My Friend The Devil
A Memoir of Marvin X's Association
With Eldridge Cleaver
It all began at Soledad Prison, sometime during 1966. Black Dialogue magazine was approached by attorney Beverly Axelrod about making a visit to the Soledad Prison Black Culture Club. The editors agreed to make the visit, including myself as fiction editor. The other editors included Art Sheridan, Gerald, Aubrey and Peter LaBrie, Sadaat Ahmed, Joe Goncalves, Duke Williams, et al. We made our way down the coast to Soledad. I was both excited and sad because my brother Ollie was probably an inmate at the time, though I can't remember.
Our staff was taken to the hosting officer's apartment and briefed on what to do and not to do. No contact with inmates, no passing or taking of literature. We agreed but it didn't mean a thing. Soon as we got inside the meeting room we knew what we were going to do. At first we got inside and saw the brothers seated, with the meeting in progress. Eldridge was chair and his lieutenant was Alprentice Bunchey Carter. Bunchy was a very handsome black man, so handsome it belied his leadership qualities as head of the Los Angeles Slauson gang.
But chairman Cleaver was a giant of a man, tell, light skinned and articulate. But more than the words said, I was immediately impressed with the organizational structure with brothers on post with military style discipline. It was probably the first time I'd seen black men so organized. We know now according to brother Kumasi that this was the beginning of the prison movement in California and the nation, this black culture club of mostly young black men confined to the dungeon as so many are today, causing havoc in black family and community life. In this Soledad dungeon would come a prison movement on par with the black student movement, black arts and black studies. As I listened to Chairman Eldridge speak, I said to myself this is a dangerous Negro if allowed to depart these walls. Clearly, he was well read after a total of eighteen years of confinement in the California Gulags. I would learn later he was soaked in Marxist Leninism and literature in general. And when Black Dialogue obtained his writings for publication, especially My, Queen, I Greet You, we suspected this was a man with the passion and writing skills of Baldwin. And of course he must have sensed this comparison and thus his need to denounce Baldwin to take a shot at the black literary crown, although he did it by a homophobic denunciation which led one to suspect his own sexual improprieties, especially after so long in prison.
But at that first meeting, we were humbled to be with the brothers, to share with them by reading our writings from Black Dialogue. At the end of the meeting we all embraced and exchanged materials in violation of the officer's request. We gave them copies of Dialogue and they gave us manuscripts of their writings which were later published in Dialogue and Journal of Black Poetry. As I said, we published My Queen, I Greet You, in Dialogue and Joe Gonalves published the poetry of Bunchy and others in JBP. We left Soledad and headed back up the coast to San Francisco. Thus was established a connection between the prison movement and black students, the black arts movement and eventually the Black Panther Party when I introduced Eldrdige to Bobby Seale soon after his release from prison.
Part Two: My Friend the Devil
Several months passed before I met Eldridge again. Somebody called me to come over Sister Mary Anna's house. Maryanna Waddy was the daughter of painter Ruth Waddy, but more importantly, she was the student, though somewhat older at the time, who aggressively pushed for the name change from Negro Students Association to the Black Students Union. Maryanna was a strong black woman who took no jive, maybe the result of black consciousness taught by her mother. But when I entered her house, Eldridge was there trying to introduce his plans to the community. There seemed to be some tension between him and Maryanna, a black man/black woman power battle. Maybe Maryanna knew about Eldridge's white woman lawyer, Beverley Axelrod, who had smuggled his manuscript Soul on Ice out of Soledad. We would learn that Eldridge had promised to marry her, so his blackness was suspect from the beginning--but we would handle that matter a few months down the road. Maryanna and most of those present, maybe members of the BSU, including those of us from Black Dialogue. If I recall correctly, Eldridge gave me a ride home and we agreed to meet again soon.
Things were going bad for us at Black Arts West Theatre on Fillmore Street, across the street from Tree's poolhall and around the corner from the Sun Reporter newspaper, published by the millionaire Communist Dr. Carlton Goodlett. BAW was breaking up because of egos and other psychopathic behavior in our crew which included Ed Bullins, Duncan Barber, Hillary Broadous, Carl Bossiere and Ethna Wyatt. All of us wanted to make BAW happen but our egos got in the way, along with deeper mental problems. In spite of these problems, we did my plays and the plays of Ed Bullins. We had jazz concerts with the Bay Area's best, including Raphael Garrett, Monte Waters, Dewey Redman, Oliver Jackson, B.J., and others. Only thing with the musicians, many had white women which we would not allow in the theatre, since we were black nationalists on the road to becoming members of the Nation of Islam. A long time criminal Muslim came to our theatre to recruit us, Alonzo Harris Batin, who became the guru and mentor of BAW. Batin was a criminal with a heart of gold. He wanted us to join the Nation even though most of the time he was not in good standing and considered a hypocrite. Soon we were indoctrinated by Batin and eventually most of joined the Nation except Ed Bullins. Bullins was into his art and living or at least staying in the Beatnik area of North Beach.
For awhile, Ethna was the glue that held BAW together. She fed us when we were low on money to buy food. She would cook something that would be enough for the crew and she would try to stop us from killing each other as we ego-tripped. Ethna had come from Chicago, maybe during or around the time of that Summer of Love. It seemed many beautiful women fled Chicago to the West coast. Ethna's friend had come, Sandra Williams, helping out at BAW. Danny Glover acted in BAW, performing in Dorothy Ahmed's play Papa's Daughter, about incest. Actress and SFSU student Vonetta McGee performed in Bullins'
play It Has No Choice and another play by Bullins that I can't remember the name.
And then one day the crew called me to the lobby of the theatre to meet a man they said spoke seven languages. After they called me several times to come to the lobby, I came from the theatre to meet a tall, jet black brother with straight hair, Ali Sharif Bey, who indeed did speak several languages, including English, Persian, Spanish, French, Ababic and Urdu. He became our on-site Islamic scholar and teacher, teaching us Arabic and his vast knowledge of Islam based on the Ahmediah sect, the great evangelists of Islam to the West. Ali Sharif Bey would surface later as the runner for the SLA when they kidnapped Patty Hearst. He is the source for my master thesis docudrama How I Met Isa. But in spite of all this community support--none from the Black bourgeoisie until later at the Black House which Eldridge convinced me to help organize since I told him I was tired of the bs at BAW and was ready to do something different. We discussed setting up what eventually became Black House, a political/cultural center on Broderick Street off Divisadero in the Fillmore. Ed Bullins soon joined Eldridge, Ethna and myself. For a few months Black House became the cultural center of the Bay with thousands of conscious hungry black flocking there for culture. Black House participants included Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Chicago Art Ensemble, Sarah Webster Fabio, Reginald Lockett, Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier and Little Bobby Hutton. On the poltical side, Eldridge brought in a Communist party leader, Rosco Proctor.
Eldridge had no time for the culture, even though he couldn't help but be influenced by it since it was at the house he financed with his advance from Soul On Ice. He and Baraka had little to say to each other even though Baraka's Communication Project at San Francisco State College/now University, had it's off campus base at Black House. Years later these two men would switch ideologies with Baraka turning Communist and Eldridge finding religion. Eldridge would eventually go from Communist to Christian, to Mormon to Moonie to Religious Science. But at Black House he was strictly Communist and he pushed hard to get us to follow his path, though we resisted until Black House fell apart from ideological differences. Before it fell we had gone to Beverly Axelrod's house to literally remove Cleaver since we found it a contradiction for the chairman of Black House to be sleeping at the White House. One afternoon brother Batin and I made Eldridge move his things from the White House while Miss Ann cried. Among his belongings was that wicker chair, spear and rug made famous in that photo of Huey Newton.
Part Three:
Eldridge and Alonzo Batin were old prison comrades, having shared time throughout the California prison system. They were classic men, so classic they were made the subject of an off-Broadway play by Earl Anthony, produced by Woody King. Batin kept pressure on Eldridge to be black, something EC didn't want to do because he was suffering from the addiction to white supremacy. With all the cultural happenings at Black House, Eldridge preferred to listen over and over to what we called a white hippy folk singer named Bob Dylan.
Black House people didn't give a damn about Bob Dylan, hardly knew who he was, but Eldridge played his music continuously, trying to make us listen to it at every turn. But our favorite singer soon joined us to live at Black House, Willie Dale. Willie was another prison comrade of Eldridge's who sang the Black National Anthem of the 60s, Louis Farrakhan's The White Man's Heaven is a Black Man's Hell. Willie, with his booming voice, could sing it better than Farrakhan. After moving Eldridge fully into Black House, we wanted to secure him a black woman, so Willie's wife, Vernasteen, went down to their home town, Bakersfield, and brought back Marilyn, who came to stay with Eldridge until he met the love of his life, Kathleen.
The Black House became a half way house for black revolutionaries who were first indoctrinated with black consciousness then joined political organizations. Despite his resistance to blackness, Eldridge was touched by simply being in the house with so much culture going on. And then came Emory Douglass from San Francisco City College reading a poem Revolutionary Things. Emory became Black Panther Minister of Culture. Then came Samuel Napier, a worker who wanted to get involved. Sam went on to become Minister of Distribution of the Black Panther newspaper. George Murray was part of Baraka's Communication project, and became the Black Panther Minister of Education. Thus it is my theory, contrary to Larry Neal's assertion that BAM was the sister of BLM, BAM was the Mother who nurtured her children and prepared them with the necessary consciousness for revolutionary struggle, hence the prime importance of the cultural revolution. For a long time I couldn't figure out what Huey Newton meant when he said I taught him things, for it was Huey who had taught me consciousness at Merritt College, but after thinking about it for years, I concluded maybe I did teach Huey simple street theatre which the Panthers executed to the max, with their costumes and political rhetoric. Of course Bobby Seale was in my second play Come Next Summer, 1966, months before he and Huey founded the BPP. He played a young man trying to find himself, ultimately joining the revolution. The San Francisco State BSU's Communication Project, directed by Baraka, recruited several BSU brothers and sisters to do the plays of Baraka, Ben Caldwell, Bullins, and Jimmy Garrett. These actors became real live revolutionaries when they initiated the Third World Strike at SFSU, one of the most violent and the longest in American academic history, again illustrating the necessity of cultural consciousness in liberation. The strike led to the founding of Black and Ethnic Studies at SFSU.
--Continued--
Part Four: My Friend the Devil
Eldridge had no knowledge of the Black Panthers until I informed him out of our artistic desire to get rid of him as chair of Black House, even though he had made it happen by putting up the money, but we rejected his desire to push Marxism at any cost, even though he paid the cost to be the boss. I didn't think he was so dogmatic about his mission which was to create a Communist organization. Thus when we realized he was merely using artists to advance his political goals, we objected. For a short time we went along with his sessions on Communism, sometimes they included Rosco Proctor. I think Rosco was secretary of the Communist party of California. We didn't mind reading Mao's Talks at Yenan Forum on Art and Literature or Robert F. Williams Negroes With Guns. But when we tired of the Marxist approach of Cleaver, I suggested he meet some of my friends across the Bay who were arming themselves for self defense against the police. I thought this would be a way to get rid of Cleaver so we could do our cultural work. Cleaver best describes meeting the Panthers for the first time in his book Post-Prison Writings. But I took him to meet Bobby Seale one night after a radio interview at a station in Jack London Square. I took him by Bobby Seale's house in North Oakland, got Bobby to come outside to Cleaver's car. Bobby got in and the world knows the rest. Hooking up with the Panthers was not the idea Cleaver came out of prison to pursue, but it was still a dream come true, although I knew there would be hell to pay for somebody, in particular Bobby and Huey who I knew were no match for Cleaver's chicanery. Even though Bobby and Huey were well read, they were no match for Cleaver, especially in terms of Marxism. Nor were they on par with Cleaver's organizational skills and especially his ability to move on those in opposition to his mission, even to the point of murder. Who knows how many bodies Cleaver left behind in the Gulag, or his special skills in getting rid of enemies. Huey may have been a psychopath but still he was no match for Cleaver. I was glad Cleaver was hooking up with the Panthers because it took pressure off us artists. But I felt sorry for what awaited the Panthers because I knew Cleaver was a man who had to be in control, especially because he had superior knowledge and had proven organizational skills as evidenced by the Soledad Prison Black Culture Club, which was a military organization as well.
Around the time I was introducing Cleaver to the Panthers, they were moving on a rival Panther organization the BPP called the Paper Panthers, led by their former associates in Donald Warden's AfroAmerican Association and co-students at Merritt: Ken and Carol Freeman, Ernie Allen, and others who were part of the group of neo black intellectuals at Merritt, including myself, Richard Thorne, Isaac Moore, Ann Williams, Maurice Dawson, John Thomas, Wayne Combash
and others. Several of us were associated with Soulbook, the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) publication headed by Robert F. Williams and Max Stanford (now Muhammad Ahmed). But Huey and Bobby had separated from the socalled Paper Panthers because they did not recognize the supremacy of armed self-defense. They eventually gave the Paper Panthers an ultimatum: put up guns or shut up and stop calling themselves Black Panthers. Again, Cleaver gives a good description of this conflict in Post-Prison Writings. I am certain Ernie Allen and Ken Freeman's brother, Donald Freeman (Baba Lumumba) can give their side of the story with documentation. Baba Lumbuma has a letter from the BPP to the Black Panther Party of Northern California that invites them to stop using the Panther name, signed by Huey and Bobby. Eventually there was a confrontation between the two Panther groups in San Francisco at the headquarters of Bill Bradley (now Oba T'Shaka). (I am writing from total recall so events may be out of chronological order but I think the events happened close to the order I'm describing. There are a plethora of books on the BPP to confirm the sequence of events or correct my amnesia. If the reader has more accurate information, please submit it to me for inclusion in my narrative so I won't be guilty of revisionism.)
After introducing Eldrdige to the Panthers, events at Black House happened in rapid succession, leading toward the end of the cultural component and the establishment of Black House as the San Francisco headquarters of the BPP. Again, I may have the chronological order confused, after all, I am recalling events of forty years ago from memory. Anyway, Cleaver becomes minister of information of the BPP and soon followed the first publication of the BPP newspaper, headlined with the police murder of Denzil Dowell in Richmond. Eldridge and Emory Douglas laid out the paper. Besides Muhammad Speaks, the BPP newspaper would become the most powerful newspaper of the 60s revolution. And of course much of the distribution success can be attributed to Samuel Napier, Minister of Distribution. What I remember most about Samuel was his innocence and sincerity about wanting to get involved and giving his all once involved. I was never more depressed than when I learned he was murdered in the internecine violence when the BPP factions split between Huey's west coast army and Eldridge's east coast army. Sam was murdered then set afire in New York. When I performed my play One Day In the Life in 1997 at Sista's Place in New York, the brothers pulled me aside and said the following: "Marvin, we love you, but we don't give a damn about Huey Newton," (the play has a scene of my last meeting with Huey--the setting of the one-act play Salaam, Huey, Salaam, by Ed Bullins and Marvin X, New Federal Theatre, 2008). New York is Eldridge's turf, they told me. "His army is still here." When he died May 1, 1998, I organized his memorial service in Oakland, along with Sister Majedah Rahman, a former Panther. Many Panthers did not attend because of their loyalty to Huey. Those who did attend included: Emory Douglas, Tarika Lewis,
Richard Aoki (recently deceased, the first Asian Panther), Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Yusef Bey, Imam Alamin, Minister Keith Muhammad, Kathleen and Joju Cleaver. Kathleen said to me after the service, "Marvin, the service was great, but there were just too many Muslims." Well, if it weren't for us Muslims, there would have not been any recognition of Cleaver's contribution to the revolution. Kathleen had agreed to have a poem I wrote read at his funeral in Los Angeles.
But let's get back to the chronology. There was a group of youth who made the basement of Black House their playhouse and apparently there was a lot of things going on down there between the youth, like playing hooky from school and sexual abuse of girls. We got word from some of our bourgeoisie friends, in particular Dezzie Woods and Bennie Ivy that the police were going to raid Black House. The Black bourgeoisie did give financial support to Black House, in contrast to their lack of support for Black Arts West. Maybe the notoriety of Black House made them more giving, especially with the presence of EC in the house, about to become a best selling author. Everybody likes to be around a star.
No one had time for the youth except me, certainly not Eldridge or Ed Bullins, so I was the liaison with the youth, some of whom I have been in contact with until today. Lil Bobby Hutton came to me one day with a directive from the Supreme Commander of the BPP, Huey P. Huey, saying the youth clubhouse had to be closed down. Lil Bobby was 16 and Huey was his hero. Lil Bobby was the third person to join the BPP and became Secretary, a model for youth of today to join the liberation struggle and forsake gang banging, set tripping and other reactionary activities. In my supreme arrogance, I told Lil Bobby, "Fuck the Supreme Commander!" I saw death in his eyes for me. But I felt Huey was an equal and even though the BPP had taken over Black House, they did not control me. Lil Bobby looked at me as if I had cursed God Almighty. "We go deal with you, Padna!" My days in the Black House were growing short. That night all I heard were Black Panthers clicking 45 automatics outside my bedroom door. Of course I was just as mad and psychopathic as any Panther. I was fearless. My attitude was, "Fuck you motherfuckers. Kiss my ass."
Nothing happened except the coming exit of myself and other artists from Black House, including Ed Bullins who would soon take off for New York. The BPP began to terrorize socalled cultural nationalists or those they considered would not take up armed struggle in the manner prescribed by the BPP. Musicians departed the Bay for the East coast. Askia Muhammad was threatened and fled East after coming to teach at San Francisco State College/now University.
Before my exit the BPP was next door in Eldridge's room planning their dramatic and historic invasiion of the State Capitol in Sacramento. I was planning my
departure from Black House. My next move was into the Nation of Islam, simply because I was wanted to be involved in a black nationalist organization that was spiritual as well. Easter Sunday, 1967, I went to Mosque #26 and joined the NOI.
--Continued-
Part Five: My Friend the Devil
Even before I joined the Nation of Islam, my girl/woman/friend/ revolutionary lover Ethna (now Hurriyah Asar) had gone home with me to Fresno and while there she joined the Nation of Islam, just goes to show you how far ahead women are--Ethna was always ahead of me in her dreams and plans--although I am Gemini, there is a slow side to me, so slow it is like a snail. She was a Virgo and well grounded in what she wanted as her dream. She always wanted a nation, a land of her own for us as a people. She was the child of a step mother who was a member of the Chicago Communist Party of the USA, another member of which was Angela Davis. Her mother, now in her 80s, is still a member of the Communist Party of the USA. We need to understand that there are a large percentage of Blacks who have no faith whatsoever in the political system of the USA, despite the election of Obama. Doesn't matter if they are Communists, Muslims, Nationalists or whatever, even common people with no ideology, they are completely alienated from American society and all that she proclaims to the world. There are blacks in the marsh and swamps of Louisiana who have no loyalty to the USA, no matter what you might think.
So Hurriyah (Freedom) was my pardner, guide and mentor as woman, lover, friend. She had her men and lovers and I had mine, but through it all we came together when time allowed and she is my friend now, my very best friend. She has not lost that feminine touch that some many women have that don't know to use, thelanguage of love. Hurriyah can totally disarm me with her language of love, knowing how to whisper to a man and make him conquer the world. This is what men need today. Forget that aggressive talk that turns men off, making women think men need Viagra when men only need the feminine language of love.
Just come at me right with the language of love, not that shit yu learned from the white man or white woman in college. Talk to me in the language that made grandpa stay with grandma for fifty years until death, not that neo-modern language that make Mama leave Daddy with five kids. Then at the death of Dad, Mom wants the urn with his ashes, because she loved him more than anyone could ever understand.
Eldridge told me how his mother wanted the urn of his father at his death, even though she had been divorced from him for years, revealing her unconditional devotion and love to him, the man who meant so much to her, in spite of his negrocities (Baraka term).
While in Fresno Ethna (Hurriyah, Grand lady of BAW) joined the Nation even before I was ready. During this time in Fresno we performed Baraka's Dutchman at Fresno State College, with Hurriyah in white face in the role of Lula. Actually I got a wig from Fresno's biggest pimp, Marcel, who came to see the performance at FSU. He said when he saw Clay (Marvin X) stabbed by Lulait donned on him that he would not know what to do if one of his white ho's stabbed him in his hotel room.. Who was he going to call, the white man, his black brothers? It was then he threw in his good pimping towel and joined the Nation of Islam, eventually becoming an Imam and making his haj to Mecca. This is the power of Black Arts, this is the power of the cultural revolution to save souls like Marcel, to revolutionize pimps and whores.
=--Continued- -
--Marvin X
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
On Driving While Black in Post Racial Texas
I wouldn't think of driving in Texas, just as I wouldn't think of driving down Oakland's International Blvd. late nights because of the checkpoint Charlie's at every turn. No matter California or Texas, you can and will, more often than not, be stopped for driving while black. This is the reality of post-Black America even with a Black president, or perhaps because of a Black president. Even the right wing in the Democratic party is surging to oppose Obama at every turn, not to mention the die-hard Republicans and right-wing talk show hosts who've vowed to destroy our first black prez.
I imagine only a second civil war will destroy the vestiges of white supremacy in this land, and at the conclusion of which blacks will need to remain armed for the foreseeable future, just as Hezbollah and Hamas know better than to disarm in light of the permanent Zionist threat.
In America white supremacy may have eased on the surface but remains rock hard in the deep structure of American culture. No white person desires to willingly give up white privilege. As my white literary agent told me, "I am not, nor are my friends, trying to recover from white supremacy. We love white privilege and we will bomb the world to keep it."
In the great liberal city of Berkeley, CA, an English instructor at Berkeley City College informed me she was denied tenure for using my book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy in her classroom. This book is not advocating hatred but it is a manual to recover from American's number one addiction, prescribing a 13 step approach based on the 12-step model of Alcoholic Anonymous, but whites are terrified of this book and blacks are fearful to be caught with it, especially on the job. A black woman in San Francisco's financial district said she wanted the book but was mortally afraid to take it back to work on her lunch break. Another brother told me he would not buy the book from me on his lunch break but would get it on his way home. In Oakland a brother bought the book but made me assure him he wouldn't be fired if he returned from lunch with it.
The irony is that the book's first step is overcoming fear to recover from the addiction to white supremacy. When I completed the manuscript in South Carolina and went to make a copy, the sister at Staples saw the title and said, "You ain't from here!" I asked why she said that. She said because we don't use that word "white supremacy" down here, that's you California nigguhs coming down here talking that shit, upsetting these white folks, then you leave but we got to stay here to deal with them.
The new Attorney General, Mr. Holder, was on the money when he described Americans as racist cowards.
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
Order How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, A Pan African/12 Step Model,
by Dr. M/Marvin X, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Allah-El, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702, $19.95. Not available in bookstores.
________________________________________
From: S. E. Anderson
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 6:58:14 AM
Subject: [blackantiwar] Driving While Black In PostRacial Texas
http://www.latimes. com/news/ la-na-texas- profiling11- 2009mar11, 0,2572041. story?track= rss
From the Los Angeles Times
Driving through Tenaha, Texas, doesn't pay for some.A lawsuit alleges that the town's police pull over motorists -- especially African Americans -- and extort money and valuables by threatening criminal charges or worse.
By Howard Witt
March 11, 2009
Reporting from Tenaha, Texas — You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana state line if you're African American, but you might not be able to drive out of it -- at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.
That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: Sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.
More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, Ohio, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with or convicted of any crime.
Officials in Tenaha, along a heavily traveled state highway connecting Houston with several popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking, and they call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state's asset-forfeiture law. That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.
"We try to enforce the law here," said George Bowers, mayor of the town of about 1,100 residents, where boarded-up businesses outnumber open ones and City Hall sports a broken window. "We're not doing this to raise money. That's all I'm going to say at this point."
But civil rights lawyers call Tenaha's practice something else: highway robbery. The attorneys have filed a federal class-action lawsuit seeking unspecified damages and a halt to what they contend is an unconstitutional perversion of the law's intent, used primarily against African Americans who have done nothing wrong.
Tenaha officials "have developed an illegal 'stop and seize' practice of targeting, stopping, detaining, searching, and often seizing property from apparently nonwhite citizens and those traveling with nonwhite citizens," asserts the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.
The property seizures are not happening just in Tenaha. In southern parts of Texas near the Mexican border, for example, Latinos allege that they are being singled out.
According to a prominent Texas state legislator, police agencies across the state are wielding the asset-forfeiture law more aggressively to supplement their shrinking operating budgets.
"If used properly, it's a good law-enforcement tool to see that crime doesn't pay," said Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. "But in this instance, where people are being pulled over and their property is taken with no charges filed and no convictions, I think that's theft."
Money, minorities
David Guillory, an attorney in nearby Nacogdoches who filed the federal lawsuit, said he combed through Shelby County court records from 2006 to 2008 and discovered nearly 200 cases in which Tenaha police seized cash and property from motorists. In about 50 of the cases, suspects were charged with drug possession.
But in 147 others, Guillory said the court records showed, the police seized cash, jewelry, cellphones and sometimes even automobiles from motorists but never found any contraband or charged them with any crime. Of those, Guillory said he managed to contact 40 of the motorists directly -- and discovered that all but one of them were black.
"The whole thing is disproportionately targeted toward minorities, particularly African Americans," Guillory said. "Every one of these people is pulled over and told they did something, like, 'You drove too close to the white line.' That's not in the penal code, but it sounds plausible. None of these people have been charged with a crime; none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factor is that they had something that looked valuable."
In some cases, police used the fact that motorists were carrying large amounts of cash as evidence that they must have been involved in laundering drug money, even though Guillory said each of the drivers he contacted could account for where the money had come from and why they were carrying it -- such as for a gambling trip to Shreveport, La., or to purchase a used car from a private seller.
Once the motorists were detained, the police and the Shelby County district attorney quickly drew up legal papers presenting them with an option: Waive their rights to their cash and property or face felony charges for crimes such as money laundering -- and the prospect of having to hire a lawyer and return to Shelby County multiple times to contest the charges in court.
Apparently routine
The process apparently is so routine in Tenaha that Guillory discovered pre-signed and pre-notarized police affidavits with blank spaces left for an officer to fill in a description of the property being seized.
Jennifer Boatright, her husband and two young children -- a mixed-race family -- were traveling from Houston to visit relatives in East Texas in April 2007 when Tenaha police pulled them over, alleging that they were driving in a left-turn lane.
After searching the car, the officers discovered what Boatright said was a gift for her sister: a small, unused glass pipe made for smoking marijuana. Although they found no drugs or other contraband, the police seized $6,037 that Boatright said the family was carrying to purchase a used car -- and then threatened to turn their children, ages 10 and 1, over to Child Protective Services if the couple didn't agree to sign over their right to their cash.
"It was give them the money or they were taking our kids," Boatright said. "They suggested that we never bring it up again. We figured we better give them our cash and get the hell out of there."
Several months later, after Boatright and her husband contacted an attorney, Tenaha officials returned their money but offered no explanation or apology. The couple remain plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit.
Except for Tenaha's mayor, none of the defendants in the federal lawsuit, including Shelby County Dist. Atty. Lynda Russell and two Tenaha police officers, responded to requests for comment about their search-and-seizure practices. Lawyers for the defendants also declined to comment, as did several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
But Whitmire says he doesn't need to await the suit's outcome to try to fix what he regards as a statewide problem. On Monday, he introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would require police to go before a judge before attempting to seize property under the asset-forfeiture law -- and ultimately Whitmire hopes to tighten the law further so that law-enforcement officials will be allowed to seize property only after a suspect is charged and convicted in a court.
"The law has gotten away from what was intended, which was to take the profits of a bad guy's crime spree and use it for additional crime fighting," Whitmire said. "Now it's largely being used to pay police salaries -- and it's being abused because you don't even have to be a bad guy to lose your property."
I wouldn't think of driving in Texas, just as I wouldn't think of driving down Oakland's International Blvd. late nights because of the checkpoint Charlie's at every turn. No matter California or Texas, you can and will, more often than not, be stopped for driving while black. This is the reality of post-Black America even with a Black president, or perhaps because of a Black president. Even the right wing in the Democratic party is surging to oppose Obama at every turn, not to mention the die-hard Republicans and right-wing talk show hosts who've vowed to destroy our first black prez.
I imagine only a second civil war will destroy the vestiges of white supremacy in this land, and at the conclusion of which blacks will need to remain armed for the foreseeable future, just as Hezbollah and Hamas know better than to disarm in light of the permanent Zionist threat.
In America white supremacy may have eased on the surface but remains rock hard in the deep structure of American culture. No white person desires to willingly give up white privilege. As my white literary agent told me, "I am not, nor are my friends, trying to recover from white supremacy. We love white privilege and we will bomb the world to keep it."
In the great liberal city of Berkeley, CA, an English instructor at Berkeley City College informed me she was denied tenure for using my book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy in her classroom. This book is not advocating hatred but it is a manual to recover from American's number one addiction, prescribing a 13 step approach based on the 12-step model of Alcoholic Anonymous, but whites are terrified of this book and blacks are fearful to be caught with it, especially on the job. A black woman in San Francisco's financial district said she wanted the book but was mortally afraid to take it back to work on her lunch break. Another brother told me he would not buy the book from me on his lunch break but would get it on his way home. In Oakland a brother bought the book but made me assure him he wouldn't be fired if he returned from lunch with it.
The irony is that the book's first step is overcoming fear to recover from the addiction to white supremacy. When I completed the manuscript in South Carolina and went to make a copy, the sister at Staples saw the title and said, "You ain't from here!" I asked why she said that. She said because we don't use that word "white supremacy" down here, that's you California nigguhs coming down here talking that shit, upsetting these white folks, then you leave but we got to stay here to deal with them.
The new Attorney General, Mr. Holder, was on the money when he described Americans as racist cowards.
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
Order How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, A Pan African/12 Step Model,
by Dr. M/Marvin X, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Allah-El, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702, $19.95. Not available in bookstores.
________________________________________
From: S. E. Anderson
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 6:58:14 AM
Subject: [blackantiwar] Driving While Black In PostRacial Texas
http://www.latimes. com/news/ la-na-texas- profiling11- 2009mar11, 0,2572041. story?track= rss
From the Los Angeles Times
Driving through Tenaha, Texas, doesn't pay for some.A lawsuit alleges that the town's police pull over motorists -- especially African Americans -- and extort money and valuables by threatening criminal charges or worse.
By Howard Witt
March 11, 2009
Reporting from Tenaha, Texas — You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana state line if you're African American, but you might not be able to drive out of it -- at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.
That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: Sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.
More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, Ohio, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with or convicted of any crime.
Officials in Tenaha, along a heavily traveled state highway connecting Houston with several popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking, and they call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state's asset-forfeiture law. That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.
"We try to enforce the law here," said George Bowers, mayor of the town of about 1,100 residents, where boarded-up businesses outnumber open ones and City Hall sports a broken window. "We're not doing this to raise money. That's all I'm going to say at this point."
But civil rights lawyers call Tenaha's practice something else: highway robbery. The attorneys have filed a federal class-action lawsuit seeking unspecified damages and a halt to what they contend is an unconstitutional perversion of the law's intent, used primarily against African Americans who have done nothing wrong.
Tenaha officials "have developed an illegal 'stop and seize' practice of targeting, stopping, detaining, searching, and often seizing property from apparently nonwhite citizens and those traveling with nonwhite citizens," asserts the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.
The property seizures are not happening just in Tenaha. In southern parts of Texas near the Mexican border, for example, Latinos allege that they are being singled out.
According to a prominent Texas state legislator, police agencies across the state are wielding the asset-forfeiture law more aggressively to supplement their shrinking operating budgets.
"If used properly, it's a good law-enforcement tool to see that crime doesn't pay," said Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. "But in this instance, where people are being pulled over and their property is taken with no charges filed and no convictions, I think that's theft."
Money, minorities
David Guillory, an attorney in nearby Nacogdoches who filed the federal lawsuit, said he combed through Shelby County court records from 2006 to 2008 and discovered nearly 200 cases in which Tenaha police seized cash and property from motorists. In about 50 of the cases, suspects were charged with drug possession.
But in 147 others, Guillory said the court records showed, the police seized cash, jewelry, cellphones and sometimes even automobiles from motorists but never found any contraband or charged them with any crime. Of those, Guillory said he managed to contact 40 of the motorists directly -- and discovered that all but one of them were black.
"The whole thing is disproportionately targeted toward minorities, particularly African Americans," Guillory said. "Every one of these people is pulled over and told they did something, like, 'You drove too close to the white line.' That's not in the penal code, but it sounds plausible. None of these people have been charged with a crime; none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factor is that they had something that looked valuable."
In some cases, police used the fact that motorists were carrying large amounts of cash as evidence that they must have been involved in laundering drug money, even though Guillory said each of the drivers he contacted could account for where the money had come from and why they were carrying it -- such as for a gambling trip to Shreveport, La., or to purchase a used car from a private seller.
Once the motorists were detained, the police and the Shelby County district attorney quickly drew up legal papers presenting them with an option: Waive their rights to their cash and property or face felony charges for crimes such as money laundering -- and the prospect of having to hire a lawyer and return to Shelby County multiple times to contest the charges in court.
Apparently routine
The process apparently is so routine in Tenaha that Guillory discovered pre-signed and pre-notarized police affidavits with blank spaces left for an officer to fill in a description of the property being seized.
Jennifer Boatright, her husband and two young children -- a mixed-race family -- were traveling from Houston to visit relatives in East Texas in April 2007 when Tenaha police pulled them over, alleging that they were driving in a left-turn lane.
After searching the car, the officers discovered what Boatright said was a gift for her sister: a small, unused glass pipe made for smoking marijuana. Although they found no drugs or other contraband, the police seized $6,037 that Boatright said the family was carrying to purchase a used car -- and then threatened to turn their children, ages 10 and 1, over to Child Protective Services if the couple didn't agree to sign over their right to their cash.
"It was give them the money or they were taking our kids," Boatright said. "They suggested that we never bring it up again. We figured we better give them our cash and get the hell out of there."
Several months later, after Boatright and her husband contacted an attorney, Tenaha officials returned their money but offered no explanation or apology. The couple remain plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit.
Except for Tenaha's mayor, none of the defendants in the federal lawsuit, including Shelby County Dist. Atty. Lynda Russell and two Tenaha police officers, responded to requests for comment about their search-and-seizure practices. Lawyers for the defendants also declined to comment, as did several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
But Whitmire says he doesn't need to await the suit's outcome to try to fix what he regards as a statewide problem. On Monday, he introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would require police to go before a judge before attempting to seize property under the asset-forfeiture law -- and ultimately Whitmire hopes to tighten the law further so that law-enforcement officials will be allowed to seize property only after a suspect is charged and convicted in a court.
"The law has gotten away from what was intended, which was to take the profits of a bad guy's crime spree and use it for additional crime fighting," Whitmire said. "Now it's largely being used to pay police salaries -- and it's being abused because you don't even have to be a bad guy to lose your property."
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Precious People
Why have you destroyed my peolple, Bonecrusher? Why have you taken the mud and instead of fashioning it into shape as the Potter does, you turned it into water and waste? Precious people have turned to dust in your hands, oh, Bonecrusher, you did not uplift them but destroyed them in your desire for slave labor and the fruit of their lands. And then you ask do they love God? When the question as posed by Rev. Cone to Bill Moyers is, "Do they love you?" For only God saved them by transcendence and transformation of them into reflections of His higher power. By loving Him they adorned themselves with His armor, protecting themselves from your wrath, Bonecrusher. You do not exempt even your children who walk in darkness, for as Baldwin said, "The murder of my child will not make your child safe." And why, Baraka asks, is it necessary to kill across the planet, who needs and desires this crushing of bones, the slaughter of souls, spilling of blood, who needs this, Mr. Bonecrusher? Yet you rejoice in the robbery and murder of the innocent. A million widows run through the streets of Iraq, but you are not satisfied until another million are fleeing the streets of Afghanistan, or maybe Pakistan and Iran. Will you be satisfied then, Bonecrusher? Even in your lands there is now mass homelessness, joblessness, depression and despair. All caused by your need to devour the precious people of God. And yet you do all that you do in the name of God, in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace, you swallow retirement savings, investments of the poor and needy, you squander, even your rich brothers and sisters you rob, there is no end to your greed. Who will check you, who will humble you into submission to righteousness? No one can challenge your armies, your weapons of mass destruction, yet you claim to be concerned with proliferation while you are the chief proliferator, you and your allies, Mr. Bonecrusher.
Precious people only want to live in peace and work to secure their families, yet you tell them their national security is accomplished by foreign wars, yet when you were attacked you said it was without cause, totally unjustified? Have you not destroyed civilizations, buried cultures then dug them up for your museums? Just remember, Bonecrusher, when you look at the monkey, the monkey is looking at you! Yes, he sees you and seeks to attack you, even as you embrace him at the zoo and in your homes where you have made him a pet, treating him better than you treat the precious people in your midst, your own children even, who depart your mansions to whore in the streets of your cities, desiring street life to the comfort of your mansions, the golden handcuffs of your abusiveness. The lion breaks from his cage to attack you because you have turned him into a pussy cat who meows instead of growls.
Precious people cannot endure much longer, Bonecrusher. You have them in tent cities, homeless shelters and food lines. How long before they break, how long before they react, how long before they revolt against you, Bonecrusher?
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
Why have you destroyed my peolple, Bonecrusher? Why have you taken the mud and instead of fashioning it into shape as the Potter does, you turned it into water and waste? Precious people have turned to dust in your hands, oh, Bonecrusher, you did not uplift them but destroyed them in your desire for slave labor and the fruit of their lands. And then you ask do they love God? When the question as posed by Rev. Cone to Bill Moyers is, "Do they love you?" For only God saved them by transcendence and transformation of them into reflections of His higher power. By loving Him they adorned themselves with His armor, protecting themselves from your wrath, Bonecrusher. You do not exempt even your children who walk in darkness, for as Baldwin said, "The murder of my child will not make your child safe." And why, Baraka asks, is it necessary to kill across the planet, who needs and desires this crushing of bones, the slaughter of souls, spilling of blood, who needs this, Mr. Bonecrusher? Yet you rejoice in the robbery and murder of the innocent. A million widows run through the streets of Iraq, but you are not satisfied until another million are fleeing the streets of Afghanistan, or maybe Pakistan and Iran. Will you be satisfied then, Bonecrusher? Even in your lands there is now mass homelessness, joblessness, depression and despair. All caused by your need to devour the precious people of God. And yet you do all that you do in the name of God, in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace, you swallow retirement savings, investments of the poor and needy, you squander, even your rich brothers and sisters you rob, there is no end to your greed. Who will check you, who will humble you into submission to righteousness? No one can challenge your armies, your weapons of mass destruction, yet you claim to be concerned with proliferation while you are the chief proliferator, you and your allies, Mr. Bonecrusher.
Precious people only want to live in peace and work to secure their families, yet you tell them their national security is accomplished by foreign wars, yet when you were attacked you said it was without cause, totally unjustified? Have you not destroyed civilizations, buried cultures then dug them up for your museums? Just remember, Bonecrusher, when you look at the monkey, the monkey is looking at you! Yes, he sees you and seeks to attack you, even as you embrace him at the zoo and in your homes where you have made him a pet, treating him better than you treat the precious people in your midst, your own children even, who depart your mansions to whore in the streets of your cities, desiring street life to the comfort of your mansions, the golden handcuffs of your abusiveness. The lion breaks from his cage to attack you because you have turned him into a pussy cat who meows instead of growls.
Precious people cannot endure much longer, Bonecrusher. You have them in tent cities, homeless shelters and food lines. How long before they break, how long before they react, how long before they revolt against you, Bonecrusher?
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
For Richard Aoki: 1938-2009
The yellow sun has set in the West
evening has come to the Buddha Panther
Comrade Richard
another son of Merritt College
who joined the Panther Revolution
no hesitation
only dedication to the cause of world revolution
consistent and loyal to the end
model of third world unity
taking his place on the altar of the warriors
to be remembered as the first Asian Panther
Uniting Asia and Africa in America
Richard we love the song you sang
the magic lyrics of your walk
the fire of your speech
determination in time of defeat
We honor you, love you and miss you
will never forget you
your respect
smile
yet serious always
about revolution
change
unity
human possibilities.
Right On!
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Black August LA
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:51:24 PM
Subject: [BlackWorldEvents] Richard Masato Aoki: 1938-2009
Richard Masato Aoki, 1938-2009
Fearless Leader and Servant of the People
It is with deep sadness that we inform you that
Richard Aoki, due to complications from
longstanding medical problems, passed away
on March 15, 2009.
Born on November 20, 1938, Richard was a
righteous fighter and a warrior in the truest
sense ? he dedicated his life to his beliefs and
the struggle for human rights. He was a field
marshal in the Black Panther Party, a founding
member of the Asian American Political Alliance,
a leader in the Third World Liberation Front
Strike at UC Berkeley, co-ordinator for the first
Asian American Studies program at UC Berkeley, an
advisor for Asians for Job Opportunities, a
counselor, instructor and administrator at Merritt and
Alameda Colleges.
We will remember him for the personal impact he
made on our lives and the social impact he made
on the community movements of people of all colors:
"Based on my experience, I've seen where unity
amongst the races has yielded positive results. I
don?t see any other way for people to gain
freedom, justice, and equality here except by being internationalist."
Richard Aoki
Memorial arrangements are pending and information
will be available at a later date.
Sincerely,
Harvey Dong
Richard Aoki Commemorative Committee.
Email:RAMemorial@gmail.com
This entry was posted on March 16, 2009 at 11:26 am
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
The yellow sun has set in the West
evening has come to the Buddha Panther
Comrade Richard
another son of Merritt College
who joined the Panther Revolution
no hesitation
only dedication to the cause of world revolution
consistent and loyal to the end
model of third world unity
taking his place on the altar of the warriors
to be remembered as the first Asian Panther
Uniting Asia and Africa in America
Richard we love the song you sang
the magic lyrics of your walk
the fire of your speech
determination in time of defeat
We honor you, love you and miss you
will never forget you
your respect
smile
yet serious always
about revolution
change
unity
human possibilities.
Right On!
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Black August LA
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:51:24 PM
Subject: [BlackWorldEvents] Richard Masato Aoki: 1938-2009
Richard Masato Aoki, 1938-2009
Fearless Leader and Servant of the People
It is with deep sadness that we inform you that
Richard Aoki, due to complications from
longstanding medical problems, passed away
on March 15, 2009.
Born on November 20, 1938, Richard was a
righteous fighter and a warrior in the truest
sense ? he dedicated his life to his beliefs and
the struggle for human rights. He was a field
marshal in the Black Panther Party, a founding
member of the Asian American Political Alliance,
a leader in the Third World Liberation Front
Strike at UC Berkeley, co-ordinator for the first
Asian American Studies program at UC Berkeley, an
advisor for Asians for Job Opportunities, a
counselor, instructor and administrator at Merritt and
Alameda Colleges.
We will remember him for the personal impact he
made on our lives and the social impact he made
on the community movements of people of all colors:
"Based on my experience, I've seen where unity
amongst the races has yielded positive results. I
don?t see any other way for people to gain
freedom, justice, and equality here except by being internationalist."
Richard Aoki
Memorial arrangements are pending and information
will be available at a later date.
Sincerely,
Harvey Dong
Richard Aoki Commemorative Committee.
Email:
This entry was posted on March 16, 2009 at 11:26 am
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
Notes on the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group
Berkeley Continuation High, Session #2
From: ramal lamar
To: Marvin X Jackmon
Cc: Tracey Mitchell; refa1@hotmail. com
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:14:58 PM
Subject: Fwd: Questions
Dr. M,
Attached is the question the peer group answered
yesterday. Below is a check in of today's session..
(If you post this one, please edit where you deem necessary)
Today's session was full of humility, excitement and clear
articulation of common experiences of oppression shared by the
brothers. We dealt with when we first realized the fear
associated with success. Not only did all of the brothers participate
but some brothers were so on point that their responses almost forced
others to kind of shut down (I saw glimpses of the how high the walls
were inside of myself keeping others so far away). One brother shared
how he was forced in middle school to take ritalin twice a day after
getting all F's. He described how he would be legally high in a zombie
like manner walking around the campus; then the racist teachers would
whisper evil subliminal messages in his ear, attempting to plant seeds
of failure in his future. He cried and got fearful of success in high
school. But all he wants is be the b-boy he naturally is.That's why part of his '
therapy includes getting some basic alphabetsand proper Zulu training from under
the watchful eye of the Waset Zulu
Nation (Hip Hop Priesthood).
All of the brothers related to these fucked middle school experiences
since most of them all went to school and shared these oppressive
experiences. One brother said the white administrators at Berkeley
High told him in front of his momma that he wasn't shit and wasn't
gonna be shit, and oh how his mama cried. That's when he realized that
he was mis-representing his momma; then they kicked him out of school.
He went on and enrolled at adult school and made up all his shit and
the school still didn't want him to back.
One brother said frankly that he knows what it takes to be successful,
but he has seen so much fucked up shit at such a young age that at
times he just don't give a fuck about nothing and nobody...those
memories stops him in his tracks.
Another brother thanked everyone for being honest in the process and
reminded everyone how similiar our struggles were, how we basically
all been through and will continue to go through the same shit.
Another brother was mad at how he was sent to jail for six months for
missing a court date, but he came to terms with himself and took
responsibility for his own actions.
One brother has a baby on the way and he is in a dilemma on whether to
go out of state to school or to stay local and be a father to is
child. Everyone wants to tell him what to do, but I said if his mama
ain't in the process, then the process ain't real. We'll see the
results.
Through these brothers I see how the white supremacy has affected
them. A few of them still have dreams of robbing the richest white man
and giving to the poor people, some see the glass half empty rather
than half full, and if you recall Dr.M, when we were rolling through
Berkeley to drop off the books at city college, some of them you've
seen in the neighborhood, or at the flea market.
I wish I could eliminate and reverse all that fucked up shit they had
to experience, most of which was beyond them, since they were and are
in many ways young and innocent.
Ramal Lamar
Zulu King from the School of Afrikan Philosophy,
North American Afrikan Mythologist,
University of Poetry
A Project of the Black Arts Movement
Berkeley Continuation High, Session #2
From: ramal lamar
To: Marvin X Jackmon
Cc: Tracey Mitchell
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:14:58 PM
Subject: Fwd: Questions
Dr. M,
Attached is the question the peer group answered
yesterday. Below is a check in of today's session..
(If you post this one, please edit where you deem necessary)
Today's session was full of humility, excitement and clear
articulation of common experiences of oppression shared by the
brothers. We dealt with when we first realized the fear
associated with success. Not only did all of the brothers participate
but some brothers were so on point that their responses almost forced
others to kind of shut down (I saw glimpses of the how high the walls
were inside of myself keeping others so far away). One brother shared
how he was forced in middle school to take ritalin twice a day after
getting all F's. He described how he would be legally high in a zombie
like manner walking around the campus; then the racist teachers would
whisper evil subliminal messages in his ear, attempting to plant seeds
of failure in his future. He cried and got fearful of success in high
school. But all he wants is be the b-boy he naturally is.That's why part of his '
therapy includes getting some basic alphabetsand proper Zulu training from under
the watchful eye of the Waset Zulu
Nation (Hip Hop Priesthood).
All of the brothers related to these fucked middle school experiences
since most of them all went to school and shared these oppressive
experiences. One brother said the white administrators at Berkeley
High told him in front of his momma that he wasn't shit and wasn't
gonna be shit, and oh how his mama cried. That's when he realized that
he was mis-representing his momma; then they kicked him out of school.
He went on and enrolled at adult school and made up all his shit and
the school still didn't want him to back.
One brother said frankly that he knows what it takes to be successful,
but he has seen so much fucked up shit at such a young age that at
times he just don't give a fuck about nothing and nobody...those
memories stops him in his tracks.
Another brother thanked everyone for being honest in the process and
reminded everyone how similiar our struggles were, how we basically
all been through and will continue to go through the same shit.
Another brother was mad at how he was sent to jail for six months for
missing a court date, but he came to terms with himself and took
responsibility for his own actions.
One brother has a baby on the way and he is in a dilemma on whether to
go out of state to school or to stay local and be a father to is
child. Everyone wants to tell him what to do, but I said if his mama
ain't in the process, then the process ain't real. We'll see the
results.
Through these brothers I see how the white supremacy has affected
them. A few of them still have dreams of robbing the richest white man
and giving to the poor people, some see the glass half empty rather
than half full, and if you recall Dr.M, when we were rolling through
Berkeley to drop off the books at city college, some of them you've
seen in the neighborhood, or at the flea market.
I wish I could eliminate and reverse all that fucked up shit they had
to experience, most of which was beyond them, since they were and are
in many ways young and innocent.
Ramal Lamar
Zulu King from the School of Afrikan Philosophy,
North American Afrikan Mythologist,
University of Poetry
A Project of the Black Arts Movement
Liberate the Captives
------------------------
Greetings All:
Please send Ruchell some love and birthday greetings (money orders will work too) as he marks another BIG O in California gulags. He's been transfered to a new location at Corcoran. His address follows. I'm also attaching Yogi's address which I forgot to add for his belated birthday cardsi. His was March 10.
I'm also attaching (below) a piece I wrote 4 years ago for the SF Bay View newspaper. (It didn't translate too well and the dates/addresses are old of course).
As some of you already know, these brothers have been denied parole repeatedly, and Yogi just got a 15-year hit, effectively a new sentence. We need to start a letter-writing campaign to the Warden at Pelican Bay to request Yogi be moved to at least a medium security prison closer to S.F. where his family, including his Mom lives. www.hugopinell.org
Ruchell Cinque Magee
#A92051
ASU-126L
P.O. Box 5248
Corcoran, CA 93212
Hugo L.A. Pinell
A88401 D3-221
Box 7500
Crescent City, Ca. 95531-7500
Over 40 birthdays in prison!
by Kiilu Nyasha (2005)
Hugo L. Pinell, affectionately known as Yogi Bear, will be 60 years old on March 10.
Ruchell Cinque Magee celebrates his 66th on March 17.
Yogi entered the prison system in 1964 when he was about 19 years old. Against good advice from a sistah-mama, he turned himself in for having assaulted a young woman while drunk, feeling great remorse. He’s been there ever since.
Ruchell had only been released from “The Farm,†the notorious slave plantation turned prison in Louisiana known as Angola, about six months. He had been captured for relating to a white girl as a teenager in the 1950s in KKK territory – definitely a no-no. He was incarcerated in an adult prison for eight years and then banished from the state, allowing the latter to confiscate property owned by his mother, who passed while he was jailed.
In 1963, he was hanging out with his cousin and friends and got into an argument over a $10 bag of marijuana. His antagonist called the police, who found Magee in the parked car, beat him badly enough to require his hospitalization for three days and jailed him.
At this point, the details hardly matter. Neither of these cases would have garnered the average joe more than a year or two. But these two brothers have refused all these years to sacrifice their dignity, and both have always had the temerity to stand up in self-defense and the defense of their fellow prisoners. Ruchell as a jailhouse lawyer; Yogi as a martial artist – i.e., freedom fighters.
Trophies for Black August
On Aug. 7, 1970, after seven years, two trials and countless petitions filed against his illegal incarceration, Magee joined the other guerrillas in the Marin Courthouse, when Jonathan Jackson stormed the court armed to the teeth and liberated William Christmas, James McClain (on trial for assaulting a guard), and Magee (testifying for McClain). They took the judge, prosecutor and three jurors hostage, thinking they would be insurance, and planned to drive to a radio station to denounce the murderous, racist prison conditions and demand the release of the Soledad Brothers – John Clutchette, Fleeta Drumgo, and George Jackson.
They never got out of the parking lot. The San Quentin guards got there in time to shoot up the van, killing all three guerillas and the judge, seriously wounding the prosecutor and Magee, and slightly injuring one of the jurors.
Angela Davis was hunted down and captured for having legally purchased the guns. Jonathan Jackson had been her bodyguard in her defense activities for the Soledad Brothers in a dangerous climate.
Ruchell was charged with everything they could think of, although they had to drop the murder charge, since he lay unconscious at the scene of the incident.
Magee remains in prison to date. His own jailhouse lawyering got him released from the Pelican Bay SHU back in the early 1990s and he is currently on the Corcoran Prison mainline. As brother Willie Sundiata Tate has often stated, *Ruchell never hurt anyone.*
Aug. 21, 1971, was the day Soledad Brother George Lester Jackson was murdered on the yard of San Quentin State Prison, in addition to three prison guards and two inmate trustees. Six prisoners were singled out and charged with various counts of murder and assault: Fleeta Drumgo,Willie Sundiata Tate, David Johnson, Luis Talamantez, Johnny Spain and Hugo Pinell.
Johnny Spain was the only one convicted of murder, and he has been out of prison since 1988. Yogi was convicted of assault and has spent the last 30-plus years in solitary confinement -- no contact, no phone calls. He has been in Pelican Bay's torture chamber since 1990.
For more details on these Black August events, you can go to www.hugopinell.com, or google Black August + Kiilu Nyasha.
For those of you who are not aware of the level of torture the Pelican Bay SHU metes out, here are a few details. Pelican Bay is located in the Northwest corner of California on the Oregon border in pristine, redwood territory.
The prison is solid gray concrete and the SHU (Security Housing Unit) is completely windowless with only doors for entrance. It looks like a large tomb. It's hi-tech with automatic doors and gates, only artificial light, and even the so-called yard is nothing more than a “dog run†or outdoor closet with 20' high walls covered on top by plexiglas.
SHU prisoners are locked down 24/7 except for a possible hour on the dog run where they can exercise alone with no equipment whatsoever, not even a ball. They are not permitted any arts or crafts and only a very limited number of books and property.
They are chained hand and foot whenever they leave their cells, escorted by two prison guards. Visits are limited to weekends and holidays and no more than two hours. As mentioned earlier, their visits are conducted in a phone booth and they cannot make calls to the outside. In short, Yogi's mother, who has been visiting him for all these years, has not been able to hug her son in at least 30.
The State claims it has no political prisoners, yet these two brothers have done the equivalent of double-life sentences. It doesn't seem to matter how much clean time they have; whenever they go to board, the answer is always the same: come back in two to five years.
What kind of society have we become?
Collectively speaking, we seem to have lost our humanity altogether. How else would we tolerate the caging of human beings under tortuous conditions for scores of years?
When will we speak out vociferously for an end to this horrible system of torture and enslavement?
Please take a minute to at least send these brothers a birthday greeting and give them a lift. They can be reached as follows: Hugo L. Pinell, A88401, D3-221, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95531-7500. Ruchell Cinque Magee, A92051, 3C-127, P.O. Box 3471, Corcoran, CA 93212.
I've been in communication with these righteous soldiers (more or less) since 1971 consistently for the past 15-plus years. I love them both and know in my heart that they would be an asset to our community were they to be released. Enough is enough and too much is too damned much. Write letters, sign petitions, do whatever you can to demand their immediate release. Don't let them spend another birthday behind prison walls.
------------------------
Greetings All:
Please send Ruchell some love and birthday greetings (money orders will work too) as he marks another BIG O in California gulags. He's been transfered to a new location at Corcoran. His address follows. I'm also attaching Yogi's address which I forgot to add for his belated birthday cardsi. His was March 10.
I'm also attaching (below) a piece I wrote 4 years ago for the SF Bay View newspaper. (It didn't translate too well and the dates/addresses are old of course).
As some of you already know, these brothers have been denied parole repeatedly, and Yogi just got a 15-year hit, effectively a new sentence. We need to start a letter-writing campaign to the Warden at Pelican Bay to request Yogi be moved to at least a medium security prison closer to S.F. where his family, including his Mom lives. www.hugopinell.org
Ruchell Cinque Magee
#A92051
ASU-126L
P.O. Box 5248
Corcoran, CA 93212
Hugo L.A. Pinell
A88401 D3-221
Box 7500
Crescent City, Ca. 95531-7500
Over 40 birthdays in prison!
by Kiilu Nyasha (2005)
Hugo L. Pinell, affectionately known as Yogi Bear, will be 60 years old on March 10.
Ruchell Cinque Magee celebrates his 66th on March 17.
Yogi entered the prison system in 1964 when he was about 19 years old. Against good advice from a sistah-mama, he turned himself in for having assaulted a young woman while drunk, feeling great remorse. He’s been there ever since.
Ruchell had only been released from “The Farm,†the notorious slave plantation turned prison in Louisiana known as Angola, about six months. He had been captured for relating to a white girl as a teenager in the 1950s in KKK territory – definitely a no-no. He was incarcerated in an adult prison for eight years and then banished from the state, allowing the latter to confiscate property owned by his mother, who passed while he was jailed.
In 1963, he was hanging out with his cousin and friends and got into an argument over a $10 bag of marijuana. His antagonist called the police, who found Magee in the parked car, beat him badly enough to require his hospitalization for three days and jailed him.
At this point, the details hardly matter. Neither of these cases would have garnered the average joe more than a year or two. But these two brothers have refused all these years to sacrifice their dignity, and both have always had the temerity to stand up in self-defense and the defense of their fellow prisoners. Ruchell as a jailhouse lawyer; Yogi as a martial artist – i.e., freedom fighters.
Trophies for Black August
On Aug. 7, 1970, after seven years, two trials and countless petitions filed against his illegal incarceration, Magee joined the other guerrillas in the Marin Courthouse, when Jonathan Jackson stormed the court armed to the teeth and liberated William Christmas, James McClain (on trial for assaulting a guard), and Magee (testifying for McClain). They took the judge, prosecutor and three jurors hostage, thinking they would be insurance, and planned to drive to a radio station to denounce the murderous, racist prison conditions and demand the release of the Soledad Brothers – John Clutchette, Fleeta Drumgo, and George Jackson.
They never got out of the parking lot. The San Quentin guards got there in time to shoot up the van, killing all three guerillas and the judge, seriously wounding the prosecutor and Magee, and slightly injuring one of the jurors.
Angela Davis was hunted down and captured for having legally purchased the guns. Jonathan Jackson had been her bodyguard in her defense activities for the Soledad Brothers in a dangerous climate.
Ruchell was charged with everything they could think of, although they had to drop the murder charge, since he lay unconscious at the scene of the incident.
Magee remains in prison to date. His own jailhouse lawyering got him released from the Pelican Bay SHU back in the early 1990s and he is currently on the Corcoran Prison mainline. As brother Willie Sundiata Tate has often stated, *Ruchell never hurt anyone.*
Aug. 21, 1971, was the day Soledad Brother George Lester Jackson was murdered on the yard of San Quentin State Prison, in addition to three prison guards and two inmate trustees. Six prisoners were singled out and charged with various counts of murder and assault: Fleeta Drumgo,Willie Sundiata Tate, David Johnson, Luis Talamantez, Johnny Spain and Hugo Pinell.
Johnny Spain was the only one convicted of murder, and he has been out of prison since 1988. Yogi was convicted of assault and has spent the last 30-plus years in solitary confinement -- no contact, no phone calls. He has been in Pelican Bay's torture chamber since 1990.
For more details on these Black August events, you can go to www.hugopinell.com, or google Black August + Kiilu Nyasha.
For those of you who are not aware of the level of torture the Pelican Bay SHU metes out, here are a few details. Pelican Bay is located in the Northwest corner of California on the Oregon border in pristine, redwood territory.
The prison is solid gray concrete and the SHU (Security Housing Unit) is completely windowless with only doors for entrance. It looks like a large tomb. It's hi-tech with automatic doors and gates, only artificial light, and even the so-called yard is nothing more than a “dog run†or outdoor closet with 20' high walls covered on top by plexiglas.
SHU prisoners are locked down 24/7 except for a possible hour on the dog run where they can exercise alone with no equipment whatsoever, not even a ball. They are not permitted any arts or crafts and only a very limited number of books and property.
They are chained hand and foot whenever they leave their cells, escorted by two prison guards. Visits are limited to weekends and holidays and no more than two hours. As mentioned earlier, their visits are conducted in a phone booth and they cannot make calls to the outside. In short, Yogi's mother, who has been visiting him for all these years, has not been able to hug her son in at least 30.
The State claims it has no political prisoners, yet these two brothers have done the equivalent of double-life sentences. It doesn't seem to matter how much clean time they have; whenever they go to board, the answer is always the same: come back in two to five years.
What kind of society have we become?
Collectively speaking, we seem to have lost our humanity altogether. How else would we tolerate the caging of human beings under tortuous conditions for scores of years?
When will we speak out vociferously for an end to this horrible system of torture and enslavement?
Please take a minute to at least send these brothers a birthday greeting and give them a lift. They can be reached as follows: Hugo L. Pinell, A88401, D3-221, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95531-7500. Ruchell Cinque Magee, A92051, 3C-127, P.O. Box 3471, Corcoran, CA 93212.
I've been in communication with these righteous soldiers (more or less) since 1971 consistently for the past 15-plus years. I love them both and know in my heart that they would be an asset to our community were they to be released. Enough is enough and too much is too damned much. Write letters, sign petitions, do whatever you can to demand their immediate release. Don't let them spend another birthday behind prison walls.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
A Praise Song for Askia
Warrior man master wordsmith
lyrical singer of liberation
in the wilderness of north america
slayer of beasts dragons demons of the mind heart soul of trashmen
down from warriors
up from slavery
up from ignot
up from negrocities (baraka term)
Askia we love you the world over
those who know and don't know
love is a spirit thing my man
you are not forgotten in history your hands made
your love songs to African queens your poems made
thrilling us with the magic of your mind
I was there when the walls of Spelman fell from the power of
your poem Venus and Serena
black women wailed with joy
I saw you afraid of your own word power
I was afraid of the earthquake you unleashed
Mighty Man do not be afraid history will deny your deeds
don't worry about acadeem and media freaks of capitalism and slavery
just do the work and in the end
ancestors shall rejoice
the living and yet unborn shall cry tears of joy at the warrior blood in your pen.
Peace and love,
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
2009
Warrior man master wordsmith
lyrical singer of liberation
in the wilderness of north america
slayer of beasts dragons demons of the mind heart soul of trashmen
down from warriors
up from slavery
up from ignot
up from negrocities (baraka term)
Askia we love you the world over
those who know and don't know
love is a spirit thing my man
you are not forgotten in history your hands made
your love songs to African queens your poems made
thrilling us with the magic of your mind
I was there when the walls of Spelman fell from the power of
your poem Venus and Serena
black women wailed with joy
I saw you afraid of your own word power
I was afraid of the earthquake you unleashed
Mighty Man do not be afraid history will deny your deeds
don't worry about acadeem and media freaks of capitalism and slavery
just do the work and in the end
ancestors shall rejoice
the living and yet unborn shall cry tears of joy at the warrior blood in your pen.
Peace and love,
--Marvin X
Houston, Texas
2009
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