Dr. Karenga

To Unite the Nation With Justice: Securing Medicine, Money and Means for All

Dr. Maulana KarengaJanuary 28, 2021

The current conversations concerning the urgency and need to unite the nation must always be undergirded and informed by a parallel recognition of the urgent and unavoidable need of an inclusive and substantive justice. For there can be no real, moral or meaningful unity without justice. As we know from centuries of sustained struggle and reflection, without justice there can be no peace, only an imposed order, a coerced and counterfeit unity. For both unity and peace are the products of the practice and presence of justice, an inclusive and substantive justice. To speak of substantive justice is to speak of a justice that rightfully gives each and all their due, not simply a procedural justice that goes through legal procedures that may not produce a rightful result or process.

Dr. Maulana Karenga

“Rising in Resistance with Paul Robeson: Athletes Joining the Struggle for Racial Justice”

Dr. Maulana KarengaSeptember 3, 2020

The recent wave of walkouts and walkaways from playing and practice in protest against the savage shooting of Jacob Blake, first by the Milwaukee Bucks and followed by others in solidarity, i.e., the NBA, the WNBA, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer, is clearly worthy of rightful notice, prolific praise and a good measure of celebration.

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.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

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.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

Remembering and Reflecting on Kwame Ture: Pan-Africanism, Revolution and Cultural Grounding

Dr. Maulana Karenga, ColumnistJune 8, 2017

It is our moral obligation, our foremother, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, tells us, “never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over”. And such a sturdy and unbreakable bridge was/is Kwame Ture. So, in the month of June we pay special homage to Kwame Ture (June 29, 1941—November 15, 1998), tall and unwavering tree in the revered forest of Pan-Africanist freedom fighters; tireless unifying organizer of our people in their righteous pursuit of liberation, justice and power over their destiny and daily lives; and honored and all-seasons revolutionary whose permanent posture and signature saying was always “ready for the revolution.”

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

Outrage and Revolt in 1992: Remembrance and Continuing the Struggle

Dr. Maulana KarengaMay 1, 2017

As we gather to remember and mark the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles Revolt and to discuss the course of history after it, it is important to place it in the context of the long history of Black resistance in which revolt is a central and defining feature. Indeed, ours is a history of resistance through which revolts run like a bright red line, stretching from the age of colonialism, imperialism and the Holocaust of enslavement through segregation and the Black Freedom Movement of the 60s to the revolts and other forms of resistance in our time, from Ferguson onward. Such critical remembering is at the heart of the article below, previously published as a 20th anniversary assessment and reveals how history does not exactly repeat itself, but retains features of things and thoughts which remain stubbornly among us and require continuing righteous resistance for their removal and the radical transformation toward which revolts point and push us and history.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

Standing Steadfast With Paul Robeson: Refusing to Change With the Weather

Dr. Maulana KarengaApril 12, 2017

Among the sacred names of our honored ancestors which we raise and praise this month, let us pay homage and pour libation for Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898—January 23, 1976), a truly Imhotepian man, in the classical African sense of the word, i.e., a master of many disciplines of knowledge and skilled practice directed toward bringing good in the world. Indeed, he was a critically acclaimed actor, singer, scholar, civil and human rights activist, orator and advocate of workers and everyday people everywhere. However, it is important to note that it is not simply his professional excellence and achievement which made him who he was and won for him accolades, honors and reverent respect around the world, but also his profound and steadfast commitment to his principles and his people and to humanity as a whole, especially ordinary, everyday people.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

Honoring August Wilson: Holding Hallowed Cultural Ground

Dr. Maulana KarengaApril 6, 2017

In the month of remembering, reading and raising up the work and life of August Wilson (April 27, 1945-October 2, 2005), arguably the most successful and celebrated playwright in U.S. history, one is unavoidably impressed with his unswerving, deep-rooted love and appreciation of his people and culture as the central source of his grounding, his expansive grasp of human life and his impressive creative production. Indeed, he said of Black people and his work, “What I tried to do…in all my works is to reveal the richness of the lives of the people who show that the largest ideas are contained in their lives and that there is a nobility to their lives.”

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

Moral Indifference and Obligations of Memory: Seeking Sanctuary and Support for Everyone

Dr. Maulana KarengaFebruary 23, 2017

It is important, even imperative, that we always remember who we are, for in times especially like these, the obligation placed on us by our memory is awesome and unavoidable. In spite of the duly authorized and official denials, there is a pervasive and persistent moral indifference to the suffering of others, to the destructive harm heaped in heavy loads on their overburdened lives. And there is for us as a people who have suffered so much and struggled so hard for freedom and justice in the world an obligation not to forget, but to remember; not to remain silent, but to bear witness to truth; and not to be tolerant or indifferent to evil, but to relentlessly resist it. Indeed, it is an ethical imperative of our tradition that resounds and rings true through the ages, i.e., that we are to remember and bear witness to truth and set the scales of justice in their proper place, especially among those who have no voice.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

Malcolm’s Lessons of Life and Struggle: An Ethics of Service and Sacrifice

Dr. Maulana KarengaFebruary 16, 2017

This is the month and year that marks the 52nd anniversary of the martyrdom and murder of Malcolm X, his assassination and ultimate sacrifice for the love and liberation of his people and the advancement of the cause of human freedom and flourishing in the world. For Us and our people, Africans everywhere, he will always be in the words of the sacred Husia: “a glorious spirit in heaven and a continuing powerful presence on earth. He shall be counted and honored among the ancestors. His name shall endure as a monument and what he has done on earth shall never perish or pass away.”

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed

Rethinking Thanksgiving: Beyond Big Turkeys and Small Talk

Dr Maulana Karenga, Sentinel ColumnistNovember 26, 2016

The histories and holidays of the oppressed, colonized and enslaved are, of necessity, different from the history and holidays of the oppressor, the colonizer and the enslaver. Likewise, their interpretations of those histories and holidays also differ, for they are lived and learned from different standpoints. Thus, the Palestinians call the conquest and colonization of Palestine, the Nakba—the Great Catastrophe, and the Israelis call it the war of independence. The Native Americans call the conquest and colonization of their land and the decimation of their people genocide and Holocaust. The Europeans call it “discovery,” “the move westward,” “reaching the promised land,” and other self-sanitizing words and phrases.

Local News

The Los Angeles Sentinel Interviews Maulana Karenga

Special to the SentinelSeptember 23, 2015

On the eve the 50th Anniversary Nguzo Saba 2015 Conference and Awards Luncheon held by the African American Cultural Center and the Organization Us, the Sentinel interviewed the central figure of this half century celebration and milestone, Dr. Maulana Karenga. An activist scholar of international recognition, Dr. Karenga is professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is also chair of the Organization Us and of the National Association of Kawaida Organizations (NAKO), executive director of the African American Cultural Center and co-chair of the Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance