On April 4, 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave one of the most significant speeches of his career. In “Beyond Vietnam – Time to Break Silence ” King declared his unequivocal opposition to the war in Vietnam. His very public break with Lyndon Johnson was greeted with derision, including from his own allies, who believed that the president was an ally who should not be attacked. The NAACP board passed a resolution calling King’s statement a “serious tactical mistake” that would neither “serve the cause of civil rights nor of peace.” The media joined in the condemnation, with the . . .
American Exceptionalism
Maintenance of Denial
We are witnessing today the final days of a militaristic empire, the rapid descent of an obsolete failed United States. There is nothing unique about America. Empires rise and empires fall throughout time memorial. It is empirically calculated that the average civilization only lasts 340 years. Like Captain Ahab’s pathological obsession with catching the great white whale, Moby Dick which led to his and his crew’s destruction, Americans’ obsession with consumption, celebrity, money, and greed are mechanisms that maintain our denial of a nation in peril. The denial of our descent is partially maintained because every other week our white . . .
From Black Wall Street to Black Capitalism
Universalizing Blackness as a flat experience allows Amazon to proclaim #BlackLivesMatter, create a Black-owned business page but crush the unions organized by its Black workers. It allows the NBA to paint BLM on its hardwoods, highlight Black business during the NBA finals but pay its predominantly Black and temp workers dirt wages. Universalizing Blackness distorts Blackness itself. It is decorating at its worst. . . .
ADOS and American Exceptionalism in Africans
It now seems to be a ritual: when a new movie is announced with story, cast, and production crew primarily made up of Africans, a boisterous debate ricochets around the Blackest parts of social media: who made this, who’s in it, and is it for us? For many African people living in the US, the response is always a resounding “I’m rooting for everybody Black.” (Credit to Issa Rae) For as long as we’ve been captives on this territory the majority of our people have expressed some form of intrinsic nationalism – a kind of instinctual proto-African nationalist sentiment. Certainly . . .