In My Backyard. . . Poverty in D.C.

The following is an assignment we had to write for class. We were to think about poverty in the neighborhoods that we come from and write a loose three pages on it.

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The current situation of the Black population in the United States is a dire one. Black people in this country constitute one of the most impoverished and oppressed sections of the society, it has been the story since their inception into this country as exploited labor used to build the foundation of the world power. Over 400 years later the status of Blacks representing a large source of free labor still remains the same. The only difference is that in the present situation the brutal system of slavery has been replaced with the prison industrial complex, of which Black people, men in particular, make up between 43 -50%. Many may assert reasons, such as a “criminal culture”, as to why this staggering statistic is in existence but most fail to satisfy logic. Blacks make up 12% of the United States population, and thus for there to be such a clear disproportionate amount of African Americans behind bars seems unexplainable to most until they take into account the other factors that govern the lives of African Americans, such as their positioning in the society. Blacks, due to a specific historical development which includes tremendous racism supporting capitalist exploitation, make up an overwhelming part of the excess labor in this country. This means that Black Americans find themselves more vulnerable to the repressive arm of the state for a number of factors, including but not limited to participation in the informal economy, and police racism. The governing body’s neglect is also blatant and serves to continue to impoverish and demobilize the Black community of D.C. No where is this more visibly seen than in Washington D.C, which has been deemed by many Black leftists as “A Piece of South Africa on the Potomac”. Washington D.C. is a microcosm of the plight facing Blacks in the inner cities of the United States.

The city of Washington D.C. is plagued with many problems all due to a lack of concern and attention shown by the governing body of the area. This all contributes to the criminalization of Blacks, especially youth and their often oppressive encounters with the state. In order to properly talk about the issue of state violence and imprisonment one must first start with some of the reasons why the African American population come into contact with the courts and police in the first place. This leads us to the education system. In D.C, 51% of the adult Black population holds high school diplomas and 2% of the school age population is truant, which is a high percentage. This may be jarring to those who remember that D.C. spends 11,269$ per pupil, among the highest in the nation.  However, the notoriously lax enforcement of truancy laws, rapid closing of public schools and changes in the personal lives of lower income students, due to various reasons for unstable households, leads to a rather significant truancy rate. We know, based on the research done on “tracking”, those children who are less successful in school on average have the spectre of the prison industrial complex looming in their future. However, school is not the sole factor in the increasing tensions and clashes of the Black population, which makes up 52%, of D.C. and the city’s law enforcement.

D.C. is also a city, like most in the country, which is undergoing a large amount of gentrification, meaning that a lot of public housing is being removed and the land is being sold to private contractors. In many cases, these spaces are filled by expensive condominiums. This translates to the rapid removal of the vibrant, predominantly Black, working class of D.C. Often times these new settlements of young, mostly middle class whites, professionals come through the collaboration between government and business. Adrian Fenty, recently ousted mayor, approved  100 million dollars in city contracts without the approval of the city council. This was in addition to the Housing Authority making a 6 million dollar deal with Banneker Ventures which is owned by Omar Karim, a fraternity brother of Fenty. This is all relevant when you look at the severe number of Blacks moved out of the city, about 2500 per year by last estimate. This all has an adverse effect on the lives of African Americans in the district, especially youth, whose lives are in a state of chaos. Couple this with the rising unemployment rates, of which Blacks make up 51%, and you have a perfect storm brewing. Alienated and ousted, many Black youth don’t find themselves with the opportunity to be able to fit into the romantic image of the teen with a steady job on their way to becoming a decent citizen.

In large, the Black citizens of D.C. make up a surplus of labor, meaning that many Black people are not working to reproduce profit for the corporations or city and cannot work because they find themselves out of the pool of eligibility, either through qualifications, or racism. This makes them more vulnerable to the one place that can extract profit from them; the prison system. The criminalization of the Black residents of Washington D.C. is something that is constant. One thing that most Black youth in D.C. can count on is the fact that they will encounter the police at least once in their adolescent lives, with the encounter usually being negative. The D.C. police department, which led the nation in the 90’s in murders of residents, has a long history of abuse. Most recently, police chief, Cathy Lanier, led the department on into direct confrontation with the community through the “All Hands on Deck” program. This program had nearly the entire 4,000 person department on the streets serving warrants, questioning residents, and patrolling the streets. To those unfamiliar with the long history of violence done to the Black community at the hands of the police, this may seem like a great idea to curve seemingly random, unreasonable violence. However, the antagonisms between the predominately foreign, in the geographical sense- most of the police serving in the D.C. area are from neighboring states, white officers and the oppressed Black populations have often spilled over into more senseless violence. Recently, the parents of 27yr old Kellen White have filed suit against the DCPD for shooting Kellen 12 times at a traffic stop, parents allege that he was unarmed. This incident highlights the common phenomenon of police brutality. For those who do leave these encounters with their lives, the court system is the next stop.

The court system in Washington D.C., which by default is a federal court system with appointed judges and prosecutors due to D.C.’s lack of statehood, prosecutes hundreds of Black residents a day. Most of these people are here because of non violent drug offenses. Many of these lives fall forfeit to the will of the court which more often than not shows little to no mercy to them. Many Black lives are lost to the prison industrial complex. Once inside the belly of the beast, many Black inmates still find themselves fighting for survival. D.C. inmate deaths usually double the normal average of those in the nation with the national average being 145 deaths per every 100,000 prisoners. D.C. inmate deaths usually average around 315 deaths per every 100,000 prisoners. Even more disturbing is the fact that these inmates mostly die from illnesses such as HIV/Aids. In 2008, Washington D.C. reported to have some 15,120 residents living with the virus and of that number 81% were African American. One can assume this number is so tremendously high because of inadequate education, social stigma around homosexuality and a lack of accessibility of medicine. Thus for many, these prisons also serve as a final stop.

We have seen in epic fashion the failure of non-profit organizations when it comes to organizing serious class resistance in the face of severe state oppression. As crisis deepens and the Black population in D.C, both employed and not, see new levels of exploitation and gentrification, the old workings of the non-profits seem all too irrelevant. This is not to say that the non-profits at work in the District are waste. Quite the contrary, in lieu of strong revolutionary organizations that are capable of supporting the people’s needs, the non-profits do good work for the people. The limitation comes in the funding and theoretical base of the organizations. By their very nature non-profits are instruments of the state because they depend on the state to exist and are thus used by the state in times of crisis to pacify the population and feed children bourgeois dreams. In Oakland California, many have criticized the non profits, in the area, of stagnating youth militancy and criminalizing the elements of the Oakland youth who seek channels of struggle that go beyond one day rallies and speak outs about the very real fact that they are being murdered in the streets by the dogs of the state; the OPD (Oakland Police Dept.). In D.C. the rhetoric of being a “good citizen” is dogmatically applied by the mostly after school program based non-profits. Images of youth Black children with “kept” hair (meaning no afros and if you’re boys no hair at all) in suits permeate every flyer or glossy poster, directly attacking the self worth and value Black youth have in their natural appearance and their neighborhoods. This intersection of race based and class oppression hit home and serves to begin the self-demonization of the Black child.

At first look, the sheer amount of obstacles that stand in the way of the oppressed, in the task of creating for them a better existence, seem to be too much to surmount.  However it is necessary to know and understand your conditions before you can make any attempt to change them. When looking at the issues that plague the Black community of Washington D.C. one thing becomes all too clear; organizing to combat these issues cannot come through the same oppressive state apparatus that oppresses the organizers. It is necessary for the people to build their own independent organizations that are committed to education and action. There are plenty of examples of communities organizing independent of the state in order to affect change. Two shining examples that come to mind are the Young Lords from New York and the Black Panther Party based in Oakland, California. Both groups worked with and in the communities they came from to build dual power structures that could challenge the oppressive politicians and businessmen. In addition to that, not all of the Black population of D.C. is completely removed from the working class. There is still a solid base of Black workers in the city that can effect further change through workplace action. Walk offs and strikes have proven to be amongst the strongest tools in the arsenal of working people.

For many African Americans in Washington D.C. the governing body and police force represent manifestations of oppression and exploitation. The population is rendered politically helpless by the lack of political power within the Black community. Blacks in D.C, like many other places in the United States represent a large part of the population that is excess labor and thus, under capitalism, an obstacle to the functioning of the machine both because of the lack of profit being generated and the time this section has to sit and reflect on their positioning and grow more militantly discontent. This is where the violent arm of the state comes in through incarceration. We exist in a profit driven world where the accumulation of capital comes first and people second. However, there is hope in the fact that people can and will always organize against the oppression they face daily.

Conversations in the park

She was like the city itself, broken from a lifetime of struggle, barely standing. Yet, there was still a fire there, still a spark of revolution in her eye. As she spouted pseudo Black nationalist rhetoric, mixed with a tinge of astrology and conspiracy, I was overcome with a strong sense of grief. It was obvious that she had been using some kind of substance, that the ills of Reagan’s final blow to Black radicalism were flowing through her veins. Still, there was a fiery determination in her speech, a need to educate and liberate, a need to get free. Like the city, itself, she was broken and devastated from waging a battle against the state and yet, despite loosing, she soldiered on. She was Oakland.

Oakland is a city shaken from struggle. The increased pig presence reminds the onlooker that there is a deep fear of the population. This is the city that spawned the Black Panther Party, after all. This is the city that dared to stand against the fascist and demand liberation. The people of Oakland stand on the legacy of the Panther’s war with the White capitalist state apparatus. And though they were ultimately defeated there is still the residue of struggle here. It’s in the air. The children know they stand on hallowed ground, and every pseudo revolutionary from Riverside to Richmond VA is dying to come set up shop in the former base of the revolution. This is the city whose ports were shut down by the militant longshoremen in protest of Apartheid in South Africa, this is the city where the last general strike in US history was held, this is Oakland. And sadly like many sites of former battle it has walking wounded.

This womyn brought out both pride and grief in me, simultaneously. She was the perfect example of what happens when one gives their all to an organization believing that their every move is bringing revolution closer, only to have the rug yanked violently and suddenly from underneath. Like many rank and file ex-panthers she probably succumb to the onslaught of drugs in the 80′s and without enough focus on developing the rank and file theoretically by the organization, fell into confusion and disarray after the party’s destruction. But still, equipped with her pamphlets and rhetoric, she marches on, an army of one. Not all of the heroes from the 60′s can be found photographed on the shiny pages in the middle of long self-important autobiographies. Many of them are walked past daily, many found singing songs of revolution to themselves on the BART, asking for change. This system may have won the battle against them, stripping them of public dignity, but the spirit of revolution still burns bright in many of them. Still yearns to get free and set the world ablaze.

I have lived in the Bay Area for 5 years and Oakland for a few months and it has been one of the richest experiences of my life to be here, to develop politically here, to experience love, loss, struggle and strife here. There is no place like it. This meeting, although filled with mixed feelings, affirmed that for me.

If Ridge. St Could Talk: Casual Blog 1

So last night I went to an event in West Oakland, a forum of sorts. Usually I am not a forum type of person because they bore and aggravate me to no end. Alot of the big political organizing bodies tend to put on these forums that usually end with the endorsement of some whack candidate for some office, and to top it off they usually cost. People who know me know that I am forever trying to find “free” events because I am broke, and that I hate to be in places that are filled with people who annoy me, so needless to say, I usually don’t go to these forums/ talks.

This one, however, was different. First off it was free, so you know a brotha was already hooked. Secondly, it was being put on by people in my political milieu, who are not creepy and off putting, like most other shower deprived revolutionaries trying to sell you a newspaper. =) Anyway, I need to be talking about this event!

So the event was all about the role of the Black Panther Party in Labor struggles (or lack thereof). Interesting right? I know. And it was basically, a former member of the New York branch of the Panthers running down some history and his thoughts on the group. Alot of the stuff I already knew about the Panthers. For example: the fact that they were an organization made up primarily of young men (16-19) who gained inspiration from Malcolm X and third world/ anti-imperialism struggles and who sought to bring about Black Liberation in this country.

The talk got interesting when the speaker began to talk about one of the key problems with the Panthers being their romantic relationship with those who would be called the lumpen-proletariat. For those of you who don’t know what that means, lemme break it down. In base Marxist theory, the proletariat are the revolutionary class, the class of people that will bring about the revolution to over throw Capitalism. They are the working class of people, those who are responsible for making society run, producing commodities, etc. . . They are revolutionary because of their proximity to the means of production and their alienation/ oppression under Capitalism by the ruling class which owns the means of production and wealth of society. The contradiction being that if organized the working class, the proletariat, could completely over throw the system as is and instead run it for themselves, communally. (Anyway that ain’t what this is about) SO. . . the lumpen-proletariat (which roughly translates to “depressed worker”) are those who would be involved in the informal economy or those who are more or less in some instances parasites on the working class. ie Pimps, & DBoys and homeless people & prostitutes (the last two not so much parasites) The speaker suggested that one of the prime problems with Panther pedagogy was the chose of the Panthers to be organizers of the lumpen primarily, which is why you don’t see so much labor struggle going on.

He went on to say that one of the problems with organizing the lumpen is that they are not in the position to create revolution in this country, the lumpen do not have the relationship with the means of production, with the bourgeoisie to over throw capital. He also suggested that part of the party’s gang like mentality, which led to alot of unhealthy internal behavior came from their “lumpenism” as he called it.

The speaker also made the interesting point that, like many other groups in the 60′s, the Panthers came about with no real guidance from the “old left” (thanks red scare) and bypassed reading Marx, instead cheerleading Third World anti-imperialism struggles and guerrilla warfare.

Criticisms aside we did begin to talk about how the Panthers were key in organizing and working with workers at a Nummi plant and helping them to go on strike, this being a part of history that is often overlooked and ignored. All and all it was an interesting discussion, I would say more but I am feeling my midday nap come on a little early and I have run out of notes.

Crunch.

May Our Coals Turn To Diamonds. . .

one piece of metal. . .

I am often in awe at the way in which society values one life over another. I am often silenced that our country can lead a man hunt for a lost white womyn in a South American country and yet barely give a 7 year old Black girl killed by invading pigs more than five minutes on the evening news. I am stunned that a White transit officer, caught on film shooting an unarmed Black man in the back as he lies face down on a platform, will most likely serve under six years in the prisons of Amerikkka. I understand that the system is set up this way. I should by now because these things happen daily. Lives are lost and names are never given the chance to be forgotten daily. But, if I weren’t affected, I believe that would be a bigger issue.

The murder of Oscar Grant, an Oakland youth, by White transit officer Johannes Mehserle on the morning of Jan 1, 2009 served as a wake up call for me. It took me out of the Obama induced haze that I was in and cemented me back into the real world. It brought things back into perspective for me tenfold and I heard the a voice in my head speak loud and clear “Having the President of the United States change color means little to nothing.”

We know that the United States sits at the head of  a capitalist, racist, sexist, homophobic society that expresses itself mostly through violence and oppression. Thus, changing the color of the president is like sweeping leaves on a windy day, you ain’t accomplishing shit. True change comes through revolution, through the revolutionary restructuring of this society so that it works for all and not just the few, the bourgeoisie.

Grant, like many Black youth represented a thorn in the side of the White Capitalist power structure. The working class Black population in this country, due to it’s historical developing, represents a giant surplus in the labor needed to make the system function, and is thus more profitable in the eyes of the capitalist in the prison industrial complex and the military. This means their is a vast amount of this population that Capitalism in this country has no where to place in the work force. Many who opt out of those two options and choose to resist and rebel may as well paint targets on their backs. Because we exist in a system that has almost little to no place for Blacks in this country it thus becomes necessary to police the community because the contradictions of this decadent society are more apparent to them, meaning the line between the haves and the have nots is more clear in the eyes of many Black people in this country. Although, in many cases Black people have not yet chosen to abandon all hope in this system for various reasons, but the nature of this system, I would still wager, is very clear in the mind of most Black people. This means that the potential to organize and develop resistence then becomes greater in these communities and they represent a real threat to the State and to the White Capitalist power structure. It now becomes necessary for the State to rain down with extreme force. This is why we see the extreme numbers of Blacks incarcerated, many of which for trumped up charges or non violent drug offences (using drugs that were implanted into the communities in the first place mind you.). This is why you see the occupation of the ghetto by the police reach terrifying heights. The State must control the population and it does this primarily through a police force armed with racist ideology.

The State, under Capitalism, cannot function, without the ills of racism, sexism and the like. It would be impossible, for if it weren’t for these forces the working people would rise and take the means of production and make the system run for them, they would in effect overthrow Capitalism. Police, the foot soldiers of the State, are usually for a similar social economic background, they are usually white and middle class. Meaning those who’s position in society makes them more prone to the ills of racism, are usually those who serve as officers. The hit the community armed with guns and racism, and we see this in the harassment and murder of Blacks. We see this in the murder of Sean Bell, the Black New Yorker shot with over 20 times by the fascist pigs of the NYPD. We see this in the the murder of Ayana Jones, the 7 year old Black girl, shot in the throat by Detroit pigs storming her house guns blazing. And we see this in the murder of Oscar Grant, the Oakland youth pinned down and executed by a BART transit officer. The Pigs, under the guidance of the State, suppress Blacks through any means necessary and they do so in many instances acting on racist ideals. They do so in many instances acting on the fear and disdain of Black people society has embedded in them. They do so in many instances acting on the disregard society has taught them to have for the Black community and Black lives. They do so in many instances acting on the superiority complex given to them by the badge. The cycle of murder is vicious and seems never ending and most assuredly will be under this system and in the absence of serious revolutionary organizing by the Left in general and the Black Left specifically.

The Grant case, however, is unique in the fact that it was caught on film. The film sparked more outrage than a mere word of mouth ever would. People, wherever they were, could tune into the brutality and this served as a catalyst for outrage, and in the early weeks of January people rioted in downtown Oakland. Though not on the same scale as the sometimes romanticized riots of the 60′s, the outrage was still evident, the message clear. People are tired of this blatant disregard for what is preached but never practiced by this heartless system; common humanity and dignity. This outrage was what pushed the State to put Mehserle, the transit officer, on trial.

Months later, days before this post, a jury in LA (without a single Black on it) decided that Mehserle was guilty of involuntary manslaughter, effectively slapping the murderous transit pig on the wrist. That night, with the anticipation of riot in the air, non profit organizations in Oakland held a peaceful rally. Throughout this rally, which was surrounded by riot police, the non profits encouraged people to speak but continued to spread the State sponsored message of pacification, urging people not to riot. Never once in this rhetoric were the more serious issues of State violence addressed, instead the destruction of property owned by outside companies that help to gentrify and exploit the working people of Oakland was shunned as a means of expressing anger at the verdict. Property destruction cannot be and should never be equated the murder of Oscar Grant the way it was during this rally. Nonetheless, the rally continued without addressing any issues relevant to further organization beyond Grant. It astounds me that never once was the presence of the riot police at a peaceful assembly addressed, nor were the issues of extreme poverty, police brutality, environmental racism, red lining, inadequate schools, housing and food (which are the real ways in which the State violence manifest daily in the lives of Oaklanders). During one speech it was almost implied that the murder of Grant was justified by saying that Blacks invite police violence by being violent towards one another.

Two things became strikingly clear to me during this rally. The first being the true role of the non profit in this society. The non profits serve as the right hand of the State in many ways. They provide services that should be provided by the Government and thus gain community support and reduce the pressure from below on the State and when events like this happen they use that community support to pacify and demobilize the community by channelling righteous energy into the wrong channels. Legislation has rarely brought about the change needed by the oppressed in this society, because to change society in a way that benefitted all would be a revolution, meaning the overthrow of the racist capitalist bourgeois state. The non-profits also, in these moments, seek to insult and vilify the youth and working class of Oakland by claiming that those who riot are committing an assault against the community and must be guided by outside forces (in this case it is usually White anarchist who are blamed). The second thing made clear to me was the need for serious organizing in the Black community independent of the non profits. It is clear that the bodies present in the political scene are not adequate, and haven’t been in a long time, for challenging the rhetoric of the non profit State puppets. The people of this country in general, and the Black people in specific, are in need of new revolutionary bodies that can work in conjunction with them to develop strategies that can win under the pressure of the capitalist state.

The riot that broke out was much larger than the ones that occurred originally. One of the popular events of the riot has been the looting of the downtown Footlocker. Despite seeking to vilify and take away all agency from the youth that were involved in the riot, the media also, as in previous incidents, has sought to take the political content out of the rioting and portray it merely as a giant playground for criminals. The rioting and looting of Footlocker represents more than just youth wanting to gain a new pair of Jordans. It represents the youth of Oakland striking out against a symbol of the companies the exploit and gentrify the working class Oakland community. The riot expanding hitting other stores such as Sears and Tullys coffee and like all riots it was eventually ended, which begs the question; “What’s next?”

If we want the murder of Oscar Grant to not be in vain and meaningless, we must use it as a point of further mobilization. As the economic crisis deepens, the crisis in the Gulf heightens, and global political struggle rises we will see more acts like Arizona’s racist SB1070 law and more Oscar Grants. Reaction racism always accompanies crisis, usually it is used by the Right to rally the working class white population in this country (as we can see with the Tea Party and the “take America back” rhetoric). So if we are to mobilize around this, and not let Oscar Grant become another in a long list of those killed by the State without critical fight back we need to organize. It is clear that the non-profits and the majority of groups in play cannot properly address the coming crisis and the struggle that will follow. It is time for new revolutionary pedagogy, which includes working with the working class and not speaking to it from an empty high ground. Their needs to be a real effort to work with the communities of people effected by this crisis and to organize not only along the lines of single issues but to raise questions about the system as a totality, to bring up how we can strike a blow to the system in a real way. The gauge of success in struggle is always, in my opinion, the number of people that come out of the struggle politicized and connected. So far the majority of organizing bodies have not been able to connect in a real way to the communities they claim to fight for and thus have this paternal position in relation to them. This stands in direct contrast to what needs to happen, organizers creating more organizers through horizontal community building and consciousness raising. As things deepen and working people are pressured more and more we may see more resistance from working people in the form of strikes. Connecting the two seemingly different struggles, strikes that come in solidarity oppressed communities or strikes led by people of those communities, people who are close to the means of production and are responsible for making the gears of society turn, are a start. In a system dominated by capital, fighting back means attacking the flow of capital, which working people control. It’s time that we use the disgust we have and channel it in the direction of a strategy that can win. For Oscar, For Ayana. For Sean. And for all oppressed people.

Crunch.