EYE am Celebrating #Juneteenth2020 by giving a #ShoutOut to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power"

Opening up with video from the 1963 March on Washington, which was 100 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, “Fight The Power” demonstrated a different type of march, one more aggressive and less polished and respectable. Instead of trying to show the white people that good black folks exist, Public Enemy took on the mantle of black nationalism and looking after our own, and taking what was owed. The imagery they conjure is nothing short of empowering and revolutionary. So on this Juneteenth 2020, the fight marches on in the streets of America in the aftermath of so many police shootings to the point where we have to say names of people we never met so frequently, that they’re all part of our beings. From George Floyd to Breonna Taylor, we must continue to fight the power.

"All we want is make us free."~ The Armistad Revolt

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the day President Abraham Lincoln (R. IL) signed the Emancipation Proclamation as our  nation approached the third year of the War between the States.

The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

So, I'm sitting here 150 years later wondering how the party that freed the slaves turned into the party that is trying to bring back slavery?   The answer can be found in the graphic below. 

 

 See the areas in red?  These are the states that are covered by the Emancipation Proclamation.  Slave holding states not covered are in blue.  Is it a coincidence the states responsible for putting the most Tea Party representatives in the house are all members of the former Confederacy?  I think NOT.  

The goals, methods and passions of the Tea Party in the House are all characteristic of the radical southern right.

The mainstream media have completely missed the story, by portraying the Tea Party movement in ideological rather than regional terms. Whether by accident or design, the public faces of the Tea Party in the House are Midwesterners — Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann and Joe Walsh of Illinois. But while there may be Tea Party sympathizers throughout the country, in the House of Representatives the Tea Party faction that has used the debt ceiling issue to plunge the nation into crisis is overwhelmingly Southern in its origins:

From the Armistad Revolt, the the Emancipation Proclamation, to now,  all we want is make us free.

John Quincy Adams: [to the Court] This man is black. We can all see that. But, can we also see as easily, that which is equally true? That he is the only true hero in this room. Now, if he were white, he wouldn't be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn't be standing, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him. The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold, in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry's. Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits? "All men created equal," "inalienable rights," "life, liberty," and so on and so forth? What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion.
[tears papers in half]

Welcome to 2013!

Emancipation Sunday

January 1, 2011 marked the 148th anniversary of President Lincoln signing an Executive Order ending Slavery and freeing 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced.

This act by President Lincoln probably cost him his life. In the 148 ensuing years since the signage of the Emancipation Proclamation, there are some who would argue African Americans still aren't free. And, there are some who still try and deny African Americans the equality and freedom promised by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Although African Americans make up 25% of the population, they make up 75% of the prison population. Does that mean African Americans commit more crimes? No, it means African Americans are accused and convicted of crimes more than white Americans. An African American male is more likely to go to prison than to college in America.

There are no second chances for African Americans as evidenced by Swanson Food Heir and Talking TeeVee Pundit Head Tucker Carlson saying Michael Vick should be executed because he funded Cousin Pooky nem's dog fighting enterprise. Never mind the fact Vick paid for his crime. Compare that to the slap on the wrist white, conservative, activist James O'Keefe received for attempting to tamper with Senator Mary Landrieu phone lines, AFTER he posed as a pimp and selectively edited videos of his infiltration of ACCORN offices.

Then there are those who tell African Americans they should get over Slavery but celebrate the Confederacy every chance they get.

I grew up in the South, I know how white folks feel about the days of mint juleps, swinging parasols, and darkies in the fields. They swallow that garbage like a black man in the RNC swallows his pride. Gulp.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not characterizing all white people as racist. I know from personal and professional experience all white people don't fit the racist stereotype. From the early abolitionist to the Freedom Riders and Viola Luzzio whites have fought along side blacks for equal rights and social justice.

White people publicly standing up against racism AWESOME!!

Accountability and White Anti-racist Organizing lights the path for White anti-racist activists to become effective in their work and build sustainability as a collective. Accountability is the key to building cross racial relationships in the movement to undo racism and create a more just society.

Is it going to take another Civil War, or another 148 years before we all are free and freedom rings from every mountaintop and every valley? We need more white Americans to step out of their postition of privilege and stand up against racism. People of color live with racism every day, we can't "opt out".