Today, Marvin X addressed students in the Business Department at TSU. He spoke in three classes taught by Professor Eric Rhodes, MBA, Esquire. When he asked students how President Obama can promise jobs, housing and education to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, but no jobs, education or housing for the boys and girls in the hoods of America suffering trauma in the war against the poor, a female Iraqi veteran of two tours in Iraq had a breakdown in class. Apparently she was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome since Marvin X had only mentioned Iraq and definitely had not attacked her personally. Professor Rhodes comforted her after class and Marvin X embraced her.
When students learned he was associated with members of the Black Panther Party, he informed them that since he has been in Houston, many people were excited to learn he is from Oakland and wanted to know about present conditions there because in their mind Oakland is perceived as a radical city, but Marvin X compared it to another radical city in Iraq known as Fallujah. After three Americans were hanged from a bridge, the US military attacked Fallujah and leveled it, including the use of poison gas.
The U.S. military called it some of the heaviest urban combat U.S. Marines have been involved in since the Battle of Huế City in Vietnam in 1968.
In a similar manner, the people of Oakland who rebelled against oppression have been defeated and occupied by a repressive police regime who kill blacks at will as in the Oscar Grant case. At his Academy of da Corner, Marvin X said it is not about selling books to make money. More often it is about counseling people suffering from traumatic stress due to the homicide of relatives and friends.
My mission is beyond money, although the Academy is often a micro loan bank serving persons who need a dollar or two for a hamburger, bus fare and other situations of economic stress.
The schools in Oakland, he told TSU students, are in dire straights due to corruption. Only last night, he spoke with one of the writers he mentors who is a substitute teacher in deep east Oakland. She told him there were no books, paper or pencils at her school. Marvin X told her welcome to Oakland, it was the same situation when he worked as a substitute teacher in the 80s.
His main subject was entrepreneurship or how to hustle in a country of declining jobs. The business students were very silent when he informed them America will not pay them $140,000 per year after they earn their MBAs, but will instead hire MBAs in India who work for $14, 000 per year. And he noted to the class on Ethical Communication, the Indians speak better English.
Marvin told of growing up with parents who were in business for themselves. When he was born, his parents published The Fresno Voice, a black newspaper in the central valley of California. They also were real estate brokers who sold many blacks their first homes after they came from the South in the 50s. After his father lost his real estate license for abusing his fiduciary responsibilities, his parents moved to Oakland and opened a florist shop on 7th Street in West Oakland. This was when West Oakland's 7th Street was booming, like Harlem's 125th Street. On the streets of Oakland Marvin and his brother Ollie sold black newspapers and magazines such as Jet, Ebony, Chicago Defender, Pittsburg Courier, and the Black Dispatch.
When he arrived at Merritt College, after graduating high school in 1962, he was a business major but soon changed to sociology, eventually graduating with a Masters in English from San Francisco State University. He dropped out of SFSU to establish his own theatre with playwright Ed Bullins, Black Arts West on Fillmore Street in San Francisco.
Since the 60s, he has self published the thirty books he's written. He dislikes bookstores because he sees no reason they deserve 40% of the sale price. Stores do nothing to earn 40%. Distributors want 60% to 70%, plus other fees written in small print in the contract. So even the entrepreneur must think with discipline, logic and reasoning, not get emotional because his book is on Amazon.com or at Barnes and Noble. As President Clinton said at the recent Democratic convention, do the arithmetic!
You can do for self and still get exploited, get ripped off.
He said learn from the Japanese, business is war! But keep a smile, even when he was hustling as a dope fiend, people gave him money because they liked his smile.
All you need to be successful is a product, doesn't matter what it is. Famous Amos had one cookie, a hard cookie. The lowest hustler in Harlem sells toothpicks! Imagine, during the Crack era, you could get rich selling matches late nights. Dope fiends would pay five dollars for a pack of matches, one pack!
Finally, writing books takes discipline, one must sit down and be still for days, months, years. No telephone, no calls bugging you about where you at, where you at, where you at? One must be focused and disciplined. And this is with any endeavor, especially economic endeavor.
We shall be forced to do for self, he told students, there are no jobs for white Americans, let alone black Americans. And many of us suffer mental health issues and other problems that disqualify us from working regular jobs, including drug abuse and criminal records.
This is another reason to suggest entrepreneurship training for the hood. America is offering this to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer post traumatic stress syndrome, the same condition of many North American Africans who live in war zones throughout this land. Look at the people of Oakland, once valiant but now broken mentally, physically, spiritually and economically.
A student asked how did Marvin X come back from his drug addiction. Marvin said when you are down in the hole there is only one way but up! You can either get up or wallow in the mud, filth and slime forever until you die.
As he departed TSU, a student walked with him. He was overwhelmed to meet someone associated with the Black Panther Party, although Marvin X was never a member of the BPP.
The poet/playwright/philosopher was very upset to learn 86% of TSU students do not graduate after six years, at a great cost to the people of Texas. In contrast, he noted how post-slavery system African children had to be beaten to make them leave classrooms because the desire for education was so great. Now we must beat them to make them attend school. When Marvin saw a student sleeping during his lecture, he shouted to him, "Nigguh, wake yo ass up! I came to drop some light on yo ass, so wake up!"
When students learned he was associated with members of the Black Panther Party, he informed them that since he has been in Houston, many people were excited to learn he is from Oakland and wanted to know about present conditions there because in their mind Oakland is perceived as a radical city, but Marvin X compared it to another radical city in Iraq known as Fallujah. After three Americans were hanged from a bridge, the US military attacked Fallujah and leveled it, including the use of poison gas.
The U.S. military called it some of the heaviest urban combat U.S. Marines have been involved in since the Battle of Huế City in Vietnam in 1968.
In a similar manner, the people of Oakland who rebelled against oppression have been defeated and occupied by a repressive police regime who kill blacks at will as in the Oscar Grant case. At his Academy of da Corner, Marvin X said it is not about selling books to make money. More often it is about counseling people suffering from traumatic stress due to the homicide of relatives and friends.
My mission is beyond money, although the Academy is often a micro loan bank serving persons who need a dollar or two for a hamburger, bus fare and other situations of economic stress.
The schools in Oakland, he told TSU students, are in dire straights due to corruption. Only last night, he spoke with one of the writers he mentors who is a substitute teacher in deep east Oakland. She told him there were no books, paper or pencils at her school. Marvin X told her welcome to Oakland, it was the same situation when he worked as a substitute teacher in the 80s.
His main subject was entrepreneurship or how to hustle in a country of declining jobs. The business students were very silent when he informed them America will not pay them $140,000 per year after they earn their MBAs, but will instead hire MBAs in India who work for $14, 000 per year. And he noted to the class on Ethical Communication, the Indians speak better English.
Marvin told of growing up with parents who were in business for themselves. When he was born, his parents published The Fresno Voice, a black newspaper in the central valley of California. They also were real estate brokers who sold many blacks their first homes after they came from the South in the 50s. After his father lost his real estate license for abusing his fiduciary responsibilities, his parents moved to Oakland and opened a florist shop on 7th Street in West Oakland. This was when West Oakland's 7th Street was booming, like Harlem's 125th Street. On the streets of Oakland Marvin and his brother Ollie sold black newspapers and magazines such as Jet, Ebony, Chicago Defender, Pittsburg Courier, and the Black Dispatch.
When he arrived at Merritt College, after graduating high school in 1962, he was a business major but soon changed to sociology, eventually graduating with a Masters in English from San Francisco State University. He dropped out of SFSU to establish his own theatre with playwright Ed Bullins, Black Arts West on Fillmore Street in San Francisco.
Since the 60s, he has self published the thirty books he's written. He dislikes bookstores because he sees no reason they deserve 40% of the sale price. Stores do nothing to earn 40%. Distributors want 60% to 70%, plus other fees written in small print in the contract. So even the entrepreneur must think with discipline, logic and reasoning, not get emotional because his book is on Amazon.com or at Barnes and Noble. As President Clinton said at the recent Democratic convention, do the arithmetic!
You can do for self and still get exploited, get ripped off.
He said learn from the Japanese, business is war! But keep a smile, even when he was hustling as a dope fiend, people gave him money because they liked his smile.
All you need to be successful is a product, doesn't matter what it is. Famous Amos had one cookie, a hard cookie. The lowest hustler in Harlem sells toothpicks! Imagine, during the Crack era, you could get rich selling matches late nights. Dope fiends would pay five dollars for a pack of matches, one pack!
Finally, writing books takes discipline, one must sit down and be still for days, months, years. No telephone, no calls bugging you about where you at, where you at, where you at? One must be focused and disciplined. And this is with any endeavor, especially economic endeavor.
We shall be forced to do for self, he told students, there are no jobs for white Americans, let alone black Americans. And many of us suffer mental health issues and other problems that disqualify us from working regular jobs, including drug abuse and criminal records.
This is another reason to suggest entrepreneurship training for the hood. America is offering this to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer post traumatic stress syndrome, the same condition of many North American Africans who live in war zones throughout this land. Look at the people of Oakland, once valiant but now broken mentally, physically, spiritually and economically.
A student asked how did Marvin X come back from his drug addiction. Marvin said when you are down in the hole there is only one way but up! You can either get up or wallow in the mud, filth and slime forever until you die.
As he departed TSU, a student walked with him. He was overwhelmed to meet someone associated with the Black Panther Party, although Marvin X was never a member of the BPP.
The poet/playwright/philosopher was very upset to learn 86% of TSU students do not graduate after six years, at a great cost to the people of Texas. In contrast, he noted how post-slavery system African children had to be beaten to make them leave classrooms because the desire for education was so great. Now we must beat them to make them attend school. When Marvin saw a student sleeping during his lecture, he shouted to him, "Nigguh, wake yo ass up! I came to drop some light on yo ass, so wake up!"
---Marvin X
Texas Southern University
Houston, Texas
9/21/12
https://theblacklist.net/
Comments