the militant and uncompromising spirit of the Juneteenth celebrations I grew up with has been replaced by a dominant “can we all get along” party atmosphere that uplifts symbolic progress while hammering the message that the absolute only legitimate form of struggle that is morally acceptable is that waged through the capitalist electoral process on an individual basis. . . .
Capitalist Dystopia
Capitalism Was a Source of My Childhood Trauma
In many radical Black and Brown spaces on the Internet, I’ve seen many people pose the question “What radicalized you?” And, for some time, I could not bring myself to give anything close to a direct answer. When relating the struggle for African liberation to our personal lives, many of us have our own stories or narratives that push us forward into the realm of consciousness, especially when having to do with both race and class. However, for some of us (like myself), it may have taken a while to understand how the latter is connected to the former. Growing . . .
On Police Abolition: Decolonization Is The Only Way
If Black masses are semi-colonized, the solution is decolonization. If slavery was merely reformed, slavery must be abolished in all its iterations. The U.S. police are the representation and manifestation of modern-day slave patrols. For these reasons and others, the police must be abolished in their entirety and other carceral institutions as well. . . .
There’s Fires to Start
private property did a number on our humanity
capitalism fashioned platforms out of protest posters
podiums don’t belong next to gasoline canisters . . .
It Wasn’t 2020, It Was The Ruling Class Trying to Kill You
Reflections on COVID-19, capitalism, empire, and the worst year ever from the Hood Communist editorial staff. . . .
On Breonna, Oluwatoyin, & Posthumous Iconography Of Murdered Black People
The surviving family and friends of the dead are constantly accosted by aesthetically pleasing merchandised images of the people violently abducted from their lives. In the hands of social media, and opportunists, this tradition becomes another installment of a Ford-assembly line-like process of transforming a murdered Black person into a ubiquitous trademarked symbol of social justice. . . .
The Liberal Disingenuosness of ‘Trump’s America’
By attributing fascism and the conditions of an overzealous militarized police force solely to Donald Trump, we ignore the trajectory of how we have arrived at a Trump presidency. Furthermore, an obsessive fixation on Trump and not the system, at large, makes us complicit in the work of encouraging fascism. . . .
The Makings of A Capitalist Dystopia
As the days of the pandemic tick by, we are witnessing overwhelming evidence that the U.S. is using COVID-19 as an instrument to institute a capitalist dystopia. But this is no blockbuster Hollywood film. This is today’s new potential reality through the national security state apparatus. While there is no denying that people are suffering (and dying) from COVID-19 and neoliberal austerity, we must be acutely aware that the state’s reaction is not protecting us from the virus. Black Alliance For Peace coordinating committee member, Vanessa Beck, has maintained, “This crisis is a reminder that science has a social relationship . . .