Obama’s Sermon on the Mount


And so it is, Lazarus has come forth from the grave and has begun his ascent up the mountain. American history moves with him up the mountain as he makes his way to the highest office in the land, the President. Will he stumble, fall, in the manner of Sisyphus, or will he cross the finish line to victory? As he said in his speech, it is not about him but about you, black, brown, yellow and white Americans. We think the words of a white man shall set the standard for whites when he said on the radio, “I confess my shame that only now have I come to the realization that the Black man has every right to be president of the United States. And I know many of my white brothers and sisters are facing this moment of truth.”

For North American Africans, this is the moment of truth for them as well. Obama has made us see the infinite possibilities of life, that we must never give up for one moment that dream of freedom Dr. King told us about 45 years ago, or that the ancestors sang about in those Negro Spirituals. It is time to make a great leap forward up the mountain to the promised land. It shall take ineluctable energy to cross the finish line, but we can change. We can pull up our pants, and do better than pimping and whoring. President Obama says every child who wants to attend college will be able to do so if they vow to help their community. So it ain’t about him, it’s about you. What will you do in the coming days to take advantage of the new spiritual energy flowing across this land?

Surely, every North American African saw his speech last night—and were moved, some to tears at the very idea before their eyes. But it’s about you because you produced him, yes, the sweat, blood and tears of your ancestors made this day possible. So if and when he becomes president, who do you become? What is your responsibility in this matter?
In the last words of his speech, he told you, “Hold firmly, without wavering, to the faith we confess.”

He said of America, “We are better than this.” And we are! How can such poverty, ignorance and disease exist in the land of abundance? It is only possible because we tolerate it, we accept it, we wallow in it, posing cool on the corner, sitting pacified in the church pew or on the carpet at the Mosque. We allow our lower self to rule, but it’s indeed time for change: change your mind, change your actions, change your spirit, change your thoughts—take authority over your lives and discover your mission, your purpose, just as Obama has done. You too can make history every day, simply get up and do something for self. Don’t sit around waiting for Obama to do everything for you. He has awakened your eyes to infinite possibilities. If he can run for president, what can you run for—what can you win?

--Marvin X
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
His latest book is How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702, $19.95.

Plato on the Criminal Society



“All money ain’t good money, “they say in the game, thus the riches of the American criminal society will in the end avail them nothing. Ultimately, this society must be dismantled, including all the institutions tainted by the criminal activities of said society from slavery down to the present moment, including the political, educational, economic, social, cultural and especially the religious—all have the mark of the beast and are direct beneficiaries of genocide upon the Africans and indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The contradiction between the democratic ideals and the pragmatic chattel and wage slavery of today can only be resolved by revolution in consciousness, followed by the reconstruction of the entire society to eradicate the white supremacy and blood sucking values of capitalist exploitation, including the neo-imperialism called globalism.

The decadent roots of this criminal society were well documented by historian J.A. Rogers in Africa’s Gift to America. He described the founding fathers not as puritan holy men but rather as a gang of thieves, kidnappers, murderers, sexual deviants, including child molesters, homosexuals and others depraved sociopaths. Just as Castro not long ago emptied his jails and prisons of such persons, England did the same, sending their outcasts to America and Australia. America has never acknowledged her true roots. While Alex Haley showed America’s African roots, we are yet to see the true roots of the criminal founders of America.

Thus, this criminal society has no moral foundation, except in a constitution of words but without deeds to institute true democracy, of, for and by the people. It is yet a society of the criminal rich robber barons in suits and ties who are the puppets of international finance which cares nothing for the 85% who are deaf, dumb and blind to the true nature of the ruling class, that 10% who own and maintain the wealth solely by police and military power.

The 5% who deliver truth are indeed poor righteous teachers who must struggle to pull the covers off the criminal rulers, whether they are in the political, religious, educational or economic institutions. It is not enough to blame politicians when the educational system is in cahoots with politicians, and the same can be said of the preachers who act as pharaoh’s magicians with their “opiate of the people” witchcraft of religiosity, closely followed are the media pundits who add their magic to construct the world of make believe inhabited by the 85% deaf, dumb and blind.

Such a criminal society must be uprooted and discarded into the dustbin of history, only then can the righteous rise to the top and institute true democracy, freedom, justice and equality.


After 400 years, we have a descendant of African slavery and colonialism in line for president of the United States. And yet the majority of citizens have been so poisoned by the criminal rulers that a great percentage of them are full of hatred for the brother, even those of his ethnic group (although he is from the white and the black, but one drop of African blood makes him African in the traditional racial paradigm). If he makes it to the white house, he must largely follow the criminal agenda of American political philosophy, which includes an imperial view of the world, unless of course he is pressured from below by the masses who see him as the savior who has finally come to adjudicate the criminals, putting them away and liberating the people from centuries of degradation and oppression. But it is highly unlikely the brother will be able to satisfy the social angst and shattered cultural strivings of the people (in the words of Dr. Nathan Hare), especially the North American Africans since he cannot appear to be partial to any ethnic group, although whites have done so for centuries. Maybe it would be well enough if he can lighten the whip lashes on the backs of the oppressed, if only for a moment, since this has been the nature of our Sisyphusian drama, as described by Dubois and more recently by Amiri Baraka—we have endured cycles of progress followed by regression and reaction by the criminal society, and now with Obama we are clearly on the upward path, for he has given inspiration to the down and out that a modicum of change might be possible, in spite of detractors on all sides of the ethnic divide.

Obama brings a breath of fresh air to a rotten, stinking, criminal society that in the last eight years of the Bush reign of terror has made the world a hell hole, not to mention America itself, with the worse financial crisis since the depression--the sub-prime loan crisis has divested millions of people of their fundamental wealth contained in home ownership. The quarterly earnings of the oil barons allied with the criminals in the white house, have engineered an energy crisis beyond the imagination, since the petrochemical industry is connected to food commodity prices and supplies ingredients such as pesticides, insecticides, hormones and genetic engineering that lead to diseases contracted by the people who must then turn to the pharmaceutical industry which conspires with doctors, nurses and the funeral directors in the classic manner of Elijah Muhammad’s Yacubian mythology.

How can one extricate oneself out of this morass of criminality? Some attempt to become criminals themselves, thinking they can out criminal the master, yet we see tale after tale of gansta genre films that end with a sad tale of nothingness and dread, for after all is said and done, the boyz and girls in the hood have a life of ephemeral joy, followed by grief if not death itself. So what price glory? My brother, a career criminal, recently told me his son asked him, “Dad, why didn’t you teach me the game?” My brother said he told his son, “Son, I didn’t want to teach you the game because look what the game got me—a life in prison, more or less.”

The supreme irony, the conundrum of criminality is that it takes the same energy to do right as it does to do wrong. It is a matter of how a man thinks and then acts. We can plan a bank robbery or we can compose a letter to the banker for a loan or grant even. On more than one occasion, I have composed a one page letter and obtained a grant or loan (sometimes it was a ghetto loan, but a loan none the less). Mama said use the mind God gave you!

It is time to rise up from the criminal paradigm—the notion that we are going to beat the master criminal. No matter how much killing goes on in the hood, it can never match the State sponsored mass murder of America and her allies around the world.

We must seize the moral authority and hold fast to the rope of righteousness, thus reclaiming our spirituality and dignity to walk as free men and women without the blood of criminality and the resulting grief we bring more often than not to our people. We cannot kill them with drugs, prostitution and other moral depravities, yet simultaneously proclaim we are saving them. Either save them or leave them alone in their wretchedness!

--Plato Negro

Plato Negro, aka Marvin X/Dr. M, is the author of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, A Pan African 12 Step Model, Foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, Afterword by Ptah Allah-El, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley Ca 94702, $19.95.

From: falim@aol.com
Subject: Re: Plato On the Bitter Bitch Syndrome
To: jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, August 23, 2008, 6:35 AM


Muhajir, I know you love the term bitter bitch. I hate the term, but I know its a reality. I try real hard to avoid being around them. Bitterness is vile and viral.
I love being around the Black women who have learned how to love and live with their men for life. Mostly Southern women.They know how to keep their men. Know how to value themselves and their men. Also know when to shutup. White women are not the only women who know how to act. Black women and Black men have to learn to practice restraint with each other like they show to the white folks. And then they won't need their fake, self-loathing relationships with "the other."
Keep doing your work against white supremacy!! It's crucial!

Plato on the Bitter Bitch Syndrome

In Dr. Julia Hare’s recent book The Sexually and Politically Anorexic Black Woman, is described a personality devoid of sexual desire and political action, a person so traumatized she is of no use to herself or anyone else, although this person may seek escape in lesbianism to assuage the pain of sexual deprivation and the abuse of patriarchal domination. But to her surprise, she may soon find herself under female domination on a level equal if not surpassing patriarchal domination. Yes, now she is a victim of the matriarchy, finding no escape except the temporary tenderness of her gender group’s gentle massaging of her wounds, which are healed with the feminine touch so missing in the rough masculine approach upon her psychosexuality.

But no mater what gender, persons in the Western world are prone to oppress and dominate in their interpersonal relations. Thus in homosexual relations, partner abuse and violence is equal if not more violent than traditional male/female partner abuse. We are aware of a young lesbian who is avoiding a confrontation with two lovers who want to “beat her up.” And we recall the tragic case of choreographer Raymond Sawyer who was stabbed over fifty times by his lover or associates. In short, everybody wants to dominate in the spirit of white supremacy socialization. There is thus the need to detoxify from our addiction to white supremacy culture, including the psychosexuality inherent in such culture, no matter the gender of the participants.

The result is persons with the bitter bitch syndrome, exhibiting a hatred, jealousy and envy that is obvious in their aura upon approach. It can be seen in the evil vibe they give off, the sinister look in their eyes, especially when a heterosexual man approaches or interacts with a person in their homosexual gender group.

People are generally insecure in their relationships, simply because their personalities are fragile, making them apprehensive and ultra sensitive to the approach of any person outside the group--thus the bitter bitch syndrome.

Now this syndrome transcends homosexuality because the heterosexual woman, who in Dr. Hare’s view is anorexic, is bitter as well against the male who ignores her for “foreign women,” in the manner of Samson and Delilah, especially those brothers sporting locks and spouting One Love, Iree, Jah Rastafari, although a true Rasta would not be seen with Babylon woman. Sisters long ago gave up attending Reggae concerts because brothers were so entwined with Babylon woman that it became useless to seek a man in such venues. More reason for the Bitter Bitch Syndrome.

And it is the same with the Hip Hop generation who are edumakated in Kemetic science or Afrocentricism, but opts for foreign women to the detriment of the conscious sister who is left alone while her Kemetic brother again finds solace in the arms of women who caused his people’s downfall 6000 years ago in the Nile Valley culture. But he is so absorbed in his intellectuality that history escapes him, robbing him of the experience of love and nurturing with his natural mate.

Even after the trials and tribulations of Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidential nomination and the white supremacy expressed by her and her sisters, to say nothing of her racist husband, Billy boy, the first black president—so Obama will be the second? Alas, I must quote Fahizah who has informed us the white woman is the bearer of children who shall inherit the white supremacy world of her fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, and the Negro like the tragic Othello, yet is blind to their agenda, especially since he has no agenda of his own, but is free styling in a boat without a rudder, riding a bicycle without a kickstand.

After cohabitating with foreign men, the African mothers raised children with misplaced loyalties that have persisted down to the present moment in the multiracial children. Are they black or white, shall they identify with the African mother or foreign father—the tragic mulatto syndrome that morphed into the bitter bitch syndrome of today.

“Why does the black man hate me?” a so-called conscious sister asked me recently. Now I have written that often it is the woman’s mouth that turns off the black man so he is unable to desire her sexually. There is thus an urgent need for males and females to again learn the language of love; otherwise the anorexia will be an addiction of both genders. Neither will have the desire to experience sexual love with each other. We think maybe it is time to have a great love fest in the community, a ritual to celebrate the spirituality of sexuality, making it a healing tool in our relations and thus bury the bitter bitch syndrome, no matter what gender.

--Plato Negro
8.22.08

Dope, Mamas and Preachers





In West Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade, a monograph published before his great work, HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA, the late Dr. Walter Rodney explained the dire social situation as Africa entered the slave trade. He told how all institutions contributed to our downfall: the political, economic, judicial, military, and religious institutions played their role in the destruction of African society.

The rulers, kings and queens, in the words of a Baraka poem, “Sold the farmer to the ghost….” The king and his military, those noble warriors, often engaged in mock battles with neighboring kings and their peoples, then divided the spoils of war (the people) between themselves; of course the “spoils” were sold to European slavers. Rodney told how the judicial system was corrupted with false charges and false evidence to enslave the victims. Persons were falsely charged with adultery and of course the sentence was slavery or sale to the Europeans.. From a previous society with no jails and peace in the streets, the time came when all were fearful of being kidnapped. No more peace in the streets, in the villages, but chaos reigned. One tribe could no longer truth another tribe; one person could not trust another.





In America today, we find ourselves in a similar situation. The Arabs use the term “ya’um jahiliyah” (days of ignorance) to designate the historical time before the prophet when all was chaos, murder, revenge killing, tribal warfare, assassination, kidnapping, highway robbery of caravans, quite similar to West Africa before the slave trade or Maafa (great tragedy). But what we have in America is not only business as usual white supremacy, but an expeditious return to slavery times, especially with the involuntary servitude of the jailed and imprisoned, with over 50% of the population African and Latino, the majority Africans incarcerated for minor drug crimes such as small amounts of crack cocaine; with a great percentage of inmates found guilty due to information or mis-information from snitches (give up three people and you go free is the mantra here in the Bay Area of Cali). Is this not similar to the judicial corruption Dr. Rodney described in West Africa ? Nowhere is safe these days, the Mall, the Church, the schools, colleges and universities, the workplaces, the social clubs. In Oakland , nearly all clubs for North American Africans have closed due to violence inside or outside the establishments.

Youth gangs have adults living in terror, afraid to go to the store. Several youth have been carjacked and murdered to obtain rims. Antar Bey, the young CEO of Your Black Muslim Bakery (now closed since the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey), was killed to obtain the five thousand dollar rims on his BMW.



And while the church marches and prays to stop the violence, it too has been corrupted by the general chaos in the hood. Sometimes it says nothing about drugs and violence because it is often the beneficiary of mothers who support the church with funds from children involved in the drug trade. One sister said if the church talked about drugs it would have no congregation since so much of its income is from tithes derived from the criminal activity of children whose mothers are church going women. One sister told me these women are essentially pimping their children, then cry when Dante is murdered, swearing he was a good child who did no wrong. When in fact Dante was one of the biggest dope dealers in the hood, who lavished material goods upon his mother.



We recall a church mother who took drugs to her sons in prison contained in baby diapers. And recently we were informed parents can no longer bring home cooked meals to juvenile hall because they were hiding drugs in the food. Yes, even mother is guilty of participating in the chaos and corruption of modern day slavery.



Prostitution is on the rise since the drug trade has lead to the incarceration of so many males. Girls eleven, twelve and thirteen can be found whoring on Oakland ’s International Blvd , and they are indeed international, representing every ethnic group and multiracial configuration.



The sad truth is that America has never separated itself completely from its slave past; it merely progressed into virtual slavery of segregation, then wage slavery of the civil rights era. Globalism insures the continuation of virtual slavery with the capitalist desire for cheap wages and natural resources. To obtain and maintain their thousand per cent profits, the imperialists will insist on minimum wages and prices for natural resources. The hopeful sign is the nationalization of resources by the leftist governments throughout the Americas , throwing a monkey wrench in the continued exploitation and robbery of their peoples.



North American Africans seem oblivious to events below their border, aside from joining with the capitalists in their attempt to stem the tide of immigration from the south caused by centuries of Yankee imperialism. The American Blacks are in the main ignorant of the revolution throughout the Americas , in Bolivia , Nicaragua , Venezuela , Argentina , Chile , Brazil , Peru and elsewhere.

While they are glued to the insanity of B.E.T. television, peoples throughout the Americas are taking charge of their destiny, kicking out the bloodthirsty imperialists and their reactionary collaborators.



We must come quickly to the realization that our freedom is connected with other people throughout the Americas , with whom we are connected by blood, sweat and tears.



The poor peasants who cultivate the coca plants are victims as well, for they derive little profit for their labor under the sun. We cannot get angry with them but it is upon us to have the discipline to resist the dope when it reaches our cities, for medication is not the solution, rather we must resist oppression not submit to it by medicating ourselves into oblivion, additionally becoming victims of the criminal justice system, then clients of the billion dollar racist pseudo-recovery industry. Yes, the same white racists who deliver the dope, offer to deliver you from the dope, especially with the new harm reduction model that says keep using dope, just do so in a controlled manner. Don’t stop being a wage slave, take a bath and make love to your mate, and don’t abuse your children, but keep taking your dope, and keep coming back to recovery—after all, we make as much money off the recovery business as from addicting the population.



Of course the real solution is a revolution in consciousness, then in society, yes, the destruction of all white supremacy institutions that are harmful and dangerous to our health and the health of humanity in general.



Politicians, preachers and teachers must act in new ways that are progressive rather than reactionary and backward. Mothers, fathers and children must do the same. This is a family affair: slavery was about the destruction of family, thus ultimate freedom will be about the reconstruction of family. There is no other way.



--Dr. M



Dr. M is author of HOW TO RECOVER FROM THE ADDICTION TO WHITE SUPREMACY, BLACK BIRD PRESS, 2007, $19.95. Order from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way , Berkeley CA , 94702 .

--- On Fri, 8/22/08, Marvin X Jackmon wrote:


From: Marvin X Jackmon
Subject: [blackantiwar] Oakland Tribune Editor Replies to Marvin X on Who Killed Chauncey Bailey
To: goodnewspc@aol. com, editor@sfbayview. com, falim@aol.com, jnaidu@postnewsgrou p.com, blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com, rudolphlewis@ hotmail.com, j_vern_cromartie@ yahoo.com, jrswriter@comcast. net, "John Woodford" , "Lil Joe" , "Nefertitti Jackmon" , "Muhammida El Muhajir" , ibespirit@yahoo. com, "Oluwasola Ifasade"
Date: Friday, August 22, 2008, 5:52 AM



--- On Thu, 8/21/08, Reynolds, Martin wrote:

From: Reynolds, Martin
Subject: RE: Fingertips
To: jmarvinx@yahoo. com
Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 7:17 PM

Marvin, thanks for your note.If you have some more specifics about preachers plying the drug trade that would be a story we would do in a heartbeat. All I need is a little information and I can get a reporter on it immediately. Contrary to what people think, newspapers don't know everything. We get tips, build relationships and the like. If you have specifics about the cops and illegal activities, I am compelled as the editor of this paper to investigate and would do so vigorously. In fact, mainstream publications at times are not seen favorably by segments of the community, in large part because the paper has failed to make connections, reach out, or doesn't have the diversity on staff that really enables it to do the kinds of stories that connect. Or, the people who would most benefit from our resources, don't read the paper and damn sure won't call one. Although, they might call the Oakland Post because it is seen as a part of the community, not a publication that simply writes about it. We are looking into the police and specifically, Sgt. Longmire's connection to the bakery. There are stories in the works now that go to the heart of the department. I can't say more than that, but rest assured, our job is to seek the truth. It may take us some time to figure it out, but we are not afraid, in the pocket of or unwilling to take on such a task. Often time, what we need are people willing to give us information, on or off the record to help steer us in the right direction. As far as our coverage of Muslims, look, there is no concerted effort to insult the collective religion and culture of Black Muslims in our community. Do you have some ideas about stories and people in the Black Muslim community to suggest? Please, pass them along. Bottom line is this, I would like us to have lunch so we can meet face to face, and maybe you'd be willing to provide direction toward stories we should be doing. I am out of town all of next week, but back the first week of September. I would be happy to sit down then. I hope to hear from you. And if I don't I will call you. Best, Martin

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Marvin X Jackmon [mailto:jmarvinx@ yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 11:47 AM
To: Reynolds, Martin
Subject: Fingertips

Martin, it's also easy to see through the bullshit of others. Your paper and the Chauncey Bailey Project have used overkill to poison the area on the Muslims, while giving the police a free ride to continue their gang activity under the color of law. You know, the Chief knows and the community knows they are killers, drug dealers and thugs. No wonder the people are shooting at them on Bromley Street--I expect there will be more of this as the people are sick and tired of their ganster activities. No one is trying to absolve the Muslims of their crimes which have been known throughout the community for decades--in the manner of the Eloquent Peasant in Egyptian literature, Taraki Lewis cried for years to get the authorities to deal with abuse at the bakery. So the bakery is nothing new--only thing new is that it reached the climax with the death of Chauncey, yet the police connection has not been aggressively pursued. The question is why? Is the media and the police one and the same--are you scaming us with the emphasis on the Muslims. And furthermore, how and why can you continue running stories with the same rehashed, redundant and repetitive information, only changing papers, from Trib to Chron, same story, different day. Are Muslims the only criminals in the Bay? What about all the Christian criminals? What about the role of the Church in drug dealing--surely you know if some preachers talked about drug dealing they would have no congregation since the children of church going parents, mothers in particular, are benefiting from the drug trade, thus the preachers as well. In short, it is difficult to tell the good guys from the bad. Maybe you are in with the thugs as well. The Qur'an says, "Don't hide truth while you know." I am concerned with presenting positive stories on Muslims in the Bay and elsewhere.As the father of Muslim American literature, why don't you consider a feature story on me? Peace,Marvin X355-6339 In regards to Marvin's column: It's easy to impugn the work of others, but difficult to do the work yourself.If he has information and wants to help, have him call me instead of running off at the fingertips.M. Martin G. Reynolds
Editor
The Oakland Tribune
AME News - Bay Area News Group-East Bay
7677 Oakport St. Suite 950
Oakland, CA 95612
510-208-6433
510-390-1779 (cell)
mreynolds@bayareane wsgroup.com
www.oaklandtribune. com

Umar Ben Hasan and Marvin X Rock Oakland


Last Poets Umar Ben Hasan and Marvin X appeared briefly in Oakland Tuesday night at Dorsey’s Locker, a poetry venue in North Oakland. Umar, in Oakland for a residency at East Side Arts, was exhausted from a European tour, so MC President Davis, star of Amiri Baraka’s Sisyphus Syndrome, was happy to have the legendary poet do one poem.
Marvin X came on first, introducing young vocalist Raushanah Bashir who accompanied him on a poem dedicated to Barak Obama, “Can You Change,” from his collection Land of My Daughters, Black Bird Press, 2005. Raushanah sang lines from Lauryn Hill’s Peace of Mind and Sam Cook’s classic A Change Is Gonna Come, closing out the poet’s performance. Marvin X then introduced his friend from the Black Arts Movement, Umar Ben Hasan. The two met in Harlem, 1968, and joined Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Barbara Ann Teer, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Sun Ra, Ed Bullins and others in forming the Black Arts Movement (see The Black Arts Movement by James Smethurst, University of North Carolina Press).

Marvin passed the mike to Ben Hasan who told the story of Marvin X in Harlem during that critical year, 1968. According to Umar, Marvin X appeared at cultural events wearing a Muslim hat and stood at attention in the rear of the auditorium. He took the mike when it was time for him to read, then immediately after, returned to his post. Marvin grabbed the mike and told the audience this was an Umar Ben Hasan fish story.
Ben Hasan proceeded to recite a poem from his repertory to the pleasure of the audience who were honored to have him in the house. The venue owner, Mr. Dorsey, told Umar the poetry of the Last Poets changed his life. Mr. Dorsey had told Marvin X this fact before Umar arrived, thus the reason Marivn commanded the audience stand in honor of the legendary poet. His residency will include workshops and performance at the Eastside Arts Alliance, 2277 International Blvd., Oakland. 510-533-6629.

Plato’s Prayer Circle





Plato gathered the men in a circle to his rear while he continued vending books. As each man came to his table, he ushered them into the circle of brothers who were attempting to heal themselves from the addiction to white supremacy. It was a motley crew; one brother had had a private session with Plato earlier that morning. The brother was thirty years old and in grief due to losing his father, a doctor, who was murdered on the streets of Oakland six years ago at the age of 54. As the brother talked, the conversation eventually came to the death of his father. At this point the brother broke down in tears and had to depart for a moment to compose himself with a cigarette. He returned but his pain was so great he began crying again, embarrassed at himself. Plato hugged him and let him know he too had lost a loved one, his son, who committed suicide at the age of 38. Plato told the young man how much he hated the term closure, because he would never get over the death of his son. The young man said the movie Pursuit of Happiness broke him down because his father had raised him alone, had given him consciousness, while his mother, a Nigerian, had returned home, leaving him to be raised by his father. He said his mother was an arrogant woman with class issues, thinking everyone, including him, was her servant. And he despised her for the way she talked to his father, very demeaning and castrating, while his father was humble. He said the good in himself came from his father, the negative from his mother. While visiting Nigeria, he observed their supreme arrogance. Plato said Black Americans have this same arrogance, no doubt because so many of us are descendants from that area of West Africa.

Other men in the circle included two black CIA agents. Well, one was a Special Forces Operative, the other a Consultant to the military in Southeast Asia. They debated each other about which one of them was still on the payroll.

Plato only occasionally listened to their conversation which included a variety of topics, but Plato’s objective was to let them talk, free style, to detoxify the pain of white supremacy. The Special Forces brother told Plato he was not well after his service to America. He said no man who kills can ever be well again, no matter what is said about recovering from post-traumatic stress. He said he has been trained to kill his mother, if ordered to do so.

Another brother was a Five Per Center, so when a customer asked for literature on this cult founded by Charles 13X, Plato pulled the young man out of the circle to speak with the customer. The Five Per Center showed him the literature, the basic text and other writings on the group. The customer claimed the Five Per Centers are the wave of the future. Plato did not argue with the customer, but told him to make sure he studied the writings of Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad.

As per the prayer circle, Plato wished the men would be diplomatic with each other rather than attempt to doctor the patient to death, since we are all sick to one degree or another, but we must and will heal ourselves, so there is the urgent need to practice patience and kindness with each other. We must understand the fragile condition of our personalities, our damaged self esteem. And this is especially necessary for the elder brothers when speaking with the younger generation who are hostile to any message from the elders, especially if it is not delivered with gentleness, kindness and respect, even when we know the young brother may be ignorant. But do we want to save our people or simply express age superiority because this attitude will not heal the brotherhood or sisterhood. We must engage in the spirit of revolutionary love and submission to the higher cause, the salvation of our people.

--Plato Negro

8.18.08

www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com

Oakland Man Was Slave

Dr. Henry C. Williams says he was a slave the first twenty years of his life in Henry County, Alabama. As the son of a sharecropper, he received no money for his labor in the fields, rather he and his family only received goods such as food and clothing from the landowner. This sharecropping was virtual slavery and Mr. Williams claims he, his family and all black people are due damages in the form of reparations. “Slavecropper” Williams is organizing 40 Acres and a Mule Reparations March, scheduled for October 24-27, 2008 in Washington DC.

“We are asking the President and Congress for billions of dollars per year to build and rebuild Black communities all over America. We do not want it all at once, but annually, as the Native Americans receive their money. Reparations would go toward supporting the homeless, building homes. It would help those released from prisons and jails, training them to build housing and other reconstruction projects needed in our community.”

Dr. Williams says reparations will go toward addressing mental health issues such as unresolved grief and the post traumatic stress derived from slavery. It would be for mentorship that would match young men with elders so they can receive proper guidance, regain confidence, self-esteem and courage.

The ex-slavecropper Williams noted that Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s family derived their wealth from slavery and sharecropping. His grandparents owned a plantation of 2,000 acres with 52 slaves, and thus John McCain should share his wealth with descendants of slaves.

For more information, please call 510-507-3424.

For The Last Time in Your Life

For Ra Ba

For the last time in your life
Will you treat her right?
Love her with all yr might
For the last time
Shower her with love
Gifts, flowers, acts of kindness
Show her love
That she may rise to sing
The glories of the King
Tell His secret tales
The myth the ritual
Supreme love
Not animal
Higher than Mount Tai love
Let that be the lesson from her teacher
Let her pass on the wisdom to her children
Let her generation know the King has come
Shall never leave again
But it was only because of faith
We lost the way back home
Found ourselves weary
Then found once again
As we marched toward the house of love
A nation of love
We are the flowers
We are the seeds
Forward march
Attention! Right face, left! Double time!
--m
8.17.08

For The Last Time in Your Life

For Ra Ba

For the last time in your life
Will you treat her right?
Love her with all yr might
For the last time
Shower her with love
Gifts, flowers, acts of kindness
Show her love
That she may rise to sing
The glories of the King
Tell His secret tales
The myth the ritual
Supreme love
Not animal
Higher than Mount Tai love
Let that be the lesson from her teacher
Let her pass on the wisdom to her children
Let her generation know the King has come
Shall never leave again
But it was only because of faith
We lost the way back home
Found ourselves weary
Then found once again
As we marched toward the house of love
A nation of love
We are the flowers
We are the seeds
Forward march
Attention! Right face, left! Double time!
--m
8.17.08

FORWARD IS WHERE WE HAVE TO GO

by

Amiri Baraka

What the young(?) people with the signs in St.Petersburg sd to Obama "You're undermining the (Black) Revolution" is merely one more sign of how confused and misdirected too many who style themselves "revolutionary" have become. For one thing it is certain that these folk do not even understand what revolution is. I would guess they are more of the tiny throng captivated by anarchism and infantile leftism who think revolution means standing on the sidelines calling who they think are their enemies names.

If you want to stand around with signs of some significant show of political clarity, they should at least be aimed at the crypto fascist McCain. To not even be able to identify who is the main enemy at any given stage of struggle is patently non-revolutionary. To think that Obama is the principle target of our struggle is , at best, infantile left and anarchist. It could be pro McCain.

If we go back to basics, revolution is the seizure of power. The aim of revolutionaries, at most stages of struggle, is the seizure of power, to picket Obama is to move to seize power for McCain.

What is also not understood is the tortuous path of revolutionary struggle. Obama, along with quite a few other "post 60's" developments is the product of the 60's struggles, a direct result of the turbulent civil rights and Black Liberation movements. Whether you yet understand it or not, Without Dr. King, Montgomery, Malcolm X, Robert Williams, Rosa Parks, CORE, The Freedom Riders, The Black Panthers, SNCC, CAP, there could be no Barack Obama . Without those bloody struggles against Black national oppression, racism, discrimination, segregation, there could be no Obama candidacy, certainly not of this magnitude.

Jesse's two runs were admirable , and yes, they were part of the sledgehammer of Black politics from the 50's through the 80's. And just as that force created the visible use of Powell and Condoleeza Rice as negro "buttons" within the rightwing establishment of US bourgeois politics , none of that was possible without the Black movement itself, as contradictory as that might seem . The internationally perceived racial conflict in the United States was the most glaring contradiction to US claims as the almighty white angel of world politics.

The colored Secretaries of State provided some of the cool out necessary not only to sublimate that image but to foist on this world of colored people a confusing tactic , so that when the US Secy of State hopped out of plane somewhere in this mostly colored world, friends and righteous enemies would be startled by who was carrying the message.

So that now it's come all the way to the "top" of US government, this need for another, Yeh! Black , face to cool out the ugliness the last 20 some years have mashed upon the world. We might not agree with the intention of this playacting, but at the same time we must recognize the forces that make this necessary. Recognize those forces, because we are a large part of them. And with that recognition must come the understanding of what is the next step in this protracted struggle to ultimately eliminate imperialism and monopoly capitalism, which are the base of continuing national oppression , racism, gender oppression, anti –democratic hegemony anywhere in the world.

The very negative side of the "post racist" line that Obama runs is that the die is cast for nitwits to say that racism is done and gone and that if you still in the ghetto or still don't have a job, it's on you. Bah, Humbug! Obama's best intention is that there is the making of a post racist coalition that can provide the muscle for his campaign and victory in the election. But reality, the cops, the jails, the unemployment figures puts all that down every day.

But it is a very pimpable figment. The New York Times recent cover story "Is Obama The End of Black Politics?" is a very stinking example of its pimpablity. One obvious answer to that is "Only if Obama is the End of White Politics" which we see even in the way the Clintons as well as McCain and the overwhelming racism of the media are running the primaries, is certainly not the case. One could hope that an Obama victory wd signal an incremental leap in the direction of more democratic allowance for highly skilled operatives within the system, which is what Obama certainly is. But "post racist"?..., gimme me a break.

The Times article, predictably, uses the most visible of stealth negroes , i.e. those who, while profiting by the opening in US politics provided them by the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movement, and getting substantial Black support at the polls, believe that they have "made it" by virtue of their own impeccable greatness, Booker in Newark, Nutter in Phila, Fenty in DC come to mind. Booker, whom I sent a copy of Marvin X's book How To Recover from An Addiction to White Supremacy , though more crafty than Nutter, who played gun bearer for Bonnie & Clyde during the Democratic primaries, Booker has raised Newark taxes 8% , fired 4 or 500 mostly black city hall workers, claiming to have a budget problem but hiring at the same time a half dozen non-Newark natives as"deputy mayors", at $176,000 a piece. My son, Ras, was deputy mayor for four years and took no salary. The top 10 Police officials, including both the Police Director and the Police Chief are white. Fenty who claims his biracial parentage has made him see "more" than merely black struggle. Booker says "I don't want to be the person that's turned to when CNN talks about black leaders…I'm Popeye, " he says…"I am who I am". Naturally these wd be the people the Times would use to give an obituary for "Black Politics". But certainly, these kinds of "wooden negroes" are not entirely new on the scene, they are just the most recent crop of negroes claiming they are greater (or safer) than mere black people. The struggle between Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen was essentially the same , when Langston says in The Negro Artist & The Racial Mountain (1926) " One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, 'I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet' meaning subconsciously, 'I would like to be a white poet', "meaning behind that "'I would like to be white' And I was sorry the young man said that, for no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself" In a recent Esquire Booker comes on like he thinks he is Will Smith in I Am Legend, a single human scientist trapped in a city full of vampires.

When Nutter says," I never asked anybody to vote for me because I was Black", he is missing the essential historic fact of Black life in America and trying with all his might to dismiss it. That he couldn't even run for Mayor being Black. He might have had to run for his life, if he even said such a thing. It was Black peoples' unity and struggle that has made even this delusion of self anointment possible.

Black politics will only disappear when the Black majority disappears. And even the wish fulfillment of New York Times "liberals"can never achieve this, nor the creepy self hatred of those incognegroes the Times wants to anoint as post black negroes. Still the question of Obama's candidacy is a quite different consideration. As I have said , in print and in the flesh at many forums, no matter what is said by whoever thinks to deny this, or even what Obama says himself, the foundation of Obama's successful candidacy is the 90% support by the Afro-American people. A fact that I'm sure he understands. Obama also understands that it is the rest of the American people he must reach out to, no matter how attempts he makes to do this are questioned, even by Black people. Even 90% of 12% is not enough to win the presidency.

So that for the so called militants, black or white left not to understand that the logic and strength of Obama's candidacy is the 21st century manifestation of the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements, impossible without it. Jesse Jackson's two impressive candidacy's were also part of that motion, not to accept both these phenomena as positive aspects and results of our collective struggle is to lack "True Self Consciousness" .

The real question now is what is the next step, what is the key link in that chain of progressive struggle that if grasped will hoist the whole of us incrementally to the next level of unity and struggle. For those forces so duped by their erroneous understanding of what constitutes revolutionary movement. The consistent idealism of those who wd waste their vote on people whose most positive contribution would be to point out even more foricibly the link between McCain and a swifter fascist future for the US and critically support Obama's outright liberalism, but issuing a critical list of planks for a more progressive Obama campaign.

There are even some utterly backward cultural nationalist negroes who say "Obama is their enemy" because he is not demanding that black people stop speaking English and speak their mother tongue (my mother tongue is Afro American) or that he blame the Jews for the world's ills. My God!, You couldn't win on those planks even if the election was for the NAACP or the Black Panther Party Or the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee.

We cannot go backward or even contemplate it. A revolutionary must first find out what it is the people want, what they need. Unfortunately for some, the definition of revolution is to construct some elitist cultural nationalist, religious or infantile leftist , position, the "further out" the better, so they may claim, since few others will get down with that, that they must be the most revolutionary of all. Too often this is just a means of hiding out from the real work of educating and organizing and settling for being the hippest chump in the closet.

What we must be aiming for at the present level of US politics is a Peoples or Popular Democracy, rather than the tongue constructed false democracy real dictatorship (of wealth) that exists today. That must include the replacing of the monopoly capitalist-imperial ist domination of US politics at every level with a United Front , which shd be led by the working class in alliance with farmers, the progressive petty bourgeoisie, oppressed nationalities and progressive national bourgeoisie. The loose Obama coalition, as it exists now.

For the Afro American people a National United Front , Democratic Assembly, would be a huge step in the right direction, as what was attempted by the Convention Movement of the 19th Century, the National Negro Congress in the 1940's and the Gary Convention in the 1972. It is this kind of organized force that would be powerful enough to maintain the correct orientation of any National Coalition of multinational forces to win this election and help steer the ship of state.

The fiercest opponents to such a victorious coalition , the first steps toward moving toward a United front US government, rather than one dominated by corporate Imperialism is the racist right and the juvenile delinquent left (some of whom are quite rightist and even some quite racist..e.g. , how can Nader put Obama down for "sounding white" ..what does "white" sound like? And how come Nader don't sound like that?)

Ultimately this political period will be characterized by what kind of political force Blacks and progressive Americans can put together to secure Obama's election and push him ever to the Left. What is even clearer and a piercing denial of the NYTimes distortion is Hubert Harrison , the Black Socialist, writing in the New York Call ca: 1911 "Politically, the Negro is the touchstone of the modern democratic idea. The presence of the Negro puts our democracy to the proof and reveals the falsity of it…True democracy and equality implies a revolution …startling even to think of " ( quoted from Jeffrey Perry's recent volume Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism 1883-1918 )

So the question of "Black Politics" must be inextricably bound to progressive politics in this country and just as we fought as Black people and with progressive allies of many nationalities even to vote, or for that matter drink out of public drinking fountains or ride anywhere in a bus, so it is this same "Black Politics" clearly broadened by Obama to include a progressive coalition in the most ambitious attempt to show that Black Politics in its most progressive meaning is the struggle for a Peoples Democracy here in the US. This is what the Obama campaign asserts boldly. We must see that it continues to do so right into the Oval office and beyond.

The following are a few exploratory planks of a document that shd be added to by the willing and serve as a basis for a mass supported document to present to Obama.
Progressive Agenda for Obama

1. End Iraq War, cancel preparations for Iran War. Re-establish that it is Congress that declares war

a. End so called "National Security Government: Close Guantanamo, end Homeland Security\domination of US political and social life.

2. Make racism a criminal offense assault 1

3. Use of the N Word (by anyone) assault 2

4. Use of the B Word (by anyone) assault 2

5. Begin to push for change in Political Culture of US**

A. End the Electoral College System B. End Winner Take All System C. Initiate One Person One Vote D. Abolition of US Senate -replace with Unicameral system (one House of Representatives based on One Person One Vote).

E. Parliamentary System= As many parties as represent ideological groups, as in Europe, so that Coalition politics emerge F. Ban on private monies in elections G. Restoration of Voting Rights to Ex Felons

6. Review of National Debt by National Forum

7. Executive Support for Reparations- Establishment of National Citizens Committee

8. General Investigation & Review of Criminal Justice System

9. Appointment of Progressive Supreme Court & Other Judges

10. Review Diplomatic Relations with all Nations. By National Panel with recommendations

a. Haiti b. Cuba. c. Venezuela d. Saudi Arabia e. Iran f. Israel

b. Strengthen Committee on Africa, investigate relations

11. Investigate Need for Cabinet level Office of Afro American Affairs

12. Review Affirmative Actions statutes, reverse negative trends

13. Housing: "Everyone must have a place to live" bill

14. Education- Reaffirm support with action for Public Education. Veto attempts to weaken PE budget

15. Minimum Wage

16. Investigate Bush-Cheney years, including their election, with National Forum, Recommendations

17. National investigation of 911

18. Review FDA- Reverse Bush' Rule eliminations

19. Review Environmental Protection Agency –role- laws

20. International treaties review Oslo, Nuclear, Ballistic missile, Trade

21. Plan for direct monitoring and supervision of Voting Apparatus Nationally. Stop "suppression of the Black & Latino vote"

22. Executive intervention for National Health Care plan

23. Presentation of Progressive National Immigration Bill

24. New initiative for National Cultural & Arts Support

25. New Public Works Program to put US back to work

26. Push programs for Regulation of Capitalism, Stop excessive outsourcing , end big capital's abandoning of factories, cities, industries

People who keep saying ,"The president can't do anything" shd review FDR's "First Hundred Days" aimed at ending the great Depression. "On his first day in office , Mar 4, 1933, FDR called Congress into a special session. He then proceeded to drive a series of bills through Congress that reformed the US banking industry, saved American agriculture and allowed for industrial recovery. At the same time wielded the executive order creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration (WPA) and the Tennessee Valley Authority. These projects put tens of thousands of Americans back to work building dams, bridges, highways and much needed public utility systems." (About.com) What was called "The New Deal".

What we need from Obama is a Newer New Deal. What we need from ourselves is the political clarity and will to ensure Obama's election!

Amiri Baraka

8/14/08

Free The Bakery Brothers


The family and friends of Your Black Muslim Bakery have launched a website to inform the public of what they consider to be the truth about themselves and their activities that they feel the mainstream media won't reveal. The story of their new website www.freethebakerybrothers.org made the morning news on KTVU Channel 2 and the Oakland Tribune. The site features excerpts from Marvin X's Who Killed Chauncey Bailey? which appeared in last weeks Oakland Post newspaper. The Post only printed 600 words of the 800 word article. For the full article, please go to www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.

www.freethebakerybrothers.org also features an interview with jailed bakery leader, Yusuf Bey IV on his relationship with OPD officer Logmire who has had a relationship with the young man that took over his father's empire after he died from prostate cancer. Dr. Bey sired 43 children while developing his business based on the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. At the time of his transition he was facing multiple charges for sexual improprities.

Officer Longmire has not only been a friend of the bakery, but was in charge of the crime scene when journalist Chauncey Bailey was assassinated in broad daylight, downtown Oakland, as he walked to work, August 2 of last year. (See Marvin X's The Cross and the Lynching Tree, www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com, and The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,San Francisco Bayview newspaper archives.

The African Negro and the Negro African


Before we can have a healing in the Pan African family, we need to define some terms. The African Negro is an African from the Continent or elsewhere, maybe who lives in the Caribbean or even New York City. He is not trying to be African but is deeply addicted to European culture or white supremacy thinking and acting. Yes, his actions largely derive from colonialism rather than slavery that were the tragedy of his North American African brothers and sisters whom we shall hereafter refer to as Negro Africans, since they too suffer from a form of colonialism; call it domestic, additionally they suffer from the residue of slavery and its post traumatic stress. The Negro African also suffers the traumatic stress of neo-domestic colonialism, while the African Negro is seeing his continent return to the colonialism of old with the new march by Europe and Asia to grab the natural resources and return them in the form of manufactured goods made cheaply in the motherlands of Europe and Asia, mainly China.

The African Negro, especially and mainly those on the Continent, live in a political culture of a most corrupt kind, even while claiming democratic principles, although they sometimes hold out for an African democracy which often means presidents for life and no opposition parties allowed. The African masses, impoverished, ignorant and diseased, are victims of colonialism and white supremacy in black face, thus they seek at every turn to Europeanize themselves by adopting Christianity and imitating white supremacy culture, including perms, wigs, bleaching cream and anorexic women.

Meanwhile, the Negro African, that strange construct of American slavery, in his identity starved self, seeks to Africanize himself. On the streets of New York, he can be seen buying cheap, imitation African products (made in Korea and China) from African Negroes wearing the latest hip hop fashions such as Sean John and others. While the

African Negroes from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana and elsewhere are rushing to escape the devastation of their homeland, coming to New York in droves, or Houston and the West coast, but the Negro African is booking passage to return home to the land he has been disconnected from for four hundred years. He cries crocodile tears at Mina Castle as he walks through the door of no return, imagines he hears the wails of his ancestors as they prepared to board the Good Ship Jesus. The African Negroes embrace him as their long lost brother, but they would gladly exchange passports or induce him to marry one of their daughters so she can obtain a green card to be about the business of becoming an American citizen. The Negro African may or may not agree to this scam, but he will gladly accept kingship in some village in the hinterland, or even buy land to build a home in his newfound Motherland, but after a short time he is back in America, often disillusioned by the reality of Africa and the sad fact that he is an American Negro African and can never become an African or even an African Negro, certainly after he is called an “American slave,” and realizes he cannot marry into the royal family since his blood has been tainted by the devil Europeans and in particular the Euro-Americans.

And so this strange, ritual dance between once brothers and sisters may some day reach the climax after prolong spiritual healing is conducted by both parties, perhaps separately and together. Certainly each African brother and sister must look at themselves in the mirror to decide what ugliness must be removed and what beauty shall remain of their authentic selves, perhaps not the romantic, idealistic dream of returning to Kemetic culture, but some newer vision and version based on African philosophy and spirituality that has the power to unify persons and Pan African nations.
--Marvin X
8.10.08

Drowning In A Sea of Hatred


The North American African is drowning in a sea of hatred. For centuries he has lived in a hostile environment, much of the negativity caused by the simple color of his skin, not to mention the jealousy and envy caused by his physical, sexual, mental and spiritual powers, especially the fact that he has survived the most wicked, shameful treatment ever delivered upon human beings, not only being subjected to naked slavery, but the post-slavery terror and trauma, down to today’s subtle racism practiced from the dirty South to such bastions of liberalism as Berkeley, California and New York City.

Not only is the hatred external, such as that experienced on the job and other institutions, including the disparities in health care, education, and financial affairs, such as the suffering he received from the sub-prime loan scams, but perhaps the most damaging is that internalized hatred that is exercised upon his psyche which he in turn practices upon those around him that he should, in the natural world, love and cherish. It is seen in male/female relations with partner violence and verbal abuse, for even when couples love each other they are so filled with hatred they cannot express love and tenderness, thus their language is filled with negative pronouncements and aggressiveness. In short, they simply don’t know how to talk with each except in the language of anger and rage. Any tenderness is short lived, perhaps only in the love bed, but after the climax, they are enemies on the battlefield once again, back to the business of plummeting each other as in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

In social relations, such as on the street, there is today little eye contact, in fact, there is an attempt to avoid any physical contact because people go about their daily round in a state of rage, about to explode for the slightest reason, and reasons are everywhere, such as road rage, or incidents caused by drunkenness at the night club, or even at the supermarket because a clerk treats the person with hostility, and the clerk need not be white, but they can be Arab, African, Asian, or Latino, but the black is treated as a hostile subject to be watched, followed and disrespected for the most minor infraction of propriety such as opening an item after paying for it but one clerk is ignorant of the fact.

While the North American African is treated with scorn, yes, even by his African and Caribbean brothers who often refer to him as “black American,” he reserves the most scorn for himself since he is his own worse enemy. If he would only respect himself, he would find others would respect him as well. If he would stop treating his woman as bitch and ho, would not the world? If he would stop treating his brother as an untrustworthy motherfucker, would not the world? If he would put himself in the position to exploit his resources, his labor, his money, his talents, there would be no room for others outside his community to do so. Thus he is at once the problem and solution.
When you demand self respect, will not others respect you? When you love yourself, will you not find that others will love you—and they will love you because they know they cannot approach you in any other manner except in the name of love. If they do, the response will surely be, “Don’t come at me like that.”

Thus, it is time for us to transform the sea of hatred into the sea of love, by first transforming ourselves, our thoughts, language and actions. As the Buddhist teach, “Wisdom is knowledge plus the right action.” In the dope game, we used to demand the dope dealer “show us love,” i.e. give us a generous amount of dope. Shall we not demand the same in all our interactions between ourselves first, then with outsiders, for it is silly for us to expect others to love us when we don’t love ourselves. We want to protest and march about the police killing us, but when we kill each other there is little or no protest. This reveals the abject hatred we harbor for self, for how can we expect others such as the police to respect us when we have nothing but raw hatred for each other. Often it is only when we are taken down to the dungeon that we are ready to show love for each other, yes, in jail and prison we suddenly see the need for brotherhood and sisterhood, since now it is clear who the enemy is and that we must be watchful of everyone, especially those of other ethnic groups who are practicing brotherhood. The black gangs have found the pseudo-love they have for each other is no match for the high sense of brotherhood of the Latino gangs from Mexico and Central America. The black brothers are being attacked and overwhelmed because their unity cannot compare with the Latinos. The brothers are realizing they must be ever watchful of the group because lack of vigilance will cause them to be bum rushed at any moment, any time of day, thus they must show love for each other. Did not Elijah say we must force black unity, i.e., black love? And so it is!

We cannot unite with others until we are united. You want to sit at the table of unity with others when you are a fractured community, and the world knows this and not only laughs at you but takes advantage of your disunity, and then you are surprised, shocked and disillusioned once again. As a community, you have no agenda for Obama, but you want to react each time some external group is able to make him support their agenda.
Either play politics or get out of the kitchen. Do you think politics is for nice people, for boy and girl scouts, no, it is a filthy, funky game, and the strong shall win, the unified shall win. Don't cry crocodile tears if and when you see Obama is beholden to others while you have not made your demands as a nation of 40 million clear to him. If you don't demand nothing, you get nothing. Frederick Douglass told us this: Power concedes nothing without a demand. Show some love and unity for yourself and maybe things will turn out in your favor. Say what you want and stand firm, just as the Israeli lobby is doing, and the women shall do, and Latinos and others.

But how can you demand from Obama what you don't demand from yourself. You have no consensus on freedom--you have a thousand versions of freedom. Back in the day the Black Panthers had ten points, the Muslims had ten points--but what are your ten points at this hour, ten points to Freedom. You must first have a plan in order to navigate yourselves out of the sea of hatred into the sea of love, otherwise you shall drown.
--Marvin X
8.8.08
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com

HOW TO STOP THE VIOLENCE IN THE HOOD



From events in Iraq, we should be able to take lessons for violence in American cities.
The so-called surge did indeed decrease violence in Baghdad, so an increase in police may have some effect on stopping the violence in Oakland and other cities—especially if we want to turn our cities into police occupied zones. But in Iraq’s Anbar Province, there was no surge in troops but rather an agreement to provide jobs to the insurgents, to hire former Sunni insurgents to secure their neighborhoods with America paying the tab since the central government doesn’t trust the Sunni “Sons of Iraq,” and is concerned that 90,000 armed Sunnis may in the end be a fifth column if and when the Sunnis decide to grab power from their ancient enemies, the Shias.

But for now the newly employed former insurgents are maintaining order. Are there any reasons gangs and other anti-social elements in the hood cannot be employed as community security agents and also help in the reconstruction of the hood? Is it better to pay the cost of incarceration ($50,000 per inmate per year) and see the continued social disintegration of the hood than do the right thing by giving the brothers and sisters jobs, yes, at a salary at least equal to the cost of incarceration. Job skills can be taught in the public schools rather than continue the school system as essentially holding cells for the department of correction. Giving the brothers jobs will not only decrease the violence but will increase social cohesion of fathers who might then be able to care for their women and children, and if we add anger management and spiritual consciousness to their training, we may see a decrease in domestic violence, drug abuse and other addictions. Spiritual consciousness will help them rise from black man to Superman, for we know this present black man is not the man he used to be but rather some aberration, a construction of slavery and white supremacy.

If there is no radical transformation, this present black man can tread water until he drowns in the morass of history, or he can become a subject of reverse evolution as we see in his gait, which resembles some kind of animal, maybe a penguin or duck, but it is not the stride of a human advancing up the mountain of progress. Even the family as we know it is taking on reverse evolution. Because of drug abuse, many children are caring for their parents rather than parents caring for them. And there are children in foster care and children who are raising themselves, children who have been abandoned by parents who have thrown up their hands and walked away. And women are rapidly becoming economically independent from men? Are they not dawning the persona of men and the men transforming into some kind of feminine man, mentally if not sexually? Certainly these happenings have implications for the future configuration of our society, who will be the husband, who will be the wife, or shall there be husbands and wives, maybe only partners of the same gender since violence and lack of jobs is taking its toll on the males, thus the women must of necessity take on the male persona as we see them doing, with pants sagging, wearing men’s clothing with butch haircuts, and don’t leave out pimping.

The situation is rapidly deteriorating. Does it take rocket science to know hunger and lack of jobs lead to violence, that stress and strain of domestic life leads men to desperation. A great percentage of men in prison and jail are there because of issues relating to obtaining the wherewithal necessary to pursue happiness, nothing more.
--Marvin X
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
8-7-08

From Black Man to Superman


The spiritual recovery of the North American African requires he dawn the persona of the warrior. Anything less than the warrior persona will avail him nothing in terms of personal and communal liberation. As an individual he is dead in the water, for how can he rise up without the essential societal connections. Was he alone on the slave ship, the Good Ship Jesus? Or was he packed like sardines with his brothers and sisters? Thus, no individual solution will suffice—no, he must reconnect with his ancestors in the swamps of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas, then make a spiritual connection with Africa, then bow down and reach out to the brothers in the hood—hug a thug, making eye contact and then laying hands on them in the spirit of love, in the spirit of the seed from a seed from a seed of the first seed, as was taught by our African healers at the recent Association of Black Psychologists conference at the Oakland Marriott.

Of he must be brave enough to go into the jungle inside of himself and purge the monsters from his soul. He must go into the woods and cry out to the Great Spirit for mercy and protection from the fears that have nearly consumed his soul and that of his people. In fact, they can go to the woods with him and share the healing balm of purification from his disconnection from the seed of a seed from a seed.

His transformation from man to superman cannot escape a recognition and acceptance of the mythology of his people, especially those here in West Hell, as Professor Lionel Mandy described our location. Who can tell us about West Hell if they have not lived in West Hell? Who can tell us about the belly of the beast if they have not descended into the dungeons of this bottomless pit call the Wilderness of North America?

It is in the dungeon where the beauty of the black man is revealed. For it is there that he understands the necessity of brotherhood, of sharing, of learning and transcending his animal self. It is there that he finally has the time to ponder the reasons for his existence, the reason to love his woman and children, maybe for the first time he sees their value since we only understand love when we are deprived of it. The essence of love is only appreciated when we are deprived of the lover; otherwise we take things for granted.
But when the reed is cut from the reed bed, it mourns to return home, as in the mourning sound of the reed flute as Rumi described so poetically for all times.

Yes, superman must rise or self destruct in the muck and mire of hell, drowning in the rejection of his Spirit self in favor of the animal consciousness that propels him forever to the bottom of the mountain as in the Sisyphus myth. But once he accepts his mission as Superman and his woman as Superwoman, the battle can begin in earnest, and the walls of Jericho shall fall, for hand in hand they will march through the streets announcing the resurrection of the dead. And the dead shall rise in a ritual of healing and love, forever renouncing the whiteness of their lives since they passed through the door of no return.
--Marvin X
8-6-08

Who Killed Chauncey Bailey?

We write these words on the anniversary of the murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. We are tired of the sham reporting of the Chauncey Bailey Project, a consortium of journalists and Bay Area newspapers that have made millions infecting the Bay Area and the world with misinformation and most importantly, committing the sin of omission by focusing on one of two reasons my friend and fellow writer was assassinated.

The Bailey incident reminds us of the killing of Malcolm X, a conspiracy between the Nation of Islam and the New York Police. What is even more striking in Bailey's case is that he was not only doing a story on the Black Muslim Bakery, but was also writing an expose of black police murderers on the OPD, similar to the "Riders" case in which white and Latino police were killing, shaking down and planting false evidence on mostly black victims.

Why has not the Chauncey Bailey Project focused on the second reason Chauncey was killed? No doubt it has been to poison the pubic against Muslims, as in the Malcolm X case. The media so poisoned the atmosphere that even today black intellectuals are guilty of revisionism when attempting to write Black history, often omitting or down playing the importance of Elijah Muhammad, who was our master psychologist and had a profound influence not only on Malcolm X, but Muhammad Ali, Farrakhan, Warithdin, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, in short, the Black Arts Movement, Black Studies, Black psychology, theology and most importantly, economics.

As per Chauncey Bailey, not only does it cause me great pain that he was killed, but I also have great empathy and sympathy for the mothers of the young men allegedly involved in the assassination and other activities, such as the alleged kidnapping and torturing of two women. I’ve known the mothers and their children for many years, and recently forced one of the mothers to hug me because I wanted her to know I felt her pain, grief and shame.

I want to focus on the second and perhaps primary reason Chauncey was taken out. Yes, the first reason may have had to do with succession to the throne and inheritance rights/rites, as in the African tradition or European tradition for that matter.

Of course there were mothers and children who felt their children or siblings should have taken over the Black Muslim Bakery after the transition of founder Dr. Yusef Bey. But the officer who befriended the Bakery young men was in change of the crime scene, although he refused to interview an eye witness who had breakfast that morning with Chauncey and was told by the killer to get out of the way as he proceeded to pump shotgun blasts to his body.

The officer then led a raid the next morning on the Black Muslim Bakery compound, seizing a suspect, the murder weapon and later arranged a confession from the suspect in less than 24 hours. No other murder in Oakland has been solved so quickly, so it would appear. The suspect later recanted his confession. Indeed, the eyewitness says the young man who is charged is not the man who told him to get out of the way. There were persons at the crime scene who recognized the officer as part of a group who are known for shaking down drug dealers, planting false evidence and other criminal acts under the color of law. There are brothers in prison willing testify that they were victims of shake downs by certain black Oakland police, including the one in charge of the crime scene. Bailey was killed because he was getting too much information on the actions of black police murder and drug shake downs.

The chief of police is aware of the actions of his men but is nearing retirement so is dragging his feet so he can exit in peace. The DEA is in town and they too are aware of police involvement in the drug trade, but supposedly are after even bigger fish who may soon face indictment for other crimes related to political activities. The killing of a nigguh is not a priority.

The so-called Chauncey Bailey Project has written thousands of words about the Muslim connection but very little about the police connection to the bakery and officers involvement in the drug trade and homicides in the hood. We say the journalists on the project are guilty of the sin of omission by not aggressively pursuing the police connection to the murder of Chauncey Bailey. They have reaped millions of dollars pimping his story in a totally subjective, racially and religiously biased manner, fanning the flames of hatred against Muslims in the Bay Area and around the world.

--Marvin X



Marvin X is the father of Muslim American literature, according to Dr. Mohja Kahf,
Professor of Near Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.

Part Three: Witch Doctors Gather In Oakland



The session on African Traditional Healers had persons leaving with desire for a strong drink, as the session was a head twister. One departed the auditorium wondering how we will ever heal when the doctors are themselves in urgent need of healing, caught in a matrix of Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism otherwise known as psychotherapy. The Association of Black Psychologists convened an international panel of healers to address the topic of how we can use traditional healing methods to restore the mental health of our community. Of course psychotherapy must be abandoned because it is not holistic and thus cannot heal the myriad issues of black mental health which transcend the personal to the communal, the economic, the physical, the political, the social relations that have severed causing the black nation in North America to avoid eye contact, to subsist on garbage food prolonging the agony of fear and the ever present trauma of life in a hostile society. Facilitator Dr. Wade Nobles said the paradigm was to seek recovery, rather than a shift. The first slavery is gone but the second slavery has arrived, it being caused by the end of labor as we know it in the age of high technology, along with slave wages. Thus the idea of white supremacy is to confine the African population, no matter if such confinement is at San Quentin prison or Stanford University, at which one can receive an excellent white supremacy education, permitting our children to come home hating us and everything we’re about, even when they don’t understand what it is, as Amiri Baraka has noted. Thus they suffer imprisonment of the mind, the spirit.

And it was Spirit that was the locus of discussion with the African traditional healers.

Nobles asked them how was it possible for us to be in tune with the ancestors, the gods, the living and the yet unborn, yet find ourselves victims of the holocaust.

The African healers, Oulimata Dioup of Senegal , Kia Museki of Kongo, said many things that were true but never answered the question. And the North American African healers fared no better. They suggested lack of humility or what we in drama call the tragic flaw of pride or hubris as a factor in our fall...

One Sister psychologist suggested we were victims of the cycle of history, which sounded like the Sisyphus syndrome DuBois and Baraka have described as the knot we’ve been caught in. Healer Museki of Kongo illustrated with a rope how we tied the knot around ourselves, and he said we were caught in external knots as well, such as slavery and colonialism. He said it will not be until we reintegrate with the seed of a seed from a seed until we reach harmony with that first seed of seven million years ago that we will be healed. The knowledge is outside of us, but we are living computers who have the power to store data. The Kongo healer noted we are a sick people; even with one, two, and three PhD’s some of us possess, but we have the power if we plug into the seed of the seed from the seed

As I said none of the above answered Nobles’ question. He became very frustrated and agitated with his panelists, even claimed that the Yoruba god of thunder, Shango, was in the house. At this point Nobles should have turned to the audience for answers—when the leaders don’t know, why not turn to the people, why persist in an inordinacy of ignorance. To continue questioning the panel for answers only revealed the lack of humility or arrogance that caused us to fall.

The discussion changed to the need for ritual. At this point I became agitated, frustrated with the panel, and I learned many in the audience felt the same. Yes, there is a need for healing rituals. The African healers mentioned rituals that are done to heal community, which was Nobles’ desire, to find ways to heal community, not individuals.

But rituals begin with myth or the story. And when it comes to our myth, our story, our narrative, we must turn to our mythologists, our indigenous healers, but no, the arrogant North American African, as Dr. Hare notes, is persistently seeking answers from other worlds, anywhere but here, thus we seek the African Healers who obviously cannot heal Africa, or the Arab Muslim imams who can do nothing to liberate Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Palestine, Jordan, or the Gulf states.

I found it interesting when the sister psychologist mentioned cycles of history. Elijah Muhammad, in his mythology, told us history was written every twenty-five thousand years. Isn’t it strange the white man in the documentary Zeit Geist mentions the twenty-five thousand year cycle of history we’re in? Elijah told you about a mother ship with dimensions a half mile by a half mile, yet you called it poppycock. But when white people claimed they saw a space ship with the same dimensions you accept it. Elijah told you the myth of Yacoub and how he genetically engineered the white man, you said he was a racist nut. But when the white man speaks of cloning a man you are fascinated.

Elijah said you are the manifestation of the living God, but you rejected this. But when Ernest Holmes tells you in Science of Mind you are God, you knock down the Science of Mind church doors. This behavior reveals your absolute and total addiction to white supremacy.

--Dr. M/Marvin X
8.3.08

--- On Sun, 8/3/08, Gerald Ali. wrote:


From: Gerald Ali.
Subject: Re: [blackantiwar] Witch Doctors Gather In Oakland
To: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2008, 8:47 PM

The church fathers would disagree with that description ...........Marvin X said we cannot consider the father without the mother, the relatives, the community, in other words, a holistic approach to fatherhood. The father is thus not an isolated phenomenon but part of a social unit that cannot be separated.

--Marvin X

Hopefully Marvin will eventually win the majority vote.

----- Original Message ----- From: Marvin X Jackmon To: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 5:34 AMSubject: [blackantiwar]

Witch Doctors Gather In Oakland

Witch Doctors Gather In OaklandThe topic of one session was black fathers. Black males do not automatically enter the realm of black manhood. How does a father advance from male to manhood. Take responsibility for the young warriors he has sired. Guide and teach them, otherwise known as manhood training. Take them to the jungle and confront them with terrible creatures who will defile them, frighten them and abuse them into manhood. These terrible creatures with masks will help them learn the ways of the tribe, how to have sex with young girls without cuming inside of them, but they will learn how to disciple themselves so they do not impregnate. The young men will go into the jungle to learn how to kill the lion and bring him back on their backs. They will learn how to build a house without nails, as in the Yoruba tradition of manhood training.

They will gain knowledge of anger management and knowledge that women are not chattel property as in the Western patriarchal tradition. They will learn how to understand the feminine principle, the yen and yang of life, the sun and moon concept, how to combine the Sky god with the Earth Mother concept, thus they will become full blooded men with wisdom of fatherhood and motherhood.


Dr. Conners stressed the notion that fathers must assume responsibility for fatherhood.. Professor Lionel Mandy who has studied my writings since the 1960’s, said we cannot consider the father without the mother, the relatives, the community, in other words, a holistic approach to fatherhood. The father is thus not an isolated phenomenon but part of a social unit that cannot be separated.


--Marvin X






__._,_.___

Witch Doctors Gather In Oakland

The topic of one session was black fathers. Black males do not automatically enter the realm of black manhood. How does a father advance from male to manhood. Take responsibility for the young warriors he has sired. Guide and teach them, otherwise known as manhood training. Take them to the jungle and confront them with terrible creatures who will defile them, frighten them and abuse them into manhood. These terrible creatures with masks will help them learn the ways of the tribe, how to have sex with young girls without cuming inside of them, but they will learn how to disciple themselves so they do not impregnate. The young men will go into the jungle to learn how to kill the lion and bring him back on their backs. They will learn how to build a house without nails, as in the Yoruba tradition of manhood training.

They will gain knowledge of anger management and knowledge that women are not chattel property as in the Western patriarchal tradition. They will learn how to understand the feminine principle, the yen and yang of life, the sun and moon concept, how to combine the Sky god with the Earth Mother concept, thus they will become full blooded men with wisdom of fatherhood and motherhood.

Dr. Conners stressed the notion that fathers must assume responsibility for fatherhood. My student through biblo-therapy who has studied my writings since the 1960’s, said we cannot consider the father without the mother, the relatives, the community, in other words, a holistic approach to fatherhood. The father is thus not an isolated phenomenon but part of a social unit that cannot be separated.



--Marvin X

From: Oluwasola Ifasade
> Subject: Greetings
> To: mrvnx@yahoo.com
> Date: Friday, August 1, 2008, 7:36 PM
> Alafia, Dr. Marvin,
>
> I congratulate you. You are a pleasure/treasure for African
> people. I just finished my first reading of "White
> Supremacy" and I was moved to tears. Particularly, I
> was touched by your "apology" sections.
>
> I agree with much that you say. There is a lot of work that
> has to be done. But, because so many of us are busy working
> to provide/maintain the necessities of life, we seem to have
> little time to work for ourselves. But, your writings causes
> one to reflect and your words are inspiring, uplifting and
> motivating.
>
> I want you to know that I support what you are doing. Most
> of all, I appreciate the fact that you come in the same
> spirit as Dr. Ben, Runoko Rashidi, Khallid Muhammad and
> countless other brothers who are self-educated/dedicated and
> who make significant contributions to awaken and enlighten
> us, as we struggle for human dignity and liberation.
>
> I would like to assist/support your work in some small,
> significant way. For starters, I am interested in helping
> you market and sale your books. I am member of a group of
> sisters who are interested in providing
> educational/marketing services to our people. I think that
> this may be an endeavor that you could lend your expertise
> and as well receive monetary gains. At any rate, I hope that
> we continue to communicate with you.
>
> I plan to be at the conference tomorrow morning. Hopefully,
> we can connect and talk some more.
>
> Peace,
> Oluwasola Ifasade
> Cell: 510-706-6103