Today the so-called Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced it had uncovered a plot by white/right terrorists to kidnap the elected governor of the state of Michigan; Grethen Witmer. She is a Democratic governor who had been targeted by the empire president. As a result, in the eyes of the white/right, she’s seen as the devil. And, although we would have an extremely difficult time believing the FBI if they said the sky was blue, in the current political landscape in this backward society, despite who makes the report, its not hard at all to see something like this happening.
The white/right has a history of seeing practically everyone who doesn’t fit neatly into its version of history i.e. white, male, ideologically committed to the ideals and practices of the bourgeoisie, as the devil. So, if they, with their extremely warped and dysfunctional perspective of the world we live in, can see a bourgeoisie woman politician as the epitome of evil to the extent that they would contemplate kidnapping her, you can imagine what the white/right thinks about anyone standing up and fighting for African liberation.
The relationship between these violent white/right forces and police across this country is attracting a lot of attention of late. There are now pretty consistent reports circulating of the extent (wide) in which violent white supremacists have joined police departments all over the country in large enough capacity to greatly influence the ideas and practices of these departments.
Many people are interpreting these latest revelations about these connections as something new or something that must be exposed and addressed. The foundation behind this naïve perspective is that the existence of white supremacists in police departments is new, or at least negligible. And, that its therefore something that can be fixed through some legal and legislative means.
We have news for these people. This connection isn’t new, its woven into the fabric of this capitalist system. Its absolutely absurd for anyone to try and pretend that this country has represented anything else except fascism, white supremacy, and violence to enforce both since these lands were viciously stolen from the Indigenous people’s of the Western Hemisphere. And, while that theft was being consolidated, it was being helped by the systemic enslavement of African people kidnapped from Africa and scattered across the Western Hemisphere to work as animals for approximately 350 years. The very industrialization process that created the capitalist system was built on this exploitation. Of course, the capitalist system wishes to convince us that none of the above happened. Instead, they seek to revise the history of their exploitation. Turning it on its head, to suggest that this country is the citadel of freedom, democracy, and justice for all of humanity. Most people today, even those who consider themselves progressive, believe some if not all elements of this lie. This explains why so many people actually believe that the U.S. was a force against fascism (against Hitler) in World War II, while the U.S. enforced fascism against the African and Indigenous masses in this country during that same period. The fascism was even enforced against colonized troops who served in the U.S. military during World War II. Its as if its possible for the people who stole your house and held you hostage to hire others to go out and attack other fascists and for that, your robbers are called heroes. With this dysfunctional thinking posing as solid ideology in this society, we should understand why any rational person could actually believe that these problems are fixable without changing this entire backward system the only way it can be properly changed, through a revolutionary process.
Without that, what we are left with is the brutal history of this savage country. A history that originated police departments from the slave patrols in the Southern U.S. and the city patrols in the Northern U.S. Both were created to terrorize African and Indigenous peoples and keep us “in our places.” And, the existence of this terrorism was institutionalized to such extent that the Second Amendment of the U.S. constitution was written in large part to ensure those slave patrols were able to arm themselves in order to commit their terrorism against us with greater capacity and effectiveness.
Understanding and accepting all of this ill refutable history is very important because with this level of consciousness about the true history of this society, you are better prepared to understand how police and white/right terrorists have always been not only side by side, but usually, one and the same. History is full of examples here. Obviously, the very function of those slave patrols and city watch units, and their eventual transformation into police departments is the first prime example. Then, all you have to look at are the multitude of tragic incidents to see this. In 1964, sheriff deputies in Neshoba County, Mississippi, U.S., captured, kidnapped, and turned over three civil rights workers to the Ku Klux Klan. It was confirmed that the sheriffs themselves were klansmen. Of course, those three youthful workers were viciously murdered and the control these white supremacists have over the judicial and institutional apparatuses were employed, as they always are, to ensure no one was initially convicted (and even once the federal government was forced to make the crimes federal cases due to pressure from the civil rights movement, the convictions were still light in nature).
Another example is the tragic leftist rally which took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S. in 1980 (the 40 year commemoration of this incident is upon us now). In this case, local police, at a minimum sympathetic to white/right terrorists and at worse, active members, allowed a caravan of armed white supremacists to drive into the rally, sponsored by leftist socialist groups like the Socialist Workers Party, and shoot up the participants, killing multiple people. When we say “allowed” what we mean is the police had full intelligence about the mission to attack those rally participants well in advance of the incident.
With this history and backdrop, and there are countless other examples we could cite, no one should be shocked, as so many apparently were, when that 17 year old terrorist in Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S. was permitted to shoot and kill two people and then walk peacefully past the police carrying the murder weapon in plain view. And, spare us the argument that he was defending himself. This was the same argument used in Greensboro in 1980. These backward defenses used to justify white/right violence reflect the ill refutable truth that no one can point to any time in the history of this country when this bourgeoisie society and all its institutions i.e. media, churches, government, etc., had ever not taken a position of defending the system over the oppression experienced by the masses of people. No time in history is this true. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. W.E.B. DuBois, Rosa Parks, all were public enemy number one when they were alive and practicing their efforts to challenge racial and class oppression. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) at 24 years old was treated nationally in ways that make Osama bin Laden look like a public saint today. And the only thing Kwame was guilty of was telling the truth about this system. So, no “whitewashing” of history today with how the establishment acts like King and the others are, and were always, respected for their work changes these truths.
Your system is the problem and the fact you can’t tell the white/right from these institutions that routinely brutalize our people clearly illustrates this. I became clear on this 40 years ago while growing as a student activist. At the time of the Greensboro incident, my mentor at the time – Brother Kehinde Solwazi – said something to me that summarizes this entire scenario. He said “the KKK and the white supremacists are for those of us foolish enough to move to the suburbs. They got the police for the rest of us!”
The white/right has a history of seeing practically everyone who doesn’t fit neatly into its version of history i.e. white, male, ideologically committed to the ideals and practices of the bourgeoisie, as the devil. So, if they, with their extremely warped and dysfunctional perspective of the world we live in, can see a bourgeoisie woman politician as the epitome of evil to the extent that they would contemplate kidnapping her, you can imagine what the white/right thinks about anyone standing up and fighting for African liberation.
The relationship between these violent white/right forces and police across this country is attracting a lot of attention of late. There are now pretty consistent reports circulating of the extent (wide) in which violent white supremacists have joined police departments all over the country in large enough capacity to greatly influence the ideas and practices of these departments.
Many people are interpreting these latest revelations about these connections as something new or something that must be exposed and addressed. The foundation behind this naïve perspective is that the existence of white supremacists in police departments is new, or at least negligible. And, that its therefore something that can be fixed through some legal and legislative means.
We have news for these people. This connection isn’t new, its woven into the fabric of this capitalist system. Its absolutely absurd for anyone to try and pretend that this country has represented anything else except fascism, white supremacy, and violence to enforce both since these lands were viciously stolen from the Indigenous people’s of the Western Hemisphere. And, while that theft was being consolidated, it was being helped by the systemic enslavement of African people kidnapped from Africa and scattered across the Western Hemisphere to work as animals for approximately 350 years. The very industrialization process that created the capitalist system was built on this exploitation. Of course, the capitalist system wishes to convince us that none of the above happened. Instead, they seek to revise the history of their exploitation. Turning it on its head, to suggest that this country is the citadel of freedom, democracy, and justice for all of humanity. Most people today, even those who consider themselves progressive, believe some if not all elements of this lie. This explains why so many people actually believe that the U.S. was a force against fascism (against Hitler) in World War II, while the U.S. enforced fascism against the African and Indigenous masses in this country during that same period. The fascism was even enforced against colonized troops who served in the U.S. military during World War II. Its as if its possible for the people who stole your house and held you hostage to hire others to go out and attack other fascists and for that, your robbers are called heroes. With this dysfunctional thinking posing as solid ideology in this society, we should understand why any rational person could actually believe that these problems are fixable without changing this entire backward system the only way it can be properly changed, through a revolutionary process.
Without that, what we are left with is the brutal history of this savage country. A history that originated police departments from the slave patrols in the Southern U.S. and the city patrols in the Northern U.S. Both were created to terrorize African and Indigenous peoples and keep us “in our places.” And, the existence of this terrorism was institutionalized to such extent that the Second Amendment of the U.S. constitution was written in large part to ensure those slave patrols were able to arm themselves in order to commit their terrorism against us with greater capacity and effectiveness.
Understanding and accepting all of this ill refutable history is very important because with this level of consciousness about the true history of this society, you are better prepared to understand how police and white/right terrorists have always been not only side by side, but usually, one and the same. History is full of examples here. Obviously, the very function of those slave patrols and city watch units, and their eventual transformation into police departments is the first prime example. Then, all you have to look at are the multitude of tragic incidents to see this. In 1964, sheriff deputies in Neshoba County, Mississippi, U.S., captured, kidnapped, and turned over three civil rights workers to the Ku Klux Klan. It was confirmed that the sheriffs themselves were klansmen. Of course, those three youthful workers were viciously murdered and the control these white supremacists have over the judicial and institutional apparatuses were employed, as they always are, to ensure no one was initially convicted (and even once the federal government was forced to make the crimes federal cases due to pressure from the civil rights movement, the convictions were still light in nature).
Another example is the tragic leftist rally which took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S. in 1980 (the 40 year commemoration of this incident is upon us now). In this case, local police, at a minimum sympathetic to white/right terrorists and at worse, active members, allowed a caravan of armed white supremacists to drive into the rally, sponsored by leftist socialist groups like the Socialist Workers Party, and shoot up the participants, killing multiple people. When we say “allowed” what we mean is the police had full intelligence about the mission to attack those rally participants well in advance of the incident.
With this history and backdrop, and there are countless other examples we could cite, no one should be shocked, as so many apparently were, when that 17 year old terrorist in Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S. was permitted to shoot and kill two people and then walk peacefully past the police carrying the murder weapon in plain view. And, spare us the argument that he was defending himself. This was the same argument used in Greensboro in 1980. These backward defenses used to justify white/right violence reflect the ill refutable truth that no one can point to any time in the history of this country when this bourgeoisie society and all its institutions i.e. media, churches, government, etc., had ever not taken a position of defending the system over the oppression experienced by the masses of people. No time in history is this true. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. W.E.B. DuBois, Rosa Parks, all were public enemy number one when they were alive and practicing their efforts to challenge racial and class oppression. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) at 24 years old was treated nationally in ways that make Osama bin Laden look like a public saint today. And the only thing Kwame was guilty of was telling the truth about this system. So, no “whitewashing” of history today with how the establishment acts like King and the others are, and were always, respected for their work changes these truths.
Your system is the problem and the fact you can’t tell the white/right from these institutions that routinely brutalize our people clearly illustrates this. I became clear on this 40 years ago while growing as a student activist. At the time of the Greensboro incident, my mentor at the time – Brother Kehinde Solwazi – said something to me that summarizes this entire scenario. He said “the KKK and the white supremacists are for those of us foolish enough to move to the suburbs. They got the police for the rest of us!”
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