Pull Yo Pants Up: Critical Notes on Obama Drama

[Marvin X]

Critical Notes on Obama Drama: 2008-2012

Now that President Obama has won four more years, what shall we expect and what shall we do? Shall we sit around moaning and groaning that he is a white man in black face and shall therefore continue to be the chief agent of white supremacy throughout the world?

Or shall we be proactive with our own agenda to uplift our community from the bottomless pit of economic misery by imagining an economic model that transcends wage slavery and global exploitation? We must get down to earth and attempt a practical program that will create jobs in our community that can give training to youth and adults that clearly have no future in a dying capitalist economy that is determined to push wage slavery with no job security, no living wages, no health benefits or worthwhile retirement program. 

American veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress and unable to work normal jobs are now being trained as entrepreneurs. We think the same training must be offered the boys and girls in the hood who suffer traumatic stress from the hostile environment in America, victims of this nation's war against North American Africans. Many of us suffer a triple diagnose of mental illness, drug abuse and criminal histories that will disqualify most of us from ever working a normal job, therefore we must consider alternatives such as entrepreneurship that will allow us some modicum of human dignity. 

At the same time, we must become socially active by using technology to liberate our minds from the world of make believe and conspicuous consumption, rather than asking a friend or partner, "Where you at, where you at?" The question is not where they are but where you are in real time and space, in the real world or the world of make believe?

There is absolutely no reason any person on this earth to remain steeped in ignorance while possessing cell phones that can Google any subject in the human imagination. We must use this technology to help educate our community rather engage in fruitless and absurd conversation. 

Yes, your President has four more years and you have four more years to redeem  your humanity as a mighty nation of Africans in the wilderness of North America. For sure, he will continue carrying out the agenda of White Supremacy world domination. You have the responsibility to jump out of the box and claim your human dignity and divinity. We cannot blame him for our troubles when we make little or no real effort to address the bleeding wounds to our psyche and physicality.

I repeat what my friend Dr. Cornel West said during President Obama's first term, "We must protect him, respect him but check him!" I might add we must do the same for ourselves. Remember that hip hop adage, "Check yoself before you wreck yoself."

--Marvin X

11/7/12

NYC

Marvin X is now a member of the National Writers Union, New York City Chapter

from Pull Yo Pants Up: Critical Notes on Obama Drama: 2008-2012, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 2013. Marvin X continues his Revolution on the Rocks Book Tour this week in Philadelphia. He will appear Friday, November 9, 7pm at the Moonstone Art Center, 110 South 13th Street. Mr. X will read and sign his latest book The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables and fables, Black Bird Press, 2012.

He returns to Philadelphia on Friday, November 16, 3pm, Black and Nobel Books, 1411 West Erie Ave. On Saturday, November 17, 4-6pm, Dr. M will participate in the dialogue Black Power Babies, an intergenerational discussion at Restoration Plaza, Skylight Gallery, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY. For more information or booking, contact Sun In Leo PR 718-496-2305, [e-mail]