Just this morning I saw a social media video reel of an African (Black) man railing against the protests in Los Angeles. We realize that everyone everywhere has earned a PhD from Youtube, but the logic this dude articulated criticizing the protests (and expressing why African people should not be in support of the uprisings) was below even the most primitive manifestations of sanity.
He said that unlike the African civil rights movement of the 1960s, “they are breaking the law in Los Angeles!” Apparently, the institutions of Youtube PhD’s in social activism neglected to include the component that explains to people like this dude how everything African people protested against was legal, meaning just by standing up for our dignity, we were breaking the laws of this system. Colonialism in Africa was legal. We resisted it. Slavery was legal all throughout the Western Hemisphere, including of course the U.S. We resisted it. Jim Crow racial segregation from the late 1800s through the 1970s was legal. We resisted it. No African today would be able to attend universities outside of the historically African ones if we hadn’t been willing to break the law. No African today could have access to employment and other opportunities if we hadn’t been willing to break the law. No African could live where they wanted and could afford to live if we hadn’t been willing to break the law. Anyone who has even the slightest understanding of social activism knows that the foundational basis of it is building a collective movement to struggle against unjust laws so by definition, all struggles for justice and dignity are going to break laws. The point being anyone who knows anything about the African struggle for justice realizes how absurd it sounds in 2025 for anyone who looks like us to be sitting up there complaining about people breaking laws in the name of justice.
The other absurd thing these African people are saying is the exact same backward talking point the capitalist system has been spewing against the most radical elements of our struggle for the last 60 years i.e. the critique against urban uprisings. And we mean the same tired talking points. They don’t even have the ability to come up with anything new. “You are destroying your own communities! What good will that do!” Malcolm X literally deconstructed this empty argument 60 years ago. He said that the masses, sick of exploitation and discrimination, rise up in righteous anger, but the people behind their suffering don’t occupy the same physical spaces that they do, so they lash out against the resources and symbols of the power structure. Police cars being targeted is without question a clear and logical example for people to make this point. Just as people have targeted Teslas for destruction. These same reactionaries decry why the people who have pushed for electric cars would destroy them, but no one is destroying Priuses. The targeting of Teslas is a clear statement against the multi-national corporation that produces them, not the car/truck itself. The people are clear in their messaging. An example of this was from 1992 after the Los Angeles uprising after the acquittal of the four police accused of viciously beating motorist Rodney King. Oprah Winfrey went to South L.A. to film her show. Her audience was filled with local residents. She condescendingly asked one young African “what did you accomplish with these riots?” He took just one second to say “it got you here!”
These African social media commentators are also criticizing the carrying of Mexican flags, saying that “if they love Mexico so much, why don’t they just go there?! Why are they protesting in our country?!” This “logic” is a supreme example of the absurdity of these arguments. Even a fifth grader can understand that the Mexican flag is an expression of dignity since the ICE raids into peoples residences and on people on the streets is a clear assault against that dignity. The flag is a call for self respect and unity, rooted in the truth that California was stolen from Mexico and the Indigenous people to begin with. And, its utterly amazing that these African commentators can completely ignore that during our recent protests for Black lives, etc., Red, Black, and Green flags are commonly displayed, we would argue for the same reasons the Mexican flags are being displayed. Our flags are not being displayed because people want to go anywhere. As Pan-Africanists we wish this was true, but we are not at that collective level of consciousness yet about Africa (although we are moving in that direction). We know that the presentation of these flags is clearly a statement of dignity. We also know that the same capitalist logic that condemns the use of the Mexican flags also condemns the use of our Pan-African flags. We know this because as the European comedienne said some years ago “I love minorities, as long as you act white!” The flags of resistance serves as yet another important symbol of rejection of this capitalist white supremacist empire and the power structure knows that, even if these ignorant commentators don’t.
Last, but not least, the foundation of everything these commentators are expressing is their calls for African people to sit out the protests. Of all of their insanity, this one sits at the top of the list. Only a lower level animal such as roach suffers from such unconsciousness. If roaches are crawling and you kill one, the others will not come to help the fallen comrade. They will either seek safety or continue on with their duties. As human beings, even on the most basic level, and especially as Africans, each and every one of us cannot be confused enough to believe that the gestapo actions aimed at the Indigenous communities in Los Angeles will stop there. Only the most foolish and brain dirtied African would truly believe that the state will wage such a violent assault against any people, yet we are safe because we are “Americans.” Any African today that confused is without question a disgrace to all of the struggle and sacrifices our ancestors contributed. If anything, these actions are just the first phase of Europeanizing the U.S. which means these Africans who are working so hard to push their heads up the rear ends of the capitalist system are next for the gestapo actions by the state.
Of course the fundamental problem with all of these rightwing and liberal African commentators expressing how none of what’s happening in Los Angeles is our concern as African people is that clearly, none of the people saying this are activists. They do not belong to activist African or anybody else organizations. They are not involved in our ongoing struggle for liberation and forward progress. They are just sad and confused people who sit behind computer screens. Most of them, by their own admissions, have never even attended a single protest. They certainly haven’t organized anything, not even the vomit coming out of their mouths. You would not accept someone conducting surgery on your body who had never studied and practiced medicine. You would not permit someone who has never studied or trained to work on cars to disassemble your car engine. So, why would you listen to people who have clearly never studied social justice struggles and never participated a day in our struggle for justice to provide you with an analysis for how you should see any social justice efforts?
These people on social media are saying the things they are saying to get likes and clout as a tactic to build their brands and open doors to paid endorsement of their content. For them its exactly what Malcolm also told us – “they say exactly what the white man wants them to say!” Those of who have been organizing on the streets for decades know better than this charade. We know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was 100% correct when he said “a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” King’s logic is ill refutable to anyone who is serious about life. The only exceptions are those who view our people and our existence as a means to an end. Those people will never speak for us. All they will do is what they always do, sit back, run their mouths, and then come in after the dusk clears to sweep up the benefits they can pilfer from everyone else’s genuine sacrifices.
He said that unlike the African civil rights movement of the 1960s, “they are breaking the law in Los Angeles!” Apparently, the institutions of Youtube PhD’s in social activism neglected to include the component that explains to people like this dude how everything African people protested against was legal, meaning just by standing up for our dignity, we were breaking the laws of this system. Colonialism in Africa was legal. We resisted it. Slavery was legal all throughout the Western Hemisphere, including of course the U.S. We resisted it. Jim Crow racial segregation from the late 1800s through the 1970s was legal. We resisted it. No African today would be able to attend universities outside of the historically African ones if we hadn’t been willing to break the law. No African today could have access to employment and other opportunities if we hadn’t been willing to break the law. No African could live where they wanted and could afford to live if we hadn’t been willing to break the law. Anyone who has even the slightest understanding of social activism knows that the foundational basis of it is building a collective movement to struggle against unjust laws so by definition, all struggles for justice and dignity are going to break laws. The point being anyone who knows anything about the African struggle for justice realizes how absurd it sounds in 2025 for anyone who looks like us to be sitting up there complaining about people breaking laws in the name of justice.
The other absurd thing these African people are saying is the exact same backward talking point the capitalist system has been spewing against the most radical elements of our struggle for the last 60 years i.e. the critique against urban uprisings. And we mean the same tired talking points. They don’t even have the ability to come up with anything new. “You are destroying your own communities! What good will that do!” Malcolm X literally deconstructed this empty argument 60 years ago. He said that the masses, sick of exploitation and discrimination, rise up in righteous anger, but the people behind their suffering don’t occupy the same physical spaces that they do, so they lash out against the resources and symbols of the power structure. Police cars being targeted is without question a clear and logical example for people to make this point. Just as people have targeted Teslas for destruction. These same reactionaries decry why the people who have pushed for electric cars would destroy them, but no one is destroying Priuses. The targeting of Teslas is a clear statement against the multi-national corporation that produces them, not the car/truck itself. The people are clear in their messaging. An example of this was from 1992 after the Los Angeles uprising after the acquittal of the four police accused of viciously beating motorist Rodney King. Oprah Winfrey went to South L.A. to film her show. Her audience was filled with local residents. She condescendingly asked one young African “what did you accomplish with these riots?” He took just one second to say “it got you here!”
These African social media commentators are also criticizing the carrying of Mexican flags, saying that “if they love Mexico so much, why don’t they just go there?! Why are they protesting in our country?!” This “logic” is a supreme example of the absurdity of these arguments. Even a fifth grader can understand that the Mexican flag is an expression of dignity since the ICE raids into peoples residences and on people on the streets is a clear assault against that dignity. The flag is a call for self respect and unity, rooted in the truth that California was stolen from Mexico and the Indigenous people to begin with. And, its utterly amazing that these African commentators can completely ignore that during our recent protests for Black lives, etc., Red, Black, and Green flags are commonly displayed, we would argue for the same reasons the Mexican flags are being displayed. Our flags are not being displayed because people want to go anywhere. As Pan-Africanists we wish this was true, but we are not at that collective level of consciousness yet about Africa (although we are moving in that direction). We know that the presentation of these flags is clearly a statement of dignity. We also know that the same capitalist logic that condemns the use of the Mexican flags also condemns the use of our Pan-African flags. We know this because as the European comedienne said some years ago “I love minorities, as long as you act white!” The flags of resistance serves as yet another important symbol of rejection of this capitalist white supremacist empire and the power structure knows that, even if these ignorant commentators don’t.
Last, but not least, the foundation of everything these commentators are expressing is their calls for African people to sit out the protests. Of all of their insanity, this one sits at the top of the list. Only a lower level animal such as roach suffers from such unconsciousness. If roaches are crawling and you kill one, the others will not come to help the fallen comrade. They will either seek safety or continue on with their duties. As human beings, even on the most basic level, and especially as Africans, each and every one of us cannot be confused enough to believe that the gestapo actions aimed at the Indigenous communities in Los Angeles will stop there. Only the most foolish and brain dirtied African would truly believe that the state will wage such a violent assault against any people, yet we are safe because we are “Americans.” Any African today that confused is without question a disgrace to all of the struggle and sacrifices our ancestors contributed. If anything, these actions are just the first phase of Europeanizing the U.S. which means these Africans who are working so hard to push their heads up the rear ends of the capitalist system are next for the gestapo actions by the state.
Of course the fundamental problem with all of these rightwing and liberal African commentators expressing how none of what’s happening in Los Angeles is our concern as African people is that clearly, none of the people saying this are activists. They do not belong to activist African or anybody else organizations. They are not involved in our ongoing struggle for liberation and forward progress. They are just sad and confused people who sit behind computer screens. Most of them, by their own admissions, have never even attended a single protest. They certainly haven’t organized anything, not even the vomit coming out of their mouths. You would not accept someone conducting surgery on your body who had never studied and practiced medicine. You would not permit someone who has never studied or trained to work on cars to disassemble your car engine. So, why would you listen to people who have clearly never studied social justice struggles and never participated a day in our struggle for justice to provide you with an analysis for how you should see any social justice efforts?
These people on social media are saying the things they are saying to get likes and clout as a tactic to build their brands and open doors to paid endorsement of their content. For them its exactly what Malcolm also told us – “they say exactly what the white man wants them to say!” Those of who have been organizing on the streets for decades know better than this charade. We know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was 100% correct when he said “a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” King’s logic is ill refutable to anyone who is serious about life. The only exceptions are those who view our people and our existence as a means to an end. Those people will never speak for us. All they will do is what they always do, sit back, run their mouths, and then come in after the dusk clears to sweep up the benefits they can pilfer from everyone else’s genuine sacrifices.
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