[*By Jumasa Kofi Sankofa] The election of Barak Obama to the presidency of the United States is a defining moment in the history of this country. It is supposed to signify a post racial America, where a people, despised and degraded as an inferior race, has triumphed over racial oppression. After all, one of them has been elected to the highest and most prestigious office in the land. It is supposed to signify a society’s triumph over its racist foundation, rejecting the tenets of that foundation to elect one of the despised to the highest office. Unfortunately, the truth is, things are not always what they appear or supposed to be. This truth guides the understanding that, the characterization of Barak Obama’s election as a triumph is based on a misguided perception. Barak Obama’s election to the presidency is anything but the triumph it has been marketed to be. Rather, it is that unexpected and surprising shaft of light that has forced the exposure of the reality hidden by the deception and darkness of socio-political marketing. The triumph will only come after the reality (truth) that the light reveals, has been accepted.
So let’s be realistic. One of the most important factors that secured Barak Obama’s election to the presidency of the United States is the shift in population demographics to the extent that the way the majority of White people voted could not overwhelm and dictate the outcome of the election. This demographic shift is a major factor that catapulted the occurrence of an event that White people were previously convinced could not happen in God’s lifetime. This has made White people scared and angry, to make an understatement about White people’s emotional response. Their reaction is telling, and their expression of contempt that comes with it could not be contained. The open contempt shown to Barak Obama despite the fact that he is president of the United States, and to the office of the presidency because it is held by a Black man, is unprecedented.
We cannot and should not forget Congressman, Joe Wilson’s outburst of “You Lie” during President Obama’s first “State of the Union” address. Neither should we forget Mitch McConnell’s and John Boehner’s open declaration of sabotage in their devotion to a mission to make sure Obama fails, notwithstanding the failure of the President is the failure of the nation. Nor should we forget Governor Jan Brewer’s posture of condescension, pointing the finger of admonition and derision in President Barak Obama’s face. Needless to mention the other events of hostility and disrespect including the derogatory statements circulated in social media about President Obama and his family. Obviously, it demands the conclusion that Barak Obama’s presidency is a call to reality not a social triumph. If a Black man of his social status and social appointment can be openly treated with such indignity, just imagine what happens in the back rooms and back alleys of America, away from public view and scrutiny.
More importantly, this wave of contempt is not confined to the actions of the ignorant as Barbara Walters suggested in her interview with Minister Louis Farrakhan in 1995. It is a surge from people who are considered sufficiently knowledgeable and dignified to be entrusted with the authority to make decisions for a nation. It is not a society’s response in disgust to a young population who would not pull their pants up or learn to speak the Queen’s English as suggested by Bill Cosby. One would think that Bill Cosby should know better since he lost his own son Ennis, in 1997 to the murderous actions of Mikhail Markhasev who had recently migrated from the Soviet Union and was trying to prove he could fit into American society by “killing a Nigger”. This wave of contempt is consistent with a socio-cultural tradition of subjecting Black people to indignity.
In recent times, the most popular responses to incidents which conform to this tradition of indignity have been reactionary. The most recent reactionary upheaval in response to the society’s expression of hostility and contempt for Black people has come in the wake of Police Officer Darren Wilson’s murder of Michael Browne, followed by the grand jury’s refusal to turn in an indictment against Darren Wilson. Meanwhile, the murder of Trayvon Martin and a jury’s acquittal of his assailant, the premeditated killing of Jordan Davis for which the jury could not find cause to return a verdict of murder, are still the open wounds in the body of the Black collective. All this time, the murder of Amadou Diallo, Zongo, Michael Griffith, Yusef Hawkins, and the mutilation of Abner Louima, among other atrocities, remain painful festering sores covered by the scabs of pretense that time has healed and allowed us to forget.
As the social operation and orientation clearly confirms, the disdain for Barak Obama, an Ivy League scholar and Michael Browne, a high school graduate, is the same. Why? They share a common identity in an African ancestry. As Obama himself so poignantly stated, “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon” or in this case Michael. Neither time nor the modification of social circumstances has eradicated the contempt that has been reserved for Black people, not Michael Browne, not Trayvon Martin, not Barak Obama nor any of those who share that ancestry. The psychological (spiritual) disposition of the people that is the source of this contempt has not gone anywhere. It is as present and as powerful today as it was when it dictated the voyage of the slave ships and the administration of the plantations. It is as present and as powerful as when it first declared African people to be a subhuman species only to be regarded as property, instruments of labour and items of commerce. It is as present and as powerful as when it declared that “the Negro has no right which the White man is bound to respect”. (See Dred Scot v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). It has dictated stereotypes, prejudices, lynching, bombings, executions, wrongful conviction and incarceration, unemployment, financial destitution and the destruction of families, all to the detriment of the Black collective.
It is this presence and power that puts Michael Browne in the grave as it did many others before him. It is this presence and power that acquits the action that orchestrated Michael’s demise. Its effect has become a headline familiar enough to be normalized. “Unarmed Black Man Shot to Death”. Black people understand from all this that the collective is under serious threat. Michael Browne could be anybody else - poor, uneducated, rich, scholar or celebrity makes no difference. They also understand that upon such occurrence they can be casually reminded that Black life has a zero value. So for those Black parents who think that they can raise their children with elitist values to protect them from America’s contempt they can be in for a rude awakening. Therefore, Black people must come to terms with reality and confront the fact that an appropriate response must be formulated to address this recurring incident of violence and brutality against Black people. It is quite obvious that the reactionary model serves no purpose in quelling this murderous assault.
An appropriate response must be radical, that is, it must address the problem from its root causes. It must be revolutionary, that is, the changes must be sufficiently substantial to eradicate the cause, even if unpopular or disturbing to those who wish to maintain the status quo. It is far too evident to escape notice that the root of this problem is the arrangement by which White people hold authority to make life altering decisions about Black people. Within the white dominant society any white individual may be assigned that authority at any time and exercise it recklessly or disdainfully but with impunity.
It has long been the case that in the program of security for the white population, Black people have been made the equivalent of feral animals, savage and dangerous. This characterization provides the justification for using whatever measure of violence is necessary to neutralize the danger. In this security paradigm the unarmed Black person is more dangerous than armed White men. Consider for instance the number of unarmed Black people who have been killed in recent months either by police or private individuals who could justify their actions by claiming fear for their lives. Compare that with the actions of James Holmes, who fully armed, orchestrated a massacre in a Colorado theatre but was taken alive. Eric Frein also fully armed shot Pennsylvania state troopers and went on the run but was captured and also taken alive. The comparisons showing this disparity are too extensive to mention at present.
Truthfully, the refusal of the grand jury to return an indictment against Darren Wilson is neither surprising nor unexpected. One can take a winning wager that the grand jury, like the city council and police force in Ferguson is overwhelmingly white, if not completely white. Accordingly, it should not be too difficult for Darren Wilson to convince a grand jury that was merely looking for an excuse not to indict. Moreover, the members of this grand jury could see the demon, the savage, the monster that Darren Wilson testified that he saw. After all, the demon is the perception of Black people shaped by the natural psychology of White people. The members of this grand jury could identify with the emotions that Darren Wilson described in his testimony because they share the same emotional response to the presence of Black people. Darren Wilson’s action in the murder of Michael Browne is centuries old with no evidence of ever retiring. While Black people experience this action as a tradition of the systemic application of contempt and brutality, White people see it as the legitimate use of authority to protect the security of society. There is no compromise or resolution for that impasse.
In the final analysis, the injustice in Ferguson is not the injustice of Ferguson it is the injustice of America. It is not merely the injustice to Michael Browne and his family but the injustice to the Black collective. It is not merely an incident of injustice in the year 2014, it is the injustice of centuries of social administration centered around the dehumanization and degradation of Black people. So let’s just stop the pretentious posturing and stealthy tip-toe around the issue and boldly confront the reality, cold and harsh as it may seem. Black people can have no expectations of justice in circumstances administered by White people according to the prescriptions of a white socio-culture. As the wise old ancestors say it, “Cockroach can’t have no justice in fowl court”.
December 3, 2014
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*SOURCE:
Ijahnya Christian replied to Carl Dix's discussion Wilson Has Walked AMERIKKKA MUST COME TO A HALT! THERE IS RIGHTEOUS RESISTANCE AND YOU MUST BE PART OF IT!!!
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HOW DO YOU FIGHT AN ENEMY YOU ARE TOTALLY DEPENDENT UPON?
This question was posed at a Black Nationalist “Warriors” Conference that I attended in Atlanta recently. This question was projected on a screen in huge letters in front of over 500 black nationalists and no one seemed to appreciate the significance of this question. The presenter never addressed the question, which to me, was the most profound question posed during the entire conference.
“How do you fight an enemy you are totally dependent upon?”
Black people were brought to these shores from Africa hundreds of years ago to serve and work for the enrichment of “Christian” Europeans FOREVER. They were sold into slavery by Arabs and tribal Africans with permission from the Vatican and were never thought to return. In fact, when I visited one of the slave “castles” in Ghana, I noticed one door that was labeled “Door of No Return”. The “Christian” European, the “Muslim” Arab and the “animist” African had no intention of allowing us to return home and be free.
Initially these black people were enslaved under what is called “chattel slavery”, which means perpetual, generational slavery. Later, after what was called the “Civil War”, an oxymoron if I ever heard one, such slavery was “abolished” by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Here is where we get a quick lesson about the tricky and ambiguous language called English. A close reading of that 13th Amendment reveals that slavery was not truly “abolished”. The word abolish means, ‘formally put to an end to (a system, practice, or institution). A few of the synonyms for abolish – get rid of, scrap, end, stop, terminate, ax, eradicate, eliminate, exterminate, destroy, annihilate, stamp out, etc.’ You get the point, right? Here are the actual words of that amendment.
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
This amendment was passed by the “Christian” Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. Nevertheless, slavery was never truly abolished, or formally put an end to (a system, practice, or institution) in America, to this day. Our “Christian” European enslavers simply transferred the right to enslave from the white slave masters, to the American prison system. Please take note of the following:
Following the “Civil War” freed black slaves were turned loose like animals: illiterate, homeless, unemployed and no resources onto the landscape of America. I want you to take a moment to stop, close your eyes and imagine what that must have been like for our ancestors. What did these “Christian” Europeans quickly learn? They learned that the government was turning a blind eye to the fate of these newly “freed” black people. These wicked “Christians” passed laws, known as Black Codes. What were these Black Codes?
Black Codes were laws passed by the “Christian” Southern states in 1865 and 1866. These laws had the intent and effect of restricting the freedom of recently “freed” blacks and compelled them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt. The defining feature of the Black Codes was a vagrancy law, which allowed local authorities to arrest these “freed” people for being homeless/unemployed. They would then be found “guilty” and fined. If they were unable to pay the fine, they would then be committed to involuntary labor, often for many years.
Eight “Christian” Southern states allowed convict leasing (a system in which state prison hired out convict for labor) and five states allowed prisoner labor for public works projects. Another important part of the Black Codes was the annual “labor contracts”, which black people had to present in order to avoid vagrancy charges.
Following is just one example of these restrictive codes. “That all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes in this State (Mississippi), over the age of eighteen years, found on the second Monday in January, 1866, or thereafter, without lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time, and all white persons so assembling themselves with freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes, on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication with a freed woman, free negro or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free negro, or mulatto, fifty dollars, and a white man two hundred dollars, and imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, the free negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months.”
Today, as we are all aware, a disproportionate number of black people make up the prison population and under the 13th amendment are still enslaved, working for major American corporations for pennies per hour.
Due to these “Christian” Europeans systematic legal trickery, racial discrimination, substandard education and housing, predatory lending practices, police brutality, a “blind” judicial system and herding blacks into urban areas, we are today completely under the control and totally dependent on these same wicked “Christian” Europeans.
Let us re-visit the question that stimulated this essay: How do you fight an enemy you are totally dependent upon? We do not have the military capability to overthrow this wicked government. We do have the economic prowess to insulate ourselves from these wicked people. And we have recently proven that the solution will not come through politics as long as these “Christian” Europeans outnumber us. Today, we have a black president and our situation has gotten worse under his administration.
So, we have eliminated a military, economic or political solution to our afflictions in this country. What other options are available to blacks in America today?
At the risk of being ridiculed, I submit to you that the only solution available to black people in America today is a spiritual one. No, I am not talking about the black church or “organized” religion. The black church is merely a replica of the white “Christian” church and it’s doctrines and dogmas imposed on our ancestors by the white slave masters. Today’s black church is simply regurgitating the same doctrines and dogmas imposed upon them 150 years ago. The black church is so deeply invested in maintaining the status quo that it is completely unwilling to re-examine these scriptural teachings and practices. After over 100 years of zealous praise and worship our spiritual, physical, emotional and psychological situation gets worse. In spite of centuries of affliction by these “Christian” Europeans“, the black church has turned a blind eye on recently revealed truths and has refused to expose these truths to their “flock”.
What “truths” am I alluding to?
Truth Number One: Black people, our ancestors, wrote The Bible. Proof? No one disputes ancient Egypt was a black nation. Yet, his brothers did not recognize Joseph, the son of Jacob. Why? Because he looked just like the Egyptians. Moses had to be black in order to survive 40 years in the royal household of Pharaoh. Even the Christ describes himself as black with wooly hair and skin like burned brass. As a child, he was taken into Egypt, a black nation, to hide until Herod died. The apostle Paul was mistaken for an Egyptian, proving that he too was a black man. Isn’t it obvious that the Israelites were black people?
These truths should be pounded into the minds of our people at every opportunity, in order to repair some of the damage done by centuries of mis-information and deception through art, film, books, and education depicting Moses, Christ and the apostles as white people. These false images must be erased from the minds of our people and replaced with true ones.
Truth Number Two: A prophecy, written 3,500 years ago at Deuteronomy 28:15-68 describes “chattel slavery” in great detail. A careful reading exposes the fact that there is only ONE group of people that has experienced ALL of the various features of this unique form of slavery – our ancestors and us. Each feature is verified by the careful record of the enslavement of our ancestors in literature, song, film, and art here in America. The prophecy and history form a perfect match.
This truth too, should be taught at every opportunity, in order to restore our true identity, restore our confidence in the Word of God and to get an accurate understanding of what is required of us if we want to be “saved”.
Truth Number Three: The number one thing we must do in order to be “saved” is to develop a total reliance on the Most High God and cleansing value of the shed blood of his Son, the Messiah. As a people, we have been kidnapped, enslaved, and systematically denied basic human rights by these wicked “Christian” Europeans. In spite of this centuries long mistreatment, a plea to turn to God is laughed at and ridiculed as unrealistic and naive by my own people.
I submit to you that it is unrealistic, actually insane to believe that marching, protesting, letter writing, burning down businesses, or killing white people will solve our problems. We have, “been there done that”, without success. Should we put our confidence in these “Christian” Europeans and hope that they will change and treat everyone fairly? Is this wicked world ruled by satan a good place to put our faith? We have worked the land and in the factories. We have fought in all the wars defending this nation. We have brought glory and honor to America with our athletic and entertainment prowess. How has being hard working, faithful, and patriotic to this wicked world benefited us, as a people?
This brings up back to the original question: How do you fight an enemy you are totally dependent upon and defenseless against? Is turning back to the Most High God, restoring our relationship and forging an unbreakable reliance on God so unrealistic when viewed in this historic context? We have tried everything else without success. Why not give the Most High our wholehearted confidence? He is where real equality, peace, security, and prosperity can be achieved for all of us.