Not an isolated or unexpected event, it came as an act of collective resistance to police violence and brutality, merchant exploitation and humiliation, and sustaining systemic racism
It is from the immeasurable depth, breadth and length of the sacred library of our history that Haji Malcolm X teaches and reminds us we are richly rewarded for all our research.
We are again on the battlefield of health and well-being for our people confronted with a vicious virus that is ravaging our communities at higher rates than others with the possible exception of Native Americans.
The history and culture of Haiti is marked by extraordinary expressions of revolutionary struggle and victory, suffering and repression, but always righteous and relentless resistance of the people and their radical refusal to be defeated. The Haitian nation was born in revolutionary struggle, achieving what no enslaved people had done before or after. It defeated its enslavers and other armies and political forces that sought to thwart and negate its national liberation, inspired and assisted liberation struggles in Latin America, and became a beacon of African and human liberation, teaching possibility and achievement against all odds. But the enemies of Haiti, the world African community and human freedom never forgave it and has since its birth worked to divide it, reconquer it, and reverse its instructive and enduring achievement. In a word, their efforts were directed towards rendering it irrelevant, except as a site of imperialist exploitation, name-calling and conversational contempt.
Without a doubt and with no real reason for reservation, Frantz Omar Fanon stood out for our organization Us and remains as a model and mirror of the revolutionary thought and practice which we committed ourselves to and dared.
Seba Malcolm said it, we saw it and history has proved it. Indeed, he taught that “of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research.” Likewise, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois stated that “We can only understand the present by continually referring to and studying the past.”
It is good to sing and celebrate ourselves, to dance in honor of the divine spark and specialness within each of us, and to rejoice in the midst of the sacred music we together make in the many ways we love and struggle to do and share good in the world.
These conversations about resurgent racism bring to mind the Greek mythological many-headed snake-like monster that, if you cut off one of its heads, would grow back two more in its place. And only the god-like superhero, Hercules, could kill it. But racism is real, not a myth, in spite of fervent and faithful denials by its most devout, delusional and passionate practitioners.
The celebration of Juneteenth nationally took a new turn in its bid to become a nationally recognized Black holiday last year in the context of the intensified struggle against police violence and systemic racism.
One of the greatest and continuing challenges of our lives, in both ordinary and extraordinary times is to know how to live a good life and then to actually live it in a conscious, committed and determined way.
This current focus of the country on this horrendous act of racist terrorism, massacre and mayhem and destruction imposed and inflicted on the Black people of Tulsa, May 31-June 1, does not come as an expression of required contrition after a century of concealment and denial. Rather, it comes as a result of the long difficult, dangerous, deadly and demanding struggle by Black people for freedom, justice and equity in this country.
Likewise, to resist erasure of the memories and ultimate meaning of the massacre of our people, we must not only speak the truth of our own lives and history, but we must also resist the incomplete, inaccurate and dishonest telling and interpretation of it by others
Min. Malcolm cites the police violence approved by the White public; the educational system that savages the mind and breaks the spirit of our children and youth; the political system that suppresses our voice and vote; the media that distorts and criminalizes our identity and interests; an economy that exploits and deprives us of a life of dignity and decency; and the churches which abandon their moral responsibility to support and ally in radical struggle with the downtrodden, poor and disempowered. He speaks too of not only the domestic problem and oppression posed by racism, but also its reach abroad as imperialism and colonialism and the damage and devastation this imposes on the lives and lands of the people, whether in brutally occupied Haiti, Palestine or Uighur land (Xijiang) in China.
As we celebrate the graduation of our young people stepping into the world and continue the critically important struggle for quality education for our children, I think of all the Seba, the teachers of the good, the right and the possible, that I’ve known.
There is a rising tide of righteous and relentless resistance by Palestinians to Israeli apartheid and occupation, and Black people and others around the world are increasingly speaking up and actively standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their liberation struggle.