Friday News in late August 2017.

Political Independence means that we are black people who are aware that our allegiance isn’t to any political party. It is an allegiance to the black community and to black people internationally. We know about the imperfections of the Republicans and the Democrats. That is why we believe that our ideologies and our intellectual power are based on free thinking, human autonomy, and independence. Many white and black conservatives have promoted numerous political lies recently. One lie is that liberalism is responsible for poverty, police brutality, educational issues, and other problems in the black community. The truth is that the reforms from the New Deal, the New Frontier, and the Great Society caused some positive results. Poverty was cut in half from 1960 to 1970. There was the growth of black people in college and many occupations during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The problem was that the problems in the black community weren’t caused by liberalism, but by neoliberalism, capitalist exploitation, and reactionary policies executed by both Democratic and Republican politicians. During the 1970's, corporate elites used deregulation and massive cutbacks on social programs which caused an increase of income inequality and poverty in many communities of America. One example is that during the Reagan years, many Democratic mayors allowed austerity policies upon urban communities. These austerity policies have harmed many lives. Austerity deals with investment cutsand that is antithetical of progressive policies. Also, many Republicans harmed the black community with the War on Drugs, mandatory minimum sentences, and other massive social program cuts in many black communities. Supply side economics obviously doesn’t work. That form of economics has crippled many families and many people for years and decades. Supply side economics is not part of a liberal economic philosophy at all. Another lie is that far right wing people claim that black people must be Republicans in order to escape a “Democratic plantation.” That is false for many reasons. One is that to compare one’s political choice to a plantation (where people were raped, murdered, abused, and whipped) makes a mockery of slavery and the experiences of our black ancestors. Many Democratic politicians from Clinton to Obama have spoken to middle of the road concepts of discipline and respectability politics (of bootstrapping) in their speeches. Also, black people have the right to believe in what we want. We will not be intimidated to join a far right movement that seeks to strip rights instead of giving people their rightful human rights. Also, we have the right to reject imperialism and war mongering which many Republicans and many Democrats advance. So, we (as black people) should think for ourselves.


Jeff Sessions is the 84th Attorney General of America. He is a Trump supporter since the beginning of his campaign. He is from Alabama. By during the 1980’s, he failed to be nominated to a federal district court. The reason was that he was opposed by progressives and civil rights activists like from the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and People for the American Way. Back then, Sessions slandered the NAACP and the ACLU as un-American and Communist inspired (and they forced civil rights down the throats of people, which is ludicrous and racist). Thomas Figures, a black Assistant U.S. Attorney, testified that Sessions said he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked pot.” Back then, Coretta Scott King, who was the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose the nomination of Sessions. By 1986, he was not nominated. He became an Alabama Attorney General and an U.S. Senator. He was very conservative as a Senator. We know that he met and discussed information with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Before, he was the U.S. Attorney General, many people opposed him. NAACP President Cornell William Brooks was arrested at a January 2017 sit in after he protested the nomination. As Attorney General, Session has shown blatant extremism. He wants to review consent decrees (that expose police terrorism in communities nationwide). He has ordered federal prosecutors to seek the greatest criminal charges possible. Sessions endorses the War on Drugs. He opposes fights to end voting rights restrictions. He wants mandatory sentencing to exist. On July 19, 2017, Sessions signed an order reviving federally adopted civil asset forfeiture, which allows local law enforcement to bypass state limitations on seizing the property of those suspected but not charged of crimes. He opposes compassion shown to undocumented immigrants. He omits the epidemic of police terrorism. He supported the Trump travel ban. He wants to prosecute people who provide even medical marijuana. This is not unusual since he is one of the most reactionary politicians in America. He even opposed legislation (when he was a Senator in the U.S. Congress) banning the U.S. military from engaging in torture. The amendment passed. He is opposed to many environmental regulations. Sessions endorsed the Supreme Court decision to gut parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and he supports voter suppression Voter ID laws. Therefore, Jeff Sessions represents the extremism found also in the Trump regime.



The Resistance to opposing the Trump regime is diverse and large. Black people have headed the resistance since the beginning. The 2017 Women’s March existed in January 21-22, 2017. It was the single largest protest in American history. The leaders of this march were Tamika D. Mallory (who is a black woman. She recently opposed the backlash against the courageous actions of Kaepernick), Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez, and Bob Bland. About 500,000 marched in Washington, D.C. About 4.6 million people protested in America and up to 5 million people protested worldwide. The marchers were about opposing an administration whose agenda is the suppression of the human rights of people worldwide. Many of these marchers protested in favor of women’s rights, racial equality, immigrant rights, healthcare solutions, environmental justice, the freedom of religion, LGBTQ rights, workers’ rights, and an end to Islamophobia. They came out in the streets after the inauguration of Donald Trump. The Washington March was streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Many people stood up in Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Antarctica. Many people marched in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle. Tamika D. Mallory was one black woman who was a leader of the march. She made it clear that the concerns of black people have the right to be heard. The march wanted to promote social justice and human rights. She is a political organizer and former executive director of the National Action Network. Linda Sarsour is the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York and Carmen Perez is an executive director of the political action group The Gathering for Justice. Bob Bland is a fashion designer who focuses on ethical manufacturing. The march wanted to build bridges and not walls. Many speakers were there in Washington, D.C. to give their views. In July 2017, the Women's March official twitter feed celebrated the birthday of Assata Shakur, an African-American revolutionary, who was falsely accused of murder and lives her life in Cuba. Also, many people have opposed the Trump regime in boycotts, protests, organizing, and other efforts after the Women’s March.


There were many African Americans in the Cabinet of the Obama administration from 2009 to 2017. Eric Holder was the first black Attorney General in American history. The first black woman Attorney General was Loretta Lynch. Both human beings were superbly qualified and dealt with a diversity of issues from legal cases to issues of police brutality (including the criminal justice system). Jeff Johnson was the first black Secretary of Homeland Security in history. John King Jr. was the Secretary of Education. Anthony Foxx was the Secretary of Transportation. Valerie Jarrett was a key advisor in the Obama administration. She has been a long supporter of the Obama family and a businesswoman. She was Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. Susan Rice was Obama’s National Security Advisor. Her expertise dealt with the complexities of foreign policy affairs. Deesha Dyer was the Special Assistant to the President and Social Secretary.  Ashley Allison was the Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement. Ashley Etienne was the Special Assistant to President and Cabinet Communications Director.

Sometimes, you have to mention things that makes people feel uncomfortable. It hurts my heart to mention these facts since I do have respect both men, but you have to show the truth in season and out of season. I wanted to write about them earlier, but I delayed it since I thought about whether this was the right thing to do. Yet, I recall that it is right to show the truth regardless. Andrew Young made really wrong statements on his Meet on Press interview. He said that most of the issues now relate to poverty and accuses people of putting everything in a racial context. He made the shocking words of saying that he has difficulty blaming the Klan since they are mostly poor and they are "forgotten Americans." The person who used a car to kill an innocent woman and injured others was a white supremacist. He is wrong since most of the Klan types in that Charlottesville rally weren't poor. They were mostly middle class and upper class white people. Most Klan members are middle class and most white supremacists in America aren't poor. Many of them are professors, business owners, and bankers. We must deal with race and class not just class. White racists hate us (who are black) not because of progress per se. They hate us believe they believe in the lie of racism. Then, Andrew Young called black "militants" chicken. Frankly, that was a shot not only on BLM, but on our heroes like Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, etc. The truth is that black people, who used self defense, or spoke of militancy never were chicken. Many black people in Cambridge, Maryland, St. Augustine, Florida, and Louisiana used weapons to defend their communities (with guns) against racist terrorists back during the 1960's. The Deacons of Defense and Robert F. Williams used weapons in the South long before the Panthers. So, people who used nonviolence alone or self defense back then or today aren't chicken. They are heroes. Young seems to equate black people desiring liberation with "putting down white people" which is ludicrous. I don't have sympathy with Klan terrorists who abused and murdered black men, women, and children. Dr. King said that Andrew Young was more conservative than he was. George Foreman recently criticized Kevin Durant for not wanting to met with Trump and Kaepernick for refusal to stand up for the national anthem (created by a racist slave owner). I disagree with him. Also, Foreman called Trump a good President. Foreman is wrong since Trump has promoted militarism, defended a convicted felon (who abused the rights of people in Arizona. His name is Joe Arpaio), and defends Confederate statues on public lands. When I get very older in my 60's, I will never shed my core convictions. I will still maintain them.

By Timothy