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Marvin X's Academy of da Corner, a hit at Oakland's Lakeshore Ave.

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Lakeshore visitors read aloud the poem "You Don't Know Me" by Marvin X





Marvin X is the USA's Rumi!--Bob Holman,Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

Tuesday, September 18, 2012


You Don't Know Me

    You don't know me
    you had a chance to know me
    before we made love
    you had a chance to know my mind
    understand my fears
    learn about issues
    help me heal some things
    but you wanted to make love
    so you don't know me
    we made love
    but you don't know me
    don't have a clue
    think I'm a good dick
    or you some good tight pussy
    but you don't know me
    and never will now
    because you wanted to make love
    you wanted to get a nut
    we didn't even talk much
    a little bit leading up to sex
    I went along
    I was horny too
    but you don't know me
    and I don't know you
    now we never will
    we blew it forever
    because we made love
    too fast too quick too soon
    now you think you own me
    I can't breathe
    can't talk on the phone to friends
    because we made love
    because I gave you some dick
    you gave me some pussy
    now I'm no longer human
    I'm your love slave
    you my slave
    we're in love but you don't know me
    we gonna get married
    but you don't know me
    we're gonna have children
    but you don't know me
    you're gonna beat my ass
    but you don't know me
    you're going to jail
    but you don't know me
    we're getting a divorce
    but you don't know me
    now we're friends "Just Friends" Charlie Parker tune
    But you don't know me and never will.
    --Marvin X

    from the Mythology of Love, aka Mythology of Pussy and Dick by Marvin X, Black Bird
    Press, Berkeley, 2013.
    www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
    jmarvinx@yahoo.com
    This group read the poem together aloud.



    Black Bird Press News & Review: The Black Bird Speaks: www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

    Folks attend Oakland Live Life Festival at Lil Bobby Hutton Park, aka Defermery Park

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    Tarika Lewis, Fred Hampton, Jr., Marvin X, Ras Ceylon, Alia Sherrief at Oakland's Live Life Festival at Lil Bobby Hutton Park, aka Defermery  Park.

    Photo Essay by Daniela Kantorová: 48th Annual Black Panther Party Reunion, West Oakland, October 12, 2014

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     Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr.

    Ras Ceylon, Fred Hampton, Jr. and MC She Cat
     Melvin Dixson and Marvin X

     Ras Ceylon, Gene Smith, Melvin Dixson and Marvin X

     Marvin X

     Marvin X speaking

     Melvin Dixson and Marvin X


    Gene Smith, Melvin Dixson, Marvin X


    It was an honor to do a solidarity statement tonight at the PrisonersOf ConscienceCommittee 48th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party. Very powerful learning from elders such as Melvin DicksonMarvin XBilal Ali and ChairmanFred Hampton Jr. provided an objective analysis as he hosted the event. All Power to the People! Free Leonard Peltier Free Em All! 

    Editor note: Black Panther Party first female member Tarika Lewis spoke but declined to be photographed. She gave a detailed history of West Oakland leading to the birth of the BPP. 

    Black Bird Press News & Review: Abstract for the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour of the BAM Poet's Choir and Arkestra

    Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds

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    Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds
    Update on the Global Mental Collapse
     
    Ebola! Repeated breaches of protocol causing death, mind you, one mistake can cause death, yet mistakes continue from country to country. He pretends a system is in place when there is none, no model, no standard, yet pronouncements are made that are vapor, yes, call it marijuana smoke. For sure the mind is delusional. It imagines a system operating but it is dysfunctional at best. And the damn fools infect the world--apparently on purpose, some say. 
    Take a look at the behavior of man at this hour. Everything he touches turns to shit. The administration of justice, for example, wherein the robbers rob but not one goes to jail, yes, after stealing trillions of dollars. The robbers are actually rewarded with bonuses. Only one robber went to jail, Maddoff, and only because he robbed the rich, but the blood suckers of the poor, the Wall Streets casino players, went Scott free, were labeled too big to fail, yet fail they did but were bailed out by the running dogs for Wall Street, your Government. How sick is this? The error is not in the banking system (although the banking system is a pyramid scheme at best) but in those entrusted to operate the system. The virus of greed is simply overwhelming, too big to fail, too luscious to pass by without devouring, exploiting the poor and middle class, depriving them of their basic wealth, their homes--all by the use of tricknology, but we know who wins in the pyramid scheme! 

    One day there is no war. It is only a Junior Varsity scrimmage, the next day a 100 Years War is declared. It is a mind  atrophied. There is no wisdom in this mental apparatus, wisdom is exhausted, spent, so we are Drifting and Drifting, like that Charles Brown blues. 

    Hold onto your hats aboard the Ship of Fools, or is it the Titanic going down slow. Is it time to flee aboard the Knower's Ark. Someone said we are down to the 3 Gs: Gun, Gold & Getaway Plan!
    --Marvin X
    10/15/14

    Broken Systems, Broken Minds


    What we perceive as reality is most often a reflection of imagination, of mythology and ritual, or simply the mind of man is the macrocosm, reality the microcosm. Systems thus reflect the mind of man--did not someone say creations only reflect the mind of the creator. Broken systems, therefore, originate in broken minds. Yet we wonder why systems are broken, e.g., school system, political system, economic system, religious and moral systems.

    But systems are not the problem, rather it is the minds of men that are broken irreparably, suffering a mental atrophy, an anorexia, a paralysis of imagination. The causation is simple greed, selfishness and lust for power. It is augmented by the quest for the acquisition of things, the wanton addiction to materialism or the world of make believe, the illusion that the microcosm can satisfy the macrocosm, when the real deal holyfield is the inner rather than the outer. Yet men fear to go there, deep down into the metaphysical realm where the darkest mysteries lie seeking edification and recognition. Thus, we find ourselves at the precipice, about to be consumed by the wonder of life.

    Elijah told us, "The wisdom of this world is exhausted." And so it is--spent, obsolete, retarded, and yet we wonder why we are immobile, transfixed--stuck on stupid! Why no systems work.
    How is it possible for the great Toyota to need recalling, a consummate machine suddenly dysfunctional. What caused this sudden breakdown-- some internal defect in the machine or in the mind of man?

    Look at the educational system, confounded by the ideological foundation of white supremacy capitalism that continues to prepare students for a world of work when there is none, especially with living wages in an economic system that demands cheap labor and resources, a socalled free market system that will transcend the national needs for the wants and desires of global finance gangs, connected with, supported and defended by the military, i.e., the Christian Crusaders, soon to be supplanted by Communists from China, India and Russia.

    The teachers were long ago taught to teach a new way--back in Egypt they were told to teach with compassion and love. Yet what we see today is the pedagogy of hate. It is a system that rewards ignorance and punishes wisdom and creativity, especially of the thinking variety. Any original thought is suppressed or deemed antisocial thought and behavior, often resulting in the student diagnosed to require psycho drugs that turn him into the zombie required by the society of the walking dead.

    The religious system is the same. It is in full blown denial about the meaning of the cross and the lynching tree, about the mission of the prince of peace. For the most part, the religious community is Silent Night about the trillion dollar military budget that allows mass murder to take place across the planet. Along with Silent Night, it sings Onward Christian Soldiers as its sons and daughters crisscross the planet to secure labor and natural resources for the pleasure of the walking dead, and most especially the miserable few who enjoy the high life.

    It is all about the glorification of Pharaoh and his magicians. God, in the minds of men, is a business, big business. There is no desire for spirituality, only prosperity, minus compassion for the poor, homeless, jobless and broken hearted, crushed to earth like the pot in the hands of Jeremiah at the gates of his city.

    In the minds of politicians, there is no compromise, only preparation for the next election, or the assumption or resumption of power at any and all costs, no lie is exempt, "Vote for me, I'll set you free!" All bribes are acceptable--politicians are thus loyal to lobbyists, not the people who are expendable.

    The lips of politicians do not say let us reason together for the sake of the people, for the love of the people, for the consent of the governed. These men and women of the political realm only know the language of no, no, no. As the people starve, become homeless, jobless, we yet hear the mantra of no, no, no, late into the night. No compromise, no reconciliation, only recalcitrance and niggardliness. They are fast to reward the robber barons, the blood suckers of the poor. Eventually, a few crumbs, kibble and bits reach the poor, if ever, unless there is revolt. And then Pharaoh sees the light, suddenly, but he will send his magicians to placate the poor with more crumbs, kibbles and bits.

    Between good and evil, evil is the choice, with greed the foundation stone in the minds of men. Amazingly, the people see clearly. They feel change in the wind, not the change in the educational system or the political or religious, but in the wind. They smell the rotten hearts of men who lead into nothingness and dread, with their pitiful strut of the peacock, the one legged dance of the flamingo.

    Pharaoh magicians gather in dens of iniquity to share blood money. Teachers, preachers, politicians, all there to party on the backs of the poor. The military stand post at the door of the den, ready to club the wretched into submission, even death, if they dare enter the den of thieves, robbers, murderers, and those who perpetuate the world of make believe.

    Inside the den we hear a symphony of sick sounds, giggles, wails, grunts emanating from putrid minds exhausted from wickedness. The result is systematic gridlock--it is 5pm and the freeway is jammed with drivers full of road rage, ready to kill in an instant. It is thus a destruction of self by self, internal combustion.

    Unlike the car, there is no forward motion or backward, or perhaps it goes both ways simultaneously, if such is possible in the world of physics, but after all, the minds of men defy all laws, except the law of the jungle and the devil.

    But there shall be no forward motion with the present mind-set. Jack must jump out the box of his own making. He must take wings and fly away into a world beyond his imagination.
    This is the only way out the morass of his mind. All the technology is to no avail, for he talks, but more often says nothing, he listens but hears nothing, deaf, dumb and blind.
    --Marvin X
    2/17/10
    from The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, by Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley.

    Review: Marvin X's memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, reviewed by Rudolph Lewis, introduction by Amiri Baraka

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    Eldridge Cleaver, my friend the devil,
    a memoir by Marvin X


    Introduction by Amiri Baraka


    Marvin X‘s newest book, “Eldridge Cleaver: My friend, the Devil” is an important Expose!, not only of whom his good friend really was… (I confess I thought something like that, in less metaphysical terms, from the day we met, at San Francisco State University, 1967). But also of whom Marvin was/is. 

    Now Marvin has confessed to being Yacub, whom Elijah Muhammad taught us was the“evil big head scientist” who created the devil. (Marvin’s head is very large for his age.) What is good about this book is Marvin’s telling us something about who Eldridge became as the Black Panther years receded in the rear view mirror. 

    I remember during this period, when I learned that Marvin was hanging around Cleaver even after he’d made his televised switch from anti-capitalist revolutionary to Christian minister, denouncing the 3rd World revolutionaries and the little Marxism he thought he knew, while openly acknowledging beating his wife as a God given male prerogative, I said to Marvin, “I thought you was a Muslim”. His retort, “Jesus pay more money than Allah, Bro”, should be a classic statement of vituperative recidivism. But this is one of the charms of this memoir. 

    It makes the bizarre fathomable. Especially the tales of fraternization with arguably the most racist & whitest of the Xtian born agains with Marvin as agent, road manager, co-conspirator-confessor, for the post-Panther – very shot- out Cleaver. It also partially explains some of Cleaver’s moves to get back in this country, he had one time denounced, and what he did after the big copout. Plus, some of the time these goings on seem straight out hilarious. Though frequently, that mirth is laced with a sting of regret. 

    Likewise, I want everyone to know that I am writing this against my will, as a favor to Yacub. 
    --Amiri Baraka


    Review Eldridge Cleaver, Marvin X and Memoirs

    By Rudolph Lewis, editor Chickenboneshttp://www.nathanielturner.com/

    Marvin has a "memoir." Promotionally, it is about Eldridge Cleaver, my least favorite Black Panther. I am down with Huey. For Bobby there is always gagged in Chicago . There was whiteness: everybody could see that fairly well by 1969 and we could see that it was a whiteness that did not tolerate and doesn't allow you to pretend that you have no understanding of whiteness and its operations. In this game of subjection, Eldridge's point indeed in his crazed cranium, mistakes nor ignorance aren't forgiven. 

    All literary work is about "power"—that is mastery. For a month or so I daily saw this writer writing a book—piece by piece (part by part). Marvin X exudes power. He just turned 65 but he removes space like Archie Moore 44 in the ring. 

    The book is Marvin. I know it is an odd thing to say a book is an author. If that is the case this “memoir” is indeed a memoir in the most perfect sense of one thing being another. Marvin pulls his memoir through the mode of “storytelling.” 

    Marvin, his memoir, each identifies with the people: to paraphrase Langston, in all their beauty and ugliness too. Marvin can walk into a barroom and in seconds have everyone laughing or falling out on the floor. Marvin doesn’t feel uncomfortable like Cornel West speaking before a class of black middle-class folk, or uncomfortable like other self-corporate prophetic leaders. 

    These are objects of his jest, ridicule, scorn. Their pretensions, their respectability. Other than a poet, playwright, director, publisher, and editor, Marvin X is a recovering addict who works daily in drug invested communities. He knows where his allegiance lies and in whom to invest. I want to be open in this discussion as much as necessary. 

    I encouraged this book while Marvin was writing madly and emailing part after part, revision after revision. I found it all so riveting. Watching a writer write a book himself day after day, hour after hour, and the next thing I know we are on part 32, is quite an unusual and extraordinary experience. The writing process is indeed important. Each of us has his own way of going about it. Marvin’s last approach, similar to other Marvin escapades, intentionally and directly seeks an audience for his memoir. 

    Actually, he was out on the road—a book tour. In Houston , Texas. On a book tour, Marvin sends what one might call a “barrage” of responses to event or current events, keeping in touch with friends, writers, publishers and more. In ways he is always a political organizer as well as self-promoter. 

    He makes his way as speaker, writer, event organizer, performer. He keeps people tied to one another and valuing their lives. Marvin is uniquely developed into an informed black man who is religious, spiritual, and political. He is as representative of the Black Arts Movement (BAM), then and now, as anyone I can think. In ways Marvin is galactic to the point you think he’s standing still, still mired in the betraying clays of the 1960s and 1970s. 

    One needs to be half-crazed, extremely intelligent, and extraordinarily visionary for his words to reenact the BAM world, as is achieved in memoir, to see the hole we are clearly in and still remain faithful that “Blackness” will find a way. The memoir fell silent. Marvin moved onto South Carolina . Then he was in New York , Philly. And then New Jersey . Where he hooks up with his buddy, Amiri Baraka. 

    From what I observed for the last decade is that Marvin loves Baraka, right or wrong, and would die for Baraka. This day. This moment view love I knew when I was a soldier out on the streets of Baltimore . Brothers I would die for. That kind of enthusiasm about changing whiteness in the land and thus the world, well, that kind of “militancy” was buried with Mr. Jim Crow. 

    The resulting vision of the NAACP. Marvin X suspends the past present future like a diamond and makes us believe in “blackness” when it has grayed and entered a nursing home. Yet Marvin believes, he’s a soldier to the death. I did not want Marvin’s memoir to end. We were only at the beginning, though at chapter 39, chapters fairly short. 

    In New York Marvin was talking about Amiri’s response and willingness to help secure Marvin a book deal for his memoir. From Marvin I received some piece of a rejection notice, all too stereotypical. I do not know where the cat was. But it seems he did not think the “memoir” was worthy of work or revision. What Marvin has as his “memoir” is indeed phenomenal. In its present form one can find nothing like it or better in representing the BAM world. 

    The larger frame of the book could withstand double its size. The expose could be put to work toward understanding what caused BAM writers to decline, and why the BAM literary legacy is more critical, than before or since the Harlem Renaissance . Two extraordinary playwrights. August Wilson and Marvin X have maintained their reverence and significance of the BAM period. Maybe Wilson is more introspective. Maybe less or differently ideological than Marvin. But both believing there is indeed such a thing as a “black perspective,” whether you want to agree with it or not. It is this kind of daily believing that makes Marvin X our saving grace. 

    Many of us are too willing to give up the significance and totality of what can be called Black Life in America , of the significance of identity in the personal, social, and economic progress or “success.” One cannot have a healthy psychic if one half of your people are free and the other half wallow in ignorance and superstition. How Moses satisfied such a state of being? I don’t want to hear about COINTELPRO or slave catchers. 

    I want to hear more on how or why Huey died the way that he did. I want to hear more about why Cleaver’s madness was entertained by anyone sane in the black community—a rapist and murderer. I want real discussion why Baraka’s walk away from cultural nationalism of the 1970s no less an act of betrayal than Cleaver in Cuba , in Algeria , in France , and black in the United States . The expose does not work so well if there's no thorough attempt to make any sense out of BAM failing to seize the high ground. 

    Maybe there was an inadequacy, a sweep in BAM, that was too large, too public, and in other aspects too personal, to be sustained as a social movement for a people spread out across a nation. I love Jimi Hendrix not one iota less to know that he died (by some reports murdered) in a drug house. My love for Huey is eternal. What I’ve heard and read so far brings nothing of import to account for Huey’s rise and fall. That’s from Marvin as well. 

    How Huey came to the drug house? How for that matter Marvin X? Often we see it more in the light of spectacle, of shame, and guilt. Not only drug use but the entire cultural breakdown of race, sex, and gender, during that period, breaking down for new frontiers. At the time we were all under its spell. Woodstock !!! Too many of us cultural radicals have warped into cultural conservatives, sometimes a too willingness to serve the Beast, at other times a cold hard decision, like “Allah does not pay as much as Jesus.” We are all Januses. 

    Some more fortunate than others. At the Crack House the doors of Hell are open, how low a man, a woman will stoop, what acts she will perform for crack’s grain of joy. The deconstruction of crack must continue. That the whole scene is made unlawful shows how far the respectable stoops to crush any kind of resistance, political, social cultural or otherwise.

    I’ve read two other memoirs by black male writers: one Jerry W. Ward, Jr., The Katrina Papers (2008, $18.95) and the other by E. Ethelbert Miller, The 5th Inning (2009). Miller’s memoir is more personal, though it too contains social commentary. Jerry Ward’s work is post-modern, the memoir imitates, sets itself up as the same powerful forces of post-Katrina—powerful with the fragments of people’s lives on motor boats and housetops; great sludge and dead bodies floating down the streets of your neighborhood. Marvin self published his memoir. Each of these memoirs is special. Read them. My feeling is that most publishers are not interested in black male memoirs. But many readers including females may find a great interest in these three black male writers and how differently they situate black life in America .

    Please support the Marvin X Books Project on Indiegogo

    Movie Review: Dear White People; also letters to the Black man and White Man

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    ‘Dear White People,’ movie review 

    Race tension and cultural expectations make a funny and explosive mix in film starring Tessa Thompson, Dennis Haysbert, Teyonah Parris and Tyler James Williams

     
    NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
     
    Wednesday, October 15, 2014, 3:04 PM







    Tyler James Williams (center) and more students in ‘Dear White People’
    Tyler James Williams (center) and more students in ‘Dear White People’
    PreviousNext
    • Tyler James Williams (center) and more students in ‘Dear White People’
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    • Dennis Haysbert in ‘Dear White People’
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    • From left, Nia Jervier, Teyonah Parris and Brandon P. Bell in ‘Dear White People’
    Enlarge
    ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS
    “Dear White People,” writer-director Justin Simien’s debut feature, may be angry without raising its voice. But the movie is also an example of how humor is the best way to make your argument.
    At a cash-strapped Ivy League university, a group of minority students struggle with being “black faces in a white place.” They include: Sam (Tessa Thompson), the campus radical; Troy (Brandon P. Bell), the strait-laced son of the school dean; Coco (Teyonah Parris), a looker with an eye toward reality TV; and Lionel (Tyler James Williams), the shy gay observer who doesn’t quite fit in anywhere.
    At the heart of the multicharacter story is the difficulty young people face coming of age in an allegedly postracial cultural era. Sam, who is mixed race, leads the college’s traditionally black residence in a militant stand against housing assignments. She’s also secretly dating a white classmate. Meanwhile, broadcast opportunities could open up for Coco if she amps up the stereotypes that her producers expect.
    All of the characters are full, recognizable people working out who they really are while weighing who they’re supposed to be. Much as in life — but rarely in movies — everyone is at least partially sympathetic. And everyone has a bit of a point.
    Simien’s highly stylized dialogue is rich, sharp and funny. His loose script gives the actors lots of chances to let ’er rip. A quick (and surprisingly cogent) explanation on the white-panic metaphor inside the ’80s hit “Gremlins” is one of several funny but thoughtful moments.
    Despite an obviously small budget, it all snaps together with idiosyncratic style. The gravitas-exuding dean of students (Dennis Haysbert) likens his school to a jazz composition. The same is true of the film, which riffs beautifully as it rephrases key themes.
    Comparisons to Spike Lee’s movies are unavoidable, particularly with a setting that recalls Lee’s “School Daze” and a conclusion that echoes “Do the Right Thing.” But “Dear White People” is a film of the moment, and an essential one at that.
    Addendum: On the serious side
    Letters to the Black Man and White Man
    by Ajamu Baraka and Marvin X


    “A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give. When the white man who is always the aggressor knows he runs as great risk of biting the dust every time his Afro-American victim does, he will have greater respect for Afro-American life.” – Ida B. Wells




    Letter to North American Africans 
    by 
    Ajamu Baraka

    “The value put on black life by the occupation force in Ferguson and in our communities across the country is no different than the value put on the lives of the “natives” in Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S. occupation forces.”
    The Black radical tradition has always understood the inextricable link between racism and militarism: racism as a manifestation of white supremacist ideology, and militarism as the mechanism to enforce that ideology.
    That fundamental link grounds our analysis of the Obama administration’s policies in Iraq and Syria. But the link between race (white supremacy) and the deployment of violence to enforce the interests of white supremacy also explains the repressive mission and role of the police in the colonized barrios and segregated African American communities within the U.S.
    Achelle Mbembe explains in “Necropolitics” that “…in modern philosophical thought and European political practice …, the colony represents the site where sovereignty consists fundamentally in the exercise of a power outside the law … where ‘peace’ is more likely to take on the face of a ‘war without end.’” In the non-white world of the internal and global colonies, the rules are different. In those zones where the consent of the oppressed is not expected, colonial/capitalist domination is reinforced with force and violence.
    In those colonized spaces it is clear that the people are not the ones to be “protected and served,” and even gestures such as throwing one’s hands up to surrender only means that the police have a better shot. Even the time-honored idea of national sovereignty is different in the non-European world than what is taught in political science and international relations classes, according to Mbembe. As we have witnessed in Iraq, Libya and Syria, sovereignty “relies, to a large degree, in the power and capacity to dictate who may live and who must die.”
    That is why the Obama administration has not bothered to give its actions in Syria any legal justification. As Samantha Powers, Obama’s lunatic representative to the United Nations claimed, the U.S. has all of the authority it needs to bomb in Syria.
    “In those colonized spaces it is clear that the people are not the ones to be ‘protected and served,’ and even gestures such as throwing one’s hands up to surrender only means that the police have a better shot.”
    The African Americans who are supporting the latest war plans in Iraq and Syria while simultaneously calling for something called justice in Ferguson have forgotten, or never completely understood, that the war being waged by the U.S. to maintain global Western hegemony also includes them as a target. If Congress can give unanimous consent to the murder of more than 2,000 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, why would anyone think that those same people would really care about a few hundred African Americans who are being murdered annually by police forces charged with containing a population that has been rendered economically superfluous?
    The value put on black life by the occupation force in Ferguson and in our communities across the country is no different than the value put on the lives of the “natives” in Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S. occupation forces. The cavalier way in which white policymakers decide issues of war in the non-white nations of the global South and place tens of thousands of innocents at risk mirrors the value they put on non-white life in the U.S., especially when those non-white bodies are involved in activities that they define as threatening – like resisting, or at this point simply existing.
    We must always remind ourselves that in the colonies of the world as well as the racialized, segregated communities in the capitalist metropolis, the non-white is seen as the living negation of everything deemed important to the European mind – the underclass, the violent, the welfare queens, gangbangers, the terrorists – the quintessence of evil. And in reminding ourselves of this reality we can remain clear about what forces and interests we should oppose and with whom to be in solidarity.
    What this means is that we cannot afford the comforting myths of U.S. benevolence that attempt to conceal the naked deployment of U.S. state power in the service of Western capitalist/colonialist interests. And we must view with suspicion, if not treat with disdain, our comrades, white and black, who support U.S. interventions, even if they frame that support in leftist justifications. For oppressed nations and peoples’ of the world, the U.S. white supremacist colonial/capitalist patriarchy is and remains the principle contradiction. There must not be any nationalist sentimentality or equivocation on that position.
    “The cavalier way in which white policymakers decide issues of war in the non-white nations of the global South and place tens of thousands of innocents at risk mirrors the value they put on non-white life in the U.S.”
    The current phase of naked aggression in Syria is not a reflection of U.S. strength but rather its weakness. Nonetheless, we cannot underestimate the threat that the continued reliance on militarism and repression poses for African Americans and the peoples of the world. In the U.S., the national security apparatus has been moving systematically to strengthen its ability to target, contain, disrupt and repress when necessary all domestic oppositional movements. The threat of domestic terrorism provided the convenient cover for intensifying those efforts in the post-9/11 period, the result being graphically demonstrated by the militarized police in Boston and their police-state tactics in the aftermath of the Boston bombing, and in Ferguson, Missouri in response to a few hundred demonstrators protesting another killing of an unarmed black person.
    The white supremacist, colonial/capitalist, patriarchal ruling classes of the U.S. and Europe are clear, even if we are not, that war and repression will be used with brutal efficiency to maintain their hegemony. Their brief turn toward utilizing “soft power” to shore up “legitimacy” in response to popular opposition to the Bush administration with the “selection” of Barack Obama (the smiling brown face of imperialist domination), was only a short-term tactical innovation of that strategy.
    Scholars, pundits and commentators from across the political spectrum in the U.S. have already started to speculate on the legacy of Obama’s presidency. And even though his record of “accomplishments” is thin, very few will identify the most significant but insidious legacy of his presidency – concealing the reality of racialized violence in the service of Western global white supremacy.
    Ajamu Baraka is a human rights activist, organizer and geo-political analyst. Baraka is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington, D.C. and editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report. He is a contributor to “Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence” (Counterpunch Books, 2014). He can be reached at info.abaraka@gmail.com andwww.AjamuBaraka.com

    Letter to the White Man 
    Marvin X

    Dear Mr. White Man:

    I write to you in the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. I pray for you at this hour. I pray that you will remove yourself from all Muslim lands at the earliest possible date. You have known for centuries the day would arrive when your beheading would be in order for all your sins against the righteous people of the planet earth. Yes, you have known many of the righteous would go down as well, especially those associated with you in any form or fashion. 

    Surely you know from the story of Job or Ayub, that Allah will use the devil to do his work, i.e., he will fight fire with fire. We know you are the fire man of the planet; no one has more fire power than you, more guns, bombs, bullets, nuclear weapons, poison gas, germ warfare, chemical warfare. Yes, you are the king. Yet, the time arrives for a changing of the guard. That hour has arrived that the prophets told us about; the hour of the final battle between God and the devil. You have revealed yourself as the devil simply because you love doing evil, i.e., robbing, cheating, raping, dominating the planet with your filthy ways.

    Talk of beheading? Wasn't it your brother King Leopold who practiced the art of beheading and chopping arms and hands during his rape of the Congo? You chopped hands of Africans in the American slave system when you learned they could read and write, since you wanted them kept in triple darkness, deaf dumb and blind for eternity, if you had your way. You lynched them, men and women, you deemed too uppity and recalcitrant; often you burned them at the stake for just looking at you and your woman.

    And so what goes around comes around. There are few good guys in this tragic drama full of classic hubris and other human flaws made so famous in the plays of Shakespeare, greed, pride, niggardliness, hatred, and other deadly sins. More than anything, it is lust for power that is the downfall of many men, women, nations, empires.

    If the Muslims have been fighting for centuries, better that you remove yourself from the battle, although we know your domination is entwined with the reactionary regimes in the area that are the primary cause of present events. Your sycophants will prove insincere as you are, as hypocritical as you are, especially since they emulate your behavior. They mastered your iniquities and now a force of pure evil has arisen to adjudicate matters. They ask one question: what side are you on--the wrong answer is cause for heads to fall. This is the type of justice you have inspired after centuries of injustice to the poor, the ignorant and diseased, the disenfranchised and economically deprived.

    You have revealed yourself as an insincere, dishonest broker of peace and justice. We can see your attitude and behavior with respect to nationhood rights for Palestinians: a clear example of your insincerity and duplicity. You persist to clamor for peace in occupied Palestine, yet we know without justice there shall never be peace while the Zionists keep their boots and guns on the necks of Palestinians. Your Zionist allies have the best army in the world, the best guns, planes, bombs, yet they claim fear of security. The fear is hearing the cry for justice, for there is no true fear of security, especially with the USA and Europe as the ultimate maintainer of the Zionist entity. Demanding Hamas demilitarize is asking the men to deliver their balls to the altar of Zionist aggression. We see what happened in America when the 200,000 Africans gave up their guns after the Civil War. We have languished ever since in the caldron of Americana. 

    The real tragedy is the common people caught in this final dance between God and the devil. It would be nice if you were on the moral high ground as Christian Crusaders, although you seem to expect another Hundred Years War in the Holy Lands. Didn't the Kurd Saladin end your Crusades in 1187 when he drove you from Jerusalem? It took a century more for the last remaining Crusaders to depart Syria for Europe.

    Now here you are again, sick with it, that same Crusading spirit resurrected for another doom in the land of Islam. Whether the righteous Muslims must suffer in the present quagmire is not the question, whether they are innocent is not to be considered, for the devils must meet on the battlefield for that last round, unless of course, lessons are learned, but we doubt this is possible because this educational objective involves decolonization, including the deconstruction of white supremacy ideology. Some call it white lunacy and so it is. 

    Often lunacy is a virus that spreads to the sane and they become infected until the insanity is full blown madness on their part. And of course, such madness can be a severe pathological phenomena that is reported as pure evil. Yet this evil is ready to battle what they perceive as a greater evil, the decadent regimes, the people who have strayed from the straight path. You say who gave them authority in such moral matters, especially while they themselves are guilty of plunder, rape, robbery, the poison of sectarianism and dogmatism of the most virulent variety. Unfortunately, they took authority and in many cases you are backing them--you love playing both sides of the fence, donning the persona of duplicity so pervasive in Middle Eastern political chicanery.

    Sadly, there are  few right in this matter and perhaps it will be better if one combatant should extricate himself from the battlefield. But, alas, it appears, Mr. White Man, you have every intention to continue involving yourself in a matter of great complexity, much of tribal origin, theological concern, beyond the pure economics of the matter, which is no doubt your primary interest. There are mythological concerns, the Caliphate, rise of the Persians who desire to rule from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Mediterranean.

    For sure, there is no future for the State of Israel in the area. Its days are numbered along with those of the reactionary, autocratic political and religious orders, with whom Israel is in bed with as we write. Yes, there are many Odd Fellows in this bed of iniquity.

    Go home, Whitey, please, for the peace of the world. Let the Arabs kill each other until they are not only ready for peace but ready for justice, especially among themselves--for sure they have regressed to Ya'um Jahiliyah or the days of ignorance that preceded the birth of Islam. You cannot help them because you have yet given justice to the North American Africans who are descendants of those who suffered the American Slave System.

    Marvin X is a free thinker. See his Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality; also, How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, Oakland. He can be reached at           jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

    From the Archives: President Lula of Brazil blames global crisis on the white/blue-eyed man

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    UK PM Gordon Brown shakes hands with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (R)
    Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has blamed the global economic crisis on "white people with blue eyes," according to theFinancial Times.
    He went on to say that black and indigenous people should not have to pay for a crisis started by only white people. Specifically, Lula is quoted as saying:
    This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.

    “This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by the irrational behaviour of people who were white and blue-eyed, who before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics, but now have demonstrated they know nothing about economics,” he said, mocking the “gods of wisdom” who had been bailed out by the State. 

    Minister Farrakhan: Ebola made by the white man for Africans

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    Farrakhan: Whites Invented Ebola to Kill Off Blacks
    Fox News reports:
    Firebrand Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s latest racially-charged claim is that Ebola – the deadly disease ravaging parts of Africa and now diagnosed on American soil – was designed by white scientists specifically to kill off blacks.
    The 81-year-old leveled the charge in his organization’s newspaper, The Final Call,insisting the disease is man-made and cooked up in a laboratory as a means of population control. He underscored the claim on his Twitter page, which has 308,000 followers.
    “There is a weapon that can be put in a room where there are black and white people, and it will kill only the black and spare the white, because it is a genotype weapon that is designed for your genes, for your race, for your kind,” Farrakhan wrote.
    Farrakhan has previously made similar claims about AIDS. This time, he cited a 2000 research paper by the now-defunct think tank Project for the New American Century which predicted “advanced forms of biological warfare that can target specific genotypes, may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.”

    The first known case of Ebola dates back to 1976, but outbreaks have occurred, mostly in Africa, in the decades since. The current outbreak began in Guinea last December and spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal and is now responsible for more than 3,300 deaths. The disease, which has a mortality rate of between 50 and 90 percent, is spread by contact with body fluids and no credible medical authority believes it affects races differently.
    The first diagnosis on U.S. soil associated with the current outbreak came on Wednesday and involved a Sierra Leone man who flew to Dallas.
    But Farrakhan is not alone in his suspicions about Ebola. Villagers in remote areas of Africa have alleged the disease is a Western plot and has even killed aid workers. And in the U.S., Delaware State University agriculture professor Cyril Broderick wrote a letter to a Liberian newspaper charging Ebola was created by the U.S. military and pharmaceutical companies who are intentionally spreading the deadly disease in Africa.
    “The U. S., Canada, France, and the U.K. are all implicated in the detestable and devilish deeds that these Ebola tests are,” wrote Broderick.

    Sun Ra in the 21st Century, presented by the University of DC Jazz Forum

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    University of The District of Columbia Jazz Forum - SUN RA in Century 21 Wed, Oct 22 - Free Event!

    Event Details

    University of The District of Columbia JazzForum - SUN RA in Century 21 Wed, Oct 22 - Free Event!
    Time: October 22, 2014 from 7pm to 9pm
    Location: University of District of Columbia Performing Arts Bldg 46-W
    Street: 4200 Connecticut Ave NW
    City/Town: Washington DC
    Website or Map: http://www.jazzaliveudc.org
    Phone: 202-274-5803
    Event Type: jazzforum
    Organized By: WASHINGTON DC JAZZ NETWORK

    What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth~~~SUNRA

    The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables & Fables by Marvin X

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    Parable of a Real Woman by Marvin X






    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, cleanup 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 cleaningbut 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 razorcutting 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.



    from the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2012.

    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


    The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables and Fables, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley/Oakland, 2012, donation $19.95.
    Black Bird Press
    1222 Dwight Way
    Berkeley Ca 94702

    Black Bird Press News & Review: APPEAL FOR SUPPORT OF THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT 27 CITY TOUR

    Parable of the Preacher's Wife by Marvin X, from the Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables

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    Parable of the Preacher's Wife



    There was a preacher who had a most beautiful wife. She used to come pass Plato Negro's street academy on da corner of 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. She was so beautiful Plato Negro had to stop teaching whenever she passed. Her skin was clean and glowing. Her clothes were of fine cloth. Her legs were well shaped, her shoes expensive.

    At first she would take Plato's writings home to read. But she came one day to tell him she could not read anymore of his writings because they were not in accord with the Bible, specifically the King James version.

    Plato Negro asked her if she knew the history of King James, that he was a pervert, murderer, robber, rapist who gave "his version" of God's word? How could such a devil have a version of God's word? Would you believe John Dillinger's version of the Bible? During the reign of King James kidnapped Africans arrived in North America by way of the Good Ship Jesus, captained by Sir John Hawkins, author of that Christian classic song Amazing Grace. Yes, along with John Hawkins, King James I was among the wretched gang of English slave traders.

    The preacher's wife said she didn't care about King James, all she cared about was what Jesus said. How do you know what Jesus said, all you know is what somebody said Jesus said, and we know how people lie? The only time he wrote anything was on the sand. And we know what happens when the tide comes in.

    Plato Negro was hurt when she refused to take anymore of his writings. He told her she was too beautiful to be so narrow minded, and that truth was in many books besides the Bible. Didn't Jesus say truth would set you free?

    I am free, said the preacher's wife, Jesus set her free and she didn't need to read anything else.
    Plato wanted to know how could she be so beautiful, yet so ignorant. She told him some of her history, that she had been a dope fiend on cocaine, had been tossed up by men in the dope house, but Jesus saved her.

    You saved yourself, Plato Negro told her. We know God helps those who help themselves. If you take one step He will take ten. When you were ready to stop being a dope fiend, you stopped, Jesus had nothing to do with it! Plato sensed she was leaning on Jesus for a crutch, that there was something still in her soul that was not right and she had more healing to do.

    But my husband is a preacher, she said. So what, Plato Negro replied? He has known many wicked preachers, so it was of no value that her husband was a preacher. Every tub must sit on its own bottom.

    The preacher's wife was silent for a moment. She seemed to be considering his words. He told her there is only one truth and that if it was true for her, it was true for him. By degrees you shall come to see the truth of my words, he said.

    The story of Jesus is a very ancient tale, told in many countries thousands of years before the birth of Jesus. We know at least sixteen crucified saviors, all had a virgin birth, stars were seen in the sky when they were born, wise men came to visit the baby savior who later taught but was eventually crucified, resurrected and ascended to heaven.

    For a moment, Plato Negro saw a light flicker in the head of the preacher's wife. Beautiful woman, he said, go in the name of Jesus, if it is Him whom you serve. Just know there is one mind, one truth, one spiritual energy in the universe and we are all connected to that force, the just and the unjust.

    She said goodbye and crossed the street. Plato said to himself, "Cute but psycho!"
    --Marvin X
    4/1/10

    For more information on the Savior myth, see The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors by Kersey Graves; Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins; Man, God and Civilization by John G. Jackson;The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer.

    President Obama on Ebola

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    The Administration's Response to Ebola






     
     THE WHITE HOUSE 
     

    An Ebola update from President Obama
    Today, President Obama spoke to the nation about Ebola -- how the Administration is responding, and what you should know.
    The Ebola virus is a public health and national security priority, and the President has directed the Administration to continue to take aggressive measures at every level of government.
    President Obama reiterated that, while Ebola is a serious disease, Americans need to understand the facts and be guided by the science: Ebola is not easily transmitted. And we know how to fight it.

    President Obama: What You Need to Know About Ebola

    "I want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting Ebola, the dangers of a serious outbreak are extraordinarily low. But we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government. We are going to be able to manage this particular situation, but we have to look towards the future. And if we are not responding internationally in an effective way, and if we do not set up the kind of preparedness and training in our public health infrastructure here in the United States, not just for this outbreak, but for future outbreaks, then we could have problems."
    Ebola continues to be a public health and national security priority, and President Obama and his administration continue to take aggressive measures to respond.
    The United States continues to help lead the global response to stop the Ebola outbreak at its source in West Africa, while enhancing our preparedness here at home.
    Get the latest CDC updates on the current outbreak, and continue reading to see what the U.S. is doing to end this epidemic.

    Understand the Facts

    • It’s not transmitted through the air like the flu.
    • According to public health authorities, the only way a person can get Ebola is by coming into direct contact with the body fluids (urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk and semen) of someone who is already showing symptoms.
    • If the person does not have symptoms, they are not contagious.

    FAQs

    In response to frequently asked questions about Ebola, here's what our public health officials are saying.
    Q: What is Ebola, and what are the symptoms?
    A: Ebola virus is the cause of a Ebola virus disease. Symptoms include:
    • Fever
    • Headache
    • Joint and muscle aches
    • Weakness
    • Diarrhea
    • Vomiting
    • Stomach pain
    • Lack of appetite
    • Abnormal bleeding
    Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola virus though 8-10 days is most common.
    Q: How is Ebola transmitted?
    A: Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or body fluids (urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of an infected symptomatic person or though exposure to objects (such as needles) that have been contaminated with infected secretions.
    Q: Can I get Ebola from a person who is infected but doesn’t have any symptoms?
    A: No. Individuals who are not symptomatic are not contagious. In order for the virus to be transmitted, an individual would have to have direct contact with an individual who is experiencing symptoms or has died of the disease.

    What’s Happened So Far

    In March 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the West African country of Guinea. Additional cases have since been reported in the countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as Nigeria and Senegal. The cases reported in Nigeria and Senegal are considered to be contained, with no further spread in these countries, but new cases continue to be reported from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. To date, there have been more than 9,200 reported Ebola cases in West Africa, with more than 4,500 deaths.
    In September 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first laboratory-confirmed case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States, in a person who had traveled from Liberia to Dallas, Texas. The patient passed away on October 8, 2014. Two health care workers at Texas Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for the patient has also tested positive for Ebola, and have since been isolated and are receiving care.

    What We’re Doing at Home

    Clinicians in the United States have been key to our safety here at home by:
    • Identifying patients with both a history of travel from West Africa or contact with someone with a confirmed case of Ebola and symptoms indicating they might have Ebola
    • Immediately isolating these patients
    • Consulting their local or state health departments
    • Getting these patients tested as needed
    We have also been responding to new information to adapt and enhance our response. The following five U.S. airports — which receive more than 94 percent of travelers coming to the United States from countries affected by the Ebola outbreak — are also implementing new Ebola screening measures to help stop the spread of the disease:
    • John F. Kennedy International Airport - New York, NY
    • Washington Dulles International Airport - Washington, D.C.
    • Newark Liberty International Airport - Newark, NJ
    • Chicago O'Hare International Airport - Chicago, IL
    • Jackson Atlanta International Airport - Atlanta, GA

    What We’re Doing Abroad

    The U.S. strategy to combat the Ebola outbreak abroad consists of four key goals:
    • Controlling the epidemic at its source in West Africa
    • Minimizing the secondary impacts of the epidemic that aren't directly caused by the disease
    • Leading a coordinated international response
    • Building a robust global health security infrastructure so we're prepared over the long run to confront epidemics such as the Ebola epidemic
    CDC, USAID, and other U.S. officials have been deployed to the West Africa region to assist with response efforts — including surveillance, contact tracing, data management, laboratory testing, and health education — and CDC experts have been deployed to non-affected border countries, including Cote d'Ivoire, to conduct assessments of Ebola preparedness in those countries. This deployment constituted CDC’s largest overseas mission to date.
    The President announced in September a scaled-up response that calls upon the unique capabilities of the U.S. military to support the civilian-led response. The United States already has committed more than $350 million toward fighting the epidemic in West Africa, including more than $111 million in humanitarian aid, and the Department of Defense (DoD) is prepared to devote more than $1 billion to the whole-of-government Ebola response effort. As a further indication of our prioritization of this response, the United States convened a special U.N. Security Council session on the epidemic, and President Obama called the world to action during a subsequent U.N. session called by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. These U.S. actions have galvanized millions of dollars in international funding and in-kind support.

    A Coordinated Effort

    CDC is assisting with exit screening and communication efforts in West Africa to prevent sick travelers from getting on planes, and is working with airlines to address crew and airline staff concerns while ensuring the ability of humanitarian and public health organizations to transport assistance into the affected countries.
    In addition to implementing new Ebola screening measures in the five U.S. airports that receive more than 94 percent of travelers coming to the United States from countries affected by the Ebola outbreak, CDC is also working closely with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other partners at ports of entry (primarily international airports) to use routine processes to identify travelers who show signs of infectious disease. If a sick traveler is identified during or after a flight, CDC will conduct an investigation of exposed travelers and work with the airline, federal partners, and state and local health departments to notify them and take any necessary public health action.
    In the United States, CDC is working to prepare U.S. health care facilities for managing patients that are suspected to have Ebola. U.S. health care workers can find updated infection control guidance on theInformation for Health Care Workers page. CDC communicates with health care workers on an ongoing basis through Health Alert Network (HAN)Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA), and a variety of existing tools and mechanisms.

    Marvin X in conversation with Amiri Baraka, Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2009

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    Amiri Baraka and Marvin X, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2009


    Amiri Baraka with Marvin X, 11 March 2009 – Audio
    Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 11, 2009.


    Audio from this Event




    Amiri Baraka (left) read from his work and joined in conversation with Marvin X at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Wednesday, March 11, 2009. Photo: Don Usner
    Amiri Baraka, (née Everett LeRoi Jones) author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, is a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. With influences on his work ranging from musical artists such as John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk, to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X, and world revolutionary movements, Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s. His recent books includeSomebody Blew Up America and Other Poems and Tales of the Out & The Gone.

    Marvin X (née Marvin Ellis Jackmon) is a poet, playwright, essayist, director, and lecturer. Under the influence of Elijah Muhammad, he became a Black Muslim and has published since then under the names El Muhajir and Marvin X. His recent books include Land of My Daughters: PoemsWish I Could Tell You the Truth: Essays, In the Crazy House Called America, Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, How to Recover from White Supremacy, Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, and the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables, fables.
    You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website.
    Additional photos from this event are available on Flickr.


    Amiri Baraka
    Amiri Baraka read from his work and then joined with Marvin X in a conversation as part of Lannan Foundation's Reading and Conversation Series live at the Lensic Theater.

    Wednesday March 11 2009
    Santa Fe, New Mexico

    Learn more about this event here.
    Subscribe to Lannan Podcasts here.
    Photo copyright Don Usner.
    10 photos | 34 views
    items are from 11 Mar 2009.




    Marvin X

    Marvin X

    Amiri Baraka with Marvin X

    Amiri Baraka with Marvin X

    Amiri Baraka

    Amiri Baraka with Marvin X

    Amiri Baraka with Marvin X


    Poem by Marvin X: The Negro Knows Everything

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    Marvin, leave dem nigguhs alone, please. You don't need den nigguhs, Marvin Dem nigguhs need you! They just using you. Use the mind that God gave you, boy! Leave dem nigguhs alone! And you don't need a wife! You need a maid, secretary and mistress, but not a wife. And you're never going to have good luck as long as you abuse women, especially the mothers of your children. --Marian M. Jackmon, Mother of Marvin X (RIP)
    The Negro Knows Everything
    by
    Marvin X

    The Negro knows everything, don't tell him nothing
    Cause he knows everything
    History of the atom
    Construction of the pyramids
    Exact location of Bin Laden
    How to grow marijuana with air
    Everything
    Expert
    Scientist
    Einstein's teacher
    The Negro
    He knew the world was round trillions of years before the white man
    He was with God in the beginning
    He knows how to be a loyal slave like no other
    His drugs are holistic
    He doesn't need treatment, but more drugs
    What would a Negro be without drugs, his morning wake up
    Start the day right
    Ask him which way is east or west
    He'll have a nervous breakdown
    Wanna fight
    Insulting his intelligence
    But he knows everything
    Does he have an exit plan
    Just in case America falls and FEMA is closed?
    Does he have water, food, guns?
    Of course he does
    Think the Negro is stupid
    He knows everything
    Don't tell him nothing
    Leave him alone
    He's dangerous to your healthâ?¦..
    say peace when you see him.
    On her dying bed, my Moma said,
    "Marvin, leave them nigguhs aloneâ?¦.."
    but I love dem nigguhs, Mama
    LEAVE DEM NIGGUHS ALONE
    Mama, I love dem sick crazy
    hog eatin liquor drinkin
    jesus lovin white man creation
    nigguhs
    MARVIN, LEAVE DEM NIGGUHS ALONE
    Mama, I can't stay way from dem nigguhs
    dem all nite party get down funky
    ugly lookin wig wearin weave headed dreg locked dead locked nigguhs
    Dem black african bilalian afro pan centric endemic nigguhs
    anti freedom fightin job loving hate doing for self scared fearful
    fearless when fightin for the white man
    killling each other beatin they wife ass but never touch the white man
    cowardly nigguhs
    MARVIN, LEAVE DEM NIGGUHS ALONE....
    Mama
    MARVIN....
    Mama but I
    MARVIN
    Please, Mama can I
    MARVIN
    I love
    MARVIN
    Mama dem nigguhs
    MARVIN......
    And Mama died........
    and I love dem nigguhs................
    and Mama died and I love dem nigguhs
    and Mama died and I love dem nigguhs
    and Mama died
    and I love dem nigguhs.

    10/5/01

    Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale interviewed by Marvin X

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      Marvin X and Bobby Seale discuss their days at Merritt College, how they were self educated into Black consciousness to become the Neo-Black intellectuals; how Bobby performed in Marvin's play Come Next Summer; Bobby recites his favorite Marvin X poem "Burn,Baby,Burn" about the 65' Watts rebellion; how Bobby and Huey evolved into Black Panthers. Interview reveals Bobby's excellent memory of black history down to the minute, second, microsecond. Get it from the horse's mouth rather than swallow revisionist history told by muddle headed academics and intellectuals in perpetual crisis.--Marvin X

      www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Media/Media_index.html

      Bobby Seale interviewed by Marvin X 2000 [Video: 64 min]

    Plato Negro and the Woman at the Well

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    By Marvin X
    A woman asked Plato why are the youth out of control ? He replied that youth are out of control because adults are out of control and youth observe then emulate their behavior. Even during the revolutionary 60s, the militants, who are the fathers and mothers of today’s youth(some are grandparents) were guilty of contradictions, or saying one thing but doing another. They talked black power but went home to beat their wives and women. They preached discipline but were guilty of drug abuse and abuse of power. Much of our behavior was patriarchal white supremacy actions that debased women, considering them less than human. Of course we learned this behavior from our white supremacy socialization. True enough, there were many good things we learned and achieved during that time, and many sincere and honest people gave their lives for the cause of freedom. But if we had been more sober minded, we would have been able to detect agent provocateurs and snitches. We would have been able to see through the US Government’s counter intelligence program or Cointelpro. With sobriety and discipline, we might have been able to show our children better examples of male/female relations, and perhaps today’s youth would be more respectful of women, elders and peers.
    The woman asked Plato what can be done today to reconnect with our children? Plato said we must embrace them with unconditional love and do not abuse them, physically, sexually or emotionally. Do not show them contradictory behavior, saying one thing but doing the opposite. We must not say we are about freedom, yet make their mothers slaves in the home, treating them with abuse that the children observe and then act out in their relations with their mates and friends.
    Many children have been abandoned and left to fend for themselves. They are without mother or father. Many are living in foster homes, the result of parental drug and sexual abuse. Adults must stop being predators and instead be mentors and guides. The youth want and seek our wisdom, but we must reach out to them because many are terrified of us just as we are terrified of them.
    It is communal insanity when we allow children to rule our community, making us afraid to go outside at night, afraid to go to the store. But we can only take back control of our community by reconnecting and embracing our children, no matter how painful it is for us and them. We must make amends to them for our wickedness and then demand of them the same. Yes, they must apologize to the elders they have harmed and disrespected. What we are talking about is the urgent need for a healing session between youth and adults, a time and space where we can gather to admit our mistakes and promise to do better now and in the future.
    We must, youth and adults, swallow our pride and reconnect. We cannot allow the chaos to continue because we know things go from bad to worse, if we do not address the issues. Nothing is going to change until we change our thinking and actions. We must rise up from animal to divine. The tide is turning because you are turning the tide!
    Mothers and fathers who are separated must come together for the sake of their children, if only for a moment. When children see parents reconciling, they will do likewise. No matter the pain of the past, adults must show the way to community unity. Why shouldn’t youth resort to violence, after all, they see adults resolving their conflicts with violence.
    Adults cannot get out of our responsibility to show the way, to guide and mentor. Every youth is our child, thus our responsibility to show the right way.
    Give youth a chance, support them when they are selling items other than dope, such as DVDs, CDs, gear and other items to get their hustle on in a legal way. At least they are not killing to make a dollar, so reach out to them. Hug a thug before the thug hugs you!
    The woman at the well seemed to understand the wisdom of Plato. Although she was without husband and frustrated to the max, she said she would try to reach out to youth, rather than simply complain about their behavior and shortcomings. She promised to cast away her fears and take authority over her children.
    This parable appeared in the Oakland Post News Group. It is in The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley.

    Parable of the Pit Bull by Marvin X

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    There was a pit bull who lived in the city. A man wanted to buy him and raise him for protection, so he met with the owner and got the pedigree. He investigated the history of the dog and his family connections, to make sure he was a pure bred. Once he was clear the pit bull came from a legit line, he paid for the animal and brought it home. He was happy to have a nice pet, especially one so pure and not polluted like a mutt, a cross breed or mongrel, a mutation whose DNA was of questionable nature. 

    He loved his pit bull and the animal loved him. He trained the dog for fighting, and he was a great fighter, a champion who won many battles. 

    And then the man met a woman he really liked. He knew almost nothing about her, but he hooked up with her and eventually she moved in with him. He didn't know where she came from, nothing about her family roots, her friends, her education and work history, whether she was psychotic and/or neurotic, suicidal and/or homicidal, whether she was radical, revolutionary or reactionary. 

    He didn't know she had been raised in a foster home, and later an orphanage, that she had seen her mother stab her grandmother, that her mother had a nervous breakdown and was confined to an institution for life. He didn't know any of this. He didn't know she had been a prostitute, homeless and a drug addict. 

    But he loved her and married her. And when he found out about her past life, he didn't give a damn. Since he was rich, a baller, big willie, he gave her the best of everything, just as he treated his pit bull, even better. He dressed her in the finest clothes and took her to eat in the finest restaurants and party in the VIP section of clubs. 

    And then one day she disappeared. He didn't know what happened to her. Worried to death, he hired a private investigator to search for her. The private eye found her in a two dollar motel with a trick. 
    The man told the private eye not to disturb her, leave her where she was. 

    --Marvin X
    3/7/10

    from The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Black Bird Press, 2012, donation $19.95.
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