Uniting the Nations

BLACK POWER

2006-08-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today, I will publish excerpts from Amos Wilson's "Blueprint for Black Power" and discuss it in future postings. According to Amos Wilson:
"Power comes with being; with interactive existence; with being alive. It is the essence of life and the motive force for growth and development and of adaptability of living things to environmental changes and demands. Power refers to the ability to do, the ability to be, the ability to prevail. Beingness and aliveness originate with power. To be powerless is to be will-less, impotent and lifeless; without effect or influence; to be nothing, of no account. Thus we concur with Rollo May when he contends that 'Power is essential for all living things. Man in particular, cast on this barren crust of earth aeons ago with the hope and requirement that he survive, finds he must use his powers and confront opposing forces at every point in his struggle with the earth and with his fellows.'
The unimpeded intentionality of living systems , including especially human beings, is self-realization and self-actualization, the fulfillment of genetic potential or possibilities. This intentionality must be empowered to be realized. Thus to paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche, 'Wherever we find the will to live, there we find the will to power.' Power is essential to our existence and the most influential factor in determining our quality of life. As Wartenberg contends, ' Power is one of the cetral phenomena of human social life.' And as Parenti argues, 'All sorts of interpersonal (and we may add, intergroup) relationships can be seen as involving power, including between lovers or between parent and child.' Power! There is no escaping its presence in some form. There is no escaping its use by others to influence in some form our persons, minds and behavior and our own use of it to influence the persons, minds and behavior of others.
We deny the ubiquity of power to our peril. It does not vanish from reality or lose its influence by our refusal to acknowledge its existence. Therefore, we are behooved to recognize its permanent reality and make the best out of it, control it and use it to good purpose. Power in and of itself 'can be both detrimental and a beneficial aspect of social relationships' and can be made to play 'the negative as well as the positive role....in the constitution of human social life,' according to Wartenberg. Power can be utilized to achieve personal, social, political and material ends if it is appropriately developed, organized and applied. The question of whether power is beneficial or harmful can only be answered in regard to the specific use to which it is put in a particular situation.
Many of our audience will find this discussion of power disturbing or dis-easing. Having been victimized by the abuse and misuse of power, often crushed by the poweres-that-be, the reader who identifies himself as among the powerless or as a member of a relatively powerless group, e.g., an Afrikan American, will be the more perturbed by our discussion. The oppressed and downtrodden, having been traumatized by the abuse of power by the powerful oppressors, often come to perceive power itself as inherently evil, as by nature corrupting and therefore as something to be eschewed, denied and renounced. The pursuit of power is viewed as unworthy of virtuous persons, and the desire to possess it as sinful. Therefore, many among the powerless and poor feel compelled to find their powerlessness and poverty the embematic signsof their Godliness and redemtive salvation. How convenient a precept for rationalization and maintaining the power of the haves over have nots."

Next time, I will discuss the interaction between the concept of power, knowledge of self and BLACKUNITY can facilitate a vital movement towards Black Redemption

Why white people are afraid-by Robert John

2006-07-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

I saw this aricle on a friend's blog site and thought was worth sharing, as I am too lazy to type now. Let me know your thoughts.

It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society. After all, what do white people really have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? It may be self-indulgent, but it's critical to understand because these fears are part of what keeps many white people from confronting ourselves and the system.

The first, and perhaps most crucial, fear is that of facing the fact that some of what we white people have is unearned. It's a truism that we don't really make it on our own; we all have plenty of help to achieve whatever we achieve. That means that some of what we have is the product of the work of others, distributed unevenly across society, over which we may have little or no control individually. No matter how hard we work or how smart we are, we all know -- when we are honest with ourselves -- that we did not get where we are by merit alone. And many white people are afraid of that fact.

A second fear is crasser: White people's fear of losing what we have -- literally the fear of losing things we own if at some point the economic, political, and social systems in which we live become more just and equitable. That fear is not completely irrational; if white privilege -- along with the other kinds of privilege many of us have living in the middle class and above in an imperialist country that dominates much of the rest of the world -- were to evaporate, the distribution of resources in the United States and in the world would change, and that would be a good thing. We would have less. That redistribution of wealth would be fairer and more just. But in a world in which people have become used to affluence and material comfort, that possibility can be scary.

A third fear involves a slightly different scenario -- a world in which non-white people might someday gain the kind of power over whites that whites have long monopolized. One hears this constantly in the conversation about immigration, the lingering fear that somehow "they" (meaning not just Mexican-Americans and Latinos more generally, but any non-white immigrants) are going to keep moving to this country and at some point become the majority demographically.

Even though whites likely can maintain a disproportionate share of wealth, those numbers will eventually translate into political, economic, and cultural power. And then what? Many whites fear that the result won't be a system that is more just, but a system in which white people become the minority and could be treated as whites have long treated non-whites. This is perhaps the deepest fear that lives in the heart of whiteness. It is not really a fear of non-white people. It's a fear of the depravity that lives in our own hearts: Are non-white people capable of doing to us the barbaric things we have done to them?

A final fear has probably always haunted white people but has become more powerful since the society has formally rejected overt racism: The fear of being seen, and seen-through, by non-white people. Virtually every white person I know, including white people fighting for racial justice and including myself, carries some level of racism in our minds and hearts and bodies. In our heads, we can pretend to eliminate it, but most of us know it is there. And because we are all supposed to be appropriately anti-racist, we carry that lingering racism with a new kind of fear: What if non-white people look at us and can see it? What if they can see through us? What if they can look past our anti-racist vocabulary and sense that we still don't really know how to treat them as equals? What if they know about us what we don't dare know about ourselves? What if they can see what we can't even voice?

I work in a large university with a stated commitment to racial justice. All of my faculty colleagues, even the most reactionary, have a stated commitment to racial justice. And yet the fear is palpable.

It is a fear I have struggled with, and I remember the first time I ever articulated that fear in public. I was on a panel with several other professors at the University of Texas discussing race and politics in the O.J. Simpson case. Next to me was an African American professor. I was talking about media; he was talking about the culture's treatment of the sexuality of black men. As we talked, I paid attention to what was happening in me as I sat next to him. I felt uneasy. I had no reason to be uncomfortable around him, but I wasn't completely comfortable. During the question-and-answer period -- I don't remember what question sparked my comment -- I turned to him and said something like, "It's important to talk about what really goes on between black and white people in this country. For instance, why am I feeling afraid of you? I know I have no reason to be afraid, but I am. Why is that?"

My reaction wasn't a crude physical fear, not some remnant of being taught that black men are dangerous (though I have had such reactions to black men on the street in certain circumstances). Instead, I think it was that fear of being seen through by non-white people, especially when we are talking about race. In that particular moment, for a white academic on an O.J. panel, my fear was of being exposed as a fraud or some kind of closet racist.

Even if I thought I knew what I was talking about and was being appropriately anti-racist in my analysis, I was afraid that some lingering trace of racism would show through, and that my black colleague would identify it for all in the room to see. After I publicly recognized the fear, I think I started to let go of some of it. Like anything, it's a struggle. I can see ways in which I have made progress. I can see that in many situations I speak more freely and honestly as I let go of the fear. I make mistakes, but as I become less terrified of making mistakes I find that I can trust my instincts more and be more open to critique when my instincts are wrong.

Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of, most recently, The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights Books), from which this essay is excerpted.

2006-07-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

My mother and I. I love you mom, for everything.
For living by example, for being so strong and showing me the way around this cruel world. Without you, I honestly DO NOT KNOW where I would be. I am very grateful for having you as a mother and cannot imagine having anyone else for a mother- Thank you. Me da wo ase bre breee! Thanks!

The road to mental freedom-Black Power

2006-07-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

Knowledge is power. Dessemination of it EQUALS the spread of power. Unfortunately what we see on television and the entire media is mind-numbing and has everything to do with maintaining power in the hands of a few, rather than all. For a sleeping mind does not have to think, and when not thinking, someone else is. And when you are not thinking, you cannot understand, or even diagnose your problems, consequently, learning to live with its symtoms. You see, everything in life has to do with power. Even when we argue, fight, love etc, there is a degree of power struggle. There are two kinds of power-physical and mental. Physical is what we have to use on things, not humans, and mental is what is needed for human relations. But the big propanda machinery of the white oppressive regime has done a very good job at accentuating physical power in our communities, with very little effort in mental empowerment. Our public schools, media, books, movies, even some churches have been incorporated into the propanganda machinery. What we know is what we are told! But what if it is a lie or at best, half- truths? Deception by omittance equals a great lie. Whomever tells the story, exercises great control over its content.

In pre-1950s, the function of the radio was primarily entertainment, and even now. Soap operas and movies played on the radio. Newspapers carried the so-called news, and most blacks could not read. Then the television arrived and sparked off a revolution. Television news breathed life into the civil rights movement because, for the first time, people could now hear of the happenings around the country, and to a very little degree-the world. They woke up, saw that they were emotionally naked, cold and hungry, and began to seek CHANGE.

You see, the African American civil rights began long before the sixties. Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Du Bois and Marcus Garvey were all civil rights activists. I must also add they there were several white Americans in the struggle, even then. William Lloyd Garrison and Elijah Lovejoy are just two of the many whites that sacrificed their lives for African American freedom. The first slaves that arrived here wanted the civil rights (my blood boils inside when people say the civil rights began in the sixties).

Ownership and control over programming of a network television station is the key to mental freedom of Africans.We have to set the agenda. Our own agenda. An agenda that addresses our needs and not wants. It should be Nothing like BET which has women shaking their behinds in a glorified manner. Never!

Every social change that occurred had been fueled by exposure to some information, consequently knowledge - from the French revolution to Ghandi's fight for India's independence. The civil rights movement's peak in the sixties is no exception. Television's impact on social change was huge, as it delivered BLACK POWER into every living room in America, including whites. In America, the paramount purpose of broadcast television is to serve the public good as ruled by the US Supreme Court. The airwaves, though owned by the public, has been hijacked by a few rich, white men, and converted into their personal cash-registers. And the only reson why they are able to get away with it is because we let them. Every newspaper, TV station, radio station, magazine, movie comapanies are owned collectively by just a hand-full of individuals. And their interests are not akin to ours. We have two choices: we can either wait a lifetime for them to have a change-of-heart or we must demand our share, NOW. Infact, they may get worse-they may get more greedy.

Ownership of the our own network TV is imperative in our journey to mental freedom.
Some people may wonder how that's going to be different from white media and whether it should it be. This station should not be entertainment-oriented. We have had enough of that. It should be a TV network dedicated towards the struggle. Yet again, I've had others tell me that people would not be interested in an intense dialoque and wonder whether a station like that could command ads for funding. I have an answer to both questions. The apathy our people, especially the youth, exercise toward the struggle is not because of a lack of concern on their part, but rather a lack of a platform on which the message could be effectively relayed to them of its urgency and importance.

Most people can call up the names of OJ Simpson, Scott Peterson or Lacy Peterson without much effort. That's not accidental. Producers and editors of the media giants decide the issues they broadcast or print. There are several things happening and these gatekeepers have to filter them out in order to squeeze them into limited airtime or newspaper pages. But by them picking to spend a year covering the Simpson or Peterson trial, they have then decided the issues we should be concerned with. After a while, whether you like it or not, given that you could avoid the issue due to its ubiquitous nature, you start thinking about it. In the same manner, if blacks speak about their issues on a TV on television everyday, it will make it to the top-of-the-mind recall, and we would be discussing them everyday. If we leave it up to the white media, as it is now, our issues becomes but a fleeting illusion, never to be grappled with. Secondly, this television can be funded nammer as Al Jazeera or PBS - donations. The upper and middle class blacks in the country are rich enough to fund such a station. The working class can also help. It boils down to how well we organize this duty, and, more importantly, manage it.

As long as we sit and wait for a hand-out from white America, we can kiss our meal ticket bye-bye. It will never happen. They are more concerned with maintaining possession of their privileges than sharing it. We have to organize in order to change the course of our destiny. Destiny is what we make out our lives, it is not pre-determined. But in so doing, let us remember the words of Martin Luther King, jr. when he said that we cannot "employ immorial means to arrive at a moral end." Rather let us utilize our most potent weapon-our minds and emotional strength- and with solidarity, and take charge of our destiny. Let's share the knowledge! Let's give power to the people!! United we stand, divided we fall!!! We are already on the ground zero, and it's time to wake up and live.

Uniting the Nations

2006-07-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

Uniting the Nations

It's yet another day and the struggle is still alive. I have heard many call for reparations for Africans and Africans in the diaspora. Afterall, the Germans paid raparations to the Jews and United States paid the Japanese. Why not Africans? While I support reparations, I believe we are not ready for it, on many fronts.

Before I make my point, I would like to give a little background on black reparation struggle. In the late 1700s to early 1800s, I believe 1804, after the Haitians defeated Napaleon's army and gained their independence from the French, France sent a ship to Haiti and demanded that theybe paid reparations to the former slave holders whom had lost their properties as a result. With international pressure from the west, especially United States, Haiti gave the lion's share of their wealth to France. Presently, Haitians have been struggling, in vain, to get that money back.

Mozambique, a former colony of Portugal, is dealing with a similar problem now, with the Portuguees government demanding they be paid reparations as a result of Mozambique's fight for independence.

Finally, African Americans and other diasopora Africans are demanding for their reparations for centuries of free labor. I believe the time has come for the whites to pay up - in full. During slavery days, many whites amassed wealth from the labor and sale of Africans. They passed that wealth on to their children who continued the cycle. It was until the emergence of the industrial revolution that the North realized it was cheaper to have machines, rather than humans, labor for them. Hence thier decision to abolish slavery (definately not out of goodwill but an economical decision-dont be fooled by the civil war history crap they've telling you in school). So after the civil war, with slavery abolished, the money still stayed in the hands of the whites who establishedl companies like GM, etc (Not to mention that insurance companies benefited a lot from slavery for slaves had to be insured). Blacks had no money to pass on to their children despite their 300 yr. contribution. No investments - nothing! So yes, reparations is well deserved, but I still think we are not ready for it.

Imagine waking up tomorrow morning to a news report that the US government has decided to pay all African Americans next week. And the so-called black leaders (I will explain why I labeled them that way in a future article) say, "we need to control the money so we can invest it in infrastructures for our communities rather dispense to every African American." Can you imagine the discourse the would erupt out of this hypothetical exigence? It will be total chaos. It will be chaotic not only because we have made no preparations for what we would do with that money but also because we are divided. That money would go back to the whites almost as quicker than it came. But for the wishful thought of reparations to be realized, it has to be demanded. Martin Luther once said that people with privileges do not willingly give it up and the oppressed must demand for it. But what if it is only a few people making that demand? Or different small groups going it alone in making their demands unaware of their shared predicament and objective?

Again, imagine Mazambique, Jamaica, and blacks around the world, coalesced to demand reparations from the entire west. Remember, non-white people make up about 70% of the world population and they have all been robbed by whites. And we were demanding reparations, with united front and a strong sense of urgency, as demonstrated by Martin Luther King's movement. There could be no other outcome than them yielding to our demands.

Additionally, a united African community would be benifitial to all involved. Africans in the diaspora could learn of their rich heritage from Africans, and Africans of the experiences of their stolen brothers and sisters. Knowledge of history, as I mentioned yesterday, is critical to the development of the concept of self, and knowing just a part of your history leaves a vacuum within your soul. The only way blacks can make any progress in life is if theyrid themselves of that vacuum and become whole. There is way this can dream can realized, and I'd elaborate on the means in my next blog. Stay tuned and don't let the system put you to sleep. -Kwesi

2006-07-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

This is me in Los Angeles. Still working on my introduction.

Aluta Continua-The Struggle Continues-Black Unity

2006-07-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well! well!! well!!! I finally got back. So as mentioned earlier, unity is the premise for the advancement of colored people. Take the civil rights movement for example, imagine if just 3 people had showed up for the "I have a dream" speech. Or just the same number had participated in the bus boycott. The movement would have had a different outcome. Collective bargaining yields results. History is my witness.

Divide and rule has always been the weapon of the ruling class. We cannot stand for anything if we can't come to a consensus on what our needs are. As we fight each other; hate each; look down on each other, they are busy sucking our blood until we are too weak to stand or even live. It is quite interesting that we were once the same people, and history divided us, however it is the same history that can unite us. So how could unity help, or why does our freedom necessitate unity?

Picture African Americans fighting for reparations on their own. And then picture Haitians also fighting for reparations. And picture Jamaicans fighting the same thing as well many African nations. Yet, the African thinks he/she is better than African American or the Haitian or Jamaican and vice versa. The African American's fight is no different from his comtemporaries but they have allowed a wedge to separate them-something that can only happen when one lacks knowledge of self.

A knowledge of self can only be attained when one knows his/her entire history. "A people without the knowledge of history and origin are like trees without roots," Marcus Garvey. Just like a tree without roots blows where the windforce blows, a person without knowledge of self accepts the definitions imposed on him/her by his/her oppressor. The white man tells you are better than the African, or the African American, or the Jamaican, and you accept it. The problem becomes more pronounced when that acceptance acts as vehicle to offload self-hate onto people who would otherwise be your own people. I call it self-hate because if you hate anyone that looks like you, you hate yourself.

Black Unity-The key to black emancipation

2006-07-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

Hi!
This is my first blog and hopefully would be the beginning of my life's work. Firstly, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Eric Kwesi Wilson but prefer to go by Kwesi Wilson. Eric is a slave name. I was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, and moved to California in 1995.

For those of you who hate the truth, this site may not be for you. You need to turn to your TV and watch your mind-numbing show - American idol. For those whom I call soldiers ready to fight, I commend you, for wanting to stand up and fight for what is yours.

Unity is strength, it is often said. Black people are not united. Therefore we are weak. Too weak to demand our birthrights, too weak to fight exploitation, too weak to demand for our full loaf and have setttled for a slice and in some cases crumbles. I would first like to examine the cause of our division and the purpose its serves in servitude to white domination, consequently self-anhilating and self pertuating our oppression, and secondly, we would examine how unity can facilitate our complete freedom from the imaginary chains that holds us down.