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Confessions of a Serial Anthem Dis-respecter and Flag Burner

9/30/2017

I admit it and acknowledge it because I realize that to far to many folks in the U.S., engaging in this behavior is completely unacceptable. I've been educated by these people to understand that the only oppression a person ever has to experience is the oppression that results from making bad decisions in life. In other words, when I was 11 years old in San Francisco, I should have made a different choice. I shouldn't have been riding the bus that day when the police slammed me down on the ground because the European (white) passengers said I was with the people who previously had robbed individuals on that bus. Maybe I should have figured out how to get to school in a car, despite the fact my family didn't have one. I should have thought about how I could sit in my seat, as terrified by the violence that took place on that bus as anyone, and not scare those white people in the course of experiencing my own trauma. And why couldn't I find an effective way to convince the police that I was only 11 and not a criminal mastermind? Certainly bad choices that day.

I should have thought through how to prevent those three grown racist white men from physically attacking me and beating me into a hospital stay when I was 14. The fact I couldn't think of a way to do that demonstrates the bad decision making that has plagued my life. I clearly have only myself to blame for the psychological and physical damage I sustained that day.

On that note, I sat down some time ago and tried to document every time I have been pulled over by the police. I got my driver's license in 1979, so from 1979 through 2017 - 38 years - I counted 28 times being pulled over. I have to be fair and subtract 10 of those where I know I was speeding - bad decisions. So, that leaves another 18 times where I was pulled over without any driving violation. You know, that's the "where are you going? Where are you coming from? What's your business? Are you on parole? Do you have weapons? Those stops. Like the time I was 17 in Fresno, living with my mother's sister who lives in the white part of town. When several cops pulled me violently out of my car at gunpoint and held me on the ground for 40 minutes without ever even telling me why when they finally let me go. Word of the incident reached my aunt and she wanted to know what I had done wrong? Those times. Why couldn't I have figured out how to be somewhere else so that none of those 18 times would have ever happened?

And why couldn't I have figured out how to do better than getting a Bachelor's Degree at less than 30 days after turning 21? Certainly, I could have figured out how to make any of those interviews I conducted turn into employment offers so that I wouldn't have had to settle for a federal $3.35 an hour job that summer. The fact I had to work in a Youth Authority facility and help supervise a white inmate my age, who murdered his mother, yet had a day time job making $5.00 per hour - that's a $1.65 an hour better than me and my Bachelor's Degree - that's probably my bad as well. So, the fact I had to hear that mommy killer call me the n word all summer while bragging about being white and making more money than me, with all my bad decisions, I definitely deserved that.

Knowing all of this helped me realize that the same types of terrible things that I regularly observed my people experiencing must also be a reflection of their equally as bad decision making. The fact I visited Ghana and saw my people living in poverty, despite every Hershey and/or Nestle bar - or any other chocolate - you eat more than likely comes from Ghana produced cocoa, I knew that was because my people just didn't figure out the right way to make decisions about their lives. The same must be true for those people mining for bauxite in Guinea. And certainly the coltan miners in the Congo, gold and uranium in Zimbabwe, and the Nigeria oil workers. All poor countries. All the result of bad decision making on our part. Obama even said that last year, so it must be true.

Mike Brown walked in that street that day in 2014. Eric Garner chose to stop breathing which usually results in a bad decision conclusion. Sandra Bland decided to go to jail for no reason and Walter Scott must have requested to be shot in the back. Philando Castillo was misdirected enough to get a conceal and carry permit and then tell the police he had it and the weapon that accompanies it.

All these bad decisions we make that we insist on blaming on institutional racism. On capitalism. Not true. And the boss has even recruited more than enough yes people who look like us like Sheriff Clark, Shaquelle O'Neal, and Ray Lewis, to remind us that all of this is our fault. Its about the decisions we make, not racism. All these results have absolutely nothing to do with race. Nothing at all.

So I confess to my utter and inexcusable behavior of not standing for the U.S. national anthem for quite some time. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't get the idea from Colin Kaepernick because I was sitting in 1979 and I've been sitting since then. And, I mean sitting, not kneeling. I mean keeping my cap on. I mean burying my head in my arms so that I can use the time that the song is playing to block it out of my mind and focus instead on all my people who suffer as we do because of our bad decision making.

And here's news for you. As it relates to that national anthem and that flag, I'm going to continue to make those same decisions regarding how I interact with those experiences. Its too late to stop now. I've raised a 30 year old daughter who has never stood. She probably wouldn't even know how. And, I've taught literally scores of our youth not to respect any of that because I believe in providing an equal level of respect to entities that they supply to me. So, last month, when my daughter got her Master's Degree in Public Health, they played the national anthem and I sat through it in my long African robe. And, I did that in Memphis, Tennessee, a hotbed for reactionary patriotism. So, I waited for someone to tell me to stand up. It's happened before, a couple of times, and when it did, I told those people to mind their own damn business and/or make me stand. Although many people stared at me that day, no one said anything. Its actually been a while since anyone has. Maybe its the energy I give off? I don't know. You see, actually, the true confession here is that I don't really believe I've made bad decisions. At least not anymore than anyone else. And, I don't believe oppression results primarily from bad decisions. i believe that when oppression is systemic, people will most often make bad decisions because that's the miss-education oppression provides. But, bad decisions in this environment aren't the cause of the oppression, they are only the manifestation of it.

No, I don't believe I've made many bad decisions at all and I don't believe that about my people or any oppressed people either. I believe that this system is rotten to its core. So, I actually believe that in having to interact with that dysfunction every day, oppressed people make the best decisions we possibly can most of the time. And often, regardless of whatever decisions we make, things will not turn out well for us. That's how systemic oppression works. And, I believe that people who don't understand that generally have about as much actual knowledge of oppression as I have about performing open heart surgery e.g. slim to none. The difference is that everyone knows i have no open heart surgery experience. No one is going to be knocking on my door asking me to perform open heart surgery because to do so would be suicide. It would be foolish. Well, its equally as foolish to believe that anyone who has no actual knowledge e.g. comprehensive study, activist experience, and analysis of systemic oppression, has an opinion about it that's worth more than a fart.

Since no logical person could dispute that last sentence, why are so many people acting today like white people (and/or some brown people too), who have no real knowledge of oppression have anything to say about it that we should listen to? Those opinions are really about as worthless as mine on giving birth. Zero! But, that doesn't even make a dent does it? I know Sekou Ture was correct when he said "based solely on what comes out of our mouths, we are all equal", but that doesn't matter either does it? The only thing that really matters in this society is protecting the interests of the super rich capitalist class. And, the most sure fire way to ensure that happens is for them to use mostly white people and tell them the reason for their problem is us while the reasons for our problems are also us. So, instead of posing the serious challenge to the ruling class that will actually result in wins for white people, the cowardly white masses instead continue to take the same nasty bait 500 years later and assume their given role of thinking their primary job is keeping us in line (with the interests of the master).

So, yeah. I don't stand. I don't respect anything that doesn't respect me and your country has never respected me. Everything we have here we have had to fight for. Everything we have in Africa we've had to fight for. Nothing has been given to us. We are the people who have had to fight to go to the school we want. Live in the neighborhood we can afford. And do anything anyone else we can do. We are the people who have been killed for standing up for ourselves and the country not only never did anything to prevent that, it often was the reason for our deaths. And, our struggles to do that have opened up opportunities for people who just immigrated here last week. So, we owe this country absolutely nothing and after 500 years of killing us, enslaving us, incarcerating us, blaming us for every problem, including the ones we're experiencing, I ain't standing and I ain't honoring your flag. Its toilet paper or material for a fire to me. Nothing more.

What the professional athletes are doing is not new. They are helping you understand a phenomenon that has been dominant within the African communities here for hundreds of years. Frederick Douglass talked about not respecting your anthem in the 1700s. Even Jackie Robinson, who's politics were questionable at best, understood he shouldn't be standing for it. Its nothing new. The athletes are just exposing the world to it. And to see that warms my heart. So, don't worry about telling us to go back to Africa. On a personal level, I love Africa. Going there is great for me, but it doesn't solve the problem. Once we figure out how to make the right decisions about organizing to get our resources back, now that's a different situation. When that happens the scales tip dramatically. No more wealth just in the Western world. We'll see who wants to stay and leave then, but regardless, no one here has authority or credibility to have the conversation about going anywhere with us. This is Indigenous people's land and our efforts are designed to help them gain strength so that the children of the settlers will one day have to petition them for citizenship.

So, please miss us with that patriotism garbage. We are really thinking about your feelings about as much as you think about ours.

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Time for Some Un-Censored Truth about the U.S. Military

9/29/2017

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In the wake of our legitimate protests against state sanctioned murder and terrorism against African people everywhere, the U.S. military has become the focal point from all sides of this issue. Even many Africans who claim they support the protests are quick to add that they do not in any way support any "disrespect" of the U.S. military and the people who serve within it. Really?

What exactly did the U.S. military do to deserve this hands off and sacred standing? We all of course know the rhetoric. Those in the U.S. military go overseas and fight for "the freedom of everyone in this country." As a result, those who participate in the U.S. armed services get points on federal job applications, but most of all, they are considered by many to be outside of any realm of criticism and analysis that isn't praiseworthy. Where did this immortal status for the U.S. military actually come from?

Speaking as an African born and raised within the U.S., the U.S. military is not responsible for any abilities, opportunities, claims, actions, and chances I have to do absolutely anything during my time on this Earth. This country's capitalist system was built on the blood of enslaving my ancestors and its continued political and economic dominance has since been based on exploiting mother Africa, and African people everywhere (not to mention Indigenous people and many other peoples). As a result, racism has always been official policy here. That's why my father, a man born and raised in Streveport, Louisiana, in the U.S. South, was drafted into the U.S. military in the 1960s for the Vietnam war while at the same time he could not vote in his native Louisiana. He could not live where he wanted. He couldn't go to school where he wanted. And, I was forced to grow up watching him live through his trauma (before I was eventually able to experience plenty of racist trauma of my own) from his experiences growing up under the racist and violent "Jim Crow" segregation laws and practices of the South.

So, just from my personal experiences, I'm sure even the most ignorant among us can see how irritated it makes me to hear that my "freedoms" are owed to anything the U.S. military is or was doing. Especially since saying that is completely disrespectful to the people who are actually responsible for any benefits I've gained. I'm talking about those brave young and old people who stood up for justice against segregation; the civil rights workers. This is ill refutable. And understanding this makes the current reality that much more ridiculous when ignorant people from all angles are calling our protesters "disrespectful" when the truth is by protesting they are respecting the best and bravest traditions of our people. Of course, those who are leveling the "disrespectful" charge are talking about us being disrespectful towards the U.S. and its symbols of which the military is one of its most important propaganda mechanisms. We understand this, but us respecting the U.S., which has never respected us, is the same as asking Jewish people to respect Nazi Germany. Not going to happen and nothing you can do can make it happen. The U.S. owes us more than it can and would ever be willing to pay. Not that we are saying we want payment. We don't. We want justice. So, this imperialist and white supremacist argument that we somehow owe the U.S. something is dead in the water here.

Its difficult for many people of today to understand the political conditions during the Vietnam war from 1965 to 1975. I was a small child during that period, but I've aggressively studied that era and I encourage everyone to do the same. What you will find is that the 60s was a time when widespread usage and access to television was a relatively new phenomenon in this country. The owners of this new media outlet had not yet perfected control over its usage (similar to how the internet is at this point). Consequently, as it relates to Vietnam, much of the intricacies of the war were openly televised in ways that would never happen today. Bodies were regularly shown being shipped back to this country. In a way, people in this country were able to partially experience the war in vivid terms. Plus, the involuntary military draft made the cost of war as real as its ever been in this country. Most working class people, like my family, had to face the reality that going to Vietnam could happen. And, this was true regardless of what information you had or didn't have about the situation. The sense of loss was real here in a way most people today cannot understand in an environment where the imperialists have learned (from the experiences of Vietnam) to wage their wars in ways that do not directly touch the lives of everyday people in this country. Nowadays, there's no involuntary draft. Only the direct families of those who are fighting are feeling the impact. Most people in the U.S. cannot even point out Iraq and/or Afghanistan on a map if you offered them money to do so. As a result, most of these people today view war through an idealistic view that is fueled by fiction like Rambo and other imperialist propaganda efforts, but that wasn't the case in the 60s.

In fact, the crush of the draft and the visual of people actually dying in war caused many in this country to become openly antagonistic against the war effort. The anti-war movement blossomed and cross sectioned with the Black power movement and other movements for justice. People actively and militantly sought to shut down the military complex at any cost. Recruiting offices were bombarded and shutdown. Troops returning from the war were attacked and ridiculed. And, for a brief period of time, the people who refused to go to Vietnam, those who burned their draft cards, were touted as the brave souls that they were. Clearly, their courageous position represented the best of the old African proverb that "even a dead fish can swim with the current" meaning anyone can take orders to kill someone, regardless of whether those people should be killed or not. There's obviously no courage in doing that, but that was then, and this is now.

The U.S. capitalist class, led by people like the Rockafeller family, the primary owners of Chevron and all NBC outlets, learned how to direct the propaganda outlets they owned. Mass media, never true news, became even more consolidated in the camp of propaganda for capitalist interests. A campaign evolved that was instigated by Rockafeller, McGeorge Bundy, and other bourgeois capitalists to re-frame the military and police. Shows like "Dragnet" and "Adam 12" sought to present police as friends and servants to the community. Relationships were formed with institutions that led to the military and police becoming regular and active participants in all institutions of this country from sporting events to even church activities. Often, as is the case with professional sports, the military's participation is bought and paid for. The tide was changed where people who assaulted returning Vietnam vets were made to feel ashamed of their actions. They shouldn't have called those vets baby killers, right? In reaction to this propaganda the notion was advanced on a systemic level that instead of being attacked, military personnel should be honored and respected and thus the current phase was ushered in where the U.S. military achieved this "untouchable" status where criticism for their actions is concerned. Notice I said the U.S military and not the personnel serving within it. The objective of the capitalists was to make every imperialist action they endeavored overseas untouchable. They simply used the people in the military as pawns to tug at people's heart strings. I have too many people I know who are combat vets who are being screwed around by the government for me to be confused about how little capitalism actually cares about these people. All one has to do is drive by any off ramp to illustrate and confirm that "supporting the troops" is nothing more than a bumper sticker designed to make people here feel that they are compassionate (as long as they aren't forced to actually face the effects of war).

The truth is U.S. military folks did kill babies in Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands of babies by conservative estimates. Just like they did and are doing the same in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and so many other places. And, although we are completely aware that economic conditions are the reason people join the U.S. military in this country in the first place (its not patriotism. People in this country are bribed with perks like the G.I. bill to join. That's not the same as millions of Vietnamese children and elderly people volunteering to fight against U.S. imperialism with no promises of anything besides defending their country), it has to be said that people in the U.S. military are manipulated, but they have gone and committed atrocities against humanity for no reason other than to advance capitalist interests. They are used for this purpose and that is the reason 22 of them commit suicide each day. That is the reason so many of them suffer from psychological trauma from their experiences. They are the real reasons any lack of safety you feel for being from this country actually exists. That all needs to be said and those combat troops who courageously choose to speak out against these wars need to be uplifted. They are telling the real truth that needs to be told.

The question we have to ask ourselves today is how it is that imperialism has the capacity to trot out someone like commentator Bakari Sellers (regularly on CNN) who feels the pressure to side step criticizing the U.S. military when his father - Cleve Sellers - was one of those brave warriors from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 60s who fought so courageously for the gains we have as African people today. Cleve Sellers burned his draft card in 1967. It was his organization that led the charge to destroy the draft, yet 50 years later, his son has a national audience, yet cannot speak unfiltered truth about the U.S. military being a thug organization. That's right. No different than a street gang. In fact, in many ways, the street gang has much more legitimacy for its reasons to exist. At least their enemies, misdirected or not, do make incursions against them. In the case of the U.S. military, opposition is mostly fictional. North Korea has never posed any threat to the U.S. It was the U.S. that bombed North Korea into submission in the 50s. It was the U.S. that killed thousands of North Koreans. It is the U.S. that continues to this day to test nukes off of Japanese islands. The North Koreans have done nothing except attempt to defend themselves for 70 years, yet most people in this country are convinced they are the aggressors. From Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Un this is true. Insane.

Those of us who care about truth and justice have a responsibility to take up positions that are unpopular in a backward society, regardless of the cost. We have to do that because so many before us did the same thing. Colin Kaepernick is paying a personal price for his courageous stand and he is a solid example of what we should be teaching our children. During the Vietnam War it was Muhammad Ali and others. And, we can't do that by side stepping difficult questions just because they make things uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable is what has gotten us everything we have today. Its time to tell the truth. The U.S. military (including police) is nothing except the trained security organization for the super rich. Their sole purpose is to keep the world's populations under control so that their bosses can plunder the world's resources. That's the reason they bully Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and anyone who doesn't bow down to their interests. That's the reason they have 100 military installations in Africa. And, its the real reason they have your family convinced that suggesting any type of criticism of anything they do is tantamount to denouncing God. They are consistently on the wrong side of history. I remember when U.S. National Guards people pushed my father around on the streets of San Francisco. I was a very young boy when my people, disgusted with U.S. oppression, revolted on the streets. My dad, simply wanting to find out how he could keep his family safe, asked a question just to be man handled and pushed down. That's your troops in action. No, not the side of justice, ever. And, anyone who continues to try and act like the U.S. military in any way represents justice is just as much a part of the problem as those white supremacists marching in the street. Justifying white supremacy forcefully and intentionally or quietly and institutionally is still justifying white supremacy. Stop perpetuating this lie and start telling the truth. The U.S. military is the enforcement wing of this white supremacist system (and the fact so many Africans make their living in this institution does absolutely nothing to change that). The educational institutions here are the propaganda training wings of this system. And, the flag is the rallying symbol of this backward system. You can't partition it out and defend parts of it. Its all rotten. If you don't have the courage to face that then stop adding confusion to the struggle and leave it alone. All you are doing is soiling the dedicated work of those who have the courage that you couldn't wake up with on your best day.
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Trigger Effect: The NFL, Immigration, Africa, & Loss in Puerto Rico

9/27/2017

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I work within a social justice environment. So, it wasn't unusual on Tuesday when the director asked our leadership team to check in on how we were feeling individually about things going on the world today. What did take me completely off guard is when I spoke of what was going on in my head, I started to get emotional to the point I couldn't finish what I was saying. It came totally out of left field.

People were supportive, but even if they weren't, I'm comfortable enough with myself that I'm glad I can express emotions when I need to. The point I pondered all day is just how much the events are triggering me and the heavy impact these events have on my ability to have a healthy psychology.

I know I'm extremely sensitive to the suffering people experience. I'm thinking a lot about how difficult it must be for people in Puerto Rico right now. How much their lives have been thrown completely upside down. They have just suffered through two devastating storms when their reality was already challenged from a neo-colonial existence in the first place. Now, they don't even have a basic infrastructure to support the people there. Its heart wrenching.

Seeing my people shot down consistently and systemically by state terrorists is trying and traumatic everyday. Then, to add insult to injury, so many people who know just enough about the experiences of oppressed people to leave a thimble half empty, are so self righteous and opinionated about how so many of us express our legitimate outrage at the terror we face.

Then, to see so many of our Indigenous Brown family members upset and concerned about what will happen in the U.S. as so many of them fear deportation is equally as heart wrenching and an assault on the humanity of any compassionate person.

Finally, over 30,000 people in the West African nation of Guinea protested the inhumane mining conditions there last week. Guinea supplies much of the world's aluminum products through its bauxite deposits. The conditions there are miners as required to work seven days per week for pennies. They die often before they reach 40 years old. People are sick of this and resisting it as they should, but people in the West probably don't know much about Guinea. As long as you can wrap up that sandwich in foil for later consumption, why would you need to know, right?

I know that what happened in that meeting is a sign for me that this society is not healthy for me at all. With my sensitivity to human suffering, living within a society that has no moral conscience, I'm aware that staying here for an extended period of time is very bad for my mental health. And, believe me, a plan is being put in place to address that issue on a personal level, but then there is my ideological and practical foundation and experience. The training that has taught me that I do not exist as an individual in this world. My African culture has taught me that we are always a part of a collective experience. That is the African way. And, since I know the history of my African people, I also know the history of all of humanity. So, I cannot make my reaction to the suffering in Puerto Rico simply that of an emotional response on my part. I can't because I know the reason the people there suffer is because of the impacts of years of neo-colonial rule where the people of that small island nation are treated as inferior subjects by the U.S. empire. There is no reason why these people, most of whom are African people, have to suffer like this. Socialist Cuba, Puerto Rico's geographical neighbor, has demonstrated to us with their consistently limited losses of life from these storms, that a society that prioritizes its people can figure out how to avoid intense tragedy in spite of having limited material resources. So, I know my people there don't have to be going through what they are going through. If we had the level of organization that a united socialist Africa would provide us, then we would have the resources and capacities to respond to our people in Puerto Rico. We wouldn't have to wait for the imperialist empire to act as if it is the saving grace when it is the reason the people are suffering in the first place.

My training also tells me that our people mean well when we make every attempt to try and address our legitimate grievances against systemic racism while not offending the ultra sensitive egotism and arrogance of European society, but that strategy only serves to reinforce the problems. The truth is we can't, and shouldn't, be reacting to their flag waving stupidity. Clearly, the flag is a part of the problem. Its the symbol of white supremacy and capitalism, the system that oppresses African people. The police are the enforcers of that same system. The schools are the propagandists of that system. And, the churches are the moral justification for that system. You can't separate one element from the rest. The entire system is rotten. Its like we are trying to separate the alcohol from whiskey. There's little question that when we protest police terrorism we are protesting the system and everything it stands for and anyone who denies that, or tries to dissect it, has a separate agenda. Maybe they are attempting to carve out some space for them to operate and make money within this oppressive system. Only they know, but those of us who seek truth have to tell ourselves that those people cannot refute the overwhelming evidence that this entire system is guilty.

And, like Puerto Rico, Guinea and the rest of Africa suffer because of that same neo-colonial system. The entire U.S. (and world capitalist) economy is based upon exploiting Africa. It was built off of this exploitation and it maintains itself off of this exploitation.

Then to add to all of this, I know that Kwame Ture was correct when he said that "capitalism makes everything that should be strange seem normal and everything that should seem normal seem strange." That's why the Indigenous people, the rightful caretakers and inhabitants of this land, along with their descendants are being labeled as "illegal aliens" and being forced to justify their existence here while the children of the thieves who stole this land walk around with their chests poked out acting as if they are the rightful owners of everything that exists in this hemisphere. My training easily identifies the insanity within this.

So, although most people who don't know me well would probably conclude that my emotional outbreak in my meeting on Tuesday resulted from my being overwhelmed by all of these events, I know that's not the case. My reaction is related to my intense desire to see us move to building that united socialist Africa that would address the problems in places like Puerto Rico. That would create the respect we need for ourselves that would force this backward society to respect us. Its hard to gun down people when you need to be able to negotiate resources from them. And, the impact of a free Africa logically means that the U.S. is unable to be the supreme power that it is today since its prominence is only due to its dominance over Africa. As a result, a free, united, and socialist Africa means a weakened U.S. empire. One that is ripe for the Indigenous people to reclaim their destiny and move out all these freeloading hustlers who claim American identity. Either be willing to accept the realities of this new and just world, or take your toilet paper flag and go straight back to Europe!

My reaction in that meeting is because we don't have our united and socialist Africa and honestly, there is so, so, much work needed to get our people to even understand the necessity to move in this direction. That's what triggered me. But, I know that my responsibility isn't to judge the speed of our progress. My responsibility is to chip away at it to the best of my ability everyday for as long as I have breath.

So, I am using Tuesday's episode as a point of reference. It's a sign that I need to figure out how to engage the work in ways that permit me to take better care of myself. Something I'm trying to learn how to do for the first time in my over half of century on Earth, but unlike so many people who are having emotional reactions, mine wasn't because I'm overwhelmed. I know exactly what needs to be done. All I have to do is figure out how I'm going to do it while doing my best to maintain my sanity while I'm still trapped under the power of this sick cesspool capitalist system.

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Are African (Black) Men Friend or Foe to African Women/LGBTQ?

9/21/2017

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There are lots of opinions and points of view floating around about this question. The perspectives include analysis from LGBTQ members of our African family and range from African men being mostly problematic to African men being the primary problem in the lives of African women and none men presenting African people.

First, I'd like to humbly start by reviewing a statement by Kwame Ture that I think we would be wise to always remember. He said we cannot make any analysis about our people without including the enemy. And by enemy he meant the international capitalist and imperialist system which we see as the true and primary enemy of African people and all of humanity. He went on to say that any analysis that doesn't include our enemy will end up blaming our people. We see examples of his point all the time such as when Africans blame the problems in our communities on the lack of respect by our youth. Of course, our youth can only know what they are taught and there is very little healthy education of our people happening anywhere. And, the reason this education doesn't exist (at least on a mass level) is because our people lack power, are disorganized, and we are dominated by ideologies that perpetuate our negative self image. Therefore, it would be sufficiently lacking to make the assessment that the problem is our youth without including the enemy components that clearly explain the reasons we are in the situation are in.

So, as it relates to African men, or cis or so-called heterosexual men, is it possible that the correct analysis is that African men suffer from the oppression of this capitalist system? That it has trained us to see the world through a hyper masculine and patriarchal vision that is unproductive and oppressive for all non-cis men within our African communities (as well as other African men)? Consequently, far too many African men see our people, especially non-men, as a means to an end. We view our people through the exploitative vision of the capitalist system that teaches us that the only purpose of women and non-men is to supply for our needs. And, equally consistent with the values of this backward system, when non-men do not conform to our vision of their purpose, we have learned to react not with reason and thoughtfulness, but violence and oppression, the primary tools for the capitalist system.

The above is ill refutable, but just because we say the system is the source of the dysfunction of African men doesn't mean the need for a highly honest and critical assessment of African men isn't necessary. African men deserve extreme criticism for being such willing students for a system that continues to oppress our people. Instead of us resisting this backward system and standing up for principle and justice, we retreat into hurtful and oppressive ideologies against our people. We make African women commodities and we completely dehumanize members of our LGBTQ community. And we curiously label these actions as designed to protect and strengthen our people when the truth is what we are doing is catering to our cowardly and insecure traits instead of being brave (and strong) enough to confront and challenge them, which would make our communities stronger.

No one can be blamed for being ignorant, especially when capitalism is a system that discourages critical thinking, but we can blame you for being arrogant and unwilling to do anything about that ignorance. Now, many Africans have (never to my face) criticized me for saying African people don't read, so I'm going to help all of you out by reiterating that we don't read. Magazines and social media are fine, but they don't count when I'm making that statement. I'm talking about historical, philosophical, economic, and social science material. I'm talking about a comprehensive analysis of the history of African women. A class based and matriarchal history of Africa, and the same critical analysis of our LGBTQ family and their place within our communities. I don't think anyone can argue that this type of education isn't happening within our communities anywhere on a mass scale.

Until African men embrace our position within this oppressive system, and decide to take a stand to dismantle this decadent capitalist travesty against justice, we do become and remain enemies of our people. And, African women and other non-men presenting members of our community are not without their share of blame also. Many African women do an outstanding job of perpetuating patriarchy, even outright endorsing it. My mother, a strong African woman from Louisiana, never tired of telling me how evil African women could be and up until the time she made her physical transition, she argued with me that any women who was raped had to have done something to deserve it e.g. how she was dressed, etc.

Its time for African women and other non-men members of our community to declare that the primary enemy of all of our people and humanity is the oppressive capitalist system. And, if you don't know what I mean by "oppressive capitalist system" that should serve as the first place you want to focus your efforts on how to address the problem. African men must decide to abandon these backward and cowardly anti-class analysis theories of homophobia and patriarchy and adopt courageous positions that we are nothing without every member of our community feeling welcome and supported by each and every one of us. And, on that same note, let's abandon this backward anti-whiteness thats also entrenched in these cowardly elements of the capitalist system. Our critique of Europeans needs to contain the same principled approach that I'm calling for non-men to have for African men. Expose the system of oppression while holding the privileged classes accountable for their behavior.

African people are oppressed because this oppressive system was built and is maintained on our backs. We need our women, men, queer, transgender, and all other elements of our communities united, respected, and loved, if we are going to win this all out battle against the forces of evil. If you can't understand that, and aren't willing to grow in order to understand it, then you are the enemy. So, don't be surprised when we start to treat you as one.

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The NFL Football Boycott and its Links to the Pan African Struggle

9/17/2017

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The All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) has spent our entire existence (fifty years next year) articulating the position that anything that happens to African people anywhere on Earth is connected to African people everywhere on Earth. We say this because we understand that existence as African people in approximately 120 countries is no accident. And, our experiences of oppression in all of those countries is no accident either. We know that all of this is the direct result of colonialism and slavery which has financed the development and maintenance of the capitalist system. Since the capitalist system relies on cheap African labor and natural resources, its incumbent upon this system to oppress African people to ensure that imperialism retains free and unfettered access to these components.
All of this is to say that power outages in Ghana are connected to regime repression in Rwanda. And, those things are connected to violence against desert communities in Libya and land struggles in Zimbabwe and Azania, South Africa. In turn, all of these struggles have meaning for our people suffering from institutional oppression in Australia and from police terrorism in North America.
So, the growing boycott against U.S. football in the U.S. should not be seen simply as a protest against the racist treatment of former U.S. San Francisco Quarterback Colin Kaepernick because of his protests against police terrorism in 2016. And the boycott certainly cannot be reduced to a focus of forcing football team owners – the equivalent of modern day slave masters – to give Kaepernick a position picking cotton on the football field.
Instead, Africans and all peace and justice loving people must see this boycott as an extension of African people’s worldwide cry for justice and self-determination. This is important because we know that the basis of African oppression isn’t police terrorism or the other issues mentioned previously. These problems are all manifestations of the real problem which is the subjugation of Africa by multi-national capitalist interests. This is the problem that originated 500+ years ago and it remains the central component to every issue African people face wherever we are on Earth. Africans can utilize this boycott to make a significant contribution towards Pan-Africanism by recognizing and framing the boycott as a struggle by African people to assert our humanity and our desire to see justice served in all areas where we lack it as a people. We can identify police terrorism as the flash point that launched the boycott, but we should use this opportunity to recognize that the forces that maintain the police repression against our people are also the same forces that enforce that repression against us not just in the U.S., but in Canada, Europe, and Australia. They are also the same forces who own the corporations that brutally exploit our people in Africa to control the coltan, diamond, gold, cocoa, uranium, bauxite, and other critical mining industries.
We should use the boycott to make the world smaller as it relates to our people’s experiences. Take capitalist patriarch David Rockafeller and his family empire. They own controlling interest in Chevron and its oil producing subsidiaries. As a result, his family’s lobbying influence is significant in directing oil policies in oil producing countries in Africa like Nigeria and Libya. And oil politics dictate politics in those North and West African regions as much if not more than anything else so this directly impacts our people every-day. We should be talking about this and how Rockafeller’s influence with oil policy is tied to his families support for repression policies in Africa e.g. the development of the African Command, or 75 U.S. military installations in Africa (Afrocom). This Afrocom serves as a central component to repress political dissent in Africa such as protests against the oppressive mining industries, including oil.
What all of that has to do with Colin Kaepernick and the U.S. National Football League (NFL) boycott is Kaepernick began his kneel against the so-called U.S. National Anthem because of his protest against police terrorism. The entire purpose police departments came into existence within the U.S. was to provide an armed force that would control the African masses after the end of chattal slavery in 1863. Its appropriate for Kaepernick to protest the song, but the U.S. constitution itself is equally as revealing for its original purpose in oppressing Africans and others. The second amendment of that constitution speaks to ensuring the existence of armed militias in “states” (within the U.S.). The word state was imposed after the original document had the word country. The reason for this was to protect the rights of these militias, or posses, to be armed while terrorizing Africans. Eventually, those posses turned into police departments. So, the narrative that police are here to “serve and protect” is historically inaccurate. They have always existed to repress African people and their behavior against us today, all over the world, is testament to their continued commitment to their original mission. Kaepernick and other athletes within the NFL have helped bring this issue more into the light, but what’s missing is the connection between police controlling our people in the West and imperialist military apparatuses like Afrocom controlling our people in Africa? The question is why the need for this systemic control of African people? What is the system so afraid of that we will do? It’s not just that African people are hated because we dance well, sing well, and have beautiful skin and hair, although certainly, there are misguided people who do despise Africans for these and other dysfunctional reasons. But, its important that we recognize that the core reason for the need for this violent control of African people is because of the continued and daily threat we pose against the forces who dominant us. The capitalists realize that the minute we decide we are ready to collectively do something about our oppression, the African continent must come clearly into our vision because wherever we are, Africa and her liberation is the key to our solution. The proof of this is more and more, the African masses are rejecting the incorrect identity terms tying us to our colonial origins. Our people worldwide are increasingly calling for Pan-African unity to the point where even neo-colonial puppet regimes in Africa are having to recognize this by proposing lessoned border restrictions between neo-colonial states, even as it relates to providing easier access to Africa for Africans born and living in the Western Hemisphere.
Its time for revolutionary Pan-Africanists to clarify that Kaepernick and the others in the NFL, athletes in the U.S. National Basketball Association, athletes playing international football (soccer), and other protests, are all naming the particular issues in front of them like police terrorism, but what they are really protesting is the worldwide oppression of African people highlighted by the continued domination of Africa. We must connect the dots that Kaepernick himself demonstrates this by his recent trip to Ghana. He articulated while in Ghana that his personal journey in this struggle led him to Africa. It’s a logical progression because like the late Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) who started his activism in the U.S. civil rights movement before eventually moving home to Guinea, West Africa to continue the fight for Pan-Africanism, when it comes to achieving African dignity, all roads are always going to lead to Africa.

editor@pambazuka.org

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Harvey and Irma: Let's Name the True Looters, Thank You

9/12/2017

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In the midst of all the destruction and suffering from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in Texas and Florida, U.S., respectively, over the last weeks, we've all seen the constant images. I'm talking about almost exclusively African and Indigenous (Black and Brown) faces shown engaging in acts of allegedly lifting goods from retailers in the wake of the storms. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, CIA, and all the imperialist networks, show these images nonstop (completely ignoring the fact there are plenty of European folks out there lifting goods) while parroting the old and tired line that the people lifting items from stores are "looting."

This process of dehumanizing our people is so systemic, whether its floods, power outages, or unrest resulting from police terrorism, when it happens, you can routinely find even so-called progressive "Brown" and white folks attempting to either validate or criticize (in step with the capitalist media) those folks who would engage in these types of activities.

The fact that the media shows these images consistently shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who understands history. All of those networks as privately owned capitalist media outlets. In other words, their sole purpose for existing is to serve as the propaganda arm for the multi-national corporations (the capitalists) who own them. This is true even for so-called "Public Broadcasting" which is only on the air because of money they receive from corporations in the form of foundation grants (a scam way for corporations to dictate how they pay their taxes). This flies in the face of those of you who have been taught that media is "free" in this capitalist society, but if you open your eyes to it, you will find the reality ill-refutable. Take all of the NBC affiliates for example. NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and any others I've missed. All of these outlets are majority owned (meaning the highest percentage of stock owned in the corporation) by David Rockafeller and his Rockafeller capitalist ruling class family. The Rockafellers also own majority stock in Chevron Oil and Chase Manhattan Bank. Consequently, even a high school student would be able to ascertain that they would use their media outlets to project images that represent their economic interests. And a major element of their interests is in keeping the majority of people out here confused and disoriented about where the real source of their trauma is actually coming from. Brown people have historically been easy targets because the foundation aka the system of white supremacy, is already in place. Therefore, its so easy for them to project that the problem is "those lazy, shiftless, criminal, brown people. Those Blacks. Those Mexicans. Those Puerto Ricans," etc. From centuries of programming, everyone, including people from all of those groups, are already primed to direct your anger at that African who lifted a television. If he could just be arrested, somehow, the fact you can't pay your housing expenses, or you have a job you hate, no job, or a partner you cannot stand, all of that will miraculously go away if that television lifter is "held accountable." There is no other explanation that explains why people who are programmed to be apathetic about pretty much everything are so triggered by images of Brown people taking a computer or a television, as if this happening will reduce years off of your life.

The last sentence is especially true since that anger is certainly misplaced. And, please understand, I'm not making the conciliation argument that these folks are just lifting baby formula, water, or diapers. Many of them are, but even the ones who are lifting electronics, I'm not running away from that. To call them looters is absurd. The only purpose that serves is to keep people's attention diverted from the oil companies who permit their franchise stations, in their name, to raise gasoline prices to $10.00 a gallon at a time when people desperately need gas to find safety. They want to keep your attention away from the retailers who are selling 24 bottle water blocks that normally sell for about $5.00 or less for upwards of $50.00 at a time when people desperately need water. That's an emergency situation in those locations so we don't want to hear the excuse that their price gouging results from their inability to get deliveries. By doing what they are doing, they are engaging in real looting, plain and simple. And, I can say that because the businesses that engage in this criminal behavior come out of these situations in profitable condition, which is their design all along. Clearly, whatever they give away, they can write off so that's not the issue. So, don't talk to us about that African with the television. In fact, I hope 20,000 people take televisions from Wal Mart because even if they do, that doesn't come close to balancing the exploitation Wal Mart reaps on its underpaid workers. Or, the looting Wal Mart has carried out against poor countries like Haiti for years by exploiting their labor (sewing those cheap clothes for sale). And, this is without even talking about all the so-called "humanitarian" organizations that people are donating millions of dollars to like Red Cross, United Way, etc. There are actually studies that indicate that up to 85% of the money donated to these organizations actually goes to bureaucratic administrative expenses which means the people who are suffering losses never see a red cent from these outfits. More sophisticated looting you apparently approve of since many of you donate to these organizations.

Probably one of the best examples of looting took place after Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana in 2005. Haliburton, or Kellogg, Brown, and Root, a contracting company that previously had a board member named Dick Cheney (the Vice President under George W Bush's administration). This company somehow, which has never been explained, bypassed federal requirements to submit to a fair bidding process. Instead, they got sole bidding for the clean up of New Orleans in the aftermath of the flooding. And, despite the reality that the standard going rate for clean up at that time was about $2.00 per square foot, this criminal enterprise got away with charging us tax payers a previously unheard cost of $20.00 per square foot, or 10 times the going rate! Now, that's some big pimpin looting right there! And each of you prostitutes (because you pay for this type of looting all the time) didn't even know it. That's why they want to keep you focused on that African with the television. They know you believe that the few hundred televisions they lost, which is easily compensated for by the amounts they overcharge customers each year (which is about three times the amount they lose in so-called theft), not to mention their provision for losses which they write off on their taxes, is really going to increase the cost of televisions for the time you want to buy one. You believe that, or at least somebody you know does, because that's what the Rockafellers of the world want you to believe so you don't focus on the Chevrons, Shells, and Kellogg, Brown, and Roots of the world that are stealing from you in direct and criminal ways that don't even register a blimp on your radar.

You don't put two and two together to conclude that Chevron, Shell, and the rest of them loot cheap oil, and the labor to refine it, from Africa, and other parts of the world as their standard business practice. Then, to add insult to injury, they price gouge you during your time of need. Why, I wish we could get organized enough to storm all of their stations and take as much gas as we need, whenever we need it for heating, etc., without paying them a cent. I say this because with what they routinely steal from Africa, we could lift gasoline from them for the next 50 years and they would still be in the red for what they owe us.

So, good decent people shouldn't do the bidding of the people who oppress us. Don't call our people thugs. They aren't thugs. They aren't even qualified to be thugs because the actual definition of a thug is someone who can steal an entire continent and an entire people. Not someone who lifts a simple television that is worthless with the power out anyway. There's no equivalence. Its like trying to compare a fly to an shark and then saying the fly is the real threat. Even Kim Jong Un of North Korea is calling out white supremacy in the U.S. and he hasn't even ever been here. Instead of you pondering that, you just hate him (because that's another thing they told you to do) without you having any knowledge of North Korea. Are you seeing a trend here yet?

I remember several years ago when I was preparing with my then young daughter to enter a now defunct Montgomery Wards Department store. As we approached the front door, it flung open and a young African emerged at a steady run with an arm full of jeans. Following him was an equally young European who presumably was a store security person. Even with the weight of all those jeans, that African was outdistancing that European so the European yells out for me to stop or obstruct the African in some way to slow him down. Unfortunately for Montgomery Wards, by coming my way, that African was not running by the right type of confused African that would help them. I actually stopped and encouraged the African to run faster. He engaged in some of the best acrobatic moves to easily outdistance the European security guard. When that guard reached me, huffing and puffing, he started to berate me for not helping him. He said something about "setting an example for my daughter." I laughed and told him I'm setting the best example for my daughter. I've taught her that Montgomery Wards, and all the stores like them, exploit labor from poor countries to make the clothes that African was carrying. Then, they sell the clothes for such a high price that no one from the country who made them could ever hope to even own a pair of those jeans. I quipped that the lower prices that those lifted jeans will go for is the only opportunity our African family has to even benefit from the product we produced. Then, on top of that, they exploit him - the security guard - by expecting him to put his life on the line protecting their property while underpaying him and I'd bet not even paying him adequate health care coverage in the event he is injured on the job. His immediate response was that he was underpaid and he actually had no health insurance. So, I asked him why was he working that hard for someone who wasn't working hard for him? He shrugged and turned around and went back into the store.

Carter G. Woodson, that old African scholar, talked 100 years ago about the psychology of oppression and how the slave minded person will work harder for his oppressor than the oppressor himself. The only looters are the capitalists. Everyone else, regardless of what it is, is just doing their part to balance the scales. What they are doing isn't the problem. The problem is that its being done just on an individual level with no organization. What actually needs to happen is mass organizing for us to take back what these capitalist corporations have been stealing from us for centuries. In order to do that, we will first have to stop accepting our enemies definition of the conditions. I realize people make those donations because you want to feel like you are doing something to address the problem, but once you know that this is not what's happening, isn't it time to dedicate yourself to actually doing something to help? So, let's start with repeating after me, the only looters are the super rich! The only looters are the super rich!! Once we all get that down, then we can have the foundation to start building some real structures to take back from those who steal from us as policy.

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Read This if You Are Always Told How Intimidating You Are

9/10/2017

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You are hearing it from the people you date. And the irony there is you connected with them because they said they wanted someone real. Someone in touch with their emotions. Someone who lives the difference between form and essence. Yet, as you get to know each other, and you are being in that moment, and you are expressing yourself and giving them space to do the same, there it comes. You are intimidating.

You hear it at work. All the time. You hear it from your friends and family. You hear it so much that you start to believe it in a way. You are intimidating to people, but when you ask them why, you won't get a comprehensive answer.

The reason you don't get a clear answer is because there isn't one. At least one that makes any real sense. You are bothered by this all the time. In fact, it haunts you. Keeps you up at night. Causes severe anxiety. It does all of this to you because you don't want to be seen as someone who intimidates people. That image doesn't help you develop cohesive relationships. It makes it hard to build trusting relationships.

I'm not talking about you if you are actually intimidating. Meaning you are a bully and/or you use manipulation to harass and control people. You really are intimidating and you need to get help before you run into someone who can handle you (feel free to come my way). This article isn't talking about bullies. This is talking about folks who who struggle to do their internal work. People who work hard to confront their internal demons. People who learn through this work that we can actually overcome all of the things that form the most formidable obstacles in our lives.

The issue is people who are not trying to confront their demons, at least not on any serious level, see you working to confront yours. They see you because your work permits you to be a force in helping resolve problems because you have gained the skills to make contributions in this regard. You wouldn't have those skills if you had not picked yourself up when you were knocked down. Over and over again. This is what people see. Most of whom stay down when knocked down for whatever reasons, real or imagined.

So, its this capability on your part which makes your presence challenging to many people. That's what they really mean when they say you are intimidating.

And you have learned that doing the work on yourself that you do doesn't bring any immediate rewards. People actually avoid you. Who you are scares them so they, without meaning to, tend to see you in a very limited way. They're focused on the traits they observe in you that they wish they had. Consequently, they see you through those traits. And only those traits. In other words, if you have learned to channel your fears and not let them control you, they will see you are completely fearless. This isn't true, but that's how they will see you. They won't see how difficult it is for you to be where you are. They definitely won't see that they have the capacity to get there themselves. They will just see you as fearless. And they will see themselves as unable to be where they think you are. And that makes them feel bad so they avoid you. At least on any meaningful level. And, this will happen consistently to the point where you find it very hard to establish and maintain relationships, which is depressing for you.

You are not without fault in this dilemma. Your dogged determination to challenge yourself, usually because you hold principles that are true to justice and liberation for the majority of people on the planet, makes you hard to reach sometimes. I'll never forget how boxer Mike Tyson was accused of rape back in the 90s. People far and wide labeled him a complete monster. I had no issue believing him to be an abuser. What I didn't understand is how one minute a society could celebrate a person becoming such a successfully violent gladiator, and then the next minute, that same society turned completely against Tyson as if his violence has its own off switch once he stepped out of the ring? My point isn't to condone his abusive behavior. My point is every boxing fan, every UFC fan, every violent movie and song fan, everyone who has ever engaged in un-humanistic behavior towards another human being, we are all guilty. Well, this also applies to you and how you respond to being labeled as intimidating. The dysfunction just spills over in your behavior. You become a tad bit hard to reach sometimes. You do that to protect yourself. No one can blame you. If you weren't a little distant people would drive you crazy because since they see you are doing your work, they tend to think you have no shortcomings. You have no contradictions. As a result, everything dealing with you has a much higher bar. You find that you cannot make the errors other people make. Even if the people criticizing your error make that same error routinely, they will still criticize you as if you betrayed humanity when you make it. So, you address this by putting up barriers to keep those people at a distance. Where you are wrong is you should find better ways to challenge all of this, but usually, you haven't. And that part is on you, but don't fret because anyone else in your shoes would probably respond the same way.

Yup. Lots of loneliness. Get comfortable being constantly misunderstood. And, then there's that double standard thing about the raised bar. Then on top of that, there's all the times you will be told all of this is just in your head. What you need to do then, what we have to do, is listen to a part of that. Listen to the part about your brain. That's the key. You are in this position because you are strong willed. You have heart. And because of your heart you have to figure out how to weather the difficult elements. You handle the isolation by becoming strong enough within yourself that you are comfortable with you. This means love and companionship will take much longer for you, but when it actually happens, it will be real and it will be worth it because your person will be strong enough to understand you. They won't be intimidated by you, they will be inspired. And, in the areas where you need to improve, they will recognize that criticism comes with a requirement to help. If they can't do that for you, with you, then that's your genuine signal that despite all appearances, this is probably not the person for you.

Challenge yourself to reach out to people and not aide the isolation. Fight against it. It won't be easy. Remember, you reflect people's shortcomings to them and as a result, they typically don't feel that comfortable with you. Its not your fault, but you can combat it by humbling yourself more and more. It will be very difficult, but it will make you a better person and it will provide you with skills that will prove invaluable to our work to bring people together.

So, the next time someone tells you that you are intimidating, smile, and say thank you. And, use that as a reminder of the good work that must be done.

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The Tragedy of DACA: Where Justice and Capitalist Law Conflict

9/6/2017

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Over the last couple of days, the presidential administration in the capitalist U.S. overturned the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (DACA) decree. What DACA did was make it legal for children of undocumented workers to receive two year deferments to qualify to stay within the U.S. What overturning DACA did was eliminate the two year period by eradicating DACA, thus giving those estimated 800,000 or more children six months to exist within the U.S. before they could be deported immediately after that time.

The degree to which this immoral and criminal assault impacts the families of the Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere e.g. so-called Latinos, etc., cannot be overstated. Most people born within the U.S. have absolutely no concept of the trauma of deportation. Since this nation has established the greatest system of theft in human history, the wealth of the world has been stolen (through colonialism and slavery) and brought under the control of this empire. Consequently, since the wealth is here, at least for now, no one born here has ever had to even think about this issue. They don't understand the stress and constant fear of having your family ripped apart. People born here cannot even fathom having your birth country ripped apart by imperialist political and economic policies. People born here operate under the fallacious notion that this country is blessed under some sort of special anointment from God, and that is the reason the wealth is here. Not because of the real reason; theft and murder of the people's resources who are seeking refuge in this country. Ironic isn't it. Equally as ironic is how people's lives are hurled around like a political football by capitalist politicians. Obama signs an executive order in 2012 launching DACA. He gets to reap the praise of this act from justice loving people understanding that the minute any president slightly more reactionary than he is elected, all of the benefits of DACA would disappear as fast as they appeared.

This is the contradiction of capitalist electoral politics. The masses of people, the true makers of history, have absolutely no power to determine their destiny. Under the model of this absurd process, the people impacted by these decisions have no say. The input of tax paying persons such as you and myself, doesn't exist. Only the elite bureaucrats who sit in power over the masses of society, get to decide what's best. And with that nonsense, while people suffer, we are supposed to feel some measure of comfort in the fact we can elect another idiot at some point who can reverse the seesaw for another four or eight years, etc. until we are again back at square one of this oppression.

Clearly, this cycle of disempowerment is unacceptable. Especially since the truth is we should not be justifying why the children of the original people of this hemisphere should have some bourgeois right to live in this country. The fact that we even entertain this discussion is a fallacy and proof that their (capitalist) laws have absolutely nothing to do with justice. Nothing whatsoever. As a result, all justice loving people should see themselves having absolutely no obligation to obey and acknowledge their anti-human laws.

This land always has been and always will be the land of the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere, period. That means all the descendants of everyone from Mexico, etc., are Indigenous people and this is their rightful and historical home. They certainly don't need to beg and plead with the children of the low life thieves and crooks who stole this land for the right to live in their own house. Now, this is an empowering perspective and this is the type of thinking that should lead all protests against this injustice.

As African people, we are 100% with our Indigenous cousins against this system. We should be organizing ways to provide shelter and safety for the Indigenous people. Millions of them have been deported each year under regimes from both of these corrupt political parties. Their system is clearly not the answer. We need to be coming together and figuring out how to send them the message that we don't recognize their imperialist policies. They can't tell us who is welcome here. Under what morality does the thief dictate who has access to the goods?

And a final note to my folks who have drank the master's kool aide on this question. We understand that everyone wants to identify with a winner. We also know the imperialists have worked hard to convince us that this isn't stolen land. That its the "free and democratic beacon of light for the rest of the backward world. Blessed 100% by God!"

What this country actually represents is an empire that was built from the theft of this land and the theft of our people to build up the seed money to finance the development of this empire. Only the most foolish African would believe that your interests and the interests of your master are one and the same. We have no interests in the U.S. beyond justice and complete justice is that this land belongs to the Indigenous people! That's not to say you have to pack up and move to Africa today because as backward as many of you are, we don't want or need you in Africa until you can wake up. What it is to say is we have a historical imperative to represent justice. That means we owe a debt to our Indigenous neighbors. Support their struggle right now. Open your churches, houses, cars, etc., to protect those who are hounded by this criminal government. Refuse to talk to and/or cooperate with their criminal police agencies on all levels. Stand up for what's right just like the people who's sacrifices you benefit from stood up for you. You cannot expect anyone to recognize your cry for justice if you refuse to recognize theirs. This is a moral question and if you don't respond correctly all the religious/spiritual dogma, garb, churches, mosques, whatever you call yourself preaching won't protect you.

DACA wasn't the answer, but it definitely can be a catalyst for the call to action we want and desperately need.

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Beyond Hype: Concrete Reasons for Not Watching Pro Football

9/5/2017

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Surely, you are aware of calls to boycott games from the National Football League (NFL) this 2017 season which is slated to begin this coming Sunday. Most of this call is motivated by the fact former San Francisco Quarterback - Colin Kaepernick - was first told by San Francisco back in January that they planned to release him. As a result, Kaepernick "opted out" of his contract. In lay terms, what all of that means is he resigned before he was going to be fired. He did this because by resigning, he would be eligible to sign with other teams earlier instead of waiting to let what San Francisco was deciding determine his fate. Everyone reading this should understand that because most of us have done the same thing at one time or another. The twist has been Kaepernick hasn't received one contract offer since March of this year, when he became eligible to sign with other teams. Not one offer.

African people and all folks committed to justice are outraged by this because we fully understand that Kaepernick's critics are completely full of horse manure. Their claim is that he remains unemployed because of his skill deficiencies. Well, pretty much every NFL Quarterback, except maybe two of them, have significant deficiencies. And without question, from every statistical and metric standpoint, Kaepernick's upside outranks several Quarterbacks who have been signed since March. His detractors, true to their hypocritical and cowardly nature, completely ignore those facts. They even have the audacity to criticize Kaepernick for wearing a shirt with Fidel Castro on it while in the same breath parroting that same old stale lie this is a free country. Besides the fact those people don't have enough information about Fidel to fill a thimble...Well, you get the point about those jack @sses. And along with those losers, so many voices within the NFL, including many handpicked dark spokespersons for the NFL elite, have tried their best to continue to diminish the truth about what's happened to Kaepernick e.g. he's being targeted for standing up against white supremacy and police terrorism. The slave is supposed to do nothing except represent the interests of the master. If the slave develops a mind of their own and disobeys, their severely punished. Whether its 1717, or 2017, that still hasn't changed. That's why so many people are upset. That's why they are calling for everyone to provide the NFL with the same level of respect and support that it provides us - zero - by not watching any games this season. By not buying any NFL gear. By doing everything to force professional football to feel the brunt of disrespecting us.

I agree with all of the above reasons, but those reasons alone are not the complete picture as to why I'm taking the stance I'll take. I'm a life long football fan. I played for a long time myself. I've gone to countless San Francisco 49er football games and watched many, many, more. I say all of that because I've heard the non football fans who are upset about the NFL's racism express how much they don't understand why anyone would have a hard time boycotting professional sports. For you good people I will just say that everyone needs something to help them make it through the day in this decadent system. And, I'm going to speak up for myself and say not everyone contributes as much as some of us. Not everyone sacrifices as much as some of us. Now, I don't drink alcohol, do any drugs, not even weed. I don't gamble and you won't find me at the clubs chasing women. So, sports is and has always been that one thing that permits me to escape from my frustrations, anxieties, and depression, regarding this system I live under that works hard to dehumanize me and everyone else on a daily basis. And, I'm a life long S.F. fan. No one enjoyed the 49ers run through the Super Bowl in 2012 anymore than I did and Kaepernick was a huge part of that run. No one enjoyed their subsequent trip to coming within a few yards of making the Super Bowl again the following year, and he was again, a major part of that run. I promise I won't criticize you for the ways you engage in your self care, so please understand that I'm not, and never have been, selling out the revolution by watching a game or two. No more than you are by taking a drink, toking up, or doing whatever you do to get yourself through. I understand the NFL, National Basketball Association, and other professional sports are gladiator leagues. I understand our people are slaves on the plantation there for European entertainment. I understand very few of these professional athletes are worth a seating on the toilet. That's why although I've always followed sports, I've never approached any of these athletes I've seen in public. And, I've seen several. Derek Jeter, Charles Barkley, Reggie Jackson, Barry Bonds, Chris Webber, Gary Payton, Mike Tyson. Those are some I know I've been within 10 feet of off the top of my head, but although I appreciate their skills at what they do, I'd never approach any of them because I don't see their athletic abilities, although impressive to me, as anything that deserves my personal recognition in that regard. Its not at all like the time I body guarded for the late Dr. Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X. Now, that time, I couldn't wait to talk to her and tell her what had been on my mind about her, her husband, her children, since I was 17. To me, she deserved that respect because she sacrificed quite a bit for justice and liberation. So, just so you understand the difference between what entertains me and what inspires me.

This is why my reason for boycotting the NFL this reason is inclusive of the reasons previously mentioned, but is so much more. At this point, Colin Kaepernick is so much more than how I saw him in 2012/13 when I loved him as a football player. Now, he's a person with integrity which is much more than someone who can run the ball across the goal line. I know I need to boycott because Colin has helped all of us remember Frederick Douglass's correct analysis that "there is no progress without struggle." I need to sacrifice. I need to figure out how to be better. And, by not watching football, I'm forcing myself to do that. And, its not going to be easy because after almost four decades of being a fan, my body clock is tuned to the fact its time to watch some football. The desire to do so is strong. The pressures on me aren't any less so I definitely have the need to fill that void. This boycott is forcing me to figure out healthier ways to do that. I can't deny that this struggle will only make me an even stronger person because its more than likely that I probably won't ever return to watching football ever again because I'll find something else. That's usually how things end up for me when I decide to do something like this. Maybe I'll get even more reading done. More writing done. More Sunday organizing. Football never was a priority over my work. In fact, for years I had work study meetings on Sundays and I never skipped work study for football. So, we'll see. I don't know. I'm working on it, but I know this boycott is forcing me to do that which is good for me and good for all of us. That's why I'm not going to be watching this year. That to me is the most important lesson Kaep has given us. How many of us are willing to push ourselves farther in order to become stronger? How many of us will push ourselves to more sacrifices. Are we willing to sacrifice enough to win our struggles for justice and liberation? That's what this moment symbolizes for me. I'm going to do my best to be a good student and I guess I am going to issue a call to action for everyone to do your best in this same regard. Let's see how many real students we still have out here?

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The White Left Continues to Amaze with its Dysfunction

9/1/2017

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As it relates to anti-fascist work, or Antifa as its popularly called, I come to it within the tradition of the revolutionary Pan-African movement. We know that along with our Indigenous family from the Western Hemisphere, we are the original Antifas in this country, so of course, we are 100% on the side of anyone who decides they wish to dedicate their lives to the fight against oppression. We are not Anarchists, although we are not opposed to Anarchy because we study it. We understand the concepts within it. And, we don't see any contradictions between Anarchy's call for an altruistic world and our call for a communist one. We disagree with those who claim to be Anarchists on how we get to that altruistic state. For us, that is the role of the socialist phase of human development, but unlike European cultural practice, we are 100% collective. So socialism makes sense for us in a cultural vision.

We say all of that because we want to contextualize the current framing in the U.S. of anti-fascist work. We also want to question the tendency of too many on the White left to so easily permit the struggle to be defined by state issued parameters or by other dysfunctional concepts burped up by white supremacy.

First, we state again very clearly that showing up to those rallies and protests is good. People should show up. We say this because when we offer a critical analysis of these rallies, the only thing limited thinkers take away from our critique is that we are saying don't do anything. Anyone who knows us knows that cannot be what we are saying. Our point again is its good to show up, but that should be seen as the absolute bare minimum of what needs to be done. Just because you showed up and physically pushed open white supremacists into the evening is not a cause for celebration. You are only just now doing what we have been doing for centuries and the white vision of this struggle is not the default vision of what needs to take place.

Show up, but then recognize that your work is just beginning. After showing up, you must take time to carefully map out how you can cut off violent white supremacy from the base. And, that is by developing and advancing a program of organizing within White communities. This means going door to door and talking to your White family and community members. Educating them on the contradictions of this society and how its core objective is to turn working people against each other with the myth of white supremacy. Teaching them that capitalism is a backward system that oppresses the masses of human existence. White people need to hear that message because guess what? They are not hearing it. That's why so many of them are so open and willing to accept the sorry white supremacist message because those racist forces don't just show up at rallies to confront you. They are organizing in White communities. So, any White person who is serious has to acknowledge showing up and running them out is just the first step. The second and much more difficult and dedicated step, is devising a plan to organize White people against capitalism and white supremacy. This work requires time, patience, and commitment. Something too many of these people running around today lack. Also, since you will need to facilitate education around these issues, that means you will have to develop a comprehensive understanding of them yourself. That requires a strong and consistent political education program. And, that requires you belonging to an organization that can facilitate that program and your efforts to reach these communities. All of these requirements are the reasons this work isn't taking place because this work will need much more than the simple act of showing up for a day very couple of weeks of adrenaline based excitement.

The reason we can say this is because we are directly involved in the organizing work. And we have been for decades. So, we know that since we have to organize our people against this system, we are never worried about how the system portrays our people. We know that we would be insane to expect our enemies to portray us fairly and with truth. That's why we have such a difficult time understanding why so many people in the white left are so shocked at the capitalist media's most recent negative campaign against Antifa movements. Did you except fairness from the corporate media? Did you expect that this capitalist media machine would really honestly educate the public about the forces that oppose this system? If you did you are living in a fantasy world. And when you react that way you expose us to your naivete about this system. Even if you naively believe that you have rights and there is a constitution that protects you, and that you have a voice, and all that other bourgeois nonsense. You still cannot escape the necessity for organization because even to get the push against the system required to get the small victories of getting your vision articulated, you must have some level of organization to make that happen.

Any way you slice it, organization is the key. There is absolutely no way of getting around it. And if you are tired of seeing the forces of evil seem to come out on top, its because we continue to resist the necessity to become organized. We continue to believe that one person can be an individualist with no discipline, and defeat this highly organized system that demands discipline. And your continued belief in this fallacy exposes your arrogance and your egoism while people are suffering.

On another note, why are so many people on the White left continually outraged by the unwillingness of the capitalist media to legitimize you? Did you just start engaging in this work last night because only a very inexperienced organizer/activist would actually think the capitalist press is there to present any type of argument that contains a grain of integrity. We have news for you. If you take yourself out on the streets in any way whatsoever, to the state, you are a threat against its interest. And if you are a threat, it is not going to let its appendages, like its media, present you in any light other than that of a terrorist and social deviant. Maybe some of you thought your white skin would protect you from being disrespected as we are as policy, but you are finding out that simply wearing black is enough to turn them against you when you take any type of stance against them.

Finally, when are you going to accept that there's no fundamental difference between the white supremacist capitalist system, and the violent white supremacists represented by the Klan, neo-nazis, etc? I get it. The "traditional" white supremacists are an easier mark, but we aren't concerned with easy. We're concerned with justice. To focus just on the street level white supremacists is like killing all the bugs infesting a house that is completely rotted out. The focus cannot just be the street level racists. It has to be the sky level racist system. It has to be the capitalist system. The capitalist system moves all the street level racist activities, organizations, everything. When are you going to stop settling for the easy work? For every person the street level white supremacists kill, the racist system kills millions of us.

Its time to move to those who want to change this system, not just make peace to live side by side with it.

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