Plato Negro as Legend
And they asked Plato how it felt being a living legend? He replied that one must be humble, not arrogant with a suprior attitude. Plato is a legend only because the spirit of God dwelled inside of him, thus he is merely a vehicle of the Divine, not of his own causation, for if it were up to him, he might prefer being in an alley smoking Crack. But he knows as a vehicle of the Divine, he must submit to his higher not lower self.
People should know that he is in constant grief at those fallen and departed warrior men and women, especially the dearly departed women who showed him their unconditional love.
He recognizes and appreciates all the brothers and sisters who have in their archives his early writings and have followed his carreer from the beginning until now. He is humbled when they describe how his writings transformed their lives. Khalid Muhammad (may his soul rest in paradise) used to always inform Plato he had studied his writings in college.
But he is most humbled by the people in the hood who have followed him every step of his way up the mountain, for they were with him.
They want to know how God preserved him and protected him. He reminds them of the story of the two women in the field, God took one and left the other. And so it is, we all shall have our moment on center stage, and then we exit, though no one knows the hour or the day. We must keep the faith til we win the race of the Race.
And we shall pass the baton at the earliest moment, for there are those who come after us who are of a world we shall never see, so we must not oppose them but guide them so they do not drop the baton but cross the finish line to victory.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Behind the Curtain: The San Francisco Theater Festival
By Rajesh Srinivasan July 30, 2008 | 10:10 pm
The San Francisco Theater Festival was a far-cry from traditional theater festivals. It was a combination of both the expected and the surprising, the traditional and the unorthodox. One thing is certain: There is no way you could cover every facet of the 6-hour non-stop event. Still, I made an effort to go to as many different performances as I could so that I would experience the full breadth of the festival.
Recovering from the Addiction of White Supremacy
If there was one piece of evidence that showed that this festival was not traditional, it was Marvin X’s speech on white supremacy. The act was not so much of a performance as a lecture, as Marvin X delivered an fiery sermon about white supremacy based off his book “How to Recover from the Addiction of White Supremacy.” The speech received a less-than-lukewarm response from the audience; in fact, some of the audience members left during the presentation. After the lecture, I spoke with a professor of African-American studies at the University of Nebraska who attended the performance. Professor Patrick Jones said that Marvin X was “coming out of a particular tradition in the black arts movement…rooted in the late ’60s and ’70s” and that there was truth to what he said about white supremacy.
“His vibe and his anger and his frustration are real, so I appreciate and respect that,” Jones said.
“The question would be is that the best tactic to take to reach people at this particular historical moment. And therein lies the question for all of us.”
By Rajesh Srinivasan July 30, 2008 | 10:10 pm
The San Francisco Theater Festival was a far-cry from traditional theater festivals. It was a combination of both the expected and the surprising, the traditional and the unorthodox. One thing is certain: There is no way you could cover every facet of the 6-hour non-stop event. Still, I made an effort to go to as many different performances as I could so that I would experience the full breadth of the festival.
Recovering from the Addiction of White Supremacy
If there was one piece of evidence that showed that this festival was not traditional, it was Marvin X’s speech on white supremacy. The act was not so much of a performance as a lecture, as Marvin X delivered an fiery sermon about white supremacy based off his book “How to Recover from the Addiction of White Supremacy.” The speech received a less-than-lukewarm response from the audience; in fact, some of the audience members left during the presentation. After the lecture, I spoke with a professor of African-American studies at the University of Nebraska who attended the performance. Professor Patrick Jones said that Marvin X was “coming out of a particular tradition in the black arts movement…rooted in the late ’60s and ’70s” and that there was truth to what he said about white supremacy.
“His vibe and his anger and his frustration are real, so I appreciate and respect that,” Jones said.
“The question would be is that the best tactic to take to reach people at this particular historical moment. And therein lies the question for all of us.”
White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 09/13/2008 Guest Contribution
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
By Tim Wise
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’ re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
------------ --------- --------- --------- -------
Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 09/13/2008 Guest Contribution
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
By Tim Wise
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’ re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
------------ --------- --------- --------- -------
Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Marvin X: A Critical Look at the Father
of Muslim American Literature
Edited by Nefertiti El Muhajir
Preface
By Dr. Mohja Kahf
Marvin X: First Muslim American Poet
Have spent the last few days (when not mourning with friends and family the passing of my family friend and mentor in Muslim feminism and Islamic work, Sharifa AlKhateeb, (may she dwell in Rahma), immersed in the work of Marvin X and amazed at his brilliance. This poet has been prolific since his first book of poems, Fly to Allah, (1969), right up to his most recent Love and War Poems (1995) and Land of My Daughters, 2005, not to mention his plays, which were produced (without royalties) in Black community theatres from the 1960s to the present, and essay collections such as In the Crazy House Called America, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, 2005.
Marvin X was a prime shaper of the Black Arts Movement (1964-1970s) which is, among other things, the birthplace of modern Muslim American literature, and it begins with him. Well, Malik Shabazz and him. But while the Autobiography of Malcolm X is a touchstone of Muslim American culture, Marvin X and other Muslims in BAM were the emergence of a cultural expression of Black Power and Muslim thought inspired by Malcolm, who was, of course, ignited by the teachings and writings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that, taken all together, is what I see as the starting point of Muslim American literature. Then there are others, immigrant Muslims and white American Muslims and so forth, that follow.
There are also antecedents, such as the letters of Africans enslaved in America. Maybe there is writing by Muslims in the Spanish and Portuguese era or earlier, but that requires archival research of a sort I am not going to be able to do. My interest is contemporary literature, and by literature I am more interested in poetry and fiction than memoir and non-fiction, although that is a flexible thing.
I argue that it is time to call Muslim American literature a field, even though many of these writings can be and have been classified in other ways—studied under African American literature or to take the writings of immigrant Muslims, studied under South Asian ethnic literature or Arab American literature.
With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing about him—I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and graduate school—why is attention not given to his work in the same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his incredibly rich body of work.
He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is still kickin, still true to the word!
Love and War Poems is wrenching and powerful, combining a powerful critique of America ("America downsizes like a cripple whore/won't retire/too greedy to sleep/too fat to rest") but also a critique of deadbeat dads and drug addicts (not sparing himself) and men who hate. "For the Men" is so Quranic poem it gave me chills with verses such as:
for the men who honor wives
and the men who abuse them
for the men who win
and the men who sin
for the men who love God
and the men who hate
for the men who are brothers
and the men who are beasts
"O Men, listen to the wise," the poet pleads:
there is no escape
for the men of this world
or the men of the next
He is sexist as all get out, in the way that is common for men of his generation and his radicalism, but he is refreshingly aware of that and working on it. It's just that the work isn't done and if that offends you to see a man in process and still using the 'b' word, look out. Speaking of the easily offended, he warns in his introduction that "life is often profane and obscene, such as the present condition of African American people." If you want pure and holy, he says, read the Quran and the Bible, because Marvin is talking about "the low down dirty truth." For all that, the poetry of Marvin X is like prayer, beauty-full of reverence and honor for Truth. "It is. it is. it is."
A poem to his daughter Muhammida is a sweet mix of parental love and pride and fatherly freak-out at her sexuality and independence, ending humbly with:
peace Mu
it's on you
yo world
sister-girl
Other people don't get off so easy, including a certain "black joint chief of staff ass nigguh (kill 200,000 Muslims in Iraq)" in the sharply aimed poem "Free Me from My Freedom." (Mmm hmm, the 'n' word is all over the place in Marvin too.) Nature poem, wedding poem, depression poem, wake-up call poems, it's all here. Haiti, Rwanda, the Million Man March, Betsy Ross's maid, OJ, Rabin, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other topics make it into this prophetically voiced collection of dissent poetry, so Islamic and so African American in its language and its themes, a book that will stand in its beauty long after the people mentioned in it pass. READ MARVIN X for RAMADAN!
Mohja Kahf / Associate Professor / Dept. of English & Middle East & Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
of Muslim American Literature
Edited by Nefertiti El Muhajir
Preface
By Dr. Mohja Kahf
Marvin X: First Muslim American Poet
Have spent the last few days (when not mourning with friends and family the passing of my family friend and mentor in Muslim feminism and Islamic work, Sharifa AlKhateeb, (may she dwell in Rahma), immersed in the work of Marvin X and amazed at his brilliance. This poet has been prolific since his first book of poems, Fly to Allah, (1969), right up to his most recent Love and War Poems (1995) and Land of My Daughters, 2005, not to mention his plays, which were produced (without royalties) in Black community theatres from the 1960s to the present, and essay collections such as In the Crazy House Called America, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, 2005.
Marvin X was a prime shaper of the Black Arts Movement (1964-1970s) which is, among other things, the birthplace of modern Muslim American literature, and it begins with him. Well, Malik Shabazz and him. But while the Autobiography of Malcolm X is a touchstone of Muslim American culture, Marvin X and other Muslims in BAM were the emergence of a cultural expression of Black Power and Muslim thought inspired by Malcolm, who was, of course, ignited by the teachings and writings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that, taken all together, is what I see as the starting point of Muslim American literature. Then there are others, immigrant Muslims and white American Muslims and so forth, that follow.
There are also antecedents, such as the letters of Africans enslaved in America. Maybe there is writing by Muslims in the Spanish and Portuguese era or earlier, but that requires archival research of a sort I am not going to be able to do. My interest is contemporary literature, and by literature I am more interested in poetry and fiction than memoir and non-fiction, although that is a flexible thing.
I argue that it is time to call Muslim American literature a field, even though many of these writings can be and have been classified in other ways—studied under African American literature or to take the writings of immigrant Muslims, studied under South Asian ethnic literature or Arab American literature.
With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing about him—I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and graduate school—why is attention not given to his work in the same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his incredibly rich body of work.
He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is still kickin, still true to the word!
Love and War Poems is wrenching and powerful, combining a powerful critique of America ("America downsizes like a cripple whore/won't retire/too greedy to sleep/too fat to rest") but also a critique of deadbeat dads and drug addicts (not sparing himself) and men who hate. "For the Men" is so Quranic poem it gave me chills with verses such as:
for the men who honor wives
and the men who abuse them
for the men who win
and the men who sin
for the men who love God
and the men who hate
for the men who are brothers
and the men who are beasts
"O Men, listen to the wise," the poet pleads:
there is no escape
for the men of this world
or the men of the next
He is sexist as all get out, in the way that is common for men of his generation and his radicalism, but he is refreshingly aware of that and working on it. It's just that the work isn't done and if that offends you to see a man in process and still using the 'b' word, look out. Speaking of the easily offended, he warns in his introduction that "life is often profane and obscene, such as the present condition of African American people." If you want pure and holy, he says, read the Quran and the Bible, because Marvin is talking about "the low down dirty truth." For all that, the poetry of Marvin X is like prayer, beauty-full of reverence and honor for Truth. "It is. it is. it is."
A poem to his daughter Muhammida is a sweet mix of parental love and pride and fatherly freak-out at her sexuality and independence, ending humbly with:
peace Mu
it's on you
yo world
sister-girl
Other people don't get off so easy, including a certain "black joint chief of staff ass nigguh (kill 200,000 Muslims in Iraq)" in the sharply aimed poem "Free Me from My Freedom." (Mmm hmm, the 'n' word is all over the place in Marvin too.) Nature poem, wedding poem, depression poem, wake-up call poems, it's all here. Haiti, Rwanda, the Million Man March, Betsy Ross's maid, OJ, Rabin, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other topics make it into this prophetically voiced collection of dissent poetry, so Islamic and so African American in its language and its themes, a book that will stand in its beauty long after the people mentioned in it pass. READ MARVIN X for RAMADAN!
Mohja Kahf / Associate Professor / Dept. of English & Middle East & Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
Friday, September 12, 2008
Plato Negro on the Last Days
Mama said there would be days like this, and the prophets told us as well that the time would come when men and women would have heart attacks caused by fear, fear to love and be loved, fear to put their money in banks that are failing with each passing day, fear their jobs will be outsourced to India and China, fear of going out to eat dinner because there might be a robbery while they are dinning, fear to visit the barber shop because their might be a shooting outside or inside, the same when attending a night club or concert. The people are thus consumed by the fears that paralyze them with stress from the hostile environment. And there is the fear of nature itself, the drought and famine, earthquakes in diverse places, hurricanes, floods and pandemics caused by the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries in conspiracy.
We were told the people would be destroyed from lack of knowledge. We wonder how people can be destroyed for lack of knowledge with so much information floating through the airways. No matter, the majority are yet deaf, dumb and blind, dead men and women walking, totally oblivious to what’s really going on, although even in their ignorance they sense something is amiss, something stinks in the house, dead rats or their doodoo.
How can a society advance with 60% of our children dropping out or pushed out of school? Instead of attending school where little is taught that is meaningful or thoughtful or useful, the children go to and fro through the streets causing wickedness and mayhem, or doing drugs and sex, destroying their young minds and bodies.
And we were warned the people’s minds would be confounded due to the desire for wickedness and evil, including lust, sexual depravities, greed and selfishness. No matter what the wise prophets of old have told us about what happens when people do contrary to what is right and just, there are those who deem themselves smarter than God and the Goddess, thus when the Divine forces of nature consume them, the people are confounded and claim God has abandoned them when in fact it is they who abandoned God, destroying his earth and people with capitalist greed and the desire for maximum profits with minimum labor and resource costs, with little regard for the residue of their greed in the form of polluted rivers, lakes and oceans, poisoned and depleted agricultural lands, even the forests are raped of their woods for development.
Yet in the end time for this civilization, man thinks he can reverse the course he has embarked upon which shall surely end with his demise, and perhaps without his presence nature will return to the eternal peace so prevalent in the eons before the birth of mankind, the destroyer of the paradise he found himself incapable of dwelling in harmony, despite God placing him in authority to rule with care, justice and mercy.
Contrary to the will of God, man has proceeded to wreak havoc upon the land and peoples with endless wars, crimes of genocide in the name of religions and ideologies, ethnic and racial supremacy.
Today he again faces the possibility of nuclear annihilation as war approaches between the capitalists and communists over scarce economic resources such as oil and precious metals, even water is becoming a highly valued commodity since clean water is a luxury in many places, and the lack thereof the cause of many diseases that could be eradicated with it.
As I have written, the Green Revolution may come about by Nature itself, not by anything man attempts, for this revolution may only be successful with the eradication of man from the planet and universe.
In your supreme arrognace, you think the earth cannot do without you, yet you are the direct cause of all that is wrong, for nature has done nothing but be at your disposition, whim and pleasure, like a dutiful lover. Why should not the earth shake you off, drown you and let her hurricane winds blow you into dust?
--Plato Negro
For more writings by Plato Negro, go to www.marvinxwrites. blogspot. com.
Mama said there would be days like this, and the prophets told us as well that the time would come when men and women would have heart attacks caused by fear, fear to love and be loved, fear to put their money in banks that are failing with each passing day, fear their jobs will be outsourced to India and China, fear of going out to eat dinner because there might be a robbery while they are dinning, fear to visit the barber shop because their might be a shooting outside or inside, the same when attending a night club or concert. The people are thus consumed by the fears that paralyze them with stress from the hostile environment. And there is the fear of nature itself, the drought and famine, earthquakes in diverse places, hurricanes, floods and pandemics caused by the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries in conspiracy.
We were told the people would be destroyed from lack of knowledge. We wonder how people can be destroyed for lack of knowledge with so much information floating through the airways. No matter, the majority are yet deaf, dumb and blind, dead men and women walking, totally oblivious to what’s really going on, although even in their ignorance they sense something is amiss, something stinks in the house, dead rats or their doodoo.
How can a society advance with 60% of our children dropping out or pushed out of school? Instead of attending school where little is taught that is meaningful or thoughtful or useful, the children go to and fro through the streets causing wickedness and mayhem, or doing drugs and sex, destroying their young minds and bodies.
And we were warned the people’s minds would be confounded due to the desire for wickedness and evil, including lust, sexual depravities, greed and selfishness. No matter what the wise prophets of old have told us about what happens when people do contrary to what is right and just, there are those who deem themselves smarter than God and the Goddess, thus when the Divine forces of nature consume them, the people are confounded and claim God has abandoned them when in fact it is they who abandoned God, destroying his earth and people with capitalist greed and the desire for maximum profits with minimum labor and resource costs, with little regard for the residue of their greed in the form of polluted rivers, lakes and oceans, poisoned and depleted agricultural lands, even the forests are raped of their woods for development.
Yet in the end time for this civilization, man thinks he can reverse the course he has embarked upon which shall surely end with his demise, and perhaps without his presence nature will return to the eternal peace so prevalent in the eons before the birth of mankind, the destroyer of the paradise he found himself incapable of dwelling in harmony, despite God placing him in authority to rule with care, justice and mercy.
Contrary to the will of God, man has proceeded to wreak havoc upon the land and peoples with endless wars, crimes of genocide in the name of religions and ideologies, ethnic and racial supremacy.
Today he again faces the possibility of nuclear annihilation as war approaches between the capitalists and communists over scarce economic resources such as oil and precious metals, even water is becoming a highly valued commodity since clean water is a luxury in many places, and the lack thereof the cause of many diseases that could be eradicated with it.
As I have written, the Green Revolution may come about by Nature itself, not by anything man attempts, for this revolution may only be successful with the eradication of man from the planet and universe.
In your supreme arrognace, you think the earth cannot do without you, yet you are the direct cause of all that is wrong, for nature has done nothing but be at your disposition, whim and pleasure, like a dutiful lover. Why should not the earth shake you off, drown you and let her hurricane winds blow you into dust?
--Plato Negro
For more writings by Plato Negro, go to www.marvinxwrites. blogspot. com.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
W.D. Muhammad Makes Transition
CHICAGO -- A nephew says Imam W.D. Mohammed, the son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, has died.Sultan Muhammad says his uncle died Tuesday. He didn't immediately give further details but says the family will issue a statement. W.D. Mohammed moved thousands of blacks into mainstream Islam after breaking with the group his father founded. He went by both Warith Deen Mohammed and Wallace Muhammad.
The Cook County Medical Examiner confirmed receiving the body of a 74-year-old Wallace Mohammed.
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Muslim Leader Imam Warithdin Muhammad Makes Transition
Bismillah-r-Rahman-r-Rahim. It has come to our attention the great Muslim American theologian, Warithdin Muhammad, son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, made his transition to Paradise. It was Warithdin who took over the reins of power when Elijah Muhammad passed in 1975. In taking the Nation of Islam into Sunni Islam, we felt he threw the baby out with the wash water, but in truth the Nation had become a din of iniquity, full of thieves, robbers, dope dealers and sexual deviants, the very antithesis of the personalities Elijah Muhammad had attempted to resurrect and reconstruct from the graveyard in the wilderness of North America. But no matter the failings of some of Elijah’s students, there were many whose lives were indeed transformed into better human and spiritual beings, while the rest got Supreme Wisdom but didn’t get it, and as a result the condition of many Muslims is worse than that of the deaf, dumb and blind Christians they decry. How is it that Muslims possessing Supreme Wisdom and Sunni Islam exist is such poverty they are the mockery of Christian and other Negroes, even the white man who is overjoyed whenever he sees North American Africans doing for self, thus relieving him of their burden, as if he is not the direct cause of their burden. This very day, he has taken billions of taxpayer’s money to bail out the international bankers who have defrauded millions of black, white, brown and yellow people of their fundamental wealth, their homes. Yet, the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will not help the poor one iota, but is de facto socialism for the rich, while more poor people shall become dispossessed of their basic wealth.
Warithdin was steeped in Sunni ideology that is mostly reactionary religiosity—one only need look at the Sunni Islamic world with billions in oil money, yet the people exist in virtual slavery, poverty, ignorance and disease, from the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) to the Persian Gulf. In Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf States, the people are denied basic human rights and democratic liberties. Little opposition is allowed and except for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is no radical opposition to the autocratic regimes, unless we call Osama Bin Laden’s theology radical, but only in the right wing manner and the Stone Age Saudi Arabian brand of Islamic fundamentalism.
Toward the end of his life, Warithdin turned back to the do for self teachings of his father. In so doing, he mirrors Farrakhan who is also turning back to the Supreme Wisdom of Elijah Muhammad, since the teachings from his Study Guide carried his followers nowhere.
As the followers of Warithdin celebrate his transition, it is time for them to make a great leap forward out of the grave of reaction and let the masses see they indeed understand the teachings of Elijah was the ultimate truth for the present era. Clearly, the devil is the devil, no matter what time or place, and he shall appear in white face or black face, have no illusions on this point. We must therefore guard against being deceived, no matter if it is John McCain or Barak Obama.
Finally, Warithdin did indeed attempt to clean out his father’s house. But the sad fact is that after his mission, there yet remain devils in the house, faking as imams but have the intention to practice white supremacy domination and dictatorial authority using the Qur’an, Hadith and Sharia to legitimatize their iniquities, as in the old regime, making mockery of all that Warithdeen and his father attempted to construct. May Warithdeen rest in peace and paradise for all the good he accomplished. And may his followers heal from their sorrow and celebrate the infinite possibilities he engendered.
--Marvin X (El Muhajir), poet, playwright, essayist, activist, is considered the father of Muslim American literature and one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical literary and artistic movement in American history. www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com. He is now booking engagements for 2009. Call 510-355-6339. His latest book is How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702, $19.95.
CHICAGO -- A nephew says Imam W.D. Mohammed, the son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, has died.Sultan Muhammad says his uncle died Tuesday. He didn't immediately give further details but says the family will issue a statement. W.D. Mohammed moved thousands of blacks into mainstream Islam after breaking with the group his father founded. He went by both Warith Deen Mohammed and Wallace Muhammad.
The Cook County Medical Examiner confirmed receiving the body of a 74-year-old Wallace Mohammed.
----------
Muslim Leader Imam Warithdin Muhammad Makes Transition
Bismillah-r-Rahman-r-Rahim. It has come to our attention the great Muslim American theologian, Warithdin Muhammad, son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, made his transition to Paradise. It was Warithdin who took over the reins of power when Elijah Muhammad passed in 1975. In taking the Nation of Islam into Sunni Islam, we felt he threw the baby out with the wash water, but in truth the Nation had become a din of iniquity, full of thieves, robbers, dope dealers and sexual deviants, the very antithesis of the personalities Elijah Muhammad had attempted to resurrect and reconstruct from the graveyard in the wilderness of North America. But no matter the failings of some of Elijah’s students, there were many whose lives were indeed transformed into better human and spiritual beings, while the rest got Supreme Wisdom but didn’t get it, and as a result the condition of many Muslims is worse than that of the deaf, dumb and blind Christians they decry. How is it that Muslims possessing Supreme Wisdom and Sunni Islam exist is such poverty they are the mockery of Christian and other Negroes, even the white man who is overjoyed whenever he sees North American Africans doing for self, thus relieving him of their burden, as if he is not the direct cause of their burden. This very day, he has taken billions of taxpayer’s money to bail out the international bankers who have defrauded millions of black, white, brown and yellow people of their fundamental wealth, their homes. Yet, the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will not help the poor one iota, but is de facto socialism for the rich, while more poor people shall become dispossessed of their basic wealth.
Warithdin was steeped in Sunni ideology that is mostly reactionary religiosity—one only need look at the Sunni Islamic world with billions in oil money, yet the people exist in virtual slavery, poverty, ignorance and disease, from the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) to the Persian Gulf. In Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf States, the people are denied basic human rights and democratic liberties. Little opposition is allowed and except for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is no radical opposition to the autocratic regimes, unless we call Osama Bin Laden’s theology radical, but only in the right wing manner and the Stone Age Saudi Arabian brand of Islamic fundamentalism.
Toward the end of his life, Warithdin turned back to the do for self teachings of his father. In so doing, he mirrors Farrakhan who is also turning back to the Supreme Wisdom of Elijah Muhammad, since the teachings from his Study Guide carried his followers nowhere.
As the followers of Warithdin celebrate his transition, it is time for them to make a great leap forward out of the grave of reaction and let the masses see they indeed understand the teachings of Elijah was the ultimate truth for the present era. Clearly, the devil is the devil, no matter what time or place, and he shall appear in white face or black face, have no illusions on this point. We must therefore guard against being deceived, no matter if it is John McCain or Barak Obama.
Finally, Warithdin did indeed attempt to clean out his father’s house. But the sad fact is that after his mission, there yet remain devils in the house, faking as imams but have the intention to practice white supremacy domination and dictatorial authority using the Qur’an, Hadith and Sharia to legitimatize their iniquities, as in the old regime, making mockery of all that Warithdeen and his father attempted to construct. May Warithdeen rest in peace and paradise for all the good he accomplished. And may his followers heal from their sorrow and celebrate the infinite possibilities he engendered.
--Marvin X (El Muhajir), poet, playwright, essayist, activist, is considered the father of Muslim American literature and one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical literary and artistic movement in American history. www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com. He is now booking engagements for 2009. Call 510-355-6339. His latest book is How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702, $19.95.
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