He was there at Pearl Harbor, when the battleships were still smoldering. He was there at Okinawa. He was there at Iwo Jima, where he said, ‘I only got out of there by the grace of God said former President Barack Obama in 2013 during a Veterans Day ceremony honoring Overton at Arlington National Cemetery.
The racial consciousness and discourse of the West was forged on slave ships carrying human cargos into the Caribbean and the Americas. The search for agricultural commodities and profits from the extreme exploitation of Black people, deemed as less than human, gave birth to the notion of racial inequality.
In these uncertain and unsettling times of the self-silencing of the lambs, the fearful and fatigued surrender of summer soldiers, and the out-of-control hate-filled howling of ice age winter wolves, lessons and models of struggle and resistance from the sacred narrative of our history are both appropriate and compelling.
A simmering dispute between the U.S. and Ghana appears to be resolved. Some 7,000 Ghanaians can now be deported from the U.S. and a key demand – that their Ghanaian citizenship be proven before deportation – has been dropped.
America is a melting pot of people from all over the world. Some groups came willingly to pursue new opportunities, such as the forefathers of the “new world;” whereas, some were brought against their will in the form of slaves, indentured servants or temporary workers.
“School Girls,” or the African Mean Girls play, is here in Los Angeles at the Kirk Douglas Theatre for one last weekend until Sept. 30.
The negative implications of disunity are clear though largely ignored, even though now, more than ever, Black unity on political, economic and public policy issues is crucial-not just for forward progress, but our very survival. Today’s column takes a closer look at Black disunity and the need to come together to develop strategic alternatives for concrete sustainable change.
In an NNPA Newswire exclusive, Steele said the damning New York Times op-ed by a senior Trump administration official was likely written by a team of the president’s trusted hierarchy and it’s a clear signal that America is now witnessing a White House in utter chaos.
But if there is any legacy or uplifting lessons left by the 60s, it is that we must resist these new forms of unfreedom and falsification of history and continue to wage struggles of liberation on every level of life. For these struggles are clearly the indispensable way we understand, free and fulfill ourselves and the aspirations of our ancestors. Indeed, these are struggles demanded by our inherent right to freedom, our natural need for justice and our irrepressible longing for a liberated life. And it is a struggle for and longed for life that yields ordinary and special spaces in which the human spirit is nurtured and constantly renewed, and we and other human beings know ourselves as sacred and at the center and subject of every day and hour of history we make.
The leaders of the desegregation social protest movement of a generation ago mobilized millions with one simple demand, “freedom.” In the context of a racially segregated society of the South in post-World War II, freedom meant elimination of all social, political, legal and economic barriers that forced African Americans into a subordinate status.
The year 1965 began on an ominous and unsettling note—the assassination and martyrdom of Malcolm X, the Fire Prophet. Even in the white and winter cold of February, it was a sign of the coming fire. Indeed, it pointed toward the fiery fulfillment of prophecy which Malcolm, himself, had predicted. It was there, too, in the title of James Baldwin’s classic, The Fire Next Time. And it was the topic of countless conversations around the country. Baldwin had taken his title from a line in a Black gospel song which says: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time.” And this, for us, was the fundamental time of turning when the fire would be this time.
America was built on violence and a propensity for violence is evidenced throughout its history. Many feel that this likely stems from a euro-centric propensity for dominance and greed that contaminates others, but none more than Blacks who singularly bore the horrific burden of chattel slavery.
Traveling across the country as well as abroad allows one to take in a variety of opinions and perspectives. Understanding different attitudes and points of view can help navigate the awkwardness of sensitive topics that I was curious to discuss. As I traveled through various parts of Italy and Greece recently, I had the opportunity to share my thoughts about forgiveness, humanity, hope, peace, love and happiness to a variety of people and what I found is that all of us have the same basic concerns. One of those concerns pertains to the direction the world and mankind is headed in today’s political and global climate, but overall people still believe in humanity and that goodness will prevail.
Inherent in this deceptive and hypocritical call for civility and condemnation of confrontation of the oppressor and oppression everywhere are attempts to tie it to both irresponsible activity and violence. Min. Malcolm taught us that this is a standard tactic of the oppressor to discredit and deter resistance. He observed how the established order seeks to silence and crush resistance by associating it with violence and criminalizing it. Using lynching as an example, he says that they redefine victim and victimizer “If (we) do anything to stop the man from putting that rope around (our) neck.”
Deny this country what you will, it is without question a land of illusions, illusions about the meaning of truth, the measure of greatness and the almightiness of weaponry, wealth and whiteness. There is this thing about claiming to be “the best” without being able to just be good and about becoming a “more perfect union” without having first achieved perfection, something which in more sober moments is deemed humanly impossible.