As the systemically corporate-driven Bush/Cheney
US ship of state begins to founder in its self made sea of
insatiable greed, callousness, opportunism, and cynicism; the
system nonetheless continues mercilessly to grind the poorest
people in US society and around the world. If nothing else,
the federal conviction of Scooter Libby, and the announced
high-level resignations of Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales,
as the system grinds on, demonstrate that it is systemic,
fundamental structural change that is seriously needed, not
mere name or political party replacements. Name changes and/or
the changing of the guard mean absolutely nothing without systemic
change.
A short while ago, there was a collective sigh of relief on the part of justice-loving
people world wide when the outrageously unjust death sentence upon Kenneth
Foster, Jr. that was based on the flawed and racist so-called "law of
parties " in Texas, was commuted. However, the very fact alone that Foster,
who neither planned nor committed the offense for which he came within hours
of being murdered by the state, was imprisoned and sentenced to death at all,
speaks volumes. In fact, Foster, practically speaking, was not even present
at the scene of the crime as he was approximately 80 feet away and unaware
of what was occurring. Nevertheless, under the "law of parties," this
Black man was charged, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. The Kenneth Foster,
Jr. matter, which despite the last minute commutation of the death sentence
to life in prison, is far from over. The Foster case is an incisive, accurate,
and chilling commentary on precisely how morally bankrupt and racist the entire
US judicial and prison systems continue to be in the 21st century. Indeed,
if a similar so-called "law of parties" were today applied to white America for
its crimes of slavery, genocide, and lynchings against Black and Red / Indigenous
peoples, the verdict against white America, collectively, would be one
of resounding guilt, whether or not each and every white American was present
at the specific scenes of these horrendous crimes.
Despite very important, limited successes thus far, the cases of the Jena 6
in Louisiana, Reverend Edward Pinkney (no relation) in Michigan, and the San
Francisco 8 in California, to name just a few, represent a continuing nationwide
pattern of systemically racist judicial and prosecutorial persecution and harassment
throughout America. It is no wonder that this nation incarcerates so many political
prisoners including Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown), Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abul-Jamal,
Marshall "Eddie" Conway, and a virtually endless list of lesser known
men and women throughout America. Nor is it any wonder that the US imprisons
more Black, Brown, and Red men, women, and children than any other nation on
earth. We beg your pardon America. Excuse us while we puke.
Furthermore, let us remember that the overwhelmingly Black, Red, and Brown
hurricane Katrina victims of US Government malfeasance continue to this very
day to suffer appalling displacement, and physical and emotional neglect and
murderous degradation. Moreover, racial, and economic justice, particularly
for people of color in America,
is well known to be a pathetically sick joke. Additionally, the overwhelming
majority of people in this nation of both genders and of all colors
and ages remain without decent or affordable health care. Home foreclosures
and homelessness in America continue
to increase at an alarming rate, especially as it impacts people of color and
children. America’s
tax-dodging, bloated corporations of the wealthy elite and its “economically
drafted” war machine of the poor, ravage people throughout the planet. Internationally,
many are viewing America with stark horror and contempt
as they see her for precisely what she is, as this nation wantonly depletes
and dishonors our mother earth. We beg your pardon America; excuse
us while we puke.
America will
never be changed unless and until the system which props it up is thoroughly
dismantled and rebuilt upon a foundation that is devoid of white racism and
all forms of social and economic exploitation. The unjust and deplorable scenario
that we are witnessing and experiencing today in America is not
new. This US system,
which at its core is built upon massive and horribly debilitating slavery,
genocide, and the thievery of a continent, will not change of its own accord.
Real, systemic change, if it is to be made a reality will ultimately have to
be led by, and emanate from, the people on the bottom, not the privileged at
or near the top.
Those
with color and/or economic privilege are the primary beneficiaries
of this system, and far too few of these
beneficiaries are willing to recognize,
much less address and struggle against, their own systemic color and/or
economic privilege. This also is not new. The scenario
was very similar in the US prior to the 21st century, including during
the so-called Vietnam era.
While the US war against
the Vietnamese people in Vietnam was
raging, it was well known inside the US itself
that young men of color and of course economically poor young men were being
massively and disproportionately drafted into the US military.
The US Army would draft virtually any young man it could, as long as
he could breathe and walk; and most especially, if he were Black, Red,
Brown,
and/or
poor. It was during this period in the late 1960s that I became of
military draft age and, despite my personal and publicly known political
stance
against that war, was sent a draft notice from the US Selective Service
System, that
was personally hand-delivered to me at my place of employment by two
suit & tie
wearing, gun toting US agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI). Thus, I decided to show up for induction where, to the shock
and dismay
of the authorities, I openly and vociferously refused to be
inducted, loudly and clearly stating that I would "not participate in a
racist, imperialist war of aggression against the Vietnamese people or against
any
people; and that the struggle for people of color and all justice-loving
people in the US is right here in America!" When some other young inductees
at that military induction facility, none of whom I knew, heard what I was
proclaiming and joined in with me, the senior US Army officer present had me
whisked away to a different part of the induction facility and after unsuccessfully
making assorted threats against me, mysteriously decided that I was "not
medically fit" for military service. In fact, thanks to my having
met and spoken with brother Malcolm X years earlier in 1962, and then
some years
later having joined the Black Panther Party, I was in fact "not fit" in any
way for the murderous tasks that the white American power structure's
military had intended that I, like so many other young men, carry out
against the people
of Vietnam and Cambodia as a part of an unjust, bloody, illegal American
war of aggression, in the name of democracy.
Yet, systemically, today in the 21st century, the same story continues. America has not
changed. As the US infrastructure
[i.e. schools, public libraries, highways, hospitals, etc.] increasingly
erodes, the more militarily belligerent this nation becomes. White America
has become
even more hypocritical and even more barbaric at home and abroad in the 21st
century.
Instead of resisting service in America's huge military war machine,
certain primarily white American categories of persons, who were considered
by
the US military to be supposedly "undesirable" in the 1960s, have insisted
in the latter part of the 20th century and the beginning years of this 21st
century on "the right" to, of all things, join and be a part of America's
bloody international military war machine. Today, these heretofore so-called "undesirable" categories
of people, including men and women, can do their bit as part of the US military
killing machine to torture, maim, murder, fire missiles, drop bombs, shoot
people, destroy shrines, burn homes, and decimate villages and cities in Iraq
and elsewhere in the world, all in the distorted name of "equality" and
democracy. Indeed, America has systemically
gone from bad to worse, and hypocrisy is its operative name. This murderous
systemic cycle must be recognized for what it is and broken.
America continues
to wage direct and indirect bloody wars of aggression against people
of color internally and externally around the world. It is presently
waging
a direct
war "of aggression" against the peoples of Iraq and the entire so-called
Middle East, including Palestine, and indirectly against peoples in Africa,
Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, the Indigenous peoples of Mexico, and an endless
list of other places - all in the name of a "democracy," of
which the vast majority of Black and other people of color are
deprived, right
here inside America. Democracy indeed. We beg your pardon America; excuse
us while we puke.
It should be remembered that during the period of America's
intensified war of aggression against the people of Vietnam,
and other parts of Asia, the ghettos, barrios, and reservations inside America were
increasingly turned into violent internal demilitarized zones. Even
more so today, with America's
external wars of aggression, the Black, Brown, and Red communities
across America have
been economically and socially marginalized by this racist, capitalist
system and in large measure have become daily low-intensity killing
fields. As a
reader of The Black Commentator poignantly wrote to me, "The
war in Iraq is
on my block!" How true. This reality, however, is not a mere
coincidence, nor is it self-induced. It is an integral part of
callously and deliberately
maintained, systemic, economic, social, and color oppression. It
is a catalyst for frustration and despair that, in turn, ensure
and perpetuate
destructive
habits and internal violence within our communities. I reiterate:
this is no coincidence. Hating our people and ourselves is not
the answer.
Respecting and loving ourselves, based upon knowledge of ourselves
and
our true history,
coupled with consistently studying and understanding the systemic causes as
to why it is, for example, that "the war in Iraq is on [our] block[s]," is
an urgent and important component in proactively addressing what
we must do individually and collectively to reverse and eradicate
this
deliberately
maintained
systemic insanity. This is an important part of our answers,
for there is no single answer. Wars, be they on our block or in Iraq,
are nonetheless
a form of insanity and what we need to remember is that the war on
our block is, in actuality, an extension of the war in Iraq,
or of any other military 'adventure' being waged by America.
The struggle for social, economic, racial, and political justice that some
mockingly refer to as being from "back in the day" in
fact continues today. This previous struggle is inextricably linked
to the
ongoing struggle
for systemic change by Black people in the 21st century. We must
never forget that the racist American genocide of Red / Indigenous
peoples,
the demonization
of them and concomitant thievery of their lands is precisely that
which far too many in white America today, regardless of their
espoused ideologies,
have
clearly demonstrated their support, contrary to the desires of
the vast majority of people of color in this nation and on this
planet.
We politically-conscious
Black people and other people of color must never allow white America to
succeed in culturally, physically, and politically annihilating
us. It is imperative always to remember who the original occupants
of
this land,
now
called America,
were when white slavers tore our noble ancestors, men, women, and
children away from mother Africa and brought them in bloody chains,
while enduring
unspeakable horrors and degradation, to this stolen so-called "land
of the free." Moreover,
we Black, Red, and Brown peoples must seriously find and build
common ground with one another, not only because it's the right
thing to do,
but because
our very collective survival is at stake. We Black Americans are
bound together in blood and history with our Red and Brown brothers
and sisters,
despite consistent
efforts by the US media and "educational" institutions
to have us believe otherwise. We must not fall prey to the dangerous
divide-and-conquer tactics of those who would see us politically
and economically weak, and
ultimately, culturally and/or physically annihilated. It's all
about effective, collective
struggle on every conceivable level, for justice and systemic change.
It is the 21st century and white racism in America is
even deadlier and more insidious than ever before. It is in this
vein that certain privileged whites in America apparently see it
as their appointed
right to publicly and viciously attack progressive elected Black
spokespersons. Malcolm
X warned of this very kind of divide, conquer, and control tactic
on the part of whites when referring to his own position vis-a-vis
an earlier US
Congress
member Adam Clayton Powell, who like Congress member John Conyers,
was detested and/or publicly disrespected by many in white America.
While addressing the second rally of the Organization of Afro-American
Unity (OAAU) brother Malcolm X stated, regarding Adam Clayton
Powell, "I
would never criticize him for the joy of white folks. They
just go crazy when they
hear you knock at Adam. If I thought he was wrong I wouldn't
say so, I wouldn't give them that pleasure. In fact I'd go
for him
as long
as they don't go
for him." I shall always remember, when I met brother
Malcolm X some years earlier, that he stressed the need for
unity amongst progressive Black
people and the necessity of resolving our differences whenever
possible "in
the closet," not in public. Many, if not most, privileged
whites in America couldn't care less about this need for Black unity
because they
do not have or seriously share the interests of Black and other people
of color and are busily enjoying their own systemic color privilege
that our
disunity
assures them. Malcolm X, as a contemporary realist and a visionary,
truly understood the demonstratively divisive and treacherous nature
of white racism
in America,
and the unending actions by certain whites today (irrespective of
their claimed ideologies or supposed objectives) to disrespect, divide,
and control Black
people, along with our Red and Brown brothers and sisters. We beg
your pardon America;
excuse us while we puke.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, there are certainly some examples
of white Americans, albeit all too few, who have consistently
attacked systemic
white privilege and racism in the name of both justice and
indeed their own humanity. Thus, in the book entitled, Saying
No To Power [Introduction
by Howard Zinn] written by white political activist, former
fellow at the postdoctoral level of Stanford University's Hoover
Institute,
and
veteran
broadcast journalist
of over fifty years, William Mandel, this all-too-rare side
of white American humanity and persistence in struggle is clearly
delineated
for all to see.
In so doing, this book also makes specific reference to various
Black political activists, including former "Black Panthers" Fred
Hampton, George Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and myself (Larry
Pinkney), in the context of the
past and ongoing political struggle for justice. Moreover,
as Howard Zinn wrote regarding William ("Bill") Mandel, "His life
story is not only dramatic, but instructive and inspiring." In
an even more detailed statement, Robert L. Allen, senior editor
of The Black Scholar, and
author of Black Awakening in Capitalist America wrote, "Bill
Mandel is well-known for his courageous defiance of HUAC [the
House Un-American Activities
Committee] witch-hunters, but his autobiography also reveals
his decades-long commitment to anti-racist struggles
such as his defense of Angelo Herndon, Paul Robeson, the Martinsville
Seven,
Dr. W.E.B.
DuBois and
black political
prisoners including Mumia Abu-Jamal." In short, William
M. Mandel, as a time-tested and for-real White person is of
that rare
and sorely
missed breed
in America, of seriously committed whites, as shown by his
repeated and unflinching part in the continuing struggle as
'the people's
warrior' that he is. For well
over 70 years he has personally and repeatedly shown that even politically the
adage, "The proof of the pudding is in its taste;" is
accurate. He consistently has demonstrated that it is actions that
are truly supreme, not dribbling, intellectual, white liberal
bibble-babble. For
this, Bill
Mandel is to be saluted, honored, and respected, but most of
all and most importantly,
emulated. We Black and other people of color do not begrudge
him his well-earned place in this struggle.
So yes, there have been and continue to be some few white Americans
who are seriously and actively committed to structurally changing
the system and
ditching their systemic white privilege, both in the name of justice
and their own humanity,
but be very clear about this: they are few and far between.
Our Brown brothers and sisters are also busy intensely organizing
and carrying on the struggle for justice and dignity as has
been consistently demonstrated
by the hard work being carried out by the autonomous chapter
of the Watsonville Brown Berets, Watsonville, California. Moreover, the specific 'Black
and Brown Unity' activities on the part of the Brown Berets
is awesome, inspirational, and increasingly effective. They
are demonstrating
what some may have doubted:
that the perceived viable unity between our peoples, based
upon mutual respect and a clear historical and political
understanding, can, in
fact, be made into reality. In this matter too, the struggle
continues, as
there will
assuredly be those who will attempt to thwart unity between
Black, Red, and Brown peoples. We must not allow these
unity efforts
to be thwarted.
Let none of us speculate about the depth of love we must
have for our fellow humans, irrespective of color; and as
such, the incredibly
deep love we must
possess and show for our own brothers and sisters of color.
We must not doubt for even a second the legitimateness,
rightness, and necessity
of loving ourselves and our own Black, Red, and Brown peoples,
as we persist
in
political, social and economic struggle.
People's struggles are, by their very nature, long, protracted
and often dangerous affairs, which can last from decades
to centuries. It is no
simple task to
struggle for systemic change, especially when there are
those who have done and will continue to do all within
their means
to retain
their
color and/or
economic systemic privilege. As brother Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote, "Lamentably
it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges
voluntarily." The renowned physicist Albert Einstein,
was even more blunt when, some years earlier, he declared
at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania,
that, "Racism is a disease of white people." This
remains the case, and despite the failure of white America, including, unfortunately,
much of the so-called white left, to address its own racism,
color privilege, and the accompanying ongoing systemic racial
and economic
disparities perpetrated
upon Black people and other people of color; we must not
despair, or cease - even for a second - in our struggle.
As the late Prime
Minister Maurice
Bishop of Grenada,
(who was assassinated under the auspices of the US during the Ronald Reagan regime
but whose revolutionary spirit lives on) repeatedly said, "Forward Ever.
Backwards Never!" This struggle continues and intensifies
today. Denmark Vesey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Fannie Lou Hamer,
Rosa Parks,
and so very, very many others before and after them did
not struggle in vain, nor
do we.
In fact, we don't beg your pardon America, and we most assuredly do not ask
to be excused by you as we struggle to keep it real. It is
white America that
must ultimately beg the pardon of and atone to, the entire
world that it has and continues to ravage, in the name of
this American
hypocrisy so erroneously
referred to as democracy.
We conscious Black people know that the active spirits
and histories of Malcolm & Martin,
Fannie & Rosa, Geronimo & Crazy Horse, Sandino & Zapata, Che & Tanya,
John Brown, and so many other freedom fighters, are ONE.
Do what it may, racist white America will not succeed in
crushing & harnessing these spirits or in relegating to oblivion our collective
true histories. For these histories belong to the people anywhere and everywhere
on this planet who demand and insist upon justice. There is no higher calling
than the continuing struggle to 'keep it real.'
We must remain steadfast, absolutely
refusing to allow our hopes and yearnings for justice and real social,
economic, and political equality and freedom to be
forever kept from
us. Never!
The "dream" as Langston Hughes
might say, may have been temporarily "deferred," but
it grows stronger every day and it will never be destroyed.
It must, and it will be, brought to
fruition. There is no acceptable alternative.
BlackCommentator.com Columnist Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black
Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic
of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American
to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights
case to the United Nations under the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights. Click
here to contact Mr. Pinkney.
