Was the first Asian Black Panther a snitch?

 

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Courtesy of Shoshana Arai

Man who armed Black Panthers was FBI informant, records show

By Seth Rosenfeld
Center for Investigative Reporting

Published: Monday, Aug. 20, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 3A

The man who gave the Black Panther Party some of its first firearms and weapons training – which preceded fatal shootouts with Oakland police in the turbulent 1960s – was an undercover FBI informer, according to a former bureau agent and an FBI report.

One of the Bay Area's most prominent radical activists of the era, Richard Masato Aoki, was known as a fierce militant who touted his street-fighting abilities. He was a member of several radical groups before joining and arming the Panthers.

Aoki went on to work for 25 years as a teacher, counselor and administrator at the Peralta Community College District, and after his suicide in 2009 he was revered as a fearless radical.

But unbeknownst to his fellow activists, Aoki had served as an FBI intelligence informant, covertly filing reports on a wide range of Bay Area political groups, according to the bureau agent who recruited him.

That agent, Burney Threadgill Jr., recalled that he approached Aoki in the late 1950s, about the time Aoki was graduating from Berkeley High School. He asked Aoki if he would join left-wing groups and report to the FBI.

"He was my informant. I developed him," Threadgill said in an interview. "He was one of the best sources we had."

The former agent said he asked Aoki how he felt about the Soviet Union, and the young man replied that he had no interest in communism.

"I said, 'Well, why don't you just go to some of the meetings and tell me who's there and what they talked about?' Very pleasant little guy. He always wore dark glasses," Threadgill recalled.

Aoki's work for the FBI, which has never been reported, was uncovered and verified during research for the book "Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power" by this reporter. The book (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $40, 752 pages), based on research spanning three decades, is to be published Tuesday.

In a tape-recorded interview for the book in 2007, two years before he committed suicide, Aoki was asked if he had been an FBI informant. Aoki's first response was a long silence. He then replied, " 'Oh,' is all I can say."

Later during the same interview, Aoki contended the information wasn't true.

Asked if this reporter was mistaken that Aoki had been an informant, Aoki said, "I think you are," but added: "People change. It is complex. Layer upon layer."

However, the FBI later released records about Aoki in response to a Freedom of Information Actrequest. A Nov. 16, 1967, intelligence report on the Black Panthers lists Aoki as an "informant" with the code number "T-2."

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on Aoki, citing litigation seeking additional records about him under the Freedom of Information Act.

Since his death – Aoki shot himself at his Berkeley home after a long illness – his legend has grown. In a 2009 feature-length documentary film, "Aoki," and a 2012 biography, "Samurai Among Panthers," he is portrayed as a militant radical leader. Neither mentions that he had worked with the FBI.

Threadgill recalled that he first approached Aoki after a bureau wiretap on the home phone of Saul and Billie Wachter, local members of the Communist Party, picked up Aoki talking to fellow Berkeley High classmate Doug Wachter.

At first, Aoki gathered information about the Communist Party, Threadgill said. But Aoki soon focused on the Socialist Workers Party and its youth affiliate, the Young Socialist Alliance, also targets of an intensive FBI domestic security investigation.

By spring 1962, Aoki had been elected to the Berkeley Young Socialist Alliance's executive council, FBI records show. That December, he became a member of the Oakland-Berkeley branch of theSocialist Workers Party, where he served as the representative to Bay Area civil rights groups. He also was on the steering committee of the Committee to Uphold the Right to Travel.

In 1965, Aoki joined the Vietnam Day Committee, an influential anti-war group based in Berkeley, and worked on its international committee as liaison to foreign anti-war activists.

All along, Aoki met regularly with his FBI handler. Aoki also filed reports by phone, Threadgill said.

He worked with Aoki through mid-1965, when he moved to another FBI office and turned Aoki over to a fellow agent.

Aoki gave the Panthers some of their first guns. As Bobby Seale recalled in his memoir, "Seize the Time," the group approached Aoki, "a Third World brother we knew, a Japanese radical cat. He had guns … .357 Magnums, 22's, 9 mm's, what have you."

In early 1967, Aoki joined the Black Panther Party and gave it more guns, Seale wrote. Aoki also gave Panther recruits weapons training, he said in the 2007 interview.

Although carrying weapons was legal at the time, there is little doubt that their presence contributed to fatal confrontations between the Panthers and police.

On Oct. 28, 1967, Huey Newton was in a shootout that wounded Oakland Officer Herbert Heanes and killed Officer John Frey. On April 6, 1968, Eldridge Cleaver and five other Panthers were involved in a firefight with Oakland police. Cleaver and two officers were wounded, and Panther Bobby Hutton was killed.

This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, the country's largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit www.cironline.org.

Rosenfeld can be reached at seth@sethrosenfeld.com.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/20/4740105/man-who-armed-black-panthers-was.html#storylink=cpy

Black on Black Homicide and the Mythology of Pussy and Dick

Forget about drugs, gang initiation rituals and criminal activity as causes of so called Black on Black homicide. It is becoming clearer and clearer that much of this killing is over women. So now we are to blame the black woman for the death of young black men? Yet it is clear to police nationwide that sexual improprieties are the root cause of young men killing each other.

We hear of a national program to reach out to gang members about male/female relations, to instruct young black men that women are not their chattel or private property. No matter what, they must come out of the patriarchal mentality that their girlfriend's body belongs to them, rather than her, no matter that they may pay the cost to be the boss. Alas, in many cases the males are not even in a position to pay the cost to be the boss, and this may be reason for tension and insecurity on the part of males, thus any perceived breach of the relationship contract is reason for violence against the female or her suspected male partner and/or friend, especially the new boyfriend.

Because of the high incarceration rate in the hood, many relationships are insecure at best, and of course women alone seek out friendship of other males and/or females when their boyfriends go to jail.
His buddies inform on her behavior and retaliation is in order, sometimes it is the guy's best friend who is improper or out of line with the incarcerated person. Thus the consequent violence is done out of passion and ego damage, although in many cases the wounded male was never "right," and more often was wrong and abusive, so he shot himself in the foot and the female was only getting a little revenge when she started having sex with his best friend, after all, he had had a sexual relationship with her girlfriend.

Yes, this is high drama in the hood, but it is real not some stage play. Of course many brothers will claim they went to jail trying to "pay their pussy bill." This can only increase tension, hurt and passion if the female does not remain true and faithful, although she has the human right to go her way. This is what must be understood on the part of young males. They must get a healing on this matter so critical to their life and death. People who are descendants of the slave system cannot intern treat each other as slaves.

Young black man, your woman's pussy belongs to her, not you! You don't have a pussy, Mr. Black man. Do you bleed five days per month? Get a life, get manhood training and come into the modern world. We are all free human beings, born free by the Creator, and no about of money, clothes, trinkets, food, hair weave or other materialism makes you the owner of your woman. Again, she is not your slave and you are not her master.

Clearly, you can hardly master yourself, let alone master her. Some of you are so ignut you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground, yet you want to control and dominate your wife, girlfriend, partner.
Get a healing, come out of the Flintstones, stop killing your brother because when you kill him you kill yourself!
--Marvin X
8/20/12

Marvin X is the author of Mythology of Pussy and Dick, aka Mythology of Love, a manhood and womanhood rite of passage, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. Marvin X has given away thousands of copies of his pamphlet MOP@D nationwide. He spent a week lecturing on the topic at Howard University.
Comments from youth include a young lady who said, "The pamphlet empowered me. I didn't know I had that much power." A young black male said, "It helped me up my game." A mother told Marvin, "Thank you, thank you for writing this. I am going to make my son and daughter read this.

On Saturday, September 1, 3-6pm, Marvin X will read and sign his latest book The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, downtown Oakland. Call 510-200-4164.

On Returning through the Door of No Return

The reed eternally years to return to the reed bed. Rumi taught us, this is why the sound of the reed flute is the sound of mourning, of lost. And thus we come naked and return naked to the womb of life. All that we do while here is in anticipation of the return, for Mother gave us birth and to Mother we return.

We have no illusions we shall be here forever, for we understand we are here from a moment. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said live like we shall be here forever and like we shall die tomorrow morning.

It is not about years, didn't MKL, Jr. say he wished he could live a long life, and yet he went to the Mountaintop and saw us in the promised land. Even the very thought is enough to make reality, for are not thoughts things?

Just do the work, that is most important, the work, the time, the energy, the sacrifice, the selflessness. After which we are not full of dread but happiness and joy, for we have done the work and passed the baton to the next generation. There is nothing else to do but say As-Salaam-Alaikum!

The Africans say the only death is to be forgotten, to not continue in the communal memory as ancestor. But if you do the work, you shall be remembered. Your spirit in the communal memory shall survive.

There is clear evidence of this in your students, children and grandchildren. Do the work!

There is no retirement for the soldier if the battle is not won. He fights on until victory, no matter age, disability, memory. No "slave" dies a natural death. Elder Ed Howard teaches us we were never slaves but Africans caught in the "slave system." Thus we must never address ourselves as slaves but rather as persons caught in the American Slave System (ASS).

This reevaluation of the African psycho will lead us to a solution to the identity crisis, Am I Kunta Kinti or Toby?

How long would it take a Jew to declare whether he is a victim of Nazism or is he a citizen of the world, citizen in a country possessing nuclear weapons to defend itself?

The Pan African psyche is yet enduring the wretchedness of colonialism and neocolonialism. Witness the recent mass murder of miners in South Africa!

We should know by now a black face shall not save you. In Newark, New Jersey, every black mayor has been a sellout, according to Black Arts Movement Godfather Amiri Baraka. "They sold out before they took the oath of office!"

Amiri Baraka told this writer he personally gave out copies of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy by Marvin X to the entire Newark City administration, including the mayor, Cory Booker.

And so here we are at the precipice, and yet only you can save you, have no illusions, the North American African must come from his root traditions, suffered in the swamps, bayous, creeks, rivers,
plantations and free towns, urban cities, hoods and turfs.

Stand up and call fourth that ineluctable energy to be successful and honor ancestors!

--MarvinX/El Muhajir

8/18/12

mutabaruka- it no good(to stay in a white man country too long)

Have Blacks Lost The Revolutionary Holy Ghost?

Have US Blacks lost their spirit for social activism?
on August 15, 2012  

Derek King and Rev. Al Sharpton

by Jessica Williams-Gibson Special to the NNPA from The Indianapolis Recorder
http://greenecountydemocrat.com/?p=4688

Some are concerned that the kind of activism advocated by leaders such as Rev. Derek King (left) and Rev. Al Sharpton is not as strong in the Black community today as in the past.

During the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, African-Americans mobilized and marched for issues such as segregation, racial discrimination and voting rights.

Issues Blacks face today include unemployment, health disparities, mass incarceration, education declines, voting hurdles, gun violence and the deterioration of the Black family among many others. These issues matter to African-Americans, however many would argue that very little action is taken on these issues or if an outcry does occur, the passion soon fades.

Have Blacks lost their spirit for social activism? Have Blacks forgotten how to come together to affect change?

Dr. Derek B. King Sr., a professor at Martin University and nephew of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Rev. Thomas L. Brown, son of local civil rights activist Dr. Andrew J. Brown and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church; and Barbara Bolling, a member of the national board of directors and the Indiana State President of the NAACP, give their thoughts.

The Black church has changed

King believes that Blacks have lost their spirit for social activism for several reasons. He says that during the civil rights movement, issues of racism were clear and victories that were won because of the movement caused people to believe “the fight” was over.

Most importantly he believes the Black church has changed. “The messaging has changed. There are some Black pastors who try to keep their congregants aware of issues that affect Blacks disproportionately. But the majority of the messaging coming out of the Black church does not speak to systemic challenges,” said King.

“One of the people who was well respected in the Black community was pastors. Much of the messaging that comes out of Black pulpits today is prosperity preaching…get paid…get your breakthrough. When we talk about things that affect Blacks, we’ve fallen asleep behind the wheel.”

Despite his strong opinion, he said there is considerable concern in the Black community about homicide rates, however there is a laundry list of important issues that Blacks are either unaware of or don’t care about.

“We’ve gotten selfish. If it doesn’t affect me, it’s not my problem. During the civil rights movement, it didn’t matter how much money you had or how much education you had, Blacks in the south sat on the back of the bus. Up until 1965 Blacks in America could not vote. These issues affected all Blacks,” he said.

“Unless it affects a measurable population of Blacks, we will raise our voices and take some sort of action, but generally, (we have the attitude of) ‘if it doesn’t affect me, it’s not my problem.’”

Apathy has increased

Brown agrees with King and says that Blacks have lost their social activism because they’ve lost their spiritual activism.

“We have become lazy and apathetic. Our religion has become part of the secular movement and not the spiritual movement,” said Brown. “Our Black church is about religion, not spirituality.”

He also echoes King’s sentiments on rampant selfishness in the Black community.

At 70-years-old, Brown not only actively demonstrated during the civil rights movement, but his father, Rev. Andrew J. Brown was a local leader fighting for justice. Brown has also sat amongst noted Black leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy and even Malcolm X.

Although Brown has not stopped speaking out on issues in the Black community, he pinpoints the 90s as the begging of the decline of the Black activist.

“We were moving toward the notion of making money and becoming financially successful…getting status,” he said. “We started copying our oppressor.”

Brown does recognize the awe and accomplishments of President Barack Obama, but reminds Blacks that “we have not arrived.”

To further prove his point, he said that when Blacks do speak out on issues, it’s usually on issues of grief such as the Trayvon Martin issue. Blacks need to speak out about all injustices, including Black-on-Black crime.

Increases in technology spewing information quickly have also aided in Blacks glossing over issues. People are hustling and are all about survival while simultaneously losing sight of their historical passion for change.

He also believes Blacks have lost the concept of sacrifice.

Technology can be overwhelming

Bolling does not agree that Blacks have lost their spirit for social activism citing the Trayvon Martin marches that occurred across the country and the outcry during the 2007 Jena 6 incident involving high school students and racism in Louisiana.

She said that when issues such as those arise and reach people’s hearts, Blacks do mobilize and march.

On the other hand, she also said that technology and the barrage of news that people are faced with does make tackling issues overwhelming.

“If something does occur, you have to act instantaneously. If it takes you too long to get to your point, people’s minds will wander. You got to be ready (to fight injustice) all the time,” said Bolling.

People should not only be vigilant in addressing new issues, but also remember issues that took place during the civil rights movement still affect Blacks today. She cites today’s Voter ID laws mirroring poll taxes of the past.

Solutions to the problem

King, Brown and Bolling are hopeful that Blacks can regain the passion that once fueled mass social change.

King looks to Black media to use brutal honesty and inform the public about issues going on in the African-American community.

Bolling said that Blacks should educate today’s youth about the past and prepare them to fight for injustices.

She also said that instead of people looking for a “new Dr. King,” President Obama or groups like the NAACP to solve all of Blacks’ problems, average people should take a stand and fight for issues they are passionate about.

Brown agrees that the answer to the problem lies in volunteerism. “We’ve got two or three generations caught up in feeling that they’re entitled. People need to volunteer,” said Brown. “Well, my daddy, Dr. King, Andy Young, Sam Proctor and all those guys used to say ‘it’s got to get worse in order for it to get better.’ We have not hit our bottom yet.”

Happy B Day, Marcus Garvey

Long live Marcus Garvey, long live Revolutionary Black Nationalism! After being taught Black Nationalism in England by Islamic Pan Africanist Duse Muhammad Ali, Garvey came to America hoping to hook up with Booker T. Washington (Abuker), but Abuker died before Garvey could reach him. Garvey came to Harlem and set up shop, eventually organizing millions of Black people around the world to fight against colonialism and white supremacy, one and the same.

He championed blackness, black studies, black economics, black literature. Garvey was the esthetic and ideological leader of the Harlem Renaissance. His newspaper The Negro World, published more poets that any other publication during this time.

He immediately became a target of the FBI who infiltrated his movement and with reactionary Negro intellectuals were able to charge him with fraud and put him in prison, then deported. He died in England without ever visiting Africa, yet we know he is the Father of Pan Africanism. Like Moses, he never made it to the promised land.

Elijah Muhammad continued the work of Garvey and took it to another level with his Nation of Islam, combining aspects of Garveyism and the Islamic teachings of Noble Drew Ali. Of course Elijah was taught one on one for three and a half years by the mystical Master Fard Muhammad. Elijah in turn taught Malcolm X for three years.

Many Black intellectuals give a revisionist version of history by discussing Garvey then skip Elijah to
honor Malcolm X, but how did Malcolm become Malcolm X without the teachings of Elijah Muhammad?

While attending Oakland's Merritt College along with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, we called ourselves followers of Malcolm X, 1962, even while Malcolm was still a member of the Nation of Islam, so this was silly on our part since Malcolm was following the teachings of Elijah.

Eventually I wanted to go beyond the leaf to the tree, so I joined the NOI, 1967.

Aside from the 19th century black nationalists such as David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, James T. Holly, John S. Rock, Henry McNeil Turner, et al., we must credit Marcus Garvey with any notion of Black National consciousness we possess today.

--Marvin X

Police open fire on South African miners - Africa - Al Jazeera English

This is what happens when we have a black president suffering the addiction to white supremacy, from
Africa to America. How long shall we be deceived by the black face of imperialism and domestic colonialism? Take off your rose colored glasses. A black hangman is still a hangman!
--Marvin X

At least 12 people have been killed when police opened fire on miners staging a protest at a platinum mine in South Africa,  according to the Reuters news agency. South African police opened fire and dispersed a crowd of striking miners at the Lonmin mine in the North West province on Thursday after issuing an order to the protesters to lay down their machetes and sticks. News TV images showed people lying on the ground, one with blood flowing from a wound. Dennis Adrio, a Police Captain and spokesman for the officers at the mine, declined to immediately comment. South African newspaper, The Sowetan reported on Thursday that police officers had earlier said that negotiation with leaders of the rival union Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) had broken down, leaving no option but to disperse them by force. "Today is unfortunately D-day," police spokesman Dennis Adriao was quoted as saying. Journalists at the scene said several of those shot were laying on the ground and were not moving. Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, said he was "shocked and dismayed at this senseless violence. We believe there is enough space in our democratic order for any dispute to be resolved through dialogue without any breaches of the law or violence". "We call upon the labour movement and business to work with government to arrest the situation before it deteriorates any further," Zuma said in a statement. Earlier on Thursday, Lonmin said in a statement that striking workers would be fired if they did not appear at their shifts on Friday. "The striking (workers) remain armed and away from work,'' the statement read. "This is illegal.'' 'Illegal strike'  The unrest at the Lonmin mine began on August 10, as some 3,000 workers walked off the job over pay in what management described as an illegal strike. Those who tried to go to work on Saturday were attacked, management and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said. On Sunday, the rage became deadly as a crowd killed two security guards by setting their car ablaze, authorities said. By Monday, angry mobs killed two other workers and overpowered police, killing two officers, officials said. Officers opened fire that day, killing three others, police said. The protest and ensuing violence, which began a week ago, have killed at least 10 people there, including two police officers.

Academy of da Corner Now Accepting Applications for Interns

Black Arts Movement Master Teacher, Marvin X, is now accepting applications for his mentorship project. Students/interns will study under the Master Teacher for three years. Previous students under the mentorship of Marvin X include  Ayodele Nzinga, PhD. candidate, founder of the Lower Bottom Playaz in West Oakland; Geoffrey Grier, founder of San Francisco Recovery Theatre; authors Ptah Allah El, Aries Jordan and Toya Carter; Ramal Lamar, M.A., Mathematics. Send resume to jmarvinx@yahoo.com. Must include a 500 word writing sample and photo.

Former Marvin X student, Dr. J. Vern

Cromartie, Contra Costa College

photo Gene Hazzard

Ayodele Nzinga, PhD.

Along with Rev. Blandon Reems,

authors Aries Jordan and Toya

Carter, performed at Alameda

County Juvenile Hall with 

Master Teacher Marvin X last

Xmas.

photo Adam Turner






Ramal Lamar, M.A., Logic

photo by Kamau Amen Ra










Ptah Allah El (Tracy Mitchell), Minister of Education, Academy of da Corner, author

Marvin X on Eldridge,Minister of Information, Black Panther Party

It was surprising to me when people asked me why I wrote my memoir called My Friend the Devil, yet the very people who asked the question had called him the devil from the day he walked out of Soledad Prison. When he walked out in 1966 and came to the Bay Area, I was the first person he hooked up with. I convinced him to use his advance from Soul on Ice to establish a political cultural center we called Black House, yes, in opposition to the White House. He was chairman and I was secretary. One thing I immediately discovered was in my role as Secretary I was privy to all information. I referred all calls to the Chairman, EC, whether they were from his lover Bervely Axolrod or Bob Avakian, two of his ardent supporters, although Avakian can only be described as a menthe or sycophant, since he listened to EC's every word, certainly more earnestly than we did at Black House.

Occupants of Black House included myself, Ethna Wyatt (Hurriyah Asar), Eldridge Cleaver, playwright Ed Bullins, singer Willie Dale (a singer who spent time in San Quentin with EC) and his wife, Vernisteen from Bakersfield. Wille Dale must be recognized as a singer who sang the anthem of the Black Revolution, written by Louis Farrakhan, A White Man's Heave is a Black Man's Hell.

If you would like to read Marvin X's memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, check out this website and www.nathanielturner.com. Marvin wrote his memoir in three weeks and posted each chapter each day on www.nathanierturner.com.

In truth, Marvin X loved Eldridge Cleaver because he was a grass roots intellectual, who studied in prison for 18 years and put into action his theory of Black liberation as chair of the Black Conscious Club in Soledad, the actual beginning of the prison movement in the USA.

Of Squares and other Block heads

My good hustling brother Charles Duplechain taught me to stay away from square motherfuckers. He said square motherfuckers will get you killed. I must add, Elijah taught us to trust no one. We think Malcolm lost this fundamental lesson from his teacher, for it is somewhat clear he trusted Elijah too much and it may have cost him his life, not to suggest Elijah was responsible for his death, but certainly there were a plethora of jealous and envious officials around Elijah that were willing to take him out if he played into their hands, and apparently he did so, seemingly not knowing when it was time to advance and retreat. The Art of War might be helpful here. Consider the terrain, the land, the sea, the mountains, the cross roads, the valley, the plain. Do not fight uphill, fight downhill. Do not fight in the water, et al. Fight from a position of strength not weakness.

The problem with squares is that they understand none of this, but advance into life with rose colored glasses, having succumb to starry eyed idealism, thus they have an agenda not rooted in reality to say nothing of thinking beyond reality into the metaphysical, where all thought originates. The square think they know while they know not. In classic drama this is called the tragic flaw that leads the great to fall into the abyss.

The squares must stop thinking they know everything, for the wise man knows that he knows nothing, thus he is willing to jump out of the box into new thought, while the square is locked in provincialism and narrow mindedness of the worse kind. The square has convinced himself/herself that she/he is on the right path while a simple check with reality would correct him/her that they are surely on the wrong path, not the Sirata Al Mustaqim (straight path).

It is here that the square is most dangerous, for while he is fishing in the dark without a search light, he continues in his inordinacy, blindly wandering on, Al Qur'an.

Thus the man or person of vision must separate himself from the square because the visionary is clear of the task before him, that he must carve new vistas in the universe, not be stuck in the tales of mother, father and grandparents. Recall the movie Soulfook: grandma simply didn't know the food she was eating was taking her out. And then after her transition to ancestor hood, the family continued eating the diet that killed grandma. This is, again, the nature of the square: to continue into the precipice, not heading warnings from the Master Teacher who has simply lived long enough to know the endgame.

Example: one of my students was having a problem with his car. I told him to stop tripping and call his car doctor, which he finally did and was relieved when his car doctor advised him of the situation. My student then asked me how did I know what to do? Wouldn't it be logical to call your doctor if you have one? Does one need to enter Elderhood to know this, or is this blindness an expression of squareness and white supremacy edumakation?

And so I appreciate those years I spent drug addicted, homeless, loveless, sleeping in doorways, allies, and cardboard boxes, on the BART, at the Eastbay Terminal. This was my true education, not the classes I took at San Francisco State University. Yes, it was in the Crack House that I learned manners and decorum. As my father said (RIP), son, you ain't even a good dope fiend. A good dope fiend will have a way to get his dope on a daily basis, and  a proper dope fiend will not steal from his parents, woman, friends, but will hustle to get his dope. And he will not get so low that he must prostitute himself and embarrass himself before the world as I did when Eldridge Cleaver and I got caught burglarizing a house to obtain money for Crack. When the news hit the media, my family was embarrassed, especially my father who said I shamed the family name. Nigguhs in Alaska read about our exploits in Jet Magazine, the Negro Bible.

I believe harm reduction is the best model to overcome addictions of any kind, including the addiction to white supremacy. The square thinks white supremacy is a bygone phenomenon, yet any damn fool knows the facts: for every one black man entering college, four go to prison. And as Dr. Wade Nobles noted, our black women are in prison as well in these white supremacy universities, struggling like hell to overcome issues of sexual identity, and yet with all their proper knowledge, they shall be very lucy to  find a husband or mate their equal, especially from their ethnic group of eligible males, so many of whom wallow in wretchedness and depravity of the most morbid kind, subjecting their women to a myriad STDs, including HIV and AIDS.

Surely, there is no time to be square, but one must be hipped to what's happening in the cosmos, not just in America, Africa or the Diaspora, but one must, in the spirit of Sun Ra, have cosmic consciousness and understand a new spirituality is sweeping the planet. The square motherfucker must jump out of the box and join the world revolution of a new kind of thinking that makes one aware of all things, the living, the dead and yet unborn. The square who is blind in this world, shall be blind in the hereafter, so jump out of the box and claim your blessing for your labor under the sun.

P.S. I recently learned there are only two kinds of people in the world. The hip and the unhip, those who want to block hipness to keep people in the box, such as taught in the Masonic tradition that says let the dead stay dead, unless they desire to be initiated into the secret order. But those of us who received Supreme Wisdom know that the duty of the civilized man is to teach the uncivilized. If we fail to perform our duty, we shall suffer a severe chastisement by Allah. I have received such a chastisement so this is why I say what I say. And I say this to end: put on the armor of God for the people were destroyed for lack of knowledge, i.e., the most despicable aspect of the square is that he/she lacks knowledge yet pretends, as in that song by the Platters, The Great Pretender!

--Marvin X/El Muhajir

8/12/12

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Long Live the Syrian Revolution

Several years ago, my son Darrel, aka Abdul El Muhajir (RIP), visited Syria under a Fulbright fellowship. He studied at the University of Damascus, after earning his B.A. in Arabic and Near Eastern literature from the University of California, Berkeley. As he rests in Paradise, I know he is amazed at events in Syria, for he recounted to me his time in that land: how the dreaded secret police interrogated him on an almost daily basis--why is he reading all those books about Syria and why is he hanging around those filthy Palestinians? And why does he swim at the American Embassy?

My son had questions for them, he told me. Why do they treat Africans as slaves, seizing their passports, thus preventing them from leaving? Of course, my son was a prime candidate for the CIA, since he was a North American African fluent in Arabic. He told me they tried to recruit him, so maybe the Syrian secret police were justified in watching him carefully. At the time, few whites were allowed in Syria. You may recall when a US air force pilot's plane was shot down, Jesse Jackson and Minister Farrakhan were the only persons able to visit Syria and  get him released.

Syria has been a force in the Arab revolution of yesterday, but its sectarian policies and reactionary hold on power has served its time. We appreciate the years it has been a bulwark against Zionist aggression, the support it has given to the Palestinians and Hezbollah toward the liberation of Palestine. But for years the suppression of its own people has been a stain on this nation so rich in world and especially Biblical history. We all know the story of a man named Saul who had a miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus. At this hour we need the regime in power to have a similar conversion and submit to the new order. But this is doubtful, after all, Mao taught us the reactionaries will never lay down their butcher knives and turn into Buddha heads!

And so the blood shed continues unabated, although it appears the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is making gains throughout the land, though we are cautious about some of its supporters, including the USA, the Sunni Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf states. They are much in need of the Arab Spring as well, and we wonder will they also endure the pain, blood, sweat and tears, now endured by the Syrian people.

For sure, these Sunni Nations must get their own acts in order soon and very soon: the citizens of those nations must rise above ancient and archaic religiosity and primitive mythology, whether based on tribalism or reactionary interpretation of Sunna, Qu'ran and Hadith.

The idea that a woman is unable to drive a car  in Saudi Arabia is beyond the Flintstones, but it is part of a totality of ideas that must find themselves in the dustbin of history, such as honor killings and other notions originating in patriarchal mythology. But let us not ignore the role of Zionism in the area, another notion that must enter the dustbin of history. We doubt God ever intended his chosen people to suffer Nazism to become Nazis themselves.

If truth be told, the Arab Spring thus far  has only been a dress rehearsal for the long process called revolution. We only know the endgame will be justice, freedom and equality for all the people in the area. The need to possess the oil in this region will not stop the people determined to be free by any means necessary. The West must decide if it is truly part of the solution or part of the problem.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir

8/12/12