For my own sanity and overall well-being, I will not be returning to Hobart and William Smith Colleges this fall as an enrolled student. I have not absolved myself from accountability. By providing context for my actions, I seek to expand the scope of what needs to be accounted for. It had only taken me half of my first semester to learn that racism at HWS was silent and coded most of the time and grotesquely blatant at other times. During that semester, I was confronted by peers with similar critiques of the institution who wanted to speak out against . . .
Neo-Colonialism
China in Africa: A Critical Assessment
This piece is written specifically for those people who hold a specific interest in African politics, particularly Pan-Africanist movement politics. We say Pan-African because particularly within the industrialized capitalist countries, Africa is primarily discussed and viewed as an ancillary place with secondary importance to the European Judeo-Christian, capitalist dominated societies across the planet. For Pan-Africanists – and when we say Pan-Africanists we mean revolutionary Pan-Africanists who are committed to the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism, a process that will happen only with organized revolutionary struggle – this question of China in Africa is hotly debated, discussed, . . .
There is No Black Middle Class
The middle class is the ultimate social construct. What we in the US have been told, in regards to the middle class, is that it is the class between the working classes and the upper classes. The average person in the US has accepted that definition, a definition that is based on income. But that is only part of the definition. It is not even a necessary part of the definition. The most important characteristic of the US middle class is whiteness. The middle-class dream in the US is that you can be not that smart, not that competitive, but . . .
Class Struggle at AfroTech
Does gentrification hit differently when it’s a Nupe that pushes you out of your neighborhood? Or do the Somali teenagers dodging hellfire missiles after they’ve been declared terrorists for falling into the wrong gender and age brackets in the wrong country at the wrong time feel the #BlackGirlMagic when the dev-ops engineer that keeps the Pentagon’s drone infrastructure humming on AWS is an African woman? Put another way – are African people who are able to find professional and material success within the genocidal global system of capitalism individual examples of what we as a people should aspire to? Do . . .
Liberalism Will Get Us Killed
“I have never really understood exactly what a ‘liberal’ is, since I have heard ‘liberals’ express every conceivable opinion on every conceivable subject. As far as I can tell, you have the extreme right, who are fascist racist capitalist dogs like Ronald Reagan, who come right out and let you know where they’re coming from. And on the opposite end, you have the left, who are supposed to be committed to justice, equality, and human rights. And somewhere between those two points is the liberal. As far as I’m concerned, ‘liberal’ is the most meaningless word in the dictionary. History . . .
Schools are Tools of Colonialism. Trust Me I’m a Black Educator
It is an uphill battle as a Black educator that has to deal with often white administrations and the frustrations of students. We have to do it anyway. Our youth deserve more and we damn sure must do all that is in our power to give it to them through quality education of our Black radical tradition. . . .
New Black Face of Canada
Last September, Time Magazine released a provocative yearbook picture of Justin Trudeau, the current Prime Minister of Canada. It was taken at a costume party for teachers college, in Vancouver. He dressed up as Aladdin……. with Black face. My first thought seeing this picture, “Which version of Aladdin is this?” I wasn’t aware of the Jim Crow era of Arabia nights. Before I knew it, media tried to spin this story, calling it “brown face” because he was dressed as an Arab/middle easterner. Since then, he has apologized for his behavior in 2001. He properly recognized his actions as Black . . .
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 . . .