Today we celebrate the life and times of Malcolm X. It’s his 84th birthday. Included in this 30 minute audio mix are excerpts from his speeches which underscore is outlook and philosophy. We also have keen commentary from people like Sista Souljah and the late Ossie Davis..
Click link above for full text....
And this is one of my favorite clips to show and share...for two reasons...1) we get to see his beautiful smile :-) ...and 2) he explains perfectly why we have not seen progress. "They won't even admit the knife is there." ...exactly.
Per request from my former student(thanks Ashley!) I am going to offer a few thoughts on the swine flu...and my thoughts on the subject can really be summed up in one sentence: MEDIA STRIKES AGAIN!
The best thing that has come out of this pandemic so far is the funny joke going around that Ashley posted in an earlier post...."They said we'll have a Black President when pigs fly. 100 days later - Swine Flu! (flew)" LOL :-)
The most important thing that has come out of this is the latest example of the power of the media to DEFINE reality....not reflect it. While this new flu strain may or may not be a pandemic in the grand scheme of things, what the media made it OVER NIGHT was ISSUE #1.
It took NO time for it to be the topic of conversation everywhere, including my classrooms. Students came into my classes buzzing about a swine flu no one had heard of two days prior.. don't tell me the media is not powerful...it can shape people's thoughts, and as we've seen, behaviors, overnight. Understanding that power is critical.
So while I made light of the swine flu (I was not feeling well this past week and told students that i might have it...lol) I will never make light of hegemony and the media's power to shape our reality.
The airwaves are public and are supposed to be used for public good...but corporate media is driven by profit, NOT public interests.
Supporting organizations like FREEPRESS.NET and MEDIA MATTERS is one practical step we ALL can do to demand a truly free press and more accountable media. We also need to make sure we get information from sources that provide more robust and critical commentary, sites like ALTERNET.ORG and PLAYAHATA.COM.
While I discuss hyper-masculinity and homophobia in my classes, I never really planned to write a blog about it because race and class are the issues I am most familiar with, and honestly, most concerned about. But, as Martin Luther King Jr. said: an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Two events lead me to write this blog now: 1) A discussion in one of my classes and 2) the suicide of an 11 year old boy this past week. He was a victim of anti-gay bullying.
11-Year-Old Hangs Himself after Enduring Daily Anti-Gay Bullying
While many have rightfully recognized the tragedy of his unnecessary death, few still have addressed the root of it: homophobia that permeates our faiths and our societies. Kids do not learn anti-gay rhetoric in a vacuum...they learn it from their families, peers, media, and culture...and hip hop is as guilty as the dominant culture that birthed it.
In my classes, I show Byron Hurt's video: Beyond Beats and Rhymes which I highly recommend all view. Here is an excerpt:
I have known for a long time how serious our society's pathology is because it plays out in sexual violence and hate crimes. Our community's issues with masculinity also play out in silence and uncomfortable conversations with black men about deep feelings, or in hip hop culture's hyper masculine and homophobic lyrics and imagery. While not unique to hip hop, hip hop is more often than not, a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
Like I wrote in the blog last year about Prop 8, the homophobia in our community is not all about religion, or sexuality for that matter...it is also rooted in deep issues with masculinity that stem from a history of oppression, and Hurt's documentary does a decent job of deconstructing many of those issues.
As a self-identified follower of Christ, I am always willing to debate faith and homosexuality with any that want. I understand their convictions but disagree with their interpretations. While I know I will not change minds that are rooted in strong beliefs and convictions, I challenge both their knowledge of history (and the Bible in particular), and their hypocrisy, which Jesus spoke clearly about on many occasions. In using the Bible to condemn homosexuality with fervor, but ignore, or even take part in any number of "sins" (to all my fornicators, adulterers, divorcees, as well as cheeseburger and shrimp eaters), they lose validity. As well, if a literal reading of the Bible is done (despite its missing chapters...and possibly manipulated ones?..thanks to power and politics of past empires including the Catholic Church), then the issue of most concern is poverty, which is referenced thousands of times in the Bible, not a handful like homosexuality.
We know the Bible was used to justify the enslavement of Africans and the conquering of indigenous peoples to save them from their "savage" natures. It has been manipulated throughout history, and continues to be...
But a recent conversation with a student taught me the extent that some (not all) of certain religious convictions will go to defend their homophobia (which I am convinced is really a mask for masculinity issues). When I posed this question to my class: which would you prefer: 1) a child grow up loved in a nurturing and safe home with gay parents or 2) a child grow up abused in a violent and unsafe home with heterosexual parents, most students chose the first option, despite their religious convictions...but one student chose the second choice, feeling that it was better for the child to be abused than having loving parents that were gay.
Many in the class were shocked. I was too and I do not shock easily. But what did this really mean? What scared him so much about other people's sexuality that his faith in his own salvation did not transcend that fear?
I don't think it was about his faith or any honest belief that homosexuality would destroy the world. I think it was his own fears, burdens and pain. Alive...but not able to truly live...being here in the world...but feeling gone.
Around the boys I play my part rough Keep myself tough enough Never to cry Never to die
How did I get so far gone Where do I belong And where in the world did I ever go wrong If I took the time to replace What my mind erased I still feel as if I'm here but I'm gone
Lauryn Hill and Curtis Mayfield - Here But I'm Gone
If we as a people do not reconcile with these burdens, they will continue to destroy us. We hide behind a number of masks: addictions, scapegoats, bravado, and hate. In hip hop, youth culture finds its voice. Hip hop has the power to be a voice that heals our youth or continues to foster hurts. The choice is ours. But we first have to begin the dialogue. Here are two videos an emcee named Melange Lavonne offers to do just that:
This was my first trip to Memphis. Because of my background in African American studies I know the place Memphis holds in our history... Memphis blues, Stax records, the sanitation worker's strike that would bring Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis and his last day, even the burden that many in Memphis had to reconcile with because of that fateful day.
I was actually officially in Memphis for the 10th annual White Privilege Conference, which in itself is part of the journey. That a Black man had to start the WPC is ironic but also not surprising. On the one hand, the WPC creates space for understanding, accountability, and healing. But it also is a measure of how far we still need to go, with as many indicators that privilege permeates our society even at a conference that is supposed to be addressing it head on. But at least the journey has begun.
Most importantly, this past weekend marked the 41st year since MLK Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. The National Civil Rights Museum now marks the spot. I visited the museum on the anniversary. I left my rental car and walked toward the front of the Lorraine...and then it hit me...a feeling that stopped me in my tracks. I didn't see it coming, and still can barely describe the sense that came over me. But it was powerful...and spiritual...and heavy...and in that moment I felt maybe a hint of what Memphis had been living with for 41 years...the weight of history and...a dream deferred.
I felt the Memphis blues. And like the blues, there are regrets but reckless abandonment. There is pain but lots and lots of love...and love making. There is the weight of what could have been, but the freedom that comes with living in the moment. It is the crossroads of life, somewhere between Beale and Mulberry...between Martin Luther King's service and sacrifice, and B.B. King's humanity expressed through music. The crossroads is where both meet.
I did attend some conference activities, including keynote speeches by Juan Battle and Tim Wise. Battle talked about service and sacrifice...Wise discussed how white privilege and denial did not deny racism, but denies their own humanity instead (whites). The messages from both keynotes taken together, service and sacrifice with humanity as our foundation is a good take away message from this weekend to continue working for social justice and human rights.
I planned to return to the Lorraine for a candlelight vigil at 5pm. I did return but not in time for the vigil, which became a blessing in disguise for two reasons. When we arrived slightly later, it was closer to the exact time of day (6ish) that MLK Jr. was shot and declared dead. We met a couple men that had arrived to be there at the exact time of day. One was Andrew Withers, son of Ernest Withers, one of the most important photo journalist of the Civil Rights Movement and a Memphis icon in history.
Meeting Mr. Withers was a blessing. In 2009, it is good to know that people will take time to talk and connect. We were able to spend time with him and get his first hand knowledge of that day in history. But it was not all about the past...as visitors, we did not know the city well and he and his friend Mike welcomed us warmly. They gave us an escort to a place to get a great meal...and it was great. While we followed his car, he would stop from time to time in the middle of the street to give us some information about places we passed. He took his time to help us on a day that must have meant so much to him personally, having marched with MLK Jr. and lost his father less than two years ago. But he helped us in that selfless manner that has come to define the beautiful side of the South. He provided not only a connection to our past, but a shining example of the power of our own humanity and a renewal of hope for the future.
The other reason I was late for the vigil was because I was at the conference watching youth perform. I know generation next will Rise Up and be the change we need. Their spirit embodies the power of hope and humanity. MLK Jr. was only 26 when he took the baton. The race is not over, but the baton is now ours...and while we have to first navigate the crossroad, we as a people will get to the promise land.
Today we lost a national treasure, John Hope Franklin, a brilliant historian and pioneer in African American Studies. Because of his work, I celebrate Black History 365 days a year. The journey from Slavery to Freedomcontinues...Rest in peace good sir.
As always, I'd like to begin by offering peace and respect to all.I have not posted an original writing in a long while, but the timing seemed right. Today the trial of the Oakland police officer that killed unarmed Oscar Grant was set to start. This past weekend, Oakland erupted again when four police officers and a young man were shot and killed in a standoff.Many call it karma. Others call it war. Maybe it’s a sign of the crossroads to come, where the path chosen will lead to either deception and war…or truth and peace. Recently I’ve received some messages with this sentiment from Shamako Noble of Hip Hop Congress: War is Deception. Peace is the Truth.
This essay will be different than most.I want to examine this sentiment in light of recent events in Oakland and what our reaction should be to them through a visual and textual essay of words and ideas. Video clips and quotations will be incorporated throughout to paint a picture of struggle and resistance, philosophy and strategies.
How do we fight for our rights when others are killing us to deny them? How do we choose the right(eous) path when the war path may be an easier way to freedom? No justice, no peace rings true.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. - Frederick Douglass
You have to understand
That people have to pay the price for peace.
If you dare to struggle you dare to win.
If you dare not struggle then god damn-it you don’t deserve to win.
Let me say peace to you if you’re willing to fight for it. – Fred Hampton
Fighting for our humanity is not optional. No lasting peace is possible without full human rights for all. The police state our communities have been subjected to denies our humanity. We are treated as suspects. When we are shot in the back (unarmed), there is no mainstream outcry. When a white woman is killed by her rich black husband and he gets off by working the system, a nation never forgets and finds a way to make him pay, even a decade later. Where is the same public outrage when a black man spends 20+ years in jail for a crime he was railroaded for by a racist sheriff? No outcry…just silence. No wonder there is resentment and distrust.
It is no surprise that Oakland would be the crossroads in this struggle for humanity. Oakland birthed the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP). Malcolm X’s assassination birthed the BPP.The BPP and Malcolm X addressed the police state head on and provide a framework to understand the fire this time.
A true student of Malcolm X knows he never advocated violence, and lived his life by rule of law and a code of morality. His fight was a human rights struggle and he believed all had the right to their humanity and to protect that right when threatened…by any means necessary.
The BPP actually used the language of the Declaration of Independence as inspiration at the party’s inception. Huey P. Newton studied law to empower people with knowledge of their rights under the law when practiced as written. The BPP challenged the police state oppressing our communities (or the racist pigs as they often referred to them) but never advocated violence as a solution.Self Defense and understanding human rights as defined by international law was the foundation of BPP ‘s revolutionary struggle. Law was never the enemy…it was the weapon of choice.
In his note on the recent Oakland shootings, hip hop journalist Davey D describes a scene at a concert of crowds cheering when news of the police shootings were announced.
If this is war, I guess, it makes sense for the embattled to cheer a “victory”…enemy down.
But is celebrating more death really a victory?
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? – Matthew 16:26
It is scarcely worthwhile to attempt remembering how many times the sun has looked down on the slaughter of the innocents. I am very much concerned that American Negroes achieve their freedom here in the United States. But I am also concerned for their dignity, for the health of their souls, and must oppose any attempt that Negroes make to do to others what has been done to them. I think I know - we see it every day – the spiritual wasteland to which the road leads. It is so simple a fact and one that is so hard, apparently, to grasp: Whoever debases others is debasing himself. That is not a mythical statement but a most realistic one, which is proved by the eyes of an Alabama sheriff – and I would never like to see Negroes ever arrive at so wretched a condition. – James Baldwin
James Baldwin: On Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the American race question
In the end, universal law dictates all. We reap what we sow. I once heard Julianne Malveux tell a story: Someone asked her if the weight of being a descendent of slaves and that oppression was a burden.She answered: "better to be a descendent of slaves than slave masters". The righteous will be okay because they are have always been on the right side of the struggle...that is why some enslaved Africans were freer than their masters...and could sing and dance and smile and laugh and survive and LIVE under the most oppressive conditions.Our moral flame guides us through our darkest hours, and will lead us to the truth…peace.
So “be against nothing...just be clear what you are for" (Iyanla Vanzant). When we concentrate on what we are against (racism, sexism, white supremacy, capitalism, fascism, homophobia, etc.) we frame the struggle in terms of negatives and sooner or later can lose the true purpose of the
struggle...LIFE...
Life is your right..so we can't give up the fight..get up stand up - Bob Marley
...If we frame the struggle in terms of life affirming principles - peace, justice, love, and sustenance, our eyes remain on the prize, and our moral authority is the compass that will guide us down the right(eous) path.
