OPEN LETTER TO BLACK YOUTH AND STUDENTS IN REFERENCE TO THE MICHAEL BROWN, FERGUSON CASE From: Mwalimu Wesley Kabaila, Chair, CONGRESS OF AFRICAN PEOPLE; Editor in Chief, Sankofa Press Greetings and Hotep! I would like to humbly address this letter to Black Youth and Students, in particular, but also to all youth and students who have lent their support to the Movement for Justice in the matter of Michael Brown, of Ferguson Missouri. We all share in the loss of Mike with his family, as he was about to enter college 2 days after his assassination by a Ferguson police officer. This police officer snatched a valuable life from our family and community, and we know not, what worthy contributions he would have made in the building of our community, and/or the sustenance of his family. Another young black man taken from us too soon. I was moved to write this letter as a result of the many interviews I have seen on the Chris Hayes show (MSNBC) of community, youth and student activists who have come to Ferguson to engage in the marches on behalf of Justice for Michael Brown. America has a history of extending rights to all people, but denying those same rights to those not in the ruling race/class. The laws of this country are manipulated by an elite to serve their interests and the maintenance of privilege for the few over the many. Your righteous, just and determined actions in Ferguson over the last week have sought to change that equation and you give honor to those who have come before you, in the name Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Zora Neale Hurston, Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey. Today, you follow in the traditions they established to fight for human dignity, human worth, Self Determination and the inalienable rights of man. First, let me say a word about who I am, and what motivated me to write this Open Letter in this format. I was born Wesley Jenkins, named after my father, and to parents who thought they couldnt have children after ten years of marriage. My mother called me a miracle baby. Thus, I was raised as an only child in New York, then New Jersey. Around the time that I became a teenager, 12 or 13 yrs. old, I began seeing news broadcasts of demonstrations, sit-ins and marches in the South. I knew what Jim Crow was from when my family traveled South for Family Reunions, and I would see the Colored Only signs, and I would ask my father why we couldnt stop in certain locations for restroom calls. I then, understood why my mother would cook up baskets of chicken so we wouldnt have to stop at restaurants for food. So, at that young age, I began to formulate an understanding of why my people were demonstrating in the South, but thought of it as being far removed from my experience. But then, in 1963, at the age of 15, some of my friends and I boarded buses leaving New York City bound for Washington, DC, and the March on Washington. I remember our amazement at the number of buses headed in the same direction to the same event down the Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes. We met many other young people at the rest stops. This single event began to transform my consciousness, along with the Birmingham Church bombing, and the murder of Emmett Till. These events led me to leave the mostly white school I attended in NJ, and do my last year of High School and an all black boarding school (Laurinburg Institute) in North Carolina, giving up football scholarships and all. After attending an HBCU, Tennessee State, for my first year of college, I left to come to California to finish school. After only a few short months, I joined the Black Cultural Nationalist, Us Organization, headed by Dr. Ron Karenga, the founding organization of the holiday, Kwanzaa. I became Chair of its Student Affairs Committee, and later became its Vice Chair, Head of Security, and the Head of its Simba Wachanga (Swahili for Young Lions Youth Movement). I am currently Chair of the Congress of African People (CAP) and Chief of Staff, of the Friends of the African Union (FAU), Congresses. I share this background information with you, not out of any sense of vanity, but to attempt to demonstrate the great sense of pride and the depth of my respect for the demonstrations our youth of all strata are involved in to get Justice for Michael Brown and his family. As I listen to many of you, it is almost like looking in a time capsuled mirror. We used to call you Generation X cause noone knew what direction you were headed in. That moniker no longer applies. You are now, the generation which will take what my generation did, to the next level, from Civil Rights to Human Rights. When I see you articulating your positions so intelligently, forming unity bonds, holding Town Halls, providing security, maintaining order, forcefully asserting your rights, resisting the forces of oppression and racism, protecting women and children, and advocating for and asserting your basic human rights of Self Determination, I am overwhelmed and overjoyed with love and vindication for my own life. Many of my family and friends would ask why I lived the life I lived, which was full of sacrifice and dedication, but your actions today are the only answers needed, as we watch all of you stand firm for Michael and the Human Rights of our National Community. We should state here, also, that other communities around the country are standing in solidarity with you, from Harvard to Howard and Morehouse, from Los Angeles to Times Square in New York City. Your example does not stop at the borders edge, as you are now being watched and admired in Gaza, Ghana, South Africa, London, Paris, Barbados, Brazil, Columbia, Panama, West Papua, and the Virgin Islands. We also recognize the work you have done in preparation for this event in Jena and on behalf of Trayvon Martin and his family. I encourage all of you to become familiar with the Dredd Scott Decision and Missouri Compromise, both of which contributed to the start of the Civil War, and were enacted only miles from Ferguson. You are carrying the history of our Sacred Ancestors on your shoulders, and we as Elders in the Movement, applaud your actions. Please allow me to add, that your actions, like those in my generation, are founded on sound principles of Truth, Justice, Peace, Power, Unity and Self Determination. These are Righteous Principles which can be traced back to at least, 7000 years of the History of African Descended People. You are now standing up for the best tradition of what it means to be African and Human in the World. Your actions today, on behalf of Michael Brown, re-enforce the dignity and divinity of the African Personality, as Franz Fanon wrote about. When you stand up for Freedom and Dignity, you bring all of Humanity closer for Full and Final Liberation, because you are a key people in a key country and our Liberation benefits All. You are warriors for Justice and the Restoration of Free and Just Society. America is an experiment, and has many contradictions, but there is still the chance for it to transform itself in order to fulfill its original promise. The work which all of you are doing in Ferguson today is a step in that direction. I would like to say a word also, about the nature of protest. This country prides itself by telling other countries abroad about the right to bring grievances to the government, but then, when its own citizens decide to exercise that right, it seeks to find every means it can to restrict, repress and is some cases, deny that right to its own citizenry. I/We are proud to see every strata of our Youth Cadres coming and working together for a common cause, in spite of the powers that be who seek to divide you, by calling one element criminal. In America, it cannot be criminal to protest, and to seek redress of historical wrongs, By Any Means Necessary. What is criminal is to continue on a daily basis to gun down our unarmed youth on streets all across this country. What is criminal is to bring an armored vehicle with a 50 caliber machine gun atop to threaten and terrorize protesters who are throwing rocks. What makes this scenario any different from Gaza or Soweto? Lest we forget who trained and supported these State Terrorists. But, be not dismayed. The strategy and tactics we use today have greatly expanded. The end game is not merely to protest, as the powers that be would have their audience believe. Todays protest are not just limited to a redress of grievances. They become part of a process of what we call, in the movement, Capacity Building, i.e. they expand the opportunity for our people to occupy key areas of Social Space, which we as a Community, need to thrive, grow and develop. The protests of today are part of the process of breaking the umbilical chord of dependentcy, which characterized past movements. The clarion cry of the day, is Nation Building, where we, as a National Community, seek to build new industries indigenous to our community, engage in economic empowerment projects and programs, are determined to control and chart our own destiny, to always honor our ancestors, to maximize Unity in our Community, to build the links which Unite our Pan African Family, to solidify the relationships with allies of all shades and strata, and to make a better life for our children and families. So, dont get it twisted. Today is not yesterday, and todays marchers are not the same as those of yesteryear. Their is a New Black Man and Women on the horizon, who are proud, intelligent, conscious of their historical role, and who are preparing to step on the Stage of Human History, as Free, Proud and Productive People, ready to take their future into their own hands and hearts. It is in this context, that I would submit, that the motto for the day should be, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE!!!!! We as Elders, are in the process of putting in place a framework which will not only protect you, but also, allow you to grow, develop and flourish and continue to build on the kind of history which you are making today. We are committed to leave a structure and legacy for your generation to build on. You are proving yourselves worthy of such a legacy, as our foreparents did for us. I encourage all of you to look into your African Personality and find the beauty revealed there. Seek to build a New World with new and innovative ideas, which challenge conventional wisdom. Study the thought and practices of your Ancestors, current and ancient, and learn the lessons they left, and seek to emulate the best of them in the formation of a New World, and New Africa, and New African People. Michael Brown has made all of us take pause and re-calibrate our thinking and actions, to redefine our strategies and tactics, goals and aspirations. These are suggested ways on honoring the best in Michael Brown, Renisha, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, and those we havent mentioned. The Co-Vice Chair of the Congress of African People, Zakiya Penny, and resident of St. Louis, is right there with you and giving us daily and weekly updates. Continue to make those of us who have now become Elders, Proud. We Love and Cherish you! We Support you!!! And your spirit lifts our hearts with each passing Sunrise and Sunset, and the Ancestors join as we close this Open Letter, In Peace and Power!!!! Ase, Hotep MK 81814
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 04:49:44 +0000