The white interviewer leaned into Malcolm X during this 1962 interview with an arrogance that suggested he was about to deliver the knockout blow.  "Jackie Robinson has issued a statement condemning you and the Black Muslims as hoodlums who do not speak for the Negro and his condition in this country!"  Malcolm smiled, sat back in his chair, and waited a moment before responding.  "Whenever there is a racial flareup" Malcolm calmly responded "the white man goes on the search for a Negro that he can put on television that will speak out against the Negro in the way that white man wants him to.  He can't wait to get a microphone in front of that type of Negro so he can have him denounce and discredit his people.   So, the white man goes and gets musicians, and ball players as if they are qualified to speak to the conditions of our people because they play ball.  We are the only race where trumpet players are considered experts on what's best for Black people!"

Although this interview was conducted over 50 years ago, recent events easily confirm how Malcolm's astute analysis is just as correct today as it was decades ago.  This week, former basketball player Charles Barkley was asked to comment on why some African folks refer to football quarterback Russell Wilson as "not Black enough."  Barkley, as he has done since the 1980s, immediately launched into a typically a-historical diatribe that most assuredly warmed the hearts of white racists and apologists for the capitalist system everywhere.  Barkley, never shy about expressing his opinions about anything, has become a go-to guy for the aforementioned communities.  Even some African folk can be heard responding with "tell it like it is" when he talks about crabs in a barrel and how African people disrespect education as "too white" while celebrating people who go to prison as "having credibility."  He goes on to criticize African people as being dysfunctional and being the primary reason we are in such terrible shape, even going as far as to tell his white interviewer that he hates to "involve white people in our problems" as if this entire issue has nothing to do with capitalism/white supremacy and is instead entirely our creation and responsibility...Amazing.

This is the same tired formula that is used by others like Bill Cosby.  Take 10% of the truth, highlight that 10%, and ignore the other 90%.  This is a formula that works in present day society where information and truth matters little when placed up against emotional sentiment and political manipulation and expediency.  Let us illustrate how this formula is implemented.  What you do is completely ignore the fact that African people are systematically denied access to opportunities at every conceivable turn in this society, in the areas that we need e.g. education, employment, and quality healthcare, while concurrently having overwhelming over representation in every negative category like police terrorism and incarceration.  Anyone who has even a junior understanding of these issues knows there is an absolute abundance of information available for all to see to substantiate this claim of systematic discrimination.  This is ill-refutable.  So, denying and refusing to talk about that piece of the equation is like explaining where babies come from without talking about sex.  

Sure, some of us glorify prison over college, but why would anyone think this way?  Could it be that some of us have correctly figured out that the U.S. capitalist system doesn't have the interest of our people in mind in anything it does and so there is some disdain for those who are perceived as allying themselves with the system - doing everything it tells them to?  And, there is some admiration for those who rebel against the system, even if that rebellion isn't entirely constructive?  I mean, Dr. Martin Luther King did say that "in an unjust society, the only place for a just man is prison."  Along those lines, there are also some who refer to people who speak what's called "proper English" as "being white," but this occurs because Africanized English - or Ebonics - has been shamefully discredited and disrespected in a barbaric racist attempt to devalue African culture.  Plus, those African people who do not respect so-called "educated English" take that position because after 500+ years, we fail to see where most of these Africans with all this education have used it to fight against the unjust oppression against our people, the reason education was fought for by us in the first place.  We see and hear the "educated" tone and the degrees.  We see the big cars and houses, but we don't see how any of this has advanced our people's collective position, so consequently, the concept of the "educated Negro" is subject to disrespect by our people because we perceive - correctly - that these "educated Africans" sell out to advance themselves individually as house slaves within the capitalist system.  This has nothing to do with us devaluing education.  What's happening here is we know a scam when we see one.  Our people are not stupid.  We understand that the purpose of language is to communicate and so if one person communicates with another person, regardless of the method, and the communication is successful (in terms of the idea being transmitted from the first party to the second) than that's good communication.  The style - which the capitalist system has made the primary concern e.g. the method in which people communicate -  is highlighted above all else, simply to attempt to embarrass African people by forcing us to think that our way of communicating is inferior and the only acceptable way to do this is the way Europeans do it.  This is offensive to our people so a natural result of that is for us to reject how white people communicate.  This explanation would make sense to even a grade school child.  The other aspect of this is if the majority of our people who achieve "higher" education used their personal advancement to do the work of people like Huey P. Newton, George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah, Assata Shakur, Walter Rodney, Marcus Garvey, Imbalia Camara, Malcolm X, etc., instead of becoming oreo cookies for the European capitalist system, do you think this same phenomenon of people ridiculing education would be taking place?  Clearly the answer to that question is no.

So, nothing against Charles Barkley or Bill Cosby.  In fact, I was a huge fan of Barkley when he came out of Auburn and into the NBA in 1984.  I was a follower of the Philadelphia 76ers at that time because I liked Dr. J, Maurice Cheeks, and Moses Malone.  So, when Charles Barkley was drafted in that great 1984 class and became a dominant inside player at 6 foot 4 I made it my mission to go and see him play in person whenever I could.  By having this focus on him, I also observed quite quickly that his off the court behavior was so immature at times (spitting on children, cursing fans, getting drunk in public) that I honestly don't understand why and how he came to this place that he feels he can serve as some sort of moral voice for African people.  I would say the same for Cosby.  His early film, television, and stand up roles paved the way for African people in comedy, long before the Cosby Show of the 80s, and I grew up watching him in films like "Uptown Saturday Night," but after multiple women have accused him of sexual assault, it's hard to dismiss that totally and it certainly also calls into question his right to be some sort of moral voice to anybody.  Still, even if both of them were saints, the primary point is that their attacks against African people are fueled and supported by a fictional analysis that ignores the truths of oppression in this society.  I know this and there is no question about that.  The part that confuses me is why African people continue to ignore Malcolm's clear analysis from 50+ years ago?  Why when something occurs like Ferguson, Missouri, Ebola, the zionist attacks against Gaza, etc., the first place we turn to get perspective (or at least reaction) isn't the front-line organizations/fighters who have the proper analysis on those situations.  They are the right people to steer us in the proper direction, but we aren't trying to hear them are we?  Instead, our focus remains on what Jay Z, Pharrell, Beyonce, and Charles Barkley are saying?  This is to be expected from our enemies, but we - African and other people dedicated to justice - have to rise up and do better.  We have the responsibility to use our education to expose the backwardness of this system and defend our people where defense is appropriate.  So why don't you start by spreading and sharing this analysis as much as you spread what Kanye West has to say about African people?

Today's "mainstream" focus on Africa continues to be filled with stereotypes, mis-information, and negativity.  When you turn on the television, the only thing you ever hear about Africa is Ebola, starvation, fighting, bad, bad, bad, etc.  Well, we are here to proudly declare that every person of African descent is an African and belongs to the African nation (Kwame Nkrumah - "Class Struggle in Africa" page 87).  We also want to state loudly and clearly that the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is building the foundation for Pan-Africanism - which we define as one unified socialist Africa - into existence in Africa, the natural homeland of all African people.  And, we want to add that Pan-Africanism is African people's contribution to the worldwide movement for justice and forward progress!

Today, Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, serves as the headquarters for the A-APRP.  There is also outstanding work taking place to build the A-APRP in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Gambia, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, and other areas on the continent.  Meanwhile, clear across the world in Portland, Oregon, the A-APRP is building a Chapter here to build consciousness around the need for a Pan-African solution and concrete tactics to make a contribution towards that end.  

To further cement this work, the Oregon Chapter of the A-APRP has decided to plan a trip to Ghana and Guinea-Bissau in December, 2015 for 10 local organizers to deliver a contribution to our Chapters there.  The purpose of this trip is to expose the local A-APRP organizers to the work taking place in Africa and to contribute towards that work by delivering a minimum $1,000.00 USD contribution to each chapter to help purchase work study books and to support for our on the ground organizing work in those areas.  

You can help us consolidate our worldwide work by going to www.aaprporegon.org, clicking on the organizing work tab, and making a donation with your master card or visa towards our goal of raising $21,000.00 by September of 2015.  As of this date, we have kicked off our goal by raising $500.00.  

Anyone who knows about the A-APRP knows of our stainless steel record when it comes to integrity.  We are known around the world for this.  In fact, here in Portland, in July of this year, we held our annual Fourth of the Lie event in Peninsula Park.  We fed over 100 people, edutained them with quality conscious musical performances, and made a cash contribution to Portland Black Panther Chapter founder Kent Ford of almost $200.00 to enable him to visit his wrongly incarcerated son in California.  This is typical work by the A-APRP and can be found wherever we are organizing. So, you know that when you contribute to the A-APRP, it will come back and then some through contributions to organize our people and our communities.  

So, here's your chance to make a concrete contribution to African self-determination.  Will you go to www.aaprporegon.org today?

But, it's legal days may be numbered.  Brother Dr. Zizwe Poe, one of my initial mentors within the Pan-African work that we do, did a lot of work around 1990 with the rapper KRS-1 and his group; Boogie Down Productions (BDP).  You can see some of the results of Brother Z's work on BDP's classic "Edutainment" album where Z arranged to have snippets from Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) speeches recorded between songs on that album.  During those years, organizers like Z within the All African People's Revolutionary Party did a lot of work in the hip/hop community.  The A-APRP name was displayed on several leading albums from artists of the day like BDP, Public Enemy, Sistah Souljah, X-Clan, etc.  At that time, we felt this was a great vehicle to spread revolutionary ideas among the youth, but, some 25 years later, when many of us directly involved in Pan-Africanist work have strayed away from it, I'm reminded of some of the excellent phraseology that Brother Z expressed during those years.  One of the phrases he was fond of using was "common sense deficiency syndrome" or CSDS.  During lectures, meetings, and other A-APRP related events, Brother Z would use that phrase to illustrate the dilemma present in this society where African people, and the rest of society, function daily without understanding how to utilize basic reasoning skills to negotiate a reality that works systematically against our interests.  Z would always generate a positive response when he expressed that the biggest threat to African people wasn't HIV or AIDs, but CSDS.  

I'm thinking of CSDS today because of it's continued relevance.  Of course we understand that common sense is a idealistic concept since what is common to you and what is common to me is subjective based on our experiences.  Still, I always felt that the point of CSDS is to underscore that people in this society don't think, but instead "react to stimuli" as Kwame Ture was always fond of saying.  I always felt this was the reality because of how the capitalist system functions.  What I mean is individualism is dominant in capitalism.  Meaning, in this system, what you think and feel as a disconnected individual is all that is supposed to matter to you at all times.  And, since we are led to believe what we think and feel is only ever developed through our individual capabilities, then we don't realize that pretty much everything we believe has been programmed into us by the capitalist system.  Otherwise, how can people routinely say things like "I've taken care of myself my entire life."  Clearly, that could never be true because if any of us was left alone for days as a baby, we would die, but yet this type of individualist thought is dominant today.  If you don't believe that, how do you explain how it is that people you have never met, who live in places you've never been, who have never been where you are, eat the same foods you eat, talk the same way you do, like the same movies and things on television that you do, dress the same way you do, listen to the same music, and have the basic same world view that you have?  So, there's no question we don't really know how to think, but instead are trained to react to stimuli.  "Terrorism!  Ebola!  Racism!  Islam!  Communism!  Socialism!  Anarchism!"  Buzz words that everyone has an immediate reaction to.  Fidel Castro!  Robert Mugabe!  Muammar Qaddafi!  Raul Castro!  Hugo Chavez!"  Names that we also have an immediate reaction to, but those terms and names most of us have never read anything about and can't even provide a comprehensive definition about.  So, where do we get our reactions from?  That's the point of interest for me.  Especially since I know that even if you have the desire to study up on concepts in this society, everything is organized in a way so that doing so is virtually impossible for you unless you are connected to a process that facilitates a way for you to do it.  What do I mean?  Well, yesterday I spent time in a very popular independent book store in town.  I observed large sections in that store on "Africa" and "Latin America."  What was astounding was that so-called "Africa" section was dominated by books by Europeans.  So, instead of having books with critical analysis about political strife in Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, etc., what we have available to us is subjective accounts by white people who lived in those areas during periods of unrest.  Other books, regardless of the ethnicity of the authors, were rubber stamps for imperialism and all the books were written by either academics or journalists.  None by revolutionaries or even reform activists.  Of course, those authors are published by "objective" sources like the Rockefeller Foundation, etc.  In fact, there was not one book to be found about Libya that wasn't a hit piece on Qaddafi.  The same for Mugabe in Zimbabwe.  Same for the Castro brothers in Cuba, etc.  Since I belong to an independent revolutionary organization that has one of those processes to challenge the misinformation that I previously mentioned, I have a pretty strong idea what that critical perspective should look like so I challenge anyone to go to that book store, check it out, and prove what I'm saying isn't accurate.  So much for the idea that a democracy with free ideas exists.  And people here actually have the nerve to criticize a perceived lack of democracy in other places.  This is how misinformation is systematic in a so-called information based society.

So, what's the point?  Well, you better start realizing that what we are witnessing today are the exact same conditions that Adolf Hitler discussed so eloquently in "Mein Kauf."  The conditions he used in the Third Reich to almost successfully take over all of Europe in the 1940s.  Using fear as an organizing mechanism.  Squashing legitimate debate in the name of so-called security.  Pointing fingers at the dispossessed while ignoring the blatant terrorism of the rich and powerful.  In deed, blaming the victims for the actions of the exploiters.

I'm no pessimist.  I could never have lived as long as I have being one of those.  I don't speak the language of what we can't do and the moment I sense you do, I'm not listening to you any longer.  So, I don't think destruction is inevitable.  I don't believe capitalism is indestructible.  I know capitalism will be defeated and I have complete faith that the people will decide that socialism is a better system.  I believe many people have already decided this, whether they know it or not.   I have the skills to decipher that when people demand access to health care, what they really want is free universal health care, despite capitalism's desperate efforts to give them bureaucratic reforms like the Affordable Care Act instead.  I know that when students demand a stop to college debt, what they are really demanding is free education.  I know that when people oppose war they are really calling for resources to be pointed in the direction of solving the many social problems that besiege this society.  I know that the 87 million people who are choosing credit unions in this society over private banks are expressing loud and clear their preference for cooperative financial organization over institutions for private profit.  And for those who have the natural reaction to react and disagree I say doing so isn't necessary.  All each of us have to do is do our work, whatever we believe that work to be.  If we are working sincerely and with determination, than the masses of people will make the decision on what way they want to go, what society they want to build.  But, we do have the responsibility to make sure real information is available and being utilized. We are obligated to encourage people to study, learn to think for ourselves, challenge the existing power structure, and have discussions about creating different paradigms in this world.  So, that's the work and hopefully that helps people understand the message here.  There's no time for passivity.  False arrogance and modesty is very harmful.  Everyone has to be involved on some level.  Everyone who has an opinion needs to be making concrete contributions or else your opinions, no matter how strong you believe in them, are worthless.  So, think of this.  If all you can do is disagree with people like me, than the message to you is that you are a major part of what's wrong with this world today.  Besides getting mad at me, what are you going to do to change that?