Author Archives: Cliff

Baltimore City School Board Seeks to Close Four Area Schools; Hearing Set for January 8, 2026

On December 11, 2025, a hearing was held at the headquarters of the Board of Commissioners, Baltimore City School Board to listen to initial testimony on behalf of four Baltimore City area schools:

The Baltimore City School Board is considering reducing or eliminating funding for these four schools which are credited for having provided much needed education and coming-of-age guidance to help young boys in areas of need to grow into the constructive and promising men they were always meant to become.

Criticisms often aimed at these schools that student test scores are low are countered by the assertion that these schools by and large take in students who are already behind academically, some being unable to read and write when they come to the schools, and they must catch up to be able to compete with mainstream and private schools which may be better funded.  Even operating at such a deficit, institutions such as the Baltimore Collegiate School, for example, have cited a 90-plus percent graduation rate, a testament to these schools’ critical role in helping Baltimore area students, especially young boys, to overcome adversity.

The December 11 hearing drew an overflow crowd of community activists, concerned families and educators who had gathered at the school headquarters to voice their support for the four schools.  After delaying their appearance for the hearing by close to an hour, an act that had many of those in attendance growing increasingly impatient with what they saw as a bureaucratic stall tactic designed to discourage many of the attendees, led to numerous call-and response chants (“It’s 5:52. Where are you?” and “It’s 5:58.  Why are you late?” are two examples) and comments that students who report late to class are sent to detention, the board members finally appeared and informed the gathered crowd that the hearing would not begin because there were not enough chairs for everyone.  Most of those who had come to voice their support for the schools were sent to “overflow rooms” where they would wait until the specific school foe which they were advocating was scheduled to make its presentation.  This not only inconvenienced the public, but it also had the effect of dividing them so that advocates for one school could not see and hear the proceedings as they impacted the other schools.  By “cutting” the gathering into four parts, the board members spared themselves the impact of facing such an intimidating crowd of supporters all at once and were also able to paint these four cases as “isolated incidents” and blunting the perceived impact that these closure decisions would have on the greater community.

A final decision was not made at this December hearing.  Another hearing will be held on January 8, followed by a final vote around January 14, at which time the resolve of the community and the flexibility of the school board will once again be tested.

Supporters are urged to write letters to the Baltimore City School board and Board of Commissioners, support the petitions that have been launched at support Web sites for the schools, to make donations to these institutions as they face possible defunding by the Baltimore City School Board, and to make plans to attend the follow-up hearing at the Baltimore City Schools headquarters on January 8.

UPDATE: “A Beautiful Struggle” Honors Recent Ancestor Imam Jamil Al-Amin on Saturday, December 20

UPDATE: A list of scheduled presenters has been added, and is presented below.

Aging People in Prison Human Rights Campaign (APPHRC) is organizing an event to pay tribute to Imam Jamil Al-Amin, who passed on to the Honored Ancestors on November 23, 2025.  APPHRC had been an advocate for his exoneration and release for many years, including having spokespeople for him, including his son, as guests on Sis. Tomiko’s Internet radio shows “Africa 500” and “The REvolution Is Black Love”. 

Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, was arrested and convicted in March 2002 for the shooting death of an Atlanta deputy sheriff.  He had been a target of law enforcement ever since his days in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Black Panther Party (BPP) as H. Rap Brown, when he had been a “militant” Black Power activist and a fugitive from justice due to trumped-up charges in the 1960s under the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) COINTELPRO operation.

The Imam as well as advocates in his case have protested his innocence ever since and were working diligently to establish his innocence, exoneration and release.  The Imam had been in ill health over the last few years, which increased concern that he would become yet another Political Prisoner from the freedom struggles of the 1960s to pass on to the Ancestors behind bars.

The event will be held on Saturday, December 20 from 12 noon to 4 pm at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge at 1307 Eutaw Place in Baltimore.  People who knew him and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him in the struggle from the days of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to his days as a respected Atlanta-area Imam from South Carolina to New York City have been invited to participate and make statements.  The flyer for the event is included above, and a  current list of presenters is included below.

“Thanksgiving” or Day of Mourning?

Since this is the time of year in which families gather together to commemorate what is commonly known as the “Thanksgiving holiday”, we thought it might be of some historical significance to share “the other side” of Thanksgiving, known to many Indigenous First Nations communities not as a day of celebration but as a day of mourning.  When I was being indoctrinated — I mean educated — in the school system, I learned about the great feast that was shared between the Pilgrims and the Indians in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  It was not until I was hitting 40 that I learned about the full history of that time, and I began to make occasional “pilgrimages” to Plymouth to participate in the protest that the National Day of Mourning.  This article, first published on KUUMBAReport Online in 2013, is reposted below.

Every year in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as most of us are taking the time of the Thanksgiving holiday to share fellowship with family and friends, watch too much football and eat too much turkey, a different commemoration is taking place.  The descendants of the Wampanoag Indians who encountered the Pilgrims in 1620 have a different story to tell from the one we all learned in school.  Their story is one that begins in friendship, but is soon followed by betrayal, by war, and ultimately by the genocide visited upon their Nation.

I’ve had the honor of being able to travel to Plymouth to take part in this commemoration five times.  The first time, in 1998, was a journey by bus, which was originally published in KUUMBAReport No. 9, February 1999 and is reposted below.  Four other times I drove to Plymouth from Maryland, and on three of those occasions my dear departed Rottweiler, who died in October 2012, traveled with me.  I have not been able to make the trip for the past 15 years, so I cannot share the most recent experiences with you, but I hope to make that trip again someday, and hope the description that follows will provide a reasonable explanation of what the National Day of Mourning, which most Americans regard as Thanksgiving Day, is all about.

“We are not Vanishing.
We are not Conquered.
We are as Strong as Ever!”

This was the primary slogan of the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) as they commenced the 1998 Day of Mourning Rally and March at Cole’s Hill in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts, overlooking Plymouth Rock.  The event had been held at this place every year since 1970, when Wamsutta Frank B. James, a member of the Wampanoag Indian Nation, had been invited by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to address a gathering of dignitaries marking the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims.  After he accepted their invitation, he was asked for a copy of his remarks in advance.  Upon seeing that his view of the history of the Pilgrims did not agree with theirs, the planners of the event first attempted to write a speech for him to recite, then, upon being told he would not have words put in his mouth, they withdrew their invitation and chose not to allow him to speak.  With that, he and other Indigenous people from throughout the country called for “Thanksgiving Day” to be observed as a Day of Mourning for Indian people.  It has been so observed every year since that time.

Information on this year’s National Day of Mourning protest can be found on their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/events/plymouth-ma-coles-hill/national-day-of-mourning-2025/1918990738650146/.

Wikipedia (National Day of Mourning (United States protest) – Wikipedia) describes the National Day of Mourning thus:

The National Day of Mourning is an annual demonstration, held on the fourth Thursday in November, that aims to educate the public about Native Americans in the United States, notably the Wampanoag and other tribes of the Eastern United States; dispel myths surrounding the Thanksgiving story in the United States; and raise awareness toward historical and ongoing struggles facing Native American tribes. The first National Day of Mourning demonstration was held in 1970 after Frank “Wamsutta” James’s speaking invitation was rescinded from a Massachusetts Thanksgiving Day celebration commemorating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower. James instead delivered his speech on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts next to a statue of Ousamequin, where he described Native American perspectives on the Thanksgiving celebrations. The gathering became an annual event organized by the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) and coincides with both Thanksgiving Day in the United States and with Unthanksgiving Day, an annual ceremony held on Alcatraz Island in California.

Most of us know well the story of the Pilgrims as was taught in school.  Upon landing at Plymouth Rock, these hardy adventurers, seeking only religious freedom, nearly starved to death in the first winter.  But, after surviving with the help of the benevolent Indian chief Massassoit, the Pilgrims and the Indians got together for a feast of thanksgiving turkey.  Thus, 377 years’ worth of good cheer, turkey, cranberry sauce, and (finally) football games was begun.

The only problem with that scenario is that it is untrue.  Yes, the Pilgrims did nearly starve to death that first winter.  Yes, they would not have survived if not for the goodwill of Massassoit, if for no other reason than he chose to live in peace with them rather than try to drive them from Indian land.  Today, many UAINE activists say the decision to live in peace with the Pilgrims was the worst mistake Massassoit could have made.  This sentiment was eloquently stated in the speech that Wamsutta Frank James had prepared for Thanksgiving Day 1970, but his words were silenced due to ignorance, fear and greed.  We reprint some of his words here as they tell the story better than ours could.

The Suppressed Speech of Wamsutta Frank James: Thanksgiving Day, 1970

“I speak to you as a man–a Wampanoag Man. I am a proud man, proud of my ancestry, my accomplishments won by a strict parental direction (“You must succeed – your face is a different color in this small Cape Cod community!”). I am a product of poverty and discrimination from these two social and economic diseases. I, and my brothers and sisters, have painfully overcome, and to some extent earned the respect of our community. We are Indians first–but we are termed ‘good citizens.’  Sometimes we are arrogant but only because society has pressured us to be so.

“It is with mixed emotion that I stand here to share my thoughts. This is a time of celebration for you–celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the White man in America. A time of looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People.

“Even before the Pilgrims landed it was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them as slaves for 220 shillings apiece. The Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod for four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors and stolen their corn and beans. Mourt’s Relation describes a searching party of sixteen men. He goes on to say that this party took as much of the Indian’s winter provisions as they were able to carry.

“Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoag, knew these facts, yet he and his People welcomed and befriended the settlers of the Plymouth Plantation. Perhaps he did this because his Tribe had been depleted by an epidemic. Or his knowledge of the harsh oncoming winter was the reason for his peaceful acceptance of these acts. This action by Massasoit was perhaps our biggest mistake.  We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the White man with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.

“What happened in those short 50 years? What has happened in the last 300 years?  History gives us facts and there were atrocities; there were broken promises–and most of these centered around land ownership. Among ourselves we understood that there were boundaries, but never before had we had to deal with fences and stone walls. But the White man had a need to prove his worth by the amount of land that he owned. Only ten years later, when the Puritans came, they treated the Wampanoag with even less kindness in converting the souls of the so-called ‘savages’.  Although they were harsh to members of their own society, the Indian was pressed between stone slabs and hanged as quickly as any other ‘witch’.

“And so down through the years there is record after record of Indian lands taken, and in token, reservations set up for him upon which to live. The Indian, having been stripped of his power, could only stand by and watch while the White man took his lands and used it for his personal gain.  This the Indian could not understand; for to him, land was survival, to farm, to hunt, to be enjoyed. It was not to be abused. We see incident after incident, where the White man sought to tame the ?savage? and convert him to the Christian ways of life. The early Pilgrim settlers led the Indian to believe that, if he did not behave, they would dig up the ground and unleash the great epidemic again.

“Has the Wampanoag really disappeared? There is still an aura of mystery. We know there was an epidemic that took many Indian lives–some Wampanoags moved west and joined the Cherokee and Cheyenne. They were forced to move. Some even went north to Canada! Many Wampanoags put aside their Indian heritage and accepted the White man’s way for their own survival. There are some Wampanoag who do not wish it known they are Indian for social or economic reasons. …

“History wants us to believe that the Indian was a savage, illiterate, uncivilized animal. … Two distinctly different cultures met. One thought they must control life; the other believed life was to be enjoyed, because nature decreed it. Let us remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the White man. The Indian feels pain, gets hurt, and becomes defensive, has dreams, bears tragedy and failure, suffers from loneliness, needs to cry as well as laugh. He, too, is often misunderstood.

“The White man in the presence of the Indian is still mystified by his uncanny ability to make him feel uncomfortable. This may be the image the White man has created of the Indian; his ?savageness? has boomeranged and isn’t a mystery; it is fear; fear of the Indian’s temperament!

“High on a hill, overlooking the famed Plymouth Rock, stands the statue of our great Sachem, Massasoit. Massasoit has stood there many years in silence. We, the descendants of this great Sachem, have been a silent people. The necessity of making a living in this materialistic society of the White man caused us to be silent. Today, many of my people are choosing to face the truth. We ARE Indians!

“Although time has drained our culture and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts. We may be fragmented, we may be confused. Many years have passed since we have been a people together. Our lands were invaded. We fought as hard to keep our land as you the Whites did to take our land away from us. We were conquered, we became the American prisoners of war in many cases, and wards of the United States Government, until only recently.

“We are uniting. … We stand tall and proud, and before too many moons pass we’ll right the wrongs we have allowed to happen to us.

“We forfeited our country. Our lands have fallen into the hands of the aggressor. We have allowed the White man to keep us on our knees. What has happened cannot be changed, but today we must work towards a more humane America, a more Indian America, where men and nature once again are important; where the Indian values of honor, truth, and brotherhood prevail.

“You the White man are celebrating an anniversary. We the Wampanoags will help you celebrate in the concept of a beginning. It was the beginning of a new life for the Pilgrims. Now, 350 years later it is a beginning of a new determination for the original American: the American Indian.

“There are some factors concerning the Wampanoags and other Indians across this vast nation. We now have 350 years of experience living amongst the White man. We can now speak his language. We can now think as a white man thinks. …  We’re being heard; we are now being listened to. The important point is that along with these necessities of everyday living, we still have the spirit, we still have the unique culture, we still have the will and, most important of all, the determination to remain as Indians. We are determined, and our presence here this evening is living testimony that this is only the beginning of the American Indian, particularly the Wampanoag, to regain the position in this country that is rightfully ours.”

Thus the National Day of Mourning began.

The 1997 March and the Police Beat-Down

The 1997 March evidenced a growing response from the Indian community and its supporters.  This evidently was too much for the City of Plymouth to bear.  The 1996 March had raised concerns among the city fathers due to what was referred to as a ?minor incident? in which the Day of Mourning March began just as another march, called the Pilgrim Progress “which celebrated the arrival of the Pilgrims as much as the Indians mourned it” was passing Cole’s Hill, the site of the Day of Mourning Rally.  Apparently, the Pilgrim Progress marchers, feeling intimidated by the Indian protesters, chose to halt their procession and allow the protesters to continue through the streets of Plymouth.

In 1997, however, the City of Plymouth was apparently prepared for a conflict.  As the Day of Mourning marchers began their procession and continued into downtown Plymouth, police descended upon them, arresting 25 March organizers, participants and supporters.  Many marchers accused the police of brutally dragging protesters by the hair (to the extent that one man’s braided locks were torn from his head), throwing and pinning people to the ground and other acts of excessive force.  The police department countered that the protesters had no permit to march and that the police officers? actions were the only way to secure arrestees who trespassed and refused to comply with ?lawful? police commands.  As a result of the confrontation on November 27, 1997, the case of “The Plymouth 25” was born.

Members of this group, which included 1998 organizers Mahtowin Monroe and Moonanum James, were arraigned and charged with a variety of offenses.  Letters, e-mails and faxes were sent to federal, state and local officials demanding that the charges be dropped.  Petitions were signed, and many people honored UAINE’s call for an economic boycott of Plymouth.  “Supporters stood with us in court every time we were required to make an appearance and made sure that information about our case was distributed internationally,” said UAINE in a prepared statement. The end result was vindication for the protesters after almost eleven months of court battles.   “We are pleased to announce that the frame-up criminal charges against those arrested on November 27, 1997 have been dropped,” their October 19, 1998 statement continued.  “Further, [UAINE] has reached a settlement with the town of Plymouth.  Plymouth has acknowledged our right to walk on our own land without a permit on National Day of Mourning.  Plymouth has agreed to make the truth part of its celebration of the pilgrim myth of thanksgiving.  Under the terms of this agreement, we will have a number of important opportunities to address the lies and inaccuracies about ?thanksgiving? and the history of indigenous peoples that have been disseminated not only in Plymouth but throughout the country.  We are confident that this agreement represents a tremendous victory for the struggle of Native people to have our voices heard and respected.”  In addition to the above, Plymouth agreed to pay $100,000 to the Metacom Education Fund “for education on the true history of Native people,” $20,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for legal fees, and $15,000 for two plaques commemorating the National Day of Mourning and the story of Massasoit’s successor Metacom (or “King Phillip” to the Pilgrims), who, upon witnessing the aggressive tactics used by the Pilgrims, had sought to drive them from Indian land.  This had led to what the Pilgrims called “King Phillip’s War”, during which Pilgrims and Indians alike died en masse and Metacom was finally hunted down and killed, his head stuck on a pike in front of the Pilgrims’ settlement for 24 years.

Arrangements have been made to allow the Indigenous perspective of “Thanksgiving Day” as a Day of Mourning to be represented in the schools of Plymouth.  And the events of 1997 practically insured that Plymouth, Massachusetts would gain more media attention in 1998 than it bargained for.

The National Day of Mourning Plaque in Plymouth Plantation (from Wikipedia)

The 1998 Rally and March

A bus carrying a delegation from Baltimore was arranged by the All People’s Congress in response to Ms. Monroe and Mr. James’s call for action.  Approximately 30 travelers left Baltimore at about 12:00 midnight for the long ride to Plymouth, arriving at about 9:00 am.  The weather was cold and threatening, with rain in the forecast.  The assembled crowd, which was estimated to have reached 1,500, was not deterred.  Better rain drops crashing on their heads than police batons, they must have thought.

After several Indigenous speakers addressed the crowd, covering topics from the history of the Day of Mourning, the history of the Pilgrims and the previous year’s March to the plight of political prisoners including not only Leonard Peltier but also Mumia Abu-Jamal and Marshall “Eddie” Conway, the March through the streets of downtown Plymouth began.   The March wound through several blocks, all the time under the watchful eyes of the Plymouth police as well as the “peacekeepers” appointed by March organizers whose job it was to insure against confrontations with the police or other potential adversaries.  The Pilgrim’s Progress march, which had quietly passed by over an hour before, did not conflict with the protesters.

At the end of the March, a Town Hall Meeting was held in the auditorium of a local community center.  There, several March organizers spoke again, while participants greeted each other and Food Not Bombs provided their version of a true Thanksgiving feast–thanks for a successful event, thanks for an important victory for Indian people, thanks for rain being the only thing to pound the marchers’ heads.

The 2010 National Day of Mourning March

The last time I was able to personally attend the National Day of Mourning March was in November 2010.  As I mentioned above, I had traveled to Plymouth five times, once on the 1998 bus, in 2000 in my van with an old friend, and three times in my SUV, accompanied by that old friend (once), then by a brother-in-law, and all of those last three times by my beloved Rottweiler Sasha.  By that time, KUUMBAReport Newsletter was no longer being published, however, the KUUMBARadioReport was being broadcast on Harambee Radio, which at the time was broadcast from their Web site, harambeeradio.com, under the visionary guidance of Ancestor Dalani Aamon who sadly passed on to the Ancestors several years ago, and I was able to share audio from those last marches with the listening audience.

While the Plymouth protest and march remain important reminders of this country’s often-sordid past, and participation in the protest at Plymouth Rock offers key reminders of this history to those who still don’t know, there are other ways for us to honor those who have continued the fight to bring out the true history of the “Thanksgiving holiday”.  Observances are often held in communities across the United States (and certainly in other parts of the world). Key among these is the 2025 Mass Blackout from November 25-December 2 in which we are encouraged to “shut the oppressive system down” by engaging in “No Work, No Spending, No Restaurants, No Projects and No Events” (see the related post) aside from those sponsored by grassroots community groups, and there will likely be references to the Day of Mourning at the November 20-22 Remove The Regime rallies being held in Washington DC and other cities in the US in protest of the Trump administration.  In Baltimore, the Pan-African Liberation Movement (PLM) is holding an Umoja-Karamu to benefit those who are struggling to feed themselves and their families in the wake of the denial of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits and the looming denial of health care, offering free meals to those who need them.  Check out the post for details.

As I have gotten older and family responsibilities have increased or become more complex, I have been unable to make this trip to Plymouth for the last 15 years, but I hope to be able to rejoin the marchers sometime in the next few years to re-invigorate my commitment to truth and justice, and to refresh my remembrance of the Wampanoag and so many other Indigenous communities who were criminally sacrificed on the altar of Western “civilization” and expansion.

The “Mass Blackout” Boycott, November 25-December 2

There have been numerous efforts to encourage the people to resist the urge to spend massive amounts of their money as the “Holiday Season” kicks off and major corporations and big businesses entice us to participate in the shopping frenzy of “Thanksgiving Thursday”, “Black Friday” and now “Cyber Monday”.  These efforts, from alternative celebrations to outright protest actions, take many forms. 

Every year at this time, the United American Indians of New England hold the National Day of Mourning March and Protest at Cole’s Hill near Plymouth Rock, an event I have had the privilege of attending five times over the years and hope to do so again sometime (see the related post, “Thanksgiving or Day of Mourning?”).  In some Pan Afrikan communities, ceremonies such as Gye Nyame (after an Adinkra symbol attesting that “I fear none but the Creator”) and Umoja Karamu (or “Unity Feast”; see the related post about the Pan Afrikan Liberation Movement’s Umoja Karamu in Baltimore November 23) have sought to replace Thanksgiving gatherings with more Afrikan centered events.

This post concerns a specific campaign aimed at big businesses, major corporations and the political machine that maintains them, often at the expense of “the people on the bottom” as they seek to extract more of our hard-earned money to fuel their record profits.

The “Mass Blackout” Economic Boycott is designed to stage a massive economic protest against the current regime in the White House (perhaps, but not necessarily, in connection to the “Remove the Regime” protests scheduled for November 20-22 in Washington, DC and other locations) and, at the same time, deny the major corporations, many of whom support and are supported by the current regime, of the massive profits they count on at this time of the year, from Thanksgiving Day events to Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping sprees as consumers ramp up for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

The “Mass Blackout” Economic Boycott aims to deny the major corporations our hard-earned dollars and, in the words of the organizers, “drain them dry” instead of propping up their bottom lines at the beginning of what they always plan to be their most profitable holiday season.

Two primary promotional graphics have been shared over social media and are shown below.  The guidelines for the “Mass Blackout” Economic Boycott are stated by the organizers as follows:

    • No Amazon.  No Target.  No Walmart. No national chains.
    • No fast food from national brands.  If you eat out, choose independent restaurants.
    • No online shopping.  No Prime Day deals.  No app store purchases.
    • No streaming rentals.  No movie tickets at national theater chains.
    • No rideshare if a local taxi or transit option exists.
    • No new gadgets.  No new clothes.  No home decor.
    • No buy now pay later.  No impulse credit card splurges.
    • To prevent “spoke spending” before and after the Blackout, we ask that all participants purchase goods needed from community-owned stores and markets leading up to and after the dates.  This helps with sustained impact and keeps our money out of the mega businesses’ pockets.

If I’m understanding this correctly, small, community-owned and -operated businesses, especially those run by Pan Afrikan, Indigenous and marginalized communities, are not subject to the boycott.  “Small Business Saturday” is reportedly exempted from the boycott, according to a November 12 USA Today article cited below.  Traditionally, the community is encouraged to specifically support these small and community businesses and organizations as a means of building up an “alternative economy”, one that we frankly should have been supporting all along.

Mass Blackout’s Web Site

“This holiday season, we shut down the system,” proclaims the official Web site, https://www.themassblackout.com.  “We’re pulling the plug on corporate control.”  This is a coordinated economic shutdown—a collective refusal to participate in a system that profits off our pain, exploits our labor, and buys our politicians.

The site explains further:

The system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as designed—for the wealthy.

The Mass Blackout is a nationwide economic action, coordinated across aligned organizations, calling Americans to:

        • Stop online or in-store shopping (except for small businesses)
        • Stop work
        • Stop streaming, cancel subscriptions, no digital purchases
        • Remove the regime

If you must spend: support small, local businesses only. Pay in cash.

We’re not targeting small businesses or communities—we’re targeting the corporate systems that profit from injustice, fuel authoritarianism, and crush worker power.

WHY NOW?

Because nothing will change while fascists remain in power.

    • The Trump administration paused federal anti-corruption enforcement — giving corporations a free pass to bribe, cheat, and exploit.
    • Big business is funding authoritarian candidates while walking back public commitments to civil rights, labor protections, diversity, and democracy.
    • Billionaires profit while the rest of us are told to shop, work, and stay silent.

This isn’t about left vs. right. This is about people vs. power.

If we do nothing, they win. If we move together, they feel it.

For more details and analysis of the need for an economic boycott, to download their Media Kit and other resources, and for a list of suggested organizations to which you can donate to help lift up those in greatest need, go to the Web site, https://www.themassblackout.com.

Mainstream Media Coverage

While the “Mass Blackout” may not yet have received the attention it merits (and why would the corporate media support efforts to subvert corporate America’s effort to maximize its profits?), USA Today published an article on November 12 about the “Mass Blackout” (“Cancel Black Friday? ‘Mass Blackout’ doesn’t want you to shop or work to protest Trump” by Jessica Guynn, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/11/11/black-friday-cyber-monday-donald-trump-boycotts/87221297007/).

A coalition of grassroots organizations is calling for a nationwide economic shutdown during the busy holiday shopping season, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, to protest the Trump administration and economic inequality.

The groups – Blackout the System, The People’s Sick Day, American Opposition, the Money Out of Politics Movement, and The Progressive Network – urged Americans to stop all spending and refuse to go to work during the “Mass Blackout,” which runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 2.

Avoid travel and restaurants and cancel streaming and digital subscriptions, organizers said. “If you must spend: support small, local businesses only. Pay in cash.” Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30 is exempted from the blackout.

The groups in the coalition had all independently called for shopping boycotts but decided to join forces.

“We are living under a political system captured by special interests, where billionaires and corporations write the rules,” Isaiah Rucker Jr., founder of Blackout the System, said in a statement. “Congress serves donors, not the American people, and democratic norms are being dismantled in front of our eyes, with corporate backing. This campaign is about showing them where the power truly lies, with the people.”

Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, founder of American Opposition, told USA TODAY the coalition is “developing the American muscle for boycotts and blackouts as a way to leverage economic power” with the ultimate goal of leading a general strike.

“We don’t see this fight as left versus right. We see it more as top versus bottom,” Álvarez-Aranyos, who helped organize the “No Kings” protests and the Tesla boycott, said in an interview. “This is about Black Friday because, honestly, what we are seeing across the board is just unsustainable. We are being taken advantage of. Prices are up. Inflation is through the roof.” …

The rest of the November 12 USA Today article can be read at https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/11/11/black-friday-cyber-monday-donald-trump-boycotts/87221297007/.

 

 

PLM’s Umoja-Karamu Offers Dinner and Fellowship to Those In Need

The Pan Afrikan Liberation Movement (PLM, https://www.plm95.org; https://www.facebook.com/plmbaltimore) is stepping up to the plate this holiday season in service to those in need.  This should not come as a surprise, as PLM, led by Baba Imhotep Asis Fatiu and his Queen, Mama Ife Assata Fatiu, have been lifting up the Pan Afrikan community in Baltimore and beyond for many years now, having recently celebrated their 30th year of official service as a community organization.  They have helped raise the children through their Watoto Development Center.  They have worked with “at-risk” youth through their Urban Youth Initiative Project (UYIP).  They have educated young people through their Kimoyo Shule Africana Independent School.  They have held study sessions with adults in their Afrikan Awareness Critical Thinking Study Group (AACTS).  They have published numerous books, from the UrBan Philosophy series to Baba Imhotep’s most recent work, Scientific Pan Africanism.  They have held public outdoor events such as the Pan Afrikan Day of Solidarity and Race 1st rallies.  They recently sponsored the Race 1st Convention to bring together organizers and activists from the Baltimore area and beyond to build what will hopefully combine with other efforts for a true Pan Afrikan United Front.

Now, PLM is reaching out (again) to those in our community who are suffering, who struggle to put food on the table, and who are further threatened by the Trump administration’s attack on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as well as on affordable health care and other essential programs and services.  November 23 will bring the PLM Umoja-Karamu (“Unity Feast” in Kiswahili) from 2-6 PM, at the Unity Hall, located at 1505 North Eutaw Place in Baltimore, Maryland.

As they state in the announcement from their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/plmbaltimore):

In response to the loss of SNAP benefits affecting many of our people, the Pan-African Liberation Movement (PLM) is stepping up to support the community. This year, our Umoja-Karamu Celebration will focus on giving back rather than our usual celebration.

We will be hosting a Community Dinner Give-Away, a warm and welcoming space where Black people can come enjoy a freshly prepared meal, take one home, or sit down and eat together. Our goal is to feed at least 100 people while honoring the spirit of unity and collective care that Umoja-Karamu represents.

If you or someone you know could use a good meal, come out.

For more information, email them at plmbaltimore@gmail.com, or visit their Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/plmbaltimore) or their Web site (https://www.plm95.org).

“The REvolution Is Black Love” Discusses The Wealth Mindset with

On October 15 edition of “The REvolution Is Black Love” features show host Sis. Tomiko’s interview with finance expert J. D. Garnier as he discusses The Wealth Mindset.

“The REvolution Is Black Love” airs Wednesdays at 3:00 PM on Hand Radio (https://handradio.org).  After the broadcast, the audio can be found in this post and on our Media Page under Current Radio and Podcasts.

 

A Song (And A Post) For Assata

(Common)
In the Spirit of God. In the Spirit of the Ancestors. In the Spirit of the Black Panthers. In the Spirit of Assata Shakur.  We make this movement towards freedom for all those who have been oppressed, and all those in the struggle.

Yeah. yo, check it-
There were lights and sirens, gunshots firin
Cover your eyes as I describe a scene so violent
Seemed like a bad dream, she laid in a blood puddle
Blood bubbled in her chest, cold air brushed against open flesh
No room to rest, pain consumed each breath
Shot twice wit her hands up
Police questioned but shot before she answered
One Panther lost his life, the other ran for his
Scandalous the police were as they kicked and beat her
Comprehension she was beyond, tryna hold on
to life. She thought she’d live with no arm
that’s what it felt like, got to the hospital, eyes held tight
They moved her room to room-she could tell by the light
Handcuffed tight to the bed, through her skin it bit
Put guns to her head, every word she got hit
“Who shot the trooper?” they asked her
Put mace in her eyes, threatened to blast her
Her mind raced till things got still
Opened her eyes, realized she’s next to her best friend who got killed
She got chills, they told her: that’s where she would be next
Hurt mixed wit anger-survival was a reflex
They lied and denied visits from her lawyer
But she was buildin as they tried to destroy her
If it wasn’t for this German nurse they woulda served her worse
I read this sister’s story, knew that it deserved a verse
I wonder what would happen if that woulda been me?
All this shit so we could be free, so dig it, y’all.

(Cee-lo vocals)
I’m thinkin’ of Assata, yes.
Listen to my Love, Assata, yes.
Your Power and Pride is beautiful.
May God bless your Soul.

(Common)
It seemed like the middle of the night when the law awakened her
Walkie-talkies cracklin, I see ’em when they takin her
Though she kinda knew,
What made the ride peaceful was the trees and the sky was blue
Arrived to Middlesex Prison about six inna morning
Uneasy as they pushed her to the second floor in
a cell, one cot, no window, facing hell.
Put in the basement of a prison wit all males
And the smell of misery, seatless toilets and centipedes
She’d exercise, (paint?,) and begin to read
Two years inna hole. Her soul grew weak
Away from people so long she forgot how to speak
She discovered freedom is a unspoken sound
And a wall is a wall and can be broken down
Found peace in the Panthers she went on trial with
One of the brothers she had a child with
The foulness they would feed her, hopin she’s lose her seed
Held tight, knowing the fight would live through this seed
In need of a doctor, from her stomach she’s bleed
Out of this situation a girl was conceived
Separated from her, left to mother the Revolution
And lactated to attack hate
Cause federal and state was built for a Black fate
Her emptiness was filled with beatings and court dates
They fabricated cases, hoping one would stick
And said she robbed places that didn’t exist
In the midst of threats on her life and being caged with Aryan whites
Through dark halls of hate she carried the light
I wonder what would happen if that woulda been me?
All of this shit so we could be free.
Yeah, I often wonder what would happen if that woulda been me?
All of this shit so we could be free, so dig it, people-

(Cee-Lo)
I’m thinkin’ of Assata, yeah.
Listen to my Love, Assata, yeah.
Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful…
May God bless your Soul.
Oooh.

(Common)
Yo
From North Carolina her grandmother would bring
news that she had had a dream
Her dreams always meant what they needed them to mean
What made them real was the action in between
She dreamt that Assata was free in they old house in Queens
The fact that they always came true was the thing
Assata had been convicted of a murder she couldna done
Medical evidence shown she couldna shot the gun
It’s time for her to see the sun from the other side
Time for her daughter to be by her mother’s side
Time for this Beautiful Woman to become soft again
Time for her to breathe, and not be told how or when
She untangled the chains and escaped the pain
How she broke out of prison I could never explain
And even to this day they try to get to her
but she’s free with political asylum in Cuba.

(Cee-Lo vocals)
I’m thinkin’ of Assata, yeah.
Listen to my Love, Assata, yeah.
We’re molded from the same mud, Assata.
We share the same Blood, Assata, yeah.
Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful…
May God bless your Soul.
Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful…
May God bless your Soul.
Oooh.

(Assata)
Freedom!  You askin’ me about freedom.  Askin’ me about freedom?  I’ll be honest with you.  I know a whole lot more about what freedom isn’t than about what it is, cause I’ve never been free.  I can only share my vision with you of the future, about what freedom is.  Uhh, the way I see it, freedom is — is the right to grow, is the right to blossom.  Freedom is — is the right to be yourself, to be who you are, to be who you wanna be, to do what you wanna do. (fade out)
– “A Song For Assata”, by Common featuring Cee-Lo
from the album Like Water For Chocolate (2000)
Songwriters: Lonnie Rashid Lynn, James Jason Poyser, Thomas Decarlo Burton

The Pan Afrikan community lost a mighty voice for freedom on September 25, 2025 with the passing to the Honored Ancestors of Assata Olubgbala Shakur.  A veteran of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA), wounded in a May 2, 1973 shootout on Interstate 95 that also took the lives of fellow BLA member Zayd Shakur and New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster, tried and convicted of murder despite physical evidence and medical testimony that she was not holding a weapon and was shot in the back with her hands raised, tortured in the hospital as she recovered from her injuries, imprisoned in an all-male US gulag until her liberation and escape in 1979, aided by other BLA members and White revolutionaries, and finally settling in Cuba under the protection of the Fidel Castro government, she finally passed on to the ancestors at age 78, living the life of a free Black woman in exile from the United States with her daughter.

Black nationalist and Pan Afrikan organizations, as well as mainstream organizations such as the Chicago Teachers Union, have mourned the passing and memorialized the life of Ancestor Assata Shakur, while corporate news outlets and government officials have largely condemned her for her life as a Black militant and revolutionary, continuing to mouth the words of those who are still convinced that she was a cold-blooded cop killer, despite the physical evidence in her case.  The fact is, there are those who continue to benefit from the spoils of repression that rocked the United States in the 1960s and 1970s and who refuse to even consider the copious evidence that activists such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and Assata Shakur were not the murderous terrorists that the FBI and its COINTELPRO had painted them to be, and were in fact freedom fighters trying desperately to stem the tide of totalitarianism, repression and violence that the country was swept up in during the Nixon administration and seems to be revisiting during the current “reign” of Donald Trump.

I am hardly qualified to speak about the immeasurable courage, dedication and sacrifice that she embodied. My words would so inadequately describe the life and legacy of New Ancestor Assata Shakur.  So I will leave this task to others, from the lyrics of a tribute song by recording artist/actor Common (above) to news articles to tributes on several youth-oriented and pro-Black Web sites to a couple of quotes from Assata herself.

“I decided on Assata Olugbala Shakur. Assata means ‘She who struggles,’ Olugbala means ‘Love for the people,’ and i took the name Shakur out of respect for Zayd and Zayd’s family. Shakur means ‘the thankful’.” [Assata: An Autobiography, p. 186]

“There was not a single liberation movement in Africa that was not fighting for socialism. In fact, there was not a single liberation movement in the whole world that was fighting for capitalism. The whole thing boiled down to a simple equation: anything that has any kind of value is made, mined, grown, produced, and processed by working people. So why shouldn’t working people collectively own that wealth? Why shouldn’t working people own and control their own resources? Capitalism meant that rich businessmen owned the wealth, while socialism meant that the people who made the wealth owned it” [Assata: An autobiography, p. 190].

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”

We share here links to several Web sites that have published short biographies and tributes to her, including an article about the reaction of US FBI Director Kash Patel’s remarks and the “Black backlash” that erupted in response to his disrespectful words. We start with the news article from the Associated Press.

Associated Press
Assata Shakur, a fugitive Black militant sought by the US since 1979, dies in Cuba
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/assata-shakur-a-fugitive-black-militant-sought-by-the-us-since-1979-dies-in-cuba/ar-AA1NnikR?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Teen Vogue
Assata Shakur was a Black Revolutionary who Fought for Freedom Even in Exile
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/assata-shakur-black-revolutionary-fought-190818481.html
Marion Jones, October 1, 2025

In a letter written from prison titled To My People (1973), Shakur writes, “I am a Black revolutionary, and, as such, i” — Shakur preferred the lowercase “i” as personal pronoun, aiming to remove “the egotistical connotation of the word” — “am a victim of all the wrath, hatred, and slander that amerika is capable of. Like all other Black revolutionaries, amerika is trying to lynch me.”

The dissonance in Shakur’s legacy is on display after her death. She was long framed as a “terrorist”, “cop killer”, and fugitive from the law in media and by officials. Yet, public displays of mourning and calls to honor her legacy abound. Her story is also a reminder of the impact of COINTELPRO, and how it continues to impact activists today through technological surveillance, the criminalization of protest, and the targeting of dissidents.

To many, including those posting in honor of her after her death, Shakur will be remembered as a revolutionary who fought for her freedom and won. That legacy lives on in the “Assata chant” often utilized at protests — “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS.”


The Root, https://www.theroot.com
Assata Shakur and Other Black Celebs We Lost In 2025
https://www.theroot.com/black-celebs-we-lost-in-2025-1851759544/slides/2

Activist Assata Shakur, Black Panther Party member and noted revolutionary, died in Cuba on Sept. 26. She was 78. Shakur moved to the Caribbean country in 1984, five years following her escape from a New Jersey prison, where she was serving a life sentence for the murder of a police officer; Fidel Castro granted Shakur (born Joanne Chesimard) political asylum, turning her into a symbol of strained relations between the country. For her supporters, Shakur spent nearly half a century as an icon of Black American freedom fighters and an example of the consequences of an imbalanced and biased criminal justice system.

Black Internet Drags FBI Director Kash Patel For Filth For Slamming Assata Shakur Following Her Death
FBI Director Kash Patel called Assata Shakur a “terrorist” after her death, and Black folks online have interesting thoughts on the matter.
By Phenix S Halley, Published September 30, 2025
https://www.theroot.com/black-internet-drags-fbi-director-kash-patel-for-filth-2000064719

While the Black community was honoring the life of Assata Shakur, former Black Panther and member of the Black Liberation Army, FBI Director Kash Patel went out of his way to slam anyone remembering her positively. Now, Black Twitter is dragging him for filth.


Liberation News, https://liberationnews.org
Assata Shakur: The making of a revolutionary woman
Rachel Domond, September 26, 2025
https://liberationnews.org/assata-shakur-the-making-of-a-revolutionary-woman/

Assata Shakur, much loved fighter for the people, died Sept. 25 in Cuba. To commemorate her life, we reprint this 2021 article from Liberation School-ed.

When I think of political prisoners, and when I think of those who have relentlessly committed themselves to Black Liberation, I always think of Assata Shakur. …

From Assata’s story, we are able to learn what it means to be motivated by a deep love for the people and the struggle for freedom—and what it means to embody a determined and unbreakable spirit in the face of crackdowns and government repression designed to stifle and destroy the movement. Account after account from Assata’s comrades and fellow revolutionaries describe Assata as a light, a positive spirit who remained disciplined and committed to the struggle despite incredible hardships. …

Coming of age in the 1960s and 70s, conditions were ripe with struggle on all fronts—from the Stonewall Rebellion to the Women’s Rights Movement to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements—conditions to politicize. After college, Assata moved to Oakland, CA, where she joined the Black Panther Party, participating in defense programs for the Black community. Some years later, she returned to NYC to lead the BPP in Harlem, coordinating programs like the famous Free Breakfast for Children program. …

COINTELPRO, the government counterintelligence program of the 60s and beyond, was created with the intention to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit and otherwise neutralize” Black nationalist and Black liberation organizations and their leaders [4]. It is now absolutely clear from FBI documents that since at least 1971, the FBI, in cooperation with the state and local law enforcement, conducted a campaign to specifically criminalize, defame, harass and intimidate Assata Shakur. The U.S. government saw Assata’s dedication to the cause and leadership within the Black sovereignty movement as a threat to the internal security of the United States. …

Rest In Power, Mama Assata. We are sad to see you go, but we are glad that you were able to love out your life away from these “United Snakes”, and that you now reside with the Honored Ancestors for your unending struggle for the people, unconquered still.

Authoritarianism: “Hello America. These are my friends, Fascism and Martial Law.”

I don’t understand the reason why
You tellin’ us all that we need to unify
Rally round the flag
And beat the drums of war
Sing the same old songs
Ya know we heard ’em all before
You tellin’ me it’s unpatriotic
But I call it what I see it
When I see it’s idiotic
The tears of one mother
Are the same as any other
Drop food on the kids
While you’re murderin’ their fathers
But don’t bother to show it on CNN
Brothers and sisters don’t believe them
It’s not a war against evil
It’s really just revenge
Engaged against the poorest by the same rich men
Fight terrorists wherever they be found
But why you not bombing Tim McVeigh’s hometown?
You can say what you want propaganda television
But all bombing is terrorism

(chorus)
We can chase down all our enemies
Bring them to their knees
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we can’t bomb it into peace
Whoa we may even find a solution
To hunger and disease
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we can’t bomb it into peace

911
Fire in the skies
Many people died
And no one even really knows why
They tellin’ lies of division and fear
We yelled and cried
No one listened for years
But like, “who put us here?”
And who’s responsible?
Well, there’s no debatin’
Cause if they ask me I say
It’s big corporations
World Trade Organization
Tri-Lateral action
International sanctions, Satan
Seems like it’ll be an endless price tag
Of wars tremendous
And most disturbingly
The death toll is so horrendous
So I send this to those
Who say they defend us
Send us into harm’s way
We should all make a remembrance that
This is bigger than terrorism
Blood is blood is blood and um
Love is true vision
Who will listen?
How many songs it takes for you to see
You can bomb the world to pieces
You can’t bomb it into peace
– Michael Franti and Spearhead, “Bomb The World (Armageddon Version)”, Everyone Deserves Music, Track 11 (2003)

As if it weren’t enough that National Guard and military troops have already been deployed to cities such as Washington DC, Chicago Illinois, Memphis Tennessee and Los Angeles California, with threats to further invade cities such as Portland Oregon, Minneapolis Minnesota and New York City (if the people have the nerve to elect the “socialist” Zohran Mamdani as mayor), US President Donald Trump and “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth called a sudden, mandatory meeting of US military commanders, generals and admirals from around the world in Quantico, Virginia to “lay down the law” with their new plan to destroy perceived enemies of the US abroad without restraint and to quell insurgencies, crush dissent and implement the equivalent of martial law at home.

A recent Facebook post about an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Chicago stated the following:

A shocking incident unfolded in Chicago when about 300 ICE agents descended from Blackhawk helicopters onto an apartment building, rounding up everyone living there. Many residents, according to witnesses, were pulled outside in zip ties, wearing little or no clothing, and children were among those caught up in this mass operation. With President Trump reportedly obtaining direct authority to deploy armed federal agents in Chicago, the move feels like an extension of what he has described as a war on blue states and cities, making the event feel as if it were ripped from a dystopian novel.

Across the country, these federal raids are being viewed as part of an escalating campaign to assert central power over communities that do not support the administration. The use of military tactics in domestic spaces looks less like a law enforcement effort and more like an outright attack on places that tend to vote Democratic. For many, the message is clear: cities that disagree with the current administration are being singled out for intimidation and collective punishment.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect is the deafening silence from major national media outlets. Instead of launching investigations or demanding accountability, mainstream networks have focused their energy on profit driven mergers and tax schemes to benefit their wealthy CEOS. That leaves local communities bearing the full weight of unchecked federal power and everyday people more vulnerable, as the role of the media as the public’s watchdog is abandoned.

It seems this administration is intent on securing its grip on power at the expense of their perceived enemies around the world and their invented enemies on the home front, in accordance with the Fascists’ Playbook. Purify the citizenry here through deportations of “illegals” (the definition of whom seems to be expanding) and detention of “insurgents” (anyone not sufficiently loyal to the Dear Leader) in internment camps, silence dissenters in the areas of news, analysis, commentary, entertainment and other mass media, cancel elections to ensure that the regime will never be replaced, militarize the cities to ensure against rebellion or even protest, while “taking the gloves off” the world’s deadliest military force to crush any potential resistance from outside (or possibly inside).

“Hi America, my name is Authoritarianism. Thanks for letting me into your house last November. These are my friends, Fascism and Martial Law. We’re here to keep you safe from the invaders, but also from your neighbors and yourselves, because enemies are everywhere. So just be compliant and let us handle everything.”

The recent assassination of right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk provoked calls for a “war on the left” before the identity of the shooter was even determined, and such calls have persisted even as the shooter was revealed to be another White right-winger and alleged follower of ultra-right-wing pundit Nick Fuentes who felt Kirk’s politics, as cruel as they were, did not go far enough. As a result, the “war on woke” continues despite the internecine violence on the right and the preponderance of mass shooters, terrorists and murderers over the years who have been determined to emanate from right-wing enclaves. Thus, Trump and Hegseth have been mobilizing military and paramilitary units to crack down almost exclusively on cities run by Black mayors or that have largely Black populations under the guise of “cleaning up crime”, despite the clear evidence that crime in these cities has decreased tremendously over the last several years, not because of over-policing or military intervention but because of investment in community and anti-violence efforts in communities and neighborhoods.

An increasing number of analysts, activists and “regular citizens” are becoming convinced that fascism and martial law are not coming; they are already here. In the interest of not exposing these activists to the potential retaliation of the emerging police state, we will not post their comments here, but if you are connected to Pan Afrikan organizations and concerned citizens, you probably already know some of them.

Check out social media for a few minutes and you will run across one or another Facebook or TikTok post describing last Tuesday’s meeting at Quantico as a call for martial law, and emphasizing that Black people in particular need to prepare for the time when the military invades your town or city, allegedly to support ICE raids but ultimately stopping, detaining and sometimes imprisoning citizens of the United States who happen to speak too much Spanish, “look Haitian” or “look Hispanic”, or have gone on record as members of the “woke (radical) left”.

Those who attempt to intervene on behalf of those who are wrongly accosted and “disappeared” also risk abuse at the hands of often-masked and heavily armed right wing militias and military personnel who have suddenly been tasked with policing duties for which they have not been qualified, trained or prepared and which they have nonetheless been empowered to carry out with impunity.

But this crisis is not just recognized by Pan Afrikanists, Black Nationalists and leftists for the xenophobic purge that it threatens to become. There are a number of White activists and commentators that have been sounding the alarm from the beginning and are increasing in frequency and intensity, especially since Trump has reiterated his “enemy from within” comments and held his meeting with US military commanders from around the world to reinforce that sentiment, made even clearer by Hegseth’s comments decrying the “stupid … politically correct and overbearing” rules of engagement (known to the rest of us as the Geneva Conventions and the Conventions Against Genocide) and calling on military commanders present to dispose of such inconvenient rules and “intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill” enemies on foreign soil as well as “quell civil disturbances” in US cities, attacking American civilians on American soil who have dared to speak out against Trump’s authoritarian aims which he is apparently willing to institute war on the streets to enforce. While these White critics may expose themselves to right-wing retaliation in time, they are somewhat insulated from the worst abuses (at least for now) by the fact of their Whiteness. Still, their commitment to sound the alarm for their followers and the larger White community are appreciated, as that is what Tim Wise, one of the most politically-aware public speakers, has done, and it is also what Ancestor Malcolm X stated in his autobiography that he would advise White activists that consider themselves allies of the Black Struggle to do.

A Facebook post from “Stuart H2O” speaks specifically about Trump and Hegseth’s meeting with the military commanders: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CSSCaye3p/

Robert Arnold, who also goes under the heading “Defiance 13”, provides regular video commentaries about US abuses at home and abroad, with particular emphasis on American racism, xenphobia and authoritarianism. His piece on the Trump-Hegseth meeting, titled “The Silence of Generals”, can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Cw6UBrX6N/

The race is on. Many of us ignored the time for vigilance and thus have squandered much of the breathing room we thought we had. The time for building the resistance has come. People in the Pan Afrikan community are finally seeing the urgent need for organizing and building unity. White “mainstream” commentators are increasingly aware of the unhinged nature of their political leaders. And members of the grassroots Black community, watching the rants by right-wing pundits like Charlie Kirk and Nick Fuentes railing against everything from affirmative action to anti-discrimination to historical Black leaders to simple empathy as they fan the flames for the very violence that will also consume them, are listening and watching as their so-called leaders “rally round the flag and beat the drums of war.”

“The REvolution Is Black Love” Interviews Grandmother Walks On Water

On October 1, Sis. Tomiko spoke with recurring guest Grandmother Walks On Water. Also known as Mama Nataska Hasan and the mother of local Baltimore recording artist Maimouna “MuMu Fresh” Youssef, Grandmother Walks On Water regularly presents her analysis on issues of Afrikan centered health and spirituality. Their discussion, which always promises to be thought-provoking, can be found here as well as on our Media Page under Current Radio and Podcasts.

“The REvolution Is Black Love” Talks with ELife Founder Dr. Baruch

On September 24, show host Sis. Tomiko interviewed Washington, DC-based activist Dr. Baruch Ben-Yehudah, who is the proprietor of ELife Restaurant in Capitol Heights, Maryland, just outside of Washington DC.  ELife seeks to nourish the mind, body and spirit, offering a variety of healthy foods and products as well as regularly bringing in lecturers on Afrikan history and Pan Afrikan organizing such as historian Dr. Ashra Kwesi.  Her interview with him can be found here and on our Media Page under Current Radio and Podcasts.