It should be no question as to whether or not political expression is a practice essential to the fabric of life in America. After all it is political expression which carved out the democratic values of equality and fundamental rights upon which this country was founded. It is also political expression which forced the ancestors of my people into chains and onto slaveships to serve and build this supposedly just and equal nation.
It is precisely this hypocrisy in the political and moral D.N.A. of America - which in one breath expresses goodwill for mankind and in the next declares the destruction of humanity necessary in order to create that goodwill - which makes the expression of Black political desires paramount in importance to the destiny of the American project. With a stroke of the pen the founders of this nation cemented a covenant, with God as their witness, to create a government which would facilitate the realization of freedom for all those to come in contact with it: Or so they said. However, any reasonable person could understand why those whose freedom was plundered in order to construct such a government might feel that this project could not be considered finished until they too tasted the honey and milk promised to those who held chaos and terror over their lives. In all likeliness this is not a narrative you are unfamiliar with - and it is possibly one to which we have been overexposed. This narrative expresses the sentiment of many a great American hero, from John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, to Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln. All of these men are celebrated almost unanimously in our society. All of these men were murdered for championing the cause of freedom for Black and other suffering peoples. What does it say about the collective conscious that we memorialize the heroic images of these figures yet fail to fearlessly champion the cause for which they were martyred? Moreover, what does any of this have to do with the chorus of calls to denounce the so-called bigot, so-called anti-semite, so-called homophobe, Louis Farrakhan? The reality of America is that her hypocrisy has infected her and now the cancers of white supremacy and the physical, political and economic violence which are necessary to maintain such an unnatural status quo threaten the very existence of the Nation. White supremacy is the implicit and subliminal vision for this country and as such it is at war with the false promise of freedom and equality for all, which Black, indigenous and poor people across the country - and world - have clung to for dear life over the span of 400+ years. Louis Farrakhan, regardless of what some may think about his ideas and the organization which he is at the head of, has stood for 40 years of the ground of fighting to see that justice is mete out for the victims of American hypocrisy. Recent calls for Black leaders such as Barack Obama, Rep. Keith Ellison and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus as well as Tamika Mallory of the Women's Organizing Committee to denounce Farrakhan follow a historic pattern of attempts to mute the voices of Black leaders who speak without fear to the nature of American hypocrisy by those who - consciously or subconsciously - wish to see the continuation of white supremacy. These mark the renewal of an age old racist project to portray those who speak for Black people without shame as enemies to the collective good. We must make no mistake in realizing that this is in fact an act of violence, for we know that in America the "collective good" is defended by any means necessary. It was in the interest of the (white) collective good that similar leaders such as Medgar Evers, MLK and Fred Hampton were slain; or that the likes of Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Angela Davis, Huey Newton and Assatta Shakur were brutalized, persecuted and thrown in jail. That's not to mention the thousands of unrecognized warriors who were assaulted and unjustly made political prisoners during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. In each of these cases the target(s) were identified publicly by being labeled as threats to America and her supposed values. Just as MLK was falsely labeled a communist and unpatriotic, just as the Panthers and their sympathizers were labeled as militant, just as the civil rights protesters were portrayed as vagrants disturbing the peace; so now is Louis Farrakhan being presented as an enemy to equality and tolerance. The point of this implicit form of fearmongering is to control Black leadership, and subsequently the Black masses, by dividing and conquering. These are attempts to show those who are attached to and may even depend on the white power structure that there are consequences for challenging white authority. They aren't just done out of a concern for civility, rather they are a blatant attempt to interrupt Black political expression and intervene in the possibility of the formation of a Black political body around narratives of chastisement and independence. The accusations hurled at the Minister should not be mistaken as being undergirded by a fear of the power of a slumbering Black political powerhouse. We are a strong people and as such we should choose our own leaders. Those who understand the true nature of politics in America know this all to well; this is, in fact, the essence of democracy which this nation is supposed to hold sacred. However, rather than making peace with strong Black leadership and working with them to improve American society, many of those with institutional power in America wish to make cowards out of Black people by labeling their strongest leaders as the enemy. At its core this is no different than the psychological tactics employed by slave owners and racial terrorists for centuries to destroy Black autonomy. In a nation which has never been of moral rightness, who are those who benefit from a privilege created by vicious oppression to decide who will represent the interests of the oppressed? These manufactured statements of outrage are attempts to hijack narratives of revolution; specifically Black revolution. Those who make such statements want the consequences of the evil treatment of Black, brown, indigenous and poor people to be dealt with on terms which accommodate their comfortability. Even with the power of the media, lobbyists and interest groups, state and local governments and all three branches of the federal government, the project to control Black political expression is one which will ultimately prove futile. For it has, when taken into perspective, always been futile. Martin Luther King has a nationally recognized holiday not because this nation and its political machinery loved him, but because Black people loved him. The memorialization of his legacy is an attempt to transform our love of those who loved him for taking a stand against American cruelty into love for America itself. The attempt to alienate Elijah Muhammad and his disciples, including Louis Farrakhan, from Black people has been largely unsuccessful despite more negative propaganda than perhaps any other American born citizen in the history of the United States has faced. This is because Black people's love for those who show compassion for the suffering masses is deeper than the powers that be can fathom. for they understand not that our connection to those heroes is one that resonates in our spirit. It is a bond built by centuries of agony and toil, and if our love survives the threat of death itself, surely it will take more than petty accusations to separate us from our leaders as Alyssa Milano and Debra Messing are learning from our brave sister Tamika Mallory. I was there when Minister Farrakhan turned to Tamika Mallory at Saviors Day and had her stand before a crowd of 25,000. Bright smile, backed by a chorus of supportive cheers, the minister stretched out his hands as if to personally hand her an inevitable trial by fire. He knew, as did we all, that she would face fierce scrutiny for her being recognized in that moment. Earlier in his speech Minister Farrakhan had jokingly told us not to tell our bosses we attended his lecture for surely persecution would follow. But persecution in the name of freedom is a sort of holy sacrifice for our people, and those who truly hunger for deliverance greet the opportunity to show our mettle with pleasure. Black political expression is a sort of divine practice. Surely you will understand by now why we cannot, and will not, allow anyone to intervene in that tradition.
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Every other November political energy in America climaxes in an effort to churn forward the institutions which govern our society. In this past 2018 midterm election cycle there existed a growing pressure, particularly on young, poor and minority populations to "get out the vote."
Along with this pressure came specifically a sentiment of annoyance, frustration, even disgust, for Black Americans who voiced their concerns about the prospects of voting. Articles like "Confession: ‘Woke’ Black people who want change but REFUSE to vote are wearing me out" and others like that posted by Roland Martin's website express these concerns. The reason for my inquiry is to examine what political gestures such as participation in the electoral process mean for Black people and other vulnerable populations with interrelated fates. This requires an honest evaluation of the context of electoral politics as well as an examination of "get out the vote" rhetoric and the menu of choice available to aforementioned communities. It should be safe for me to start by saying that the goal of any Black political action should ultimately be the eradication of racism and racist structures. These forms of suppression exist as a mean to deny Black people the basic condition of humanity - freedom - through violence, intimidation, social neglect, economic exploitation and cultural pathologies. Racism is an existential threat to Black life and should be treated as such. Its existence in institutions, hearts and minds is antithetical to our presence. This is about ensuring our peace. Our joy. Our safety. Our survival. Therefore, the litmus test for involvement in electoral politics for Black people and communities should simply be; will this move us towards the eradication of racist structures? The first mistake we can make in answering this question is to allow ourselves to be pressured into voting before we can answer that question on the basis that we are somehow obligated to show up to the polls on election day. You would hardly expect any well-minded person to feel obligated to support an institution before they could be sure that said institution actually has their best interests and livelihood at heart. Even so, the popular sentiment in this year's version of "go vote" fever is that voters who are traditionally apathetic (the young, the black and brown, the poor) are some how responsible this time around for mobilizing against and responding to Trumpism and the racist, authoritarian element which apparently threatens the integrity of our democracy. The argument is that those who are targeted by racist politics bear the responsibility of creating and bolstering opposition to Trump and his disciples by showing up to vote. This logic implies that to some extent these people are to blame for the current political climate. After all, racists showed up: we didn't. In my opinion this argument and other similar ones are not only mislogical but also steeped in respectability politics meant to silence dissent and ultimately keep Black people and other underrepresented people in line. The first flaw in this thinking is to assume that the Black voting bloc is somehow weak in terms of turnout. To the contrary most evidence for the past 10 years suggests that Black voter turnout, despite systematic attempts to thwart it, has been healthy when compared to the American norm. Even then, ignoring the history of voter suppression and how even healthy blocs of Black votes are watered down and even eliminated is dangerous if we are to ever create an atmosphere where Black votes matter. Through gerrymandered districts, voter id laws, intimidation tactics and other individual instances of corruption - such as that of Brian Kemp in GA who trashed rolls of registered Black voters ahead of his gubernatorial election - Black turnout is routinely rendered ineffective and meaningless. These practices are more dire threats to our political well being than the revolutionary we all know who is (correctly) skeptical of the voting process. In addition, there is currently no consolidated effort on behalf of current or prospective candidates to put forward a strategy to ensure that Black votes and the votes of vulnerable communities will be valued. Were Democrats (who are ubiquitously hailed as the anti-racist political antidote to Trumpism) to campaign vigorously on restoring the Voting Rights Act, repealing voter id laws, present anti-gerrymandering and felon disenfranchisement legislation not only would they be committing an act of good faith but would also undermine or at least threaten the effectiveness of Republican measures of modern-day Jim Crowism. You'd think over 50 years of service and loyalty would get us at least that. Another fallacy I find embedded in "go vote" rhetoric is the idea that vulnerable voters are responsible for answering to white backlash. This expectation is extremely exploitative, leveraging the very real threat to the safety of these communities as a means of coercing them into bolstering democratic institutions which have already failed them miserably. This school of thought suggests, essentially, that we should elect non-racist, non-republican candidates as a first priority, only holding them accountable after we've ensured that the racist threat is out of office. My problem with this is that accountability should be a precondition of any voter's blessing. This issue came up in a personal way just days ago ahead of the election for governor in my state of Iowa. The democratic nominee, Fred Hubbell, was and is one of the most powerful businessmen in Des Moines, Iowa's capital city and my hometown. Hubbell was a power-player in a business community which, centered on a relatively new and booming insurance industry, opened the floodgates for corporate interests into Iowan politics. This alone is monumental. Iowa is a key state in deciding the center of platforms and agendas for both major parties. Iowa was the state which, for example, helped push the Democratic party to the right on healthcare early on in the 2008 primaries. As a result the ACA was not the single-payer, medicare-for-all plan that vulnerable communities desperately needed. Surely it's not a coincidence that Des Moines is known as the nation's insurance capital. Neither is it a coincidence that Fred Hubbell, Des Moines business sweetheart, did not run on a medicare-for-all platform. Accountability is essential! When I expressed these concerns on Facebook a staffer from his campaign commented and (after admitting I was right except that Fred Hubbell was somehow different from the entire business community) argued that Kim Reynolds, his republican opponent, was "surely a direct threat to [my] interests." This lesser of two evils thinking not only allows mediocre politicians like Fred Hubbell (OR HILLARY CLINTON) to duck accountability for their obvious shortcomings but also has the long term effect of pushing the center of the political spectrum to the wrong direction, in this case towards neo-conservative norms, while at the same time strategically disarming resistance. That's not to say that Black issues and the issues which face similarly vulnerable communities even exist in the "right-left" paradigm. Racism is an issue that doesn't confine itself to the partisan plane. Party conflicts are ultimately intramural, but the issues that press us in existential ways cannot be solved through compromises or contracts with dominant social institutions. Struggle, disruption, civil disobedience, organizing and resistance are crucial to solving the problems that face us. When we affirm the voting process as one which is essential to the cause of justice we many times unknowingly pigeon hole Black political expression and other forms of political expression which seek to DESTROY systems of injustice. The other idea is that voting is somehow essential to the practice of meaningful civic engagement. Those who argue this point somehow argue that those who express concern about American society or the world for that matter but don't vote are hypocritical. "Fake ass revolutionaries," I had seen someone say of those who are skeptical of voting on my twitter timeline. "Get off your ass and go do something for your communities." Now to be honest I felt some type of way because I had vocally been considering abstaining. Given the considerable amount of activism I had done in a community shared this young lady I felt personally attacked (LOL) because my skepticism is borne from a very real concern that the pressure to assimilate into mainstream modes of political expression could result in the dilution of Black political, economic and social aspirations. In my case and many others, choosing not to vote isn't some act of bold protest, but the natural result of systemic disenfranchisement. The issues I care about and mobilize around whether they be the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex, extreme wealth inequality, housing and education inequality and political corruption were largely absent from my local ballot. That's not to say I and other's who think like me are not politically and socially active. In fact it is those who sought alternate forms of political expression who have laid the groundwork for our current consciousness. I'm talking the Eldridge Cleavers, the Assatta Shakurs, the Huey Newtons and Malcolm Xs. I don't need to run through my own resume here, but there exists plenty avenues of community involvement and social activism that have and will continue to serve as an engine for true meaningful change in American society. Writing, speaking, programming, canvassing, protest and advocacy are all tools in my civic tool-bag and I invoke them with pride. What I don't do is shame others who choose not to participate in similar ways. In fact, that is the primary reason why I've waited until after the election season to write this post. All of that said, ultimately the electoral process is one that is undeniably broken, or at least compromised in the name of the elite class whose interests our elected representatives actually serve. Elections in America are largely for sale, from the agendas down to the advertising and campaign routes the entire process is created by the dollars of those who finance candidates on both sides of the aisle. Inevitably whoever wins will not answer to voters first, but to the lobbyists who represent their financial supporters. Of course there are exceptions, but the majority of us get the luxury of choosing which faces will represent the interests of the truly powerful, that big ole bad 1% who everybody is saying have corrupted the public institutions of this country. This is not an issue that standing alone should keep you from ever paying attention to, caring about or voting in elections. However these issues together provide more than enough evidence to support the claim that voting in elections can be counterproductive to the stated goals of equality and peace. There are many roads towards a world of justice and electoral politics may very well be one of them. I am of the opinion that we are very far from that day when justice and elections align. We should be skeptical of mainstream American institutions, including democracy, as well as their stated goals and modes of operation. We should look to challenge and redirect political energy at every opportunity towards our own narratives and issues. We should cultivate our own consensus and move forward to achieve collectively desired outcomes. In so many ways we are already doing this. In fact, it is the courage of our generation as well as those before that have allowed us a moment in history where we have the type of political flexibility we find today. I don't believe we should be eager to run to the aid of the Democratic party which has done as much as any other faction to cement the obstacles our communities face today. Yes, I hold to that opinion even in the face of a blatant White Nationalist movement which has found an ally in the Republican party. Because frustrated working class whites are rushing to embolden those who don't actually share their interests doesn't mean we should as well. If the democratic party must fail, as I've written earlier, then so be it if it means that we don't compromise our voice. We deserve representation, not just a representative. Elections only matter if they make #BlackLivesMatter. That we must remember. |
Author22 Years Old. Writer. Artist. Sigma Man. Muslim. Revolutionary. Lover of all things Beautiful, I am the Eccentric Black Boy. ArchivesCategories |