Black Student Unions unanimously call for Prison Divestment

featured image: Rasheed Shabazz for Afrikan Black Coalition

“Patience has its limits. Take it too far and it’s cowardice” --George Jackson

The Afrikan Black Coalition, the largest statewide coalition of Black students, recently reported on the $25 million investment in private prisons and $425 million investment in Wells Fargo by the University of California (“UC”). After learning further about the for-profit industry of mass incarceration, the Black Student Unions at all nine UC campuses have unanimously voted on a resolution calling on the UC regents to divest immediately. The formal resolution calls on the UC Regents to divest from private prisons, divest from Wells Fargo, and to create a Socially Responsible Investment Screening Committee. For Black students, the decision was simple from both a personal and political standing.

Black students are intimately familiar with the disproportionate rate at which Black bodies are rounded up and fed to the carceral state. The impact of mass incarceration on Afrikan & immigrant folks in the United States cannot be ignored. We must not forget that we live in the United States, where the legacy of criminalizing Blackness is a constitutive element of the nation’s fabric. And if we truly believe that #BlackLivesMatter from the hood to the academy, we must stand with our brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and extended family members who are currently incarcerated or are at a higher risk of incarceration because of their very Blackness. We must not forget about leaders who came before us and who still remain trapped as political prisoners in a futile attempt to isolate our revolutionary elders from our Black masses. This is not empty rhetoric. Addressing the reality of this problem includes addressing the sheer number of our lives earmarked for incarceration in order to feed a system of modern-day slavery. Some of us “make it” to college only to remain shackled to student loans for life, some of us are targeted in modern day lynchings, and most of us are enslaved anew. 

Slavery never disappeared. A caveat was attached to the 13th Amendment of 1865 that  declared slavery an unlawful entity, except when serving as a punishment for a “crime”. Prisons are the latest iteration of slavery and the newest repackaging of Jim Crow. The FBI states that violent crime in the U.S. has dropped since 1991, yet the amount of people in private prisons has steadily risen. While many other countries were busy reducing the numbers of prisoners and frequency of imprisonment, the U.S. created a racially coded “War on Crime,” mandatory minimum sentences, and a three strikes policy. These punitive approaches combined with a focus on “law & order” are blatantly racist and classist. For example, Black and white folks use drugs at similar rates, yet Black folks are much more likely to be arrested. In 2010, Black men were incarcerated at a rate of 5,525 per 100,000, compared to 1,146 for Latinos, 671 for whites, and 43 for Asians. For women, the Sentencing Project reports that the lifetime imprisonment rate is 1 in 56 for all women. Yet the lifetime imprisonment rate for white women is 1 in 118 for white women versus 1 in 19 for Black women. And in 2010, Black women were incarcerated at a rate of 133 per 100,000 women, which is nearly 3 times the rate of white women. However, the population most at risk is Black youth (under 18 years old). Young Black women are the fastest growing segment of the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system. 

So we must ask ourselves, what could the Black community accomplish if these invisible people were made visible and released from America’s chains? When private prisons make $122/day from each prisoner, yet each prisoner makes anywhere from one to five dollars a day, who is profiting? While the state of California only built three CSU campuses and one UC campus in the last 30 years, 23 prisons were built in that same timeframe. Private prison divestment is not merely a personal, political or an academic issue for Black students, but a human rights issue. It is clear that investment in private prisons does not align with the proposed values of the UC and the Black students at the UC have spoken in unison and with piercing clarity: we must divest NOW!

The demands are simple.

1. Divest, effective immediately, the $25 million sum in CCA, The Geo Group, and other private prisons.

2. Divest, effective immediately, the $425 million sum in Wells Fargo as long as Wells Fargo has any business relations with the private prison industry.

3. The UC Regents must institute a policy to never invest in private prison corporation.

4. The UC Regents must institute a policy to never invest in Wells Fargo for as long as Wells Fargo has any business dealings with private prison corporations.

5. The UC President Napolitano and the Regents must issue a memorandum advising all the individual UC foundations to DIVEST all their holdings from private prisons and Wells Fargo immediately.

6. The UC Regents must mandate the Chief Investment Officer to provide quarterly investment reports to the Afrikan Black Coalition.

7. The UC Regents must implement a Socially Responsible Investment screen committee that actively researches whether future corporations the UC invests in are held to ethical standards and such committee must have representatives from the Afrikan Black Coalition and UCSA.

8. The millions of funds which will be divested must get re-invested in education, and companies that are owned or controlled by the formerly incarcerated.

You don't have to be white to be a white supremacist.

You don't have to be white to be a white supremacist.

By: Andre Thompson

White supremacy is operating and making efforts to keep the status quo of whiteness intact. Dr. Dennis Childs said that "we cannot mistake the skin color of who enacts a white supremacist act for it not being white supremacist. I bring this up because my school (yes MY school) UC San Diego has a white population of 22 %. This means that the rest of the student body is in some ways facilitating the anti-blackness that happens on campus. To my people of color (POC) out there thats been shooting with me in the gym this isn't a call out to you. This isn't a call out to any individual. This is a call out based on facts.

At UC San Diego there is an expectation to consume Black media by any means necessary. This became evident to me when there are Black performers on campus, Black superstar athletes on campus, and the Straight Outta Compton movie showing fiasco. When Black performers come to campus all of a sudden the campus us in support of Blackness. It's hard to get POC to come to BSU General Body Meetings describing the harmful impacts of hip hop on Black women and the homophobia and transphobia that is rampant throughout, but it was very easy to get people to show up to see Joey Bada$$, Ty Dolla $ign, and Juicy J. When we have our Kwanzaa celebration it's hard to have POC come out and support our Black professors that speak, but it's easy for them to get excited to see Steph Curry or Chris Paul at RIMAC. This culminated into the attempt to show Straight Outta Compton at UCSD without any dialogue but as a means for “entertainment”. If it wasn’t for Black students calling out our Associated Students (UCSD’s Student Government) for this bullshit the movie probably would have been shown. The backlash from the postponement was one of the most disgusting comment threads I’ve read. There were mostly non white POC criticising Associated Students (AS) and calling the Black students “babies” that need to “grow up”.

It’s hard to “grow up” when last July I was once again harassed by UC police, when racists working in the bookstore refuse to help me because they don’t think I have the money to afford the macbook I saved for, when white girls in your Anthropology class believe they know what it's like to be a Black male in higher education because they are “the only blonde girl in their Taiwanese film class.”  This translated to our own VC of Student Affairs Juan Gonzales saying that he didn't see the anti-blackness on campus. This is all to the point of bringing up substantive and descriptive POC representation. Descriptive POC representation is when a person of color is in a place. This is important and allows for much progress in society. Substantive representation is when a person regardless of their race are in place fight for the rights of POC. This important for us to understand because if you are a POC and still perpetuating white supremacy you are no better than Don Lemon and Ben Carson.

I hope that people can take small steps to decolonizing their minds. Small steps could be having a conversation about the origin of a lot of the history. If most of the history you have is based off of american high school education please be open to new thoughts and ideas that are contradictory to those ingrained facts that are written by old rich white men. I say that knowing there is a privilege I have of being in college and not having to worry about day to day survival. This is not a post of elitism but rather a post about questioning everything and everybody at all times.

Andre Thompson is a 3rd Year UC San Diego Political Science major and African American studies minor, he is also the Internal Vice Chair of BSU.

Where's the Coverage on Daniel Holtzclaw?

Where's the Coverage on Daniel Holtzclaw?

By Kadijah Means

More than a year ago Daniel Holtzclaw, a police officer, was charged with 36 counts of sexual assault including rape and oral sodomy against 12 Black women and a 17 year old Black girl. The serial rapist is going to trial today, and the minimal news coverage is proof that Black women and girls are not only irrelevant to the American public, but also not considered real victims.

There is one case (only one) where a white man-- in this case white men-- are convicted of raping Betty Lee Owens a Black women, but not another case and definitely not a cop conviction. In this moment, Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who masqueraded as a Black women is trending on twitter, and I am further disgusted at the United States’ ability to erase the significance of Black women. White women are frequently awarded the sympathy of this nation, and seeing any moment spent on Dolezal, a white women, when Black women are fighting a battle history dictates they will lose is infuriating. While it is certainly possible to care about more than one pressing matter at a time-- that is not the case here. Daniel Holtzclaw has committed atrocities and his victims (survivors) deserve justice. Unfortunately, the United States’ history of denying the value of Black women, has created doubt that the justice these Black women deserve is one the U.S is capable of providing.
The lack of media coverage is expected as white media has displayed a lackadaisical approach to all things concerning the attack on Blackness. This is why we need Black media to inform our people about our people. So for now, we scour the internet for any coverage of the Holtzclaw trial; and hope that history doesn’t repeat itself in a disappointing, yet reasonably unsurprising way.

Help Support the Burial of Mario Woods.

This past Wednesday Mario Woods was executed by the San Francisco Police Department. His family is requesting financial support to help with the burial. Please support here. Below is a message from the Woods family.

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With Sadness,

On December 2, 2015 on or around about 4:30pm, the SFPD shot and brutally killed my son Mario Woods. Mario was a very outgoing, passionate and self-motivated young man. Mario was a charm to his family and everyone that he came in contact with. He had a way of helping people when and where he could.

Living in a low income community, Mario faced many obstacles which he was able to overcome. Three years ago, I noticed my son suffered from severe depression and mental health issues; something also not well represented in our community.  As a mother, I worked around the clock to get my son the help he needed; to no avail.

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the death of my son, I am still charged with resting his body.  Currently I am without means so I’m reaching out with the help of GO Fund Me, strangers, family and friends for help to cover funeral expenses.

No contribution is too small…..

Thanks in Advance

The Woods Family

From Mizzou to Cal: Why Black Graduate Students at UC Berkeley Support #ConcernedStudent1950

From Mizzou to Cal: Why Black Graduate Students at UC Berkeley Support #ConcernedStudent1950

During the last three years, we have witnessed an enormous national recognition of Black student activism. Black students from historically white institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges, high schools, and all other levels of education have responded to anti-Blackness in all walks of life for centuries. Across the globe, from as far asSouth Africa to our neighbors in Seattle, Washington, we continue to reject and dismantle all forms of systemic oppression and anti-Blackness that we encounter in our personal, academic
and professional lives.

As the violent and hypervisible murders of Sandra Bland, Kayla Moore, Aiyana Stanley-Jones,Rekia Boyd, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and countless others lost to extra-judicial violence fill our consciousness, we are forced to act. We refuse the post-racial rhetoric that America produces to feel safe from it’s own violent history and from its continued reproduction of social and economic oppression. We refuse to accept the deficit narratives that Black folk deserve oppression and that Black folk are only to blame for the violence in our communities. We refuse to accept the implication that Black folk must be non-human and lift the weight of institutional barriers alone. We work on all fronts to dismantle white supremacist, capitalist, and heteropatriarchal culture that plagues our people both within and outside of educational contexts. We seek to heal intergenerational trauma in our communities and somber the violence against our kin that continues without adequate and appropriate state support. We believe Black lives matter wherever they are, and we believe that we have no option but to fight for our collective rights to exist as dignified human beings.

As graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, and all across the country, we feel the consistent attacks against our character, our merit, our scholarship and our very existence. These institutions were not made for us in mind; though they were historically forced to open their doors to us, they continually remind us that our very existence within their walls is an assault to white power and hegemony. Our (Black) mentors are the ones forced to leave the university while the university continues to profit on the accomplishments of neglected mentees who also serve as national and international fellowship winners. The university steals our images and uses them to promulgate the myth of graduate diversity, despite the fact that we are often the only non-white people in our respective departments. Our funding is the first cut, our labor is always exploited, and our love for our work and our communities is the only thing that fuels a sometimes perilous journey into academe. Yet, ironically, our commitment to our communities is often the very first thing questioned as we pursue research and professionalization in our fields.

To our Mizzou family, we see you! We see Black (queer) women, central to organizing and leading this campaign, standing on the frontlines. We see Black football players refusing exploitation by a capitalist culture- a culture that profits from their physical toil, cheers “go team go” while on the field, but still calls them n**gers on campus. Jonathan Butler, one of the many leaders of this movement, is also a graduate student, and we all benefit from his fearlessness and dismissal of a pre-professional culture that violently silences graduate student activism. He personifies the phrase, “How far am I willing to go for freedom?” To our Mizzou family, we understand your work and we support your actions. You demonstrate what a Black united front looks like, and you demonstrate what it looks like when you can no longer take the insidious reproduction of oppression and silencing of Black pain. You demonstrate what it looks like when enough is actually enough.This, this reality, is why we stand in solidarity with our comrades at the University of Missouri. We love you, we support you, and we will do whatever it takes to assist you on your quest for freedom and social transformation.

It is true that our campuses are hostile. Hence, we must support each other in healing from the violence and trauma our institutions produce while simultaneously battling and transforming these same institutions. We realize that the threat of our “being free” is so great that we will undoubtedly experience a backlash from a society founded on white supremacy. That does not mean we should stop. We must be prepared to act, we must be ready to mobilize, and we must be ready to go on strike. We must be ready to do what is necessary to create freedom wherever we march our bodies and minds.We see you out there, and together, we gon’ be alright!

In Solidarity and Struggle:

The Black Graduate Student Association at UC Berkeley

University of California Has Millions Invested in Private Prisons

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 30, 2015

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS MILLIONS INVESTED IN PRIVATE PRISONS

UPDATE: As of December 31st, the University of California will no longer own any shares in private prison corporations!

The Afrikan Black Coalition has confirmed with the University of California’s Chief Investment Officer that the University of California (“UC”) has investments in private prison corporations of $25 million. This $25 million is split between both Corrections Corporation of America (“CCA”), “America’s Leader in Partnership Corrections” and The Geo Group, “the world's leading provider of correctional and detention management,” according to their websites. The Afrikan Black Coalition has also confirmed that the UC system has a startling $425 million invested in Wells Fargo, one of the largest financiers of private prisons.

So what does this mean, exactly? Well on a purely technical level, the UC system is an indirect investor in private prisons through mutual funds--managed by outside  investment bankers--to the tune of $25,000,000. In plain English, this means that the UC System is helping to fund the prison industrial complex’s mission of prioritizing profit over people; the UC has blood on their hands. Private prison corporations exist to build centers of white supremacist dehumanization, turning Black, brown, and immigrant bodies into a profit under the guise of rehabilitation. This profit is the result of anti-Black overcriminalization in the streets, inhumane conditions within the private prison themselves, and a legacy of legal and political disenfranchisement after release. In 2010 there were 2.3 million prisoners in the U.S. and we must ask: why is the state’s leading system of higher education funding such an immoral system? Why is the UC actively fueling the racist criminal justice system while publicly aiming for more “diversity” within their own campuses? Any contribution to the for-profit private prison industry is a direct and unethical approval in further  dehumanizing Black, brown, and immigrant people for capitalistic gains. Afrikan Black Coalition Political Director Yoel Haile writes:

“It is an ethical embarrassment and a clear disregard for Black and immigrant lives for the UC to be investing tens and hundreds millions of dollars in private prisons and their financiers. In the age of mass incarceration and Black Lives Matter, the UC should be leading the fight for social justice and ethical investing as opposed to bankrolling the inhuman mass incarceration regime that has gripped America."

Not only is it ethically embarrassing for a publicly funded and world renowned university system to contribute to such a system, it is downright disgusting. For comparison, let us look at Columbia University’s recent divestment decision. According to MotherJones.com, Columbia University owned roughly $10,000,000 in shares of G4S and CCA in 2013. Between student activism and public pressure, Columbia University has since committed to divesting that $10 million sum from the private prison industry. The private prison industry has not lost the support of the UC system, however, and this is not something that can be ignored any longer. The University of California holds 2.5 times the amount of shares that Columbia once held. While Columbia can boast of their divestment, the UC System has hidden their very troubling investments in private for-profit prisons. This $25 million investment is not a passive agreement, but an actively shameful agreement that incarcerated Black lives do not indeed matter.

Even more atrocious is the UC system’s complicitly in the capitalistic prison industrial complex through their $425 million investment in Wells Fargo. With ten campuses all over the state of California, the UC system is responsible for the education of hundreds of thousands of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. ABC Field Organizer Kamilah Moore writes, “the goals of the private prison industry, which are to profit from the incarceration, labor, and rehabilitative treatment of black and immigrant lives, and the UC's mission, which is to teaching, research, and public service, are fundamentally incompatible.” What does it mean for UC System to so generously invest in the leading financier of private prisons while publicly touting a commitment to public service? This $425 million spells out hypocrisy at the systemic level of the UC. Add in the very real school-to-prison pipeline that the UC system should work against and hope to break, and the UC’s mission becomes empty rhetoric for public titillation. The message is clear: the bodies of the Black, brown, and immigrant folks who pack these private prisons are disposable tools of labor and the UC underwrites this message with their financial investment in its maintenance. Those who pay a thief to steal something are just as responsible as the thief himself for whatever is stolen by the thief, and should be dealt with as such.

We must demand more, even from the seemingly faceless UC System. It is true that a soulless institution cannot be moved by the value of human life, the unjust criminalization of Black, brown, and immigrant bodies, or even large sums of blood money. And whatever rate of return comes from private prison investments is indeed blood money. So we must instead look to the actual human beings who run the UC System and confront these atrocities head on. The UC Regents, President Napolitano, and the Chief Investment Officer must be held accountable for investing our public dollars into a criminal system that has ruthlessly targeted Black and immigrant people for the sole purpose of making profit. Racism is not just individual acts of discrimination or the 250+ lives stolen by the police in 2015, but systemic and structural economic slavery that is being carried out through mass incarceration. By investing in CCA, The Geo Group, and Wells Fargo Bank, the University of California is actively supporting a legacy of slave patrols turned police officers, a historical emphasis on profit margins at the expense of human beings, and the continued mass criminalization of Black existence.

For more information, contact the Afrikan Black Coalition at abc.politburo@gmail.com

Black Student Union at California State University, Los Angeles Issues Demands

Black Student Union

California State University, Los Angeles

Calstatelabsu@gmail.com

11/22/2015

To: William A. Covino           

California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032

President Covino,

Black students at Cal State LA have been, and still are, consistently made the targets of racist attacks by fellow students, faculty, and administration.  These attacks come in many forms. Some are more overt and some subtle.  Racially insensitive remarks, and micro-aggressions, by professors and students create a learning environment that is not conducive to the overall learning atmosphere. This presents unnecessary barriers to the success of Black students here on campus.  As the percentage of Black students at Cal State L.A. decreases, the intensity and frequency of these racially driven occurrences has increased.  It is your duty as president of this university to address the concerns of ALL of your students, as well as, create and implement programs that will attract and increase the Black student population at Cal State L.A. (i.e., programs such as GO East LA but for Black students). CSLA continues to fail Black students, by not responding, or taking any steps towards the improvement of the campus atmosphere as it relates to its Black students. This university has a history of a poor racial climate, and we, as the Black Student Union and Black student body, will not take it anymore.  You must do all that you can to make sure that Black students, currently only 4% of the student body, feel welcomed, safe, and at home at the university that was built on our backs. CSLA must follow in the steps of UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley, to support Black students during such a critical time in our history.  However, since nothing has been done in recent years, the Black Student Union, along with the entire black student body of CSLA, is DEMANDING that CSLA administrators work with the Black student Union towards the development of a more positive campus climate by complying with the demands as set forth:

1. WE DEMAND $20,000.00 dollars per quarter allocated to the Black Student Union, an organization necessary for Black student development. The Black Student Union is one of the largest student organizations; yet, there is currently no operating budget.

2. WE DEMAND a CSLA Anti-discrimination policy. Furthermore, we demand that cultural competency training be given to all faculty and staff. It is a shame that discriminatory and racist incidents continue to happen on campus, and those responsible do not face any repercussions. An anti-discrimination policy would outline exactly what discriminatory behavior looks like, and what the consequences are when such policy is violated.

3. WE DEMAND a $30 million dollar endowment to help support Black students financially, akin to the initiative that is being implemented at UC Berkeley. Many Black students must work 2-3 jobs in order to pay for the continually rising cost of education. Funding is one of the reasons why many Black students do not apply to CSLA, and also a hindrance to many that are accepted. For a University that is as “diverse” as CSLA, something must be done to make sure that Black students are financially secure.

4. WE DEMAND Black scholarships geared to black students who are both athletes and non-athletes.

5. WE DEMAND that the Pan African Studies Department projects, programs, and initiatives be fully funded beginning with an additional $100,000.00 for the 2015/2016 academic year.

6. WE DEMAND the creation of a Master’s program in the Pan African Studies Department.

7. WE DEMAND the hiring of ten tenured track professors in the Pan African Studies Department. We also DEMAND a continuous commitment to the hiring of Black faculty across all academic disciplines. We want one in-house advisor for the Pan African Studies Department.

8. WE DEMAND $500,000 in funding for outreach programs that will focus on the recruitment of Black high school students as well as transfer students. This program should be facilitated and overseen by the Pan African Studies Department. There must be an increase in the Black student body from 4% to 15% minimum within two years and to increase Black student admissions to 25% within five years. Additionally, there must be an implementation of programs specifically designed to increase admission, retention, and graduation rates Black students.

9. WE DEMAND the hiring of 3 full time and permanent Black faculty counselors at the Student Health Center. There must be Black student representation on the Board of Directors and Black public safety and police officers.

10. WE DEMAND more Black students hired for on-campus, student assistant, work positions.

11. WE DEMAND CSLA immediately divests ALL its investment holdings (active, passive, direct and indirect) from the private prison corporations of Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group. We further demand CSLA immediately divest from Wells Fargo and any other institution that funds and bankrolls the for profit private prison industry.

12. WE DEMAND first and second year students fulfil a minimum of two ethnic studies courses, with one being a Pan African Studies course, as a graduation requirement.

13. WE DEMAND the creation and financial support of a CSLA housing space delegated for Black students and a full time Resident Director who can cater to the needs of Black students. Many Black CSLA students cannot afford to live in Alhambra or the surrounding area with the high prices of rent. A CSLA housing space delegated for Black students would provide a cheaper alternative housing solution for Black students. This space would also serve as a safe space for Black CSLA students to congregate, connect, and learn from each other.

14. Lastly, WE DEMAND an in-person meeting with you on Monday, November 23, 2015 at 3:00p.m in the Pan African Student Resource Center. During this meeting we will discuss the fulfillment and implementation of each demand. We are dedicated to seeking equality and security for each Black student on Cal State L.A’s campus, and we will not stop until each demand has been met.

Onwards till Freedom!

The Black Student Union at Cal State L.A.!

Black Student Union at SFSU: Solidarity with Black Students at Mizzou

SFSU BSU

Statement of Solidarity 

It is not often that we as a community can watch history unravel and repeat itself in front of us as it has in Mizzou; and it is even less common that we are given an opportunity to directly affect the course of history. The events at the University of Missouri are a reminder that we have not left an age of institutional racism. Even more apparent is the blatant bigotry that is safeguarded by incompetent public officials; which is a reminder of the circumstances in which we have to operate under as Black Students. It is also a reminder that we have the power as a collective to determine our fate, and enact change. 

We the collective will stand up and show our brothers and sisters at Mizzou and around the country that we support them in OUR shared fight for self determination and liberation from this racist system. It is within our capacity as Students, more so as Black students to stand and fight for what we know is right. We cannot turn a blind eye or stay silent as many media outlets or groups do when issues of racism arise within the modern academic institution. We must mobilize, organize and address issues within our communities.  

The battle will not stop at Mizzou as it did not stop here at San Francisco State in 1969 when the Third World Liberation Front, and Black Student Union ended one of the nation's longest campus strikes fighting against institutional racism.  

Our struggle, our blood, our battle will not be swept under the rug, it will not be a forgotten hashtag. Our fight is one of liberation, an undying flame which will grow to burn all who try to extinguish it. We are scholars, we are fighters, we are the means of liberation for our communities.  

         Our Demands

1. Increase of enrollment and retention of Black students, Increase of Black faculty and faculty with tenure.

2. Mandatory racial sensitivity training for all incoming employees, faculty of San Francisco State University including UPD.

3. Increase support and funding for College of Ethnic Studies and Ethnic Organizations.

4. Expansion of Multi Cultural Center and addition of a retention center into The Mashouf Wellness Center.

5. Afrocentric residential floor for Black students to address unrealistic housing fees on and around campus.

San Francisco State 

BLACK STUDENT UNION

Black Student Union is in Solidarity with #ConcernedStudent1950

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: chair.calbsu@gmail.com

Black Student Union is in Solidarity with #ConcernedStudent1950

The Black Student Union at UC Berkeley is in solidarity with Black students, faculty, and staff at Missouri. Today, November 18th we take to the streets to show and demonstrate that all Black Lives Matter, from the hood to the classroom, we as Black people are united. Today and everyday we are reminded that Black life is of no value to white America. Klu Klux Klan sympathizers made threats to Black students at Berkeley High, and the same threats are happening towards Black students as Mizzou.  Even at a school known for it’s progressive movements, Black students at Cal still face racial injustices while Black lives are constantly jeopardized. These injustices include microaggressions, racially hostile learning environments,  the consistent silencing of Black voices, and buildings named after slave owning racists such as LeConte Hall.

The educational system does nothing to provide help, show solidarity, or act upon it. Therefore, it is our duty to combat these oppressive forces by speaking our truths and bringing to light the systematic marginalization of Black students across the nation.  We will fight back against oppressive systems and we will win!

In struggle,

The Black Student Union at UC Berkeley.

Why Self-Defense is a Part of Revolutionary Black Love

Why Self-Defense is a Part of Revolutionary Black Love

History reminds us that Black people in this country are consistently under attack. There’s been countless examples of white terror, from racist police and vigilantes participating in extrajudicial killings every 28 hours, to the bombings of NAACP offices, (we face unrelenting racial terrorism from Amerikkka). The continuous acts of violence upheld by the American (so-called) justice system make peace impossible. If white supremacists are going to attack peaceful organizers working for change, we all are under attack. If our unarmed youth playing at a park are going to be gunned down within 1.5 seconds, we all are under attack. If the American government can assassinate the peaceful revolutionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are all under attack. Furthermore, in preparation for the release of the grand jury indictment in Ferguson, the KKK released statements saying “we will use lethal force” and made it known to protestors that that “they have been warned and woke up a sleeping giant”. Additionally federal investigations have also ousted KKK member’s within police forces. Malcolm X warned us that KKK members would take off their hoods and trade it in for a blue uniform. We must realize the true state of nature we are in as Black folks in America. And the state that we are in, is a state of war.

As JFK once said, “those who make a peaceful revolution impossible, make a violent revolution inevitable”. The hands of white supremacy continue to take the lives of Black people in this country. America has reminded us time and time again that a peaceful revolution is impossible. As a result, it is time we have a much-needed conversation about self-defense.

First off, I want to live in a world where love and peace are the fundamental principles of human beings. However, America consistently demonstrates that love and peace are not its values. There is nothing peaceful about systemic state violence. As Malcolm X once said, “it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.” Self-defense is necessary in order to survive in the United States, and self-defense is rooted in self-love.

A true revolution is rooted in radical love. And the foundation of love starts with loving one’s self and one’s people. If we truly love ourselves and our people, we will defend our lives and humanity by any means necessary when our lives are under attack. If we love ourselves, then we shall honor our people with the same love because Afrikan people have always had a linked-fate. As Black people, we share a common struggle under the beast of white supremacy. It’s simple: if someone we love is under attack, we must protect them from the aggressor. For instance, if I was walking down the street with my mom, and someone attacked her, I would attack the aggressor by any means necessary. Most people in their right mind would attack whoever is hurting their Mother. I would not want to be around a person who would not attempt to fight off this aggressor, because that means that they don’t have love for themselves and others. Revolutionary love is protecting each other and oneself by any means necessary to stop the aggressor.

Self-defense is an ideology rooted in revolutionary love. And ideally we want peace, however, we live in a society where state violence against Black people is a daily occurrence. Who are we to call for help when those who are killing us work for the government? Who are we to call for help when we are protesting police brutality and the KKK makes threats? We owe it to Assata Shakur to love and protect each other, not just in theory but in practice.

Protection is of utmost importance as we continue to live during a time of racial bloodshed. Our ancestors were lynched in the late 19th and 20th century at a rate of 2 or 3 times per week. These images were published and redistributed on postcards. Now we are murdered in extrajudicial killings every 28 hours and killed again and again our misery is told through constant news cycles of Black death. Recently, activist Shaun King stated that “The deadliest hate crime against Black folk in the past 75 years happened THIS YEAR in Charleston”.  We must wake up to situation we face, and begin to protect ourselves from white supremacy.

If we are to dismantle segregation, economic & political disenfranchisement, and systemic oppression in creative ways, history has shown us that we will be subjected to violent and strategic backlash at the hands of white supremacists. Just like our ancestors defended themselves, we too must defend ourselves.

We must practice revolutionary love for ourselves and protect each other. Whether it is from the police killing us, or evil individuals like Daniel Holtzclaw sexually assaulting us, or transphobic murder, or Klansmen riding around a university threatening Black Students with violence, we must say no more. We must radically love one another proactively, as love will unite us against our common enemy. As Assata Shakur said, “we have nothing to lose but our chains”.

In struggle and solidarity,

-Brotha B

Black Student Union at UCSB is in Solidarity With Black Students at Mizzou

Statement in Solidarity with Black Students at Mizzou

Better shine a light while we got time because our children are watching and they got bags under their eyes /

better shine a light because they doin’ it all in broad daylight and tryin’ to hide

• Cheeraz Gormon

In lieu of recent events at the University of Missouri, Black students at the University of California, Santa Barbara feel it necessary to express our solidarity.

First and foremost, we commend our brothers and sisters of Concerned Students 1950 for their clear analysis, strategic approach, and relentless activism.

Your movement demonstrates to the entire nation the power of Black unity, resiliency, and resistance in the face of vile hatred.

Black Students of Mizzou, we see your fight intimately linked to our own. Your resistance radiates light in this time of darkness.

With that being said, we understand the repercussions of challenging and exposing white supremacy, such as the cowardice yik-yak threats of violence on Black bodies.

While we would hope that school administrators take necessary precautions to upkeep the safety of Black students on their campus, we must also hold ALL institutions of higher education accountable for reproducing such racist narratives and sentiments.

Thus,  we express our commitment to amplifying silenced Black voices in predominately white institutions and furthermore we express our commitment to the protection of Black bodies on and off campus.

With this in mind, we abide by the philosophies of our mentor, Brother Malcolm X:

“...Respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”

In strength and in struggle,

UCSB Black Student Union

Why I'm Not Here For the Historically White Institution and Historically Black College and University Comparison Right Now

Why I'm Not Here For the Historically White Institution and Historically Black College and University Comparison Right Now

by: David Turner

1.) White supremacist capitalist cis-heteropatriarchy lives all across the planet, especially here in the United States. Whether it's racial terrorism or respectability politics, it's alive and well.

2.) Let's not live in an ahistorical vacuum. Black students at HBCUs had to fight for Black Studies and Black curriculum, the same way students at HWIs did. Many of the same methods were employed, and many students from HBCUs were central in integrating the south.

3.) Let's not fetishize Black education like it was really made for us. White philanthropists were central in creating normal schools to domesticate Black folks and turn us into obedient citizen subjects. Resistance to that narrative, from critical educators and critical students, made Black education something different.

4.) Black students on both types of campuses have their resources taken from them, or they don't exist. Racism is more than ideological and physical, it is also economic, and the same way Black studies programs and cultural centers see cuts to funding on HWIs, HBCUs see that on the federal and state levels.

5.) On both HBCU and HWI campuses, a pre-professional culture exists that attempts to domesticate Black student activism into some form of neoliberal "engagement" that makes good employees, not good community builders.

6.) Homophobia, ableism, rape culture, colorism, transphobia, class and social status, and an uncritical engagement with the intersections of identities exists on both campuses, causing people who are not heterosexual, economically advantaged Black men to experience HWIs and HBCUs in unique and violent ways.

7.) Being able to live in your truths as a Black person in a racially welcoming climate is a beautiful thing. That can politicize you, and make you an agent for your people. Being Black in a racially hostile climate, and living through the daily microaggressions is a horrible thing. It can politicize you, and make you an agent for your people.

We should be figuring out how to collaborate and get free, not tell other Black students that "they should've went to an HBCU" or "my campus gives me money and yours doesn't." Neither, in this day and age, will save you.

And I'm out.

David is Ph.D candidate at UC Berkeley. 

Afrikan Black Coalition is in Solidarity With #ConcernedStudent1950

Dear comrades,

First, we extend to you our revolutionary greetings from the streets of Amerikkka.

We write to express our strongest solidarity as you wage this rightful struggle. The Afrikan Black Coalition is the largest statewide organization of Black students in California, and we would like to start off by saying that we applaud and are truly inspired by the actions that you all have bravely taken. We understand and completely relate to the courage that it took to peacefully protest on an eventful and historically praised day such as Homecoming. We also applaud every action you have taken since that protest, including the hunger strike and Black athletes boycotting the athletic field. Through protest, you have removed your president and chancellor. We applaud your efforts, and offer our deepest solidarity as we know that the war is not over. The Afrikan Black Coalition has your back in this revolutionary struggle!

On the west coast, we too have faced challenges and were ignored as we tried to educate our peers of what the Black experience is like at our university and reiterate the OBVIOUS fact that BLACKLIVESMATTER.We also know what it feels like to be completely disrespected and ignored for months on end when demands are requested of your Dean/ President for the betterment of your community. However, we know the power of direct action to get what we DEMAND as many of our campuses in our coalition have successfully implemented institutional changes to better Black life on campus. Because we know the struggle we want to offer our hand in solidarity with your team and support #ConcernedStudent1950 and send our best wishes to all of your participants that may have been wrongfully hurt while trying to create change for their Black community.

The Afrikan Black Coalition does not tolerate violence against our people in any way shape or form. We will not continue to allow white people of power to continue to throw tantrums and abuse their educational power to continue to satisfy white supremacy deeds. From here on out Black people will be heard and respected when we speak out and demand our right to life and racial justice at our campuses. With that being said this is an official statement of solidarity between the Afrikan Black Coalition and the Concerned Student 1950 movement. We fully back the hashtag #ConcernedStudent1950 and will provide whatever we can to ensure that our Black community at the University of Missouri is heard and granted its rights and demands of racial justice on the campus. We are reminded that Black unity is Black Power!

Power to the people and #ConcernedStudent1950!

-AFRIKAN BLACK COALITION!

#StopWhitePpl2k15

#StopWhitePpl2k15

by Anthony Williams

For a long time I used the popular hashtag, #StopWhitePpl2k15, with a friend on tumblr. Tumblr was a “safe space” for me to write #StopWhitePpl2k15 because my posts fade into the abyss. My public Facebook didn't feel safe because it would upset the whites who like to challenge factual evidence with hurt white feelings. The whites who choose to live an ahistorical life, projecting their white guilt onto my Black body instead of working to fight the systems that their folks created and that they maintain.

For a long time I would never publicly use the hashtags I created: #NoPinkDick and #TeamNoPinkDick. I would text it to friends or talk about it in person, but only in the last month have I felt comfortable using it on social media. But I mean, gee, what would the whites think? I don’t really care what the whites think, as the whites are the reason for both personal and familial pain: past generational trauma, current interracial trauma, and a current war on Black life.

If you didn't already catch on...I have a confession, y’all. For a long time I've been a white apologist. I am guilty of coddling white people for fear of hurting their feelings and because we live in a white world where Black folks are trained to exist uncomfortably for the sake of white comfort. And in the spirit of playing "devil's advocate"--which is not actually productive in conversations of life and death--I would defend individual white folk without realizing I was actually justifying systemic racism. The byproduct of a white supremacist world is internalized racism within people of color; young Anthony was unintentionally upholding the very systems the older Anthony seeks to dismantle today.

"Well maybe they didn't mean it that way, are you sure it was about race?” 

Does that sound familiar? I don't remember ever reaching the Raven hyphen alternative spelling of "Simone" pinnacle of white sympathy, but I made a lot of excuses for the violence known as whiteness. I am done making excuses for white people, as history shows that the oppressed cannot beg the oppressor for their liberation. White feelings will never be more important than Black bodies. Black must continue to confront whiteness rather than running from it.

This is why we must #StopWhitePpl2k15 :

1. White people have trouble respecting boundaries (see: world history, interpersonal relationships, and religious indoctrination).

2. White people have trouble minding their own business (see: colonialism, war, and anthropology).

3. White people have no trouble stealing from other people, including unjustly stealing the lives of other people (see: slave patrols/police officers, music, and fashion).

4. White people have trouble shutting up (see: everyday of our Black lives, particularly in the workplace and academia).

5. White people have trouble listening to hear rather than listening to respond (see: social media interactions, in-person interactions, and U.S. policy for Black folks & people of color).

Up until a few months ago I held out hope that white people were just like us because we, as human beings, do share over 99% of the same DNA. It was naive of me to think of us as the same, for better or worse, as our socialization has been anything but equal. And with each day I live and each text I read, I question how I can still view the white devil as human while the white devil views me as an animal. To dehumanize us in such a way, the white man must not have a conscience. I don’t hate white people, though, I have much better things to do with my time and energy than perpetuate white logic. I see whiteness with a precision that is not obscured by emotions like Black rage, but clarified by a knowledge of the past and a vision for the future.

Let us not forget that it is the white folks who hunt down and kill Black folks all over the world, not the other way around. We cannot afford to forget that even after centuries of dehumanization, Black people are still the ones portrayed as criminals. Our biggest crime is the crime against ourselves, the crime of not organizing more efficiently to dismantle white supremacy.

Black people would not need to address the social construct of race so frequently if it weren’t for the constant violence that is whiteness. Whiteness is a revisionist project that white people subscribe to, allowing current and past settler colonialism, genocide, and chattel slavery to be written off as necessary “mistakes.” White people have historically had problems making too many “mistakes.” White people need to be stopped. Period.

Anthony Williams is Staff Writer at ABC.

When Innocence is Taken

When Innocence is Taken

By: Alyx Goodwin

Typically the phrase “loss of innocence” is used to define the moments of childhood when a person is exposed to the realities that life is not all playgrounds, naps, and coloring books. But for Black children, this phrase carries nuance. For many of them, the loss of innocence comes when they enter school or on the playground and they begin reading between the lines, making comparative notes between their upbringings and that of their peers. For Black children, innocence is lost when they begin to see how the color of their skin will play into their households, their relationships, and their learning experiences. 

It has been reported that the KKK hacked into the library page of the Berkeley High School website and threatened Black students. High. School. Students.

Upon reading about this hate crime, I saw photos and videos of rightfully angered Black students that had no fear of the KKK and the threats presented. These were Black students that had lost their innocence long before this happened, and were left with the motivation to change the course of history.

When I was in middle school learning about “The Civil Rights Movement” it wasn’t my first time learning about the KKK. I remember reading through the section of the only chapter Black people get besides the one about slavery, recalling that I knew this history of hatred already. I also knew that this hate was not history and thinking that this was still only a problem in the South.

When I was in high school, I heard stories about “skinheads” in neighboring cities and my fear of White Supremacy became something I felt, rather than just read about. In college I was radicalized to see White Supremacy work in a way that was bigger than lynching, bigger than white hoods, and bigger than skinheads; I saw it in the form of the socioeconomic disparities that the Black community faces. 

I don’t know which of those reflections of racism I’m more scared of. What I do know is neither of them will be standing for much longer. 

Since inception hate groups like the KKK and the government have reigned by instilling fear, but what happens when that fear is gone? Please do not speak to us like we are that Black Community you knew 400 years ago. In 2015 the silence has been removed from the soul of our community and replaced with the amplified voice we need to challenge oppression, hooded in plain sight or hidden within the system. 

Today I saw what happens when innocence is routinely taken and replaced by oppression, and then I saw a glimpse of the Revolution.

Racist Breach of Berkeley High School Library Webpage

For Immediate Release: Racist Breach of Berkeley High School Library Webpage
Contact: Berkeley High School Black Student Union
berkeleyhighschoolbsu@gmail.com

Berkeley, California- November 4, 2015

Tonight the BSU was made aware of a hateful message that was posted on the Berkeley High website. The words “Fuck all the niggers in the world,” "KKK forever public lynching December 9th 2015," and "I hung a n*gger by his neck in my backyard" were left on the library homepage. All of the students have access to this page and it is clear the author intended for it to be spread. The attached image shows what was posted on the library website. The perpetrator sympathizes with the racist cause of the KKK and makes a clear threat to lynch Black students this December. The terrorists call for the death of all Black people in the message.

This is an act of blatant terrorism towards the Black students and staff members at Berkeley High, and though the BSU is disappointed that this happened, but we are not surprised. The image we have attached has already been circulated amongst students on Twitter and it will no doubt continue to spread.

We are disgusted by this act of terror and demand it be investigated as such. The safety of Black students has been explicitly threatened, and we as the Black Student Union demand that this is addressed immediately by the Berkeley High administration and Berkeley Police Department. In the past acts of terror committed against the Black student body have been ignored such as the racist statement written into last year’s yearbook and the noose that was found on campus. We will not allow this to be trivialized like these other horrific instances.

In Struggle,

The Black Student Union at Berkeley High School

The Betrayal of #AfricanAmericansForHillary

The Betrayal of #AfricanAmericansForHillary

by: Son of Africa

When the hashtag #AfricanAmericansForHillary surfaced on Twitter, I felt my rage bubble up and compel me to pen this piece in order to deal with this recurrent betrayal of the political class with the Black masses.  What is mind-boggling to me is the seeming lack of basic political analysis on the part of those who support Hillary Clinton’s bid for presidency. It’s important to note that some of the biggest early donors to Hillary Clinton’s campaigns were private prison corporations who are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses against Black people who are incarcerated. These private prison corporations were the beneficiaries of Bill Clinton’s tough-on-crime and Three-Strikes laws, and made billions in profit by making it their mission to push for laws that increase and worsen sentencing; policies that disproportionately affected Black and immigrant communities in this country. These are the same laws Hillary Clinton herself, as a first lady, supported and advocated for vigorously.  The symbiotic relationship between these private prison corporations and the Clinton’s is apparent. Thus, it is abundantly obvious that private prison corporations are clear enemies of Black people. This is not a questionable fact because their very existence, and their business model, RELIES on the incarceration of Black and immigrant communities in this country. Therefore, we should be very clear that these private prison corporations are the ENEMIES of our people. 

This begs to question then, if the enemies of our people were some of the EARLY funders and fundraisers for the Clinton campaign, what is the logic behind supporting a candidate funded by the enemies of our people? Why would our enemies bankroll someone who intends to do good for us and put THEM out of business? Obviously these corporations are not idiots who are throwing away their money in their quest to retire their profitable business of inhumanely warehousing Black people. Therefore, the call of #AfricanAmericansForHillary can only be understood for what it is, the political betrayal of the Black petit-bourgeois in its effort to court favors and a measly seat on the table with the enemies of our Black masses; a table inside a house that can only stand when Black people are subjugated, incarcerated, and getting killed every 28 hours. The fact that the Clinton campaign pledged to no longer receive funds from private prisons and donate the already donated money to charities, AFTER massive pressure from Black Lives Matter and immigrant rights activists, is of course a political move and typical trickery of American establishment politics. The Clintons have been in this game of bourgeois politics long enough to realize what they need to say and, do for the time being, in order to gain the support of the petit-bourgeois elements within our communities. The unfortunate part is that the petit-bourgeois elements among us have been making the same political blunder of trading Black liberation for the comfort and prestige of a seat at the table, a role if you will, at the white bourgeois politics of  America.

Perhaps the betrayal of this element is foreshadowed in the very way they identified themselves, #AFRICANAMERICANSforHillary. It is beyond my capacity to understand how any Black person in this country can identify in any way with America.  We must dump this nonsense of African American, and begin identifying as African people! As Black people! This will then lead us to think Black and talk BLACK politics! We were not put under slavery because we are American; we were enslaved because we are AFRICANS! Because we are BLACK! We were not put under gratuitous white terrorism during Jim Crow because we were American; we were subjected to that oppression because we are AFRICANS! Because we are BLACK! We were not confined to the ghettos and had crack cocaine dumped in our neighborhoods by the CIA because we are American! America committed this crime against humanity against us BECAUSE WE ARE AFRICANS! Because we are BLACK! We are not put in prisons en masse, denied a right to gainful employment and our hard fought right to vote in this country because we are American! This is happening to us because we are AFRICANS! Because we are BLACK! The American police and vigilantes are not systematically killing us because we are American! We are getting killed, in broad daylight, and in front of the whole world, because we are AFRICANS! Because we are BLACK! Kwame Ture used to say one cannot be an African American because one cannot be two opposite things at once, that when America bombs AFRICA, he asked, “which one are you? The one who BOMBED or the one who GOT bombed?“

Therefore we must dump this nonsense of African American, and begin identifying as African people! As Black people! This will then lead us to think Black and talk BLACK politics! And Black politics mandates us to be principled and uncompromising when it comes to the question of Black liberation. And Black liberation requires us to have the cultural and political mind to clearly identify our enemies, i.e Western civilization and its attendant bourgeois politics, and not align ourselves with it. The Black radical tradition offers us plenty of examples on how to strategically deploy our collective powers in electoral politics without betraying our masses.  For as Malcolm X put it, “anytime you are dumb enough to continue identifying yourself with a party that can’t keep its promise to you, you are not only a CHUMP but you are a traitor to your race!” And when we must engage with electoral politics, the emerging Black Lives Matter movement, and those of us working on the ground for it, must develop a clear and uncompromising set of demands starting with land and financial reparations for Black people.

All Power to the People! 

Son of Africa

Why I Organize

Why I Organize

by: Kadijah Means

White people ask me about the origins of my organizing most frequently. I gently remind interviewers that, as a Black person, I've always been Black. I have experienced many forms of racism since childhood. My activism is not the result of a teenage epiphany, but my life. There is no other option for me. The world told me that my Black skin, nappy hair, and wide nose weren’t worthy of praise. I firmly disagreed. I’ve been disagreeing for years now. Activism is how I survive. I often feel that white interviewers have a plan for their article before they sit down to hear my story. Therefore, I am always reluctant, though proud, to reveal my family’s history of activism, because so many assumptions about who I am are made. I eventually relent and explain my paternal grandmother worked with both the Black Panthers and Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers Association. 

So when asked why I organize, I must note that there is always room for improvement in a country built on injustice. The United States has an unsettling habit of putting a band-aid over gaping wounds and ignoring them. These wounds go untreated until they get infected, or until an activist douses them in rubbing alcohol. Yes it is painful, but the truth hurts.

Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. The effects of white supremacy are wounds. Explicit and implicit bias are wounds and they are inflamed after each new act of bigotry: cultural appropriation, blackface parties, red lining and murder. When radicals—rationals—disrupt the idea of equity via direct action, they are cleansing the wounds of American slavery, Jim Crow etc., so that one day they will heal. As activists we remind the average American that although the symptoms may be less apparent than during slavery the wounds are not healed. White supremacy has not ended. We are not post-racial.

Challenging the idea of white supremacy is necessary for any change. I believe that the step after awareness is action. If you are ignorant of the crippling racial divide in this country, then you have made a choice not to educate yourself. We are past proving racism is thriving here. Check twitter. There’s a new hashtag every week, evincing the loss of Black life at the hands of white supremacy. While writing this, I checked twitter. I scrolled through news of more unregulated police brutality to find the next hashtag in my city, #NathanielWilks.

We don’t need to waste our time trying to prove there’s a problem to white people and skeptics. We’ve lived the injustice. We’ve seen our kin slaughtered. We’ve seen our people dehumanized, the Black body weaponized and denied childhood too many times. We’ve lived the struggle in every sense of the word. Either they care or they don’t. If we try to change every bigot’s mind, educate the ignorant, and console the “colorblind” white moderates, then Black liberation will never come.

I do not know if the revolution will happen, and I will make no predictions as to how it will occur, but I can assure you that it won’t happen if the movement is centered around white feelings.

Activist Deray Mckesson has coined the phrase “watch whiteness work” in regard to police cover ups, poor news coverage, and everyday white entitlement. I challenge you to watch whiteness erase, watch it destroy, and watch it destruct. The movement relies on Black people with free minds. Keep your eyes open and your fist up.

Kadijah is the chief of staff for the Afrikan Black Coalition's communication department.

4 Reasons I’ll be in Washington on 10.10.15

4 Reasons I’ll be in Washington on 10.10.15

by Salih Muhammad

It is imperative to recognize that we are in a war. All of us are not AT war, but we are indeed in the midst of one.This war is multi-layered and complex. It is a war waged in the backdrop of extreme deception, lying, chicanery, and misinformation. This war begins in the mind but it indeed has physical elements.

The oppressive systems that reign terror on Black life in the United States of America are actually plaguing the entire World. We can visit Azania, South Africa, the land of the Great Steve Biko, where Whites currently make up 8.5% of the population yet own 80% of the land and 90% of the economy. In Ethiopia, the birthplace of the great Black Humanity, and the only country never to be colonized by the enemy – 60% of its national budget comes from the United Snakes of America. In Africa, 14 separate Nations are currently PAYING REPARATIONS to FRANCE for their Freedom. Yes, you read that correctly. Ultimately, something has to give. We must either Live Free or Die Trying. Here’s my 4 reasons for being in D.C. this October:

1. Independently Funded: Too many of our marches, demonstrations, and activities are sponsored by (insert name of some corrupt entity) corporation. Not this time. For more history, look into the funding of the 1963 March on Washington. You can donate $1, $5, or $10 here.

2. It is on time: What better call to make that Justice OR Else? We’ve called for Justice for 40 years. It seems right time to declare Justice Or Else, which completely fits within the Black Radical Tradition.

3. Tried and True Leadership: The Leadership surrounding this movement (i.e. Min. Farrakhan) is 62 years, tried and true. Unlike most, in spite of disagreements, we KNOW there won’t be any selling out or back room deals.

4. The reframing of Dr. King: Many of us have only been acquainted with the “I have a Dream” Dr. King. Well, this movement and its promotional material begins the process of reorienting us to the TRUE Dr. King who stated, “I fear we are integrating our people into a burning house.”

How many more examples of police brutality do we need? How many more examples of American colonialism, rape, murder, thievery, and lying do we need? I hope to meet you in D.C. for the beginning of the end of the wickedness. #JusticeOrElse.

APTP calls for vigil for Joe Bart, and all victims of police brutality.

The Oakland Police Department has killed 4 Black men since June. Yesterday, August 13th, OPD executed Joe Bart. Reports from eyewitnesses said he was shot 5 times in the back. Folks will be meeting at 27th and MLK this Friday August 14th at 6pm. This event is Black led.

See the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/920295411350055/