If "Black Lives Matter," Why Aren't We Defending Them?
It broke my heart to see officers of the Saraland Police Department brutalize and humiliate sister Chikesia Clemons at an Alabama waffle house on Sunday. I was incredulous when brother Shaka Shakur recently told me about it. But when I viewed the video of this incident for myself, I was angry beyond words. Angry about the police brutalizing the sister, you ask? Of course.
However the full weight of my anger falls squarely on those who watched and did NOTHING to assist our sister; or those whose "assistance" began and ended with making this horrific video, and those like them, "go viral," and with brothers and sisters that refuse to see self defense as a viable response.
A tsunami of questions invade my mind: Where were/are the Black community patrols to protect our people? Why aren't we actively reviewing police scanners to proactively intervene and ideally prevent fatal interactions with others? Clearly, the majority of our people have neither the training or heart to be effective in this area. However gun clubs in addition to Black military veterans do! Where were all those revolutionary Black folk so fond of posing in pictures with guns - those who declare themselves to be self defense formations? What happened to our former soldiers who once killed and maimed for Uncle Sam during their enlistment? Have we grown comfortable with being brutalized, murdered and humiliated? Are we cool with the entire world viewing Black people as punching bags and target practice for white supremacy?
I believe that our reluctance to fight back stems from white supremacy's social, political, and spiritual conditioning. Lack of political education and flawed analysis are other factors. But perhaps the primary factor explaining our failure to defend ourselves can be traced to one word: Fear. Malcolm X, one of the most brilliant and accurate Black Liberation theorists of the 20th century, said this in his "Message to the Grassroots" speech:
You haven’t got a revolution that doesn’t involve bloodshed. And you’re afraid to bleed. I said, you’re afraid to bleed.
[As] long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls be murdered, you haven’t got no blood. You bleed when the white man says bleed; you bite when the white man says bite; and you bark when the white man says bark.
Sadly, his words remain true today and we could almost repeat them verbatim (with a few minor revisions for contemporary references). In fact, the advocacy for Black self defense predates Brother Malcolm. Speaking to a national Black Convention meeting in the mid-19th century, Henry HIghland Garnett boldly said:
….Inform them that all you desire is freedom, and that nothing else will suffice. Do this, and forever after cease to toil for the heartless tyrants, who give you no other reward but stripes and abuse. If they then commence work of death, they, and not you, will be responsible for the consequences. You had far better all die—die immediately, than live slaves, and entail your wretchedness upon your posterity. If you would be free in this generation, here is your only hope. However much you and all of us may desire it, there is not much hope of Redemption without the shedding of blood. If you must bleed, let it all come at once—rather, die freemen, than live to be slaves..
Half a century later, our intrepid journalist Ida B. Wells paused during her investigations of southern lynching to write, "The Winchester rifle deserves a place of honor in every Black home.”
Brothers and sisters, let's be clear. There is a long tradition of armed self defense in our history, a tradition we need to study and continue. Our traditional menu of on-the-ground tactics (boycotts, marches, protests, candlelight vigils, independent investigations, press conferences, rallies and lawsuits) are not ending police brutality. We must stop ignoring the elephant in the room: If our goal is to eliminate, reduce or prevent state-sanctioned and vigilante murder of Black people, then we
must be honest: Filming police, shutdown demonstrations, packing courthouses or calling reverend Al to the scene- are all ineffective..
Those engaged in such efforts shouldn't be demoralized or take offense to these points. These are not value judgements, but statements of fact. In fairness to the activists I described, and if it's any consolation, efforts to "reform" and restrain police departments in this country are equally ineffective. Using car and body cameras, appeals to conscience, sensitivity training, taking Black History classes, creating civilian review boards...you get the point.
Or do you? Back in 2006, The FBI reported that white supremacists were infiltrating police forces all over the country, providing proponents of race war with their dream job. Just a year ago, The FBI also created a new designation of terrorists they refer to as "Black Identity Extremists" to - I argue- justify escalated acts of anti-Black aggression by police, and to explain the increased militarization of police departments. The Supreme Court has outright defecated on our constitutional rights by revising fourth amendment protections in favor of predatory police officers, while Congress considers "gun control" legislation and police precincts offer ineffective gun buyback programs to disarm us and increase our vulnerability. Everytime you blink, some cop has assaulted, harassed or killed another Black person. And now more than any time in my recollection, black women and children join Black men as victims of such mistreatment.
White supremacy -state-sanctioned and otherwise- has declared all-out WAR on the entire Black family! These incidents remind us that white supremacy is an unrepentant bully who will stop at nothing to continue exercising power and intimidation over us.
Therefore in the name of our ancestors, I urge us to conquer our cowardice, escapism and the illusion of inclusion. It's time for us to exercise our right to defend ourselves as we have historically done for centuries in this country. "Black lives Matter" is more than a slogan, hashtag, or activist organization. It is a fact and a principle. And if we truly believe that Black lives matter, we must protect them, not simply "say their names."
