In a way, my attitude toward di Blasio is like my attitude to Obama which I expressed in an interview with a French journalist in Bmore a couple of months before Obama's election. Namely, I will wait and see; but I also think that social movements may be more important in the long run than the election o this or that particular liberal politician. Don't misunderstand. I prefer De Blasio to some Republican loons even as I preferred Obama to his rightist Republican reactionaries. I see the Republicans as not only a corporate party (as are the Democrats), but also a proto-Fascist party. And unlike thos stupid European Stalinists of the 1930s, I'm not foolish enough to think that elections don't matter. But the critical thing is to build the MOVEMENT. Then let New York's mayor reveal where he stands in that context. He ran largely on the platform of reforming the police and ending their harassment and brutality against Black and Latin communities. Now movement is developing in these communities and among white allies against the very police brutality that the mayor ran against. Under pressure from the police he called for protestors to suspend demonstrations until after the funerals of the two murdered police officers. But many demonstrators have refused, often severely criticizing the mayor. They apparently felt that the mayor was giving in to a kind of emotional blackmail, a surrender which implies a virtual acceptance loony accusation that the demonstrators--in their NONVIOLENT protest---were responsible for the deaths of those officers. So we will see if the new purportedly progressive mayor will turn out to be like Obama---eloquently giving progressive sounding speeches while doing little concretely to promote progressive policies--or whether he will do whatever is possible within the limits of his office to put some teeth in all that progressive rhetoric, and to DO what he promised while running for office. We will see. But our primary task is to advance the struggle independently of di Blasio, Obama or anyone else.
-Savant
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In fact, the Black Panther Party founded in 1966 no longer exist. And we cannot simply bring them back as the incensed young coed suggested to her history prof. But what we can do is renew the REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT of the Panthers, SNCC, Martin, Malcolm, Fannie Lou and others in a new wave of popular progressive struggles. And I am so PROUD of my students--and have TOLD them so--that they are doing wonders to raise the level of our struggle. I'm proud of young Black people and their young allies of all groups who are promoting the cause of freedom and social justice.
-Savant
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I doubt that 45 million Blacks in America will all change their names. But with or without European names, I would like to see us change our CONSCIOUSNESS and our VALUES in a revolutionary direction. Abandon the values and ideology of racism and capitalism.
-Savant
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How is it possible that Black policemen often get the same treatment as ordinary Black folk? Because even with their badges they are still BLACK in racist America. Same reason why I've endured a number of incidents of harassment from the cops AFTER I graduated and began my profession as BEFORE when I was just another poor brother from the hood. I may have a Ph.D, but I'm still Black. The cop may have a badge, but he's still Black. And at least when he's not in uniform he looks like any other "n****r" to the cops.
-Savant
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As we have now EXPLAINED repeatedly that we've been talking about the ORIGINAL Black Panthers, only a simpleton could think that T-BOZ's references to that poser Farrahkhan has any relevance, or that reference the so-called "new" Panthers have relevance. As for the fact that some Black men became "successful " during the 1960s, that is quite irrelevant. Some Blacks became successful during the time of SLAVERY, you stupid goose. So what? It is LIBERATION from institutional racism, capitalist economic oppression and police terror that issue. And the main thing for which no excuse can be made is systematic oppression and injustice, or or the lame apologies for injustice.
-Savant
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Now aside from the fact that fascist pig cops also kill Black and Brown women and children at far higher rates than white women and children (I wonder why?), one might wonder how Doufus T-BOZ can explains the hundreds of thousands of not only BLAC, WOMEN, but white, Brown, Asian men and women who are rallying to the cause of Black victims of police brutality? Indeed, there are some demonstrations in which whites equal or exceed the number of Blacks in protesting police terror against communities of color. We know from her many posts that T-BOZ reads little, has at best a mediocre education, and perhaps less than mediocre intelligence. But even without reading or even thinking very much (which T-BOZ rarely does anyway) how could she MISS what even appeared on TELEVISION! She had to have noticed that there was/is a multiracial movement against police terror against African American people. No, the war isn't between Black men and everyone else. If it was Black men would be marching ALONE. The war is between Black America and her PROGRESSIVE non-Black allies, and the racist forces of reaction and repression. It is ultimately between the HAVES and HAVE-NOTS; and collectively, the have nots who are most conscious of their oppression are the African-American MASSES. Blacks stand in greatest contradiction to the entire social order, and cannot be liberated from their oppression except by a radical transformation of the entire social order. Yet, black men and women are not the only oppressed people. Latin folk are about as oppressed as we, and certainly have nearly equal level of concentrated poverty. (And they experience the humiliationg rituals of being detain for driving while brown). But there's more. The MAJORITY of whites are an oppressed population, virtual serfs of the white ruling class. The 1%. They have generally been LESS AWARE of their oppression than have Blacks and Latin and Native American peoples. But some of them are coming around as well. Even some who will not join the demonstrations are beginning to think: "If militarized cops with tanks and rubber bullets can attack NONVIOLENT demonstrators in the Black community of Ferguson, how long will it be before WE are attack as well? If we don't stop this police state while it's trampling on the Black people, then it just a matter of time before WE are trampled as well." SOME white folks are waking up. So, it is not a war between Black men and everyone else, but a struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed. And we'd better prepare for the reality that SOME Blacks (however much a minority) will be on the side of the OPPRESSOR, while some whites are going to surprise a lot of folk by allying themselves with the OPPRESSED. The Struggle continues!
-Savant
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