Overview

Conditions have changed so we are not repackaging the old; racial oppression is more subtle and cloaked in platitudes like "colorblind society" and "level playing field"--today's versions of yesterday's "Separate but Equal" nonsense. Unlike yesterday, nowadays there are no racial apartheid and caste laws on the books.

However, the values, intent and patterns are still alive and well and the Neocons want to return AmeriKKKa to the 19th Century (with monopoly businesses, pliant government, and racial subordination). Where once the white media depicted us as coons and pickaninnies and our parents were forced to endure characters like Mantan Moreland and Step 'n Fetchit who were caricatures out of a thoroughly racist mindset, today our own children demean and devalue themselves and our race by writing, producing. and performing socio-pathic material. "It's all about the Benjamins," they say. So this is an aspect we haven't had to fight before, our own people degrading us on such a large scale.  Sharif Interviews Junious

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The racialization of slavery was the product of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in connection with the world-market and the rise capitalism.  Marx deals with this in outline in Capital, which Eric Williams takes up and analyses in deals his Capitalism and Slavery.  The existence of a “race of slaves” in America, and in particular in the United States where following Aristotle's class definition of slaves as less than human the American Constitution declared slaves as less than human – it followed that the race which constituted the slave population was less than human.   

Based on technological-economic history in the United States, a history of class struggles, the triangular trade displaced White and Native American indentured servants and slaves by an influx of slaves human beings from Africa who were sold into chattel slavery.  The first African 'bondsmen' arrived in 1619.  By the 19th century there were no more White bondsmen or Native American slaves.  While it was true that not all Blacks were slaves, and were free Blacks, it is also true that by this time all slaves were Black. Sharif Interviews Lil Joe

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There are certain things that the more committed elements of the Black Arts movement or the Black Power movement never did develop. They fought among themselves as to what should be the priorities. But they never developed, for example, a real foothold into film and into the recording industry, with the force of the community behind them. They left that to other people.

So, for example, the people who are very often running the discos and this—are the people who ain't got no consciousness to begin with. They're just them kind of folks. That's what Archie was talking about. When Archie Shepp   stated . . . Archie said—hey man, like everybody got into the thing and the music went weird.

Over here you got Albert Ayler, over here Coltrane and over here B.B. King. Over here some of them started saying we need one music. Why is the music so divided up? Why is it that so-called blues people, the folk people are not into Coltrane? Those are complex musics. But Archie said I want to do some music that's swinging but has consciousness in it.

You see what I mean? But Archie Shepp don't have a record company. Now what I'm saying is that, if I may be a little bit controversial for a moment, maybe they should have been fighting the Mafia. See where I'm coming from? I'll put it out like that. So like I don't know if it's true, I hope it's not true but they say the Mafia took Motown from Barry Gordy. Larry Neal in Omowe

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As a teacher, my mother spent a lot of time developing the pedagogy of how to raise intelligent children who are aware of their self worth and power and we are her children. She was the co-creator of the Ahidiana Work/Study Center, where my siblings, my cousins, and I were educated. She did at home with us. She covered so many bases as a parent and she raised five us—we are all now powerful, intelligent individuals with lives of our own. Four out of the five of us are raising dynamic, intelligent little people of our own. My mother’s not conventional and her entire life is an effort to live what she believes.

To be what she believes. I follow in her footsteps trying to do the same. I make choices based on what I believe, whatever my beliefs are in the world. That is a difficult and gratifying thing to do. My mother taught us all how to cook and wash our clothes and made us responsible for our own upkeep early on in life. There were five days of the week and five of us. Every night one of us was responsible for cooking dinner for the entire family. So my mother standardized things and we cooked in big amounts. No small pots of rice were cooked . . . we cooked 6 cups of rice at a time. We learned how to do everything around the house. My brothers can take care of themselves as well as the girls can. She worked hard to raise mature, responsible people, and all her work was geared toward making us independent; and I believe that it worked. Kiini Ibura Salaam From Mexico

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Through the efforts of certain Black artists, people are beginning to realize the importance of Black theatre. LeRoi began this movement through his Black Arts project in Harlem and now with the Spirit House in Newark which takes his plays across the country. Other groups such as the old Black Arts/West on the Coast which we had a hand in, the Aldridge Players/West also on the Coast, the free southern Theatre, Concept East in Detroit, and now the New Lafayette in Harlem have tried to continue what LeRoi began. As a result of these efforts, theatre is becoming more acceptable to black people on the whole. It is less of a novelty and becoming a necessary part of their cultural life.  Interview with Ed Bullins

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When I was in the military, I saw too many officers were hurting for combat because it aided in their promotions. I know that many justify their activity in war to their wives and girlfriends. It’s putting bread on the table. Sex, war, economics, and violence—all connect and create the overlay that helps to define what America is all about. I’ll go on the range and kill Indians. I’ll go to Vietnam and make the little lady comfortable. I wonder whether women want to be connected to violence this way—to make bombs so I can vacation in Hawaii. More than the active participants should be implicated. That’s part of owning up. Rudy Interviews Yusef2

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updated 4 November 2007