Black Bird Press News & Review: A Poem for Dessie X. Woods/Rashidah Muhammad
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Of tsunamis and human earthquake victims
NATIONAL
Minor tsunami hit Fukushima coast after strong quake
AFP-JIJI
Minor tsunami hit Tohoku’s coastline early Saturday, including in a city near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, after a strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific coast.
There were no immediate reports of damage, however, and authorities lifted all advisories roughly two hours later.
The manager of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant said no abnormal activity was reported after the quake, which a Meteorological Agency official said appeared to be an aftershock of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the quake struck around 129 km (79 miles) east southeast of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, at 4.22 a.m.
Many of the communities along the coastline covered by Saturday’s advisories are still recovering from the March 2011 quake and tsunami, which killed more than 18,000 people and triggered a triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Minor tsunami as high as 20 cm (7.8 inches) were observed in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, the Meteorological Agency said.
Tidal waves of 10 cm were also logged in the city of Soma, about 40 km (25 miles) north of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, the agency said. Soma was severely damaged by the natural and man-made disasters.
At least three people were injured by the quake in Fukushima, said NHK, including a 68-year-old woman who suffered a broken leg.
The tsunami advisories for Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures warned that waves of up to 1 meter (3.3 feet) were possible.
“We have lifted the tsunami advisory, but do not approach coastlines for now as there may be a change in sea levels,” an agency official said.
Fukushima No. 1 manager Tokyo Electric Power Co. said there were no reports of abnormal activity at the plant early Saturday, but the sea levels near it cannot be gauged because the tsunami monitoring system was destroyed on 3/11.
“We have not seen any damage or any change in radiation gauges after the quake,” Tepco spokesman Masahiro Asaoka said.
“Today’s operations have yet to start but we ordered workers to evacuate to high places,” he said. “Our temporary breakwater that was newly built is high enough to block a 1-meter tsunami.”
The tsunami that hit the poorly protected plant in March 2011 measured about 14 meters, overwhelming its seawall, which was only about 10 meters high at the time.
The city of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, issued an evacuation advisory to some 12,000 residents, as did other authorities in the region, officials said. All were later lifted.
The Fukushima No. 1 plant lost all electrical power after the quake and tsunami three years ago. After the waves swamped its cooling systems, three reactor cores melted, tainting much of the area with radiation in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the plant and the decommissioning process is expected to take decades.
In the meantime, the utility is struggling to handle a huge — and growing — volume of radiation-contaminated water that poses the next stage in the crisis.
On Friday, the crippled plant was skirted by tropical storm Neoguri, which had been a typhoon until wading through west Japan. Workers had scrambled to secure the plant from the storm, but Neoguri had little impact after heading into the Pacific.
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There were no immediate reports of damage, however, and authorities lifted all advisories roughly two hours later.
The manager of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant said no abnormal activity was reported after the quake, which a Meteorological Agency official said appeared to be an aftershock of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the quake struck around 129 km (79 miles) east southeast of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, at 4.22 a.m.
Many of the communities along the coastline covered by Saturday’s advisories are still recovering from the March 2011 quake and tsunami, which killed more than 18,000 people and triggered a triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Minor tsunami as high as 20 cm (7.8 inches) were observed in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, the Meteorological Agency said.
Tidal waves of 10 cm were also logged in the city of Soma, about 40 km (25 miles) north of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, the agency said. Soma was severely damaged by the natural and man-made disasters.
At least three people were injured by the quake in Fukushima, said NHK, including a 68-year-old woman who suffered a broken leg.
The tsunami advisories for Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures warned that waves of up to 1 meter (3.3 feet) were possible.
“We have lifted the tsunami advisory, but do not approach coastlines for now as there may be a change in sea levels,” an agency official said.
Fukushima No. 1 manager Tokyo Electric Power Co. said there were no reports of abnormal activity at the plant early Saturday, but the sea levels near it cannot be gauged because the tsunami monitoring system was destroyed on 3/11.
“We have not seen any damage or any change in radiation gauges after the quake,” Tepco spokesman Masahiro Asaoka said.
“Today’s operations have yet to start but we ordered workers to evacuate to high places,” he said. “Our temporary breakwater that was newly built is high enough to block a 1-meter tsunami.”
The tsunami that hit the poorly protected plant in March 2011 measured about 14 meters, overwhelming its seawall, which was only about 10 meters high at the time.
The city of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, issued an evacuation advisory to some 12,000 residents, as did other authorities in the region, officials said. All were later lifted.
The Fukushima No. 1 plant lost all electrical power after the quake and tsunami three years ago. After the waves swamped its cooling systems, three reactor cores melted, tainting much of the area with radiation in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the plant and the decommissioning process is expected to take decades.
In the meantime, the utility is struggling to handle a huge — and growing — volume of radiation-contaminated water that poses the next stage in the crisis.
On Friday, the crippled plant was skirted by tropical storm Neoguri, which had been a typhoon until wading through west Japan. Workers had scrambled to secure the plant from the storm, but Neoguri had little impact after heading into the Pacific.
Reflections of a "Human Earthquake" Victim
Meet Marvin X
I’m sure we all have those teachers from our past who have impacted our lives. Some have encouraged us to dig deep within and unleash untapped potential. Some have inspired us to think beyond our little world and reach new heights. I can’t remember, though, very many teachers who have shocked me into a dizzying stupor, made me laugh, then ultimately made me love them for their unbridled “Hootspa” (or as we were fond of saying in my hometown….“Huevos”)
Meet Marvin X
I believe it was the fall semester of 1982 when I walked into the first day of my English class. I was attending Kings River Community College in the small, heavily Mennonite town of Reedley, CA. Our quaint little town was your typical white-bread, very conservative, farming community. So when we all took our seats and noticed that our instructor was not your typical white, middle-aged teacher with patches on his jacket sleeves, but was in fact an african american man, staring us down, we were all a bit off of our game.
“Hello, welcome to my English class. My name is Marvin X. My legal name is Marvin Jackmon, but I don’t use that name because that was given to me by some white slave owner”! The classroom did a collective head scratching, while some more disturbed students got up and walked into the wall several times, then returned to their seats and joined the head scratching asking panically “Um…your just a sub, right??”
Everyday in Marvin X’s class was like a field trip though a box of Cracker Jacks. There was always some prize waiting for our small town J.C. minds to grapple with. Mr. X always encouraged lively conversation and I took full advantage of that, because we all know that asking a thousand questions equals a passionate interest in the subject which equals a passing grade!!!!
The thing I love most about him was that he loved…no, he fed on tossing little “shock and awe” bombshells our way. Which was always followed by that jubilant grin and sparkle in his eye’s. He kept taunting us that some day he would share some of his poetry with us. But he warned us, “My poetry is really “street” …so I’m not sure your ready for it”.
Several more weeks passed, full of lively conversations, debate and complete pandemonium swirling through our young impressionable little minds. Finally, one day he came to class and announced that we were now officially ready for one of his poems. Once again, he reiterated that his poetry was pretty “street” and not for the faint of heart. We did a collective gulp and nodded our heads.
This poem is called…
(wait for it)
“Confession of a Rapist”
(Oh dear Lord!!….um…uh…OK,, I can handle this! I can be street…or at least avenue)
He looked up with that sly grin and glimmer in his eyes, then proceeded with the opening line…
“I took the P***Y”
(we’re not talking about sweet little kittens here, folks.)
He just piloted his Enola Gay B-29 and dropped a bomb (a “P” bomb at that) amongst us citizens of Hiroshima Junior College!
Visualize those old black & white films of Atomic bomb testing somewhere in the deserts of Nevada. The “Shock Wave” was so insanely intense, our faces were wobbling and contorting to the massive G-forces, that I’m pretty positive not one person heard another line from that poem. Outside, after class, we quickly and hastily put together an emergency Triage unit to asses the damages and re-attach any limbs or brain matter that may have needed attending to.
Some fellow Christian students from the class were discussing the possibility of assembling a mob with torches and pitch forks, the likes of your typical Frankenstein movie. We soon realized that we were all fine. A little shaken, but fine.
Oddly enough, there was maybe one complaint in class from a student, and he very patiently and lovingly discussed it with us. In the end, we all came through it like old trench buddies. Mr. X helped lift, perhaps rather firmly, us out of our little comfort zones.
In the last few remaining weeks of class, we had several more great conversations and debates. One sunny day he even held class outside under a tree and we studied the book of Job from the Bible. I believe he said he loved it because it read like a screenplay. He had lots of great insight and challenged us daily.
There are only a handful of teachers from my two and a half years of college (and no degree to show for it) that I have maybe a millisecond of memory of them. Mr. X, however, made such an impact on me that his memory is burned into the synapses of my brain. Was he shocking? Yes! However, even more, he loved reaching through to us. He made us think….really think!
Before I began writing this, I Googled him. Sure enough, there he was…
with that sly grin and glimmer in his eyes!
Thank you, Mr. X!
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Seattle: the Human Earthquake Hit Seattle on Schedule, 3pm, Saturday, July 12
marvin, please post this and share, shukron, allah ma'aaka, sam
Thank you Sam Hamod for this beautiful poem. It is painful for me to submit this poem to those who ca[l themselves human beings, and yet if we do not submit it to human beings, the only other choice is beasts. Ya, Allah, if beasts could understand, ya Allah, let us pray beasts can understand.......
And yet we know there are those who are devils and cannot help themselves. If we could help them, Lord, Rabbi Al Alamin, let us help them!
THE TRUTH WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
somehow Netanyahu appeals to the weakness in Obama, each is a devil in his own way, smiling, telling lies, smiling, telling everyone, it’s o.k. they are only doing what they have to do to preserve peace, to protect their people, to stop terrorism, as their rockets slam into children, into hospitals, into mothers and fathers, helpless to stop the carnage, but they go on, and the blondes on American t.v. keep smiling, and talking about the weather, about jayz and bouncy beyonce, or the world soccer championships, as if beyonce, soccer, jayz, obama’s iftar dinner for muslims at the blackened white house is important, giving another check to Netanyahu for $4 billion dollars, smiling, as they lie again, as they hold each other’s balls in their hands, praising each other for their manhood, just like hitler and Goebbels, the same, even honest jews are appalled, ashamed, one went so far as to say, mr. kaufman, a british jewish mp, said, “Israel is like hitler who killed my grandmother in her bed in Germany,” so it goes on minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, but we know, it is only a matter of time before the people in france, in England, in America, in Canada decide to rebel, and then the bloodbaths will come, and it will not be shown on t.v., as gil scott-heron said in the 1980s, “the revolution will not be televised,” but it will be bloody and that is the only way the devils can be stopped.
© sam hamod, 7.14.14
Listen to the poetry of Sam Hamad, it is the truth of life, and yet you want to hear more from poets? There is nothing more, only truth, take it or leave it. We have no other message for you. Ahlan wa sahlan! May you walk on level ground and may Allah be pleased.
After stopping downtown Seattle at a Muslim rally protesting the latest escalation of genocide in Gaza,
Marvin X caught the bus to the site of his reading/book-signing, the Life Enrichment Bookstore on Rainer Ave. S.
After addressing the audience for two hours on the process of establishing a mental health peer group to recover from the addiction to white supremacy, the human earthquake concluded his talk due to the extreme heat of the day, after all, he was drenching with sweat, his shirt soaking wet. His host had provided him with a cold towel which he used to wipe his face throughout his talk.
Human Earthquake Marvin X hits Seattle WA at Life Enrichment Bookstore,
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Seattle didn't know Marvin X was a human earthquake, but they treated him royally, gave him a studio apartment while he resided in Seattle. We give thanks and honor to the North American Africans in Seattle, WA.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Seattle didn't know Marvin X was a human earthquake, but they treated him royally, gave him a studio apartment while he resided in Seattle. We give thanks and honor to the North American Africans in Seattle, WA.
Seattle hosts and audience members at the Human Earthquake reading/signing
He concluded his talk with questions and answers. A man asked what he thought about Seattle? Marvin X replied, "Well, as per the addiction to white supremacy, the irony is that in Seattle the Blacks are white and the Whites are black!I gave out cards downtown to promote this event, many Blacks didn't want the card, but Whites wanted to know what I was giving out and took the card. Now, not all Blacks were negative, several brothers thanked me for making them take the card. After he read it, one said, "Brother, thank you for making me take the card. This was a conscious brother. So they are there, And they seek out conscious sisters, though they say the sisters are sucked into the white hole of while supremacy.
Surely, those who know Seattle, know full well the racial paradigm is of mixed breed. One can see whites walking with black babies and Blacks walking with white babies. True dat! But check this out. One can hear jazz music everywhere, on the elevator in Macy's, Norstroms, etc. This is a hip city.
Marvin X spoke to the Blue Grass poets of Appalachia. Poet Mohja was overwhelmed when the poet addressed emotional violence. She told the poet her father was a family abuser who traumatized his children. Poet Mohja is of Syrian origin, so she related to Marvin whose son attended the University of Damascus.
Marvin X and his Muse, journalist Fahizah Alim. When Fahizah speaks to me, her words are music in my ears. She has no idea how deep her spiritual energy inspires me. She is the Supreme Muse in my heart. Others know Fahizah as Mother Theresa, and she is that too. But people need to know, she is my inspiration, but also, she has inspired her community with love, honor and respect. Fahizah, we tlove you and the spirit of Allah that in you.
Marvin X and his adopted aunt and uncle, Dr. Julia and Dr. Nathan Hare. On Right, Stanford Law School graduate, Attorney Amira Jackmon, senior agent of the Drs. Julia and Nathan Hare Archives. Partial archives were acquired by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, co-founders of the Black Panther Party of Oakland CA.
Space is the Place. Space is thew Place.
A mental health worker asked, "Mr. X, you said the Black psychologists are trying to get certified in African holistic healing methods. How does one go about that and still be certified in white supremacy healing? You can contact the National Association of Black Psychologists, but I don't think the white supremacy boards of certification give a damn about African holistic methods as per the recovery of North American Africans from the ravages of white supremacy Type II."
Marvin's sister Donna wasn't sure there was air conditioning so she didn't make it. Big Sis was right, there were only a couple of fans and Marvin cut short his lecture because of the heat. By the time he ended his lecture, he was sweating like James Brown. But his sister told her white friend to attend and she told Donna about it. Donna texted her brother, "The lady said you're a powerful speaker and you enlightened her about whites and blacks, so kudos to you!"
Donna was a witness to Black history: she worked at the poverty program where Bobby Seale and Huey Newton worked when they formed the Black Panther Party. She remembers when Little Bobby Hutton was recruited at the office. As we know, little Bobby became the third member of the BPP at sixteen. Donna also remembers being introduced to LeRoi Jones, aka Amiri Baraka, by her brother, circa 1965.
Uncle Marvin X and his Seattle nephews who hosted the event and are planning for their uncle's return
ASAP. Marvin wants to bring his BAM 27 City tour to Seattle and the northwest, including Tacoma WA and Portland ORE.
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Marvin X Notes on Sleepless in Seattle
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The Honorable Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey and poet Marvin X
The Honorable Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey and poet Marvin X
Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey and poet/author Marvin X. "When I become mayor we become mayor!" Mayor elect will be inaugurated Tuesday, July 1, 12 Noon, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Evelyn Williams, a Ras Baraka supporter, told Marvin X at campaign headquarters, "We rising up!"
Mrs. Amina Baraka, revolutionary artist/activist and mother of Ras, said, "People coming at me like I'm the first lady. He's my son, so don't call me first lady. And don't try to use me to get to him. Send your resumes to him, not me!"
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Marvin X in Seattle WA, Saturday, July 12, 3pm., Life Enrichment Bookstore
I was treated royally by the Seattle people, Black and White. I made a lot of money hustling Seattle's Homeless paper, $400.00 per day @ $20.00 per paper. I wish I could show the homeless brothers and sisters how to hustle in a big way. I don't make that much now selling my books. Maybe I should go back to selling the homeless paper.
When White women read my poster poem For the Women, they weeped on the street. Their reaction to my poem humbled me because it revealed the power of words, how words can move the heart. They wanted to know how a man was able to write such a poem. I told them many women had to suffer my physical, emotional and verbal abuse, especially the mothers of my children. Then too, my attitude changed when my three daughters grew into womanhood. I certainly would not allow any man to abuse them. And I saw my intellectual and spiritual consciousness expressed in my daughters as well as my sons, so I had to throw that patriarchal mentality into the dustbin of history, the notion that sons are more important than daughters. My daughters are the intellectual and spiritual match of any man! Of course, I give all praise to their mothers.
Amira, Nefertiti, Muhammida and Marvin X
Marvin X is still working on the 27 City Tour of the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra.
For booking, please call 510-200-4164.
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Campaign to Bring Mumia Abu Jamal Home
Jun 30 at 12:17 PM
EMAJ Colleagues –
Mumia continues to send out commentaries from prison, this one, immediately below, on current journalists’ coverage of developments in Iraq.
Then below Mumia’s image, see the latest Minutes from Organizers in the Campaign to Bring Mumia home.
Mumia is at work, we are at work.
Keep on everyone,
EMAJ
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MUMIA’S LATEST RADIO ESSAY FROM “IMPRISONED NATION” –
ENTITLED: “Lessons Unlearned from History – Re: Journalists and Iraq”
The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home
Minutes of Coordinating Committee Meeting
June 14, 2014, 2:25 - 5:25PM
Philadelphia, Church of the Advocate
I. April 24 - 26th Report Back (NY, Philly, Mexico, France, Germany) *See Agenda Handout
II. Goals for 2014 - 2015: Convictions Review Unit, FOP, Mainstreaming Mumia's Innocence, Palm cards, Petitions
Convictions Review Unit Announcement
· D.A. of Philadelphia, Seth Williams, announced the opening of the Convictions Review Unit (CRU)
· CRU provides opportunity to have Mumia's case brought back into the court with standard for new evidence being lowered
· Continue building a movement locally, nationally, internationally that will put pressure on D.A.'s office to open Mumia's case
· The representation body who presents the case of Mumia to D.A.'s office "has to be carefully chosen, so that they can't say no"
· Important to develop a narrative campaign (innocence narrative of Mumia)
· Strategy needs developing on how to pressure LDF to act Proposals: 1.) Writing a letter to LDF which states the significance of CRU and states the argument for Mumia's innocence.
2.) Have Mumia, high profile individuals, and organizations sign the letter
· Important that we understand the specifics of the cases that are opened by D.A. office in order to show the similarities between opened cases and Mumia's --> Will increase pressure on D.A. to open Mumia's case
Goals Around Convictions Review Unit
1.) Forming a representative body to present Mumia's case to CRU
2.) Ensuring NAACP strongly pursues and supports the case to the CRU
3.) Direct actions towards Seth Williams that will increase pressure for him to open Mumia's case
4.) Recruit 10 high profile people who will be our CRU ambassadors
Goals Around FOP
1.) Develop a short FOP Document that we can easily deploy in the future when the FOP rears its head (Response Plan)
2.) Putting a face on FOP (what FOP represents, what it does, its impacts on people’s lives)
Mainstreaming Mumia’s Innocence
1.) Target Racial Justice News Outlets to Cover our Mumia Narrative (b/w now & Dec.)
2.) Popularize Kenneth Freeman Story
3.) Mumia Freedom Bus in Philly (mobile museum)
Petitions & Palm Cards
1.) Assign a couple of people to collect and mail palm cards
2.) Establish monthly goals of how many petitions we want signed
3.) Modernize tradition of street outreach in NY and Philly (palm cards and petition distribution)
4.) Add signature line to palm cards
Structure
1.) Dues/Membership Organization: Still need more suggestions on what processes would work best four our structure
2.) Team of 4 (David, Jackie, Jeff, & Sophia) assigned the task of proposing a structure at our next meeting
3.) Elders Counsel can serve as consultation body for new people to learn from older, more experienced folks
4.) Assembling team that goes through every website that has Mumia info and ensure that info is correct
5.) Agreed that we would need the following committees:
Finance, Outreach and New Membership, Media/Communications
Although structure is in flux -- agreed that the following committees would be formed to proceed with immediate work, volunteers signed up and point people were assigned to each:
1. FOP Document = Johanna, Rebekah
2. Media/Communications = Jackie
3. Finance = Jamila, Gabe, Betsy
4. Convictions Review Work = Lee, Johanna, Charlotte, Patrice
5. Narrative on Innocence = Jamila, Pam
6. Outreach and Membership = Jeff, Gabe, Carlito, Kamau, Frances, Sophia, Lee
Attendees:
Shesheena
Johanna
Gabe
Sheena
Jamila
Rebekah
David
Patrice
Dr. Monteiro
Carlito
Sophia
Charlotte
Jeff
Pam
Ramona
Lee
Frances
Next Meeting, July 20th
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Seattle: the Human Earthquake Hit on Schedule, 3pm, Saturday, July 12
THE TRUTH WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
somehow Netanyahu appeals to the weakness in Obama, each is a devil in his own way, smiling, telling lies, smiling, telling everyone, it’s o.k. they are only doing what they have to do to preserve peace, to protect their people, to stop terrorism, as their rockets slam into children, into hospitals, into mothers and fathers, helpless to stop the carnage, but they go on, and the blondes on American t.v. keep smiling, and talking about the weather, about jayz and bouncy beyonce, or the world soccer championships, as if beyonce, soccer, jayz, obama’s iftar dinner for muslims at the blackened white house is important, giving another check to Netanyahu for $4 billion dollars, smiling, as they lie again, as they hold each other’s balls in their hands, praising each other for their manhood, just like hitler and Goebbels, the same, even honest jews are appalled, ashamed, one went so far as to say, mr. kaufman, a british jewish mp, said, “Israel is like hitler who killed my grandmother in her bed in Germany,” so it goes on minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, but we know, it is only a matter of time before the people in france, in England, in America, in Canada decide to rebel, and then the bloodbaths will come, and it will not be shown on t.v., as gil scott-heron said in the 1980s, “the revolution will not be televised,” but it will be bloody and that is the only way the devils can be stopped.
© sam hamod, 7.14.14
After stopping downtown Seattle for breakfast, I came upon a Muslim rally protesting the latest escalation of genocide in Gaza. I have always supported the liberation of Palestine, so I was happy to join the protest of the Gaza concentration camp.
After awhile, I left the rally to catch the bus to my reading/book-signing at the Life Enrichment Bookstore on Rainer Ave. South. Guests were served a delicious meal of chicken, rice and salad, the human earthquake began his talk.
After addressing the audience for two hours on the process of establishing a mental health peer group to recover from the addiction to white supremacy, the human earthquake concluded his talk due to the extreme heat of the day, after all, he was drenching with sweat, his shirt soaking wet. His host had provided him with a cold towel which he used to wipe his face throughout his talk.
Human Earthquake Marvin X hits Seattle WA at Life Enrichment Bookstore,
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Seattle hosts, bookstore owner Vickie (yellow blouse) and audience members at the Human Earthquake reading/signing
He concluded his talk with questions and answers. A man asked what he thought about Seattle? Marvin X replied, "Well, as per the addiction to white supremacy, the irony is that in Seattle the Blacks are white and the Whites are black!Surely, those who know Seattle, know full well the racial paradigm is of mixed breed. One can see whites walking with black babies and Blacks walking with white babies. True dat! But check this out. One can hear jazz music everywhere, on the elevator in Macy's, Norstroms, etc. This is a hip city.
A mental health worker asked, "Mr. X, you said the Black psychologists are trying to get certified in African holistic healing methods. How does one go about that and still be certified in white supremacy healing? You can contact the National Association of Black Psychologists, but I don't think the white supremacy boards of certification give a damn about African holistic methods as per the recovery of North American Africans from the ravages of white supremacy Type II."
Marvin's sister Donna wasn't sure there was air conditioning so she didn't make it. Big Sis was right, there were only a couple of fans and Marvin cut short his lecture because of the heat. By the time he ended his lecture, he was sweating like James Brown. But his sister told her white friend to attend and she told Donna about it. Donna texted her brother, "The lady said you're a powerful speaker and you enlightened her about whites and blacks, so kudos to you!"
Donna was a witness to Black history: she worked at the poverty program where Bobby Seale and Huey Newton worked when they formed the Black Panther Party. She remembers when Little Bobby Hutton was recruited at the office. As we know, little Bobby became the third member of the BPP at sixteen. Donna also remembers being introduced to LeRoi Jones, aka Amiri Baraka, by her brother, circa 1965.
Uncle Marvin X and his Seattle nephews who hosted the event and are planning for their uncle's return
ASAP. Marvin wants to bring his BAM 27 City tour to Seattle and the northwest, including Tacoma WA and Portland ORE.
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Donna has a vivid imagination in the oral tradition. She could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge any day of the week. And you would be convinced she gave you a valid bill of sale, authentic title.
More Notes on Sleepless in Seattle
I took Amtrak to Seattle WA, wanted to enjoy the slow (24 hours) ride from Cali to the Northwest, see the mountains, valleys, green trees, meditate on the beauty of life and nature. It was summer so there was no snow in the Cascade Mountains. The only snow was on Mount Rainer as the train finally neared Seattle. Remember Rainer Ale, we used to call it Green Death. As a teenager in Fresno CA, my closet was full of empty quart bottles of Rainer Ale. Mama said, boy, why don't you get them bottles out your closet!
My host, Hakeem, picked me up at the Amtrak station. He is my nephew who is a husband and father with five children, two recently adopted, a worker who is trying to do consciousness raising projects.
He took me to my lodging and we agreed to hook up the next day to promote my reading and book signing.
Donna has a vivid imagination in the oral tradition. She could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge any day of the week. And you would be convinced she gave you a valid bill of sale, authentic title.
Early the next day I hooked up with my sister Donna, oldest of my six sisters (I also have two brothers, one a year older, Ollie, and one younger than myself, Tommy). Donna drove me around so I could reorient myself with Seattle, Capital Hill, Central District, West Seattle, South, etc. We went by Pike's Market, famous for "flying fish". I used to hustle the homeless paper there at twenty dollars per.
Up the street at 3rd and Pine was McDonalds, used to be and still is the dope spot. But the entire area near Pike's Market is dope fiend heaven, known for heroin, meth, crack, weed, whatever. I set up Academy of da Corner in front of McDonalds, the meeting place for Africans in Seattle, let us say, Africans of the lower class, or perhaps dope dealers, dope fiends and hustlers. The sidewalk was grimy as the streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin, even the windows of Mac looked dark and grimy, like soul food cafes used to look, you know dirty windows certify Soulfulness! Food tastes better with dirty windows, right?
I passed out promo cards to the Africans. Immediately, I saw the addiction to white supremacy Type I and II. The blacks were hesitant about taking a card, the whites wanted to see what I was passing out. In short, the Northwest is a flip of the racial order: whites want to be black and blacks want to be white! But you know how I do things with my aggressive style. "Here, man, take the card!" A brother took a card after I forced him, then read it and came back to tell me, "Thank you man for making me take the card. I'm coming. See you tomorrow!" I laughed and said, "Be there or be square!"
The wheelers and dealers at 3rd and Pine were unbothered by the many police present, yes, the boyz and girls from the hood have a symbiotic relationship with popo. Call it survival, everybody does their job in a kind of dance drama. There is no interaction except when necessary. So the dealers and addicts do their thing and the police do theirs. The police said nothing to me but nodded as they passed on their bikes. It was a very hot day so everybody was out and about the streets in the 90 degree weather, I especially liked looking at the girls in their cut off jeans. Some people took the promo card, some did not, some simply were not interested, too busy doing their thang, getting their smoke on, pills, who knows, anything to escape the black poverty of the mind, body and spirit. Much like San Francisco's Tenderloin, this downtown area of Seattle is a space where the poor gather to catch busses cross town, and yet in one direction is Pike's Market, Nordstrom, Macy's and other stores in the rich shopping district, a clear demarcation line between poverty and wealth.
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Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia
"Women in academia still face obstacles built up over centuries, but the contributors to Presumed Incompetent have taken a leap toward liberation. Their revelations will enrage you—and open minds and hearts."
—Gloria Steinem
"Presumed Incompetent is undeniably a path-breaking book full of stories of resilience and survival. The editors of this magnificent collection attest to the power of storytelling and add to the testimonios of women in academia such as Telling to Live and Paths to Discovery. Each and every one of the authors survived and in telling their stories they offer hope and solace for young women scholars entering the academy."
—Norma E. Cantú
"This book felt so painfully familiar I almost could not read it. Those of us who started our careers as firsts and onlys have had to forget much about the cruelty hidden in academic enclaves. Forgetting, a means of surviving, buries pain and erases history, leaving us morally and intellectually flimsy. Thanks to these women for taking the harder path of truth-telling."
—Mari Matsuda
"Exploding the myth that we live in a "post-identity" world, Presumed Incompetent provides gripping first-hand accounts of the ways in which women faculty of color are subjected to stereotypes, fears and fantasies based on the intersection of race, gender, and class. It reminds us that the mere passage of time is not enough to create equitable workplaces for anyone facing institutional subordination."
—Kimberlé Crenshaw
Interview: Corporatization of Universities Leads to Increased Academic Career Bias
Sunday, 13 July 2014 00:00By Mark Karlin, Truthout | Interview
Angela P. Harris, Co-editor of Presumed Incompetent(Image: Angela P. Harris)Learn more about the legacy of prejudice and bias in higher education, particularly toward academically accomplished women of color. Contribute to Truthout and receive the nearly 600-page Presumed Incompetent. Click here to order now.Presumed Incompetent is a courageous, ground-breaking book by women of color that exposes the destructive secret of academia: Universities frequently are biased against bestowing tenure on professors who are not white and of the upper and middle classes. Not only that, nonwhites - people who have worked their way up in higher education from the lower classes - and LGBTQ academics, in general, are frequently looked down upon, viewed as not being as competent as white "members of the club." They are considered - in many cases - "trophy hires" to meet diversity goals, but let go before receiving tenure.
Truthout Progressive Pick of the Week Editor Mark Karlin recently interviewedPresumed Incompetent coeditor Angela P. Harris, a law professor at the University of Califonia at Davis, about the challenges facing nonwhite and nonheterosexual academics and the increasing impact of the corporatization of universities:
Karlin: What was the motivation of you and your Presumed Incompetentcoeditors to debunk the general public perception of universities as liberal bastions of academia that embrace professors on merit without regard to gender, class, race or sexual orientation?
Harris: To be honest, we were motivated by our own personal experiences. As women of color faculty ourselves, all of us had faced the "presumption of incompetence" in our own lives, and we suspected the four of us were not alone. We hoped that pulling together a collection of empirical studies, literature reviews and personal stories and essays would help other individual women who were struggling, as well as providing a resource for administrators and others who have power to change procedures and affect the culture of their institutions.
Were you surprised at the strong grassroots response to the book in academia, from women of color, on social networks, in commentaries and at academic association meetings when Presumed Incompetent was first published in 2012?
I think all of us were stunned by the response to the book. Speaking for myself, I certainly was! Wherever we have gone to promote the book, women have come up to us, thanked us, and shared their own war stories. Moreover, even though it's been out for two years now, we are still getting regular requests to speak. It's incredible to me how much of a "long tail" Presumed Incompetent has had for an academic book. It's really been a catalyst for taking this conversation out of hallways, bathrooms, and hospitality suites and bringing it into public spaces.
A review in The Feminist Wire earlier this year said of Presumed Incompetent: "Few texts in recent years have had such a rippling effect in the non-self-reflective world of academia, and the book has inspired a tsunami of support for change within the system." Do you see evidence of the primarily white patriarchal hierarchy of professors and university administration cracking open a bit?
I would like to say, Absolutely! But the truth is that we are dealing with a problem that exists at all levels, from the individual to the structural. At the individual and interpersonal levels, many people have told us that the book has made a difference in their lives, and that's great. But change is always going to be slower and more difficult at the institutional and the structural levels. It's going to take a very long time to institute policies and procedures at every college and university that recognize and reward women of color faculty for the work that they do.
And it's going to take a long time to eradicate the presumption of incompetence in everyone's psyche. A few months ago I was talking to a faculty woman who is moving into administration at her university. She's talking about requiring every undergraduate student to get trained in the science of implicit bias. That's a very big project, and not one that can be accomplished right away. And undergraduates are likely more open to change than tenured professors, most of whom believe that they don't have any biases and so don't need any training! So it's going to be a long struggle.
The book also touches upon discrimination against LGBTQ academics? Can you expand on that?
It's so clear that the presumption of incompetence, like other forms of discrimination, never operates in isolation. Although as academics we like to believe that we are guided only by objective standards of "merit" when we judge students and one another, the truth is that like anyone else, we are personally affected by implicit bias, and we also teach and write in institutions that were designed to preserve certain kinds of hierarchy. That includes heteronormativity and the dominance of cis over trans. Queer scholars, especially gender-nonconforming queer scholars, have to deal with the discomfort of homophobic people, which can affect hiring, promotion and tenure, as well as perceptions of collegiality.
A friend of mine who spends a lot of time counseling queer graduate students talks about how crappy she feels when she has to tell them that if they want an academic job they have got to go into the closet, or at least "cover" to use Kenji Yoshino's term - that is, make your appearance, your manner, your C.V., your research agenda appear to conform to homophobic standards. And it doesn't stop when you get hired. One of our contributors writes about being told that her work was "too feminist, too lesbian, too controversial" for a pretenure candidate.
Again, none of these forms of discrimination happen in isolation. Another contributor to our book, a white woman, talks about how her coming out in academic settings as working class has been received more poorly than her coming out as a lesbian. But for people of color, again especially gender-nonconforming people of color, being perceived as a sex/gender "other" can be the thing that tips you over the edge, makes you feel completely alienated and alone in your department, and induces people to act crazy toward you.
The book is astonishing in its breadth, depth of detail, courageousness of the authors, and the sheer number of contributors (about 30) of such high academic caliber. As one reads the book, it becomes clear how pervasive and engrained the problem of academic discrimination is, weeding out people of color even before they become eligible for teaching and conducting professorial-level research. What persuaded so many academics of color to "come out of the closet"?
I think the time was just right. We are now well past the moment when we could imagine that as soon as we got a "critical mass" of people of color and women hired, our institutions would automatically change. Our book is not about that first generation, "pipeline" problem . . . although as you point out, qualified people are still not making it into the pipeline! But our book really focuses on those second generation problems - problems of retention and promotion, problems of unequal service obligations, problems of "chilly climate." I think that's where we are right now in the conversation.
I also want to note that a lot of our contributors are now post-tenure, in a place where they are able to tell their stories more fully. A few years ago, there were far fewer enough women of color at that stage. In that sense, we do have a "critical mass" - of people who have enough job security to be honest about their experiences!
Is there a difference in prejudice toward women of color and men of color in academia. Is it bias in general or is there less of a bias against men of color?
It's so hard to rank oppressions in that way. I would make a couple of general observations. First, a lot depends on the discipline and the department. In a department and/or discipline that is very heavily male, yes, a man of color might be better received than a woman of color. But, second, all of these situations are affected by intersectionality. What if the man is gay, trans or gender-nonconforming? Then a straight woman of color might be better received, even in an otherwise all-male department.
We were particularly interested in telling the story of how women of color fare in academia because there are a number of books and studies on sex discrimination and race discrimination, but far fewer on the intersection of gender and race. I would love to have solicited more essays from men of color for a comparative perspective - but then the book would be even longer than it already is!
How do class issues play into advancement up the academic ladder?
This is a fascinating topic that I also wish we had been able to say even more about in the book. I mentioned before that one of our contributors felt that being working class made her feel like more of an outsider than being lesbian. I've talked to a number of other working-class women who similarly feel like class makes much more of a difference than is commonly acknowledged. Since it's also the case that white privilege and class privilege are intertwined, a lot of academic women of color also have working-class backgrounds and have a dual struggle.
In general, our contributors suggest that the culture of academia is very upper-middle-to-upper class. This means not just that faculty members tend to have elite educational credentials, but that formal and informal interpersonal relations follow typically upper-middle-class norms of indirection, understatement and a "cool" emotional tone. It's considered inappropriate in a lot of academic settings to speak bluntly, call people out, swear, tell broad jokes or laugh too loudly. Also, most academics are not from poor places, either rural or urban; they may casually put down tastes, recreational activities and habits that are associated with those places.
But as is typical in our society, none of this is really talked about openly. Academics don't think of themselves as belonging to a specific class, even though they do. So people from a working-class background have to try to figure out the cultural norms without anyone telling them. And if they make a mistake, it will be held against them as indicating a personality problem or a problem with "collegiality."
What about the issue of tenure. Explain how many universities use women of color and other marginalized academics as "trophy" faculty but deny them tenure?
Being treated as a token or a trophy is extremely common in the university. It's what happens as a response to two different incentives. On the one hand, women of color and other marginalized folk are presumed to be incompetent, as we document in the book. On the other hand, "diversity" is practically an institutional religion in higher education. Everyone is for diversity, and everyone wants their organization, department, program or other endeavor to appear diverse. So what happens, for example, is that a department starting on a search will reach out to people of color, including women of color, and include them in the pool of people to be interviewed. That looks good later when the chair has to report on the demographics of the pool for federal affirmative action purposes. But when it comes time to actually make an offer, the presumption of incompetence begins to operate. Again, it's usually implicit.
Questions get raised about the woman of color in the pool, and the committee picks up its fine-tooth comb. Maybe her book didn't get picked up by the most prestigious university press; maybe she got some bad teaching evaluations as a graduate student; maybe she has a white male mentor who is more excited about someone who looks like him, and so wrote an unenthusiastic recommendation letter. Maybe some people didn't like the job talk, or felt like she wasn't that much fun at dinner. Pretty soon the person who looks more like everyone else in the department gets the job, and the committee tells itself, "Wow, we really tried hard, and we had such a diverse pool. The quality just wasn't there."
The same thing can happen at the dean search level. There are a lot of women of color now who are putting themselves out there to be deans, and they're getting interviews. But there's an open question about when the search committee is serious about you, and when you are just there to make the pool look diverse.
Finally, some faculties think that they want "diversity," but they don't realize that true diversity might mean having to change the received wisdom about what constitutes a valuable project. For instance, some of our contributors write about having a deep commitment to a racialized or tribal community, the kind of commitment that shapes their research interests and the way they do their research. These women are doing serious scholarship - community-engaged scholarship - but their departments may not value it because the work doesn't look like work that's been done before. I've talked to several faculty members who feel frustrated because they were recruited because they think outside of the box, and yet when they go outside the box they are punished for it.
What role does the increasing corporatization of universities play in the struggle to achieve a true meritocracy in academia?
As Carmen González and I discuss in our introduction, higher education is in a very precarious place right now. Depending on how things shift in the next few years, things could get better for marginalized people in the academy, or they could get a lot worse for nearly everyone. The shift toward teaching by adjuncts and lecturers rather than by tenure-track faculty, the pressure to cater to the desires of corporate employers, the destabilizing effect of high student debt loads, the move toward online education . . . in a few years we could have a winner-take-all market for faculty, where a tiny number of superstars at the most prestigious schools command large salaries and enjoy full participation in governance and job security, while the vast majority of academic workers are adjunct faculty with low salaries, no job security, no control over their intellectual property, very little autonomy, and no voice in institutional governance. If that's where higher education is headed, it's very unlikely that many of the superstar faculty will be women of color.
So these conversations really belong together. We can't think through the question of fairness for marginalized groups without answering the tough questions: What is higher education for? Who should be paying for it? How should it be structured?
In the last chapter (30), psychology Professor Yolanda Flores Niemann includes advice and recommendations on how to end the "dirty little secret" of the ivory tower. Can you identify some that you think are most salient?
Gosh, there are so many! When I talk about the book on panels and at workshops, I offer different recommendations depending on what audience I'm talking to.
At the personal level, I would say to individual faculty members, whether you're a woman of color or not, that the best thing you can do is educate yourself about the presumption of incompetence. For women of color, know that you're not alone; for others, just remember life that we never know the burdens that others are carrying anyway, and that is even more true in this society where gender, race, sexuality, class identity, disability, age make such a difference as to how we see the world, and how we are treated.
The next most important thing for faculty women of color is to take care of your physical and mental health. I'm continually struck by how the stress generated by the presumption of incompetence takes a toll on people's lives. It's important not to let that stress disable you.
At the interpersonal level, I would say that if you are an administrator, be aware of and ready to respond to some of the common problems that our research identifies. Know, for example, that the student evaluations of women faculty of color tend to be bipolar; there may be extremely negative and vicious evaluations alongside glowing ones. Figure out a way to address that fact, both with the faculty member and with tenure committees. Be careful about assigning your female faculty of color to too many committees, even though it always looks good for committees to be "diverse." Be proactive about communicating and applying leave policies and other kinds of practices, like stopping the tenure clock, that can help women of color juggle the dual burden of work and life. Be sensitive to signs of stress on the part of your women faculty of color and have an open-door policy. Be sensitive to signs of trouble in the student body and among faculty. It's much better to identify and address problems while they are still small than to wait until a decision point.
And if you are a dean, be forthright about supporting your faculty, if and when students complain about their teaching style. Support your faculty in being the best teacher they can be; but also make clear to students that if their complaints are amorphous - the teacher is "too different," or teaches from materials they don't like, or talks about issues that make them uncomfortable, or is just "the worst teacher ever," with no details given - dealing with that teacher maybe is part of their learning process.
If you are a colleague who doesn't share the same identities, be a mentor and a friend. Speak up in public ways on some of these issues, rather than waiting for the people who are personally affected to do so - but listen more than you talk, and make sure your friend is on board before you start trying to fix things for her. Let her pick the battles, not you. If you are a dean or other administrator, be alert for signs of stress, trauma and burnout in your minority faculty. Don't wait until the person has a breakdown before getting them some relief.
At the institutional level, I tell people to work for better policies that allow faculty to appropriately balance work and life - for everyone, not only mothers. Make sure your school has a good parental leave policy, and make sure that everyone who is eligible takes it. When there is a policy on paper but no one makes use of it because they are afraid that it will send a signal that they're not serious, then you don't have a real policy.
If you have the power to make institutional change, consider developing and advocating for policies that recognize and reward faculty for excellent teaching, for mentoring, and for service - not just for research. Be open to rethinking what a good tenure file looks like. Realize that numbers matter. Having a "critical mass" of women in a department, of people of color in a department, of open sexual minorities in a department, sends the message that it is OK to be yourself, and reduces the hypervisibility of "tokens" and the stress that comes along with that hypervisibility. If you have the power to affect student culture, consider antibias and anti-bullying training.
Finally, at the structural level, I would say, recognize that the current upheavals in higher education have implications for the lives of faculty women of color and for the "diversity" mission more generally. Beware of structural reforms that undermine faculty freedom of expression, that "casualize" faculty labor and increase vulnerability to bias. And I would argue that the "diversity" mission should not be seen as separate and distinct from the "excellence" mission of the university. We won't do ourselves or our women faculty of color any good unless we can explain how a diverse, fair and inclusive workforce is not just a good thing to have in the abstract, but how it is central to the purpose that higher education serves.
Presumed Incompetent
The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia
Book Review The Feministwire Feb 2014 / By Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde
Book Review American Association of University Professors, A Politics of Color Jan-Feb 2014 / Carol E. Henderson
Book Review Peitho Journal (pdf) Vol. 15, No. 2 / Hui Wu
Book Review The Review of Higher Education (pdf) Winter 2014 / Nadia M. Richardson
Book Review Transnational Literature October 2013 / Maja Milatovic
Book Review Harvard Journal of Law & GenderNovember 2013 / Professor Wendy B. Scott
Book Review Harvard Journal of Law & Gender October 2013 / Kate Aizpuru
Book Review Women's Review of Books (pdf) September October 2013 / Stacey Patton
Book Review Feminist Philosophers August 2013 / Teresa Blankmeyer Burke
Book Review Psychology of Women Quarterly
September, 2013 / Joan M. Ostrove
September, 2013 / Joan M. Ostrove
Interview with Carmen G. Gonzýlez Feministing May 13, 2013 / Gwendolyn
Book Review London School of Economics (LSE) Review of Books April 2013 / Sin Yee Koh
Book Review Women in Higher Education (pdf), March 2013 / Sarah Gibbard Cook
Book Review Inside Higher Ed, March 5, 2013 / Afshan Jafar
Book Review Huffington Post Books, March 4, 2013 / Khanh Ho, Writer, Scholar, Activist
Book Review Choice Editor's Pick Choice, v.50, no. 07, March 2013 / R. Price, Duquesne University
Book Review La Bloga Sunday, December 2012 / Amelia ML Montes
Book Review Canadian Association of Univeristy Teachers October 2013 / Camille A. Isaacs
Presumed Incompetent is a pathbreaking account of the intersecting roles of race, gender, and class in the working lives of women faculty of color. Through personal narratives and qualitative empirical studies, more than 40 authors expose the daunting challenges faced by academic women of color as they navigate the often hostile terrain of higher education, including hiring, promotion, tenure, and relations with students, colleagues, and administrators. The narratives are filled with wit, wisdom, and concrete recommendations, and provide a window into the struggles of professional women in a racially stratified but increasingly multicultural America.
Marvin X rocks University of California, Black Arts Movement Conference: Don't Mess wit Kim, Leave Kim Alone!
I will never forget how often Professor Sherley A. Williams told me she was isolated from her white colleagues at UCSD. She once told me she hadn't talked with them in years, especially white women professors. Sherley was so bright (see her book Give Birth to Brightness) she was tenured without the PhD. When she died, Dr. William H. Grier sent me a message through his son, Geoffrey, "Tell Marvin Sherley didn't die of cancer. She died from the hostile environment at UCSD." In short, white supremacy academia will kill you! The police recently beat down the sister professor at the University of Arizona.
--Marvin X
Marvin X told the audience at the BAM reception to lighten up on conference planner Kim McMillan. He first declared BAM is a revolutionary movement and must be seen in this light, not as some art for art sake or Negro Renaissance that patronized white people. He thanked UC Merced for having the nerve to bring a group of uppity Blacks to the little country town of Merced. This was a bold move on their part and we congratulate them but they put too much pressure on Kim. He told how other sisters were destroyed by the hostile environment of the UC system, including, e.g., UC professors VeVe Clark, Barbara Christian, June Jordan and Sherley Ann Williams, all deceased. So don't mess with Kim, he told the mostly white audience. Don't make me bring the BAM army back to UC Merced.
While in Harlem for a reception in his honor, Marvin X told the folks that UC was stressing out Kim. We got Kim on the phone and a brother told her to stand tall because she was standing on the shoulders of the ancestors. The BAM conference begins at 9am on Saturday and runs through Sunday afternoon.
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While in Harlem for a reception in his honor, Marvin X told the folks that UC was stressing out Kim. We got Kim on the phone and a brother told her to stand tall because she was standing on the shoulders of the ancestors. The BAM conference begins at 9am on Saturday and runs through Sunday afternoon.
UC Professor/author Sherley Ann Williams, deceased
UC Professor VeVe Clark, deceased
UC Professor Barbara Christian, deceased
UC Professor/BAM poet June Jordan, deceased
UC Merced graduate student and BAM project director, Kim McMillan
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Marvin X: Parable of the Gaza Concentration Camp
Parable of the Gaza Concentration Camp
The Jews learned nothing from the Nazi genocide, or perhaps they learned everything since
The Jews learned nothing from the Nazi genocide, or perhaps they learned everything since
the Zionist occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is sealed tight, a land of closed borders,
check points, walls and innumerable spies and snitches.
Gaza is one giant concentration camp of 1.4 million inmates who live stunted lives, even
Gaza is one giant concentration camp of 1.4 million inmates who live stunted lives, even
denied the right to fish off their coast on the Mediterranean. The democratically elected
government is denied recognition, though it has as much human right to exist as the
state of Israel, if not more.
Why should Hamas recognize the Zionist entity, a usurper, land grabber, exterminator,
mass killer, thugs, pirates on the high seas, state terrorist, in collusion with quisling
Muslim governments and Christian America, the sycophant of sycophants, who kisses
Israel's ass at every turn, even her farts America smells.
The Muslim collaborators work in league with the Zionists, especially Egypt who sealed
The Muslim collaborators work in league with the Zionists, especially Egypt who sealed
her border to starve the concentration camp inmates, partly because Hamas is allied with
the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most formidable opposition party, and further, because
Hamas is allied and supported by Shia Iran, the new/old boy on the block of Middle Eastern
geo-politics.
Iran backs Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as her neighbors in Iraq.
Iran backs Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as her neighbors in Iraq.
Praise be to Allah somebody supports the Gaza inmates since they survive by tunneling
underground to Egypt for basic life support.
The Zionist slaughter of Gazens in the last invasion was a replay of Nazi horrors, 1,500 dead,
The Zionist slaughter of Gazens in the last invasion was a replay of Nazi horrors, 1,500 dead,
many thousands wounded, homes, mosques, schools, hospitals bombed to eternity.
Clearly the Zionists learned their behavior from the Nazis. It is well known if they had
not collaborated with the Nazis, they would not have survived to make the trip from
Europe to Palestine to displace the Arabs.
The Gaza concentration camp is a reminder Nazism and fascism is alive and well,
The Gaza concentration camp is a reminder Nazism and fascism is alive and well,
supported by reactionary Muslims and Christian Crusader America. Not only should
Turkey dispatch ships to break the blockade, but the billion plus Muslim world should
send ships to Gaza until the inmates are liberated. The irony is that the Muslim
populations live under regimes no less repressive than the Zionists.
In our romanticism, we wish the Muslim ships would sail from Gaza to America to assist
In our romanticism, we wish the Muslim ships would sail from Gaza to America to assist
the 40 million North American Africans in concentration camps called ghettos and hoods,
a nation of people still 3/5ths of a man, suffering involuntary servitude (slavery) under the
constitution. No matter they have a president with the middle name Hussein. He is no
different than Egypt's Mubarak, for they have the same agenda that supports Zionism
and oppression within their own populations. Why doesn't President Obama give a general
amnesty of the two million inmates in the gulags of America, since most of them are petty
criminals, mostly drug addicts, mentally ill and political prisoners.
--Marvin X
6/4/10
--Marvin X
6/4/10
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Marvin X and Nisa Bey agree to finish long delayed book project: Seven Years in the House of Elijah Muhammad
Marvin X and Nisa Bey, aka Nisayah Yahudah, one of the Bay Area's most controversial women
James Sweeney says, "Marvin X walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out clean as white fish and black as coal." Marvin says the same can be said of Nisa Bey. We are survivors!
It has been seven years since Nisa Bey and Marvin X agreed to do her book project: Seven Years in the House of Elijah Muhammad. They ended the project when they could not come to a contractual agreement. Recently, they discussed the urgent need to finish the project. Marvin X says, "I don't like to start a project and not finish it." FYI, Nisa Bey, aka Nisa Islam, aka, Nisayah Yahudah, was a national sister captain in the Nation of Islam during the sixties. She was flamboyant and controversial in her role as trainer of women. Trained in the fashion world, Nisa convinced Elijah Muhammad to upgrade the uniforms of the women or M.G.T. She would become one of the wives of Oakland's Dr. Yusef Bey, owner of Your Black Muslim Bakery who made his transition before his legal problems could be adjudicated.
Nisa was privy to a conversation between Oakland Post Editor, Chauncey Bailey and Saleem Bey,
son-in-law of another Bey wife. Chauncey was assassinated by some of the sons of Dr. Bey (he had 43 children; the Oakland Police role in the murder of Chauncey has been underplayed).
The story of Nisa Bey is not an expose' but a story of a woman's rite of passage. Marvin X has agreed her narrative will be in the spirit of Betty Shabazz who said, "Find the good and praise it." FYI, some years ago, Nisa converted to Judaism. Her present name is Nisayah Yahudah.
SEVEN YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF ELIJAHA woman's search for Love and Spirituality
By Nisayah Yahudah: As told to Marvin X
Copyright © 2005 by Nisayah Yahudah and Marvin X
All Rights Reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: How I Came to Write This Book
*Chapter One: Growing Up in the Big "H"(Houston, Texas)
*Chapter Two: Summer in Galveston
*Chapter Three: Those Terrible Teen Years
*Chapter Four: New York, New York, Searching for God on Broadway
*Chapter Five: Was God My Black Shining Prince?
*Chapter Six: Miss Hollywood Rocks Mosque #26, San Francisco
*Chapter Seven: Off To Chicago for My "Execution"
*Chapter Eight: Life in the House of Elijah
*Chapter Nine: Table Talks With Elijah
*Chapter Ten: Elijah Cries for Malcolm
*Chapter Eleven: Night Talks With Sister Clara
*Chapter Twelve: Elijah's Last National Sister Captain
*Chapter Thirteen: Return to San Francisco Mosque #26 As Sister Captain: You
Are Properly Relieved of Your Post
*Chapter Fourteen: Ninety Days Out At the Messenger's Table
*Chapter Fifteen: My Prince Comes to Chicago
* Chapter Sixteen: Elijah's Transition: The Second Resurrection
*Chapter Seventeen: The Spiritual Journey Elijah Promised: Sufism, Judaism,
Ahmedism and Other Isms
*Chapter Eighteen : Passing of The Prince
*Chapter Nineteen: Return to the Compound: Healing and Reconciliation
*Chapter Twenty: Message to Girls and Women
Parable of why I talk with cows by Marvin X
This parable by Marvin X, describes a pause in one of the interview sessions he conducted with Nisa while he lived in the foothills of Northern California for five years, mostly in solitude. He wrote five books during this time. Over several days, he interviewed Nisa for her story.
Parable of Why I Talk With Cows
by
Marvin X
I talk with the cows because they listen, in fact, they stand at attention. Across the road from my writing retreat in the rolling hills of Cherokee, CA, about twenty miles from Chico, a few cows were standing around grazing on the grass as I returned from a short visit to the Feather River, down the road from where I live. I had taken a break from interviewing Sister Nisa Islam for her forthcoming book Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality as told to Marvin X. The interview session was very intense, as if the ghost of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had entered the room, so we agreed to take a break, get some air. As we returned from Feather River, I stopped my car for a chat with the cows. Nisa will bear witness that at first there were only three or four cows but as I began to talk with them, suddenly the entire herd began to gather for my lecture, and as I said, they all stood at attention as I told them they should go eat their master before he eats them. They seemed to nod in agreement. Nisa was astonished at my conversation and the rapt attention of the entire herd as they listened to my every word. I said goodbye to the cows and entered the gate of my retreat.
Marvin X has been described variously:
The Sledgehammer--Kalamu Ya Salaam
The Human Earthquake--MC Melody
A Tsunami--Suzzette Celeste
Undisputed king of black consciousness--Dr. Nathan Hare
A killer-diller--Nisa Islam
He walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out clean as
white fish and black as coal--James W. Sweeney
Marvin X has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing--Amiri Baraka
When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express black male urban experiences in a lyrical way--James G. Spady
Marvin's refreshing. He's a liberator. He has freed up contemporary black public speech--Rudy Lewis
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Something Stinks
Somethin' stinks
around the world
somethin' stinks worse than the rotten meat Langston smelled
worse than a dead rat in the attic
worse than decaying bodies on the battlefield
stinks from sea to sea shore to shore
cross borders in all lands
the smell is overwhelming
enough to make one puke
something is very very wrong here
is there a gang of devils cooking Satan soup
smiling and grinning as they stir the giant pot
fumes spreading around the world
we see children running for their lives
woman flee and fathers
going they know not where
but the stench is overwhelming
no one can stand the stinking atmosphere for long
no matter how strong they are no matter how brave
maybe the devil's cooking Satan soup want us all dead
they want all the money
all the land
factories
even the workers they want as slaves
how much can these devils consume
how much land, homes, yachts, cars, diamonds, drugs
do they need
the 1% that they are
is the stench simple greed
niggardliness
surely it is beyond wretchedness
surely it is beyond human
where is the heart of the heartless
is it the meat of the Satan soup boiled hearts
ah, the stench is too much
I cover my face my nose
my eyes hurt
is it some pepper spray unleashed around the world
the devils have agreed pepper spray is good for the people
pepper spray will make them behave
for sure this cannot last
we may need to flee
but we will return to confront the filthy fowl bastards in our midst
with their permanent wars permanent poverty permanent ignorance permanent lies called truth and history.
--Marvin X
7/17/14
--Denise Lyles-Cook, Director, LABBX Spoken Worlds Pavilion, Hollywood CA
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Poem: Gaza Concentration CAMP by Marvin X
GAZA Concentration CAMP
There are those who say we must restore peace to GAZA
Peace in the concentration camp
Peace of genocide
Peace no protest allowed
Submit to starvation
humiliation
stunted life
hell on earth
hell on earth
No protest
peace before anything
peace before anything
Before justice
Before life even
peace
Let the people of GAZA sing silent night
Holy night
All is peaceful
All is right
Under the shadow of death
Let there be peace
No justice
Peace
With boots on our necks
Mass murder but peace
At all costs
Hamas Rockets to no avail
Iron Dome is our gift from USA
Iron Domes is saving our asses
Iron Dome is our gift from USA
Iron Domes is saving our asses
From land, air, sea you attack
Mighty Mouse you are
Iron Dome Mouse
Look at you
Wild wild West beast
No thought of justice
Just peace
Peace be still.
--Marvin X
7/17/14
The Los Angeles Black Book Expo nominates Marvin X to receive the LABBX Spoken Worlds Pavilion Humanitarian Achievement Award of the Year, for unlimited service to the community of Poetry and Spoken Word, educating and enlightening seekers of Truth. For your poignant and insightful works benefiting humanity and for your tireless search for Truth, Justice and Clarity of Thought.
--Denise Lyles-Cook, Director, LABBX Spoken Worlds Pavilion, Hollywood CA
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Four boys dead from airstrike on Gaza beach
GAZA CITY — My day here began at 6 a.m. Photographing something as unpredictable as war still has a routine.
It is important to be out the door at first light to document the destruction of the last night’s bombings. By midmorning, I check in at the hospital’s morgue to see if families have come to pick up the dead for burial.
When the routine is broken, it is because things can go horribly wrong in an instant. That is how it happened in Libya in 2011, when three colleagues and I were taken captive by government soldiers and our driver was killed.
On Wednesday, that sudden change of fortune came to four young Palestinian boys playing on a beach in Gaza City.
I had returned to my small seaside hotel around 4 p.m. to file photos to New York when I heard a loud explosion. My driver and I rushed to the window to see what had happened. A small shack atop a sea wall at the fishing port had been struck by an Israeli bomb or missile and was burning. A young boy emerged from the smoke, running toward the adjacent beach.
I grabbed my cameras and was putting on body armor and a helmet when, about 30 seconds after the first blast, there was another. The boy I had seen running was now dead, lying motionless in the sand, along with three other boys who had been playing there.
By the time I reached the beach, I was winded from running with my heavy armor. I paused; it was too risky to go onto the exposed sand. Imagine what my silhouette, captured by an Israeli drone, might look like as a grainy image on a laptop somewhere in Israel: wearing body armor and a helmet, carrying cameras that could be mistaken for weapons. If children are being killed, what is there to protect me, or anyone else?
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Barbarians - The Vandals are today called Zionists
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Crazy House Blues
You in da nut house baby
but you still wanna say
you ain't crazy
You in da nut house baby
but still wanna say ya ain't crazy
You in denial baby
please take yo medication
you in denial baby
please take yo medication
listen ta ya doctor
enjoy yo vacation
talk ta yaself
in da middle of da night
talk ta yaself baby
in da middle of da night
tell yaself
everyting go be all ite
I be here when ya git out
I'm all da way down faya
I be here when ya git out
I'm all da way down faya
just know one thang
ma love is true
just know one thang baby
ma love is true
Git yaself tagether
so we can do what we gotta do
Git yaself tagether
so we can do what we gotta do.
I'm out here hustling'
trying ta make a dime
I'm out here hustling
tryin ta make a dime
You can help me
if you can
you can help me
be a better man.
Ya love is good gul
make a old man do a flip
ya love is good gul
make a old man do a flip
If me and you was on the Titanic
We wouldn't even jump ship
If me and you was on the Titanic
we wouldn't even jump ship
We go down lovin gul
ta hell wit da ship
We go down lovin gul
ta hell wit da sinking ship.
--Marvin X
7/18/14
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Theatre Review: Love Balm For My Spiritchild
I attended the performance of the play Love Balm for my spirit child at San Francisco's Brava Theatre.
Painful. Disgusting. Traumatic. Mothers giving manhood training to boyz. Surely we know mother has done a grand job, and yet it is a utter failure, even though I am the product of manhood training by my mother. Don't you know she did all she could do, but by the eleventh grade I was so out of control Mama put me in a rooming house to get me out of her house and her business. After all, she had had three additional children by another man since she and my dad separated and divorced. But like Boyz in the Hood, I was all in my mama's business and she put me out of her nest.
I guess Mom was busy and so was I: she had her last child, Tommy, almost the same time I had my first child, Marvin. My son and my young brother, grew up as brothers.
So Brava Theatre, Love Balm for my Spiritchild. Poetic, sometimes abstract, but Ayodele can make the abstract sound good, and yet her life is so much in the moment. She didn't know I was in the theatre, but I saw every minute of the play. She was the major player, the diva, as always. No one can out shine Ayodele on stage. It is not only the power of her voice, her mastering of theatre craft, her being mentored by Marvin X, no, it is Ayo herself, under her own power, yet ever conscious of elders and ancestors.
But this was a group effort, so clearly a demonstration of the tragedy of our times, although Diop said there can be no African tragedy only tragicomedy. And I heard the tragicomedy in this production. But imagine one male dancer represented the male gender of a nation of people. So wonderful to see male dancers, so wonderful to see how the hip hop generation has incorporated their choreography into modern dance, alas, African dance--modern dance will never admit it's African contribution. Ask Katheran Dunham.
The story line was utterly depressing, Mothers weeping over sons shot dead by the police. For me, I have been dealing with white racists killing young black men since Emmitt Till, then Denzill Dowel in Richmond that gave birth to the Black Panther Party. Then Little Bobby Hutton, shot down in cold blood by the OPD, then fifteen year old Melvin Black, which we addressed in a rally at the Oakland Auditorium with Minister Farrakhan, Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, Marvin X, et al., 1979
Alas, the police of killing of black men stopped, then started the drive by killings. I found myself in a group of mothers who had lost their sons in drive by killings. I was overwhelmed and dropped out of the group. Tonight I was again confronted with those mothers, weeping, mourning, dancing, sharing, embracing, loving the lost they shared. Great choreography or call it direction, but great. And I cannot say enough about the male dancer. Let him dance and tell the story of his brothers. Somebody hep me!
--Marvin X
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Black Bird Press News & Review: Poems for Palestine, Egypt, Syria by Marvin X and Mohja Kahf
Black Bird Press News & Review: Poems for Palestine, Egypt, Syria by Marvin X and Mohja Kahf
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Marvin X at rally for Palestine, Seattle WA, 2014
Dr. Mohja Kahf says this chapbook is the beginning of Muslim American literature, 1968
Dr. Cornel West and Marvin X
Marvin X interviewing his friend, Amiri Baraka, Santa Fe New Mexico, Lannan Foundation, 2009
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Marvin X will autograph books at the Blues, Brews & BBQ, Monterey Bay
Marvin X will autograph books at the Blues fest this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, July 26-27, 2014.
He will be at the Post Newspaper booth. Check him out!
Crazy House Blues
by Marvin X
You in da nut house baby
but you still wanna say
you ain't crazy
You in da nut house baby
but still say ya ain't crazy
You in denial baby
please take yo medication
you in denial baby
please take yo medication
listen ta ya doctor
enjoy yo vacation
talk ta yaself
in da middle of da night
talk ta yaself baby
in da middle of da night
tell yaself baby
everyting go be all ite
I be here when ya git out
I'm all da way down faya
I be here when ya git out
I'm all da way down faya
when ya come baby
I'm just go love ya
just know one thang baby
ma love is true
just know one thang baby
ma love is true
Git yaself tagether
so we can do what we gotta do
Git yaself tagether
so we can do what we gotta do.
I'm out here hustling'
trying ta make a dime
I'm out here hustling
tryin ta make a dime
You can help me
if you can
you can help me
be a better man.
Ya love is good gul
make a old man do a flip
ya love is good gul
make a old man do a flip
If me and you was on the Titanic
We wouldn't even jump ship
If me and you was on the Titanic
we wouldn't even jump ship
We go down lovin gul
ta hell wit da ship
We go down lovin gul
ta hell wit da sinking ship.
--Marvin X
7/18/14
Marvin X with the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra, Malcolm X Jazz Festival, Oakland, May 17, 2014 (David Murray on sax, Earl Davis on trumpet)
Country Woman Blues
for ma man, Bobby Womack, RIP
I'm down here in da country
grape vines down the street
don't worry bout nothing
country people got everything ta eat
down here in da country
grape vines down the street
lookin fa a country woman
ain't worried bout nothing ta eat!
got plenty henny too
ain't worried bout nothing
when dat country gul come through
she say daddy I wanna to be wit you
wherever you are
city or country
cause I know you a star
Love dat country woman
so sweet so true
just treat her nice
she'll be there fa you
she just wanna laugh
please don't make her cry
she just wanna laugh
please don't make her cry
she'll be witya
til the day ya die!
--Marvin X
City Woman Blues
I loveya baby
but ya just too crazy fa me
I loveya baby
but ya just too crazy fa me
go on back where ya came from
I'll see ya when I see
took ya all round world
you still wanna act a fool
took ya all round world
but ya still wanna act a fool
go on back where ya came from
need to go back ta school.
--Marvin X
Country Woman Blues
for ma man, Bobby Womack, RIP
I'm down here in da country
grape vines down the street
don't worry bout nothing
country people got everything ta eat
down here in da country
grape vines down the street
lookin fa a country woman
ain't worried bout nothing ta eat!
got plenty henny too
ain't worried bout nothing
when dat country gul come through
she say daddy I wanna to be wit you
wherever you are
city or country
cause I know you a star
Love dat country woman
so sweet so true
just treat her nice
she'll be there fa you
she just wanna laugh
please don't make her cry
she just wanna laugh
please don't make her cry
she'll be witya
til the day ya die!
--Marvin X
City Woman Blues
I loveya baby
but ya just too crazy fa me
I loveya baby
but ya just too crazy fa me
go on back where ya came from
I'll see ya when I see
took ya all round world
you still wanna act a fool
took ya all round world
but ya still wanna act a fool
go on back where ya came from
need to go back ta school.
--Marvin X
Angela Davis, Marvin X, Sonia Sanchez, Oakland CA, 2014
Marvin X and Amiri Baraka, RIP
Rev. Blandon Reems, Aries Jordan, Toya Carter and Marvin X on a visit to Alameda County Juvenile Hall
Marvin X at rally for Palestine, Seattle WA, July 13, 2014
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Black Bird Press News & Review: Parable of the City of God, from the Wisdom of Plato Negro by Marvin X
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Review: Dancing with the Devil by Michael Rubin
The world has seldom been as dangerous as it is now. Rogue regimes—governments and groups that eschew diplomatic normality, sponsor terrorism, and proliferate nuclear weapons—threaten the United States around the globe. Because sanctions and military action are so costly, the American strategy of first resort is dialogue, on the theory that “it never hurts to talk to enemies.” Seldom is conventional wisdom so wrong.
Engagement with rogue regimes is not cost-free, as Michael Rubin demonstrates by tracing the history of American diplomacy with North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, the Taliban’s Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Further challenges to traditional diplomacy have come from terrorist groups, such as the PLO in the 1970s and 1980s, or Hamas and Hezbollah in the last two decades. The argument in favor of negotiation with terrorists is suffused with moral equivalence, the idea that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Rarely does the actual record of talking to terrorists come under serious examination.
While soldiers spend weeks developing lessons learned after every exercise, diplomats generally do not reflect on why their strategy toward rogues has failed, or consider whether their basic assumptions have been faulty. Rubin’s analysis finds that rogue regimes all have one thing in common: they pretend to be aggrieved in order to put Western diplomats on the defensive. Whether in Pyongyang, Tehran, or Islamabad, rogue leaders understand that the West rewards bluster with incentives and that the U.S. State Department too often values process more than results.
Engagement with rogue regimes is not cost-free, as Michael Rubin demonstrates by tracing the history of American diplomacy with North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, the Taliban’s Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Further challenges to traditional diplomacy have come from terrorist groups, such as the PLO in the 1970s and 1980s, or Hamas and Hezbollah in the last two decades. The argument in favor of negotiation with terrorists is suffused with moral equivalence, the idea that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Rarely does the actual record of talking to terrorists come under serious examination.
While soldiers spend weeks developing lessons learned after every exercise, diplomats generally do not reflect on why their strategy toward rogues has failed, or consider whether their basic assumptions have been faulty. Rubin’s analysis finds that rogue regimes all have one thing in common: they pretend to be aggrieved in order to put Western diplomats on the defensive. Whether in Pyongyang, Tehran, or Islamabad, rogue leaders understand that the West rewards bluster with incentives and that the U.S. State Department too often values process more than results.
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More Pages to Explore .....
