Other Words

They also STUDIED, which is something we don't do enough of these days. Fanon, Che, Du Bois, Malcolm, Ho etc. Those brothers and sisters possessed a certain intellectual commitment. Shallow minds remember only the jacket, berets and guns. Not the programs. But I recall as a kid that what I most often saw Panther sisters and brothers involved with were the EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS and the breakfast for kids---long before such program existed in our public schools. I also recall that drug dealing and pimping virtually disappeared in and around the projects in east Baltimore where I lived.(Panthers had their programs for kids right around the corner from where we lived. They didn't allow scurvy elements around the children...and most folk approved, even those who thought the Panthers "too militant".)

-Savant

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http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TKKMMJHT2MVFU7IKH/p53


In my mother's house, Dr. King was next to God. But she also admired Stokely and Rap. But after Dr. King was killed mother became very, very pro-Panther. Some Panthers--especially one who was a student in Biology at Morgan State College (now Universit), became a friend of the family. Another Panther brother worked in the same factory as did my mother. And they organized right around the corner from us. Mother would even cook and bake things for the breakfast program. Even now you can find a closet full of old BLACK PANTHER newspapers. I've little doubt that I would have joined had I been older or if the BPP could have sustained themselves as a revolutionary movement for at least 10 more years. Assdurratin claims that the Panthers were criminal organization---which, incidentally, is also the line spouted by the FBI in its COINTELPRO propaganda. But I know that it wasn't until the Panthers were gone that my neighborhood was again beset by dope dealers and pimps..(And there is now evidence that the Panthers were right in their claims that the CIA was peddling dope in the hood, and in a lot of other places as WELL. You can find an article by one of the NY 21 called "Capitalism + Dope=Genocide").

-Savant

 ___________ P.S. Malcolm X gave huge respect to Fannie Lou Hamer, Gloria Richardson, and other Sisters in the struggle. Fannie Lou Hamer was courageous and worked diligently to oppose the Vietnam War, she fought against poverty, and she worked to advance the concept of cooperatives in American society. Ella Baker was the Mother of SNCC. Fannie Lou Hamer allied with Malcolm X as a means to advance liberation for black people. Malcolm X became more progressive on issues of women than even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was as you have mentioned before. When Malcolm X traveled in Africa and other locations, he transformed and expanded his fundamental understanding of the world. Brother Malcolm posed with Shirley Graham DuBois in Accra, Ghana. Both of them agreed with a pan-Africanist agenda that desired women to achieve education and true HUMAN dignity. Therefore, we have every right to advance anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalism. As Malcolm X said: "...It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the SYSTEM of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture and can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism has less and less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely.”(Malcolm X, January 18, 1965 in the Young Socialist Magazine). Fannie Lou Hamer passed away in 1977.

RIP to her.



 -By Timothy (Me) ____________________

 Yes, brother Malcolm--whose gender politics was actually in advance of Martin's--deeply admired sisters like Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Graham Du Bois, and Ella Baker--whom you correctly identify as FOUNDING MOTHER of SNCC. All these sisters whom Assdurratin regard as :"low life scums who happen to be female." By the way, I got to meet Diane Nash. And while a student in the South I got to meet other veterans of SNCC. One cat named Leo Lillard I met through my activity in building support for the opposition to apartheid in South Africa. He was involved in the early sit-ins in Nashville. I never stop STUDYING. And studying means not only books, which one expects from an educator. But also learning from wise elders, especially those who were veterans in the Movement. I have the utmost respect for those sister and brother warriors who preceded me, and without whom my life---all our lives--would be so much poorer.

 -Savant

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 I don't need LEADERS, only brothers and sisters and comrades in Struggle. Some of us are men and women, not SHEEP.

 -Savant

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 Kwame Ture and Dr. King were allies and friends. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. always respected Kwame Ture as a young Brother. They expressed disagreements, but these disagreements were in the realm of spirited debate excluding personal tensions. It is like I may have some disagreements with my blood Brother in real life, but that is still my Brother and I respect my Brother. That analogy holds true among Brothers Kwame Ture and Dr. King. Both men agreed to oppose the Vietnam War on moral, legal, and philosophical grounds. Both said that the Vietnam War was an expression of imperialism by Western forces and it was an affront to the anti-colonial, revolutionary movements of the world. Now, even after 1969, Kwame Ture still was involved in revolutionary politics. He spoke heavily in the States in the 1980's and in the 1990's as a means to inspire black youth to continue in the struggle for human liberation and the liberation of Africa (or our ancestral homeland). Kwame Ture worked in political organizations heavily. Dr. Martin Luther King believed in black self determination and the building of black institutions as outlined in his 1968 MOUNTAINTOP SPEECH. Dr. King never embrace race-neutral ideologies. He understood that black people accepting BLACKNESS was a key psychological METHOD in counteracting white supremacy. Dr. King just rejected an extreme form of separatism (that some who loved Black Power adhered to). Dr. King never rejected all aspects of Black Power. He just wanted black people to use power in a way that did not rely on slogans. Kwame Ture was a heroic black man. Now, Kwame Ture believed in independence not Jim Crow segregation or token integration. Kwame True was a dedicated anti-capitalist and a person who wanted black people to lead their own movement for liberation. You are right that we have to develop programs of social uplift to help African Americans living in America. We must continue to fight economic injustice, racial oppression, environmental harm, and our liberties being violated by corporate interests. Also, we have to understand our role in the global, international picture too. In other words, we are not just human beings living in America. We are Africans too. We are not free totally unless all of Africa is free.

 -By Timothy (Me)

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 By the way, I agree with you regarding Kwame Ture (aka Stokely Carmichaeo). I admire his dedication to our peoples struggle.(I'm also gratified to know he was a student of Philosophy, like yours truly. But later for that). LIke King and other educated middle class Blacks, he could have chosen a life dedicated only to his PERSONAL advancement. He could have aped shallow white middle class norms and values and become just another petty bourgeois conformist. He chose to be not only an intellectual, but an engaged intellectual. I do not agree with him on all things. But the promotion of Black Power, black consciousness, black self-determination--much of which Dr. King DID agree with (as is evident from King's last book)--certainly helped to enrich the Black movement and raise consciousness. The brother risked his LIFE fighting for us in Mississippi in the 1960s. When you see the film BLACK POWER MIXTAPE, Stokely's mother (who knew the dangers) said "Every time he gets arrested I die a thousand times!". Also, Kwame Ture (in contrast with Assdurratin, his supposed comrade) always seem to show RESPECT to people even when they disagreed with him. I've met Kwame a number of times before he died. I met members of the AAPRP (some of them classmates). Even when I disagreed with him he would offer an ANALYSIS or reasons. Never did I hear him call another brother or sister a "pervert", "liar" or "lesbian" just because his interlocutor had a different opinion. Like the Panthers, he would call racist cops and capitalist "pigs". He didn't personally denounce someone just for disagreeing. In that respect he was better than many Panthers. Thus I do honor him.



 -Savant

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 By CLR James: BEYOND A BOUNDARY, A HISTORY OF THE PAN-AFRICAN REVOLT, NKRUMAH AND THE GHANA REVOLUTION, SPHERES OF EXISTENCE, NOTES ON DIALECTICS. I've already mentioned BLACK JACOBINS. I'm not into "black theology," but James Cone's MARTIN & MALCOLM & AMERICA are worth a look see Cedric Robinson: BLACK MARXISM: THE MAKING OF THE BLACK RADICAL TRADITION There has been a lot of discussion of the "black radical tradition" since the appearance of that book in the 1980s. Philosophia Africana: I will also mention works by Black philosophers, and Black thinkers with a strong philosophical bent. North America, Africa, the Caribbean has a sizeable number. Some have passed on. Others are with us still. I STUDIED under some, including the late Richard I McKinney and Robert A. Cheemooke (who happened to be a friend of both Stokely Carmichael and CLR James) And there are a good number of SISTER philosophers too. I PERSONALLY know a good number of them and have worked with some of them. No, philosophical activity is not the exclusive right of the white and the economically privileged.
 -Savant

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 Brownshirts were known for shouting down opponents, or resorting to insults rather than arguments. Stalinists did the same. And such is the METHOD of "debate" used by Assdurratin. And since Assdurratin clearly believes in some species of the totalitarian "superstate" (as he called his political ideal in another thread), I can't imagine he could have any issue with police. He will certainly need police for his police state. Africans, like most human beings, prefer freedom to unfreedom. And Assdurrain will certain need many police to shove his police "superstate" down their throats.

-Savant

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