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My People: Protesting Kaepernick's Employment Only is Off Base

8/26/2017

This past week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) joined the call to boycott all National Football League (NFL) games during the 2017 season because no NFL team has seriously considered offering quarterback Colin Kaepernick a place on its roster. And since we are football fans along with revolutionary organizer activists, we understand the game well. We know that Kaepernick's 60% pass completion rate and 71 touchdowns to 30 interceptions ratio, along with his clear ability to make plays with his legs, means the claims by his critics that his current unemployment is due to his lack of ability are absolutely dishonest. We know the reason he's unemployed is because he dared stand up during the 2016 season and call out the U.S. for its racist treatment of Africans and other oppressed people around the world. The U.S. is unquestionably a racist country all the way down to its rotten core. Kaepernick knew this when he started his national anthem protests. That's why he initially stated that he was prepared to lose the ability to play football to stand up for his beliefs.

Many of his professional colleagues, in the NFL, and the National Basketball Association, have joined him in making protest statements against institutional racism. And this past week, the non-athlete African community has kicked into gear, openly calling for a national boycott against the NFL because of its treatment against Kaepernick.

Its always a good thing when African people stand up against injustice. When we stand up, its usually a catalyst for much of the positive social change the world has benefited from over the last 100 years. So, I was overjoyed to see the NAACP take their stance this last week. And, after having spent many years organizing on college campuses, I know as well as anyone how difficult it can be to get African students, particularly those involved in Greek letter organizational life, to take even the slightest interest in our national liberation struggle. So, no one was happier than I was to see the multitudes of Kaepernick's Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brothers coming out to support him during the protest held at NFL headquarters last week. That all by itself was history in the making.

Still, since revolution is never sentimental, we have to speak truth at all times. And, since this activity around Colin Kaepernick is a part of a developing movement, we recognize that people will come into and at this from many different perspectives. In other words, some people will see most if not all of the big picture. Some will see only portions of it. But, for anyone who may be confused, its essential that we express how limited and strategically wrong it is for us to be making this protest about whether the NFL offers Kaepernick a job or not. And there are plenty who are seeing the situation through that vision. There are countless social media postings from people saying they won't watch an NFL game until Kaepernick has a job.

First, let's start with there is a reason you haven't heard Kaepernick himself speaking out in public about having a job. He isn't begging the stanch racist NFL owners for anything and like practically everything this wonderful young person is doing, the rest of us need to take a page from his book. Reducing the question to one of whether or not he has a job does everything to diminish the critical questions he has helped raise with his protest in the first place. Also, if him getting a job is the objective, the capitalist system has demonstrated that it understands when and where to cut its losses to protect its interests. In other words, he'll eventually get that job in the NFL and if you are seeing that as the objective then you will view the moment he signs an NFL contract as some sort of victory. Your energy and desire to continue the struggle will diminish and all we will be left with is the same wage slavery we had when Kaepernick started his protest in the first place.

A multitude of economists have proven since the 1970s that African people represent a sizable market around the world and within the U.S. We do possess the power to hurt the capitalist system. And, as always, we are not alone in our quest for justice. So, there's no question that boycotting is an effective tool, if used correctly. What we should be boycotting is the NFL's refusal to place the systemic oppression against Africans over its desire to sell tickets and to sell out to the U.S. imperialist military's buyout of NFL airtime before every game. We should be calling attention to the hypocrisy of NFL owners like Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys) who's drawers are caught up in such a bunch over Kaepernick's protests while he praises players under his own employ, like Ezekiel Elliot and Greg Hardy, who face serious allegations of violence against women. We should be focused on how so many NFL players, owners, announcers, fans, and water boys are comfortable denouncing Kaepernick without the slightest doubt while they still haven't made one peep about the reasons he's protesting. We should be educating our people about these contradictions and making the NFL pay for its blatant disregard for our lives. And, we do this by making the NFL suffer where it hurts, financially. For me, the objective isn't to get anything from the NFL. The objective is to use the protests to wake up our people. To help us understand that we can empower ourselves which is Kaepernick's message to us in the first place. We would also be sending the message to racist America that we can disrupt and bring it to its knees anytime we want.

This type of self empowerment movement action would do wonders to breath life into our struggle. It would take it far beyond the point its primarily at today where far too many of us see the focus of our fight as demanding something from our enemies.

Too much of what we do to combat this system is symbolic. Let's think this through a bit more. Let's take things to the next step higher. Let's start making them suffer some serious consequences while using our work to demonstrate to our people that when we get organized, the sky is the limit.

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We're Witnessing A Record Pace of Uncle Tom Sellouts in 2017

8/23/2017

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Of course, the term "uncle tom" derives from the 1852 novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In that book, the character Uncle Remus's deference and acceptance of white supremacy prompted the term uncle tom to depict any African who willfully defends the racist nature of this backward and oppressive capitalist system. Although the term has its birth within the U.S., since we are engaged in a worldwide struggle against oppression, we know that uncle toms are an international phenomenon. Uncle toms speak to the class struggle that rages between the masses of African people, who are oppressed by capitalism, and the token petti-bourgeois who have been accepted as middle managers by the capitalists. Since the role of these petti-bourgeois is to be spokespersons and protectors of the master's system, they have never been trusted by the masses of African people. They are perceived as sell-outs and this is what is implied by the term uncle tom.

So tomming isn't a U.S. thing and its not new. Its actually as old as class struggle, so, thousands of years old. Some of the original uncle toms were the African elites within tribal groups like the Ashantis, Akan, Kemitics, Fulani, Yoruba, Ibo, Mandinka, Wolof, Hausa, etc., during feudal times, who established trade relations with the European invaders to sell our people into slavery. The uncles toms continued to play the role of the sell outs who snitched on slave revolts carried out by Nat Turner, Dessalines in the Caribbean, and Cinque from Angola. The uncles toms were the ones who opposed the civil rights movement. Whether its Teshome in Ethiopia, Zuma in Azania, South Africa, Sall in Senegal, or Magariaf in Libya, from the North, East, West, and Southern tips of Africa, all of these heads of state are puppets who are beholden to imperialism. They will immediately attack our people for the drastic conditions we live under and they will do so every time, completely ignoring the clear role imperialism plays in exploiting our people. This happens because their bread is buttered by imperialism.

So, if you understand that's how the system works, then you shouldn't be surprised and/or discouraged when U.S. football players Ray Lewis, Michael Vick, and others, along with basketball players Shaq O'Neal and Charles Barkley and others, are quick to rise up and criticize Colin Kaepernick while serving as mouthpieces for their masters. Charles Barkley, always quick to the basket when he played, is even more astonishingly quick from his mouth since retirement. Barkley has been critical of Kaepernick since Colin began his protest against police terrorism, but when it came time to talk about the ideology of white supremacy, Barkley didn't come out and attack white supremacist ideologue Richard Spencer like he did Kaepernick. Instead, he filmed a television interview with Spencer where he permitted the ignorance of Spencer's slick white supremacy to manipulate Barkley into giving him a full platform. Something he never gave Kaepernick the option to do. The reason for this is the television viewing audience is primarily European and they have made it clear they have absolutely no interest in hearing Kaepernick's logical reasons for waging the protest he waged. The point is that is the method that easily identifies uncle toms. What they do is intended to protect and represent the system, not tell the truth about the system.

Other characteristics of tomming are attacking militant African leadership as ill responsible and dangerous. You know, the way these toms are attacking Kaep. The same way Jackie Robinson, a clear tom, attacked Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali in the 60s. These types of tom attacks are made to appear as if these accommodating African athletes are speaking their minds against the menace of these rebellious slaves. What's really happening is these negroes are serving the role of getting out in front of their masters to protect them. They appear to be speaking for themselves when they talk, but the truth is their talking points are unquestionably those of their master which is how you know they are parroting what they are saying. This is easy to prove. How the hell can anyone of African descent who has even the slightest knowledge of history say that an African who protests injustice is "disrespecting America" the "flag" or "the military?' How can they possibly claim these Africans are "disrespecting those who won them their rights?" Any sane African knows any rights we have our people gained on the front lines of the struggle against white supremacy won for us, so by protesting, Kaepernick, is actually demonstrating to highest honor of respect for the people he owes a debt. He's continuing the legacy of resistance, struggle, and dignity that our ancestors taught us when they stood up for justice. None of those people who took a stand escaped the same type of harassment, disrespect, and extreme danger that taking such a stand requires. None of them did so without serious sacrifice. That's true whether we talk about those brave souls who participated in the African independence movements. The land and freedom movement (Mau Mau) in Kenya in the 50s/60s, the pass book protests in Azania, South Africa in 1976, the Montgomery Bus boycott in 1955, all the voter registration work throughout the U.S. in the 60s, etc., etc. Any African - like Lewis, Barkley, O'Neal, etc., who cannot make that clear connection is simply regurgitating the talking points of their owners; a clear mandate for any uncle tom worth his/her salt.

So, if you have any semblance of intelligence yourself, its time to stop being in shock at these uncle toms and sharing their idiocy like its something worth paying attention to. Malcolm X told us 50 years ago in his classic "Message to the Grassroots" speech that "we have always had house negros and field negros." Colin Kaepernick is a field slave. I know that because it takes one to know one. These other fools mentioned here are house slaves. Their concern is strictly to their masters. It doesn't matter how good they put that ball in the hoop. How fast they ran that ball. They are nothing new. Nothing spectacular. What they say is not worth any of our time. They are nothing more than the same manifestation of the classic uncle tom who jumps out front to protect his master's system. If they had any courage, they would be calling out people like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He's such an obnoxious racist that he finds no issue with manifesting the obvious contradiction of calling out Kaepernick and anyone who agrees with him while saying nothing about players on his own team who are facing domestic violence and drug charges.

Those toms won't talk about those contradictions though because they aren't the least bit interested in justice. Only lining their pockets. A classic tom priority. Taking care of themselves at the expense of our people. Its funny though. On Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, I turned on the television after work, prepared to watch a professional basketball game. What I saw instead was a panel discussion including O'Neal and Barkley, talking about the legacy of Dr. King and the civil rights movement. The entire experience was surreal. I sat there and watched O'Neal and Barkley struggle at best to articulate what happened to those brave souls who suffered for standing up against injustice. Their actual comprehension of what they were talking about was so limited that it was like listening to children talking. So sad that these modern toms have such little knowledge of our people, yet they are so strong and skilled at articulating why they love their master's analysis so much.

Its a record setting pace, but nothing new. As the empire falls people are pressured to take sides. These toms are doing that. Still, we have to take some of the blame for this tomming record setting pace. The reason why these people opt out of justice so easily is because there is nothing we are doing on an organizational level to hold them accountable. There is no price for them when they betray us compared to the master's whip (loss of endorsements, jobs, and in more serious examples, loss of life). We have to create those consequences and when we do, we may not win over some of these fools. Some of them are beyond saving, but at least some of them will stop and think before they jump up so fast to defend their master.

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Somalia: Case in Point about What Africa Really Needs

8/22/2017

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The results of this famine on the masses of people in Somalia is devastating. Almost 1 million people have been displaced, searching for something, anything, to eat. The response from the world has been crickets. Most people in the West, propagandized by stupid racist movies like "Black Hawk Down", seem to feel that Africans, particularly Somalis, deserve to suffer. For us, watching our people live through this type of trauma time and time again is sickening. Especially since we realize the cause of this calamity isn't natural, its political.

Somalia, and the entire Eastern Horn region of Africa, has been inflicted with neo-colonial conflict for decades. Somalia itself hasn't had any semblance of a central government since 1991. And although Somalia never actually had one colonial abuser like most of Africa, like the rest of the continent, the country has never escaped colonial influence.

As early as the 1830s, Britain began to view Somalia with interest for its shipping purposes. By the 1890s, Britain, France, Italy, and to a much lesser extent, Ethiopia, partitioned ownership of Somalia. As is always the case with African people, this colonial presence was always met with resistance. And this resistance continues to this very day. Indigenous organizations like the Somali Youth League in the 1940s served to rally the Somali people to fight back against oppression. The United Nations held Somalia under trusteeship which is just a fancy way of saying imperialism owned every decision the country made.

Fast forward to today, the dominance of neo-colonialism in Africa has created a scenario where the neighboring regimes, particularly Ethiopia and Eritrea, are led by puppet leaders who are only concerned about their personal influence and control. Thus, they serve no basis in assisting to resolve problems in Somalia. Instead, they are a part of the problem. The capitalist empire countries, led by the U.S. Britain, and France, have spent the last 20+ years painting the picture that Somalia is dominated by "vicious pirates" who attack the pure and white people who venture through the region on water (as if anyone could come into U.S. or British waters without facing stiff resistance). The existence of al Shabad, a supposed alliance group to the Islamic State, in the region has provided much of the capitalist narrative. These are people who are intent upon wiping out the "free and democratic countries" because "they hate our freedoms." The truth is there are certainly some questionable characters operating in the Horn, using Islam as cover for their activities, but they only exist because of imperialism that has wiped out all of the regimes like Libya that would battle the existence of these people, thus creating the vacuum that permits these elements to exist. In fact, the U.S. alone has used the existence of al Shabad as justification to spend the last 15 years establishing approximately 75 military posts all over Africa, including one of the largest installations in Djibouti, the country neighboring Somalia. Their claim that these bases are there to combat al Shabad have proven to be more lies. The truth is they are there to ensure no genuine grassroots forces are permitted to rise and operate in that region in a way that challenges the economic interests of imperialism.

So, our people continue to suffer from starvation in Somalia. This is literally insane to those of us Pan-Africanists who know that Africa has 600 million hectares of arable land that are not being utilized for anything. Just a quarter of that land being used to produce food could easily wipe out starvation in Somalia and the entire Horn of Africa. Half of that land being utilized would wipe out starvation in all of Africa and much of the rest of the world. This is why the starvation problem isn't geographical. It isn't religious. It isn't a human crisis issue. Its a political issue. Its the result of Africa being held in contempt as a hostage of imperialism. Its about the neo-colonial puppet leaders of Africa being in collusion with imperialism to plummet our homeland. And the world's lack of response or even an eye blink about this mass suffering is a strong head nod to white supremacy. You know, the kind that doesn't need a neo-nazi because the system does the nazi work instead.

Meanwhile, racists of all types are walking around talking about how Africans have done nothing to advance the world. The brave people of Somalia have more heart and determination in their feces than these white people talking this nonsense could muster in three life times.

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Sierra Leone & Charlottesville: A Double White Supremacy Lense

8/21/2017

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Last week in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., there were loud, ignorant, and in your face white supremacists everywhere. And to counter them, there were brave and courageous people from all walks of life doing their absolute best to disrupt the racists. Last week in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, there were no visible and physical white supremacists. There are actually not very many Europeans present within Sierra Leone. The country did experience massive flooding in which 400 plus people and counting are dead and/or missing.

Where the two places intersect is that both calamities result from the existence of white supremacy as the primary enforcement arm of the world wide capitalist empire. In other words, despite the systemic efforts of the capitalist media, the loud obnoxious white supremacists in Charlottesville and the flooding waters in Sierra Leone, were not the primary culprits. In each case, they are the effect and not the cause. The loud mouths in Charlotteville, and the statues they are spewing about, are not the real story. Them and their statues are only the manifestation. Despite their new and sanitized image, these people are white supremacists no different than the most violent image of the Ku Klux Klansman and/or or a Nazi from the Third Reich and/or a violent Neo-Nazis. These people believe that brown people have done nothing to contribute to world civilizations. They lie about the Kemites (Egyptians) being Africans (Black) and they completely ignore every contributions the Indigenous people have made. Since they believe that, they have to believe they are superior to us. That makes them white supremacists, plain and simple. Still, they are just the result of a backward system that has lied to Europeans for centuries. These systemic lies, which have convinced Europeans that they have some privileged position in the world (instead of telling them the truth that capitalism has been built on the backs of brown people while they get the small crumbs from the carnage). What's happening now is capitalism as a worldwide economic system is in a severe state of decline and as a result, it no longer can provide the privileges white people have been able to depend upon for hundreds of years. The current generation of white people are not handling the reality that they have no advantages that the rest of us don't have any longer with much grace and happiness. They are really pissed about this and the responses you are seeing from the white supremacists are the result of that. Yet and still, these people cannot be separated from the miss-education system that does its damage world wide everyday. It cannot be separated from the institutional exploitation that fuels the profitability of capitalism while keeping the majority of the planet in poverty. And, this reality explains why the infrastructure in countries like Sierra Leone is so dilapidated that even a stiff wind would blow down a building. So, anything like the flooding that occurred will have devastating results when even a minimum amount of infrastructure would and could easily avoid the massive death and destruction that the people are experiencing there.

The loudmouths and the floods mean the same thing at the end of the day. And that thing is we as oppressed people under capitalism/white supremacy, don't ever control the narrative on how this system operates. Since we don't, we can never clarify that there is no difference between Robert E. Lee and George Washington. There is no difference between overseers and officers. There is no difference between the confederate and U.S. flags. All of them were founded and represent this system of oppression against us. We can never declare in the schools or national television that American identity equals white supremacy, period. We can never make it clear that the only difference between the loud mouths in Charlottesville, the police, the politicians, and the corporate elite, is presentation, while the message is the same. We can never clarify that the lack of resources and the resulting massive suffering and loss of life in Africa happens because Africa must be kept poor and powerless to ensure the continent continues to be open to the fleecing by the capitalist empire. Either way, we lose every time. And, the other common denominator for African people that we should be picking up is the connection between white supremacy, capitalism, and our mother - Africa. For us, the key is her liberation and unification. When we start focusing and working to achieve that, then the loudmouths in Charlottesville and anywhere else are powerless to intimidate us. Powerless to impact us. But, as long as we see these issues as the empire wishes us to. That there is no connection between Charlottesville and Sierra Leone. We will continue to be frustrated, upset, angry, tired, and on the losing end each and every time.

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A True Moral Equivalent: Trump/Obama on White Supremacy

8/16/2017

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This isn't going to be a popular piece with the liberals, but if any of them want to claim any piece of credibility for justice, they need to be asking themselves how they can refute this piece. Not just be upset that its being stated. Yesterday, Donald Trump, the so-called president of this country, made it quite clear that he openly and proudly supports white supremacy. He did so in an extremely ignorant and amateurish way. He attempted to compare violent white supremacists - who have a well documented history of violence, brutality, death, and destruction, against hundreds of thousands of people - with the people who, knowing the violent history of racists, simply pledge to show up and prevent them from engaging in their terroristic activities. At worst, anti-racist protesters may have punched a white supremacist or two, but they have no death toll against these terrorists (unfortunately) so to compare the two as Trump did epitomizes how stupid he is and how even dumber the people who support him are.

Most liberals, probably have no trouble agreeing with the above paragraph, but where we lose them is when we say with equal passion that Barack Obama, in our eyes isn't in a better moral position than Trump. We realize Obama is a much slicker, polished, and cunning politician. In other words, he's not stupid in the way Trump is, but at the end of the day, his politics were just as supportive of white supremacists as Trump's statements yesterday.

By now, the liberals are having heart attacks, but there are ill refutable truths you cannot deny. Anyone who knows the history of the federal government's counter intelligence program through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) understands that the FBI engaged in a vicious campaign against the African liberation movement in the 1960s. With the 1974 Freedom of Information Act (FOI), open FBI files confirm that between 1967 and 1971, almost 300 FBI actions against African liberation organizations were carried out. And by actions we mean illegal actions e.g. breaking into the houses of activists. Sending forged letters to instigate antagonisms that often led to death (see the shoot outs between Black Panther Party members and US Organization members during this period which were completely instigated by the FBI). And open murder of activists. My point is these illegal actions by the FBI were not initiated because of confirmed illegal activities by activists. These activities against our movement where carried out to eliminate the ideas of these liberation organizations from spreading. Fast forward to 2017 and similar counter intelligence activities are still active by the government on the local, state, and federal levels against Black Lives Matter, the activities against the oil pipeline in North Dakota, and all movements fighting for social justice. Activists are being systematically jailed, criminalized in the capitalist media, and attacked to the point where its difficult for their organizations, collectives, etc., to function in any productive way. Where this connects to Obama is that during his administration, as with previous administrations and with the current one, no efforts were made to correct this repression of dissent. In fact, while Obama was giving honey speeches about democracy, he was signing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2014 which is a measure that was specifically designed to eradicate the ability of social justice activists to engage in dissent activities without being labeled as terrorists if the government so desires. The Patriot Act made the FBI's counter intelligence program look like child's play against the movement and the NDAA is making the Patriot Act look like child's play against the movement. This is Obama's baby. No one else's.

During Obama's tenure, it is the activists for legitimate social justice campaigns who were targeted by the NDAA, Homeland Security Act (Patriot Act), and other legislative means while no efforts were made to apply these measures to combatting white supremacist organizations. Why? Because as I've stated many times, white supremacist groups do nothing to challenge the status quo. In fact, most often, they operate in ways that support the status quo. The status quo is white supremacy because its the most effective arm of the capitalist system. So, if people are engaging in protesting any element of the capitalist system (police terrorism, water protection, etc.), and these white supremacist groups show up, as they often do, to "enforce the law" they are operating to support state repression. If the state does nothing to challenge them in this regard, as it doesn't today under Trump, and it didn't under Obama, then the state has to be compliant in supporting these white supremacist groups in their efforts to grow and expand. This is true whether you are talking Trump or Obama.

And, its also inaccurate to give Obama a pass on criticizing the white supremacists. He gave more than one speech calling out African people, particularly African men, to "take care of our children." An insult to those of us who do more for our children and communities than most white men could ever imagine doing for theirs. And, to add insult to injury, during those speeches, although Obama often talked in cascading terms about the concept of white supremacy, not once did he call out white people for behaving in ways that supports upholding the white supremacist system. To us, this cowardice is absolutely no different than what Trump did yesterday. Its as Malcolm X taught us 50 years ago when he spoke of one approach being that of a wolf and the other that of a fox. "One is sly while the other is vicious, but both are canines and both have the same effect at the end of the day."

And, yes, we refuse to get hoodwinked into using the marketing terms of the white supremacists like "alt-right" and "white nationalists." There is no such thing as a white nationalist because there is no white culture or ideology. There is only capitalist ideology and there is only capitalist culture in that regard. These people are only promoting these terms to improve their image from that of the club dragging violent white supremacist. Its a recruiting tool as I've been saying all along. Most decent white folks, especially liberals, would never associate themselves with "traditional" white supremacists, because that's still not socially acceptable in bourgeois circles, but an ideological perspective on how white people are being disrespected and wiped out? Yes, that's palatable. These people believe brown people serve no constructive purpose in this world which means they believe themselves to be better than us, whether they admit it or not. Therefore, that makes them believe they are superior which means white supremacist remains the correct title to give them.

And, that title of white supremacist extends from Robert E. Lee to that despicable scurvy carrying, slave owning, George Washington. All of them represent white supremacy equally. All of them are enemies of African people and most of humanity. This empire is the enemy of African people and most of humanity and everyone in the world knows it except those of you here trying to cling to a dream that has never been anything more than that. In fact, as Malcolm said, its been a nightmare to the masses of people on the planet. You just can't see that this empire is falling, despite clear evidence all around you. Since we are talking empire, there is no logical reason in our minds to separate Trump from Obama from Washington/Jefferson/Lee, etc. None of them fought/fight for mass empowerment. All of them fight to defend empire. Both Trump and Obama dedicate their lives to continuing to defend that empire. The fact one of them skillfully neglects to tell the clear truth while the other one openly lies is simply an issue of semantics for those of you who have time for games like that. To us, the future of humanity hangs in the balance so we prefer to see the world in the clear terms that a correct analysis requires. You cannot compare protesters against white supremacy with the violent colonial and terroristic history of white supremacy. You cannot separate the klan and neo-nazis from the "establishment" white supremacist culture of the original invaders who's ideologies didn't differ from the klan, etc. I'm talking about Washington, Jefferson, etc. And, you cannot separate the leaders of this empire from any white supremacists. If they are going to justify embracing Washington, they may as well embrace Lee. If they are going to embrace the U.S. flag, they may as well embrace the confederate flag. If you don't understand how we can say that, you have so much reading to do that all I can say is don't respond now. Come back and talk to me in about 10 years because you will need all of that time to catch up with the truth. We don't criticize taking down capitalist statutes because that's probably the one thing we can see merit in what Trump says. There is no stopping. All of them are terrorists and colonizers. Consequently, taking the statues down is fine, but we'll continue to focus our attention on taking the system down.

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Much More is Required against White Supremacy than Showing Up

8/13/2017

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We see the white supremacists in Virginia, U.S., yesterday. We see their presence all throughout Canada, Europe, Australia, and everywhere else they are openly displaying their violent, a-historical, and racist presentations. We have long histories of being exposed to, threatened by, and attacked by these people. So, there's nothing about what happened yesterday in Virginia, U.S., that surprises us about them. They are behaving as we expect them to. Nothing else.

What's harder to digest are the contradictions coming from many of you who consider yourselves progressive folks, siding with the forces of justice. I'm talking about being shocked these people exist? Raising questions about why the police don't respond to "protect" anti-racist protesters? Being upset that the police side with these people? The characterizations that white supremacy and the U.S. are somehow incompatible? And the assumption by far too many people that if you confront these violent elements who have a 500+ year history of demonstrating their complete lack of humanity, that you can do that without a plan and without regard for the violence they will undoubtedly direct against you and protections they will receive from the state for doing so.

Of course its great to stand up against racism, every time, but what are we standing up for? Are we standing up to eradicate the problem once and for all, or are we standing up because doing so permits us to feel somewhat better about living with the problem?.

I remember when I started out in this movement. A brash 17 year old with lots of strong emotions and absolutely no analysis. So, I understand that. The inhumanity and inequities of this society are definitely going to generate strong emotional reactions. In fact, I would be concerned if you didn't have an emotional reaction to all that is going on. Still, we should be in this to win, not just co-exist with white supremacy. Our future generations deserve better than this and I don't know about you, but I don't want them to go through the challenges I've experienced. So, winning is and should be the objective. And, if we are ever going to win, we will have to temper that emotion with logic and reasoning. The reason this is so important is because if we continue to rely on emotion that places us in a permanent position where we are consistently reacting to our enemies. Clearly, we need to move to establishing the terms of battle and not just strictly reacting to reactionaries. If you still don't understand the reason this is important, just ask yourself why it is that the forces of justice are always the ones suffering the losses in the midst of the confrontations? We are always the ones getting arrested, getting beat, getting killed. And, even if some of them suffer some of that, our numbers of suffering are always and historically greater. And not only that. We consistently come out of these confrontations with no clear victories e.g. we've done nothing to prevent the white supremacists from coming out tomorrow if they decide to. In fact, there is strong evidence that these confrontations with them are directly correlated to their subsequent attacks against brown folks, LGBTQ, etc. (take note of the young African who was attacked and beaten badly by several white supremacists yesterday in Virginia). The reason for this is because they have the system on their side because they represent all the values of this capitalist system. It was built and is maintained on white supremacy. So, when they come out, all the resources and values of this system are at their disposal. The police are often members of their ranks and at the very least, they are sympathetic to them because they all see protecting capitalism as their objective. If you are going to be serious about overcoming these odds, clearly, a different approach is needed.

Instead of you brown activists recognizing the above, you come out each time, reacting to them, with little to no planning. You come out relying on emotions, completely disregarding the danger that places you and all of our people in. You actually come to greet violent white supremacists with no plan, little to no training, and no idea how you will respond when all the forces on their side start to move against you and people who look like you. And despite the fact you have resources within your communities that have always been there to help you get ready, you continue to completely ignore that despite the clear evidence your approach is not working. I was deeply upset from seeing that young African brutally beat by white supremacists in Virginia yesterday (it triggered my feeling from being hospitalized the same way when I was 14) just as I was upset by the young white woman who lost her life along with the other folks who were injured. But, I was even more upset because despite the fact there is no way to ensure everyone's safety at any type of demonstration, there are things that could be done that could possibly mitigate the possibility of injury and death if more security measures, training, and planning were in place. People often say history is repeating itself. Anyone familiar with the laws of dialectics knows it isn't possible for history to repeat itself because material and the conditions it exists in are constantly changing. It is possible though for us to have some accuracy in predicting outcomes based on history, but for whatever reasons, many of us seem completely committed to ignoring these effective tools that can steer us to victory. Now, I admitted I was there when I was 17, but the difference, and the reason I'm saying what I'm saying now, is because when more experienced organizer/activists came to me to work with me, I humbled myself and listened to them. They clearly knew more than I did and I acknowledged that. And, we didn't have the mass sources of information that are available today. I'm NOT saying anyone needs to listen to me. There are a multitude of perspectives out there to study. African people have plenty of organizations and if you are African (for example) and you are serious, there is no way you should be out there before you have completely familiarized yourself with the perspectives of those like you who were out here doing the work before you. Look to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. The Nation of Islam. The African People's Socialist Party (Uhuru Movement), of course, my All African People's Revolutionary Party, and many others. Join those groups. Or, if you don't think they are sufficient enough, start your own group with your own study process and your own planning for how to attack the problem. That's what I'm saying.

Finally, its time for you liberal white people to either take a dump or get off the pot. Stop pretending like you are on the side of justice as it relates to white supremacy while you continue to perpetuate this lie that these white supremacists are some sort of separate entity from the values of this capitalist system. There is absolutely no question (and this is ill refutable) that the foundation, walls, ceiling, and floors of the U.S. are built with and reinforced with values and history of violent white supremacy. How can you people even look at yourself, then look at the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere, and call yourself a person for justice? Every step we take in this hemisphere is filled with the blood of the Indigenous people. If you live anywhere, whether you pay rent, mortgage, or even if you sleep on the streets, you are benefiting from the murder of the Indigenous people and the theft of their self determination. And, every time you see an African, wherever they were born, you are facing the reality of colonialism and the slave trade that killed millions of us, completely traumatized us in ways that are as evident today as they were in the 1500s, and created the wealth of this society. So, there is absolutely NO difference between what this country represents and those violent white supremacists in Virginia yesterday. Actually, they are simply the scab being exposed from the wound that has been hidden from those who refuse to see it.

When you attempt to substitute and impose your emotionally driven version of what you unscientifically wish the U.S. was over the reality of what it is, you do ill reversible damage to the suffering we face from this backward system. And, you demonstrate for all of us to see that you are not our ally. You are in fact as much our enemy as the people in klan robes. Its time for you people to grow some estrogen and start telling the truth. This is a backward, disgraceful country and all that's happening now is your relatives are exposing what we have been telling you for centuries. You either need to get serious or we will view you no different than we do your brother and sister wearing the sheet. In many ways, the harm you are doing us is worse than what your family is inflicting upon us.

So, for those white people who protest , do it. But, start planning so you can start coming out of these things with clear victories. There are plenty of people who can help you plan once you lower your egos long enough to see them. Join organizations and stop gliding through this reality on individualistic vessels fueled by your personal trauma and dysfunction. Its unfortunate if that's your reality, but that isn't going to help us win anything. And for African and other brown people, stop showing up there at these things blind and with no plan. You are the targets here. Don't you get that? How can you continue to do this without knowing who has your back and what your options are? You are setting yourself and the rest of us up for danger. Instead, join one of our many organizations who know how to fight white supremacy. I realize its not the adrenaline rush you are looking for, but if you really want to win and stamp out white supremacy, and not just do something to help you feel good about living under white supremacy, you must realize a change of approach is needed. In other words, you have to get more disciplined and step up your game.

History isn't repeating itself. But, the definition of insanity is definitely doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. And history requires us to affectionately and resolutely point that out.

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Time for Some Much Needed Truth about North Korea

8/10/2017

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North Korean leaders since separation; Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and current leader Kim Jong Un

Through its usual tactics of fear mongering and white supremacy, imperialism is again rattling the cages of death and destruction by fomenting this lie that North Korea is threatening the U.S. and therefore must be dealt with. Meanwhile, the people of the U.S., and many on the so-called progressive left, are so programmed by imperialism that many believe the "official line" about North Korea and those who claim not to believe it, have very little to offer as an alternative.

With the proliferation of the internet, this is without question an information based society. Virtually any information that you could ever want is available to you with just a finger click. Still, the overwhelming majority of people remain woefully ignorant about pretty much everything to do with the world we live in. So, here we will attempt to provide a basic history and framework of North Korea in the hopes that we can begin to learn how to think for ourselves instead of relying on our enemies for even a portion of our world analysis.

The U.S., and the rest of the imperialist world, is painting a picture of North Korea as a "rogue nation" whatever that's supposed to mean, that is alienated from the rest of "humanity" while being hell bent on starting a war with the U.S. by threatening South Korea, Japan, and the rest of imperialism's "civilized allies." I think its helpful to start by viewing North Korea not as a nation led by insane people, but a country with a long history of fighting back against foreign intervention. Korea, before it was divided, was a country that had been fighting invasion since Japan invaded it back in the 1500s. After the Tzarist Russia/Japan war in 1905, in which U.S. marines invaded Russia by the way, Japan emerged from that conflict as the colonial master of Korea. After the Bolshevick uprising in Russia in 1917, socialist movements began to take shape around the world and Korea was no different. In the mid 1920s, the socialist party formation was originated in Korea. The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) or Soviet Union's opposition to Japan during World War II ushered in the era of Kim Il Sung as the leader of Korea's socialist movement and he forged a relationship of strong support from the USSR as the war pushed the country into eventual separation. As of 1945, Kim began to consolidate his movement's ability to build a power base in the Northern portion of Korea with continued Soviet support. Of course, the Soviet Union during this time was governed with Joseph Stalin as its leader. History is complete with examples of Stalin's errors in building the Soviet Union although the story of why he did what he did (much of it out of fear of imperialist invasion, especially since as I mentioned the U.S. had already invaded Russia previously) is still untold. Stalin was on a mission to industrialize as a method of creating cash flow to buy weapons. The method that he believed would best protect the Soviet Union from imperialist aggression. Still, the errors of his vanguard approach and its absence of even a semblance of national liberation and the developing political education and mass character that it includes, is well documented. Instead of a mass based movement, Stalin relied on creating allies and Kim Il Sung was one of them. Consequently, Kim built his developing base in North Korea around a Stalinist model.

By 1950, Kim had consolidated enough support to win the North over to the Stalinist state. And, although this period of history is painted as one of Soviet aggression and manipulation, a much more balanced version is that the driving force of all of Kim's efforts was always based in the desire to unite Korea as one country again. And this was a view that was equally shared by just as many South Koreans. As a result, its important to realize that South Koreans, as well as North Koreans, opposed the U.S. military invasion into Korea in 1950 as the obstacle that it was in preventing the reunification of the country. In fact, North Korea, with great assistance from China, came incredibly close to toppling the South Korean Syngman Rhee regime. As quiet as its kept, the South was ripe with protest and unrest from the terroristic policies of the Rhee regime (and subsequent South Korean regimes have maintained the same intransigence). So, instead of painting North Korea as a monster and South Korea as a saint, as imperialism has spent the last 70 years doing, the truth is both regimes have struggled around developing people based societies as they have grappled with this issue of reunifying, something all of their people clearly desire.

Imperialism also tries to accuse North Korea of isolating itself. The truth is since 1950, imperialism has engaged in a nonstop effort to isolate North Korea. It has certainly meddled and sabotaged every effort North Korea has made to initiate dialogue with the South around unification for decades. Imperialism has maintained this veil of evil over North Korea which has served to intimidate other countries from developing any type of relationship with North Korea's leaders, despite the North Korean governments repeated attempts to forge relationships with the rest of the world. This is proven by the fact that in the U.S. today, when people are talking about South Korea, there is not even a need to say the word South. People, including descendants and citizens of South Korea, can designate the country simply as "Korea" because the North has been effectively eliminated from the vision of everyone in the U.S. except when its in imperialism's interests to demonize North Korea.

So, as a result, the only thing people in the U.S., including many South Koreans, know about North Korea today is that (imperialist propaganda) they are a military based country. No democratic rights. Famine everywhere and an economy in shambles. What's not said is after the negotiations of the early 50s, North Korea did emerge with control of some of the countries strongest industrial capacities. The problem of course is the U.S. knew it had every intention of snuffing out the ability of any of those industries to trade with other countries and maintain growth. As a result, a few years later and those industries were effectively shut down while the U.S. is accusing the country of isolating itself. Meanwhile, North Korea received almost none of the arable land in its portion of the country which accounts for its struggles in growing and providing food for its people. And the subsequent issues that have impacted production in North Korea since then, like the 1995 floods that devastated the country, caused further reduction of the countries limited capacities. You don't remember any worldwide campaign to bring aide to North Korea after those floods because no such campaign existed. With the Soviet Union gone, the only humanitarian support they received after the floods was from socialist countries like Cuba and Vietnam. So much for them isolating themselves.

Finally, much has been said by those in the U.S. left about North Korea's credentials as a legitimately socialist country. Kim Il Sung's abandonment of the phrase "Marxist/Leninist" to describe their system in favor of the Juche system and then Kim Jong Il's pronouncements that Juche was being replaced by the Songun philosophy, have confused many and been the cause of much misrepresentation of the North Korean reality. In this age of imperialist domination, developing socialist countries are forced to sacrifice some individual rights in order to insure social justice and the implementation of equitable policies. For example, people cannot be permitted to make as much money as they want because the conditions are favorable for the petti bourgeois thus giving them advances the mass working class and peasants do not possess. To ignore this reality of colonialism would perpetuate class oppression which those countries are attempting to wipe out. These are issues that have to be worked out in any country struggling to build socialism while lacking a solid industrial base of its own. And Western leftist imposing bourgeois standards of democracy is not the answer. North Korea, like Cuba, is struggling to implement ways to improve cash flow as a method of industrializing. Small, limited, private ownership is a way to increase cash flow and North Korea has introduced reforms, like Cuba, to permit this to happen. This occurred in 2002, but the effects will take time to play out. That's why I believe its not possible, and totally unfair, to write off North Korea as a socialist country at this point. The question is still in the air and the North Koreans know this which is why they themselves refer to their country as a "developing socialist" country. The pure white socialists in the U.S., committed to a perfect brand of socialism where there is no development, no struggles of working with people, no errors, no interference from imperialism, are doing nothing except exposing themselves to the hypocrisy of their vision and their complicity in helping imperialism in its attempts to discredit North Korea, Cuba, the former Libyan Jamihiriya, and all developing socialist countries. And of course, white supremacy is firmly rooted in the white left's racist analysis. Much has been written in this blog about that.

So, none of this is to reduce and/or run away from the notion that North Korea is building nuclear capacities. They are apparently even engaging in underground testing of nuclear tipped Inter-continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). No one with any intelligence is going to express favor for nuclear weapons, but as long as imperialism has them, no one can honestly blame the North Koreans for wanting some to protect themselves. North Korea has never invaded the U.S., but the U.S. has invaded North Korea. North Korea has never used any nuclear capacity against anyone, but the U.S. has used nuclear weapons to kill thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after World War II was declared over. These are facts. So, with that reality, how could we ever come to a place where the U.S. is accepted as the approving entity for deciding who can possess nuclear weapons? Or even what the rules are for those who possess them? That's like adorning the fox with power over protecting the chickens.

The U.S. has broken practically every promise it has made to North Korea to help with reunification efforts and North Korea's development. For example, promises from the Clinton administration were made during the 90s to help with agricultural development in exchange for changes in North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea made the changes, but they are still waiting for the U.S. to make good on its promises. So, North Korea may be developing weapons, but the U.S. already has weapons threatening North Korea in the Peninsula in Japan and other places. This they don't want you to know.
At the end of the day, North Korea is certainly far from perfect, but unlike the white left purist and perfectionists, this to us doesn't qualify them for dismissal. Since we understand the complexities of developing any type of infrastructure, we know that they deserve time to try different things, make errors, and if there comes a point where they are simply incapable of progression, it is in the hands of their people, and no one else, to determine regime change. To suggest anything else is pure white supremacy because you are advancing the notion that they don't have the capacity to decide what is in their best interests. On the other hand, the brutish U.S. regime and its imperialist allies cannot risk the chance that North Korea will figure out its shortcomings and grow its socialist brand. This would be a complete disaster because it would inform the masses in North Korea, Japan, Singapore, and the other countries shadowed by imperialism in the region, that there is another way. A better way. Maybe as the last word, that is the real threat that North Korea poses.

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The Union Loss in Mississippi & Kaepernick, & White Supremacy

8/5/2017

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After years of struggle, thousands of workers in a Nissan assembly factory in Canton, Mississippi, voted yesterday on whether to unionize as a part of the United Auto Workers (UAW). Approximately 3500 workers voted on unionization and the end result was about 53% voted not to unionize.

Colin Kaepernick is a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) who took the bold stance of refusing to stand against the backward U.S. national anthem before every football game. At the end of the 2016 NFL season, Kaepernick, recovering from three surgeries the previous off season, had a decent statistical year on a terrible team. The Niners, Kaepernick's former employer, advised him they did not intend to pick up the option on the final year of his contract which left him no alternative except to opt out and become a free agent, meaning he could sign with any team willing to offer him a contract. That was in January of 2017. At this point, not one team has offered him a contract.

We can talk about any number of issues that have adversely impacted each of these situations. The workers campaign in Canton, although fought with courage and ferociousness for years now, clearly did not have an unquestioned statistical advantage of people who had been won over to the position of seeing the benefits of having a union before the vote was called for. Knowing this, the results of the vote, from a purely statistical perspective, shouldn't be that surprising to anyone. Kaepernick, who was one of the most promising quarterbacks in the NFL in the 2012 and 2013 seasons, has clearly had difficulty reclaiming his prominence as a play caller since that time. Still, despite significant efforts by opponents in each case to use these reasons (and any other element they can think of) to justify the results in each of these situations, neither of these reasons, or anything else these opponents are proposing, are the core reasons for the results we are currently witnessing.

Of course, the core and fundamental reason for the situations in each scenario is the clear and present existence of white supremacy as the chief appendage of the capitalist system in keeping workers and people divided in this society so that the ruling capitalist class can continue to be dominant. We can state this confidently because based on logic and data, no one can argue honestly and effectively with our position. Canton, Mississippi, is well, in Mississippi. For anyone who knows even the slightest elements of U.S. history in the South, that should be all that needs to be said there. A very large percentage of the workers in that Nissan facility in Canton are African people. Like most workers in the South, their day to day working conditions are in need of improvement in every area; e.g. wages, benefits, and safety conditions. The workers there have stories of abuse and there are even recent examples in that plant of workers being killed on the job because of substandard working conditions. Much of this is permitted to happen primarily because African people work there in large numbers and our people are dehumanized in this backward society. As a result, its only the most dedicated and conscious who really object when we are dehumanized and disrespected. Even if you know nothing about the Nissan facility in question, just a cursory knowledge of Canton itself is instructive. Ironically, I used Canton as the backdrop for a majority of my 2014 novel "The Courage Equation." In my book, I portrayed Canton as a backwards Mississippi town stuck in the 50s. At that time, I had never been to Canton. Once the book came out and I realized that people beyond just folks I knew were reading the book, I started to feel guilty about how ti portrayed the town. I worried that maybe I could have done a disservice to the people of Canton. This troubled me so much that later that year, when my daughter wanted to take a trip to Memphis to research moving there, once we got to Memphis, I asked her if we could drive down to Canton so I could see the town for myself. We did, and once I got there I realized that not only was everything I wrote about accurate, but I actually gave the town more credit than it deserves. Canton is 80% African and 20% European. The Europeans control most of the revenue in the town, practically all of it. And historically, our people have been ruled through the traditional iron fist that has defined Mississippi politics for centuries. The handling of the proposed unionization effort is no different. Although the surface story is that everyone also has a right to vote on whether to have a union or not, the truth is when the vote was evident in Canton, the company, in collusion with business forces throughout the city, engaged in a relentless campaign of intimidation against the workers designed to stop them from voting for a union. Workers were forced to attend repeated one on one meetings with managers to discuss their perspective of having a union, a clear unfair labor practice. Employees were even threatened with losing benefits if the union was voted in e.g. their favorable vehicle leasing and pricing rights. And, this is not to mention the massive ad campaign that was aimed at the community. Now all of these nafarious activities are always imposed by bosses to sabotage unions, no matter who or where the employees are, but white supremacy comes into play here because these illegal tactics against these primarily African workers will certainly go unpunished and widely unreported. And before anyone says the same has happened to white workers, this is often true, but for African people, this isn't a situation in some areas or on occasion, this is our daily experience. Its the same dominant message that slaves should be happy to just accept the fact the master lets them work on the plantation. This is the most widely promoted vision for us in this society. All of this will happen when the truth is what sane African worker would consider themselves better off without a union. Please focus on the word sane here. No where are workers who don't have a union better paid, in possession of better health care, and working in safer conditions, than when they have a union in place. No one knows that better than us last hired, first fired, African masses. So, just a clue. The fact a primarily African work place voted against having a union is a clear sign to you that underhanded stuff has to be in play. The business community in Canton calling the union a divisive force is code for saying they are riling up the slaves against the master. They are the ones creating division by intimidating people and working to keep working people poor, disorganized, and oppressed by class conditions and white supremacy.

Colin Kaepernick, who clearly is much better, despite his inability to reclaim is 2013 play, than several who have been signed to contracts this off season, remains unemployed by concerted effort to punish him, like the runaway slave per Harry Belefonte. In other words, "rise out of your place and we will punish you boy!" That's whats happening with Kaepernick and several intelligent football players like Richard Sherman have said as much themselves despite the uncle tom cooning of people like Mike Vick and Ray Lewis.

The confluence here is that this capitalist society is still a master/slave society. African people are still considered the property of the European capitalist class. To them, our sole purpose is to entertain and serve them. And the thought that we would dare rise up and organize against them? Challenge them on the racist practices of the system that protects them? How dare us slaves think that?

For people of justice the lesson here is that there is no cause to mourn any of this. The fact that the union vote was so close in an environment of such historic racism and systemic oppression is amazing. instead of viewing this as a defeat, serious labor organizers should view it as a successful notification that the right organizing and timing will bring unionization to the South where millions of African workers are ready to lead the way to collective bargaining.

And, just like on the plantation, the master could castrate, behead, whip, and punish the runaway slave, but more always followed. In fact, we would argue that the inability of the plantation system to stop the slave revolts was the primary reason, not the civil war, for the eventual end of the slave system. Kaepernick's efforts, despite whether he ever plays in the NFL again, have inspired an entire generation of athletes and non-athletes. All of us are not stupid. The solidarity actions of many athletes, including many non-African ones, demonstrates that plenty of people see the contraction that millions of white fans will boo Kaep, refuse to buy tickets if he joins a team, and threaten the ownerships who had the audacity to even speak with him. But, those same racist fans are silent on players who brutalize their partners, kill people, and engage in other sick and dysfunctional human behavior. People see that those same fans will criticize Kaep for "bringing politics into sports" while ignoring the fact that it was the imperialist U.S. military that did that by paying the NFL millions of dollars to have those ridiculous displays of ignorant patriotism towards imperialism as a part of every game.

The contradictions are there for all to see. Democracy and a voice is there for you as long as you do it in a way that benefits big business and the capitalist entity. The problem for us is big business and the capitalist entity are against the interests of African people so we know whenever we stand up for our existence we will be at odds in this society. That's why these instances are nothing except white supremacy. Its also why our enemies may try and convince themselves that they are winning, but what I'm seeing is their time is just about up.

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The Tragic Lie of Telling Oppressed People They have Rights

8/3/2017

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Technology permits everyone to see the brutality of police agencies on a regular basis on five continents. Many people also realize that most police agencies are contracting out to receive terrorist training from the world's best terrorists; the so-called Israeli Mossad Intelligence agency and G4S, one of the largest security companies in the world. G4S fully supports the zionist system in israel while serving as one of the largest employers in Africa (among others). So from Asmara, Eritrea, to Compton, California, U.S., the police now seem to look the same, act the same, and certainly, carry out the same brutality against all oppressed people on a systemic basis. And the camera and video phones are capturing it all the time. Consequently, people are talking about it more. Everyone knows someone who has had a bad stop by the police. You read about it all the time, especially if its celebrities being stopped, and the violence carried about by these state terrorists against everyday people is so widespread that its unfortunately become normalized as everyday viewing for millions of people.

The social media platform youtube is especially instructive because there, you can see literary thousands of videos by the day that are designed to assist people in knowing "their rights" when stopped by police. These videos are being shot in Europe, Australia, Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean, and other parts of the world. And in these videos, people who are stopped are filming the police and challenging them on the basis of that country's rights, laws, or whatever policies the person being stopped can invoke to challenge the authority of the gestapo harassing them. As was previously alluded to, these police agencies are increasingly being trained by the same sources. As a result, regardless of which country the incident is taking place in, if you study these videos like I do, you can see similar responses from the police time and time again. Their training is primarily that of containment. In fact, that seems to be the bulk of what they are trained to do. That usually makes it difficult for them to adapt in the situations generally displayed in these videos when the person confronting them is confident and well versed in what the actual laws and/or policies should be that the police are supposed to enforce (almost always, the police themselves are very uninformed about these regulations and function on the basis of whatever they think is right is what's right). In many, although not all, of these videos, the subjects are Europeans and in almost all of them, the focus is on holding the police accountable to the subject's knowledge of "their rights."

The problem with all of this is oppressed people, particularly brown oppressed people, in all of these countries do not possess these rights everyone in these videos, articles, and general analysis centers keeps talking about. And the method in which police operate, and especially the degree to which they are being permitted to do so without any repercussions for their brutality, clearly confirms my claim. We have seen countless examples and evidence that demonstrates that oppressed people are guilty until proven innocent. So, that all by itself eradicates the principle that you have rights because if you are automatically deemed guilty, whatever rights you were supposed to have had wouldn't be recognized. So, despite the fact White people in these videos yell at and insult the police for their ignorance, any brown person with a shred of intelligence watching that would never try the same tactics when facing a similar situation.

There are two fundamental reasons why claiming rights is extremely dangerous to oppressed brown people and all people actually. The first reason is because brown people have been subjected and oppressed for 500+ years as a part of the effort to build and sustain the capitalist system. The entire emergence of this system has been at the expense of brown people and no scholar, economist, or historian can intelligently deny that. And the system is maintained based on this same oppression. So, if this same capitalist system is still claiming that it exists because of the virtues of its capitalist and individualistic values, there is no way that same system is ever going to admit its oppression against us. So, instead, the system seeks to convince everyone that it is the sole representative of human existence and any flaws, real or perceived, that it may have, your absolute only alternative is to figure out how to resolve these issues strictly within the context of the existing capitalist/imperialist network. Anything else is to be considered insane. The idea behind this thinking breeds the concept that since this system is the only option, if people within it aren't treated as they should be, then the issue is only one of correcting that e.g. providing them the rights they have under the system that some flaw is just preventing them from experiencing. The truth is far too many people today believe that bourgeois nonsense. And, not enough people recognize the truth that many people, in fact most people, in the world today have absolutely no rights whatsoever. The laws written by these capitalist countries do not even pretend to apply to oppressed people. Actually, they don't even apply to most white people, but try telling them that. Most white people today are the Charlie Brown character from the cartoon who repeatedly permits Lucy to trick him into thinking she will hold the football so he can kick it. Every time, when he tries, she moves the ball, and he is left floundering in the dirt. In this analogy, Charlie Brown obviously represents most white people. The football represents the future of most white people (being taken away), and Lucy represents the capitalist system, constantly fooling its subjects. Now, its the responsibility of conscious Europeans to figure out how to stop that same scene from reoccurring with their people. My main concern here is that far too many of us believe that same bourgeois rhetoric that we have "rights." And far too many of us, like Philando Castillo, are dead because we believed that lie that the laws of the capitalist system would protect us when time after time, this system proves that slaves have no protection.

The other problem with this belief about "rights" is that it completely dis-empowers the people promoting it against the police because the entire concept is based on the principle that once you present the truth to the police, they will react accordingly. The problem with this is what do you do when they don't respond appropriately? There is no option in that scenario because the whole "we have rights" argument is based in convincing them to respect their laws as it relates to us. In order for that to happen consistently, this system would have to be based in justice and morality and if you believe that it is, than all I can say to you is you are reading the wrong blog.

For oppressed people, and really anyone with a brain and a working heart, what we need to start telling people is that the police are there to serve as security guards for the capitalist class. That is their role and its the sole reason they exist. This is the reason they will never support protests against the system and anyone expecting them to do that is living in a fantasy world. Its also the reason why they function as they do. Its the reason they act unmercifully to attack activist groups working against capitalism while doing absolutely nothing to obstruct the work of anti-human white supremacist groups who are attacking us, but doing nothing against the system while often assisting it. What we need to be telling people is that we can organize our communities to resist police oppression to the point where we can move the police completely out of existence by creating a conscious people who protect their own communities with the morality some of us keep naively expecting from gestapo police. What we need to start messaging is that in a capitalist society, the police will always be against the people. It has nothing to do with labeling your police daddy as the villian. Nothing to do with dehumanizing your sister or brother who are the police. It has everything to do with understanding the role of the institution your loved ones are committed too. If you aren't willing to face that reality than don't waste our time with misguided sentiment. The police represent our enemies and consequently, they are our enemies. Common sense dictates that instead of us trying to find ways to rationalize their oppression of us, or create ways to exist with that oppression, we should be working to find ways to eliminate their oppressive institutions. And, that process has to be based in a movement to eliminate this backward capitalist system and replace it with one based in placing people above profit e.g. socialism. That's the message people need to be hearing instead of selling them a well intentioned, but dangerous bourgeois fantasy about rights. That fantasy has been getting us killed for centuries. It clearly isn't working.

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