Plato and the City of God
You have destroyed the City of God, turned it into a hell hole wherein brother is against brother and sister against sister. The City of God has become the habitation of devils who kill at will the children of God who are slain in the streets while no action is taken against them and the so-called good people are silent in the night, hiding in their mansions in fear and terror, knowing for a certainty the devils shall invade their homes, it is only a matter of time, simply because they have done nothing to reach out to the devils in their midst. Alas, the devils are their children who have gone astray and no one will lay hands on them in fear the children will tear their limbs like hungry beasts. But these beasts are hungry for love, yet no one will reach out to them, no one will lay hands on them except other devils such as robbers, thieves and murderers. No one will guide the young devils so they behave like Yacoub’s children of old, playing with steel, such as cars and guns, for these are symbols of power. And in their hunger and thirst for love, they seek satisfaction in steel since the human touch is absent their lives. If only someone would speak with them, tell them a kind word, guide them on the right path, but no, the elders are in fear of the monsters they created by being silent, neglectful and abusive. No matter how hard they try, the elders in the City of God cannot get out of their responsibility to teach truth to their weary children gone mad from lack of love and direction. The schools have made them ignorant, the church doors are closed to them, thus they are hungry and homeless causing them to make terror in the streets.
If only someone would lay hands on them with kindness and love that is expected in the City of God, the so-called devil children, the children of Yacoub who love playing with steel, would put down their guns and stop using their cars as weapons of mass destruction. They would stop filling their young bodies with drugs and disease from unprotected sex.
Why will not those in the City of God step to the front of the line and represent Divinity?
How can they tarry in Jerusalem doing nothing while the house of God is defiled and becomes an abomination.
You who are holy, take off your holy rags and confess naked before your God that you have neglected to clean his temple, that you have destroyed his children, turning them into beasts of the jungle or even worse, for they lack the love of beasts, for they are ready to kill for the slightest reason, without thinking of the consequences, the pain and suffering they cause families, friends and community.
Why will you not teach them legal trade and commerce. No, you allow the dope man to teach them and love them while you party in the night, wink and blink at concerts wearing your rocks, stones and animal skins.
Continue doing nothing and see if things get better or worse, but you live in the City of God and He expects you to exercise the reins of power, not cower in the corner afraid of that which your hands have created, for that which your hands have created shall seek you out in the night and in the day, but if you are without the armor of God, that which your hands have created shall slay you and the City of God shall be no more.
--M
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Plato and the Parable of the Table
The clients at the drop-in center for the dual diagnosed (persons with mental and drug problems) asked me to come share. When I arrived and told them I was a former client, they corrected me by saying I am still a client. There was a conference table in the meeting room so I told them to sit at the conference table but several refused. I thought by raising my voice they would follow my command but several still refused. I had no idea why they would not sit at the table. But after the meeting at which I shared my writings and had them do a call and response reading of my poem "What If," it dawned on me why they might have refused to sit at the table. What if the table reminded them of the table when they sat before the parole board, or maybe it was the table when they were sent to foster care as a child, or the table that threw them out of a drug problem or sent them to a mental ward where they were tortured into the night or sexually abused.
Yes, maybe one of them was raped on that table while visiting their therapist. All these possibilities came to me and I was ashamed I had been so adamant they sit at the table.
It was clear to me the clients were people who had been crushed by the world of white supremacy, their hearts, minds, souls, bodies, crushed into tables like the one I had demanded they sit at. How could I be so insensitive, so rude, so ignorant not to immediately understand their resistance to the table, their fear and loathing of that piece of furniture. What horrors inhabited that piece of wood constructed to represent authority and power? Why would the powerless rush to such a device of destruction and inhumanity? Yes, the table had been an evil force in their lives, so even in their wretchedness, they had enough sense to stay away from it. So they had listened to me from afar, hearing every word I said, even joining with me in reciting lines from my poem. But they knew not to come near the table.
--Dr. M
The clients at the drop-in center for the dual diagnosed (persons with mental and drug problems) asked me to come share. When I arrived and told them I was a former client, they corrected me by saying I am still a client. There was a conference table in the meeting room so I told them to sit at the conference table but several refused. I thought by raising my voice they would follow my command but several still refused. I had no idea why they would not sit at the table. But after the meeting at which I shared my writings and had them do a call and response reading of my poem "What If," it dawned on me why they might have refused to sit at the table. What if the table reminded them of the table when they sat before the parole board, or maybe it was the table when they were sent to foster care as a child, or the table that threw them out of a drug problem or sent them to a mental ward where they were tortured into the night or sexually abused.
Yes, maybe one of them was raped on that table while visiting their therapist. All these possibilities came to me and I was ashamed I had been so adamant they sit at the table.
It was clear to me the clients were people who had been crushed by the world of white supremacy, their hearts, minds, souls, bodies, crushed into tables like the one I had demanded they sit at. How could I be so insensitive, so rude, so ignorant not to immediately understand their resistance to the table, their fear and loathing of that piece of furniture. What horrors inhabited that piece of wood constructed to represent authority and power? Why would the powerless rush to such a device of destruction and inhumanity? Yes, the table had been an evil force in their lives, so even in their wretchedness, they had enough sense to stay away from it. So they had listened to me from afar, hearing every word I said, even joining with me in reciting lines from my poem. But they knew not to come near the table.
--Dr. M
Monday, June 23, 2008
White Feminist Supremacy
I keep reminding you brothers that the white woman is the daughter, wife, sister and mother of white supremacy. And since she is the first teacher, we see the results of her teaching in the children she has raised to gain world dominion. How hard is that to fathom?
I have never called myself a feminist, a category created by white women who intend to rule along side white men without having to compete or contend with qualified men of other races.
--Harriet Tubman
I keep reminding you brothers that the white woman is the daughter, wife, sister and mother of white supremacy. And since she is the first teacher, we see the results of her teaching in the children she has raised to gain world dominion. How hard is that to fathom?
I have never called myself a feminist, a category created by white women who intend to rule along side white men without having to compete or contend with qualified men of other races.
--Harriet Tubman
Friday, June 20, 2008
From: Lil Joe
Subject: Re: [blackantiwar] RE: Plato On The Sick Soul
To: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 7:03 PM
This is great work, Marvin X! I agree with everything you wrote here, and it should be read everywhere. Thank you for your timeless and boundless love, my brother. The fresh and pristine points you make, are axiomatic, and I will not take away from those insights and analysis by making comments.
Much love and respect to you Marvin.
Lil Joe
Marvin X reply:
Lil Joe, thank you for your years of study and practice of revolution. Be still, we may yet see the fall of the beast, the great whore. The only question is will we be prepared for the day white power falls. Will Negroes/Africans be able to turn on the lights, the water, the gas? Are we prepared to grow the food that won't come from Safeway anymore? Will we establish holistic hospitals to cure the millions of trauma patients in the post-Americana world?
Subject: Re: [blackantiwar] RE: Plato On The Sick Soul
To: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 7:03 PM
This is great work, Marvin X! I agree with everything you wrote here, and it should be read everywhere. Thank you for your timeless and boundless love, my brother. The fresh and pristine points you make, are axiomatic, and I will not take away from those insights and analysis by making comments.
Much love and respect to you Marvin.
Lil Joe
Marvin X reply:
Lil Joe, thank you for your years of study and practice of revolution. Be still, we may yet see the fall of the beast, the great whore. The only question is will we be prepared for the day white power falls. Will Negroes/Africans be able to turn on the lights, the water, the gas? Are we prepared to grow the food that won't come from Safeway anymore? Will we establish holistic hospitals to cure the millions of trauma patients in the post-Americana world?
From: rudolph lewis
Subject: RE: Plato On The Sick Soul
To: jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 5:31 PM
Well, Marvin, so now it is the Green Apocalypse. With such strange weather we are having, it is near believable. But it's not the sudden global disaster of biblical proportions that frightens us. That we can tolerate. The thought of such totality will cause us to only sink deeper into our drug stupor.
It is the Chinese water drop torture of our daily lives. That insidious state that we must endure is of a much greater threat to our souls, in which the everyday quality of life is of such dire misery and gloom. Pathology centers where medical cures can be found are of no help. Such centers are part of the make believe of the sick society. We have too much social work afoot.
My answer as was yours before your latest book is that we must dream and laugh our way out of this sickness of soul syndrome. That is the way of the ancestors. Dreaming and laughter unplug us from the programming of the sick society. And then what comes let it come, but let it come with our eyes wide open.
Loving you madly, Rudy
I totally agree with you--dreaming and laughter--as we await the meteorite,maybe the same or similar to the one that hit earth 65 million years ago and destroyed the dinosaur--- m
Subject: RE: Plato On The Sick Soul
To: jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 5:31 PM
Well, Marvin, so now it is the Green Apocalypse. With such strange weather we are having, it is near believable. But it's not the sudden global disaster of biblical proportions that frightens us. That we can tolerate. The thought of such totality will cause us to only sink deeper into our drug stupor.
It is the Chinese water drop torture of our daily lives. That insidious state that we must endure is of a much greater threat to our souls, in which the everyday quality of life is of such dire misery and gloom. Pathology centers where medical cures can be found are of no help. Such centers are part of the make believe of the sick society. We have too much social work afoot.
My answer as was yours before your latest book is that we must dream and laugh our way out of this sickness of soul syndrome. That is the way of the ancestors. Dreaming and laughter unplug us from the programming of the sick society. And then what comes let it come, but let it come with our eyes wide open.
Loving you madly, Rudy
I totally agree with you--dreaming and laughter--as we await the meteorite,maybe the same or similar to the one that hit earth 65 million years ago and destroyed the dinosaur--- m
Plato On The Sick Soul
A sick society produces sick souls. It is ludicrous to expect more. So what we have today are stunted men and women, unable to stand tall and take full responsibility for their actions. Some try mightily to do so, but can't find the strength to overcome their character flaws induced by the sick society. How can we expect men in a criminal culture to behave other than criminal? We want them to go out to kill, then return home to be loving fathers and husbands. What kind of monster do we have here; perhaps the kind Mary Wells sang about in her classic song about two lovers who were actually one. Yes, the sick society produces the schizophrenic personality or the persons with the dark side we are shocked to discover in the neighbor until we read about him/her in the morning news.
A society wherein half the households are without men is a sick society. It is a society in an obvious state of war with itself. Surely there are elements in the power strata making events happen that are detrimental to a certain strata, especially the lower economic class which is in chaos, and short of revolution, we cannot expect nothing but more chaos because the economic machine is determined to keep the status quo to maintain power.
The day strong men of consciousness rise to take responsibility for themselves and their families is the day of revolutionary action. On that day they will be loving and caring, for themselves, first of all, then for their women and children. Their actions will be healing and cleansing, eliminating the dirt and grime from their souls. They will allow no excuses to prevent them from forward motion. Their women will likewise be about the business of cleansing and healing themselves from ignorance and reactionary behavior that has made them incapable of being wives and mothers.
The sick society must be overthrown by any means necessary. It has no right to exist solely to produce sick souls lost in consumerism or conspicuous consumption that devours the souls of potential men and women. The sick soul must of necessity heal itself of fear, fearing to love itself, fearing to do what is necessary to protect and raise the children, preventing them from becoming monsters who exist on the animal plane or even worse because animals show love for each other. The sick society monsters have not a microdot of love for anything but self destructive behavior which in the end benefits no one. Thus we have jails, prisons and mental hospitals full of sick souls who are a danger to themselves and others. Many wander the streets as predators, hungry and determined to attack anyone.
Poor, innocent citizens are overwhelmed at the actions of the sick souls, even though they share in the creation of the monsters in their midst, for the innocent are only a matter of degree away from sharing the sickness that spreads like a virus from generation to generation, from community to community, yes, from class to class, for the sickness is pandemic because the economic situation is controlled by global forces who do not discriminate. Ray Charles told us the danger zone is everywhere.
From class to class, the sick souls go about their daily round in denial they need healing, although some do so in fear of losing their material comforts, thus they tolerate self abuse and partner abuse to enjoy the so-called good life—many women wear the golden handcuffs, refusing to release themselves from the monster within and without. It is then that the sick souls medicate themselves with legal and illegal drugs to cover the pain of wretchedness.
Society cannot arrest all the sick souls because they are being produced in such abundance there is no room to house them. Can we not see that soon the entire society will be one giant jail, prison and mental ward?
And so only the sick souls can heal themselves, for the doctors are sicker than the souls they seek to heal. They have not heard, “Physician heal thyself.” The police cannot apprehend the criminals because they are themselves murderers, drug dealers and robbers under the color of law.
The very earth itself is rising up to overthrow the sick actions of man. The green revolution will ultimately remove the sick from the earth, yes, they will be drowned in floods, buried in earthquakes and consumed by fire.
--Dr. M
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
A sick society produces sick souls. It is ludicrous to expect more. So what we have today are stunted men and women, unable to stand tall and take full responsibility for their actions. Some try mightily to do so, but can't find the strength to overcome their character flaws induced by the sick society. How can we expect men in a criminal culture to behave other than criminal? We want them to go out to kill, then return home to be loving fathers and husbands. What kind of monster do we have here; perhaps the kind Mary Wells sang about in her classic song about two lovers who were actually one. Yes, the sick society produces the schizophrenic personality or the persons with the dark side we are shocked to discover in the neighbor until we read about him/her in the morning news.
A society wherein half the households are without men is a sick society. It is a society in an obvious state of war with itself. Surely there are elements in the power strata making events happen that are detrimental to a certain strata, especially the lower economic class which is in chaos, and short of revolution, we cannot expect nothing but more chaos because the economic machine is determined to keep the status quo to maintain power.
The day strong men of consciousness rise to take responsibility for themselves and their families is the day of revolutionary action. On that day they will be loving and caring, for themselves, first of all, then for their women and children. Their actions will be healing and cleansing, eliminating the dirt and grime from their souls. They will allow no excuses to prevent them from forward motion. Their women will likewise be about the business of cleansing and healing themselves from ignorance and reactionary behavior that has made them incapable of being wives and mothers.
The sick society must be overthrown by any means necessary. It has no right to exist solely to produce sick souls lost in consumerism or conspicuous consumption that devours the souls of potential men and women. The sick soul must of necessity heal itself of fear, fearing to love itself, fearing to do what is necessary to protect and raise the children, preventing them from becoming monsters who exist on the animal plane or even worse because animals show love for each other. The sick society monsters have not a microdot of love for anything but self destructive behavior which in the end benefits no one. Thus we have jails, prisons and mental hospitals full of sick souls who are a danger to themselves and others. Many wander the streets as predators, hungry and determined to attack anyone.
Poor, innocent citizens are overwhelmed at the actions of the sick souls, even though they share in the creation of the monsters in their midst, for the innocent are only a matter of degree away from sharing the sickness that spreads like a virus from generation to generation, from community to community, yes, from class to class, for the sickness is pandemic because the economic situation is controlled by global forces who do not discriminate. Ray Charles told us the danger zone is everywhere.
From class to class, the sick souls go about their daily round in denial they need healing, although some do so in fear of losing their material comforts, thus they tolerate self abuse and partner abuse to enjoy the so-called good life—many women wear the golden handcuffs, refusing to release themselves from the monster within and without. It is then that the sick souls medicate themselves with legal and illegal drugs to cover the pain of wretchedness.
Society cannot arrest all the sick souls because they are being produced in such abundance there is no room to house them. Can we not see that soon the entire society will be one giant jail, prison and mental ward?
And so only the sick souls can heal themselves, for the doctors are sicker than the souls they seek to heal. They have not heard, “Physician heal thyself.” The police cannot apprehend the criminals because they are themselves murderers, drug dealers and robbers under the color of law.
The very earth itself is rising up to overthrow the sick actions of man. The green revolution will ultimately remove the sick from the earth, yes, they will be drowned in floods, buried in earthquakes and consumed by fire.
--Dr. M
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Abu, Gone to Fight
from Fly to Allah, poems by Marvin X, 1969
Where is he
What happened to him
He was there
and not there
all the time
I did not know him
Until I became him
then I knew him well
where is he
maybe the beast got him maybe
...maybe the beast got him
For real!
Beware of the beast
he said
Beware of the beast
He told me that much
I always listened to him
when he said something good
I listened then
He said he knew everything
I believed him
everything he told me happened
just like he said it would
When he got old
I told him things
we never talked again....
from Fly to Allah, poems by Marvin X, 1969
Where is he
What happened to him
He was there
and not there
all the time
I did not know him
Until I became him
then I knew him well
where is he
maybe the beast got him maybe
...maybe the beast got him
For real!
Beware of the beast
he said
Beware of the beast
He told me that much
I always listened to him
when he said something good
I listened then
He said he knew everything
I believed him
everything he told me happened
just like he said it would
When he got old
I told him things
we never talked again....
Monday, June 9, 2008
An Open Letter to Certain White Women Who Are Threatening to Withhold Support from Obama in November
Your Whiteness is Showing
By TIM WISE
This is an open letter to those white women who, despite their proclamations of progressivism, and supposedly because of their commitment to feminism, are threatening to withhold support from Barack Obama in November. You know who you are.
I know that it's probably a bad time for this. Your disappointment at the electoral defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton is fresh, the sting is new, and the anger that animates many of you--who rightly point out that the media was often sexist in its treatment of the Senator--is raw, pure and justified.
That said, and despite the awkward timing, I need to ask you a few questions, and I hope you will take them in the spirit of solidarity with which they are genuinely intended. But before the questions, a statement if you don't mind, or indeed, even if (as I suspect), you will mind it quite a bit.
First, for those of you threatening to actually vote for John McCain and to oppose Senator Obama, or to stay home in November and thereby increase the likelihood of McCain winning and Obama losing (despite the fact that the latter's policy platform is virtually identical to Clinton's while the former's clearly is not), all the while claiming to be standing up for women...
For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and increase the odds of his winning (despite the fact that he once called his wife the c-word in public and is a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom and gender equity initiatives, such as comparable worth legislation) , all the while claiming to be standing up for women...
For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and help ensure Barack Obama's defeat, as a way to protest what you call Obama's sexism (examples of which you seem to have difficulty coming up with), all the while claiming to be standing up for women...
Your whiteness is showing.
When I say your whiteness is showing this is what I mean: You claim that your opposition to Obama is an act of gender solidarity, in that women (and their male allies) need to stand up for women in the face of the sexist mistreatment of Clinton by the press. On this latter point--the one about the importance of standing up to the media for its often venal misogyny--you couldn't be more correct. As the father of two young girls who will have to contend with the poison of patriarchy all their lives, or at least until such time as that system of oppression is eradicated, I will be the first to join the boycott of, or demonstration on, whatever media outlet you choose to make that point. But on the first part of the above equation--the part where you insist voting against Obama is about gender solidarity-- you are, for lack of a better way to put it, completely full of crap. And what's worse is that at some level I suspect you know it. Voting against Senator Obama is not about gender solidarity. It is an act of white racial bonding, and it is grotesque.
If it were gender solidarity you sought, you would by definition join with your black and brown sisters come November, and do what you know good and well they are going to do, in overwhelming numbers, which is vote for Barack Obama. But no. You are threatening to vote not like other women--you know, the ones who aren't white like you and most of your friends--but rather, like white men! Needless to say it is high irony, bordering on the outright farcical, to believe that electorally bonding with white men, so as to elect McCain, is a rational strategy for promoting feminism and challenging patriarchy. You are not thinking and acting as women, but as white people. So here's the first question: What the hell is that about?
And you wonder why women of color have, for so long, thought (by and large) that white so-called feminists were phony as hell? Sister please...
Your threats are not about standing up for women. They are only about standing up for the feelings of white women, and more to the point, the aspirations of one white woman. So don't kid yourself. If you wanted to make a statement about the importance of supporting a woman, you wouldn't need to vote for John McCain, or stay home, thereby producing the same likely result--a defeat for Obama. You could always have said you were going to go out and vote for Cynthia McKinney. After all, she is a woman, running with the Green Party, and she's progressive, and she's a feminist. But that isn't your threat is it? No. You're not threatening to vote for the woman, or even the feminist woman. Rather, you are threatening to vote for the white man, and to reject not only the black man who you feel stole Clinton's birthright, but even the black woman in the race. And I wonder why? Could it be...?
See, I told you your whiteness was showing.
And now for a third question, and this is the biggie, so please take your time with it: How is it that you have managed to hold your nose all these years, just like a lot of us on the left, and vote for Democrats who we knew were horribly inadequate-- Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis, right on down the uninspiring line--and yet, apparently can't bring yourself to vote for Barack Obama? A man who, for all of his shortcomings (and there are several, as with all candidates put up by either of the two major corporate parties) is surely more progressive than any of those just mentioned. And how are we to understand that refusal--this sudden line in the proverbial sand--other than as a racist slap at a black man? You will vote for white men year after year after year--and are threatening to vote for another one just to make a point--but can't bring yourself to vote for a black man, whose political views come much closer to your own, in all likelihood, than do the views of any of the white men you've supported before. How, other than as an act of racism, or perhaps as evidence of political insanity, is one to interpret such a thing?
See, black folks would have sucked it up, like they've had to do forever, and voted for Clinton had it come down to that. Indeed, they were on board the Hillary train early on, convinced that Obama had no chance to win and hoping for change, any change, from the reactionary agenda that has been so prevalent for so long in this culture. They would have supported the white woman--hell, for many black folks, before Obama showed his mettle they were downright excited to do so--but you won't support the black man. And yet you have the audacity to insist that it is you who are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party, and the one before whom Party leaders should bow down, and whose feet must be kissed?
Your whiteness is showing.
Look, I couldn't care less about the Party personally. I left the Democrats twenty years ago when they told me that my activism in the Central America solidarity and South African anti-apartheid movements made me a security risk, and that I wouldn't be able to get clearance to be in some parade with Governor Dukakis. Yeah, seriously. But for you to act as though you are the indispensible voters, the most important, the ones whose views should be pandered to, whose every whim should be the basis for Party policy, is not only absurd, it is also racist in that it, a) ignores and treats as irrelevant the much more loyal constituency of black folks, without whom no Democrat would have won anything in the past twenty years (and indeed the racial gap favoring the Democrats among blacks is about six times larger than the gender gap favoring them among white women, relative to white men); and b) demonstrates the mentality of entitlement and superiority that has been long ingrained in us as white folks--so that we believe we have the right to dictate the terms of political engagement, and to determine the outcome, and to get our way, simply because for so long we have done just that.
But that day is done, whether you like it or not, and you are now left with two, and only two choices, so consider them carefully: the first is to stand now in solidarity with your black brothers and sisters and welcome the new day, and help to push it in a truly progressive and feminist and antiracist direction, while the second is to team up with white men to try and block the new day from dawning. Feel free to choose the latter. But if you do, please don't insult your own intelligence, or ours, by insisting that you've done so as a radical political act.
------------ --------- --------- --------
Tim Wise is the author of: White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press, 2005), and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (Routledge: 2005). He can be reached at: timjwise@msn. com
Your Whiteness is Showing
By TIM WISE
This is an open letter to those white women who, despite their proclamations of progressivism, and supposedly because of their commitment to feminism, are threatening to withhold support from Barack Obama in November. You know who you are.
I know that it's probably a bad time for this. Your disappointment at the electoral defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton is fresh, the sting is new, and the anger that animates many of you--who rightly point out that the media was often sexist in its treatment of the Senator--is raw, pure and justified.
That said, and despite the awkward timing, I need to ask you a few questions, and I hope you will take them in the spirit of solidarity with which they are genuinely intended. But before the questions, a statement if you don't mind, or indeed, even if (as I suspect), you will mind it quite a bit.
First, for those of you threatening to actually vote for John McCain and to oppose Senator Obama, or to stay home in November and thereby increase the likelihood of McCain winning and Obama losing (despite the fact that the latter's policy platform is virtually identical to Clinton's while the former's clearly is not), all the while claiming to be standing up for women...
For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and increase the odds of his winning (despite the fact that he once called his wife the c-word in public and is a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom and gender equity initiatives, such as comparable worth legislation) , all the while claiming to be standing up for women...
For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and help ensure Barack Obama's defeat, as a way to protest what you call Obama's sexism (examples of which you seem to have difficulty coming up with), all the while claiming to be standing up for women...
Your whiteness is showing.
When I say your whiteness is showing this is what I mean: You claim that your opposition to Obama is an act of gender solidarity, in that women (and their male allies) need to stand up for women in the face of the sexist mistreatment of Clinton by the press. On this latter point--the one about the importance of standing up to the media for its often venal misogyny--you couldn't be more correct. As the father of two young girls who will have to contend with the poison of patriarchy all their lives, or at least until such time as that system of oppression is eradicated, I will be the first to join the boycott of, or demonstration on, whatever media outlet you choose to make that point. But on the first part of the above equation--the part where you insist voting against Obama is about gender solidarity-- you are, for lack of a better way to put it, completely full of crap. And what's worse is that at some level I suspect you know it. Voting against Senator Obama is not about gender solidarity. It is an act of white racial bonding, and it is grotesque.
If it were gender solidarity you sought, you would by definition join with your black and brown sisters come November, and do what you know good and well they are going to do, in overwhelming numbers, which is vote for Barack Obama. But no. You are threatening to vote not like other women--you know, the ones who aren't white like you and most of your friends--but rather, like white men! Needless to say it is high irony, bordering on the outright farcical, to believe that electorally bonding with white men, so as to elect McCain, is a rational strategy for promoting feminism and challenging patriarchy. You are not thinking and acting as women, but as white people. So here's the first question: What the hell is that about?
And you wonder why women of color have, for so long, thought (by and large) that white so-called feminists were phony as hell? Sister please...
Your threats are not about standing up for women. They are only about standing up for the feelings of white women, and more to the point, the aspirations of one white woman. So don't kid yourself. If you wanted to make a statement about the importance of supporting a woman, you wouldn't need to vote for John McCain, or stay home, thereby producing the same likely result--a defeat for Obama. You could always have said you were going to go out and vote for Cynthia McKinney. After all, she is a woman, running with the Green Party, and she's progressive, and she's a feminist. But that isn't your threat is it? No. You're not threatening to vote for the woman, or even the feminist woman. Rather, you are threatening to vote for the white man, and to reject not only the black man who you feel stole Clinton's birthright, but even the black woman in the race. And I wonder why? Could it be...?
See, I told you your whiteness was showing.
And now for a third question, and this is the biggie, so please take your time with it: How is it that you have managed to hold your nose all these years, just like a lot of us on the left, and vote for Democrats who we knew were horribly inadequate-- Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis, right on down the uninspiring line--and yet, apparently can't bring yourself to vote for Barack Obama? A man who, for all of his shortcomings (and there are several, as with all candidates put up by either of the two major corporate parties) is surely more progressive than any of those just mentioned. And how are we to understand that refusal--this sudden line in the proverbial sand--other than as a racist slap at a black man? You will vote for white men year after year after year--and are threatening to vote for another one just to make a point--but can't bring yourself to vote for a black man, whose political views come much closer to your own, in all likelihood, than do the views of any of the white men you've supported before. How, other than as an act of racism, or perhaps as evidence of political insanity, is one to interpret such a thing?
See, black folks would have sucked it up, like they've had to do forever, and voted for Clinton had it come down to that. Indeed, they were on board the Hillary train early on, convinced that Obama had no chance to win and hoping for change, any change, from the reactionary agenda that has been so prevalent for so long in this culture. They would have supported the white woman--hell, for many black folks, before Obama showed his mettle they were downright excited to do so--but you won't support the black man. And yet you have the audacity to insist that it is you who are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party, and the one before whom Party leaders should bow down, and whose feet must be kissed?
Your whiteness is showing.
Look, I couldn't care less about the Party personally. I left the Democrats twenty years ago when they told me that my activism in the Central America solidarity and South African anti-apartheid movements made me a security risk, and that I wouldn't be able to get clearance to be in some parade with Governor Dukakis. Yeah, seriously. But for you to act as though you are the indispensible voters, the most important, the ones whose views should be pandered to, whose every whim should be the basis for Party policy, is not only absurd, it is also racist in that it, a) ignores and treats as irrelevant the much more loyal constituency of black folks, without whom no Democrat would have won anything in the past twenty years (and indeed the racial gap favoring the Democrats among blacks is about six times larger than the gender gap favoring them among white women, relative to white men); and b) demonstrates the mentality of entitlement and superiority that has been long ingrained in us as white folks--so that we believe we have the right to dictate the terms of political engagement, and to determine the outcome, and to get our way, simply because for so long we have done just that.
But that day is done, whether you like it or not, and you are now left with two, and only two choices, so consider them carefully: the first is to stand now in solidarity with your black brothers and sisters and welcome the new day, and help to push it in a truly progressive and feminist and antiracist direction, while the second is to team up with white men to try and block the new day from dawning. Feel free to choose the latter. But if you do, please don't insult your own intelligence, or ours, by insisting that you've done so as a radical political act.
------------ --------- --------- --------
Tim Wise is the author of: White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press, 2005), and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (Routledge: 2005). He can be reached at: timjwise@msn. com
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Marvin X Will Perform at the San Francisco Theatre Festival
The living legend of the Black Arts Movement, Marvin X (Dr. M), will perform in the upcoming 8th Annual San Francisco Theatre Festival, along with other African American performers, including scenes from Amiri Baraka's Sisyphus Syndrome, Geoffrey Grier's The Spot and Ayodele Nzinga's Allegories of Altars, Sunday,July 27, at the Yerba Buena Gardens, 4th and Mission, San Franciso.
Dr. M will perform a free-style monologue based on his book How To Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. He may include a chorus from his Pan African Mental Health Peer Group. For more information, call 510-355-6339.
Dr. M's book is being used in classes at Berkeley City College and Oakland's Merritt College this semester. Peralta College Television released a video of his lecture on How To Recover from White Supremacy at Berkeley City College.
Order his book from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702
The next session of the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group will be Saturday, June 21, 4pm, at 1425 Oregon Street (at Sacramento), Berkeley.
The living legend of the Black Arts Movement, Marvin X (Dr. M), will perform in the upcoming 8th Annual San Francisco Theatre Festival, along with other African American performers, including scenes from Amiri Baraka's Sisyphus Syndrome, Geoffrey Grier's The Spot and Ayodele Nzinga's Allegories of Altars, Sunday,July 27, at the Yerba Buena Gardens, 4th and Mission, San Franciso.
Dr. M will perform a free-style monologue based on his book How To Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. He may include a chorus from his Pan African Mental Health Peer Group. For more information, call 510-355-6339.
Dr. M's book is being used in classes at Berkeley City College and Oakland's Merritt College this semester. Peralta College Television released a video of his lecture on How To Recover from White Supremacy at Berkeley City College.
Order his book from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702
The next session of the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group will be Saturday, June 21, 4pm, at 1425 Oregon Street (at Sacramento), Berkeley.
Friday, June 6, 2008
www.laneytower.com
Laney Tower
Laney College Newspaper,
Oakland CA
Current Issue: May 22, 2008
Recover from white supremacy
Peer mental health group cures 'addiction'
Reginald James
Author, playwright, and poet Dr. Marvin X is a modern theologian and philosopher sent to earth to help others find themselves. He's not a prophet, but is certainly beyond worthy of his Oakland bestowed title of "Plato" (Ishmael Reed).
His most recent book is, "How to recover from the addiction to white supremacy: A Pan African 12-Step Model for a mental health peer group."
Using a poetic and personal prose, Dr. M, as he is known, leads readers of all ethnicities and national origins on a journey to recover from what he terms the earth's most deadly disease: white supremacy.
"White supremacy can be any form of domination, whether stemming from religious mythology and ritual, or cultural mythology and ritual, such as tribal and caste relations," writes Dr. M. "White supremacy is finally a class phenomena, the rich against the poor,
thus the process of recovery must include a redistribution of global wealth, for there is no doubt that the rich became rich by exploiting the poor, not by any natural inheritance or superior intelligence."
Dr. M, a founder of the Black Arts movement, uses his life experience with drug addiction to create a recovery model for others. Similar to the "12-step model" used by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the book reads like a personal narrative of not just one man's struggle to overcome a grafted sense of self-inferiority and a disillusioned projection of superiority in others, but a prayer of confidence that when others connect with their spirits, they will be able to overcome "stinking thinking," negative attitudes and self-destructive behavior.
After defining white supremacy in the introduction, the next chapter details how to detox and "rid the body and mind of the toxicity of decades under the influence of racist ideology of institutions that have rendered us into a state of drunkenness and denial."
After detoxification, patients are now ready to step into a new era. The first step to recovery is to "admit we are not powerless over self-hatred, racism and white supremacy thinking."
Dr. M's message of mental purification comes through strong in his accounts, and his vast historical knowledge of the experience of North American Africans" (so-called African Americans) encourages students to study. His vast literary references do not discriminate as he makes reference to Shakespeare and "classic" Greek tragedies as well.
"The Other White People," as he refers to them, "are an enigma to themselves, a conundrum of major proportions, transcending Shakespeare's Othello in tragic dimension, for their tragic flaw is lack of self knowledge."
"Such is the gracious gift of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. It has produced a Pan African people in love with all things European: women, clothing, religion, education (what people in their right minds would send their children to the enemy to become educated, especially without a revolutionary agenda), political philosophy, social habits, dietary preferences, sexual mores, etc" writes Dr. M.
While he seeks to create a dialogue with all, the sexism ingrained in this society leaps out at you. He attempts to make amends by apologizing for his past instances of sexism and emotional, verbal, and physical abuse of women.
The most powerful aspect of the book is the encouragement to the reader to gain a working knowledge of self. When speaking to the need for patients to take a "moral inventory," Dr. M puts a mirror up to all people.
Breaking down dynamics of interracial relationships with the analytical perception of a sociologist or psychologist, including historical context of relationships between black women and white men and the taboo of white woman with a black man, Dr. M simplifies the frustration faced by women who date outside of their "race" and the reaction of those who feel their "natural partners" have been stolen.
"In this war with the white woman over the black man's sperm, the black woman, in desperation and denial, tries to mimic the white woman as much as possible, donning blond hair and continuing the tradition of bleaching cream throughout Pan Africa."
Equally healing is the emphasis on seeking forgiveness. When under the influence of substances or mind alterning racist ideology, people often hurt people that are closest to them. Dr. M apologizes for his own shortcomings while under the influence of not just white supremacy, but while using crack cocaine. The prolific writer fell victim to the "ghost" for 12 years, and apologizes to his family and especially his daughters.
He also apologizes on behalf of the "Black Bourgeoisie," "Pan African Professors" he attacked because they were "not as radical and revolutionary as I believed they should, after all, white supremacy institutions are not about to allow a radical Pan African ideology and philosophy to flourish within its institutional framework," writes Dr. M.
Dr. M is able to weave not only events in his life which were symptomatic of white supremacy, but the thought process and actions of others.
While some may be quick to write Dr. M off as a Pan-African revolutionary (which he is), or a "reverse racist" (which he is not), his book benefits people of all ethnicities to come to grips with their preconceived notions about one another.
He successfully differentiates between white supremacy and "white people" for only a few handsomely reap the benefits of white supremacy, while others simply enjoy white privilege. He also emphasizes that white supremacy has not, and will not, flourish without disciples and coconspirators.
"The white supremacy rulers have used poor whites and working class whites to delude whites into thinking the blacks are the cause of their misery and economic exploitation, just as capitalism is presently using immigrant labor to suggest they are the cause of middle and lower class white economic woes, while in fact it is the white supremacy global bandits who are outsourcing for cheap labor." Dr. M equates the assertion with the current immigration debate.
Ultimately, after completing the 12-step model, patients are encouraged to join the "cultural revolution." Harkening to the era of he 1960s, Dr. M suggests "linguistic transcendence" in which North American Africans reclaim a regal self-concept.
In the great tradition of indigenous healers, Dr. M pours love into patients inspiring hope for a cure for what others have deemed the only reality.
Like all scientists, Dr. M is experimenting, hoping that patients will actively involve themselves in their recovery. The "peer group mental health model" accompanies the book and allows the reader to form their own circle to undergo transformation with friends, family, or those people you just haven't met yet. Starting a much needed dialogue, Dr. M brings forward "5000 watts" of shock therapy to awake people to their senses.
Dr. M obtained his PhD in Negrology from the University of Hell, USA. Formerly known as Marvin Jackmon, he was born in Fowler, CA and grew up in Fresno and Oakland. He attended Merritt College and San Francisco State University where he received a BA and MA in English. He has taught English, African American Literature, Drama, journalism, and more at Fresno State, UC Berkeley, Mills, and Laney College. He was an professor at Fresno State University when then Governor Ronald Reagan found out Dr. M refused to serve in Vietnam--he was barred from teaching.
His other books include Love and War, poems, 1995, In the Crazy House Called America, essays, 2002, and his most recent Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, 2007. His books are available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, 94702. $19.95 each.
For more information about Dr. M, visit www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.
Laney Tower
Laney College Newspaper,
Oakland CA
Current Issue: May 22, 2008
Recover from white supremacy
Peer mental health group cures 'addiction'
Reginald James
Author, playwright, and poet Dr. Marvin X is a modern theologian and philosopher sent to earth to help others find themselves. He's not a prophet, but is certainly beyond worthy of his Oakland bestowed title of "Plato" (Ishmael Reed).
His most recent book is, "How to recover from the addiction to white supremacy: A Pan African 12-Step Model for a mental health peer group."
Using a poetic and personal prose, Dr. M, as he is known, leads readers of all ethnicities and national origins on a journey to recover from what he terms the earth's most deadly disease: white supremacy.
"White supremacy can be any form of domination, whether stemming from religious mythology and ritual, or cultural mythology and ritual, such as tribal and caste relations," writes Dr. M. "White supremacy is finally a class phenomena, the rich against the poor,
thus the process of recovery must include a redistribution of global wealth, for there is no doubt that the rich became rich by exploiting the poor, not by any natural inheritance or superior intelligence."
Dr. M, a founder of the Black Arts movement, uses his life experience with drug addiction to create a recovery model for others. Similar to the "12-step model" used by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the book reads like a personal narrative of not just one man's struggle to overcome a grafted sense of self-inferiority and a disillusioned projection of superiority in others, but a prayer of confidence that when others connect with their spirits, they will be able to overcome "stinking thinking," negative attitudes and self-destructive behavior.
After defining white supremacy in the introduction, the next chapter details how to detox and "rid the body and mind of the toxicity of decades under the influence of racist ideology of institutions that have rendered us into a state of drunkenness and denial."
After detoxification, patients are now ready to step into a new era. The first step to recovery is to "admit we are not powerless over self-hatred, racism and white supremacy thinking."
Dr. M's message of mental purification comes through strong in his accounts, and his vast historical knowledge of the experience of North American Africans" (so-called African Americans) encourages students to study. His vast literary references do not discriminate as he makes reference to Shakespeare and "classic" Greek tragedies as well.
"The Other White People," as he refers to them, "are an enigma to themselves, a conundrum of major proportions, transcending Shakespeare's Othello in tragic dimension, for their tragic flaw is lack of self knowledge."
"Such is the gracious gift of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. It has produced a Pan African people in love with all things European: women, clothing, religion, education (what people in their right minds would send their children to the enemy to become educated, especially without a revolutionary agenda), political philosophy, social habits, dietary preferences, sexual mores, etc" writes Dr. M.
While he seeks to create a dialogue with all, the sexism ingrained in this society leaps out at you. He attempts to make amends by apologizing for his past instances of sexism and emotional, verbal, and physical abuse of women.
The most powerful aspect of the book is the encouragement to the reader to gain a working knowledge of self. When speaking to the need for patients to take a "moral inventory," Dr. M puts a mirror up to all people.
Breaking down dynamics of interracial relationships with the analytical perception of a sociologist or psychologist, including historical context of relationships between black women and white men and the taboo of white woman with a black man, Dr. M simplifies the frustration faced by women who date outside of their "race" and the reaction of those who feel their "natural partners" have been stolen.
"In this war with the white woman over the black man's sperm, the black woman, in desperation and denial, tries to mimic the white woman as much as possible, donning blond hair and continuing the tradition of bleaching cream throughout Pan Africa."
Equally healing is the emphasis on seeking forgiveness. When under the influence of substances or mind alterning racist ideology, people often hurt people that are closest to them. Dr. M apologizes for his own shortcomings while under the influence of not just white supremacy, but while using crack cocaine. The prolific writer fell victim to the "ghost" for 12 years, and apologizes to his family and especially his daughters.
He also apologizes on behalf of the "Black Bourgeoisie," "Pan African Professors" he attacked because they were "not as radical and revolutionary as I believed they should, after all, white supremacy institutions are not about to allow a radical Pan African ideology and philosophy to flourish within its institutional framework," writes Dr. M.
Dr. M is able to weave not only events in his life which were symptomatic of white supremacy, but the thought process and actions of others.
While some may be quick to write Dr. M off as a Pan-African revolutionary (which he is), or a "reverse racist" (which he is not), his book benefits people of all ethnicities to come to grips with their preconceived notions about one another.
He successfully differentiates between white supremacy and "white people" for only a few handsomely reap the benefits of white supremacy, while others simply enjoy white privilege. He also emphasizes that white supremacy has not, and will not, flourish without disciples and coconspirators.
"The white supremacy rulers have used poor whites and working class whites to delude whites into thinking the blacks are the cause of their misery and economic exploitation, just as capitalism is presently using immigrant labor to suggest they are the cause of middle and lower class white economic woes, while in fact it is the white supremacy global bandits who are outsourcing for cheap labor." Dr. M equates the assertion with the current immigration debate.
Ultimately, after completing the 12-step model, patients are encouraged to join the "cultural revolution." Harkening to the era of he 1960s, Dr. M suggests "linguistic transcendence" in which North American Africans reclaim a regal self-concept.
In the great tradition of indigenous healers, Dr. M pours love into patients inspiring hope for a cure for what others have deemed the only reality.
Like all scientists, Dr. M is experimenting, hoping that patients will actively involve themselves in their recovery. The "peer group mental health model" accompanies the book and allows the reader to form their own circle to undergo transformation with friends, family, or those people you just haven't met yet. Starting a much needed dialogue, Dr. M brings forward "5000 watts" of shock therapy to awake people to their senses.
Dr. M obtained his PhD in Negrology from the University of Hell, USA. Formerly known as Marvin Jackmon, he was born in Fowler, CA and grew up in Fresno and Oakland. He attended Merritt College and San Francisco State University where he received a BA and MA in English. He has taught English, African American Literature, Drama, journalism, and more at Fresno State, UC Berkeley, Mills, and Laney College. He was an professor at Fresno State University when then Governor Ronald Reagan found out Dr. M refused to serve in Vietnam--he was barred from teaching.
His other books include Love and War, poems, 1995, In the Crazy House Called America, essays, 2002, and his most recent Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, 2007. His books are available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, 94702. $19.95 each.
For more information about Dr. M, visit www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.
Obama '08-Act Like We Know
By Amiri Baraka
The anti-Obama claptrap from Black people is most times Negro trickery, either they are with Bill 2(Hillary)-I read there's even a Negro for Biden-or else like the anarchist-minded folks who come on the Super Left, they are so militant they opt for passivity & content themselves with merely calling their perceived enemies names. The mask of the foolish juvenile delinquent left who sees no progress in doing anything but name calling.
That's how you got rid of David Dinkins, he was too conservative, so you hooted and hollered until you got a real militant, Adolph Giuliani & here we are today w/ yr boy the billionaire mayor whose nose opens wider each day at the sight of Obama running. Like Rock & Roll, it needs our inspiration!
But it has got to be clear that the less we do, the less we can expect Obama to respond to us. It is the fundamental reaction of most politicians that they respond to the sharpest presence, although we shd know that under the capitalist election shenanigans, it is always money that speaks loudest, which is why one of our constant calls in trying to transform the U.S. political culture, is that we demand all private monies be eliminated from elections. In fact the first of our ongoing political tasks is to relentlessly call for the transformation of the U.S. Political culture! The elimination of the Electoral College, One Person, One vote, to eliminate the anti-democratic Winner-take- all system. The abolition of the Senate to be replaced by a single (unicameral) House of Representatives. Restoration of voting rights to ex felons. Elections of a single day, direct democracy i.e. voting at the workplace, school & compulsory voting? If taxation is compulsory, voting shd be too.
But those are a few of the tasks to be taken up by an energized Black population and in alliance with a Left Block of the broadest population no matter what happens ultimately to Obama. Yet it is the most obvious infantile left-anarchist error that haunts our movement, to constantly be talking about Revolution and not even participate in one of the most obvious ways of seizing some power.
I have heard seriously flawed arguments that Obama is not "Black enough"! You better be checking out his politics not his melanin. Though w/ an African father and very Black grandmother, he is probably closer to the Mother land than most of us straight out Black Americans, for whom our direct connection with Africa was over by the 19th century.
Plus, is Hillary or Edwards blacker? Despite some deluded Bloods I know who called Bill Clinton "the lst Black president," is that why he passed that crime bill, wasted welfare & established states' right on many social programs?
We are the people of the double consciousness, both Black & American, but if we understand Du Bois' equation properly we shd know that means that we struggle for equal Citizenship rights as well as Self Determination!
To support Obama is to grasp both ends of that double consciousness, aware of the contradiction but also the dialectic that makes that social twoness of use to us.
But we must understand that we are now at a stage of struggle for a People's Democracy, a Revolutionary Democracy, where our maximum accomplishment at this stage of struggle wd be a United Front Government, based on an alliance of multinational workers, the progressive petty bourgeoisie, farmers, all democratic forces and even with the shaky national bourgeoisie. Such an accomplishment wd still be a transitional stage, but an incrementally closer step toward socialism.
National oppression, racism, the oppression of women and gays will never cease until monopoly capitalism is put under control and then depowered and then eliminated. But we cannot airbrush or dismiss as unnecessary all those stages that will one day enable us to do that.
The mass support of Obama by the national Afro American movement, especially its progressive sector, will reinvigorate our struggle. We cannot merely stand on the side lines and be chumped-off, mumbling as one super-militant sister in DC recently read in a poem putting down Hillary & Obama & ending "Only the white man will win." A White racist cd've said that! Is that all we're good for now?
The Republican Right has co-opted the Negro as a bow to the civil rights movement. Slicker than the Democrats, Condoleeza, Tom Ass and The Colon have been energized like that battery operated rabbit to delude the lowest of us here & around the world. That somehow that represents real democracy. We must enter into that mainstream struggle & make our own demands, utilize the pressure of our needs & our numbers. We are almost 50 million people with the 16th GNP in the world...almost 600 Billion dollars a year. We have the muscle and the money We need to make our move.
A massive Afro American presence around Obama's campaign shd be utilized by us not only to renew the Afro American struggle, but also as a method of recreating the reality of a national Afro American political assembly, democratically elected from all 50 states, able to support our friends, oppose our enemies in whatever way we see fit!
With such a presence we cd have stopped the Bush seizure of power in Florida & so prevented the Ohio recurrence. The Black American must have a self-determined power base and the ignition spark can be brought into focus and perhaps one ignition spark can be supplied by our consolidating a correct relationship to the Obama campaign. No matter what America does in the nomination or election!
By Amiri Baraka
The anti-Obama claptrap from Black people is most times Negro trickery, either they are with Bill 2(Hillary)-I read there's even a Negro for Biden-or else like the anarchist-minded folks who come on the Super Left, they are so militant they opt for passivity & content themselves with merely calling their perceived enemies names. The mask of the foolish juvenile delinquent left who sees no progress in doing anything but name calling.
That's how you got rid of David Dinkins, he was too conservative, so you hooted and hollered until you got a real militant, Adolph Giuliani & here we are today w/ yr boy the billionaire mayor whose nose opens wider each day at the sight of Obama running. Like Rock & Roll, it needs our inspiration!
But it has got to be clear that the less we do, the less we can expect Obama to respond to us. It is the fundamental reaction of most politicians that they respond to the sharpest presence, although we shd know that under the capitalist election shenanigans, it is always money that speaks loudest, which is why one of our constant calls in trying to transform the U.S. political culture, is that we demand all private monies be eliminated from elections. In fact the first of our ongoing political tasks is to relentlessly call for the transformation of the U.S. Political culture! The elimination of the Electoral College, One Person, One vote, to eliminate the anti-democratic Winner-take- all system. The abolition of the Senate to be replaced by a single (unicameral) House of Representatives. Restoration of voting rights to ex felons. Elections of a single day, direct democracy i.e. voting at the workplace, school & compulsory voting? If taxation is compulsory, voting shd be too.
But those are a few of the tasks to be taken up by an energized Black population and in alliance with a Left Block of the broadest population no matter what happens ultimately to Obama. Yet it is the most obvious infantile left-anarchist error that haunts our movement, to constantly be talking about Revolution and not even participate in one of the most obvious ways of seizing some power.
I have heard seriously flawed arguments that Obama is not "Black enough"! You better be checking out his politics not his melanin. Though w/ an African father and very Black grandmother, he is probably closer to the Mother land than most of us straight out Black Americans, for whom our direct connection with Africa was over by the 19th century.
Plus, is Hillary or Edwards blacker? Despite some deluded Bloods I know who called Bill Clinton "the lst Black president," is that why he passed that crime bill, wasted welfare & established states' right on many social programs?
We are the people of the double consciousness, both Black & American, but if we understand Du Bois' equation properly we shd know that means that we struggle for equal Citizenship rights as well as Self Determination!
To support Obama is to grasp both ends of that double consciousness, aware of the contradiction but also the dialectic that makes that social twoness of use to us.
But we must understand that we are now at a stage of struggle for a People's Democracy, a Revolutionary Democracy, where our maximum accomplishment at this stage of struggle wd be a United Front Government, based on an alliance of multinational workers, the progressive petty bourgeoisie, farmers, all democratic forces and even with the shaky national bourgeoisie. Such an accomplishment wd still be a transitional stage, but an incrementally closer step toward socialism.
National oppression, racism, the oppression of women and gays will never cease until monopoly capitalism is put under control and then depowered and then eliminated. But we cannot airbrush or dismiss as unnecessary all those stages that will one day enable us to do that.
The mass support of Obama by the national Afro American movement, especially its progressive sector, will reinvigorate our struggle. We cannot merely stand on the side lines and be chumped-off, mumbling as one super-militant sister in DC recently read in a poem putting down Hillary & Obama & ending "Only the white man will win." A White racist cd've said that! Is that all we're good for now?
The Republican Right has co-opted the Negro as a bow to the civil rights movement. Slicker than the Democrats, Condoleeza, Tom Ass and The Colon have been energized like that battery operated rabbit to delude the lowest of us here & around the world. That somehow that represents real democracy. We must enter into that mainstream struggle & make our own demands, utilize the pressure of our needs & our numbers. We are almost 50 million people with the 16th GNP in the world...almost 600 Billion dollars a year. We have the muscle and the money We need to make our move.
A massive Afro American presence around Obama's campaign shd be utilized by us not only to renew the Afro American struggle, but also as a method of recreating the reality of a national Afro American political assembly, democratically elected from all 50 states, able to support our friends, oppose our enemies in whatever way we see fit!
With such a presence we cd have stopped the Bush seizure of power in Florida & so prevented the Ohio recurrence. The Black American must have a self-determined power base and the ignition spark can be brought into focus and perhaps one ignition spark can be supplied by our consolidating a correct relationship to the Obama campaign. No matter what America does in the nomination or election!
Obama '08-Act Like We Know
By Amiri Baraka
The anti-Obama claptrap from Black people is most times Negro trickery, either they are with Bill 2(Hillary)-I read there's even a Negro for Biden-or else like the anarchist-minded folks who come on the Super Left, they are so militant they opt for passivity & content themselves with merely calling their perceived enemies names. The mask of the foolish juvenile delinquent left who sees no progress in doing anything but name calling.
That's how you got rid of David Dinkins, he was too conservative, so you hooted and hollered until you got a real militant, Adolph Giuliani & here we are today w/ yr boy the billionaire mayor whose nose opens wider each day at the sight of Obama running. Like Rock & Roll, it needs our inspiration!
But it has got to be clear that the less we do, the less we can expect Obama to respond to us. It is the fundamental reaction of most politicians that they respond to the sharpest presence, although we shd know that under the capitalist election shenanigans, it is always money that speaks loudest, which is why one of our constant calls in trying to transform the U.S. political culture, is that we demand all private monies be eliminated from elections. In fact the first of our ongoing political tasks is to relentlessly call for the transformation of the U.S. Political culture! The elimination of the Electoral College, One Person, One vote, to eliminate the anti-democratic Winner-take- all system. The abolition of the Senate to be replaced by a single (unicameral) House of Representatives. Restoration of voting rights to ex felons. Elections of a single day, direct democracy i.e. voting at the workplace, school & compulsory voting? If taxation is compulsory, voting shd be too.
But those are a few of the tasks to be taken up by an energized Black population and in alliance with a Left Block of the broadest population no matter what happens ultimately to Obama. Yet it is the most obvious infantile left-anarchist error that haunts our movement, to constantly be talking about Revolution and not even participate in one of the most obvious ways of seizing some power.
I have heard seriously flawed arguments that Obama is not "Black enough"! You better be checking out his politics not his melanin. Though w/ an African father and very Black grandmother, he is probably closer to the Mother land than most of us straight out Black Americans, for whom our direct connection with Africa was over by the 19th century.
Plus, is Hillary or Edwards blacker? Despite some deluded Bloods I know who called Bill Clinton "the lst Black president," is that why he passed that crime bill, wasted welfare & established states' right on many social programs?
We are the people of the double consciousness, both Black & American, but if we understand Du Bois' equation properly we shd know that means that we struggle for equal Citizenship rights as well as Self Determination!
To support Obama is to grasp both ends of that double consciousness, aware of the contradiction but also the dialectic that makes that social twoness of use to us.
But we must understand that we are now at a stage of struggle for a People's Democracy, a Revolutionary Democracy, where our maximum accomplishment at this stage of struggle wd be a United Front Government, based on an alliance of multinational workers, the progressive petty bourgeoisie, farmers, all democratic forces and even with the shaky national bourgeoisie. Such an accomplishment wd still be a transitional stage, but an incrementally closer step toward socialism.
National oppression, racism, the oppression of women and gays will never cease until monopoly capitalism is put under control and then depowered and then eliminated. But we cannot airbrush or dismiss as unnecessary all those stages that will one day enable us to do that.
The mass support of Obama by the national Afro American movement, especially its progressive sector, will reinvigorate our struggle. We cannot merely stand on the side lines and be chumped-off, mumbling as one super-militant sister in DC recently read in a poem putting down Hillary & Obama & ending "Only the white man will win." A White racist cd've said that! Is that all we're good for now?
The Republican Right has co-opted the Negro as a bow to the civil rights movement. Slicker than the Democrats, Condoleeza, Tom Ass and The Colon have been energized like that battery operated rabbit to delude the lowest of us here & around the world. That somehow that represents real democracy. We must enter into that mainstream struggle & make our own demands, utilize the pressure of our needs & our numbers. We are almost 50 million people with the 16th GNP in the world...almost 600 Billion dollars a year. We have the muscle and the money We need to make our move.
A massive Afro American presence around Obama's campaign shd be utilized by us not only to renew the Afro American struggle, but also as a method of recreating the reality of a national Afro American political assembly, democratically elected from all 50 states, able to support our friends, oppose our enemies in whatever way we see fit!
With such a presence we cd have stopped the Bush seizure of power in Florida & so prevented the Ohio recurrence. The Black American must have a self-determined power base and the ignition spark can be brought into focus and perhaps one ignition spark can be supplied by our consolidating a correct relationship to the Obama campaign. No matter what America does in the nomination or election!
By Amiri Baraka
The anti-Obama claptrap from Black people is most times Negro trickery, either they are with Bill 2(Hillary)-I read there's even a Negro for Biden-or else like the anarchist-minded folks who come on the Super Left, they are so militant they opt for passivity & content themselves with merely calling their perceived enemies names. The mask of the foolish juvenile delinquent left who sees no progress in doing anything but name calling.
That's how you got rid of David Dinkins, he was too conservative, so you hooted and hollered until you got a real militant, Adolph Giuliani & here we are today w/ yr boy the billionaire mayor whose nose opens wider each day at the sight of Obama running. Like Rock & Roll, it needs our inspiration!
But it has got to be clear that the less we do, the less we can expect Obama to respond to us. It is the fundamental reaction of most politicians that they respond to the sharpest presence, although we shd know that under the capitalist election shenanigans, it is always money that speaks loudest, which is why one of our constant calls in trying to transform the U.S. political culture, is that we demand all private monies be eliminated from elections. In fact the first of our ongoing political tasks is to relentlessly call for the transformation of the U.S. Political culture! The elimination of the Electoral College, One Person, One vote, to eliminate the anti-democratic Winner-take- all system. The abolition of the Senate to be replaced by a single (unicameral) House of Representatives. Restoration of voting rights to ex felons. Elections of a single day, direct democracy i.e. voting at the workplace, school & compulsory voting? If taxation is compulsory, voting shd be too.
But those are a few of the tasks to be taken up by an energized Black population and in alliance with a Left Block of the broadest population no matter what happens ultimately to Obama. Yet it is the most obvious infantile left-anarchist error that haunts our movement, to constantly be talking about Revolution and not even participate in one of the most obvious ways of seizing some power.
I have heard seriously flawed arguments that Obama is not "Black enough"! You better be checking out his politics not his melanin. Though w/ an African father and very Black grandmother, he is probably closer to the Mother land than most of us straight out Black Americans, for whom our direct connection with Africa was over by the 19th century.
Plus, is Hillary or Edwards blacker? Despite some deluded Bloods I know who called Bill Clinton "the lst Black president," is that why he passed that crime bill, wasted welfare & established states' right on many social programs?
We are the people of the double consciousness, both Black & American, but if we understand Du Bois' equation properly we shd know that means that we struggle for equal Citizenship rights as well as Self Determination!
To support Obama is to grasp both ends of that double consciousness, aware of the contradiction but also the dialectic that makes that social twoness of use to us.
But we must understand that we are now at a stage of struggle for a People's Democracy, a Revolutionary Democracy, where our maximum accomplishment at this stage of struggle wd be a United Front Government, based on an alliance of multinational workers, the progressive petty bourgeoisie, farmers, all democratic forces and even with the shaky national bourgeoisie. Such an accomplishment wd still be a transitional stage, but an incrementally closer step toward socialism.
National oppression, racism, the oppression of women and gays will never cease until monopoly capitalism is put under control and then depowered and then eliminated. But we cannot airbrush or dismiss as unnecessary all those stages that will one day enable us to do that.
The mass support of Obama by the national Afro American movement, especially its progressive sector, will reinvigorate our struggle. We cannot merely stand on the side lines and be chumped-off, mumbling as one super-militant sister in DC recently read in a poem putting down Hillary & Obama & ending "Only the white man will win." A White racist cd've said that! Is that all we're good for now?
The Republican Right has co-opted the Negro as a bow to the civil rights movement. Slicker than the Democrats, Condoleeza, Tom Ass and The Colon have been energized like that battery operated rabbit to delude the lowest of us here & around the world. That somehow that represents real democracy. We must enter into that mainstream struggle & make our own demands, utilize the pressure of our needs & our numbers. We are almost 50 million people with the 16th GNP in the world...almost 600 Billion dollars a year. We have the muscle and the money We need to make our move.
A massive Afro American presence around Obama's campaign shd be utilized by us not only to renew the Afro American struggle, but also as a method of recreating the reality of a national Afro American political assembly, democratically elected from all 50 states, able to support our friends, oppose our enemies in whatever way we see fit!
With such a presence we cd have stopped the Bush seizure of power in Florida & so prevented the Ohio recurrence. The Black American must have a self-determined power base and the ignition spark can be brought into focus and perhaps one ignition spark can be supplied by our consolidating a correct relationship to the Obama campaign. No matter what America does in the nomination or election!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
PLATO ON OBAMA DRAMA
“Dr. M is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.”
--Ishmael Reed, novelist, essayist, poet
As we head toward the Feb 5 primary election, prepare yourselves for more Obama drama! Was Iowa a fluke, was his win in South Carolina an indication of America’s racial divide, after all, he won only 25% of the white vote but 80% of the North American African vote. And as per race, prior to their vote, the Africans tried to convince the media their vote would be about issues, not color. Of course this was more Southern poppycock or fooling the master that North American Africans have become adroit at as a survival technique. Tell the master what he wants to hear, tell him anything to survive until another day. Or did the Africans have a sudden change of heart when they entered the voting booth, deciding it wasn’t about issues but supporting their African brother, as in racial pride that was openly revealed by the 104 year old African woman who cast her vote for Obama, saying she had been waiting for this day a long time long time. The fact that blacks would tell the media it was about anything other than race is an index of their schizoid mentality, for have we not all been waiting, mostly in vain, for the savior who will deliver us from our misery, from centuries of slavery and de facto slavery, down to the present wage slavery, especially in the South?
It is not strange that he captured the under thirty white vote, for this generation of whites openly call themselves nigguhs, having been socialized by rappers and hip hop culture which has given them a more liberal racial consciousness than their ignorant elders steeped in segregation mythology and the illusion they won the Civil War or the hope to return blacks to slavery one day. Of course the prison industrial complex has given them hope that slavery under the constitution or involuntary servitude will indeed save the day and allow them to realize their deepest desires for the resurrection of the South, which essentially means putting the niggers back in their place.
But the young whites, even though they have benefited from white privilege, are determined to transcend the sins of their fathers and mothers. They have been sensitized to African culture and love it—in actuality their elders love it as well, but put on the persona of denial, allowing their love to masquerade as hate. For how can you not love your loyal slave, the producer of your wealth, the surplus capital you have accumulated through the centuries, worth trillions of dollars, allowing an inheritance for your children but only poverty and ignorance for the African free slaves.
Now the white women voted for their sister, Hillary, and have done so consistently after her tear jerking drama when she lost Iowa. White women must unite around their sister, for they cannot allow the nigguh to come before Miss Ann. He must wait his turn, so perhaps after Hillery is Prez, then Obama can have his day. In the white woman’s mind the black man is fine but he is not to come before their white sister. There is racial and gender loyalty here and we must be astute enough to recognize it, going into Fat Tuesday!
And what about the blacks for Clinton? They are a motley crew of democratic sycophants
who truly believe Clinton is the first black president, thus in loyalty to him, Hillary must be the second black president, not Obama. Obama is not black anyway—he might be African but he’s from another tribe, not the tribe of North American Africans, thus he is outside and can be dismissed by the black democratic loyalists, such as Ron Dellums, Jesse Jackson, Charlie Rangel and others.
But isn’t it strange how Obama is sounding more and more like Malcolm X with each passing day, even using Malcolm’s rhetoric about how we are hoodwinked and bamboozled by the opposition? And he does have an Islamic background , having attended the Madrassa or religious school as a child. And his middle name is Hussein. So we pray he doesn’t suffer Malcolm’s fate. Amiri Baraka was asked by students at UC Berkeley what was his greatest accomplishment? He replied, “Staying alive.” Our brother Obama faces the same task. We wish him well.
--Dr. M
1/28/08
Part Two: Obama Drama
Now that Super Tuesday has passed and the Democratic candidates, Hillary and Obama, are yet neck and neck, where do we go from here? Perhaps our so-called leaders who are backing Hillary Clinton, that motley crew of democratic sycophants, need to ask themselves this question: should they not jump the ship of Hilbillery, the ship of fools, and join the North American African masses who are 90% for Obama, or shall they go down in history as leaders who need to be led. Let black history be their guide: the old guard civil rights leaders were caught napping when the cry of Black Power electrified the masses and redirected the freedom movement of the 50s and 60s.
Our present political leaders are perhaps deaf, dumb and blind to the level of dissatisfaction and the need for radical change that Obama symbolizes. Yes, he may be transformative but the old guard doubt he will be able to make the transactions they customarily obtain from the Democratic Party power brokers.
The political leaders have been the gatekeepers who are a failure at delivering bacon to their people. They gave them no political education or economic education to protect them from the sub prime tragedy. They have no real solution to stop 50% of our children from dropping out of school. They have no solution to stop the violence coast to coast, with a major portion of the 16,000 annual murders in America being our sons and daughters. They have been impotent to address the high gas prices, apparently they are too proud to ask president Chavez of Venezuela to aid North American Africans, although we know he is willing to help our community out of our dependency complex and fatal attraction with Ustatos Unidos del Norte America.
Other than making transactions to benefit themselves, what bacon do they deliver, what relief from our misery? Yet they insist we blindly follow their direction into outer space. Hilbillery took women off welfare into prostitution and other crimes, increasing the prison population among women and men when he made crack addicts and petty dealers serve long prison terms for what is a mental health problem and economic justice issue. Yet he/she is our savior?
For sure, the identity starved, self esteem depleted and economically exploited North American Africans have cast their vote with Obama.
He is clearly the man of the hour, the new kid on the block, thus our black leadership would do well to look at the man in the mirror and decide to change their course.
Dissatisfaction brings about change. Obama will be a change whether he wins or not. Call it a dress rehearsal for the future—just in case he doesn’t make it this time. Look into the future, imagine how far he might go with solid backing from his North American people. We might be able to convince our Latino brothers and sisters to join forces with us rather than the old guard, which would permit us to forge a powerful movement of the disinherited, a real movement for change in this nation that has not been seen since the 60s when Blacks united with Latinos, whites, Native Americas, Asians and others to take a great leap forward from segregation and wage slavery.
Latinos can act white if they want, along with our leaders they shall see the day when our unity will be needed and sought, but perhaps to no avail. Yes, we may need to discard our leaders and traditional allies and ultimately go the path of Nationalism. Of course this is beyond the Obama paradigm which can only envision us in an American configuration. Thinking outside the box of American politics is wishful if not delusional, our traditional leaders would say, including Obama, although his roots clearly transcend these United States.
But if Obama can help resurrect our spirits with hope and the possibility of change in the status quo, why not back him with our full support. You might say, do not put your eggs in one basket, so then political leaders, continue in your inordinacy placating pharaoh, but your people are moving on. Our allies must either shit or get off the pot as well. Either you are with us or against us, or shall we say you are either part of the solution or part of the problem. You decide and be prepared to pay the consequences in this political game of life.
We know politics has no permanent friends, only permanent interests. We must clearly state our agenda, define our interests, our priorities, which we should present to Obama as well. We know what change is, but thank him for reminding us.
Obama must do some hard thinking to offer us a way out of this morass, this conundrum that is forever eluding our grasp. He has nine months to deal with Hilbillery, enough time to birth a child. Call this child Freedom.
Obama heralds the era of the Post Black Negro in America. Obama, biracial product--after 400 years of amalgamation, what would one expect? What about a pure Gullah Geeche Negro? Khalid Muhammad!
Let us be sophisticated. We know the treachery of Mulattoes, and we know the treachery of pure Africans in Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Congo. We know the treachery of North American Africans, down to the present moment, they are making deals with the devil. But we see them from whence they see us not. And we are not of the unjust people. We are of the suffering righteous.
What we need are righteous men and women to come to the front of the line, to stand up and represent Divinity, the divine man and woman of spiritual consciousness who can rule without taking a bribe, without telling lies. Find me the righteous man and I shall save the town!
Of the mulatto class, the class preferred by the power structure in dealing with blacks--there is danger here. Chancellor Williams told us it was Mulattoes who ushered in the destruction of African Civilization 6,000 years ago in Egypt. And Haiti had Desselines deal with Mulattoes in their revolution here in the Americas. Toussaint had to tell Desselines after his slaughter, “I told you to prune the tree, not to uproot it!”
But let us be clear: Mulattoes, Pure Blacks, Biracial, does not matter. It is the condition of the heart, the condition of the spirit. Are you a devil or do you represent the Divine?
Answer this, then we shall proceed.
--Dr. M
2/7/08
Part Three Obama Drama
Marvin X
And so it is the man from Illinois who shall be the Democratic party nominee for president. Elijah Muhammad told us the white woman would be the last weapon used to check the rise of the black nation. And so it is, Mrs. Clinton persisted until the bitter end to fight for her gender rights, but apparently in the eyes of the people, the descendant of slavery and colonialism takes priority over Miz Ann, after all, no matter what, she enjoyed the fruits of slavery and thus there is blood on her hands as well. In the good days of his pimping, my brother told me he pimped the white woman because he disdained her as he did her brother and father. But let us go beyond the white woman--she put up a valiant fight, although it obviously wasn't her time. It was time for Jack (Barak) to jump out of the box. We saw the same thing in Oakland's mayoral race. Dellums was an unknown factor until late in the race when his supporters gathered enough signatures to encourage him to enter the race--it was the Latino Ignacio Fuentes who was expected to become Oakland's first Latino mayor. But Jack jumped and Dellums is Oakland's third black mayor. We won't discuss whether he has brought about any change--certainly not in bringing down the homicide rate.
Likewise, it is doubtful how much change Obama can bring about as our first black president, for we must be clear Wall Street rules America, not politicians, who are merely puppets on a string of the international bankers who finance friend and foe alike. The question North American Africans must ask themselves is what items we want on Obama's agenda: National Health Care, Reparations, a general amnesty for prisoners of America's domestic war against our community, a radical national educational curriculum that includes consciousness and do for self economics to prepare our community for the diminishing job market in light of globalism, a priority for African reconstruction to erase the vestiges of colonialism and neo-colonialism.
We learned from the 60s black power revolution that a black face will not save us, so we must have no illusions Obama is our savior. He will carry out the will of American imperialism to the best of his ability. But as he is pressed from the right, we must pressure him from the left to keep him from being totally useless. No matter what, he will need us as much as we will need him. Just remember politics in not about friends but interests. Let us be clear what we want and fight to secure it.
6.5.08
Marvin X is the author of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. The next meeting of the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group to recover from white supremacy is Saturday, June 7, 4pm, at 1425 Oregon Street (off Sacramento), Berkeley. Call 510-355.6339 for more information. Visit his blog: www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.
“Dr. M is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.”
--Ishmael Reed, novelist, essayist, poet
As we head toward the Feb 5 primary election, prepare yourselves for more Obama drama! Was Iowa a fluke, was his win in South Carolina an indication of America’s racial divide, after all, he won only 25% of the white vote but 80% of the North American African vote. And as per race, prior to their vote, the Africans tried to convince the media their vote would be about issues, not color. Of course this was more Southern poppycock or fooling the master that North American Africans have become adroit at as a survival technique. Tell the master what he wants to hear, tell him anything to survive until another day. Or did the Africans have a sudden change of heart when they entered the voting booth, deciding it wasn’t about issues but supporting their African brother, as in racial pride that was openly revealed by the 104 year old African woman who cast her vote for Obama, saying she had been waiting for this day a long time long time. The fact that blacks would tell the media it was about anything other than race is an index of their schizoid mentality, for have we not all been waiting, mostly in vain, for the savior who will deliver us from our misery, from centuries of slavery and de facto slavery, down to the present wage slavery, especially in the South?
It is not strange that he captured the under thirty white vote, for this generation of whites openly call themselves nigguhs, having been socialized by rappers and hip hop culture which has given them a more liberal racial consciousness than their ignorant elders steeped in segregation mythology and the illusion they won the Civil War or the hope to return blacks to slavery one day. Of course the prison industrial complex has given them hope that slavery under the constitution or involuntary servitude will indeed save the day and allow them to realize their deepest desires for the resurrection of the South, which essentially means putting the niggers back in their place.
But the young whites, even though they have benefited from white privilege, are determined to transcend the sins of their fathers and mothers. They have been sensitized to African culture and love it—in actuality their elders love it as well, but put on the persona of denial, allowing their love to masquerade as hate. For how can you not love your loyal slave, the producer of your wealth, the surplus capital you have accumulated through the centuries, worth trillions of dollars, allowing an inheritance for your children but only poverty and ignorance for the African free slaves.
Now the white women voted for their sister, Hillary, and have done so consistently after her tear jerking drama when she lost Iowa. White women must unite around their sister, for they cannot allow the nigguh to come before Miss Ann. He must wait his turn, so perhaps after Hillery is Prez, then Obama can have his day. In the white woman’s mind the black man is fine but he is not to come before their white sister. There is racial and gender loyalty here and we must be astute enough to recognize it, going into Fat Tuesday!
And what about the blacks for Clinton? They are a motley crew of democratic sycophants
who truly believe Clinton is the first black president, thus in loyalty to him, Hillary must be the second black president, not Obama. Obama is not black anyway—he might be African but he’s from another tribe, not the tribe of North American Africans, thus he is outside and can be dismissed by the black democratic loyalists, such as Ron Dellums, Jesse Jackson, Charlie Rangel and others.
But isn’t it strange how Obama is sounding more and more like Malcolm X with each passing day, even using Malcolm’s rhetoric about how we are hoodwinked and bamboozled by the opposition? And he does have an Islamic background , having attended the Madrassa or religious school as a child. And his middle name is Hussein. So we pray he doesn’t suffer Malcolm’s fate. Amiri Baraka was asked by students at UC Berkeley what was his greatest accomplishment? He replied, “Staying alive.” Our brother Obama faces the same task. We wish him well.
--Dr. M
1/28/08
Part Two: Obama Drama
Now that Super Tuesday has passed and the Democratic candidates, Hillary and Obama, are yet neck and neck, where do we go from here? Perhaps our so-called leaders who are backing Hillary Clinton, that motley crew of democratic sycophants, need to ask themselves this question: should they not jump the ship of Hilbillery, the ship of fools, and join the North American African masses who are 90% for Obama, or shall they go down in history as leaders who need to be led. Let black history be their guide: the old guard civil rights leaders were caught napping when the cry of Black Power electrified the masses and redirected the freedom movement of the 50s and 60s.
Our present political leaders are perhaps deaf, dumb and blind to the level of dissatisfaction and the need for radical change that Obama symbolizes. Yes, he may be transformative but the old guard doubt he will be able to make the transactions they customarily obtain from the Democratic Party power brokers.
The political leaders have been the gatekeepers who are a failure at delivering bacon to their people. They gave them no political education or economic education to protect them from the sub prime tragedy. They have no real solution to stop 50% of our children from dropping out of school. They have no solution to stop the violence coast to coast, with a major portion of the 16,000 annual murders in America being our sons and daughters. They have been impotent to address the high gas prices, apparently they are too proud to ask president Chavez of Venezuela to aid North American Africans, although we know he is willing to help our community out of our dependency complex and fatal attraction with Ustatos Unidos del Norte America.
Other than making transactions to benefit themselves, what bacon do they deliver, what relief from our misery? Yet they insist we blindly follow their direction into outer space. Hilbillery took women off welfare into prostitution and other crimes, increasing the prison population among women and men when he made crack addicts and petty dealers serve long prison terms for what is a mental health problem and economic justice issue. Yet he/she is our savior?
For sure, the identity starved, self esteem depleted and economically exploited North American Africans have cast their vote with Obama.
He is clearly the man of the hour, the new kid on the block, thus our black leadership would do well to look at the man in the mirror and decide to change their course.
Dissatisfaction brings about change. Obama will be a change whether he wins or not. Call it a dress rehearsal for the future—just in case he doesn’t make it this time. Look into the future, imagine how far he might go with solid backing from his North American people. We might be able to convince our Latino brothers and sisters to join forces with us rather than the old guard, which would permit us to forge a powerful movement of the disinherited, a real movement for change in this nation that has not been seen since the 60s when Blacks united with Latinos, whites, Native Americas, Asians and others to take a great leap forward from segregation and wage slavery.
Latinos can act white if they want, along with our leaders they shall see the day when our unity will be needed and sought, but perhaps to no avail. Yes, we may need to discard our leaders and traditional allies and ultimately go the path of Nationalism. Of course this is beyond the Obama paradigm which can only envision us in an American configuration. Thinking outside the box of American politics is wishful if not delusional, our traditional leaders would say, including Obama, although his roots clearly transcend these United States.
But if Obama can help resurrect our spirits with hope and the possibility of change in the status quo, why not back him with our full support. You might say, do not put your eggs in one basket, so then political leaders, continue in your inordinacy placating pharaoh, but your people are moving on. Our allies must either shit or get off the pot as well. Either you are with us or against us, or shall we say you are either part of the solution or part of the problem. You decide and be prepared to pay the consequences in this political game of life.
We know politics has no permanent friends, only permanent interests. We must clearly state our agenda, define our interests, our priorities, which we should present to Obama as well. We know what change is, but thank him for reminding us.
Obama must do some hard thinking to offer us a way out of this morass, this conundrum that is forever eluding our grasp. He has nine months to deal with Hilbillery, enough time to birth a child. Call this child Freedom.
Obama heralds the era of the Post Black Negro in America. Obama, biracial product--after 400 years of amalgamation, what would one expect? What about a pure Gullah Geeche Negro? Khalid Muhammad!
Let us be sophisticated. We know the treachery of Mulattoes, and we know the treachery of pure Africans in Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Congo. We know the treachery of North American Africans, down to the present moment, they are making deals with the devil. But we see them from whence they see us not. And we are not of the unjust people. We are of the suffering righteous.
What we need are righteous men and women to come to the front of the line, to stand up and represent Divinity, the divine man and woman of spiritual consciousness who can rule without taking a bribe, without telling lies. Find me the righteous man and I shall save the town!
Of the mulatto class, the class preferred by the power structure in dealing with blacks--there is danger here. Chancellor Williams told us it was Mulattoes who ushered in the destruction of African Civilization 6,000 years ago in Egypt. And Haiti had Desselines deal with Mulattoes in their revolution here in the Americas. Toussaint had to tell Desselines after his slaughter, “I told you to prune the tree, not to uproot it!”
But let us be clear: Mulattoes, Pure Blacks, Biracial, does not matter. It is the condition of the heart, the condition of the spirit. Are you a devil or do you represent the Divine?
Answer this, then we shall proceed.
--Dr. M
2/7/08
Part Three Obama Drama
Marvin X
And so it is the man from Illinois who shall be the Democratic party nominee for president. Elijah Muhammad told us the white woman would be the last weapon used to check the rise of the black nation. And so it is, Mrs. Clinton persisted until the bitter end to fight for her gender rights, but apparently in the eyes of the people, the descendant of slavery and colonialism takes priority over Miz Ann, after all, no matter what, she enjoyed the fruits of slavery and thus there is blood on her hands as well. In the good days of his pimping, my brother told me he pimped the white woman because he disdained her as he did her brother and father. But let us go beyond the white woman--she put up a valiant fight, although it obviously wasn't her time. It was time for Jack (Barak) to jump out of the box. We saw the same thing in Oakland's mayoral race. Dellums was an unknown factor until late in the race when his supporters gathered enough signatures to encourage him to enter the race--it was the Latino Ignacio Fuentes who was expected to become Oakland's first Latino mayor. But Jack jumped and Dellums is Oakland's third black mayor. We won't discuss whether he has brought about any change--certainly not in bringing down the homicide rate.
Likewise, it is doubtful how much change Obama can bring about as our first black president, for we must be clear Wall Street rules America, not politicians, who are merely puppets on a string of the international bankers who finance friend and foe alike. The question North American Africans must ask themselves is what items we want on Obama's agenda: National Health Care, Reparations, a general amnesty for prisoners of America's domestic war against our community, a radical national educational curriculum that includes consciousness and do for self economics to prepare our community for the diminishing job market in light of globalism, a priority for African reconstruction to erase the vestiges of colonialism and neo-colonialism.
We learned from the 60s black power revolution that a black face will not save us, so we must have no illusions Obama is our savior. He will carry out the will of American imperialism to the best of his ability. But as he is pressed from the right, we must pressure him from the left to keep him from being totally useless. No matter what, he will need us as much as we will need him. Just remember politics in not about friends but interests. Let us be clear what we want and fight to secure it.
6.5.08
Marvin X is the author of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. The next meeting of the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group to recover from white supremacy is Saturday, June 7, 4pm, at 1425 Oregon Street (off Sacramento), Berkeley. Call 510-355.6339 for more information. Visit his blog: www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.
MUHAMMIDA EL MUHAJIR ON THE MOVE
New Upscale Frank White Cafe/Lounge Takes Chance On ‘Gritty’ Part of Atlantic
by Linda Collins (linda@brooklyneagle.net), published online 10-24-2007
Co-owner Muhammida El Muhajir hopes that Frank White, a new upscale cafe/lounge, will single-handedly transform an industrial “gritty” stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Clinton Hill into “a social destination for progressive and global Brooklynites.”
Council Member Letitia James and State Senator Kevin Parker joined El Muhajir in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 5, celebrating the venue’s official opening at 936 Atlantic Ave. at St. James Place.
“I had a vision for this venture and the courage to try it in area that’s not yet hip and trendy,” said El Muhajir, who is described as a pioneer for choosing a site on the commercial/industrial strip that is home to auto shops and warehouses.
Serving gourmet coffee and a menu featuring vegetarian, organic and fair trade selections, fresh juices, smoothies and teas, Frank White serves up “a healthy alternative for this Clinton Hill neighborhood.”
It will also double as a news/reading/screening room plus gallery space, exhibiting works of local, national and international emerging and established artists.
The indoor space is designed to resemble an old world formal dining room, with Damask print wallpaper, dark hardwood floors, crystal chandeliers and antique and brocade furniture. The outdoor space is a 1,200-square-foot garden/patio with a wood deck for outdoor entertaining.
For those in the know, says El Muhajir, Frank White was a character in the cult film “The King of New York,” played by Christopher Walken, as well as an alias of the late rapper Notorious BIG, who grew up a block away from the cafe. In fact, photographer Barron Claiborne’s famed image of a crowned Notorious BIG will be on permanent exhibition at Frank White’s.
— Linda Collins
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle
New Upscale Frank White Cafe/Lounge Takes Chance On ‘Gritty’ Part of Atlantic
by Linda Collins (linda@brooklyneagle.net), published online 10-24-2007
Co-owner Muhammida El Muhajir hopes that Frank White, a new upscale cafe/lounge, will single-handedly transform an industrial “gritty” stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Clinton Hill into “a social destination for progressive and global Brooklynites.”
Council Member Letitia James and State Senator Kevin Parker joined El Muhajir in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 5, celebrating the venue’s official opening at 936 Atlantic Ave. at St. James Place.
“I had a vision for this venture and the courage to try it in area that’s not yet hip and trendy,” said El Muhajir, who is described as a pioneer for choosing a site on the commercial/industrial strip that is home to auto shops and warehouses.
Serving gourmet coffee and a menu featuring vegetarian, organic and fair trade selections, fresh juices, smoothies and teas, Frank White serves up “a healthy alternative for this Clinton Hill neighborhood.”
It will also double as a news/reading/screening room plus gallery space, exhibiting works of local, national and international emerging and established artists.
The indoor space is designed to resemble an old world formal dining room, with Damask print wallpaper, dark hardwood floors, crystal chandeliers and antique and brocade furniture. The outdoor space is a 1,200-square-foot garden/patio with a wood deck for outdoor entertaining.
For those in the know, says El Muhajir, Frank White was a character in the cult film “The King of New York,” played by Christopher Walken, as well as an alias of the late rapper Notorious BIG, who grew up a block away from the cafe. In fact, photographer Barron Claiborne’s famed image of a crowned Notorious BIG will be on permanent exhibition at Frank White’s.
— Linda Collins
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Muhammida El Muhajir
How many would have the guts to travel alone to the other side of the world, not speak a word of the language, to make a movie without a camera or a budget?! How many would do it again and again and again? Not many with the exception of 27 year-old filmmaker, Muhammida El Muhajir who did just that when she set off to Japan to begin filming the groundbreaking documentary, Hip Hop: The New World Order. After spending two months in Tokyo, El Muhajir has since made solo, self-financed journeys to Havana, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, and Johannesburg to capture the global fascination with Hip Hop culture. El Muhajir was inspired to produce the film in an effort to “fully explore how Hip Hop has impacted global pop culture.” “I found that Hip Hop is being used as a vehicle for self-expression by young people around the world and has broken down all walls of race, class and religion,” says the first time filmmaker who also runs Sun in Leo Entertainment, a production/creative consulting firm. Hip Hop: The New World Order is a groundbreaking piece that was incorporated into the curriculum at Harvard University this past spring as a required viewing for the course Gender and Globalization. A mini-version of the film is also included on two DVD compilations released by Warner Brothers Home Video, Afrocentricity and International Shorts. A 10-city US tour went on the road this summer while the full length film, companion book and soundtrack will hit later this year- worldwide of course!
How many would have the guts to travel alone to the other side of the world, not speak a word of the language, to make a movie without a camera or a budget?! How many would do it again and again and again? Not many with the exception of 27 year-old filmmaker, Muhammida El Muhajir who did just that when she set off to Japan to begin filming the groundbreaking documentary, Hip Hop: The New World Order. After spending two months in Tokyo, El Muhajir has since made solo, self-financed journeys to Havana, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, and Johannesburg to capture the global fascination with Hip Hop culture. El Muhajir was inspired to produce the film in an effort to “fully explore how Hip Hop has impacted global pop culture.” “I found that Hip Hop is being used as a vehicle for self-expression by young people around the world and has broken down all walls of race, class and religion,” says the first time filmmaker who also runs Sun in Leo Entertainment, a production/creative consulting firm. Hip Hop: The New World Order is a groundbreaking piece that was incorporated into the curriculum at Harvard University this past spring as a required viewing for the course Gender and Globalization. A mini-version of the film is also included on two DVD compilations released by Warner Brothers Home Video, Afrocentricity and International Shorts. A 10-city US tour went on the road this summer while the full length film, companion book and soundtrack will hit later this year- worldwide of course!
Obama Drama
Marvin X
And so it is the man from Illinois who shall be the Democratic party nominee for president. Elijah Muhammad told us the white woman would be the last weapon used to check the rise of the black nation. And so it is, Mrs. Clinton persisted until the bitter end to fight for her gender rights, but apparently in the eyes of the people, the descendant of slavery and colonialism, takes priority over Miz Ann, after all, no matter what, she enjoyed the fruits of slavery and thus there is blood on her hands as well. In the good days of his pimping, my brother told me he pimped the white woman because he disdained her as he did her brother and father. But let us go beyond the white woman--she put up a valiant fight, although it obviously wasn't her time. It was time for Jack (Barak) to jump out of the box. We saw the same thing in Oakland's mayoral race. Dellums was an unknown factor until late in the race when he supporters gathered enough signatures to encourage him to enter the race--it was the Latino Ignacio Fuentes who was expected to become Oakland's first Latino mayor. But Jack jumped and Dellums is Oakland's third black mayor. We won't discuss whether he has brought about any change--certainly not in bringing down the homicide rate.
Likewise, it is doubtful how much change Obama can bring about as our first black president, for we must be clear Wall Street rules America, not politicians, who are merely puppets on a string of the international bankers who finance friend and foe alike. The question North American Africans must ask themselves is what items we want on Obama's agenda: National Health Care, Reparations, a general amnesty for prisoners of America's domestic war against our community, a radical national educational curriculum that includes consciousness and do for self economics to prepare our community for the diminishing job market in light of globalism, a priority for African reconstruction to erase the vestiges of colonialism and neo-colonialism.
We learned from the 60s black power revolution that a black face will not save us, so we must have no illusions Obama is our savior. He will carry out the will of American imperialism to the best of his ability. But as he is pressed from the right, we must pressure him from the left to keep him from being totally useless. No matter what, he will need us as much as we will need him. Just remember politics in not about friends but interests. Let us be clear what we want and fight to secure it.
6.5.08
Marvin X is the author of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. The next meeting of the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group to recover from white supremacy is Saturday, June 7, 4pm, at 1425 Oregon Street (off Sacramento), Berkeley. Call 510-355.6339 for more information. Visit his blog: www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.
Marvin X
And so it is the man from Illinois who shall be the Democratic party nominee for president. Elijah Muhammad told us the white woman would be the last weapon used to check the rise of the black nation. And so it is, Mrs. Clinton persisted until the bitter end to fight for her gender rights, but apparently in the eyes of the people, the descendant of slavery and colonialism, takes priority over Miz Ann, after all, no matter what, she enjoyed the fruits of slavery and thus there is blood on her hands as well. In the good days of his pimping, my brother told me he pimped the white woman because he disdained her as he did her brother and father. But let us go beyond the white woman--she put up a valiant fight, although it obviously wasn't her time. It was time for Jack (Barak) to jump out of the box. We saw the same thing in Oakland's mayoral race. Dellums was an unknown factor until late in the race when he supporters gathered enough signatures to encourage him to enter the race--it was the Latino Ignacio Fuentes who was expected to become Oakland's first Latino mayor. But Jack jumped and Dellums is Oakland's third black mayor. We won't discuss whether he has brought about any change--certainly not in bringing down the homicide rate.
Likewise, it is doubtful how much change Obama can bring about as our first black president, for we must be clear Wall Street rules America, not politicians, who are merely puppets on a string of the international bankers who finance friend and foe alike. The question North American Africans must ask themselves is what items we want on Obama's agenda: National Health Care, Reparations, a general amnesty for prisoners of America's domestic war against our community, a radical national educational curriculum that includes consciousness and do for self economics to prepare our community for the diminishing job market in light of globalism, a priority for African reconstruction to erase the vestiges of colonialism and neo-colonialism.
We learned from the 60s black power revolution that a black face will not save us, so we must have no illusions Obama is our savior. He will carry out the will of American imperialism to the best of his ability. But as he is pressed from the right, we must pressure him from the left to keep him from being totally useless. No matter what, he will need us as much as we will need him. Just remember politics in not about friends but interests. Let us be clear what we want and fight to secure it.
6.5.08
Marvin X is the author of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. The next meeting of the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group to recover from white supremacy is Saturday, June 7, 4pm, at 1425 Oregon Street (off Sacramento), Berkeley. Call 510-355.6339 for more information. Visit his blog: www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Africa: Kenyan PM Attacks Continent's Leaders
http://allafrica.com/stories/200806041000.htmlallAfrica.com
4 June 2008
Posted to the web 4 June 2008
Cape Town
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga launched a slashing attack on Africa's leaders at the World Economic Forum for Africa on Wednesday.
The circumstances which generated Kenya's recent post-election crisis – in which 1,500 people died and 350,000 were displaced – were not unique to Kenya, he told the opening plenary session of the forum.
"It is a continental problem and it is a problem of bad governance that Africa has witnessed since independence," he said. To applause, he added: "The mediocrity with which Africa has been ruled is what is responsible for African underdevelopment."
To more applause, he also attacked Zimbabwe's government: "Still today, it is unfortunate that in an African country elections can be held and no results are announced for more than one month, and African leaders are silent about it. It would not happen in Europe."
Odinga appeared on the panel with Presidents John Kufuor of Ghana, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi.
"Africa, the richest continent in the world in terms of resources, is unfortunately also the poorest," Odinga told the forum. "We keep on blaming colonialism all the time. But Africa was not the only continent that was colonized. So was Asia."
At independence, the economies of Kenya and Ghana were equivalent to that of South Korea when measured by indicators such as gross domestic product and per capita income. Now Korea's economy is many times bigger.
Odinga told the forum that the post-election crisis and ensuing violence in Kenya had shown "the soft underbelly of our society… For over 40 years of our independence we lived the lie that we were a united country. But deep down there were ethnic tensions running very deep, and society was very fragile and fragmented."
Mutharika took up Odinga's theme, identifying power-sharing as one of Africa's challenges.
"Africans have not learned to share power," he said. "When you get it, it's yours. I suppose this stems from the principle 'winner takes all.'
"In a democratic process there will be winners and losers but the end result is how do you share the proceeds of that power? I'm not only talking about political power [but about] economic power, social power, religious power, information power … When you get it, do you simply keep it in your pocket as yours, or do you share?"
Mbeki, however, warned against making generalized statements about a huge continent. Progress was being made in many fields, he said. "This animal called Africa… is in different bits and pieces… We can't treat it as an aggregated whole."
Kufuor used the forum to make a strong pitch for private sector investment. Adopting Odinga's comparison, he said South Korea's economy was "light years ahead" of Ghana. "Why? Because somehow our leadership allowed itself to be tricked into ideologies that we didn't understand. We wouldn't allow the private sector to grow."
=//=
Goto TheBlackList - http://www.theblacklist.net
For the Future Now.
--
http://allafrica.com/stories/200806041000.htmlallAfrica.com
4 June 2008
Posted to the web 4 June 2008
Cape Town
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga launched a slashing attack on Africa's leaders at the World Economic Forum for Africa on Wednesday.
The circumstances which generated Kenya's recent post-election crisis – in which 1,500 people died and 350,000 were displaced – were not unique to Kenya, he told the opening plenary session of the forum.
"It is a continental problem and it is a problem of bad governance that Africa has witnessed since independence," he said. To applause, he added: "The mediocrity with which Africa has been ruled is what is responsible for African underdevelopment."
To more applause, he also attacked Zimbabwe's government: "Still today, it is unfortunate that in an African country elections can be held and no results are announced for more than one month, and African leaders are silent about it. It would not happen in Europe."
Odinga appeared on the panel with Presidents John Kufuor of Ghana, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi.
"Africa, the richest continent in the world in terms of resources, is unfortunately also the poorest," Odinga told the forum. "We keep on blaming colonialism all the time. But Africa was not the only continent that was colonized. So was Asia."
At independence, the economies of Kenya and Ghana were equivalent to that of South Korea when measured by indicators such as gross domestic product and per capita income. Now Korea's economy is many times bigger.
Odinga told the forum that the post-election crisis and ensuing violence in Kenya had shown "the soft underbelly of our society… For over 40 years of our independence we lived the lie that we were a united country. But deep down there were ethnic tensions running very deep, and society was very fragile and fragmented."
Mutharika took up Odinga's theme, identifying power-sharing as one of Africa's challenges.
"Africans have not learned to share power," he said. "When you get it, it's yours. I suppose this stems from the principle 'winner takes all.'
"In a democratic process there will be winners and losers but the end result is how do you share the proceeds of that power? I'm not only talking about political power [but about] economic power, social power, religious power, information power … When you get it, do you simply keep it in your pocket as yours, or do you share?"
Mbeki, however, warned against making generalized statements about a huge continent. Progress was being made in many fields, he said. "This animal called Africa… is in different bits and pieces… We can't treat it as an aggregated whole."
Kufuor used the forum to make a strong pitch for private sector investment. Adopting Odinga's comparison, he said South Korea's economy was "light years ahead" of Ghana. "Why? Because somehow our leadership allowed itself to be tricked into ideologies that we didn't understand. We wouldn't allow the private sector to grow."
=//=
Goto TheBlackList - http://www.theblacklist.net
For the Future Now.
--
Plato Falls Into the Black Hole, Waiting for Ali
Marvin X
Spinning, spinning, spinning for Shams,
Spinning for love of Shams….—Rumi
Waiting, waiting, waiting for Ali
Waiting for love of Ali—M
After a lifetime he was coming, my brother Ali, coming to the Bay, coming home to stay, home to Cali after 13 years in Wala, Wala, State prison, Washington, after California Youth Authority, Soledad, San Quentin, Folsom, and numerous jails, my long-lost brother was coming to be the brother I always wanted but was never there, for support, love and to lean upon. Now I would be able to tell him how much I love him, no matter the absent years. And he would be able to tell me how much he loved and appreciated me as his younger brother—even though he is only one year older, now 65, and in days I would turn 64, yes, after all the years and tears, brothers at last.
I last saw him in 2002, when my national book tour came to Seattle. Since he knew I was a follower of Elijah Muhammad, he was totally shocked when radical whites showed up at the book party in my hotel suite. Before the book party, I had not seen him since 1979 in Reno, Nevada, when he, our father and I were together for the last time. As I recall, he was shocked when my white students visited me socially while I taught at the University of Nevada, Reno.
So soon he was leaving Seattle for Monterey, supposedly so he could sit by ocean. If there was ever a person who needed the tranquility of the water it was Ali. Violence had consumed his life, but now he wanted to spend his last years in peace, having paid his dues to society. After arriving in Monterey, he was not able to find the housing he wanted, so he decided to return to the Bay area where we grew up. Actually, he would join other Jackmon siblings, including myself, Judy, Debbie, Tommy,
Suzzette and Gayle. The only ones not here were Donna and Ann. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner at Debbie's. But today I was at the Greyhound bus station waiting for Ali to arrive from the coast. At 3pm I arrived and parked outside in the taxi stand space. Once inside, I grabbed a Snickers from the candy machine. When I turned around our faces met, although we both agreed we didn't recognize each other since we've both gained weight. I was also suffering a case of Virtigo(dizzyness), and I discovered he was suffering from a multitude of ails, including heart problems caused by smoking.
Spinning for Shams.
Waiting for Ali
Spinning for love of Shams
Waiting for love of Ali
We embraced and I helped him with his bags to the car. His plan was to check into a hotel until he could find a house or apartment, but I had other plans. I told him of my plans for him to stay with me until he found a permanent place. He resisted but finally submitted. He let me know he was not used to accepting help from anyone. Survival had taught him to rely on no one but himself. He had absolutely no belief in God and despised religion. And although he considered me a religious person, I was determined he would soon discover I believed in spirituality, not religion. If I could only convince him of my belief in spirituality, I figured it would simply add to his basic humanity, because I knew him to be a kind, caring and giving person, despite his anti-religious, individualistic ranting, rooted in criminal and prison culture. I just wanted to show him love and allow him to show his love for me. In the days ahead, he would admit to me it would be a daunting task to heal himself of individualism and the inability to accept love and blessings from those who cared about him. Somehow, in the travels of his mind, he concluded no one cared, and even if they did, he would not know how to respond in kind.
-----to be continued--
Plato Falls Into the Black Hole, Waiting for Ali
Marvin X
Spinning, spinning, spinning for Shams,
Spinning for love of Shams….—Rumi
Waiting, waiting, waiting for Ali
Waiting for love of Ali—M
After a lifetime he was coming, my brother Ali, coming to the Bay, coming home to stay, home to Cali after 13 years in Wala, Wala, State prison, Washington, after California Youth Authority, Soledad, San Quentin, Folsom, and numerous jails, my long-lost brother was coming to be the brother I always wanted but was never there, for support, love and to lean upon. Now I would be able to tell him how much I love him, no matter the absent years. And he would be able to tell me how much he loved and appreciated me as his younger brother—even though he is only one year older, now 65, and in days I would turn 64, yes, after all the years and tears, brothers at last.
I last saw him in 2002, when my national book tour came to Seattle. Since he knew I was a follower of Elijah Muhammad, he was totally shocked when radical whites showed up at the book party in my hotel suite. Before the book party, I had not seen him since 1979 in Reno, Nevada, when he, our father and I were together for the last time. As I recall, he was shocked when my white students visited me socially while I taught at the University of Nevada, Reno.
So soon he was leaving Seattle for Monterey, supposedly so he could sit by ocean. If there was ever a person who needed the tranquility of the water it was Ali. Violence had consumed his life, but now he wanted to spend his last years in peace, having paid his dues to society. After arriving in Monterey, he was not able to find the housing he wanted, so he decided to return to the Bay area where we grew up. Actually, he would join other Jackmon siblings, including myself, Judy, Debbie, Tommy,Suzzette and Gayle. The only ones not here were Donna and Ann. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner at Debbie's. But today I was at the Greyhound bus station waiting for Ali to arrive from the coast. At 3pm I arrived and parked outside in the taxi stand space. Once inside, I grabbed a Snickers from the candy machine. When I turned around our faces met, although we both agreed we didn't recognize each other since we've both gained weight. I was also suffering a case of Vertigo(dizziness), and I discovered he was suffering from a multitude of ails, including heart problems caused by smoking.
Spinning for Shams.
Waiting for Ali
Spinning for love of Shams
Waiting for love of Ali
We embraced and I helped him with his bags to the car. His plan was to check into a hotel until he could find a house or apartment, but I had other plans. I told him of my plans for him to stay with me until he found a permanent place. He resisted but finally submitted. He let me know he was not used to accepting help from anyone. Survival had taught him to rely on no one but himself. He had absolutely no belief in God and despised religion. And although he considered me a religious person, I was determined he would soon discover I believed in spirituality, not religion. If I could only convince him of my belief in spirituality, I figured it would simply add to his basic humanity, because I knew him to be a kind, caring and giving person, despite his anti-religious, individualistic ranting, rooted in criminal and prison culture. I just wanted to show him love and allow him to show his love for me. In the days ahead, he would admit to me it would be a daunting task to heal himself of individualism and the inability to accept love and blessings from those who cared about him. Somehow, in the travels of his mind, he concluded no one cared, and even if they did, he would not know how to respond in kind.
-----to be continued--
Marvin X
Spinning, spinning, spinning for Shams,
Spinning for love of Shams….—Rumi
Waiting, waiting, waiting for Ali
Waiting for love of Ali—M
After a lifetime he was coming, my brother Ali, coming to the Bay, coming home to stay, home to Cali after 13 years in Wala, Wala, State prison, Washington, after California Youth Authority, Soledad, San Quentin, Folsom, and numerous jails, my long-lost brother was coming to be the brother I always wanted but was never there, for support, love and to lean upon. Now I would be able to tell him how much I love him, no matter the absent years. And he would be able to tell me how much he loved and appreciated me as his younger brother—even though he is only one year older, now 65, and in days I would turn 64, yes, after all the years and tears, brothers at last.
I last saw him in 2002, when my national book tour came to Seattle. Since he knew I was a follower of Elijah Muhammad, he was totally shocked when radical whites showed up at the book party in my hotel suite. Before the book party, I had not seen him since 1979 in Reno, Nevada, when he, our father and I were together for the last time. As I recall, he was shocked when my white students visited me socially while I taught at the University of Nevada, Reno.
So soon he was leaving Seattle for Monterey, supposedly so he could sit by ocean. If there was ever a person who needed the tranquility of the water it was Ali. Violence had consumed his life, but now he wanted to spend his last years in peace, having paid his dues to society. After arriving in Monterey, he was not able to find the housing he wanted, so he decided to return to the Bay area where we grew up. Actually, he would join other Jackmon siblings, including myself, Judy, Debbie, Tommy,
Suzzette and Gayle. The only ones not here were Donna and Ann. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner at Debbie's. But today I was at the Greyhound bus station waiting for Ali to arrive from the coast. At 3pm I arrived and parked outside in the taxi stand space. Once inside, I grabbed a Snickers from the candy machine. When I turned around our faces met, although we both agreed we didn't recognize each other since we've both gained weight. I was also suffering a case of Virtigo(dizzyness), and I discovered he was suffering from a multitude of ails, including heart problems caused by smoking.
Spinning for Shams.
Waiting for Ali
Spinning for love of Shams
Waiting for love of Ali
We embraced and I helped him with his bags to the car. His plan was to check into a hotel until he could find a house or apartment, but I had other plans. I told him of my plans for him to stay with me until he found a permanent place. He resisted but finally submitted. He let me know he was not used to accepting help from anyone. Survival had taught him to rely on no one but himself. He had absolutely no belief in God and despised religion. And although he considered me a religious person, I was determined he would soon discover I believed in spirituality, not religion. If I could only convince him of my belief in spirituality, I figured it would simply add to his basic humanity, because I knew him to be a kind, caring and giving person, despite his anti-religious, individualistic ranting, rooted in criminal and prison culture. I just wanted to show him love and allow him to show his love for me. In the days ahead, he would admit to me it would be a daunting task to heal himself of individualism and the inability to accept love and blessings from those who cared about him. Somehow, in the travels of his mind, he concluded no one cared, and even if they did, he would not know how to respond in kind.
-----to be continued--
Plato Falls Into the Black Hole, Waiting for Ali
Marvin X
Spinning, spinning, spinning for Shams,
Spinning for love of Shams….—Rumi
Waiting, waiting, waiting for Ali
Waiting for love of Ali—M
After a lifetime he was coming, my brother Ali, coming to the Bay, coming home to stay, home to Cali after 13 years in Wala, Wala, State prison, Washington, after California Youth Authority, Soledad, San Quentin, Folsom, and numerous jails, my long-lost brother was coming to be the brother I always wanted but was never there, for support, love and to lean upon. Now I would be able to tell him how much I love him, no matter the absent years. And he would be able to tell me how much he loved and appreciated me as his younger brother—even though he is only one year older, now 65, and in days I would turn 64, yes, after all the years and tears, brothers at last.
I last saw him in 2002, when my national book tour came to Seattle. Since he knew I was a follower of Elijah Muhammad, he was totally shocked when radical whites showed up at the book party in my hotel suite. Before the book party, I had not seen him since 1979 in Reno, Nevada, when he, our father and I were together for the last time. As I recall, he was shocked when my white students visited me socially while I taught at the University of Nevada, Reno.
So soon he was leaving Seattle for Monterey, supposedly so he could sit by ocean. If there was ever a person who needed the tranquility of the water it was Ali. Violence had consumed his life, but now he wanted to spend his last years in peace, having paid his dues to society. After arriving in Monterey, he was not able to find the housing he wanted, so he decided to return to the Bay area where we grew up. Actually, he would join other Jackmon siblings, including myself, Judy, Debbie, Tommy,Suzzette and Gayle. The only ones not here were Donna and Ann. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner at Debbie's. But today I was at the Greyhound bus station waiting for Ali to arrive from the coast. At 3pm I arrived and parked outside in the taxi stand space. Once inside, I grabbed a Snickers from the candy machine. When I turned around our faces met, although we both agreed we didn't recognize each other since we've both gained weight. I was also suffering a case of Vertigo(dizziness), and I discovered he was suffering from a multitude of ails, including heart problems caused by smoking.
Spinning for Shams.
Waiting for Ali
Spinning for love of Shams
Waiting for love of Ali
We embraced and I helped him with his bags to the car. His plan was to check into a hotel until he could find a house or apartment, but I had other plans. I told him of my plans for him to stay with me until he found a permanent place. He resisted but finally submitted. He let me know he was not used to accepting help from anyone. Survival had taught him to rely on no one but himself. He had absolutely no belief in God and despised religion. And although he considered me a religious person, I was determined he would soon discover I believed in spirituality, not religion. If I could only convince him of my belief in spirituality, I figured it would simply add to his basic humanity, because I knew him to be a kind, caring and giving person, despite his anti-religious, individualistic ranting, rooted in criminal and prison culture. I just wanted to show him love and allow him to show his love for me. In the days ahead, he would admit to me it would be a daunting task to heal himself of individualism and the inability to accept love and blessings from those who cared about him. Somehow, in the travels of his mind, he concluded no one cared, and even if they did, he would not know how to respond in kind.
-----to be continued--
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