Concerning VIolence
Decolonizer
Read this recently.
A political autobiography of ether that in hindsight basically proves nothing has in changed in the last 50 years.
The best example of that in the world today is america. America has made it clear that she respects only violence. When the rebellion went down in 1967 in Plainfield, New Jersey, the cops and the National Guard came into the Black community and were raising hell until the brothers sent word that they had guns. The cops and the Guard said, hell, them ******s got guns. We can't go over there and mess with 'em. America does not love China, but she refuses to move against China because she has the bomb. And all those troops. So what it means is that Black people have to address themselves to defending their communities and their homes, because if you can't defend them, you can't control them. Black folks got guns, but every time somebody says we're violent, Black people get up tight. Hell, we've been violent toward each other every Friday and Saturday night since there's been a Friday and Saturday night. Go to the emergency room of any hospital and see who they're bringing in on the weekend. The brother, and didn't no cracker shoot him.
Violence is accepted in america as long as it's white folks doing it. Turn on the t.v. and you go deaf from all the gunfire. Let two fighters get in the ring and let neither one of them hit the other and see what the real savages out there are going to do. They're going to scream for blood. It's no different than the people in ancient Rome who put lions on people.
So the question is not can Black people be violent. They send us to Vietnam and brag about what good fighters we are. It's legitimate for a Black man to go over there and kill 30 Vietcong and get a medal, but you come back here and kill one racist, red-necked, honky, camel-breathed peckerwood who's been misusing you and your people all your life and that's murder. That's homicide, because the white man has the power to define and legitimatize his actions. He can legitimatize violence. At this point we must address ourselves to defensive measures, something that will counteract that violence.
The biggest difference between being known as a Black man or a negro is that if you're Black, then you do everything you can to fight white folks. If you're negro, you do everything you can to appease them. If you're Black, you're constantly in and out of trouble, because you're always messing with "the man." If white folks say it's more cultured to whisper, you talk loud. If white folks say gray suits are fashionable, you go buy a pink one. If they say america is great, you say america ain't shyt. Chairman Mao says, "Whatever the enemy supports, we oppose. Whatever the enemy opposes, we support." I hadn't read Chairman Mao when I was in high school, but I already understood that fundamental revolutionary principle. I knew white folks couldn't do wrong right, so whatever they thought was good, I knew wasn't.
A lot of people, Black and white, have the impression that those of us who got involved in the Movement, when it started in 1960, were fighting for integration. That's the way the white press interpreted the sit-ins and freedom rides and all that. But what they didn't understand was that none of us was concerned about sitting down next to a white man and eating a hamburger. Anybody who thinks that is reflecting white nationalism. That's that white supremacist attitude. Nothing is good unless it can be done in the company of white people. We would've been some kind of fools to get beaten up, spat on and jailed the way a lot of folks did just to sit down at a lunch counter beside a white person. Integration was never our concern. In fact, integration is impractical. You cannot legislate an attitude and integration is based upon an attitude of mutual acceptance and respect between two racial or cultural groups in the society. A law can govern behavior, but attitudes cannot be forced or enforced, and what the Civil Rights Movement was concerned with was controlling the animalistic behavior of white people. I resented somebody telling me I couldn't eat at a certain place. It wasn't that I wanted to eat there. Hell no! I always knew we had the best food anyway. But as part of that constant battle waged by Black people against white america, if white folks didn't want me to eat there, in the door I went. If I had a free choice, I'd sit in the back of the bus. That's where the heater is. We weren't fighting for integration. We were letting white folks know that they could no longer legislate where we went or what we did.
And it should be clear to all by now that there is no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. There's only one party in america and that's the party of white nationalism. Both parties have made it clear that they will not tolerate dissent from Blacks or from whites. And even if they did tolerate dissent, it wouldn't mean a damn thing, because dissent does not change policy. A hundred thousand people went to the Pentagon, and Johnson escalated the war. People took over the streets of Chicago and the Democratic Party nominated Hump the Dump. When the people cannot find a redress of their grievances within a system, they have no choice but to destroy the system which is responsible in the first place for their grievances. The government is the lawbreaker. The people must become the law enforcer. We cannot allow the government to be an outlaw, particularly when the crime is against the people.
lot of people, though, are afraid to defend their own lives. They're afraid to take a chance for their own liberation. But there's no other way to be free unless you put your life on the line. A lot of people are mad at me now, because they say that me and Carmichael and other dudes who've been out there talking are only setting the stage for the extermination of Black people. Well, if 30 million people have to go to free the people in Vietnam and Africa, fukk it. We've been living too long anyway. Only people who've never lived fear death. If you've lived, you know that death is part of the process. A lot of people say that it's regrettable that Malcolm got killed. But Malcolm was not an individual. His life didn't belong to him. No revolutionary can claim his life for himself. The life of the revolutionary belongs to the struggle. Malcolm, like Che, is not dead, because he was totally committed to the struggle. The only people who should make any kind of statement of regret over Malcolm's death are Malcolm's family. Death is the price of revolution. Malcolm assumed that responsibility and he knew what role he was playing. The shame is that the people who're going around screaming Malcolm now wouldn't listen to Malcolm when he was living.
Malcolm was the first Black leader to come out and tell Black people that they had a right to defend their own lives. Of course, it was negroes who needed to hear that, not Blacks. The brother on the block carried a knife in his diaper. He knew where it was at. America doesn't rule the world with love. It rules with guns, tanks, missiles, bombs, the Army, Air Force, Navy and the Marines. When america fights a nonviolent war; I'll become nonviolent. But I ain't gon' hold my breath waiting for that day to come around. People want to say that I preach violence. I preach a response to violence. Meet violence with violence. If you're minding your business and someone starts fukking with you, he's being violent, because he's infringing on your human rights. It's your responsibility to jump back at the muthafukka and make him back down or fight. If you don't, he knows that you're scared and that he can control you and that's your ass.
The news media tries to project me as an enemy not only to the system, but to my people, and the high bail that has been set on me every time I've been arrested proves this. I'm a crazy, dangerous ******, who hates white folks, according to the media. The news media is one of the greatest enemies to Black people. It is controlled by the ruling classes and is used to articulate their point of view. Every day the news media says, "The united states killed 2,000 Vietcong!" Hell, if you can count, it's obvious that there can't be no more Vietcong because the united states been killing them every day by the thousands for four years now. So it's obvious that somebody's lying somewhere. But negroes got more confidence in Huntley and Brinkley than Catholics got in the Pope.
The media claims that I teach hate. Hate, like love, is a feeling. How can you teach a feeling? If Black people hate white people it's not because of me, it's because of what white people do to Black people. If hate can be taught, ain't no better teacher than white people themselves. I hate oppression. I am anti anybody who is anti-Black. Now if that includes most white people in america, it ain't my fault. That's just the way the bones break. I don't care whether or not white people hate me. It's not essential that a man love you to live. But "the man" has to respect you.
America is always playing her game, though. Turning anything and everything around to suit its own purposes. When Jews talk about what the Germans did to them, that's history and everybody agrees that it's history. But as soon as Black people begin to raise the question of what white folks have done to them and what white folks do to them daily, they say that it's hate. But you also got negro people walking around talking about Rap Brown and Carmichael teaching hate. The brothers know that if you saw a white man slap your sister down, you'd react with hate. It's not because anybody told you to hate the white man who slapped your sister, it's because you're supposed to hate a muthafukka who treats you worse than he treats his dog. The brothers knew all along that they didn't dig slavery.
Each individual Black person decides for himself whether or not he hates all whites. Racism in reverse is charged when Blacks don't profess their undying love for whites. But racism is based upon the concept of racial superiority, which Blacks have not yet alluded to. The Black Movement has never pushed the doctrine of racial superiority. But what upsets the media is that we don't say we love all white people. White folks get up tight if the first words a Black person say don't deal with love. That's their problem. If they haven't been oppressing Black people then they ain't got nothing to feel bad about. If they're fighting to destroy this racist country, then they know that what I'm saying about oppression does not apply to them. And they also know that I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to Black people. They're eaves-dropping.
White people got hung up on integration. Segregation was the problem and the elimination of segregation was the solution, not integration. It was the unequal nature of segregation that Black people protested against in the South, not segregation itself. Separate but equal is cool with me. What's the big kick about going to school with white folks? Them that want to do that should have the chance. But that ain't no solution.
This country has always used negroes as a political tool against Blacks. Without a common Black political doctrine, america will use (and is using) Blacks against Blacks. Blackness must be political in our behalf. Individuals can no longer be immune to public political criticism because they are "Black and proud." There must be revolutionary political criticism of counter-revolutionary positions and acts. Some individuals who gain popularity in Black america are later used as tools by white america. In most cases, white political interest comes as a result of the existing popularity of the Black individuals. Understand, popularity does not reflect correctness. Blackness alone is not revolutionary.
White folks realize now that they can concede Blackness and still exercise control. This country says, "Yes, you may be Black; but, you must be american," which means we are as responsible for oppression as whites. This country says, "Yeah, you may have Black heroes; but, we must approve of them." So, they publicize negroes who have been beneficial to this country. The tactic of co-opting is being used to its fullest. White folks will co-opt dog shyt if it's to their advantage. Today, ******s are tomming and don't even know they're tomming. We must say as Fidel Castro says, "No liberalism whatsoever! No softening whatsoever! A revolutionary people, a political people — a strong people — this is what is needed throughout these years. . . . What do the dangers or the sacrifices of a man or of a nation matter when the destiny of humanity is at stake?"
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statements and topics. A bit heavy handed but I think we need it right now.