn to own your victories because if you start learning how to do this, you will teach yourself how to think positively about yourself because the basis of all of this is that you deserve good.  So, just imagine what could/would happen if many of us started learning how to view ourselves in the positive - all the time?

Finally, I often observe many people on social media lamenting the loneliness in their lives.  I truly feel for you, but I have to ask you how many people you have tried to make friends with?  What I mean is who have you asked to have coffee/tea?  If you have asked people and everyone isn't responding then you are just not around the right folks my friend because the reality is most folks will respond because most folks, like you, are alienated in this anti-human society.  I would bet that most of the time, most people doing this lamenting are sitting around waiting for someone to reach out to them.  So, reach out and touch someone and be decisive in eliminating the loneliness.  Don't wait for someone to reach out to you because chances are they are waiting for you while you wait for them and in that scenario, only imperialism wins.  I'm trying to be intentional about staying in touch with loved ones in Oregon while reaching out to folks here in Cali.  Easy?  No.  Worth the effort?  Absolutely!

There's so much more, but for ongoing support in how to tackle these obstacles to your potential, go a couple of tabs down and click on the personal services tab and let's talk further.  We really can make the concept that we believe that we can win much more than a march chant.

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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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