From the Archives: Plato Negro on Oakland's Need for Radical Spirituality

Plato Negro on Oakland's Need for Radical Spirituality
We know the spirit world is beyond color, therefore we must pray for all those slaughtered on the streets of Oakland, whether police or citizens. It is indeed sad when officers of the peace are unable to secure the peace of a community, but often become brute beasts in blue uniforms. And in return the citizens must become beasts in self defense, especially when they are already under stress from lacking the necessities of life: jobs, food, clothing and shelter, a stable family environment wherein they can evolve from animal to spiritual consciousness.

When violence becomes the order of the day, when the community is mortally afraid of those employed to protect them, when the citizens resort to violence in interpersonal relations, then that society is not of Divine, but is existing on the animal plane, the lowest level of existence, and yet we pretend to be civilized. We act like violent savages at the drop of a hat, the glance of an eye; we are ready to kill, slaughter each other often without the slightest cause, rhyme or reason.

In my 1968 interview with James Baldwin, he said, "It's a wonder we haven't all gone stark raving mad." Jimmy, I submit 40 years after your statement, we indeed have now gone stark raving mad. The streets of Oakland are no place to be somebody; they are on par with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Mexico, where violence rules the day and every man must be conscious of his surroundings and behavior at any time.

West Oakland Elders at Bobby Hutton Park

The politicians and police are not the only ones to blame, but the entire community. We have churches on every corner yet there is something lacking in their spiritual message, something is lost in translation from pulpit to congregation to street. How can such massive violence exist in a Christian society or Muslim society for that matter? Why is there so little spiritual transformation evident in the people? The prosperity consciousness in religiosity theology these days only leads to conspicuous consumption that has led us to the present precipice.

Shall we continue in our madness until we slip over the cliff, until we are consumed by our own vomit? Someone, anyone, step forward and show us the light, the path, the way, for we have become a headless monster, a car without a driver; clearly the politicians cannot solve this conundrum of our lives, the educators are lost in perpetuating the world of make believe called white supremacy. Our economic leaders are lost in their shoestrings, trying to revive a decadent and dying free market capitalist system based on greed, cheap labor and cheap resources.

They are determined to ignore their own people in a global conspiracy of pyramid and Ponzi schemes which is the essence of international finance. All brother Mixon (who killed four police) wanted was a job. And the tragedy is that there are desperate men and women like him throughout the streets of Oakland, men and women who will find no job and become mad enough to follow his act of desperation and despair.

The police had a job watching him. His parole officer had a job watching him. His prison officials had a job securing him. Was he some sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered for all except himself? No wonder his desperation and despair, no wonder his feelings of nothingness and dread. No wonder his spirituality was crushed to the earth, making him a beast of prey, willing to do the ultimate to escape the jails and prison, the American gulag, the neo slavery plantations that exist throughout this nation, wherein the commodity is the souls and bodies of men and women.

Up from Slavery, Up from Ignut, up from the animal plane to the Divine. Throw off the shackles of mental slavery that permits us to claim the gun as our savior, the panacea for all that ills our community, when in reality it is only putting on the armor of God that will elevate us out of the dungeon of wickedness and despair.

The churches must teach a new way, the schools must teach a new way, discarding that primitive, out of date white supremacy curriculum that over fifty per cent of our children are intelligent enough to reject outright for its abject meaningless absurdity.

The churches are empty, especially of young men because the message does not touch their spiritual consciousness. They are too smart to be pimped by pimps in the pulpit. The brothers at the barber shop asked me, "OG, what's the difference between the pimp and the preacher?" I replied, "The difference is that the preacher has more whores."

As Brother Fritz Pointer noted, we can and must police ourselves, the police must be from our community, not living in Dublin, Tracy and Livermore. These are foreigners who have no love for our community. They are here to enforce white supremacy, white privilege and white power. And nothing shall change but go from bad to worse until the fundamental order is radically restructured. Sun Ra taught me, "The Creator got things fixed, you can't go forward or backward until you do the right thing."

So do the right thing, Oakland, the eyes of the world are on you at this hour, as it has been in the past when you raised up with the Black Panther Party to check the power of brute beasts in blue uniforms.

This time around, know that we have a problem that is not physical but spiritual, for when we put on the armor of God no one can touch us. Didn't Hammer tell us, "You can't touch this"? Those of you who don't believe in spirituality continue down the physical path when we know the end of this path.

Look at America at this hour drowning from excessive belief in the physical and material things of life, while none of this path has brought joy, peace and happiness to this world. As I look around Houston, Texas at the mansions owned by black people, at the same time I see the numerous hospitals here to heal those sick from the trappings of materialism, the mental stress, the cancer and other diseases caused by excessive belief in the physical things of life, while we know our health is our wealth.

What good are these mansions if we act like nigguhs inside, if the women are in golden handcuffs, abused, neglected and depressed, on the verge of suicide? We consume, consume, consume, and yet there is never enough. Our closets are full of trinkets we never take out of the bag, with the tags on them because they were wanted but not needed.

And yet there is enough to go around but we dare share, we dare give away anything, but hoard for dear life as though there will be no tomorrow. When we do not reach out to men like Mixon, we see the result, it is no mystery the desperation of his heart, the poverty of his dreams for simple things, basic survival in a land of plenty. Continue to deny his generation and await the Calamity.

To avoid the Calamity we must embrace the Religion of the Heart or spirituality, beyond churches, temples, mosques; simply recognize our spiritual essence, beyond the physical and material. What is the use of violence when the end of all wars is political discussion or diplomacy. Whether national or personal violence in the home, at the end of the day we want to talk, have a discussion, admit our wrongs, make reparations. Then why all the violence when ultimately we must do as Isaiah taught, "Reason together."

March 24, 2009