Off the Record, Marvin X, Sun Reporter Newspaper Political Columnist

Off the Record

2/13/20

By Marvin X

Sun Reporter Political Columnist

Poet/political columnist Marvin X in Newark NJ with the Baraka brothers,

left, Amiri Middy Baraka, Jr., Chief of Staff, right, the Honorable Mayor of Newark NJ, Ras Baraka

photo Mayor's Office

San Francisco Reparation leaders unite after Off the Record column

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”

--Matthew 5:9

We are happy to announce that this column played a role in uniting the Reparations leadership in San Francisco, especially promoting the reconciliation of NAACP President Rev. Amos Brown and SF Supervisor Shamann Walton that was, we think, an intergenerational conflict. We understand that NAACP President Brown and Supervisor Walton will present a united reparations  proposal to the City and County of San Francisco for its history of racial discrimination and pervasive injustice as per the treatment of North American Africans in employment, education, housing, civil rights and police abuse under the color of law, among other issues. We are happy to see that these gentlemen realized the issue of reparations transcends their individuality and is a communal affair. With unity all things are possible and we are confident Reparations shall be forthcoming from the City and County of San Francisco. Mayor London Breed informed us she will support a unified proposal and the progressive group of SF Supervisors have indicated the same. The final proposal should be presented to the people who are descendents of Africans captured in the American slave system for their perusal to achieve the consent of the governed, with input from the wider community as well. Who will deny that African slave labor or chattel slavery is the foundation of American wealth and the wealth gap between the descendents of slaves and the desscendents of slave masters. North American Africans gave centuries of free labor that allowed surplus capital accumulation, thus it will take 228 years for North American Africans to achieve parity with the wealth whilte Americans enjoy today. It may take longer unless Reparations includes an emergency parity program to negate the toxic effects of gentrification and displacement that is full blown at this hour in San Francisco and throughout this nation. Let San Francisco be the model for Reparations. 

The Fall of Muhammad 

Dr John Henrik Clarke told us only consciousness and high morals will keep us from slipping down the precipice of hubris, greed and corruption. We all must transcend the world of make believe or conspicuous consumption that Dr. E. Franklin Frazier wrote about in his classic Black Bourgeoisie. 

We remember when Mohammad began his employment with the Department of Public Works several years ago. He was brought in to clean up the city and plant trees in the Johnny Appleseed fashion of greening the City of St. Francis. Apparently he  succumbed to the call of the Sirens, those haunting women in the Greek myth who induced Ulysses in Homer's Odyssey. But let it be known that Mr. Muhammad hired more grass roots people than any other project in the history of San Francisco, thus he departs with a legacy of goodness. Let him depart with his retirement for all the good he has done.  We wish him well!

The Impeachment of Donald Trump and the Devil in Book of Job

The Prez has survived impeachment and may be on his way to win a second term. 

We urge you not to be afraid of King Donald, for he is acting out the role God gave the Devil in the Book of Job. As a test, God told the devil he shall have a free rein to persecute Job as a test of faith, although he shall be able to kill Job. 

Is it not crystal clear the Devil Trump has been able to transcend all opposition, including impeachment. Asw per the Divine Plan, Trump must conclude his mission to torture and aflict any manner of pain and grief on Job or the righteous. Now it is not clear to us Trump’s opposition is righteous, for some of their antics are nefarious for political ends, but what about Job, i.e., the Negro, aka North American African, the primary agent to face God’s test with the devil. But do not neglect that the devil’s job is not only to afflict the North American African but the 85% of the people who are deaf, dumb and blind. The devil represents the 10% who are bloodsuckers of the poor. The 5% are the poor righteous teachers such as myself who are duty bound to wake up the deaf dumb and blind, no matter what color, ethnicity or gender. 

But who is Job as the central character in this Biblical drama played out in the final days of  Pax Americana? Job is the so-called Negro who was kidnapped, brainwashed, raped, tortured and terrorized until reduced from Kunta to Toby and accepted his job for life, yes, job as in Job. Even today, after 400 years of involuntary servitude, most so-called Negroes, aka North  American Africans, only want a job, sometimes called "a slave" (Gotta get to ma slave, man, later).

So although the idea of do for self or entrepreneurship is slowly creeping into his consciousness, especially after Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad, “Job” is coming to recognize only the glass ceiling awaits him/her, as did my darling daughter Muhammida El Muhajir realized after reaching the heights of corporate America (NIKE, William Morris Agency, et al.)  and departed to Ghana (See her interview with Al Jazeerah, Blaxit). She noted after graduating from Howard University with a B.S. in Microbiology on a track scholarship, "I ran track to be a winner. I am not going to stay in any race that I have no possibility of winning. Ghana may not have electricity 24/7 but they don't have white supremacy 24/7. I am not followed around in expensive stores, restaurants and hotels. I am black among my Black people!"

Bloomberg and Trump: Battle of the Billionaires

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

A little black bird tells us North American Africans will follow the money trail to Bloomberg, no matter his Stop and Frisk Nazism. Bloomberg will placate the Blacks with his personal reparations package of two dollars for every preacher who will distribute 50 cents to each congregant.

The little black bird says Blacks will not disturb Trump serving as the last hero of white nationalism as they drown in the chasm of white supremacy insanity. We suggest long term recovery for all of us suffering white supremacy type I (whites) and the other white people, i.e. blacks and other ethnicities and gender groups, including trysexuals (who try anything), suffering White supremacy/insanity Type II, as Dr. Nathan Hare has been diagnosed in his erudite deconstruction of the American psyche.

With Blacks money talks and bs walks. Blacks will not accept Adam and Steve in the White House. This is beyond the Black moral paradigm which is the only morality in Pax Americana. In his inescapable black manhood, despite his gayness, James Baldwin said to me in my 1968 interview at his New York apartment without heat in that cold December winter, “We’re the only thing that happened here! Nothing else happened here except us! It’s a wonder we all haven’t gone stark raving mad. It’s a miracle for a black father to raise a son in these circumstances, and I applaud the fathers who have done so time after time. Imagine, we are celebrating the Prince of Peace while they bomb the hell out of Vietnam. These people do not believe in Christianity nor the Prince of Peace, your condition proves it! Look at your condition!”

And the choice is Tweedledum and Tweedledee. But if you vote for me, I will set you free. Trump will make you great again. Bernie will give you everything free, a chicken in every pot. Bloomberg (stop and frisk) will give you Reparations from his personal bank account. Biden will be Obama in black face. Vote for me, I will set you free.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum are choices that are not choices, and so we go into the presidential election 2020 in a conundrum, lost and turned out on the way to Granny's house (the Whispers, Olivia). Demographically, America is at the precipice, the whites are dying out, literally, and the non-whites are baby booming, literally.

We thought Bernie Sanders had possibilities until he suggested African birth control to stop climate change, sounding like Margaret Sanger's birth control racism. But we may see the last white man as president of the United States, thus the desperation of the hour. Whites can see America is turning non-white, especially with Latinox. We can't hate white folks for fighting to make America white again, for it is but the continuation of their perennial delusional white supremacy mythology. Will the final battle of white men be Trump or Blumberg, the possible battle of the billionaire Tweedledee and Tweedledum. FYI, former President Obama fears Bernie Sanders will make Trump a shoe in. One thing we North American Africans know, freedom ain't free, so we know Bernie Sanders is talking poppycock. For sure free market capitalism is dying and shall ultimately be replaced with a fair market economy, devoid of raw capitalist exploitation of cheap labor and resources, often at gunpoint. Whether it shall be called socialism, communism or some other ism, except white-ism, remains to be seen.

As per  the housing crisis, we see housing will soon be recognized as a human right, thus the financialization or commodification of housing shall end. Even Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders ain't quite ready for this. But has any of the Tweedledee and Tweedledum presidential candidates offered a solution to the critical housing crisis? And why do we think capitalism is the panacea for all human needs? Remember that song Wake Up Everybody? Teachers got to teach a new way, preachers gotta preach a new way, and politicians got to jump out of the Left/Right paradigm. And beyond centrism as well. The Clintons killed centrism, among the other things/people they killed.

And what did Hillary say famously, "What difference does it make?"

We can speculate until the fog comes in, but you know in 2020, it's down to Tweedledee and Tweedledum.