http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TDPCKE8HCJSSJCRLL
http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TSL83S47E44SN7OLG
What a fascinating story. I wonder if Malcolm X spoke of his experience in UK in his still unpublished diary? I wasn't fully aware of that degree of overtness of British racism against Blacks and Asians.
-Savant
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH is a time for Black people to reflect our history, to think about whence we've come and where we're going. That is both our RIGHT and our DUTY. A people who lose their history also lose their identity and may, as Carter G. Woodson warned, eventually face extinction. Whence we come and whither we are headed are fundamental concerns in the existence. The question of one's history is also the question of one's future. Therefore, let us study and have dialogue with each other regarding our past, present and future---and the historical meaning (s) of our existence. As for trolls like Max (Devil) and others, let the devil take them. We've more important things to concern ourselves with.
-Savant
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Now this is interesting. I'd read that Albert Einstein was an antiracist European progressive. I know that he abhorred the racism that he found here when he came to America to escape Hitler. But his particular take on history, on Black history is an interesting find. We know mainly Einstein for his groundbreaking theory of relativity. Apparently, his social and political thinking is also worthy of greater attention.
-Savant
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One thing I can say about Lerone Bennett is that he's a good writer as well as an interesting historian. In that respect, he reminds me of W.E.B. Du Bois and CLR James. I first read BEFORE THE MAYFLOWER in high school. But I've not read it since then. Perhaps I should. Lerone Bennett, a former classmate of Dr. King at Morehouse College, also wrote a biography of King--I believe, while King was still alive. It's call WHAT MANNER OF MAN. Of course, there have been many such biographies since then, the most famous of which is probably Branch Taylor's trilogy. Also, there is now an AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR--actually a collection of his writings, letters, speeches in which there is a definite autobiographical focus. I would like to see Malcolm's diary, but it has not yet been released.
-Savant
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Malcolm X may have been somewhat influenced by Marxian thought after his break with NOI. He did have some associations with SWP and left leaning African statesmen like Nkrumah, who clearly had Marxist leanings. I don't know if Malcolm X read the Communist Manifesto, but he was not deeply immersed in Marxist thought. He says himself in one of his speeches found in a volume called MALCOLM X SPEAKS that he has little familiarity with Marx. His post-NOI thinking does become more explicitly anti-capitalist; and rather than the old absurd NOI mythologies about Yacug and white devils, he now talked about how racism originated in the imperialistic expansion of Europe, in slavery, the slave trade and colonialism. Interestingly enough, he and King both came to racism that racism and exploitation were interlinked. Ironically, both he and Martin on this issue began to move more in a similar direction in their social analyses. But neither lived long enough to form new strategies in light of this new understanding of things. But that is my job, the job of my contemporaries, and the job of young people of rising generations. A Luta Continua!
-Savant
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Old News. US CIA connections with groups which would eventually form Al Qaeda go back to at least the 1980s in Afghanistan during the fight against the Soviets. In fact, the CIA even encouraged the framing of the fight against the Soviets as a Muslim jihad even before the resistance began thinking of it that way. But that changes nothing. It means that imperialism encouraged reactionary tendencies within Islam for its own ends. All religions have progressive, moderate and reactionary tendencies. Imperialism promoted reactionary tendencies in Islam just as it encourages right wing and reactionary tendencies within Christianity in America. Extremist and reactionary Muslims are a part of the problem, just as reactionary Christian fascists are a part of America's problem. It's not rocket science.
-Savant
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This is precisely what I'm worried about--jihadist loons prompting an atmosphere of fear leading to repression of the Muslims, and other immigrants or children of immigrants. As I said before, I don't fear an Islamization of Europe or America. An Islamic theocracy can't happen in Europe or the USA. But fear of Islamic extremism may lead to a fascistic reaction. Osama bin Laden didn't pass the Patriot Act, but his followers did the dastardly deed which frightened the American public into accepting the Patriot, and also put some wind in the threadbare sails of George W. Bush (who might have been a one term, lame duck president without the horrors of 9/11. That is why the massive unity you French seem to have after the Charlie Hebdo massacres--joining Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists and others--is so vitally important. To his credit Hollande seems (at least in public statements we hear in the USA) to take the stand of no tolerance to terrorism, and also no tolerance of Islamophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of bigotry. The land of Voltaire, of 1789, La Commune et Mai '68 must not become the land of an Gallic tyranny.
-Savant
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To be perfectly honest I know at least two former 1960s Black nationalists in Baltimore who claim that perhaps the biggest obstacle for Black people today are INTERNAL class contradictions. Two developments have been noticed over the past 30--40 years: growing class divide both nationally and globally (including widening class divide WITHIN Black America) and the growing racial divide in wealth as well. Class and race play off and reinforce each other, at least in the USA
-Savant
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He sounds like a very BOURGEOIS Black man in denial. Many members of the Black elite try to pretend either that racism isn't real or that it doesn't matter that much. Even though Blacks in the middle and upper class have suffered wrongdoing at the hands of the police--even including celebrities like Wesley Snipes or famous scholars and intellectuals like Cornel West and Henry L. Gates---some members of the Negro elite try not to see racism, or try to believe that trouble with cops only happen to those "bad" ghetto Blacks. They are caught up in a web of illusions and self-delusions.
-Savant
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You know, Malcolm X kept a diary during his travels that has yet to be published. I wonder if his dairy has some reflections on the events in UK reported in this thread.
-Savant
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That article of Ms. Scott sounds like a bit of projection. Obama's haters are mainly the ones filled with racial resentments and hatreds, but they project their sickness onto to him. Pretty much as many white racists these days project their bigotry onto Blacks in general, and stupidly infer that it is mainly whites who experience racism and injustice from the blacks. Indeed, there are many Blacks (and a good number of progressive whites) who might argue that if anything Barack Obama is too conciliatory, often pretending (or maybe even really deceiving himself) to not see the racism that is directed against him by his political enemies on the Right.
-Savant
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We could talk about the SELF-DESTRUCTIVENE SS of white racism. These people will jeopardize their own health and well being in their racial hatred of Obama, and their hatred of Blacks in general. Hey, I'm not all that happy about the Affordable Care Act. I'm still pissed that Obama ruled out universal single payer even in the preliminary discussions and negotiations, and that he even compromised away the public option. Still, the ACA is better than NOTHING (which is pretty much what we had before). Maybe if it weren't for American political backwardness (largely due to American racism) we might have a robust health care system as well as system of progressive taxation already. I think it's a disgrace that a country as wealthy as the USA, a country that calls itself "the world's greatest democracy," has taken this long even to arrive at the ACA---a very modest program when you consider what one might find in countries like France, Germany or Scandinavia.
-Savant
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If you take a look at some ancient Greek and Roman writers and historians it's clear that whites, Blacks and Yellow folk had contact with each other even in ancient times. Sometimes this was through travel and trade. Sometimes through war. (Herodotus mentions Ethiopians in the Persian army with which Xerxes invaded Greece. Aristotle mentions contact between Ethiopians and other soldiers with Greek women during the Persian occupation of northern and central Greece before they were expelled after the battle of Plataea). Classics scholar Frank Snowden mentions contacts between African blacks and whites in Greece and Rome, and other historians mention their presence in the Middle East.). Granted, there was not as much contact as there would be in modern times, but it was there.
-Savant
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