Since making my physical move last month, I've had several good hearted and well meaning people reach out to me to inquire about the progress of my move. I greatly appreciate all of you and your genuine concern is a motivating factor in my writing this piece. You see, in spite of the continued efforts by right wing reactionaries and equally confused people on the so-called left to ignorantly (and with racist foundation) categorize Pan-Africanist revolutionaries as "Stalinists" or "Leninists," one of the many fundamental differences we Nkrumahist/Tureists have with Marxist/Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, etc., is that we do not believe that the single modus of movement is the class struggle. We certainly believe class struggle is a critical element that is driven by the scientific basis of dialectical and historical materialism, but unlike the others, we believe that ideology is an equally compelling compoinent in the struggle for justice. We believe its so relevant because it provides complex analysis and context for the class struggle. That's why we believe there is no successful struggle for justice without the correct ideas because we know ideas drive action and action makes change.
So, without positive ideas, there can be no positive actions. Or, as the old African proverb says "everything is political and all things political are defined by ideas." It is overwhelmingly important to understand this because right now, the primary struggle we are actually engaged in is the struggle over ideas. In fact, the central fight is one of winning the hearts and minds of humanity over to ideas of justice and human progress over those of greed/exploitation and the continued dominance of the capitalist/imperialist network, led by the united snakes of amerikkka. And there is absolutely no way we can win this battle if we are not mentally and spiritually healthy.
For example, a major reason for my personal move was to fulfill some aspects of my life that were previously lacking e.g. being surrounded by, and being able to regularly engage with, people who look (and think) like me. Also, I realized that waking up and seeing the sun everyday is very important to me while I confront the evils of this society. There's much more, but the point is its important for all of us to be in touch with what's going on inside of us at all times and we can't do that if we are numbing ourselves by being high, drunk, etc., all the time. Even substituting religion for reality is harmful, and none of that is to knock those who are utilizing those methods to make it through the day. Its just important that we begin to have a discussion about what is taking place. One of the major weapons of imperialism is to demoralize us and convince us that anything short of surrendering our spirits to the will of our enemies is fruitless. In other words, many of you actually believe that victory isn't really possible and once you believe that, imperialism has won you over and made you an unwitting pawn in its continued conquest of the planet.
Don't succumb so easily. You are worth much more than that. One of the first tips to defeat this negative effort to dominant us is for everyone to agree that we will consciously struggle to be honest with ourselves at all times. This means acknowledge your fears and figure out how to find others who have the same fears so that you can talk about how to overcome them. And that doesn't mean eliminating the fear. That's impossible. It means figuring out how to continue to fight in spite of the fear.
Second, acknowledge your weaknesses and engage in the same process and while you are at it, practice working through problems and not running from them. You can't really hide from your fears and weaknesses. You can attempt to cover them up, but if you think about what they are, you will have to acknowledge that they have consistently and without fail prevented you from reaching your potential over and over again so if you think hiding them is helping you, obviously, that's not an effective strategy. What will be effective is acknowledging them, discussing them, uniting with others who also have them, and figuring out how to overcome them. And overcoming them is simply defined as not letting them win without a fight.
A core feature of this process is learning how to recognize your victories. One of the major struggles for those who fight for justice is we routinely step right over our most cherished victories, with virtually no acknowledgement of them, while choosing to dwell forever on our mistakes. We do that to ourselves individually and we certainly mirror this behavior in our organizations collectively. What we must start doing is demanding that we spend more time on our victories than we do on our failures and to do that we have to understand that our failures generate more space because we are much more focused on them. We have to practice turning all of this around. The way we do it is by being intentional about our victories. For example, if you are struggling with a drinking issue or a drug issue. If you use those numbing effects daily, if you decide you want to stop and you go 24 hours without doing any of those things, that's a major victory! Its not a minor thing, but a major thing. So, learn to make a big deal about it. You don't have to tell anyone else, but inside of yourself, do something nice for you when you achieve this goal if its nothing except buying yourself a Chai tea and having a one minute ceremony to recognize you for what you have achieved. And, no, having no money is no excuse because you can plan for these types of celebrations e.g. "on the first I'm going to go 24 hours without doing that thing and I'm going to celebrate by buying myself a cupcake." You can plan that six months in advance if you need to. The important thing is to follow through and do it.
Here's what I'm talking about. I got an email from a comrade in the All African People's Revolutionary Party Ghana chapter earlier last week. He told me that we held an event in Accra, Ghana, and students from Cal State University, Sacramento (my ala mater) were in attendance while visiting Ghana on a fellowship. He mentioned that one of the students had told him that she had read my novel "The Courage Equation" and that she loved it. He cleverly suggested that I contact the students since I have just recently moved back to Sacramento so that I could talk to them when they return to Sacramento about the A-APRP. I emailed the young student and several days passed with no response. Finally, I received an email from the student expressing that she hadn't responded because she was overwhelmed at having been contacted by the person who wrote the book she loved so much. This probably means nothing to you, but 24 hours later, I'm still very high from her message. It doesn't matter that the publisher I used to publish the book is a criminal who is stealing 100% of my royalties and because he a bankrupt piece of rat manure, there's nothing I can do about it short of beating him to a pulp. And, since the white supremacist/capitalist system would throw me in prison if I did that, its clearly not an option. Still that doesn't matter. It also doesn't matter that more than a few African woman have made it a point of criticizing my decision to have a young white woman as a central element (not the central element) of my novel online, etc., despite the fact not one of these women (by their own admissions) issuing the critiques have even bothered to read my book. What does matter is that I wrote the book to inspire people that we can win and the fact a young African woman gets that (as all of the African women who have read the book get it), is all that matters. That's a major victory against the haters, morale destroyers, and naysayers against humanity. Its my victory and I am completely relishing and enjoying it. I try to do this often. I did it when I came off probation in November (for interceding with a domestic abuser). I did it when I got the position here. And, I'm doing it today. It's not important that you understand my celebration or that you respect it. What's important is that you learn how to have your own on a regular basis so you can learn to own your victories because if you start learning how to do this, you will teach yourself how to think positively about yourself because the basis of all of this is that you deserve good. So, just imagine what could/would happen if many of us started learning how to view ourselves in the positive - all the time?
Finally, I often observe many people on social media lamenting the loneliness in their lives. I truly feel for you, but I have to ask you how many people you have tried to make friends with? What I mean is who have you asked to have coffee/tea? If you have asked people and everyone isn't responding then you are just not around the right folks my friend because the reality is most folks will respond because most folks, like you, are alienated in this anti-human society. I would bet that most of the time, most people doing this lamenting are sitting around waiting for someone to reach out to them. So, reach out and touch someone and be decisive in eliminating the loneliness. Don't wait for someone to reach out to you because chances are they are waiting for you while you wait for them and in that scenario, only imperialism wins. I'm trying to be intentional about staying in touch with loved ones in Oregon while reaching out to folks here in Cali. Easy? No. Worth the effort? Absolutely!
There's so much more, but for ongoing support in how to tackle these obstacles to your potential, go a couple of tabs down and click on the personal services tab and let's talk further. We really can make the concept that we believe that we can win much more than a march chant.
So, without positive ideas, there can be no positive actions. Or, as the old African proverb says "everything is political and all things political are defined by ideas." It is overwhelmingly important to understand this because right now, the primary struggle we are actually engaged in is the struggle over ideas. In fact, the central fight is one of winning the hearts and minds of humanity over to ideas of justice and human progress over those of greed/exploitation and the continued dominance of the capitalist/imperialist network, led by the united snakes of amerikkka. And there is absolutely no way we can win this battle if we are not mentally and spiritually healthy.
For example, a major reason for my personal move was to fulfill some aspects of my life that were previously lacking e.g. being surrounded by, and being able to regularly engage with, people who look (and think) like me. Also, I realized that waking up and seeing the sun everyday is very important to me while I confront the evils of this society. There's much more, but the point is its important for all of us to be in touch with what's going on inside of us at all times and we can't do that if we are numbing ourselves by being high, drunk, etc., all the time. Even substituting religion for reality is harmful, and none of that is to knock those who are utilizing those methods to make it through the day. Its just important that we begin to have a discussion about what is taking place. One of the major weapons of imperialism is to demoralize us and convince us that anything short of surrendering our spirits to the will of our enemies is fruitless. In other words, many of you actually believe that victory isn't really possible and once you believe that, imperialism has won you over and made you an unwitting pawn in its continued conquest of the planet.
Don't succumb so easily. You are worth much more than that. One of the first tips to defeat this negative effort to dominant us is for everyone to agree that we will consciously struggle to be honest with ourselves at all times. This means acknowledge your fears and figure out how to find others who have the same fears so that you can talk about how to overcome them. And that doesn't mean eliminating the fear. That's impossible. It means figuring out how to continue to fight in spite of the fear.
Second, acknowledge your weaknesses and engage in the same process and while you are at it, practice working through problems and not running from them. You can't really hide from your fears and weaknesses. You can attempt to cover them up, but if you think about what they are, you will have to acknowledge that they have consistently and without fail prevented you from reaching your potential over and over again so if you think hiding them is helping you, obviously, that's not an effective strategy. What will be effective is acknowledging them, discussing them, uniting with others who also have them, and figuring out how to overcome them. And overcoming them is simply defined as not letting them win without a fight.
A core feature of this process is learning how to recognize your victories. One of the major struggles for those who fight for justice is we routinely step right over our most cherished victories, with virtually no acknowledgement of them, while choosing to dwell forever on our mistakes. We do that to ourselves individually and we certainly mirror this behavior in our organizations collectively. What we must start doing is demanding that we spend more time on our victories than we do on our failures and to do that we have to understand that our failures generate more space because we are much more focused on them. We have to practice turning all of this around. The way we do it is by being intentional about our victories. For example, if you are struggling with a drinking issue or a drug issue. If you use those numbing effects daily, if you decide you want to stop and you go 24 hours without doing any of those things, that's a major victory! Its not a minor thing, but a major thing. So, learn to make a big deal about it. You don't have to tell anyone else, but inside of yourself, do something nice for you when you achieve this goal if its nothing except buying yourself a Chai tea and having a one minute ceremony to recognize you for what you have achieved. And, no, having no money is no excuse because you can plan for these types of celebrations e.g. "on the first I'm going to go 24 hours without doing that thing and I'm going to celebrate by buying myself a cupcake." You can plan that six months in advance if you need to. The important thing is to follow through and do it.
Here's what I'm talking about. I got an email from a comrade in the All African People's Revolutionary Party Ghana chapter earlier last week. He told me that we held an event in Accra, Ghana, and students from Cal State University, Sacramento (my ala mater) were in attendance while visiting Ghana on a fellowship. He mentioned that one of the students had told him that she had read my novel "The Courage Equation" and that she loved it. He cleverly suggested that I contact the students since I have just recently moved back to Sacramento so that I could talk to them when they return to Sacramento about the A-APRP. I emailed the young student and several days passed with no response. Finally, I received an email from the student expressing that she hadn't responded because she was overwhelmed at having been contacted by the person who wrote the book she loved so much. This probably means nothing to you, but 24 hours later, I'm still very high from her message. It doesn't matter that the publisher I used to publish the book is a criminal who is stealing 100% of my royalties and because he a bankrupt piece of rat manure, there's nothing I can do about it short of beating him to a pulp. And, since the white supremacist/capitalist system would throw me in prison if I did that, its clearly not an option. Still that doesn't matter. It also doesn't matter that more than a few African woman have made it a point of criticizing my decision to have a young white woman as a central element (not the central element) of my novel online, etc., despite the fact not one of these women (by their own admissions) issuing the critiques have even bothered to read my book. What does matter is that I wrote the book to inspire people that we can win and the fact a young African woman gets that (as all of the African women who have read the book get it), is all that matters. That's a major victory against the haters, morale destroyers, and naysayers against humanity. Its my victory and I am completely relishing and enjoying it. I try to do this often. I did it when I came off probation in November (for interceding with a domestic abuser). I did it when I got the position here. And, I'm doing it today. It's not important that you understand my celebration or that you respect it. What's important is that you learn how to have your own on a regular basis so you can learn to own your victories because if you start learning how to do this, you will teach yourself how to think positively about yourself because the basis of all of this is that you deserve good. So, just imagine what could/would happen if many of us started learning how to view ourselves in the positive - all the time?
Finally, I often observe many people on social media lamenting the loneliness in their lives. I truly feel for you, but I have to ask you how many people you have tried to make friends with? What I mean is who have you asked to have coffee/tea? If you have asked people and everyone isn't responding then you are just not around the right folks my friend because the reality is most folks will respond because most folks, like you, are alienated in this anti-human society. I would bet that most of the time, most people doing this lamenting are sitting around waiting for someone to reach out to them. So, reach out and touch someone and be decisive in eliminating the loneliness. Don't wait for someone to reach out to you because chances are they are waiting for you while you wait for them and in that scenario, only imperialism wins. I'm trying to be intentional about staying in touch with loved ones in Oregon while reaching out to folks here in Cali. Easy? No. Worth the effort? Absolutely!
There's so much more, but for ongoing support in how to tackle these obstacles to your potential, go a couple of tabs down and click on the personal services tab and let's talk further. We really can make the concept that we believe that we can win much more than a march chant.
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