Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Draft #1 The Movement BAMFEST/BLACK AUGUST 2020
BAMFEST/BLACK AUGUST EDITION 2020 GENEROUS DONATIONS ACCEPTED
Reader Note of caution:
This publication is MARVIN X’S POETIC NOTEBOOK (wherein he exercises Absolute Freedom of Speech, transcending all ideological persuasions, including religiosity and sexuality, and most especially psycho-political linguistic dogmatism and other isms and schisms from the low information vibration mentality).
PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT BUSINESS DISTRICT, CDC, OAKLAND CA, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF DR. AYODELE NZINGA
and
The National Black Arts Movement
Literary Arm of Black Power Matters
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Review, The Wisdom of Plato Negro--Renaissance of Imagination
Renaissance of Imagination
A Review of The Wisdom of Plato Negro
parables, fables
by Marvin X
Review by Rudolph Lewis
For Marvin X, a founder and veteran of the Black Arts Movement of the late 60s/early 70s, we who strive for a rebirth of humanity must choose to be a mentor rather than a predator. “No matter what, I am essentially a teacher,” he lectured at California College of the Arts, where he was invited by poet devorah major. Marvin has taught at Fresno State University; San Francisco State University; UC-Berkeley and San Diego; University of Nevada, Reno; Mills College, Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland. But, Marvin warns, “The teacher must know . . . no matter how many years he gives of his soul, his mental genius is not wanted” (“Parable of the Poor Righteous Teacher,” 12).
Gov. Ronald Reagan ran him out of Fresno State University, 1969, with the help of the FBI’s Cointelpro which employed a hit man who sought him out after an agent provocateur murdered his choir director Winfred Streets, who died from a shotgun blast to the back (“Parable of American Gangsta J. Edgar Hoover,” 171).
Pressured out of black studies academia, Marvin contends such programs now attract “sellout” Negroes, or if such African American elites are sincere and dedicated and allowed to remain, many die early from “high blood pressure, depression, schizophrenia, paranoia.” One or more such conditions, he believes, brought on the early and unexpected deaths of poet June Jordan, scholars Barbara Christian, and Veve Clark at UC Berkeley and Sherley Ann Williams at UC San Diego (“Parable of Neocolonialism at UC Berkeley,” 115). There remain nevertheless many educated colored elite all too willing to put “a hood over the hood” and lullaby the masses with “Silent Night,” while “colonialism [is] playing possum” (“Parable of the Colored People,” 42).
In “Wisdom of Plato Negro,” Marvin teaches by stories, ancient devices of instruction that appeal to a non-literate as well as a semi-literate people. (Fables differ from parables only by their use of animal characters.) The oldest existing genre of storytelling used long before the parables of Jesus or the fables of Aesop, they are excellent tools, in the hands of a skilled artist like Marvin X, in that he modifies the genre for a rebellious hip hop generation who drops out or are pushed out of repressive state sponsored public schools at a 50% clip. Marvin X is a master of these short short stories. Bibliographies, extended footnotes, indexes, formal argumentation, he knows, are of no use to the audience he seeks, that 95 percent that lives from paycheck to paycheck.
These moral oral forms (parables and fables), developed before the invention of writing, taught by indirection how to think and behave respecting the integrity of others. Marvin explained to his College of Arts audience, “This form [the parable] seems perfect for people with short attention span, the video generation . . . The parable fits my moral or ethical prerogative, allowing my didacticism to run full range” (“Parable of a Day in the Life of Plato Negro,” 147). But we live in a more “hostile environment” than ancient people. Our non-urban ancestors were more in harmony with Nature than our global racialized, exploitive, militarized northern elite societies.
The American Negro or the North American African, as Marvin calls his people, is a modern/post-modern phenomenon, now mostly urbanized, and living in domestic war-zones for more than three centuries. Black codes have governed their speech and behavior; they have been terrorized generation to generation since the early 1700s, by patty rollers, night riders, lynchers, police and military forces, usually without relief by either local or federal governments, or sympathy from their white neighbors or fellow citizens, though they have bled in the wars of the colonies and the nation to establish and defend the American Republic. Their lives have been that of Sisyphus, rising hopes then a fall into utter despair. Such are the times we still live.
To further aide the inattentive reader, most of the 83 sections of this 195-page text begins with a black and white photo image. Although most of these parables were composed between January and April 2010, some were written earlier. A few were written in 2008 (e.g., “Parable of the Basket,” 109) during the election campaign, and a few in 2009 (“Parable of Grand Denial,” 153) after the installation of Barack Obama as president of the United States. Three of these short short stories—“Parable of the Man with a Gun in His Hand,” “Parable of the Lion,” and “Parable of the Man Who Wanted to Die”—were first published in the June 1970 issue of Black World. His classic “Fable of the Black Bird” (86) was written in 1968. The “Fable of the Elephant” (7) and the “Fable of Rooster and Hen” (97) are quite similar in form and style to the black bird fable.
Marvin’s traditional or “classic” parables and fables, written during the BAM period, differ from the ancient fables and parables, which were told in an oral setting within a rural community with some wise men available by a campfire or candle light to explain the story told. In written form the writer in some manner must explain or make the meaning evident, preferably without the mechanical explanation tacked on. That would be a bore and not quite as pleasing to a hip urban audience, as what has been achieved by Marvin’s improvisation on the genre.
Thus Marvin uses humor, sarcasm, irony, exaggerated and sometimes profane language of one sort or another to capture the inattentive reader’s attention. In the first parable, “Parable of Love” (2), Marvin explains, “every writer is duty bound to speak the language of his people, especially if he and his people are going through the process of decolonization from the culture of the oppressor.” His parables are “highly political” and intended also as a kind of “spiritual counseling.” As he points out in “Parable of Imagination,” artists in their work must “search the consciousness for new ways of representing what lies in the depth of the soul and give creative expression to their findings” (160).
“Under the power of the devil,” our lives tell us a story we hardly understand, Marvin discovered from his teachers Sun Ra, Elijah Muhammad, and others. The church, the mosque, the temple do not provide the needed spiritual consciousness for out time. Nor do 19th century radical political ideologies. As Stokely Carmichael told us in 1969, ideologies like communism and socialism do not speak to our needs. They do not speak to the issue of race. We are a colonized people, he argued, whose institutions have been decimated, our language mocked (e.g. Bill Cosby), our culture when not yet appropriated and stolen called “tasteless” by black bourgeois agents or stooges (e.g., Jason Whitlock in his criticism of Serena Williams at Wimbledon doing a joyful jig after her victory and winning a gold medal).
In “Wisdom of Plato Negro,” Marvin X is about the work of decolonization, though BAM has been commodified as a tourist icon at academic conferences and in university syllabi. The “sacred” work of the artist remains. Its object is to “shatter lies and falsehoods to usher in a new birth of imagination for humanity” . . . to “promote economic progress and political unity” . . . to undermine “pride, arrogance, and self-importance” (160). Although he is critical of the black bourgeoisie, Marvin knows that they have skills our people need, that we must find a way to bring them home. They must learn to have as much respect for the Mother Tongue as they have for the King’s English (“Parable of the Black Bourgeoisie,” 35).
“Wisdom of Plato Negro” deals not only with the political but also with the personal. That means he cannot live his life in an academic (or ivory) tower, or up in a mountain, writing and publishing books. In “Parable of the Man Who Left the Mountain,” written in 2008, he explains, “in the fourth quarter of my life, I can only attempt to finish the work of being active in the cause of racial justice, of using my pen to speak truth, to put my body in the battlefield for the freedom we all deserve” (45).
Though he sees the problem as economic and political, one that keeps us poor and powerless, our oppression is “equally” one that creates “a spiritual disease or mental health issue.” (45). Racial supremacy for him not only affects the body or the potential to obtain wealth, it also affects the soul. It is at the heart of the drug war crisis. Black people seek to “medicate” themselves with drugs or the ideology of racial supremacy to find relief from the pain of racial oppression and the suppression of the imagination. Drugs and racial supremacy both are addictive and create dependency. In numerous instances, Marvin calls for moderation of desires and discipline, to “detox” from an addiction to racial supremacy and other “delusional thinking” (“Parable of Sobriety,” 177).
Marvin centers himself in his “classroom/clinic,” his “Academy of da Corner” at 14th and Broadway, Oakland, California. There he sells his “empowering books” and offers insight, advice to mothers (e.g., “Parable of the Woman at the Well,” 58), wives (e.g. “Parable of the Preacher’s Wife,” 29), and lovers. “Other than the white man, black men have no other pressing problem—maybe with another brother, but 90% of the brothers come to Plato with male/female problems” (“Parable of a Day in the Life of Plato Negro,” 148). In contrast to his street work, the racial experts seem rather lost. Marvin reports on a 2008 conference held in Oakland by the Association of Black Psychologists, which has a membership of 1,500 Afrocentric psychologists. Even the experts with two and three Ph.D., “victims of white witchcraft,” he discovered do not know how to heal the community. When leaders don’t know, “why not turn to the people?” (“Parable of the Witch Doctor,” 24).
There is much more that can be gained from a slow reading of “Wisdom of Plato Negro” than what I have tried to recall in this short report. Marvin X writes about such topics as sexuality and creativity and their relationship, on war, the weather and global warming, and numerous other topics that all tie together if we desire to bring about a rebirth of humanity. This highly informative, insightful, and creative volume can be of service to the non-reader as well as students and seasoned scholars, if they want to be entertained or to heal their bodies and souls so that they can become mentors rather than predators.
“Wisdom of Plato Negro” ends with the “Parable of Desirelessness” (193), which mirrors the “Parable of Letting Go” (61). In the materialist culture of contemporary capitalism we are beset on all sides by “greed, lust, and conspicuous consumption.” There are a “billion illusions of the monkey mind” that lead nowhere other than an early death, suicide, or cowardly homicide. We all must “hold onto nothing but the rope of righteousness.” That will guide us along the straight path to full and permanent revolution and liberation.
Rudolph Lewis is the Founding Editor of Chickenbones.com, A Journal.
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
Monday, June 15, 2020
Saturday, June 13, 2020
It's lonely at the top, at the bottom too!
It's lonely at the top, lonely at the bottom too. They say (whomever they are) to have a friend one must be a friend. But what do you do when friends join the ancestors, or get old, sick and crazy? How can one be a friend to such persons who are out of their minds. They say things to you but don't remember what they said. They accuse you of things you would surely never do.
So one must walk alone, just to stay out of the stress zone. Nobody needs stress, nomatter what age.
The writer loves solitude, thus loneliness is not a consideration, but a given, except we know solitude is not necessarily loneliness. For the writer solitude is bliss. The writer cannot have the lover looking over his shoulder at what he is writing. The lover comes into the room and says coyly, "Do you mind if I masturbate while you write your poem?" It was a poem never finished. It disappeared into the ether of love. You know I told her there was no need of masturbating, or I showed her, just to be truthful. But the poem was lost. I've never seen it again. And does it matter, certainly not to the lover.
So I write best in solitude, where and when I can best express my imagination. I write alone, I walk alone. What do they tell you in jail and prison? Ride your own beef!
Don't worry about a nother nigga's beef. Stay in your own lane and drive. Your best friend may betray you, your lover, wife, brother, sister.
Who can be trusted? Often you cannot trust yourself! How many times has your mind played tricks on you? Walk alone with God ad your friend. If you fall, He will catch you time after time! Ache'!
--MARVIN X
6/13/20
Slave Catchers, Slave Resisters
Now who would not be for abolishing the slave catchers? All those in favor of and benefiting from slavery! As per the neo slave catchers known as police, those people who object to the abolishment of a gang of abusers and murderers under the color of law, are undoubtedly descendents of slave masters and their collaborators, yes, uncle toms, who benefit from the oppression of their people. They are mostly of the reactionary black bourgeoisie class of boot lickers, i.e., sycophants, who enjoy crumbs from the master's table. Of course the master has no desire to abolish his slave catchers, brute beasts dressed in blue uniforms who vow to protect and serve but most often abuse and murder under the color of law. These brute beasts in blue are trained to inspire fear in the oppressed, thus whenever the beasts appear the blood pressure rises in the oppressed. The oppressed are often ignorant of the Tone Test: based on your tone of voice when stopped by the beast, one can be arrested, released or killed. When is protect and serve in this paradigm? The white population feels protected and served, thus have no desire to abolish the slave catchers. The very idea is anathema and sounds totally insane. We must have our white beasts to protect us from the black beasts. Wasn't this the attitude expressed by the white woman in New York's Central Park when the brother asked her to chain her dog?
In the name of God, why would slaves not want to abolish the slave catchers? The police are of no benefit to those who live under their occupation, who suffer their wrath for the slightest infraction, selling single cigarettes, cashing a counterfeit twenty dollar bill, broken taillight, Sandra Bland.
Surely we can configure a more humane security force for our community besides one that brutalizes us at every turn? We can train our young men for community security as Mayor Ras Baraka has done in Newark NJ. Alas, the Newark NJ Model has stopped the police murder of Newark's citizens.
Since the lynching of George Floyd, have you heard of any anti police rioting in Newark NJ? Now it is clear under proper supervision, the brute beasts can be trained to act civilized. On a recent visit to Newark NJ, the people told me they feel relieved of police pressure on their bodies and minds for the first time in their lives.
So implement the Newark NJ Model or abolish the police, this is the choice for America.
--MARVIN X
6/10/20
Friday, June 12, 2020
Notes on Abolish Police and Prisons by Marvin X
Notes on Abolish Police and Prisons by Marvin X
"Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."
--Ishmael Reed, Lecturer Emeritus, UC Berkeley
"Marvin X is the African Socrates teaching in the hood."
--Dr. Cornel West, Harvard University
"Marvin X has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing."
--Ancestor Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Black Arts Movement Co-founder
Abolish police, well, ok, abolish prisons too. Ancestor Dr. Walter Rodney in his monograph West Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade on the Upper Guinea Coast, told us how an almost utopian society was eventually corrupted, yes, all the institutions, religious, political, judicial, marital, military, et al., by the slave trade. Prior to this horror we learn there were no police and no jails, that a white man, i.e., Arab, could drop his wallet and come back years later to reclaim it. Of course an alternative to jail and prison was banishment, exile from the tribe and/or community, and how could one live without community, but such was the punishment, perhaps the worse punishment for a communally socialized human being. So yes, abolish the police if they cannot be civilized, and there are those who say a security force rooted in the slave catchers (catch a nigger) cannot be reformed since we can see clearly the catch a nigger paradigm is alive and well in 2020. Can a leopard change its spots?
Left to right: Chief of Staff, Amiri Middy Baraka, Jr., Marvin X, Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark NJ
The Honorable Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark NJ and Marvin X who enjoyed
a 47 year friendship with the Mayor's father, poet Amiri Baraka (RIP)
Left to right: Mrs. Amina Baraka, Poet Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X and Amiri Baraka at memorial for Dr. Betty Shabazz, Riverside Church, NYC.
photo Risasi
We have submitted the Newark NJ Police Model under Mayor Ras Baraka. His mother informed me today (and she's tired of me revealing our private conversations, as is the world!) but she said not one black person has been killed by the police since her son became Mayor of Newark. Indeed, we know the world is full of infinite possibilities, unless one subscribes to the dictum of BAM Master Teacher and father of Afro-futurism, Sun Ra, "You so evil the devil don't want you in hell! (from Sun Ra lectures at UC Berkeley, 1972, YouTube).
Left to right: Chief of Staff, Amiri Middy Baraka, Jr., Marvin X, Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark NJ
Mayor Ras Baraka during interview with Marvin X
The Honorable Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark NJ and Marvin X who enjoyed
a 47 year friendship with the Mayor's father, poet Amiri Baraka (RIP)
Left to right: Mrs. Amina Baraka, Poet Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X and Amiri Baraka at memorial for Dr. Betty Shabazz, Riverside Church, NYC.
photo Risasi
We have submitted the Newark NJ Police Model under Mayor Ras Baraka. His mother informed me today (and she's tired of me revealing our private conversations, as is the world!) but she said not one black person has been killed by the police since her son became Mayor of Newark. Indeed, we know the world is full of infinite possibilities, unless one subscribes to the dictum of BAM Master Teacher and father of Afro-futurism, Sun Ra, "You so evil the devil don't want you in hell! (from Sun Ra lectures at UC Berkeley, 1972, YouTube).
Marvin X and Sun Ra, outside Marvin's Black Educational Theatre San Francisco, 1972. Both were teaching in the Black Studies Department, UC Berkeley. Sun Ra arranged the musical Take Care of Business by Marvin X. Sun Ra is the Father of Afro-futurism.
We have put a tremendous burden on the criminal justice system as the panacea for our social ills: to be mental health workers, yes, police and correctional officers as domestic violence counselors, interpersonal relations mediators, etc. Meanwhile the police are rooted in the slave catcher tradition and the correctional officers main job is containment not correction of psychopathic personalities suffering drug abuse as well, the dual diagnosed.
Founders of Black August, the American Prison Movement
Left to right: Mama Efia Nwangaza, Human Rights Advocate, Greensville, SC,
Shaka Al Thinin. Back left: Kumasi, Griot of Black August and Marvin X
photo Wanda Sabir, SF Bayview Newspaper
Soledad Brother John Clutchette upon release from prison and Marvin X at
his Academy of Da Corner, 14th and Broadway, Oakland, the most dangerous
classroom in the world!
Ironically, the police and so-called correctional officers often exhibit the same psychopathic maladies as those they must arrest and contain. And we know in the slave catcher roots of American society, after a certain indoctrination, whites, blacks, brown and yellow ethnic personalities can exhibit equal abuse and inhumane treatment. Often the non-white police and correctional officers must prove themselves by transcending the brutality of their white colleagues. We have witnessed their behavior on the street and in jail and prison. Thus we know color is not the answer. One need only consider the brutality of African police and correctional officers in the Motherland, or Caribbean for that matter. How many Africans have died for violating the Covid19 man-made pandemic social distance orders?
Founders of Black August, the American Prison Movement
Left to right: Mama Efia Nwangaza, Human Rights Advocate, Greensville, SC,
Shaka Al Thinin. Back left: Kumasi, Griot of Black August and Marvin X
photo Wanda Sabir, SF Bayview Newspaper
Soledad Brothers: Ruchell McGee, John Clutchette, George Jackson
John Clutchette, George Jackson, Ruchell McGee
George Jackson and Angela Davis
Soledad Brother John Clutchette upon release from prison and Marvin X at
his Academy of Da Corner, 14th and Broadway, Oakland, the most dangerous
classroom in the world!
Ironically, the police and so-called correctional officers often exhibit the same psychopathic maladies as those they must arrest and contain. And we know in the slave catcher roots of American society, after a certain indoctrination, whites, blacks, brown and yellow ethnic personalities can exhibit equal abuse and inhumane treatment. Often the non-white police and correctional officers must prove themselves by transcending the brutality of their white colleagues. We have witnessed their behavior on the street and in jail and prison. Thus we know color is not the answer. One need only consider the brutality of African police and correctional officers in the Motherland, or Caribbean for that matter. How many Africans have died for violating the Covid19 man-made pandemic social distance orders?
Sadly, we have doubts that so-called human beings will ever be able to rise above the animal plane, above tribal and ethnic conflict, although the concept of Pan Africanism is utopian due to centuries of colonial and neo-colonialism. As we write, the European colonial powers have imposed themselves into the African Union, yes, while the European Union disintegrates with Brexit as the canary in the coal mine.
And we have not mentioned issues rooted in the patriarchy, but it is there in the deep structure of problems that often lead to criminality, including rape, partner violence, homicide and suicide, alas, let us not mention infanticide, especially of female babies, Africa, Arabia and China are guilty in this regard.
And let us not neglect to mention so-called family honor killings and female mutilation, steeped in national, tribal and religious mythology. With such a multiplicity of issues, one will indeed need to be a superman and superwoman of consciousness to unravel such conundrums that are so pervasive in the global drama that the endgame calling for police and officers from the department of correction most often doesn't correct because it is itself a victim in the matrix of dysfunctional psycho/social behavior by so-called human beings who often degenerate to the degree Sun Ra said, "....so evil the Devil don't want you in hell!"
As a grandfather, I pray for my grandchildren who must come into such a wretched world. I was so relieved when my grandson told me at three years old, "Grandfather, you can't save the world but I can!" I wish I knew the source of his wisdom but I suspect it came from God Almighty!
Grandson Jahmeel at the Rap Exhibit,
Oakland Museum of California
I know I can't save this shit. It was here when I came from my Mother's womb in 1944 as they dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan. It was here when my parents attended the 1945 Peace Conference in San Francisco that established the United Nations.
Parents of Marvin X, Marian M. Jackmon and Owendell Jackmon I, 1945 Peace Conference,
San Francisco.
This shit was here in 1948 when the Europeans and a Negro (Dr. Ralph Bunch, UN Secretary) established the apartheid state of Israel. How can Jews out Nazi Nazis? Is this not beyond human comprehension? Again, Sun Ra, "These people so evil the devil don't want them in hell!"
No matter, there is hope with the multi-ethnic protesters of the public lynching of martyr George Floyd.
Yes, we see a single spark can start a prairie fire. We see some deaths are lighter than a feather and some deaths are higher than Mt. Tai! George is the supreme example of the Cross and Lynching Tree Rev. James Cone tried to explain to Bill Moyers. "You cannot understand Christianity until you understand the meaning of the cross and lynching tree, which are the same." Jesus was on the cross in the same manner as George Floyd, except Jesus cried out for his Father but George cried out for his Mother!" Oh, Mary, Mother of God!
And let us not neglect to mention so-called family honor killings and female mutilation, steeped in national, tribal and religious mythology. With such a multiplicity of issues, one will indeed need to be a superman and superwoman of consciousness to unravel such conundrums that are so pervasive in the global drama that the endgame calling for police and officers from the department of correction most often doesn't correct because it is itself a victim in the matrix of dysfunctional psycho/social behavior by so-called human beings who often degenerate to the degree Sun Ra said, "....so evil the Devil don't want you in hell!"
As a grandfather, I pray for my grandchildren who must come into such a wretched world. I was so relieved when my grandson told me at three years old, "Grandfather, you can't save the world but I can!" I wish I knew the source of his wisdom but I suspect it came from God Almighty!
Grandson Jahmeel at the Rap Exhibit,
Oakland Museum of California
I know I can't save this shit. It was here when I came from my Mother's womb in 1944 as they dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan. It was here when my parents attended the 1945 Peace Conference in San Francisco that established the United Nations.
Parents of Marvin X, Marian M. Jackmon and Owendell Jackmon I, 1945 Peace Conference,
San Francisco.
This shit was here in 1948 when the Europeans and a Negro (Dr. Ralph Bunch, UN Secretary) established the apartheid state of Israel. How can Jews out Nazi Nazis? Is this not beyond human comprehension? Again, Sun Ra, "These people so evil the devil don't want them in hell!"
No matter, there is hope with the multi-ethnic protesters of the public lynching of martyr George Floyd.
Yes, we see a single spark can start a prairie fire. We see some deaths are lighter than a feather and some deaths are higher than Mt. Tai! George is the supreme example of the Cross and Lynching Tree Rev. James Cone tried to explain to Bill Moyers. "You cannot understand Christianity until you understand the meaning of the cross and lynching tree, which are the same." Jesus was on the cross in the same manner as George Floyd, except Jesus cried out for his Father but George cried out for his Mother!" Oh, Mary, Mother of God!
6/12/20
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, Co-founders of the Black Panther Party, Oakland CA 1966
Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X outside the house where Lil' Bobby Hutton was murdered by the Oakland Police and Cleaver wounded.
photo Muhammad Kareem
Marvin X with the Berkeley Chief of Police. "I ain't skeered of pigs, my friends used to shoot police and they admitted they were murdering us and still shootin' us, 2020. The brother write, "We Will Shoot Back!"
Notes on Lil' Bobby
I remember Lil' Bobby like I remember yesterday. He loved Huey Newton and Huey sent him to give me a message at the Black House, San Francisco, that was rapidly becoming the San Francisco headquarters of the Black Panther Party of Self Defense, especially after I took Black House co-founder Eldridge Cleaver to meet BPP Co-founder Bobby Seale and Cleaver became the BPP Minister of Information. Lil' Bobby came to inform me that we had to close down the youth cub house in the basement because the young men were taking advantage of the young women and playing hooky from school with them and a possible police raid was likely. I was in charge of the youth because Eldridge Cleaver and playwright Ed Bullins had no time for them. Lil' Bobby said, "The Supreme Commander said you must close down the youth club house." I looked at Lil' Bobby and said, "Fuck the Supreme Commander!" I looked in his eyes and saw he had death for me but I'm a crazy nigga too so I didn't give a fuck. Lil' Bobby said, "We gonna deal with you, dude!" That night the Panthers were clicking automatic weapons outside my room door which was across from Cleaver's. I didn't give a fuck, nor did my partner Ethna/Hurriyah. But our days in the Black House were coming to a close and soon we departed. I joined the Nation of Islam and after refusing to fight in Vietnam, fled to exile in Toronto, Canada, 1967. But I love and honor Lil' Bobby Hutton for being a young warrior who died for our people. As Mao said, "Some deaths are lighter than a feather, some higher than Mt. Tai." Lil' Bobby's death was higher than Mt. Tai! His life and death is the example for youth of today in this Black Lives Matter era. In the spirit of Lil' Bobby, I command you to pull up your pants and join the revolution! Stop dying like flies killing each other, such deaths are indeed lighter than a feather! My patron, now ancestor, Abdul Leroy James, said, "When you kill your brother you kill yourself. Why kill a dead fly that's already dead!" Yes, your brother and you are both mentally dead, so why kill a dead fly, and then for all practical purposes you are dead too, now we have two dead flies!
Angela Davis, Marvin X and Sonia Sanchez
Cover art by Emory Douglas, Black Panther Party Minister of Culture
Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X outside the house where Lil' Bobby Hutton was murdered by the Oakland Police and Cleaver wounded.
photo Muhammad Kareem
Marvin X with the Berkeley Chief of Police. "I ain't skeered of pigs, my friends used to shoot police and they admitted they were murdering us and still shootin' us, 2020. The brother write, "We Will Shoot Back!"
Notes on Lil' Bobby
I remember Lil' Bobby like I remember yesterday. He loved Huey Newton and Huey sent him to give me a message at the Black House, San Francisco, that was rapidly becoming the San Francisco headquarters of the Black Panther Party of Self Defense, especially after I took Black House co-founder Eldridge Cleaver to meet BPP Co-founder Bobby Seale and Cleaver became the BPP Minister of Information. Lil' Bobby came to inform me that we had to close down the youth cub house in the basement because the young men were taking advantage of the young women and playing hooky from school with them and a possible police raid was likely. I was in charge of the youth because Eldridge Cleaver and playwright Ed Bullins had no time for them. Lil' Bobby said, "The Supreme Commander said you must close down the youth club house." I looked at Lil' Bobby and said, "Fuck the Supreme Commander!" I looked in his eyes and saw he had death for me but I'm a crazy nigga too so I didn't give a fuck. Lil' Bobby said, "We gonna deal with you, dude!" That night the Panthers were clicking automatic weapons outside my room door which was across from Cleaver's. I didn't give a fuck, nor did my partner Ethna/Hurriyah. But our days in the Black House were coming to a close and soon we departed. I joined the Nation of Islam and after refusing to fight in Vietnam, fled to exile in Toronto, Canada, 1967. But I love and honor Lil' Bobby Hutton for being a young warrior who died for our people. As Mao said, "Some deaths are lighter than a feather, some higher than Mt. Tai." Lil' Bobby's death was higher than Mt. Tai! His life and death is the example for youth of today in this Black Lives Matter era. In the spirit of Lil' Bobby, I command you to pull up your pants and join the revolution! Stop dying like flies killing each other, such deaths are indeed lighter than a feather! My patron, now ancestor, Abdul Leroy James, said, "When you kill your brother you kill yourself. Why kill a dead fly that's already dead!" Yes, your brother and you are both mentally dead, so why kill a dead fly, and then for all practical purposes you are dead too, now we have two dead flies!
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Now who would not be for abolishing the slave catchers? All those in favor of and benefiting from slavery! As per the neo slave catchers known as police, those people who object to the abolishment of a gang of abusers and murderers under the color of law, are undoubtedly descendents of slave masters and their collaborators, yes, uncle toms, who benefit from the oppression of their people. They are mostly of the reactionary black bourgeoisie class of boot lickers, i.e., sycophants, who enjoy crumbs from the master's table. Of course the master has no desire to abolish his slave catchers, brute beasts dressed in blue uniforms who vow to protect and serve but most often abuse and murder under the color of law. These brute beasts in blue are trained to inspire fear in the oppressed, thus whenever the beasts appear the blood pressure rises in the oppressed. The oppressed are often ignorant of the Tone Test: based on your tone of voice when stopped by the beast, one can be arrested, released or killed. When is protect and serve in this paradigm? The white population feels protected and served, thus have no desire to abolish the slave catchers. The very idea is anathema and sounds totally insane. We must have our white beasts to protect us from the black beasts. Wasn't this the attitude expressed by the white woman in New York's Central Park when the brother asked her to chain her dog?
In the name of God, why would slaves not want to abolish the slave catchers? The police are of no benefit to those who live under their occupation, who suffer their wrath for the slightest infraction, selling single cigarettes, cashing a counterfeit twenty dollar bill, broken taillight, Sandra Bland.
Surely we can configure a more humane security force for our community besides one that brutalizes us at every turn? We can train our young men for community security as Mayor Ras Baraka has done in Newark NJ. Alas, the Newark NJ Model has stopped the police murder of Newark's citizens.
Since the lynching of George Floyd, have you heard of any anti police rioting in Newark NJ? Now it is clear under proper supervision, the brute beasts can be trained to act civilized. On a recent visit to Newark NJ, the people told me they feel relieved of police pressure on their bodies and minds for the first time in their lives.
So implement the Newark NJ Model or abolish the police, this is the choice for America.
--MARVIN X
6/10/20
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