There are two initial points about this subject that historical circumstances require us to clarify before saying anything else. First, we have never stood, meaning we sit down, with hat still on our head, etc., whenever we are in the presence of the so-called U.S. national anthem. We say sit, not kneel, because to us the U.S. has engaged in systematic disrespect against us for over 500+ years. So, we see no reason to honor any of its symbols. We also disagree that we should be expected to "honor" anyone who has "served" in any branch of the U.S. military services. Contrary to the popular propaganda, we are not confused. We know that any rights and privileges we have today in this country resulted from the sacrifices of those who struggled in the civil rights and Black power movements for us. To them we always extend love and respect. Despite the continued lie that the U.S. military "fights for our rights" we study history. So, we know its ill-refutable that African people suffered in slavery during the so-called American revolution. We were still enslaved during the civil war and we know that war was fought to ensure the North would be able to enforce industrialization throughout the Southern U.S. The fact we were the labor force in the U.S. was a byproduct of the war, not its focus. And Jim Crow legalized segregation operated during World War I, World War II, and the Korea and Vietnam conflicts. In fact, my own father was drafted into the U.S. army during the Vietnam war during a time when he had no legal rights in his native Louisiana. Institutional racism unquestionably continued during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. So, the absurd claim that U.S. military conflicts are fought to "for our freedoms" falls on completely deaf ears to us. U.S. military conflicts are fought to ensure the dominance of capitalist corporations worldwide. Nothing else. And the fact the moneyed interests in this country have absolutely no moral dilemma in sending millions of young people off to war to die for their economic control is part of the reason we could never "honor" these symbols of oppression. So, we are talking about not standing, not even acknowledging their nationalist displays of lies, ignorance, and continued oppression for the majority of the people on Earth.
Second, nothing written here is designed to let European (white) women on the hook. Nothing here is about supporting them or elevating their suffering. We are as much allies to them as they are to us which aside from a smattering of principled women among them, is virtually 0. We are fully aware that the masses of white women have historically and consistently chosen to align themselves with the capitalist white power system. So, we are the last persons who need any lectures from any of our well meaning people who wish to make sure that we are aware that those white women suggesting today that they kneel during the so-called anthem to protest the patriarchal behavior of their leaders previously had no intention of ever kneeling when we originally suggested the concept as a protest against police terrorism against our people. We are fully aware of all of these contradictions.
Where we enter this discussion is around the question of empire. To us, the U.S. capitalist system is an empire. This means it cannot be reformed. It cannot be rearranged. It cannot be sufficiently improved. It is a system designed to exploit and oppress and in order to stop that, it must be destroyed. Completely destroyed. This is revolutionary politics and since most of you are not only not revolutionaries, but you really don't even understand exactly what revolution actually is (despite the fact you are convinced that you do), this is why you fail to understand the point we are about to make.
To most of you, the objective is the protest itself. So, you are stuck on who controls the protest because the ability to express your pain and outrage is your primary goal. You are not really thinking about, or concerned, about how to solve the problem that brought you to protest in the first place. Provided the political leaders of this system validate you by offering you a place at the table, that to you is the purpose of the protest. Sitting at their table is an accomplishment to you. We are not throwing shade at you for this approach. We are just pointing out that the only way you can maintain this approach is because you are not interested in destroying this system, but we are. Since we are, we recognize that any and all people who begin to oppose this system makes it weaker. The weaker it gets, the more our work is assisted.
Kwame Ture said in the 90s that the then rise of right-wing violence in this country would help our movement. I was present many times when he said this and the crowd always had a very difficult time understanding his point which was that as we fight against the system on the left, the more people on the right who do the same, the weaker it is going to make this capitalist system. He explained this from the standpoint that during the 1960s when he was a leader within the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the right-wing were the shock troops for capitalism's assault against civil rights workers. It was those working poor whites who made up significant numbers in the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups that regularly terrorized our civil rights workers (the people we honor). All the system had to say was that we were against the system and those people immediately went on the attack against us. Many of them are still doing that, we understand that, but as more and more of them are openly opposing the very government they used to so diligently serve, it makes the challenge much more interesting. So, what we are saying is imagine a reality where more and more white women began challenging this power structure. Eventually, many of them will start to question the direction of their protests as many of us did. They will want to develop more focus and dedication to their work. That means increased political education and more of that means a crisper understanding of the contradictions. That means more determined and militant approaches to finishing off this system. Before some of you say that white women would never go down that road we will caution you to recognize that we cannot predict the future. There is no time in the history of this country when white women were opening questioning the power structure as they are now. That protest stage is of course simply the first stage of their political development just as it was the beginning for all of us. Why wouldn't we sit back and see what they do? No work is required on our part. No one is asking or expecting us to organize white women. We should be organizing our own people. If white women do nothing except wear pussy hats we are no farther back then we already are in our own work. If they move to develop something much more militant and determined, than we fail to see how that hurts us in any way.
What's important for us is that we learn not to let our trauma cloud our political vision. Yes, we are mad at white women and we have every right to be, but we cannot let our emotional state prevent us from seeing the big picture. How and why is it a bad thing if everyone on Earth "appropriates" our protest tactics if in doing so they move us closer towards liberation? We would think we want them to mimic any and everything we do against this system. I remember years ago when someone asked me at a Kwame Ture presentation if they could record and we told them that they could record, reproduce, distribute, and make it a best seller. We are not in business to sell anything. We are revolutionaries and we want the message to get out. So, white women sit and protest. Its long past time that you did something for justice. That you did more than just sitting back and upholding this capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal system. You will have to understand that a lot will need to happen before we will trust you, but until that day, please do everything you can to prove us wrong.
Second, nothing written here is designed to let European (white) women on the hook. Nothing here is about supporting them or elevating their suffering. We are as much allies to them as they are to us which aside from a smattering of principled women among them, is virtually 0. We are fully aware that the masses of white women have historically and consistently chosen to align themselves with the capitalist white power system. So, we are the last persons who need any lectures from any of our well meaning people who wish to make sure that we are aware that those white women suggesting today that they kneel during the so-called anthem to protest the patriarchal behavior of their leaders previously had no intention of ever kneeling when we originally suggested the concept as a protest against police terrorism against our people. We are fully aware of all of these contradictions.
Where we enter this discussion is around the question of empire. To us, the U.S. capitalist system is an empire. This means it cannot be reformed. It cannot be rearranged. It cannot be sufficiently improved. It is a system designed to exploit and oppress and in order to stop that, it must be destroyed. Completely destroyed. This is revolutionary politics and since most of you are not only not revolutionaries, but you really don't even understand exactly what revolution actually is (despite the fact you are convinced that you do), this is why you fail to understand the point we are about to make.
To most of you, the objective is the protest itself. So, you are stuck on who controls the protest because the ability to express your pain and outrage is your primary goal. You are not really thinking about, or concerned, about how to solve the problem that brought you to protest in the first place. Provided the political leaders of this system validate you by offering you a place at the table, that to you is the purpose of the protest. Sitting at their table is an accomplishment to you. We are not throwing shade at you for this approach. We are just pointing out that the only way you can maintain this approach is because you are not interested in destroying this system, but we are. Since we are, we recognize that any and all people who begin to oppose this system makes it weaker. The weaker it gets, the more our work is assisted.
Kwame Ture said in the 90s that the then rise of right-wing violence in this country would help our movement. I was present many times when he said this and the crowd always had a very difficult time understanding his point which was that as we fight against the system on the left, the more people on the right who do the same, the weaker it is going to make this capitalist system. He explained this from the standpoint that during the 1960s when he was a leader within the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the right-wing were the shock troops for capitalism's assault against civil rights workers. It was those working poor whites who made up significant numbers in the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups that regularly terrorized our civil rights workers (the people we honor). All the system had to say was that we were against the system and those people immediately went on the attack against us. Many of them are still doing that, we understand that, but as more and more of them are openly opposing the very government they used to so diligently serve, it makes the challenge much more interesting. So, what we are saying is imagine a reality where more and more white women began challenging this power structure. Eventually, many of them will start to question the direction of their protests as many of us did. They will want to develop more focus and dedication to their work. That means increased political education and more of that means a crisper understanding of the contradictions. That means more determined and militant approaches to finishing off this system. Before some of you say that white women would never go down that road we will caution you to recognize that we cannot predict the future. There is no time in the history of this country when white women were opening questioning the power structure as they are now. That protest stage is of course simply the first stage of their political development just as it was the beginning for all of us. Why wouldn't we sit back and see what they do? No work is required on our part. No one is asking or expecting us to organize white women. We should be organizing our own people. If white women do nothing except wear pussy hats we are no farther back then we already are in our own work. If they move to develop something much more militant and determined, than we fail to see how that hurts us in any way.
What's important for us is that we learn not to let our trauma cloud our political vision. Yes, we are mad at white women and we have every right to be, but we cannot let our emotional state prevent us from seeing the big picture. How and why is it a bad thing if everyone on Earth "appropriates" our protest tactics if in doing so they move us closer towards liberation? We would think we want them to mimic any and everything we do against this system. I remember years ago when someone asked me at a Kwame Ture presentation if they could record and we told them that they could record, reproduce, distribute, and make it a best seller. We are not in business to sell anything. We are revolutionaries and we want the message to get out. So, white women sit and protest. Its long past time that you did something for justice. That you did more than just sitting back and upholding this capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal system. You will have to understand that a lot will need to happen before we will trust you, but until that day, please do everything you can to prove us wrong.
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