Today in the U.S. after the latest national election, my phone has seen a flurry of activity. People are reaching out asking “what are we going to do?” regarding Donald Trump’s second election victory as president of the U.S. in the last eight years. The fact people are reaching out is exciting. The reason for the excitement is unlike most of these people, my political activism isn’t limited to just voting in these capitalist elections every two and four years. My activism exists on a daily basis. The planning and executing events, traveling, speaking, organizing, risking harm to build capacity, writing about our conditions, and mentoring countless young people on how we organize to build our revolutionary Pan-Africanism movement. The people reaching out to me know all of this. They also know that I’ve been doing this work for decades. These people are working class people with families. People who are African, Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, European, all types of people. What they all have in common is I’ve never felt that many of them held much value in my politics since my engagements with them have been overwhelmingly about their fears, concerns, and actions over the years with little to no engagement around the solutions we offer.
Yet, this morning, here they are. A lot of people would view this as insulting. You pour your soul into working for humanity and most people around you couldn’t appear to care less. Never do they ask you about your work or show any interest in it. Even the people closest to you. Despite this reality, any revolutionary organizer would relish these moments. The reason why is the question we always search for in our work is that one I have been getting all day – “what do we do?”
We certainly welcome the opportunity to offer our insights into this question. When all is said and done, approximately 80 million people will have voted for the Trump ticket. That’s about 22% of the 350 million people who inhabit this country. There are a few important takeaways here.
First, our revolutionary organizing and demographic work informs us that of the 350 million people, approximately 100 millions are ineligible to vote i.e. to young, convicted of felonies, immigrants, etc. Of the 250 million left, approximately 150 million of them participate in the voting process in national elections. What this tells us is particularly as it relates to people with higher incomes, or the perception of higher incomes, and with primarily European communities, and/or those who desire to relate to the European capitalist paradigm in this country, the overwhelming majority of those people have made it crystal clear. They agree with a rightwing fascist agenda that is anti-African, anti-Indigenous, anti-women, anti-LGBTQ, anti-humanity, while being pro-capitalist and big business. These people represent over 50% of those who voted in this country. This isn’t just the sentiments of one man. Its much more than that. This is what this country wants. These are ill refutable facts and as African and other oppressed peoples, its our responsibility in 2024 and beyond to accept this cold hard reality. What that means is its far past time for us to continue pretending that this is a country where we have a place. From our perspective, its incredible how a single person with any sense of dignity would even desire a place in such a backward country, but for those who do, you at least owe it to yourselves and your communities to approach this question from a position of the dignity just mentioned. That means you have to stop begging these people to fit into a society where you don’t fit. Stop playing exclusively by their rules because those rules were never configured with you in mind. Instead, if you continue to insist upon participating in this electoral process then start coming into it with intentions to advance the masses of our people, not just a few individuals. Get serious about building a movement to hold this corrupt system accountable to our interests. A movement that is mass in character and committed to tearing this system down to the ground when they mess with us.
If people are not serious enough about our future to build such a movement than at best, you are only upset because what’s happening makes you personally uncomfortable and if this is who you are, you should continue to be uncomfortable. Extremely so because why should our enemies take you seriously if you don’t have enough regard for us to ensure we are fighting for the legacy that so many of our ancestors lost everything to provide for us.
The other significant factor we need to be cognizant of is the 100 million people who don’t vote. They are not voting because they are apathetic. This is a pathetic and elitist analysis that originates from the capitalist system itself. What a large percentage of these people are telling us from their refusal to participate is that despite all the capitalist propaganda efforts to shame them for not voting, they are taking the courageous position that they don’t want to have to choose between the violent rapist and the rapist who talks nice to you while they rape you. Both are rapists. Both are terrorists. Or, as Malcolm X
told us “both are canines.”
For us, these 100 million represent the potential converts in the population. People who w/could be open to revolutionary messaging. Africans within this number who would be open to joining the African revolution. Non-Africans who could accept that a revolutionary change is truly the only solution.
What all of this actually means is this country today is the same country it has been for 531 years. A terrorist settler colony bent on protecting its interests at the expense of all of humanity. There are no more excuses. No more lame justifications. If you are committed to reform than you have to accept that a mass movement dedicated to disrupting this system on all levels is an absolute necessity. If you are ready for something else beyond that, then there is plenty of work needing to be done to build the revolutionary consciousness and capacity necessary to bring empire to its knees. Anything else is simply voting for our continued demise. We are so much better than that. Its time for us to stop moping and prove it.
Yet, this morning, here they are. A lot of people would view this as insulting. You pour your soul into working for humanity and most people around you couldn’t appear to care less. Never do they ask you about your work or show any interest in it. Even the people closest to you. Despite this reality, any revolutionary organizer would relish these moments. The reason why is the question we always search for in our work is that one I have been getting all day – “what do we do?”
We certainly welcome the opportunity to offer our insights into this question. When all is said and done, approximately 80 million people will have voted for the Trump ticket. That’s about 22% of the 350 million people who inhabit this country. There are a few important takeaways here.
First, our revolutionary organizing and demographic work informs us that of the 350 million people, approximately 100 millions are ineligible to vote i.e. to young, convicted of felonies, immigrants, etc. Of the 250 million left, approximately 150 million of them participate in the voting process in national elections. What this tells us is particularly as it relates to people with higher incomes, or the perception of higher incomes, and with primarily European communities, and/or those who desire to relate to the European capitalist paradigm in this country, the overwhelming majority of those people have made it crystal clear. They agree with a rightwing fascist agenda that is anti-African, anti-Indigenous, anti-women, anti-LGBTQ, anti-humanity, while being pro-capitalist and big business. These people represent over 50% of those who voted in this country. This isn’t just the sentiments of one man. Its much more than that. This is what this country wants. These are ill refutable facts and as African and other oppressed peoples, its our responsibility in 2024 and beyond to accept this cold hard reality. What that means is its far past time for us to continue pretending that this is a country where we have a place. From our perspective, its incredible how a single person with any sense of dignity would even desire a place in such a backward country, but for those who do, you at least owe it to yourselves and your communities to approach this question from a position of the dignity just mentioned. That means you have to stop begging these people to fit into a society where you don’t fit. Stop playing exclusively by their rules because those rules were never configured with you in mind. Instead, if you continue to insist upon participating in this electoral process then start coming into it with intentions to advance the masses of our people, not just a few individuals. Get serious about building a movement to hold this corrupt system accountable to our interests. A movement that is mass in character and committed to tearing this system down to the ground when they mess with us.
If people are not serious enough about our future to build such a movement than at best, you are only upset because what’s happening makes you personally uncomfortable and if this is who you are, you should continue to be uncomfortable. Extremely so because why should our enemies take you seriously if you don’t have enough regard for us to ensure we are fighting for the legacy that so many of our ancestors lost everything to provide for us.
The other significant factor we need to be cognizant of is the 100 million people who don’t vote. They are not voting because they are apathetic. This is a pathetic and elitist analysis that originates from the capitalist system itself. What a large percentage of these people are telling us from their refusal to participate is that despite all the capitalist propaganda efforts to shame them for not voting, they are taking the courageous position that they don’t want to have to choose between the violent rapist and the rapist who talks nice to you while they rape you. Both are rapists. Both are terrorists. Or, as Malcolm X
told us “both are canines.”
For us, these 100 million represent the potential converts in the population. People who w/could be open to revolutionary messaging. Africans within this number who would be open to joining the African revolution. Non-Africans who could accept that a revolutionary change is truly the only solution.
What all of this actually means is this country today is the same country it has been for 531 years. A terrorist settler colony bent on protecting its interests at the expense of all of humanity. There are no more excuses. No more lame justifications. If you are committed to reform than you have to accept that a mass movement dedicated to disrupting this system on all levels is an absolute necessity. If you are ready for something else beyond that, then there is plenty of work needing to be done to build the revolutionary consciousness and capacity necessary to bring empire to its knees. Anything else is simply voting for our continued demise. We are so much better than that. Its time for us to stop moping and prove it.
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