Dear friends,
The mere mention of anything that has to do with
African American history often causes resentment among much of Our citizenry.
To be sure, the reasons for this vary. For example, some people may feel that,
when the historical experiences of African Americans are isolated and
emphasized, the aforesaid folks are being excluded from the joy of celebrating
and recognizing a past that seems to, at least, in part, belong to all of Us.
Or, perhaps, the less informed view the aforementioned historical experiences
of African American people as insignificant to the overall development of Our
communities and country. Finally, a few may even argue that distinguishing one
cultural group, in this land, from others makes Us appear to be a divided
nation.
However, the importance of acknowledging the contributions of African Americans to the
prosperity of North America, generally, lies in the
need for all of Us to understand and appreciate the fact that human progress
has only occurred due to the efforts of many different peoples. No one body of
folks deserves credit for all human accomplishment to this date. Surely, no
such group ever will.
In the final analysis, nevertheless, it should
become evident that the real legacy of African American people is a group
struggle for "equality, dignity, and justice" - not simply
individual achievements of "high" social significance,
inventions, or athletic excellence. In addition, We should be able to
appreciate the importance of African American contributions, enmeshed with the
offerings of other cultural groups that have helped bring Our North American communities to their current prominence. Ultimately, We
should all then be able to realize that African American history is not a
separate history; rather, it merely includes more people in the real story of
Our country.
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Why do we use the term African American?
"African Americans are a people who grew out of the mixing of various groups of African peoples (that is, individuals who belonged to many cultural backgrounds throughout, mostly, West Africa). We were forced to unite because of our shared oppression and exploitation..."
Dear friends,
Booker T. Washington wrote, "During the period of servitude in the New World, the Negro race did not wholly forget the traditions and habits of thought that it brought from Africa. But it added to its ancestral stock certain new ideas."
I am an African American (I do not use a hyphen, because I refuse to consider myself an abbreviated American.) Yet, many of my fellow countryfolks feel confused about how they should address African Americans, generally, because it seems as though our terms of self-description change from time to time.
Back in the early Sixties, few of us, including many progressives, used the term "Black" for self-description. By the late Sixties, the monikers African American and Afro-American began findiing popular usage.Yet, even well into the Seventies, there were still many of our folks who protested the term and continued to call themselves "Colored". Now those same people and their descendants, having finally accepted the fact of being "Black", are resisting the use of the term "African American".
However, the term itself (African American) is not new; rather, it points to the natural direction being taken by a people who grew out of a distinct cultural experience, having survived the ravages of time, in a nation that is founded upon both greed and White Supremacy. Therefore, by calling ourselves African Americans, we are merely returning to our true identity as human beings.
NOTE: When people hear the term "White Supremacy", they usually think of those who parade around in white bedsheets - like the Old South's KKK (Ku Klux Klan). In other words, many citizens in this country do not see themselves as "White Supremacists", per se. However, I use the term “White Supremacy”, because a person can come from any European, Asian, or Latin country tomorrow, completely disregard his or her true familial past and declare himself or herself “white” - thus becoming part of an artificial "majority" group. Additionally, by calling himself or herself "white", that same person just mentioned, automatically, inherits a history that includes the likes of the original Pilgrim group, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln (none of whom, as far as I know, are of either Irish, Italian, Polish, Russian, German, Asian, "Hispanic", Jewish, or French descent), along with enjoying privileges and advantages over me and people who look like me.
Although around 130 years or a little more than five generations ago, author and formidable scholar George W. Williams asserted that, at the time, many African peoples worldwide preferred to be called "Negro" (see his History of the Negro Race in America), it appears that the expressions "Negro" and "colored" actually gained their popularity after the North American Civil War. Available literature only shows that prior conflict, the word "Africa" almost always prefixed the names of our organizations.
For example, beginning during the last quarter of the 18th Century, with Richard Allen's and his friends' Free African Society, in Philadelphia, to the founding of the A.M.E. (African Methodist Epsicopal) church, which spread across the nation soon afterwards, all the way to the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston - a highly-respected activist group that existed for more than 40 years or almost two generations before and during the North American Civil War, we never forgot our African origins.
As well, because of the proliferation of the abolitionist movement that grew correspondingly with the manumission of each captive worker (so-called slave), Black self-help groups, whose purposes were for the economic and social progress of the aforementioned manumitted captive workers, began to flourish. One such group was the Peace and Benevolent Society of Afric-Americans of Connecticut - which thrived around the same time as the previously-mentioned women's group (see Black Abolitionists, by noted historian and scholar Benjamin Quarles). Also, there is other literature concerning African American organizations corresponding with that period in works like Lerone Bennett's classic, Before The Mayflower.)
But is "Black" also a legitimate identity reference? I think that it is. In fact, if we take guidance from Professor Lloyd Hogan's classic "The Principles of Black Political Economy", we see that he has identified five criteria that distinguish African American or Black people as a group that has proliferated. for centuries, within its own environment. They are: 1) Common origins on the continent of Africa; 2) Common history of exploitation as a homogeneous slave working class for more than 250 years; 3) Common exploitation as a more or less homogeneous class of landless peasants for approximately 100 years in the southern United States; 4) Common experience of exploitation as a homogenous wage laboring class since the last generation or so of their history; and 5) Conscious individual acceptance of being Black.
Perhaps, the most crucial aspect of Professor Hogan's abovementioned criteria is the "conscious individual acceptance of being Black." After all, regardless of one's historical experience, at least in the United States, the term "Black" is usually pretty specific. For example, if people are talking about either Rudy from Saint Croix or Ludwig from Antigua, they call him a Caribbean or West Indian. If they are talking about either Okey or Sahalu from Nigeria, they call him an African. However, if folks are talking about Paul from Boston or Barry from Amherst, then they say, "He's a Black man."
Note: This should be spelled with an upper case "B", even though the standard has been set by "white" newspaper editors and educators who, usually, spell it with a lower case one (b). As usual, others outside of our group are defining us by their own measure, as opposed to us doing it for ourselves. Nevertheless, when referring to African Americans, "Black" is a proper noun - not a common one, because it points to a specific group. On the other hand, the lower case "w" should be used for "white", since those who embrace or cling to that moniker do not represent a specific culture. Therefore, it is a common noun.
There are, of course, especially, many women of European descent who have had, at least, one child by a man of African descent. Our current president is such a person. Moreover, it is usually necessary for these kids to identify themselves as "Black", for two reasons. They are: 1) Such offspring often have non-pale skin complexions and, as a result, are automatically considered "non-white" anyway - and treated as such. 2) Their mothers typically call themselves "white", thus confusing said youths about their all-important identities. Moreover, it places children in the position of having to choose sides, as it were. Yet, at least to me, it seems that no one should ever ask a child to choose sides, when it comes to loving his or her parents. Instead, we should only encourage each child to LOVE his or her parent(s). Period.
So, obviously, African Americans are not a monolithic group per se, due to our varied familial backgrounds, income levels and social statuses (as folks like the wealthy entertainer Bill Cosby remind us, when he labels so many of us the "lower echelon"). Nevertheless, because we can be found in all areas of society (except for the ruling class), our ideas and aspirations are quite diverse.
Additionally, a number of us have physical characteristics that make us indistinguishable from many other cultural groups (for example, European American, Early American Native, Asian American, Latino, and so forth.) As a result, unwittingly, many non-African American citizens currently associate with African American people who may not even identify themselves as such. On top of all that has been mentioned thus far, as well, the fact must be appreciated that African Americans are a people who grew out of the mixing of various groups of African peoples (that is, individuals who belonged to many cultural backgrounds). We were forced to unite because of Our shared oppression and exploitation.
Prior to the North American Civil War, African Americans tended to form coalitions with EarlyAmerican Natives and, at times, European Americans too (particularly, Irish Americans). Note: I use the term "EarlyAmerican Natives" (with neither a space nor a hyphen between Early and American), as opposed to "Native Americans", because I find the latter term divisive - and offensive to many. After all, most citizens of this country feel "native" to this land. Consequently, at least to me, the feeling of both separateness and lonesomeness that already lingers, quite naturally, in each individual, in any civilization or culture, worsens. Therefore, I feel that we do not need to "add insult to injury", as it were, by using words that may cause some of the resentment and hostility that can be engendered when people feel that they are being excluded. Hence, in order to distinguish that particular body of people from all other groups in our society, I use the aforementioned term Early American Natives.
At any rate, the identity that we now use, African American, represents the evolution of a people who have, through no choice of their own, struggled together for equality, dignity, and justice, for centuries. This, obviously, has been the same dilemma for all other groups who have come here, outside of the early ruling class. In fact, after the North American Civil War, African captive workers (so-called slaves), according to international law, should have been offered the opportunity to return to Africa. Instead, these now former captives were hoodwinked into accepting partial citizenship and thrown into the plantation economy of sharecropping. As a result, our forebears began identifying themselves according to descriptions that were made by those who did not even acknowledge, much less respect, our aforementioned forebears' ability to know what was best for themselves and those future generations of African Americans that would follow.
Today, we are an African people, and the largest group of those in this country who call themselves "Americans" who have been here since the 17th Century. Moreover, for centuries, there were always folks coming/being brought here from Africa, both legally and illegally; they reminded our ancestors of their former homes - and cultural experiences. Therefore, our forebears never lost all of that which was African in them. Rather, they passed it on to future generations. Therefore, as far as contemporary African Americans go, we have learned to express what is left of our "Africanisms", as it were, within a different context.
Finally, three generations ago, the great Marcus Garvey pointed out: "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)
One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Dear friends,
Booker T. Washington wrote, "During the period of servitude in the New World, the Negro race did not wholly forget the traditions and habits of thought that it brought from Africa. But it added to its ancestral stock certain new ideas."
I am an African American (I do not use a hyphen, because I refuse to consider myself an abbreviated American.) Yet, many of my fellow countryfolks feel confused about how they should address African Americans, generally, because it seems as though our terms of self-description change from time to time.
Back in the early Sixties, few of us, including many progressives, used the term "Black" for self-description. By the late Sixties, the monikers African American and Afro-American began findiing popular usage.Yet, even well into the Seventies, there were still many of our folks who protested the term and continued to call themselves "Colored". Now those same people and their descendants, having finally accepted the fact of being "Black", are resisting the use of the term "African American".
However, the term itself (African American) is not new; rather, it points to the natural direction being taken by a people who grew out of a distinct cultural experience, having survived the ravages of time, in a nation that is founded upon both greed and White Supremacy. Therefore, by calling ourselves African Americans, we are merely returning to our true identity as human beings.
NOTE: When people hear the term "White Supremacy", they usually think of those who parade around in white bedsheets - like the Old South's KKK (Ku Klux Klan). In other words, many citizens in this country do not see themselves as "White Supremacists", per se. However, I use the term “White Supremacy”, because a person can come from any European, Asian, or Latin country tomorrow, completely disregard his or her true familial past and declare himself or herself “white” - thus becoming part of an artificial "majority" group. Additionally, by calling himself or herself "white", that same person just mentioned, automatically, inherits a history that includes the likes of the original Pilgrim group, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln (none of whom, as far as I know, are of either Irish, Italian, Polish, Russian, German, Asian, "Hispanic", Jewish, or French descent), along with enjoying privileges and advantages over me and people who look like me.
Although around 130 years or a little more than five generations ago, author and formidable scholar George W. Williams asserted that, at the time, many African peoples worldwide preferred to be called "Negro" (see his History of the Negro Race in America), it appears that the expressions "Negro" and "colored" actually gained their popularity after the North American Civil War. Available literature only shows that prior conflict, the word "Africa" almost always prefixed the names of our organizations.
For example, beginning during the last quarter of the 18th Century, with Richard Allen's and his friends' Free African Society, in Philadelphia, to the founding of the A.M.E. (African Methodist Epsicopal) church, which spread across the nation soon afterwards, all the way to the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston - a highly-respected activist group that existed for more than 40 years or almost two generations before and during the North American Civil War, we never forgot our African origins.
As well, because of the proliferation of the abolitionist movement that grew correspondingly with the manumission of each captive worker (so-called slave), Black self-help groups, whose purposes were for the economic and social progress of the aforementioned manumitted captive workers, began to flourish. One such group was the Peace and Benevolent Society of Afric-Americans of Connecticut - which thrived around the same time as the previously-mentioned women's group (see Black Abolitionists, by noted historian and scholar Benjamin Quarles). Also, there is other literature concerning African American organizations corresponding with that period in works like Lerone Bennett's classic, Before The Mayflower.)
But is "Black" also a legitimate identity reference? I think that it is. In fact, if we take guidance from Professor Lloyd Hogan's classic "The Principles of Black Political Economy", we see that he has identified five criteria that distinguish African American or Black people as a group that has proliferated. for centuries, within its own environment. They are: 1) Common origins on the continent of Africa; 2) Common history of exploitation as a homogeneous slave working class for more than 250 years; 3) Common exploitation as a more or less homogeneous class of landless peasants for approximately 100 years in the southern United States; 4) Common experience of exploitation as a homogenous wage laboring class since the last generation or so of their history; and 5) Conscious individual acceptance of being Black.
Perhaps, the most crucial aspect of Professor Hogan's abovementioned criteria is the "conscious individual acceptance of being Black." After all, regardless of one's historical experience, at least in the United States, the term "Black" is usually pretty specific. For example, if people are talking about either Rudy from Saint Croix or Ludwig from Antigua, they call him a Caribbean or West Indian. If they are talking about either Okey or Sahalu from Nigeria, they call him an African. However, if folks are talking about Paul from Boston or Barry from Amherst, then they say, "He's a Black man."
Note: This should be spelled with an upper case "B", even though the standard has been set by "white" newspaper editors and educators who, usually, spell it with a lower case one (b). As usual, others outside of our group are defining us by their own measure, as opposed to us doing it for ourselves. Nevertheless, when referring to African Americans, "Black" is a proper noun - not a common one, because it points to a specific group. On the other hand, the lower case "w" should be used for "white", since those who embrace or cling to that moniker do not represent a specific culture. Therefore, it is a common noun.
There are, of course, especially, many women of European descent who have had, at least, one child by a man of African descent. Our current president is such a person. Moreover, it is usually necessary for these kids to identify themselves as "Black", for two reasons. They are: 1) Such offspring often have non-pale skin complexions and, as a result, are automatically considered "non-white" anyway - and treated as such. 2) Their mothers typically call themselves "white", thus confusing said youths about their all-important identities. Moreover, it places children in the position of having to choose sides, as it were. Yet, at least to me, it seems that no one should ever ask a child to choose sides, when it comes to loving his or her parents. Instead, we should only encourage each child to LOVE his or her parent(s). Period.
So, obviously, African Americans are not a monolithic group per se, due to our varied familial backgrounds, income levels and social statuses (as folks like the wealthy entertainer Bill Cosby remind us, when he labels so many of us the "lower echelon"). Nevertheless, because we can be found in all areas of society (except for the ruling class), our ideas and aspirations are quite diverse.
Additionally, a number of us have physical characteristics that make us indistinguishable from many other cultural groups (for example, European American, Early American Native, Asian American, Latino, and so forth.) As a result, unwittingly, many non-African American citizens currently associate with African American people who may not even identify themselves as such. On top of all that has been mentioned thus far, as well, the fact must be appreciated that African Americans are a people who grew out of the mixing of various groups of African peoples (that is, individuals who belonged to many cultural backgrounds). We were forced to unite because of Our shared oppression and exploitation.
Prior to the North American Civil War, African Americans tended to form coalitions with EarlyAmerican Natives and, at times, European Americans too (particularly, Irish Americans). Note: I use the term "EarlyAmerican Natives" (with neither a space nor a hyphen between Early and American), as opposed to "Native Americans", because I find the latter term divisive - and offensive to many. After all, most citizens of this country feel "native" to this land. Consequently, at least to me, the feeling of both separateness and lonesomeness that already lingers, quite naturally, in each individual, in any civilization or culture, worsens. Therefore, I feel that we do not need to "add insult to injury", as it were, by using words that may cause some of the resentment and hostility that can be engendered when people feel that they are being excluded. Hence, in order to distinguish that particular body of people from all other groups in our society, I use the aforementioned term Early American Natives.
At any rate, the identity that we now use, African American, represents the evolution of a people who have, through no choice of their own, struggled together for equality, dignity, and justice, for centuries. This, obviously, has been the same dilemma for all other groups who have come here, outside of the early ruling class. In fact, after the North American Civil War, African captive workers (so-called slaves), according to international law, should have been offered the opportunity to return to Africa. Instead, these now former captives were hoodwinked into accepting partial citizenship and thrown into the plantation economy of sharecropping. As a result, our forebears began identifying themselves according to descriptions that were made by those who did not even acknowledge, much less respect, our aforementioned forebears' ability to know what was best for themselves and those future generations of African Americans that would follow.
Today, we are an African people, and the largest group of those in this country who call themselves "Americans" who have been here since the 17th Century. Moreover, for centuries, there were always folks coming/being brought here from Africa, both legally and illegally; they reminded our ancestors of their former homes - and cultural experiences. Therefore, our forebears never lost all of that which was African in them. Rather, they passed it on to future generations. Therefore, as far as contemporary African Americans go, we have learned to express what is left of our "Africanisms", as it were, within a different context.
Finally, three generations ago, the great Marcus Garvey pointed out: "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)
One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
A brief glimpse of Dr. King, a true Black leaderi
Dear friends,
During the two minutes-long video on the link below, Dr. Martin Luther King shows his development as a leader of Our people. At such an important time in history and the burgeoning Black Consciousness Movement that was replacing the impotent Civil Rights Movement, the rulers had to get rid of him.
Say it loud!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suw_CQ3zfTY
An Inclusive Way to Honor Black History Month
"it is especially important that we all recognize our humanity by putting ourselves in the place of others"
Dear friends,
One of the problems with Black History Month is: It makes many people feel excluded.
Back in the early 90s, in Amherst, Mass., I introduced into my oldest daughter's elementary school, Fort River, a way for all children to celebrate and honor Black History Month. As far as I know, it's still practiced there enthusiastically to this day, 23 years later.
At any rate, the main feature was/is have each child of every social/cultiral group, bring in a photo w/caption of a member of his or her family (or a friend of that family) who has contributed in some way to making the world a better place. The photo w/caption is placed on a special board on the school's hallway walls, for everyone to see for the entire month of February. Consequently, every February, all kids get to show their pride in someone who has fought for equality, dignity, and justice which is what the history of Africans in the Americas, as a group, has been for centuries - NOT just individual achievements.
Finally, while it is important that all people realize that all groups have contributed to the development and proliferation of Our nation, it is especially important that we all recognize Our humanity by putting Ourselves in the place of others. That is about what Black History Month is really. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Dear friends,
One of the problems with Black History Month is: It makes many people feel excluded.
Back in the early 90s, in Amherst, Mass., I introduced into my oldest daughter's elementary school, Fort River, a way for all children to celebrate and honor Black History Month. As far as I know, it's still practiced there enthusiastically to this day, 23 years later.
At any rate, the main feature was/is have each child of every social/cultiral group, bring in a photo w/caption of a member of his or her family (or a friend of that family) who has contributed in some way to making the world a better place. The photo w/caption is placed on a special board on the school's hallway walls, for everyone to see for the entire month of February. Consequently, every February, all kids get to show their pride in someone who has fought for equality, dignity, and justice which is what the history of Africans in the Americas, as a group, has been for centuries - NOT just individual achievements.
Finally, while it is important that all people realize that all groups have contributed to the development and proliferation of Our nation, it is especially important that we all recognize Our humanity by putting Ourselves in the place of others. That is about what Black History Month is really. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Dr. Ndibe's lates t novel "Foreign Gods, Inc."
Dear friends,
I'm "posin' 'til closin'", with my longtime, dear friend and brother Dr. Okey Ndibe at a Barnes & Noble store, on this past Saturday. Okey's latest, just released, novel titled "Foreign Gods Inc." has been receiving rave reviews from the New York Times and other major media outlets. We had planned, a few weeks ago, for me to hang out with him and his family in Connecticut, for my birthday weekend, especially since the dates coincided with his brief break of book signings and lectures from London to Los Angeles.
A native Nigerian and close friend and colleague of the likes of Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and the now late Chinua Achebe, Dr. Ndibe who is also an internationally-involved intellectual activist and scholar teaches a literature course at the Ivy League's Brown University in Rhode Island, among his many other varied activities. Pick up a copy of "Foreign Gods, Inc.". I sure grabbed a couple. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
The Chiuces that We Make
Dear friends,
I find it interesting that sometimes even the most thoughtful people, when speaking of those in bad life circumstances, will say, “People make their own choices!” To me, the notion of making a choice is not so cut and dry. That is, when one makes a choice is that an action in and of itself? Or, is a choice the qualification of an action?
In other words, to suggest that making a choice is an act (of free will, mind you) does not take into consideration compulsory behavior, for example. And even then it seems, at least to me, especially in a market-driven, possession-oriented society like Ours, often times, greed presupposes compulsion.
Besides, is the abovementioned "free will", as it were, really made freely, if it is actually a manipulated and/or coerced response that is initiated by cultural group dynamics, along with both social and historical experiences, that allow us to be part of a particular population group? We are not solitary beings, after all.
Now, to be sure, sexual greed, social status, and power dictate the direction that most people take in this political economy or process of social reproduction in which we live called advanced corporate capitalism. If that were not the case, then Our society, much less the world, would be far less populated. Additionally, in this country alone, issues like abortion and homosexuality would be seen in an entirely different context.
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
I find it interesting that sometimes even the most thoughtful people, when speaking of those in bad life circumstances, will say, “People make their own choices!” To me, the notion of making a choice is not so cut and dry. That is, when one makes a choice is that an action in and of itself? Or, is a choice the qualification of an action?
In other words, to suggest that making a choice is an act (of free will, mind you) does not take into consideration compulsory behavior, for example. And even then it seems, at least to me, especially in a market-driven, possession-oriented society like Ours, often times, greed presupposes compulsion.
Besides, is the abovementioned "free will", as it were, really made freely, if it is actually a manipulated and/or coerced response that is initiated by cultural group dynamics, along with both social and historical experiences, that allow us to be part of a particular population group? We are not solitary beings, after all.
Now, to be sure, sexual greed, social status, and power dictate the direction that most people take in this political economy or process of social reproduction in which we live called advanced corporate capitalism. If that were not the case, then Our society, much less the world, would be far less populated. Additionally, in this country alone, issues like abortion and homosexuality would be seen in an entirely different context.
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
To where has the leadership in ths country gone?
"The best form of leadership is one that weds imagination and action." - Dr. Okey NdibeDear friends,
Nigerian scholar/educator/writer, Dr. Okey Ndibe writes: The best form of leadership is one that weds imagination and action.
I would like to add to that wisdom from my dear friend and brother Okey that that "action" of which he speaks requires the aforementioned "leader" to also be willing to take the first blow of opposition, like Mandela did for scores of years.
Unfortunately, in this country - the U.S.A. (and most others), so-called "leaders" hide in offices and caves, surrounded by their threat capacity in the form of the police and military, never actually having to confront their own inadequacies and insecurities, much less vulnerabilities.
So how can one be a leader, if his or her value judgments are founded in him or her having no regard for anything other than satisfying himself or herself, as it pertains to receiving both social status and as many material benefits as possible, while, simultaneously, involving himself or herself in as little work/effort as possible?
Moreover, if one is to use his or her imagination to lead, then s/he must necessarily use reason in his or her actions along with the aforesaid imagination. That automatically makes using manipulative intelligence alone inadequate, and, instead, turns all three factors into either a plan or, at least, a progression of plans that will not only require the input needed that can only come from a large body of other people (democracy), but will benefit everyone involved. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Looking back, on my 60th birthday, about being a Father
Kwame, 1975 Boston (Roxbury). 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, 49 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 (29), is about two or so years away from finishing the prestigious MD/PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
And I am the only person on the planet Earth who was there with each of them, from the moment that s/he was born, until they were legal adults! Most of all, at least for me, my children are not my property; rather they are my legacy.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Interview: Legendary scholar, activist, and author Lloyd Hogan turns 90 (1/23/13 - )
Dear friends,
It is with great honor and pride
that I am having the opportunity to present an interview with a man who has
been one of the most important teachers in my life, Professor Lloyd Hogan.
Moreover, on today, his 90th birthday, and considering all of the
turmoil that still afflicts African American people, we are fortunate to still
have his fresh, original thinking at hand Cheers!
Djatajabs: Hey Lloyd…Its been well over 30
years since my brother Eshu introduced us, after several years of him telling
me that he had a professor who had become a close friend, at his alma mater,
Hampshire College, with whom I would be certain to enjoy sharing ideas while,
simultaneously, learning a great deal. To be sure, meeting you back then, and
to this very day, has been one of the best things to ever happen, for me. Nevertheless,
having been born in 1923, and considering your over 70 years in academia, from
student scholar to professor, activist, and author, have there been changes for
African American academicians, in both colleges and universities, generally,
that have, correspondingly, benefited our people?
Lloyd: During the last 70 years much has
changed for the better for African Americans in the institutions of higher
learning (academia). In 1943, there were approximately 4 or 5 African American
professors teaching in the "white" institutions. Academia
had, perhaps, the most white segregated institutions in the U.S.
Black students in the white institutions
were the most deprived of scholarly camaraderie with their professors and fellow
students. They were made to feel that they should be happy to be rubbing elbows
with their superior consorts. At the same time, of course, the curricula were steeped
in racially distorted nonsense which passed for substantiated knowledge. In
short, white academia was subsisting in an atmosphere of distorted scholarship
and social stagnation.
It is true that some institutions had
exceedingly large black student
enrollments. Institutions like U of Chicago,
Columbia U. New York U.
Closer scrutiny of these institutions
revealed that these bloated enrollments were mostly of graduate students in the
field of education. These were the southern professors and educational
administrators from the black colleges who were studying towards graduate
degrees, a condition which they could not pursue within southern institutions
due to strictly enforced segregation laws.
Following World War II, with the passage of
the GI Bill of Rights, an
increased number of blacks gained admission
to the northern white institutions. The largest gains were in the State-supported
colleges and universities of the Midwest
and Western States
smattering of institutions employed a
relatively few Black professors.
It wasn't until the middle 1960's, when both
black and white students began to demonstrate against the corrupted educational
system that real progress ensued. As a consequence of black student demands,
black studies departments or programs sprang up in a
number of white colleges across the land. In many cases, it was a "copy-catting"
response to which these institutions paid tribute. Once Harvard had set up a Department
of Afro American Studies, the lesser institutions began to follow in lock-step imitation.
This led to the employment of a good number of blacks and to the enrollment of
significant number of blacks in PhD programs in black history and other black
impacted fields of study. So that today it is no longer unusual to see a good
number of black students and professors on the campuses of the former
segregated white institutions of both north and south. Out of these advances
have emerged some important scholarly works by black professors which have
influenced the thought processes of people throughout the nation.
But it is time to call for caution. Having
been trained by former segregated-minded white scholars it is to be expected
that it will take time before there will come into being a truly independent,
scholarly, and truthful black intelligentsia. Time and effort are the
promoters.
There is a lesson here for current and
future African American college and university students. For those who need college
degrees as credentials for employment at higher than usual wages, go for it and
try
to complete your studies to actual
graduation. The degree is your ticket of assurance that you can be a trusted
and loyal servant of the capitalists who are your potential employers. They can
trust you to count their money, to protect their assets, and to participate
with them in exercising control over their work force.
For the relatively few African Americans who
want to remain in the knowledge production fields, be aware that much of what
goes for knowledge is merely rationalizations of the efficacy and necessity for
the existing capitalist social order in which you are now functioning.
The existing knowledge base is flawed and
critically fractured. It needs radical revision from its basic formulations up
through its fundamental study methodologies. You have important work to do to
bring about a change in the approach to the creation of new knowledge. You are
truth pioneers. If you don't accept this responsibility you will emerge from
these institutions as petty cadets of your intellectual master purveyors of contrived
understanding of real world phenomena. Go for it.
Djatajabs: We’ve just experienced the
inauguration, for the second time, of Barack Obama, as the President of
the United
States America
Lloyd: Obama's presidency has been a
historical advance in the history of the United States
A few days later reality set in and they
awoke from the dream state. It was as if they said to themselves "what
were we thinking..." We should all have known that the President of the United States
First and foremost among these rules is to
insure the continuity of the system...and this means the urgency of
preservation of private property rights of capitalists in the ownership of the
wage worker's ability to work, which was purchased in market relations;
preservation of the property rights of capitalists in the products of wage
workers labor, which result from the capitalists use of his private property; preservation
of capitalist property rights in the profits derived fromthe sale of his
products; and finally preservation of the right of capitalists to reinvest
their profits in such a manner as to repeat the process of capitalist activity
over and over again without end. There is no way in which African American
issues could have been brought to the forefront of Obama's administration in
the face of the reality of his major task. As such, it wasn't too long into his
tenure that Tea Party and other organizations began to oppose his every action
within a posture of concealed and at times overt racist diatribes. Meantime, African
Americans and other allies looked on in dismay to witness what appeared to be
an administration incapable of any progressive accomplishment. The man is
circumscribed by an exploitative political economic system. It is sufficient if
he can survive and end his tenure with accomplishments such as a termination
of two destructive wars in Iraq Afghanistan
Djatajabs: Now, apart from education and
politics, I always remember, from years back, how important it was to you to
have a fairly large garden, during the warm weather, but also, even today, you
still have a small porch garden, at your home. What is the role of food for any
population group, as it seeks to reproduce itself as a people, through
time?
Lloyd: It is true that I have always tried,
whenever possible, to plant a kitchen garden. It is a conscious
attempt to keep in touch with the reality of human existence. In my book,
Principles of Black Political Economy, I argued that food production and
consumption lie at the foundation of every conceivable political economy that
has been known throughout the history of humankind. Since then I have been
working on development of a theory of human population. A fundamental postulate
of that theory is that in every human society two material crops must be produced
to form its core. These are an annual crop of food and a corresponding annual
crop of human babies. The annual crop of food constitutes the life-time supply
for the corresponding annual crop of babies. I can't go into implications of
this postulate in this discussion. However, suffice it to say that different
social orders are distinguished by the specific way in which the food is made
available to the babies over the course of their lifetimes.
That food is essential should be obvious. No
person can exist
without ingesting into his/her person a
daily dosage of food (including potable water and breathable air). Food is the
elixir of human life. Although people consume many other things, food,
nonetheless, must also be
an essential part of their consumption
bundle.
In exploitative societies, it is the robbery of the food from
the mouth of babies that reduce the potential longevity of the average
population member. It is no wonder that death among the poverty stricken comes
easy; while death among the material well-off comes hard. The bread is snatched
from the mouth of the poor and death easily prevails.
It is no wonder then that I always try to
plant a garden. In these days, I am confined to a few planters on my apartment
terrace where I concentrate on the standard herbs--thyme, rosemary. basil,
oregano, sage, etc. I also work with peppers such as bhut jaloki, trinidad
scorpion, habanero, scotch bonnet, etc. I engage in friendly struggle with Earth-mother.
Djatajabs: Is there a reason to for us to
continue the African American experience in a so-called
“post-racial” society? I mean, exactly what conditions must exist, in order for
a group to become a distinct body for generations, and when is it favorable for
them to do so?
Lloyd: I must state at the outset that
"race" is a corrupt and corruptible concept. It immediately involves
a superiorityinferiority configuration. It was invented by slave hunters and
slave
masters to justify to their gods and their
evil consciences the wanton control of other human beings as their private
property.
"Post-racial" is a related term
which has no essential meaning, but provides talking points for charlatans,
television commentators, and the unthinking
layman.
African Americans are a distinctive
population by dint of their long historical period of reproducing among
themselves to the exclusion of all other people.
No individual African American consciously
made the decision to be a member of this distinct population. The social and
political economic circumstances under which
these people existed in North
America are the
decisive factors. Black slavery, black
sharecropping in a Jim Crow environment, and
late coming to the wage labor class are the historical groundings which
cemented African Americans as an identifiable sub-population within the larger U.S. U.S.
I must also remind you that African
Americans have been physically integrated with a segment of the white
population for quite a long time, in the past. If one observes these people
closely it becomes, at once, obvious that they have shed a decisive identifying
African attribute.
Blackness as a color that is characteristic
of African people has almost disappeared from African Americans. They span all
colors of the rainbow. Their blood has been tainted with the venom of the
vermin slave masters who forcibly injected their polluted seeds into black
slave women's wombs. The rape of black womanhood now appears visibly in the
panorama of colors among black people. But the power of blackness is such that
one droplet of black blood still marks the offspring as black.
The message to African Americans is to savor
that history and the cultural entanglements which surround it. There is no
escape. After all, it is out of the struggles of African Americans for
liberation from all the restrictions they faced throughout their history which
made the important democratic advances in the U.S. U.S.
Djatajabs: What relationships do you think
need to exist between African American men and women for the
prospects of our future growth as a people?
Lloyd: I have no substantive knowledge of
interpersonal relationships. My only advice to any African American in this
regard is to remember that
people are highly specialized and exotic
formations of the Earth's
surface. As such they have an obligation far
beyond themselves to preserve and improve the species of which they are an
essential part.
Be good to each other...love the other
better than you love yourself...never do to the other what you would not want
done to you, while at the same time always defending the right of the other to
do whatever he/she proposes to do. But since the Earth-mother is the source of
our being, then preservation and improvement of her is a number 1 activity.
That is
all I have to
contribute to this most important topic.
Djatajabs: Thanks for sharing your wisdom today, as you have
been doing for three generations, Lloyd…and Happy 90th!...Much Love!
Read full post
Excerpts from Lloyd Hogan and Adam Smith on Political Economy and Government
"As an institution it (government) must function in compliance with the will of human agents. Its primary function is to protect the property rights of members of the population in the ownership of the material elements of society...Since it (government) is the main instrument for insuring the continued reproduction of wealth in its characteristic form, it may be viewed as wealth personified. Put another way those who control this institution, as distinct from those who function within it, are the personifications of wealth." - (Hogan, The Principles of Black Political Economy)
"...To carry out its mission it must organize and use resources...But it must function within the very rules it establishes, while at the same time standing above these rules as final arbiter in matters under dispute...Its power is absolute over all the members of the population. It garners unto itself a monopoly of force and violence to be used as its own dictates demand." (Hogan, ibid.)
If Professor Hogan is correct about the potential for violence that governments possess, why is such force necessary? It would seem that the answer to that question lies in the need for the wealth accumulators to protect their rights to disproportionately own materials that provide the "necessaries and conveniences" of human life. And so, pioneering political economist Adam Smith wrote, "Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor...The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable property - can sleep a single night in security." (Wealth of Nations, Book V, by Adam Smith)
Read full post
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Slavery in North America was for both the "Black" AND "White"
“Both Indian and Negro, besides white servants were bound out to a master for a term of years and received no wages. Of these there were a few in the Pilgrim group.” Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Vol.1
Dear friends,
The Puritans of New England found no problem with human enslavement. After all, Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first British colonial settlement in North America to legalize slavery. That happened approximately 21 years or slightly less than a generation after the landing of the famous Pilgrim group.
Remember, that the whole purpose of the North American venture by the British ruling class was to extract as much wealth - precious metals or whatever, as they could, both human and non-human, for the good of their class - not their so-called "race". As Professor Lloyd Hogan explains, "It must be emphasized that Wealth Accumulation is not done in the abstract. Indeed, it must be carried out by the exercise of the conscious will of people acting in the role of wealth accumulators. These wealth owners have the onus of preserving the form of their wealth while, at the same time, striving to increase its magnitude. Just as important, is the necessity for continuous control over the Wealth Accumulation Process by the wealth owners”. (The Principles of Black Political Economy by Lloyd Hogan)
Due to the "tax benefits" of illegally trafficking in captive workers (so-called slaves), it is impossible for anyone to determine how many Africans were brought here. Although the numbers of captive workers who actually lived in New England were not as numerous as the Southern states, there was an enormous slave-dealing business in this region - particularly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island - with other British North American colonies, as well as the motherland - England herself. (A succession of British laws, over generations, prohibited the colonies to trade with other countries.)
The wealth created by the mostly free labor from all of these Black folks in North American colonies helped serve as the basis for the development of businesses and real estate and, therefore, political power, in early America. But Africans who later became African Americans were not the only people to give their labor freely. That is, since the native peoples in the Americas, for the most part, were unwilling to "cooperate" with their attackers, then the rulers had to "de-people" North America, by the murder of Early American Native peoples or so-called Indians, in order to "re-people" with poor and desperate Europeans, especially those fro England, Germany, Spain, and France.
As a result, during the colonial period of North American history, that is, prior to the War of Independence, English citizens were coaxed, tricked, coerced, and even kidnapped in order to provide the necessary (human) bodies of labor to increase the wealth of the British ruling class. As well, many miscreants were shipped here (the U.S.) for the benefit of the British ruling class to have additional labor available.
About British settlements like Massachusetts Bay Colony, Charlotte M. Waters wrote, "The colonies were used too as dumping ground for prisoners and undesirables generally, in spite of protests from the colonists. Criminals, prisoners of war, and inconvenient Irish were thus got rid of. Royalist prisoners after Worcester shared the fate with 2,000 Irish girls and boys deported by order of the Government. Kidnapping was not uncommon. Such emigrants were sold by auction..." (Waters, An Economic History of England).
Indentured servitude is the name applied to Europeans, particularly the early British settlers, who traded both their human and civil rights to British merchants, usually for a term of four years, in order to gain access, that is, barter their labor ability in exchange for passage, to North America. These indentured servants were unable to feed themselves in their European homelands. For instance, in the Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Vol.1 it is pointed out about early New Englanders, including the famous "Pilgrim" group, that landed at Cape Cod (Plymouth Rock), that there was a small servile population. The official document reads: “Both Indian and Negro, besides white servants were bound out to a master for a term of years and received no wages. Of these there were a few in the Pilgrim group.”
Now, since there was nobody here from England already when the Pilgrims came, then that means that the slave owners were on board with their captive workers or so-called slaves. Yet, school history books, under the guise of “No child left behind”, continue to pitch the lie that the Pilgrims came here for religious freedom.
The following passage was written by a priest who wanted to see for himself exactly what European peoples had to go through on the ships that transported them to British North America. This particular six-months voyage took place around 1750 or 26 years before the start of the War of Independence. "...during the voyage on these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably. Add to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other trouble, as c.v. the lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the body...Children from 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst, and sickness, and then to see them cast into the water." (English Historical Documents, Vol. 9, edited by Merrill Jensen)
In an essay called "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the U.S.A.", Barbara Jeanne Fields indicates, "...the rationale that the English developed for suppressing the 'barbarous' Irish later served nearly word for word as a rationale for suppressing Africans and indigenous American Indians." In other words, slavery in America was not invented for Africans. Rather, it was already a practice that went on between Europeans themselves.
The preceding information has been pointed out because, based upon the illusion that they are "white", many North Americans suffer from an identity crisis. That is, under their fantasies or illusions that they are "white", most European Americans disregard their true identities by pretending to share some kind of common heritage, based upon skin color. Regrettably, the majority of people who live in America today hide behind their whiteness - like Ku Klux Klanners in white bed sheets - concealing their true cultural pasts (which invariably are not in North America but someplace in what we now know as Europe). Even worse, the few that have genuine history in this country, going back before the North American Civil War, are themselves the descendants of slaves, albeit temporary ones or indentured servants. Please stay tuned for more on this topic. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Dear friends,
The Puritans of New England found no problem with human enslavement. After all, Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first British colonial settlement in North America to legalize slavery. That happened approximately 21 years or slightly less than a generation after the landing of the famous Pilgrim group.
Remember, that the whole purpose of the North American venture by the British ruling class was to extract as much wealth - precious metals or whatever, as they could, both human and non-human, for the good of their class - not their so-called "race". As Professor Lloyd Hogan explains, "It must be emphasized that Wealth Accumulation is not done in the abstract. Indeed, it must be carried out by the exercise of the conscious will of people acting in the role of wealth accumulators. These wealth owners have the onus of preserving the form of their wealth while, at the same time, striving to increase its magnitude. Just as important, is the necessity for continuous control over the Wealth Accumulation Process by the wealth owners”. (The Principles of Black Political Economy by Lloyd Hogan)
Due to the "tax benefits" of illegally trafficking in captive workers (so-called slaves), it is impossible for anyone to determine how many Africans were brought here. Although the numbers of captive workers who actually lived in New England were not as numerous as the Southern states, there was an enormous slave-dealing business in this region - particularly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island - with other British North American colonies, as well as the motherland - England herself. (A succession of British laws, over generations, prohibited the colonies to trade with other countries.)
The wealth created by the mostly free labor from all of these Black folks in North American colonies helped serve as the basis for the development of businesses and real estate and, therefore, political power, in early America. But Africans who later became African Americans were not the only people to give their labor freely. That is, since the native peoples in the Americas, for the most part, were unwilling to "cooperate" with their attackers, then the rulers had to "de-people" North America, by the murder of Early American Native peoples or so-called Indians, in order to "re-people" with poor and desperate Europeans, especially those fro England, Germany, Spain, and France.
As a result, during the colonial period of North American history, that is, prior to the War of Independence, English citizens were coaxed, tricked, coerced, and even kidnapped in order to provide the necessary (human) bodies of labor to increase the wealth of the British ruling class. As well, many miscreants were shipped here (the U.S.) for the benefit of the British ruling class to have additional labor available.
About British settlements like Massachusetts Bay Colony, Charlotte M. Waters wrote, "The colonies were used too as dumping ground for prisoners and undesirables generally, in spite of protests from the colonists. Criminals, prisoners of war, and inconvenient Irish were thus got rid of. Royalist prisoners after Worcester shared the fate with 2,000 Irish girls and boys deported by order of the Government. Kidnapping was not uncommon. Such emigrants were sold by auction..." (Waters, An Economic History of England).
Indentured servitude is the name applied to Europeans, particularly the early British settlers, who traded both their human and civil rights to British merchants, usually for a term of four years, in order to gain access, that is, barter their labor ability in exchange for passage, to North America. These indentured servants were unable to feed themselves in their European homelands. For instance, in the Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Vol.1 it is pointed out about early New Englanders, including the famous "Pilgrim" group, that landed at Cape Cod (Plymouth Rock), that there was a small servile population. The official document reads: “Both Indian and Negro, besides white servants were bound out to a master for a term of years and received no wages. Of these there were a few in the Pilgrim group.”
Now, since there was nobody here from England already when the Pilgrims came, then that means that the slave owners were on board with their captive workers or so-called slaves. Yet, school history books, under the guise of “No child left behind”, continue to pitch the lie that the Pilgrims came here for religious freedom.
The following passage was written by a priest who wanted to see for himself exactly what European peoples had to go through on the ships that transported them to British North America. This particular six-months voyage took place around 1750 or 26 years before the start of the War of Independence. "...during the voyage on these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably. Add to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other trouble, as c.v. the lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the body...Children from 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst, and sickness, and then to see them cast into the water." (English Historical Documents, Vol. 9, edited by Merrill Jensen)
In an essay called "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the U.S.A.", Barbara Jeanne Fields indicates, "...the rationale that the English developed for suppressing the 'barbarous' Irish later served nearly word for word as a rationale for suppressing Africans and indigenous American Indians." In other words, slavery in America was not invented for Africans. Rather, it was already a practice that went on between Europeans themselves.
The preceding information has been pointed out because, based upon the illusion that they are "white", many North Americans suffer from an identity crisis. That is, under their fantasies or illusions that they are "white", most European Americans disregard their true identities by pretending to share some kind of common heritage, based upon skin color. Regrettably, the majority of people who live in America today hide behind their whiteness - like Ku Klux Klanners in white bed sheets - concealing their true cultural pasts (which invariably are not in North America but someplace in what we now know as Europe). Even worse, the few that have genuine history in this country, going back before the North American Civil War, are themselves the descendants of slaves, albeit temporary ones or indentured servants. Please stay tuned for more on this topic. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Monday, January 20, 2014
What is anAmerican?
Dear friends,
Far too many European Americans show that they don't respect African Americans...Other than being a paid day from work for them, Dr. King's birthday means nothing to them, because they have no history here other than the lies that their mothers and grandmothers have told them about having relatives on the Mayflower...Besides, what is an "American"?
In a book written two generations ago called The Study of Man, author Ralph Linton summed it up best when addressing the question, "What is an American?" He wrote:
"Our solid American citizen awakens in a bed built
on a pattern which originated in the Near East...throws
back the covers made from cotton, domesticated in India...goes to the bathroom, whose fixtures are a mixture of European and American inventions, both of recent date...washes with soap invented by the ancient Gauls...Returning to the bedroom - puts on garments
whose form originally derived from the skin clothing
of the nomads of the Asiatic steppes, puts on shoes
made from skins tanned by a process invented in ancient
Egypt...Before going out for breakfast - glances
Through the window, made of glass invented in
Egypt...stops to buy a paper, paying for it with coins,
an ancient Lydian invention...At the restaurant - (the)
plate is made of a form of pottery invented in
China...has coffee, an Abyssinian plant, with cream and
sugar. Both the domestication of cows and the idea of
milking them originated in the Near East, while sugar
was first made in India...finished eating - settles
back to smoke, an American Indian habit...while smoking
- reads the news of the day, imprinted in characters
- invented in Germany...and, if - a good conservative
citizen ,gives thanks to a Hebrew deity, in an Indo-European language, for being 100 percent American."
In a book written two generations ago called The Study of Man, author Ralph Linton summed it up best when addressing the question, "What is an American?" He wrote:
"Our solid American citizen awakens in a bed built
on a pattern which originated in the Near East...throws
back the covers made from cotton, domesticated in India...goes to the bathroom, whose fixtures are a mixture of European and American inventions, both of recent date...washes with soap invented by the ancient Gauls...Returning to the bedroom - puts on garments
whose form originally derived from the skin clothing
of the nomads of the Asiatic steppes, puts on shoes
made from skins tanned by a process invented in ancient
Egypt...Before going out for breakfast - glances
Through the window, made of glass invented in
Egypt...stops to buy a paper, paying for it with coins,
an ancient Lydian invention...At the restaurant - (the)
plate is made of a form of pottery invented in
China...has coffee, an Abyssinian plant, with cream and
sugar. Both the domestication of cows and the idea of
milking them originated in the Near East, while sugar
was first made in India...finished eating - settles
back to smoke, an American Indian habit...while smoking
- reads the news of the day, imprinted in characters
- invented in Germany...and, if - a good conservative
citizen ,gives thanks to a Hebrew deity, in an Indo-European language, for being 100 percent American."
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Meeting Dr. King, as a "militant" youngster (originally sent, as is, to the Boston Herald in Jan. 2008)
"If only we could learn to love - ourselves, based upon our love for other people like our spouses, our families - and things - like our work, our communities, our ability to create and produce (instead of worrying about how much we possess)..."
Dear friends,
About what was Martin Luther King really? Love.
Unfortunately, far too often, the emphasis, by the media and others, of Dr.King's vision rests more upon his call for non-violence as a passive response to injustice, than it (i.e., non-violence) does when it is used as a pro-active measure that citizens employ to share in community growth, democratically. After all, the quintessence of democracy is non-violent conflict resolution. Therefore, it is not only a contradiction in terms, but an enormous lie, for one sovereign nation to invade another such self-governing land, under the pretense that it is introducing "democracy" to the latter.
At any rate, back in 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. returned to Boston for the first time since he'd graduated from BU (Boston University) almost ten years earlier. His main purpose for doing so was because the legendary singer and activist Harry Belafonte was giving Dr. King, who had already received the Nobel Peace Prize, a benefit concert at the historically-famous, Boston Gardens, in order to raise some funds for "the Movement", as it were.
As my Mom, Rhoda Vivian Olufemi Bumpus was one of many pioneers of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement, in Boston - and around the nation, she was given two tickets to the aformentioned program, not knowing that she would be seated with Dr. King. As fate would have it, and although I was next to the youngest of her six sons (no daughters), she took me along with her that night.
I was an incredibly precocious (very young but extremely vocal) , up-and-coming Black militant. Consequently, in spite of his constant attempts to strike up a conversation with me that night, over the next few hours, Dr. King was only able to recognize the anger and disgust of so many Black youth at the time. Yet, he had seen it before (the scoffs and scowls), as he revealed in his manifesto, the classic essay called "Letter from a Birmingham Jail".
If only we could learn to love - ourselves, based upon our love for other people like our spouses, our families - and things - like our work, our communities, our ability to create and produce (instead of worrying about how much we possess), we may realize what Dr. King talked about, but was unable to fully articulate at his point in history. For, ultimately, that was his message, as I now - some 43 (now 48) years after meeting him - understand.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Saturday, January 18, 2014
A short interview/discussion with legendary jazz singer/bandleader Nicki Mathis
"I'm interested in singing songs about my family, my people, the motherland, joy, happiness..."
Djata: Nicki, I must first say that it's an honor for me to be having this discourse with you. At any rate, from where did the lyrics come in your early years and how have they evolved?
Nicki: Thanks, Djata. For the first lyrics I wrote to my 1st jazz pianist's Sabrina, the words came from the real story; Sabrina was his & his wife's 1st born, and the story came from a collection of words I thought told how he must have felt about her beauty, his responsibility to protect her, his wishes for her happiness in life. His music was/is so beautiful, I wanted to sing along, so I wrote words.
For the 1st music & lyrics I wrote for Make Some Kind of Magic, it came from a comment I made to a poet who had signed me to sing accapella on her poetry show- something I don't know how to do performance-wise - I ended up telling her, don't worry, we'll make some kind of magic. When I heard the words out my mouth, I thought, “Hmmmm…that sounds like a song”. I proceeded to put notes to the cadence of the words, and told the story of my first trip to Africa. Usually, a phrase, or a scene will conjure up a story, then I have to find melody to match words.
Djata: You’ve told me that when you do a song, you have to like the story. What do you mean by that?
Nicki: I'm interested in singing songs about my family, my people, the motherland, joy, happiness. I'm not interested in singing sad, violent songs, songs about people mistreating people.
Djata: You were a single Mom who raised two sons to adulthood. You’ve been involved in music, literally, all of your life. But, Nicki, as a basis for all that you’ve done and still do, I’m curious, at this point in your life, what really makes you tick?
Nicki: Love of life makes me tick; learning makes be happy, I love people, artists, art, nature.
Djata: Is there or are there either benefits or detriments, or both, to being a female performer?
Nicki: I'm still looking for benefits outside of self actualization/fulfillment; gender determents are a way of life. Women are not viewed as equal human beings.
Djata: Do you believe that there is any one thing or are there several things that female artists, of all kinds, can do to help bring humanity to a tangibly higher level where people will be able to relate to each other on many levels, as opposed to so much of the division between cultural groups and sexes that is so prevalent today?
Nicki: Many things can be done to bring humanity to a higher level, go back to kindergarten like behavior, and treat people like we want to be treated with respect and consideration. . Understand that r-a-c-e is a make believe word which means nothing, and immediately stop applying it to reality.
stay tuned… Read full post
Friday, January 17, 2014
The Mechanisms of Culture
"This is easily identifiable by recognizing the actual mental and motor reflexes that are initiated when a European American (so-called white person) who is sitting in a car pushes down the lock button as an African American approaches the vicinity of the former’s vehicle."
Dear friends,
Racism/White Supremacy is a cultural institution in the United States of America. Now, when I speak of an institution I am referring to a set of activities with specific rules. Some institutions require buildings like, for instance, banks and post offices. While others don’t. The Super Bowl and the Miss America pageant are examples. In Our society, culture is a word that is often used to refer to the higher achievements of a particular group - like painting and music. However, it (culture) involves everything that We do. Therefore, it even has a physiological significance. This is easily identifiable by recognizing the actual mental and motor reflexes that are initiated when a European American (so-called white person) who is sitting in a car pushes down the lock button as an African American approaches the vicinity of the former’s vehicle.
This notion of the initiating of both mental and motor reflexes also explains the cultural differences in the way that people draw, dance, sing, and so forth. In fact, even Our five "senses" are culturally-defined. That is, Our perceptions, regarding what We feel, taste, hear, smell, and see, are determined by Our cultural experiences.
Additionally, Our culture determines the manner in which We transmit and share both behavior and ideas to present and future generations. However, the first thing that We must understand about culture is that it is largely tied to a people's resources. That is, social status and income as well as materials to produce what people need or desire determine how, why and through what medium folks can express themselves as a distinct group.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Dear friends,
Racism/White Supremacy is a cultural institution in the United States of America. Now, when I speak of an institution I am referring to a set of activities with specific rules. Some institutions require buildings like, for instance, banks and post offices. While others don’t. The Super Bowl and the Miss America pageant are examples. In Our society, culture is a word that is often used to refer to the higher achievements of a particular group - like painting and music. However, it (culture) involves everything that We do. Therefore, it even has a physiological significance. This is easily identifiable by recognizing the actual mental and motor reflexes that are initiated when a European American (so-called white person) who is sitting in a car pushes down the lock button as an African American approaches the vicinity of the former’s vehicle.
This notion of the initiating of both mental and motor reflexes also explains the cultural differences in the way that people draw, dance, sing, and so forth. In fact, even Our five "senses" are culturally-defined. That is, Our perceptions, regarding what We feel, taste, hear, smell, and see, are determined by Our cultural experiences.
Additionally, Our culture determines the manner in which We transmit and share both behavior and ideas to present and future generations. However, the first thing that We must understand about culture is that it is largely tied to a people's resources. That is, social status and income as well as materials to produce what people need or desire determine how, why and through what medium folks can express themselves as a distinct group.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Thursday, January 16, 2014
LOVE is the weapon of the strong!!!
Fear friends,
Only a weak person needs to find self-worth at the expense of someone else, by being mean and evil. Yet, it is much easier to be weak and hateful, so many people prefer to take that route, because it requires no effort.
.However, if you think about it, you feel bunched up inside with anger, when you do something mean. hat is, you don't feel good. On the other hand, you feel great, when you do something good. Don't you?
Please be strong and embrace the wisdom of LOVE.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Monday, January 13, 2014
Economic Development for African American Youth in Philly & elsewhere
“African Americans, as a people, are legendary for collecting baubles, but we never save. We have never been taught to, as the children of the wealthier have.”
Dear friends,
Planning for the future, without setting goals for the economic development of our youth, is something that may help specific individuals, or even corporations, but it won't change the standard of living for residents of any particular community, much less represent an honest attempt to prepare for their future.
Yet, strangely enough, we never hear mention of our youth, even from so-called progressives, at least not outside of them as recipients of food stamps or health care. From all of the Streets, to the Goodes (won’t bother to mention Ed Rendell), to the Blackwells, to the Fattahs, to, yes, Michael Nutter combined, not a single one of these politicians in the African American community of Philadelphia has ever had so much as a single useful thought about how to empower their constituents economically or otherwise, much less the children of the latter.
Still, how can anyone pretend to be thinking about the future, without having programs that are directly geared towards young people? Our youth need to think about their economic future.
To be sure, African Americans, as a people, are legendary for collecting baubles, but we never save. We have never been taught to, as the children of the wealthier have. Consequently, a good goal for young people to save towards is their college education.
Business groups like the African American Chamber of Commerce can play a giant role in monitoring such a program. Surely, an organization like NEEED (Networking for Equal Education and Economic Development) can help a great deal in the effort.
Of course, in order to save money, you have to make it first. As far as a program for youth to earn then save a few bucks is concerned, one of the major problems for African Americans is: Our, historically, poor sense of how to spend our money. Only the wealthy in this country are taught about wealth. The rest of the citizens (many European Americans included) have little or no idea of even what wealth is, let alone how to either acquire or keep it. Unfortunately, with this, African Americans have been the worst. And even worse than that is the fact that just as we are beginning to gain some sense of the possibilities of saving, investing, acquiring property, and so forth, the train has just about left the station.
It used to be that if a person invested in an IRA from the time they were 19 until they were 25, they could see that grow into enough to retire on even if they never invested another cent. Now, with interest rates so low in banks and investments so "iffy", you have to keep investing, certainly, much longer, to make it worthwhile.
Additionally, the question then arises, how do African Americans tend to spend money anyway, when they are 19-25 years old, much less younger than that? It is then, perhaps, more meaningful to develop as a standard that all youth are expected to have a college fund started by the time they enter Middle School. Never mind this stuff about parents saving for your child’s education. That’s the way that I worked it with all three of my kids and they all have done quite well.
Now, it may start out small, but it is the continual growth that makes a difference. Imagine for example in 6 years, from 7th-12th grade, a student saves $5 per week-the first year, $10 /wk-the second year, $15/wk-the third year, and so forth. Even without interest, that student will have a substantial chunk of money with which to enter college. The real benefit is: They will develop a mentality that puts planning for the future and the assumption that we are all college bound, in the forefront.
At any rate, people who realize that they have a future may be less likely to squander it with petty and larcenous thinking like drug-dealing and prostitution. By the way, while we are on the subject, the worst thing about the drug-dealing mentality is that drug-dealing has no future and people who are involved in it have no vision of the future. After all, no one can say with any degree of either logic or sanity, "I am going to deal drugs for a few years to earn money for college and then, after college, get a good job and raise a family." Even the strippers - who often, claim to be putting themselves through college, by dancing up and down a pole - make more sense than that. (That is, at least, their profession is legal and has a fair amount of history to it.)
One idea that is kind of similar has already been tried in, I believe, West Philly is a kind of “Sweep my steps, please?” program. At ten dollars ($10) per week, for a specified pre-teen or teenager (must be enrolled in school) to come by so many times per week and sweep your steps. No teenager should be allowed to sweep more than ten sets of steps per week. (Let us try to be democratic.) Businesses - including realtors, as well as both homeowners and renters, could be sponsors. Also, concerned adults who simply want to contribute, by sending $10 per week to the specific bank designated to monitor the funds.
This can become a great community cultural institution, lasting for generations. Some kids may feel, initially, that drug-dealing brings in more cash. However, it (drug-dealing) really does not bring in even $10 per week that they can save, for most kids. In other words, after they end up paying the bigger dealers and spending (on baubles) the peanuts that are left extremely quickly (if not before they have even paid the former his money back), they have no money.
Imagine if a hard-working youngster got a (Sweep My Steps) sponsor from the community who would put that money in an interest-bearing account as part of a stipend for the chores represented by "Step-Sweeping." The student will get $10 for his or her College fund. Of course, the student is aware that it is his or her responsibility to maintain a connection with the sponsor who keeps that account growing. What is more, this is the type of activity, if gotten off the ground, that could get matching funds rather than grants. Both businesses and individuals, knowing that the money is going to an account that cannot be touched except by an accepting college or an entity of that sort, would feel much better about their donations and more willing to make what is clearly an investment in the larger community.
So a simple slogan like, "If you make money fast, then you’ll spend it fast...If you make money slow, then you’ll spend it slow.", may eventually convince youngsters to realize that there is no future in drug-dealing. After all, young folks should understand that, if they get caught selling drugs (and they will, because addicts snitch to the cops just for reasons like the dealer will not give the latter drugs on credit), while in jail, they (young drug dealers) will not make any money. Therefore, the potential $500 for their college funds that they could make, with only one sponsor, from one year of the “Sweep” program, is far more than what they could make during that same amount of time while in jail or a youth detention center (which is, basically, nothing).
Ultimately, in order to make any kind of work-related initiative happen, we must, as it has been said, convince young people that "Work is a reward!". In other words, it is the work itself that is the reward, not any money or prizes received for one's efforts.
Unfortunately, so much currency (no pun intended) is given to the idea of "reward" as receiving either Nobel, a Pulitzer, a Grammy, an Oscar, or Lottery prize that youth do not understand that the greatest rewards they will receive in life are far more mundane, coming from the joy that they create through their experiences with other people, non-human animals, and even - things, often with no one standing nearby giving applause.
Moreover, work is a "power" that one should hold as great value. Whether it is working at MacDonald's or as a messenger for an attorney, our youth should consider appreciating the fact that their ability to get up in the morning, go to school and a job moves them forward - in the direction of controlling their own lives (destinies). What could be more empowering, than the ability to work, through study (mind) and labor (body)? And, who does not love the feeling of being powerful?
Note: To be sure, the idea of appreciating our own ability to work has been one that has often escaped youth throughout human history. After all, it is hard as a young person to hear that the satisfaction of a job well done is its own reward, when s/he sees the inequities of the distribution of the harvesting of the "fruits" of labor all around us. That is, those who do the least work, make the most money. Therefore, it is one of those notions that would be fine if everyone believed it, but hard to swallow when you know others are getting away with doing so little. Hence, it is the unfairness that eats away at our resolve to do our best in a society that, on top of the aforementioned, finds humor in its own inadequacy (as revealed in so many Hollywood productions like the Bad News Bears). Still, we must push forward in getting our youth to appreciate work.
Finally, after saving, what happens to the money, if the student does not go to college? Let it be available to the student when s/he is ready. It may go towards tuition in a trade school. It may be usable as down-payment on property. It should not be available as cash or to buy a car or pay rent. The point is that it is about moving the person forward.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Dear friends,
Planning for the future, without setting goals for the economic development of our youth, is something that may help specific individuals, or even corporations, but it won't change the standard of living for residents of any particular community, much less represent an honest attempt to prepare for their future.
Yet, strangely enough, we never hear mention of our youth, even from so-called progressives, at least not outside of them as recipients of food stamps or health care. From all of the Streets, to the Goodes (won’t bother to mention Ed Rendell), to the Blackwells, to the Fattahs, to, yes, Michael Nutter combined, not a single one of these politicians in the African American community of Philadelphia has ever had so much as a single useful thought about how to empower their constituents economically or otherwise, much less the children of the latter.
Still, how can anyone pretend to be thinking about the future, without having programs that are directly geared towards young people? Our youth need to think about their economic future.
To be sure, African Americans, as a people, are legendary for collecting baubles, but we never save. We have never been taught to, as the children of the wealthier have. Consequently, a good goal for young people to save towards is their college education.
Business groups like the African American Chamber of Commerce can play a giant role in monitoring such a program. Surely, an organization like NEEED (Networking for Equal Education and Economic Development) can help a great deal in the effort.
Of course, in order to save money, you have to make it first. As far as a program for youth to earn then save a few bucks is concerned, one of the major problems for African Americans is: Our, historically, poor sense of how to spend our money. Only the wealthy in this country are taught about wealth. The rest of the citizens (many European Americans included) have little or no idea of even what wealth is, let alone how to either acquire or keep it. Unfortunately, with this, African Americans have been the worst. And even worse than that is the fact that just as we are beginning to gain some sense of the possibilities of saving, investing, acquiring property, and so forth, the train has just about left the station.
It used to be that if a person invested in an IRA from the time they were 19 until they were 25, they could see that grow into enough to retire on even if they never invested another cent. Now, with interest rates so low in banks and investments so "iffy", you have to keep investing, certainly, much longer, to make it worthwhile.
Additionally, the question then arises, how do African Americans tend to spend money anyway, when they are 19-25 years old, much less younger than that? It is then, perhaps, more meaningful to develop as a standard that all youth are expected to have a college fund started by the time they enter Middle School. Never mind this stuff about parents saving for your child’s education. That’s the way that I worked it with all three of my kids and they all have done quite well.
Now, it may start out small, but it is the continual growth that makes a difference. Imagine for example in 6 years, from 7th-12th grade, a student saves $5 per week-the first year, $10 /wk-the second year, $15/wk-the third year, and so forth. Even without interest, that student will have a substantial chunk of money with which to enter college. The real benefit is: They will develop a mentality that puts planning for the future and the assumption that we are all college bound, in the forefront.
At any rate, people who realize that they have a future may be less likely to squander it with petty and larcenous thinking like drug-dealing and prostitution. By the way, while we are on the subject, the worst thing about the drug-dealing mentality is that drug-dealing has no future and people who are involved in it have no vision of the future. After all, no one can say with any degree of either logic or sanity, "I am going to deal drugs for a few years to earn money for college and then, after college, get a good job and raise a family." Even the strippers - who often, claim to be putting themselves through college, by dancing up and down a pole - make more sense than that. (That is, at least, their profession is legal and has a fair amount of history to it.)
One idea that is kind of similar has already been tried in, I believe, West Philly is a kind of “Sweep my steps, please?” program. At ten dollars ($10) per week, for a specified pre-teen or teenager (must be enrolled in school) to come by so many times per week and sweep your steps. No teenager should be allowed to sweep more than ten sets of steps per week. (Let us try to be democratic.) Businesses - including realtors, as well as both homeowners and renters, could be sponsors. Also, concerned adults who simply want to contribute, by sending $10 per week to the specific bank designated to monitor the funds.
This can become a great community cultural institution, lasting for generations. Some kids may feel, initially, that drug-dealing brings in more cash. However, it (drug-dealing) really does not bring in even $10 per week that they can save, for most kids. In other words, after they end up paying the bigger dealers and spending (on baubles) the peanuts that are left extremely quickly (if not before they have even paid the former his money back), they have no money.
Imagine if a hard-working youngster got a (Sweep My Steps) sponsor from the community who would put that money in an interest-bearing account as part of a stipend for the chores represented by "Step-Sweeping." The student will get $10 for his or her College fund. Of course, the student is aware that it is his or her responsibility to maintain a connection with the sponsor who keeps that account growing. What is more, this is the type of activity, if gotten off the ground, that could get matching funds rather than grants. Both businesses and individuals, knowing that the money is going to an account that cannot be touched except by an accepting college or an entity of that sort, would feel much better about their donations and more willing to make what is clearly an investment in the larger community.
So a simple slogan like, "If you make money fast, then you’ll spend it fast...If you make money slow, then you’ll spend it slow.", may eventually convince youngsters to realize that there is no future in drug-dealing. After all, young folks should understand that, if they get caught selling drugs (and they will, because addicts snitch to the cops just for reasons like the dealer will not give the latter drugs on credit), while in jail, they (young drug dealers) will not make any money. Therefore, the potential $500 for their college funds that they could make, with only one sponsor, from one year of the “Sweep” program, is far more than what they could make during that same amount of time while in jail or a youth detention center (which is, basically, nothing).
Ultimately, in order to make any kind of work-related initiative happen, we must, as it has been said, convince young people that "Work is a reward!". In other words, it is the work itself that is the reward, not any money or prizes received for one's efforts.
Unfortunately, so much currency (no pun intended) is given to the idea of "reward" as receiving either Nobel, a Pulitzer, a Grammy, an Oscar, or Lottery prize that youth do not understand that the greatest rewards they will receive in life are far more mundane, coming from the joy that they create through their experiences with other people, non-human animals, and even - things, often with no one standing nearby giving applause.
Moreover, work is a "power" that one should hold as great value. Whether it is working at MacDonald's or as a messenger for an attorney, our youth should consider appreciating the fact that their ability to get up in the morning, go to school and a job moves them forward - in the direction of controlling their own lives (destinies). What could be more empowering, than the ability to work, through study (mind) and labor (body)? And, who does not love the feeling of being powerful?
Note: To be sure, the idea of appreciating our own ability to work has been one that has often escaped youth throughout human history. After all, it is hard as a young person to hear that the satisfaction of a job well done is its own reward, when s/he sees the inequities of the distribution of the harvesting of the "fruits" of labor all around us. That is, those who do the least work, make the most money. Therefore, it is one of those notions that would be fine if everyone believed it, but hard to swallow when you know others are getting away with doing so little. Hence, it is the unfairness that eats away at our resolve to do our best in a society that, on top of the aforementioned, finds humor in its own inadequacy (as revealed in so many Hollywood productions like the Bad News Bears). Still, we must push forward in getting our youth to appreciate work.
Finally, after saving, what happens to the money, if the student does not go to college? Let it be available to the student when s/he is ready. It may go towards tuition in a trade school. It may be usable as down-payment on property. It should not be available as cash or to buy a car or pay rent. The point is that it is about moving the person forward.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Thursday, January 9, 2014
RIP, Brother Imamu Amiri Baraka
RIP, Brother Imamu Amiri Baraka...He was a pioneer of the Black Consciousness Movement (1965--85) that replaced the accommodating and sterile Civil Rights Movement.
"Somebody Blew Up America" (about 9/11)
by Amiri Baraka
They say its so...me terrorist,
some barbaric
A Rab,
in Afghanistan
It wasn't our American terrorists
It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads
Or the them that blows up nigger
Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row
It wasn't Trent Lott
Or David Duke or Giuliani
Or Schundler, Helms retiring
It wasn't
The gonorrhea in costume
The white sheet diseases
That have murdered black people
Terrorized reason and sanity
Most of humanity, as they pleases
They say (who say?)
Who do the saying
Who is them paying
Who tell the lies
Who in disguise
Who had the slaves
Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations
Who genocided Indians
Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street
The first plantation
Who cut your nuts off
Who rape your ma
Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar, who got the feathers
Who had the match, who set the fires
Who killed and hired
Who say they God & still be the Devil
Who the biggest only
Who the most goodest
Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything
Who the smartest
Who the greatest
Who the richest
Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art
Who define science
Who made the bombs
Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves, who sold them
Who called you them names
Who say Dahmer wasn't insane
Who? Who? Who?
Who stole Puerto Rico
Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan
Australia & The Hebrides
Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings
Who got the money
Who think you funny
Who locked you up
Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship
Who run the army
Who the fake president
Who the ruler
Who the banker
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the mine
Who twist your mind
Who got bread
Who need peace
Who you think need war
Who own the oil
Who do no toil
Who own the soil
Who is not a nigger
Who is so great ain't nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air
Who own the water
Who own your crib
Who rob and steal and cheat and murder
and make lies the truth
Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house
Who do the biggest crime
Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers
Who killed the most Jews
Who killed the most Italians
Who killed the most Irish
Who killed the most Africans
Who killed the most Japanese
Who killed the most Latinos
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes
Who own the malls
Who own television
Who own radio
Who own what ain't even known to be owned
Who own the owners that ain't the real owners
Who own the suburbs
Who suck the cities
Who make the laws
Who made Bush president
Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying
Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations
Who 666
Who know who decide
Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side
Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist
Who change the bible
Who killed the most people
Who do the most evil
Who don't worry about survival
Who have the colonies
Who stole the most land
Who rule the world
Who say they good but only do evil
Who the biggest executioner
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the oil
Who want more oil
Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who? Who? Who?
Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan
Who pay the CIA,
Who knew the bomb was gonna blow
Who know why the terrorists
Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion
And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere
Who make the credit cards
Who get the biggest tax cut
Who walked out of the Conference
Against Racism
Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother
Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?
Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?
Who invaded Grenada
Who made money from apartheid
Who keep the Irish a colony
Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,
the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,
Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,
Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,
Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone,
Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,
Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,
Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,
Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel
Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Lenin's head
Who put the Jews in ovens,
and who helped them do it
Who said "America First"
and ok'd the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt
Who murdered the Rosenbergs
And all the good people iced,
tortured, assassinated, vanished
Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,
Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo
Who invented Aids
Who put the germs
In the Indians' blankets
Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"
Who blew up the Maine
& started the Spanish American War
Who got Sharon back in Power
Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,
Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go
Reconstruction, The New Deal,
The New Frontier, The Great Society,
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for
Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth
Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza
Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro
Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus
Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,
Who poison Robeson,
who try to put DuBois in Jail
Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs,
Garvey,
The Scottsboro Boys,
The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?
Who? Who? Who?
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say
The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war
Who make dough from fear and lies
Who want the world like it is
Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national
oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.
Who is the ruler of Hell?
Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever
Seen God?
But everybody seen
The Devil
Like an Owl exploding
In your life in your brain in your self
Like an Owl who know the devil
All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl
Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise
In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell
Who and Who and WHO who who
Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!
Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka. All Rights Reserved.See More
"Somebody Blew Up America" (about 9/11)
by Amiri Baraka
They say its so...me terrorist,
some barbaric
A Rab,
in Afghanistan
It wasn't our American terrorists
It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads
Or the them that blows up nigger
Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row
It wasn't Trent Lott
Or David Duke or Giuliani
Or Schundler, Helms retiring
It wasn't
The gonorrhea in costume
The white sheet diseases
That have murdered black people
Terrorized reason and sanity
Most of humanity, as they pleases
They say (who say?)
Who do the saying
Who is them paying
Who tell the lies
Who in disguise
Who had the slaves
Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations
Who genocided Indians
Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street
The first plantation
Who cut your nuts off
Who rape your ma
Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar, who got the feathers
Who had the match, who set the fires
Who killed and hired
Who say they God & still be the Devil
Who the biggest only
Who the most goodest
Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything
Who the smartest
Who the greatest
Who the richest
Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art
Who define science
Who made the bombs
Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves, who sold them
Who called you them names
Who say Dahmer wasn't insane
Who? Who? Who?
Who stole Puerto Rico
Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan
Australia & The Hebrides
Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings
Who got the money
Who think you funny
Who locked you up
Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship
Who run the army
Who the fake president
Who the ruler
Who the banker
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the mine
Who twist your mind
Who got bread
Who need peace
Who you think need war
Who own the oil
Who do no toil
Who own the soil
Who is not a nigger
Who is so great ain't nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air
Who own the water
Who own your crib
Who rob and steal and cheat and murder
and make lies the truth
Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house
Who do the biggest crime
Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers
Who killed the most Jews
Who killed the most Italians
Who killed the most Irish
Who killed the most Africans
Who killed the most Japanese
Who killed the most Latinos
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes
Who own the malls
Who own television
Who own radio
Who own what ain't even known to be owned
Who own the owners that ain't the real owners
Who own the suburbs
Who suck the cities
Who make the laws
Who made Bush president
Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying
Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations
Who 666
Who know who decide
Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side
Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist
Who change the bible
Who killed the most people
Who do the most evil
Who don't worry about survival
Who have the colonies
Who stole the most land
Who rule the world
Who say they good but only do evil
Who the biggest executioner
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the oil
Who want more oil
Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who? Who? Who?
Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan
Who pay the CIA,
Who knew the bomb was gonna blow
Who know why the terrorists
Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion
And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere
Who make the credit cards
Who get the biggest tax cut
Who walked out of the Conference
Against Racism
Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother
Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?
Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?
Who invaded Grenada
Who made money from apartheid
Who keep the Irish a colony
Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,
the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,
Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,
Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,
Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone,
Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,
Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,
Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,
Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel
Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Lenin's head
Who put the Jews in ovens,
and who helped them do it
Who said "America First"
and ok'd the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt
Who murdered the Rosenbergs
And all the good people iced,
tortured, assassinated, vanished
Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,
Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo
Who invented Aids
Who put the germs
In the Indians' blankets
Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"
Who blew up the Maine
& started the Spanish American War
Who got Sharon back in Power
Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,
Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go
Reconstruction, The New Deal,
The New Frontier, The Great Society,
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for
Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth
Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza
Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro
Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus
Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,
Who poison Robeson,
who try to put DuBois in Jail
Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs,
Garvey,
The Scottsboro Boys,
The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?
Who? Who? Who?
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say
The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war
Who make dough from fear and lies
Who want the world like it is
Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national
oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.
Who is the ruler of Hell?
Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever
Seen God?
But everybody seen
The Devil
Like an Owl exploding
In your life in your brain in your self
Like an Owl who know the devil
All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl
Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise
In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell
Who and Who and WHO who who
Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!
Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka. All Rights Reserved.See More
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