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Dope Mamas and Preachers
By Marvin X
In West Africa and the Atlantic
Slave Trade, a monograph published before his great
work, HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA, the late Dr.
Walter Rodney explained the dire social situation as
Africa entered the slave trade. He told how all
institutions contributed to our downfall: the political,
economic, judicial, military, and religious institutions
played their role in the destruction of African society.
The rulers, kings and queens, in
the words of a Baraka poem, “Sold the farmer to the
ghost….” The king and his military, those noble
warriors, often engaged in mock battles with neighboring
kings and their peoples, then divided the spoils of war
(the people) between themselves; of course the “spoils”
were sold to European slavers.
Rodney told how the judicial system
was corrupted with false charges and false evidence to
enslave the victims. Persons were falsely charged with
adultery and of course the sentence was slavery or sale
to the Europeans. From a previous society with no jails
and peace in the streets, the time came when all were
fearful of being kidnapped. No more peace in the
streets, in the villages, but chaos reigned. One tribe
could no longer trust another tribe; one person could
not trust another.
In America today, we find ourselves
in a similar situation. The Arabs use the term “ya’um
jahiliyah” (days of ignorance) to designate the
historical time before the prophet when all was chaos,
murder, revenge killing, tribal warfare, assassination,
kidnapping, highway robbery of caravans, quite similar
to West Africa before the slave trade or Maafa (great
tragedy).
But what we have in America is not
only business as usual white supremacy, but an
expeditious return to slavery times, especially with the
involuntary servitude of the jailed and imprisoned, with
over 50% of the population African and Latino, the
majority Africans incarcerated for minor drug crimes
such as small amounts of crack cocaine; with a great
percentage of inmates found guilty due to information or
mis-information from snitches (give up three people and
you go free is the mantra here in the Bay Area of Cali).
Is this not similar to the judicial
corruption Dr. Rodney described in West Africa? Nowhere
is safe these days, the Mall, the Church, the schools,
colleges and universities, the workplaces, the social
clubs. In Oakland , nearly all clubs for North American
Africans have closed due to violence inside or outside
the establishments.
Youth gangs have adults living in
terror, afraid to go to the store. Several youth have
been carjacked and murdered to obtain rims. Antar Bey,
the young CEO of Your Black Muslim Bakery (now closed
since the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey), was
killed to obtain the five thousand dollar rims on his
BMW.
And while the church marches and
prays to stop the violence, it too has been corrupted by
the general chaos in the hood. Sometimes it says nothing
about drugs and violence because it is often the
beneficiary of mothers who support the church with funds
from children involved in the drug trade. One sister
said if the church talked about drugs it would have no
congregation since so much of its income is from tithes
derived from the criminal activity of children whose
mothers are church going women. One sister told me
these women are essentially pimping their children, then
cry when Dante is murdered, swearing he was a good child
who did no wrong. When in fact Dante was one of the
biggest dope dealers in the hood, who lavished material
goods upon his mother.
We recall a church mother who took
drugs to her sons in prison contained in baby diapers.
And recently we were informed parents can no longer
bring home cooked meals to juvenile hall because they
were hiding drugs in the food. Yes, even mother is
guilty of participating in the chaos and corruption of
modern day slavery.
Prostitution is on the rise since
the drug trade has led to the incarceration of so many
males. Girls eleven, twelve; and thirteen can be found
whoring on Oakland ’s International Blvd , and they are
indeed international, representing every ethnic group
and multiracial configuration.
The sad truth is that America has
never separated itself completely from its slave past;
it merely progressed into virtual slavery of
segregation, then wage slavery of the civil rights era.
Globalism insures the continuation of virtual slavery
with the capitalist desire for cheap wages and natural
resources. To obtain and maintain their thousand per
cent profits, the imperialists will insist on minimum
wages and prices for natural resources. The hopeful sign
is the nationalization of resources by the leftist
governments throughout the Americas, throwing a monkey
wrench in the continued exploitation and robbery of
their peoples.
North American Africans seem
oblivious to events below their border, aside from
joining with the capitalists in their attempt to stem
the tide of immigration from the south caused by
centuries of Yankee imperialism. The American Blacks are
in the main ignorant of the revolution throughout the
Americas , in Bolivia , Nicaragua , Venezuela ,
Argentina , Chile , Brazil , Peru and elsewhere.
While they are glued to the
insanity of B.E.T. television, peoples throughout the
Americas are taking charge of their destiny, kicking out
the bloodthirsty imperialists and their reactionary
collaborators.
We must come quickly to the
realization that our freedom is connected with other
people throughout the Americas , with whom we are
connected by blood, sweat and tears.
The poor peasants who cultivate the
coca plants are victims as well, for they derive little
profit for their labor under the sun. We cannot get
angry with them but it is upon us to have the discipline
to resist the dope when it reaches our cities, for
medication is not the solution, rather we must resist
oppression not submit to it by medicating ourselves into
oblivion, additionally becoming victims of the criminal
justice system, then clients of the billion dollar
racist pseudo-recovery industry. Yes, the same white
racists who deliver the dope, offer to deliver you from
the dope, especially with the new harm reduction model
that says keep using dope, just do so in a controlled
manner. Don’t stop being a wage slave, take a bath and
make love to your mate, and don’t abuse your children,
but keep taking your dope, and keep coming back to
recovery—after all, we make as much money off the
recovery business as from addicting the population.
Of course the real solution is a
revolution in consciousness, then in society, yes, the
destruction of all white supremacy institutions that are
harmful and dangerous to our health and the health of
humanity in general.
Politicians, preachers and teachers
must act in new ways that are progressive rather than
reactionary and backward. Mothers, fathers and children
must do the same. This is a family affair: slavery was
about the destruction of family, thus ultimate freedom
will be about the reconstruction of family. There is no
other way.
Dr. M is author of How to Recover from the Addiction to
White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, 2007, $19.95. Order
from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way , Berkeley CA ,
94702.
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 23 August 2008
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