The Murders of Malcolm X & Pio Gama Pinto

On the 21st of February, 1965, Malcolm X was killed in the Washington Heights neighborhood while speaking to an audience in Harlem, New York. Malcolm had just formed a new movement, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), having left the Nation of Islam the previous year. He was 39 years old. Three days later, on the 24th of February 1965, Pio Gama Pinto, a socialist revolutionary in Kenya, was assassinated outside his home in Nairobi. He was 38 years old. The assassination of both Pinto and Malcolm X in the same week has long raised serious questions and conspiracy theories . . .

Liberation Archives: The Validity and Usefulness of the Term Black Misleadership Class

The Usefulness of the Term “Black Misleadership Class”

In what he called “an afterthought” to his December 21 article on “The Black Political Class and Network Neutrality,” BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon dropped an unexpected bomb. He now has “deep reservations” about use of the term “Black misleadership class,” because “it implies that there is or ought to be a class of good and righteous black leaders.” The term is “sloppy and imprecise,” Dixon writes, adding (I hope) sarcastically: “Maybe the good ones are supposed to be the ‘real’ blacks and the bad ones unreal. Maybe the difference [is] having or lacking character, table manners, home training or . . .

Malcolm X: a fighter for People(s)-Centered Human Rights

People(s)-Centered Human Rights & Malcolm X

Originally published on Pambazuka. There was something quite different with Malcolm’s approach to human rights that distinguished him from mainstream civil rights activists. By grounding himself in the radical human rights approach, Malcolm articulated a position on human rights struggle that did not contain itself to just advocacy. He understood that appealing to the same powers that were responsible for the structures of oppression was a dead end. Fifty-six years ago on February 21st, the world lost the great anti-colonial fighter, Malcolm X. Around the world, millions pause on this anniversary and take note of the life and contribution of . . .

Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali with their children - a still from the Netflix documentary Blood Brothers

A Critical Review of “Blood Brothers” on Netflix

The Netflix produced documentary “Blood Brothers – Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali” is the latest example of their efforts to exploit our unwillingness to critically study our own history in ways that would force us to learn to think outside of the paradigms that they provide for us. . . .

Author Darius Simpson - you know that nigga was a nigga

You Know He Shot at the Police Right?

you know he was a weapon. didn’t beg for his life. or call for his mother. or his partner.
you know that nigga went out on his feet. brought a gun to a gun fight. brought mutiny to a slave ship at the atlantic shoreline. you know that nigga was a nigga and not like haha nigga not like next democratic presidential nominee nigga not like run fast jump high nigga like worm food covered in tree bark like lead water clogging an artery like dead leaves stuck in a gutter like storm the arsenal and shoot the masters like one of those give me liberty or give me blood types nigga got the nerve to want freedom and do somethin bout it. . . .

Members of the Black Panther Party armed with guns

The Black Panthers, the NRA, and the Contradiction of Guns in the U.S

May 2, 2021, marks the 54th commemoration of 29 Black Panther Party members and supporters converging on the California State Capitol in Sacramento, armed with guns, to protest the pending Mulford bill legislation to make carrying guns in public illegal. Don Mulford, a racist state senator from racist Mill Valley in the Bay Area, sponsored this bill, with full backing from the National Rifle Association (NRA). . . .

A demonstrator in Minneapolis illustrating what justice actually looks like

Derek Chauvin & the Con Against African Justice

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. slave catcher (police) who brutally murdered George Floyd a year ago while being videotaped doing so, was convicted today. At the very least, the convictions will require him to spend a significant amount of time in prison, if not the rest of his mortal life. Regardless, read no further if you expect us to find some reason to celebrate. . . .