Black History 1
[col. writ. 2/13/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Every year, Black History is celebrated, from coast-to-coast.
Great Black names are recalled, their exploits praised, and February, the shortest month, staggers to an end.
But what shall we say today?
A month may come and go, but for millions of young Black people, they’ll know less and less, year by year.
That’s because they have no idea about their history, for who will teach them?
School teachers? DJs? Preachers? Rappers? Barbers? Parents?
These questions aren’t strictly rhetorical. For the answers to all of them are, “no.”
About a year ago, a man came up to me, telling me of a discussion he had with a younger man.
The Younger had a question for the older: “Was Martin Luther King a rapper?”
Think about that. ‘Was Martin Luther King a rapper?’
(As my mother would say, “Umph-umph-umph!”)
Generations ago, leaders like the great DuBois, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Dr. Ben (Yosef Ben-Jochannon), Dr. John Henrik Clarke- these learned men- were heroes of the Black World.
It’s not like that now, for the waters of our culture, our music, has been polluted by the greed of the corporations – and their interest to bring harm to the Black community.
Today, ignorance is bliss.
History? ‘We ain’t into that!’
Woe to those who forget their history – for they know not from whence they came.
–© ’14 maj
Black History 2
[col. writ. 2/14/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal
In our last article, I noted the dearth of knowledge about Black History, especially by the young.
For those who’ve lived through certain periods of Black life, they know what they know, even if only filtered through the lens of a media that is the handmaiden of white power.
A generation of so later, and these events fall down the rabbit hole of forgetfulness, and are soon gone.
It’s not taught in school, so new generations grow into adulthood virtually ignorant of that past of conflict and struggle.
The original MOVE confrontation, which flared during 1977 and 1978 in Philadelphia, involving weapons fire, water cannons, wrecking cranes and vicious beatings, also resulted in the imprisonment of 9 men and women from MOVE, called the MOVE 9.
That was 36 years ago.
Jimmy Carter was president. Muhammad Ali had both lost (to Leon Spinks) and regained his heavyweight championship belt.
And the MOVE 9 were sentenced to 30-to-100 years for 3rd degree murder –exceeding every other such sentence in modern Pennsylvania history.
Most who have examined this case noted that although none of the women had weapons charges, all of them received the same sentence as the men.
But guess what? All of the men didn’t receive weapons charges!
Like Eddie Africa.
Born and raised in West Philadelphia, he lived life like most young guys his age. He partied, and he got high.
But meeting MOVE changed all that. The message of MOVE entered him radicalized him and made him part of a movement greater than himself.
According to eyewitness accounts, a cop at the scene in ’78 was killed by cop gunfire, but that didn’t matter.
MOVE – loud, Black and strong – had to be stopped, and Judge Edwin Malmud was the mechanism used to do so.
So, Eddie Africa (still loud, Black and strong), was convicted of murder – even though never convicted of having a gun, and is now being refused parole despite being 6 years over his minimum.
He was 29 when he came to prison.
He’s now 65.
Because he’s a MOVE member, innocence is irrelevant.
(Nor is this relevant for the other 7 MOVE survivors.)
Neither he nor they are in prison because of either innocence or guilt: they are in prison because they believe in the Teachings of John Africa: they’re MOVE members.
To the System: that is unforgivable.
–© ’14 maj
Black History 3
[col. writ. 2/16/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal
In what must be the height of irony, the trial of a middle-aged man for the shooting and killing of a 17-year-old boy after hot words over so-called “thug music”, and his subsequent hung jury instead of a murder conviction, happening during Black History Month shows us that all is not well in America.
Black boys and men are held in the lowest regard in the U.S. That was so historically.
That is so now.
Partly because to the judiciary, to white America, (and far too often, to Black America as well), Black life is cheap.
Some will undoubtedly dispute this, but ponder an event where a Black adult, peeved at heavy metal played by a van-load of white teens, and rebuffed noisily and nastily when he tells the boys to turn their music down, unloads into a vehicle, killing one youth.
Is there any serious question but that he would soon be a denizen of Florida’s Death Row?
But the social fear of Black men by white men strengthened a defense that almost won an acquittal.
That is a commentary on the law, on the courts, and on society at large. It is also a dim reflection on how Black men are still perceived in America.
A truth: white men fear Black men. It may be deep and irrational, but that doesn’t make it any less real.
In fact, it makes it more so.
A century ago, during the teens of the 20th century, Blacks – men and women—just a generation out of slavery, experienced a brutal national wave of white racist mob violence.
Blacks were lynched by the thousands in what scholar/activist W.E.B DuBois called Red Summer.
This violence went on with the silent acquiescence of governments, state and federal. (In fact, in many cases, state officials assisted and cheered on these acts).
One of the triggers of the violence? White male fear and anxiety that Black men, newly freed, would seek white women as sexual partners.
That psychology of fear continues today, now shielded by the illusions of politics, law and entertainment.
A teenager mouths off to a middle aged man, and the white man doesn’t see a boy, a teenager – he sees a Black man, and fear floods his neurons.
That’s a snapshot of Black America 2014.
It ain’t pretty, but it is what it is.
-© ’14 maj
BLACK HISTORY 4
[col. writ. 2/24/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The recent trial of 47-year old computer tech, Michael Dunn, for the killing of teenager, Jordan Davis, and attempted murder of 3 other Black youth, is a fitting reminder of the real state of Black people in America during Black History Month.
While he had a hung jury in the Davis murder, the convictions for attempted murder essentially delivers a life sentence, some said.
Right.
People are hoping, and reporters are all but predicting, but be not surprised if the 3 attempted murder convictions are reversed by a state appeals court – for failure to prove specific intent against the boys – and Dunn is free as a proverbial bird.
This is, after all, Florida.
Moreover, it’s America.
Be not surprised.
The courts of the nation aren’t your courts. The judges of these courts see you as aliens – aliens in the land your ancestors have dwelled in for some 500 years.
It was ever thus.
This may be Black History Month – but that ain’t changed.
–© ’14 maj