Books by Nathan Hare

The Black Anglo-Saxons / The Miseducation of the Black Child  / The Endangered Black Family  / Bringing the Black Boy to Manhood

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Books by Marvin X

Love and War: Poems  / In the Crazy House Called America / Woman: Man's Best Friend /  Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality

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The Meaning of Black Reconstruction

By Marvin X

How shall we repair the black mind? Shall we fill it with African culture, religion, politics, economics? What African culture shall serve as a model for the North American African? Where in Africa is African culture working for the African?

Egypt, an uncle tom, reactionary Arab regime, sitting atop ten thousand years of African culture without a clue how to make it function in the modern world, certainly not to the extent that it can be a force in liberating the Egyptians out of poverty, ignorance, and disease. South Africa, a revolution gone astray, essentially a neocolonial regime, with the white man playing possum, the blacks still landless and in dire straits economically. 

West Africa and the Congo, full of AIDS and bands of mad baby warriors taking orders from OG criminal gangs in search of diamonds, gold, and other minerals sought by the West, who each day return as naked colonial powers in the guise of peace keepers as the French are doing this very moment in the Congo and Liberia.

The obvious failure of African culture is the glaring fact that we are in America! What role did African culture play in getting us to America? We know that it was human culture that got us here, in the form of greed, lust for power, conspiracy with the enemies of Africa on the part of the ruling class, that elite Colin Powell, Connie Rice type African leadership, running dogs for imperialism and pax Americana.

So we must understand clearly the dangers of African culture in the reconstruction of the minds of North American Africans. Of course the values of Maat are valid and true, if we use them, or even the seven principles, if we use them and stop buying Hallmark Kwanzaa cards for the seven day trip into African mysticism, then return to the insanity of Americanism. We now have big degrees, big houses, big bank accounts, big mega churches, but our behavior reflects brains the size of mustard seeds. 

We behave like savages in our big houses. We drive alone through the streets in our big cars without a friend to visit. We drink expensive alcohol until it takes us out at a young age, fifty and sixty. Yet we claim sanity? We claim civility? We are horrified when we see pictures of African children toting guns, but we do nothing about the toting of guns and the murderous behavior of North American African youth!

And yes, just as the diamond hunters are the number one employer of African youth, the dope man is the number one employer of our youth coast to coast, from the cities to the country hamlets in deepest south. Still we claim sanity as a people. Imagine, we are the tenth richest nation in the world. But we hardly have a proper restaurant in any major city. Our soul food has lost the taste of soul but is more like salsa, with Mexican cooks being employed because they are cheaper and more reliable, we're too busy to get to work. Yet, we claim sanity. Of course this is called denial. It is the reason even though we make the doctor available, we don't make the appointment.

Finally, Black Reconstruction should be about the healing of ourselves with whatever tools are functional in today's world, whether such tools come from Africa, America or China. Let us use any means necessary to come out of this morass, this conundrum, this precipice of despair and anxiety that is relentless and will not wither away until we do the right thing. Sun Ra taught me, "The Creator got things fixed: if you don't do the right thing, you can't go forward and you can't go backward." And so here we are in the new millennium, stuck on stupid like super glue on our asses, wondering whether to be or not to be an African, to be or not to be an American, when we should seize the best of both worlds and discard the rest into the dustbin of history and reactionary mysticism.

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Those of you reading this who live in the Bay Area, I strongly urge you to show up at the Black Reconstruction mental health group session sponsored by Recovery Theatre, facilitated by our esteemed Dr. Nathan Hare and Suzzette Celeste, MSW, every Wednesday, 6-7:30PM, 133 Golden Gate, between Leavenworth and Jones, San Francisco. Call 510-798-9155 for more information.

On Friday, July 4, 8PM, catch Marvin X and the Last Poets at Recovery Theatre, 133 Golden Gate, between Leavenworth and Jones, San Francisco. Tickets $15.00 in advance, $20.00 at the door. Credit card holders go to, www.paypal.com, credit xblackxmanx@aol.com. Reservations, call 510-798-9155.

Catch the Last Poets and Marvin X at the July 4 Freedom Concert at Recovery Theatre, 133 Golden Gate, between Leavenworth and Jones, San Francisco. Make reservations, seating is limited. Call 510-7989155. Advance, $15.00, at the door $20.00.  

Credit card holders go to www.paypal.com, credit  xblackxmanx@aol.com