Tagged: historical amnesia

After attending that REPARATIONS meeting tonight in Harlem, I know a serious REVOLUTION is on the verge of taking place…

Some of the speakers in attendance at the Institute of the Black World’s (IBW) Opening/Welcoming Reparations Rally included Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Frantz Fanton’s daughter Mireille Fanon-Mendes [on my way home, the man sitting next to me on the train was reading Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth], UN Ambassador Rhonda King of St. Vincent and Dr. Adelaide Sanford. Also in attendance were various representatives from the Caribbean, who through the organization known CARICOM, are going after various European nations for reparations.

Overall, I have nothing but great things to say about the event. It was extremely informative and demonstrated in the words of Dr. Douglas Slater, that there was a “renaissance in the reparations movement” taking place, but I wish more people would have attended. As Rev. Jackson Sr. stated, both blacks and whites are afraid to address this issue  — albeit for different reasons — but black people must get over their fears or else we will continue to be exploited and experience this insidious genocide. As declared by the United Nations, January 1, 2015 marked the beginning of International Decade of People of African Descent. This is the decade in which the African personality will be restored and the Western world will pay for its egregious crimes against people of African descent!!

With all that having been said, I did find it strange that although this event took place at the historical Mother AME [AFRICAN Methodist Episcopal] Zion Church in Harlem, we were having a conversation about reparations while a huge mural containing a non-black Jesus and other figures, hung over our heads. Smdh!

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The event was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan, whose viewing was taking place a couple blocks away.

In the coming days, I will be posting quotes of statements that were made during the event that resonated with me.

Also, please note that while this 3-day event is taking place, our nation’s “first black President” is in the Caribbean, visiting Jamaica (where he spoke about the legalization and decriminalization of weed although black and brown people in the U.S. are disproportionately profiled, arrested and imprisoned for possession of this natural “drug”) and shaking hands with Raul Castro in Panama City while attending the Panama City for the Summit of the Americas…

“I’m just sick and tired of people who talk black, live white and think green. We’ve been going through it for too long. We need a paradigm shift.” — Dr. Umar Johnson

“[Chief Justice John] Roberts’s ‘colorblindness’ bears only a superficial resemblance to the concept as understood by past champions of equal rights, since as applied by the conservative majority on the court the approach has had dire consequences for racial minorities. Since Roberts became chief justice, the high court has struck down school desegregation plans, narrowed affirmative action, crippled the Voting Rights Act, limited the circumstances under which Americans can sue for racial discrimination, and enabled the denial of health insurance to millions of financially struggling people of color. Though the opportunity has not yet presented itself, the conservative movement from which Roberts sprung would see the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 destroyed as well.”

With regards to civil rights related cases, especially those involving the rights of African Americans, it is clear that our judicial system is completely rigged and set up in a way that would ensure that many of the gains made during the civil rights movement, would be eviscerated over time while racism continues to thrive. Smdh.

Source: Adam Serwer. “Sonia Sotomayor: Court’s Right Wing ‘Out Of Touch With Reality.’” msnbc. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sonia-sotomayor-slams-supreme-court-right-wing-race-matters.

“There is also a common variant of what has sometimes been called ‘intentional ignorance’ of what it is inconvenient to know: ‘Yes, bad things happened in the past, but let us put all of that behind us and march on to a glorious future, all sharing equally in the rights and opportunities of citizenry.’ The appalling statistics of today’s circumstances of African-American life can be confronted by other bitter residues of a shameful past, laments about black cultural inferiority, or worse, forgetting how our wealth and privilege was created in no small part by the centuries of torture and degradation of which we are the beneficiaries and they remain the victims. As for the very partial and hopelessly inadequate compensation that decency would require — that lies somewhere between the memory hole and anathema.” — Noam Chomsky

Source: Noam Chomsky and George Yancy. “Noam Chomsky on the Roots of American Racism.” New York Times. March 18, 2015. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/noam-chomsky-on-the-roots-of-american-racism/.

“Just because you can’t figure out how ancient civilizations built stuff, doesn’t mean they got help from Aliens.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson

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“God is not just a man. God is a divine balance between male and female. I honestly believe we shall liberate ourselves when we understand that God is not just a man. The cornerstone to the problem of Western civilization is that their man does not know his own mother. And in not knowing his mother, he grows to curse the womb from whence he came…[Y]ou can never amount to anything if you curse the womb from whence you came.” — Booker T. Coleman, Jr.

Humanity and civilization began in Africa! The continent is called the “motherland” for a reason… Their superiority is a myth and without us, they would be nothing.

“When Oregon was granted statehood in 1859, it was the only state in the Union admitted with a constitution that forbade black people from living, working, or owning property there. It was illegal for black people even to move to the state until 1926. Oregon’s founding is part of the forgotten history of racism in the American west.”

I was never taught this good old American history fact in school and I graduated with my Masters in 2008…

Source: Matt Novak. “Oregon Was Founded As A Racist Utopia.” Gizmodo. January 21, 2015. http://gizmodo.com/oregon-was-founded-as-a-racist-utopia-1539567040.

watch President Barack Obama discuss RACE and RACISM in AMERIKKKA with BET: The murder of unarmed black men like Eric Garner “gives us an opportunity…to finally have the kind of conversation that’s been a long time coming.”

The transcript can be read here: “Transcript: BET’s Exclusive Interview with President Obama.” BET.com. December 12, 2014. http://www.bet.com/news/national/2014/12/12/transcript-bet-s-exclusive-interview-with-president-obama.html.

“When it came time to handle Einstein’s ashes or his home on Mercer Street, everyone involved meticulously adhered to his wishes. But when it involved his ideas, and especially his concerns about what he called America’s ‘worst disease,’ the fact that Einstein wanted his views made as public as possible seems to have slipped past his historians.”

Source: Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor. Einstein On Race and Racism. pg. x. 2005.

“One explanation for this historical amnesia is that [Albert] Einstein’s biographers and others who shaped our official memories felt that some of his ‘controversial’ friends, such as [Paul] Robeson, and activities, such as co-chairing the antilynching campaign, might somehow tarnish Einstein as an American icon. That icon, sanctified by Time magazine when it dubbed Einstein the ‘Person of the Century,’ is a myth, albeit a marvelous myth. In fact, as myths go, Einstein’s is hard to beat. The world’s most brilliant scientist is also a kindly, lovably bumbling, grandfather figure: Professor Genius combined with Dr. Feelgood! Opinion-molders, looking down from their ivory towers, may have concluded that such an appealing icon will help the great unwashed public feel good about science, about history, about America. Why spoil such a beautiful image with stories about racism, or for that matter with any of Einstein’s political activism? Politics, they argue, is ugly, making teeth grind and fists clench, so why splash politics over Einstein’s icon? Why drag a somber rain cloud across a bright blue sky? Einstein might reply, with a wink, that without rain clouds life would be very, very short. Or he might simiply say that a bright blue sky is a fairy tale in today’s war-weary world. Yet, despite Einstein’s clear intention to make his politics public — especially his antilynching and other antiracist activities — the history molders have seemed embarrassed to do so.”

Source: Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor. Einstein On Race and Racism. pg. ix-x. 2005.