Gay Marriage is a Human Right!

"...no one but the parties involved know  what happens, in private, sexually – if anything at all, unless s/he is a witness. Therefore, it is no one’s business what two consenting adults do, regardless of gender, as it pertains to their sexual behavior, much less the type of erotic relationship in which they choose to commit themselves, married or otherwise."

Dear friends,

The right to marry someone is a human right NOT a civil one. This is where much of the confusion starts with the issue of “gay” marriage.

The ever-reactionary US government has, conveniently, diminished all movements, along with their activists, that oppose the actions of the aforementioned government to being in the same league as the sterile movement of the Sixties that died with Martin Luther King. For example, today, ridiculous media and other endorsed spokespeople, call the great revolutionary and Black Nationalist Malcolm X, a “civil tights” leader. Huh? To be sure, about that, Malcolm is rolling around in his grave.

But this lessening of human rights just mentioned above can be seen in the ability of African Americans to rink from certain water fountains down South as being called a “civil right”. Being seated fairly on a bus may be a civil right. After all, at least you can get on the bus – or walk. However,  when, in fact, all humans must consume water/fluids in periodic intervals or they will succumb, it is a violation of one’s rights as a human being to not be able to drink from any particular public fountain. . This also applies to public toilets. 

In any case, and unfortunately, the original Gay Liberation Movement that started in the late-Sixties, due to the market, not “sexual”, orientation of so many American citizens has deteriorated into the so-called Gay “Rights” Movement, as folks constantly practice being the most saleable personalities,.

Moreover, aside from the fact that, to me, it is absurd for anyone to make a staunch claim of “sexual identity”, based upon something as precarious, if not frivolous, as the human sexual appetite, no one but the parties involved know  what happens, in private, sexually – if anything at all, unless s/he is a witness. Therefore, it is no one’s business what two consenting adults do, regardless of gender, as it pertains to their sexual behavior, much less the type of erotic relationship in which they choose to commit themselves, married or otherwise.

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus

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Paula Deen - the prom queen of White Supremacy

Dear friends,

The  recent mainstream media coverage of Paula Deen's use of the so-called N-word is a red herring Only a year ago (2012), in a taped interview, she spoke regretfully about how the Civil War ruined the lives of so many who lost their "workers" as a result of the Union's victory ending chattel slavery. Huh? Please check out the very short video o the link below.

Liberation!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/21/paula-deen-racism_n_3480720.html Read full post

Brief video of Spike Lee on Tyler Perry

"I can't understand why Spike Lee criticizes Tyler Perry, since he deliberately boycotted M-cubed (Million Man March), because some of his Jewish "friends" told him not to attend, due to the fact that it was convened by Minister Louis Farrakhan. Then Spike turned around with some of his aforementioned Jewish friends and made an insulting film called "Get On The Bus","






Dear friends,

I can't understand why Spike Lee criticizes Tyler Perry, since he deliberately boycotted M-cubed (Million Man March), because some of his Jewish "friends" told him not to attend, due to the fact that it was convened by Minister Louis Farrakhan. Then Spike turned around with some of his aforementioned Jewish friends and made an insulting film called "Get On The Bus", allegedly, about the historic event. 

Worse yet, the story began with a Black man forcing his teenage son to board a bus to go to M-cubed. Huh?. That was an outright LIE, Spike Lee! I lost all respect for him, for doing that! Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

South Africam educators and students say, "Obama not wanted here"

Yes!!!...Yes!!!...Yes!!!...He murdered our brother Khaddafy....He's re-militarized Africa through AFRICOM...He kills children with drone attacks!!!!





Dear Friends,

Yes!!!...Yes!!!...Yes!!! He murdered our brother Khaddafy. He's re-militarized Africa through AFRICOM. He kills children with drone attacks!!!

Moreover, in the midst of so many cowardly both African and African American people, it is refreshing to know that there are some of us worldwide, still, who refuse to continue supporting the abominable behavior of such a coward, as is Barack Obama. Please check out the link below.

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/06/20/obama-not-wanted-here Read full post

Re-Visiting Tid-bits of current US/AFGHANISTAN relations - Big Business

"Inspired by major success stories, Ford, 3M, and Boeing are examining business opportunities in Afghanistan..."

From the Embassy of Afghanistan, in Washington, DC
More than 70 American companies have registered in Afghanistan since 2003, representing $75 million in potential investment, and more than 15 foreign and domestic banks have opened their doors in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s national income per capita has doubled since 2001, reaching approximately $356. Over 100,000 Afghans have been able to start small businesses thanks to micro-credit loans; 76% of these loans were given to women. Afghanistan was selected as the 2005 US Trade and Development Agency “Country of the Year,” while the World Bank ranked the ease of starting a new business in Afghanistan 16th in the world and lists Afghanistan as the 2006 top performer on business entry.

Since 2001, more than 55,000 businesses have been registered, allowing Afghans to dream of a better future for their children for the first time in 30 years. Inspired by major success stories, Ford, 3M, and Boeing are examining business opportunities in Afghanistan, and Coca-Cola has opened a $25 million bottling plant in Kabul, which employs approximately 500 Afghans.
***************************************
Dear friends,

There's a little more, on the link below. The Afghans do not need "oil", in order to make this "war" profitable. Does El Presidente have power over the US multinational business marauders, much less the military/industrial complex?

Meanwhile, thousands of US soldiers have died and thousands more have been injured, with the understanding that they were defending some great ideal or something, while the US government, sponsored by big business, along with its corporate-controlled mainstream media now says that it (said government) wants the Taliban to be included in talks regarding the future of Afghanistan, Huh? Please remember that after 54, 000 US soldiers died in Vietnam, the US has trade dealings with the Vietnamese today.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.acci.org.af/index.php Read full post

NICKi MATHIS' AFRIKAN AMERIKAN JAZZ w/Lynn Tracey ROSE GARDEN FESTIVAL, West Hartford, CT

SATURDAY/SUNDAY 22/23 JUNE 10am - 3pm, FREE

NICKi MATHIS' AFRIKAN AMERIKAN JAZZ w/Lynn Tracey

ROSE GARDEN FESTIVAL, Elizabeth Park, West Hartford, CT

Performance INFO  860.231-0184, 677-4038

___________________________________________________________________

SATURDAY, 27 JULY, 7pm, Nick Mathis host/emcee Nzinga's Daughter's Music of the Diaspora, Hartford Stage Company, 50 Church St, Hartford, CT

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Dr. Chika Ezeanya talks about US involvement in Africa under Obama

"Africans of the World must unite!!!" -
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

 (originally posted 10/29/11)
Dear friends,

On the link below is a piece from one of Nigeria's premier journalists, male or female. Moreover, if we look at recent affairs going on throughout Africa, including the murder of Khaddafy that was brought about, so that the United States government and its multinational corporate bosses could install a puppet-leader in oil-rich Libya, we will see that the United States of America, now under the direction of the Obama administration, as it did under the Bush administration, continues to rape the Motherland.

"Africans of the World must unite!!!" - Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

G. Djata Bumpus
http://saharareporters.com/column/united-states%E2%80%99-looming-invasion-central-africa Read full post

A Brief Note About Women's Suffrage in the 19 Century

Dear friends,

Historically, woman suffragettes were usually abolitionists first. One such person who began as an abolitionist and later became a renowned speaker for women's rights was Susan B. Anthony. Yet, Anthony seemed to have questionable qualities regarding her feelings about human liberation. You see, suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were, in fact, vigorously opposed to Lincoln's version of the Emancipation Proclamation, because it would eventually lead to African American men - and no women of any group - having the right to vote. Even worse, much of her public life, at least at one point, was financed by a man, George Francis Train, a white supremacist ideologue and spokesman.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had responded to what they considered to be a Republican "betrayal" by agreeing to share the lecture platform with a flamboyant Democrat, George Francis Train. An effective, if eccentric, speaker, Train scandalized abolitionists and suffragists alike by his frequent recourse to racial slurs and by his advocacy of woman suffrage as an alternative to Black suffrage. Despite mounting pressure from their fellow reformers, Anthony and Stanton refused to dissociate themselves with Train, the only man willing to provide them with consistent strategic and financial support. He not only took it upon himself to pay the two women's expenses when funds ran low, but also offered to bankroll Anthony's dream of a pro-suffrage journal in exchange for their continued presence on his return lecture tour to the East. In what seems like an obvious victory of expediency over principle, both women accepted the offer, insisting on their 'right to accept proffered aid without looking behind it for the motive.' It was not the last time they would have to engage in such a defense - (please refer to The Isabella Beecher Hooker Project, edited by Anne Throne Margolis)

G. Djata bumpus

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Reflecting on Fatherhood

Kwame, 1975 Boston. Namandje, Penn's Landing, Philly 1981, Tia, South Philly 1985.

Dear friends,

Here I was, 1965, on a very hot July day, in the Roxbury section of Boston, sitting there, all by myself, on the concrete steps of my seven stories-high building, in the Mission Hill Extension  Housing Projects, with no one else in the whole world around.

All of my friends, or even cats who I didn’t run with, had gone somewhere with their fathers, including those whose fathers didn’t live with them.

Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I said to myself, "I don't have a father."

While I was a precocious and tough kid - and a knucklehead wherever I was, I still did something that was totally out of character for me. That is, I grabbed my face in my hands and started crying uncontrollably, while, simultaneously, wailing repeatedly, "I don't have a father!".

This went on for about only a minute or so, before I pulled myself together and started sniffling and wiping away my tears, while still reminding myself, "I don't have a father.".

There was still no one around. No one to console me. I wouldn't have wanted that anyway. I was too tough.

Yet, when I finally stopped crying, I said to myself, "When I grow up, I'm gonna be a father, and I ain't never leavin' my kids...and I'm gonna teach them how to do EVERYTHING."

As is now, 48 years later, public record, I kept my word to the 11 years-old boy/myself.

Moreover, when recently asked: Whom do you most admire?...I answered: I admire my three children. 

In 1993, the oldest, my son, Kwame (38), who was already a legend in Western Mass., during his senior year at Amherst Regional High School, was both the Western Massachusetts 100-meters dash champion in track and field, and the Western Mass High School Chess Champion. He later became an undefeated professional boxer who fought on TV a couple of times. In January (2013), he returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army.

My oldest daughter and middle child,  Namandje (32), is a highly-regarded scientist and professor at the world-renowned Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md.

The youngest, my daughter Tia (28), is about two or so years away from finishing the prestigious MD/PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. 

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus

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The late, great Curtis Mayfield still reminds us....

"Fathers and Mothers should remember what the great Curtis Mayfield sang, "Keep on keepin' on" "


Dear friends,

During the era of the Black Consciousness Movement (@1965-1985), at least to me, there was not one other popular artist who was more consistent and prolific with songs of inspiration and love , specifically, for African American people than Curtis Mayfield. Bar none. And I'm not intending to trivialize all of the great work from artists like Gil Scott-Heron, Elaine Brown (of the Black Panther Party), or Stevie Wonder.

In any case, from songs like "People Get Ready", "Amen":, and "We're a Winner" while being the lead songwriter and vocalist for the Impressions to his debut solo album, to "Roots", then "Superfly", all the way to the soundtracks of both "Claudine", performed by Gladys Knifgt and the Pips, as well as "Sparkle", perfprmed by Aretha Franklin, to "Thee's No Place LIke America", Curtis Mayfield served as one of the finest artists, of any cultural group, ever.

On the link below, I'd like to share one of his manu memorable works. I found it recently on YouTube.

One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h4xxC0xQVc Read full post

Our Youth are the Future of Our Culture

"The idea that a culture can develop without any connection to the past (except its increased availability of consumables) is a contradiction in terms." 

Dear friends, 

 The idea that a culture can develop without any connection to the past (except its increased availability of consumables) is a contradiction in terms. Hence, the notion of "youth culture", for example, is designed to exploit the vast and seemingly endless energy and enthusiasm of young people. Yet, it seems, at least, to me, that the energy and courage of Our youth should, actually, serve the purpose of moving society forward - but only under the guidance of that part of society (parents and other elders) that has both the experience and understanding to recognize the values that maintain both Our humanity and spirituality. 

Moreover, once the market is allowed to define culture, Our only values become those which drive it (the market). For that reason, the mentality needed to function within the market system itself, has a great deal to do with causing the people in this society, for the most part, to not have the ability to act in a loving way towards each other, since it defines people by price or money-name. Hence, terms like low-income and wealthy become the false abstractions, like so many other monikers, that tend to sort out and classify people, then assign said folks to their stations in society and life, with most people never having any real control of their destinies 

 Additionally, culture has no meaning once taken out of the context of a reproductive process. A people who cannot reproduce themselves as a people will cease to exist as a people and become part of something else. This is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. For example, the culture that held Africans in slavery, in this society, could no longer reproduce itself in that form and had to change, because of the well-deserved hostility and resistance it engendered. 

 Therefore, and ultimately, if Our youth are to be Our future, then it will only happen if We as adults, particularly parents, take the reins of this present culture and provide Our children with both an historical and social conscience, and set the example for them, by informing identity through recognition of the connection between generations and defining human life in a meaningful way (as opposed to basing who they are upon unsubstantiated claims regarding with whom they are having sex, or what "gang colors" they're wearing). That way, Our society will benefit from the "leadership" of Our youth. As well, the "market" will then be a function of the values of the society and not vice versa as it is now. 

 G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

A must-hear video by Senator Bernie Sanders on "Immigration Reform"

"While he covers the usual issues of illegal immigration at the southern border of the U>S, he also makes note of the attempt by both Democrats and Republicans to sneak in legislation that will allow multi-national corporations to bring Eastern European and Asian workers to do entry-level white collar work that millions of our currently unemployed college graduates can do..."

Dear friends,

On the link below is an important 20 minutes-long presentation by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, regarding the upcoming "Immigration Reform" legislative issue where the Independent politican delivers a concise analysis.

While he covers the usual issues of illegal immigration at the southern border of the U>S, he also makes note of the attempt by both Democrats and Republicans to sneak in legislation that will allow multi-national corporations to bring Eastern European and Asian workers to do entry-level white collar work that millions of our currently unemployed college graduates can do. Are the Democrats, Republicans, and their multi-national corporate sponsors/bosses trying to lower wages? This is "God's country", after all. Please have a listen.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/media/view/?id=abff86a1-5056-a032-524a-56c06d0c8574 Read full post

Blacks and Comedy - a review of an NYC Comedy Show

Kareem Green and Hadiyah Robinson

Luigi

“What attempts to pass itself off as self-deprecation is really self-degradation. The two practices are not the same.”

Dear friends, 

 This past Friday (May 31, 2013), I arrived in New York City to see a friend who was visiting from outside the country for a week. On the agenda for that evening first was to catch one of NYC’s veteran comics, Hadiyah Robinson.

While I’d seen videos of her, this would be the first live performance I’d seen. My friend and I were both more than pleased that we’d gone to the show, which was at a very nice, Yuppie-ish place called the One & One Pub, in Lower Manhattan. (btw, being held every first and ever last Friday of the month) 

 In any case, the very pretty and witty Hadiyah, who was also the host/emcee of the show, was joined by two equally funny and thoughtful comedians, Kareem Green and a brother who simply goes by the name Luigi. All three were hilarious! And all three were well-seasoned vets, with Luigi doing a skit where he impersonated Mike Tyson incredibly well and in a way that would have had the legendary prizefighter both smiling and laughing with approval.  By the way, any cultural group will enjoy the three aforementioned comics' presentations.

 Yet, there was also a little downside to the show, unfortunately, because three novices were generously given the microphone, even though not a single one of the trio deserved, much less earned, it - a heavyset fellow named Jamal, a young woman (Kali ?) who spent too much time claiming to be Dominican, and a buffoon named Jay “the singing comic” who, apparently, forgot that he was on stage and not on a street corner amusing his wino buddies. In their amateurish effort to use the comedic technique of self-deprecation, the thoughtless drivel of each of  these three was laced with the pejorative term "Niggaz" throughout their insulting sets. And this was in front of an audience that was equally mixed with both African- and European-Americans.

 The three who I just mentioned above remind me of some words from a piece that was written by an old and dear friend of mine, legendary Philadelphia journalist Elmer Smith, when he paid homage to the great Richard Pryor, after the latter’s passing, back in late 2006. It goes, in part, “…he may have been the funniest man who ever told the truth for comic effect…Problem is that his success has spawned a legion of foul-mouthed imitators whose mindless musings haven't evolved since they were class cut-ups in junior high school…You can turn on the television any day of the week and hear the uncouth utterances of some street-corner comic whose idea of comedy is to see how many "mf's" he or she can sprinkle on a half-baked monologue that tries to raise low-life to high art…It has become the staple of a crew of stand-ups who got some of the style and none of the substance that distinguished Pryor's comedy… Pryor offered insights. The other blue comics offer only stereotypes…But I can't understand how someone who hopes to make a living at something doesn't care enough about his (or her) craft to even examine it closely… His comedy came from his struggle to understand a society where he saw himself as an alien in his native land… the crude comics who have followed him can decipher all of the words but none of the meaning of what they heard.” (Elmer Smith | Pryor's message was more than the profanity, Philadelphia Daily News, Dec. 16, 2006) 

Of course, on a side note, when he was just starting to really get big, back in the early-Seventies, I went to catch Pryor at a small nightclub called Paul's Mall on Boylston St, in Boston (today, almost exactly where the Boston Marathon Bombing occurred). I still remember, as he got out of the limo and walked towards the front door, folks standing in a line that was a block or so long were asking him for his autograph. Then suddenly a guy yelled out "Hey Richard!...Will you autograph this blank check?". At that, Pryor and everyone else cracked up, as he entered the venue.

 Finally, to me, one of the most damning criticisms that I have of wannabe comics like Jamal, (Kari ?), and Jay mentioned above  is: Like so many of today’s Black “comics” of whom my brother Elm spoke above is: What attempts to pass itself off as self-deprecation, in order to get a cheap laugh, is really self-degradation. Obviously, the two concepts are not the same. 

Still, I look forward to seeing Hadiyah, Kareem, and Luigi again. Cheers!

 G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/opinion/15iht-edjackson.html?_r=1 Read full post

Armstrong Williams on "Women" in Politics?...About what'sis all of that?

"What does belonging to either the Democratic or Republican Party have to do with insuring that citizens are protected against the greed of corporations and the “market” that that body so affectionately controls?"

Aside from the fact that the US is one of the only advanced nations on this planet that refuses to sign the International E.R.A. Treaty, why are women, whether “conservative” or “liberal”, African American or non-African American, Republican or Democrat, being any less exploited, by agreeing with men who don’t even give women the respect of allowing them to speak about, much less endorse, E.R.A. being law in our own country?

That’s equivalent to praising Clarence Thomas for being on the US Supreme Court, when he has consistently voted against any measure that promotes human progress. Sometimes the vote is 8 – 1, where he even snubs his master Anthony Scalia. So what good is a Black man on the Supreme Court, if he’s like Clarence Thomas? It’s, at best, a hoax.

A few years ago, Uncle Armstrong Williams wrote that the Democratic Party platform promotes equal social and economic outcomes with an emphasis on women’s rights and liberal social policies. These policies are designed to appeal to the disenfranchised members of society, which formerly included most women.

Huh?

What does belonging to either the Democratic or Republican Party have to do with insuring that citizens are protected against the greed of corporations and the “market” that that body so affectionately controls?

When we live in a society where women are raised to have a “sense of self” and are not compelled to behave according to the whims of men, and, consequently, are not so disrespectful towards themselves that they have no self-esteem whatsoever, and buy books with insulting titles like, “Act like a lady – Think like a man”, then we’ll have legitimate political and social organizations. THen the world won’t have to experience the likes of Armstrong Williams or any of these other clowns that the rulers use as their mouthpieces.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.baystatebanner.com/Opinion58-2010-09-02 Read full post

Re-visiting an analysis of Eddie Glaude's article called "The Black Church is Dead"

"He makes no mention of the origin of the Black Church, regarding an individual’s religiosity, much less the inner powers of spirit that were necessary to survive the infamous voyage of the European enslavers’ ships. Or, for that matter, even of post- Civil War concoctions of Black churches that were organized by “white” missionaries and their ilk who established “places of worship” for our forebears (as if our predecessors had no sense of their own religiosity.)"

 (originally posted 3/22/10)

Dear friends,

Considering the health care legislation that was just approved by Congress at the urging of President Obama, the recent publication by The Huffington Post of an unworthy article by Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr, regarding his assertion that the Black Church is "Dead", seems like a moot point. This is especially so, since it was the Black Church that was Obama’s strongest ally, during his run for the presidency. However, it also points to a deeper problem of Black scholarship in this country and elsewhere, or what passes off as such, that has really taken a nose-dive during the past couple of decades.

But what is the Black Church? In Glaude’s perception of what it is, he provides very little historical basis for it, outside of pointing out a couple of questionable characters/preachers who have fleeced African Americans over the past 80 years or so. He makes no mention of the origin of the Black Church, regarding an individual’s religiosity, much less the inner powers of spirit that were necessary to survive the infamous voyage of the European enslavers’ ships. Or, for that matter, even of post- Civil War concoctions of Black churches that were organized by “white” missionaries and their ilk who established “places of worship” for our forebears (as if our predecessors had no sense of their own religiosity.)

Nevertheless, after first focusing on the results of silly studies and polls that claim to document African American worship, Glaude does briefly take notice of various endeavors in which the Black Church has involved itself in order to help alleviate social problems, in the past. Unfortunately, after what amounts to an anti-intellectual, anti-historical introduction, Glaude’s main solution for re-establishing an effective Black Church is some kind of metaphysical drivel about “prophetic energies”.

To be sure, the energy that we need to muster is readily available to us, because each of us possesses both inner and outer powers that will allow us to create and produce what we need and want in this myriad of experiences that we know as human life.

We don't need to search for some type of esoteric entity such as “prophetic energies”. Rather, at least to me, we need direct action that is based upon the struggle of African American people to acquire “freedom, equality, and justice”.

Most importantly though, without Glaude’s anemic article acknowledging the origin of the Black Church as beginning on enslavers’ ships where people were chained together with folks who often didn’t even share the same native tongues, while, simultaneously, living in their own excrement, there is no reasonable justification for Glaude, as an alleged African American “scholar”, to even have written this piece, because his premise is entangled with quixotic notions about propositions that are somehow proof of themselves. Hence, the “prophetic energies” about which he babbles.

In any case, in the real world, later the Black Church developed in cotton fields and other such places. Please remember that a building does not make up a church. Rather, it is the combined religiosity of any group of people – any size - that does. Also, the Black Church is not “black and Christian”, as Glaude so naively, if not mean-spiritedly, claims. There are, after all, many Black congregations of Muslims, Jews (i.e., Hebrew), you name it. Are they not part of the Black Church? In fact, does one have to be enrolled in a particular denomination or attend religious services, in order to be part of the Black Church? Does a person have no investment in the Black Church, if s/he attends a church where most of the congregants are not African American?

At any rate, our church facilities should be open to our youth so that, for example, they can study our history (with no membership or attendance at the particular church required). Resources like the great Charles Blockson collection in Philadelphia, community activists, and college professors can contribute tremendously to making this happen.

Education, of course, is something that you get for yourself. It is NOT something that someone gives to you. Notwithstanding, the Black Church should be the place where young people in our communities can get helpful knowledge and ideas, along with developing useful skills. The schools will, ultimately, follow, if our churches show them the way. Our young people should know that the adults of the community will provide the type of environment where their minds can develop in a manner that will make them be able to control their destinies.

Consequently, for our youth, we must all embrace the old Nigerian proverb that goes, “If you pick a good tree to climb, I will help lift you up.” Moreover, where is a better place for our children to learn to appreciate scholarship than the Black Church?

Yet, to me, there is something much more pernicious going on here. It is: Glaude and his pathetic ilk have no clue as to how to solve current problems in our religious institutions, much less our communities. For example, he didn’t mention the rampant practice of Black ecclesiastics who, just as many Catholic priests of all complexions do, engage in all sorts of sexual indignities with their parishioners. That makes a lot of Black folks not want to go to church!

Still, the Black church lives! Yet, it must maintain a course, based upon the people’s struggle. Churches, mosques, and synagogues need to play a strong role in our community building. The Black church is the oldest institution that we have, again, beginning in the holds of enslavers' ships through chattel slavery, manumission, and the series of freedom movements that have led up to this point for African Americans. The Black church has been there, and it will continue to be. But, like everyting else, it’s part of a process.

Finally, Glaude has taken improper stock of himself in trying to analyze an institution of which he, apparently, has limited understanding. Worse yet, he’s given more reason for mainstream media outlets, like The Huffington Post, to keep the dialogue away from being enlightening/informative, motivating, and inspiring. After all, the idea that the Black Church is dead is useless blather. Is the “White” Church dead? Is it only “white and Christian”? Does it even exist? Why hasn’t The Huffington Post found some fool to write such a piece?

If you’re interested, the link to Glaude’s article appears below.

One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-glaude-jr-phd/the-black-church-is-dead_b_473815.html Read full post

Foundations and "Giving back"

"Then there are the Bill Gates types. He has a multi-billion dollars AIDS Foundation that, from what I've heard, perhaps, NEVER gives money to scientists who submit research grants...."

Dear friends,

Many of these foundations are just tax tricks. When the athlete or movie star stops making money, the "foundations" fold.

Then there are the Bill Gates types. He has a multi-billion dollars AIDS Foundation that, from what I've heard, perhaps, NEVER gives money to scientists who submit research grants, but does that foundation, meanwhile, collect millions in tax-free interest, by keeping the money in a trust account?

Moreover, I find the whole idea of "giving back", as it were, a bunch of bourgeois nonsense. What would they have given, if they didn't have a lot of money? For example, high school basketball players can start youth leagues for younger kids. I mean, as a dear friend of mine pointed out recently: Are those who volunteer their any less generous than wealthy donors? Besides, why do the aforementioned donors have to wait until they get NBA contracts and such to contribute to the commonweal? Ya dig? After all, many of the neighborhood youth would benefit by learning to work cooperatively with others, while experiencing success, and accomplishing gols. That's great for the community. The same thing could be said for dancers and actors.  They can start community theatres for young people..  Churches and neighborhood schools can lend their facilities, for such activities.

Why do people have to wait for a Grammy or an Oscar to do for their communities? .It's about sharing NOT "giving back"! We need to build genuine communities! That more than anything, will stop all of the murders, rapes, other assaults, and robberies.  The police, courts, and politicians regulate crime. It wouldn't be in their financial, much less social interests to stop it. 

Finally, there is a mentality in our cities, towns, and in this country that has people making themselves "The bird with the broken wing that needs fixing." That has folks living life with their hands out, expecting others to do for them, as opposed to exercising their inner powers and doing for themselves. So, just as wealth can be a vice, poverty becomes one too. And you hear people yelling out, "Free food!..Free this!...Free that!". Nobody owes you shit! In the words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, "Do for self!?"

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.blackgivesback.com/2012/12/6th-annual-top-10-black-celebrity.html?m=1 Read full post

Eshu Bumpus critiquing an essay by Djata Bumpus

Yo D,

I thought it was good. I'm glad that it will continue with a part2 and/or 3 because you didn't get a chance to develop the idea of, " 2) That you know what it’s like to be alone and accomplish goals on your own. "

I think this is essential because there is so much violence that people become inured to that has little to do with hitting. As children, people should be given support and encouragement to think highly of themselves and their futures. This should involve helping the child discover and appreciate "Their powers" in a multitude of ways.

They can create and be loved for what they create. They can achieve and be loved for what they achieve and even what they try to achieve. 

I believe it is nothing short of violence when a certain child is deemed a failure when it is the system that is failing the child. It is nothing short of violence when resources that could be used  to help families are diverted to feed the pockets of greedy, already absurdly wealthy individuals or corporations  or when people can't get nutritious food. It is violence that brings a young girl to a mentality that makes her say, "I like my man with a little thug in him."

If a person has no sense of responsibility to others, they will never really learn how to love. It is through the development of their powers and the sense of the value of those powers that a person begins to see their own potential to change their environment for the better, not only for themselves but for the ones they love or may come to love.

E

Read full post

Re-visiting Harry Reid's Remark about the "Negro dialect" (originally posted 1/13/10)

"Think about it. Have you ever listened to an ordinary European American person do a voice impression of an African American? No matter what the voice of the latter actually sounds like, the European American just mentioned ALWAYS imitates the 'Southern twang'."

Dear friends,

Imagine. This whole media frenzy is all about Harry Reid using the term “Negro dialect”. What is the Negro dialect? For example, the so-called Southern dialect or twang, as it were, is simply the evolution of the vocal expression of West African captives as they tried to communicate with Europeans. (see Melville Herskovits’ New World Negro)

Think about it. Have you ever listened to an ordinary European American person do a voice impression of an African American? No matter what the voice of the latter actually sounds like, the European American just mentioned ALWAYS imitates the “Southern twang”.

Therefore, considering the above, many European Americans, especially Southerners, speak the “Negro dialect” - each moment of their lives.

So why all of the ruckus over a typical, stupid, inept Washington pol’s faux pas? Does the issue of “race” still fire people up - especially those who embrace the moniker “white”? In fact, who are “white” people? After all, not only people of European descent, but many Asians as well as many Latinos call themselves “white” too. Why is that? What does being “white” do for a person?

Well, by calling yourself “white”, you become part of an artificial “majority” group that mean-spiritedly pits itself against a body of then smaller groups who are labeled “minorities”. Moreover. the artificial group mentioned above automatically inherits privilege over the so-called “minority” groups.

But what if the “whites” started calling themselves Irish American, or Polish American, or Italian American instead? Except for the Irish Americans who, by the way, have only been considered “whites” for a few generations, Polish Americans and Italian Americans each, by themselves, would become a “minority”, at least compared to the African American population. Consequently, they would lose privilege. That also means that calling one’s self “white” is in and of itself discriminatory, because it deprives African Americans the same privileges, particularly, equally so in many areas of our lives. If that is not true, then why do people who call themselves “white” feel that they are being disempowered if they stop identifying themselves that way?

Considering all of this here-to-mentioned, it’s fairly easy to understand why the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. insisted: Discrimination is a hell-hound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

Have you seen a McDonald’s commercial lately?

G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post

Cynthia McKinney on AFRICOM and Re-colonizing Africa

Dear friends,

Because the people of the continent of Africa, as well as the great continent itself, are always portrayed by the Western media as losers, quite naturally, albeit unfortunately, African Americans as a whole, tend to not want to be associated with either. This seems to make sense, at face value. After all, who wants to identify with a loser? And so, over three generations ago, Marcus Garvey wrote, "This propaganda of dis-associating Western Negroes from Africa is not a new one. For many years white propagandists have been printing tons of literature to impress scattered Ethiopia, especially that portion within their civilization, with the idea that Africa is a despised place, inhabited by savages, and cannibals, where no civilized human being should go, especially black civilized human beings." - Marcus Garvey (Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey, edited by Amy Jacques-Garvey). Moreover, will Africans in the Americas ever be respected, if our people on the continent are not?

In any case, initiated by the Bush Administration and continued by President Obama, AFRICOM (African Command) has invaded African nations, under the guise of lending "military training and support". However, as the brilliant stateswoman Cynthia McKinney points out in the video on the link below, there seem to be other motives for U.S. presence there.

"Africans of the world unite!" - Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezktVMOvTQs Read full post

Elmer Smith on Mental health and Voting

“And please let us not forget all of the mean-spirited talk about mental illness and people not being allowed to buy guns, as if we don’t already have a bunch of armed and deranged police and corrections officers in this country who, especially, shoot, and often murder, unarmed African American and Latino men, at alarming rates each year”

Dear friends,

I was perusing some articles from the past, and ran into one by my old and dear friend, legendary Philly journalist Elmer Smith. This is an important piece, on the link below. It deals with a subject, as quiet as it’s kept, that every family experiences. It is mental illness.

To be sure, a number of great thinkers, from Freud to Fromm to Fanon, have pointed out the significance of our mental life to its physical counterpart. Unfortunately, cost accounting as opposed to methods of healing, has dominated the dialogue in “health care reform”. 

Not even insurance companies take the problem seriously, as they do, for example, with physical well-being. However, our mental life is, literally, half our our existence.

Nevertheless, regarding mental illness and the right to vote, religious and political illusions often debase that aforementioned right - e.g. the Tea Party. (is that group’s activity related to mental health?). “ And please let us not forget all of the mean-spirited talk about mental illness and people not being allowed to buy guns, as if we don’t already have a bunch of armed and  deranged police and corrections officers in this country who, especially, shoot, and often murder, unarmed African American and Latino men, at alarming rates each year”. In fact, is this really a sane society?

Finally, while there is mention of the term, in the piece on the link below, I always cringe at the reference to “mental retardation”. After all, at least to me, there is an equality of intelligence among all people, since we each learn that which we choose to learn at whatever pace to which we are able. Besides, as Dr. King taught us, in his manifesto called “Letter from a Birmingham jail”: equality does not mean sameness. Moreover, as I’ve said in the past, it is precisely the idea that equality and sameness are synonymous that justifies racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression. Dig?

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus

 http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20101112_Elmer_Smith_.html?viewAll=y

Read full post

Bill Cosby disconnects with African American Youth

"(He) conjured up the Mission Hill Extension Housing Projects of Roxbury (Boston) in me ..."






Dear friends,

On the link below is a story about a recent incident in Philly where both acting and comedy legend Bill Cosby spoke to the student body at Germantown High School in Philly. Apparently, he was quite disappointed with the whole institution, by the end  of the "ordeal".

Yet, I'm aware of his past speeches around the country where he scolds mostly African American audience single Moms and belittles them with terms such as his references to them being "the lower echelon". Huh?

In any case, I spoke at a disciplinary high school in Philly, to a crowded auditorium, back in the late-Seventies, when I was still actively engaged in professional boxing. One could hear "a rat piss on cotton", if you'll pardon the expression, as I spoke. Afterwards, the staff and teachers told me how amazed they were, because normally the kids acted like they did with Cos - gabbing and uninterested. But Bill has his own issues of relating to African Americans. He's far removed from the Black community about which he so often lambastes.

Actually, he and I once had a brief altercation behind the Four Seasons Hotel in Center City, back in '83, before he, a former resident of the Richard Allen Housing Projects in North Philly,  made a disrespectful gesture to me (placing his finger over his mouth as I spoke) that conjured up the Mission Hill Extension Housing Projects of Roxbury (Boston) in me At that point, looking straight into my eyes, Bill Cosby very intelligently made a turn-around spin that was faster than James Brown, Davy Ruffin, and Michael Jackson combined. He then quickly race-walked away from the situation. By the way, at the time, we were both wearing tuxedos and were the special guests of a mutual friend, then Temple University President Peter Liacouras, at an annual black-tie affair.

Finally, the students aren't as dumb as Cosby would like to think they are. As you'll notice on the link below, he was talking down to them.. They don't need that!. Instead, they need wisdom. It's hard for one to fin much of that, find that, if most of one's life has been spent on stage and screen entertaining people. In other words, one has to be out and about engaging/interacting with real people and their varied circumstances in the real world. Moreover, to me, Bill Cosby seems to be a poor choice for helping young people grow.

G. Djata Bumpus

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/54686 Read full post

South Africa still not free

"In 1983, I brought Dr, Gulabe (then David Ndaba) to speak at Temple University. It was the first time that the, then outlawed by US, Israeli, and South African governments ,ANC had come to Philadelphia. The struggle lives."

Dear friends,

"The struggle in South Africa is not over. There needs to be a revitalization of the Free South Africa Movement to rid genuine South Africans, as opposed to Afrikaners, of deprivation of economics and health, so that they can bevcome independent of colonial powers who continue to have economic domination over us," said Dr. Sam Gulabe.

Gulabe was known to a generation of anti-apartheid activists by the nom d'guerre David Ndaba when he was the ANC representative at the United Nations. Gulabe is currently a lieutenant colonel at One Military Hospital, charged with the medical care of the now former president Thabo Mbeki and his predecessor, former president Nelson Mandela. In 1983, I brought Dr, Gulabe (then David Ndaba) to speak at Temple University. It was the first time that the, then outlawed by US, Israeli, and South African governments ,ANC had come to Philadelphia. The struggle lives.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://news.yahoo.com/safrica-rules-against-youth-leader-hate-speech-094521756.html Read full post

NYPD All-Star never stopped a white person...Huh?

"Since most white collar crime is done by European Americans, everyday, then why not start randomly checking the books of companies, corporations, and banks?" 


Dear friends,

The argument regarding the "Stop and Frisk" tactics of urban police is concentrated on, especially, young African American and Latino males existing in an aura of suspicion that surrounds them. But do the aforementioned tactics violate "racial profiling" statutes? And do the authorities care, anyway?

Moreover, as far as suspicion goes, perhaps, the relevant question is, "Since most white collar crime is done by European Americans, everyday, then why not start randomly checking the books of companies, corporations, and banks?" In other words, why is there greater concern for people stealing $20 from a person walking down the street, than for those who constantly steal millions from tens of thousands of retirement funds and the like?

Nevertheless, some complain of police bullying, while others are rightly concerned about the psychological affects on the victims of unnecessary Stop & Frisk  practices. And, does being a "white" cop make one feel like a superior being to those who do not claim that moniker? What about a non-European American cop who doesn't even have any history in this country?

Such is the case with an honorary "white" NYPD officer named Kha Dang. It reminds me of the Black overseers on enslavers' plantations. Please check out the link below.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/10/judge-questions-efforts-of-nypds-stop-and-frisk-all-star-kha-dang-who-was-wrong-wrong-95-percent-of-the-time/ Read full post

Sandy Banks asks: Who Gets to Define Motherhood?

"Lazhanae was the third of nine children of 33-year-old Shamana Johnson, a single mother who had served time in prison and had a history of substance abuse..."

(originally posted 10/20/09) Dear friends,

What makes a goood mother? Is it her mental stability? If that is the case, then there are few good mothers or fathers out here. After all, ours is not a very sane society. Consequently, perhaps, it is instructive for us to consider developing genuine communities in America. Presently, there are none.

In any case, on the link below, the very special Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times gives us a great deal about which to think.

One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks17-2009oct17,0,2924863.column Read full post

Equality and Sameness are two different entities

Dear friends, 

 Are men more physically-capable than women?. Look. Lisa Leslie, for example, can beat just about anybody, male or female, pro, amateur, or street - in a game of basketball. Okay? Moreover, please do not make a claim to someone else’s ability, as if it belongs to you - like "men jump higher than women". That type of talk reminds me of a guy who walks down the street with a growling dog on a leash,while maintaining a scowl on his own face, as if he is a mean, bad dude. In other words, he is playing off of the dog’s ferocity, as if that disposition is natural to him. However, in reality, if you see that same cat without the dog, his whole personality is different. Right?

Moreover, the argument that men are stronger, or faster, or whatever, than women is silly, since people are not talking insects. That is, we perform to whatever level, in various activities, based upon the interactions that we as individuals have with other people and things. Otherwise, one would not even be able to speak a language, much less communicate his or her inner feelings, or reveal his or her powers - and weaknesses.

 So, folks, please teach your daughters and grand-daughters that they are equals of ALL people, regardless of societal constructs like “gender” and “race”. However, when I say “equal”, I do not mean “same”. These two concepts are often intermingled, in order to make it appear as if they have some similar quality. They do not. As a matter of fact, the idea that equality means sameness is precisely the argument/excuse for systems of exploitation and oppression like sexism and racism. 

 G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

A Father's Message to Male Urban Youth – Raising your daughter(s) in a “non-sexual” way (originally posted 9/26/09)

“Recent news about actress Mackenzie Phillips’ “consensual” sexual relationship with her now deceased father..,”

Hey baby brothers,

Recent news about actress Mackenzie Phillips’ “consensual” sexual relationship with her now deceased father, John Phillips, a legendary singer of North American folk music during, mostly, the 1960s, has brought the issue of incest out into the open, in the same way that a pre-teen child porn “star” named Brooke Shields did in the Hollywood production “Pretty Baby”, back in 1977 (when child pornography was still legal), with her portrayal of a 12 years-old prostitute that included fully frontal and rear view nudity as well as sexual scenes and dialogue which revealed the ubiquitous existence of the child pornography market. Both of these abuses (incest and child pornography) are largely the result of Male Supremacy (euphemistically-called “sexism”). However, there is something dubious going on here as well, since Brooke Shields was, allegedly, being exploited, by her mother – not her father.

Also, there is both the story and trial of R&B singer R. Kelly who had sex with a pair of females that included a mother and her 13 years-old daughter (which, aside from Kelly, was, obviously, about drugs/money/cheap pleasure for the mother too).

First of all, young fellows, your child is not your property. Moreover, as opposed to a son, for the female child it can be extra detrimental to both her mental and physical well-being, if the father sees her as his property, because he may very well use his daughter as a surrogate wife whenever he is not getting along well with the latter. Even worse, as his “property”, like a dog or a cat, he may then treat his female offspring anyway that he chooses, feeling justified in doing so. Besides, except for spending money on their clothes, because clothes for girls are often more expensive than they are for boys, generally-speaking, I followed the belief, “Whatever I do with my son, I do with my daughters. Whatever I don’t do with my son, I don’t do with my daughters.”

In any case, I grew up, during the 1950s and 1960s, in a household that consisted of a single mother who had six sons – no daughters. Nevertheless, as a little boy, I would hear stories about brothers doing what I considered sexual things with their sisters. It sounded strange to me, since my brothers and I never desired, much less experienced, any kind of sexual contact with each other. In fact, as the child of a highly religious “West Indian” woman, to this day, I really cannot recall ever wanting or having to see a single one of my brothers nude, nor they me (and our ages now range from 52 to 62 years-old). Therefore, the very thought of incest is incredibly strange to me.

Still, I must recall an incident that happened, in 1985, soon after the birth of my second daughter (who is the youngest of my three children). At the time, my then young family was still living in Philly.

At any rate, I was invited by a female Jewish friend (who was a local college professor) to the bas mitzvah for her 13 years-old daughter. After the events of the afternoon at my friend’s synagogue, about a dozen of us (mostly her relatives) ended up at the home of my here-to-mentioned friend’s brother.

Everyone was gathered in the living room. I sat in a chair across from her brother, a middle-aged man, as he sat with his legs stretched out on his couch, while his teenage daughter sat on the opposite end of the same couch with her feet and legs relaxed on top of her father’s lap. Meanwhile, as he was the host and doing much of the talking, I sat there cringing for the next couple of hours of the visit as this “father” carefully and constantly massaged his daughter’s bare feet, while, simultaneously, running his fingers through her toes the entire time. Again, this was a young woman of maybe 18 years, not an infant or toddler. No one else was saying anything about it, so I just figured that it was a cultural thing and, perhaps, customary for Jewish men to caress their daughters in such a way, regardless of their ages.

Still, it was making me sick. Moreover, I told myself that neither my oldest daughter who was four years-old at the time, nor my youngest who had been born only two months earlier would ever experience such a, perhaps seemingly, innocent-to- some, “violation” when she reaches the age of the aforementioned teenager.

By the way, after that afternoon/early evening, I never saw either the brother again or his daughter. And, as far as my friend, unfortunately, events lead us to disconnect, soon after that day, mostly due to our different directions involving family and life. So I have no idea about what ever happened to her then teenage niece, as far as how the young woman’s life went as an older adult. Yet, I am sure that her relationships with men must have been made quite difficult.

Of course, before little girls become teens, the problems start for them with many of their own fathers. I cannot imagine that it is intended by these Dads. Still, at least for me, I never ever held either one of my daughters even on my lap, after she was around two years-old or so, because I did not want them to think that it was okay for them to sit on a male’s lap, until they were mature enough to relate to a male in an erotic way. Strangely enough, until he was at the age where he was ready for high school, I did not stop kissing my son (the oldest) on the side of his mouth when bidding him farewell for a trip or something. However, I deliberately stopped kissing each of my daughters altogether before either was even in the first grade. I always thought of that man on the couch.

Too often when couples break up, men who have developed far too intimate relationships with their daughter(s) find themselves, perhaps unwittingly, like John Phillips, engaging in unthinkable behavior with their daughters that should only be done with one’s wife or mate. There are plenty of boys and men in this world who can be intimate with your daughter(s). Leave that to those fellows. All you need to be is their father – the man who protects, provides for, and guides them. Your intimacy with your daughter(s) should only be intellectual (i.e., within the context of sharing ideas). It should never be either emotional or physical.

Finally, let your daughter(s) feel safe when she/they think of you. Let her/them feel safe, whenever she is/they are with you. Let her/them feel safe to say anything that is on her/their mind(s) to you. - free from any physical or emotional dominance, or sexual vulgarity by you. Again, please let your daughter(s) experience touching, kissing, and other forms of intimacy somewhere else. Besides, intimacy and sex are not necessarily related to one another. As well, there are, literally, billion of boys and men from whom females have to choose for intimate contact as they grow up. Your female offspring (or male ones, for that matter), should have no reason to be either emotionally or physically intimate with you. For that, they just do not need you. Moreover, as her/their father, and for the sake of your daughter(s), you must find a way, through your own personality, life experiences, and beliefs to never allow yourself to be that “intimate” person. PERIOD!!!

Until next time. Peace.

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

Charles "Chicken wing" Ramsay tells it all!

"Something's wrong, when a little pretty white girl runs into a Black man's arms....Dead give away." - Charles Rarmsay

Dear friends,

By now, everyone in this country knows the name Charles Ramsay. He is called a "hero" for hid rescue of some females who were trapped in a house in Cleveland, Ohio.

. However, in explaining why he knew "something was wrong", Charles Ramsay told the reporter, ""Something's wrong, when a little pretty white girl runs into a Black man's arms....Dead give away....Either she's homeless or she got problems...That's the only reason that she would run to a Black man.".. Huh? What would he have done, if it was a Black woman then? Ignored her?.

Of course, throughout the video on the link below, he sounds like he went to super-buffoon Steve Harvey's School of Diction. Why do I feel so sick in the stomach? Please check out the brief video below. Be close to the bathroom. 

G. Djata Bumpus
http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/155228/interview_with_amanda_berrys_rescuer Read full post

Short video with Dr. Finkelstein comfronting Crocodile Tears

Dear friends,

"...too many Jews who blame Nazis for atrocities against Jews on the one hand, but ignore the atrocities that Israeli Jews have committed against Palestinians and other Arabs.",  

Dr. Finkelstein's comments, on the links below, in a short video, to a silly, boo-hooing girl are more important to me than Wikileaks material, because they destroy the fraudulent position of too many Jews who blame Nazis for atrocities against Jews on the one hand, but ignore the atrocities that Israeli Jews have committed against Palestinians nd other Arabs. 

 G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNQSV3BBtZ4 Read full post

Short Bio of me from a local Newspaper

Dear friends, On the link below is a short bio of me that was done by a local newspaper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Cheers! G. Djata Bumpus http://www.gazettenet.com/artsentertainment/hampshirelife/5327945-95/id-gary-djata-bumpus Read full post

Horrific abortions in Philly and Black communities all over the USA

Dear friends,

The current murder trial of Kermit Gosnell shows how the genocidal tendencies of White Supremacy work in many ways, including using our own for the tasks.

Gosnell was like all of the "abortion" doctors, in those days. For example, in 1970, the Black Panther Party bought a small house on Winthrop St. in the Roxbury section of Boston, that had belonged to a Jewish physician/butcher. In the basement, where, ultimately, we would store our newspapers, there were many strange-looking instruments, made of crude iron, mostly, that were used for the procedures. 

I remember that abortions at that time were $250. Moreover, the Boston Police Department and local newspaper people knew all about the Winthrop Street "clinic", but the patients were Black - just like in Philly with Gosnell.

Please view the link below. Cheers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ngslwnr8M Read full post

Assata Shakur has something to say

“People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.”
― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography



Dear friends,

On the video below, you will hear Assata Shakur, a brave warrior, talk about her/our plight as the victims of an organized minority. 

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BKnJT-ne62k#! Read full post

A Great Gift for Everyone!

http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000494533/The-Voice-of-a-Panther.aspx

Read full post

Short video of former Black Panther chair Elaine Brown on Cointelpro, the Crips and Bloods, and more...(first posted on 8/9/10)

"Nevertheless, after listening to Elaine speak on this video, I can tell you, confidently, that she is the exact same honest, knowledgeable, energetic, and no-nonsense but warm person now that she was 40 years ago when I first met her."

Dear friends,

This video features one of my old Panther comrades. Her name is Elaine Brown. While she was a West Coast Panther, she came through New Haven, CT., during Bobby Seale’s trial, a couple of times, when I was stationed there.

Nevertheless, after listening to Elaine speak on this video, I can tell you, confidently, that she is the exact same honest, knowledgeable, energetic, and no-nonsense but warm person now that she was 40 years ago when I first met her.

Additionally, while I remember her as a very slightly-built woman back then, she had a beautiful and incredibly powerful voice, and was a heck of a piano player – and songwriter.

In any case, on the link below, Elaine talks about, not just some Black Panther Party history, but she also gets into how gangs like the Crips and Bloods evolved and why they have taken different courses than the ones that they had initially professed to be taking. Of course, as Elaine points out, the “market” is responsible for this turn of events.

Moreover, that’s why it’s so important that we, as parents and other elders, take the reins of our present culture and provide our youth with both an historical and social conscience, and set the example for young people, by informing identity through recognition of the connection between generations and defining human life in a meaningful way (as opposed to basing who they are upon silly claims regarding with whom they are allegedly having sex, or what "gang colors" they're wearing). That way, our society will benefit from the "leadership" of our youth. As well, the "market" will then be a function of the values of the society and not vice versa, as it now stands.

All power to the People!!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roGNxckardg Read full post