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).
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).
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