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Hurricane survivors have serious charges against the federal, state and
local governments for violating their human rights. The charges cover
three periods of abuse: (A) Pre-Katrina/Rita, (B) Katrina/Rita storm, flood, occupation, and removal (evacuation) related abuses, and (C) post-Katrina/Rita. Learn more ...
Earn $$ for MXGM while you search the internet - simply click above and enter "Malcolm X Grassroots Movement" as the organization
This morning I awoke to the news of the tragic death of Mama Africa Mama Miriam Makeba. To many Africans in the Diaspora, Miriam Makeba was the voice of South Africa. Having accomplished so much as a vocalist, she went further to be the ambassador of the people of South Africa to the world. She helped bring vivid details of the beauty of the South Africa and its people and at the same time present the horrors of apartheid.
Working and living in the Black liberation movement, I along with many others participated in the anti-apartheid movement. I spent many years on marches, rallies, boycotts, and other activities. The Music of Miriam Makeba and her ex-husband Hugh Masekela will forever be the soundtrack of that struggle. This music was our news reports on the lives taken as well as the victories won in the anti-apartheid struggle. Their music made the names Mandela, Sizulu, Biko, Tambo, etc come to life for those of us across the waters. The theaters that she performed in became transformed to meetings for people to share and update each other on the movement to free South Africa.
If you've been watching the news and the hysteria that they are putting out there, I hope this piece puts out some clarity for you.
This financial mess that we are witnessing is not an accident. This financial bailout is really a financial 'hold up' and what we are witnessing and going through is 'structural adjustment' for 1st world nations. It is the best gangsta shit you will ever see and towards the end there will be a stronger centralized global financial system while at the same time adjusting 1st world living standards to the rest of the world.
As organizers we know that the cost of living is stupid and unaffordable. There is a lot of bullshit talk about the sub-prime borrowers and how they took on debt they couldn't afford. This isn't about them. This is about debt and how profits are made from debt through interest rates that keep folks in a state of slavery and indentured servitude.
Debt maintains middle class lifestyles and insures economic loyalty to the republic. One of the reasons Bill Clinton has so much popularity with the Black and Brown middle class is because he made capitalism work for them. Now, that bubble has burst, and its leaving mad folks confused and disoriented. This is called 'Shock' capitalism.
Shock capitalism is how you place people in a state of panic and fear so that one can basically pass any kind of unpopular legislation, i.e 800 billion dollar check, also known as the Housing and Economic Recovering Act 2008, an act that pushes forward socialization/nationalization of debt/risk of global financial companies onto our communities.
In my two and a half decades on this planet, i’ve never seen you so
happy, so elated, so joyous. And while neither my instinct nor my intellect enable me such euphoria, my heart is warmed in your delight.
You’ve accomplished a long sought after feat: the realization of a
piecemeal dream. And in the end, perhaps what matters most is not what
is, but what is believed to be.
i’m proud of the dedication you’ve demonstrated. Your commitment to
cause and strength to act is admirable. And now, only time can truly
measure what your success has done for you.
But i must share that, for me, this occasion is of a bitter-sweetness.
Whereas the sight of my people living a bliss heretofore only imagined
is enough to carve a smile into the even hardest of hearts solidified
over centuries of a persisting oppression and degradation, i’m also
well aware that the Voice of our way has been stifled into a whisper
upon a cascade of screams. Its words, reduced to mere teardrops lost in
an ocean of misconceptions.
This is okay, for it does not alter my calling.
Abena was blessed. She knew that the desolation of an isolated Freedom
was infinitely more devastating than the misery of a collective
bondage. And in your happiness, i find mine.
So while the golden fetters tighten around our extremities and the
gallows of a treacherous amalgamation are being prepared, i revel in
your rejoicing. And if this joy does not live to see tomorrow, may we
never forget how it felt today.
One of the main implications of the case of the Jena 6 is one that has sent countless activists to prison. The
implication-if you dare to remove yourself from the role of a victim
and attempt to assert justice yourself, you will pay a heavy price. The
notion that six young Black men responded appropriately by not allowing
an environment of terror to exist in their lives and their community
enrages a society that does not want to see Black people recognizing
and acting on the understanding that we alone will change our
conditions. This case would have made countless people considerably
more comfortable if these young brothers did not engage in a physical
encounter with the white student. Many would have been appeased if we
as a community continue to appeal to a legal system that has made it
clear that it doesn't place much, if any value on the lives of Black
people.
The legacy of lynching continues today
The Jena 6 engaged in an act of self-defense and their actions reflects our reality. Lynching,
a genocidal act that occurred with the consent of the government, has
long been a part of Black Experience in North America. In a petition
submitted to the United Nations in 1951, titled "We Charge Genocide",
Paul Robeson and other prominent Blacks, documented that at least
10,000 Black people had been lynched since the abolition of slavery.
The exact number of people murdered can never be known. The horrendous
act of lynching did not stop with the Civil Rights movement and our
communities remain intimately familiar with the legacy of the noose.
Countless numbers of Black people have been killed throughout recent
history with the legal system failing to prevent similar cases from
reoccurring.
The
call for justice in this case must include the dismissal of all charges
against the Jena 6 and the immediate termination of prosecutor Reed
Walters.
Any call for decreased charges affirms the notion that
Black people can do anything to struggle against white supremacy/racism
except for physically defending ourselves.
The way I see thing's today, we have 6 cases of Jena 1's rather than 1 case of Jena 6 (like it was immediately following the fight at school). As time passed, the situations of the six students in Jena grew apart. Mychal Bell, the most famous of them all, spent another 9 months in jail despite copping a plea. Another young man moved to Dallas to live with an uncle and became tangled with the law over there (stemming from a fight at his new school). Another juvenile's name was not mentioned in many articles and news reports so he received less harassment than the rest, his parents believed that the lawyer they had would be able to make the situation go away. Trial dates for the remaining teens have been pushed further and further back. Though at least one has been banned from the football team, my understanding is that all are back in school now.
Though the young men remained close throughout this ordeal, there were divisions and disagreements among adults important to this situation that weakened the collective struggle. Pressure from non-profits and national social justice figures (such as Sharpton and Jackson) wanting to use this situation to gain more funding, opportunistic lawyers infatuated with fame, and a racist media pulled everyone in different directions.
In Our Words (blog) 
Working and living in the Black liberation movement, I along with many others participated in the anti-apartheid movement. I spent many years on marches, rallies, boycotts, and other activities. The Music of Miriam Makeba and her ex-husband Hugh Masekela will forever be the soundtrack of that struggle. This music was our news reports on the lives taken as well as the victories won in the anti-apartheid struggle. Their music made the names Mandela, Sizulu, Biko, Tambo, etc come to life for those of us across the waters. The theaters that she performed in became transformed to meetings for people to share and update each other on the movement to free South Africa.
so elated, so joyous. And while neither my instinct nor my intellect enable me such euphoria, my heart is warmed in your delight.
You’ve accomplished a long sought after feat: the realization of a
piecemeal dream. And in the end, perhaps what matters most is not what
is, but what is believed to be.
