Black Studies going down slow--A case study: Cal State University Long Beach

Comment from Dr. Lionel Mandy

Greetings from Sri Lanka Marvin!  How are you?

I agree with all that you have written about the loss of mission of Africana Studies departments across the nation.  However, as concerns the one at CSULB, it is not being eliminated.  It was given two years to work out a continuation strategy with the College of Liberal Arts and the university as a whole.  Even if that is unsuccessful, it will not be eliminated but rather reduced to a program rather than a department. That said, the deeper truths you mentioned remain.

Be well.

Lionel Mandy, Ph.D., Psy.D., J.D.
Fulbright Scholar and Lecturer Emeritus
Department of Africana Studies
California State University, Long Beach

The closing of Africana Studies at Cal State U. Long Beach reflects the ground Black consciousness has lost since the 1960s. At this point Black Studies sits on the bottom of the multi-cultural ladder after storming into White Supremacy American academia. Other ethnic studies departments are on the rise while Black Studies has been gradually diluted and polluted and now faces oblivion.

It's focus on Diaspora rather than connecting itself to the Hood, reduced its communal power and allowed itself to be a sitting duck for destruction. The focus on "other worlds" (Dr. Nathan Hare, father of Black Studies, then banned after founding Black Studies at San Francisco State College/University) or the turning away from the North American African community is reflected in the low attendance of black males on campuses nationwide, but the proliferation of their presence in the jail and prison population. Black sisters are turning from seeking mates in academia--yes, with their MAs, MBAs, PhDs, they are hooking up with brothers behind bars doing 25 to life!

For sure, we can't blame black studies for all the community ills, but the original mission was indeed to liberate our community by instilling black consciousness and love for self, family and community. Once black studies went to "other worlds" the little black brother was forced to struggle on his own, usually finding gang banging more useful than academia, only returning to a prison inspired self education.

While we find the destruction of black studies as the inevitable consequence of white racism and intellectual disconnectedness from community, we shall find our way out of this morass, after all, we have thousands of years of learning in our tradition, even under slavery and now under the American neo-slavery system. We suggest setting up Academy of da Corners in the hood nationwide. About the only good thing one can say about New York City is that conscious knowledge is available on the street. Would the NYPD stop and frisk brothers with books in their hands???????????
--Marvin X, Editor, Black Bird Press News & Review

 Cal State University Long Beach Targets Closing of Africana Studies Department

Published on Friday, 03 May 2013 18:00

Written by Rev. Eric P. Lee Sentinel Contributing Writer generalinfo@lasentinel.net

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies, Cal State University Long Beach addressing students and faculty on the campus of Cal State University Long Beach for the "Teach-In on Defending the Africana Studies Department.

The California State University at Long Beach (CSULB), under the direction of University President King Alexander, is seeking to eliminate the entire Department of Africana Studies and replace it as a “program”, which will result in the considerable downgrade in class offerings, degree opportunities and the ability to reflect diversity on the university campus.

This proposal comes after eight consecutive years of the administration’s refusal to hire any new faculty members in the Department of Africana Studies, whether as replacements for exiting faculty, attrition for retiring faculty or additional faculty for the increased student population.  Regular and repeated requests for maintaining the original levels of faculty were ignored and the faculty decreased from ten (10) tenure/tenure track faculty to three (3), with two (2) more faculty members in the gradual retirement program who do not count for calculating and determining Departmental status rather than Program status.

The reason given for this proposed downgrade is that the Department has an insufficient number of tenured faculty members.  Dr. Karenga states that “it is the height of injustice to refuse to hire…and then penalize the Department for the university's failure to hire. It is also a reflection of the level of support for diversity, although it is stated as a central part of the university's mission.”

While California State University, Long Beach has increased its programmatic offerings, facilities and awareness on a national scale which has resulted in a learning environment that drew over 80,000 applications this year – the most of any CSU campus, President Alexander is engaging in efforts to reduce the offerings in Africana Studies.

“Our faculty and students are engaged in a critical struggle in opposition to the dean’s proposal to downgrade the Department of Africana Studies to a program here at California State University--Long Beach”, states Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies. 

California State University at Long Beach currently has ethnic/cultural Departments for American Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano & Latino Studies, Italian Studies, Latin American Studies, Medieval & Renaissance Studies and Russian & East European Studies.  The elimination of Africana Studies represents a clear assault on and challenge to the integrity, viability and vitality of Black/Africana Studies as a department and discipline.

The CSULB website regarding the Department of Africana Studies states in part that “The Africana Studies major is designed to provide students with a rich intellectual experience through the critical and systematic study of African peoples, Continental and Diasporan, in their current and historical dimensions. The Discipline of Africana Studies focuses on critical study from an Afrocentric or African-centered perspective, while retaining a respect for and openness to the multicultural character and instructive value of the total human experience. Thus, Africana Studies majors have been successful in a variety of fields, including education, law, politics, urban planning, business, government, journalism, psychology, social work, criminal justice, acting, creative writing, and Foreign Service.”

The implications of closing the Department of Africana Studies at California State University at Long Beach is reflective of the current trend of turning back gains from the civil rights movement and can be far reaching as it pertains to college campuses throughout the United States.

If California State University, Long Beach President Alexander King succeeds in eliminating the Department of Africana Studies, whose chair is Dr. Maulana Karenga, founder of the holiday Kwanzaa which is celebrated by millions around the world, and author of numerous works currently used as the foundational teaching for Introduction to Black History, then Black/African Studies Departments in our nations’ universities may more easily suffer the same fate. 

Additionally concerning is the recent appointment of CSULB President King by the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors to become the system president of LSU and chancellor of Louisiana State University A&M (LSU).  Alexander was quoted as saying, “my tenure as president of Cal State Long Beach has prepared me to assume the role as the head of the Louisiana State University system.” Alexander was also quoted as saying “the challenges facing LSU are similar to those in California and elsewhere.”

Alexander will remain president of CSULB through June and will participate in the 2013 CSULB graduation ceremonies. In a March 2013 press release President Alexander was quoted as saying, “I look forward to continuing my work at Cal State Long Beach over the next few months. I am especially excited to be a part of this year’s upcoming commencement ceremonies where I will have one more opportunity to shake the hand of every 2013 CSULB graduate and wish them success.”  An interim president will be appointed upon Alexander’s departure, and the Chancellor and CSU Board of Trustees will begin a national search for a permanent replacement.

According to Senate Policy Statement 95-19, 2.1, the administration can waive the number requirement in “exceptional instances”.  Dr. Karenga states “this is clearly an exceptional instance for waiver, given the arguments for the importance of Africana Studies to the educational mission, the particularity of the faculty number rule itself to CSULB, i.e., it is not CSU system-wide, and the fact that the administration itself is the cause of the decline in the number of faculty by refusing to hire any Africana Studies faculty for eight consecutive years, even for replacements.”

NYPD says Mosques are terrorism havens

Muslims in America have been under siege since 9/11, but I do not share their suffering. I say welcome to the real world of the American slave system that North American Africans have been subjected to 400 years. Welcome to experience what it feels like to be treated like a nigger, to be watched, hunted and wanted at every turn, to be stopped and frisked on every block.  Yes, the mosques are thoroughly infiltrated just as our churches were during slavery and the Nation of Islam was since the founding of the FBI. Of course the FBI started off following Noble Drew Ali, then Marcus Garvey, then Elijah on down to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

So to all those Muslims who came to America seeking freedom and democracy, welcome to the house of the beast, home of the Great Satan or Shaitan Akbar. Remember we got our version of Islam from Noble Drew Ali and Master Fard Muhammad because you Arabs and other foreign Muslims did not bother to teach us Islam. And even now, you are no better than Christians, after all, contrary to Malcolm’s letter from Mecca, the most segregated hour in Islam is 1pm Friday, similar to the most segregated hour in Christianity, 11am Sunday. And in your mind nigguhs know nothing about Islam until instructed by you, yet the whole world can see you are nothing but a bunch of murderers in the name of Allah.  And you want us to accept your version of Islam as true Islam. To hell with you! I rather be a jungle savage than follow the shit you’re talking. Take that shit back to your desert oasis and feed it to your camel!

 

Learn to endure the watchful eye of the Great Satan on your behinds, every move you make, every glance of your eyes, your every thought, then and only then will you understand what North American Africans have endured these past centuries unto the present moment, no matter that we have a half nigger as President, yes, a Muslim turned Christian, who even turned against his preacher after twenty years in his church, of course, for political expediency.

 

Maybe you will learn how to treat us better in your liquor stores wherein you sell us swine and wine in the name of Allah, shortchange our children  and fuck our women at will but claim damage to your family honor if we fuck one of yours.

--Marvin X, A Nigguh for Life,

Editor, Black Bird Press News and Review

August 28, 2013

NYPD designates mosques as terrorism organizations

Photo: AP A Muslim congregation pray during a Jumu'ah prayer service at the Islamic Society

of Bay Ridge mosque on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 in Brooklyn borough of New York. The New York

Police Department targeted this mosque as a part of a terrorism enterprise investigation beginning

in 2003, spying on it for years. The mosque has never been charged as part of a terrorism

 conspiracy.

Photo: APZein Rimawi, 59, a leader and founder of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge and mosque,

remain kneeling as a Jumu'ah prayer service comes to a close at the a mosque on Friday, Aug. 16,

2013 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The New York Police Department targeted his mosque

as a part of a terrorism enterprise investigation beginning in 2003, spying on it for years. The

mosque has never been charged as part of a terrorism conspiracy.

Photo: APA Muslim congregation pray during a Jumu'ah prayer service at the Islamic Society

of Bay Ridge mosque on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 in Brooklyn borough of New York. The New York

Police Department targeted this mosque as a part of a terrorism enterprise investigation beginning

in 2003, spying on it for years. The mosque has never been charged as part of a terrorism conspiracy.

Photo: APMembers of a Muslim congregation pray during a Jumu'ah prayer service at the Islamic

Society of Bay Ridge mosque on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The

New York Police Department targeted this mosque as a part of a terrorism enterprise investigation

beginning in 2003, spying on it for years. The mosque has never been charged as part of a terrorism

conspiracy.

Photo: APDr. Muhamad Albar, far left, speaks to a congregation during Jumu'ah prayer service

at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge mosque on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of

New York. The New York Police Department targeted this mosque as a part of a terrorism enterprise

investigation beginning in 2003, spying on it for years. The mosque has never been charged as part

of a terrorism conspiracy.

Photo: APZein Rimawi, 59, center, a leader and founder of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge and

mosque, join a congregation for a Jumu'ah prayer service at the mosque on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013,

in Brooklyn borough of New York. The NYPD targeted his mosque as a part of a terrorism enterprise

investigation beginning in 2003, spying on it for years. The mosque has never been charged as part

of a terrorism conspiracy.

Photo: APZein Rimawi, 59, second from right, a leader and founder of the Islamic Society of Bay

Ridge and mosque, meet with members in his office before a Jumu'ah prayer service at the mosque

on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 in Brooklyn, N.Y. The NYPD targeted his mosque as a part of a terrorism

enterprise investigation beginning in 2003, spying on it for years. The mosque has never been

charged as part of a terrorism conspiracy.

Photo: APVisitors socialize outside the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge and mosque, after a Jumu'ah

prayer service on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The New York Police

Department targeted the mosque as a part of a terrorism enterprise investigation beginning in 2003,

spying on it for years. The mosque has never been charged as part of a terrorism conspiracy.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department has secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorist organizations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Designating an entire mosque as a terrorism enterprise means that anyone who attends prayer services there is a potential subject of an investigation and fair game for surveillance. Since the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD has opened at least a dozen "terrorism enterprise investigations" into mosques, according to interviews and confidential police documents. The TEI, as it is known, is a police tool intended to help investigate terrorist cells and the like.

Many TEIs stretch for years, allowing surveillance to continue even though the NYPD has never criminally charged a mosque or Islamic organization with operating as a terrorism enterprise. The documents show in detail how, in its hunt for terrorists, the NYPD investigated countless innocent New York Muslims and put information about them in secret police files. As a tactic, opening an enterprise investigation on a mosque is so potentially invasive that while the NYPD conducted at least a dozen, the FBI never did one, according to interviews with federal law enforcement officials.

The strategy has allowed the NYPD to send undercover officers into mosques and attempt to plant informants on the boards of mosques and at least one prominent Arab-American group in Brooklyn, whose executive director has worked with city officials, including Bill de Blasio, a front-runner for mayor.

  

The revelations about the NYPD's massive spying operations are in documents recently obtained by The Associated Press and part of a new book, "Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden's Final Plot Against America." The book by AP reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman is based on hundreds of previously unpublished police files and interviews with current and former NYPD, CIA and FBI officials.

The disclosures come as the NYPD is fighting off lawsuits accusing it of engaging in racial profiling while combating crime. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that the department's use of the stop-and-frisk tactic was unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union and two other groups have sued, saying the Muslim spying programs are unconstitutional and make Muslims afraid to practice their faith without police scrutiny. Both Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have denied those accusations. Speaking Wednesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Kelly reminded people that his intelligence-gathering programs began in the wake of 9/11.

"We follow leads wherever they take us," Kelly said. "We're not intimidated as to wherever that lead takes us. And we're doing that to protect the people of New York City."

The NYPD did not limit its operations to collecting information on those who attended the mosques or led prayers. The department sought also to put people on the boards of New York's Islamic institutions to fill intelligence gaps.

One confidential NYPD document shows police wanted to put informants in leadership positions at mosques and other organizations, including the Arab American Association of New York in Brooklyn, a secular social-service organization.

Linda Sarsour, the executive director, said her group helps new immigrants adjust to life in the U.S. It was not clear whether the department was successful in its plans.

The document, which appears to have been created around 2009, was prepared for Kelly and distributed to the NYPD's debriefing unit, which helped identify possible informants.

Around that time, Kelly was handing out medals to the Arab American Association's soccer team, Brooklyn United, smiling and congratulating its players for winning the NYPD's soccer league.

Sarsour, a Muslim who has met with Kelly many times, said she felt betrayed.

"It creates mistrust in our organizations," said Sarsour, who was born and raised in Brooklyn. "It makes one wonder and question who is sitting on the boards of the institutions where we work and pray."

Before the NYPD could target mosques as terrorist groups, it had to persuade a federal judge to rewrite rules governing how police can monitor speech protected by the First Amendment.

The rules stemmed from a 1971 lawsuit, dubbed the Handschu case after lead plaintiff Barbara Handschu, over how the NYPD spied on protesters and liberals during the Vietnam War era.

David Cohen, a former CIA executive who became NYPD's deputy commissioner for intelligence in 2002, said the old rules didn't apply to fighting against terrorism.

Cohen told the judge that mosques could be used "to shield the work of terrorists from law enforcement scrutiny by taking advantage of restrictions on the investigation of First Amendment activity."

NYPD lawyers proposed a new tactic, the TEI, that allowed officers to monitor political or religious speech whenever the "facts or circumstances reasonably indicate" that groups of two or more people were involved in plotting terrorism or other violent crime.

The judge rewrote the Handschu rules in 2003. In the first eight months under the new rules, the NYPD's Intelligence Division opened at least 15 secret terrorism enterprise investigations, documents show. At least 10 targeted mosques.

Doing so allowed police, in effect, to treat anyone who attends prayer services as a potential suspect. Sermons, ordinarily protected by the First Amendment, could be monitored and recorded.

Among the mosques targeted as early as 2003 was the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge.

"I have never felt free in the United States. The documents tell me I am right," Zein Rimawi, one of the Bay Ridge mosque's leaders, said after reviewing an NYPD document describing his mosque as a terrorist enterprise.

Rimawi, 59, came to the U.S. decades ago from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"Ray Kelly, shame on him," he said. "I am American."

The NYPD believed the tactics were necessary to keep the city safe, a view that sometimes put it at odds with the FBI.

In August 2003, Cohen asked the FBI to install eavesdropping equipment inside a mosque called Masjid al-Farooq, including its prayer room.

Al-Farooq had a long history of radical ties. Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian sheik who was convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks, once preached briefly at Al-Farooq. Invited preachers raged against Israel, the United States and the Bush administration's war on terror.

One of Cohen's informants said an imam from another mosque had delivered $30,000 to an al-Farooq leader, and the NYPD suspected the money was for terrorism.

But Amy Jo Lyons, the FBI assistant special agent in charge for counterterrorism, refused to bug the mosque. She said the federal law wouldn't permit it.

The NYPD made other arrangements. Cohen's informants began to carry recording devices into mosques under investigation. They hid microphones in wristwatches and the electronic key fobs used to unlock car doors.

Even under a TEI, a prosecutor and a judge would have to approve bugging a mosque. But the informant taping was legal because New York law allows any party to record a conversation, even without consent from the others. Like the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, the NYPD never demonstrated in court that al-Farooq was a terrorist enterprise but that didn't stop the police from spying on the mosques for years.

And under the new Handschu guidelines, no one outside the NYPD could question the secret practice.

Martin Stolar, one of the lawyers in the Handschu case, said it's clear the NYPD used enterprise investigations to justify open-ended surveillance. The NYPD should only tape conversations about building bombs or plotting attacks, he said.

"Every Muslim is a potential terrorist? It is completely unacceptable," he said. "It really tarnishes all of us and tarnishes our system of values."

Al-Ansar Center, a windowless Sunni mosque, opened in Brooklyn several years ago, attracting young Arabs and South Asians. NYPD officers feared the mosque was a breeding ground for terrorists, so informants kept tabs on it.

One NYPD report noted that members were fixing up the basement, turning it into a gym.

"They also want to start Jiujitsu classes," it said.

The NYPD was particularly alarmed about Mohammad Elshinawy, 26, an Islamic teacher at several New York mosques, including Al-Ansar. Elshinawy was a Salafist — a follower of a puritanical Islamic movement — whose father was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, according to NYPD documents.

The FBI also investigated whether Elshinawy recruited people to wage violent jihad overseas. But the two agencies investigated him very differently.

 The FBI closed the case after many months without any charges. Federal investigators never infiltrated Al-Ansar.

 "Nobody had any information the mosque was engaged in terrorism activities," a former federal law enforcement official recalled, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the investigation.

The NYPD wasn't convinced. A 2008 surveillance document described Elshinawy as "a young spiritual leader (who) lectures and gives speeches at dozens of venues" and noted, "He has orchestrated camping trips and paintball trips."

The NYPD deemed him a threat in part because "he is so highly regarded by so many young and impressionable individuals."

No part of Elshinawy's life was out of bounds. His mosque was the target of a TEI. The NYPD conducted surveillance at his wedding. An informant recorded the wedding and police videotaped everyone who came and went.

"We have nothing on the lucky bride at this time but hopefully will learn about her at the service," one lieutenant wrote.

Four years later, the NYPD was still watching Elshinawy without charging him. He is now a plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit against the NYPD.

 "These new NYPD spying disclosures confirm the experiences and worst fears of New York's Muslims," ACLU lawyer Hina Shamsi said. "From houses of worship to a wedding, there's no area of New York Muslim religious or personal life that the NYPD has not invaded through its bias-based surveillance policy."

 from Blackantiwar.com

Black Bird Press News & Review: Ishmael Reed Reviews The Sayings of Plato Negro, Marvin X

Ishmael Reed Reviews The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Marvin X

However, if I had to pin down the influences upon Marvin X’s The Wisdom of Plato Negro,  Parables/Fables, I would cite the style of Yoruba texts. I studied for some years under the tutoring of the poet and scholar Adebisi T.Aromolaran ( “ Wise Sayings For Boys and Girls”) and was guided through some texts in the Yoruba language which revealed that didacticism  is a key component of the Yoruba story telling style. Africans use proverbs to teach their children the lessons of life. Marvin X acknowledges the Yoruba influence on his book, The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/Fables....
--Ishmael Reed

Muhammida El Muhajir--Help a little sista go global!

Friends-

I am just days away from the launch of the Hip Hop: The New World Order international screening tour and I am asking friends to consider making a small contribution of $10 in support of me sharing this important global historical archive with artists and communities around the world!

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CLICK HERE NOW TO SUPPORT!

Thank you to everyone who has already supported with $$, contacts, encouragement, and spreading the word. It is very much appreciated. Check THE TOUR SCHEDULE and invite your international network.

Many Thanks!

Muhammida

Muhammida Muhajir wanted you to see this FundRazr campaign. Check it out!

Here's the campaign by Muhammida Muhajir:

Support Muhammida's Global Hip Hop Doc Tour Created by Muhammida Muhajir $535 raised · $4,000 goal · Ends September 27, 2013 With your support of the international screening tour, I will return to the cities of production to share this relevant work with global Hip Hop artists and communities to provide context and importance to their contribution to Hip Hop history! View · Share · Give

With best wishes, The FundRazr team AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD, STREAM & DVD: SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 The documentary, Hip Hop: The New World Order affirms Hip Hop culture as a powerful vehicle for self-expression by youth around the world, empowering them in the areas of education, economics, politics, entertainment, and new media.  Shot in 8 international cities (Tokyo, Havana, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro & Johannesburg) over a span of 4 years (1998-2002), the project embarks on the groundbreaking mission to unearth the practice and business of Hip Hop culture worldwide. The first documentary produced on global hip hop, Hip Hop: The New World Order has mushroomed into a rare archive and video survey of pioneering artists and communities around the Hip Hop world during the turn of the 21st century.   Produced and Directed by Muhammida El Muhajir.

Black Bird Press News & Review: From the Archives: Shallow Scholarship at Howard University Black Arts Movement Conference

From the Archives: Shallow Scholarship at Howard University Black Arts Movement Conference by Askia Muhammad, Editor, Final Call, Washington DC

Askia is not all wrong. I have heard many black intellectuals give revisionist black history talks, skipping from Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X, leaving out any mention of Elijah Muhammad. This is sick and reveals some black intellectuals are still grieving over Malcolm so much they can't think straight, their understanding of history is clouded by emotionalism. Who will deny Elijah took Marcus Garvey's work to another level and Malcolm took it even further, albeit under the guidance of Elijah Muhammad.

--Marvin X, Editor, Black Bird Press News and Review

Black Bird Press News & Review: From the Archives: Marvin X--the USA's Rumi

 From the Archives: Marvin X--the USA's Rumi

Last year Marvin X released his magnum opus, Land of My Daughters: Poems 1995-2005 (Black Bird Press), poems that put me in mind of Mawlânâ Jalâl ad-Dîn Muhammad Rûmî. He just published Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, Essays on Consciousness (Black Bird Press, 2006), and all I can say, folks, is this is the Bible of the Hood and is bound to stir up plenty of opposition -- and maybe even cut through the BS to move towards God.--Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

Black Bird Press News & Review: California Prisoner Hunger Strike Continues

Black Bird Press News & Review: California Prisoner Hunger Strike Continues


Jesus said liberate the captives! So many millions in the dungeons of America, most arrested while addicted to drugs and mentally ill, with no proper legal representation, confessing to crimes they didn't commit under torture or forced to snitch, but our best came from the dungeons, Malcolm, Elijah Muhammad, Eldridge Cleaver, George Jackson, Tookie Williams, Ruschell McGee.
Assata Shakur, Dessie X. Woods (Rashidah Muhammad). So let us liberate the captives, 2.4 million, fathers, mothers, children. Let us demand the General Amnesty! Power concedes nothing without a demand, see Fredrick  Douglas. Let us march to the square like the Egyptians, who didn't leave until the dictator Mubarak was deposed.

--Marvin X, Editor, Black Bird Press News and Review