Generations have existed throughout the ages of time. They have massive differences historically and culturally. Thought patterns, social movements, and other forms of inventions are diverse over the course of time. Yet, there are some similarities among generations too. Each generation has people who care about the oppressed, each generation dealt with family connections, and each generation confronted many evils in order to try to make the society reach its highest aspirations. It doesn't matter what generation folks live in, we all have that responsibility to advance liberty and justice for all. At the end of the day, we want our descendants to live in a better world than in the past and the present. I'm an older Millennial as I'm almost 40 years old in 2022. Some get confused about the definition or length of time that a generation may consist of. A generation can span about 20 years or so. In a generation, you typically find people in that generation have many commonalities with folks in other generations. The Greatest Generation saw WWII. The Greatest Generation saw jazz plus swing music, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the old school Age of Hollywood. The Silent Generation makes up of those who were leaders in the early Civil Rights Movement. They saw McCarthyism, the Cold War, and the increased usage of nuclear technology. Baby Boomers were leaders of Counterculture and the anti-Vietnam War Movement. Baby Boomers saw a massive increase in educational opportunities as colleges plus universities were massively cheaper back then. Generation X was heavily made up of latch key kids, people being entrepreneurial, and saw angst plus a musical revolution (with BET, the Box, and MTV)). They saw the rise of the AIDS epidemic, the increase of video games and personal computers, and the start of the popularization of the Internet). My Generation of the Millennials witnessed recessions, 9/11, the 1990's, hip hop being the dominant musical genre, and the growth of the movement against police brutality. My generation saw the rise of social media, the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular usage of cell phones, and a childhood filled with Internet technology. Generation Z is the first generation to see Tik Tok, other social media accounts, and a youthful movement of self-expression. Generation Z was born with cell phone technology, they are some of the young people who witnessed the COVID-19 pandemic, and many of them are young activists on social issues. Generation Alpha is the first generation in human history to be born into smartphone technology, and they are forming their own legacies as I write these words. Generation Alpha is the first generation born entirely in the 21st century. They never saw the 20th century. Therefore, we have to appreciate the resiliency of human culture and do our parts to establish that human liberation that we all deserve.
A lot of people don't know that Malcolm X and Jackie Robinson had tensions with each other ideologically. It became so personal that both men never truly reconciled at the end. It's sad, but it's real. Jackie Robinson underestimated Malcolm X's revolutionary politics, his courage, and his will to change to be more progressive. Malcolm X underestimated Jackie Robinson's persistent motivation for equality and justice for black people. Both misunderstood each other which caused tensions in the first place. The irony is that both men would have more agreements than disagreements as time would go on. To understand how this existed, we have to look at historical events chronologically. Malcolm X at first respected Jackie Robinson. He listened to the radio on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson was on the field as the first African American in the MLB since Reconstruction. Malcolm X would later reject his previous surname to be a follower of the religion of Islam. Malcolm X said that he was a great fan of Jackie Robinson in his "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." Malcolm X's brother, Philbert, inspired him to join the Nation of Islam. Years later, Malcolm X would be the most powerful speaker of the NOI, and Jackie Robinson would retire from baseball. By 1963, Malcolm X and Jackie Robinson would massively disagree on many issues. Malcolm X back then from 1953 to 1964 was in the Nation of Islam. Back then, he preached black nationalism and a separate black state to try to escape white racist society. Even when Malcolm X was in the Nation of Islam, he spoke the truth about being against imperialism, fighting police brutality, endorsing self-defense, and appreciating black identity.
Jackie Robinson disagreed with NOI leadership calling white people devils. Robinson rejected separatism by his own words, "“Malcolm X and his organization believe in separation. They have every right to. If they want to go off into some all-black community, why don’t they just go.” – Jackie Robinson, The Chicago Defender ( July 13, 1963).
Jackie Robinson and Malcolm X fought for the same goal of black liberation, but they disagreed with the approaches on achieving the same aim. Robinson believed in integration. He supported Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X, when he was in the NOI, believed in separatism, not integration or Jim Crow apartheid (i.e. segregation). Malcolm X said that segregation relegated black people to 2nd class citizenship which is true. Malcolm X regularly criticized the U.S. government for its lax response to eliminate anti-black racism, and he criticized black leaders that whom he didn't agree with as "Uncle Toms." Jackie Robinson considered the Nation of Islam as a group that would harm the essence of the civil rights movement. He voiced his criticisms in public and in the column in the New Journal and Guide, a weekly African American news journal including The Chicago Defender. Robinson disagreed with Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and accused him of wanting people to boycott the NAACP and support Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X criticized white liberals as trying to co-opt the black freedom movement to make it lose its radical or revolutionary flavor. Elijah Muhammad told Malcolm X to not retaliate after girls were killed in Birmingham, Alabama and the police in LA murdered a NOI member. This increased the split among Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Dr. King was egged in Harlem, NYC. Malcolm X accused Robinson of selling out, and Robinson accused Malcolm X of promoting self-destruction for black people. The war of the words would continue and be increasingly personal.
Civil rights icon Medgar Evers was murdered in an assassination on June 12, 1963, at his driveway at Jackson, Mississippi. The murderer was Byron De La Beckwith. Malcolm X didn't attend Evers' funeral. Jackie Robinson criticized Malcolm X by saying that he was militant on Harlem street corners but not in the South where white racist terrorism ran rampant. Malcolm X criticized Ralph Bunche as a puppet of international Western elites, but Robinson praised Dr. Bunche for attending the funeral of Medgar Evers. Malcolm X responded in a speech saying that Robinson was an ex-baseball player and criticized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Malcolm X criticized Robinson's ties and support for Richard Nixon, and his other policies. Malcolm X said that "If my integrity or sincerity is to be measured in your eyesight by attendance at funerals of Negroes who have been murdered by whites, if you should ever meet with such misfortune I promise to attend your funeral. Then, perhaps you will be able to see me in a different light. If you should ever become as militant on behalf of your oppressed people as Medgar Evers was, the same whites whom you now take to be your friends will be the first to put the bullet or the dagger in your back, just as they put it in the back of Medgar Evers.”
Robinson would criticize Malcolm X as a racist. Malcolm X was suspended from the NOI for his remarks about the JFK assassination. Robinson talked about Elijah Muhammad too. By 1964, Muhammad Ali defeated Sonny Liston. Malcolm X supported Ali. Malcolm X said this about Muhammad Ali: "He is more than Jackie Robinson was, because Robinson is the white man’s hero. But Cassius is the black man’s hero.” Months later, Malcolm X came to his Hajj. He transformed after coming to Mecca. He rejected the view that every white person was exclusively evil, but he believed in self-defense and black liberation. Jackie Robinson was shocked and astonished by the transformed Malcolm X. “In my view, if Malcolm were sincere and honest in his new visions,” Robinson wrote in The Chicago Defender on July 18, 1964, “he would reflect on how harshly and unjustly he has belittled and sought to discredit our national responsible leaders who have been working in the struggle for so long.” Malcolm X was forming his Organization of Afro-American Unity advancing international Pan-Africanism. Muhammad Ali rejected Malcolm X, because Malcolm X soon criticized Elijah Muhammad (and accused him of adultery which angered tons of NOI members). Malcolm X heroically changed further by opposing the Vietnam War, standing up for equality for women, and being against imperialism. Later, he was assassinated on February 21, 1965. Muhammad Ali regretted never having the time to reconcile with Malcolm X. Jackie Robinson expressed his views on the death of Malcolm X in these terms in the March 1965 column for The Chicago Defender, "But, in making him a martyr, they have only deepened whatever influence he may have had. In addition, they have generated a senseless brutal … war which sees black hands raised against brothers at a time when we most need unity among black people.” Jackie Robinson considered the death of Malcolm X a tragedy. If both would have spoke by 1965, they could have found common ground. Malcolm X found common ground with many people. Both black men were heroic freedom fighters who wanted the best for black people collectively.
It is no secret that many high-level banking interests enabled Hitler and the Nazis. They supported the Nazis, because they were far-right extremists who hated communism and wanted no massive rights for workers. For example, the German industrial cartel I.G. Farben aided the Nazis. Antony C. Sutton in his book called, "Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler" documented how German bankers and other American banking interests aided the Nazis Empire. We know about IBM and the computing system that the Nazis used to facilitate the Holocaust. Adam LeBor wrote an article entitled, "How bankers helped the Nazis" for The Sydney Morning Herald on August 1, 2013, detailing how the BIS worked with many Nazis. According to John Strausbaugh, the author of the book Victory City, A History Of New York and New Yorkers During World War II, “Via the BIS, the American and British bankers would maintain a mostly secret friendship with their Nazi and Japanese counterparts straight through World War II while thousands and thousands of American and British men in uniform were being killed and maimed in the fight to defeat the Nazis and Japanese.” The leader of the BIS was a Wall Street banker named Thomas McKittrick. During World War II BIS received gold as interest payments from the German Reichstag which later investigations showed had been looted from the central banks of Belgium and the Netherlands. Between 1933 and 1945 the BIS board of directors included Walther Funk, a prominent Nazi official, and Emil Puhl responsible for processing dental gold looted from concentration camp victims, as well as Hermann Schmitz, the director of IG Farben, and Baron von Schroeder, the owner of the J.H. Stein Bank [de], all of whom were later convicted of war crimes or crimes against humanity.
For the eons of time, music has existed. Music is one major soundtrack of our human lives from celebrating graduation to experiencing the joy of weddings. Today, we live in a new period of time filled with crisis and hope. An unjust war in Ukraine continues to exist, and we must have the same spirit of love of justice. In our time, music is massively available from streaming services, STEM devices, and to YouTube. This new series is about the history of rock and pop. Rock came from the jazz and blues being found in the Deep South. To fully be attuned to the essence of American music, anyone has to comprehend the multifaceted styles of jazz and blues (Artists like Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstong, and Lena Horne established a glorious legacy that modern musicians follow). Pop encompasses many genres of music, and it was modernized by the 1930's and the 1940's. This work will not demonize every form of music as irredeemably wicked, but it would deify individual artists either. It will show the real facts as they are without compromise or political correctness. Musicians like Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, U2, REM, Beyonce, The Beatles, Muni Long, Rosetta Sharpe, Arrested Development, and other groups will be mentioned in this series. The concerts, the lyrics, the entourage, and the controversies signify much of the cultural landscape of rock and pop. Subsequently, music deals with history and the many political plus social changes in our world. It is no secret that some of the local police (including some in the NYPD), the FBI, and other agencies have harassed or monitored musicians who called for progressive political change on the Earth (as proven by John Potash and other scholars). Now, it is time to present the truth, stand on justice, and evaluate many genres conclusively.
2022 has been a year to remember so far. Both positive and negative changes have existed. One thing remains clear. That point is that we must be in favor of the side of history. In America and throughout the world, we have witnessed massive opponents of democracy gaining power or enacting unjust laws that harm the democratic rights of the people. The Republican Party is not only far-right extremist now as it's controlled by Donald Trump plus other bigots. It is a party that embraces open neo-fascists who believe in the myth that the 2020 election was stolen. The Supreme Court has many members who believe that justice must exist for some people, not for all people. Some members of the court embrace the archaic concept of originalism. It doesn't make sense, because society evolves and the expansion of human rights against oppression is a blessing, not a detriment to human social progress. The Constitution is clear that new rights from social, economic, and scientific progress have the right to exist via Congress passing laws (and the Supreme Court making sure that rights are protected). Trump is so extreme, that according to Mike Esper, Trump wanted to attack Mexico without due cause. Tyrants like Putin not only promote propaganda from Russia Today. RT boss Simonyan see nuclear war as the likely outcome of a Russian defeat. Fascism is a global problem, and it must be defeated in the 21st century indeed.
Donald Earl Whitaker was my first cousin who lived from July 31, 1954, at Scotland Neck, North Carolina to February 17, 2017. His parents are Thomas Lee Whitaker Sr. (b. 1931) and Carrie Bell D. (1931-1979). Donald and I share the same ancestor of Adam D. (b. 1862). Donald Earl Whitaker married Lenora Antoinette Russell (1956-2000) on December 9, 1977, at Greensville, Virginia. They divorced on May 5, 1981, in Halifax, North Carolina. Donald Whitaker later married Sylvia Ann Bradley (1954-2011). Donald Earl Whitaker was a veteran who served his country in the U.S. Army. His children are Tyronda Shawnee Whitaker, Jamonte Bradley, Marlon Neko Whitaker, Tamara Ballard, Earl Mills, and Tyrek Wilson. Donald's brother is Thomas Lee Whitaker Jr. (b. 1949) of Virginia Beach, Virginia. He had 13 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, and many relatives and friends. Carrie Bell Doggett's parents are Adam D. (b. 1862) and Nancy Reynolds (1888-1982).
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