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Dear friends,
On the link below is a heartbreaking story of an African American woman who is a single mother having been murdered by Los Angeles police recently. Written by legendary columnist Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times, at least to me, it begs for the question, "Why has President Barack Obama done absolutely NOTHING to stem the behavior of so many of these hooligans who wear blue uniforms?" And, from LA to Philly, what do our clown Black politicians ever do about these types of incidents? We must build genuine communities. After all, what difference does it make if you have a job, when a police officers can kill you with impunity, at any time. Wake up!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks-lapd-20120908,0,7124908.column
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"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." -
Karl Marx
Dear friends,
It's interesting that ALL of the speakers at both of the political conventions end their addresses with religious salutes...And so, while such gestures may bring warm feelings, temporarily, to many, at what point will humankind take responsibility for realizing our true essence and seeking to relate to each other and what we do, in a way that will bring genuine peace and happiness, without us havi
ng to engage in the drama of politics?
In his often, deliberately, misquoted work called, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right - Introduction, the great Karl Marx offers, "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."
Finally, we cannot appreciate our true essence as a species, much less ever find real peace and happiness, as long as we obscure its existence through religious claims that do not reflect our behavior as species beings. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
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That term, "underclass", I contended was an impossible description of people who lived in a class society. In other words, to be "under" a class, as it were, is to suggest that one is living in a society that has no classes. Moreover, the term contradicts itself, since, in our society, everyone belongs to some economic class. Eventually, after a brief debate, Glen agreed with me
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Dear friends,
Back in 1995, while writing a book review for the now-defunct, but highly worthy magazine, African Commentary, I interviewed Glen Loury. At the time, after an unfortunate occurrence in his personal life, Professor Loury stopped teaching at Harvard University and went across the Charles River to Boston University, another great school. (He has since moved to Brown University in Rhode Island.)
In any case, during the interview, we segued from the topic of the book that I was reviewing, for a moment, because I wanted to discuss a term that he had popularized during the Reagan Era which was commonly bandied about by journalists and other such pundits. That term, "underclass", I contended was an impossible description of people who lived in a class society. In other words, to be "under" a class, as it were, is to suggest that one is living in a society that has no classes. Moreover, the term contradicts itself, since, in our society, everyone belongs to some economic class. Eventually, after brief discourse, Glen agreed with me.
I found that more than noble of him. After all, the level of plagiarism and other kinds of dishonesty has become such a part of American academia, even among African American scholars now, that I was pleasantly astonished. It is for that reason that when I saw the brief video on the link below, from the New York Times, I had to share it. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/14/opinion/1194832958030/bloggingheads-is-real-change-here.html
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Cornel talked about Barack Obama's precarious position of "showing love" to African Americans while courting many people who embrace "white supremacy".
Dear friends,
The very short video piece on the link below is from a conference that was convened by radio and television personality Tavis Smiley, during the recent presidential campaign (2008). The segment airs comments by noted African American scholar/activist Cornel West, a man who I have known personally for many years. Cornel talks about Barack Obama's precarious position of "showing love" to African Americans while courting many people who embrace "white supremacy". Of course, at least to me, the broader question is: How can a nation that embraces "white supremacy" also claim to embrace "democracy"? Moreover, why is it that President Obama has to represent ALL Americans, when not a single one of his predecessors has ever had that standard, from the slave owner George Washington to Bill Clinton who was the president when the Million Man March went down?
At any rate, Professor West (Princeton University) is always straight to the point, yet highly philosophical - and, at least to me, mostly quite correct. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXj3_pjTTwg
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