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.

Musings on Art, “Culture”, & Revolution

Nina Simone’s “Young Gifted and Black” a political anthem of affirmation

I want to issue a call out to all artists, revolutionaries, and anyone else who seeks to affiliate themselves with the class struggle. The heading will read: “URGENT!!! Class Struggle Seeks Culture.” Thoughts surrounding the absence of any critical amount of organic art and the lack of any kind of synthesis of the so-called elements of “culture” into the class struggle hae been racing through my mind.

Class struggle is apart of and comes from the cultures of the oppressed but for some reason leftists and ethnocrats have drawn lines in the sand between the two. It has become a tendency in the left to mock cultural events as being non political, when, in my opinion, the expression of culture that differs and establishes its independence under white supremacy is political because it strikes against the very structure that seeks to assimilate it. It’s true, at times strong class struggle politics that seek to organize along more radical, and less “beg the man” lines, are missing and this is a very crucial element. However, the outright absence of the so-called “left” in these spaces does nothing but contribute to this void.

It also follows, that there has become a habit amongst the ethnocrats, and by ethnocrat I mean the large bodies that organize around ethnicity with very dogmatic lines on what is and what isn’t, to ignore more radical class struggle politics. The line of it being a “white man’s thing” in reference to Marxist tradition is often used. And emphasis is placed on finding and creating something of “our own”. The main problem being that if one does not call out and attempt to strike at the nature of capital itself than true liberation cannot happen seeing as though the pillars of capitalism, racism, and sexism all hold up the same house. Striking at one pillar while seeking to preserve the others does not truly serve the cause.This brings us to the core of the empty rhetoric; there is no class consciousness. This comes as a result of lack of exposure to revolutionary text and people or an outright rejection of the contributions to class struggle by Marx and Lenin stemming, in most cases, from a reaction to the vicious racism of the White Capitalist system of the United States. Thus anything “White” is bad. Fred Hampton once stated the following:

people joining the BPP from a background of poverty might not understand the ultimate goal of “a communistic state”. Without political education, those who joined the party because they “wanted something”, would find themselves wanting more. This would lead the revolutionary movement to capitalism, and “before you know it, you’ve got Negro imperialists”.

These two diametric trains of thought provide us with no real path toward people’s liberation because they are missing one another. In the White Supremacist power structure, it is crucial that oppressed people of color reclaim what has been viciously stolen from them, what the system has attempted to beat out of them. Culture informs us, it informs the steps we take and contributes to the creativity and strength of the coming revolution. In the same vein, the contributions to revolutionary thought and action must all be looked at equally and used accordingly. If we are to say that we are about people’s revolution then we cannot lock ourselves into one dogmatic corner of the human experience.

On a similar topic, but maybe not quite, I began talking about the lack of a strong and organic output of art that compliments and a accompanies the movement. I am immediately reminded of Emory Douglas, of the Black Panthers, in the 60′s and 70′s. In an interview Douglas spoke about how the party would make scans of his art and hang them in the streets, on fences and everywhere else as a means of bringing the bourgeois art show concept into the street and of agitation. Music, and image have the power to touch people in a way that not a million words can because they strike at the being of a person, they touch at the “spirit” if you will.

A piece by Douglas

However, looking at the current situation one can see on the horizon a time when this type of renaissance will make a resurgence. If history shows us anything, it is that the majority of the art community becomes political when the conditions intensify to a degree that cannot be ignored.

One of my favorite poems about police brutality.

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.

The Audacity of Her Black Ass

The following cross-post is from one of our favorite blogs over here at ordoesitexplode and actually an inspiration for us. The folks over at http://sonofbaldwin.blogspot.com always add the needed critique and spice to current events and art. Months ago, when the immensely talented Erykah Badu set the country a blaze with her video for the song “Window Seat” she also brought to the fore front an issue most Americans subconsciously act on but are usually blind to on a conscious level: the policing of the Black body and sexuality. When Badu, acting of her own agency and on artistic instincts, stripped nude in public for the video she met harsh criticism and some admiration.  In addition to Badu, you can see this in the fact that singer Ciara’s music video “Ride” was banned when it was just three minutes of the singer dancing suggestively to the track. Contrast this to the constant barrage of womyn, as props we get daily in videos. And we’re not just limiting ourselves to discussing Hip Hop videos, which everyone loves to point at, following in the tried and true tradition of targeting and blaming the more oppressed layers of society for the ills that help to move the capitalist machine.

It is also especially important to note that Badu is a Black womyn. Her ethnicity cannot be left out of the discussion when we are talking about the courage and spectacle of it all. It is an extra strike to the sexist, white supremacist capitalist system and one that the system has conditioned the people to retaliate even harder against.

I always find it interesting to see this country debate expressions of sexuality and nudity in general because of the contradiction this country has with sexuality in general. While amerikkka is extremely scared of it’s own sex it is also a culture that oozes sex from every pore. The blatant exploitation and commodification of the female body is as amerikkan as apple pie. Only when the female owns her sexuality and has agency in it does amerikkka have a problem.

Without further delay, here is an except from the article followed by a link to the entire thing:

You would think that she murdered someone.

Actually, no. If she had murdered someone, we wouldn’t have batted an eyelash. We would have expected that and, therefore, would have accepted it. But because she exposed her body—specifically those parts we’ve determined are “dirty”—she’s considered “indecent.” We live, after all, in a world that exalts violence and demeans sexuality.

http://sonofbaldwin.blogspot.com/2010/04/fear-of-black-pussy.html

If Ridge St Could Talk II: To The Lumpen Mass. . .

* lumpen= people who aren’t working class or the bourgeoisie. The lower class ie prostitutes, pimps, dboys, etc. . .

I was recently in a discussion with some friends about the lumpen proletariat and their place in the over all revolution against Capitalism. One of my friends, an activist in the homeless rights struggle was at odds with another of my friends because he diss the lumpen, claiming that they have no place in the revolution. I said the following

It’s really interesting because I agree and disagree with Huey and the Panthers on this point. Organizing oppressed communities, in particular Black and Brown ones, means your going to be dealing with the Lumpen. And I agree with Huey that they need to be placed inside of the thought of bringing about revolution under capitalism. Marx analysis was based and limited to the time he lived in, he did not project into the future and so his analysis of the lumpen follows the same way. What constitutes the lumpen now is very different and Boone is right in his aggression towards certain parts of the Lumpen. Huey himself said that certain parts of the Lumpen couldn’t be organized such as pimps. It is very difficult growing up in a place where you are surrounded by pimps, prostitutes, DBoys etc. . . I know when I was growing up I developed a hostility towards them and still harbor ill feelings (it’s hard not to when people are selling poison to their own, you know and your immediate family are victims of that) However, I am trying to always remember that I hate this system, which has produced the lumpen, more. That people are shaped by their conditions. Another interesting point that I picked up speaking to an ex panther the other day was how detrimental the Panthers being the party devoted to organizing the lumpen was. The Ex Panther was saying, and I agree, that the working class is the only class that can bring about revolution under the Capitalist system because of their relations to the ruling class and the means of production. Thus, the working class is the revolutionary class. Marx was right on this, however I agree that it is essential that we start a new pedagogy that has a place for the lumpen, they are the most effected by this Capitalist system in many ways. And if we are talking about updating the Left and making it relevant well. . .

It’s funny cause this all started with me reciting a lyric from a Digable Planets song. “To the lumpen mass. . .”