Now Available from Black Bird Press

Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the devil,

a memoir by Marvin X

2009

"The funniest book of 2009. The more you know about black history, the funnier it is!"

--Dr. James Garrett

A BSU founder, San Francisco State University

Send $19.95 to Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702

Neocolonialism:

Third World Conference at UC Berkeley

The revisionist neocolonial elite students and faculty at UC Berkeley are celebrating the forty years since the Third World Strike to establish Black and Ethnic Studies. While the theme is decolonialism, it appears from the program outline that the black students and faculty who led the struggle for human rights at UCB have been marginalized and all other ethnic and gender groups are playing a major role. While we know blacks have indeed been marginalized at UCB in general, we would not expect an event to celebrate the struggle for human rights would exclude them so blatantly as to downplay the significant and critical role black students played in awakening ethnic and gender consciousness at UCB and nationwide in academia.

After blacks initiated the struggle for academic liberation by calling for the establishment of black studies, other ethnic and gender groups joined in and rode the bandwagon to gain a foothold in white academia. Yes, other ethnic groups were along side blacks as they spearheaded the fight, but the black role in igniting radical consciousness was critical and fundamental. To celebrate without them is like having a party without inviting the cook to join in, leaving her/him in the kitchen.

It has always been my view that blacks will find themselves on the bottom rung of the multicultural ladder when uniting with their socalled third world comrades, thus I maintain a nationalist position first, any other unity is secondary. Otherwise we shall end up diluted, polluted and excluded, as we see at this socalled Third World Celebration to supposedly continue the push for the decolonization of the university.

We know that reactionaries have had forty years to entrench themselves in ethnic studies, to gain tenure and exclude radicals from representation in departments they struggled to establish. This happened nationwide, so UC Berkeley is not an isolated case. But even the reactionary blacks have been outflanked by other minorities, whether Native American, Latino, Asian, Gay/Lesbian, Women, handicapped, etc. These other minorities have conspired with the administrations to eliminate or incapacitate black or African American studies. They have sided with the administration or led the charge that Afro-centrincism was a bogus concept without academic merit. San Francisco State University is an example.

Having worked at UC Berkeley as a researcher in the School of Criminology under Dean Lohman,1964, and lectured in Black Studies, 1972, we are fully aware of how the university purged radical scholars in black studies and brought in handpicked uncle toms to dilute any semblance of radicalism. Although academically qualified, Miller Lite scholars have been present ever since the Bill Banks running dog black studies department replaced the original radical scholars.

It is laughable to hear talk of decolonialism when reactionary professors have had forty years to truly implement an ideology of black national consciousness in academia. Instead they drifted into the otherworldism (Dr. Nathan Hare term) of Pan Africanism and Diaspora Studies, clearly a diversion from the original mission of focusing on the problems of North American Africans, though this is not to be unconcerned with our brothers and sisters throughout the diaspora. It is to make clear the original mission.

With the mission aborted, we see the consequence with the abysmal lack of black males in academia, yet the prison population is full to capacity with them. The cost of housing them annually in prison is more than it would cost for them to Attend UCB, Stanford, Harvard and Yale.

No doubt it was stress and the disconnection from community that caused the untimely death of three brilliant professors at UC Berkelely, namely Barbara Christian, June Jordan and VeVe Clark. UC San Diego lost professor Sherley A. Williams. When Sherley transitioned, Dr. William H. Grier, co-author of Black Rage, told his son, Geoffrey, to tell me Sherley died from the hostile environment at UC San Diego. Indeed, Sherley used to complain to me often about the stress she was under dealing with her racist pseudo-liberal white women colleagues in the English Department.

But we know the stress of collaborating with the colonialists can cause disease, especially when persons have cut off their connection with community. Of course, whenever the crisis reaches a critical point, the tenured negroes reach out to community for help and recite the original mission of black studies--to be integrally connected and directed from community.

The marginalized conference on decolonialism is remarkable in its exclusion of African Americans, but having been conscious of the progress of inclusion on campus since we were employed there in 1964, it is indeed sad to see blacks disappear yet other minorities replace them in great numbers. Of course we credit the supreme reactionary Ward Connolly for part of the dearth in the black presence. But again, Ward had his predecessors in reaction and they must be archived as such, led by Dr. William H. Banks, as much a sellout negro as Ward Connolly.

Perhaps the nature of the celebration is simply the chickens coming home to roost. And being an old farm boy from Fresno, it doesn't make me sad. We don't expect any substantial decolonialism under the present circumstances. Indeed, we have created a new colonial elite of ethnic students who obviously have a form of myopia that has not allowed them to include the founders of radical student struggle at UC Berkeley and elsewhere. We should blame their elders, not students who have a revised history of academic struggle, if not the black liberation struggle in general, either by the sin of omission or blatant disregard for the facts on the ground.

It is indeed an insult to those African American students who struggled at UCB. I'm thinking of BSU leaders such as Frank Jenkins, Umtu (Gerald Rice, RIP), Fahizah Alim, Nisa Ra, Sonny James, Betty Bromfield, Carl Mack, Lothario Lotho, et al.

Further, if it were not for the literature of the Black Arts Movement, there would probably be no ethnic literature in academia, for BAM awakened the consciousness of other ethnic and gender groups, yet where is BAM literature taught in a substantial manner? When Amiri Baraka read at the UCB Holloway Poetry Series, the Asian student who introduced him was totally ignorant the Black Arts Movement had a key West coast component with myself and Ed Bullins as founders of Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco.

The decolonization of the university cannot happen while the students themselves are yet colonized or shall we say neo-colonialized, for we were the first group of domestic colonials to enter major white universities. We made an attempt to dismantle the university/corporate complex, but as with the liberation movement in general, that effort was aborted. So the task awaits this generation to either execute the plan or collaborate with the reactionaries within their own ranks and within the university/corporate complex.

--Marvin X

2-12/10

See Teaching Black Studies at the University Of California, Berkeley: A Case Study Of Marvin X and the Afro-American Studies Program by Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Contra Costa College Abstract. http://www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com/

See also What Happened to My Black Studies Department, Cecil Brown, retired UCB professor.

The archives of Marvin X are in the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. His many books include How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, A Pan African/12 Step Model, Black Bird Press,Berkeley, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Allah El.

Teaching Black Studies at the University Of California, Berkeley:

A Case Study Of Marvin X and the Afro-American Studies Program

by Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Contra Costa College Abstract

This paper presents a case study of Marvin X and his experiences teaching Black studies at the University of California, Berkeley during the 1970s. Using in-depth interviews and archival research, this paper focuses on the status and role of Marvin X as a member of the faculty in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. This paper also details some of the successes and problems encountered by Marvin X at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, this paper addresses some implications of Marvin X’s lecturer status at the University of California, Berkeley.

Introduction
During the 1960s, many programs and departments in Black Studies emerged within academia. Unlike the programs and departments in African Area Studies, the programs and departments , and White corporations. On the other hand, Black Studies entered the curricula primarily through the efforts of Black students, Black faculty, and concerned members of various Black communities (Cromartie, 1993).
The first Black Studies Program to emerge during the 1960s developed at Merritt College with Fritz Pointer as the first chairman. Among the students who led the struggle to establish the program at Merritt College were Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and their friend Marvin X. The first Black Studies Department to emerge during the 1960s at a four-year college or university took place at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) with Nathan Hare as the first chairman. Marvin X also played a role in the struggle for Black Studies at San Francisco State although he was out of the state ( underground in Harlem, Chicago, Toronto as a protest against the war in Vietnam) during the landmark 1968 strike (X, 1998; Brown, 2004; Cromartie, 1993).

Eventually, Marvin X taught at a number of institutions with fledging programs or departments in Black Studies. Between 1969 and 1982, which was a crucial period in the institutionalization of Black Studies, he taught Black Studies and other courses (English, drama, journalism, technical writing, creative writing, radio and television writing) at Fresno State College (now Fresno State University); University of California, Berkeley; San Francisco State; Mills College; University of Nevada, Reno; Laney College; and Kings River Community College (X, 1998).

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of Marvin X and his experiences with teaching Black studies at the University of California, Berkeley during the 1970s. Making use of in-depth interviews and archival research, this paper will focus on the status and role of Marvin X as a member of the faculty in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. This paper will also detail some of the successes and problems encountered by Marvin X at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, this paper will address some implications of Marvin X‘s lecturer status at the University of California, Berkeley.

Status and Role of Marvin X at the University of California, Berkeley

During the early 1970s, Marvin X was contracted as a lecturer in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. At the time, the Afro-American Studies Program was one of several programs in the Ethnic Studies Department. The other programs in the Ethnic Studies Department included Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies, and Native American Studies (Wang, 1997).1

Marvin X was hired to teach a course titled Afro-American Studies 168 Black Theatre. The Supplementary Announcements to the Schedule and Directory and the General Catalogue Fall Quarter, 1971 (University of California, Berkeley, 1971) announced ―Afro-American Studies 168 Black Theatre‖ as a new course and described it as follows: Three hours lecture and two hours laboratory per week. Prerequisites–knowledge of black history, culture, and philosophy. Designed to give students practical and theoretical knowledge of black plays and rituals. Students will study and perform the works of black playwrights, and other black drama groups to do a comparative analysis. Black playwrights, actors, and directors will be invited to class for a discussion of their work. Students with original writings will be able to have their works read and discussed in class. (p. 1)

The Supplementary Announcements to the Schedule and Directory and the General Catalogue Fall Quarter, 1971 indicated that the course would be taught by ―Mr. Muhajir, which was a non de plume of Marvin X.

As a lecturer in the Afro-American Studies Department, the role of Marvin X was to teach students who enrolled in the course. In an interview conducted with him on March 8, 2009, Marvin X informed the present writer that he taught the course partially on the campus and partially in San Francisco at a place he founded called Black Educational Theatre. Marvin X also reported to the present writer that he could not recall when he taught his first course at the University of California, Berkeley. He expressed that his first course may have been offered in the fall 1971 quarter, winter 1972 quarter, or the spring 1972 quarter. However, on May 28, 2009, Nisa Ra, one of his former students in the course, told the present writer that she took Marvin X‘s class in the fall 1971 quarter. In addition, during the March 8, 2009 interview, Marvin X stated to the present writer that he was given a contract in the summer 1972 quarter to teach another course in the Afro-American Studies Program. According to Marvin X, he was hired to teach a course in place of Ken Moshesh. Marvin X stated that he received the contract that summer because Moshesh was not available and needed a substitute.

In his books In the Crazy House Called America and Wish I Could Tell You the Truth, Marvin X (2002, 2005) has listed 1972 as the year he taught at the University of California, Berkeley. David Hansen, a reference librarian at the Bancroft Library, informed the present writer on March 16, 2009 that the official records for the 1971 and 1972 schedules and directories for University of California, Berkeley in its Bancroft Library are incomplete. Close examination of the University of California, Berkeley‘s (1971b, 1971c) schedules and directories for the winter 1972 quarter and the spring 1972 quarter indicates that Marvin X and his typical non de plume were not listed in either. It very well may be that the University of California, Berkeley listed his name and course on a supplementary list that could not be located by the present writer or the reference librarian. As mentioned above, the non de plume of Marvin X is mentioned in the Supplementary Announcements to the Schedule and Directory and the General Catalogue Fall Quarter, 1971.
Nevertheless, if Marvin X is correct, the summer appointment proved to be his final one at the University of California, Berkeley. Marvin X has maintained that he was let go at the University of California, Berkeley in an effort by the administrators to purge radicals from the Afro-American Studies Program and replace them with academicians deemed safer.

Successes of Marvin X at the University of California, Berkeley

As mentioned above, Marvin X (1998, 2002, & 2005) has written that he taught at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972. Although his stint at the University of California, Berkeley proved to be short-lived, Marvin X touched the lives of many students on that campus, including the aforementioned Nisa Ra. Eventually, Nisa Ra changed her name from Greta Pope and married Marvin X.
While teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, Marvin X also produced and staged his play titled Resurrection of the Dead. The play was actually written when he was active with the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, New York. Marvin X has described the play as a myth/ritual dance drama.
In addition to Nisa Ra as a dancer, the play featured Victor Willis as lead singer. Willis later became the lead singer of the Village People. The cast members in the play also included Amina Grant and Jamila Hunter. Jamilah or Charlene Hunter later danced with Shirley McClaine and Alvin Ailey Dancers. At a ceremony during the production of the play, Nisa Ra and other cast members received Arabic names. Thus, this was a name-changing/life changing ritual in the Eastern sense rather than a drama in the Western dramatic tradition.

After leaving the University of California, Berkeley, Marvin X continued to be productive in 1972. He traveled to Mexico, Trinidad, and Guyana. Marvin X also interviewed Guyana‘s Prime Minister, Forbes Burnham, and published the interview in the Black Scholar.2 In addition, Marvin X (1972) published a book of poems, proverbs, lyrics, and parables titled Woman—Man’s Best Friend.

Problems of Marvin X at the University of California, Berkeley

In 1964, Malcolm X, on the lecture circuit, gave a presentation at the University of California, Berkeley. Among the 7,000 people in Sproul Plaza that day to hear Malcolm X, there stood Marvin X. Malcolm X deeply impressed Marvin X with his articulate analysis of social conditions in the USA. Marvin X was also impressed by Malcolm X‘s advocacy of Black nationalism. By the time he heard Malcolm X, Marvin X had already been introduced to Black nationalism as an ideology by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Ernie Allen, and others. Marvin X (2005) has related that it was at Merritt College where ―I had the fortune or misfortune of being educated on the steps of the college by Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Ernie Allen and others on the merits of Black Nationalism (p. 17).

With regard to Malcolm X, Marvin X (2002) has written that, ―When Malcolm X spoke before seven thousand students at U. C. Berkeley‘s Sproul Plaza (1964), I was in the audience. When he was assassinated, we wore black armbands to express our grief San Francisco State University, actor Danny Glover among us (pp. 93-94). Marvin X (2002) has also stated that, ―Malcolm‘s oratory influenced me to consider Elijah‘s Islamic Black Nationalism while I was a student at Oakland‘s Merritt College, along with Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Ernie Allen and others who became the new black intelligentsia, the direct product of Malcolm, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah and Elijah‖ (p. 93)

That same year, in 1964, Marvin X earned an AA degree in sociology at the Merritt College. Marvin X also enrolled as an undergraduate at San Francisco State. However, in 1966, he left the institution without earning a degree. Marvin X (2005) has informed us that, ―After dropping out of San Francisco State in 1966, I was drafted. I fled to Canada (p. 17). By that time, Marvin X had worked briefly as a research assistant at the University of California, Berkeley writing life histories of Black people under the supervision of sociologist Dean Lohman. Marvin X had also written and staged his first play, Flowers for the Trashman, produced by the drama department at San Francisco State.

In addition, Marvin X‘s essays and poems had begun to appear in such periodicals as Soulbook, Black Dialogue, and the Journal of Black Poetry. He would later publish in Black Theatre, Muhammad Speaks, Negro Digest (later Black World), and Black Scholar (X, 1998). Some eight years later, Marvin X would also be addressing students at the University of California, Berkeley. Whereas Malcolm X had addressed the students as a circuit lecturer, Marvin X addressed them as a classroom lecturer. However, at that time, Marvin X only possessed an AA degree in sociology from Merritt College. Marvin X (1998) has recalled, ―In 1972, before I obtained additional degrees, and after being kicked out of Fresno State, I lectured in Black Studies at U C Berkeley‖ (pp. 203-204). Doubtlessly, it was the publication record and playwright experience that landed Marvin X a post as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. However, it can also be surmised that his lack of graduate degree created a problem for him.3 Please note there were many lecturers who possessed no degrees in the state college system.
Another problem for Marvin X was the political stances he took. Prior to becoming employed as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, Marvin X had worked as a lecturer at Fresno State. Although he was relatively popular with the students, the political activities of Marvin X alienated him from the Fresno State administrators and their superiors, including Gov. Ronald Reagan.

With regard to Ronald Reagan, Marvin X (2005) has said: ―Gov. Ronald Reagan banned me from teaching at Fresno State College, 1969, after he learned I had refused to fight in Vietnam‖ (p. 17). Marvin X added: ―Gov. Reagan had told the State College Board of Trustees to get Marvin X off campus by any means necessary‘‖ (p. 19).

Whereas Reagan launched a vigorous move to oust Eldridge Cleaver as a lecturer in 1968 at the University of California, Berkeley and Angela Davis as an acting assistant professor in 1969 at the University of California, Los Angeles, he also launched a similar move against Marvin X in 1969 at Fresno State.4 The October 31, 1969 issue of the Fresno Bee quoted Reagan as beginning a meeting of the California State University System Board of Trustees with the following statement about Marvin X: ―If there is any way to get him off campus—that‘s the question I‘m going to ask today. I‘d like to find out (Quoted in ―Reagan, 1969, p. 6-A).5
By the time he began to teach at the University of California, Berkeley, Marvin X had served five months in prison related to military draft resistance and subsequent flights to Canada, Mexico, and Belize (X, 1998, 2005).
Marvin X has explicitly stated that his radical ways caused a problem for him at the University of California, Berkeley and elsewhere. Looking back on his particular experience at the University of California, Berkeley, Marvin X (2005) has said that his ―lectureship was short-lived because the entire black studies faculty was purged by the administration for being too radical‖ (p. 19). He further stated: Acceptable negro scholars were hired and UC Berkeley joined the nationwide trend of removing black radicals from black studies programs. Black studies returned to the old mission of a handful of handkerchief head negroes containing the field negroes, making sure they don‘t revolt. This happened at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University and elsewhere across the country. Yes, I was angry that reactionary negro intellectuals were hired to teach black studies, negroes who cared nothing about black studies or black people—all they wanted was a job for life, tenured negroes we call them. (pp. 19-20)
He has argued that his experiences in academia reflect the plight of many Black people who sought to teach in higher education. Following Cecil Brown (2004), Marvin X has identified foreign-born Black professoriate as those who were selected to replace native-born Black professoriate. Cecil noted that after that initial radical thrust to establish black studies in the 1960s, they were immediately removed from the student body and the faculty of colleges and universities coast to coast. I taught at UC Berkeley during the first and last radical black studies regime that was soon replaced with ―tenured negroes.‖ The system realized who and what we were and knew we had to go, after all, the system could not contain us. This happened at UCB, San Francisco State University, Fresno State University and elsewhere, coast to coast. We were immediately replaced with acceptable Negroes, the more pliant variety of military types, intelligence agents, and yes, in many cases, immigrant negroes more acceptable to the colonial college administrators. Thus Africans and Caribbean Negroes were in many cases less radical, even though much of the African American radical tradition comes from immigrants, such as Marcus Garvey, CLR James, Dr. Walter Rodney, George Padmore, Kwame Toure, Malcolm X and Farakhan. (p. 83)
He continued: And we must ask ourselves would we rather have a radical immigrant African in black studies or a reactionary Negro only because he is a Negro. But Cecil‘s point is that the American academic system feels the immigrant Negroes/Africans are easier to control than the violent black American male. So the truth is immigrants have replaced Negroes coast to coast, but even black American males who remain are of the passive variety, and those with a Pan African ideology or Afrocentric approach to black studies are often at odds with the original mission of black studies to focus on the plight of the so-called negro in the ghettoes of America, how to uplift him out of his morass and degradation. The focus on Africa and Pan Africanism was secondary to this central focus, but such a focus by definition requires a radical intellectualism that the University industrial complex of necessity must avoid.
By the time he was hired as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, Marvin X had developed a stance on the direction he believed the Black Studies Movement should take. Reflecting back on the Black Studies Movement, Marvin X has written: The purpose of Black Studies as we envisioned it and went to war for at San Francisco State University and elsewhere was to relate to the community, to establish institutions in the community that would educate the coming generations in community service, including politics, economics, culture and art. But Black Studies reverted to Eurocentric patterns of ivory tower academic nonsense, with graduates hating the hood and happy they escaped to somewhere in the den of iniquity called Corporate America. (p. 41)
For Marvin X, the mission of the department or program in Black Studies was to serve the Black community with the provision of what Pierre Bourdieu has termed cultural capital.6 He has taken the position that the Black Studies Movement has been taken over by faculty with little loyalty to Black people. Instead of community service, Marvin X has charged that many contemporary Black professors ignore their obligations to help the Black community and instead choose to engage in relatively esoteric research which will collect dust on shelves and few people will ever read. Much of their writings is in a language the people cannot understand.
In the view of Marvin X (2005), White people have too much power in Black Studies ―because we know, in truth, black studies is more or less white studies, rather than turning out activist-scholars, it recycles negroes, giving birth to new generations of colonial servants (p. 88). He has complained: The activist scholars were long ago removed from academia as a threat to Western scholarship and community liberation. Safe, qualified negroes were brought in who would control the natives and have them chasing rocks in Egypt rather than stopping gunshots in the hood by providing alternative consciousness. . . . Rather than searching for bones in Egypt, the community would be better served giving consciousness to dry bones in the hood. (X, 2005, pp. 88-89)
Marvin X (2005) has further exclaimed that, ―The mission of black studies awaits redemption and African Americans must again crash the gates of academia or construct their own radical academic institutions (p. 85). He added: ―Black studies should institute a recruitment drive to get black males and females back on campus but only if the mission is self and community development, not esoteric journeys to the Motherland‖ (p. 85). Marvin X has argued that if contemporary professors of Black Studies want to be acceptable to the ancestors in Africa it will be important for them to ―make peace with the trees and swamps and bayous of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana (p. 85). Likewise, Marvin X has argued that contemporary professors of Black Studies need to connect with Black people in the ghetto. In his view, it is necessary for contemporary professors of Black Studies to ―make peace with them and ―teach them to make peace with themselves (p. 85).
During the early 1970s, Marvin X, nevertheless, saw the handwriting on the wall, as the saying goes. He realized that departments and programs in Black Studies were moving towards requiring lecturers to have graduate degrees. Within one year of his departure from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1973, Marvin X returned to San Francisco State. Consequently, he completed a BA degree in English in 1974. The following year, in 1975, Marvin X proceeded to earn a MA in English from San Francisco State. In 1974, Marvin X began to teach at San Francisco State as a lecturer. His courses included Black literature, journalism, radio and television writing. In 1975 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego. Eventually, he left San Francisco State to become a lecturer at Mills College. He later worked at University of Nevada, Reno, Laney College, and Kings River Community College before retiring from teaching (X, 1998).7

Implications of the Lecturer Status for Marvin X in the University

Shamos (2002) has examined the use of titles within higher education institutions in the USA, including the University of California, Berkeley. He has made it clear that there are socially defined positions identified as academic rank in higher education institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley.
In terms of the professoriate at research institutions like the University of California, Berkeley, the highest to low positions include professor, associate professor, assistant professor, lecturer, and instructor. On the one hand, the tenured professor is generally the highest academic rank in the university among the professoriate. On the other hand, the instructor is generally the lowest academic rank in the university among the professoriate (Shamos, 2002). Typically, the lecturer position in a university is a non-tenured academic rank. Lecturers are often employed in a university on a year to year or semester to semester basis. In some cases, there is a written or non-written agreement to bring the lecturer back to teach year after year (Shamos, 2002).

In the case of Marvin X, he was hired on a semester to semester basis. Thus, he had to (1) face the significant consequence of not having a tenure-track position; and (2) face the significant consequence of being able to get terminated at the end of a given semester without having a tenure review board as a safety net.

Summary and Conclusion

This paper has presented a case study of Marvin X and his experiences teaching Black studies in 1972 at the University of California, Berkeley. Making use of in-depth interviews and archival research, this paper has focused on the status and role of Marvin X as a member of the faculty in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. This paper has also detailed some of the successes and problems encountered by Marvin X at the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, this paper has addressed some implications of Marvin X‘s lecturer status at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2001, Cornel West, on the lecture circuit, gave a presentation at the University of California, Berkeley. During his talk, West acknowledged his mother, brother, nephew, and cousin. West also acknowledged Marvin X as a friend. As a result of writing, teaching, and political activism, Marvin X has proven to be a well known figure among Black academicians and Black political activists.
Over the years, the poems, essays, plays, and autobiography of Marvin X have painted pictures of a man committed to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In 1967, he was drafted into the military of the USA. Marvin X (2002) has written that he refused induction and fled to Canada ―to preserve my life and liberty, and to pursue happiness‖ (p. 93).8 During the years he taught in higher education, Marvin X inspired his students to commit themselves to the pursuit of life, liberty, and justice. Marvin X is a testament to the teaching and learning that have taken place within the Black Studies Movement at the University of California, Berkeley and elsewhere.
Notes1.

As Wang (1997) pointed out, Afro-American Studies made the transition from program status to department status in 1974.

2. For the interview with Forbes Burnham, see Marvin X (1973). It was conducted in September 1972.

3. Marvin X (1998) has expressed that the White administrators at Fresno State raised the issue of his lack of a graduate degree. According to Marvin X, ―In my case, the college said I had minimal qualifications because I only possessed an A.A. degree at the time, although no degree is necessary to lecture at a California college or university. There were numerous lecturers at Fresno State College and other schools who possessed no degree (p. 203).

4. Ronald Reagan, the governor of California, stated, ―If Eldridge Cleaver is allowed to teach our children, they may come home one night and slit our throats (Quoted in Author, 1998). For information on his experience at Fresno State, see Marvin X (1998, 2005, 2008) and Patterson (1969a, 1969b).

5. For a photo copy of that article, see Marvin X (1998, p. 209).

6. See Bourdieu (2007) for a discussion of cultural capital as a theorem ―to explain the unequal scholastic achievement of children originating from the different social classes and class factions (p. 84).

7. In the spring 1981 semester at Laney College, the present writer was a student of Marvin X. He took a class with Marvin X titled ―Theatre Arts. As partial credit for the class, the present writer wrote a play titled ―A Day in the Life of Hughes, Langston. The play was later staged at the College of Alameda in Alameda, CA and the Egypt Theater in Oakland, CA. The present writer also wrote a review of Marvin X‘s play titled ―In the Name of Love‖ for partial credit for the class. The play featured Zahieb Mwongozi (Craig Erving) in the lead role and was directed by Ayodele Nzinga. The review was published in the Grassroots, a community newspaper based in Berkeley, CA. See Cromartie (1982).
Prior to his teaching stint at the University of California, Berkeley, Marvin X was tried and convicted of draft resistance in 1971. For his summation (Black Scholar magazine) at his trial wherein he made his relatively famous statement concerning life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, see Marvin X (1971).

References Auther, Jennifer. (1998, May 1). ―He was a symbol: Eldridge Cleaver dies at 62. CNN. Retrieved March 16, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/us/9805/01/cleaver.late.obit/ Bourdieu, Pierre. (2007).

The Forms of Capital. In Alan R. Sadovnik (Ed.), Sociology of Education: A Critical Reader (pp. 83-95). New York: Routledge.

Cromartie, J. Vern Cromartie. (1982, January 27-February 9). New Play by Marvin X. Grassroots: Berkeley’s Community Newspaper, 10, 10. Cromartie, J. Vern. (nee Jimmie Levern Cromartie). (1993).

Attitudes of University of California and California State University tenured Sociologists towards an Ethnic Studies General Education Requirement. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI. Patterson, William K. (1969a, October 29).

Ness: ―I Told Keyes Marvin X Not Hired.‖ Fresno Bee, 1-D, 9-D. Patterson, William K. (1969b, October 30).

Judge Ponders Marvin X Ruling. Fresno Bee, 1-A, 6-A.

Reagan Has His Say On Concern Over Marvin X. (1969, October 30). Fresno Bee, 6-A.

Shamos, Michael I. (2002). Handbook of Academic Titles. Retrieved March 14, 2009, from http://euro.ecom.cmu.edu/titles/titlebook.htm University of California, Berkeley. (1971). Supplementary Announcements to the Schedule and Directory and the General Catalogue Fall Quarter, 1971. Berkeley: Author. University of California, Berkeley. (1972a).

Schedule and Directory Winter Quarter, 1972. Berkeley: Author. University of California, Berkeley. (1972b).

Schedule and Directory Spring Quarter, 1972. Berkeley: Author.

Wang, Ling-chi. (1997, Spring). Chronology of Ethnic Studies at U. C. Berkeley.

Rap Sheet: A Newsletter of the Department of Ethnic Studies at U. C. Berkeley, 2, 1, 12-16. X, Marvin. (1971, April-May).

Black Justice Must Be Done. Black Scholar, 2, 8-11. X, Marvin. (1972).

Woman—Man’s Best Friend. San Francisco: Black Bird Press. X, Marvin. (1973, February).

A Conversation with Forbes Burnham: Interview by Marvin X. Black Scholar, 4, 24-31. X, Marvin. (1998).

Somethin’ Proper. Castro Valley, CA: Black Bird Press. X, Marvin. (2002).

In the Crazy House Called America. Castro Valley, CA: Black Bird Press. X, Marvin. (2005). Wish I Could Tell You the Truth. Cherokee, CA: Black Bird Press

Answer Me, Marvin X, Yes or No!

From: Marvin X Jackmon jmarvinx@yahoo. com
To: nwaakwukwo Sent: Tue, February 9, 2010 3:35:40 PMSubject: Re: I'd like an answer.

I have no idea what you are talking about as per Gerald Ali. When I find out I may or may not respond since I am dealing with haters on a daily basis, not only haters but agent provocateurs, snitches, FBI, CIA who come to my house to interrogate me. When I am out and about I am often approached, questioned and provoked by socalled "former" Special forces and Military contractors. So as per Gerald Ali, he is not a priority. Additionally, I have hater Muslims, Ansars, Christians, black intellectuals and reactionary activists pulling my coat tail. And finally I have the ignorant masses to attempt to educate, even after they throw my works on the ground. I had to tell one brother yesterday that he was dumber than the dumbest mule they let out of Georgia.
He went away then came back to ask me was that a line from a movie? I told him he was the movie. He went away then came back again to question me. Apparently I scared his mind, maybe for life. Then another youth told me don't call him dead when I tried to give him a poster poem Black History is World History. I said, okay, what do you know about black history? He said I know I was born and raised in East Oakland. And so it is. Now what's up with Gerald Ali?

From: nwaakwukwo nwaakwukwo@yahoo. com
To: jmarvinx@yahoo. com
Sent: Tue, February 9, 2010 1:25:13 PM
Subject: I'd like an answer.
Do you plan to answer me, Marvin?

YES OR NO

Jahmeel and the Man in the Mirror

Little Jahmeel with mom Amira, Left,
and her sisters Muhammida, Center, and
Nefertiti, right.





Michael's Man in Mirror

Album

At work with grandfather

passing out poem Black History

is world History. Jahmeel observed,

"Some people don't like black history."

Jahmeel and the Man in the Mirror

Grandfather, Jahmeel, Uncle Ollie

photos by Lumakunda and Rita Daniels

Mom Amira and Jahmeel

Grandpa told Jahmeel to go look at the man in the mirror. Jahmeel went to look. At first he said there was no man in the mirror. Grandpa told him to go back into the living room and look again into the mirror.

He went back and returned to tell Grandpa Jahmeel was not in the mirror. He said, "It was a scared Jahmeel in the mirror--not the real Jahmeel."

He refused to go back and look again. Grandpa told him to either go back or go to bed. He said he wanted to go to bed. He insisted there was no man in the mirror. Grandpa told him he was the man. He said, "I'm not the man!"

Go look again.

He said no and started to cry.

"I'm not the man," he shouted.

"You are the man!"

No I'm not.

Michael Jackson said you are the man in the mirror, so go look. Since he loved Micheal, he submitted. The conversation had begun with him listing the MJ songs he liked: Beat It, Smooth Criminal, Billie Jean, Remember the Time. He is terrified of Thriller and refuses to watch it.

All right, I'll look, he said.

He went again into the living room, came back and said, "No man in there."

"Did you see Jahmeel in the mirror?

No!

Go see.

No! I don't wanna look.

You scared to see Jahmeel? You wanna be scared?

I'm going night night! (to sleep)

He crawled into bed and planted his head on his little pillow. He pulled the covers over his head and went to sleep.

The next morning when he got up Grandpa read him the story. He said, "I'm not the man, I'm Jahmeel.

Jahmeel is a boy."

Grandpa read him the revised story. He said, "Grandpa, that's good. The man in the mirror

is somebody else, not me."

--Marvin X

2-8-10

Marvin X--The USA's Rumi
by Bob Holman
Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

Where I’d like to start this 2005 Poetry Roundup is Iraq, as in, how did we get there and how do we get back? The consciousness-altering book of poems that tells the tale, in no uncertain terms and yet always via poetry, is the astonishing Land of My Daughters: Poems 1995-2005 (Black Bird Press) by Marvin X.

Marvin X is the USA’s Rumi, and his nation is not “where our fathers died” but where our daughters live. The death of patriarchal war culture is his everyday reality. X’s poems vibrate, whip, love in the most meta- and physical ways imaginable and un-. He’s got the humor of Pietri, the politics of Baraka, and the spiritual Muslim grounding that is totally new in English –- the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wisdom of Saadi. It’s not unusual for him to have a sequence of shortish lines followed by a culminating line that stretches a quarter page –- it is the dance of the dervishes, the rhythms of a Qasida.
“I am the black bird in love
I fly with love
I swoop into the ocean and pluck fish in the name of love
oceans flow with love
let the ocean wash me with love
even the cold ocean is love
the morning swim is love
the ocean chills me with love
from the deep come fish full of love”
(from the opening poem, “In the Name of Love”)

“How to Love A Thinking Woman”:
“Be revolutionary, radical, bodacious
Stay beyond the common
Have some class about yaself…
Say things she’s never heard before
Ihdina sirata al mustaquim(guide us on the straight path)
Make her laugh til she comes in her panties
serious jokes to get her mind off the world.”

There are anthems (“When I’ll Wave the Flag/Cuando Voy a Flamear la Bandera”), rants (“JESUS AND LIQUOR STORES”), love poems (“Thursday”) and poems totally uncategorizable (“Dreamtime”). Read this one cover to cover when you’ve got the time to “Marry a Tree.”



Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality
by Marvin X

Review by Bob Holman

Last year Marvin X released his magnum opus, Land of My Daughters: Poems 1995-2005 (Black Bird Press), poems that put me in mind of Mawlânâ Jalâl ad-Dîn Muhammad Rûmî. He just published Beyond Religion Towards Spirituality, Essays on Consciousness (Black Bird Press, 2006), and all I can say, folks, is this is the Bible of the Hood and is bound to stir up plenty of opposition -- and maybe even cut through the BS to move towards God. “Imagine we are the generation of Parker, Coltrane, Dolphy, Monk, Duke, Bessie, Lady Day, Ella, Sarah, what on earth can follow us but the earth shaking children of tomorrow...­ who will smash the atmosphere with sounds...”

“If the mate leaves, we should be happy. Why would you want to keep someone who wants to go? If she wants to be with Joe, let her go -- you don’t own her. If she wants, she has the human right to give Joe some pussy. I know you don’t like it but get over it. Don’t kill her and Joe behind the funk. The world is full of infinite possibilities. God will provide wou with the perfect mate... Let go and Let God.”

The Oakland Police Department Gang

The new Oakland Police Department Chief Bates says guns, drugs and gangs are his priority. We suggest he reconfigure his priorities to gangs, guns and drugs, for he must first consider his organization a gang since it has been known to behave as such, to wit: the Riders and "black Riders," police officers suspected and/or charged with corruption under the color of law, including shaking down drug dealers, planting false evidence and false charges and having conflict of interest in criminal investigations, including and especially the broad daylight, downtown Oakland assassination of journalist Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post newspaper. Yes, I feel a personal connection to the murder of Chauncey since he was a friend and colleague whose last story was a review of my book How to Recover from the Addiction of White Supremacy. The day before his assassination he came to my outdoor classroom at 14th and Broadway to show me his review of my book. We know at the time of his death he was investigating corruption in the police department and City Hall, during the tenure of Jerry Brown as mayor. Mayor Jerry Brown is reported to have said, "I'm going to stop that nigger from snooping around the OPD and City Hall!" Not long after, Chauncey was fired from his longtime job as a reporter at the Oakland Tribune for frivolous reasons.

Officers suspected of involvement in the murder of Chauncey Bailey are still employed by the OPD, a supreme insult to the people of Oakland, but we understand one suspected officer was returned to duty just prior to the retirement of the chief, allegedly to keep the officer quiet about the chief's role in corruption. All gangs protect their members, and of course deny criminal activity.

Guns and drugs were the other items of concern by OPD Chief Bates. But again, Chauncey Bailey's notes suggest the OPD was/is involved in the proliferation of guns and drugs in Oakland, in conspiracy with Mexican drugs gangs and politicians. Indeed, the DEA was in town at the time of Chauncey's murder, but were investigating bigger fish in the political hierarchy of Oakland.

We know Mayor Jerry Brown deleted his Internet notes before he left town to become Attorney General. Ironically, Mayor Ron Dellums asked Jerry Brown to investigate the police investigation of Chauncey Bailey! Sounds like asking the fox to guard the hen house.

With suspected involvement by police and politicians a well known feature of Mexican culture, why is such behavior so incredulous on this side of the border, especially with prior cases of police misconduct within the OPD?

But more importantly, we wonder why the new OPD Chief Bates, along with Mayor Ron Dellums and President Obama, cannot find the political acumen to do at home that the US is doing abroad in Iraq, and preparing to do in Afghanistan and Yemen to stem violence among the mostly young insurgents or "terrorists," i.e., provide schooling, employment and housing. This is nowhere in the agenda of the President, Mayor or Chief of Police. Is this a case of myopia or simple disregard for the plight of our young men committing homicide and suicide in our cities, mainly from lack of education, employment and housing, exactly the same reasons for violence abroad that is supposedly a threat to the national security of America? You mean violence at home is not a threat to the national security of the US?

Gangs, guns, drugs? Maybe there is truth in the notes of Chauncey Bailey. We know the US is the numer one gun dealer of the world. We know there are know cites in the hood where guns can be purchased 24/7. We also know drug traffic in Afghanistan decreased during the rule of the Taliban, but increased after the American invasion. Presentinly opium is flowing like water, with the addiction of entire villages, including men, women and children, and drug addiction is crossing the border into Pakistan, thanks to the US. So we suggest the OPD Chief Bates do an in-house investigation of guns, drugs and gang activity within the OPD. He may be utterly surprised.

-------

Marvin X is the author of twenty books and has taught at UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, San Francisco State University, Fresno State University, Mills, Merritt and Laney. His archives are in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. From time to time, his writings appear in the Oakland Post and San Francisco Bayview. Occasionally, he appears on Pacifica radio in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Houston and New York. Marvin X teaches at his outdoor classroom, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. The class offers individual/peer group counseling, literacy and a micro-credit bank for the poor and homeless.

Plato Negro at the Crossroads of Oakland

Plato Negro at the Crossroads of Oakland

When the rains cleared, Plato Negro returned to his outdoor classroom at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. The classroom is a multi-purpose center, since in addition to a classroom, it is a free space zone for people to gather, a literacy center, micro credit bank, an on the street mental health peer group session, yes, facilitated by Marvin X, variously known as Plato Negro, Rumi, Jeremiah, Amenhotep.

For Black History Month, the poet has been giving out poster poems of his classic Black History is World History, also Haiti, Oh, Haiti. He offers youth ten dollars to answer the 14 questions on his blog concerning the poem Haiti, Oh Haiti. When they say they know black history, he offers them ten dollars if they can answer a question from his poem Black History is World History.

Of course his best seller is Mythology of Pussy, a manual for manhood and womanhood training.
Grass roots brothers call it the Bible of male/female relations. Man and women literally fight over this pamphlet that has shaken up America coast to coast. The poet did a national tour last year, going through Houston, Texas, Grambling , Louisiana, Jackson, Mississippi, Washington, DC (Howard University), Philadelphia, PA (International Locks Conference, see Youtube), Newark, New Jersey, Brooklyn, NY and Harlem. When he arrived in Harlem at the Schomburg Library, poet Eugene Redman wrote Marvin X a check for $200.00 for five copies of Mythology of Pussy. In fifty years of writing, no piece of his writing has stirred up such controversy or interest, especially with the grass roots. The grass roots are literally fighting over it, men and women. It was reported that in the whore house the girls tried to steal a copy from the madam and she had to check them not to leave with her copy. In Sacramento, California, an OG brother was told by young brothers that he could leave but they were keeping the pamphlet.


Indeed, Marvin X was on the bus headed to his classroom when a brother pulled out a copy and said he needed to read it because he'd been up all night with his woman. Another brother called Mythology of Pussy the "Bible." He said he had been having problems with his women until he read MOP, then it cleared up all his questions. He understood he had bought into a mythology that could kill him or make him kill.

A young sister came by Plato's Classroom and told him MOP empowered her. She didn't know she had such power. And when she told the young brothers she owned her pussy, they submitted.

Plato asked another young sister what she learned from MOP. She said she learned to tell the brothers to clean their fingernails. She said she gave it to her boyfriend but he has not returned it. The young brothers say it helps them up their game. And every brother wants his game upped! When girls were asked at a continuation high school in Berkeley, what they got out of his lecture on MOP, they said it upped their game as well.

Mothers have obtained copies of MOP since it was published, telling the poet they were demanding their sons and daughters read it. One mother said she put it on her daughter's bed so
she could not miss it.

A mother came through the classroom with her daughter and obtained a copy, telling her daughter, "You see that lock on the cover. Girl, do you see that lock?"

The poet was informed at Howard University that in spite of the fact that the girls outnumber the boys 14:1, the females are in control of their pussy. They determine when the boys can have some, contrary to the boys thinking they are in control of the situation because they are a priority, being outnumbered 14 to 1.


At the conclusion of his lecture at Howard, a young lady came up to the poet at the lectern and whispered in his ear, "We control the boys, they don't control us. When we want a brother and another sisters wants him , we say, sista, wait, let her have him tonight, you have him tomorrow, and I will kick it with him the third night. Yeah, that's how we do it. The boys think they playing us but we doing the playing. After all, it's our pussy!

What is clear is that the poet has written a grass roots classic that doesn't need approval of the black bourgeoisie culture police, and nor does he need approval of black intellecutals in perpetual crisis, whether tenured negro professors or femininsts who are dying from lack love from their brothers because they persist in their inordancy, blinding wandering on.

Marvin X said he was through with pseudo white liberals and black bourgeoisie when they told him (the whites) "I could help you if you were part of the family." And the Black bourgeoisie said, "I could help you but you ain't no mulatto."

Marvin X says he will go down with the grass roots. Whites and the black bourgeoisie mulattoes can kiss his black ass.

Black Mystery

The characters in this drama include Mr. Re, Mr. Ra and Mr. Ru, Miss Re, Miss Ra and Miss Ru. This cast of characters are central to the Mystery that has been a seemingly eternal narrative of a people known throughout time by a multitude of names, positive and negative. Some names are not worth mentioning since to do so would only complicate this story, this mystery of time, place and space. Mr. Ra, Mr. Re and Mr. Ru, plus their female counterparts, seemingly have been raised high, then placed low throughout time, depending on the weather, internal conflicts such as succession to power, and invasion of their lands by foreigners from time to time.

The Ra's, Re's and Ru's are symbolic of a community of people who have struggled against all odds to achieve dignity and respect throughout the universe. It seems to be an eternal struggle up the hill then down as in the Sisyphean mythology. Their victories seem short lived since they cannot learn to practice eternal vigilance, thus from time to time they have been known to relapse into madness and animal behavior. The good times come, but disappear because Ra, Re and Ru do not stay on their posts until properly relieved. They succumb to the ten trillion, one billion illusions of the monkey mind, caught in a schizoid dance between the persona of devils and gods, between their divinity and bestiality.

Why can't the Ra's, Re's and Ru's ever land on solid ground? Why is their mental equilibrium forever shaken and smashed to the core, leaving them in a state of psychosocial chaos, scrambling to reinvent the wheel of balanced personal and communal organization?

When they look in the mirror, what do they see, is it the picture of Dorian Grey, Peter Pan, individuals who wanted to be forever young and beautiful, yet the very attempt was an exercise in ugliness, for nothing stays the same, everything must change. Who wants to be a child forever, a stunted man and woman, unable to enjoy spiritual maturation, for surely once the adult enjoys the wisdom of maturity, he never wants to be a child again, at least not until he returns there in old age. But even then he becomes a child against his own will, and sometimes he is ashamed to need the assistance due children.

It is not impossible for the Ra's, Re's and Ru's to recover from their negrocities, once they make the sincere effort, calling forth that ineluctable energy to propel them up from ignorance, up from lust, greed, mental myopia and the multiple tragic flaws that befall human beings of every sort, stripe and color.

Yes, the mystery, the conundrum of the ages can be solved by simple detoxification and recovery from all illusions of the monkey mind. No attachments but to God! There is the need to detach from desire, from want and even need, for what are the essential needs, all else is illusion, what we think we want, think we desire, think we need, when we know there are very few things really important.

All else originates in the monkey mind, the delusion of ego and desire, a fixation caused by false imaginings, illusions and delusions, for under the best circumstances we know very little, understand almost nothing, and go to our grave as we came, with nothing. Job told us, "Naked I came and naked I go."

The best we achieve is a momentary joy, when we give all to the beloved, the agape or unconditional love, not Eros or filial love. "We feed you for Allah's pleasure only, we desire from you neither reward nor thanks."

It is only when the beloved sings the song of lost love that the lover answers with a return to the reed bed, for the yearning was ever there of lost, when the reed was cut from the bed. As Rumi taught, the sound is in the reed flute. The yearning, the mourning, the weeping, of the heart separated from its beloved, ever wishing, waiting, and hoping for the return home, yes, and home is where the heart is. Home is not where Fitzgerald said where we cannot return, but where Frost said we cannot be turned away.

Ra, Re, Ru, seize the time, do not tarry in Jerusalem, but embark upon that dangerous Jericho road, where danger lurks behind every bush, yet with the armor of God we travel unafraid into the new order, never flinching, retreating, but ever forward into the new day of light and love.
You can go there, simply open the door and walk in unafraid of the darkness soon turning to light. And the light happens only because you turn on the switch, removing darkness forever and ever.
--Marvin X
2/1/10