x - Forum/Discussions - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-28T20:10:51Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/feed/tag/xMonthly Lifting-up Our Revered Ancestorhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/monthly-lifting-up-our-revered-ancestor2016-02-14T22:44:51.000Z2016-02-14T22:44:51.000ZBrotha Lukatahttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/BrothaLukata<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828844985,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828844985,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="3828844985?profile=original" /></a>According to Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History Month, “Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: 'that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.” The Monthly National Day for Lifting-up Our Revered Ancestor is a proactive response to Dr. Woodson's assertion that what We teach ourselves is the best nourishment.<br /> The Lifting-up Our Revered Ancestor Rally Presenters' messages are centered around Prideful Racial Identity, Social and Economic Justice and Peace in the Hood - seeking to bring forth soulutions to the injuries resulting from our Hellacaust {aka Maafa} plaguing the New Afrikan community. The Monthly Lifting-up Our Revered Ancestor Rallies are designed to heighten public awareness to and necessary for action to fix our Prideful Racial Identity, Social and Economic Justice and Peace in the Hood. The Akoben {the West African Adinkra Symbol} Call is being made by The REAL Learning Institute, Baba Asinia Lukata Chikuyu, Founder and New Afrikan Cultural and Educational Consultant. For more details contact Baba Lukata at realsoulutions@yahoo.com. the first Ancestor to be Lifted-up is Brother Minister Malcolm X on February 21st {the day of his assassination}.</p><p class="attachment"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828844985,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank">Lifting-up Malcolm.png</a></p></div>THE LIONS TALE: WHITE PRIVILEGE or WHITE PILLAGEhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/the-lions-tale-white-privilege-or-white-pillage2014-12-05T17:54:12.000Z2014-12-05T17:54:12.000ZRudwaan Lumumbahttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/Rudwaan<div><h1>White privilege or White pillage?</h1><div class="datetime-dev">Fri., Dec. 5, 2014 10:20 AM EST</div><div class="by-dev">by Rolling Out</div><div class="postinfo"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><div class="fb-like fb_iframe_widget"><span style="width:77px;height:20px;vertical-align:bottom;"><iframe width="90" height="1000" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?action=like&app_id=&channel=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F7r8gQb8MIqE.js%3Fversion%3D41%23cb%3Df2e8b55e1fcc746%26domain%3Drollingout.com%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Frollingout.com%252Ff2fbcf92f7e905%26relation%3Dparent.parent&font=arial&href=http%3A%2F%2Frollingout.com%2Fculture%2Fwhite-privilege-white-pillage%2F&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&ref=.VIHtLVi6S0I.like&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&width=90" frameborder="0"></iframe></span></div><a class="addthis_button_tweet at300b"></a></div></div><div class="entry clearfix"><h2><em>The Lions Tale asks: White privilege or White pillage?</em></h2><p style="text-align:center;"><em>“I came. I saw. I conquered.” –Julius Caesar</em></p><p><a href="http://rollingout.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Ruudwan.jpg"><img width="300" height="298" class="alignleft wp-image-695951" alt="Ruudwan" src="http://rollingout.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Ruudwan-650x644.jpg" /></a>I agree with Bill O’Reilly’s position that there is no such thing as ‘White privilege,’ this is the absolute truth, his reasons for that position however, is borne from a state of denial. He reasons, and I paraphrase, that because the abolishment of African enslavement and the seemingly decline of the ensuing Jim Crow era, White privilege particularly in America has been neutralized or greatly subdued. He further cites a Black man (Barack Obama) sitting as President in the White House and a Black woman (Oprah Winfrey) ranking amongst the richest in the land evidences the non-existence of White privilege.</p><p>This is where, in my opinion, Bill O’Reilly goes off the tracks, for while he truthfully states ‘there is no White privilege;’ his reasoning implies that once upon a time there was. To this I say emphatically ‘bull-rubbish,’ please be sure that he gets this memo and carbon copies Whites the world over that ‘White privilege’ never existed. What both Whites and Blacks have been conditioned to view and label as ‘White privilege’ has been but ‘White pillage.”</p><p>Let’s first get the language right as we take a brief but loud walk thru ‘his-story’ for truly history is best suited to judge. According to the dictionary a ‘privilege’ is a granted right or advantage to an individual or group. The key word in that definition is granted, for while a person or group may have an advantage or assume rights over another this right or advantage only rises to the level of a privilege when it is granted. One must earn a privilege; one cannot merely take a privilege, or give themselves a privilege. We arrive at this conclusion by examining the definition of ‘grant’ which means to ‘bestow or confer especially by a formal or legal act.’ This implies that the person or group incurring the privilege cannot bestow it upon themselves; it would require another party apart from themselves with the power and authority over the privilege to legally and formally or explicitly grant them that privilege.</p><p>When an individual comes of age, they cannot simply grant themselves the privilege of driving, after earning the privilege of driving by passing the required exams and tests that privilege is granted to them by those who have the authority to do so. Other drivers and users of the roads and freeways rely on that authoritative body to grant the privilege of driving only to those who have earned it, other drivers as such feel a sense of relative safety presuming that the other drivers met the necessary requirements to have earned the privilege to drive. Those who take the benefit of driving without having been granted the privilege operate outside of the stated laws and are subject to legal reprisals.</p><p>In morally advanced societies, a man who grants himself the right to sleep with a woman without her having granted him that privilege is a rapist. He is not the authority over her body so he lacks the requisite position to grant himself the privilege. In less morally advanced societies a man was granted the privilege by the law of land over the body and will of the woman or women he married, but even in those instances he would still have to had earned (marry) and granted the privilege by an authority other than himself. It is within this context that I state there is not, nor have there ever been White privilege in regards to the racial relationship between Blacks and Whites, there has been only White pillage, white rape.</p><p>When the European nations assembled themselves as the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885 and bestowed upon themselves the right to carve up Africa amongst themselves as their personal colonies, this was not a privilege that was granted to them, they did not have the requisite authority to do so and as such, their actions amounted to no more than rape and pillage, far from the privileged status they claimed. Inherent within a privilege is the fact that it can be taken away, should certain required conditions not be maintained, should there be a breach on the part of the recipients of the privilege, the authority that granted the privilege can take it away. Clearly the activity of the Europeans at the Berlin Conference does not rise to the level of a privilege, but sinks to the depths of rape and pillage.</p><p>Whites benefited and are benefiting from White pillage, but benefits are not privileges. The bank robber benefits from his crime as long as he gets away with it, he is not privileged, he is a taker, a raper, a pillager. The mafias and cartels who pay off the authorities sworn to oppose them are not enjoying a privilege, they, like Whites, are benefiting from there illicit trade as long as they can get away with it, through the use of violence and payoffs they effectively keep the hounds of justice at bay for as long as they can. That benefit is then passed on to their offspring and subsequent generations who from a position of abject ignorance of their past operate under the sanitized illusion of ‘privilege’ when in fact they are benefactors of rape and pillage.</p><p>Whites have afforded themselves an advantage over the African by means of the gun and violent thuggery. They inserted their presence, culture, and language into the fabric of Africa to Africa’s detriment. The relationship is and always has been parasitic, for while Whites gained, Blacks lost. According to Paul Bairoch in <em>Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes,</em> when Europe descended upon Africa in the 1700s, they encountered a civilized and thriving continent. Africa was responsible for about 73 percent of manufactured goods sold globally, Europe only 27 percent. Not only was Africa the bread basket to the world, she refined and manufactured her own raw resources, Europe would import many of its products from Africa, but they came, they saw, and they conquered a people not accustomed to their level of violence and willful destruction of life. Due entirely to White pillage and rape, Europe by the 19th century. would refine and manufacture some 89 percent of the raw resources it pillaged from Africa, selling the refined goods back to Africa with a huge markup, this contributed decidedly to the benefits and advantages Whites enjoy today. Africa was reduced to manufacturing a measly 11 percent of its own natural resources. King Leopold the 2nd of Belgium would slaughter more than 10 million Congolese as he pillaged the raw resources such as rubber that made Belgium, all of Europe and the United States flush, the benefits and advantages still resonate with Whites today. This is not a privilege granted to Whites; history judges them to be but the recipients of the spoils of rape and pillage.</p><p>The relationship between the kidnapper and his victim is not one of privilege to the kidnapper, the relationship formed between the enslaved African and the European is not a privilege bestowed on the European, it is a relationship borne of violence, rape, and pillage, it is a relationship in which only Whites have benefited and are still benefiting today.</p><p>During the 18th century, France kidnapped the African from his home and enslaved him on the island of Haiti. France grew rich as the Africans were worked to death, there was no privilege to France here, just rape and pillage. In 1804, the Haitian would successfully defeat France and throw off the shackles of chattel enslavement, however, France could not bear to lose the benefits and advantages it gained from the blood of the African on Haiti, so with the complicity of Europe and the United States France, would extort $150 million Francs from Haiti at the barrel of the gun, this was paid as reparations to the White enslavers for loss of their unlawful income, it would also further cripple Haiti and ensure that she would not rise out of abject poverty. This was not White privilege, this was rape and White pillage.</p><p>Whites continued to benefit from the inequitable relationship they foisted on the backs of the African. They gave themselves the advantage by deliberately retarding the growth and development of Africa, they structured the rules to not only favor themselves but disfavor the African, they fixed the game ensuring benefits and advantages for generations to come. It was not a privilege for Whites to sit at the front of the bus; it was not a privilege for them to have the choicest real estate in South Africa while forcefully relegating the indigenous Blacks to ghettos and shanty towns; it was not a privilege for them to have the best water-fountains, the best schools and restaurants. No authority apart from themselves granted them those privileges; they took those advantages by forcefully denying Blacks their basic human rights. It is they who imposed the racial divide, then sabotaged the race by cutting the Achilles heel of the African. This would ensure that Whites gained a favorable advantage over the African for generations to come, this is not White privilege, just White pillage.</p><p>All the benefits and advantages that Whites enjoy today were gained by taking, including America. Whites are responsible for more deaths and suffering on this planet with their World Wars, their crusades, enslavements, colonization, and genocides than all of the viruses, storms, earthquakes, floods and other natural occurrences combined.</p><p>It is true that England assisted in the abolishment of the African enslavement, but they did not do this out of some benevolence or stricken conscience. They did so to retard the wealth that France was amassing from this crime against humanity, they saw a brighter future in the colonization of Africa and the African Diaspora. England would ensure that Whites benefited for generations to come by compensating them with billions in reparations for the loss of income from the unlawful and criminal enslavement of the African. The African would receive not one dime at a time when they needed it the most. This is not White privilege, but White pillage.</p><p>White pillage would then be sanitized and re-scripted by Hollywood under the guise of entertainment, they would convert themselves from savages, murderers, rapists, and pillagers, to heroes, heroines, and superheroes, Gods and Kings. Through Hollywood, they would be kind and benevolent to the savages of Africa as Tarzan tamed the black apes, and the big black King Kong was brought to his knees. All facets of White society would be engaged in furthering and maintaining the benefits and advantages afforded them by White pillage. All systems of people activity including but not limited to education, banking, entertainment, employment, and the judicial system participated unchecked.</p><p>The runaway slave catchers of yesteryear, who are the police overseers of today are hired and trained to protect and serve the inequitable relationship between Blacks and Whites. Why this relationship exists to begin with is a topic of another conversation, unbeknownst to many Whites, they are as much pawns as Blacks, so who then are the ultimate benefactors of this racial disparity?</p><p>Many Whites remain blind to the truth of their blood-soaked inherited advantage. Most, like Bill O’Reilly, are in denial, yet some have not swallowed the pill of lies and stood then with Mama Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad, as some stand today and speak out against the injustices of Ferguson and other denials of justice to Blacks. Others yet are just beginning the painful journey of opening their eyes as they hashtag ‘crimingwhilewhite,’ they are slowly beginning to see and admit the institutionalized racial inequity. As one syndicated columnist, Nicholas Kristof, recently wrote that ‘young Black men are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than young white men.’</p><p>This is not due to White privilege. Now that we know what constitutes a privilege, we now know it for what it truly is and has always been, White pillage. According to research conducted by the Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement, every 28-36 hours a Black person is killed by police or extrajudicial persons. So to Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Troy Davis, Renisha McBride, Amadou Diallo, Tamir Rice, and countless others we say ‘Rest in Uhuru’ Rest in Peace, and know that we know that you were not murdered and denied justice because Whites have privilege over you, you were murdered and denied justice to preserve and protect the Hollywood induced illusion of White privilege, which as history has suitably judged, is but White pillage.’</p><p style="text-align:center;"><em>‘The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people”– Martin Luther King, Jr.</em></p><p style="text-align:center;"><em>‘The only thing that White people have that Black people need, or should want, is power…” James A, Baldwin</em></p><p>–Rudwaan is the author of <em>Endangered Speeches</em> and <em>This 2 is Love</em> and architect of ‘The Lions Tale’</p></div></div>What Would Malcolm X Say About Barack Obama?https://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/what-would-malcolm-x-say-about2009-05-13T04:57:21.000Z2009-05-13T04:57:21.000ZJunious Ricardo Stantonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/JuniousRicardoStanton<div><b>From the Ramparts</b>Junious Ricardo Stanton<b>What Would Malcolm Say About Barack Obama?</b><i>“You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.”</i> Malcolm XOnce Malcolm Little, a.k.a. “Detroit Red”, “ Red” and Satan joined the Nation of Islam and became Malcolm X, he experienced an ongoing personal transformation and growth that continued until his murder in 1965. During his sojourn within the NIO Malcolm’s hard work, eagerness to learn, charisma and skills enabled him to rise within the organization to become their national spokesman. Malcolm’s keen insight into both human nature, history and global socio-political dynamics enabled him to speak truth to power, terrify slave minded Negroes, vex and confound Europeans of all stripes and persuasions while igniting the flame of Black consciousness that still flickers today.Malcolm’s publicly stated intention and plan to take the United States before the World Court and charge the US government with genocide and human rights violations made him persona non grata to most white people. Malcolm uncompromisingly told the truth about the U.S. evil empire much to the chagrin of the powers that be. Malcolm’s words cut to the quick and ossified the government’s propaganda, lies and hypocrisy. To neutralize Malcolm’s plan, the US government along with other state and local law enforcement and intelligence agencies cunningly exploited a feud and split between Malcolm’s new organizations the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Muslim Mosques Inc and the Nation of Islam. The state apparatus adroitly used this public rift and break up as the backdrop and cover for his assassination.Malcolm wasn’t the first black man to threaten to expose US hypocrisy, human rights violations and war crimes against its own citizens as well as the world to a world judicial body. A generation before Malcolm X, Paul Robeson also was in the process of exposing US governmental criminality and brining the US up on charges to the United Nations and World Court. The US government went after him, using tactics they would subsequently incorporate into COINTELPRO ten to twenty years later. COINTELPRO was a vicious counter insurgency program initiated by the US government to stifle dissent and squash the truth. COINTELPRO and whatever its predecessors were code named, was used to not only get rid of Malcolm but also Martin Luther King Jr. and a host of other black leaders and spokespersons over the years. Many including myself believe a COINTELPRO counter insurgency plan is still active and operational today.With Paul Robeson, the US government initiated a program designed to discredit him. The demon label back then was “communist”, it was akin to calling someone a terrorist today. The government took away his passport and prevented him from making a living as a singer, actor and activist. From the government’s perspective men like Paul Robeson and Malcolm X were serious threats to their bogus image as a bastion of freedom and democracy. What set Malcolm aprt from Paul Robeson was Malcolm actively sought the assistance and support of African and Asian leaders in his quest to bring the US before the world Court. To off Malcolm, the U.S. government helped hype an atmosphere of antagonism towards him which led to his murder. The Black men who pulled the triggers unwittingly did the bidding of their oppressor, “ the blue eyed devil.”As we pause to acknowledge his natal day and honor the legacy of Malcolm Little, a.k.a. Detroit Red, a.k.a Malcolm X a.k.a. El Hajj Malik El Shabazz a.k.a. Omawole (The Son Who has come home the name he was given when he visited Nigeria) , I wonder what he would say about Barack Obama and the current US system? I wonder what Malcolm would say about the mindless sycophantic idolization of Barack Obama by most black folks? While he was alive, Malcolm railed against the Democratic Party because it was controlled by sheet wearing racists from the South. He chided Negroes for putting so much faith in the Democratic Party. Malcolm exhorted Black folks to not continuously fall for the okey-doke of white liberals and the government. “Today our people can see that we are faced with a government conspiracy. This government has failed us. The senators that are filibustering against you and my rights, that’s the government. Don’t say its Southern Senators, this is the government; this is a government filibuster, it’s not a Southern filibuster. Any kind of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Senate, that’s the government. Any kind of dilly-dallying, that’s the government . Any kind of pussy footing, that’s the government. Any kind of act that is designed to deprive you and me of getting full rights, that’s the government that’s responsible. Any time you find a government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights of a people then you are wasting your time going to that government expecting redress. Instead you have to take that government to the World Court and accuse it of genocide and all the other crimes that it is guilty of today.” Malcolm demanded that Black politicians represent the interests of the Black community. Malcolm would be the first to point out Obama avoids identification with Black people and our issues and struggles!Malcolm’s keen insight into global politics would make things extremely uncomfortable for President Barack Obama, especially since Obama is pursuing the same imperialist policies of George W Bu$h in Afghanistan and Iraq. Malcolm railed against the US involvement in Vietnam long before such dissent was popular. What would Malcolm say about Obama’s buck dancing and shuffling to the military industrial complex and staying in Iraq? What would Malcolm say about Obama not investigating and prosecuting Bu$h, Cheney, Rice, Powell et al as war criminals?What would Malcolm say about Obama’s tap dancing to Wall Street’s tune and his bailing out the banks while ignoring the plight of Main Street’s poor folks? What would Malcolm say about Obama’s failure to address a “black agenda” while kissing up to other ethnic groups? I suspect Malcolm wouldn’t have too much positive to say about Obama other than he was a good family man, if that in fact is the case. He would look at Obama’s actions: the millions of campaign money he took from corporations and Wall Street banks, Obama’s failure to end the wars, bring the troops home and his dismal record of helping poor and working class folks during a worsening economic downturn that was caused by the same banks Obama is now helping. Just as Malcolm exposed the hypocrisy and ruthlessness of the political system of his day, I think he would shoot holes through the Obama phenomena. Based upon his past, his intelligence and his integrity, I can’s see Malcolm X giving Obama a pass or a passing grade.-30-</div>