[In revolutionary and loving memory and recognition of the esteemed Aimé Césaire]

To be sure, one can sometimes achieve just about anything in the United States of America, as long as one is willing to sell out the principles of justice and truth. Nevertheless, the U.S. Empire is in decay and crumbling. Yet, even as this occurs, the utter ruthlessness, subterfuge, and hypocrisy of the Empire is rapidly increasing.

In the historical and contemporary context of the ongoing liberation struggles of Black, Red, and Brown peoples, and the ahistorical and political unconsciousness of some in this regard - especially in the U.S. - a politically conscious Black American friend Keith Baker uses the expression: “Absent the badge of honor.” In this context, the “badge of honor” which is “absent” is a critical and fundamental historical understanding of the nature of the Black liberation struggle drawn from direct involvement in said struggle. However, as Baker elaborated, “The badge of honor is that which is inculcated emotionally in each of us as to who we are.

It goes far beyond mere intellectual understanding or even direct involvement [re our social, economic, and political struggle].” This “badge of honor” goes to the very core of our being as to who and what we are. Thus, the lack of an experiential component having been emotionally inculcated, coupled with huge doses of incessant U.S. systemic disinformation and misinformation, deliberately serves to stifle peoples’ understanding themselves/ourselves and of the dialectical and ongoing historical connectedness of, for example, the Black liberation struggle in this nation - and how this struggle is linked to those of other oppressed peoples both inside and outside the U.S.

Being “absent the badge of honor” ensures that young and old alike succumb to such dangerous, misleading, and ridiculous rhetorical notions such as one individual or group of individuals being the supposed leaders of a so-called “Joshua Generation.” The Black liberation struggle in “America,” is ongoing, protracted, and dialectical. Its leadership is collective in form and purpose and it is, though under constant systemic assault by the Empire, far from dead.

Those who are “absent the badge of honor” fail to recognize that no single generation owns the liberation struggle, but that this struggle is a continuum whereupon every bit of suffering and knowledge is amassed, honored and studied in-depth with a view to honing and intensifying the current and next phases of our ongoing liberation struggle. Those who are “absent the badge of honor” are willing to serve as the gate keeper/s for the maintenance of the empire’s decaying system; while others who are “absent the badge of honor” are continually hoodwinked by the media disinformation and misinformation of this empire’s capitalist systemic terrorism machine against the poor.

Black, Brown, and Red peoples, in harmony with all who are opposed to the empire’s systemic social, economic, and political terrorism against the poor, have the uncompromising duty urgently and creatively to find the ways and means to expose this filthy system. This is not merely a choice - it is our duty as humans.

There have been and continue to be many examples of women and men, who though ignored and/or vilified by this system’s media, are serving as beacons of hope for our ongoing struggles. These people are the real giants of humanity, though like us, they are only mortal.

Just this month we lost from the physical world one such giant of humanity, in the person of Aimé Césaire. Yes, Aimé Césaire: writer, poet, teacher, and anti-colonial activist from Martinique. Among the millions that Césaire inspired was none other than the renowned Frantz Fanon, to whom he was a mentor. Césaire stayed strong in the struggle and was also a key endorser of the International Tribunal on Katrina, in New Orleans.

I humbly also count myself as among the millions whom Césaire’s works inspired. As a former member of the Black Panther Party, I remember having had intense discussions with other party comrades regarding the writings of, among others, brother Aimé Césaire. To the family members of brother Aimé Césaire, the members of his political family, and the Parti Progressiste Martiniquais I extend my deepest condolences and respect. Those who are politically conscious in the United States, know for a certainty that Aimé Césaire’s legacy stands eternally shoulder to shoulder with other women and men freedom fighters including Harriet Tubman, W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Paul Robeson, Huey P. Newton and so many others in this ongoing struggle. Césaire’s sterling example has taught us incredibly valuable lessons, and reminded me, that we can all be giants in humanity’s struggle for justice and equality.

Brother Césaire, your writings and actions have inspired Black people, and humans of all colors and ethnicities throughout the world. You demonstrated the strength and resilience of an idea. You shall be missed, but never forgotten.

As the imprisoned American Indian Movement (AIM) activist, Leonard Peltier, put it in his recent April 18, 2008, statement of solidarity to and with Mumia Abu-Jamal, “…Given the choice of lying down to die or standing up to live, we chose to live. Standing up and living is our only crime in this, the land of the free and home of the brave. Our dream is still alive, and as hunger striker Bobby Sands once said, you can lock up the dreamer but you cannot place chains around an idea…”

The “badge of honor” in this, our ongoing struggle, is not an award. It is a symbol and beacon of what has been done before us and of the enormously urgent tasks that are ahead, as we struggle to keep it real. Onward then…. There is much to do.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, 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. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.