James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass 4th of July Speech, 1852

A Short Biography of Frederick Douglass



Frederick Douglass was born in a slave cabin, in February, 1818, near the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Separated from his mother when only a few weeks old he was raised by his grandparents. At about the age of six, his grandmother took him to the plantation of his master and left him there. Not being told by her that she was going to leave him, Douglass never recovered from the betrayal of the abandonment. When he was about eight he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master. It was shortly after his arrival that his new mistress taught him the alphabet. When her husband forbade her to continue her instruction, because it was unlawful to teach slaves how to read, Frederick took it upon himself to learn. He made the neighborhood boys his teachers, by giving away his food in exchange for lessons in reading and writing. At about the age of twelve or thirteen Douglass purchased a copy of The Columbian Orator, a popular schoolbook of the time, which helped him to gain an understanding and appreciation of the power of the spoken and the written word, as two of the most effective means by which to bring about permanent, positive change.

Returning to the Eastern Shore, at approximately the age of fifteen, Douglass became a field hand, and experienced most of the horrifying conditions that plagued slaves during the 270 years of legalized slavery in America. But it was during this time that he had an encounter with the slavebreaker Edward Covey. Their fight ended in a draw, but the victory was Douglass', as his challenge to the slavebreaker restored his sense of self-worth. After an aborted escape attempt when he was about eighteen, he was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld family, and in early September, 1838, at the age of twenty, Douglass succeeded in escaping from slavery by impersonating a sailor.

He went first to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he and his new wife Anna Murray began to raise a family. Whenever he could he attended abolitionist meetings, and, in October, 1841, after attending an anti-slavery convention on Nantucket Island, Douglass became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and a colleague of William Lloyd Garrison. This work led him into public speaking and writing. He published his own newspaper, The North Star, participated in the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, in 1848, and wrote three autobiographies. He was internationally recognized as an uncompromising abolitionist, indefatigable worker for justice and equal opportunity, and an unyielding defender of women's rights. He became a trusted advisor to Abraham Lincoln, United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds for Washington, D.C., and Minister-General to the Republic of Haiti.


Frederick Douglass sought to embody three keys for success in life:
Believe in yourself.
Take advantage of every opportunity.
Use the power of spoken and written language to effect positive change for yourself and society.


Douglass said, "What is possible for me is possible for you." By taking these keys and making them his own, Frederick Douglass created a life of honor, respect and success that he could never have dreamed of when still a boy on Colonel Lloyd's plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Review: Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality

Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality
Essays on Consciousness
By Marvin X

Review by Rudolph Lewis, Editor: Chickenbones.com

"Marvin X is a griot if there ever was one. This book is an encyclopedia of knowledge."--Mumia Abu Jamal, Live from Death Row


Marvin X has done extraordinary mind and soul work in bringing our attention to the importance of spirituality, as opposed to religion, in our daily living. Someone—maybe Kierkegaard or maybe it was George Fox who—said that there was no such thing as "Christianity." There can only be Christians. It is not institutions but rather individuals who make the meaningful differences in our world. It is not Islam but Muslims. Not Buddhism but Buddhists. Marvin X has made a courageous difference. In this book he shares the wondrous vision of his spiritual explorations. His eloquent language and rhetoric are varied—sophisticated but also earthy, sometimes both at once. His moods are both reverent and irreverent: at times he consoles, other times cajoles with biting mockery. At times amusing but always deadly serious.

Highly informed he speaks to many societal levels and to both genders—to the intellectual as well as to the man/woman on the street or the unfortunate in prison—to the mind as well as the heart. His topics range from global politics and economics to those between men and women in their household. Common sense dominates his thought. He shuns political correctness for the truth of life. He is a Master Teacher in many fields of thought—religion and psychology, sociology and anthropology, history and politics, literature and the humanities. He is a needed Counselor, for he knows himself, on the deepest of personal levels and he reveals that self to us, that we might be his beneficiaries.

All of which are represented in his Radical Spirituality—a balm for those who anguish in these troubling times of disinformation. As a shaman himself, he calls too for a Radical Mythology to override the traditional mythologies of racial supremacy that foster war and injustice. It's a dangerous book, for it reveals the inner workings of capitalist and imperialist governments around the world. It's a book that stands with and on behalf of the poor, the dispossessed, the despised, and downtrodden.

Marvin X has found a way out of our spiritual morass, our material quagmire. We are blessed to still have him among us. If you want to reshape (clean up, raise) your consciousness, this is a book to savor, to read again, and again—to pass onto a friend or lover.

—Rudolph Lewis, Editor, ChickenBones: A Journal

Contents

Preface, Joy and Happiness, Work

Reconciliation, Health, Elders

Women, Men, Youth

Children, Sex, Solitude

Blessings, Music, Writing

Africa, Love, Partner Violence

Prison, Street Violence, Pimpin

Rap, Jerusalem, Teacher, Myth

Militant, Language, Nature,

Global Violence, Sectarianism

Technology, Ancestors, Death

History, Future, Polygamy

Polyandry, Prostitution, Nukes

Religion, Sufi, Prayer, Radical God

Ritual, Drugs, Family, Marriage

Education, Gay/Lesbian, HIV/AIDS

Art, Traumatic Stress, Poverty

Black Bourgeoisie, Media, Panther

Peace, Politics, Immigration, Land

Holy Joes, Sovereignty, Democracy

Fascism, Amnesty, Capitalism, Americas

Berkeley, Condi, Chinaman's Chance

Paris Burning, Sudan, London Bridges

Welcome to Mexi-Cali, Pan Africa

Evil, Tookie Williams, Fathers and Daughters

Why I Talk With Cows, Jesus, Pharaoh's Egypt

Death Angel, When Jazz Ain't Jazz, BAM at Howard U.

Lucy Is Coming, One Mind, Afterword

________

Note: This book is currently out of print.

Eldridge Cleaver, Marvin X and Memoirs

Eldridge Cleaver, Marvin X and Memoirs


By Rudolph Lewis, editor Chickenbones
http://www.nathanielturner.com/


Marvin has a "memoir." Promotionally, it is about Eldridge Cleaver, my least favorite Black Panther. I am down with Huey. For Bobby there is always gagged in Chicago . There was whiteness: everybody could see that fairly well by 1969 and we could see that it was a whiteness that did not tolerate and doesn't allow you to pretend that you have no understanding of whiteness and its operations. In this game of subjection, Eldridge's point indeed in his crazed cranium, mistakes nor ignorance aren't forgiven. All literary work is about "power"—that is mastery.

For a month or so I daily saw this writer writing a book—piece by piece (part by part). Marvin X exudes power. He just turned 65 but he removes space like Archie Moore 44 in the ring. The book is Marvin. I know it is an odd thing to say a book is an author. If that is the case this “memoir” is indeed a memoir in the most perfect sense of one thing being another. Marvin pulls his memoir through the mode of “storytelling.”

Marvin, his memoir, each identifies with the people: to paraphrase Langston, in all their beauty and ugliness too. Marvin can walk into a barroom and in seconds have everyone laughing or falling out on the floor. Marvin doesn’t feel uncomfortable like Cornel West speaking before a class of black middle-class folk, or uncomfortable like other self-corporate prophetic leaders.

These are objects of his jest, ridicule, scorn. Their pretensions, their respectability. Other than a poet, playwright, director, publisher, and editor, Marvin X is a recovering addict who works daily in drug invested communities. He knows where his allegiance lies and in whom to invest. I want to be open in this discussion as much as necessary. I encouraged this book while Marvin was writing madly and emailing part after part, revision after revision. I found it all so riveting.

Watching a writer write a book himself day after day, hour after hour, and the next thing I know we are on part 32, is quite an unusual and extraordinary experience. The writing process is indeed important. Each of us has his own way of going about it. Marvin’s last approach, similar to other Marvin escapades, intentionally and directly seeks an audience for his memoir. Actually, he was out on the road—a book tour. In Houston , Texas. On a book tour, Marvin sends what one might call a “barrage” of responses to event or current events, keeping in touch with friends, writers, publishers and more.

In ways he is always a political organizer as well as self-promoter. He makes his way as speaker, writer, event organizer, performer. He keeps people tied to one another and valuing their lives. Marvin is uniquely developed into an informed black man who is religious, spiritual, and political. He is as representative of the Black Arts Movement (BAM), then and now, as anyone I can think. In ways Marvin is galactic to the point you think he’s standing still, still mired in the betraying clays of the 1960s and 1970s. Ones need to be half-crazed, extremely intelligent, and extraordinarily visionary for his words to reenact the BAM world, as is achieved in memoir, to see the hole we are clearly in and still remain faithful that “Blackness” will find a way.

The memoir fell silent. Marvin moved onto South Carolina . Then he was in New York , Philly. And then New Jersey . Where he hooks up with his buddy, Amiri Baraka. From what I observed for the last decade is that Marvin loves Baraka, right or wrong, and would die for Baraka. This day. This moment view of love I knew when I was a soldier out on the streets of Baltimore . Brothers I would die for.

That kind of enthusiasm about changing whiteness in the land and thus the world, well, that kind of “militancy” was buried with Mr. Jim Crow. The resulting vision of the NAACP. Marvin X suspends the past present future like a diamond and makes us believe in “blackness” when it has grayed and entered a nursing home. Yet Marvin believes, he’s a soldier to the death.

I did not want Marvin’s memoir to end. We were only at the beginning, though at chapter 39, chapters fairly short. In New York Marvin was talking about Amiri’s response and willingness to help secure Marvin a book deal for his memoir. From Marvin I received some piece of a rejection notice, all too stereotypical. I do not know where the cat was. But it seems he did not think the “memoir” was worthy of work or revision. What Marvin has as his “memoir” is indeed phenomenal.

In its present form one can find nothing like it or better in representing the BAM world. The larger frame of the book could withstand double its size. The expose could be put to work toward understanding what caused BAM writers to decline, and why the BAM literary legacy is more critical, than before or since the Harlem Renaissance . Two extraordinary playwrights. August Wilson and Marvin X have maintained their reverence and significance of the BAM period. Maybe Wilson is more introspective. Maybe less or differently ideological than Marvin. But both believing there is indeed such a thing as a “black perspective,” whether you want to agree with it or not.

It is this kind of daily believing that makes Marvin X our saving grace. Many of us are too willing to give up the significance and totality of what can be called Black Life in America , of the significance of identity in the personal, social, and economic progress or “success.” One cannot have a healthy psychic if one half of your people are free and the other half wallow in ignorance and superstition. How Moses satisfied such a state of being? I don’t want to hear about COINTELPRO or slave catchers.

I want to hear more on how or why Huey died the way that he did. I want to hear more about why Cleaver’s madness was entertained by anyone sane in the black community—a rapist and murderer. I want real discussion why Baraka’s walk away from cultural nationalism of the 1970s no less an act of betrayal than Cleaver in Cuba , in Algeria , in France , and black in the United States .

The expose does not work so well if there's no thorough attempt to make any sense out of BAM failing to seize the high ground. Maybe there was an inadequacy, a sweep in BAM, that was too large, too public, and in other aspects too personal, to be sustained as a social movement for a people spread out across a nation.

I love Jimi Hendrix not one iota less to know that he died (by some reports murdered) in a drug house. My love for Huey is eternal. What I’ve heard and read so far brings nothing of import to account for Huey’s rise and fall. That’s from Marvin as well. How Huey came to the drug house? How for that matter Marvin X? Often we see it more in the light of spectacle, of shame, and guilt. Not only drug use but the entire cultural breakdown of race, sex, and gender, during that period, breaking down for new frontiers.

At the time we were all under its spell. Woodstock !!! Too many of us cultural radicals have warped into cultural conservatives, sometimes a too willingness to serve the Beast, at other times a cold hard decision, like “Allah does not pay as much as Jesus.” We are all Januses. Some more fortunate than others. At the Crack House the doors of Hell are open, how low a man, a woman will stoop, what acts she will perform for crack’s grain of joy.

The deconstruction of crack must continue. That the whole scene is made unlawful shows how far the respectable stoops to crush any kind of resistance, political, social, cultural or otherwise. I’ve read two other memoirs by black male writers: one Jerry W. Ward, Jr., The Katrina Papers (2008, $18.95) and the other by E. Ethelbert Miller, The 5th Inning (2009). Miller’s memoir is more personal, though it too contains social commentary. Jerry Ward’s work is post-modern, the memoir imitates, sets itself up as the same powerful forces of post-Katrina—powerful with the fragments of people’s lives on motor boats and housetops; great sludge and dead bodies floating down the streets of your neighborhood. Marvin self published his memoir. Each of these memoirs is special. Read them. My feeling is that most publishers are not interested in black male memoirs. But many readers including females may find a great interest in these three black male writers and how differently they situate black life in America .

Review: In the Crazy House Called America

Marvin X Offers A Healing Peek Into His Psyche
Review: In the Crazy House Called America

By Junious Ricardo Stanton



Rarely is a brother secure and honest enough with himself to reveal his innermost thoughts, emotions or his most hellacious life experiences. For most men it would be a monumental feat just to share/bare his soul with his closest friends, but to do so to perfect strangers would be unthinkable, unless he had gone through the fires of life and emerged free of the dross that tarnishes his soul. Marvin X, poet, playwright, author and essayist does just that in a self-published book entitled In the Crazy House Called America.

This latest piece from Marvin X offers a peek into his soul and his psyche. He lets the reader know he is hip to the rabid oppression the West heaps upon people of color, especially North American Africans, while at the same time revealing the knowledge gleaned from his days as a student radical, black nationalist revolutionary forger of the Black Arts Movement, husband, father lover, a dogger of women that did not spare him the degradation and agony of descending into the abyss of crack addiction, abusive and toxic relationships and family tragedy.

Perhaps because of the knowledge gained as a member of the Nation of Islam, and his experiences as one of the prime movers of the cultural revolution of the '60s, the insights he shares In the Crazy House Called America are all the keener. Marvin writes candidly of his pain, bewilderment and depression of losing his son to suicide. He shares in a very powerful way, his own out of body helplessness as he wallowed in the dregs of an addiction that threatened to destroy his soul and the mess his addictions made of his life and relationships with those he loved.

But he is not preachy and this is not an autobiography. He has already been there and done that. In sharing his story and the wisdom he has gleaned from his life experiences and looking at the world through the eyes of an artist/healer, Marvin X serves as a modern day shaman/juju man who in order to heal himself and his people ventures into the spirit realm to confront the soul devouring demons and mind pulverizing dragons; he is temporarily possessed by them, heroically struggles to rebuke their power before they destroy him; which enables him to return to this realm, tell us what it is like, prove redemption is possible, thereby empowering himself/ us and helping to heal us. He touches on a myriad of topics as he raps and writes about himself and current events.

Reading this book you know he knows what it is like to come face to face with and do battle with the insanity and death this society has in store for all Africans. Marvin X talks about his sexual relations/dysfunction, drugs, media and free speech, sports, black political power or the lack thereof, the war on drugs and the current War on Terrorism, nothing is off limits. He includes reviews of music, theater as well as film, but not as some smarter/ holier than thou, elitist observer.

Marvin X writes as one actively engaged in life, including its pain and suffering. He lets us know he was a willing and active participant in his addiction, how it impacted his decision making, his role as a parent, his male-female "relationships", his ability to be creative within a movement to liberate African people and the world from the corruption of Caucasian hegemony.

Marvin X is in recovery and it has not been easy for him. As a writer/healer he still has the voice of a revolutionary poet/playwright, it is a voice we need to listen and pay attention to. He has survived his own purgatory and emerged stronger and more committed to life and saving his people. As North American Africans (his term to differentiate us from our continental and diasporic brethren) he sees the toll the insanity of this culture takes on us. His culturally induced self-destructive lifestyle choices and the death of his son is a testament to how life threatening and lethal this society can be.

But Marvin X also talks about spiritual redemption, the ability to transcend even the most horrific experiences with resiliency and determination so that one gets a glimpse of one's own divine potential. This book is an easy read which makes it all the more profound. In The Crazy House Called America is for brothers especially. It is a book all black men should grab hold of and digest, if for no other reason than to experience just how redemptively healing and liberating being honest can be.

* * * * *

In the Crazy House Called America is available from Black Bird Press,1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702. Send $19.95, plus $5.00 for postage and handling.

Ed Howard on White Supremacy Type II and the American Slave System

Ed Howard on White Supremacy Type II and the American Slave System

I have spent my whole adult life creating jobs, opportunities and positive experiences for Black people. Just ask anyone who is old enough and lived in Oakland, California back in the day, “who were the people responsible for making Oakland’s Black people known across this country and the world for breaking down the Slavery System?”

There is no FAKE in my game, just being REAL I have lived a life to prove it.

To you that have not signed up, you would rather talk about your experiences of being too dark, too light, your hair textures, etc. instead of being positive about brothers/sisters creating businesses, jobs, products/services, earn money, bringing us together, cooperation, distributors, manufacturers, builders and computer technology for Black people that will help break down the Slave System. That’s what the Slavery System does to your mind. It makes you want to talk and do the things that will make you feel bad and almost do nothing about the things that will build you up.

I have asked you to take only five minutes of your time to sign up using the Black Business Network link below so that you can see, hear and be informed about what these positive brothers/sisters – Delzino and Deborah Wilson de Briano of Black Business Network; Fred Lemonds of (G-Webmarketing) http://www.g-webmarketing.com/websiteseo - and myself http://www.kakakiki.com have created to help break down the Slavery System. Only the Black mind that is controlled by the Slave System would go against being part of this building process.

Don’t you see the world is changing black people? Everyone is using us and some of us will not take five minutes of your time to sign up so we can keep you posted to see, hear, take part and be informed about Black people working for our interest?

You know it’s the right thing to do, SIGN UP NOW! Click on this link to join. http://www.blackbusinessnetwork.com/edhoward

Much Respect
Ed Howard, President
Kakakiki Inc.

P.S. I am speaking especially to you who know me and have not signed up. We must drop the Slavery System mindset of envy, jealously, I don’t like him or her, who do they think they are, you just don’t feel right working with Black people or I don’t want no one telling me

Review of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy

How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy
Peer mental health group cures 'addiction'Reginald James
Laney Tower
Laney College Newspaper,
Oakland CA
May 22, 2008


Author, playwright, and poet Dr. Marvin X is a modern theologian and philosopher sent to earth to help others find themselves. He's not a prophet, but is certainly beyond worthy of his Oakland bestowed title of "Plato" (Ishmael Reed).

His most recent book is, "How to recover from the addiction to white supremacy: A Pan African 12-Step Model for a mental health peer group."

Using a poetic and personal prose, Dr. M, as he is known, leads readers of all ethnicities and national origins on a journey to recover from what he terms the earth's most deadly disease: white supremacy.

"White supremacy can be any form of domination, whether stemming from religious mythology and ritual, or cultural mythology and ritual, such as tribal and caste relations," writes Dr. M. "White supremacy is finally a class phenomena, the rich against the poor,thus the process of recovery must include a redistribution of global wealth, for there is no doubt that the rich became rich by exploiting the poor, not by any natural inheritance or superior intelligence."

Dr. M, a founder of the Black Arts movement, uses his life experience with drug addiction to create a recovery model for others. Similar to the "12-step model" used by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the book reads like a personal narrative of not just one man's struggle to overcome a grafted sense of self-inferiority and a disillusioned projection of superiority in others, but a prayer of confidence that when others connect with their spirits, they will be able to overcome "stinking thinking," negative attitudes and self-destructive behavior.

After defining white supremacy in the introduction, the next chapter details how to detox and "rid the body and mind of the toxicity of decades under the influence of racist ideology of institutions that have rendered us into a state of drunkenness and denial."

After detoxification, patients are now ready to step into a new era. The first step to recovery is to "admit we are not powerless over self-hatred, racism and white supremacy thinking."

Dr. M's message of mental purification comes through strong in his accounts, and his vast historical knowledge of the experience of North American Africans" (so-called African Americans) encourages students to study. His vast literary references do not discriminate as he makes reference to Shakespeare and "classic" Greek tragedies as well.

"The Other White People," as he refers to them, "are an enigma to themselves, a conundrum of major proportions, transcending Shakespeare's Othello in tragic dimension, for their tragic flaw is lack of self knowledge."

"Such is the gracious gift of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. It has produced a Pan African people in love with all things European: women, clothing, religion, education (what people in their right minds would send their children to the enemy to become educated, especially without a revolutionary agenda), political philosophy, social habits, dietary preferences, sexual mores, etc" writes Dr. M.

While he seeks to create a dialogue with all, the sexism ingrained in this society leaps out at you. He attempts to make amends by apologizing for his past instances of sexism and emotional, verbal, and physical abuse of women.

The most powerful aspect of the book is the encouragement to the reader to gain a working knowledge of self. When speaking to the need for patients to take a "moral inventory," Dr. M puts a mirror up to all people.

Breaking down dynamics of interracial relationships with the analytical perception of a sociologist or psychologist, including historical context of relationships between black women and white men and the taboo of white woman with a black man, Dr. M simplifies the frustration faced by women who date outside of their "race" and the reaction of those who feel their "natural partners" have been stolen.

"In this war with the white woman over the black man's sperm, the black woman, in desperation and denial, tries to mimic the white woman as much as possible, donning blond hair and continuing the tradition of bleaching cream throughout Pan Africa."

Equally healing is the emphasis on seeking forgiveness. When under the influence of substances or mind altering racist ideology, people often hurt people that are closest to them. Dr. M apologizes for his own shortcomings while under the influence of not just white supremacy, but while using crack cocaine. The prolific writer fell victim to the "ghost" for 12 years, and apologizes to his family and especially his daughters.

He also apologizes on behalf of the "Black Bourgeoisie," "Pan African Professors" he attacked because they were "not as radical and revolutionary as I believed they should, after all, white supremacy institutions are not about to allow a radical Pan African ideology and philosophy to flourish within its institutional framework," writes Dr. M.

Dr. M is able to weave not only events in his life which were symptomatic of white supremacy, but the thought process and actions of others.

While some may be quick to write Dr. M off as a Pan-African revolutionary (which he is), or a "reverse racist" (which he is not), his book benefits people of all ethnicities to come to grips with their preconceived notions about one another.

He successfully differentiates between white supremacy and "white people" for only a few handsomely reap the benefits of white supremacy, while others simply enjoy white privilege. He also emphasizes that white supremacy has not, and will not, flourish without disciples and co-conspirators.

"The white supremacy rulers have used poor whites and working class whites to delude whites into thinking the blacks are the cause of their misery and economic exploitation, just as capitalism is presently using immigrant labor to suggest they are the cause of middle and lower class white economic woes, while in fact it is the white supremacy global bandits who are outsourcing for cheap labor." Dr. M equates the assertion with the current immigration debate.

Ultimately, after completing the 12-step model, patients are encouraged to join the "cultural revolution." Harkening to the era of he 1960s, Dr. M suggests "linguistic transcendence" in which North American Africans reclaim a regal self-concept.

In the great tradition of indigenous healers, Dr. M pours love into patients inspiring hope for a cure for what others have deemed the only reality.

Like all scientists, Dr. M is experimenting, hoping that patients will actively involve themselves in their recovery. The "peer group mental health model" accompanies the book and allows the reader to form their own circle to undergo transformation with friends, family, or those people you haven't met yet. Starting a much needed dialogue, Dr. M brings forward "5000 watts" of shock therapy to awake people to their senses.

Dr. M obtained his PhD in Negrology from the University of Hell, USA. Formerly known as Marvin Jackmon, he was born in Fowler, CA and grew up in Fresno and Oakland. He attended Merritt College and San Francisco State University where he received a BA and MA in English. He has taught English, African American Literature, Drama, journalism, and more at Fresno State, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, San Francisco State University, University of Nevada, Reno, Mills, and Laney College. He was an professor at Fresno State University when then Governor Ronald Reagan found out Dr. M refused to serve in Vietnam--he was barred from teaching.

His other books include Love and War, poems, 1995, In the Crazy House Called America, essays, 2002, and his most recent Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, 2007His books are available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, 94702. $19.95 each. His Academy of da Corner is at 14th and Broadway, Northeast corner. He is presently organizing the Blackwell Institute of Art, Math and Science. How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy was used as a textbook at Berkeley City College and Oakland's Merritt College.

White Supremacy Defined

White Supremacy Defined


White supremacy can be any form of domination, whether stemming from religious mythology and ritual, or cultural mythology and ritual, such as tribal and caste relations. White supremacy is finally a class phenomena, the rich against the poor, thus the process of recovery must include a redistribution of global wealth, for there is no doubt that the rich became rich by exploiting the poor, not by any natural inheritance or superior intelligence.

White power was achieved by military power, by war, the use of guns and the spread of diseases throughout the world, by a subtle and not so subtle spread of religious propaganda that taught the cultural superiority of the oppressor and the inferiority of the oppressed.

Even language was used as an instrument of oppression, for the white supremacist forced the subject people into speaking and thus thinking in his language, thinking like him, forcing the subject people into psychological trauma of the most subtle kind, for language is logic, thus the people find it a most difficult task to think out of the box, even the concept of freedom becomes only possible inside the box, for freedom is difficult to imagine outside the box, by the very nature of the linguistic challenge.

Ask African Americans does freedom mean independence, sovereignty, self-determination, or does freedom mean a good job, the right to vote, the right to die in wars for the spread of imperialism or white supremacy.

Do we not have rights as cultural beings to conceive and configure a society to our benefit and satisfaction, yes, a society perhaps totally separate from this white supremacy nation. Why must we be subjected to the wrath of America’s enemies, to whom we have not injured or harmed in any way.

If anything, America has demonstrated she is the enemy of African Americans. Certainly her treatment of African citizens during Katrina is but the most recent example. The abuse and neglect Africans suffered during that hurricane amounts to terrorism of the most wretched kind, and who can deny we deserve a better society.

If a wife had a husband who abused her like American white supremacy abuses African Americans, the wife would file for divorce and it would be granted immediately, especially when the wife catalogued the long chain of mistreatment. Should not North American Africans take America to the world court, should we not file suit that we have been wronged by the ravages of white supremacy, economically exploited, miss-educated, spiritually duped by religious mythology and ritual? Or shall we reason together, reconcile our profound differences, try the simple twelve steps before this nation and this world is torn asunder.

Willingly or unwillingly, the world powers must recover from their addiction to white supremacy or the peace loving peoples of the world must forcefully dismantle this organization of global terror and the myriad institutions that support, maintain and benefit from it.

We can come together as peers and reason together or we can meet on the battlefield and clash like wild beasts, but recover we must, and it must happen sooner than later. The choice is yours and your children. The right way is clearly distinct from error. And finally, recovery is the mission of the people, for if and when the people recover their mental and spiritual equilibrium, white supremacy must and will be defeated.

As Fidel Castro has told us, the weapon of today is consciousness. I must add that it is spiritual consciousness, the mighty power to be in this world but not of this world that shall save humanity from destruction. It is the power to overcome all illusions such as white supremacy, black supremacy, yellow supremacy or any other form of domination, political or personal, religious or sexual.

The time has arrived for spiritual beings in human form to free themselves from the mental and physical bondage of reactionary forces from whatever source they may derive. Let us declare ourselves free in the name of our Higher Power, the Creator, Sustainer and Maker of us all. As Marcus Garvey taught us, the Pan African world has one aim, one God, one destiny, the liberation of our lands and people. We begin this journey by coming together in unity to heal each other, to learn love and respect for ourselves and others. Evil, hatred, injustice, domination and exploitation cannot survive in the face of love, truth, justice and righteousness.


Peace unto you,


Dr. Marvin

1 May 2007

13 Steps to Recover from White Supremacy Type I and II

13 Steps

Step 1: We are not powerless over self-hatred, racism white supremacy thinking but our lives have become unmanageable.

Step 2: We have come to believe that a power within ourselves can restore us to sanity.

Step 3: We have made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

Step 4:We shall make a searching and fearless moral inventory.

Step 5: Admitted to God within and without the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 6: We are entirely ready to have God remove defects of character.

Step 7: We humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.

Step 8: Make a list of all Africans and others we have harmed.

Step 9: Make direct amends to such people.

Step 10: Continue to take personal inventory.

Step 11: Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God.

Step 12: Carry the message to the Pan African world and other humans in the global community.

Step 13: Discover Pan African consciousness and join the cultural revolution.

from How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Dr. M (Marvin X).

Introduction: How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy

Introduction to How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy
by
Dr. M

Contrary to President Bush, oil is not America’s number one addiction, rather it is the disease of racism or white supremacy which pervades and poisons every fabric of American and western society. White supremacy also affects African, Asian and Latin culture, thus it is a global phenomena, administered through the economic institution of capitalism and imperialism. It is not purely economic but cultural as well. The virus of white supremacy is spread through cultural imperialism, or the imposition of western culture upon the subject peoples, and of course western culture is by the nature of power relationships, the superior or dominant culture, all other cultures being inferior and relegated to the lower rung on the ladder of civilization. The culture of white supremacy has the self-endowed duty to civilize all other cultures, especially those it has colonized or recently allowed to step up to the more modern stage of neo-colonialism, wherein such cultures exercise a modicum of independence but yet remain shackled to the master culture, economically and psychologically. For the most part they remain enslaved to the western free market system which at best enables them to become wage slaves and consumers of crass materialism and partakers of reactionary spirituality or more precisely religiosity, wherein the myth-rituals of western civilization maintains it grip on their psyche and physicality: their minds and bodies become captives of the western model of reality and the metaphysical. The people subjected to white supremacy allow themselves no opportunity for original thinking, or thinking out of the box, for they have never seized the opportunity to consider another world view or national view, only the views of the Mother country (the white supremacy global rulers) have relevance. The people have been totally brainwashed into the addiction of white supremacy, to the extent that they wear clothing with corporate brand names, advertising their acceptance of economic and cultural imperialism. It never occurs to them to wear clothing with their names or indigenous brands, except for the hip hop generation of entrepreneurs such as Michael Jordan, Kali, Sean John, Russell Simmons and others. Even after the 60s naming rituals, most African Americans continue calling themselves by European names, although they try a little originality, now and then, especially in the southern area or dirty south. Recently Bill Cosby suggested they were wrong to exercise this degree of originality, disclosing his own ignorance rather than theirs. Why do they not have the human and divine right to name themselves, why should they continue disclosing their slavery heritage--why can’t they think out of the box of cultural imperialism, break the chains after centuries of putrid degradation.


The western ideal is the creation of cogs in the wheel of capitalism, to produce a population of wage slaves for life who, after being trained through mis-education, will dutifully report to work and retire broke with a combination of illnesses that prepare them for the grave at the earliest possible date after retirement. The wage slaves barely achieve a living wage thus they are often unable to maintain health insurance or the wherewithal to ever consider and certainly not to achieve economic independence.


The minority workers never achieve economic parity with their white brothers and rarely break through the glass ceiling to become the boss or CEOs of their corporations, for after all, white supremacy is a family affair, and the African proverb says, “One white dog will not bite another white dog.” Yes, the old boys club protect their own, of late allowing the entry of their women, although they too lack parity with their brothers and fathers, although they have surpassed minorities in their pseudo claim of minority status, thereby becoming the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action, after which their brothers and fathers have done all in their powers to eliminate the affirmative action agenda.

After calling for black power in the 60s, black men, for the most part, never achieved such power but fell behind white and black women educationally, economically and politically. And one might say they fell behind psychologically and spiritually, for today they exhibit great mental damage and evidence of retardation in self image and self realization, while black women advance on every level except having their man as an equal partner or even as unequal partner, for the black woman seems to be forced into a go-it-alone policy or seek men outside her ethnic circle, for her man exhibits traits of arrested development, considering himself some kind of pimp, gangster or romance idol, but certainly not the spiritual and economic equal of his woman. While she acquires advance degrees, he is more than often caught riding dirty and endures jail and prison rather than experiencing the joy of life with his natural mate. He returns from prison to sometimes infect her with HIV/AIDS and other prison acquired diseases, and even if he is lucky enough to enter college, he often turns homosexual or seeks a mate out of his ethnic group, thus becoming a diminishing possibility for creating the next generation of his people.


Please do not think I am pessimistic, for I am not. I am a revolutionary, thus I am confident we shall win no matter how dire the circumstances appear. We come to this day from centuries of oppression, white supremacy and the resultant degradation, psychological trauma and economic exploitation wherein we as slave workers produced the surplus capital of the western world. Yes, we have been and still are the donkeys and mules of the world, but through the process of decolonization which is first and foremost a mental process, then a physical reality, we shall arrive back through the door of no return. It is a process we can overcome by taking the twelve steps that have proven so successful in drug recovery, for after all, the colonized and the colonizer both suffer from the addiction of white supremacy, a drug more powerful than heroin, meth, crack and alcohol combined.


White supremacy is a drug so pervasive even when we think we are cured, the ravages and residue appear, affecting our thinking and behavior, our social relations and interaction in the home, on the job, at religious worship and social and cultural events. In short, this drug is sometimes tasteless, colorless, yet cunning and vile. We think we are cured, yet a slip of the tongue proves the illness has reappeared, often suddenly without the slightest indication.


We could go on forever discoursing on the ravages of white supremacy. But our objective here is to give the tools of recovery, twelve steps we can take personally and collectively in peer group sessions in the home, on the street corner, at the barber and beauty shops, in the church or social clubs, bars, schools and colleges, in jails, prisons and the workplace. If we do not get a grip on this addiction, the ultimate alternative is violent revolution, something no one in their right mind would want to imagine, let alone enact. But there comes a point in the course of human events when enough is enough, and I dare say we are rapidly reaching that point in our human relations across this planet. We are either going to learn how to exist together as equal human beings, or divine beings in human form, or we will find the earth a place of utter destruction and warfare between ethnic, cultural and economic groups--yes, class struggle may indeed by the next world struggle, the poor against the rich, the haves against the have not’s.

This can indeed be a wonderful world, but the ruling powers and the ruled must be prepared to achieve parity in the form of economic justice and cultural respect. White privilege or white supremacy must be eradicated from the face of the earth at the earliest possible date for the peace of the world. Such reactionary and die hard thinking must be eliminated from human discourse and interaction, and this must occur on the institutional and personal level. All forms of domination must be destroyed in human interaction, international relations and personal relations, including male/female relations.

Women of intelligence will not be under the rule and domination of ignorant men nor men of intelligence, but desire to be equals in all matters that require equal planning and action. They can certainly be equally as useful in the eradication of white supremacy, for do not women encourage men to acquire for them the material goods produced by white supremacy economic institutions? How long would white supremacy stores and malls survive without goods bought at the encouragement of women? Do not women demand men go to work at wage slave jobs to pay their pussy bill, to feed their children. What if women demanded men boycott work until white power institutions fall or democratize.

I Love Everything about you but YOU! by Paradise Jah Love

Marvin X and Paradise Jah Love
photo by James Moore, Jr

This is Black America's favorite poem of mine!
Black people say this poem makes them feel validated!
===
"I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU, BUT YOU!"
===
They want the black spirit
They want the black mind
They want the black soul
They want the black behind
They want the black muscle
They want the black heart
They want the black music
They want the black art
They want the black rhythm
They want the black hips
They want the black power
They want the black lips
They want the black style
They want the black talk
They want the black skill
They want the black walk
They want the black rod
They want the black heat
They want the black coffee
They want the black meat
They want the black land
They want the black gold
They want the black diamonds
They want the black coal
They want the black oil
They want the black race
They want the black earth
They want the black space
They want the black dollars
They want the black gods
They want the black everything...but me and you
Now that's odd!
They want the black neighborhood but not the black neighbor?
I love everything about you, but you! -

(c) 1995 Paradise 939
The complete version with music is available...

Preface to How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy

PREFACE


Toward A Pan African Mental Health Peer Group


A few years ago, I called upon Dr. Nathan Hare, our esteemed sociologist and clinical psychologist, and author of the classic The Black Anglo-Saxons, to establish a mental health group we decided to call Black Reconstruction. Along with Dr. Hare, the group was facilitated by social worker, Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA.

The group meeting took place at my Recovery Theatre in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Before the group sessions were disbanded for several reasons, including logistics and promotion, we discovered a few things.

One, the group should have been divided into the severely mentally ill and the functionally mentally ill, although the dual diagnosed (those with mental and drug problems) could attend either session, for many times the drug addict and mentally ill are indivisible personalities.

Two, Dr. Hare concluded such mental health peer group sessions should be established in every community nationwide. And I add worldwide. A mental health worker need not be present, but following the 12-step model of AA, let the peers facilitate the session, since there are simply not enough mental health workers to serve the population of mentally disabled persons.

The US Surgeon General estimated 20% of Americans are mentally ill. Three, although the Pan African community suffers the brunt of mental disorders caused by oppression, “situational disorders” as Dr. Franz Fanon called them, when whites attended, we saw they too suffer and could participate since much of oppression does not discriminate --and more importantly, the colonizer is as mentally ill, if not more so, than the colonized.

The victimizer with his boot on the neck of the oppressed is sick with the idea of domination. So, yes, racism has affected more blacks than whites, but middle and lower class whites are an exploited economic class as well. Capitalism and imperialism do not discriminate--all workers are exploited and they are programmed into the virus of consumerism wherein their paltry wages acquire the cheap goods of a materialistic society.

Half the goods they acquire are not needed, but the workers and their children are programmed by persistent advertising, often of a subliminal nature. And there is only a matter of degree between the exploited white worker and the black worker. For sure, blacks and women lack wage parity. Yes, a white worker with a prison record can get a job quicker than a black worker with no police record, but once on the job, the white worker is exploited none the less and suffers mental trauma as well.

His white skin does not save him from wage slavery and the resultant psycho-social diseases, including drug abuse, partner violence and child abuse, emotional if not physical. Nevertheless, our main focus is addressing Type II Addiction to White Suremacy, or healing the Pan African community, those descendants of slavery and colonialism throughout Africa, Europe and the Americas.

This book should also have relevance to the Muslim world, Arabs in particular, who suffer as well the ravages of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Yes, Muslims and Arabs suffer from the trauma of white supremacy as the West devours their oil fields and other resources, and permits reactionary regimes to flourish in spite of their anti-democratic behavior.

The ravages of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism (including domestic colonialism) necessitate the formation of Pan African mental health peer groups throughout Pan Africa, whether on the continent, Europe, Caribbean and the Americas, especially North America. Let us all come together in small groups for peer healing sessions.

Radical Pan African mental health peer groups can be a powerful antidote to help heal the lingering, traumatic effects of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. We can see throughout Pan Africa that even when we advance politically and economically, the scourge of cultural imperialism causes mental retardation of a kind that produces stunted men and women who might otherwise continue the radical freedom agenda, but yet (and often in the name of revolution) continue reactionary behavior and practices no different from their former masters.

We label such behavior white supremacy, even if it is now black face white supremacy. In the Caribbean they call it, “Black men with white hearts.” Indeed, such behavior is a disease of the heart, of the spirit, and thus no amount of political/economic liberation will suffice--we cannot live on bread alone, but our wretched mental condition stifles real progress toward that divine state of mind wherein we are free of tribal, ethnic, religious and cultural hatred, strife, desires of domination, exploitation, greed and lust for power, i.e., white supremacy.

The advantages and positives of Western civilization do not outweigh the sordid and vile behavior we have inculcated and practice with each other, and thus the time has come to make radical changes as we advance into the new millennium, personal changes in our spiritual consciousness that will transform our political, economic and social behavior.

Yes, we are in the era of high technology, but our behavior is often of a bestial nature, for we have lost the civility and serenity of the natural order, even the animals display personalities more at peace than we so-called evolved human beings.

As we became urbanized, we are no longer cognizant of natural love for each other and the planet we share with animals and plants. Many city children have never touched an animal, a cow, horse or chicken, a duck, a bird. We may teach gender equality, but we see in the animal kingdom there is leadership based on gender, sometimes the male but often the female. So as we evolve we might need to refer to the animals for wisdom and knowledge of how configure society that decreases psycho-social destabilization that has brought us to the present need for this discussion of how to remedy the most pressing political, economic, social, and spiritual issue of our time: white supremacy.

--Dr. M (Marvin X)

Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds

Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds

The oil contaminating the Gulf is but the most recent example of man's mind failing him as a result of greed. Anyone who believes the white man knows what he is doing in the world is a triple damn fool. This man is a danger to himself and others. He should be confined to an institution for long term recovery from the addiction to white supremacy. Witness the Japan nuclear reactor disastor and the present dangerous situation with the reactors in Nebraska and New Mexico, about to be consumed by water and fire.


What we perceive as reality is most often a reflection of imagination, of mythology and ritual, or simply the mind of man is the macrocosm, reality the microcosm. Systems thus reflect the mind of man--did not someone say creations only reflect the mind of the creator. Broken systems, therefore, originate in broken minds. Yet we wonder why systems are broken, e.g., school system, political system, economic system, religious and moral systems.

But systems are not the problem, rather it is the minds of men that are broken irreparably, suffering a mental atrophy, an anorexia, a paralysis of imagination. The causation is simple greed, selfishness and lust for power. It is augmented by the quest for the acquisition of things, the wanton addiction to materialism or the world of make believe, the illusion that the microcosm can satisfy the macrocosm, when the real deal holyfield is the inner rather than the outer. Yet men fear to go there, deep down into the metaphysical realm where the darkest mysteries lie seeking edification and recognition. Thus, we find ourselves at the precipice, about to be consumed by the wonder of life.

Elijah told us, "The wisdom of this world is exhausted." And so it is--spent, obsolete, retarded, and yet we wonder why we are immobile, transfixed--stuck on stupid! Why no systems work.
How is it possible for the great Toyota to need recalling, a consummate machine suddenly dysfunctional. What caused this sudden breakdown-- some internal defect in the machine or in the mind of man?

Look at the educational system, confounded by the ideological foundation of white supremacy capitalism that continues to prepare students for a world of work when there is none, especially with living wages in an economic system that demands cheap labor and resources, a socalled free market system that will transcend the national needs for the wants and desires of global finance gangs, connected with, supported and defended by the military, i.e., the Christian Crusaders, soon to be supplanted by Communists from China, India and Russia.

The teachers were long ago taught to teach a new way--back in Egypt they were told to teach with compassion and love. Yet what we see today is the pedagogy of hate. It is a system that rewards ignorance and punishes wisdom and creativity, especially of the thinking variety. Any original thought is suppressed or deemed antisocial thought and behavior, often resulting in the student diagnosed to require psycho drugs that turn him into the zombie required by the society of the walking dead.

The religious system is the same. It is in full blown denial about the meaning of the cross and the lynching tree, about the mission of the prince of peace. For the most part, the religious community is Silent Night about the trillion dollar military budget that allows mass murder to take place across the planet. Along with Silent Night, it sings Onward Christian Soldiers as its sons and daughters crisscross the planet to secure labor and natural resources for the pleasure of the walking dead, and most especially the miserable few who enjoy the high life.

It is all about the glorification of Pharaoh and his magicians. God, in the minds of men, is a business, big business. There is no desire for spirituality, only prosperity, minus compassion for the poor, homeless, jobless and broken hearted, crushed to earth like the pot in the hands of Jeremiah at the gates of his city.

In the minds of politicians, there is no compromise, only preparation for the next election, or the assumption or resumption of power at any and all costs, no lie is exempt, "Vote for me, I'll set you free!" All bribes are acceptable--politicians are thus loyal to lobbyists, not the people who are expendable.

The lips of politicians do not say let us reason together for the sake of the people, for the love of the people, for the consent of the governed. These men and women of the political realm only know the language of no, no, no. As the people starve, become homeless, jobless, we yet hear the mantra of no, no, no, late into the night. No compromise, no reconciliation, only recalcitrance and niggardliness. They are fast to reward the robber barons, the blood suckers of the poor. Eventually, a few crumbs, kibble and bits reach the poor, if ever, unless there is revolt. And then Pharaoh sees the light, suddenly, but he will send his magicians to placate the poor with more crumbs, kibbles and bits.

Between good and evil, evil is the choice, with greed the foundation stone in the minds of men. Amazingly, the people see clearly. They feel change in the wind, not the change in the educational system or the political or religious, but in the wind. They smell the rotten hearts of men who lead into nothingness and dread, with their pitiful strut of the peacock, the one legged dance of the flamingo.

Pharaoh magicians gather in dens of iniquity to share blood money. Teachers, preachers, politicians, all there to party on the backs of the poor. The military stand post at the door of the den, ready to club the wretched into submission, even death, if they dare enter the den of thieves, robbers, murderers, and those who perpetuate the world of make believe.

Inside the den we hear a symphony of sick sounds, giggles, wails, grunts emanating from putrid minds exhausted from wickedness. The result is systematic gridlock--it is 5pm and the freeway is jammed with drivers full of road rage, ready to kill in an instant. It is thus a destruction of self by self, internal combustion.

Unlike the car, there is no forward motion or backward, or perhaps it goes both ways simultaneously, if such is possible in the world of physics, but after all, the minds of men defy all laws, except the law of the jungle and the devil.

But there shall be no forward motion with the present mind-set. Jack must jump out the box of his own making. He must take wings and fly away into a world beyond his imagination.
This is the only way out the morass of his mind. All the technology is to no avail, for he talks, but more often says nothing, he listens but hears nothing, deaf, dumb and blind.
--Marvin X
2/17/10

Unity Under the Stress of White Supremacy Type II

Toward Unity of North American Africans
15. Unity in Stress and Death

In stress and death, all classes of North American Africans are united, with the upper classes suffering more stress, perhaps, because they must be concerned with keeping the little they have. We have seen black millionaires suffer the same discrimination faced by blacks when they are watched while shopping. Black nurses come to us with horror stories of job discrimination. A black professor recently told how her colleagues suffer high blood pressure. An aide to a state senator reached a settlement for sexual harassment. Her boss had been relentless in pursuit of her tail, causing her great stress and discomfort.

Do we need to find out if our President is under stress? For sure, the boyz and girls in the hood are stressed to the point of using violence as a tension reliever, to say nothing of staying medicated on street drugs to keep from blowing a fuse. When street drugs are not available, prescription drugs will work. Our poor children suffer stress from possible homicide and/or suicide. Many of them are in trauma and grief from losing so many of their peers to violence and prison.

Elders who make it to sixty and seventy years old must often travel solo because so many of their friends have departed, including their mates. Many marriages were stress filled from the greater society. Again, the need for medication from illegal and/or legal drugs, few can afford therapy and even if they could, there are few mental health workers to serve them, especially with holistic African healing certification as opposed to useless European psychotherapy for black minds.

All classes escape to religiosity until church politics drive them from the Lord's house, especially when it's all about the preacher and his needs, leaving little mention of the Lord. Even the New Thought Spiritual Centers are degenerating into dens of iniquity under the guise of prosperity consciousness and unbridled sexuality.

Of course our diet is an ever present danger to our health, for it is designed to rush us to the doctor, although all classes have such fears of the medical profession that even those well healed blacks often do not take advantage of their health insurance. We knew a professional woman who only went to the dentist because he was her friend. She never bothered to see the doctor, supposedly because he wasn't her friend and she had fears of medical treatment.

In short, all blacks live in a hostile environment. A man escaped the ghetto to live in the Oakland hills, but when he thought he heard a burglar and called the police, they treated him as though he was the burglar, so traumatizing him that he left his wife in the house in the hills and returned to stay in the ghetto.

We suspect the stress of the hostile environment is the reason we lost several black women professors at the University of California, June Jordan, Barbara Christian, Veve Clark, Sherley A. Williams. Sherley long complained of her hostile work environment at UC San Diego. Dr. William H. Grier had his son inform me that indeed what killed Sherley was the hostile environment, not cancer and asthma.

Riding on the bus through the ghetto, there are usually conversations on three topics: who's sick, who died and who's in prison or just got out. The brothers go to prison so often that a girlfriend was heard saying, "He lives in prison, that's his home. When he's out here he's on vacation!"

Women are under great stress with so many of their mates incarcerated. With the economy in meltdown, men and women are getting desperate with each passing day, plotting criminal activity with no real thought and planning, thus they are quickly apprehended and join the line to the department of corrections where they suddenly become a valuable commodity, worth fifty to sixty thousand dollars per inmate per year.

Imagine the stress of jail and prison, with overcrowding, sexual abuse, gang violence, lack of privacy, loneliness, loss of human dignity. The only advantage is that black men and women now have the chance to think, study and write for the first time in their lives. But upon their release there is little opportunity to stay straight since they now have a record and often lack any formal education and skills since many had dropped out of school in boredom with the white supremacy curriculum and hostile, overworked and exhausted teachers who themselves rarely receive a salary worth their time and education.

The hostile environment is intensified by the slave catchers, otherwise known as police. They are an ever present danger to all classes who may be stopped for driving, walking, talking, or thinking while black. They are in constant danger of failing the tone test: when stopped the person can be killed, arrested or released based on the tone of his voice.

The arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates is testament the police, when it comes to blacks, do not discriminate. We just learned of a man who won a lawsuit against a hotel in Washington, DC because he took refuge in a hotel during a storm but because of his dress the hotel called the police to throw him out. The police gave him a choice, either go to a shelter or go to jail, he chose a shelter.

There is thus nothing post in the traumatic stress syndrome we suffer, it is ever present on a daily basis until the last rites are administered, though even in the coffin stress can reach us. Gang youth came to a funeral and shot into the corpse to make sure the deceased was truly dead. At another funeral there was a shooting inside the church causing a poor church mother to go home where she suffered a heart attack. An estranged church going wife was shot dead by her stressed husband in the church parking lot with the Bible in her hand.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at 39 years old, the medical report said his body had the stress of a 60 year old man.

And so it is, we live under intense pressure, all of us, no matter what class, unless we are determined to enter the no stress zone where we are not moved by things of this world that are pure illusion and mainly of little importance now or in the future. Most certainly, we are not to worry about things of the past.
--Marvin X
12/14/10

How to Recover from Racism on the Left

How to Recover from Racism on the Left

Shall we recall that famous speech by ancestor Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, wherein he stated, "I'd rather be with the KKK than some phony white liberals." But I want to probe a little deeper into the psyche of those suffering from the Addiction to White Supremacy Type II. Those in the Black Left are often so disposed to have multi-cultural unity that they openly attack Black Nationalism, leaping into the strange bed of internationalism and/or multi-culturalism (Dr. Julia Hare called this simply another term for failed integration).

If charity begins at home, we should realize the severity of our mental illness if we are so quick to join with other than ourselves. Yes, this is an example of Type II Addiction to White Supremacy, i.e. self hatred. For this reason, I am not against interracial relationships, for why would you want a black man or woman who thinks white to the extent they desire to connect with those from outside their group, to connect with another black person, no, if you think white, it is better that you get with a white or someone other than your own kind. We're talking about consciousness rather than color. Loving your own kind, your self, is the first step to black consciousness. I don't give a damn about blacks with locks, for often their minds are locked with Babylon ideas and Babylon woman/man. I recall a friend said she and her sistas long ago quit attending Reggae concerts because the brothers were locked with Babylon woman, talking bout I and I, One Love!

So those addicted to Type II Addiction to White Supremacy must attend a detox program and perhaps long term recovery from the very cunning and vile sickness of loving other than self. I'm sorry if there aren't enough men available, hell, learn to share, half of you are sharing anyway, hence the cause of the 50% divorce rate, often due to socalled sexual improprieties. You simply refuse to organize your family based on objective reality and African tradition. I applaud the gays and lesbians for organizing their lifestyle. When will straights organize their lifestyle of polygamous adventure, or at least fight to legalize prostitution.

I don't want to get into a discussion of polygamy at this time, but it is the only sensible alternative to the shortage of black men. We are in a war with America and the casuality seen in the male shortage is the simple demographics of war. And the simple solution is for women to submit to the leadership of a warrior man, not a nigguh who wants to pimp but a conscious black man who is bout it bout it! Those who chose lesbianism to escape male abuse only go from the forest to the jungle, for physical and emotional abuse is rampant in gay/lesbian relationships as well, if not worse.

The Left thus is unable to offer alternatives to the result of White Supremacy culture but succumb to it unconsciously with behavior that reflects such. We participate in the Democratic Party knowing full well the pervasive racism in the Democratic party that is only the flip side of the coin of White Supremacy American politics, with the Republicans on the other side. And don't mention the cunning and vile racism in the white radical Left, with its undercover Zionism combined with unresolved racism, although sometimes it is full blown. the Left media is but a Miller Lite version of the Monkey Mind Media. The most glaring example is Pacifica Radio that habitually moves against black programming yet the white radicals have nothing to say that is substantially different from the Monkey Mind Media. I have written about Berkeley's KPFA that is constantly downgrading black programs but at fundraising time brings out its extensive collection of black voices from the past, from Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Angela Davis, et al, to raise thousands of dollars, meanwhile putting black programs into the outhouse.

More recently, in reporting the assassination of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, KPFA repeated the same white racist/Zionist line that Muslim brothers were responsible for his assassination, in spite of facts leading directly to the involvement of the Oakland Police Department and Oakland City Hall. As James Baldwin said regarding the assassination of Malcolm X, "The hands that pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullet."

The white Left who market themselves as intelligent don't have a clue about the black reality, or perhaps because of white privilege, have no desire to know about the black reality. They rather linger in that airless room of denial rather than begin the arduous process of detoxification and recovery from White Supremacy Type I.

We recently encountered one of these little sick white puppies at San Francisco's Juneteenth. A white woman bought my pamphlet I AM OSCAR GRANT, but asked for her $5.00 back when I didn't agree with her that the police would never shoot a black person on purpose, of course they shot Oscar Grant by accident. She said if I believed it was not an accident, I was a very sick person. I gladly returned her funky five dollars.

The white Left has never done what SNCC called for when they expelled whites from the movement in the south: go into their own communities and work on white racism. Alas, the white Left cannot do so because they have yet to recover from their own racism, although they think because they marry a black man or woman this is a sign of their overcoming their special brand of white supremacy. My sister married a white man who called her his nigger bitch. A friend married a black brother but wanted their child to identify with her not her husband's black nigger culture. You know the little boy does all in his power to be black, caring nothing for his mother's culture.

I am sorry to submit that marriage is no index of changing racial attitudes. Since slavery white men have been in de facto marriage relationships with black women. And since slavery black men have desired the white woman as the symbol of conquering white power, avenging the past, see Fanon and Cleaver. For some mentally ill Black men, a white woman is a status symbol, no matter how fat, ugly and toothless she may be, let alone broke. My mother (RIP) scolded one of my sisters for not only marrying a white man but a broke white man!

Berkeley,California is one of the most integrated cities in America, yet simutaneously it is one of the most racist cities in America. Since the white woman has exhausted the white man and black man, she now escapes into lesbianism with its racist expressions, the residue of unresolved notions of white supremacy. An instructor at Berkeley City College claims she was denied tenure because she used my book as a text: How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. White privilege has them so blinded they cannot see, think or act without expressing their racism. I shall end as I began with Dr. King,"I'd rather be with the KKK than phony white liberals." And let me add James Baldwin,"White supremacy has led white people to rationalizations so fantastic it approaches the pathological."
--Marvin X
6/28/11

The next meeting of the Mental Health Peer Group to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy Type II is Friday, July 1, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Be on time!

Dark Girls

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/24155797

Dark Girls: Preview
by Bradinn French

Clips from the upcoming documentary exploring the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color---particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture.

This film will be released in Fall/Winter 2011. Please "Like" the Dark Girls page on Facebook, we will keep you updated with news there. Please support us by helping us raise money at indiegogo.com/​Dark-Girls-Movie

Directed by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry
Produced by Bill Duke for Duke Media
and D. Channsin Berry for Urban Winter Entertainment
Co-Produced by Bradinn French
Line Produced by Cheryl L. Bedford
Edited by Bradinn French

Understanding White Supremacy in the Present Era

Understanding White Supremacy in the Present Era

Forget that post-black, post racism poppycock. Forget the first black president mirage, the illusion that imperialism and raw, naked capitalism cannot have a black face, kinder, gentler, yet the same motherfuckin bullshit from yesterday, just covered over with a light black face, one acceptable to the white masters and deceptible to the black masses, so gullible emotionally they will go for fried ice cream and purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge in one sale.

Thank God Master Fard Muhammad was able to trick us out of tricknology by entering our homes selling red silk cloth, yes, that same red in the flag used to march us through the jungle of Africa to the shores where we passed through the door of no return and boarded the Good Ship Jesus to the hell hole called America.

We must fully understanding that White Supremacy is cunning and vile, a drug so subtle that the entire world has become addicted. And it is a full blown illusion, yet so intractable it ensnares men, women and children of every ethnic group around the planet. Call it cultural imperialism, the dissemination of values that brainwash entire nations that become mental if not physical slaves of the dominate culture.

But it is in the superstructure, the laws and mores of White Supremacy, i.e. lunacy, that the victims become so utterly entrapped that we cannot imagine there are at least two laws operating in the White Supremacy slave system: one for the masters and one for the slaves.

Our poor ghetto brothers and sisters would never fully understand there are two laws or the application of said laws, depending on whether one lives in the hood or in the suburbs. In the hood there are numerous check point charlies where one is stopped regularly for any infraction. In the police state of New York City, blacks are stopped at the whim of "community police" and randomly checked for drugs, guns, probation or parole violations.

Now we have lived in the suburbs so we know the difference. We lived in a town called Castro Valley for a time at the pleasure of my patron, a rich black brother who had a son out of control at the loss of his mother due to cancer. The youth had a car with no license, no insurance, no tags, but was stopped speeding on several occasions. He was not arrested, ticketed or did he have his car taken. The police simply called his father and told him to come get his son, and the boy went home.

As I was the only adult at the house, virtually a mansion in this exclusive area, the youth had a party, but when neighbors called the police, they arrived but only wanted to know if an adult was in the house. When they saw me, they said thank you and good night, even though the youth were indeed doing drugs and drinking alcohol. The officers said, Good night, sir!

In employment, we have black people going totally insane due to discrimination on the job, especially when they are doubly qualified but are passed over continuously for advancement.

Even in education our children are told they cannot learn, thus they drop out or are pushed out because after being dumbed down, they lower the test scores and the resultant funding of the school district. Yet, we have the recent case of a young man in a dental assistant program who repeatedly received the highest test scores but was repeatedly overlooked when cash prizes were given out for the highest test score. This is the type of blatant discrimination we must endure of a daily basis in this so called Obamian Post-Black/racism era.

During my imprisonment for refusing to fight in Vietnam, I had a job in the yard office of looking up prisoners when they had a visit, so I had access to their files containing their offence and sentencing. I saw that a black bank robber got seven years on the average and a white bank robber three years. Need I say more? If you don't get it you ain't gonna get it, so why persist and prolong this conversation.

Sometimes it doesn't matter where we live, the result can be the same if we are black, witness the treatment given Harvard Professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates when he failed the tone test. In the hood the tone test is when encountering the police, depending on one's tone of voice, one can be arrested, released or killed. Imagine the innumerable blacks who fail the test. And black parents are guilty of not teaching their children, especially their sons, the tone test.

But alas, the tone test transcends the police, when encountering another black, we must exercise caution with our tone of voice, otherwise we may suffer the same fate as with the police. Depending on your tone of voice, another black may want to take you out, but ironically, no matter how disrespectful a white man may be, he ain't thinking about taking out no white man.

This is a case of what Dr. Nathan Hare calls Type II White Supremacy, the self hate variety, the misplaced aggression type. Another example of this behavior is when the community becomes enraged when the police kill us but when us kill us there is no similar response, no rallies, no march, no protest, only silent night.

The prescription is for us to recover from Type II White Supremacy, the self hate variety, so that we can have power over Type I, or rather, it shall have no power over us, once we detox and recover from Type II. See my book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy.