Minister Clemson Brown
[Community Announcements]
FROM CEMOTAP
1. Are You in Clemson Brown’s Video “The Black Struggle in New York from 1960s to the Present”?
COME FIND OUT?
August 9, at 2:00 PM
CEMOTAP CENTER. 135-05 Rockaway Boulevard. South Ozone Park, NY 11420
Admission Free
2. FROM CINQUE BRATH AND BROTHER LEROY BAYLOR
“Cinque Brath and Brother Leroy Kicked off Airways at WHCR on False Charge of Anti-semitism”
The Black management of WHCR has been told by the heads of City College and the CUNY system to take The Communicators off WHCR-90.3FM immediately.
This is due to the false charge of anti-semitism. I and the show have been portrayed as anti-semites in an ongoing campaign beginning formerly in 2006. It has increased since Minister Farrakhan appeared on The Communicators when Libya was invaded. It is a campaign to defame my name and character.
The onslaught of charges of anti-semitism relate to any time I mention Minister Farrkahan's name and The Final Call newspaper and articles within it. For example, this is no joke, one complaint said that I mentioned Dr Shabazz's obituary appearing in The Final Call. Dr Shabazz was the premier math educator who produced more Black PHD holders in math than any other educator. He was one of us and served Black students regardless of religion.
Any mention of The Final Call is anti-semitic because, according to the writer, this newspaper is anti-semitic and features an ad for the book, "The Secret Relationship of Blacks and Jews."
Another anti-semitic charge points to our mentioning that Professor Griff was coming to Harlem. We make announcements based on the information value to listeners and to serve the Black organizers who bring forums to Black people.
When we interviewed Minister Farrakhan, the complaint said that he was on WHCR ranting for 45 minutes. It was an interview. No rants. Clear, deliberate answersto our questions.
Based on what I was allowed to see, the complaints are from a team of Caucasians who say they are not Jewish but want to defend Jewish people.
These individuals have software to transcribe the shows we do and then forward to the Chancellor of CUNY the comments they say are anti-semitic.
When the Chancellor looks at this, he thinks the whole two-hour show is dedicated to anti-semitic rants. Meanwhile, we have produced for the Harlem Communityoutstanding shows that no one else bothers to bring to Black people. We are not concerned with Jewish people. Fact is, we interview more Caucasians on
The Communicators than WNYC (so-called liberal) interviews Blacks.
Another tactic of this team is to call guests whom we have had on The Communicators, telling them they should not appear again. This speaks of an operation asopposed to individuals complaining. We are reminded of the Anti-Defamation League spying on Harlemites Elombe Brath and Kermit Eady. This surveillance wasexposed several years ago by a white police officer on the West Coast. The ADL was transferring this surveillance of the late Elombe Brath (and his contacts) to South Africa's apartheid regime which was torturing and killing Black freedom fighters while portraying them as terrorists.
Another most important fact is that I am a follower of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and a supporter of Brother Minister Farrakhan. Their teachings andThe Holy Quran guide us to respecting all peoples. Imagine doing a talk show with a vendetta against Jewish people or Christians and inviting Jews and Christiansto be guests on the show. WABC radio and WOR radio in New York seldom feature any Black guests and every day are relentless in blaming everything immaginable on a Black man named, Obama.
What is pathetic about this situation that forces WHCR's Black management to take The Communicators off the air is that the heads of CUNY and City College haveavoided the fact that these charges of anti-semitism have no basis at all except someones do not like Minister Farrakhan, The Final Call and intelligent Black menand women.
It is indeed a lynching. A low-tech lynching on a campus of higher learning.
A white woman says rape and the negro is beat, stripped and strung up. NEXT! Amazing, it's 2014 and Dred Scott as usual. This email is not a beg to be on the air. We can never beg "educators of high institutions" for the right to inform and educate Black people of Harlem with the programming that has made The Communicators one of the most popular Black talk shows in New York City.
It is a lesson for Muslims that The Final Call is hated by the slavemaster's children because of its valuable in getting knowledge to our people.
Remember the point made by Mr. Muhammad in "Message To The BlackMan In America." He quotes a slave owner saying, "they had almost closed the light ofknowledge entering the minds of Black people." This aim has always been a part of this society, witness Black babies entering their schools and coming out dumb ascan be. Witness our college students spending their grants on "remedial" classes.
The effort to get us off the air should speak for itself and prompt Black people to read every issue of The Final Call and collect every dvd of Brother Minister Farrakhan.We fight with knowledge.
3. FROM DAWN JONESNational Action Network
POLITICAL ACTON COMMITTEE
POLICE BRUTALITY FORUM
HOUSE OF JUSTICE
106 WEST 145TH STREET
IN THE VILLAGE OF HARLEM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2014 AT 12:30PM
COME OUT AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
TAKE THE 3 TRAIN TO 145TH STREET
Yours-in-the-Struggle,
Dawn L. Jones
Chair
NANPAC
The Political Action Committees will have a Voter's Registration tray at the Dance Theater of Harlem on Saturday, August 9, 2014 and on West 135th Street on the afternoons of Saturday, August 16 & 17, 2014.4. FROM BOB LAW
Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air
If one should desire to know if a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of it’s music will furnish the answer. -- Confucius
Currently the airwaves are filled with messages that are violently anti woman, anti Black and in a real sense anti life itself. We are inundated with lyrics, dialogue, and images, from music videos, song lyrics and DJ comments that glorify violence while encouraging the degradation and exploitation of women, to video games that require that you kill people in order to stay in the game and move forward.
To understand our concern, perhaps it is helpful to understand the emotional significance and influence of music. As noted musician David Byrne has explained, music tells us things, social things, psychological things, physical things about how we feel and perceive our bodies, and it does it in a way that other art forms cannot. It is not only in the lyrics as Byrne and others have pointed out, it is also the combination of sounds, rhythms, and vocal textures that communicate in ways that bypass the reasoning centers of the brain and go straight to our emotions. Poet Larry Neal, one of the architects of the Black Arts movement of the 1960s has said that our music has always been the most dominate manifestation of what we are and how we feel. The best of it has always operated at the very core of our lives. It is the music that can affirm our highest possibilities. That may be precisely why the best of our music is under siege.
It is also important to understand that in this society, music conveys social status. Being associated with certain kinds of music can increase your social standing, Consider the higher level of sophistication associated with opera or classical music, or the level of cool sophistication associated with the music of Coltrane, Monk and Miles. Some have suggested that while we may indeed like the music, often what we really like is the company it puts us in. In this sense the music creates a community or life style that is validated by the acceptance of the music. It is the music that validates the “Gangsta”
Currently the airwaves are dominated by a body of music, images and ideas that has established a code of behavior that denigrates women, and encourages the murdering of Black people. It is a lifestyle where all women are “Hoes” and “B-----s”. Consider this “gangsta” lyric. “I got a shotgun, and heres the plot. Takin Niggas out with a flurry of buckshots . Yeah I was gunnin and then you look, all you see is niggas runin”.
Music, images and dialogue that offers another view cant get reasonable airplay. Keep in mind that the airwaves are regulated by the FCC, a commission that was established in 1934 to regulate in the public interest. When George Bush installed Michel Powell as Chairman of the commission, in 2001, Powell said he did not know what in the public interest meant.
Since the 1996 telecommunications act which set the framework for deregulation, the FCC has been reduced to pablum serving only to sanction the acquisition of broadcast frequencies and license to the mega media corporations which has resulted in the concentration of media ownership into the hands of very few.
Under the major revisions of US telecommunications law, the first since the 1930s, members of the general public no longer have “legal standing” to challenge broadcast policy or to insure that the public interest is served. Now it is the licensee (station owner) that controls content. Previously the station owners rented the airwaves, while the general public owned the airwaves. That is no longer the case. None the less the Federal Communications Commission is still directly responsible to congress, and since Black media ownership is a major casualty of deregulation, and since the diversity of opinion and ideas coming directly from the Black experience in the world are being removed from the marketplace of ideas, we have appealed to the Congressional Black Caucus in general and the New York congressional delegation in particular to urge congress to reexamine the current function and effectiveness of the FCC.
Our first appeal to the CBC was December 6, 2012, and in spite of additional attempts to reach members of the CBC, to date congress members, Evette Clark, Gregory Meeks and Hakeem Jeffries have freely dismissed our appeals to them.
Perhaps if there is a link established between the murderous video games and the young white boys who routinely walk onto a school campus or shopping mall with automatic weapons and open fire, congress might then act to reestablish some guidelines that would force broadcasters to allow for input from the community in the effort to balance what is being offered on Americas broadcast spectrum.
But as long as Black people, especially Black women are the primary victims of this insidious violence, even the increasingly irrelevant Black congressional leadership ignores us.
Franz Fanon is correct, “Ultimately a people get the government / leadership they deserve” It is time to support the kind of leadership we truly deserve.5. FROM BROTHER ZACH HUSSER
Dear Family of Friends,
I just read a great commentary by Brother Phil Jackson of the "Black Star Project" out of Chicago that gave Us a look inside to see what the "I'm My Brother's Keeper" Initiative is all about. I agree 100% with every point that Phil Jackson makes concerning how President Barack H. Obama's Administration mishandled the "My Brother's Keeper Initiative" because No already established Community Groups doing Mentoring before My Brothers Keeper were invited to participate in this new effort by the President.
Why? It doesn't make sense for those Groups that have been involved in the "Movement to Save Our Sons" for decades have not been included in any phase of My Brother's Keeper Initiative. As Phil Jackson asked, Who are these folk who are now the operators of "My Brother's Keeper?" So that you understand Phil Jackson's comments and my agreement with those statements, please check out http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=4250 and give your opinions. We've come to far to be knocked out of the box by good intentions!!
Working Together Is What It's All About,
Brother Zachary C. Husser, Community Organizer
6. FROM BLACK AUGUST
All roads lead to the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center
310 W 43rd St {bet 8th & 9th Aves} Friday August 15, 2014 6pm-10pm
Book Signing and Reception for Marshall “Eddie” Conway.
Conway was the longest held Black Panther Political Prisoner
on the East Coast. We invite to join us.
7. Defending Marlene Pinnock and Ourselves:
Issues of Justice, Agenda and Struggle
by Dr. Maulana Karenga
We are again deeply involved in an ongoing and urgent conversation and struggle around one of the most critical and enduring issues facing us as a people-police violence. For whatever old names or new formulations used to introduce, justify or explain it away-reasonable force; perceived possession of weapons; within policy shooting; justifiable homicide; actions to protect the police and public or save the victims from themselves-it is still police violence. And it is made more difficult to deal with, reduce and eradicate, because it is systemically based and socially sanctioned as a legitimate, legal and necessary way to deal with Black people, other people of color, the poor, the mentally disabled and any others who are vulnerable, stereotyped, stigmatized and posed as a real or potential threat and deemed unworthy of due respect.
One of the latest demonstrations of this is the unjust and unjustifiable brutal beating of Mrs. Marlene Pinnock, a Black woman, homeless, unarmed, apparently mentally disoriented, and obviously in need of caring assistance, not a cold-blooded attack. This increasing police violence which extends nationwide offers evidence that the attacking officer is not a rogue cop or an "officer gone wild", but a representative of a definite system, a protector of the established order with its race and class determined rights, privileges and preferred people.
Thus, the first thing we notice about the CHP officer's brutal beating of Mrs. Pinnock is the normalized savagery of it, as the official silence and standard "wait-and-see" reservations reveal. It is a reaffirmation of society's racist classification of her as racially and socially unworthy. Thus, she is tackled, pinned down, straddled, punched and pummeled in the head and face repeatedly and mercilessly. It is a violence rooted not only in general racist ideology, but also in racialized police perceptions of and approaches to the Black community as an occupied and hostile territory. It is also reinforced by the increasing militarization of police departments in training and weaponry and by the increased hiring of ex-soldiers from recent wars with little or no rules and restraints on things done to the "enemy".
Secondly, there was a racist arrogance and confidence displayed by the CHP officer's brutalizing of Mrs. Pinnock. Like the officers who beat Rodney King and others similarly, there was an assumption that he has not only the right, but also the responsibility to do this under the color, cover and camouflage of law. Thus, he does not hide it in the night, but savages Mrs. Pinnock in broad daylight, on a busy freeway, and in an age of video cameras, you-tube and social media that can and does expose his and his confederates' unedited racialized police practice.
Thirdly, this vicious attack demonstrates also the continuing racist tendency to de-humanize and de-womanize the Black woman and to objectify Black people as a whole-women, men and children. Clearly, Mrs. Pinnock was denied the special deference owed to women as women when approached by men, officially and unofficially, in terms of how they are talked to, touched, searched and arrested. Instead, she was dehumanized, de-womanized and treated as an objectified Black man, not as a woman and human being. Thus, she was tackled, pinned down on her back, and straddled with all its implications, and then repeatedly pounded into submission. It is the same objectification and similar police violence often applied to our children, especially the Black man child.
Fourthly, it is important to note that the attitude and actions of police officers are also shaped by the racist ideology of the racialization of crime and the criminalization of the race. In other words, crime is defined as a racial characteristic of Black people and thus, the whole people-men, women and children-are indicted and treated as a race of real and potential criminals. Therefore, the police aggressively and eagerly move to suppress them through wrongful targeting (profiling) stops, searches, humiliations, home invasions, arrests, beatings, shootings, and other forms of psychic, verbal and physical abuse and violence. A culture of violence and the vicious racial hatred and hostility in which it feeds, breeds and lives becomes then the order and reality of the day.
Finally, this brutal and savage beating of Mrs. Marlene Pinnock is a clear and compelling challenge to us to intensify the ongoing struggle to end this unjust and unjustifiable police violence, oppressive treatment and often depraved disregard for the lives and rights of Black people and other vulnerable persons and peoples. Clearly, the beginning step is to unify around the struggle for justice, not only for Mrs. Pinnock, but also for all those other past and current victims, and to reduce the number of future ones among whom we could easily count. Indeed, it's important to remember and reaffirm that the struggle to defend our sister Marlene is also a struggle to defend ourselves and achieve the justice and security we deserve as persons and a people.
Moreover, in the face of oppression in any form, there is no real remedy except righteous and relentless resistance and no strategy worthy of its name that does not include and foreground ongoing and unyielding struggle. Also, our collective agenda must include as a minimum of demands: (1) dismissal and indictment of the perpetrating officer; (2) no indictment of the victim, Mrs. Marlene Pinnock; (3) release of Mrs. Pinnock from the police hospital hold; (4) Justice Department exploration of civil rights violations and the need for federal oversight; (5) a civilian review board with subpoena and discipline power, in spite of the police bill of rights; and (6) a serious review and reforming of hiring, training and discipline practice in the face of increasing militarization of the police and continuing racist practices.
Linked to this must be a call for our political representatives to stand up like Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Karen Bass and demand and pursue policies that achieve justice, security and dignity-respecting treatment for Mrs. Pinnock and us in this and other critical issues. But also, we know that the demand for justice and security from police violence and dignity-respecting treatment is at the same time a call to ourselves to commit ourselves to the struggle to achieve these social and human goods. It is a covenant with ourselves, our ancestors and future generations, not to be brittle or break, not to sell-out or surrender, not to be dispirited or deterred, but to wage this and our larger struggle with strength, dignity, determination and victorious consciousness, knowing that the righteous requirements of heaven and history demand that we dare not do otherwise.
Dr.Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies,California State University-Long Beach;
Executive Director, African American Cultural Center(Us);Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family,Community and Culture and Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition, www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org;www.MaulanaKarenga.org.FROM MARIMBA ANI
