In this month of raising up, remembering and reflecting deeply on the life and legacy of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, I want to share an excerpt on his concept of reflective consciousness from my forthcoming book, “The Liberation Ethics of Malcolm X: Critical Consciousness, Moral Grounding and Transformative Struggle.”
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.
It is a fundamental Kawaida contention that we must bear the burden and glory of our history with strength, dignity and determination. Surely, the times ahead of us will demand of us the resourcefulness, resilience and righteous resistance by which we understand and assert ourselves in history and as history, embodied and unfolding. This means, in the language of everyday people, there can be no half-steppin’, no nick namin’ the truth, no spittin’ in the wind to see which way to go. On the contrary, we must be the storm riders and river turners Howard Thurman and Gwen Brooks calls on us to be. And like Harriet Tubman, we must reject individual escape, turn around towards our people, confront our oppressor and oppression and dare continue the difficult and demanding work and struggle to achieve freedom, justice, peace and other goods in and for the world.
Dialoging with DuBois on History: Preserving Memory, Maintaining Culture
In the historical narrative of his return to Kemet to end isfet, political anarchy and injustice, and to re-establish Maat, a just and rightful order, the Nubian Pharaoh Piankhi speaks of this choice of life or death.
I’m sick of symbolic things; we’re fighting for our lives”. Thus, for Obama’s election to be more than a useful symbol for a country unable to criticize and seriously change itself, it must be part and parcel of our struggle to save and expand lives
Frantz Fanon (July 20,1925–December 6, 1961), noble ancestor and teacher of the righteous, radical and transformative word; believed in Africa’s capacity to repair, raise and renew itself, and in the African people’s will to unite and liberate themselves , bring into being a new world, woman and man, and start a new history of Africa and humankind.
In defining Black Power as an ongoing revolt, my intention was to pose and help shape it as a process and practice of righteous and relentless struggle, a sustained righteous resistance against White racism, cultural imperialism, domination, deprivation and degradation imposed on us and the world in all its violent and vicious forms.
It is an often repeated Kawaida contention that “This is our duty: to know our past and honor it; to engage our present and improve it; and to imagine a whole new future and forge it in the most ethical, effective and expansive ways.”
There is nothing more definitive of the destructive approach to us as a people than state-imposed and state-sanctioned violence. In other words, not only does the state, i.e., federal, state and local governments and their agents and institutions, commit violence against us, they also accept and approve it as normal and necessary.
It would be dishonest and self-deluding to deny that we, as a people, are living in dangerous, difficult and demanding times. And one of the defining features of these problematic times is the death-dealing and disabling conditions of our lives; conditions in which we live and too often die; conditions of ongoing and severe oppression; and personal and collective insecurity about our safety and survival.
It is a time-tested sacred teaching of our ancestors in the Husia that to do that which is of value is for eternity. The woman and man brought forth by their work do not die for their name is raised and remembered because of it.
This is my standard column written to commemorate the Watts Revolt and to pay rightful homage to those who lost, gave and risked their lives to advance the struggle.
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.