Parable of Terry Collins, A Memorial of Revolutionary Love
On today (I borrow the linguistics of Black Christians, alas, I have journeyed among the white Christians and they not use the phrase On today, fact check it), in the Bay Area of San Francisco/Oakland, the black and multi-cultural community came together for the last rites of one of the very best of us, Terry Collins, a strike leader for Black and Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, the first major university in American academia that succumbed to Black Power in one anchor of the US military, industrial, university complex. As was pointed out in his memorial today at San Francisco's Afro-American Cultural Center in the Fillmore (once Harlem of the West, now suffering the last vestiges of gentrification), Terry Collins was the most radical of the radicals with his dogmatic Marxism, although somehow Terry escaped the dogmatism of most of his comrades. As was noted by many at today's memorial, Terry was the most diplomatic personas in the radical politics, thus he was able to unite a variety of groups with divergent and diametrically opposed ideologies. As the BSU/Third World Strike leaders have told me, without the unity of Third World groups, the strike for Black and Ethnic Studies would have not be victorious. Of course, and it was repeatedly noted today, the victory to establish Black and Ethnic Studies led directly to the call and implementation of a multiplicity of studies by marginalized communities, including woman, gays, lesbians, Arabs, Native Americans, Asians, Chicano and Latinx, et al.
I repeat, Terry was the most radical of the radicals and he implemented the Communist Central Committee model into the Black Student's Union. Bernard Stringer has told this writer that without the Central Committee model, the strike would have not been successful. Today's speakers from the SFSU strike, i.e., Benny Stewart, Nesbit Crutchfield acknowledged Terry's Marxism gave structure to the BSU that evolved from the Negro Students Association of which I became a member when arriving at SFSU in 1964, after graduating from Oakland's Merritt College and enjoying the camaraderie of Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, et al.
Por favor, permit me to cut to the chase to say the critical consensus of today's speakers was that Terry Collins was one of the most beautiful revolutionary souls to walk this earth. Indeed when the Bishop of the St. John Coltrane Church of the Divine shared his brief message, he said that Terry's life modeled the life of Jesus Christ. I bear witness to the Bishop's words as did all the speakers.
As we know, too often a person who has lived a life of debauchery is declared a holy saint in the celebration of their last rites, thus expressing a false narrative. Terry never declared himself nothing other than a revolutionary, and he engaged the multiplicity of persons steeped in narrow minded dogmatic ideology and sectarian religiosity with a civilized decorum.
Thus the community consensus was Terry lived an exemplary life, minus falsehoods and fakery. When I ended the memorial with my Elegy, I told the audience they speakers had said the beauty and truth of my poem and I had no need to be repetitious except his daughter's asked me to read the poem so I did so, knowing it was for the most part a summary in poetic form of the speaker's before me.
No matter, I was honored to put the poetic license on the cake of Terry's wonderful revolutionary life, including his work with the Arab and Palestinian community. Alas, after I read my Elegy and my assistant passed out my 1970 poster poem Palestine, Dr. Rabab Ibrahim Addulhadi, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies/Race and Resistance Studies, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities, SFSU, honored me with a flag of Palestine and invited me to speak on an upcoming program on Palestine. In her remarks she noted that Terry Collins shall be honored in Palestine for his support for their liberation. I noted to her that I had been scheduled to speak on George Jackson in Palestine at Duke University but I didn't need to explain to her why the event was canceled. FYI, Duke has also invited Dr. Cornel West and myself to participate in a panel discussion on Palestine and Black Americans but after we agreed, Duke has not sent contracts for this event. We don't need to ask why.
Again, I say again, speakers quoted Che Guevera who told us revolution is an act of love. Alas, we revolutionaries of the 60s did what we did in the name love. Only the opportunists sought money and fame, tenure and job opportunities. Many if not most of us were black listed, i.e., white listed, denied job opportunities that would have allowed us to support our families, who often rejected our liberation stance as my son did while I fought to teach Black Studies at Fresno State University, 1969. He said I should have focused on taking care of my family, yet could it be from my struggle to lecture in Black Studies that my son and daughter Nefertiti graduated from Fresno State University. And Black Fresno Police Sargent Jack Kelly RIP, said, "When Marvin X fought to teach at FSU, he made it better for everybody, not only students. Before he came to FSU, Black police officers could not police the white side of town!" As per Marvin X at FSU, Governor Ronald Reagan, upon entering the State College Board of Trustees meeting as President of the Board, was quoted in the Fresno Bee Newspaper as saying, "I want Marvin X off campus by any means necessary." FYI, this same year he had Angela Davis removed from teaching at UCLA because she was a Black Communist. Reagan wanted Marvin X removed because he was a Black Muslim who believed in racial separation and refused to fight in Vietnam. FYI, FSU had a plethora of Mormons teaching who denied blacks the priesthood.
Let us honor Terry by noting that after the SFSU strike for Black and Ethnic Studies that spread nationwide with Columbia University as the East coast model, the University arm of the Military Industrial Complex instituted their fake narrative that Blacks did not initiate the American academic revolution, they gave credit to other ethnicities to dilute Black Power in the deep structure of the US academic revolution. This false narrative has been repeated in the fake news of the New York Times and other monkey mind media down to the present, especially on the 50th anniversary of the Black and Ethnic Studies revolution. But, por favor, after the BSUs that Terry Collins led to establish Black, Ethnic Studies, and other departments of marginalized persons, American Academia instituted its program of de-radicalization of Black Studies. Soon after Black and Ethnic Studies was accepted, the radical founding instructors were eliminated and replaced with tenure-track Negroes, mostly of the pliant variety as opportunists seeking jobs for life. The original mission of Black studies as community education was implemented but was ephemeral, especially when college funds were cut. This occurred at SFSU and elsewhere and the community model of Black studies was declared ancient, replaced with such "other world studies" (Dr. Nathan Hare) as Pan African Studies, Africana Studies, Diaspora Studies, any other world term to escape the original model of community mass education to transcend the mis-education of Blacks as Dr. Carter G. Wilson directed us in his class book by the same name.
Thus Black Studies morphed into the Colonial Education model used in Africa to establish a colonial elite to continuation of Black mis-education. The irony is that when the black radical black studies professors were removed and replace by the tenured negroes, they soon found themselves yet suffering institutional and personal trauma and an ephemeral existence, perennially suffering department funding as per equity with traditional white supremacist departments, i.e., relegated to de facto second class status. At San Francisco State University, a Black Studies and Ethnic Studies Chair declared, "At least we have an out house!" Por favor, did Terry Collins and the SFSU students fight to establish an out house to represent equity? I am so thankful for my relationship with essayist and Black Panther Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver, yes, I introduced him to Bobby Seale, immediately after he joined the BPP. But upon his return from exile, he hired me to organize his Christian ministry, which I did. But he ordered me to make arrangements for traveling, lodging and speaking on first class basis only. So the Black Studies "out house model'' is not acceptable to revolutionaries, only the colonial elite educators, and sadly this is true for the Black Negro colleges like Morehouse, Spelman, et al. I will not put Howard in this category even though they dismissed my mentor, Sociologist Dr. Nathan Hare. I must give Howard a gold star for retaining my favorite Black Professor, Dr. Greg Carr. I call him the James Brown of Black Studies as he gives his heart body and soul into every lecture.
But let's conclude with the treatment American Academia delivers to those who dare seek employment in its white supremacist institutions. As I noted above, as per Black Studies, the founding radicals were removed, especially those lacking tenure track qualifications. Upon removing the radicals, the administrations made deals with the negroes with tenure track qualifications. Yet, one tenured professor at SFSU wanted me to understand that tenured Negroes suffer the same toxic issues such as high blood pressure experienced in the black community generally. I agree and I have noted elsewhere that case of three female professors (not that toxicity is a gender issue) and UC Berkeley, who did succeed the radical Black Studies Department removed by the Chancellor that ushered in the pliant regime of Black Studies Chair Bill Banks, yet the employment of three of our greatest female minds, i.e., Dr. Barbara Christian, VeVe Clark and June Jordan, did not prevent them from escaping the deadly toxicity of academic white supremacy. They died of cancer at early ages. Their colleague at UC San Diego, Sherley Ann Williams, poet, novelist, critic, tenured without the PhD., perennially bemoaned her isolation and marginalization from her white (mostly female) colleagues at UCD. She used to tell me she hadn't spoken to them in years. Upon her death from asthma and cancer at 51 years old, Dr. William H. Grier, co-author of the 60s classic Black Rage, told his son, Geoffrey, "Tell Marvin, Sherley didn't die from asthma and cancer, she died from white supremacy at UC San Diego."
We love you Terry, but as per Black Studies, we yet suffer the quagmire of mis-education in this toxic environment. Didn't David Walker in his 1829 classic David Walker's Appeal, discuss our wretchedness in consequence of education.
Oh, Terry Revolutionary, may you enjoy peace in revolutionary paradise.
We thank all those who enjoyed this last rite of a true trooper. Ache'.