Why has
much of Black America come to love those who, in reality,
hate them and hate those who actually love them and/or who are,
or at least should be, economic and political allies? Has
the collective conscience and consciousness of Black America
been politically lobotomized in the 21st century, and what
can be done about it?
Black,
Brown, Red, White, and Yellow peoples in this nation, and throughout
the world, are living in a watershed historical moment today. Right
has been made to appear as wrong, and wrong is being put forth as
being right. Black America, along with other poor and oppressed
persons in this nation, has been the object of rhetorical pimping
and callous experimentation in order to see just how far Wall Street�s
corporate / military apparatus (including the corporate media) can
go in the physical and mental emaciation of everyday people.
Torture, wars abroad, increasing poverty at home,
a de fact police state, corporate-capitalist greed, and the proliferation of home-grown nuclear power
& environmental degradation have been put forth as being
necessary and just, all in the very name of supposedly
doing precisely the opposite. Our young people are decried for
their greed, misdirection, and violence when simultaneously
the corporate media barrages and instills these very things
into them - for corporate profit. After all, corporate executives
live in exclusive and/or gated communities and are blissfully aloof
from the carnage that they perpetuate and cause for everyday people.
And what of we ourselves? Are we instilling and teaching
the history in this nation of ongoing political struggle
to others? Are we sharing the people�s history with others
(including our youth), versus the disfigured and distorted
corporate version of history? In this vein of ongoing struggle,
what are we sharing with others (including our youth) about
Denmark Vesey, Crazy Horse, Tecumseh, John Brown, Harriet Tubman,
Joe Hill, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and so very many
others whom this nation�s corporate media and so-called �educational�
institutions cynically distort, gloss over, or outright
ignore?!
It is time to turn off the corporate media! Turn off
the mindless and dangerous
television shows, etc. of distraction and subtle disempowerment.
Turn the damn things off! Time to turn off the media of disinformation,
and tune in to ourselves and each other. Time is
of the essence! It�s time to read, reread, and share
for example, the writings of J.A. Rogers, Chancellor Williams, Frantz
Fanon, Ivan Van Sertima, and Howard Zinn, to name but a few!! It�s
time to return to our roots. Turn off that mega-corporate media!!!
It�s
time to actualize the people�s history. In
other words, it�s time to take control of our local communities,
nation wide. It�s time to think of being, and seriously plan,
to be self sufficient in terms of our food, generating
power, our housing, etc. It is time to collectively create, develop,
and actualize a real people�s vision! Stop
expecting this corporate government, its cronies and its political
misleaders to do for you / us. We must think and act
in terms of banding together and doing for selves. And that
means Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow peoples - whether you
/ we like it or not!
To reiterate: We are living during a watershed period
of history, and it is time to seize this historical
moment by seriously and creatively building and working for
a people�s vision for both the present and
the future. At stake is everything!!! Future columns will
address this more specifically. Meanwhile, address these things
for yourselves for the creativity is within all of you!
Onward sisters and brothers! Onward!
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/LehrerNewsHour. 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.
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