If I wasn't actually alive, conscious, and living in present day times, It would be very difficult for me to believe what I'm seeing and experiencing.  Here are some very basic and ill refutable historical truths.  The (U.S.) capitalist system's very foundation of Wachovia, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Aetna, New York Life, Lehman Brothers, even Brooks Brothers Suits, all have acknowledged that their financial beginnings are tied to the enslavement of African people in the Western Hemisphere.  The exploitation continues today with corporate entities like Shell, Firestone, Hewlett Packard, Alcoa, DeBeers, etc., robbing Africa blind of it's oil, rubber, steel, aluminum, and diamonds.  The mineral ore coltan is stolen from Africa and sold at a rate of $300 per pound USD to be used to harness communication technology in all cell phones and computer devices.  These are just quick examples to illustrate how U.S. and European industrial capitalist development is tied much more to exploiting Africa than it is to any hard work and clever business acumen.  Of course, since people of African descent in the U.S. are here because of the colonial process that set up the 500+ year exploitation of the African continent, the capitalists understand that they have a vested interest in keeping the African masses repressed and separated from their natural connection to Africa.  This is why there is no comprehensive understanding of African history, ways of life, and contributions to human society.  No one in the Western Hemisphere and/or Africa, unless they have sought it out on their own, has any understanding of any of this.  Anyone who thinks this is a simple oversight has no understanding of how the forces of power came to be.  Along with the systematic process of keeping us disconnected from Africa, so we are not concerned with what's happening there, is the requirement to keep us repressed.  This need to control us is rooted in the desire to prevent us from becoming self aware so we cannot organize ourselves against this brutal capitalist system.  The police as an institution of course play the most vital role in maintaining this repression.  Or, as an African elder once said to me: "the police are for Africans who live within the cities...The white supremacists exist to handle those who live in the suburbs."  Police are cast in the role of agents of repression today not simply because there are a few rogue cops who function outside of their established role of protecting and serving the masses of people in this society.  Police as armed operatives in communities finds it roots in the former "slave posses" that were organized during the waning years of slavery in this country along with the city watch patrols in Northern states.  The objectives of these two criminal groups was to violently repress and control the movements of African people.  In the North, it was to prevent us from moving in areas where Europeans (whites) lived.  In the South, it was to capture runaway slaves during slavery, and to violently force Africans to return to plantations to work after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863. If you disbelieve this, try finding references on organized police departments before this period of time in history.  Beyond the one person sheriff and/or Marshall system, it didn't exist.  

So, this understanding of state repression against African people explains how overseers evolved into officers.  It also explains why body cameras, independent police review boards, accountability processes, and more African police are all solutions that cannot solve this problem.  African people are killed by police, even when cameras are worn - ala Eric Garner.  There are also a number of cities where African police make up a significant number of the police officers and in those cities, police terrorism is still as rampant as it is anywhere else.  In fact, most African people will tell you that dealing with African cops is often worse because they have to prove to the white establishment that they are willing to do the job they are assigned to do.  So, the question is what is that job?  The answer is police are socialized and trained to enforce white supremacy.  They are specifically taught that Africans are a threat to this society and they are taught that for good reason.  We are a threat to this society because we are the people who have never been intended to fit in this society.  We are the cotton pickers who's job is done and now there are millions of us still here...Still in the way...Still posing a threat to capitalism's agenda of continuing to exploit African human and material resources.  Or, another way to put it quickly is you cannot have police terrorism without racism and you cannot have racism without capitalism.  Finally, you cannot have capitalism without exploiting Africa so there it is.  The role of the police is to repress Africans to prevent us from rising up and overthrowing this backward system that was built on our backs and is sustained accordingly.  This is a logical explanation which explains why those of you still waiting for the capitalist power centers to "get it" are still waiting.  They will never get it.  They will never see you as human beings who's lives matter.  In fact, they are clearly working overtime to spike up their inhumanity towards African people.  There are national level politicians like Rudy Guiliani and Newt Gingrich who are openly and actively taunting the African masses for daring to rise up.  You have police officials calling for police war against African communities and capitalist publications backing up their right to do it.  You have public officials like the mayor of New York daring to request that African people be silent in the face of systematic police murder to honor two police who were killed?  There was no effort to call off stop and frisk in N.Y. after Eric Garner's death so why would any conscious and reasonable person give the mayor's politically tinged request a second of thought when his very request smacks of the systematic racism that underlines this problem in the first place e.g. Africans are killed by police and the establishment has no response, yet when two police get killed, everything is supposed to stop as if their lives have more value.

If I wasn't living through this, I would have a hard time believing it.  With the 500 year history of state supported terrorism against African people which manifests itself in alarmingly higher murder rates of African people, its inconceivable to understand why people are acting like they don't comprehend why our youth are demanding that our lives matter.  It's impossible to rationalize why people act like they cannot make the connection between the continued problem of African self-destruction in our communities and police terror.  Obviously if the state can systematically murder African people with no consequences, the message is going to reverberate among the unstable and criminally minded within our communities that there is room to operate with impunity when they kill those that look like them.  Since we know state terrorism, starting with colonialism, predated African ghettos, you cannot make a logical argument against what I'm saying.  At this point, it's impossible for me to believe that people are not intelligent enough to make these basic connections.  I have to believe people believe what they want to believe because it fits their political agenda.  I know what that agenda is.  Do whatever needs to be done to maintain capitalism, whether it means killing millions of Africans, Palestinians, American Indians, Iraqis, Aghanis, it doesn't matter, because maintaining capitalism means maintaining control for the super-rich.  For working people who lack consciousness, it means maintaining your privilege at the expense of others. It means business as usual which is the continued silencing of African voices and the perpetual exploitation of African people.  And its important to clarify that  everywhere you find African people, scattered across the globe today, you find police terrorism.  Whether it's the U.S., Brazil, Australia, France, Britain, etc., this is the reality.  So, for African activists, maybe it's time we expanded our vision beyond appealing to the forces that oppress us.  Maybe its time to think outside the box of structures and resources provided to us by our oppressors.  Maybe it's time to expand our sight to what's happening politically with Africa and how our future is probably tied directly to all of that? Maybe we need to start having serious discussions about this 500 year pursuit of "rights" that will never exist under the capitalist system?  And while we are working all of that out, for those who still genuinely believe that we should stop what we are doing when police get killed, please get out of our way with that.  We have no obligation to show them any higher respect than they show us.  Especially since many of us are not fooled by the capitalist propaganda.  The reality, based on annual stats prepared by the Bureau of Labor, is that electricians, construction and highway workers, and even professional fisher men and women die much more often on their jobs than police, yet we don't stop when these people are killed.  I have experienced regular use for those professions in my daily life while I have absolutely no use for police at all.  My parents always taught me respect is a mutual thing, but I'm not banking on police departments changing their racist practices because I know power concedes nothing without a demand.  Police terrorism will stop only when we organize ourselves to stop it and that cannot happen without dealing with capitalism.  It's time to stop talking about the overseer (police) without talking about the slave-master (capitalism).

After 52 years of the devastating U.S. imposed economic blockade against Cuba, this past week's announcement from the "White House" that diplomatic relations with the Caribbean nation would undergo changes has been met with the expected range of emotional responses.  Florida Senator Marco Rubio - the current lap dog mouthpiece for the anti-Cuban revolution establishment in Southern Florida - was quick to come out with his typical gloom and doom condemnation of any practical vision towards Cuban society.  Progressive activists in the U.S. have expressed everything from excitement to suspicion:  "Let's plan to visit Cuba...It's time to end hostilities towards Cuba...This is just a tactic to control Cuba once again...The U.S. government is using this as a way to get exiled Black Liberation Army leader Assata Shakur (currently on the FBI's 10 most wanted list as the number one terrorist in the world - if it wasn't so stupid, it would be amusing)."  These are all examples of what people in the U.S. are saying this past week.

As with pretty much any news story that comes out of the capitalist media, there is so much misinformation and half truths, that this post can hopefully clear up a lot of confusion about what did and didn't happen this week.  First, people shouldn't get confused about the difference between the window dressing type of changes Obama's administration can implement using the so-called executive privilege.  The 52 year economic blockade that restricts nations from engaging in trade with Cuba as well citizens from many countries, including the U.S., from engaging the island, was set up to attempt to cripple and starve the country into abandoning it's socialist path and principles.  Clearly that strategy has failed, but the blockade is U.S. law and although I have absolutely no faith in any U.S. legal proceedings on any level, it is a fact that the Rico-Petricelli bill/law of 1996 (the most recent hardened amendment to the economic blockade) would require a congressional vote in order to bring down the blockade, so without that, all you are really talking about is some face lift changes such as (maybe) how some people can get to Cuba.   Or, you could be looking at no substantive changes to policy at all, but this is hardly the point worth talking about.

It's important to realize that despite the fact most people in the world have been programmed to see the U.S./Cuba relationship as being 100% defined by the U.S., this is not the case presently and I would argue it's never been the case since the Cuban Revolution celebrated victory in January of 1959.  In fact, this latest announcement is nothing more than Cuba demonstrating it's ability to continue to outsmart it's capitalist super power neighbor to the north.  Instead of focusing on the propaganda statements from the Obama administration, you should be paying attention to Cuban Secretary General Raul Castro's statement last week.  He said that Cuba has always been willing and interested in having a respectful dialogue with the U.S.  He reminded us all that Cuba sought such a dialogue with all 11 U.S. presidents - from Eisenhower to Obama, since the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, but that it has been the U.S. that has remained against having any relations.  He reminded us that not only did the U.S. remain against having any forward progress, but in the last 52 years, the U.S. has attempted to assassinate Cuban leaders dozens of times, engineered an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba in 1961, imposed the blockade which has crippled Cuba's ability to trade for products needed such as medicines, and continued to support terrorist attempts by criminal elements from Miami to illegally overthrow the Cuban Revolution.  Castro concluded his remarks by stating in clear terms again that Cuba welcomes discussions with the U.S., but any discussions can only exist with the U.S. respecting Cuba's commitment to continue to move towards developing it's socialist objective leading to communism.

While you soak in Castro's last statement, place those words in context of actual U.S./Cuban relations over this period of time. There is absolutely no question that Cuba has demonstrated it's commitment to principles and those principles include a dedication to supporting African liberation.  In fact, as African revolutionaries, we will declare that Cuba has proven to be one of the best allies we have.  Were it not for Cuba's commitment to justice, all of Southern Africa today would possibly be under racist apartheid rule.  In the 1980s, the Cubans responded when the settler colonists attempted to expand their control beyond Azania (South Africa) and Zimbabwe to take over Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia.  Over a ten year period, that small, poor, Caribbean nation sent over 40,000 troops to fight in Southern Africa and they played a major role in beating back the racist plan to take over all of Southern Africa.  It was during this same time that Cuba, following the initiative of Che Guevara's guerrilla effort in the Congo in 1964, established military training and support for the righteous guerrilla effort in Guinea-Bissau to overthrow colonialism there.  Victor Dreke Cruz, an African from Cuba, served as Cuba's military command in Africa for years, helping to beat back imperialism.  Cruz was on assignment in Africa on direct orders from Raul Castro who was then Cuba's chief military officer.  

So, don't be so quick to believe all the thinking here is being dictated by Washington.  The Cubans are no creampuffs.  You can bet that they have a clear strategy for anything they do involving the U.S. after decades of seeing the U.S. support and harbor terrorists like Luis Posada Carilles - the mastermind behind shooting down the Cuban airplane where 77 people died in the 70s.  Cuba knows they cannot trust anything the U.S. proposes.  If they sit down and talk with imperialism, they will be prepared.  They have proven this understanding by their actions since the 1950s.  Raul Castro, along with Fidel, Juan Almeida, Che, and others, first outsmarted U.S. intelligence forces in the mid 50s by convincing them and Mexican officials to release them from a Mexico City jail.  Once released, they immediately initiated the Cuban revolutionary war against U.S. imperialist interests in Cuba.  Once victorious in 1959, Cuba again established it's ability to out think U.S. leaders.  When Kennedy's regime thought they could undermine the new young Cuban leadership by preventing them from gaining access to accommodations at the New York United Nations building complex in 1960 - an area that is supposed to be international space - the Cuban delegation, led by Fidel Castro, one upped the capitalist regime by taking the entire delegation up to Harlem to stay at the African-owned Hotel Theresa where Fidel had a 30 minute private meeting with Malcolm X.  That the leader of a newly victorious revolutionary government could travel to an oppressed community of African people in the U.S. and meet with a respected leader in that community, when the U.S. government acknowledged none of that, was an embarrassment to U.S. credibility worldwide.  The trend continued the following year when the Cuban's routed the 1500 member invading army of so-called Cuban exiles in Playa Del Giron (imperialists call it the Bay of Pigs).  Again, embarrassment for U.S. imperialism.  This trend was furthered yet again the following year when Cuba's militancy pushed the Soviet Union to place nuclear missiles in Cuba that were pointed at the U.S. This act, along with Cuba's unwillingness to flinch, gave fortitude to the Soviets that more than likely would not have been there otherwise.  Castro's commitment and desire to launch the weapons, or at least his ability to convince the U.S. of such, played a decisive role in helping the Soviets negotiate the removal of U.S. nuclear missiles pointed at the U.S.S.R. from Turkey and Italy.  Another victory for Cuba.  Fast forward to 1980 when the Carter regime decided to initiate a propaganda campaign against human rights in Cuba by criticizing Cuba's treatment of a number of incarcerated persons in Cuba.  The U.S. neglected to mention that the convicts in question were hardened and easily convicted criminals whose removal from Cuban streets illustrates Cuba's commitment to the safety of it's society (and the reason why Cuba today is so much safer than it's surrounding neighbor countries can claim).  Castro's response to Carter's criticism was the Mariel boat lift all the criminals in question from Cuba to Florida, about 125 of them which led to the influx of these hardened criminals into U.S. society.  Of course, after Carter's criticism, the U.S. had no choice except to accept these criminal elements.  The presence of these people in Florida led to increased crime rates in that part of the country which are still felt today.  In fact, the fictionalized account of this incident is displayed in the Al Pacino movie "Scarface."  The movie opens with actual footage of Castro announcing the boat lift and the political reasons for it.  

Cuba's unique ability to outsmart the U.S. continued through the 90s and 2000s with examples such as the 1994 raft "escape" from Cuba to Florida which ended up being another way for Cuba to unload people unwilling to contribute to the revolution to the Elian Gonzalez episode that ended up being another propaganda coup for Cuba.  As previously mentioned, after last week's so-called announcement, some well meaning people worried about the safety of Sister Assata Shakur - a terrorist to imperialist interests and a revolutionary heroine to the righteous people on Earth.  New Jersey police terrorists went immediately to work calling for Assata to be handed over to U.S. authorities, but these people have no understanding of the Cuban Revolution.  Unlike the U.S. - who lies all the time, the Cubans have kept their word on everything from military assistance in Africa to doctors being sent to Africa, South America, and even U.S. ghettos that are short on medical personnel. The reality is Assata is safer today and tomorrow in Cuba, despite whatever political changes take place, than most Africans living with the threat of police terrorism and violence associated with the poverty and despair of capitalism in the U.S.  

Finally, it is important to express some simple facts about socialist development in Cuba.  Most people in the U.S. know only what is provided to them by U.S. capitalist propaganda mechanisms.  As a result, most people have absolutely no understanding of socialism, what it is, how it works, how to identify it, how to critique and assess it.  Developing those skills takes time as doing so requires active study and travel to genuine socialist societies like Cuba. It requires understanding these important questions from a critical standpoint of scientific analysis.  There is a need to understand data to tell the story beyond the (possibly) well intentions of people who maybe know someone from Cuba, or had a particular experience in Cuba, or lived there themselves, etc.  The problem with relying on these subjective perspectives of socialist development is that people as individuals haven't lived long enough to understand the forces that make up society.  We typically understand and interpret these forces based strictly on how we are affected on a personal level.  This is what makes it primarily subjective.  The proof of this is the fact that all of us know countless people who have lived in the U.S. their entire lives, yet these people have absolutely no understanding of the political realities in the U.S.  There are plenty of people here who will tell you there is no problem of police terrorism or racism here in this country.  So, this should demonstrate to you that someone living in a country alone cannot be enough to certify them as experts of what's happening in that country.  This is certainly true of socialist development in Cuba.  Especially since it's such a different society than this capitalist one and we are so programmed to view things only through the capitalist lense.  In Cuba, approximately 70% of the population there has been born since the Cuban Revolution.  That means seven out of 10 people there have never lived without free health care and education.  They have never lived in a society where employment wasn't a priority.  They have never lived in a place where material incentives are more important than moral ones.  When I traveled to Cuba, doing research for my Master's thesis, I talked to dozens of people. I didn't meet one person who wanted to give up free health care for an insurance premium and deductibles.  I didn't meet one person who said they preferred student loan debt to free education.  Does Cuba have work to do?  Is there a need for increased improvements around how to deal with dissidents in the country?  Absolutely!  But, they will improve in those areas.  Their socialist system, which prioritizes people over profit, is working to that end.  Plus, anyone who thinks about it has to admit that the best way to increase consciousness is to provide free quality education.  That's a guarantee that in time, attitudes will change for the better.  An example of this in Cuba is their increasing tolerance of the LGBTQ community.  This is a Caribbean country with a machismo history.  Yet, Mariela Castro - the Director of Social Services in Cuba - and the daughter of Raul Castro and the late Vilma Espin (the founder of the Federation of Cuban Women), was able to state in a public address recently that Cuba is dedicated to making social space and resources to help support its LGBTQ folks.  For a public official in a Caribbean country to make a statement like this is unheard of.  It certainly hasn't happened in Haiti, or Puerto Rico, or Jamaica.  In fact, it hasn't even happened in the U.S.  We could go on and on with more examples.  We could talk about how the U.S. responded to the so-called Ebola outbreak in West Africa by sending hundreds of military personnel.  Cuba responded by sending hundreds of doctors (which forced the U.S. to do the same to avoid another crippling embarrassment at the hands of the Cubans).

Don't worry about Cuba and don't assume the U.S. is pulling all the strings.  One important fact that was buried in this week's announcement is the fact Cuba secured the release of three of the Cuban Five.  These were five Cubans who were living in the U.S. working to develop information on the terrorist activities of the criminal elements in Florida.  They were arrested and convicted on trumped up charges.  U.S. officials had maintained steadfastly that these five courageous Cubans would never be released from prison, yet three of them are safely back in Cuba.  Sounds like yet another victory for Cuba.  

So, for those who swear any opening of relationships means the end of the Cuban Revolution, I'll admit this will create new challenges in Cuba, but anyone thinking socialism in Cuba will fall because of whatever happens with the U.S., you can have your CIA, your terrorist/criminal thug Alpha 66, Omega 7, your Cuban American National Foundation type terrorist/lobbying groups, and whatever else you want...Anyone thinking socialism is on it's way out in Cuba today - I'm taking bets.

I'm worried about what the enemies of Africans think about Ferguson about as much as they are worried about what I think about the same.  So what if they are appalled at Africans burning cars and buildings in response to racist police terror?  And why does it matter so much to you if people are offended at our courageous brothers from the St. Louis Rams?  These are the same hypocritical folk who say nothing when white people riot over sports teams winning titles and/or pumpkin availability. The very same people who criticize athletes who say and do stupid things.  The same people criticizing these inspirational Rams are the ones who wear Ray Rice jerseys in defiance to his being held accountable for his violence against African women.  Stop being pulled into their racist value judgments against our people.  Stop trying to rationalize our pain to them.  Stop telling our children that they have the responsibility to make our enemies comfortable and please tell our youth to always attempt to avoid police, not seek them out to hug them.  On the other hand, stop criticizing our youth who are resisting for doing what you are to cowardly and ill relevant to do.  Now, very quickly, we need to say something to white people.  If you are a justice seeking white person who is dedicated to doing right and acknowledging that this society is racist to it's very core, then you shouldn't take this post personal.  This isn't about you so use this opportunity to demonstrate that you can accept that it's not about you.  Don't respond to me with a story about how great your brother is who happens to be employed by some racist police department somewhere.  Don't make excuses for your backward father, uncle, aunt, or co-worker and definitely don't waste our time trying to convince us that you are not racist.  Don't write me and tell me you marched with Dr. King (whether its reality or in your mind).  And, damn the next white person who is so oblivious that you assume I'm a fan of Cornel West or any other half-baked negro.  Don't bother trying to let me know that you agree with some of what I say, but not everything because I really don't care what you think.  I'm talking to my folks here so please read quietly while we deal with some African stuff right now.

Now, back to African people.  Stop reacting to being called African by letting me know you are an amerikkkan.  If you were an amerikkkan, we wouldn't even need to have this discussion.  Or, as Malcolm X so correctly pointed out, "if you were an amerikkkan, you wouldn't need legislation to protect your rights.  The fact you need that is because you aren't an amerikkkan!"  And stop only using the term Black to define us simply because you are ignorant and/or ashamed of Africa.  Time to get deeper into that concept. This country as we know it today is the direct result of industrialization taking place from the exploitation of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the people who descend from those places as well as working class white people.  Without this system of exploitation and discrimination there would be no capitalism.  There would be no banking system, no insurance industry, no fine clothing industry, no agriculture, and no disparity in riches.  You can get mad at me for saying it, but you cannot refute it so just acknowledge it because doing so is healthy.  Its liberating when you realize that it's unhealthy for you to continue to try and become a part of the very capitalist system that is working to destroy you.  Stop trying to recreate, redefine, and reintroduce capitalism as any type of solution for African people, anywhere.  If you knew how to pay any attention, you would see that the entire world is rising up against capitalism.  This is happening in Eastern and Western Europe.  It's certainly happening in Central and South America and Africa.  Even here  in amerikkka, white people are more against capitalism now than ever.  Critiques against this system are rising up everywhere and here you are trying to put lipstick on a dying system that's maintained on exploiting us.  Wealth building.  Investment.  "Black business."  These are all cute ways of trying to put a new face on capitalism.  the truth is you can't have police terror without racism and you can't have racism without capitalism, but you are so busy trying to redefine the system that's oppressing you that you can't see it.  You can't see it because you are working so hard to find your little piece of capitalism in your own little space in amerikkka.  You ignore the fact this land was stolen from another people.  You selfishly dismiss other people's suffering, but then you are angry that those people don't acknowledge your pain.   Stop living a fantasy and wake up and see that some of our very best leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Kwame Ture, Huey P. Newton, Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, etc, have been telling us what I'm saying here for 50 years, but we are so hypnotized we can't see it.  We think our laziness, ego, and uninformed opinions are more relevant than the hard study and dedicated work of the revered ancestors and elders previously mentioned.    That's a manifestation of an exploitative system that is built and maintained on our ever so willing backs.  

It's 2014.  Anyone who has even rudimentary research skills knows that police terrorism exists because of the need for the state to repress the people who's oppression fuels this system.  When these ignorant/arrogant white people (and the many trained dark people they have working alongside them) say anything ignorant why do you get upset?  If I were you, I'd ask myself what they have studied to produce their empty analysis?  What books they have read?  You already know the answer is zero.  You can listen to or watch Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, etc., and you will know instantly where these backward views are coming from and O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc, are just mouthpieces for capitalism.  It's the type of poor information that any trained person can obliterate in seconds.  "African on African crime."  Are you kidding me?   Saying that is supposed to be some sort of counter position against police terrorism?  There isn't any group of people that doesn't kill its own kind disproportionately.  In fact, there is only a 6% difference between the consistency from which Africans, Europeans, Indigenous (Latino), and Asian people kill within their own communities.  Yet, there you are parroting that nonsense.  In fact, I've had more Africans attempt to argue the "African on African" argument to me then white people.  At least white racists seem to have sense enough to avoid trying to talk to people who they know will destroy them intellectually, but not you.  You prefer to mimic the insane.  You couldn't wait to stand up and agree with Bill Cosby when he dishonestly attempted to portray himself as the moral voice of the African community.  You didn't even have the political sophistication to de-construct his very backward arguments. Now look at him and look at you who supported him.  Could it be that it's finally time for you to wake up and realize that anytime any African is given space and time to articulate anything in this backward system it's only because that African is speaking for moneyed interest who are sticking it to you. Think about it.  When is the last time you heard a coherent African on national television?  Or maybe you are so confused that you thought the steady stream of house negroes that make it on your T.V. are coherent?  You are the only people who look to idiots like Bill Cosby, and Pharrell for an analysis about your people.  What Chinese entertainer do you know that is the go to person to articulate the conditions of Chinese people?  Even if there is such a thing, what Chinese community do you see perpetuating that foolishness?   Can't you see that it's time for us to learn to see through these types of contradictions? Can we learn to ask ourselves what's really going on?  Can we make a commitment to start doing that dirty four letter word - READ?  Can we stop rushing to express opinions that have been handed to you by the very same people who despise us and start developing some comprehensive opinions of our own about the world we live in and our future in it?

It's time for us to sober up and realize that we have never fit in this society and we never will.  For those of you who refuse to accept that reality, it's ok, but if you really care about our future - and aren't just trying to find a comfortable place from which to be oppressed - at least make a commitment to arm yourself with knowledge so you won't be so easily manipulated.  At least resolve to start reading, regularly.  Have the desire to stop being intellectually lazy.  Stop parroting what you hear and start learning how to think critically.  If you can think critically then you can act critically.  But first, stop worrying about what our enemies think about us.  The minute we decide to fashion our own destiny independent of what the capitalist system thinks of us is the moment we begin to seriously solve all the problems that we face.  Our enemies know this and that's why they are so invested in keeping you tied to their system of power.  That's why they desperately need to prevent you from identifying with the righteous anger many of our people are expressing.  They know they are pulling a scam over you so that they can continue to maintain their empire on your backs.  The moment you wake up and stop reacting to them is the moment you begin the process of helping us move forward.  And if you have been paying attention, since this is all maintained on us, when we move, everyone moves, whether they want to or not.  Your enemies know this.  That's why they come at you with all barrels blazing.  Stop making it so easy for them.  Stop working so hard to become the first generation of Africans who refused to resist our oppression before it's too late.  Wake up African!  Stop being afraid to trust in your people, in yourself.  Stop believing you can't exist without this backward system.  Your best days will take place the minute this system no longer exists.  Stop acting like you know everything when you know you are lazy.  You should be reading a book a month.  You should be reading one book on history, economics, philosophy, etc., for every television program you watch.  If you aren't willing to do that then at least do us all a favor and shut up - PLEASE?