So we're now in the second week of the New Year. It would be well to reflect on its historical significance, and to take lessons which will enable us to make our own mark in history. Sixty years ago a courageous Black working class woman in Montgomery, Alabama defied the local white power structure and its racist laws by refusing to surrender her seat to a white man. By the act of defiance, Rosa Parks in 1955 sparked the Black freedom movement which inspired our people and the world, and drop kicked into historical greatness Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1965, the campaign for Voting Rights began in Selma, Alabama. I've actually met some elders who were at the Selma to Montgomery March for voting rights. Including at least one who recall Bloody Sunday when the Alabama State police launched a brutal assault on nonviolent demonstrators seeking enfranchisement for our people. The campaign nonetheless resulted in victory with the winning of the Voting Rights Act of 1965... Or did it? Fast forward 48 years and we see the Supreme Court in the summer of 2013 gut the ENFORCEMENT section of the Voting Rights Act. A law without enforcement becomes a dead letter. And if you can't see the importance of that then ask your parents or grandparents (especially if they're southern) "What was it like before we got the right to vote in 1965?" Or maybe read Richard Wright's BLACK BOY.
-Savant
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Now I don't bring up these historical matters to display my erudition. I want us all to be aware of the historical background of our struggle and the importance of continuing the struggle. For I was deeply disturbed when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a right wing legal suit against the Voting Rights Act by striking down the enforcement clause. I was disturbed to see that many of us didn't see the significance of what had happened in 2013--possibly because many of the younger generation of Blacks don't grasp the significance of the Movement in Selma which in 1965 won them rights which they now take for granted...Rights that are now under siege. So we are now face with the danger of renewed disfranchisement, as were our forbears after Reconstruction. Disfranchisement, deepening poverty, mass incarceration, police terror and a whole new (and old) complex of oppression which Michelle Alexander calls THE NEW JIM CROW---and what do we have on our minds? Silly chatter in AA forum about why you don't want to marry a Black man or a Black woman? Incessant mutual recriminations between African Americans and Africans? Or maybe the stupefying Youtube entertainment involving "twerking " or Sotomayor's loony rants against Black women? Or maybe it's the obsession with the latest fashions, hairstyles and randy sex lives of silly celebrities? Silly chatter of TV talk shows? What do we have on our minds, black people? Are we WORTHY of the sacrifices made for us by Rosa Parks and Dr. King and thousands of others who put their lives on the line? Have we even the good sense to exercise and protect the rights which they won for us? The fight isn't over. We may well lose those voting rights. Police brutality which existed in the 1960s and earlier has continued. And the poverty of millions which King hoped to combat with the Poor Peoples Campaign may even be worse than it was in those days. Our honeymoon from social responsibility cannot last --at least not if we are going to be free and prosper as a community. It's later than you think. Wake up before it' s late.
-Savant
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Brother Harrisson, I attempted to post a relatively thorough reply to statement based on an analysis of the function of the police as an institution. But it disappeared. I will try again. In the meantime, kindly take a look at the January 2, 2015 edition of TRUTHOUT.ORG. And take note of the article "Can't Stop, won't Stop: Black Lives Matter Movement Hits Counter-reaction. " A brother scholar from Johns Hopkins University conveyed to me info on the appearance in Seoul, Korea and Japan of demonstrators carrying signs "Black Lives Matter." We can win if we maintain commitment and nonviolent discipline." (Just to give you a preview of my reply, I think you may still be failing to see that the police are dysfunctional as an INSTITUTION, or maybe not fully appreciating the implications of that institutional dysfunctionality. The essay "Domestic Law and International Order" in SOUL ON ICE is worthy of some reflection even if Eldridge Cleaver was a nut. The essay is still insightful).
-Savant
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There's an old American saying: "Fool me once, shame on YOU. Fool me TWICE, shame on ME." In short, Europeans now KNOW what fascism is. Or they ought to know. If fascism returns to Europe as it did to Spain with Franco, or with the Greek colonels, I should have a hard time blaming victims of overwhelming military force. But if Fascism returns to Europe as it came to Germany in the 1930s, by mean of a parliamentary democratic process in which you foolishly VOTED for your own enslavement, then you're on your own. The reason my admiration for the Scandinavian people, descendants of the terrifying Vikings who are today among the most peaceful and egalitarian societies on the planet, is that the people CHOSE this progressive path. Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X (who wasn't much in the habit of praising whites for anything) both expressed their admiration for the social democratic experiment in Sweden. Some African Americans were prompted to at least look into the social democratic experiment by what we had heard from them and other Black progressives. The Black Panthers when I was a kid sometimes talked about Scandinavian social democracy as well. The relatively progressive and anti-racist sentiments of the Scandinavian people seemed to shine through in recent films such as THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE. But times change, and I guess societies change and not always for the better. But if you turn from this progressive path VOLUNTARILY, you're on your own. If your liberties ae taken from you by force--that I can understand. I belong to a people living in a so-called democracy whose rights were stolen by force for over 350 years. But I've even told young Blacks people (including some of my students): "If were enslaved and disfranchised by force of arms, and it took us decades and centuries of struggle to win even legal recognition as citizens or human beings. My parents' and your grandparents' generation paid for these right with the blood. If you voluntarily give up your rights for any reason, or lose them due to indifference and lack of vigorous defense of them, indeed if you lose your right due to anything short of overwhelming repressive force, then you don't deserve those rights." If I am willing to say that to my own people, what do you imagine would be my attitude toward Europeans who willingly surrender their liberties?
-Savant
Many people were surprised to learn that they even have a right to observe policemen carrying out their duties. That's another thing the Panthers taught some folk. Police would order people to disperse when they were messing with someone. The Panthers would actually whip out the law book and cite chapter and verse of the law which stated that providing you didn't interfere and stood a certain distance from the police, you had a right to observe the cops. Knowing things like this can help considerably in reducing incidents of police brutality. And it requires some unity in the community, which can be aided along in these campaigns against police brutality.
-Savant
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We really do need some education in the Black community about at least our legal rights when confronted by the police. The Black Panthers took the time to study laws governing these situations. And they tried to teach the community about those rights, rights that can easily be violated if you don't know what they are. We need people legally informed to form something like the Panther patrols of police, maybe with more emphasis on the use of video cams than with rifles and guns.
-Savant
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FUTILITY? I sometimes wonder about the aims (not to mention the mental state) of terrorists, at least contemporary terrorists. When members of Algeria's National Liberation Front resorted to terrorism it was arguably a horrific reply to the far greater state terrorism of French colonialism. And it had a secular, and achievable objective: national independence for Algeria. And that objective--inadequ ate though necessary---was achieved. But contemporary terrorism doesn't even seem to aim at achievable objectives, and often quite the opposite of what they may be seeking is realized. Consider the recent terror against Charlie in France. What did they hope to achieve? To force the publication out of business? Or maybe force them to stop publishing offensive things about the prophet Mohammed? Well sales for Charlie has gone through the roof! And now they're deliberately going to run--front page!--some new and perhaps more offensive stuff regarding Mohammad. If a month ago someone had said to me "Je suis Charlie." I might have replied :Enchantee. Je suis Savant." I knew about Nouvel Observateur, Paris Match and Le Monde (which I used to read years ago). I'd never heard of Charlie. Had the terrorists not attacked them, I'd probably still not know that they even existed. What do these fools hope to gain. And even if they had shut down Charlie or intimidated them into silence regarding Mohammed, how would have contributed to whatever geopolitical goals they have. Terror for the sake of terror can hardly make sense even to the terrorists. Destroying the publication would not enable ISIS to establish an Islamist state in Iraq or Syria. if the Taliban wants to replace secular governments in the Middle East with Islamist ones I don't see how the attack on Charlie would accomplish this even if they totally destroyed the publication. Did they hope to electrify the imaginations of the Muslim peoples. But many Muslims are actually disgusted with their murderous acts, and in France Muslims marched WITH Jews against the terrorists. Morons! Even HAMAS has denounced the attack! Or do the terrorists just want "attention "? Like children? A society governed by them would be a society ruled by pre-adolescent despotic fools. Mort au terrorisme! Mort au fascism!
-Savant
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Sometimes doing nothing can be equally as bad. Maryland is a very blue state. Yet we now have a Republican governor. Nobody thought it would happen. Many people thought that Maryland would elect its first Black governor, uninspiring centrist schmuck though he is. Two thirds of Baltimore (our largest city) and nearly a third of Maryland is Black, and at least 90% Democrat (including some who would vote for a more left option if such were available). Maryland has one of the largest Jewish populations in America. Probably only New York and a couple of other states have more. And they're about 80% Democrat. (The per centage of Maryland Jews who voted for Obama in 2008). There is a growing Hispanic population---also overwhelmingly Democrat and politically liberal. A growing Asian population here, and about 65%--70% Democrat. Then there is the white majority (no longer as much a majority as they once were). A large chunk (either majority or very large minority) of them are centrist/liberal Dems. And we have university communities here--not as large as in Massachusetts --but very large. Students and profs are majority Dems, and often to the left of the average white Democrat in white Maryland. (Damned intellectuals! You know how they are). So what happened. The uninspiring Black Democrat drew and uninspiring YAWN from the Dem base--Black community included. (I had to BEG relatives to go to the polls to vote for that stuffed shirt non-entity). But the Repub fired up his based and they turned out big time for the midterm election. You can guess the rest. Dem's base slept through the election and woke up to a Republican governor. Fortunately, the Republicans couldn't seize the Maryland state senate. They probably can't gerrymander districts in order to return Republicans from Maryland to congress against the will of the people of Maryland. But it demonstrates that elections have consequences.
-Savant
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