Review of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy
by Reginald James
How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy with support in the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group
by
Reginald James
Laney Tower
Laney College Newspaper,
Oakland CA
May 22, 2008
Author,
playwright, and poet Dr. Marvin X is a modern theologian and
philosopher sent to earth to help others find themselves. He's not a
prophet, but is certainly beyond worthy of his Oakland bestowed title of
"Plato" (Ishmael Reed).
His most recent book is, "How to recover
from the addiction to white supremacy: A Pan African 12-Step Model for a
mental health peer group."
Using a poetic and personal prose,
Dr. M, as he is known, leads readers of all ethnicities and national
origins on a journey to recover from what he terms the earth's most
deadly disease: white supremacy.
"White supremacy can be any form
of domination, whether stemming from religious mythology and ritual, or
cultural mythology and ritual, such as tribal and caste relations,"
writes Dr. M. "White supremacy is finally a class phenomena, the rich
against the poor,thus the process of recovery must include a
redistribution of global wealth, for there is no doubt that the rich
became rich by exploiting the poor, not by any natural inheritance or
superior intelligence."
Dr. M, a founder of the Black Arts
movement, uses his life experience with drug addiction to create a
recovery model for others. Similar to the "12-step model" used by
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the book reads like a personal narrative of
not just one man's struggle to overcome a grafted sense of
self-inferiority and a disillusioned projection of superiority in
others, but a prayer of confidence that when others connect with their
spirits, they will be able to overcome "stinking thinking," negative
attitudes and self-destructive behavior.
After defining white
supremacy in the introduction, the next chapter details how to detox and
"rid the body and mind of the toxicity of decades under the influence
of racist ideology of institutions that have rendered us into a state of
drunkenness and denial."
After detoxification, patients are now
ready to step into a new era. The first step to recovery is to "admit we
are not powerless over self-hatred, racism and white supremacy
thinking."
Dr. M's message of mental purification comes through
strong in his accounts, and his vast historical knowledge of the
experience of North American Africans" (so-called African Americans)
encourages students to study. His vast literary references do not
discriminate as he makes reference to Shakespeare and "classic" Greek
tragedies as well.
"The Other White People," as he refers to
them, "are an enigma to themselves, a conundrum of major proportions,
transcending Shakespeare's Othello in tragic dimension, for their tragic
flaw is lack of self knowledge."
"Such is the gracious gift of
slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. It has produced a Pan African
people in love with all things European: women, clothing, religion,
education (what people in their right minds would send their children to
the enemy to become educated, especially without a revolutionary
agenda), political philosophy, social habits, dietary preferences,
sexual mores, etc" writes Dr. M.
While he seeks to create a
dialogue with all, the sexism ingrained in this society leaps out at
you. He attempts to make amends by apologizing for his past instances of
sexism and emotional, verbal, and physical abuse of women.
The
most powerful aspect of the book is the encouragement to the reader to
gain a working knowledge of self. When speaking to the need for patients
to take a "moral inventory," Dr. M puts a mirror up to all people.
Breaking
down dynamics of interracial relationships with the analytical
perception of a sociologist or psychologist, including historical
context of relationships between black women and white men and the taboo
of white woman with a black man, Dr. M simplifies the frustration faced
by women who date outside of their "race" and the reaction of those who
feel their "natural partners" have been stolen.
"In this war
with the white woman over the black man's sperm, the black woman, in
desperation and denial, tries to mimic the white woman as much as
possible, donning blond hair and continuing the tradition of bleaching
cream throughout Pan Africa."
Equally healing is the emphasis on
seeking forgiveness. When under the influence of substances or mind
altering racist ideology, people often hurt people that are closest to
them. Dr. M apologizes for his own shortcomings while under the
influence of not just white supremacy, but while using crack cocaine.
The prolific writer fell victim to the "ghost" for 12 years, and
apologizes to his family and especially his daughters.
He also
apologizes on behalf of the "Black Bourgeoisie," "Pan African
Professors" he attacked because they were "not as radical and
revolutionary as I believed they should, after all, white supremacy
institutions are not about to allow a radical Pan African ideology and
philosophy to flourish within its institutional framework," writes Dr.
M.
Dr. M is able to weave not only events in his life which were
symptomatic of white supremacy, but the thought process and actions of
others.
While some may be quick to write Dr. M off as a
Pan-African revolutionary (which he is), or a "reverse racist" (which he
is not), his book benefits people of all ethnicities to come to grips
with their preconceived notions about one another.
He
successfully differentiates between white supremacy and "white people"
for only a few handsomely reap the benefits of white supremacy, while
others simply enjoy white privilege. He also emphasizes that white
supremacy has not, and will not, flourish without disciples and
co-conspirators.
"The white supremacy rulers have used poor
whites and working class whites to delude whites into thinking the
blacks are the cause of their misery and economic exploitation, just as
capitalism is presently using immigrant labor to suggest they are the
cause of middle and lower class white economic woes, while in fact it is
the white supremacy global bandits who are outsourcing for cheap
labor." Dr. M equates the assertion with the current immigration debate.
Ultimately,
after completing the 12-step model, patients are encouraged to join the
"cultural revolution." Harkening to the era of he 1960s, Dr. M suggests
"linguistic transcendence" in which North American Africans reclaim a
regal self-concept.
In the great tradition of indigenous healers,
Dr. M pours love into patients inspiring hope for a cure for what
others have deemed the only reality.
Like all scientists, Dr. M
is experimenting, hoping that patients will actively involve themselves
in their recovery. The "peer group mental health model" accompanies the
book and allows the reader to form their own circle to undergo
transformation with friends, family, or those people you haven't met
yet. Starting a much needed dialogue, Dr. M brings forward "5000 watts"
of shock therapy to awake people to their senses.
Dr. M obtained
his PhD in Negrology from the University of Hell, USA. Formerly known as
Marvin Jackmon, he was born in Fowler, CA and grew up in Fresno and
Oakland. He attended Merritt College and San Francisco State University
where he received a BA and MA in English. He has taught English, African
American Literature, Drama, journalism, and more at Fresno State, UC
Berkeley, UC San Diego, San Francisco State University, University of
Nevada, Reno, Mills, and Laney College. He was an professor at Fresno
State University when then Governor Ronald Reagan found out Dr. M
refused to serve in Vietnam--he was barred from teaching.
His
other books include Love and War, poems, 1995, In the Crazy House Called
America, essays, 2002, and his most recent Beyond Religion, toward
Spirituality, 2007His books are available from Black Bird Press, 1222
Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, 94702. $19.95 each. His Academy of da Corner
is at 14th and Broadway, Northeast corner. He is presently organizing
the Blackwell Institute of Art, Math and Science. How to Recover from
the Addiction to White Supremacy was used as a textbook at Berkeley City
College and Oakland's Merritt College.
Black Bird Press has just reprinted a limited edition of the manual How
to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy by Dr. M, aka Marvin X,
foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Allah El, aka Tracy
Mitchell.
Order your copy directly from the publisher Black Bird Press, 339 Lester
Ave., Suite #10, Oakland CA 94606. Free shipping. Or why not send a
generous donation to Marvin X to help his liberation projects. The
indefatigable Marivn X is organizing a 27 city tour of the Black Arts
Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra in honor of his comrade Amiri Baraka
and in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement.
This tour will cost $2.7 million @ $100,000 per city. It will be a
holistic project in the BAM tradition. Along with art as therapy, we
will stress physical and mental health wellness. And although we are in
agreement with President Obama's effort to help young black men, we will
include young women as well because it is clear to us young women need
help as well, especially since they are single parents and will be so
until we teach the young men manhood training through a rites of passage
that will give them the knowledge and consciousness to be responsible
parents. Thus we want to end young men abandoning their children. I was a
baby with a baby at 18, so I want to stop the cycle of abandoned
children. I am horrified to know so many of our children are in foster
care, and so many are in juvenile hall until they can be placed in
foster care.
We must deal with these pressing issues in our community. The Black Arts
Movement was never about art alone, but art for liberation. Our
creative productions were then and must be now about the liberation of
our people from poverty, ignorance and disease. The food is literally
killing us. My associate, Geoffrey Grier has told us, "The most
revolutionary act North American African men and women can perform is
losing 30 pounds."
Again, this Black Arts Movement project will begin in ernest with a Bay
Area Black Arts Movement Festival, tentatively scheduled for February,
2015. We will make this event a model of what we want for the 27 City
tour.
Our first venue was the Black Arts Movement Conference at the University
of California, Merced,Feb-March, 2014. This launched the Poets Choir
and Arkestra.
I want to be white, white is power, there is no power in blackness!
--Sammy Sousa before and after.
Notes by Dr. M, aka, Marvin X
The Human Earthquake, Marvin X, in St. Louis, MO, at Akbar Muhammad's book fair.
Akbar Muhammad (right) is the International Representative of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan.
Akbar
Muhammad, aka, Larry X. Prescott, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Marvin X
have been friends since 1968 when Marvin X was in Harlem as a worker in
the Black Arts Movement, along with Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Larry
Neal, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Last Poets, Sun Ra, Barbara Ann
Teer, Haki Madhubuti, Ed Bullins, Robert McBeth, New Lafayette Theatre
players, Milford Graves, Mae Jackson, et al.
Do not condemn Sammy when damn near the whole world wants to be white.
Bleaching cream in is the biggest fad (sad) in Africa to the Caribbean,
from India to China. Asia and Africa is full of billboards promoting
whiteness, especially white women, ass the standard of beauty. Elijah
Muhammad taught us the white woman is the skunk of the planet earth.
Now, I love Elijah Muhammad, but let us now shoot ourselves in the foot:
if white women want to help us and we are down in a hole, I say grab
the rope and get out of the hole. But, I will say this, remember your
mother, grandmother, wives, daughters, women, girlfriends. And if you
indeed desire a white woman or man, please seek out the desire of your
heart. Please, do not get with a North American African man or woman
and try to make them white if they are trying to be original and love
themselves, so depart from them to seek out your hearts desire. Do not
destroy a mate because they enjoy their ethnic identity and in your
subconscious you deeply desires someone other than your own kind.
If a Chinese man desires a European woman, you know he is a sick
Chinese. If an African desires a European woman over his African woman,
you know he is sick, or a Jamaican so called Dred brothers who desires
Delilah over his natural mate who has suffered oppression with him, we
should not stop the brother but let him go--please do not let him
destroy his mate due to his addiction to White Supremacy Type II.
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