Conscious Words

If this place were a REAL African American Forum it would have been ablaze during the summer of 2013 (and beyond) with discussion of the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act o 1965. It would be ablaze now with discussion of he challenges to the Fair Housing bill of 1968 now before the Supreme Court. Especially as we're in the 50th anniversary of the Selma campaign for voting rights---and the second years since the gutting of the Voting Rights Bill by the Supine Court---there should be all kinds of discussions on this matter. Young brothers like Timothy should be talking with older brothers and sisters who came up in that era about the significance of what's happening. We should be talking about how we're going to defend these rights and work to save the future for our children. The wave of police violence against Black communities has gotten attention, and evoked activism in real time among our people and sympathetic non-Black allies. An AA forum should be a place where these forces can meet, discuss and talk strategy. And what of the relationship between rising economic inequality and growing police violence in Black, Latin and poor communities? This should certainly be discussed. Or the prison industrial complex so incisively critiqued by Michelle Alexander and Angela Y. Davis? We reportedly have more sisters and brothers in prison today than ever---more Black men in prison than were in slavery 160 years ago. Economic dislocation which dislocates families and communities (which also leads to more crime), racist police violence, mass incarceration, the undermining of our hard won rights and liberties, hunger and homeless, and the mental erosion of consumerism and mass entertainment (with even "news" becoming increasingly a circus of amusement)--these are all vital issues, issues of life and death. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble: But whether or not you want to marry a Black man or woman is hardly a matter of great historical importance. It has little relevance to the burning issues of our times. And as long as you are obsessed with this, YOU will have no relevance either. No we need a forum which addresses more vital matters.

 -Savant

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