The Democratic candidates debated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was very lively. Each candidate showed their views and wanted to get black and Latino votes. The debate at times was heated. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were confident in their perspectives. Hillary Clinton focused on experience and viewed that Sanders doesn’t have the numbers to make the policy a reality. Bernie Sanders believed that he has the policy judgment to make America better. Hillary Clinton viewed herself as the most qualified candidate to be President. On foreign policy, they are very similar. Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War. Both candidates believed in the Ukrainian dictatorship and the foreign policy of President Barack Obama (which included drone attacks, surveillance, and other reactionary actions). Hillary Clinton wasn’t as forthright in attacking Bernie Sanders as the last debate. She wanted to make distinctions between herself and other candidates. Hillary Clinton (who wanted to ally with an overt reactionary and war criminal like Henry Kissinger) said that Sanders is a single issue candidate, but anyone can witness that to be false. Both candidates made their points clear. I consider the debate a draw. Obviously, the Democratic and Republican parties are limited in what they promote. For example, the Democrats in their leadership talk about criminal justice reform, but they won’t advance a total end to the War on Drugs right now and replace it with alternatives focusing on treatment, ending all mandatory minimum laws, and other likeminded actions. Republicans talk about moral values, but all current GOP candidates now advance the anti-moral policies of waterboarding, anti-union policies, and other war mongering actions. History has shown that the worship of capitalism in any way doesn’t solve poverty, the corruption found in the mass incarceration state, health care problems, struggling schools, and police brutality at all. What is needed is a revolutionary change where all people can have true democratic power and the institutions of oppression are eliminated in the world. That’s change. South Carolina have a lot of African American democratic voters, so the debate featured candidates from the Democratic Party to wanted to appeal to black voters by talking about jobs, health care, housing, education, etc. People like Cyburn has supported Hillary Clinton and people like Harry Belafonte has supported Bernie Sanders. So, we shall see which Democratic candidate will win the South Carolina primary soon.
I read her (or Ciara's) statements and I'm not overtly upset. I do wish that she would have said more about black liberation movements and liberation politics. During these times, we should be educating our people on these matters of conscious issues. Then, if they refuse to open their eyes, then it is what it is. If people want to learn more information, then we should give them more information and inspiration. Me personally, I would condemn white supremacy and say the whole nine yards (in any interview) regardless of my fame or how much money that I made. That's just me. Also, Black Power is not just about what you say. It is about what you do. We need to not only speak truth to power. We need to advance policies that give black people great economic opportunities, universal health care, stronger schools, and an end to racial profiling plus an end to police brutality. We desire the poor and the proletariat to be liberated. We desire social justice and progressive solutions. Ciara's statements are not equivalent to the anti-black commentaries from Stacey Dash and Raven Symone, Ciara is not boycotting Beyonce either. So we have to put things into context. Ciara never condemned her or Beyonce's performance or video. Also, it is important to tell the truth in season and out of season. Whether people like it or not, we all have the responsibility to speak truth to power in private and in public. We have no time for expediency and we must take a position because it is right. At the end of the day, Ciara is not our enemy. We know who our real enemy is.
The racist backlash against Beyoncé is deplorable and it is overtly an attack not only on the Black Panther Party and Beyoncé. It is not so slick, blatant attack on black people's right to celebrate our black cultural heritage. Many times of the year, I saw Brothers and Sisters creatively perform in marching bands. Our dances, our foods, our rhythm, and our presence signify the diverse qualities of the black experience. These racist haters don't understand and they don't desire to understand blackness. They (when these extremists are filled with arrogance, hate, and total jealousy of black people) believe in the two myths of the infallibility of nearly all police and American exceptionalism. We should control our lives not the cops. The cops should never own or control our every move. We should live in the streets of America without cop oppression. We own ourselves as human beings. The police institution, the courts, and the prison system (which has ruined lives and violated the human rights of many people as documented by Sister Michelle Alexander and the late Brother George Jackson) perpetrate the same system of oppression against black people, people of color, the poor, immigrants, the homeless, women, etc. Also, we have the right to express ourselves as black people. I believe in Black Unity and in the power of Black Love too. These bigots don't know is that they are being used as pawns to promote divisiveness among people of every color (while the financial capitalist class are laughing all the way to the bank. Members of this same class are responsible for the Great Recession too. Class oppression must be fought against too). We believe in truths of black liberation and human cultural expression beyond the crippling limitations of respectability politics. They want to have a backlash. So, we will respond by increasing the volume and showing our dynamic, black image even more as Black is Beautiful.
*A'int nothing will turn us around as we are going into Freedomland. ☺
For a long time, we have heard one big myth. That myth is that we have to be "pragmatic" in order for us to get what we want. During the 19th century, the evil laws of the Fugitive Slave Act and the Missouri Compromise were formed in the realm of "pragmatism." Even some token laws were formed involving civil rights under the guise of "compromise." Yet, the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, and slave revolts are the antithesis of compromise. The Voting Rights Act (which repudiated racist nullification statues of bigots) was also the antithesis of pragmatism too. Our black ancestors never bled and died for the existence of pragmatism. They bled and fought for justice, so their descendants can live in a land filled with justice and social tranquility unequivocally. So, we tried the neoliberal pragmatism for decades in America. It doesn't work. We need revolutionary change where there is social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, and gender justice. We want to live in a society where there is not only living wages for all, but we want universal health care for all (which exists in many industrialized nations). People have the right to vote or support who they want. Yet, I have the right to disagree with the extremist foreign policy positions of Hillary Clinton. I also have the right to fight for change. We know that the Clinton campaign has many superdelegates in her corner. That is why political independence is important to advance as black people. The Clinton administration have been complicit in the bombing of a clinic in Sudan, in the Crime Bill, in supporting the death penalty, Hillary voted for the Iraq War, and the Clintons have advanced NAFTA including Bill Clinton supported Glass-Steagall. Hillary Clinton supported the disastrous NATO war in Libya, which devastated the nation too. Black Libyans suffered rape and murder by terrorists as a product of the NATO war crimes & the actions of terrorists in Libya.
For years, Ferguson has experienced discriminatory housing covenant policies, racism, economic inequality, and police brutality. The Ferguson City council talked about costs, but if they reigned in the cops many years ago (who were using racial biased policies and economically exploiting the citizens of Ferguson), then they wouldn't have to worry about costs in the first place. The most important point is to promote equity and human justice. There should be no price tag on the necessity to make sure that the human rights of the people of Ferguson are fully protected. Also, this year will be the 45th year anniversary of the rebellion in Attica. The rebellion involved prisoners fighting for their human rights and then being suppressed by cops using tear gas, assaults, and murder by the cops. Rockefeller and Nixon were complicit in the brutal treatment of the Attica prisoners. I saw the Eyes on the Prize documentary about Attica during the 1990's. One of the reasons why they rebelled in Attica was after the murder of George Jackson after he was shot in his back. After he was murdered, the prisoners in Attica fasted in protest. Then, the rebellion happened and the prisoners offered up legitimate grievances, but Rockefeller rejected it. Recently, documents recently revealed more abuse that the prisoners suffered back then. The BPP era was filled with repression and record amount of the abuse of prisoners.
By Timothy
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