In September of 2005 I wrote a very well researched article exposing the reasons why flooding from Katrina cost us 1800 mostly African lives.  That article was printed in "Positive Action" the then newsletter for the California Chapter of the All African People's Revolutionary Party.  The piece was also picked up by several other publications and was even required reading for at least two national conferences on white supremacy that I know of.  It was the first piece that I'd ever written that was widely read and circulated.  Ten years later I'm fortunate enough to have thousands of people read my works regularly.  I believe this is happening because there are people out there who appreciate honest assessments and analysis around the problems we face and ambitious, yet realistic, solutions for solving those problems.  That's why, on this 10 year commemoration of the horror that took place in New Orleans, I think its appropriate to dig back and revisit some of those truths that I and others were discussing immediately after that tragedy.  I'm hoping that you haven't forgotten how clearly and completely the New Orleans flooding aftermath exposed in raw fashion how vicious capitalist exploitation and it's right hand soldier - white supremacy and institutional racism - are against the African masses.  And, if you weren't old enough, you can feel the truths of what happened while currently observing continued efforts by guilty thugs to defer and deny responsibility for mass scale murder.

Immediately before I wrote that article, in the days during the horror in New Orleans, I was so incensed that I went out and had a shirt made that used the letters F.E.M.A. (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to spell out next to each of those letters: "Forgetting to Evacuate Mostly Africans."  That shirt generated quite a bit of attention and I had countless discussions with people in supermarkets, gas stations, work, and at the gym, etc.  I remember the degree in which so many people were radicalized while viewing the trauma our people were experiencing and I wondered how long it would take before people forgot their outrage and we went back to capitalist business as usual.  Well, here we are 10 years later...

That's why I think it's important that we remember to ask appropriate questions that have never been answered.  I'm talking about us asking each other these questions.  I already know the capitalist system knows the answers.  These are questions that if we keep them in our conscious minds, it makes it extremely difficult to be lulled back to sleep.  We would know no candidate can change what happened.  No law can protect us.  We would understand that our only protection is ourselves.  But, we have to ask the right questions.  Like why were all public school teachers in New Orleans systematically fired during the flooding?  Why were the generous donations of aide, aide workers, and supplies from places like Cuba (who had effectively prevented any serious damage from Katrina just days before), Russia, and even WalMart, categorically prevented by FEMA from being distributed to the communities and people who needed them most?  Why did FEMA cut the power throughout all of New Orleans during the flooding (the flooding isn't the answer.  That's not standard practice in other floods)?  Why were massive water supplies, food, and medicines stock piled and prevented from being distributed to the people?  Why did capitalist media consistently parrot the now dis-proven and discredited story that African youths were raping and brutalizing people at the New Orleans  SuperDome and Convention Center?  And why were none of those media sources held accountable for those vicious lies?  Why were the very real white supremacist thugs who boated and drove around New Orleans armed, shooting at Africans like it was a hunting holiday, not reported on?  Why were Africans shot at by police for simply trying to escape the horrors of the City and cross a bridge to neighboring Gretna?  Why has no one really been seriously held accountable for that?  Why have African people who searched stores for food, water, and necessary supplies characterized as looters while nothing was said about gas stations that tripled prices?  Grocery stores that did the same?  How were National insurance companies like All State and State Farm able to cheat thousands of Africans out of claims although those people had valid flood insurance policies on their houses?  Why aren't those big companies labeled as thugs for how they cheated people?  Last (but certainly not least - I can ask these questions all day), why was Kellogg Brown and Root, the company with ties to Haliburton Corporation, which had Vice President Dick Cheney as a board member, able to receive a non-bid contract to clean up lower New Orleans without having to follow federal law and bid for that contract?  Why was that company paid $20.00 per square foot for the clean up when the going rate was $2.00 per square foot?

Before saying anymore, I want to express that everyone always has the right to believe what they want.  In a capitalist dominated society, you maintain the right to be ignorant and your right to be that way is celebrated.  Still, I maintain hope in people and I trust that most people have an instinctive love of justice.  I believe that if presented with truth, most people will accept it.  So, here's how we see truth as it relates to all the questions above.  Since its well documented that the dangers of the levies in New Orleans were well known among government officials at the local, state, and national level for years before Katrina, we have to conclude that this pre-knowledge makes the slow response to African suffering anything except an accident , an oversight, or government incompetence as some would have you believe.  What actually happened is big business oriented interests saw the flooding as an opportunity to remove unwanted elements from the City of New Orleans.  The unwanted was the pre-Katrina massive African population of which 67%, at that time, was below the poverty level.  One only has to visit Bourbon Street to view the discomfort and elitist attitudes displayed by visiting European (white) tourists at the sight of large numbers of African people being so close.  Since the flooding?  Over 100,000 Africans have been systematically removed from New Orleans.  The Teacher's Union, which was dominated by African women, has been effectively overrun and much of New Orleans is now operating under privatized education (affectionately called charter schools).  Public housing has been all but eliminated.  Now, what you have left in New Orleans is the authentic culture of the town, which isn't French.  It's African.  Creole food is African food.  Jazz is African music.  The Mardi Gra is nothing except an African celebration.  What has been permitted to happen is the African cultural essence is there without many of the Africans.  The ideal scenario for privileged people in a capitalist/white supremacist society.  So, if you forgot, now let's remember.  If you didn't know, now let's realize.  And then we can study other similar circumstances and see the consistent trends as it relates to African people.  The 10 year commemoration of Katrina/the flooding serves one purpose for me.  Its another reminder that the only true representation that was made by capitalism during that devastating ordeal was referring to our people struggling to survive during the flooding as "refugees."  The sad reality is we have been refugees here for over 500 years and we will always be that until we get serious about making some fundamental changes.

So many people have been talking about the movie "Straight Outta Compton" the (so-called) biopic about the hip/hop group NWA, and I have to say, why they are talking about it is beyond me.  Maybe my problem is I look at things through a different ideological viewpoint.  A perspective that evolves from an understanding of the role of culture.  That great son of Africa - Ahmed Sekou Ture said "culture is a tool for the oppressed to achieve their dignity."  As a result, I believe culture isn't just a commodity from which to make money, but it's a weapon to inspire people to create better living conditions for humanity.  Knowing this, I can't be impressed with any movie about NWA just as I wasn't impressed with NWA in the late 80s when they came out.  Although I was in my mid twenties at the time.  And, I was that young African inner city male that their music was targeting, I wasn't the least bit interested.  I was listening to Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, and a host of other "conscious" rappers at that time and I, and all my friends and political comrades of the same age, felt that NWA was a set up by the record industry to sell out hip/hop.  

Although our analysis  was admittedly idealistic, the basis of our thinking was correct.  The record industry understood properly that the gangsta rap model was a much more sustainable economic model than the political rap model.  Consequently, the industry clearly made a choice to push hip/hop in the gangsta lyric direction.  As a result, by the mid nineties, conscious rap was pretty much a thing of the past (with the exception of a few harder core artists/activists).  Its important to understand the capitalist aspects of this.  This so-called gangsta rap genre was trumpeted by the largest entertainment entities in the world.  In fact, Time Warner housed Interscope Records which distributed for Death Row and the illegalities of these relationships have been exposed in several legal proceedings involving the actions of Death Row Records Executive and attorney David Brenner.  So, if you really want to understand where NWA and the like came from, just follow the money.

But, getting back specifically to this movie, I never listened to NWA or bought their music.  Despite the fact my life was already firmly dedicated to fighting for African liberation and I had long before abandoned the glorification of "the hood" I still to this day have maintained an appreciation for quality lyrical capabilities.  Even if what is being articulated wasn't to my liking.  Although I refused to buy it myself, in clubs, I would listen to and acknowledge the lyrical skill of people like Biggie, the not so progressive Tupac, E-40, etc., because those cats could rap, even when they were speaking a bunch of non-sense.  With NWA, I never felt even that much respect.  Eazy-E and Dr. Dre always sounded terrible and compounded with the self hatred and misogyny in their lyrics, I declined the first time I heard it.  Then, once I learned that Dre had a penchant for beating women e.g. Miche'Le and Dee Barnes, I've made a point not to support anything he was doing.  And Ice Cube?  Well, I'll just leave it at what the late Khallid Abdul Muhammad, who Ice Cube used on his albums when he first left NWA (and was acting like he was a soldier in the Nation of Islam) said; Ice Cube "had melted on me."  Just another capitalist business person who sees our people as a means to an end from which to exploit.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm a revolutionary which means I have to be a dialectical materialist.  That means I understand that everything has positives and negatives and the question is which will dominate.  I realize fully that NWA's "F-the Police" was a hip/hop classic that made a contribution to the community over police consciousness that we are still working to build today, but overall, much of their legacy is sadly reactionary and against the interests of our people.  

So, the movie may attract millions, but my few dollars won't be among them.  NWA isn't the type of culture I'm interested in.  Anyone can pimp a downtrodden people and make money off of it.  I'd rather focus on building up our culture of resistance, getting back to Sekou Ture's analysis.  Understanding that the best culture isn't what the capitalist system puts out and promotes.  And the best artists aren't the ones who aspire to reach the dimensions of our oppressors, even if they battle our oppressors on some levels along the way.  The best culture is that which presents our people with solutions to our problems and hope for the future.  And, the best artists are those who promote inspirational art, whether they catch heat for it and whether it sells or not.  NWA may mean lots of money for Dre, Cube, and some of the others, but I prefer to talk about art that maintains integrity and courage, not every so often or some of the time, but in everything that it does and all that it is.  One day we will hopefully come to grasp Ture's analysis of this question.  And, when that day comes, we will claim our power and people like Dre and Cube will be left with nothing except an overflowing inventory of the garbage they've produced.

I make that commitment because I LOVE AND SUPPORT AFRICAN TRANS WOMEN!  I invite Robert, Mario, Kevin, Kitwana , Akubundu, and Murrell to join me in making this pledge.  I know my approach is a little different.  I took the picture attached to this post declaring my support for the pledge, but when Sister Adrienne invited me to make the pledge, I wanted to write something too because I figured 6000 people read this blog monthly so this method will provide a lasting and documented record of my pledge while continuing to reinforce it every time someone clicks.

 My message is simple.  African culture is humanistic.  When I was growing up in San Francisco in the 1970s, during my high school years, we lived on Haight Street (six blocks from Ashbury).  My mother was really into drama and she was always in plays.  Therefore, there were always actors and actresses at our house rehearsing.  In 1970s San Francisco, this meant trans people, African trans people, were usually among the cast members present.  My father, as old school as it gets.  Born and raised in Louisiana.  A tough, take no nonsense postal worker, was always there during these rehearsals.  Now, if you sat my father down and asked him if he believed that someone could be transgender, he would probably have looked you dead in the face and said no.  Still, what he modeled for me was him treating every person who came to our house with dignity and respect.  He cooked for, transported, and regularly interacted with everyone in my mother's group, including our trans friends.  And if anyone had insulted any of our people, my father would have been first in line to defend them.  Why?  Because my father understood that African people are collective in culture, not individualistic.  He knew if there were two of us, we have a community.  We don't discriminate against anyone.  We have experienced far too much oppression to be insensitive to any people's suffering, especially members of our own community.  

My point about my father is that our culture is one of acceptance.  We don't discriminate and we are not intolerant.  This doesn't mean everyone is going to come to a progressive mindset about everything, but we never restrict and treat anyone with anything less than genuine respect, dignity, and caring.  So, how and where did we get to this place of some African people being so intolerant?  Some of us refusing to acknowledge and respect that our community is diverse.  Some of us even sadly seeing nothing wrong with saying that our LGBTQ Sisters and Brothers are only welcome if they deny who they are while in the presence of the hetero community.  Well, there are many reasons for this happening.  European right-wing reactionaries like Franklin Graham (yes, that devil Billy Graham's son) and his thug organization "Samaritan Power" is one of those reasons, but that's another article.  For now, the message is I, pledge to call out transphobia and transmisogyny.  Every time.  I LOVE AND SUPPORT MY AFRICAN TRANS SISTERS.  And, hopefully my little message can influence other African men to do the same.

Kwame Ture said that capitalism makes what's strange seem normal, and what's normal seem strange,
For those who first hear that, it may sound deranged,
But if you think about it clearly, there is much logic to that thought,
People sell snake oil, steal our resources, and their support won't stop,
While others struggle with integrity, give everything, ask for nothing, and we treat them like they came from a lepers lot,
We glorify cowards, manipulators, and liars, as long as the system says they are stars,
While we refuse to respectfully acknowledge those who demonstrate everyday that they are one of ours,
We strive to integrate into a backward system that is maintained on our backs,
While we reject true justice and ignore true facts,
We refuse to seriously study, opting out for quick social media sound bites,
Then we get mad when we get called out as ignorant, we won't challenge the enemy, but for that truth we want to fight,
We say we will do what's right, and build to make a better day,
But, then the minute there is a problem or issue, we are quick to quit and be on our way,
We are good at casting blame, and with this, our mark is always precise,
But, when it comes to self reflection, we struggle mightily, and permit arrogance to suffice,
Still, in spite of these contradictions, which Brother Kwame spoke of all to well,
We are still here, still fighting, still strong, so let's prepare to give the enemy hell!
Let's practice patience with one another, let's learn to forgive and stay strong,
Let's reserve our anger and frustration for the enemy, who deserves it all day long,
Let's dedicate a new time, and a new day, for doing what's right,
And let's understand it will take time for us to build correctly, and get it right!

It was the Bay Bridge, Candlestick Park, Baker Beach, Twin Peaks/Sutro Tower, and the Golden Gate Park that made me realize it.  Those five landmark areas of San Francisco are there today, as present as they were in the 70s when I was growing up in the City.  There have been changes.  The Giants baseball team abandoned Candlestick in 1999 and the 49ers football team jumped ship after the 2013 season.  So the huge stadium sits still on the southern edge of San Francisco, quiet, and full of ghosts as it's pending demolition looms.  The Bay Bridge's new replacement section that links the East Bay to Treasure Island is finally completed after years of cost overruns and political bureaucracy.  It's now impossible to get a parking space now at Twin Peaks, the place just five minutes above my former high school where I remember being the only person there on many days and nights as I contemplated what life had in store for me while taking in a breathtaking view of the entire city.  The Golden Gate Park is full of yuppies instead of hippies now.  The same type of people who have invaded San Francisco over the last three decades.  The Big Rec double baseball diamonds on 7th and Lincoln Way still generates powerful childhood memories when I drive by them.  Although the people who now populate the ballpark stands don't view me as a performing player on the field any longer.  Instead, they peer suspiciously at me as a I walk through the bleachers.  A part of me feels empowered by the sharp glare I direct at those people while another part of me wants to cry out that I was there, playing on those diamonds, before most of those people could even find San Francisco.  I even charted in the pitch, hit, and run competition there on the East diamond on an early Saturday morning somewhere around 1974/75.  I even crushed a crucial double in my senior year of 1979 in a game that helped send our varsity baseball team to the playoffs as I recall.  The one and only game I ever remember my graveyard working father being able to attend.  I didn't even know he was there until I connected solidly with that fastball and then I heard him yell out.  I stood on second base and beamed at him once I spotted him in the stands, but when I looked a second time, he was gone.  

That experience from that baseball game really sums up my feelings about San Francisco today.  Pride, joy, and a sense of loss.  You see, when I was in high school there in the City, the African population in San Francisco was approximately 15% (the official records say 12%, but the Census has never been good at counting our people).  We had communities in Hunters Point, Fillmore, Lakeview, and other areas of the City.  We had institutions that come with community.  We had identity and a history of struggle that included being part of the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and other viable forms of proud struggle.  In fact, I remember when the entire corner of Fillmore and Geary, just blocks from the Kaiser Hospital where I was born, was dominated by businesses owned and controlled by the Nation of Islam.  Fried fish, bean pies, a cleaners, and a legal aide office.  Their huge Mosque sat just doors away on Geary.  Soon, that Mosque would give way to the People's Temple, the home of Jim Jones.  Soon, those businesses would disappear and be replaced by standard fare capitalist enterprise like check cashing, Rite Aide Drugs, etc.  Soon that 15% population would dwindle down to the less than five percent that it is today and with it, the sense of community that I felt growing up.  

For a brief period after my mother died in 2009, I lost any sense of connection to San Francisco.  My father had died 10 years before and once they died the rent control they enjoyed vanished.  As a result, my sisters (one who has since also died) were immediately forced to move to the East Bay to seek out more affordable rents.  This feeling of alienation from San Francisco had been developing since the 1980s, but it was solidified during one of the last times I saw my mother alive.  I had driven to San Francisco to spend time with her and along with my daughter, we visited her at the flat she and my dad (and myself during my high school years) lived on Haight Street, just six blocks from Ashbury.   My mom, in failing health, was wheelchair bound, but one of the things she always loved was going to the local Indigenous casinos.  So, since my out of state visits were her only opportunities to leave the house, we went through the process of helping her descend the 44 steps so that she could then engage in the struggle of climbing into my vehicle.  Since Haight Street parking is unbelievable (I remember my father having to  wait two hours to find parking when returning from work), my standard practice was to double park, click the hazards on, and go up to help my mother.  On this particular trip, as my daughter, sister, and I helped my mother down the steps, once we reached the outside steps, we were greeted with an extremely hostile and belligerent European (White) woman who was incensed that we were double parked.  The woman was standing in front of the stairway, on the sidewalk, yelling and cursing at me for leaving my vehicle double parked (an extremely common occurrence in San Francisco).  What made this scene especially odd is that by all visible evidence, this woman appeared to be walking up the hill, not driving.  Not seeking to get around my vehicle as every other car going up and down Haight Street had no problem doing.  She was just standing there yelling at us.  I remember her saying "you people have no right to be here!"  I didn't respond.  My sister and mother were more than effective at countering the rude outburst of this woman with one of their own.  As we drove off, we debriefed the incident and after listening to my family members express their outrage, I offered that the situation reflects the times in San Francisco.  The fact that I was born and raised there was now ill relevant.  The fact my mother was an elder who had contributed to San Francisco in so many ways for so many years (since 1949) was ill relevant.  What mattered was this woman and all the values and culture that she brought to the City was there now and therefore, she could create whatever type of reality there that fit her vision.  And obviously, we aren't a part of that vision.  It wasn't just that lone experience.  That incident triggered many similar incidents in recent years.  Being confronted by European street kids on upper Haight and even getting into a physical confrontation with some of them who refused to move out of the way so that we could walk by.  Being stopped by police in various parts of the City when all I was doing was driving with my daughter and other small children.  Being watched in stores and other businesses.  The message was clear.  You don't belong here.

Don't get me wrong.  Growing up in the 70s meant I was bused to suburban schools.  That means I was exposed early on to white supremacy.  During those years, the Sunset district was prestigious and all European.  The messages painted on walls everywhere and the way I and my friends were treated made it clear even back then that we were not wanted in San Francisco. And if I needed any further evidence it was provided by these examples: the time two friends and I were jumped at Big Rec in Golden Gate park by 13 European racists when I was 13, the European man who stopped my friend and I riding our bikes when we were 10 with loud racial epithets and threats, and finally, the three thirty something European men who physically beat the tar out of 14 year old me for just being an African made that message clear even back then.  The difference is that in 1977, even with those horrific incidents being a way of life, we had community in San Francisco.  I knew that and that knowledge made me understand that the community meant that in spite of those people and those incidents, we had a right to be there.  Now, there are no beatings or threats, but the systematic method in which African culture has been removed from San Francisco makes the statement much louder and clearer than it was even during the violence I experienced in the 70s.  We are not wanted there and our very existence and history there is being wiped clean.  Almost as if it never happened.

I have no hard feelings though.  I don't because the existence of the landmarks I mentioned in the beginning made me realize that no matter what the racist institutions and people in San Francisco do, my life growing up there will always be mine and they can't take that from me.  I will go to Baker Beach, Golden Gate Park, etc., and share in my childhood memories whether anyone likes it or not.  I will walk up and down Haight Street and Buena Vista Park whether anyone likes it or not.  I will eat fish on Third Street in Hunters Point and be proud of that neighborhood and the resistance from my people which cannot be seen on a large scale anywhere else in the City today, but is still prevalent in good old HP.  Plus, from what I've learned in my life, I have no need to be angry at the land grabbers and gentrification benefactors.  I can claim San Francisco. I can go there whenever I want and my history there is my history, but gentrification exists because white supremacy exists.  White supremacy exists because capitalism exists.  And, capitalism exists because Africa is being exploited.  I realize now that the negative experiences I unfortunately had to go through as a child happened because Africa is disrespected.  No matter what people think, everywhere we go, everything we do, we are viewed as representatives of Africa.  And in truth, that's exactly what we are and what we should want to be.  And, if we understand this all correctly, until Africa is free, we will continue to be disrespected in San Francisco and everywhere else.  

So you people continue to stare, look down your nose, and benefit from your racist system.  You can't have my life in San Francisco and soon you won't be able to have Africa either.  The correct message has been clearly articulated to me my entire life.  I just has to work hard enough and become mature enough to understand it.  From the shores of West Africa to Louisiana to my parents and grand parents in S.F.  Whether I'm in the Pacific Northwest, the Caribbean, Canada, Europe, the Bay Area, or Africa, I'm going to be a proud African.  A proud African who was born and raised in San Francisco, who is fighting against capitalism every single day of my life.  

Since the two young African sisters courageously shutdown Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sander’s speech I have seen an unending onslaught of opinions about their action coming from every non-African with active vocal cords.  I’ve also observed the responses from several non-activist/organization Africans from every conceivable academic and institutional perspective.  After taking in all these responses, since much of the debate seems to center around radical movement strategies and tactics, I think it high time that voices from the most radical and experienced African activist circles be heard on this issue. 

I start by taking you back to April, 1983, when I and several members of the Pan-African Student Union at California State University, Sacramento, made the decision to shut down the Student Services building on campus that day to protest institutional racism on campus and in society.  Our tactic to achieve this objective was to engage in a 1960s style sit-in in front of the door of the tuition payment office.  There were approximately eight of us, dressed in black from head to toe.  We had the benefit of a handful of European (white) student supporters who agreed to talk to onlookers about the reasons for our actions. The event took the otherwise conservative (reactionary) campus and city of Sacramento by storm, hitting the evening news that day and the front page of the Sacramento Bee the following day.  Although there was a heavy police presence called onto the scene that day, we were not arrested and subsequent efforts to expel each of us were unsuccessful.  My belief thirty two years later as to why we escaped that day without consequence was the 400 students who refused to leave the outside of the Student Services Office that day and the subsequent support we received from a wide cross section of students – ranging from the “Divine Nine” African Greek letter organizations to European progressive student groups on campus, as well as several community groups.  What I learned from that action, the first major action of that sort that I was involved in (with countless others to follow in the years to come) was the eight of us who participated in the action was not nearly as significant as the hundreds who came to support us.  That fact was my awakening to the value of mass movement as a vessel for creating pressure for change. 

Fast forward to present times.  There is much debate about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and it’s tactics.  As a fifty-three year old organizer/activist who’s politics are actually much more radical than that being pursued by BLM, I find myself in a rather unique position today in providing assessment of this movement.  As articulated before, I have the experience of participating in many direct actions, but I’ve also benefitted from different types of organizing experience and the development of revolutionary ideology to guide my political work.  So, let me say up front that I couldn’t care less if anyone’s feelings were hurt by not being able to hear Bernie Sanders speak, by being called racist, etc.  My response to those people is I’m thinking about you about as much as you think about us when we experience our daily encounters with this racist system.  The same encounters that fuels the rage and frustration that pushes our younger activists today.  There is absolutely no question that this entire system is driven by an ideology of white supremacy as the basis for justifying the daily exploitation that characterizes the capitalist system.  So, you are racist.  You don’t have a choice.  Get over it and get over the fact we are no longer willing to experience our trauma and terror in a way that doesn’t interrupt your comfort within the capitalist system.

The masses of Europeans in this society and around the world are not even close to being at a point where they are ready to separate themselves from the capitalist system.  In fact, the system has done an outstanding job of convincing them that their interests, and the interests of capitalism, are one and the same.  So, until Europeans are ready to embrace the fact that you cannot ally yourself with capitalism and then claim to be against white supremacy, you are nothing more than the fox Malcolm X warned us about 50 years ago.  You are the fox who pretends to be our friend while your more aggressive counterparts portray the wolf who doesn’t try to hide their overt racism.  As Malcolm put it “both dogs…Both part of the canine family!”

That piece is widely stated, but the piece that isn’t as widely discussed is the fact many of us in the African communities also refuse to distance ourselves from the capitalist system.  In fact, we buy into capitalist ideological tenets such as individualism and impatience (think about it – impatience is nothing more than the belief that you understand something someone else doesn’t understand.  Why are they so dumb and slow that they can’t know what you know.  This is a clear example of elitism).  Truthfully, the one critique I will wage against BLM is they seem to want to advance this mobilizing concept that a few people can carry out actions when history has proven that the most effective mass movements must involve work to include the masses of people.  To get the masses requires the type of tireless day to day work that many of these younger activists don’t seem interested in participating in, at least on any type of consistent basis.  I make this critique carefully.  Not as an outsider, but as someone who has supported and participated in BLM actions, putting my body on the line to serve as security for these activists during their actions.  Also, because I work with younger African activists on a daily basis, I can also speak to the problem of a dominantly idealistic perspective of the world where the individual perspective seems to always outrace the collective in the minds of many of these young folks.  Plus, there is definitely seems to be a lack of personal accountability in many instances and this is borne out by the fact many of us are primed to run away at the slightest sign of internal conflict and disagreement.  And, follow through?  It appears to be a disease to many of my younger comrades.

Nonetheless, these are all problems that can and will be overcome.  They will be overcome by hard work and determination to help us develop more of a cohesive movement that recognizes the value of collective and mass participation.  Then, hopefully, we can begin to infuse much more revolutionary analysis into this work that helps clarify that our true work shouldn’t be just reforming the capitalist system (e.g. police accountability, ballot box reform), but transforming this corrupt system into socialist construction.  The fact this last part hasn’t happened speaks to the weakness of the African liberation movement, of which BLM should be a part of (this part of the critique is for us African revolutionaries).  It’s a call-out for more established radical African groups to begin and/or upgrade our work within our communities.  That means get much more serious about this work e.g. lose the egos and pre-ordained belief that because we have been working longer, we are the (only) legitimate leaders.  This is also an overall call for us to develop more patience and understanding of one another so that we can create space for people to heal from the 500 year dysfunction that has defined our experience (so that we can stop acting in activist circles like this dysfunction isn’t an issue impacting our political work). 

These are all things that have to happen.  So, no criticism of BLM here for disrupting Bernie Sanders.  Great job sisters!  The points I’m raising here are related to what should be happening before, during, and after the actions.  How do we figure out how to connect the ideological head (us older radical activists) with the energetic body (the new BLM and other activists).  And, how do we do that in a way that is healthy, non-competitive, and productive for the forward emancipation of our people.  As for you who are not African.  My question for you is how is that you find so much time to critique and analyze our movements?  It’s as if you don’t have work to do in your own communities?  If your response is the work taking place in African communities is on the cutting edge, that’s a problem that you need to be working to correct among your own people.  European people need organization – badly, as do other communities.  Why are you not working with your people?  Developing their capacity to seek out justice?  Maybe if you were doing that, instead of playing armchair quarterback to the African revolution, you would be making inroads towards uprising the consciousness of European and other folks.  And, then we wouldn’t have the type of silly reactions that we are hearing in the aftermath of a single white man being interrupted in the name of justice.

Let's get straight to the point.  Sheldon Adelson is a superrich capitalist, so it's easy to understand his zionist objectives in sponsoring this "tour."  Omri Casspi is a zionist born and raised player, so I can see the reasons for his confusion.  That's why the focus of this letter is for African (born wherever) players like Demarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, Iman Shumpert, and others who participated in this sham trip.  I'm hopeful this letter can help you brothers see how you are being used as pawns in a power play for white supremacy.  I'm sure whatever Casspi and Adelson told you, it must have sounded pretty convincing if it encouraged you to travel to a place I doubt you have much information and understanding about.  
  
My brothers, the promoters of this trip invited you specifically to use your popularity and physical presence in occupied Palestine to discredit legitimate work taking place to expose the oppressive practices of zionist Israel against the Palestinian people.  It's important you know this because your willingness to risk scrutiny when wearing the "I Can't Breathe" shirts was proof that you are conscious enough to understand the necessity to stand up against institutional racism and white supremacy against African people, but your inability to see the contradiction between that bold act, and supporting zionist Israel, is a flaw we must correct in whatever way that we can.


You see, there can be no separation in supporting justice for African people and the same for Palestinian people.  African people suffer international racism and white supremacy because the capitalist system (profit over people) relies on exploiting Africa and African people to maintain it's cheap access  to natural resources and labor.  Zionism is a political system that uses Judaism to achieve the illegal and immoral political objective of stealing Palestine from the Palestinian people.  Let's talk a little about the history of the zionist movement to further make the point for you.  In 1918, Britain declared Palestine the property of the zionists through the illegal Balfour Declaration and the settlements of Europeans to Palestine escalated.  In 1948, three years after the defeat of the Third Reich in Germany, the zionist state of Israel was declared and all of the imperialist countries, led by the U.S. raced to be the first to recognize the zionist state.  Understand that the Palestinians have never accepted this invasion into their home no different than the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere (The Indians) have never accepted/agreed with the invasion here, and we Africans have never accepted/agreed with the brutal intrusion into Africa.  So, with the theft complete, since 1948, the zionists have ruled over the Palestinian people with an iron fist enacting the most brutal and inhumane oppression imaginable.  Children tear gassed and shot as policy for simply standing up as human beings.  People systematically and brutally harassed, moved and denied basic human rights like access to food and water.  Murder being carried out against the Palestinian people as policy highlighted by the 2014 brutal attacks against Gaza by the zionist state.  All of this to attempt to destroy the spirit of the Palestinian people to resist the illegal occupation.  Now, the international community has come together to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in an effort to bring international attention to the brutal Israeli subjugation of the Palestinian people by encouraging folks to boycott products that do business with the zionist state.  This is a legitimate tactic to apply pressure on the zionist state to cease and desist in its terror against the Palestinian people just as the same tactics were used in the 1980s to apply pressure against the apartheid regime in Azania, South Africa, to cease it's terror and oppression against African people there.  Brothers, can you imagine a bunch of white players going to Azania, South Africa, in the 80s and partying it up, sending out tweets about how wonderful it is, and basically sending the message that the oppression of our people in Azania, South Africa doesn't matter?  That it's not important?  Well, that's the message you are sending by participating in this sham trip with these zionists.


What makes what you are doing that much worse is you didn't even bother to study your own African history. The pursuit of the zionist agenda of establishing another white supremacist settler colony has always been funded on the backs of African people.  This was true in the 1920s when zionists manipulated the movement of the Honorable Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA - millions of members worldwide, the Negro World publication published in 33 countries in English, Spanish, and French) by telling Garvey that his quest for a liberated Africa was the same as the Israeli quest for a zionist Israel.  These efforts were designed to garner support from African people, who truly and legitimately understand the true need to return home, for the zionist agenda.  This manipulation continued with the World Zionist Congress (WZC) and characters like Chaim Weizman tricking the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 20s and 30s to actually sponsor them on speaking tours to raise money for the zionist occupation.  And then, in the 1960s, when African youth in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) stepped out on courage by becoming the first national organization to take an anti-zionist position, the zionist movement worked with established civil rights leaders to further manipulate their thinking; causing honest leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others to support the establishment of Blacks in Support of Israel (BASIC) which became a major lobbyist on behalf of the zionist state.  Lobbyists like BASIC are the reason the zionist state today is the number one benefactor of foreign aide from the U.S. government.  And they have the nerve to accuse our people of being welfare recipients.  


We give you this history to illustrate the point that Africans being manipulated to support zionism isn't a new phenomenon.  You are not the first, and you won't be the last, but we do want you to recognize the reasons why it's important for zionists to have African allies in their immoral quest.  It's important again to highlight for you that zionism has always relied on exploiting Africa as a primary means of financing the zionist movement.  It is a fact that refined diamonds remain today one of the largest gross national products of the zionist state.  The problem is there are no diamond mines in occupied Palestine (Isreal). These diamonds are stolen from Africa where our people spend all day, everyday, mining them and receiving nothing in return except disease and death.  This industry is a human disgrace highlighted by the fact the richest man in Africa today is a Dutch man - Nicky Oppenheimer - the President and CEO of DeBeers Diamonds.  This is not to mention the fact zionism has profited from the illegal international sales of guns e.g .the Uzi sub-machine to finance the zionist state.  As you know, many of these guns are used to maintain instability in our communities from South Los Angeles, to Port a Prince, Haiti.  Finally, but most definitely not of least importance, these zionists who claim to represent the sacred religion of Judaism, demonstrate their contempt for the religion by continuing to treat the Ethiopian Jews, people escaping harsh conditions brought to Africa by capitalist exploitation, with disrespect and brutality.  Today, These Africans in occupied Palestine are treated with the same hatred that the Palestinians are subjected to.  This, when those Ethiopian Jews represent the direct lineage of the Falasha Jews who by all historical and theological accounts, are the original Jewish people.  


So, my African brothers, it is very important that you understand what your big brother is telling you here because contrary to whatever Casspi, Adelson, and whomever else is telling you, zionism is a political movement.  It is a movement that is designed to create political power for the zionist elite in conjunction with international capitalism and imperialism (the enemy for African people worldwide).  Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism, which like Christianity, Islam, etc., is a religion of peace with roots in Africa.  A Jew cannot be a zionist and a zionist cannot be a Jew.  Furthermore, any conscious African cannot be a zionist.  You have been tricked into supporting an illegal and criminal regime.  This is verified by the fact that I'm sure they have gone to great pains to limit your trip to the clean and pristine parts of the occupation.  It's a pity you did not have the knowledge to demand they take you to Gaza so you could see the actual devastation their "democracy" causes to the original and rightful inhabitants of the land you visited.


To conclude my brothers, there is an old African proverb that says "it isn't the error that counts, but how you respond to the error."  You, like many of our people before you, have had our legitimate desire to see oppression eliminated and our genuine connection to returning home (to freedom, to Africa) manipulated by the well organized and determined zionist movement.  We cannot demand justice for African people without understanding the need to do the same for the Palestinian people and all oppressed people.  You brothers have a privileged position today because African people fought for you to have it.  One hundred years ago, you could have been the best basketball players on the planet as you are now, but you would not have gotten the chance you have today to earn millions playing basketball because the conditions of oppression would not have permitted it.  People you will never meet made sacrifices that you have benefited from to reach the position you occupy today. Those people made those sacrifices not so you could flick their losses in the face of the world today, but because they wanted you to have opportunities they didn't have.  They wanted that because they wanted you to use your influence to make things better for future generations. Therefore, your status cannot belong to you alone because you are there, at least partially, because of those you struggled against injustice before you.  Therefore, you have the responsibility to continue to use your popularity and status to continue the work for true justice.  Now, it is time for you to do that for Africa, Africans, and the Palestinian people.  History will record your response.