“Although we are in essential agreement with Marx’s theory as it applied to the very specific economic relationships he analyzed, we know that his analysis must be extended further in order for us to understand our specific economic situation as Black women.” —the Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977 “The concept of the simultaneity of oppression is still the crux of a Black feminist understanding of political reality and, I believe, one of the most significant ideological contributions of Black feminist thought.” —Black feminist and scholar Barbara Smith, 1983 The situational systematic position of Black women, particularly in the US, has . . .
Theory Corner
Prospects for the Haitian Revolution
By: Erica Caines and Christopher Winston Last Thursday, US Rep Fredricka Wilson (D- Miami) organized a roundtable discussion between US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and some of South Florida’s most prominent Haitian Americans. In the meeting, Haitain Americans reps minced no words when addressing Pelosi over the current situation in Haiti— The US needs to stop meddling in Haiti’s internal affairs. “The people of Haiti are saying, ‘My goodness, let us govern ourselves. Let us find our own path… just support us,’” said Gepsie Metellus, the executive director of the social services program, Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center. “What . . .
A Historical Materialist Analysis of Gender for the Worldwide Pan-African Movement
The Worldwide Pan-African Movement’s (WWPAM) current line on gender contradictions and the role of women in the struggle is out of date. As a movement, we are in dire need of an update in our analysis around these questions if we are serious about the struggle against patriarchy and the liberation of women and non-men*. *Non-men means folks who are neither men nor women, but who are still oppressed on the basis of gender under patriarchy and capitalism. This paper seeks to raise and discuss three major contradictions that currently exist within the WWPAM’s generally accepted line on gender, patriarchy, . . .
Concerns and Grievances: The Question of Reparations
A very long list of my concerns and grievances about reparations for African descendants of slavery: 1). We should begin by critiquing an oft-recited argument made by the Right. The standard conservative deflection is that slavery “happened so long ago” and therefore “no one alive is responsible.” This line of reasoning fails to understand the relationship between anti-blackness and time. What we call “time” is, first and foremost, a human invention and social convention. We are led to believe that time always unfolds in a neat and chronological format; one that is labeled ‘beginning-middle-end’ or ‘past-present-future.’ The problem is: black . . .
Studying Nkrumah
In the development of Student Philosophical Conciousness in both colonial & settler colonial contexts, all African students everywhere can find themselves in these 3 types of students described by Kwame Nkrumah. Which one are you? Lately, I’ve been feeling this ‘personality type’ thing lately. The Feds use these systems a lot, I’m sure. They can be helpful in isolating and articulating probabilities and outcomes. I even developed a travel personality system to help folks planning to travel so they will be able to plan for a great outcome. I use it in my book, The “un”-Official Ghana Travel Guide. I . . .
The Legacy of George Jackson
“The ultimate expression of law is not order — it’s prison… The law and everything that interlocks with it was constructed for poor desperate people.” –George Jackson If Vladimir Lenin believed that prisons are universities for revolutionaries then George Jackson is the physical embodiment of that belief. While certainly an oppressive state can breed creativity, literary activism is its own form of resistance. In Jackson’s case, he forged a liberation movement from a space of captivity. Arrested on presumably false charges based on dubious evidence for a $70 robbery at a gas station at age 18, Jackson pled guilty in . . .