The current fight against the feminization of Black men is a fight to sustain an oppressive status quo of female degradation and subjugation, it’s not about preserving Black manhood. First off we need to understand that: Black manhood has never even existed in the USA! We were not men under chattel slavery, we were not even recognized as human. After emancipation and during the Reconstruction era we simply imitated the roles, behaviors, standards, dress, and values of white men, that’s all we had known as Black men in the US for over 200 years. White men were our only reference . . .
Black Nationalism
Organizing to Free the Land with Kali Akuno
In this episode of Hood Communist Radio, I sat down with Kali Akuno, the founder of Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. As someone that’s inspired by, and believes in the vision of the New African Independence Movement, I wanted to talk to Kali to hear about how that history influences the work of Cooperation Jackson. We talked about why African people must lead the movement for climate justice, and why it’s a mistake for us to dismiss the rise of the far right in the US as some sort of fringe moment in history. It’s all good stuff that everyone should hear, particularly those of us who are new to the concept of “Free The Land”. . . .
Kuwasi Balagoon: Love, Power and Peace by Piece
Freedom is a habit and for Africans throughout history, it is one that can cost you dearly while under the repressive state apparatus of an imperialist power. Despite this, it has rarely discouraged those who’ve taken up the program for Black liberation from making the ultimate sacrifice out of their love for the people. Recognizing the colonial status of Africans in the US and in the diaspora is only the first step. Through organization, struggle, uniting around a set of principles and an unwavering commitment to the movement is where some of the strongest and most fierce of the litter . . .
All States Aren’t Bad
Despite what is being said in online fodder, a state is not inherently bad. A state is simply the governing institution of a society. This governance takes on the form of a formal government, schools, universities, and law enforcement agencies. A state is not neutral as these institutions are the vehicle through which one class maintains dominance over other classes. States each have their own specific class characters. If a nation is building socialism, the ruling class is not the small sect of corporations, but the people. In a socialist state, the masses would maintain dominance (ie. dictatorship of the proletariat). However, paternalism embedded in the US left completely ignores and rejects this. . . .
Finding Black Liberation in the Politics of Being Left Alone
Days after a 21-year old white gunman walked into two Atlanta massage parlors and fatally shot eight people –six of them Asian –the writer Zaid Jilani appeared on the internet news program, Rising to aver: “There is not a white supremacist wave of terrorism or hate crimes or anything like that.” That is, in fact, exactly what is happening according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who told Congress in February that domestic terrorism investigations have doubled over the past four years to nearly 2,000, while the number of arrests of white supremacists over that same span has nearly tripled. Those . . .
An Analysis of the “Free Huey” Speech by Kwame Turé
In “Free Huey,” Kwame Turé underlines the concept of survival. Turé argues that the survival “of a race of people…is all that is at stake”. By establishing this, Turé discusses the roles that resistance, the vote (its futility, rather), allyship, and ideologies play in contributing to survival. . . .
Another Nation: The Nation of Islam and the Refutation of the Black American Identity
Despite the mass racial psychosis afflicting contemporary Black America that has questioned the validity and relevance of race to the American identity, there has been an organization that, despite the attacks and smears to their work and legacy, have continued to recognize the centrality and importance of race in American political life – The Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam (N.O.I.) is a Black organization within the United States that continues the tradition of proliferating a race-centric Black politique, one that ties racial identity to political action. Through the teachings of the N.O.I., the organization instills within their membership . . .
Pseudo Black Nationalism; Toxic Masculinity & Homophobia
Black Nationalism at face value has its honored place in history. Despite the efforts by racist Europeans and accommodating negroes to denounce it for centuries, the concept of Black Nationalism has always been a survival tool for the African masses. As Sekou Ture eloquently points out in his classic and widely missed analysis of “Negritude,” Black Nationalism was African people’s response to colonialism and slavery. Since a major component of institutionalizing those racist systems was for the bourgeois to develop and nurture the concept of white supremacy, Black Nationalism has always been our way of deconstructing racist ideology and proclaiming . . .