Part Two: Why the Chauncey Bailey Book Fair

Part Two: Why the Chauncey Bailey Book Fair







It has come to my attention that there are those in our community who are in need of healing regarding the Chauncey Bailey matter, that there are those who are emotionally challenged as a result of the assassination. Some persons have expressed their dislike for all Muslims as a result, so emotionally challenged they cannot think critically but only emotionally.

Simultaneously, other persons have expressed their dislike of Chauncey Bailey, for one reason or another, as if Chauncey was a perfect man without defect. For all these reasons, I say it is time for us to get a healing so necessary for intellectual advancement and community unity.

Of course, many of us have been brainwashed by the Jim Crow Media (Ishmael Reed term) into accepting the biased, racist propaganda of the Chauncey Bailey Project, a group of journalists who have pimped the Chauncey Bailey story, making millions from media articles and grants for researching his murder. Yet their stories have mainly blamed the Black Muslim Bakery brothers and downplayed the fundamental role of the Oakland Police Department in conspiring to kill Chauncey.

We ask one simple question, how could a man long associated with Dr. Yusef Bey, especially having worked with him at Soulbeat Television for decades, suddenly become the mortal enemy of Dr. Bey's children for possibly writing an article on the bankruptcy proceedings that was public information? The Jim Crow media journalists wrote their stories and were possibly threatened for exposing the dark secrets of Dr. Bey, but they did not suffer assassination.

We must look in the deep structure of the matter for critical understanding. There we see a crucial role of the OPD in mentoring the Bakery brothers to believe Chauncey was their mortal enemy. One is reminded of Shakespeare's Othello wherein the character Iago convinces the Moor Othello that his wife has been unfaithful and the Moor is so convinced that he kills his wife Desdemona and then himself, yet it was all a ruse concocted and conspired by his evil, jealous so-called friend and adviser Iago. The OPD is Iago, the Bakery boys Othello! Chauncey was Desdemona.

We know the more important writing project of Chauncey was investigating corruption in the police department and City Hall under then Mayor Jerry Brown who is reported to have said, "I'm going to stop that nigger from snooping around City Hall and the OPD." Indeed, Chauncey was on to Jerry Brown's gentrification agenda and fraudulent loans and grants for the Ice skating rink, the Fox Theatre and the School of the Arts, among other projects.

As per the OPD, Chauncey was investigating a suspected Black Riders, North American African police officers on the OPD who were shaking down drug dealers, money laundering, planting false evidence and false arrests. Such behavior is a well known tactic in police departments coast to coast and most certainly below our border in Mexico, so why would it be so fantastic to imagine such actions in the OPD?After all, the OPD White Riders were charged with such behavior though found innocent after dubious trials.

Chauncey didn't live to publish his findings and somehow his brother unwittingly released his computer to the Chauncey Bailey project associates, thus we may never know the content of his notes.

Again, we do not claim Chauncey was an angel. He had his foibles. I have recalled how he once reported an off the record conversation with me on his news show. His report upset people at a writer's conference after he broadcast my critical remarks. And though I was angry with Chauncey, I am known to do the same thing.

And so it is time for this community to get a healing. There are Muslims who are hesitant to attend the Chauncey Bailey Book Fair because they feel uncomfortable about how the media has painted the picture of Muslims as killers. Yet how often do we hear suspected murderers called Christian killers?

Be aware of the Jim Crow Media that is determined to create chaos and division in our community. The young men suspected of killing Chauncey are victims just like Chauncey. There is no doubt in my mind that the OPD played a crucial and fundamental role conspiring to take him out.

We need only look at the brutality of police in Egypt to see such debauchery is possible, and imagine that their behavior is paid for with money from America. Imagine, the majority of Oakland's budget goes to the OPD to brutalize and oppress citizens like a foreign occupying army.

Our Constitutional rights of assembly are violated at every turn. Last Friday night a social event was interrupted by the OPD because they received a "report" that a large crowd of black people were on the street. I was standing on the corner of 14th and Franklin with Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb when the OPD arrived. He had to convince them nothing was going on out of order so they departed.

The Bay Area Black Authors shall carry on the tradition established by the Black Press since 1827 with the founding of Freedom's Journal to tell the truth. Indeed, one of the last comments Chauncey said to me was recalling the historical significance of Freedom's Journal that was created while we were deep in the oppression of the American slave system. We honor Chauncey because he was squarely in the tradition of Freedom's Journal, also David Walker's Appeal, 1829.
--Marvin X
2/8/11