Yvette Carnell, "Black Nativists; African Intelligentsia is to Blame

Back in 2007, FOX News (for folks in Africa, etc., its a U.S. right wing propaganda news channel) show "Hannity and Colmes" aired a segment featuring someone identified as Ted Hayes.  This person was presented as a "right wing street activist in Los Angeles, California, U.S." with a group called "Choose Black America."  On that show, Hayes presented his group as a foremost organization in African political thought throughout the U.S. as it relates to their position  against Indigenous (or what you probably call Latino) immigration into this country.  Of course, FOX News in general, and their Sean Hannity in particular, couldn't identify the truth if it slapped them across the face.  So, it shouldn't surprise anyone in the know that this show went on to lift this person and his group up as a legitimate voice in national discourse around immigration in this country.  The truth is this so-called "Choose Black America" was really a front group formed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a European dominated and led organization that has pushed against immigration for brown people for years.

Fast forward to 2019 where FOX News persons like Ann Coulter, another individual who couldn't spell the word truth correctly if doing so would win her $20 billion, are endorsing a new and improved version of "Choose Black America."  These individuals known as Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore have emerged as the spokespersons for groups like "Descendants of American Slaves" or ADOS.  These people have plenty of videos and commentary on platforms like youtube if you are not familiar and/or want to further investigate.  Their basic premise is that we as African people born within the U.S., are not really African.  We have no real connection to Africa in a political sense.  Their position is that our best bet for salvation is to rally our wagons around America e.g. protecting this country from foreign invasion, particularly from the worldwide masses of brown people (primarily Indigenous peoples from Central, South America, and the Caribbean) who are attempting (in their thinking) to take over this country.  Their belief is these people are a threat to our ability as African people within the U.S. to have access to resources that are due to us and so it is within our interests to adopt the xenophobic immigration point of view of the right wing in this country.  The other even more absurd position from these people is that we Africans within the U.S. should also separate ourselves from other Africans, not just within Africa, but within the Western Hemisphere.  They believe that we have no concrete connection to our African family members in the Caribbean, Central, South America, Canada, etc.  Instead, they advance a position that the concept of uniting all African people e.g. Pan-Africanism, is a utopia concept not based in reality.  They see us wrapping ourselves in the American flag and pledging our commitment to uplifting this U.S. country as the key to our salvation.  To them, we are not Africans.  We are American blacks.  American citizens.  They believe we have more in common with racist white trump voters than our own African family members born outside the U.S.

The insanity of the positions ADOS and others are articulating is beyond comprehension.  First, its absolutely impossible to separate Africans born in the U.S. from Africans in other places.  Due to the nature of the transatlantic slave trade, the people who kidnapped our ancestors grabbed Africans by the boatloads and shipped us over to the Western Hemisphere.  This process caused Ibo to instantly link with Wolof, Mandinka, Fulani, Akan, Hausa, Yoruba, Mende, etc.  The many, many slave revolts that occurred from the African interior to the shores of Africa to the slave ships to the Western hemisphere are full of evidence of Africans uniting across tribal lines to fight our oppression.  This is proven from slave revolts in Angola, Ghana, to slave ship rebellions like Amistad to the highly successful Maroon rebellions within the Western Hemisphere.  Even for Africans within the U.S. today, the proof of this is in the pudding.  You don't even know what tribe you come from because we have been forced to unite and blend together.  The point is its historically ill-refutable from a scientific standpoint for us to know if we are biologically related to Africans in the Caribbean, Central, South America, etc.  Slave masters took mothers on ships headed for the Caribbean.  Fathers on ships headed for South America.  And children on ships headed for North America.  Even the slightest study of our history confirms this.  So, just from a simply philosophical standpoint, arguing that we are not the same people based solely on the plantation the slave master took us to is incredibly naive and absurd, not to mention the height of white supremacy.  Then, from a political standpoint, that position doesn't hold any weight.  Since our enemies weakened us by separating us as they have done, common sense would tell us that the best way to solve our problems are for us to unite.  Our separation has weakened Africa.  It has forced us to become the labor that has developed and sustained the entire Western Hemisphere, including the U.S.  Our existence in these Western lands has done nothing to develop our position as a people because that's not the reason we were brought here.  And, since the entire economy of the U.S. has been built and sustained on exploiting Africa, any effort by Africans within the U.S. to attempt to build on the U.S. wealth model, which is what these people are suggesting we focus our attention on doing, only contributes to the oppression of Africans everywhere.  Here is an example of that.  Currently, a large block of those so-called "immigrants" attempting to gain political asylum within the U.S. are people from the Central American country of Honduras.  Unknown to most Africans within the U.S., there are Africans in Honduras, just like there Africans in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, Panama, etc.  Those Africans got to those countries the same way Africans in the U.S. got here, by being dropped off in chains on slave ships.  People within the U.S., including now many of us Africans, react emotionally to this immigration question without having any comprehensive study on the question e.g. what is it that's making folks from countries like Honduras feel like they have to come to the U.S.?  Why is their country unstable?  You could accept the racist notion that their instability results from their inability to govern themselves, or you could look deeper.  If you do, you will find that the current basis of their instability results from efforts the U.S. made to destabilize Honduras.  In 2009, the U.S. directed/assisted in the coup d'etat of the government of Manuel Zelaya by forcing the Honduran military to oust him.  Zelaya was in the process of leading the effort to have a referendum on the Honduran constitution.  The Honduran elite, led by U.S. imperialism, wanted nothing to do with this effort to potentially open up Honduran politics to the input of the masses of Honduran people, so they drove Zelaya out of the country which created a whirlwind of instability and repression against people.  As a result, people sought to leave and seek out safety for their families which is exactly what you would do if you were in their same position.  The point here is these ADOS people, by virtue of taking a position against these people from Honduras, many of whom are descendants of slavery like us in the U.S., are participating in the further oppression of our family members from that country.  Think about how insane all of this is.  Honduras is in Central America which means if you accept the strange identity of "African American" that makes Africans from Honduras as much "African Americans" as anyone in the U.S.  In other words, they are as much "American Descendants of Slavery" as the Africans advocating for our separation from them.  Mind boggling.

Another point is these ADOS people reject Pan-Africanism because they claim Pan-Africanism hasn't done anything concrete to advance our people.  Pure ignorance and I would challenge these people to tell us one book they have read on Pan-Africanism.  The U.S. government has a 500+ year history of systematically destroying African people all over the world, especially within the U.S.  At no point of our existence in this backward country has this government done anything except terrorize and disrespect us.  Even a complete idiot should be able to see that the fact there are billions of Africans living and existing outside of the U.S. is a core reason why these terrorists haven't attempted to completely wipe those of us here out by now.  Malcolm X's work exposing the racist nature of the U.S. government to the international community is solid proof of that.  Bolstered and completely supported and encouraged by his mentors e.g. Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, etc., Malcolm stormed throughout Africa doing the work of African unity.  The results of his work were the confident voices of newly independent African countries and organizations who boldly asserted their dissatisfaction against the racist treatment of Africans within the U.S. by this government.  Declassified Central Intelligence Agency files clearly demonstrate how concerned state department official were here about this.  The wealth of this country is completely reliant on cheap African mineral resources and labor.  This government was paying close attention when Malcolm influences came to bear at United Nations sessions just as they were strongly taken aback when the delegation of the Democratic Party of Guinea, led by Sekou Ture, raised racism within the U.S. during their state visit to the U.S. in 1959 soon after becoming an independent country.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the racist Johnson presidential administration each acknowledged the environment of African liberation around the world as a key factor in influencing the advancement of the 1964 civil rights law within the U.S.

We are actively involved in Pan-Africanist work so we can go on and on giving strong examples of how the work for African unity has helped our people everywhere, and we are really just getting started with that work.  The problem is most people, especially our African people, know nothing of this critical movement and that is a problem that has opened the door for political opportunists like ADOS to step through.  And, the blame for this sits squarely on the shoulders of the African intelligentsia within the U.S.  It was only a very short time ago that we had basically no intelligentsia.  Education was not available to us.  Our movements within this country have always centered education as a central component of what we are fighting for.  And the masses of our people getting their heads busted in, getting arrested, getting shot and killed, for our liberation had no inclination of gaining education themselves.  They made the sacrifices they made because they knew we as a people needed education.  Fast forward to 2019 and the vast majority of our people who have benefited from that struggle have completely missed the point.  They see their educational achievements, won for them by our people, not their individual academic skills, as their individualistic passport to fame and fortune.  They completely reject the reality that people fought for them to have access so they could get education and use those educational skills to provide resources for the masses of our people to liberate us from this capitalist hell we have experienced for 500+ years.  And, since our movement is weak, we haven't had the ability to hold our people accountable to us.  As a result, instead of using these communication, technology, historical, linguistic, journalistic, economic, social science, hard science, skills for our people's advancement, these skills are focused on individual advancement.  In fact, for most folks, the entire world is viewed through the capitalist lense of individualistic advancement.  Meanwhile, the lack of intellectual discourse, created by this vacuum of our intelligentsia using their intellect to challenge the anti-Africa(n) basis of this society, opens up spaces for backward thinking like that imposed by the ADOS forces, to creep in and take hold.

Franz Fanon has the often repeated quote about each generation having a mission that they will either carry out or reject.  I always think of the African intelligentsia in the U.S. when I hear that quote.  The failure of this group to carry out our historic mission has created a reality where most of our people rely on individualistic perceptions and emotional reaction to form our "analysis" on the day's events.  This sad reality has created a firestorm of opportunity for these reactionary elements to come in talking about how we have to save ourselves and embrace the rich wealth of uncle sam in order to do it.  The fact our people don't know history creates anger at our conditions.  So, when these opportunists come in and tell our people that much of their suffering is due to our family members from other countries, not the capitalists who steal everything from us, many of us are not equipped to defray this backward "analysis."

Here is a call for us to correct this injustice.  African people are a people of courage, honesty, and integrity.  This decadent society has taken everything from us, but our strength - that thing that makes so many people want to be like us - has been our ability to hold onto those values despite the terror being inflicted against us.  We can't let this system use remote controlled negroes as a means to steal our very cultural integrity away from us.  This is a call for the African intelligentsia to fulfill your mission.  Make the correct decision to reject capitalism and all its traps and start using your vast skills to provide analysis for our people.  We are Africans.  No matter where we are on Earth this is true.  And, no matter where we are, the strengthening, liberation, and unification of Africa under one continental socialist government is the prize for our people everywhere.  Anyone advocating that we unite with the enemies of humanity to uphold the immorality of U.S. capitalism is actually wanting to create a place holder for their individualistic advancement within the capitalist system.  Every African on Earth is a part of one movement we have as a people to gain freedom and liberation for our people.  And, anyone suggesting we take any positions against the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere in any way, is either the enemy or unwittingly doing their work for them.  And by Indigenous we mean Native, Mexican, Honduran, El Salvador, etc.  Regardless of whatever individual experiences you think you may have with those people, common sense should tell you they have the same enemies that we do so guess what?  It makes sense that we unite. 

Youtube and these other platforms are full of African con people who prey on the desperation of our people.  And at the end of their pitch there's no relief from our suffering.  Only opportunities for them as individuals.  I mentioned earlier that these people do the work of white supremacy.  What I meant is if you think about the position they are advancing, they really believe we are incapable of overcoming capitalism.  They believe we can't win against the capitalist so they surmise if we can't beat them, we should join them.  Only a people who accept white supremacy's analysis of us could accept this position. Only someone who has no faith in our people.  Any proud African can never speak such defeatist language against the spirit of our ancestors who didn't possess the cowardice of these people. 

We definitely need more discourse around these issues.  We need as many people as possible to raise this discussion in every corner of the African world.  I'm confident that our people, once exposed to the truths within these discussions will decide on their own to accept the truth of our Pan-African reality.  Our job is to stir the pot.  This is a call to do this.  We have to raise the bar and stop making things so easy for career opportunists like this Carnell and Moore persons to exploit the suffering of our people.