Korryn Gaines (1993-2016), a Black American hairstylist and mother of two, was gunned down by police in her own home in front of her five-year-old son. They shot him too, but he is expected to live. The police will not say who killed her.
What is known four days after the killing:
On Monday morning, August 1st 2016, police came to her home in Randallstown, Maryland, a largely Black middle-class suburb of Baltimore. They came to arrest her for not appearing in court on a string of traffic charges.
They said they kicked in her door – and found her pointing a shotgun at them. They backed off.
That led to a seven-hour stand-off. They said they tried to talk her into giving herself up and even brought in mental health professionals. But there is no tape of said negotiations – and they never brought in her mother.
During the stand-off, they:
- cleared the apartment building;
- brought in a SWAT team;
- got an arrest warrant for first-degree assault;
- got Facebook to shut down her Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Right after Facebook shut her down, preventing her from posting video on the Internet, police stormed her home. Some police officers who remained outside had body cameras, those who went inside did not.
Her son:
“And so we sneak in the bathroom and my mother had to pee so she makes some noise, and then she want me to get the ashtray and put all the things out and then the police started shooting. So my mother said, ‘Back off.’ So the police say, ‘We is backup.’ And then, they started shooting and I went in the couch, and then the police just took me away from her and then she died. The end.”
Police shot him too when they saw him running, hitting him in the arm and cheek.
She had an open lawsuit against the police. She said they had been harassing her.
There are some other moving pieces to this:
lead poisoning: like Freddie Gray and thousands of children in Baltimore in the 1990s, she was lead poisoned. That was because landlords had bought off inspectors. Lead poisoning can make you see threats where others do not, making you seem more suspicious to police.
sovereign citizens: the government sees them as a terrorist threat. Most are Black. She used their thought and language, seeing the police as operating:
“outside of the laws of the Constitution which would make them organized criminals. They enforce CORPORATE Law (to generate revenue … which is not a true form of the law but so many of us have bended to their criminal ways. Not me.”
Back in March when police pulled her over for “driving without current tags”, she expected to be killed. Right before they dragged her out of her car, she told her son:
“Don’t be afraid. You see what they do to us, right? You fight them. They are not for us. They want to kill us. And you never EVER back down from them!”
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
- shooters who were taken alive:
- Freddie Gray
- Charles Kinsey – yet more SWAT team action
- Cosmo Setepenra – the Baton Rouge shooter, whose thinking was somewhat like hers.
- Philando Castile – live on Facebook.
- Flint Water Crisis – yet more children being poisoned by lead.
- Driving While Black
562
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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My heart goes out to her young son and I am sorry he had to witness his mother being killed. Sorry the little boy and his baby sister will grow up without a mother. Hope someone will nurture and take care of these children.
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Chuck Hobbs, a trial lawyer in Florida, on the police kicking in her door over traffic charges:
More:
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I really don’t understand why the would go to her house. From the video at the traffic stop, you could see that she was hell bent on not cooperating. Why not just put a boot on her car?
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““The U.S. Constitution does not provide for a fascist police state in which law enforcement officers are endowed with a right to kick down doors, shoot first and ask questions later. ”
Somebody needs to wake up!
What constitutional “right?” There’s no such thing! If “rights” existed (in reality) this woman would still be alive and no post would’ve been written about her and her 5 year being shot by the police.
Apparently the Constitution (a dead letter!) has no authority over cops’ activities and procedures. Or, the US Supreme Court, or the criminal justice system, or anything that says the people have rights.
Welcome to the new reality where rights no longer exist… not that Black people ever fully possessed these *rights.*
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“Welcome to the new reality where rights no longer exist… not that Black people ever fully possessed these *rights.*”
Get ready for more of the same under Clinton and her AG Lynch. This is the continuity black people are voting for. The same as under Obama. This is what lesser evil looks like.
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Fan:
“The U.S. Constitution does not provide for a fascist police state in which law enforcement officers are endowed with a right to kick down doors, shoot first and ask questions later. ”
Somebody needs to wake up!
I’m glad someone gets it. I’ve had it up to here ^^^ with people throwing around the “we have rights” and the constitution” chant.
Black people, you haven’t figured it out by now that we don’t have any rights??? stop saying you have rights, right after your rights just got violated! YOU DON’T HAVE RIGHTS AS A BLACK PERSON IN AMERICA!
Got it? Get it? Good!
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@ Fan, etc
I doubt Hobbs is that naive. He is arguing against those who want to blame Gaines, not the police:
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This is a horrifically heart-breaking story – and another wake up call for blacks in America. No one (black) is off limits. Not our children, babies, our women, our elderly, our crippled, mentally handicapped or handcuffed, not those in wheelchairs, and certainly, not black men. Our lives have zero value in this white supremacist culture. What more proof do we need?
This system, this government, this society are waging OPEN WARFARE against us — something I have been predicting for years would happen. I don’t say this with any pleasure whatsoever, but I’m hoping that black people will finally open our eyes and get out of denial and drop the illusion of inclusion. We are tolerated at best, but will never accepted as full human beings with the right to life.
I personally believe some of the police violence – which seems to be accelerating — is a STRATEGY to get black people so emotionally bent, so emotionally angry and unstable that we will begin to act out in violent and socially unacceptable ways
so that the next PHASE — martial law and mass incarceration — will appear to be justified. I’m not even sure we know who these renegade police officers are who are murdering black people. That being said, I do not believe the majority of police officers fall into the category of sociopathic killers.
What bothers me, however, is the lack of a collective moral conscience within the blue ranks and how they come out in force to support officers they know are breaking the law and committing murder. It makes one wonder how thin the line is between the innocent and the guilty.
For example, in Chicago, I believe many of the drive-by shootings and random murders are not being committed by “black gang-bangers” but in fact, are the random assassinations of black people for a variety of reasons, among them, to force us to move out of the now-desirable areas that whites want to reclaim.
I also believe these “assassinations” are being conducted by the police and by other military type “entities” that operate in secret, including the random lone wolf white supremacist, and/or organized white supremacist groups.
When black people die in Chicago, law enforcement and mainstream media never look beyond the “black on black gang” theory, all of which makes us a super easy target for anyone who wants to spill our blood. No one ever looks for a white assailant because no one wants to find one. Perhaps, they know the truth and know we do not.
There will be those black people, who in despair, will reject what I am saying, and will be driven deeper into denial, to avoid the pain of living among monsters who wantonly and gleefully spill our blood with the blessings of the majority of the white collective.
And for those who will deny this, how do the usually all-white or majority white juries vote whenever a police officer is on trial for murdering an unarmed black man, woman, or child?
NOT GUILTY.
All the “liberal” hand-wringing about police violence means NOTHING when you sit in a jury pool and vote to allow a killer to go free because the victim is black. At that point you have ZERO CREDIBILITY.
That’s why I have been advocating FOR YEARS that we MUST unify. We must decide to love, support and BE with each other for survival’s sake, and start changing the way we have been brainwashed to treat each other.
We have to stop chasing and begging for white validation (and white lovers) and finally realize that our oppression will not end until WE CHANGE what we say, think, and do.
We are in a similar situation that the Jews found themselves during the rise of Nazi Germany, who were scapegoated for all the social and economic ills of the frightened and frustrated Germans. The white supremacists plan to use black bodies to absorb the rage and fear of the white collective as this house of economic cards falls apart and unfortunately, their strategy seems to be working, as one can see from the racist rhetoric of a very popular presidential candidate.
I don’t know what it will take to get black people to wake out of this deep, dead sleep, to stop running and hiding from our real problems, and to get the courage to actually see what is happening in this nation, especially as the economy worsens.
Obama didn’t (and couldn’t) fix it. Hillary—who called black youth “super predators”–certainly won’t fix it – nor will she try. Going to the polls in November won’t make a damn bit of difference. We are the ones who will have to do what needs to be done, starting with black males and black females placing value on each other and ourselves and standing together.
(sorry about the long post!)
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That most sovereign citizens would be black frankly baffles me, considering that the movement originated in the Posse Comitatus, a white supremacist organization, and is based on far-right-wing thinking, and most white sovereign citizens are anarcho-capitalists or fascists.
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@ nomad
That is why there is the word “evil” in “the lesser evil”.
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Trojan Pam
“Hillary—who called black youth “super predators”–certainly won’t fix it – nor will she try. Going to the polls in November won’t make a damn bit of difference. We are the ones who will have to do what needs to be done, starting with black males and black females placing value on each other and ourselves and standing together. ”
*LIKE*
“(sorry about the long post!)”
Pam, your posts are the most SENSIBLE “long” posts I’ve seen on this site. Rather than apologizing for their length, you should probably share your sage facts, ideas and opinions more frequently – because they need to be heard! Thank you.
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Reblogged this on League of Bloggers For a Better World.
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Her son is the same age as my son. This country is too much. Too much oppression. Too much thinking violence is the go to solution.
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abagond
“That is why there is the word “evil” in “the lesser evil””.
That’s why it’s still evil. And that’s why you shouldn’t vote for it. BY the way, I should have put “lesser evil” in quotes, like you did, “Cause it ain’t lesser. It’s just evil.
““Hillary—who called black youth “super predators”–certainly won’t fix it – nor will she try. Going to the polls in November won’t make a damn bit of difference.”
It probably will make a difference. It will make it worse. She’ll probably end up cracking down on black dissidents in the way that we fear Trump will do. Going to the polls will make a difference but only if black people jump the Democratic sinking ship en masse by voting Green. Fight this evil, folks. Don’t capitulate. Something evil this way comes. And it’s a terminal event.
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@tankermottind
Me too. I thought the Sovereign Citizens were more White militia types like the Bundies.
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Voting Green, Democrat, Republican. It doesn’t matter. Black people, we are doomed! -_- b
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The original sovreign movment was an off shoot of white supremacists but a lot of its ideas have been adopted by a range of different groups.
The Southern Policy Law.Center says there are around 300,000 US citizens who identify as Sovreign Citizens but it doesn’t break it down by race.
Some libertarians identify as sovreign citizens because the idea of self ownership is also the root of libertariansim..
“According to the Kansas City Star, Baton Rouge shooter Long “declared himself a sovereign in records filed with the Jackson County recorder of deeds last year.”
“Specifically, Long said he was a member of the Washitaw Nation of Mu’urs. J.J. MacNab, a fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, told the Star that the group believe themselves to be native of the North American continent and therefore above the laws of any country, state, or city.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2014/08/sovereign-citizens-express-fears-of-lawlessness-by-rejecting-laws/
The Southern Poverty Law Center goes into greater detail about the Black Sovreign movement.
She has a right to her beliefs jist like any other American and the heavy handedness of the police in attempting to arrest her over minor traffic offenses is outrageous. Murdering her in front of her children is criminal in itself. But rather then call that out she will be called crazy and portrayed as a potential terrorist.
Who is doing the terrorizing here ?
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you can lead a horse to water but don’t cross him in the middle of the stream
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sondis
“Voting Green, Democrat, Republican. It doesn’t matter. Black people, we are doomed! -_- b”
You may, in all likelihood, be right, but ‘doomed’ doesn’t mean you don’t fight back with whatever weapon is available.
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And for agents monitoring these sites, I am speaking metaphorically. I am by no means advocating violence.
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This ramped up aggression against Black people is depressing, infuriating and completely unsurprising. The police and White vigilantes like the one currently rampaging in Phoenix, AZ have been destroying the lives of Black folk for centuries. They will keep doing it until their masters tell them to stand down.
Ending their aggression seems an impossible task. They have greater numbers, are armed to the teeth and wield a sophisticated propaganda machine against Black people on an hourly basis through cable news channels, talk radio and social media.
Yet they are not invulnerable. There are ways that an out-gunned, out-spent and despised out-group can make lasting change.
The first is by simply organizing. The network known as Black Lives Matter has taken this first step. They recently formalized their position with a set of demands.
https://policy.m4bl.org/
They will, of course, have to deal with the hammer of the State that seeks to strike down any opposition to their policy goals and actions. Yet as Frederick Douglass stated so eloquently more than a century ago, “…power concedes nothing without a demand.”
The second is to get really clear about who and what Black people are up against. There is a lot of understandable focus on the police. Yet they are just one cog in the vast machinery that oppresses and destroys the lives of Black people. A deeper analysis would lead to understanding who controls the police and other institutions of the state.
What is the history and purpose of the police? What is the history and purpose of the courts, prisons, the housing “market’ and the labor “market”? More information on that history:
The third is building solidarity and community among Black people themselves. Jim Crow and segregation were external forces that brought about some level of solidarity among Black people in the 1900’s. I think a challenge for Black people today is to build internal solidarity. One way to do that is to actively construct internal cohesion and community.
There is an old saying that the Devil cannot cross your threshold without an invitation. How often do Black people literally invite the Devil into our neighborhoods and homes out of habit, fear or ignorance? How many Black people have been tasered or murdered because someone called the police on a family member who was having a mental health crisis? Perhaps it’s time Black people develop community institutions and groups to help families in crisis without the intervention of the police or other agents of the state. Likewise, trained community mediators can deescalate disputes before guns or knives are drawn.
Of course, Black people are dealing with a Devil that stomps through our lives without invitations or concern for consequences.
Finally, Black people need a vision of what is possible instead of what we are willing to put up with . Agents of the state and White vigilantes have been brutalizing and murdering Black people for centuries. We have put up with the ebbs and flows of this violence with varying degrees of resignation.
What would it look like for Black people to say “enough” ———- it ends here? What would that feel like? What would it take for us to get there? How do we maintain that? All of those questions are part of the vision it will take for Black people to move from a surplus population with targets on our backs to a full cessation of State violence.
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@ Afrofem
*LIKE*
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@Afrofem
Good suggestions. But it will be a lot like herding cats, we’re so diverse. That will take time. Unfortunately we are about to inaugurate President WWIII. So time we do not have. We must improvise with what we now have at our disposal.
Check out what Paul Craig says at the end of this video:
(https://youtu.be/5BVSAEJbF00?t=22m16s)
“If Hillary gets in there my prediction is —we’ll all be in jail?— No. We’ll be vaporized before the end of her first term.”
No need in organizing after that.
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@michaeljonbarker
Who is doing the terrorizing here?
Good point. I am clear about who is worthy of that label and who is not.
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Oh God, that’s so, so sad. Poor woman and her poor babies. I cannot comprehend hurting a five year with even a look, let alone a gun. I guess we will will never know the true story.
Please will someone tell me what a sovereign citizen is?
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@Zoe Jordan
michaeljonbarker gives some details about the sovereign citizen movement in a comment upstream:
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Thanks Afrofem.
I read the comment and link and did a little research. I hadn’t heard the term before, It sounds a lot like strawman. I’ll find out more about it, its interesting.
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Police in general are poorly trained to deal with mental health crises, people with mental illness, and people with mental disabilities.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/half-people-killed-police-suffer-mental-disability-report-n538371
I’m positive it’s exacerbated when the individual with mental health issues is also black. But it’s a problem that affects people of all races, including whites (like the white man with Down’s Syndrome described in the linked article, who died crying out for his mommy). It’s another example of how many white people are shooting themselves in the foot by blaming blacks for being victimized by the police, because it blinds them to the fact that the police aren’t really white people’s friends, either. We should be joining in common cause with blacks and other POC to demand major reforms to the militarized out-of-control police in this nation instead of demonizing the victims.
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@Afrofem
Good suggestions. But it will be a lot like herding cats, we’re so diverse. That will take time. Unfortunately we are about to inaugurate President WWIII. So time we do not have. We must improvise with what we now have at our disposal.
Paul Craig Roberts says “If Hillary gets in there my prediction is —we’ll all be in jail?— No. We’ll be vaporized before the end of her first term.”
No need in organizing after that.
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“Paul Craig Roberts says “If Hillary gets in there my prediction is —we’ll all be in jail?— No. We’ll be vaporized before the end of her first term.”
No need in organizing after that.”
.
And she’ll get in there because it’s set up for her to have her reign (of raining) terror.
Trump is only a prop towards that end.
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@nomad
Paul Craig Roberts is always such a straight shooter.
On a related note, I read somewhere that only nine percent of the US population voted for the two most unpopular candidates of both parties to receive the nomination for president.
So, we are not heading for a good place in November no matter who wins.
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@ Solitaire
Good points. The police are akin to a hammer. Good for some situations but completely unsuited for conflict resolution, crisis mediation or mental health crises. A lot of times where a pair of pliers or a phillips head screwdriver is needed, we get a hammer instead.
People with mental health issues and the disabled of all ethnicities are suffering under this “hammer” regime. We can thank Reagan and his successors in both parties for defunding mental health treatment options just as we are dealing with an explosion of people who need mental health treatment.
Priorities.
At some point, the American people will have to decide what type of country they want to live in——-so far they haven’t chosen well.
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@Afrofem
“Paul Craig Roberts is always such a straight shooter. ” Thank you! It’s hard to believe he was (is?) a Republican.
“So, we are not heading for a good place in November no matter who wins.”
Kang or Kronos. You’ve got to vote for one of these hideous monsters. It’s a two party system! Guharr harr harr
(https://youtu.be/4v7XXSt9XRM)
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…and to think some stupid bastard on YouTube named “Obsidian” makes a video, calling her a “trap queen baby mama”, saying more black men need to be like Urkel and Carlton Banks instead of Philandro Castile and Alton Sterling.
I’m writing my own piece about this now.
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@Mr. Odessa
This “Obsidian” chap sounds familiar. I wonder if he is one of those psychos that use to come here.
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He has a YouTube channel and he’s no different from punks like Tommy Sotomayor and other mentally ill, sex-starved black men on YouTube whose main concern is about who women choose.
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@ Fan
thanks. I’m truly concerned for our people.
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@ Afrofem
Your post raised some valid and interesting points.
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@Trojan Pam
Are there any points of convergence with your vision?
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Cops Arrest Filmmaker, Send To Psychiatric Hospital
Police brutality became a very real thing for up-and-coming filmmaker Cecile Emeke. Her concern about becoming just another American hashtag killed by police was seemingly unfolding for her.http://countercurrentnews.com/2016/08/filmmaker-ended-la-psychiatric-hospital/
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@ Afrofem
I agree that Dr. Paul Craig Roberts definitely a straight shooter and a knowledgeable one. If anyone wants to understand what is really happening in American and world politics (which means you have to avoid mainstream media BS), I suggest they give him a listen on YouTube or check out his website
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
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@ Afrofem
The first point is where we slightly differ. I agree with organizing but not with publicizing. I think it is a huge mistake for black people (or any oppressed group) to publicize and televise their entire strategy to the same people who are oppressing them.
The white supremacists don’t publicize their true agenda, they pretend to be doing something entirely different–which is part of the reason they are winning. Deception has been a major part of their strategy in holding the non-white world captive.
I think it’s a huge mistake to allow those outside your oppressed group into your “organization” or movement unless you have the power to control and punish them (like the white supremacists do with their black puppets).
I think marching and protesting is a waste of energy – which is why the mainstream media loves to cover black folks doing it. They will even give organizers of the more politically acceptable marches a TV mike and a little news spot to talk about it — and sometimes, high profile local whites will march with them, like the useless marches held by black people against black on black violence
Why?
Because they know IT DOESN’T WORK — but allows their victims to “blow off steam” and feel like they accomplished something when in reality they haven’t changed a thing about their oppression
So, whenever I see a black person on TV spilling our guts about how we feel and what we’re going to do about it, I know I’m witnessing a huge strategic error by a person who does not understand what a strategy is
and it will only be a matter of time before your HIGHLY PUBLICIZED organizatio will be infiltrated with “spies” and “agents” and “saboteurs” who will make sure your efforts will amount to little more than noise (and might get some people locked up)
Lastly, we should never accept FUNDING from those who are oppressing us.
If the people who are being oppressed are not willing to invest in their own freedom, perhaps, they do not deserve the rewards. Sounds cold but it might be true. Who knows?
Other than that, I agree with your other well-thought-out suggestions
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@ nomad
The fuller version, where Homer Simpson says, “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos!”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRdNOQcfp-8)
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@abagond
That’s why I love the Simpsons. So much insight on political and social situations. (As opposed to the Seth MacFarlane rip offs. The black cartoon Cleveland Brown is about the most offensive thing I’ve ever seen.) This one done back during Clinton Dole when Republicans were still sane.
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@ Afrofem & Trojan Pam
I honestly believe that black folks in the U.S. are suffering from three things: 1)a centuries-long case of undiagnosed social/cultural PTSD, 2)collective disbelief over being kept out of the Great Melting Pot after seeing other “non-white” races slowly but surely blend themselves into the soup and 3)an inferiority complex tinged with bouts of self-hatred and a willingness to wait for those greater than ourselves to lift us up out of our predictament. To use a biblical analogy, we are the Isrealites patiently waiting on a Moses to show up, part the Red Sea and lead us out of Egypt.
Talking about the need for solidarity is all well and good, but as with most other things in life, the only way that’ll happen is if the black community hits a genuine crisis point. Despite all current evidence, we are not there yet. I hate to say it, but the concept of a modern Jewish homeland did not gel until the Holocaust happened. Unfortunately, America’s a bit craftier than that — the slow-motion containment and suffocation death of the Native American set the tone for how America gets rid of its undesirable populations. If black Americans are to come together, they’ll need to do so of their own accord and not rely on external stimuli to push them into it.
In the meantime, I shared some actionable tactics that could work to immediately shock mainstream America out of its torpor while strengthening black America:
I should add 6)make a concerted effort to not invite the police in any facet of daily black life. Instead, create a shadow organization that can effectively deal with disputes, behavioral issues and other incidents. Perhaps we can minimize the loss of life that stems from police officers unnecessarily escalating low level disputes into deadly confrontations.
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@Trojan Pam
You made four good points. There is less daylight between us than you think.
Point by point:
1. Your point about not publicizing strategy is well taken. Yet, I understand why those young activists have publicized their demands and the steps they intend to take to fulfill those demands.
A. They are very dependent on digital media, social networks and electronic devices. While I view that dependency a weakness, it is all that generation really knows. A small percentage of them knows that all electronic communications globally are monitored and stored in vast data storage facilities for future reference. Their devices are used to track and eavesdrop on their most private conversations.
Nearly all of their planning and strategy is known to the military/industrial/surveillance complex before it publicized to the rest of us. Those who are unaware of this fact will find it out in short order. Lacking the element of surprise they will have to concentrate on perseverance—–sheer grit.
B. While White Supremacists employ deception and misdirection, their intellectual vanguard has been surprisingly transparent for the past forty years. They have laid out their dystopian visions in a variety of media, from books and pamphlets to films and websites. Groups that monitor the Right, like Political Research Associates, have written a lot of detailed analyses of history, trends, alliances and schisms within the Right both nationally and globally.
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2. “…it’s a huge mistake to allow those outside your oppressed group into your “organization” or movement…”
Lot’s of agreement there. I do think strategic coalitions can be very useful in advancing a cause. As long as the groups in coalition have roughly the same level of power and input and are clear about their roles and desired results. BLM is actually a loose network of local organizations that work in concert. Sometimes they work with other local organizations from other ethnic groups and I think that is healthy. They understand that they need to avoid charismatic leaders and hierarchical organizations. Amorphous, “leader-full” organizations can be an asset.
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3. “…marching and protesting is a waste of energy – […] but allows their victims to “blow off steam” and feel like they accomplished something when in reality they haven’t changed a thing about their oppression.”
Marches and rallies are my least favorite forms of protest. I agree that their usefulness is very limited.
Social scholar, Gene Sharp reviewed thousands of instances of nonviolent struggle and listed 198 protest methods in his 1973 book The Politics of Nonviolent Action. Sharp divided non-violent actions into three broad categories: protest, noncooperation and intervention.
The methods are listed here:
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/browse_methods
I think methods of non-cooperation (boycotts) and intervention (alternative economic institutions) are most effective. Yet, I have seen the use of a variety of methods used concurrently to add pressure on the system. Marches on their own can be lackluster. Marches combined with other methods can be electric.
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4. “…we should never accept FUNDING from those who are oppressing us. If the people who are being oppressed are not willing to invest in their own freedom, perhaps, they do not deserve the rewards.”
There is absolutely no daylight between us on this point. I deeply agree with you on this. One thing that made the Double V Campaign of the 1940s and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s so potent was the element of Black people pulling together, pooling their dollars for clear objectives.
I personally know former Black Civil Rights activists who were housed, fed and transported by Black volunteers who opened their homes, cars, wallets and hearts for the movement. Those volunteers were ordinary people from all walks of life. Sometimes their support cost them jobs and homes, but they made those investments/sacrifices with open eyes and accepted the consequences. They were the true heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.
That is one reason I have no respect for NAACP. You can’t take corporate or foundation money and struggle effectively for Black people who are oppressed by those very same corporations and foundation interests.
Some BLM groups have been seduced by these funders and they represent weak links in the network. They could drag others down with them.
Only time will tell how this all turns out. The odds are loaded in the favor of the oppressors, but sometimes events twist and turn in the favor of the oppressed.
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Excellent comments Afrofem. Particularly this:
That is one reason I have no respect for NAACP. You can’t take corporate or foundation money and struggle effectively for Black people who are oppressed by those very same corporations and foundation interests.
You take money from these oppressors, they are bound and beholden to call in their markers some day…..you’ll owe them.
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I never agreed with these protest unless done economically via boycotts etc, as many here have stated. I wouldn’t be surprised if these marches and protests were set up by the oppressors in order to draw out potential ‘troublemakers’, double agents. You can not let them see you coming! As for leadership, I believe there shouldn’t be any. Facilitators, operational people sure. There shouldn’t be any hierarchy, just people with varied skill sets. There has to a concerted effort to establish cohesion. Whatever you do, on a basic level,don’t try to educate them or divulge anything to them. If I want to find out about a topic or something in general, let them do the heavy lifting themselves. The task has been too onerous for those who have attempted it.
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Correction: Whatever you do, on a basic level,don’t try to educate them or divulge anything to them. If I want to find out about a topic or something in general, let them do the heavy lifting themselves. The task has been too onerous for those who have attempted it.
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Folks, you’ll have to excuse me, I am in the midst of eating breakfast hence the typos!
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@Hernieth
“There shouldn’t be any hierarchy, just people with varied skill sets.”
Agreed. An obvious leader is an obvious target. Besides, you don’t want a movement to become too tied to one particular individual.
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@Mack Lyons
I would add one more tactic to your list of actionable tactics:
7) Black church congregations in every county could set up one county-wide trans-denominational church credit union. Every Black church congregation of every denomination (including Black American Muslims) could fund the credit union with weekly offerings and tithes from the congregations. This would accomplish several things:
A. A viable alternative to White-owned banks would exist for the churches and mosques that currently deposit funds outside of the community.
B. Those credit unions could serve the vast numbers of “unbanked” Black folk who need low cost checking and savings services. Many “unbanked” people are currently preyed upon by check cashing shops and payday lenders.
They are also prime marks for rent-to-own, “buy here/pay here” auto and re-loadable debit card hustlers. A well run credit union could help people in the community with auto loans, business loans and short-term loans. The credit union could also help the member churches and mosques with building improvement loans and emergency loans.
C. The credit union could serve as a financial literacy center. Many people, are not financially literate. They need instruction on how to manage a checking account. They need to learn how to set up a budget and save money on a regular basis so that the inevitables of life (like new tires, insurance premiums and school clothes for the kids) are covered. Retirement and estate planning would be important topics for the credit union to cover, too. A bonus is that lessons in financial literacy would help the churches and mosques to systematize regular giving to the churches and mosques by teaching people how to tithe and give through their estates.
Perhaps by working together, Black churches and mosques could wean themselves from federal “Faith Based Initiative” bribe money and advocate for Black people again. They could certainly improve the lives of millions of Black people in concrete ways.
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Agent provocateurs are sent out to these protests to stir up violence. Here’s an article from the Guardian accusing the government of doing this at one of those G20 meetings. They probably do this all the time to foment violence and stir up angst and fear against the protesters and by extension what it is they, the protesters, are espousing. It goes a long way in discrediting them in the eyes of the average white and non-black person as people are too lazy, oblivious or just don’t give a hoot. A combination of all three I suspect.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/10/g20-policing-agent-provacateurs
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If I recall, the FBI did this all the time, still do probably.
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@Origin
“…you don’t want a movement to become too tied to one particular individual.”
There is also the danger of a cult of personality forming around particular individuals. We won’t begin to go into power madness….
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I belong to the Credit Union, and could not imagine going back to using a mainstream bank. Financial literacy as you wrote should be mandatory from a young age, at least starting in junior high or whatever you call it over there (ages 12-16). Excellent suggestions Afrofem!
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She was driving around with a vehicle with no plates and when pulled over told the police that she is not obligated to follow laws..
http://heavy.com/news/2016/08/korryn-gaines-baltimore-county-maryland-son-kodi-photos-facebook-police-shooting-photos-facebook-videos-warrant/
Scroll down to the video of her driving around. It’s awful what happened to her but she needed some help. Her son is so cute…
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But at the end of the day, they still did rob this woman of her life. Her kids lost their mom, she might have been slightly mentally ill, but she did seem to try to be a good mother. She just needed help. Hearing her 5 yr old’s voice is heart breaking…
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I guess driving around without plates and being, possibly, mentally ill warrants the death sentence eh?
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Both she and Freddie Gray may have suffered from brain damage due to lead poisoning, which may have made them act in inappropriate ways when faced with the police. But the thing is, they were both right to fear the police, as events would later prove. That part was not just in their heads.
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@ Mack Lyons
I agree with your diagnosis that we are suffering collectively from a multitude of psychological maladies.
I used to think black people would come together when things really hit a critical point, but honestly, after much observation, I don’t believe that anymore. We are like captives in a TB ward being exposed to TB every day and trying to cure ourselves of TB.
I am absolutely certain mass collective healing and a return to sanity can only occur by a total separation and rejection of the white supremacy /beauty/religion/material/etc values. And even if that occurs, it will take generations to rid ourselves of the disease of self-hatred, self-annihilation, and white identification.
I do agree that talking about “solidarity” under the current conditions is not a solution (even as much as I personally advocate for it). In my daily contact with black folks, most of who seem apathetic to our plight, I know “unity” is not an achievable goal for folks who don’t even like each other (yea, I said it).
that being said, I do like your first two suggestions to stop patronizing the takeover of business enterprise in our communities. However, do we plan on filling the vacuum by learning how to run profitable businesses (which we seem to have extreme difficulty doing)
And I would love to see the end to our extreme financial exploitation by pay day lending and rent to buy purchases.
I don’t expect # 1-3 to work.
The entertainment industry is a satanic cult and the black and white entertainers owe their allegiance to their masters — not to mention it would be a miracle for any of them to give up their paychecks for a cause of any kind. In fact, a substantial number of black entertainers and athletes won’t even date black people, let alone make any sacrifices for the black common good. I’d write them off in general — but that’s my opinion. I just have no use for them, other than indulging in an occasional movie or song.
I disagree with number 4 about getting involved in politics. I do not believe anyone can work within a system so corrupt it’s about to destroy itself from within. It’s like getting on a sinking ship and trying to make a home on it.
Black people cannot achieve justice or equality in a white supremacy system. Absolutely NEVER. We have to leave this system or destroy. Those are the only two options.
Many people advocate out-populating whites but numbers aren’t as important as the QUALITY of those numbers. The white population on earth is less than 9% of the world’s population yet they rule most of the other 91%. South Africa was about 92% black during apartheid, yet the white minority rule them with an iron fist. The U.S. population is over 300 million, yet less than 1% (less than one million) rule a population of blacks and non-blacks, stealing our jobs, pensions, homes, and future.
Overall, your suggestions provide food for thought and it is good that at least solutions are being presented and considered. No one–including myself–have the perfect solution to this problem or we would have already solved it.
The one thing I always advocate as a beginning to finding solutions is understanding the problem
RACISM/WHITE SUPREMACY
Once we get out of denial about the system that oppresses us, we can take the next step to understanding how to free ourselves from our psychological prison.
Even while I lost hope, I still hang on to a few shreds of it.
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Generally speaking, non-institutional power needs a charismatic figure to get it going, like a Mao, Muhammad, Jesus, Nat Turner, Washington, Mandela, Bin Laden or Martin Luther King, Jr. The huge drawback of that model is that such leaders are rare and can be killed by the powers that be.
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@ abagond
I agree. Unfortunately, after the turbulent 60s and early 70s, the white supremacists learned their lesson:
Never let the blacks choose their own leaders. We will choose their leaders for them.
We will finance them so we can control them
We will give these chosen leaders a highly visible national presence and organization so most blacks will think they’re legit
And when the time is right, we will elect a few to high office with high-sounding titles with no real power
For the few “black leaders” who are chosen by the people and slipped through our nets, the solution is simple
1. Bribe them and if that doesn’t work, defame them.
2. If that doesn’t neutralize them, we’ll imprison or kill them
And if you look at the blacks who have been killed or imprisoned (including all political prisoners who have been locked up for over a decade)
VERSUS the ones who have prospered and will live long, prosperous lives, it is easy to tell what kind of “black leader” you are looking at
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@Abagond
“Generally speaking, non-institutional power needs a charismatic figure to get it going…”
Good point.
However, when faced with a powerful and vicious adversary, it might be wiser to form organizations with a more amorphous structure. That way the whole organization is not decapitated with one bullet (or honey pot or bag of silver).
The case of Jasmine Abdullah comes to mind. She is a Pasadena, CA BLM activist leader who was recently tried and convicted on a charge of “felony lynching”. Various sources have described Abdullah as a charismatic and inspiring leader. According to fellow activists she was only the latest to be targeted:
https://fsrn.org/2016/06/black-lives-matter-activist-sentenced-on-felony-lynching-charges/
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Harder to hammer water….
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@ Fan …
who said: ““Paul Craig Roberts says “If Hillary gets in there my prediction is —we’ll all be in jail?— No. We’ll be vaporized before the end of her first term.”
No need in organizing after that.”
I totally agree.
If she becomes President she will most certainly do two things;
1. She will sign the TPP (the Trans Pacific Partnership) which essentially makes every nation and people on earth into the chattel slaves of the corporate elite.
2. She will lead us into WW 3 by either provoking Russia into attacking us or doing an preemptive strike against Russia, or staging a false flag in the U.S. by pretending that Russia or whoever they want to blame attacked us first.
I’m not talking about watching the war overseas in our armchairs, folks, this will be a nuclear war.
Would the same scenario occur if Trump became president? I don’t believe he was ever intended to be president. The people don’t choose with their votes, the people behind the scene who “count” the votes do the choosing the same way they create polls to tell us who is winning.
I totally agree that Trump is a stage prop to give the illusion of a democracy
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thought all might find this interesting (to say the least)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqbDBRWb63s)
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OFF TOPIC: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, except as related to Korryn Gaines, police brutality, etc.
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Too bad she wasn’t a white man who hated cops.
http://countercurrentnews.com/2016/08/white-guy-two-cops-dont-worry-hes-fine/
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There’s just no good news today…
“No Charges Filed in Korryn Gaines Shooting”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-co-shellenberger-gaines-20160921-story.html
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