Ever since Sacramento, California, U.S., police shot and killed Stephon Clark, much has come to the surface. We learned that police terrorists shot him several times in the back, thus further questioning their standard excuse that they feared for their lives. We have also learned that Stephon Clark may have had very questionable behavior patterns. As a result of the latter possibility, the debate has raged in many directions around the question of whether and/or to what extent, people should stand up when state terrorism strikes people of questionable character. To those of us who have revolutionary politics, and who engage in revolutionary organizing work, its difficult for us to understand what the controversy is around this question.
Capitalism is without question the dominant economic system in place in the world today. Its a system that is defined by its theft and exploitation of the world's human and material resources. This is especially true as it relates to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. To justify this exploitation, the original capitalists had the vision to create a framework that would justify their actions against the majority of people on Earth. And, they knew that justification had to be one that would work with the majority of European descendants, as well as the descendants of those people from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. That justification is the system of white supremacy, the chief appendage of capitalism. The job of white supremacy is to convince the majority of people that racial discrimination is required in order to maintain order and forward progress in the world today. Besides white supremacy, capitalism has class oppression components that it equally employs. For example, working people are always portrayed as lazy and incompetent. This is true even of European (White) working people. In fact, think of popular culture shows like "The Flintstones" cartoon. Or, the "Honeymooners" sitcom. Or, "The Jetsons" cartoon. In each of these shows (and there are many more), working class White people are portrayed as stupid, lazy, and untrustworthy. Look at how Mr. Slate, Fred Flintstone's boss, treats him. And, how Fred always has some scheme to get out of having to work. The point to all this anti-human propaganda is that money in capitalism is more important than people. As a result, people are inherently dehumanized to justify this hierarchy. This dehumanization is systemic. Its perpetuated through every cultural, educational, and (so-called) spiritual institution within capitalist societies.
So, if you understand this context, then of course Stephon Clark, and most everyone living within capitalist societies, is imbued with anti-human tendencies and ideologies. Think about it. How many people have heard the phrase "it starts at home." Unfortunately, capitalism as an economic system has eliminated the existence of a family structure that can provide support and nurturing needed to produce healthy and productive human beings. Instead, capitalism has forced families to become economic production units. That's what the nuclear family is. And, as a result, unless there are some exceptional families that have the capacity and resources to create their own version of support for each other, most people are forced to grow up with extremely dysfunctional values, perspectives, and experiences. Backward philosophies like white supremacy and patriarchy, are ingrained in every institution in the capitalist society and most often, those insane philosophical systems are unchecked in their dominance in every sphere of everyone's lives.
Within this backward paradigm, why is a single sane person surprised that men are dominantly anti-women. That Europeans are dominantly white supremacist. There is no logical way that people in this capitalist nightmare could turn out any other way. We know this. There is no empirical evidence that can refute this reality. So, we know the majority of people are going to be reactionary in their thinking and behaviors.
That great son of Africa Sekou Ture, taught us to learn the difference between people who are reactionary and people who are counter revolutionary. Again, the majority of people are reactionary. That means they have backward ideas that dominant their lives. As was stated, that's what is available to them in the capitalist system, but by reactionary, we mean they don't consciously work against humanity. They have just learned dysfunctional approaches like women are commodities to be used. This type of thinking is so imbued within men that they honestly think someone is insane to suggest otherwise. Still, we know that reactionary ideas can be overcome with healthy revolutionary ideas/values that elevate people over money. A clear example of this is the life of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz e.g. Malcolm X. His story is well known, but clearly it demonstrates that a person who has been imbued with the most backward ideas about woman can grow to have much healthier values about women. When we look at each of our lives, especially those of us who have placed ourselves on a journey committed to justice, we can see many commonalities with the journey traveled by Malcolm X and others. Since we know this, we know that someone like Stephon Clark, who to the best of our knowledge did not benefit from the type of political, cultural, and spiritual awakening that Malcolm X and/or many of us benefited from, could change for the better if given that opportunity. If provided a society that prioritized political education and healthy human development. So, revolutionaries are not dismayed by reactionary behavior because we know that the correct people's movement and work can correct that problem.
On the other hand, Ture informed us that counter revolutionaries are people who very consciously and deliberately work against the interest of the people. These people belong to what Ture called the "anti-people's class." And, we know from Ture's illuminating works on class struggle that the definition of a person's identification with a specific class is that person's commitment to the interests of that class. That means a person is committed to serving the interests of the bourgeois class, the capitalist classes, over the interests of the masses of people on Earth. Examples? Wait for it...Barack Obama. He was the guardian for capitalism, and by default the guardian of white supremacy and patriarchy, the armor for capitalism. He is not someone who is confused. He knew exactly what he was doing. He oversaw the creation of almost 100 military bases in Africa. He couldn't do that by mistake. He used those bases to engage in brutal terrorism against the Libyan Jamahiriya in 2011, wiping out the most promising and prosperous society in Africa. He didn't do that ignorantly. He knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing when he bombed Somalia. When he oversaw the mass incarceration of Africans in the U.S. That's why he never spoke about those things. That's why he never condemned the majority of White people in the U.S. for being the cowardly legacy protectors of the white supremacist system. Instead, he cowardly attacked African men and accused us of being more ill-responsible than any other men in fulfilling our commitments to raising our children. That's why he mouthed the talking points of white supremacy. That's why he was capitalism in blackface.
If you don't possess a class analysis, you won't have the tools to differentiate between reactionary and counter-revolutionary. Stephon Clark was reactionary. Its not to say reactionary isn't harmful. We suffer from our reactionary behavior against one another and humanity every single tick each day. What it says is the debate isn't about whether we should stand up for Clark. The debate is when and how we can organize to overthrow this capitalist system as a result of our work to unite and liberate Africa (as our contribution to the worldwide socialist movement). When we do that, we can put an educational and institutional system in place that values people over money. And, when we have that, do you think so many people would have backward ideas and practices that disgusts us so much? I think not.
A political mentor to me in this Pan-Africanist work once told me that we have to convince our people that every problem we have is the result of capitalism. This isn't hard to do because its true. just like the best lyricists can take any topic you offer and drop a verse to it, we can take any issue you express and show you instantly where the source of the problem is capitalism. Since we know this, of course we should stand up against the state killing Stephon Clark and anyone with any backward ideas and practices. And, when we stand up, we say that we are doing so not to protect his backward ideas/practices ,but to protest the system that produces such damaged human beings in the first place, then summarily executes them and then blames them for being executed. Along with blaming them for being backward.
If there is an anti-people's class, that of course means there is a people's class. The people's class takes responsibility to organize for a better world. It rejects the values of the capitalist system and it takes upon its shoulders the responsibility of creating that political education reality for people like Stephon Clark. The people's class never laments how impossible it will be achieve this. It never rejects reactionary behavior because that would mean rejecting the majority of people. Instead, it sees its responsibility as figuring out how to reach those people. Kwame Nkrumah, our ideological partner to Sekou Ture, told us that there are always primary and secondary contradictions. The primary contradiction being imperialism (capitalism). The secondary contradictions being the backward ways our people behave because of imperialism. Don't let our enemies and their values confuse us. The system must be our focus, but that must be only within the context of our social revolutionary work to ensure that when we defeat capitalism, we are prepared to offer something much, much better.
Capitalism is without question the dominant economic system in place in the world today. Its a system that is defined by its theft and exploitation of the world's human and material resources. This is especially true as it relates to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. To justify this exploitation, the original capitalists had the vision to create a framework that would justify their actions against the majority of people on Earth. And, they knew that justification had to be one that would work with the majority of European descendants, as well as the descendants of those people from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. That justification is the system of white supremacy, the chief appendage of capitalism. The job of white supremacy is to convince the majority of people that racial discrimination is required in order to maintain order and forward progress in the world today. Besides white supremacy, capitalism has class oppression components that it equally employs. For example, working people are always portrayed as lazy and incompetent. This is true even of European (White) working people. In fact, think of popular culture shows like "The Flintstones" cartoon. Or, the "Honeymooners" sitcom. Or, "The Jetsons" cartoon. In each of these shows (and there are many more), working class White people are portrayed as stupid, lazy, and untrustworthy. Look at how Mr. Slate, Fred Flintstone's boss, treats him. And, how Fred always has some scheme to get out of having to work. The point to all this anti-human propaganda is that money in capitalism is more important than people. As a result, people are inherently dehumanized to justify this hierarchy. This dehumanization is systemic. Its perpetuated through every cultural, educational, and (so-called) spiritual institution within capitalist societies.
So, if you understand this context, then of course Stephon Clark, and most everyone living within capitalist societies, is imbued with anti-human tendencies and ideologies. Think about it. How many people have heard the phrase "it starts at home." Unfortunately, capitalism as an economic system has eliminated the existence of a family structure that can provide support and nurturing needed to produce healthy and productive human beings. Instead, capitalism has forced families to become economic production units. That's what the nuclear family is. And, as a result, unless there are some exceptional families that have the capacity and resources to create their own version of support for each other, most people are forced to grow up with extremely dysfunctional values, perspectives, and experiences. Backward philosophies like white supremacy and patriarchy, are ingrained in every institution in the capitalist society and most often, those insane philosophical systems are unchecked in their dominance in every sphere of everyone's lives.
Within this backward paradigm, why is a single sane person surprised that men are dominantly anti-women. That Europeans are dominantly white supremacist. There is no logical way that people in this capitalist nightmare could turn out any other way. We know this. There is no empirical evidence that can refute this reality. So, we know the majority of people are going to be reactionary in their thinking and behaviors.
That great son of Africa Sekou Ture, taught us to learn the difference between people who are reactionary and people who are counter revolutionary. Again, the majority of people are reactionary. That means they have backward ideas that dominant their lives. As was stated, that's what is available to them in the capitalist system, but by reactionary, we mean they don't consciously work against humanity. They have just learned dysfunctional approaches like women are commodities to be used. This type of thinking is so imbued within men that they honestly think someone is insane to suggest otherwise. Still, we know that reactionary ideas can be overcome with healthy revolutionary ideas/values that elevate people over money. A clear example of this is the life of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz e.g. Malcolm X. His story is well known, but clearly it demonstrates that a person who has been imbued with the most backward ideas about woman can grow to have much healthier values about women. When we look at each of our lives, especially those of us who have placed ourselves on a journey committed to justice, we can see many commonalities with the journey traveled by Malcolm X and others. Since we know this, we know that someone like Stephon Clark, who to the best of our knowledge did not benefit from the type of political, cultural, and spiritual awakening that Malcolm X and/or many of us benefited from, could change for the better if given that opportunity. If provided a society that prioritized political education and healthy human development. So, revolutionaries are not dismayed by reactionary behavior because we know that the correct people's movement and work can correct that problem.
On the other hand, Ture informed us that counter revolutionaries are people who very consciously and deliberately work against the interest of the people. These people belong to what Ture called the "anti-people's class." And, we know from Ture's illuminating works on class struggle that the definition of a person's identification with a specific class is that person's commitment to the interests of that class. That means a person is committed to serving the interests of the bourgeois class, the capitalist classes, over the interests of the masses of people on Earth. Examples? Wait for it...Barack Obama. He was the guardian for capitalism, and by default the guardian of white supremacy and patriarchy, the armor for capitalism. He is not someone who is confused. He knew exactly what he was doing. He oversaw the creation of almost 100 military bases in Africa. He couldn't do that by mistake. He used those bases to engage in brutal terrorism against the Libyan Jamahiriya in 2011, wiping out the most promising and prosperous society in Africa. He didn't do that ignorantly. He knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing when he bombed Somalia. When he oversaw the mass incarceration of Africans in the U.S. That's why he never spoke about those things. That's why he never condemned the majority of White people in the U.S. for being the cowardly legacy protectors of the white supremacist system. Instead, he cowardly attacked African men and accused us of being more ill-responsible than any other men in fulfilling our commitments to raising our children. That's why he mouthed the talking points of white supremacy. That's why he was capitalism in blackface.
If you don't possess a class analysis, you won't have the tools to differentiate between reactionary and counter-revolutionary. Stephon Clark was reactionary. Its not to say reactionary isn't harmful. We suffer from our reactionary behavior against one another and humanity every single tick each day. What it says is the debate isn't about whether we should stand up for Clark. The debate is when and how we can organize to overthrow this capitalist system as a result of our work to unite and liberate Africa (as our contribution to the worldwide socialist movement). When we do that, we can put an educational and institutional system in place that values people over money. And, when we have that, do you think so many people would have backward ideas and practices that disgusts us so much? I think not.
A political mentor to me in this Pan-Africanist work once told me that we have to convince our people that every problem we have is the result of capitalism. This isn't hard to do because its true. just like the best lyricists can take any topic you offer and drop a verse to it, we can take any issue you express and show you instantly where the source of the problem is capitalism. Since we know this, of course we should stand up against the state killing Stephon Clark and anyone with any backward ideas and practices. And, when we stand up, we say that we are doing so not to protect his backward ideas/practices ,but to protest the system that produces such damaged human beings in the first place, then summarily executes them and then blames them for being executed. Along with blaming them for being backward.
If there is an anti-people's class, that of course means there is a people's class. The people's class takes responsibility to organize for a better world. It rejects the values of the capitalist system and it takes upon its shoulders the responsibility of creating that political education reality for people like Stephon Clark. The people's class never laments how impossible it will be achieve this. It never rejects reactionary behavior because that would mean rejecting the majority of people. Instead, it sees its responsibility as figuring out how to reach those people. Kwame Nkrumah, our ideological partner to Sekou Ture, told us that there are always primary and secondary contradictions. The primary contradiction being imperialism (capitalism). The secondary contradictions being the backward ways our people behave because of imperialism. Don't let our enemies and their values confuse us. The system must be our focus, but that must be only within the context of our social revolutionary work to ensure that when we defeat capitalism, we are prepared to offer something much, much better.
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