What people don't understand because of the way the Civil Rights era has been mythologized

What people don’t understand because of the way the Civil Rights era has been mythologized

Was that in many cases, in addition to trying to get people to vote and organizing people for marches or other cases of Civil Disobedience

Most of the “civil rights” movement was organization of neighborhoods and people

To help each other. To help the poor.

To find jobs, to keep lights on, to feed children, to clothe children.

And adults.

Shut out of the system, shut down by the system, oppressed by the system

the NAACP and other local organizations or sometimes those notorious bussed in agitators, came with legal help and advice, workshops, training, food, skills

Sometimes just fucking money.

Money to help people get on their feet.

And sometimes, the results weren’t always positive.

White folks have one, never liked Black folks and they especially have never wanted to see us do well.

Add in the factor of “outsiders” and they were continuously losing their shit and ratcheting up the violence to put people in “their place”.

Build a house, they’d burn it down, get something new, they’d ruin it. Finally have funds to buy something, they’d deny you, maybe beat you up or take your money or over charge you.

Maybe they’d put the men in place by going around in groups to beat them up, usually to lynch and kill. Maybe they’d ride through neighborhoods, not dressed up as the notorious KKK, but just with their guns to teach them niggers their lesson.

On the few nights that in certain places Blacks were allowed in town, the White folks would show up with guns and hate and intimidation to ruin it, and they would show up in our bars and clubs and stores to do the same.

They would rape women, going to and from work, school girls, any woman to prove their point and put them in place.

It has always been their intention to break us.

And that’s why what we really do and what we really speak on is survival.

Once again, marching in the streets don’t mean shit when the folks you claim to support are starving, can’t pay their bills, and can’t join you because they have jobs they can’t leave.

Folks do realize in those early days when organizations realized folks couldn’t help them because of those things, they reached in their hearts and pockets and said, “We’ll pay you, we’ll feed your children” and things like that?

“We’ll watch your kids, we’ll teach your kids”

Folks don’t realize that.

The danger of the Black Panther movement was not only did they want to do those things, they added the element of self-defense.

The problem with the now sanitized and mythologized Civil Rights movement is, the danger was mostly large groups of agitated Blacks int he streets. It psychologically scared White people.

But with the self-defense aspect added, they really could not have potentially armed and knowledgeable negroes mobilizing.

The leaders of the Black Panthers were educated men who sought to pass that education on, our history, our place, a sense of pride.

If Marcus Garvey hadn’t been deported and hadn’t committed some financial foolery, they eventually would have killed him. And that’s the truth.

They did kill/jail/discredit the leaders of the Black Panther movement.

They continue to do this till this day, but now, since they’ve got the grips on the education of Black youth, they don’t have to do as much work to discredit, because they’ve got an army of Kool-Aid men to do it for them.

That and all their little child satellites spouting the “equality” rhetoric that holds no weight or water and isn’t based in reality.

Not every Black person from that era was “involved”, even as “involved” as conscious survival. Some Black folks turned their children away from those ideals purposefully because they didn’t see “survival” in it. Sometimes they throw their lot in with the enemy, figuring it is more “fortunate”. And the results are often terrible. Haven’t you seen those Sifu Kisu posts? It doesn’t matter if you grow up through it, there’s something about the conditioning of having White folks green light you continuously that poisons the heart and the mind.

Some Blacks really think they’re protected by all that White money, they really do. They don’t realize that they regard us as a dime a dozen and if they can find someone White to do it they surely will and that your ass is replaceable as soon as you make them mad.

“I just want work!”

“I just want money!”

“I just want…”

What Price a Soul, you decide.

We all have to decide.

That’s the lives we lead.

It’s a lot more than money or happiness.

It’s literally choosing to ignore a reality and a suffering and murder and genocide and rape and ruin and erasure

to throw your lot in with people who don’t want you, have never wanted you, and if they do “want” you its to fill your roll as a money maker, no matter how high you think you are.

I think Oprah is finding that out right now. Even Tyler Perry’s dumbass, despite his disfunctions, knows what would happen to his happy ass if he turned his powers and money to actual supporting and uplifting narratives. For now, he gets away with his Minstrel Mammy shows and the narrative they play against Black women. But if he turned into someone like Spike Lee? He’d always be scrambling for money, just like Spike Lee.

There are projects right here, talked about on Tumblr, by PoC being pulled down, torn down, set on fire because Whites don’t want you to have a lick of success, especially without them. Someone is on here saying, “I’ll make up what I have to!”

That’s how they’ve worked, that’s how they’ve always worked and when you point to their crimes and say, “Look and see!” they’ve got a whole system and network to tell YOU to shut up, to hush up, to rationalize and justify and okay it.

But don’t let you do it. Don’t let you begin to do it. And even if you don’t, even if you’re above board, even if everything is a row

The very fact that you’re a PoC means there’s something SUSPECT about it all.

So there’s no win.

There’s no win but to help each other and to defend each other and to clothe each other and to educate each other.

And that’s not to exclude those folks who actually do get it, who actually continue to learn (because it’s not a one note thing. There’s no test to pass and be in and stay in, you have to STAY learning and unlearning)

That’s not to discredit and dismiss the White folks who did help when we were or are hurt and while we’re still helping

But we sought to help each other first, we should seek to help each other first, we should be prepared for the timeless reaction which has been historically documented and literally happens every day when we choose to help each other or when we try to succeed without them.

I am always thankful to those who are sincere in their help, but I won’t truck with the chest pounders and the gold star winners and the cookie monsters. I won’t.

Those who live with a myth of what activism is or was and what are struggles are or were need to go away. Immediately. “Oh I know about the struggle!”

I’m sure you do, I’m sure you read about it every February First then forget about for 364 days.

So to end it, don’t ever tell us what we do or are not doing isn’t “true” activism when you’re on some warped white text book shit that says what is or what isn’t because definitions and actions have been set up and promoted to benefit them ONLY. The only actions they want you to engage in, them and their Kool-Aid men are those that help Whiteness and spread Kool-Aid smiles.

Put your hand over the cup and walk away.

No Orders at the Window: Unsolicited Life Stories

What people don’t understand because of the way the Civil Rights era has been mythologized

Notes