-Savant
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Yes, there is still much happening in Baltimore. Even after the mass demonstrations which the media paid sporadic attention to, and the uprising which they focused on like a haw--the corporate media must have its sensationalism--th ere is much still happening even with media attention now gone. Some folk from Ferguson and other places are here, and some millennial sisters and brothers are working on forging strong links with each other across the country. And yes, people are seeing more the intersectional connections between varied expressions of oppression. Sisters at these meetings (progressive young brothers too) address issues of sexism as well as racism. (And it hasn't escaped our attention that police terror against SISTERS receive far less attention than that same terror against us; or that the media pays less attention to sisters who are leaders than to men. Hence our "Same HER name marches." And I'm sure by now you know about what happened to sister Bland in Texas). What's especially important to me is that in town meeting in the hood, in churches, projects and the few community centers we have left, it is the POOR who are raising their voices; insisting that police terrorism is only part of the picture; that crime is also just part of the picture. And that it is a whole system of deprivation, immiseration that they face. They may not allude to Fanon or Gramsci, and their subject and verb agreement may be missing. But they KNOW the evils of which they suffer. And yes, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has put herself in the doghouse with much of the Black community here. And I find it easier to talk to people about the evils of both RACE and CLASS in ways not always possible in the past. I think we have to face the fact that the Black bourgeoisie no longer needs the masses. The elite couldn't challenge Jim Crow in the 1960s, could not face the power structure without mass support. And you'd rarely hear them publicly denounce the poor as thugs and criminals during the much bigger uprisings of that time. But today our elite feel they have arrived, or soon will; the masses are in the way. But I think it is the ELITE that is in the way. They must be swept aside if need be. They don't even create businesses in the Black community any more. And while I despise capitalism, you'd expect the elite to at least be able to do that. No more "Black Wall Street." They're a clique of elite hustlers and opportunist political pimps. What Fanon once said of the native African elite applies to our Black elite: "It must simply be stoutly opposed because, literally, it is good for NOTHING." We must move forward without, or AGAINST them if need be.
-Savant
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I consider both Democrats and Republicans to be subservient to corporate money and interests, the Republicans only a little more so than the Democrats most times. The Republicans are like the wife, and the Democrats like the mistress, but they're both on the knees to the 1%. Moreover, Bernie Sander is a SOCIALIST, you goof ball. He must run as a Democrat (though he's usually "independent ") because in ass backward America that's the best he can do in order to even be in the race. And I don't recall you reactionaries object to the age of right wing political dinosaurs like Ronald Reagan or John McCain. Has there ever been a right wing white ass you didn't like to lick? Or are YOU the right wing white a__ as Barros and Attai both suggested?
-Savant
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C'est une Revolution pour la liberation humain! What MIGHT happen is that a wave of Black insurgency, like the Black Lives Matter movement--like the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s--succeeds in inspiring movement EVERYWHERE. So even if the insurgency begins most vigorously in Black communities it eventuates in a multiracial movement of the dispossessed and allies of the dispossessed. Before the outbreak of things in Bmore, I heard, I heard interviews on the Marc Steiner show with Ferguson activists (and people from Bmore who had been to Ferguson) that not only had the Black community become insurgent, but it was drawing in whites, Asians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists, etc. Our movement there had JEWS and ARABS marching together, recognizing that atrocities inflicted on us today will be inflicted on them tomorrow. Then Baltimore happened. Again, we had in April and May the largest demonstrations in this city since the Civil Rights Movement. Rallies held in Black GHETTOES and churches drew middle class whites, Latinos (whose experience with the police resemble our own), Asians, Jews, Arabs (Palestinians included), Native Americans (also severely afflicted with police terrorism but lacking the numbers we have to make their protests more felt), feminists, socialists, liberals, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus (some from India). Naturally, white racists and reactionaries (aside from the police themselves) don't show at these gathering. And groups like NOI or the Black Hebrews are essentially sidelined, denouncing us for allowing "white devils" into our community and into our protests. But they are being IGNORED. And openly GAY people show up in the culturally conservative Black ghettoes, and find that they too are welcome regardless of how people personally feel about homosexuality. (An elder in the projects in Sandtown said "Man, we gotta got control of these cops. And whoever wants to help us is ok with me.").
-Savant
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Last summer in the ATLANTIC magazine there was an article on the issue of black reparations by Ta Nehisi Coates, son of former Bmore Black Panther leader Paul Coates. Ta Nehisi now has a new book our, apparently inspired by James Baldwin, called LETTER TO MY SON.
-Savant
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What's up? I just happened to be in my office to pick up some things when I noticed this thread. The title made me wonder whether some white supremacist has started an anti-Barros thread. LOL! I was wondering about that because you'd made it clear that you would not identify complex ethnicity in Topix--partly because you didn't want it to be an issue when issues of race or ethnicity were discussed. Of course, you had conveyed some of this to me privately. And I never reveal info giv3en in confidence by you, your adversary Attai, Kip, Harrisson, NotsoDivine or anyone else with whom I've contact outside of this place. Some I am surprised that YOU have started this thread. OK. Now it's out. Folk can deal with it anyway they please.
-Savant
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With regard to the article in the link you posted, it is part of a book by Ta Nehisi Coates also entitled A LETTER TO MY SON. Ta Nehisi Coates is son of Paul Coates, former leader of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party. Like his dad he's becoming something of a hometown hero in Bmore--but mainly for his LITERARY accomplishments. Ta Nehisi also wrote a now famous article in the ATLANTIC magazine on (if I recall it correctly) "The Case for Black Reparations." That appeared last summer. His book is selling well and he's gotten good interviews, including one within the past week with the Marc Steiner show (WEAA, FM 88.9). I've only perused the book, so far, but I intend to read it fully. Toni Morrison sees A LETTER TO MY SON as reminiscent of similar works by James Baldwin. I recall that it reminded me of Baldwin's letter to his nephew (also named James) in THE FIRE NEXT TIME. By the way, Ta Nehisi Coates grew up in Freddie Gray's neighborhood, and right across Mondawmin where the April 27 uprising erupted. And he has his own stories about experiences with Bmore's cops. He knows. His Panther dad REALLY knows. Hell, I know. Fascist pig cops nearly killed me in East Baltimore when I was 17. At any rate, we're very proud of brother Ta Nehisi Coates. (
-Savant
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