The funeral of John Lewis at the Ebenezer Baptist Church was a final homecoming ceremony. It was filled with emotion, passionate speeches, and an urgency for progressive change from start to finish. Rev. Bernice King gave an eloquent sermon on how a redistribution of wealth and the promotion of justice remain a prerequisite for redeeming the soul of America. Her voice has the same eloquent force as his late father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has shown on numerous occasions. His staff member and his niece gave inspiring speeches about his personality, his commitment to nonviolence, and his humble spirit. Bush and Clinton voiced the length of his life story in terms of giving the audience the pictures about how he changed the world for the better. Fearlessness consumed his life from his protests at the bridge at Selma, Alabama to his Freedom Rides activism.
Barack Obama gave a speech that not only celebrated his glorious life. It was Obama expressing a call for eliminating voter suppression laws, eliminating the filibuster, and giving encouragement for the younger generation to carry the torch for liberty. Rev. James Lawson was a mentor to the late John Lewis. Lawson said the truth that the movement consisted of men and women working together in eliminating structures of oppression like racism, sexism, and plantation capitalism. Now, John Lewis' body is buried in the Earth. Today, he is having his eternal rest, but we wont rest until black people are free from police brutality, and racial oppression. We won't rest until economic inequality is gone, and health care is accessible for all people. We won't rest until we witness justice and true tranquility in the Universe.
During the funeral of John Lewis, Bill Clinton was slick. He tried to divide John Lewis and Kwame Ture by saying that John Lewis prevailed over the ideologies of Kwame Ture. You notice that he won't say such words about Bush and Obama when Clinton had disagreements with both men on various issues. Clinton is silent on how George Washington and his general didn't use nonviolence to defeat the Redcoats. The truth is that we, as black people, are entitled to sincerely have diverse views on our tactics, but we are unified in our goal (which is freedom, justice, and equality for black people). John Lewis and Kwame Ture were allies of SNCC. Kwame Ture and John Lewis disagreed on nonviolence. Ture said that nonviolence was a tactic not a way of life, while Lewis said that nonviolence was a way of life. These 2 views are sincere, but their ideologies shouldn't be used to diminish any man's contributions to the overall black freedom struggle. Kwame Ture wanted black self determination, Pan-Africanism, and the end to imperialism. John Lewis opposed the Vietnam War from the beginning, used civil disobedience, and loved freedom just as much as Ture did. Just because both men disagreed on some issues doesn't mean that they didn't respect each other. They did. Bill Clinton wants black people to follow his interpretation of how a movement ought to be (filled with just nonviolence alone without challenging the capitalist system in general via overt resistance), but black people have every right to establish the parameters of our own freedom movement. Clinton's disrespect of Kwame Ture is not unusual. Clinton (who is a known neo-liberal moderate) said that the civil rights movement went too far towards Kwame Ture, but end in the John Lewis prevailed. That was a lie. The movement went too far in the eyes of some. When Dr. King was in 1968, most Americans didn't agree with his Poor People's Campaign, his opposition to the evil Vietnam War, or his promotion of reparations for black Americans. Yet, Dr. King continued onward courageously. The movement just evolved to address more complex issues of economic inequality, educational disparities, and police brutality. The movement needed nonviolence as promoted by Lewis and self-defense as promoted by Kwame Ture (who have been beaten, was put in jail, and sacrificed for our freedom just like John Lewis). Self-defense and nonviolence are never evil. What is evil is capitulation to the status quo. Isn't it ironic that the Democratic moderates like Clinton praise moderation, but black freedom is never tied to centrism. From the slave revolts to the Black Panthers, black folks wanted to end systems of oppression in order to have a system of justice. Kwame Ture was Afro-Caribbean, so Tariq hypocritical self tries to praise Kwame Ture when Tariq is known to make derogatory comments about our Afro-Caribbean Brothers and Sisters (like this coward Tariq saying the following words on Twitter: "...Here comes foreign flag, oxtails,and jollof twitter"). Docility, compromise to the status quo, and neoliberalism are evils that has harmed black people for decades. That is why you need both nonviolence and self defense to have true change in the world. There is nothing wrong with black empowerment as black freedom is key to human freedom. We see you slick Willie, but your arguments have no mustard. In the final analysis, we want black liberation.
Beyonce wants to reveal the Black is King video music series on July 31, 2020. It has been praised and criticized. Beyonce is one of the most influential and talented musicians of the 21st century. 50 years ago in America, many schools promoted lies and stereotypes about Africa. Beyonce does a have a sincere intention in trying to show the beauty of Africa and Blackness. Also, it is important to realize that Africa is not monolithic. Africa is beautiful and diverse at the same time. There are hundreds of languages spoken, tons of cultures flourishing, and tons of advanced technologies found in places from Nigeria to South Africa. I feel that the Black is King movement should encourage anybody to research the nuisance and pluralism found in the continent. We certainly all agree that Africa is the Mother of humanity. We, as black people, have shown the world so many gifts from STEM fields, art, music, athletics, literature, politics, and other aspects of human civilization.The truth is plainly clear that we don't desire to be the world's mules. We desire to live triumphantly in our freedom and honor our black identities without apology and without compromise.
In living life, you learn lessons. We know about the division of labor. Items like cars cost more than a box of milk, because more intensive labor plus resources go into the creation of a car than a box of milk. This is part of the law of labor value. We know that economic inequality exists by many factors. Exploitation of the worker increases, the lower cost of labor power continues, and the extraction of the resources that the workers produced increase the power of the capitalists. That is why wealthy capitalists extracts a mass of surplus value from the working class a whole. In other words, the profit and wealth of the super rich is not the result of his or her own labor, but the labor of others (who are the workers). Once again, we witness how for over 4 decades in America, more and more of the oligarchy get wealth into the financial markets and use other methods to benefit the accounts of the super rich. During this coronavirus alone, we see how the American wealthy class have turned over trillions of dollars to Wall Street, multinational corporations, and large banks. This comes when people in many numbers risk evictions because of the elimination of the federal economic benefits. This system requires further exploitation of workers by working long hours with little pay. In the final analysis, the time of the least income inequality in American history was during the post World War II boom (from 1945-1975). In that period of time, there were social movements that wanted racial equality, economic justice, and human labor being strengthened. Massive laws dealing with civil rights, voting rights, health care, and the environment flourished. Back then, there was a long way to go like today. Wealth should be shared fairly not centralized into the hands of the few.
By Timothy
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