Can't Love the Loveless

July 23, 2017, 10:16 pm

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Ancestor poets  Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou dancing the last dance

No love satisfies loveless
beings unfixable
beyond trauma hospitable
beyond love in human form
all you do is nothing to heartless hurtful souls
hurt beyond love
abused beyond love human feelings kiss hug tenderness
try as you may to dismay
crushed heart feelings
such beings you wonder from where
no feelings there
waste of time
no wine
weed
satisfy
sex no desire
crying inside
wall of stone
love calls
no answer here
to much fear
great monster
fear
hear hear
fear
and what man say
only fear is fear itself
unfixable love
any touch beyond limits of love
kiss
hug
invitation to love
most feared
must be perfect in sick mind
yet to know love is lovee is love
rare is true love
most love is delusion illusion false conclusion
new love old love different name
problems same
daddy mama pain
incest
uncle aunt sex test
brother sister first cousin sex text
what's next
ho sex
meaningless
after nut then what
after nut then what?
--Marvin X
8/23/17

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Marvin X on living the life of a revolutionary, i.e., artistic freedom fighter

July 23, 2017, 11:29 pm

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Master Teacher, poet, playwright, organizer, planner  Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and  Broadway, downtown Oakland, Black Arts Movement Business District

One is a doomed person, man, woman, youth, whatever, doomed to death, martyrdom, jail, prison, exile, house arrest  for life, no woman no wife, children estranged. All religions say stay away from him, do not associate with him, he is an evil person. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hebrews, Yoruba, Hausa, Sunni, Shia, 5%, Mo, say away from him. Bad person. boggeyman. shaman. witch doctor.
stay way from Marvin X. No rape, no grope, no hug, no kiss, no pimp, no abuse--stay away from Marvin X, teach you bad things, teach you love yo daddy, mama, sista, brother, child, on stay away from Marvin X, teach you only religion is religion of the heart, love, Marvin X is love, God is Love,
no love no religion no love no revolution no love no communism no capitalism socialism other isms schisms.

Three Black revolutionaries: Angela Davis, Marvin X, Sonia Sanchez

Religion of the heart! No temples, no masjeds, churches, no sects, cults, no fight no fear lakum dinu kum waliya din, i.e., to you your way and to me mine, Al Qur-an. Be whatever you want to be, just don't stop me from being me, whatever that be, let me figure it out, pay the cost for being lost, yet found in the end. Sun Ra said the only sin is to die, then he lost me, he died thus sinned and I was lost in Space is the Place, On the Other Side of Time. Give me some wine! Where is my beloved? Why is she not beside me now that we are in the Upper Room of our Father's House? Is this a dream? Scheme?

I grow old, I grow old, "...Shall I wear my trousers rolled.... Shall I dare eat a peach? Shall I walk upon the beach? (T.S. Eliot)

No matter what, I can say the Grass Roots love me and I love them back, honest, true, traumatized, yet still true to the game, no shame, honest, grass roots. In my face, eye ball to eye ball, listen they pray, listen to my pain, sorrow, please listen, no one listens to my pain, sorrow, please listen!!!!!!!

Entonces, silencia por favor, silencia, digame, digame,speak to me!

Ah, the life of a revolutonary, exiled.

Exiled, the worst of possible feelings, situations, apart from your people, can't get back with them, your tribe against tribalism, yet your people, no matter how deaf dumb and blind they are, your people like no other, your tribe, family, nation, pan is fine, we pan, yet still tribal, tribe is family, clans, tribe, nation, no shame, we family, no kill no shoot, love family, I appreciate you, brother; appreciate you, sister!

The revolution continues unto the next generation of understanding.
--Marvin X
July 23, 2017

when police kill a white woman

July 25, 2017, 7:09 am

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When a police shooting victim is a white woman

The sympathetic reaction to Justine Damond’s death shows the relentless power of race in America.

 Justine Damond.

 

by German Lopez

@germanrlopez

german.lopez@vox.com

Jul 24, 2017- vox.com

The reaction to a police shooting sure looks different when the victim is a white woman.

There’s a typical story that plays out in the aftermath of police shootings. One side, critical of police, comes out pointing to the excesses of police brutality, particularly in cases in which officers killed black men and boys. The other side, supportive of police, comes out pointing to the nuances of the cases and perhaps the ways that the victims are to blame for their deaths — he had a criminal record, he didn’t listen to the police, and so on.

This didn’t really happen after Justine Damond, a white woman, was shot and killed by a black police officer, Mohamed Noor. While many people — including some Black Lives Matter activists — criticized the shooting, very few defended Noor in the same way they have stood up for police officers in previous incidents. Not many articles focused on nitpicking the lack of information we have to try to weaken the case against the police. There’s been little to no victim blaming.

Consider the ultra-conservative news outlet Breitbart. The outlet has been unusually muted about this particular police shooting, running few original articles on Damond. One of the articles it has run, however, paint her as a victim who was just trying to get help: “Woman Calls 911, Shot Dead by Minneapolis Officer.”

In contrast, Breitbart ran many original stories about the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in which it painted Brown, his family, and even his supporters as criminals. After reports said prosecutors would drop charges against the officers allegedly involved in Freddie Gray’s death in police custody in Baltimore, Breitbart ran the headline,“Report: Prosecutors Drop All Charges in Heroin Trafficker Freddie Gray Case” — again, describing the victim as a criminal. After Cleveland officers shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Breitbart ran headlines suggesting that Rice was large and dangerous: “The Latest: 12-year-old Tamir Rice was 5’7″, weighed 175 lbs” and“Cleveland Officers Claim Tamir Rice Lifted Shirt, Reached into Waistband.”

The difference in reaction is alarming. But it’s not unexpected. The research suggests much of America really does react differently to tragedies involving white victims than black ones. We are seeing that play out in real time in the response to Damond’s death.

The reaction to Justine Damond’s death was different

In general, the coverage of and public reaction to Damond’s death — going back to her homeland, Australia — has been more sympathetic and empathetic to her death, and it’s created a greater sense of urgency than is typically seen in the aftermath of police shootings (even those of unarmed white men, suggesting gender plays a role too).

It’s not just Breitbart. Conservative media, based on some sleuthing on Google, has been generally quiet about Damond’s death — which is notable on its own, given that these outlets often counter what they see as liberal news narratives with their own narratives, particularly when it comes to police shootings. As one example, a Google search turns up four stories on the Blaze, the network founded by conservative pundit Glenn Beck, about Damond, but there are pages and pages of results from the Blaze for each of the killings of black men like Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, andPhilando Castile.

When conservative outlets have written about Damond’s death, they by and large have framed her as a victim. Here is, for example, Fox News: “Australian woman shot dead by Minneapolis police after calling to report possible crime.” And here is the Blaze: “Questions swirl after Australian woman is fatally shot by Minneapolis police; bodycams were off.”

Damond’s lawyer played into this as well, calling Damond “the most innocent victim” of a police shooting that he has ever seen. He quickly added, “I’m not saying Philando wasn’t innocent, too, or that Frank Baker wasn’t innocent. But here is someone who called the police and was trying to stop someone from being hurt … and ends up being shot in her pajamas.”

Ranking victims of police shootings is odd enough, but there are plenty of totally innocent victims of police killings besides Damond. Consider that, in Detroit, police in 2010 killed a sleeping 7-year-old when they stormed her home while looking for her uncle — though this girl, unlike Damond, was poor and black.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones

The headlines by some conservative outlets and pundits have also emphasized the officer’s race, ethnicity, and religion. Here is one Fox News headline, which focused on Noor’s national origin: “Somali immigrant cop Mohamed Noor, who shot Justine Damond, was 'highly celebrated' by Minneapolis mayor in 2015.” And here are some from far-right activist Pamela Geller, which emphasized Noor’s national origin and religion: “First Somali-Muslim police officer in Minnesota KILLS blonde yoga instructor in cold blood” and “Muslim killer-cop’s story falls apart: Justine Damond’s neighbors heard no loud noises — multiple people interviewed.”

This is something I saw in my social media feed as well: the repeated insinuation that Noor was inherently violent and dangerous because he was black, an immigrant, and Muslim.

Here, for example, is the most upvoted comment on one of Breitbart’s stories about Damond: “Anyone named Muhammad should not be on any police force in America. I hope this liberal mayor of Minneapolis is forced out of office. I usually agree with the police on shootings, but this, based on the information released, should be murder.”

There is, of course, zero basis for the bigotry behind this claim. But it’s widespread enough — and, sadly, predictable enough — that after Noor’s identity came out, the Somali community in Minneapolis prepared for the backlash.

The Washington Post reported:

The report stoked fear among Somalis in the Twin Cities, who have worked for decades to become part of the city’s fabric. There are now Somalis on the police force, the city council and in the Minnesota House of Representatives. But the largely Muslim population of Somali Americans in the region still face Islamophobia and innuendo about terrorism.

Then there’s the Minneapolis police department’s reaction. Less than a week after Damond died, Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau resigned. This led to a viral tweet arguing that the reaction to the police shooting of Damond proves what racial justice activists have long said:

The tweet isn’t fully right. One of the problems in the Damond case is that it took several days for officials to confirm Noor’s identity to the public. And in other cases involving black victims, police leaders were also pushed out: Baltimore’s police commissioner was fired after Freddie Gray’s death, and Ferguson’s police chief resigned after Brown’s death and after a Department of Justice report exposed the systemically racist nature of the Ferguson Police Department — although, crucially, both happened months after the high-profile deaths of the black men in question, not mere days like in Damond’s case.

 Some of the Somali Americans on Minneapolis police force.

In general, it’s going to be difficult to draw perfect comparisons from police killing to police killing. Police departments are different. Victims will have different backgrounds. The circumstances will vary — sometimes enormously so — from case to case.

And it’s probably the case that police departments are simply more likely to react swiftly to high-profile police killings now that they’ve faced years of criticism over similar incidents.

But much of the reaction we are seeing now feels predictable — in a bad way. As Black Lives Matter activist Shaun Kingnoted in his New York Daily News column:

Simply put, [“mirror neurons” is] the concept of how when you see something happening to someone who looks like you, or reminds you of yourself, you have neurons in your brain that fire off almost like you yourself are experiencing the thing you are watching. For the past three years, African Americans across the country have been watching the horrors of police brutality and internalizing so much of the pain as those mirror neurons fire off. The pain and the plight are personal.

Maybe, just maybe, with the shooting death of Justine Damond, millions of white people, for the very first time, will now see a victim of police brutality, and see themselves.

There are plenty of questions about the science of mirror neurons — since they have mostly been studied in monkeys — and how they would apply to a situation like this. In general, though, the empirical research backs up King’s point about who the public tends to show sympathy and empathy to.

People are more likely to empathize with victims of the same race

One telling study came in the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans. In a 2007 study, researchers found that people tended to believe that victims in racial outgroups suffered fewer “uniquely human” emotions like anguish, mourning, and remorse than victims in racial ingroups. And, in the aftermath of a natural disaster, that perception of fewer “uniquely human” emotions led participants to be less willing to help victims in racial outgroups.

In short, people showed more empathy to victims of the same race than they did to victims of a different race — in a way that affected people’s willingness to help after Katrina.

The Katrina research is just one example. A 2009 study found that, when looking at images of others in pain, the parts of people’s brains that respond to pain tended to show more activity if the person in the image was of the same race as the participant. Those researchers concluded that their findings “support the view that shared common membership enhances a perceiver’s empathic concerns for others.” Other studies reached similar conclusions.

In the case of Damond’s death, then, many white people are simply much more likely to see her as a victim — someone who needs their help. That’s what much of the media reaction, even among conservative defenders of police, has reflected.

Meanwhile, other research suggests that people generally hold more hostile views toward black Americans — ones that characterize even black children as dangerous.

One 2014 study, for example, found that people view black boys as older and less innocent starting at the age of 10. “Children in most societies are considered to be in a distinct group with characteristics such as innocence and the need for protection,” Phillip Goff, an author of the 2014 study, said in a statement. “Our research found that black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent.”

One series of studies, released earlier this year, used various visual tests to see how people perceive the bodies of white and black men. The findings were consistent: When participants believed the man in the images was black, they generally saw the man as larger, more threatening, and potentially more harmful in an altercation than a white person. And they were more likely to say use of force was justified against the black men than the white men.

Another study found that people tend to associate what the authors call “black-sounding names,” like DeShawn and Jamal, with larger, more violent people than they do “white-sounding names,” like Connor and Garrett.

“I’ve never been so disgusted by my own data,” Colin Holbrook, the lead author of the study, said in a statement. “The amount that our study participants assumed based only on a name was remarkable. A character with a black-sounding name was assumed to be physically larger, more prone to aggression, and lower in status than a character with a white-sounding name.”

Again, we saw this in reaction to police shootings. People were a lot more likely to question the circumstances around even 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s death — and the conservative media was quick to characterize black victims as criminals.

These kinds of biases help explain why black people are much more likely to be shot and killed by police than their white counterparts. In 2016, for example, the Guardian found that police killed black Americans at a rate of 6.66 per 1 million people, versus 2.9 per 1 million for white Americans.

And the systemic biases also help explain why, even though white Americans are much less likely to be the victims of police, they may occasionally get much more sympathy from large segments of the public than black victims.

--------------------

A sign mocking the police in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

 

Marvin X noted poet, playwright, author on Wall Street

July 25, 2017, 8:19 am

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from the archives-pimpin' and spirituality by marvin x

July 25, 2017, 9:17 am

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Pimpin and Spirituality

By Marvin X

I am not a pimp. I am a hustler, sometimes a trick. A hustler waits for no one to bring his money, he gets his own. It is beneath his dignity to wait or depend on a woman or anyone to get his hustle going. All he needs is product, almost anything will do, even a roll of toilet paper he can hustle. But the pimp's thing is women, he considers himself their manager and they consider him the same, usually by mutual agreement, often by torture, kidnapping and exploitation, including mind control, deprivation of sleep, food and isolation.

Having never been a pimp, I cannot speak with total authority, although I have been around pimps off and on my entire life, from growing up on 7th Street in Oakland to hanging with pimps in New York. My brother's claim to fame is pimping. He never desired anything else in life but pimping, as a result his life has been pimping and prison, nothing else. I have been deprived of his brotherly love because of his pimping and prison life.

Many of my friends were pimps, including some of my Muslim brothers who said they made their ho's make salat or prayer before they went out on the stroll. I was around Muslim pimps on the east coast who had their women selling bean pies and whoring to buy Crack.

More recently I had the pleasure of meeting several pimps-in-recovery at my theatre in San Francisco's Tenderloin district when we produced the Black Radical Book Fair in 2004. The pimps included Fillmore Slim, Gansta Brown, Jimmy Starr and Rosebud Bitterdose. They claim to have given up pimpin and have indeed written books and films on the gospel of the game.

In the case of Fillmore Slim, he is still greatly respected as the godfather of pimpin, especially on the West coast. He hooked up with me to see if I could help him get the message to young people that pimpin ain't easy and there's a price to be in the game. If you willing to pay the price, then go for it, but just know you are going to pay. Fillmore paid with several prison terms.

He says these young brothers call themselves pimpin but ain't hardly pimpin, ain't doing nothing but messin up the game. Don't have no style, no class. If you saw the BET awards last night, Prince was the only artist with class, the others looked like bums and derelicts, especially the hip hop brothers. As Fillmore said about young pimps, they don't know how to dress. And he said they most certainly don't know how to treat a lady. They want to beat women. He said they don't understand if they don't beat her, she might come back. They want to kill another nigguh if she runs off with him. This ain't part of the game. Don't be killing people, he said, like you own the woman. You don't own nobody. When she choose you, she with you, when she choose somebody else, let her go. Fillmore said these young nigguhs act like they in love. And keep a night job, he says, because pimpin ain't easy.

Young brothers so close up on the ho a trick can't get to her. And the nigguh look more like a woman than the woman. You don't know who to turn a date with, the pimp or the ho. He got earrings in both ears, blond hair and pants hangin off his behind, living at his mama's house, pimpin on a bicycle. Nigguh please.

Pimp like Bush. Get you a real ho like Condi Rice that can ho all over the world, that can serve presidents, prime ministers, generals. Dr. Bey used to say, "If you going to do something, do it in a big way." Some would say Dr. Bey did right and wrong in a big way (may he rest in peace). And my daddy said, "If you gonna be something, be the best."

The white man is the world's greatest pimp: he pimpin you and yo woman, but you don't have a clue. On BET last night he pimped some of our greatest artists, had them parading as nothing but naked whores.

Nigguh pimps got babies on the street, eleven, twelve and thirteen. What they know about ho'in? They don't know how to put a rubber on a nigguh, let alone give head. They need to be in school. Get their GED. And the pimp needs to go with them to get his. Imagine the social consequences of over a million children dropping out of school each year, over 50% of them. Society, including the school, the religious community and the politicians are responsible for children choosing the pimp life, especially when our nation needs scientists and engineers if we are to have a future beyond pimpin and whoring.

posted 29 June 2006

Marvin X has given permission to Harvard University to publish his poem "For El Haji Rasul Taifa" from Love and War: Poems by Marvin X (1995). The poem will appear in The Encyclopedia of Islam in America Volume II, Greenwood Press, edited by Dr. Jocelyne Cesari of Harvard's Islam in the West Program. Mr. X is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Muslim American Literature, University of Arkansas Press, edited by Dr. Mohja Khaf. He is also in the forthcoming Muslim American Drama, Temple University.

Black Bird Press News & Review: harrison chastang, news director, kpoo radio, san francisco, interviews marvin x on the black arts movement business district

July 25, 2017, 7:33 pm

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Black Bird Press News & Review: harrison chastang, news director, kpoo radio, san francisco, interviews marvin x on the black arts movement business district

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July 25, 2017, 8:26 pm

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Black Bird Press News & Review: from the archives--notes on black arts movement theatre by marvin x, poet, playwright

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Poet E. Ethelbert Miller speaks

July 26, 2017, 9:08 am

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Patrick A. Howell , ContributorEntrepreneur, Banker and Author

American Poet and African Culturalist but Bespoke and Ambient

07/25/2017 04:03 pm ET

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Literary Activist and National Dean of Poetry E. Ethelbert Miller Speaks Thoughtfully of Our Times

“Ethelbert Miller is an amicable, eloquent, Ambassador of The People’s Poetry. His voluminous knowledge of literature is only matched by his voracious appetite for verse and his seemingly endless desire to share The Word with all humanity. We’re fortunate to have such a Griot in our midst.” 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet Tyehimba Jess

“Consider the person who decides to secure a box, place himself in it and mail himself  out of slavery. The ability to make a way out of no way is perhaps imprinted on the souls of black folks.” E. Ethelbert Miller

Want to talk about poet Langston Hughes? Maya Angelou? Want to speak with a beloved friend of June Jordan’s? Want to speak with one of those direct living legacies of poet and griot Amiri Bakara? I mean who gives deference to the Def Poetry Dean but Mos Def? Yes, Call the Dean of American Poetry, E. Ethelbert Miller. He’ll hear you out. Yes, talking with E. Ethelbert Miller is like listening to the cosmos: they hear you - an elegant vacuum of black knowing, eternity in a body that is knowing and all encompassing. After nearly 30 years of teaching, poetry speaks, lecturing, the Dean of American Poetry does not just speak of ideas, poetry and justice, He has transformed his very being into an instrument of, for and to those higher ideas. E. Ethelbert Miller is an American poet and African culturalist but bespoke and ambient.

I sent the Dean of Poetry, a few poems and he sent me back comments that were basically: start over, it doesn’t sing. What Black? They were final words, knowing too. They were kind and temperate but definitive. Because what’s the point in arguing with a Panamanian septuagenarian, Black Arts Movement devotee, a scion of the Harlem Renaissance, a friend of June Jordan’s, the Def Jam poet trumpeted by Mos Def, he who critiques not only Ta Nehisi Coates but his daddy, Paul?  He who moderatesChimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Author of nine books of poetry, two memoirs and the editor of three poetry anthologies? The one after whom September 28, 1979 was declared forthwith E. Ethelbert Miller Day by Marion Barry, the mayor of Washington D.C. American Poet and African Culturalist, “E. Ethelbert Miller Day” edited me? Naw Black.  That’s blessings.  Benedictions.   So, I take the blessings and I absorb them into my being.  In doing so, I am refined. Long live the Dean of American Poetry.

“Well it looks as if we’ve elected a child to lead us into 2020. Fear is real. Might we go to war with North Korea before we celebrate Kwanzaa again? Such darkness seems too real these days.” E. Ethelbert Miller

In this back and forth, we communicate in the spirit of the brotherhood that informs our work after the midnight hour – you know from 12 to 3, in the blackness of our time, when we poets are just vessels for the spirits communicating by biological means of our physical; when we are just mediums for the ancestors attempting to make a communication known, a new age uncovered – the Black Panther Constitution.  

Forget Harvard – Howard University, the Dean’s Alma Mater, is the refinement, the highest manifestation of America’s homecoming.  Our finest destination, the final call, the place from which a new century derives leadership as 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris and our Panamanian Dean of Poets.   Yes,

When we sit still with the music of the ancestors soul sound prompting spirit finger tips, beating hearts into a symphony of djembe, the rain’s pitter patter and kettles drums.   And you know what I found E. Ethelbert Miller?  On this brotherhood of the Dean of American Poetry to a nation of poets?  I found as Mos Def, Freedom:

Freedom

after word spread

about emancipation

some of us went to

the end of the

plantation and looked

for our children to

return. freedom don’t

mean much if you can’t

put your arms around it.

By E. Ethelbert Miller, the Write Way

”Hopefully, the material I saved will be of use to future scholars.” E. Ethelbert Miller, Dean of American Poetry

But let’s talk with the Dean of American Poetry and see what he has got to say about the current state of global affairs. He is former chair of the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C., and has served on the boards of the AWP, the Edmund Burke School, PEN American Center, PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and the Washington Area Lawyer for the Arts (WALA). His speak is quiet and respectful, pregnant with all the possibility of the bright new age birthing from the old decrepit hierarchy. So speaks the Dean:

The Morning Email

Wake up to the day's most important news.

When we spoke earlier this year, after you had presented on poet June Jordan at the Medgar Evers college in Brooklyn, you said something that struck me and prompted this article.  You said, and I am quoting as best I remember, that African Americans are some of the most creative spirits on the planet.   What did you mean by that?

The ability to overcome oppression, to pursue freedom, to survive daily in a hostile environment often requires a considerable degree of resiliency as well as creativity. Consider the person who decides to secure a box, place himself in it and mail himself  out of slavery. The ability to make a way out of no way is perhaps imprinted on the souls of black folks. To the extent that America “invented” the Negro, black survival in America has been dependent on invention.

This is evident in our cultural footprints. Our art, especially our music and literature has at times been difficult to define. Consider the inability of music critics to define and understand the first notes of bebop. How does an ear prepare for the coming of Charlie Parker or Ornette Coleman?  Didn’t August Wilson change American theater? Where does one place the contemporary literary genius of Olio by Tyhimba Jess.  His collection of poems this year was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.  The intellectual heft of this book represents the brightness of a new black literary generation. One could see this coming from simply measuring the arching reach of the Cave Canem organization founded in 1996 by Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte. Today, we see African American poets beginning to dominate the genre of poetry as if it was the NBA.

“Black people are no longer the children of Ellison. In many ways Barack Obama was our George Washington. Now comes the flowering of a new America and for some -the fear of a black planet.”

In just the last few years American literature has been “spiced” by the work of Natasha Trethewey, Tracy Smith, Greg Pardlo, and Terrance Hayes. In film, as well as the visual arts we find not one but many African American artists changing the landscape. It is also impossible to place all these artists inside one silo. This is not a rebirth or renaissance. It is simply the removal of the veil that was once placed over black culture in America. Our artists have more visibility as a result of social media; in much the same manner we are able to document more incidents of police brutality because of a cell phone. Black people are no longer the children of Ellison. In many ways Barack Obama was our George Washington. Now comes the flowering of a new America and for some -the fear of a black planet. Today’s creative black artistic energy must protect us from what Langston Hughes prophetically called “the backlash blues.”  This is what now stands between Trump and a hard rock.

“Being a literary activist means helping to promote other voices. It means encouraging the person who might only have one poem. It means going into senior citizen homes, schools and prisons and discussing poetry and well as listening to it being recited.” E. Ethelbert Miller, Literary Activist and American Griot

In your work, in your teaching and speaking, in your consciousness, there is connectivity, there is peace, a gentleness and a precise relationship with truth.   These qualities seem to be absent in our current national discourse, leadership and cultural norms.  What is “Literary Activism”, a term you have used to refer to yourself and which has been attributed to you widely, even having September 28, 1979, memorialized as “E. Ethelbert Miller Day.”  (in our previous discussion, you noted listening with intent and purpose). 

Forty years of working at Howard University turned me into a literary activist.  In the early 1970s I was a research assistant to literary critic Dr. Stephen Henderson. I took of couple of classes from him during my senior year at Howard. After I graduated I helped him interview various writers. Among them were Sterling A. Brown, Owen Dodson, Frank Marshall Davis, Julian Mayfield and many others. As director of the African American Resource (starting in 1974) I understood the importance of documenting and preserving history. For decades I conducted video interviews, I also hosted several radio programs that provided me with a way of sharing information with the community of Washington. I coined the term literary activist because it defined the many things I was doing. I was not just a poet or writer. In 1974, I founded the Ascension Poetry Reading Series which gave a generation of poets their first readings and stage.

Being a literary activist means helping to promote other voices. It means encouraging the person who might only have one poem. It means going into senior citizen homes, schools and prisons and discussing poetry and well as listening to it being recited. Today I edit (with Jody Bolz) Poet Lore magazine, which is the oldest poetry magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1889. Editing this magazine for almost 15 years has given me a vehicle in which I can help writers reach an audience. Editing a journal keeps one in touch with the pulse of the national literary community. At one time I sat on the boards of many literary organizations. In a small way I’ve helped shaped cultural policy and strengthen literary institutions. I take pride in having received two awards. On February 27, 2007, I received the Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award and on March 31, 2016, AWP gave me their George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature. Serving the literary community instead of simply sitting down and writing everyday often requires a considerable degree of sacrifice.

As a literary activist I’ve also spent time giving workshops and talks. For several years I was a core faculty member at the Bennington Writing Seminars. Today I teach an online memoir class for the University of Texas, Victoria. But maybe the key aspect of being a literary activist is the emphasis I place on preservation. I’m deeply grateful to George Washington University and their Gelman Library for housing my personal archives. At last count I believe the collection consisted of over 200 boxes.  Hopefully, the material I saved will be of use to future scholars.

“That comfort with words came from my father. As a new mother, I see that what we emphasize as important before our children affects their values. In our home my father valued literacy and the ability to both give and receive knowledge from the power of words. Growing up, we frequented trips to the neighborhood library and over dinner were quizzed on current events from articles we read in the New York Times. I grew up watching my father read entire novels in one night, mentor budding poets and lead writing workshops in prisons.” Jasmine-Simone Morgan, Esquire, E. Ethelbert Miller’s daughter and rising activist attorney in Washington D.C.

In 2010, on NPR in a show called, “How Will We Refer to the Next Ten Years“, you offered a meditation on the next 10 years and predicted a decade not unlike the roaring 20’s and the defining talents of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Huston.   You seem to be saying that we are in these times.   Aside from literature and poetry, your industry and keep, where else (what other art forms) do you witness the blooming of this work?

It’s funny looking back at what I said in 2010.  I was concerned about those “teen” years of the new century.

Well it looks as if we’ve elected a child to lead us into 2020. Fear is real. Might we go to war with North Korea before we celebrate Kwanzaa again? Such darkness seems too real these days. I want to be optimistic but I don’t want to be a fool. What seems to be blooming is the art of resistance. It’s going to be dangerous if we erase the gains made on climate change or race relations. It would be sad if this decade is defined by Trump’s ego and personality. Who wants the sky to turn a funny shade of orange? If this occurs, may all the willows weep for me.

ETHELBERT—MU MEMOIR TALK—PHOTO TAKEN BY HESAM NOROUZZADEH / PICTURE TAKEN AT MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

Right now E. Ethelbert Miller is completing work on his forthcoming book -If God Invented Baseball. It is a collection of baseball poems that will be published in February 2018.

More from E. Ethelbert Miller:

Manteca! An Anthology of Afro-Latin@ Poets

http://eethelbertmiller.com/

http://eethelbertmiller1.blogspot.com/

https://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/485

http://www.howard.edu/capstone/mar2009/feature1.html

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3293

New York Poetry Festival

July 26, 2017, 9:17 am

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Join All writers. All genres. All media.

Join the National Writers Union at the New York Poetry Festival this Saturday & Sunday. Support the NWU Members reading on Saturday at 11 am. (We have one reading slot available.) Would you like to volunteer at our table and sell your books? Let us know by Friday by emailing nwuny@nwu.org. July 29 & 30   11AM -  6PM Governors Island is accessible by three ferries, one leaving from Manhattan ($2 roundtrip), one leaving from Brooklyn ($2 roundtrip), and one that makes several stops along the East River ($4 one way). The New York City Poetry Festival showcases all of the different formats, aesthetics, and personalities of New York City reading series and collectives, in one place at one time. The festival intends to create branches between disparate poetry communities, and other artists and artisans, by bringing poetry out of the dark bars and universities and by placing it in the sun. Watch for more announcements about other upcoming events: - NWU Open Mic - August 5th (the 1st Saturday of each month) at the Muhlenberg Library at 209 W 23rd Street, 3rd Floor, between 7th & 8th Avenues.    - NWU at the Writer's Digest Conference from August 18-20. We'll need volunteers to tell the attendees all about the great work the NWU does. - NWU Annual Picnic - August 27th - 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm - Details about the picnic will appear on the NWU.org website shortly. - NWU First Wednesday Series about the Business of Writing starting in September.  Please suggest topics you'd like to learn more about by emailing nwuny@nwu.org.  Will be held at the NWU office, 256 W 38th Street, 12th floor.     Why Join the NWU? Having free space to sell your books at the Harlem Book Fair, the New York Poetry Festival, and the Brooklyn Book Festival is just one of many reasons.  In keeping with its mission to defend writers’ rights and improve writers’ economic conditions, the NWU, through the collective efforts of its members, is able to provide a host of resources, benefits, and services to those who join us. For more information about the membership benefits, see below. Access to National and International Press Passes Tools to Earn More from Your Writing Contract and Grievance Help Advice along the way Support network as you travel to promote your work Advocacy Find a Union Writer Share your writing story Help with health insurance Union Plus benefits Visit nwu.org to learn more.

The Wisdom of Plato Negro by Marvin X: Parable of the Haters Club, Parable of the Mad Poet, Parable of a Real Woman

July 26, 2017, 1:01 pm

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Reader Comment on the Wisdom of Plato Negro

The Wisdom of Plato Negro is for the forty something up. No persons who haven't lived a few years can appreciate the things Marvin X says in The Wisdom of Plato Negro. You need to be at least forty to understand, and even then, this is not a book to read in one setting, even if it is easy reading. It is a book to read in a relaxed situation, and then only read one or two of the parables at a time. They must be carefully digested, each one.

Think about them, what was the real meaning? Again, if you haven't lived a few years, there's no way you can appreciate some of the things he says. For example, the Parable of the Real Woman. A young man who hasn't had many experiences with women cannot possibly understand this parable. If a woman comes to his house and cleans it out of love, a young man cannot appreciate this. He will tell her thanks, then go get a flashy woman who is never going to clean his house, mainly because she doesn't know how. But the dude will go for her because she is cute, but the real woman he rejects, the one with common sense and dignity, who may not be a beauty queen.

--Anon

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Parable of a Real Woman

Parable of A Real Woman



The Sharecropper by Elizabeth Cattlett Mora

There was a man who had many women in his life. They had come and gone, with himself at fault most of the time. But he wouldn't give up, he continued his self improvement and search for that special woman. He talked with elder women about what he should do. One told him he'd never had a real woman! If so, she would still be with him, no matter what, through thick and thin, up times and down times. Well, he asked, how would he know when such a woman was in his presence. First, clean up your own act, she said. Scoop your own poop. Rid yourself of defects of character. Make amendments to all those you have harmed in life. It takes humility to do this.

Still, how will I know the real woman? The older woman answered, you will know because when she comes over your house and sees something amiss, she will take authority to correct the situation. If your house is dirty, she will immediately ask if she can clean it as a favor to you, as an act of love. She will not want any money for her services. And she will clean your house as it has never been cleaned before because she knows what she is doing. Yes, she is a pro, not only with house cleaning but with every thing she does, including her love making. She will make sure you are satisfied and herself as well.

She will demand respect and will respect you. She will demand freedom and give you freedom. She will speak in the language of love so smooth that it will be like a razor cutting to the heart. You will be bleeding to death but not know you are cut.

You will do what she suggests and do it willingly because it will not be a demand but a request said so subtle you won't recognize it for what it actually is: a demand. And you will love doing what she requests.

When you need space and time to yourself you won't need to explain, she will pick up the vibe.
And you will do the same for her.

She will not be jealous and envious of your talent and skills or how handsome you are to other women. She knows she has you in her pocket because she is confident of herself, and not worried about some other woman taking her man.

If you are taken by another woman, it must be the will of God that you go. She knows God will replace her emptiness with someone even better than you. But she will give you time to get a grip on yourself and find your way back home. Just don't take too long and when you come home don't be asking about what she was doing while you were gone.

A real woman will put her resources at your disposal if you are worthy of them, as the prophet Muhammad was treated by the wealthy trade woman Khadijah. There is no selfishness in love. All is for the beloved, but a wise woman ain't no fool. As the song says, the greatest thing you will ever do is love and be loved in return.

The man thanked the elder woman for her wisdom and departed on his search.

--Marvin X
3/11/10

Parable of the Haters Club

There was a club for haters. All the haters from all around had membership in the haters club. And the haters all had an evil vibe or no vibe at all and they also had a bad smell that went along with their vibe or no vibe at all. They had no vibe at all because they were dead inside. AB said where the soul's print should be there was only a cellulose pouch of disgusting habits.

Their hatred was usually based on jealousy and envy. The haters never hated their enemies but their friends. The haters were so sick they loved their enemy but hated their friends. No matter how often their enemies crushed them into dust, the haters preferred to be with them rather than with their friends who loved them.

Yes, the haters were sick puppies and beyond redemption. They would never grow into dogs because hatred stunted their growth. The worst part of the haters was not jealousy and envy but their behavior as busters. Yes, their hatred made them want to bust up their friends good fortune. The haters could have good fortune too but consumed their time hating. When told it takes the same energy to hate as to love, they laughed, because their addiction to hatred was so deep they had no desire to jump out of the box into the land of love. They preferred to remain in the box of bitterness and wickedness, plotting and planning to bust their friends at every turn, making sure their friends would not obtain the good fortune due them as righteous people.

Membership in the haters club grew because times were so bad the people started hating themselves and loved to be around other members at the club house where hated came to socialize, to drink, wink and blink at each other and plot the downfall of those with good fortune. In the end the haters were like pigs who got drunk on their own slop. The haters drank their own vomit until they were consumed and overcome with their evil that developed into cancers of the worst kind.

--Marvin X

11/9/14

Parable of the Madpoet

And I'm the great would-be poet. Yes. That's right! Poet. Some kind of bastard literature...all it needs is a simple knife thrust. Just let me bleed you, you loud whore, and one poem vanished. A whole people of neurotics, struggling to keep from being sane. And the only thing that would cure the neurosis would be your murder...
--Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman

He was a man who lived on the razor's edge, like a tight walker about to fall into the chasm, a false step, a slight loss of balance and he would surely fly headlong into the precipice.
He wrote to keep from killing, from slaughtering the guilty and innocent. In his warped mind, the choice was society's, not his. For in his selfishness, either let his pen flow or blood shall flow upon the land because he felt wronged, the constant victim of theft, even by his friends or so called friends.

He had taught at the greatest universities in the land, but was often escorted off campus by police for violating the law of political correctness. He was deported from countries for the same reason, marched onto the plane at gunpoint, the hatch door slammed behind him. If madpoet returned, the prime minister said he would leave.

His writings were so outrageous people threw them on the ground in the north and dirty south. He told a man who threw his writings on the ground that he was dumber than the dumbest mule in Georgia. The man went away but came back to ask him if that was a line from a movie. Madpoet told him, "You the movie, nigguh!"

Even though he hadn't sought employment in decades, he believed he was banned from employment for life because of his deranged thoughts, that he was not invited to events to celebrate life or art, even events his peers organized, though he invited them to his productions without fail.

People wanted him to be rich by saying the right things so the public could accept his writings. But his doctor told him to remain poor so he could be truthful and free. Another friend told him not to worry about money because on the day he died he would surely be rich and famous. He was praised by word of mouth because nobody was going to talk about his writings out loud, but they hush hushed about it. It was very straight and plain. Youth told him he was very blunt!

Some people thought he liked to whine, snibble and was ungrateful because whenever he put on events they were unique and classical extravaganzas, though sometimes long, drawn out affairs without thought of intermission or length of time. Another mad friend named Sun Ra had taught him about infinity.

He had been confined to the mental hospital four times, but each time he had taken himself. He enjoyed the mental ward, especially since it was full of artists like himself who had crossed the line from creativity to insanity. Other than drugs, the doctors found nothing wrong with him so when he refused to leave, they threw him out onto the street. The police jabbed him in the ribs with their night sticks as they escorted him off the grounds of the mental hospital.

So please let his pen flow and do not disturb him for any reason, especially some menial chore, a mundane exercise, just leave him alone in the silence of his room. Let him ponder thoughts beyond the box, beyond the pale of tradition. Let him consider the finer things of life, what words to configure, what metaphors, psycholinguistic turns of the mind, the sociology and historiography of a people, or else there shall be chaos in the land and blood shall flow like a river, for his spirit shall be suppressed and shall seek an outlet in blood from the misery of his mind.

Yes, he is a killer in disguise, who appears in the persona of a poet for the good of society, but continue to oppress him, suppress him, and he shall strike out in a moment of black madness and those who have wronged him shall see your guts spilled, your head smashed against the concrete sidewalk.

Believe it, it is only a matter of time before the madpoet shall seek revenge and come upon those who have wronged him. He shall strike like a panther in the night, and you shall cry in horror as his knife enters your throat and from thence to the spilling of your guts upon the ground.

He shall walk away with a laughter and joy only the devil himself shall understand and appreciate.
--Marvin X
4/17/09
Gullahland, South Carolina
Revised 4/3/10

Muslim Mental Health Crisis Line

July 26, 2017, 7:07 pm

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Wednesday | Zul Qadah 3, 1438 AH | July 26, 2017 Assalamu Alaikum Dear Marvin X. , It is a critical, much needed, and much overdue service for Muslims: a Crisis Line. Sound Vision is planning to launch a 24/7 Crisis Line within weeks, Insha Allah. We have been working on it for the last six months. Contracts have been signed. The insurance, as required by our board is in place. Publicity material is being worked on. Several trained volunteers are already in place. However, to operate a 24/7 crisis line we need more volunteers. We need to build a pool of trained volunteers. This Crisis Line can save lives in times of stress, anxiety, or depression.  Volunteers must be at least 18 years old.  Qualified professionals will be training the volunteers in methods of saving lives.    How would you feel if your teacher said to you, in front of the whole class, “You’re going to be the next terrorist, I bet.” That is what happened to Ahmed. This young Somali refugee in Arizona is not alone. 40% of Muslim families say their children were bullied.  25% of all bullying was done by a teacher/admin. It’s not easy being a young Muslim today. Today’s Muslim youth are facing pressures from many different directions: Issues of family conflict; confusion over faith, identity, or sexuality; and discrimination and bullying. The impact is extraordinary. 30% of Muslim youth hide their identity. 95% young Muslims have no connection to any Masjid. 660% rise in bullying, suicidal thoughts, and anxiety. 50% American Muslims display signs of clinical depression. Forward This to Others Peace Sound Vision Team State of Muslim Mental Health By Abdul Malik Mujahid It is so important that all stakeholders in the Muslim community, parents, teachers, Imams and Muslim artists be aware of mental health issues, understand the phenomenon, and make an effort to deal with it.   >> Read more... Speaking on Mental Health Issues: Khutba Tips for Imams By Meha Ahmad Psychiatrist Dr. Aamir Safdar, who has been practicing medicine for more than 25 years, suggests the following tips for Imams when addressing mental health issues in the Muslim community.   >> Read more... Improving Social Services for Muslims must be a Priority By Imam Sikander Hashmi Our communities must start tackling the lack of social services designed to serve the needs of Muslims and make this a major priority. All Muslims deserve timely and quality care from social service providers who are sensitive to their needs.  >> Read more... 12 Ways to Care for Loved Ones with Depression By Taha Ghayyur Support. Care. Understanding. These are the most powerful ways that you can personally assist a person suffering with depression, which is perhaps the most misunderstood mental health problem in our community.    >> Read more... 25 Ways to Deal with Stress and Anxiety By Abdul Malik Mujahid Stress is life. Stress is anything that causes mental, physical, or spiritual tension. There is no running away from it. All that matters is how you deal with it. This article does not deal with the factors of stress, anxiety, and depression, nor is it a clinical advice.   >> Read more...        © 2017 Sound Vision Foundation. All rights reserved.https://oneamericaregistry.org/ Sound Vision Management Abdul Malik Mujahid, President; Dr. Muhammad Siddiqi, Executive Director; Taha Ghayyur, Director Communications; Imam Musa Azam, Director Development; Khaled Al-Sadi, Director Finance; Olivia Richardson, Producer Radio Islam; Samana Siddiqui, Content Manager; Dr. Ahmed Murad, Web & IT Sound Vision Board Dr. Khalid Riaz, Secretary; Taufiq Ahmed, Treasurer; Janaan Hashim; Hannah ElAmeen; Dr. Khursheed Mallick; Fuad Lashkarwala., Dr. Amin Nadeem Sound Vision 2701 W. Devon Ave., Chicago, IL. 60659, USA Sound Vision is a not for profit tax exempt 501 (C) 3 organization To unsubscribe from Sound Vision mailing list, please click here.

Ward Churchill--Wielding Words Like Weapons

July 27, 2017, 10:29 am

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• Overview

Wielding Words like Weapons is a collection of acclaimed American Indian Movement activist-intellectual Ward Churchill’s essays in indigenism, selected from material written during the decade 1995–2005. It includes a range of formats, from sharply framed book reviews and equally pointed polemics and op-eds to more formal essays designed to reach both scholarly and popular audiences. The selection also represents the broad range of topics addressed in Churchill’s scholarship, including the fallacies of archeological and anthropological orthodoxy such as the insistence of “cannibalogists” that American Indians were traditionally maneaters, Hollywood’s cinematic degradations of native people, questions of American Indian identity, the historical and ongoing genocide of North America’s native peoples, and the systematic distortion of the political and legal history of U.S.-Indian relations.
Less typical of Churchill’s oeuvre are the essays commemorating Cherokee anthropologist Robert K. Thomas and Yankton Sioux legal scholar and theologian Vine Deloria Jr. More unusual still is his profoundly personal effort to come to grips with the life and death of his late wife, Leah Renae Kelly, thereby illuminating in very human terms the grim and lasting effects of Canada’s residential schools upon the country’s indigenous peoples.

A foreword by Seneca historian Barbara Alice Mann describes the sustained efforts by police and intelligence agencies as well as university administrators and other academic adversaries to discredit or otherwise “neutralize” both the man and his work. Also included are both the initial “stream-of-consciousness” version of Churchill’s famous—or notorious—“little Eichmanns” opinion piece analyzing the causes of the attacks on 9/11, as well as the counterpart essay in which his argument was fully developed.
Praise:
“Compellingly original, with the powerful eloquence and breadth of knowledge we have come to expect from Churchill’s writing.”
—Howard Zinn
“This is insurgent intellectual work—breaking new ground, forging new paths, engaging us in critical resistance.”
—bell hooks
“An important contribution that merits careful reflection, and an implicit call to action that should not be ignored.”
—Noam Chomsky
“Ward Churchill is important. I mean, Noam Chomsky, Emma Goldman important.”
—Maximum Rock ’n’ Roll
About the Contributors:
Ward Churchill (Keetoowah Cherokee) was, until moving to Atlanta in 2012, a member of the leadership council of Colorado AIM. A past national spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee and UN delegate for the International Indian Treaty Council, he is a life member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and currently a member of the Council of Elders of the original Rainbow Coalition, founded by Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in 1969. Now retired, Churchill was professor of American Indian Studies and chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies until 2005, when he became the focus of a major academic freedom case. Among his two dozen books are the award-winning Agents of Repression (1988, 2002), Fantasies of the Master Race (1992, 1998), Struggle for the Land (1993, 2002), and On the Justice of Roosting Chickens (2003), as well as The COINTELPRO Papers (1990, 2002), A Little Matter of Genocide (1997), Acts of Rebellion (2003), and Kill the Indian, Save the Man (2004).
Barbara Alice Mann (Ohio Bear Clan Seneca) is a PhD scholar and associate professor in the Honors College of the University of Toledo, in Toledo, Ohio. She has authored thirteen books, including the internationally acclaimed Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas (2001), George Washington’s War on Native America (2005), Daughters of Mother Earth (2006, released in paperback as Make a Beautiful Way, 2008), and The Tainted Gift(2009), on the deliberate spread of disease to Natives by settlers as a land-clearing tactic. She lives in her homeland and is the Northern Director of the Native American Alliance of Ohio.
Product Details:
Author: Ward Churchill • Foreword by Barbara Alice Mann
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 978-1-62963-101-1
Published: 4/1/2017
Format: Paperback
Size: 9x6
Page count: 616
Subjects: Indigenous Studies/History-U.S./Politics

the symbiosis of poets and politicians

July 28, 2017, 9:53 pm

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photo alicia mason

Poets and politicians are most often antagonistic since the poet thrives on truth while the politician is the master of lies, thus their relationship is symbiotic at best unless he becomes the politician's sycophant for a few crumbs to enjoy an ephemeral state of elitism, which lasts until the politician is defeated or jailed for corruption, at which time the poet stands around with his dick in his hand and heart racing. Thus it is best for the poet, i.e., artist, to keep a psychic and physical distance from the politician.

While lies and deception are the life blood of the politician, the poet thrives on beauty and truth. Dr. Julia Hare said,"I know of no politician that has truth at the top of their agenda." Around the world, poets, writers, artists are often killed, jailed or exiled for telling the truth, especially about politicians, rarely are they accused of lying. Usually, it is the politicians, in league with their sycophants, who lie
about the poets, especially when poetic truth exposes their lies to the people.



Of former President Obama, Dr. Cornel West said,"We must respect him, but we must check him!" Politicians, in their arrogance and delusional sense of power, hate to be put in check, thus they will try to isolate the poet from the people. The poet need only stand on the truth and he shall win in the end. As Francis Bacon said"Truth will not make you rich, but it will make you free!"
--Marvin X

Marvin X's fictional interview with Prez Obama

Marvin X, Thank you Mr. President for agreeing to meet with me.

Prez, The pleasure is all mine. I've been reading your blogs and find them quite interesting.

MX, I hope you don't say what Minister Farrakhan said about my comments on him.

Prez, What did he say?

MX, He said I raked him over the coals.

Prez, I agree with Minister Farrakhan. You can be quite hard hitting.

MX, They call me the sledgehammer.

Prez, Indeed you are.

MX, Call it tough love.

Prez, OK.

MX, Furthermore, I supported you wholeheartedly from the beginning. You obviously haven't seen my book Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself.

Prez, No I haven't.

MX, But I must agree with our mutual friend Dr. Cornell West. I'm sure you are aware that he said we must protect you, respect you, but check you.

Prez, Yes, I heard his remarks. And you know what I said, "You brothers need to cut me some slack."

MX, Prez, you don't need slack. You need us riding your back like Roy Rogers on Trigger.

Prez, Don't you think I have enough pressure on me?

MX, Well, I once forced the resignation of the president of Fresno State University. Well, actually he said he was pressured from above (Gov. Ronald Reagan) and below (student protests after the college refused to hire me). So we see you are the type of guy who must be pressured from above and below, from the right and the left.

Prez, How much pressure you think a person in my position can take?

MX, You got Mechelle to chill you out!

Prez, You're right about that.

MX, But I wrote about her putting a foot in your ass when you get weak.

Prez, I don't think that's necessary

MX, Well, you seem to capitulate at every turn. You call it the nature of politics, of course.

Prez, Well, I certainly don't call it capitulation. That's a bit harsh. I try to negotiate and compromise with my opposition.

MX, Prez, It seems to me you give in too quickly, sometimes when it ain't even necessary.

Prez, Marvin, it's the nature of the beast I'm dealing with.

MX, Ever heard of playing hardball? I mean I was happy you got the health insurance plan through but at what price, selling out to the insurance lobby?

Prez, I don't call it selling out, it was compromise, the best we could do under the circumstances.

MX, Prez, why have you not created a jobs program? You bailed out the banks and corporations but not the people, why?

Prez, Marv, you know I have a most difficult job and we tried a stimulus package, and it worked to some extent.

MX, But, Prez, there are still millions of unemployed. Yet at the same time you are promising terrorist jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan if they lay down their arms. Should the American unemployed take up arms to get your attention?

Prez, Marv, please, what are you suggesting, revolution?

MX, If that's what it takes to get you to consider the consent of the governed. Is not the first priority of this nation the people, not corporations and banks?

Prez, Well, corporations are people now.

MX, Prez, you know what I mean.

Prez, Of course.

MX, How can you provide funds for educating, housing and employing terrorists abroad but not at home? It just doesn't make sense, Mr. Prez.

Prez, You're right, Marv.

MX, Now you're getting ready to raise one billion dollars to keep your job, but you can't find a few billion for the millions of unemployed

Prez, You're right, Marv. I can do better. Let me regroup with my advisers and think about it.

MX, Yeah, Prez, I want to support you reelection but I find it most difficult. And the brothers on the street as well. They were happy when you won, they said it was great to know they could look up to someone besides a rapper. But lately they are saying fuck you, Mr. Prez.

Prez, I'm sorry to hear that.

MX, You should know this is what they're saying, Fuck you!

Prez, I often wonder about the mood in the hood.

MX, You should wonder before something terrible happens to your country because of your neglect and misplaced priorities. Can I ask you something personal?

Prez, Go for it!

MX, Do you feel like a white man or black man?

Prez, Well, when I'm with Mechelle, I feel black. When I'm with my Secretary of State, Hilliary, I feel white.

MX, I thought Hillary was black, along with her husband, Dirty Bill.

Prez, Marv, let's not name call, please.

MX, OK. On a more serious matter, how long did you know Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan?

Prez, We had him under surveillance for some time.

MX, Years, months?

Prez, a long time.

MX, Should I congratulate you for slaying the dragon?

Prez, That's up to you.

MX, Well, you probably deserve a feather in your cap. A couple of Brownie points.

Prez, Marv, thanks.

MX, But, Prez, where's the body?

Prez, We threw it in the ocean.

MX, C'mon, Prez, do I look like Willie Foofoo?

Prez, Marv, we did, trust me.

MX, Prez, I'm an ex-dope fiend. I know how people lie.

Prez, Marv, are you calling me a liar?

MX, I didn't say that, Prez, but my elder, Dr. Nathan Hare, taught the fictive theory. Everything the white man (and black man or white/black man) says is fiction until proven to be a fact. Where are the facts, Prez?

Prez, Marv, trust me. We thought it best to dispose of the body in the ocean.

MX, But who's going for this, Prez, it sounds shaky.

Prez, We concluded that was the best way to end the matter of a man who murdered three thousand Americans.

MX, Prez, how many Muslims have you murdered since you became President?

Prez, I can't answer that.

MX, Between Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, how many, especially with the collateral damage?

Prez, Can't answer that. It was all in defense of America.

MX, Is a few ignorant men living in mountain caves really a threat to America?

Prez, They can be.

MX, C'mon, Prez. Let's change the channel. What happened with the closing of Gitmo?

Prez, We tried but couldn't pull it off.

MX, What about the secret prisons in America?

Prez, I'm not aware of them.

MX, Maybe you should check with homeland security?

Prez, Our priority is the safety of Americans.

MX, Does this include murdering American citizens rather than bringing them to trial?

Prez, Not necessarily.

MX, What about the man in Yemen you are trying to kill who is an American citizen?

Prez, He's a special case.

MX, But he's an American.

Prez, Marv, don't press the issue.

MX, That's exactly what I'm doing.

Prez, Don't press it, Marv.

MX, Let's discuss the Middle East for a moment. I've written about your speech in Cairo and Indonesia. I've imagined what you will say about Muslims tomorrow, May 19. You know as long as you occupy one inch of Muslim land there shall be Muslims who view you as a Crusader and they will vow to fight you to the death.

Prez, Marv, I'm aware how Muslims feel about us occupying their lands. And we plan to vacate all Muslim lands at the earliest possible date.

MX, Does this include having your friends in Israel do the same?

Prez, Well, that's a matter for the Israelis, not us.

MX, But you are their very best friend. You support them right or wrong, true?

Prez, I wouldn't say that. But we have an enduring relationship.

MX, Don't you see the day is rapidly arriving when they cannot claim to be the only democracy in the area, that they will bow down to the God of Justice, not peace but justice?

Prez, Events are rapidly changing in North Africa and the Middle East. Therefore we must all make a paradigm shift in our thinking and behavior, including Israel.

MX, What about your friends in Saudi Arabia?

Prez, They will need to make substantial changes as well.

MX, And Bahrain?

Prez, It's a special case. We have strategic interests there.

MX, You seem to be saying America practices selective suffering. You now support the Egyptian revolution, the Tunisian, Yemen, but not in Saudi Arabia or Israel, Jordan, Bahrain.

Prez, Marv, we have our interests that must be secured first.

MX, What if and when these nations explode in your face, overnight, as is happening as we speak. Seems like you'll be running after the football or playing catchup?

Prez, We'll do what we must when we must.

MX, Thank you, Mr. Prez.

--Marvin X

5/18/11

Parable of the Parrot

       

By  Marvin X

The king wanted parrots around him. He wants all his ministers to wear parrot masks. He said he had to do the same for the previous king. He only said what the king wanted to hear, nothing more, so he advised his ministers to do the same. In fact, they must encourage the people to become parrots.

Yes, he wanted a nation of parrots. Don't say anything the kings does not want to hear. Everything said should be music to his ears. And don't worry, he will tell you exactly what he wants to hear in his regular meetings and public addresses to the nation. Everyone will be kept informed what parrot song to sing. No one must be allowed to disagree with the king. This would be sacrilegious and punishable by death.

The king must be allowed to carry out the dreams that come to his head. No one else should dream, only the king. In this manner, according to the king, the people can make real progress. There shall always be ups and downs, but have faith in the king and everything will be all right. Now everyone sing the national anthem, the king told the people.

There must be a chorus of parrots, a choir, mass choir singing in perfect unity. Let there be parrots on every corner of the kingdom, in every branch and tree. Let all the boys sing like parrots in the beer halls. Let the preacher lead the congregation in parrot songs. Let the teachers train students to sound like parrots. Let the university professors give good grades to those who best imitate parrot sounds. Let the journalists allow no stories over the airwaves and in print if they do not have the parrot sound.

The king was happy when the entire nation put on their parrot masks. Those who refused suffered greatly until they agreed to join in. The state academics and intellectuals joined loudly in parroting the king's every wish. Thank God the masses do not hear them pontificate or read their books. After all, these intellectual and academic parrots are well paid, tenured and eat much parrot seed.

Their magic song impresses the bourgeoisie who have a vested interest in keeping the song of the parrot alive. Deep down in the hood, in the bush, the parrot song is seldom heard, only the sound of the hawk gliding through the air in stone silence looking for a parrot to eat.

5 April 2010

Parable of the Bitch Package by Marvin X

July 30, 2017, 8:04 am

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Parable of the Bitch Package

Every dope fiend wants the bitch package because the bitch package is fat, often double the size of the package given to males, mainly because the dope man wants to get at the bitch, get to the pussy, so when the bitch comes to buy dope, he will juice her package so he might have a shot at the pussy. He will never give the male the bitch package unless the dealer is gay, but usually the male dealer will automatically give a female a little extra. The female knows that if she comes to the dope man with five dollars she can get ten dollars worth of dope, if not more. Of course if she turns a trick with the dope man, she can get dope in exchange for her funky thang!

When I was a Crack fiend and brothers had to cop for me since I didn't know the dope man, I would tell my friend, "Tell that nigguh to give you the bitch package, tell him you got a bitch outside so he will juice me up," and most times it worked. Of course this is sexual or gender discrimination in the dope game, but it is what it is!

FYI, in terms of psycho-linguistics, as language is fluid and dynamic, the term bitch came to mean a male and/or female. As per dope recovery, we believe in the harm-reduction model, not total abstinence  since most dope fiends relapse from time to time. Furthermore, drugs should be legalized, prostitution as well!
--Marvin X

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homelessness and healthlessness in oaktown

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COUNTERPOINTS: THE HEALTHLESSNESS OF HOMELESSNESS

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

http://www.safero.org/counterpoints/counterpoints075.html

The good news is that Oakland appears to have finally turned our attention to the crisis of homelessness in the city.

The bad news is that the impetus for much of this new urgency to “do something” about “the problem” is an odd coalition of those who want to help the homeless and those who want to get rid of them, coalescing around a growing concern to eliminate those homeless camps and tent cities along our streets in our vacant fields and lots and frontage roads, either to eventually get their residents into shelters, first, and then permanent housing, or else to “get these devils hence,” to borrow from Cousin Matthew, either out of the city or just out of our sight.

But the fact is, even though the homeless camps and tent cities have only recently entered the consciousness of most Oakland residents, they are the product of complex social forces that have been building for decades, and continue to build and press against our social fabric. To try to get rid of these camps and tent cities is like trying to mop the water off the bathroom floor without turning off the faucet that caused the bathtub to overflow in the first place. You can mop all you want, the water will continue to flow until the tap is turned shut.

Unfortunately, the tap of social forces that created and continues to create more homeless in Oakland cannot be fixed by some simple twist of hand and metal. Absent a cataclysmic intervention by some major outside forces—such as the world war that put America to work and pulled its economy out of the Depression of the 1930’s—“ending” the forces that created Oakland’s current homeless crisis is going to take some thought, some careful planning, and more than a few decades of hard work that will certainly go past the lifetimes of many of the people reading this piece.

And so, just like with open air drug markets or prostitution strolls, the most pressing call from any community—and the one which often gets translated directly to action by the politicians who represent that community—is to “get them off my corner.” Actually, getting a tent city or homeless camp removed from any given location is easily done. Police clear out the tent city at 85th and International about once every three or four weeks, on a regular schedule. After posting a warning notice several days in advance, the police stand around while city workers pile discarded belongings and trash into trucks, and then a fire truck comes by to use its hoses to wash away whatever residue is left behind on the streets. The camp residents wait around the corner with their preferred stuff in shopping carts and garbage bags and, when the operation is completed and the police and city workers have all left, return to reoccupy the spot they have only temporarily vacated. Come back within an hour, and you would never know that a city “clean-up and evacuation” operation ever took place.

Clearing up a particular site permanently requires a lot more effort and expenditure of city resources, but is doable. The problem is, without a comprehensive plan and program for an overall homeless solution, permanently clearing a particular site or corner only means driving the homeless folks to another site or corner, until they reach one where the community is less organized or less persuasive, the politicians less pressed, and, therefore, where the problem squats and stays.

In other words, there is no quick fix to the homeless camps and tent cities, not until we reach an ultimate solution to what is causing these settlements to spring up in the first place.

But while we are working on long-term solutions, there is an immediate crisis that can be solved in the short run, and must be addressed and attacked now, for the good of us all. And that is the crisis of uncollected waste growing out of the homeless camps. It is a crisis that threatens the health of every citizen of the City of Oakland.

Before this brings a renewal of the “blame it on the homeless” game, some thoughts.

Let us deal with two truisms, both of which are universal to the human condition, regardless of caste or color or nationality, and whether one is the richest of the rich or among the most downtrodden.

First, attribute it to either the vagaries of evolution or the design of whatever creator one believes in, human beings have a decidedly inefficient system of energy intake. Our bodies make use of only a portion of the food and liquid that we consume. The rest is cast off in the form of feces and urine.

Second, modern times have exacerbated what has always been a fact of human life: even the hungry don’t often eat absolutely everything that is put before us. Peels, seeds, plate and package scrapings, and various other leavings (what the old folks used to call “scraps”) are all left behind after every snack or meal.

  Collectively, these two sets of castoffs from our food and liquid consumption make up what we call “waste.” Left untreated or undisposed of or both for even short spaces of time, both types of waste degrade into rancid matter that either pass on diseases on their own or attract disease-causing vermin such as flies or rats.

Folks from the outside observing the tent cities and homeless camps almost always take note of the escalating piles of waste and often unfairly attribute this solely to the general “nastiness” of the camp residents themselves.

 But let’s not get it twisted. Tent city occupants are not androids all manufactured to same specifications. They are folks thrown together from many elements of modern society for many different reasons, the only real condition that they all have in common is that they all occupy a tent city or a homeless camp together on any given day.

And so I have seen some of the nastiest people in the world living in these camps, and at the same time, I have seen the most fastidious. I have seen both men and women pull down their pants or hike up their dresses and panties respectively and urinate or defecate against a wall within a few steps from where they sleep every night, or sometimes directly next to their bedding. I have seen people toss their food leavings into the sidewalk and the street, not caring where they land. And at the same time, I have come out in the early hours just after dawn and seen homeless camp residents collect the trash and garbage that has been strewn about overnight, and sweep down the sidewalk around their makeshift homes, sometimes spreading out a cupful of bleach in advance to get rid of the smells and the waste residue, doing their best under extraordinarily difficult conditions to keep their surroundings clean.

Whichever the case, residents of established communities should be cautioned of looking down our noses at the trash generated by the homeless. Because without the presence of modern waste utilities—both garbage collection and water and sewage—our own neighborhoods would look and feel and smell very similar to these homeless communities.

We in the larger community outside of the camps defecate and urinate in our toilets and hit the handle, and give little thought to what happens after the waste product gets flushed away. We collect our garbage first in plastic bags that generally reside in a plastic container under the kitchen sink and then, when the bags get too full, take them out to the Waste Management containers at the side of our houses until, once a week, set the containers out on the sidewalk so that the Waste Management workers can take it away.

But without EBMUD and Waste Management to take care of it, what would happen to that waste?

Years ago, when I lived for a time back in the deep country, folks had outhouses for “going to the bathroom,” and burnt their garbage in piles a little distance from their houses. That worked in the country. But how many people in the city of Oakland have any idea how to build a working outhouse or maintain it in a sanitary condition, even if such structures and their use weren’t illegal in an urban setting? And burning our garbage in our yards—if we even have a yard—is similarly out of the question.

Absent utilities like EBMUD and Waste Management, we’d have to spend a good portion of our weeks figuring out how to dispose of the waste ourselves. The truth is, most of us would not know how to handle it, any more than the people in the homeless camps and tent cities do.

Most residents of homeless camps and tent cities are far from toilet facilities. And even when such facilities at business establishments are nearby, they are generally banned to anybody but customers. A few of the homeless settlements have portable toilets, but not many. So where, exactly, are these folks supposed to let their body wastes go?

Meanwhile, because they are not tied into the brick-and-mortar residence-based city waste disposal system, waste disposal in the homeless camps and tent cities is not serviced by Waste Management in the manner in which it is serviced in the rest of the city. In locations like the 85th Avenue/International tent city in East Oakland, with which I am most familiar, some arrangement has been made with city officials that if trash is bagged up in proper plastic containers and left on the corner, it will be eventually picked up by city personnel. “Eventually” is the operative word, and many times the bags are not picked up until someone complains to the city.

Besides staying out in the open longer than the trash in our Waste Management outdoor containers, this bagged-up trash on the corner is not nearly as secure, so it is subject to frequent rifling through by rodents and cats and human scavengers, who often tear holes in the bags or leave the tops open so that trash gets spread out over the pavement and out into the gutters and streets.

As should be obvious, this waste and human by-product from the homeless camps and tent cities left out and un-disposed-of in such a manner for so long a time attracts and spreads disease. This happens first among the residents of the tent cities and homeless camps themselves. But many such waste-fermented diseases are airborne, and are carried on the air into the neighborhoods beyond, first in the immediate vicinity of the tent cities and homeless camps, eventually into the general city surrounding.

Does this sound frightening? It should. But unlike the complications of the homeless camps and tent cities themselves, the problem of the waste emanating from these settlements has a clear, if not necessarily “easy,” solution.

First, make portable toilets available at every established tent city and homeless camp in the city, and operate a system to maintain them and keep them clean.

Second, establish a regular, weekly system of garbage disposal in every established tent city and homeless camp in the city, using the regular closeable hard plastic containers that every Oakland residence has, rather than plastic bags.

Third, establish a regular, city and county-sponsored program of health inspections and mitigations in the tent cities and homeless camps, including health-oriented treatments for the folks living in them, not as an excuse to shut them down—which we’ve already established as a fruitless endeavor in the short run—but as a way to make them healthier places for the people living there.

These things shouldn’t be a substitute for a program to end the conditions that created the homeless camps and tent cities in the first place, but can and should be done while we’re working on that long-term solution.

Yes, this is going to take some money. And yes, this is going to take some time and effort, and some inconvenience. But the health of many of our fellow citizens is at stake. The health of all of us is at stake. And if we don’t put in money or effort for a cause such as that, what are we saving it for?

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Parable of Zionism and National Insanity

By Marvin X

Recent events in Israel—such as the planned building of 1,600 housing units in Arab East Jerusalem—lead us to the conclusion the Zionists are headed down a national suicide path that will surely take America, if not the world, with them. What makes their suicide a foregone conclusion is the fact they are surrounded by nations with populations more suicidal than they. The Saudi Arabian brand of Islam promoted by Al Queda is a return to Ya'am Jahiliyah or the days of ignorance before the advent of Islam in 632 AD.

The Muslim Brotherhood—Hamas and Hezbollah—are just as determined as the Jewish Zionists to execute their fanatical and dogmatic vision of the world, or in particular, the Middle East. It is a dance of death for all peoples, with no hope in sight. The more the Muslims seem ready to conclude a deal with for some semblance of a Palestinian state, the more the Zionists expand their colonial occupation of Arab land.

The recent son of a Hamas leader—who confessed being a snitch for the Zionists—said he agreed to snitch after he saw nothing shall happen regarding Palestine as long as the two sides maintain their dogmatic religiosity or archaic mythology. There can be no forward movement with such backward notions of history of aboriginal ownership based on mythology and religiosity, e.g., the Chosen people of God poppycock. At least the Arabs come from the reality that they were brazenly removed from their homeland. How does one make peace with someone who has seized your homeland and relegated you to refugee camps within and outside your original space, especially when the occupation is based on injuries inflicted by someone else (Hitler)? Why should Arabs suffer for what Nazis did to the Jews?

The Arabs say they shall fight to the death to reclaim their land, with Hamas fighting for every inch of land taken, no matter how long it takes. It took 200 years before Saladin removed the last Crusaders! What is amazing is that the Zionists have a nuclear arsenal and the greatest army in the Middle East, if not the world—at least until Hezbollah fought them to a standstill in Lebanon (a feat greater than the combined Arab armies in several wars against the Zionists)—yet all we hear is the need for security. What more security do you need? You have bombs, planes, tanks, soldiers, bio-chemical weapons of mass destruction, what more security do you need? Would tightening the grip on the Arab concentration camps suffice, i.e., will the Wall you are building satisfy your security needs, or a checkpoint on every block, every mile?

No matter the intractable positions on both sides, we are nearing a conclusion on this matter, yes, in spite of the duplicity of all concerned, the Zionists, their American sycophants, and the quisling Muslim governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf States. Also, we cannot ignore the critical role of Iran in this drama, with their support of Hamas and Hezbollah for matters of their mythological dreams. We have a prescription for full blown Armageddon.

Let the fundamental Christians rejoice along with the 12vers in Iran who joyfully and anxiously await the return of the 12th Imam or Mahdi, while the Christians savor the return of their Messiah with the destruction of Jerusalem, or with a more dramatic total destruction of the Middle East. And so we now await the final Holocaust to usher in the new era of peace in the world.

15 March 2010