I Couldn't Care Less What RZA Thinks about Police Terrorism, or Anything Else...

I'm not trying to look to him for an analysis around police terrorizing African people.  Look, I'll be honest.  I don't know what he said about that.  I also don't know exactly what Bill Cosby said about African people taking responsibility for ourselves.  I don't know what Tyler Perry said or Pharrell.  I couldn't tell you about the philosophy and opinions of Raven Symone.  I can't quote the wisdom of Stacy Dash and I don't really know what LeBron did, or didn't do, to address the Tamir Rice shooting.  The reasons I don't know what those people expressed about these issues is because I spend much of my time studying and participating in movement around all of those issues.  Consequently, if I want information and/or analysis around those questions, I go to sources who know more about it than I do.  I'm sorry, but none of those television stars, rappers, singers, athletes, and public personalities come close to qualifying in that realm.

And, why would they qualify?  Out of all of them, Cosby is the only one who at least has some degrees in education, but then, if we are honest, we know that having degrees, even multiple ones, from capitalist educational institutions doesn't provide you with the skills to properly assess the role of capitalism and white supremacy in oppressing African people.  Those degrees won't give you the foundation to articulate what's happening to us on a daily basis.  In reality, there is only one proven method to give you a qualified ability to assess our situation.  The only reliable qualification comes from actively participating in working with our people to solve those problems.  From doing that, you will know that African people are getting brutally murdered by police in all known facets of life.  Many of them are unarmed with no previous history of encounters with police.  Others of them are engaged in, at most, possible minor violations of some obscure law - nothing to justify them ending up dead. Even others, like the young Tamir Rice, are just overt victims of a backward and racist society to it's very core.  Yes, from doing this work, you will learn how to explain to people in clear terms why Tamir Rice's death was a result of this backward system.  How Sandra Bland's was as well.  How the people of Ghana are being victimized by this system every day.  The people of the Congo.  Jamaica.  Mexico, etc.  You will have the tools and analysis to understand all of this because you will be engaged in the work that will reveal all of these answers to you.

If you are not engaged in this work on the ground, then your only source of information about these issues is coming from sources who's primary objective is to confuse you.  Television and printed news from corporate entities and/or people talking to you about these issues who's primary sources are the same.  That's why I would never take my time to listen to what the celebrities I named above have to say about any of these issues because I know none of them are involved in this work.  How do I know that?  Because I am actively involved in this work and as a result, there are very few formidable African organizations that I haven't had extensive contact with at this stage in my life.  If any of these people were involved in these organizations, or any others - trust me - word would have leaked by now.  So, I know they are not.  And, since I know they are not doing this work in an organized fashion, I know that the only reason their opinion is being sought after around these issues is not because of their crisp analysis in understanding these issues, but because they tell jokes that make us laugh.  They act out characters in a quality way that makes us cry.  They rap out lyrics in ways that resonate with us.  They perform athletic moves in a fashion that inspires us.  Now, I don't know about you, but what that spells out for me is if I want to see a quality 360 dunk, then I watch LeBron, but if I want a quality analysis of police terrorism, I think I'll watch Malcolm X, not LeBron.  In fact, I'd bet Malcolm knew more about basketball than LeBron knows about our movements for justice and liberation.

I don't know for sure, but I'm going to take a stab at it.  You look to LeBron and Cosby for analysis about social issues because it intrigues you to hear what these celebrities have to say about these issues.  Fair enough, but with all that's at stake, don't you think it's time we qualified that so that it's clear that we are just intrigued?  We really aren't trying to suggest that these celebrities are our go to people on these issues?  I think that has to be clarified with urgency because I'd be willing to bet that there is an emerging generation of African youth who think the RZA is a chief spokesperson for us on issues of great importance to our people while that same youth has more than likely never heard a real Malcolm X speech in their lives.

This is a problem folks and if you are one of those people promoting what the RZA, or Cosby, or any other celebrity is saying about life and death issues among African people, and you aren't contributing the same energy towards astute and eloquent analysis around these issues from people who really know what they are talking about, then you are very much a part of the problem with our people today.

It feels to me like this energy says more about our psychology of oppression than it does anything else.  David Bowie just died.  I see scores of European people debating his contradictions as a person and artist and many of them are celebrating him as a musical genius, but I don't see any of them elevating him to the status of spokespersons for all of their social issues.  I don't see them doing that for Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, or Mylie Cyrus.  Yet, we continue to promote the ignorance of these people from our community.  What makes it worse is most of them have already made fortunes exploiting our suffering through their music, acting, etc.  Now, to add insult to injury, they are speaking out, denying the very suffering they got paid exploiting.  Were it not for the suffering of African people displayed on virtually every hip/hop record produced from the 80s on, including every record from RZA's group the Wu Tang Clan, we wouldn't know who the hell RZA is today.  

So, I don't really know what he said.  I don't know what LeBron said, and I've shut out listening to Cosby whenever he started speaking and I was in earshot for the last 30 years.  I don't know what they said and I couldn't care less what they said.   In truth, I'm thinking about them and their analysis of me about as much as they are thinking about me and my analysis of them.  We are a proud and historical people.  On a worldwide basis we continue to stand in dignity fighting for our liberation and in the U.S., we continue to civilize this country with our grace and humanism.  So, -please pledge to miss us with the stupidity of these people and start sharing the words and wisdom of people who deserve it (Marcus and Amy, Shirley and W.E.B., Kwame Nkrumah, Kwame Ture, Sekou Ture, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, etc., etc., etc., etc.)