Oakland Post Opinion on Chauncey Bailey, Rupert Murdoch Connection

Opinion
Chauncey Bailey, Rupert Murdoch, Media, Police and Politicians connected
by MarvinX

The charges against media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the UK police and politicians has implications and parallels with the Oakland political establishment, the Chauncey Bailey Project and the Oakland Police Department.

The situation in the United Kingdom reveals the collusion of politicians, the Media and the police. Shall we say they had a symbiotic relationship or was it more sinister and synergistic, for allegedly Mr. Murdoch's newspaper paid the police to help them hack into the phones of murdered persons. And it has been asserted that Murdoch’s American media organizations may have hacked into the phones of 9/11 victims. Politicians served at the behest of Mr. Murdoch's media empire, seeking his support, Murdoch acknowledged that they slipped him into the back door of the Prime Minister’s residence.

The whistle-blowing journalist who worked for Murdoch and was investigating the corruption scandal was found dead 24 hours before Murdoch’s testimony before the Parliament. The Scotland Yard police said the death would not be considered “suspicious”. In 1987, another journalist, Daniel Morgan, was murdered because he, like Chauncey, was about to expose a drug conspiracy linked to police corruption. Shortly before Chauncey was murdered, a group of mothers wanted him to meet with them at an Oakland Church to intervene between them and the police because they said the police were shaking down their sons for money, drugs and jewelry, without arresting them, letting them go free, putting their lives in danger with dope dealers.

As with the British treatment of Murdoch, Oakland politicians sought the blessings of Dr. Yusef Bey, founder of Your Black Muslim Bakery, and father of the now convicted murderer of Chauncey Bailey. Politicians who lined up at Dr. Bey’s door included Barbara Lee, Sandre Swanson, Keith Carson, Don Perata and Jerry Brown.

Derwin Longmire, the officer in charge of the investigation, was the chief mentor of the bakery boys. They were finally convicted of three murders, including Chauncey Bailey. Under his mentorship, the bakery boys imagined themselves as police, purchasing a bus and cars equipped with police lights. They were arrested for impersonating police and kidnapping, after they stopped a woman on the freeway. Most importantly, why didn’t the OPD inform Chauncey that the bakery boys were planning to kill him, since they had informants at the bakery and had them under surveillance for two years with tracking devices and tapped phones.


The Chauncey Bailey Project was formed at the request of Paul Cobb, but when he asked that they pursue the angle of police corruption, they dismissed Cobb’s suggestion, especially the Oakland Tribune which had a longtime embedded reporter at the OPD.

Even though officer Longmire was charge of the crime scene, he refused to interview an eye witness, although he later made a personal visit to the eye witness while he was in jail, with his tape recorder, and tried to convince the witness that he didn't see what he actually saw. Why did he decide to interview the witness and how did he know the man was in jail? And he recorded the interview, something he neglected to do when he put the two murder suspects in a room together, after which one made a confession? As in the London reporter’s death, Longmire, too did not think his behavior was suspicious.
--Marvin X

Marvin X is editing an anthology of writings on Chauncey Bailey.

DSCN0096 [HD]
by Bernard White (videos)

Chauncey Bailey, Rupert Murdoch, the Monkey Mind Media, Police and Politicians

Rupert Murdoch


Gov. Jerry Brown







Officer Longmire






Martin Reynolds, Oakland Tribune Editor











Chauncey Bailey, Oakland Post Editor

Chauncey Bailey, Rupert Murdoch, the Monkey Mind Media, Police and Politicians


The charges against media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the UK police and politicians has implications for the Oakland political establishment, the Monkey Mind Media, aka, Chauncey Bailey Project, and the Oakland Police Department. The situation in the United Kingdom reveals the collusion of politicians, the Media and the police. Shall we say they had a symbiotic relationship or was it more sinister and synergistic, for allegedly Mr. Murdoch's newspaper paid the police to hack into the phones of murdered persons. And politicians served at the behest of Mr. Murdoch's media empire, seeking his support before running for election.

In Oakland, we know politicians sought out the blessings of Dr. Yusef Bey, founder of Your Black Muslims Bakery, and father of the now convicted murderer of Chauncey Bailey.
But not only were politicians connected to the bakery, but Oakland Police as well. Alas, the officer in change of the investigation, Longmire, was the chief mentor of the bakery boys. There is absolutely no doubt that Longmire convinced them they could get away with murder. After all, they were finally convicted of three murders, including Chauncey Bailey.

If they had been under surveillance for two years, with tracking devices and tapped phones, how could the OPD not know an assassination was being planned? And if there is no police conspiracy, why would the OPD plan to raid the bakery the day before the assassination but delay it until the day after the assassination?

And let us not leave out the DA's involvement, since the DA asked Chauncey's boss at the Oakland Post about Chauncey's writing projects. When Publisher Paul Cobb replied Chauncey was investigating the police and City Hall, the DA walked out of Paul's office. Paul was never called to testify at the trial, to explain that his editor was not only investigating the Bakery but the police and city hall.

The Monkey Mind Media, aka Chauncey Bailey Project, also refused to focus on the police and politicians. The CBP was formed at the request of Paul Cobb, but when he suggested that they pursue the angle of police corruption, they dismissed Paul's suggestion, especially the Oakland Tribune's longtime embedded reporter at the OPD, Harry Harris.

Even though officer Longmire was the mentor of the now convicted murderers, and was ironically in charge of the crime scene but refused to interview an eye witness, although he later made a personal visit to the eye witness while he was in jail and tried to convince the witness he didn't see what he saw, the CBP claims they could find no police involvement. Oakland Tribune Editor Martin Reynolds told this writer he found Longmire to be a fine gentleman and after I revealed his remarks told to me at a lunch meeting, Martin threatened to drive by my Academy of da Corner and toss a Molotov Cocktail at me. It appears we have gangster journalists in league with gangster police and politicians.

As per politicians, former Mayor Ron Dellums asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to investigate the investigation of Chauncey's assassination, although Jerry needed to be investigated himself since he was the mayor who allegedly said, "If it's the last thing I do, I going to get that nigger from snooping around city hall and the police department." Shortly thereafter, Chauncey was fired from his job at the Oakland Tribune for frivolous reasons. Surely, this suggests an incestuous relationship between the press, police and politicians, quite similar to the sordid affair in the UK at this hour.

We have no doubt politicians are liars, that police are gangsters under the color of law and that the Monkey Mind Media perpetuates the world of make believe in their persona as sycophants of the police and politicians. The behavior of Rupert Murdoch suggests such is the order of business in the Monkey Mind Media, including much of the socalled progressive and/or radical media that is simply a Miller Lite person of the Monkey Mind Media.

Berkeley's socalled radical radio station KPFA reported the same story line as the MMM, i.e. the bakery young men killed Chauncey because he was going to report their bankruptcy proceedings, although such proceedings were public information. KPFA's socalled minister of information should be called minister of misinformation since he was involved in the murder conspiracy. The OPD have phone records of him talking with the now convicted murderers as they stalked the house of Chauncey Bailey hours before his assassination. Isn't it strange that a fellow journalist is about to be murdered while another journalist is on the phone talking with the assassins while they are stalking the soon to be victim's house?

The entire matter stinks to high heaven, quite similar to events in the United Kingdom. As per the assassination of Chauncey Bailey, it may be rare in the US but globally journalists are slaughtered annually, over one hundred the last few years. In Mexico, they are usually killed for investigating political corruption, drug dealing and other matters. For sure, Chauncey's assassination was encouraged if not aided and abetted by the police and politicians, the bakery boys were merely fall guys, mentored and inspired by the police that they were above the law and could literally get away with murder.
--Marvin X

Marvin X is editing an anthology of writings on Chauncey Bailey.

Sources for Research on the Moorish Science and York's Nuwabian Moors/Ansaru

From: professordorman@gmail.com

Does anyone know of someone who has done work, scholarly or otherwise, on contemporary manifestations of Moorish Science, after Noble Drew Ali, the white Moorish Orthodox Church, or the various permutations of Malachi Z. York? An AP reporter in North Carolina is trying to account for the growing number of people claiming Moorish nationality in the court system. I have checked dissertations and theses and various other databases and found nothing; I have also polled a number of ethnographers, and no one knows of anyone looking at Moorish Science today. Can anyone on this list help? At the very least this seems like a great research opportunity for an enterprising graduate student.


From: yusufnuruddin@yahoo.com

In addition to the bibliography on the Moorish Science Temple and on Malachi York's Nuwaubian Moors which I supplied earlier, here is a major title which I just discovered: The Nuwaubian Nation: Black Spirituality and State Control by Susan Palmer. Farnham, Surrey and Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate, 2010.

I also neglected to mention a feature story on the Nuwaubian Moors by Adam Heimlich
entitled "Black Egypt A Visit to Tama-Re" which appeared in the weekly newspaper New
York Press (November 14, 2000)and is available on the web. A shorter article on the Nuwaubians appears in the magazine Bidoun: Art and Culture from the
Middle East circa 2009/ 2010 but I would have to search for a while to find
my photocopy of the article in order to give you the exact date. There are also tons of articles of various qualities and ideological persuasions on the web.




----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Abdul Alkalimat
To: H-AFRO-AM@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Sent: Wed, July 20, 2011 3:36:31 AM
Subject: Re: Moorish Science After Drew Ali and Z. York

From: yusufnuruddin@yahoo.com

The Moorish Science Temple and the Ansaru Allah Community (early name of Malachi York’s Nuwabian Moors) each have a separate chapter in Yvonne Haddad’ and Jane Idleman Smith’s Mission to America: Five Islamic Sectarian
Communities in North America (University Press of Florida, 1993); chapter 3 of Richard Brent Turner’s Islam in the African American Experience (Indiana University Press, 1997) is devoted to the history of the Moorish Science Temple; Kathleen Malone O’Connor’s article “The Nubian Islamic Hebrews, Ansaru Allah Community: Jewsish Teachings of an African American Muslim Community” appears in Yvonne Chireau and Nathaiel Deutsch, eds., Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism (Oxford University Press, 2000) ; a major work on the Moorish Science Temple is Jose Pimienta –Bey’s Othello’s Children in the New World: Moorish History and Ideology in the African American Experience. (1st Library Books, 2002); .my comparison and contrast of the teachings of the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters)and Malachi York’s Nuwabian Moors/Ansaru Allah Community is entitled “Ancient Black Astronauts and Extraterrestrial Jihads: Islamic Science Fiction as Urban Mythology” and appears in the special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy entitled Socialism and Social Critique in Science
Fiction (No. 42; November, 2006) edited by Yusuf Nuruddin, Alcena Rogan and Victor Wallis, and is freely accessible on line at www.sdonline.org , back issues , #42; I am also aware of works in progress on the
Nuwabian Moors.

Members of the Moorish Science Temple have published atleast two recent books about their organization and beliefs. Rommani M.Amenu-El is the author of The Negro,
the Black, the Moor (Baltimore; Gateway Press, 2008). A massive work (667 pages ) by Sheik Elihu N. Pleasant-Bey is entitled Noble Drew Ali: The Exhuming of a Nation(distributed by African World Books in Baltimore, and published circa 2010).

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Abdul Alkalimat
To: H-AFRO-AM@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Sent: Wed, July 20, 2011 3:35:32 AM
Subject: Re: Moorish Science After Drew Ali and Z. York

From: bcpdigital@yahoo.com

quite a few self published books have been done on the Moors over the last decade. best source i can think of is African World Books, Baltimore 410-383-2006, ask for brother Nati. he keeps a good inventory of them.

Muslim Pioneer shares Memories at Defermery Park Reunion

We are so thankful to Allah for blessing us to hear the testimony of a pioneer of Islam in the Bay Area, Sister Olivia Samaiyah Beyah, aka Sadie, one of the officials at Mosque #26 and later at Masjid Clara Muhammad on Bond Street in Oakland. When Malcolm X was sat down after the assassination of JFK, Queen Mother was at the home of Elijah Muhammad in Phoenix, Az.

Gullahland

GEECHEE GULLAH CULTURE SPOKESPERSON FROM SAPELO ISLAND, GEORGIA ANNOUNCES NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION

The Regeneration Of An Indigenous Culture

ATLANTA, Georgia – Geechee Gullah Culture Spokesperson Reginald H. Hall announced today the establishment of the Geechee Gullah Culture Non-Government Organization, Incorporated. The NGO consist of an executive accountability team, a tribunal, and a legislative body.

This NGO intends, according to Hall, to remedy the current deprivation situation impacted by the illegal land claims of the Sapelo Island Heritage Authority and The Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Management Area of the state of Georgia. The area of concern is known in the culture as the ancestral Geechee settlement of Raccoon Bluff, consisting of 1,376.78 acres.

West Africans, enslaved and brought to America, embraced the conditions of the land, and nurtured the growth and survival of their families by connecting their strength and resilience to the land itself. Additionally, the spirit of their relationship with nature framed their existence as indigenous. The land — and everything that the land produced — became an expression known as “the indigenous culture of the Geechee Gullah people”.

“We intend to hold onto as well as reclaim lands,” Hall asserts, “that have legally belonged to our families since 1871, as well as preserve and create the economic sustainability that will allow us to pass on our culture for generations to come.”

For more information contact: info@geecheegullahculture.org

Black Panthers Celebrate Geronimo Transition to Ancestors

Black Panthers Celebrate Transition of Geronimo Ji-Jaga to Ancestors



photo Gene Hazzard



On a beautiful, sunny day in the Bay, Oakland Black Panthers and community celebrated the transition of legendary Black Panther Minister of Defense, Geronimo Ji-Jaga who spent 27 years in prison on trumped up charges, fabricated by the FBI.

Marvin X performs with Land of My Daughters (Aries Jordan on right and Toya Jordan, left)
photo Gene Hazzard



Speaker after speaker gave honor and praise to G, the soldier who said he was only following the order of his elders when he joined the US Army and learned the skills to return home to defend his community nationwide.

Because of the split in the Black Panther Party, Oakland Panthers would not testify that he was in Oakland at the time he allegedly murdered a woman on a Los Angeles tennis court. FBI intelligence records could have proven he was in Oakland as well.

No matter, on Sunday, Oakland Black Panthers paid tribute to the man equal in stature to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, especially as per time spent in prison for revolutionary activity. He shall forever be remembered for his contribution to the liberation of North American Africans.

Throughout the afternoon, speakers such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Rev. Freeman, David Johnson and Willie Sundiata Tate of the San Quentin Six, Ayana At-Thinin, Avotcja, Stu Hanlon (G's lawyer along with the late Johnny Cochran) and a host of others, praised our dearly beloved and departed brother who joined the ancestors in the Motherland where he finally settled, Tanzania, East Africa.

The event was organized by Black Panther chief archivist Billy X Jennings, but participants included the Black Panther Commemorator Newspaper, under the guidance of Melvin Dixon, Big Man, Jabari Shaw of the BSU of at Laney College, Brother Ustadi of the Afrikan Learning Center.
There were performances by Tarika Lewis, first female member of the BPP and Phavia Kujichagulia, griot of the first order. Percussionist Tacuma King also performed along with other too numerous to mention.

Toward the end of the evening, Billy X Jennings, the chief organizer, announced he had been saving the best for last and then introduced Marvin X, poet, playwright, activist, one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, who attended Merritt College with Black Panther co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the man who introduced Eldridge Cleaver to the Black Panthers, along with Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier when they attended the Black House, the political/cultural center founded by Marvin X and Eldridge Cleaver in San Francisco, 1967.

Marvin took the mike along with two young lady poet/performers, Toya and Aries Jordan, sisters from the east coast who have joined his Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre. Aries, under the mentorship of Marvin X, published her first collection of poetry. She electrified the audience at the Joyce Gordon Gallery during a Woman's History Month Celebration organized by Marvin X, who called together the most powerful African women in the Bay Area, Hunia Bradly, Rev. Mutima Imani, Ayodele Nzinga, Phavia Kujichagulia, Tureada Mikel, Jerri Lange, Talibah, who presented a poetic womanhood rites of passage. Aries performed a scene from the Vagina Monologue as well as her poetry.

Marvin X made opening remarks on Geronimo, saying he recalled two essential things about the brother. Firstly, that he was a soldier who practiced discipline, and this was necessary for the present generation of youth to acquire, that it ain't about any means necessary but the right means necessary to achieve victory. Secondly, G went into the US Army because his elders commanded him to do so, in order to learn the skills to defend his community.

Marvin X demanded youth follow their elders in the tradition of Geronimo. "As Sun Ra taught me, if you don't do the right thing, you can't go forward or backward, the Creator got things fixed so you are just stuck on stupid until you do the right thing."

Toya and Aries went to their respective mikes, Marvin X in the middle. They recited What If, a pantheistic poem about Allah as the All in All, Allah as everything, the dope fiend, the alcoholic, the tree, the river, the mama you hate, the father you hate, etc. The trio then recited a Marvin X classic For the Women, and then the women lead a recitation of a lessor known poem For the Men. Shortly after, the event ended. Power to the People!

Analysis: After being a participant/observer for the last two days at events at Defermery Park, the Muslim reunion of Saturday and the BPP celebration on Sunday, there is clearly a need for a once and month Speak Out for community. Speakers and spoken word arists are nice, but what is most important is for the people to speak out, to vent their trauma and unresolved grief. Nothing else is more important.

Muslim Elders Meet to Celebrate at West Oakland Park

Bay Area Black Muslim Honor Elders


West Oakland's historic Defermery Park, aka Bobby Hutton Park, was the site of a celebration of Black Muslims in the Bay Area, 1950-2011. It was a small gathering of mostly pioneers who were part of the Nation of Islam in the Bay from the late 50s to the early 70s. There were men and women who had been laborers and officials in the NOI.

Of course, after the transition of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1975, some of these soldiers, men and women, became Sunni Muslims under Elijah Muhammad's son, Imam Warithdin Muhammad. Others joined the NOI under Minister Farrakhan. Some were associated with Dr. Yusef Bey's Black Muslim Bakery.

They all came together yesterday for a celebration of their personal and communal struggle to lift the banner of Islam in the Bay. All pioneers over 65 received a beautiful certificate of appreciation that said the following:

To each is a goal to which Allah turns him; then strive together (as in a race) towards all that is good. Wheresoever ye are, Allah will bring you together. For Allah hath power over all things. S.2.,A.148

It is with the highest respect and the greatest appreciation for your "Service to Allah" that the Unity in the Community Committee offers this certificate as an indication of your contributions to our Deen and the Mission of Allah.

The event included free food, spoken word, prayers and testimonies. Imams and ministers addressed the gathering. The most poignant remarks came from the women soldiers who talked briefly of their role in building the Islamic nation in the Bay.

Future gatherings are planned so believers will have more time to share their testimonies. Some of those present included Imam Alamin, Imam Shuaib, Minister Keith Muhammad, Norman Brown, Sister Sadie, Fahizah Alim, Khalid Wajjib (one of the organizers), Abdul Sabry, Saadat Ahmed, Mikel Muhammad, Hasan Muhammad, Muhammad Ali, Rashidah, Marvin X, et al.

Accompanied by poet/actress Aries Jordan, Marvin X read poetry that was well received by the gathering. The author of thirty books stated in his remarks that he credits the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for his writing style. He is working on A History of Black Muslims in the Bay: 1954-2011.
Poet/actress Aries Jordan


Poet Marvin X
Today, Sunday, July 17, an even larger gathering is expected at Defermery Park when members of the Black Panther Party will gather to celebrate the life of Geronimo Ji-Jaga, Minister of Defense, who made his transition in Africa recently, after serving 27 years in prison on charges trumped up by the FBI in an attempt to disrupt and destroy the black liberation movement, including Muslims, Panthers, Civil Rights workers and other radicals fighting for social justice. The celebration for Geronimo begins at 2pm, Bobby Hutton Park, 18th and Adeline, West Oakland.
--Marvin X

Marvin X and his Chief Mentor, Sun Ra, 1972

Those who have a problem understanding the complexity of Marvin X, need only understand he was a student and colleague of Sun Ra, the bandleader of the Arkestra that Marvin X performed with on the east coast and west coast. Sun Ra worked with Marvin X at his Black Educational Thearte in the Fillmore, 1972. Sun Ra did the musical version of his play Flowers for the Trashaman, retitled Take Care of Business.

Sun Ra and Marvin X did a five hour production of Take Care of Business at the Harding Theatre on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, 1972. Sun Ra also told Marvin X he would be hired to lecture in the Black Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Marvin X doubted Sun Ra since Gov. Ronald Reagan had banned him from teaching at Fresno State College in 1969, the same year he banned Angela Davis from teaching at UCLA. Marvin X did indeed teach at UCB and his off campus class was at his Black Educational Theatre in the Fillmore. Sun Rn worked with him and the Harding Theatre concert was a five hour show without intermission, that consisted of a fifty member cast, including the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Ellendar Barnes dancers, along with the Raymond Saywer dancers and the Marvin X actors.

Of Pistols and Prayers by Ise Lyfe

Of Pistols and Prayers
by Ise Lyfe



Watching this young man on stage took me back to my undergraduate days at San Francisco State College, 1965, when the drama department produced my first play Flowers for the Trashman.

In Ise Lyfe, I saw myself as a young man in the theatre after the drama department production, when I dropped out of college to establish my own theatre in the Fillmore District, Black Arts West Theatre, along with playwright Ed Bullins and others.

Watching Ise do his thing on stage, producing, directing, writing and acting, along with his crew of mostly young people, was indeed a pleasure. It is a pleasure to see youth doing anything positive, but especially being creative rather than destructive, trying to spread consciousness to his generation in dire need of such.

It is for this reason that I don’t want to be too critical on the brother, although I do have a few constructive remarks that may help him in the future. Firstly, I saw no need for him to come on and exit the stage in almost rapid succession. Stay yo ass on stage and present your message, even scene changes can be done on stage: let us see you transform or change persona on stage. The very process is part of the drama. Further, we don’t need to hear your voice off stage. Say what you got to say on stage, up front and personal. In our face. And not too much video. Again, we want to see you, not a video message, no matter it is a mixed media production. We didn’t come to look at a screen but to see you. You are the reason for the season.

The music was nice and worked in harmony with Ise, sometimes in perfect harmony. It was especially nice to see my favorite musician on stage, Destiny Muhammad, harpist from the hood. The long segment with the DJ was, for me, totally unnecessary and could be deleted. The central focus is Ise, nobody else. After all, this is a one man show. We don't need to hear nothing from the DJ.

For sure, Ise has the potential to be a great actor. We see he can transform into a myriad personas. And the poetry is good conscious hip hop. We can only suggest, and this goes for hip hop spoken word in general, discover the director, other than oneself, for the director can see what the actor can’t. He can tell the actor things he never imagined, no matter how talented. The actor can often suffer a kind of blindness, perhaps caused by ego, so don’t be too arrogant not to employ a director. In my case, I would at least utilize an associate director, although they would do so reluctantly, declaring, “Marvin, you ain’t gonna let me direct, you know that!” Still, I would at least call upon them for advice.

And we say to Ise Lyfe, welcome to the world of black theatre. It’s your turn, go for it! We encourage youth and adults to catch this production of a young man trying to do the right thing, i.e., being creative and attempting to spread consciousness. To escape this morass, we may indeed need a pistol and a prayer. A white man suggested the three Gs: guns, gold and getaway plan.
--Marvin X
Marvin X is one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement.

Herman Ferguson, A Revolutionary Biography

We are happy to learn that Herman has finally had his story told. Not only do we remember him during my 1968 sojourn in Harlem, but ran into him in Guyana, South America, during the beginning of his 19 year exile. Guyana was a place of refuge for North American Africans fleeing American oppression. Ferguson was there along with Julian Mayfield, Tom Feelings, Mamadou Lumumbia and others. We are thankful Paul Coates of Black Classics Press made the publication of his biography possible. And most of all, thanks to Herman's warrior queen Iyaluua.
--Marvin X
Black Bird Press News

From Khalifa

Greetings Everyone,

This is to announce that the biography of Herman Ferguson is now available. The book was written by his wife Iyaluua, a African woman in the "tradition of Minnie Mandela." It was Sister Iyaluua Ferguson that kept the name Herman Ferguson, before us, while he was in exile is Guyana for 19 long years.

Now it is she who captures both the spirit of the undefeated, 90 years old Black Chamption, who unlike many of his station in the 1960's (Public School VPrincipal), only claimed Minister Malcolm X after he was gone: Herman Ferguson was a colleague, soldier on the front line in struggle (A True Revolutionary, who has the documentation to show, if necessary) He was a member of both organizations that Malcolm founded, but had no chance to develope.

The Title of the book is An Unlikely Warrior: The Evolution of a Revolutionary. It was printed by Paul Coate's Black Classics Press. It is available via iyaluua@aol.com for $20.00 + $5.00 shipping.

I have a review of the book in progress: but since i want to read, again, this riveting, True Story about the 1960's and it's aftermath, this announcement will allow the conscious brothers and sisters chance to get started.

............................................Khalifah

"H. Khalif Khalifah"

KPFA Special on Black Panthers Don Cox and Geronimo Ji=Jaga

Africa Special - July 11, 2011 at 7:00pm | KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley: Listener Sponsored Free Speech Radio

A

All Praises are due Walter Turner and Greg Bridges of KPFA

We give all praises to Brothers Walter Turner and Greg Bridges of KPFA Radio, Berkeley, for last nights special program on the life and times of Black Panther revolutionaries Field Marshall Don Cox and Minister of Defense Geronimo Ji-Jaga. This program should/must be heard by all North American African youth and adults seeking a knowledge of true American history. The interviews with surviving Black Panther Party members was a riveting narrative on the revolutionary personality, what one must endure, suffer, the necessary discipline and love for the people.

We were informed on the pain of exile, prison, capture, self education and family love. We heard from wives, children, and comrades, rom Minister of Culture Emory Douglas, Communications Secretary Kathleen Cleaver, Barbara Cox, widow of DC or Don Cox, BPP Field Marshall, Charlotte O'Neill, wife of BPP member Pete O'Neill, still exiled in Tanzania.

For me, perhaps the most important lesson learned was from Geronimo's unconditional love and forgiveness that he demonstrated throughout his life. Also, the essential role of elders in his life, how he and other brothers in his community honored, respected and followed their orders as per community. They did not question the wisdom of their elders, especially when it came to community defense.

Enough said. Listen to the tape and those in the Bay should be sure to find their way to Bobby Hutton Park (Defermery Park) on Sunday, July 17, 2pm. And don't forget the Unity and Reunion for all Bay Area Muslims, Saturday, July 16, 11am til 5pm, Bobby Hutton Park, 18th and Adeline, West Oakland.




We know there is no coincidence both these events are back to back. After all, many Muslims were Panthers and many Panthers were Muslims. Power to the People and As-Salaam-Alaikum!
--Marvin X

Dewey Redman and Black Arts West Theatre

We remember Dewey Redman at the Black Arts West Theatre playwright Ed Bullins and I founded at Turk and Fillmore, San Francisco, 1966, along with Ethna Wyatt, Karl Bossiere, Duncan Barber and Hillery Broadous. Into our theatre came a plethora of jazz musicians to accompany our plays, including Dewey Redman, Monte Waters, Donald Rafael Garrett, Earl Davis, BJ, Paul Smith, et al. They took authority of the music department by telling us to go ahead and do our thing, they would accompany us by coming on stage and accenting our words, or going out into the audience or even out the door to address the Fillmore Street crowds, including the bumper to bumper cars passing along Fillmore.

Dewey and bassist Donald Garrett were probably the most free in teaching us what would become known as Ritual Theatre, that smashing of the wall between stage and audience, merging them into the oneness so well known in the Christian ritual. The difference between the church ritual and the Black Arts ritual was that we came to smash tradition, not enforce it. Of course, we must know tradition before we can smash it. So Dewey, Donald and the rest taught us tradition then how to transcend it.

They forced us to abandon our concept of European theatre, dragging us, sometimes screaming and hollering, back and forward to our African dramatic tradition, freeing us once and forever.

Of course, the ultimate transformer of our dramatic consciousness was Sun Ra, the Grand Master of African theatre. Sun Ra taught the necessity of African mythology as the basis of ritual expression, and with his Arkestra demostrated the unity of music, dance, poetry and mixed media.
--Marvin X
Black Arts West Theatre, 2011

Marvin X's forthcoming drama is Mythology of Love, a womanhood/manhood poetic rites of passage, featuring Ptah Mitchell as Eternal Man and Aries Jordan as Eternal Woman.



Dewey Redman, A Biography



Dewey Redman (born Walter Dewey Redman in Fort Worth, Texas, May 17, 1931; d. Brooklyn, New York September 2, 2006) was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett.

Redman played mainly tenor saxophone, though he occasionally doubled on alto saxophone, played the Chinese suona (which he called a musette) and on rare occasions played the clarinet.

His son is saxophonist Joshua Redman.

After high school, Redman briefly enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, but became disillusioned with the program and returned home to Texas. In 1953, Redman earned a Bachelors Degree in Industrial Arts from Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University. While at Prairie View, he switched from clarinet to alto saxophone, then, eventually, to tenor. Following his bachelor's degree, Redman served two-years in the US Army.

Upon his discharge from the Army, Redman began working on a master’s degree in education at the University of North Texas. While working on his degree, he taught music to fifth graders in Bastrop, Texas, and worked as a freelance saxophonist on nights and weekends around Austin, Texas. In 1957, Redman earned a Masters Degree in Education with a minor in Industrial Arts from the University of North Texas. While at North Texas, he did not enroll in any music classes.

Towards the end of 1959, Redman moved to San Francisco, a musical choice resulting in an early collaboration with Donald Rafael Garrett.

Redman was best known for his collaborations with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, with whom he performed in his Fort Worth high school marching band. He later performed with Coleman from 1968 to 1972, appearing on the recording New York Is Now, among others. He also played in pianist Keith Jarrett's American Quartet (1971-1976), and was a member of the collective Old And New Dreams. The American Quartet's The Survivor's Suite was voted Jazz Album of the Year by Melody Maker in 1978.

He also performed and recorded as an accompanying musician with jazz musicians who performed in varying styles within the post-1950s jazz idiom, including bassist and fellow Coleman-alum Charlie Haden and guitarist Pat Metheny.

With a dozen recordings under his own name Redman established himself as one of the more prolific tenor players of his generation. Though generally associated with free jazz (with an unusual, distinctive technique of sometimes humming into his saxophone as he played), Redman's melodic tenor playing was often reminiscent of the blues and post-bop mainstream. Redman's live shows were as likely to feature standards and ballads as the more atonal improvisations for which he was known.

Redman was the subject of an award-winning documentary film Dewey Time (dir. Daniel Berman, 2001).

On February 19 and 21, 2004, Redman played tenor saxophone as a special guest with Jazz at Lincoln Center, in a concert entitled "The Music of Ornette Coleman."
Redman died of liver failure in Brooklyn, New York on September 2, 2006. He is survived by his wife, Lidija Pedevska-Redman, as well as sons Tarik, and Joshua Redman also a jazz saxophonist. The father and son recorded two albums together.

Marvin X and Tamika at Fillmore Jazz Festival

Marvin X and Tamika at Fillmore Jazz Festival, San Francisco

Marvin hawks 45th anniversary edition of the Black Panther Newspaper. Catch him at the Bay Area Muslim Unity and Reunion Celebration (1950-2011), Defermery Park, aka Bobby Hutton Park, Saturday, July 16, 11-5pm.

He will also be at the Celebration for Black Panther Geronimo Ji-Jaga, Sunday, July 17,Defermery Park, 2-7pm. Location is 18th and Adeline, West Oakland.

photo Gary Jamerson

Photo Essay:: Danny Glover and Marvin X at SF Anti-War Rally, 2003, photos by Kamau Amen Ra

From the Marvin X Archives: Photo Essay by Kamau Amen Ra of Danny Glover and Marvin X at San Francisco Anti-war Rally, 2003.

Danny and Marvin were students at San Francisco State University during the 60s. Danny later performed at Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore, 1966.

Youth Violence and Black Classical Music

Note the white makeup on Nina to make her more acceptable to the "American" audience on the Ed Sullivan Show, 1960. America did the same to Nat King Cole when he had the first black TV show. He was forced to wear the same white make up.






Youth Violence and Black Classical Musical
At this past weekend's San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Festival, many persons mentioned to me how peaceful it was, none of the incidents of gang banging that occurred during the Juneteenth Festival, even with a heavy police presence. We noted the police are simply another gang under the color of law, so the youth have no respect for them thus they commit acts of chaos in their presence.

The Jazz Festival was, again, peaceful. I heard of no reports of youth madness, although youth were present. I had a little incident with a youth who getting people to sign petitions. When he asked me to sign and I told him to get back with me because I was just setting up and neeed to get my mind in order. The youth told me I had a bad attitude, to which I responded, yes, I am a nigguh with an attitude. He said he was from New York and Newark and was down with blackness and I was reactionary, I assume, because I didn't sign his petition fast enough. He shouted at me his African names and told me I didn't know nothing about Africa and nothing else. The conversation ended when I told him I was in Africa, right here in the Fillmore. He called me a real nigguh and I concurred.

But back to violence and music. Sun Ra taught me armies march to music, and of course in the African tradition of New Orleans, there are funeral marches with music. We know Jazz or Black Classical music appeals to the mind, in particular, as well as the soul and body. Throughout the day a New Orleans band passed by with that second line joyful music that one is forced to join the line or move the body.

But essentially Jazz/BCM soothes the mind, or in the 60s tradition, challenges the mind with sounds smashing traditional white supremacy music. It can be war music or the music of peace and meditation so much needed today, well, we are war today as well.

Sadly, much of hip hop music negatively affects the central nervous system with robotic nursery rhymes and beats that indeed, put people to "sleep" rather than touch their higher consciousness, especially the genre of reactionary so called gangsta rap, the bitch, ho, motherfucker/fatherfucker variety.

Whereas Jazz/BCM revolutionized the people of the 60s,i.e. Coltrane, Miles, Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, Milford Graves, Nina Simone, Sun Ra, the reactionary rap music has a history of violence at concerts and in the hood, generally, for such music affects our subconscious mind. Young Negroes move to a beat without any music, programmed like Pavlov's dog, mix in mind altering drugs and you have a volatile potent package of poison ready to kill.

This is why I say we must not only pass the tone test when stopped by the police but with each other, especially when encountering youth. We don't know how many blunts a youth may have smoked before he encountered us. The youth taking signatures told me he might whup my ass, OG. Now you know he had to be loaded because he ain't hardly gonna kick my ass, he may kill me but I ain't hardly taking no ass whuppin from little snotty nose fathterness boys who hate me because I represent their long lost daddy.

As per the festival, yes, the music helped keep the peace. Youth, for the most part, don't relate to the music. But there's another reason for the peace: white people. White people flooded Fillmore Street for the festival as per usual. For that matter, white people have invaded the Fillmore District with gentrification, so no matter how violent youth may be, they ain't messing with no white people, they scared to death of white people, plus they know if they harm them, they can be charged with hate crimes or making terrorist threats. As I noted, they fought each other at Juneteenth in front of the police without arrest.

Music can heal you or kill you. For sure, we need healing music today, music that is therapeutic to mind and community. We need to hear real live positive music throughout the hood. How ironic when I lived in Seattle, Jazz/BCM was played everywhere, even in the elevators at shopping centers, it was Jazz. This is music for higher consciousness and sanity in a world where music is programmed to deconstruct and destroy the mind not construct it.

On the positive, the conscious rappers have indeed aligned themselves with Jazz/BCM, producing music with poet Amiri Baraka and others, performing with Trombone Shorty and other noted Jazz musicians. Once youth detox from destructive sounds, they will do more than sample Jazz, they will love it for it is their heritage, part of their DNA. Jazz/BCM is a thinking man's/woman's music, and the Lord knows we are in the time when hard thinking is needed. Life is a thinking man's/woman's game.

Again, the music can kill us or heal us. Sun Ra worked at my Black Educational Theatre during 1972, composing music for Take Care of Business, the musical version of Flowers for the Trashman. When my driver had a mental breakdown, Sun Ra visited him in the hospital, leaving him several albums. My driver was soon greatly improved and deeply appreciated Sun Ra for visiting him and leaving the albums.
--Marvin X
7/5/11

What is African American Studies?

From: yusufnuruddin@yahoo.com

Available Now
For price info and copies please contact
zendive@aol.com

Special Issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy:

What Is African American Studies,Its Focus, and Future?

Edited by John H.
McClendon III and Yusuf Nuruddin


Preface

Introduction by John H. McClendon III

Articles

John H.
Bracey, Jr., Black Studies in the Age of Obama
De Anna Reese and Malik Simba,Historiography against History: The
Propaganda of History and the Struggle for the Hearts and Minds of Black Folk
Stephen Ferguson, The Utopian Worldview of Afrocentricity: Critical
Comments on a Reactionary Philosophy
John
H. McClendon III,Materialist
Philosophical Inquiry and African American Studies

Yusuf Nuruddin, Africana
Studies: Which Way Forward – Marxism or Afrocentricity? Neither Mechanical
Marxism nor Atavistic Afrocentrism
Reiland
Rabaka, Revolutionary Fanonism: On Frantz Fanon’s Modification
of Marxism and Decolonization of Democratic Socialism

Rose M. Brewer,
Black Women’s Studies: From Theory to Transformative Practice
Rod Bush, Africana Studies and the Decolonization of the
U.S. Empire in the 21st Century
Greg Carr,What Black
Studies Is Not: Moving from Crisis to Liberation in Africana Intellectual Work
Anthony
Monteiro, The Epistemic Crisis of African American Studies: A Du
Boisian Resolution
Carter Wilson, The Dominant Class and the Construction of Racial
Oppression: A Neo-Marxist/Gramscian Approach to Race in the United States
Charles
Pinderhughes, Toward a New Theory of Internal Colonialism


Review Essays

Robeson Taj P. Frazier, Afro-Asia
and Cold War Black Radicalism

Charles L. Lumpkins,Rediscovering Hubert
Harrison: Revolutionary Socialism and Anti-White Supremacy for 21st-Century
Americans

Gerald Meyer, James
Baldwin’s Harlem: The Key to His Politics

Book
Reviews

Michelle
Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
reviewed by Lenore Daniels

Safiya Bukhari, THE WAR
BEFORE: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in
Prison, and Fighting for Those Left
Behind
reviewed by
David Gilbert

Yale University Black Collection Online

Yale University Places its Huge Cultural Collections Online: Thousands of Items Relating to African Americans Are IncludedYale University is making its vast art and cultural holdings available to the public over the Internet. Digital images of more than 259,000 items are now available online. In the future, millions of digital versions of items from the university’s museums, libraries, and archives will be accessible. The Peabody Museum of Natural History alone has more than 12 million items in its collection.

The online collections are fully searchable with a collective catalog. A search for “African American” turns up more than 2,700 items. A search for “black Americans” produced nearly 15,000 results.

Marvin X's Daughter Muhammida and Last Poet Omar Ben Hasan

Marvin X's Daughter Muhammida and Last Poet Omar Ben Hasan


Muhammida El Muhajir is the middle child of Marvin X's three daughters. Of his two sons, Abdul transitioned at 39 and Marvin K is estranged. Muhammida El Muhajir grew up in Philadelphia. Her mother, Nisa Ra, was a student of Marvin X's when he taught at the University of California, Berkeley. She danced in his myth-ritual drama Resurrection of the

Dead, performed at his Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore, 1972.


Nisa Ra of Philadelphia, Mother of Muhammida

Muhammida graduated from Howard University in Microbiology, but turned to the arts. Her film HIP HOP the New World Order has been screened internationally and was taught in a class at Harvard University on Hip Hop. After traveling with her daughter to Europe, her mother exclaimed, "My daughter is as well known on the streets of Paris and London as she is in Harlem and Brooklyn."

To make her film on hip hop, she traveled to Japan, Cuba, Brazil, South Africa, England, France, Germany and Denmark with her own money, alone with her camera.

For a time she was a music marketing manager at NIKE, serving as liaison to musicians and rap artists. As event planner, she organized a VIP party for the NBA All Stars at San Francisco's NIKETOWN, producing a party on all seven floors.

She wrote a film script but after her father's critique, she came full strenght, shocking her father with her bluntness and skills with the linquistics of the hood.






Muhammida and daughter,


Mahadevi.


photo Sam Anderson









Check out her web:

http://www.suninleo.com/

White Supremacy, Zionism and National Insanity

White Supremacy, Zionism and National Insanity

Preface: Amy Nogoodwoman and her Democracy Now is clearly in the camp of the Monkey Mind Media that perpetuates the world of make believe. This morning she gave a report on the Gaza Flotilla attempting to break into the Gaza concentration camp. Amy Nogoodwoman spent an inordinate amount of time voicing the views of a Zionist agent until he rushed off the air after a propaganda barrage. When she turned to an Arab journalist, he was allowed to say a few words then cut off, so we see Democracy Now is but another of the undercover Zionist entities, parading as Leftist. She didn't dare interview a leader of Harmas, the democratically elected government in Gaza. This lopsided journalism is typical of pseudo Leftist that are in boot step with the Monkey Mind Media.
--


"Marvin X at his best, clarity of perception!" --Gerald Ali, UK



Recent events in Israel such as the planned building of 1,600 housing units in Arab East Jerusalem, lead us to the conclusion the Zionists are headed down a national suicide path that will surely take America, if not the world, with them. What makes their suicide a foregone conclusion is the fact they are surrounded by nations with populations more suicidal than they.

The Saudi Arabian brand of Islam promoted by Al Quida is a return to Ya'um Jahiliyah or the days of ignorance before the advent of Islam in 632 AD. The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah are just as determined as the Jewish Zionists to execute their fanatical, dogmatic vision in the world, or in particular, the Middle East.

It is a dance of death for all peoples, with no hope in sight. The more the Muslims seem ready to conclude a deal with for some semblance of a Palestinian state, the more the Zionists expand their colonial occupation of Arab land.

Despite the winds of revolution and cries for social-political and economic justice throughout the region, the Zionists in Israel are tone deaf and determined to continue down the road to hell, for where else can they go as the Arab masses move toward a unity never before seen.

The recent visit of Israeli leader Netanyahu was a supreme example of hubris or simple minded White supremacy arrogance. He openly and unashamedly defied President Obama's call for a return to the pre-1967 borders in a final peace deal with the Palestinians. Despite having the greatest army in the world and nuclear weapons, Netanyahu claimed the 1967 borders are indefensible. How is this possible with an annual three billion dollar defense welfare check from America? And the Israeli sycophants in the US Congress treated the Zionist leader as a rock star, yet he is a star sure to fall from the sky. It is only a matter of time before the Zionist date with destiny.

Not long ago the son of a Hamas leader who confessed being a snitch for the Zionists, said he agreed to snitch after he saw nothing shall happen regarding Palestine as long as the two sides maintain their dogmatic religiosity or archaic mythology.

There can be no forward movement with such backward notions of history, of aboriginal claims of ownership based on mythology and religiosity, e.g., the Chosen people of God poppycock. At least the Arabs come from the reality that they were brazenly removed from their homeland.

How does one make peace with someone who has seized your homeland and relegated you to refugee camps within and outside your original space, especially when the occupation is based on injuries inflicted by someone else (Hitler)? Why should Arabs suffer for what Nazis did to the Jews?

The Arabs say they shall fight to the death to reclaim their land, with Hamas fighting for every inch of land taken, no matter how long it takes. It took 200 years before Saladin removed the last Crusaders! The Zionists claim Hamas will not recognize them, but what is the idea of a "Jewish" state but the non-recognition of the Palestinian people? Where is democracy in such a state, where is humanity. It is buried in mythology, a mythology that shall not survive the new era. I don't care what any holy books say, there shall be no peace without justice. This is the magic word missing in the vocabulary of both Netanyahu and President Obama. Nobody wants more than justice and nobody wants less.

What is amazing is that the Zionists have a nuclear arsenal and the greatest army in the Middle East, if not the world--at least until Hezbollah fought them to a standstill in Lebanon (a feat greater than the combined Arab armies in several wars against the Zionists)--yet all we hear is the need for security. What more security do you need? You have bombs, planes, tanks, soldiers, bio-chemical weapons of mass destruction and nukes, what more security do you need? Would tightening the grip on the Arab concentration camps suffice, i.e., will the Wall you are building satisfy your security needs, a checkpoint on every block, every mile? A snitch in every Arab home?

No matter the intractable positions on both sides, we are nearing a conclusion on this matter, yes, in spite of the duplicity of all concerned, the Zionists, their American sycophants, and the quisling Muslim governments in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf States. Also, we cannot ignore the critical role of Iran in this drama, with their support of Hamas and Hezbollah for matters of their mythological dreams.

All these myths must be cast into the dustbin of history and a new vision must be adopted by all sides, no matter how painful. But again, the vision must be based on justice, not peace. Peace with boots on the neck is not a real and lasting peace. It is a sham peace and it will only hasten the day of judgment.

What we have is a prescription for full blown Armageddon. Let the fundamental Christians rejoice along with the 12vers in Iran who anxiously await the return of the 12th Imam or Mahdi, while the Christians savor the return of their Messiah with the destruction of Jerusalem, or an even more dramatic total destruction of the Middle East.

Either the Palestinians shall obtain their state or we shall simply await the final Holocaust that will supposedly usher in the new era of peace in the world. If the 1967 borders are indefensible, equally indefensible is the idea of a "Jewish" state. This idea doesn't border on insanity, it is the essence of insanity, a total break with reality.
--Marvin X
3/15/10

Amazing Grace, for Rev. Lucius Walker (RIP)

amazin grace...for the late rev lucius walker...

by Zayid Muhammad




“Amazin grace…How sweet the sound…

That saved a soul like me…

I was once was lost…

Now I’m fighting to be free…

Only struggle

Will save you and me…”*

“Yea, though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death;

I fear no evil; For thou art with me

Thy rod and Thy staff

They comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me

in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest me with oil;

My cup runneth over…

Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life; And I shall dwell

in the house of the Lord forever…”Psalm 23

the time has come

the trumpet has sounded

that miles as in davis muted trumpet has sounded

his name has been called

Luuuuucius!

Lucius Walker!

The gateway has been presented

and this man

this modest samaritan man

this man

this fearless mount of courage and faith of a man

this daniel audacious amazin grace of a man

he has ascended that stairway to heaven

received by the God he so valiantly served

to the ultimate delightful chorus

‘job well done, my son…job well done…’

and for us still here in the land of the living

and for those coming behind us

for this man

for this heroic humanitarian

we must monumentally mark his place in this time

to radiate the lessons of light of his enormous example…

so give me a truckload of bibles

in english spanish creole and french

give me a bushel of the ripest olive branches

give me crates upon crates upon crates

of medicines and medical supplies

so we can make a late 20th century

early 21st century balm in gilead…

give me a caseload of bloodied bonebroken bullets and shrapnel

as evidence of the evil of oppression

made in the usa

give me a column Zapatistas covering the rear

as surrogate angels...

“Thy road and Thy staff, they comfort me…”

give me prime photos of his wife children and grandchildren

give me a chessboard dominated by battling bishops

and a line of willing volunteers to be sacrificed

give me a hemispheric huge harvest

of yams corn apples lentils leeks

of oranges mangoes pineapples

yucca and beets

give me fish and loaves of bread

and give me flour yeast and hearth ovens

to bake our own

give me enuf righteous roasted lamb

to feed all the villages he served

that had been denied the fruits of their own sacred labor…

“…Thou preparest for me a table in the presence of mine enemies…”


for his chocolate eyed charm

for his awesome absence of ego and vanity

for his che’ like capacity to lead without commanding

for this man

for this peoples redeemer

this shining samaritan

this humble heroic humanitarian

we need huge broken tablets of unjust laws

broken by armies of the faithful that he led

we need a tall rugged cross

stained with the blood of martyrs

like camilo cienfuegos, martin luther king and bishop romero

we need all those made missing by the death squads to be found

we need david walker’s appeal

martin’s letter from a birmingham jail

che’s socialism and man

we need fidel-full analyses

of all the political minefields and crosscurrents

we still must confront

we need broadcasts of insurgent commentary by mumia abujamal

we need a huge toilet and a flushing of the waste of the blockade!

we need mumia free…

we must enshrine that little yellow school bus

with the wheelchairs of the fasters

we need video footage of baffled abusive overseers at the borders

we need doctors without borders

willing to dance with the patients they treat

we need a huge cup runneth over with faith courage love and hope

and we need lots and lots of witnesses

organized to continue…

for this man

for this daniel audacious man

this marvelous mount of courage and faith

this shining samaritan

this heroic humble humanitarian

this chocolate eyed charming amazin grace of man

we need commitment

we need commitment

we need commitment

congalleros!**

to the front!..

“The Lord is my shepard; I shall not want…”

“We refuse to back down

We will fight to the end

Revolution

Revolution

is near…”



*lyrics from Yasmin Adeigbola’s poetic retake on Amazin’ Grace

**congalleros…spanish for conga players



©2010 all rights reserved

‘bro.zayid’

Review of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy

How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy
Peer mental health group cures 'addiction'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.