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Huey P. Newton
Revolutionary
Suicide /
War Against the Panthers /
Huey P. Newton Reader /
To Die for the People /
The Genius of Huey P. Newton
In Search of Common Ground /
Insights and Poems /
Essays from the Minister of Defense
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Books by Jerry W. Ward Jr.
Trouble the Water
(1997) /
Black Southern Voices (1992)
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Books by Wilson
Jeremiah Moses
Golden Age of Black Nationalism,
1850-1925 (1988) /
The Wings of Ethiopia
(1990)
Alexander
Crummell: A Study of Civilization and Discontent
(1992) /
Destiny & Race: Selected Writings, 1840-1898
(1992)
Black
Messiahs and Uncle Toms: Social and Literary
Manipulations of a Religious Myth (1993)
Liberian Dreams: Back-to-Africa
Narratives from the 1850s
/
Afrotopia: The Roots of African American
Popular History
(2002)
Creative Conflict in African American Thought (2004)
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Love
Should Deflect Contentment
in
the Face of Horrors that
Afflict
All of Us
on
Violence & Love; Oppression & Liberation
Conversation
with Dennis, Wilson, & Jerry
A Post-Katrina Political Discussion
Dennis: Amen, Rudy.
As always, your eloquence and consciousness liberate and
astound what many of us feel. I applaud you in being so succinct
and clear. I have had similar "debates" if you will,
and find it unfortunate how many still don't see the arguments
you bring up. What is even more unfortunate is the resistance to
the ideas of true "revolution" in the sense of it
being a continuum, a rebellion constantly singing...
"mindless" terrorism...I often wonder if people really
believe that any act they consider "terrorism" is
mindless, or if they are simply afraid that people actually act
on their feelings regardless if their emotions have gotten the
best of them.
Many would agree with Wilson's comment, I
just hope I am not in their company when I personally need
help...but I suppose we all are, no?
You have made me think about things I have
not allowed myself to ruminate over in a long time....It is
always a breath of fresh air when that happens. I must share
your writing with more of my contemporaries and artists, wanna
be activists, and organizers of my generation - your comments,
ideas, analysis cut through a lot of the "school of
though" bullshit and armchair radicalism-nonsense.
Bless you and your "peasant"
upbringing. My grandfather would have dug that you said that
cause since he was homeless and parentless at age 14 (his mother
died in an asylum in Trinidad) he was raised by pimps and
prostitutes before leaving Port of Spain to eventually head for
Harlem, USA. He was always leery of too much fancy
rhetoric and the disdain that the Educated had towards the so
called "non educated."
He was perhaps, in spirit, one of my most
pertinent influences because he was head over heels for Malcolm
X and Stokely
- cause he always felt the "duende" in their eyes. (duende=spanish
for non pretentious emotion, real 'soul' - usually used in a
musical or artistic context) I am rambling. Peace and blessings.
Bis Spater!
Wilson: “I'm willing to accept whatever is the standard American
historical view of Truman and his ordering the dropping of the
atomic bomb on Japan.”
-- Rudy
No Rudy. I think not.
I know you far too well to believe that you will ever swallow
the "standard American historical view."
The standard view is that Harry Truman was justified in dropping
the bomb; and that the bombing was necessary to secure a
Japanese surrender. Without the A-bombing an
invasion would have been "necessary," and both our
forces and the Japanese would have sustained heavy military
casualties. So we nuked all those pretty little
almond-eyed Japanese babies in order to avoid military
casualties. That's crap! The Japanese had
announced their willingness to surrender on condition that we
spare the emperor. The Americans insisted on unconditional
surrender, bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then spared the
Emperor. So what was the purpose of the bombing?
Every semester I get the same old crap from World War II buffs
in my class who want to tell me "the standard American
historical view."
Leave "the standard American historical view" to the
Bushes and the Cheney's, whose "historical view" is
that we invaded Iraq to fight the terrorists who were
responsible for 9/11. They will never give up that lie.
They will also, predictably, insist that bombing Hiroshima and
Nagasaki saved lives. But Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
bombed for revenge, pure and simple. Truman was not a
monster. He was a man filled with rage and hatred.
Just as I might have been, had I been president of the United
States.
Rudy: I'm sure you're right that
Truman was a sinner, as are we all. Yet I'm not sure where that
gets us. I cannot go farther than this sentiment. I know as much
about Truman's life as I do about that of Huey P. Newton. I
assume he did what he thought was right in
defense of American democracy, though mistaken. As I said
before I'd have preferred if he hadn't. And that, I hope, I’d have
had greater restraint.
At this stage, I'm not sure there's anything
that I can do, other than advise all future leaders that
dropping the bomb on people is not what will sustain American
democracy. That Truman was mistaken in his estimation, in his
policy. We might as a nation, if we have not, apologize for our
excesses in this regard. I'm not sure whether it would be
politick to criminalize Truman or his government for their
political decision to drop the bomb. Any action that would deter
a repetition of such military acts by an American President, I
would sign onto.
Wilson: Any action? Rudy!
Stop and think about what you are saying! First of
all, we cannot be certain about the consequences of any action.
The ends may or may not justify the means, in some cases, but we
had better be sure about the consequences of extreme actions!
Resultingly, we have to set limits on what sorts of actions we
are willing to perform. We may perform some sort of
drastic action (such as bombing a city full of pretty little
children) justifying the means in terms of the ends.
But we cannot be certain that engaging in
nuclear child abuse will (turning kids into crispy critters)
will have the desired effect of saving the lives of American
marines. I am certain you really would hesitate to
perform "any action" that would deter an American
president from committing crimes against humanity.
Harry Truman was capable of the "any
action" mentality. So too George Bush. The
record of their actions is the proof of their beliefs. We
are not talking about words on paper. We are talking about
dead bodies rotting in cities. No question that some of the
people the killed were bad people, but they needlessly killed
lots of innocent people purely for political purposes. I
am not prepared to advocate that sort of behavior.
Rudy: under the light in which you
have sketched my "any action," I suppose my statement is
indeed radical, though such violence never entered my
mind. My friend Sharif,
however, placed before me a hypothetical that you may find
interesting. It's not quite as controversial as WB's black
abortions as a crime deterrent. Sharif asked whether if we had
the opportunity to kill Hitler as a child, would we be obliged
to do so.
Of course, futuristic thinking is
problematic. Personally, I revolt against killing a mouse. Logic
and circumstance however have caused me to smash their soft
bodies and toss them in the trashcan. Of course, the killing of
a child Hitler would be difficult to explain to the then
existing authorities, however certain one may have the future
pinned down. They, I imagine, would take one for a madman. That
was the dilemma that faced the planners of slave rebellions.
So the heart-wrenching beauty of the child or
young woman falls away in comparison to the logic of military
plans, and military reasoning. Do generals and
commanders-in-chief sleep well? Do they mull over the full
consequences of their planning, their orders. I think Nathaniel Turner
did. He was sincerely troubled. Yet he did what he
thought had to be done, the situation was larger than his
personal squeamishness. He did what the logic of the task
required. I do not find the soldier who gives orders to
kill an envious position. So if I sign onto "any
action" that kind of thinking and sentiment would unsettle
me.
Wilson: Well, Rudy, this discussion
has forced me to reconsider the resolution of the Colored
Convention in Buffalo 1843, when Frederick Douglass suppressed
Garnet's "Address to the Slaves of the United States," because he
wanted to achieve his freedom "in a better way."
Maybe Douglass was right, maybe not.
In any case, I have written about the
incident in Creative
Conflict, and I suppose I shall write about it
(certainly think about it) many times in the future. For
the time being, I can say that no, I could not justify killing
baby Hitler on the basis of a mystical vision, and yes, I could
have justified killing him according to the reasoning of the theologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed for collaborating in
the failed assassination attempt.
Rudy: Well, "justification" is no way out of
the dilemma. I will not justify any killing, whether
"mystical vision" or military planning. I might
understand it, or even sympathize with it. But I will not
justify any murder, even that plot for which Bonhoeffer
was
murdered. Killing (murder) of any human being (whatever the
crime) is just wrong. Even though at times it may be found
necessary, I still would be unsettled by the act.
Wilson: Well, we are in agreement that
killing another human being is always wrong. Bonhoeffer
was selective, however, and what he did was a venial sin.
It was no worse than killing a mad dog. If Nat
Turner had killed Andrew Jackson, I would have applauded.
What Truman did was a mortal sin, but one I would probably have
committed because war brings out the worst in us all. War,
like slavery, brings out the worst in people. War
brought out the worst in what Harry Truman did and slavery brought
out the worst in Nat Turner. But I cannot be too hard on
either man, because I think they were morally crippled by the
environments that produced them. And I can imagine how I
might have done the same, if corrupted by the environments that
corrupted them. Slavery and war breed a spirit of hatred
and revenge. Slavery and war dehumanize everyone who is
involved in them.
Rudy: Yes, I'm pleased the distance we have come. Nathaniel Turner
would not, I believe, be troubled by your reasoned
conclusion, except on one point. Recall, Turner agonized over
his sins and the thought of murder, and recall further that he
was anxious after he’d completed the 1831
Confessions for his own death, even he refused to
justify the murder he committed and the murders he encouraged,
except through his religious experience.
On a personal level, he looked forward to the
hangman's noose, God's judgment—his condemnation or his mercy.
That one has sinned in the name of righteousness, however, does
not necessarily imply for me "moral corruption." It is
too absolute, as you have phrased it. As I recall from the 1831
Confessions Turner believed that God had
"perfected" him for his mission.
When one is inactive, when a people
just endure their oppression, for me this is a greater sign of
being a "moral cripple." When our love of humanity
renders us merely philosophes in the face of oppression,
I think we have moral corruption, at the heart and core of our
being. This corruption also exists when we have
self-murder in the face of oppression. Huey
P. Newton, however, thought that the
"endurance" of oppression, which for me defines
"moral corruption," is a more morally corrupt
state than that of self-murder..
Fanon was
right; Condi
is right: murder of the oppressor liberates. Love
is more than the personal.
Jerry: I want to thank you for
maintaining a forum that the world should listen to, and I
do mean "the world" in a literal sense. I read your
exchange with Miriam DeCosta Willis about love and was moved
to ask myself whether the tough love I give to my undergraduate
students is sufficient. I recall the father's hurting and
brutally honest remark to his son in August Wilson's Fences
about the thin line between love and responsibility. When I talk
to students who are estranged from their fathers, I worry about
how sufficient my ear and my voice can be in providing a
little balm for their agonies as I try to help them
identify the options they have to find meaning in their lives.
Question marks march in my head during these student/teacher
conversations. Has responsibility trumped love?
I certainly have to ask what has love to do
with it when I read about the white South African farmer who has
been given a life sentence for killing a black South African and
feeding his body to lions, and then hear a handful of black and
white South African students insist that the crime was not
necessarily racially motivated. Such postmodern deconstruction
of death unsettles me, because such postmodern deconstructive
attitudes are championed in various circles of American higher
education.
How do such attitudes color love or its
opposite? How powerfully active are such attitudes in the
discussions and plans to reconstruct life in New Orleans and
other sites devastated by our recent hurricanes; in the covert
forums conducted by private conservative and liberal (or
gliberal, to use Ishmael Reed's word from years past) foundations
and semi-public agencies of government?
And what poison leaks into my ideal notions
about love when I read that the United Nations has asked the
government of Uganda to stamp out traditional practices of child
sacrifice and female genital mutilation in the Mukono and
Kayunga districts? My wonder about what drives traditional
practices in Uganda cannot be segregated from my wonder about
what drives traditional practices of response to devastated
areas and displaced persons in the United States.
For me, love is only practical if it helps me
to resist being by any measure content in the face of the
horrors that afflict all of us. Again, I thank you Rudy for
helping me to consider more profoundly the issues, dimensions
and problems I can not avoid as I seek to love. . . .
Rudy:
Jerry, I thank you for your kind, loving, and insightful words.
Our pathetic sentiments do indeed often fall into what may be
called the “impractical.” John
Maxwell,
the Jamaican journalist, brought to my attention just now the words
of Condi Rice, "Any champion of democracy who
promotes principles without power can make no real difference in
the lives of oppressed people." In matters of American foreign policy, we see from Condi’s
view: love without power (read: violence) makes “no real difference in
the lives of oppressed people.” I am not certain I agree
absolutely. Love always makes a difference.
In
politics, love probably carries much less weight than
responsibility. Certainly that love that brings contentment
or that love that unsettles us will not bring us power. I was
telling my friend Sharif just yesterday that the oppressed need
a different political education than that which the status quo
feeds our children in grade schools and colleges. As I stated
elsewhere one will find it difficult to find any public school
teacher who can write a thoughtful paragraph on the life and
commitment of W.E.B. Du
Bois. Here we have neither love nor
responsibility.
Since
King’s murder and the subsequent “urban rebellions” we
Americans no longer, and blacks themselves also, no longer view
blacks as an oppressed people, not in America, nor elsewhere, at
least not by whites (America and Europe). Since the 80s (at
least after Mandela became president) we have entered a
different world. Everything is everything. Blacks are the cause
of their own poverty, their own hunger, their own displacement,
their own oppression. It is their leaders who fall short of
“good governance.” It is the choices they have made that
cause their own misery. So whatever the government does on their
behalf they ought be nothing other than thankful.
So
this is the state of our political consciousness today—race,
class, gender, as well as, integrity, dignity, and sovereignty
are meaningless categories, at least, for us here in America.
The pursuit and defense of wealth, white privilege, and national
might have much more resonance whether spoken in backrooms or on
AM radio.
For
the oppressed I think we need a more practical love, a more
sacrificing, a more giving love than that which we have
exhibited in the last two decades. This practical love may
require the same sacrifices as it did in the 60s, and before—whippings,
the sweatbox, death. Any new order requires such love, such
sacrifices. In those two decades wealth, comfort, and class
privilege have had such sway that an American city was murdered.
It seems to me that that event, that suffering, that has thus
ensued this moral/ethical fiasco, would give us pause.
I
do not think personal love, as Miriam
phrased it, is sufficient in heading off such disasters. Nor do
I think personal revulsion is sufficient to counter, stop the
plans already afoot to re-institute cold reckless power in New
Orleans. posted 2 October 2005
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* * DVDs --
A Huey P. Newton Story 2001 /
What We Want, What We Believe The Black Panther Party Library
The Spook Who Sat By the Door /
Passin' It On; The Black Panthers' Search for Justice
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.— WashingtonPost
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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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
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
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1985
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____ 2005
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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ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update
17 January 2012
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