While talking to a very close homeboy comrade from the East Coast, we discussed everthing from neo-colonialism in Africa to the Zimmerman verdict. At one point in our conversation, he asked me when I had last burned a U.S. flag. I paused because I realize it has been awhile. The gap in activity in that area has nothing to do with any shyness or adversion to burning that worthless rag. I've burned dozens of them in my lifetime. I've burned U.S. flags in front of hundreds of people, at backyard BBQs, on video. I even burned the flag the funeral home gave me when I buried my father (when your loved one was a veteran, they give you a flag). I joyfully took that flag, called a bunch of friends and comrades, and we used the occasion to give a proper salute to my dad while burning the stars and stripes that day. By the way, it should be noted that my dad was no patriotic American. He was drafted against his will, resistant every second he was in the military, and although he didn't tell me much when I was growing up, he did make it clear to me that joining the U.S. military was not an option. Anyway, I think you get the point, I have absolutely no respect or attachment to that damn red, white, and blue flag. In light of the Zimmerman verdict and the exposure of the clear political divide between people who see their interests tied to the U.S. political/economic empire (primarily the white petit bourgeois class with a sprinkling of those of color with the same class interests) and those who see their interests aligned with the masses of people on the planet (most working class people of color and whites, peasants, revolutionary intelligentsia, etc. - to make it easier, I'll refer to those elements in the words of Sekou Ture e.g. the people's class and the anti-people's class) there seems to be strong effort on the part of those in the anti-people's class to characterize African people as violent, irrational, ungrateful, and just an overall burden to the decent (white) folk of the good ol U.S.A. So, in the context of the red, white, and blue, which if nothing else represents violence, irrationality, disrespect, and the very definition of terrorism, I have a short message for the anti-people's class.
First, stop trying to pin the violent label on African people. I don't care how many fake rap videos and movies you have seen, the truth is all, not some, but all of the weapons manufacturers are white people. In case you didn't know that, I'm talking about Glock, Smith & Wesson, Remington, Ruger, Luger, Dow Chemical, McKesson, McDonald Douglass, etc. I don't even know one African who has a chemistry set or a reloader machine so how the hell did we become the poster children for violence in this world today? Who invaded Africa? Who invaded the Americas? Who terrorized those peoples? Who incarcerates more people than anyone in history? Who killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan for what? Who's police kill more people than would ever be killed in any so-called terrorist attack? Who subjugates Africa, the Americas, and most of the world today? The answer of course is the anti-people's class. The violence confused elements of the people's class inflicts on eachother is minimal at best compared to the destruction the anti-people's class has reaped on the world and in spite of your continued efforts to highlight our difficulties with one another, the people's class is becoming more and more conscious of it's existence, and it's importance everyday.
Secondly, millions of African people worked in this country for 350 years without receiving a single paycheck and certainly no benefit packages. The wealth accumulated from that labor established the banking and insurance industries in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere, as well as providing extensive weatlh to Europe, which are the primary reasons the white Western world has ruled and continues to dominate the political and economic landscape. All of this while the masses of Africans remain in poverty. The anti-people's class lives lives with extended opportunity and options due to the privilige created by the racist infrastructure that built and maintains capitalism, but yet the masses of Africans, instead of being boiling mad and working everyday to overthrow this system, still have hope and respect for it, even when it slaps us again in the face as it did with the Zimmerman verdict. Yet, we are characterized as the ungrateful ones? You better be grateful we don't burn this damn place all the way down to the ground.
Finally, the only burden today is a Western capitalist system, built and maintained through exploitation, that sucks the blood from the masses of humanity while robbing them of their rightful opportunity to contribute productively to a society that serves their interests and provides support and respect for their children and future generations.
You are goddamn right I burn U.S. flags. Not just conferderate flags, although I've burned some of them too, but your beloved red, white, and blue, U.S. flag. I burn the hell out them. I know that makes the anti-people's class mad, but I care about as much about what you think of me as you care about the interests of the people's class. Plus, you can't refute my reasons for burning them. I do so because everything they represent is a slap in the face to my existence as a human being. While that damn flag represents freedom and justice to anti-people's class partisans everywhere, the people who established this empire all owned my ancestors and participated directly in the exploitation of my people and humanity. That flag today represents an agenda of domination, lies, and exploitation. That's why I burn it. I give training on how to burn your flag to dozens of youth and I'll continue to do so, but this is only in the context of also training them how to educate and organize people. Burning the flag is only symbolic. It symbolizes a changing of the political, economic, and social order from one where money is most important to one where people are the priority. You know, building a larger, stronger, more coherent people's class. Soon we will advance past symbolism and seize the power we need and deserve. But, in the meantime we will use all symbolism available to us to wake up people on the right side of history. So get used to it because it's burn baby burn time!
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First, stop trying to pin the violent label on African people. I don't care how many fake rap videos and movies you have seen, the truth is all, not some, but all of the weapons manufacturers are white people. In case you didn't know that, I'm talking about Glock, Smith & Wesson, Remington, Ruger, Luger, Dow Chemical, McKesson, McDonald Douglass, etc. I don't even know one African who has a chemistry set or a reloader machine so how the hell did we become the poster children for violence in this world today? Who invaded Africa? Who invaded the Americas? Who terrorized those peoples? Who incarcerates more people than anyone in history? Who killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan for what? Who's police kill more people than would ever be killed in any so-called terrorist attack? Who subjugates Africa, the Americas, and most of the world today? The answer of course is the anti-people's class. The violence confused elements of the people's class inflicts on eachother is minimal at best compared to the destruction the anti-people's class has reaped on the world and in spite of your continued efforts to highlight our difficulties with one another, the people's class is becoming more and more conscious of it's existence, and it's importance everyday.
Secondly, millions of African people worked in this country for 350 years without receiving a single paycheck and certainly no benefit packages. The wealth accumulated from that labor established the banking and insurance industries in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere, as well as providing extensive weatlh to Europe, which are the primary reasons the white Western world has ruled and continues to dominate the political and economic landscape. All of this while the masses of Africans remain in poverty. The anti-people's class lives lives with extended opportunity and options due to the privilige created by the racist infrastructure that built and maintains capitalism, but yet the masses of Africans, instead of being boiling mad and working everyday to overthrow this system, still have hope and respect for it, even when it slaps us again in the face as it did with the Zimmerman verdict. Yet, we are characterized as the ungrateful ones? You better be grateful we don't burn this damn place all the way down to the ground.
Finally, the only burden today is a Western capitalist system, built and maintained through exploitation, that sucks the blood from the masses of humanity while robbing them of their rightful opportunity to contribute productively to a society that serves their interests and provides support and respect for their children and future generations.
You are goddamn right I burn U.S. flags. Not just conferderate flags, although I've burned some of them too, but your beloved red, white, and blue, U.S. flag. I burn the hell out them. I know that makes the anti-people's class mad, but I care about as much about what you think of me as you care about the interests of the people's class. Plus, you can't refute my reasons for burning them. I do so because everything they represent is a slap in the face to my existence as a human being. While that damn flag represents freedom and justice to anti-people's class partisans everywhere, the people who established this empire all owned my ancestors and participated directly in the exploitation of my people and humanity. That flag today represents an agenda of domination, lies, and exploitation. That's why I burn it. I give training on how to burn your flag to dozens of youth and I'll continue to do so, but this is only in the context of also training them how to educate and organize people. Burning the flag is only symbolic. It symbolizes a changing of the political, economic, and social order from one where money is most important to one where people are the priority. You know, building a larger, stronger, more coherent people's class. Soon we will advance past symbolism and seize the power we need and deserve. But, in the meantime we will use all symbolism available to us to wake up people on the right side of history. So get used to it because it's burn baby burn time!
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