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Democratic Blue and Peoplehood Black: Necessary Distinctions Between People and Party 
Dr. Maulana KarengaOpinion

Democratic Blue and Peoplehood Black: Necessary Distinctions Between People and Party 

Dr. Maulana KarengaNovember 17, 2022

 It is said that the defeat of Donald Trump signals that the country is ready for a change, but we have not been given on the nightly news, on social media or by mail, anything that resembles a comprehensive view of what the change might look like. Nor have we heard from the academy, Congress, or the corporate world anything beyond convenient confessions that Black lives do indeed matter.  

“Forging Our Future With Fannie Lou Hamer: The Urgency and Value of Voting”
Dr. Maulana KarengaNews

“Forging Our Future With Fannie Lou Hamer: The Urgency and Value of Voting”

Dr. Maulana KarengaOctober 8, 2020

In the midst of the pandemic of COVID 19, the ongoing pathology of racist oppression and lying imposed as a way of life, the sacred charge to us by our honored foremother, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer (October 6), to constantly question and radically transform America is both urgent and enduringly relevant. She taught that justice and freedom require truth and “if we want America to be a free society, we must stop lying” and stop people’s lying from going unchallenged. Indeed, we must speak truth to the people and speak truth to power

Madcapping and Conning with Trump: Feeding Americans Addiction to Illusions
Dr. Maulana Karenga

Madcapping and Conning with Trump: Feeding Americans Addiction to Illusions

Dr. Maulana KarengaApril 30, 2020

Nurturing and asserting the narrowest and most degraded forms of individualism, they find it difficult to feel for others, delay gratification and think seriously about the consequences of their actions and those of their monster mentor. Afterall, Trump has assured them he needs no mask, argued early that the virus was a hoax, dismissed it for months and made no national preparations for it. Instead, he has offered them safety and salvation behind apartheid walls, bans on Muslims, Africans – Continental and Caribbean, Latinos and Asians, imprisoning and packing immigrants together in unsanitary and disease producing conditions, and urging them, his followers, to rush into the streets and rage against restrictions and rules instituted to save lives, including their own.

Bringing Forth the Fire Within Us: Weathering the Worst of Winters
COVID-19Dr. Maulana Karenga

Bringing Forth the Fire Within Us: Weathering the Worst of Winters

Dr. Maulana KarengaApril 2, 2020

Reflecting on the challenge before us, I am drawn to the word for “challenge” in Swahili, changamoto. The word is a combination of two words—moto (fire) and changa which has several meanings, but is here interpreted as both to collect and to contribute. Thus, it literally means both to collect and contribute fire, a gathering and giving of fire, interpreting fire here as vital and transformative energy and focused and determined agency.

Black Women, Men and HIV/AIDS: Shared Responsibility in Love, Life and Struggle
Dr. Maulana KarengaHealthOpinion

Black Women, Men and HIV/AIDS: Shared Responsibility in Love, Life and Struggle

Dr. Maulana KarengaDecember 6, 2018

This year as we again observe the days set aside to mark and remind us of both the tragic passing and praiseworthy endurance of victims of HIV/AIDS among us, we, of necessity, continue to search for solutions, i.e., how to increase prevention, ensure treatment and care, expand education, reduce and end high risk and reckless behavior, and encourage everyone to engage in practices to save lives, promote health and secure well-being and flourishing for us all.

Beyond Elections and Fictions of Fear: Realities of Race and Righteous Struggle
Dr. Maulana Karenga

Beyond Elections and Fictions of Fear: Realities of Race and Righteous Struggle

Dr. Maulana KarengaNovember 22, 2018

Although not overwhelming, the blue wave of Democratic election victories has washed over the U.S. in an important and promising way and it is good to celebrate on one hand, but also to review and stand ready to resume, continue and expand our efforts in struggle beyond the electoral arena. For regardless of the final count of votes and the naming of those who won, the realities of race and righteous struggle remain ongoing and urgent. And thus, there is still organizing work to be done, struggle for racial and social justice and equity to be waged and a radical transformation of society to be achieved around the central and enduring issues of wealth, power and status, especially statuses of race, class and gender, as well as other identities by which people are singled out, interiorized and oppressed.

Trump’s Mind, Mouth and Fecal Matters: Racism’s Red Meat and Raw Sewage
Dr. Maulana KarengaOp-EdOpinion

Trump’s Mind, Mouth and Fecal Matters: Racism’s Red Meat and Raw Sewage

Dr. Maulana KarengaJanuary 18, 2018

The long history of racism of Donald J. Trump has come home to haunt him and to hold him up to a withering and rightful world-wide moral outrage, criticism and condemnation. And his vulgar and morally reprehensible offense must not be dismissed as normal and diminished as unimportant nor rightful criticism be diverted in other ways. On the contrary, this criticism must become an ongoing ever-present part of the overall resistance to his crude, cruel and destructive regime. Indeed, he has waded in the squalid swamp of racist comments and practice for decades, viciously attacking as citizen, candidate and president the various peoples of color: Africans, Native Americans, Latinos and Asians.

Living the Legacy of Our History: Resolutions for Righteous and Relentless Struggle
Dr. Maulana KarengaOp-EdOpinion

Living the Legacy of Our History: Resolutions for Righteous and Relentless Struggle

Dr. Maulana KarengaJanuary 11, 2018

Even though we might have made new year’s resolutions in all honesty, the established order cultivates a climate that makes them soon lose their relevance and reality. And it systematically urges us to move on to the TV spectacles, tech toys and shopping sprees that divert us and make too many of us avoid the serious, dismiss, deny or downplay the suffering of others, and seek the comfortable places in oppression posed as the sensible, safe and “normal” thing to do.