The Blazing Arrow Organization was formed to organize poor and people of color communities in Portland to resist gentrification and police violence. All of the work highlighted on this website was organized by BAO unless otherwise stated. The Revolution starts at home!
Home Defenders
New video from B Media Collective about the housing justice movement in Portland, Oregon.
Every day, more than 100 people are involved in this fight for housing justice in Portland. The economic crisis, combined with aggressive “urban renewal” and police pressure on working communities, and especially the Black community, has dislocated many working families. On May 1st, 2012, people around Portland came together to reclaim a foreclosed home and begin a movement fighting to 1.) End evictions 2.) Take back empty homes for those who need them.
Support Housing Justice Activists, Pack the Courtroom!
What: Pack the courtroom for Genevieve, Itztli, and Dustin!
When: Tuesday, April 23 — Arrive by 8:45, hearing begins at 9am
Where: Multnomah County Courthouse Plaza Blocks (Occupy Park)
Banks and developers see our homes as a vehicle for profit, but we know that housing is a human right. We all need stable shelter in order to survive. The Portland housing justice movement stands for building community by winning housing for all people, regardless of ability to pay. We have been publicly fighting back against the banks, developers, and their state protectors for more than a year—successfully keeping families in their homes.
We have been victorious because we work together against injustice. Now, the Portland Police and Multnomah County Sheriff are pressing charges against members of our movement. We need your support more than ever.
Join us on Tuesday, April 23rd, to show support for Genevieve Goffman, Dustin Hawks, and Itztli Nexcoyotl, as they face charges for their part in the housing justice movement.
“The POC umbrella is not an excuse to disavow the ways we benefit from various racial structures and sit idly by as our communities reap advantages from racism towards other people of color.
Black-Asian solidarity in the US, for instance, is hard to find and it will continue to be difficult to build if we continue to use the uncritical ‘POC’ label. Rather, we can use ‘POC’ as a way of reflecting on our different racial histories and building coalitions in our struggles and their difference. POC is a term for building solidarity between movements, not a movement in itself. That distinction is important.”
From a recent article by the Fire Next Time revolutionary network, “Ten Theses on the U.S. Racial Order”:
“The category “people of color” will fail to cohere a revolutionary bloc, as it encapsulates too broad a range of racial groups, with widely varying experiences of racialization, lived material conditions, and relations with proletarian blacks” - http://firenexttimenetwork.org/2012/11/21/ten-theses-on-the-racial-order/
White supremacy in this society is built off of anti-blackness, and the racial power structure in this country was constructed off of the “settler-savage-slave” triangle. The economic structure of white supremacy is built on anti-blackness. Generations of non-white immigrants (Jews, Italians, Irish…) have assimilated into whiteness by mobilizing anti-blackness. I fear that Latin@s will also choose to assimilate into whiteness, unless they make a radical commitment to centering their indigenous and African roots, and a militant decolonization struggle.
Pathology of Patriarchy: A Search for Clues at the Scene of the Crime
by Sanyika Shakur (aka "Monster"- The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member)
“The great divide between humans and animals provided a standard by which to judge other people, both at home and elsewhere. If the essence of humanity was defined as consisting of a specific quality or set of qualities, such as reason, intelligible language, religion, culture, or manners, it followed that anyone who did not fully possess those qualities was “subhuman”. Those judged less than human were seen either as useful beasts to be curbed, domesticated, and kept docile, or as predators or vermin to be eliminated” (1)
We are learning as We go to recognize, overstand, isolate and deal with maladies as they arise, but have just begun to tie all these into the oppressive matrix of patriarchy as the origin of major ism’s that crush, kill, disrupt and destroy – as they oppress and exploit. It’s unfortunate, but We’re having to sometimes start from scratch every 30 or 40 years because We lack a continuity of consciousness in our struggle against capitalist – imperialism. And while issues of sexism have been dealt with in large part by women, it’s necessary We think to broaden the scope of the discussion of sexism to include homophobia and heterosexism. We are not in anyway, claiming to be experts on this issue. We are studying and struggling around the same things that most revolutionaries are – which is to say, We are looking for clues at the scene of the crime. Trying to connect the dots as they relate to individual, national and global oppression. We are, in essence, looking for ways to get free and stay free. Free, that is from all forms of oppression.
Here’s the thing, really, if people are being oppressed because of who they naturally are (and We know this to be true), which may not fit into a patriarchal gender box, then this is due to a “sex” (or gender) issue. So We feel this still covers sex-ism. In other words, that patriarchy (male dominated systems of oppression) create categories for people to fit into in order to exploit and oppress. Therefore, so-called genders then become classes. A class of men, the dominant – masculine, violent, god, father, king president, boss, etc. – and a class of women, the dominated – feminine, passive, holy ghost, homemaker, whore, etc. Oppression by “sex” is the oldest form of oppression on the planet. Older than institutionalized theocracies like Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Theocratic regimes institutionalized male dominant systems of oppression thru laws, state bureaucracies and social relations. In fact, men deal with women and children as they did livestock.
“Nowhere is patriarchy’s iron fist as naked as in the oppression of animals, which serves as the model and training ground for all other forms of oppression”. (2)
Pathological Progression of Patriarchy
Why is it necessary to speak about patriarchy if We are discussing homophobia? And, why begin with the oppression of women and children if this is about oppression of gender outlaws? Well, what We have to do is a bit of excavation – some radical anthropology, if you will, because the fact of the matter is, We know that things don’t fall from the sky or magically appear out of thin air. We are looking for connections, contradictions and from these We’ll be rewarded with the truth of origins and the internal dynamics in the life process of the thing. The “thing” in this particular study is oppression as manifested thru the system of patriarchy – which We contend is the origin of a vast array of other forms of oppression. Which is precisely why We brought in the domestication of animals. We are learning that the same techniques used to domesticate animals were also used in the colonization of women and children and eventually every culture they encountered. Breeding, birth control, castration, segregation, exploitation and mass murder were methods learned first on animals and then on humans. And there was always a symbiotic relationship of know-how used between the two areas of domestication of animals, including their mass killing for capitalist markets and the mass production of commodities, such as cars, in the development of capitalist industry:
“In his autobiography My life and Work (1922) Henry Ford revealed that his inspiration for assembly-line production came from a visit he made as a young man to a Chicago slaughterhouse. ‘I believe that this was the first moving line ever installed,’ he wrote, ‘The idea [of the assembly line] came in a general way from the overhead trolley that the Chicago packers use in dressing beef.’” (3)
Capitalism came out of patriarchy, but We know that it is not exclusive to capitalism. It was a good ol’ boy network before capitalism is recognized to have created modern classes. It was the same good ol’ boy network under soviet so-called “socialism” and it was a good ol’ boy network in the civil rights movement and to a large degree, in the Black Liberation Movement. Patriarchy positions itself above all as the reason, the answer and the solution – all to the detriment of women and children, but that’s not all. Patriarchy is a pervasive system of oppression that reaches far and wide into the minds and actions of all. It produces sexism, of course, but more insidiously it relies upon its victims to perpetuate and promote it. Again, there’s no magic involved here. These things are knowable - and it follows that if We can identify, expose and challenge these things We can defeat them. Or, be defeated. And, should We do nothing, this will most certainly insure that things get worse.
Often times We miss the boat on overstanding the subtle ways We go about reinforcing patriarchal relationships in our daily lives. See, because domination is but one aspect of patriarchy. That’s just the obvious aspect of it. You know, like when Conquistadors pushed up in the Inca Empire, or the English vamped on India. The domination was obvious. But then came the missionaries, the laws, the state – the colonial culture. These caused the second, corresponding aspect, of patriarchy: Dependency. The colonized were made to feel that they’d been chosen as subjects for a great, all encompassing “civilizational” leap forward. That the invaders were sent by the “Great Father” in the sky, who’d sent word to the King, who in turn instructed the invaders to save the heathens from their wretched selves! Bring them into the modern world – by dint of canon and bayonet if necessary:
“Aristotle maintained that man’s domination over animals extended to slaves and women as well, another view that mirrored the political reality of the day, since human slavery and subordination of women were the norm in Ancient Greece. In his Politics, Aristotle wrote that such ‘uncivilized’ people as the neighboring Achaeans and Thracians ‘are slaves by nature, as the body is to the soul, or as beasts are to men.’ Aristotle believed it was as permissible to enslave people who did not possess ‘reason’ as it was to enslave the common, and for the most part live at random.” (4)
Legitimized thru Longevity
The same patriarchy which first oppressed women, (after having perfected the methods on animals) as “inferiors”, went on to evolve into the judeo-christian and Islamic institutions or theology that have scorched the planet today. This is why in every major religion god is a he or him – Father, i.e. male (according to “gender”). The last messenger, prophet, offspring and the last one god supposedly spoke to – yep, you guessed it, men. Coincidence? Natural? Not a chance. To make matters worse, as if patriarchy could even be content with one form of oppression, Euro-Supremacists went a step further than some unseen spirit in the sky, they painted a picture of their god-father’s son in their image. They in effect became the prototype of the son of god image and thus in the direct lineage from god himself. Plato, Aristotle’s teacher created the idea of the Great Chain of Being this formalized the belief of the Greeks that they ranked higher than non-Greeks, women, slaves and of course animals.
“Medieval Christendom translated Plato’s image into a ladder which had God at the top and European Christian on the highest rung, a position that granted them a divine mandate as God’s overseers and stewards to rule over the rest of the ladder below. The idea that European man flawed and sinful though he might be, occupied a position on earth comparable to God’s position in the universe became a central idea in the religious and philosophical thought of Western civilization regarding man’s place in nature. Thus Europeanism had virtually unlimited authority to rule the natural world as ‘the vice regent and deputy or almighty God’.” (5)
And because of this “virtual unlimited authority” there’s a very dark, wretchedly oppressed and colonized Indian women, in Bombay with a picture of a prototypical European man on her wall who she believes is the son of god – her Lord and Savior – who died for her sins. And yet although he died for her “sins”, she is still paying a perpetual debt she never owed. And this scene is replicated a million times over across the planet in homes, hovels, huts, churches and prisons – in every colony. The theocracies are heavily invested in the business of patriarchy – in domestication and colonization. And the colonial subjects respond with fealty and dependency. Women tell their sons to “be the man of the house”. Men tell their wives to “stay in a woman’s place”. Men who show emotions are said to be “acting like little girls”. Women who exert themselves as humans are called “dykes and bulldaggers or butch”. Violence is masculinized and passivity is feminized. This is so because patriarchy has created two exclusive genders. Two neat little boxes to insert all of humanity. And this has been legitimized by theocracy and capitalism thru longevity and a corresponding dependency by the masses on a grand distortion of nature itself. The longevity We speak of here has to do with people divesting themselves of the responsibility of social investigation. Of simply allowing abnormalities to persist without challenge because “it’s always been this way” or “that’s just the way it is”. No, that’s not just the way it is – it’s the way it’s been made. It hasn’t fallen from the sky, or been miraculously blinked into existence. This oppression is man-made (literally) – it serves someone’s interest. The people relinquish their power to oppression when they default on social investigation of curious and questionable systems. Patriarchy and its attendant ills slither on uninterrupted:
“Patriarchy is a form of social organization that produces what we commonly recognize as sexism. But it goes well beyond individual or systemic prejudice against women. It is, first of all, the false division of all people into two rigid categories (male and female) that are asserted to be natural and moral. Patriarchy attempts to destroy, socially or even physically, anyone who does not fit into one of these categories or who rejects this “gender binary”. Patriarchy goes on to define clear roles (economic, social, emotional, political) for men and women, and it asserts (falsely) that these roles are natural and moral. Under patriarchy, people who do not fit into or who reject these gender roles are neutralized with violence and ostracism. They are made to see and feel ugly, dirty, scary, contemptible, worthless. Patriarchy is harmful to everybody, and it is reproduced by everyone who lives with it.” (6)
Weaponized Patriarchy
In addition to patriarchy going on to “define clear roles for men and woman,” it also set in motion the ill definition of races. In creating itself first as a class of men, to domesticate and rule over animals, women and children, it was a logical progression of patriarchy to define all humans as being of different “races”. For a plurality of races made it that much easier to justify, implement and sustain Plato’s earlier design of the Great Chain of Being. Because patriarchy is necessarily hierarchal, it was but a short trip to the lunatic fringe of racism, though actually it was really euro-supremacy. To call it “racism” would, in essence, subtly reinforce the false social construct of a plurality of races on the planet. When, of course, this is not true. So, We’ll call it what it is – euro-supremacy. Euro-supremacy is also euro-centricity. Though, just as patriarchy is not exclusive a capitalist thing, nor is it exclusively a European thing. It’s a man thing. It is highly contagious and must be combated constantly. It fastens a sense of entitlement that lends itself to taking liberties with other people’s lives and existence based solely on what is perceived to be “difference”. We focus our attention on euro-supremacy as an attendant ill/side effect of patriarchy because it was them (English, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, Belgians etc.) who weaponized paternal relations in myriad conquests across the globe. It was the British Empire upon whom it was said “the sun never set”. In other words, its domination was global. And it is a fact that 99% of the borders between countries, nations and states were drawn by European colonialism.
What made euro-patriarchy weaponized, aside from the obvious, was that it created not only races of others, but made itself a race – a “white race” sitting atop the global food chain – the Great Chain of Being – doing their Fathers’ work on earth. “Whites” polar opposite became, of course, the “blacks”. Afrikans were made into the “black race”. Asians became “yellow” and North American indigenous nations became “red”. Having already had a few centuries of practice domesticating animals, women and children in Europe, it was but a small tactical adjustment to train their cutlasses, ropes and cannons onto the “colored” people they encountered. The pivot was such that it needed only to hoist the same inferior attributes it used against its own people onto the indigenous cultures it smothered. Everyone was demonized and maligned as “subhuman”, “animalistic”, “heathen” and in need of either elimination, colonization or paternalism. Genocide, oppression or protection (dependency). In any event all encountered cultures had to come under the influence of euro-centric patriarchy. Which is to say the culture of the invaders – the crown, the religion, the laws. Social conditioning and gender placement was, in essence the first human test run, the forerunner to, genetic engineering.
Grand Patriarchy
“People who do not fit into or who reject these gender roles are neutralized with violence and ostracized” – Who are the people who would reject these gender roles? Certainly they would be those who overstood patriarchy, colonialism, and who had a sense of self and kind so strong that they went deter-minded to assert themselves and be natural. Gender outlaws. Those who acted (and thought) outside of the box – the patriarchal gender box. However, when grand patriarchy came onto the scene, as a weaponized euro-supremacy, all indigenous people, male and female, became inferiors.
Indigenous men were domesticated under grand patriarchy just as women had always been. And to insure this, a constant, blatant and open hostile state of terror and siege was used to blanket any notion to the contrary. Euro-supremacy smothered everything. Every male not a European became “boy”, “buck”, “son”, or worse. They were explicitly forbidden to look a European male in the eyes. Grand patriarchy recognized one man – the European male. This was eventually utilized in the colonization of every encountered culture of the planet.
But not even this form of pervasive oppression eradicated patriarchy among those dominated. Oppressed men, those forbidden to be “men” under grand patriarchy, still would oppress oppressed women. Thus women felt a double blow of oppression under grand (on a national level) patriarchy and minor patriarchy – individually, in personal social relations. What’s more is, this individual patriarchy – now sexism – was compounded with the introduction of the colonizers’ religion into the mix as a chain of control. Western religion in the colonies became “force-multipliers” for patriarchy. Another weapon used in the war. Once indigenous men had been taught that this new god had given men dominion over women and children, these fell further down the Great Chain of Being (as created by Plato and reconfigured by Euro-Christians). Women, too, however reciprocated this travesty by believing this foolishness to be true, making it that much easier for their oppression to continue.
But isn’t it odd that the same religion that propelled the Euro-supremacists out of Europe and against the world in a war driven culture of conquest, made the people they encountered docile and meek? That instead of the indigenous males using the bible to oppress women they could have used it to push back against the invaders… what happened? It was perhaps the overwhelming military ability of that time. In any event, in a paradoxical twist, the colonized people served to reinforce the grand patriarchy with a spiritually ordained patriarchy of their own – even at the bottom rung of the ladder. Even under old colonialism where it is said that “Whole nations became as classes”, the ills of patriarchy persisted and found expression. Tho’ hardly to the extent it did on the grand level. Still…
Patriarchy in Neo-colonialism
Class, gender, race and bourgeois law all stem from patriarchy. The illusion that men (“Father”) knows best. To insure this doesn’t escape anyone, man created religion in his image as well and endowed god with all the human attributes of a brutish man: jealously, greed, vengeance, indifference, callousness and authoritarianism. When it’s said that “god created man in his image”, it’s actually the reverse of that: man created god in his image. Class, gender, religion, race and bourgeois law – homophobia and heterosexism too – are all created of patriarchy. These, to look at it in another way, are the walls constructed in the global mansion of patriarchy to keep the Great Father safely sequestered away from those buried under the floor, in the closet, used as domestics, maintenance workers and beasts of burden. To escape the gender box is, in essence, to become an outlaw of sorts. For one’s escape from such restrictive confines is a protest – for one’s ability to be natural. Out and away from the stifling confines of patriarchy’s colonialism. But to protest is but one side of the equation. To protest is to go away from for self’s sake. An overstandable thing. But to rebel is to go against the malady in an attempt to destroy it. Protests are usually non-violent. A tactical method using hope as a morality play on power to have it change itself. Rebellion however is an active and often violent lunge at the power’s heart to start the bleeding and stop the breathing. But even this is but a tactic and must be educated if the action is to bring about change.
Under old colonialism gender outlaws were smashed on by church and state. Sharp shooting ideologues riled up the masses to reject “ab-normality” for morals superior to such “deviance”. Old colonialism, the general representative of patriarchy, used to push a line of gender authoritarianism. Even on a socio-economic level, old colonialism squatting dominantly over internal colonialism, however, has changed everything, but altered the perception of most things in order to continue to hold its empire together and reap benefits from oppression. The U.S. ruling class has, in its new and enlightened age of colonialism, come out as the main protector of civil rights against sexual, racial and religious discrimination. It bills itself as the force to make all “citizens” equal. Of course the paradox here is what We must focus on to find the truth. You see because as the ruling class goes about claiming to be interested in protecting civil rights it is, in actuality, promoting and reinforcing patriarchy. It’s the tactic of problem-reaction-solution. It’s a Machiavellian ruse of traditional state craft. Patriarchy created “gender” which begot sexism that leads to “sexual discrimination”. Patriarchy created “race” which begot racism and leads to “racial discrimination”. Patriarchy created religion – male dominated theocracies – which leads to “religious discrimination”. In other words, the very problems the masses are running to the state (representative of grand patriarchy) to solve, the state created and will then offer a solution to. Which without question will only strengthen the grip of patriarchy. It’s the symbolic reapplication of the ties that bind which keep the masses tethered to the machine. Orwell anyone?
Patriarchal Contamination
We, as seated so close to the epicenter of empire, patriarchy and all that this entails, are without question, thoroughly contaminated. Cross-pollinated social interaction and conditioning has exposed us all to such a degree that We can hardly recognize our sickness. It all seems “normal” and “natural” doesn’t it? That’s because We’ve gone to colonial schools, been socialized by its mass media, the propaganda of its many wars (even those against us), bourgeois elections, its culture of arrogance, smugness and indifference etc. Because of this, and our inability to make sense of it, We act as unconscious shock troops of its colonial edicts when confronted with ideas and actions which appear to run counter to its mores. Being homophobic is one such thing. And of course racism is another. The animalized names the dominant culture has used to denigrate us all with We'll turn around and use them on each other and ourselves to justify a sense of difference in imitation of patriarchy.
But you see, the neo (new) colonialism doesn't mind if its patriarchy is being imitated. That’s a plus for it. That means it's working. It means people aren't trying to stop it, they are trying to like it. They don't want to end patriarchy, they want to be card carrying members of the club. Have you seen the ex-correctional officer, rapper Rick Ross, with his shirt off? The idiot has huge tattoos on his torso of U.S. currency - complete with Franklin's face, Jackson and Jefferson! He wants in so bad he's a walking billboard - "Will Beg For Membership". That's how patriarchy stays afloat and operable - by being legitimized, replicated and practiced by the unconscious masses. Neo-colonialism has found it expedient to ease up on the blatant authoritarianism and to let the colonial masses "do their thing". As long as it is within the established framework of the game - of bourgeois law and order.
So, while breaking out of the gender role is objectively wrong in the eyes of the patriarchy, it hasn't the time nor inclination to pursue such outlaws at this time. Actually, what the state has done under neocolonialism is act as if it's okay and has gone on the offensive in trying to insure the people that all is well. First it was "smash on sight". Then it was "don't ask, don't tell". Now it's "come on in grab a gun and help defend the empire". Same way it did with New Afrikans, Mexicanos, Puerto Ricans and Indigenous Nationals. 'Member that? Sure, it went like this: old colonialism, black codes, jim crow, segregation, civil rights and neo-colonialism - as integration. Those who refused to join the club were what? "Neutralized with violence and ostracized". Today We call them Martyrs, Prisoners of War, Political Prisoners and exiles. Those who joined We call neo-colonialists, petty-bourgeois, sell-outs and collaborators - enemies of the people. The choice is now ours. What are We going to be? Projectiles for the people or projectiles against the people? That is the question.
Neo-colonialism has put the colonies on autopilot. And the masses have been confused by this, thinking that they are somehow on a flight towards freedom. Because the establishment forces aren't actively smashing on what used to be obvious causes for reaction, the people think a general sense of new freedom has blanketed the situation. As Oprah has her own TV network. Jay Z wines and dines with Warren Buffet, Magic Johnson owns the L.A. Dodgers and Rock Bottom is in the whitest house. But the usual reins of state control and reaction have not been relinquished they've only been delegated to accommodation intermediaries to run the flight plan for the ruling class. The coordinates have been programed into the console, the flight is on autopilot, those the masses think are in control are only maintenance workers and sky marshals, flight attendants and observers, as the jumbo dream liner continues uninterrupted across this neocolonial terrain of war and class, amerikkkan style.
In this era of neocolonialism the main homophobes are the masses themselves. Where it used to be the state, the church and other rabid ideologues of patriarchy, now it's athletes, rappers and the idiot down the tier who somehow feels as if his so-called "manhood" is threatened by how or who another person lives and loves. The unconscious shock troops of patriarchy become the gatekeepers for their oppressors. That's why patriarchy can feel so comfortable with putting the colonies on auto-pilot. The inmates have assumed control of the asylum and all is well on the Western front. Never mind that the very culture of oppression that they are holding up by becoming little oppressors themselves is the actual threat to them. It's an animal farm trip, really. Or a Stockholm syndrome type of situation. Where the entity doing you the harm you side step to attack the one on your side - while loving your tormentor. Psych meds, anyone?
Harmful to Everybody
To overstand homophobia and heterosexism as oppressive tools of the patriarchy is to come to grips with one’s own reality. A reality that shouts its existence not from the confines of your own head or intellect - or even your culture. It's a reality put on you by an offending order of parties who wish only to control and exploit you to their delight and benefit. Those "shouts of reality" We speak of are from a distance of centuries past, and their antiquity gives them an air of prestige and legitimacy, but you mustn't be fooled. For this is the culture that ripped apart your ancestors - this is it. It's shinier now, has more pixels and is in high definition, but it is the same culture that pushed up on those shores and was mistaken as god. It is the very same system of control, too. The gatekeepers complexions have changed - We can see the madness thru the lens of BET and Univision now instead of just CBS and NBC, but look carefully and listen, it’s the same old thing - patriarchy, class, gender, race, colonialism. The same slings and arrows aimed at gender outlaws today are the same ones flung at us first when patriarchy drove up. We were the ab-normal ones then. And now, what, We've become so "normal" (amerikans) that We are oppressors, too? We've been amerikanized to the point where We can't even recognize We aren't even ourselves anymore. Yeah, "amerikkkan me".
In prison, the concentration of the patriarchy pathology is on steroids - even tho there are no women in men’s prisons. Not as prisoners anyway. No need really, cause patriarchy is also homophobia and heterosexism, so it finds expression in this way. Whether thru predation or hate outright, ill vibrations play out against gays or transgender prisoners as, invariably, they are referred to as "punk", "faggots", "bitches" etc. The hierarchal structure of prison groups preclude any form of socialization or respect with, or towards, gay prisoners. They are treated as "abnormals" - as less than human. They are usually "neutralized with violence and ostracized". Groups forbid their members from aiding any such person. And even tho' the prisoners are placed with nationals from oppressed and colonized nations, oppression and prejudice of gays and transgender prisoners goes on uninterrupted as patriarchal "morals" are imitated and replicated across the board.
The odd thing, tho one which points up the patriarchal reality in vivid fashion, is in most prison cultures the only party in a gay encounter that’s considered gay is the one assuming the so-called passive or feminine role. The masculine one, the top, is considered "the man" which somehow excludes him from being gay, or bi. It's his prerogative to fuck something, huh? And, much like sexism, out in Babylon, where the woman is considered less than, so too is it in prison with the gay or transgender prisoner. Tho' moreso since the homophobia and heterosexism is driven by the "morals" of religion. Of course patriarchy escapes mention altogether. Nevertheless, the pathology of patriarchy plays itself out even in the most oppressive situations imaginable.
The fact of the matter is, We can talk about this until We are out of breath, but until gays and transgender prisoners, and people at large, take their lives and existence into their own hands, organize and defend their reality, they'll continue to be victimized and exploited and that goes for any form of oppression. The oppressed have the responsibility to get free. Freedom is not given or granted - it's taken! The federal government is not going to legislate your safety into existence. The prison administration cannot - nor will it - protect you from hostile homophobes or predators. You have to organize yourselves in concert with methods that reflect your reality. We know that in the state prison at Walla Walla, in Washington, the revolutionary comrades organized Men Against Sexist Shit (MASS) to combat homophobia and heterosexism there. Revolutionaries should be on the front lines of combating all forms of oppression. We have to organize with the oppressed to strike for freedom or the neocolonialists will organize. Them against us and continue on.
Re-Build!
Sanyika Shakur
Pelican Bay - SHU
Notes
[1] Eternal Treblinka, Charles Patterson. [return to text]
[2] The Club, the Yoke, and the Leash: What can we learn from the way a Culture Treats Animals. Aviva Cantor, MS (August 1983) [return to text]
[3]Man and the Natural World: A History of the Modern Sensibility, Keith Thomas (New York, Pantheon Books, 1983)[return to text]
[4] The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution, Henry Friedlander, (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1995) [return to text]
[5]Eternal Treblinka, Patterson[return to text]
[6] How Nonviolent Protects the State, Peter Gelderloos, (South End Press, 2007) [return to text]
The following undated letter comes from Rashid, a revolutionary communist political prisoner. It includes confirmation past reports from another prisoner that Rashid was in fact drugged by the police, beaten, and intentionally denied access to healthcare. -eric r
“Keep this will need it to recollect everything. Also use it as factual basis for protest and help. I’ve begun writing this at 10:00pm on Feb. 9th 2013. At this moment I am severely dehydrated, tongue coated with white film. Staff refuse any monitoring of vital signs or care. Urine looks like rust water. kidney (left) hurts.
The following is a chronology of events leading to my present state. All are significant jointly and severally in revealing gross abuse and corruption here.
Jan. 28 (on or about) while exercising inside my cell I cut my groin area on loose nylon stitching from my pants and began bleeding heavily. On noticing the stinging sensation then, upon inspection, blood. I notified the unit guard N. Claudio who contacted medical staff. After a bit of back and forth wrangling I was taken to the SHU nursing station where a nurse (name unknown) inspected the laceration gave me a wad of gauze and ordered me given a shower. She also instructed me to keep the area clean and dry.
A couple nights later I caught the same nurse while she was passing out evening medication and got a small packet of antibacterial ointment from her.
The area would not heal although I washed up several times daily and kept it dry. It kept bleeding and I complained daily to guards and nursing staff.
Feb. 1 received bacitracin (antibacterial) ointment from nurse Flores at noon. Officer Saxton got her to give it to me for the laceration. She also instructed to keep area clean and dry.
Feb. 2 spoke to nurse at a.m. medication rounds asked to be placed on sick call about cut and to receive order for bacitracin. She told me I had to wait till next day because sick call sign-ups not done on Saturdays.
That evening around 2:30 pm after working out I washed up and applied bacitracin. Officer Claudio came to my cell and stated the guard in the control center Earlicker said I was nude in the cell and needed to keep clothing on. I explained I’d just been washing up and applying bacitracin, and that Claudio knew about my laceration and medical staff’s instructions that I wash up routinely and keep the area clean, which I could not do in the cell with clothing on. We only receive showers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Just as Claudio left the cell I heard Earlicker call sergeant Kile on the walkie talkie and tell him to call her in the control center.
I should inject here that on or about Wed. and Thurs. Jan. 30th and 31st I stopped receiving my incoming mail (up till that pont I received from 5-10 letters daily, everyday. From then till this Feb. 9th date I’ve received only one letter none of my periodicals or books). Also on or about Jan. 31st a drug or narcotic was put into my food, which I believe was similar to an epilectic drug (Tegretol) I was prescribed back in the early 1990s by the VA DOC as an admitted experimental behavior modification drug. This drug literally makes me psychotic with episodes lasting up to a week or more. It causes an almost total loss of impulse control, hyper aggression, and a sense of clouded judgement and invincibility. I can distinctly tell when it is introduced into my system. I noticed the effects on the afternoon of Jan. 31st.
Back to Feb. 2nd: Shortly after the call to Sergeant Kile over the radio, he had me brought out of the cell and locked inside a holding cell in the SHU intake area. I had the guards call him to the area to find out what was going on. When he came to the area he responded I was going to receive a disciplinary report (DR) for being naked inside the cell which violated SHU rules, which require a minimum of underwear be worn at all times. I explained my situation and the impossibility of washing up as medically instructed with underwear on. Also that I was suffering chronic bleeding. He replied he didn’t care, that technically I broke a rule and would be “held to account.”
I struggled to control my reaction and first jammed the latch on the holding cell door so guards couldn’t close it to get them to call the nurse (Flores) to the cell to verify that medical staff instructed me to wash up. Flores came to the area verified this and stated she was adding me to the sick call list to be seen for the cut because it kept bleeding and would not heal.
A lieutenant Neff then came to the area to find out what was going on, which I explained. My main concern was that the DR would result in my loss of IMU level 3 and being placed on level 1, which meant loss of most all my property and all my books, and my entire IMU period of 7 months starting all over again. Neff said he’d look into the matter and return to tell me his findings.
Just after he left several guards came to the area to move me to another unit. I told them Neff said to leave me there until he returned and talked to me. He also had a nurse Adams check me again Adams gave me a wad of gauze and bacitracin and acknowledged my condition to the guards. Neff returned sometime later and stating the DR was already written. I was being demoted to level 1 and all but my legal property was being taken.
I was then confronted by a mob of guards in riot armor and gas masks with a large canister of gas and told to submit to handcuffs which I did. I was brought out of the holding cell and chained by my waist to a wall, where an argument ensued and the guards attacked me literally ripped off all my clothes, put me in a pair of underwear, strapped me into a restraint chair and wheeled me to the IMU disruptive unit (unit A), where I was dumped enraged into cell 07.
Upon being released from the restraints I promptly swallowed about 40 pills (my perscription pain medications). I was not in my rational frame of mind. I’d covered up the cell window at that point so another altercation ensued with the riot team who again chained me to a wall and ripped off my clothes, also punching me repeatedly in the head.
Following this I was put into the holding cell again and seen again by nurse Adams who asked what pills I took and how many. I was sent to the hospital St. Aldophus Ontario, Oregon, where the medical staff literally tried to let me die. Their actions and attitudes made clear to me and the attending guards that they didn’t want me there because of my race. Not only did they do nothing to have the drugs disgorged from my stomach, they had me sit for two hours in a secluded room with no care, extracted only a small syringe of blood ahtough admittedly needing 3 large vials to conduct appropriate blood tests, then sent me back to the prison claiming there were no traces of pills in my system. The entire incident of me swallowing handsfull of pills was audio-video taped and confirmed by the riot armored guards who immediately removed me from the cell, including segeant Morthorst.
On return to the prison I was placed in the medical department for close observation suicide watch, where a guard sat watching me constantly and another sat watching a white prisoner next door to me on the same status named Steve Brown. Brown had swallowed around 100 aspirin on Jan. 31st and was treated at St. Alphonsus where as soon as he got there he was given a thick liquid to drink to induce vomiting and kept in the ICU for 2 days.
On that Feb. 3rd date guards watching Brown and me began discussing bogus claims that I was a sexual offender in presence of Brown and other prisoners housed in the medical department. An argument ensued between the guards on me and while I was using the commode they turned off the water in the cell so I’d remain with fermented body waste in the cell. I then dumped the commode’s contents out of the cell under the door into the area where they were. The guard D. Davis who’d cut off the water then walked in the comode’s contents then lied saying I assaulted him by throwing it on his boot and splashing it onto his pant leg. This occuring around 11:25 p.m.
Feb. 4 A sergeant Lande in the morning colluded with mental health counselor D. Jennings to have me moved from medical to a camera cell in the Disciplinary Segregation Unit CDSUS, saying without any evaluation, that my actions were merely bad behavior. On that date I stopped eating and told them I needed help, that I was not in my rational mindset.
As soon as I was put into DSU I swallowed 3 pieces of raor blade -- on audio-video camera and confrimed by sergeant Benitez. I was again taken to St. Alphonsus and treated the same way. X-rays were taken which I was not allowed to see nd I was immediatey returned to the prison with reports that no razonrs were seen inside me. This was an outright lie. And the razors are still there. I defecated just before swallowing them and not eating haven’t defecated since. Any perforation (cut or punture) of my intestinal wall can cause immediate death. I’ve not eaten to date.
Feb. 5th: Stopped drinking all liquids beginning in early morning. Have drunk nothing to date and don’t intend to; at least until something is done about these razors that I’ve felt repeatedly digging/cutting into my insides.
Feb. 8th: Nurse R. Wagner took blood, urine and vital signs. She told me on hunger strikes these checks are done ony once per week, (in Virginia they’re done daily). She said no exceptions made for prisoners not drinking. All know and have documented I’m not drinking or eating. I told Wagner repeatedly on this and following dates that razors are inside me. She blew it off based on hospital reports which I’ve emphasized are not true.
Feb. 9. Asked Wagner to put on sick call for razors and dehydration. She refused. Told me a person can live for 14 days without water. She walked away. She said nurses supposed to check me every 4 hours. This hasn’t happened at all (on suicide watch).
They’re doing nothing to monitor or treat my deterioration from this food/liquid strike not to address these razors inside me. I need all the pressure and help you all can muster. Also there’s a guy Allen Carpinelli who works with Oregon Jericho, Ed Mead knows him. He has connections with some Oregon lawyer who helps pps. Get him to get that lawyer on this shit with the hospital. See if he can get those x-rays. Something major is going on. The ODOC doesn’t have my VA medical files, which is where the records of the entire Tegretol experiments are, yet someone knows the effects this drug has on me. I sued the VDOC over the experiment in the Richmond City Circuit Court back in 1995, Kevin Johnson v. Commonwealth of Virginia. At trial I lost because I had no medical expert to confirm the psychotic effects of the drug on me. The entire experiment was proposed by a VDOC psychiatrist Dr. Pierson, which I discovered years after being on the drug while never having epilepsy. Also just at this time my mail has been stopped. Likely involved officials include SRCI lieutenant L. Schultz. Also I have copy of Pierson’s report and recommendation that I be placed and “studied” on Tegretol or valproic acid as a behavior modification experiment, because these substances empirically prove to alter ones inhibitory and control mechanisms. Someone here in the ODOC or working with them intended to see me “lose control”, which has resulted in my overdosing and ingesting razors. Out of room/paper.
Need everybody you all can get on this and continuously/consistently. Not just a couple of calls. I’m liable to die here or suffer irreparable damage. SOS!"
Kevin Rashid Johnson is a political prisoner and leader of a prison organization called the New Afrikan Black Panther Party. He is an outspoken communist revolutionary whose life is in danger.
CALL IMMEDIATELY: 541-881-5000 and then press "0"
UPDATE:
inspector general's line: (877) 678-4222
number for the or-doc: 503-945-9090. they're open 8am-5pm.
Kevin Johnson #19370490
S.R.C.I.
777 Stanton Blvd.
Ontario, OR 97914
I have not heard from Rashid for about two weeks, which is surprising, because he normally sends me 2 or 3 letters a week, sometimes for other prisoners. I just received a letter written Feb. 11, at Rashid's request, by another Snake River prisoner, xxxxx. xxxxx's letter begins as follows (edited for spelling etc):
(The Kasama Project received the following from "zzzzz")
"This is about Rashid. We need a lot of help. They are trying to kill him. On Jan. 31 they put something in his food that made him crazy. On Feb. 2 he took 30 pills. They did not do anything to get the pills out of him.... On Jan. 4 [sic; I assume he means Feb. 4] he ate 3 razor blades. This is all on videotape. They lied and said the X-ray showed nothing. The [blades] are still in him right now. He has not eaten since Feb. 3. He has not drunk anything since Feb. 5.... He is passing out and they won't do anything to help him.... Said he is the one that won't eat or drink so they are not helping him at all. He is peeing blood and has bad kidney pains.... Med staff will not give him IV fluids.... [As of Feb. 10 he had] lost over 16 pounds. His blood pressure is 191/100 and his urine is the color of coffee...."
I phoned Snake River immediately. If you want to speak with anyone, you have to dial 541-881-5000 and then press "0". I left messages with his counselor, Alice Tomlinson and also with a staff member named José Delgado. So far I have not heard back from either of them. I then called again, saying that it's an emergency and I needed to speak to someone who would pick up (I mentioned the warden's office). They connected me with a Sergeant Di Andrea. He looked up Rashid on his computer and said he was "all right"; I said I wanted to know more specifically, so he put me back onto the counselor's answering machine. Obviously he is not "all right"; on the other hand, I think that if he had died, they would have had to tell me. I will keep trying. We should make many calls, reaching as high up as possible.
There are obviously a lot of questions here. How could it have been on videotape? How could he have obtained all those pills? etc etc. The idea that he would try to destroy himself is totally out of character; on the other hand, I suppose that with certain kinds of drug, many strange things are possible. Let's all stay in touch if we get any news.
I am sending this both to the listserv and to the individual addresses I have, just to make sure everyone gets it.
Ironically, just 2 days ago I mailed Rashid the proofs for the article of his that we will be publishing in the July issue of Socialism and Democracy.
Let's all write to him (address below). Even if the letters aren't delivered, the officials will know that a lot of people are ready to protest whatever abuses they inflict.
We are the Blazing Arrow Organization! Here is a video that highlights some of the work we've done:
Organizing a housing justice movement to resist evictions and foreclosures, especially in working class and communities of color
Confronting police brutality with direct action
Working with other organizations, like Right 2 Survive and We Are Oregon, to form a community agreement centered around 1.) No more empty homes! We believe that empty houses should be taken back and filled by those who need them, like the houseless. 2.) No more evictions! We believe housing is a human right.
The movement for housing justice in Portland started almost a year ago on May 1st, 2012, and it is only just beginning! Join us.
One of the many forms that gentrification is taking in East Portland.
The cops say they’re protecting the community from this, but LET’S ALL REMEMBER THAT THE COPS HERE ARE VERY LITERALLY PART OF THIS WHITE SUPREMACIST FORCE. Here is an example: The Portland police commander, Capt. Mark Kruger, who oversaw the eviction of Patricia and Darren a couple weeks ago with 100 riot cops, IS A KNOWN NAZI. He ordered those riot cops to bring out pepper spray and shotguns against the community that came to support the foreclosed couple. http://www.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2012/10/30/reports-riot-cops-pepper-spray-at-home-eviction-in-southeast
White supremacy is violently forcing African folks out of Portland. Cops, developers, and white supremacists are all working to drive people of color out of this city.
In these same NE neighborhoods, there are currently three families that are actively fighting gentrification and defending their homes from foreclosure and eviction. We need to help these families defend themselves from both police and violent white supremacists.
Foreclosure Fighters Call on Community to Rally and Demand that the Sheriff Stop Forcing Families from Their Homes
from our comrades at We Are Oregon, please share!
JOIN US FOR A RALLY AT THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE:
Friday, November 9th, 2012, 3PM
501 SE Hawthorne Blvd Portland, OR
We seek housing justice: keeping people in their homes, filling empty homes with people who need shelter, and putting community housing needs before bank profits. We Are Oregon, The Black Working Group and other organizations in Portland have been working to support families in foreclosure throughout the past year. These foreclosure fighters are in various stages of foreclosure, and 7 of the families are resisting standing orders to leave their homes by order of a court, the city or the Sheriff.
The police and sheriff have responded by forcibly evicting Patricia Williams and Darren Johnson from their SE Portland home on October 30th, with Sheriff’s deputies and Portland police in riot gear. This morning a large number of heavily armed Sheriff's deputies and Portland Police broke into Will and Heather's home after shutting down all the streets to their house. They forced Heather out of the house in her pajamas and pulled Will over on his way back from dropping his daughter at school.
The Sheriff needs to hear loud and clear that we will stand with families fighting for housing justice and as a community not tolerate the increasing use ofpolice aggression against families struggling to stay in their homes and stand up to the banks.
Officer Kruger, the police commander who oversaw today's brutal home eviction, is a known Nazi sympathizer. He ordered riot police out to stop community members from defending Patricia and Darren's home.
As BAO member Ahjamu Umi says, "the KKK is for the suburbs because they got police to repress us in the cities!"
For more information about Officer Kruger's Nazi history, read this article on OregonLive.
"I AM GOING TO FIGHT WITH EVERY BREATH IN MY BODY..." - Patricia Williams, foreclosed homeowner fighting back
Blazing Arrow Organization joined with other community members and groups today, to help defend the home of Patricia Williams and Darren Johnson, an African/Black couple in S.E. Portland, from foreclosure. KATU news story here.
We were greeted with multiple sheriffs deputy cars, with police trying to forceably evict them. The rapid response network was activated and about 50 concerned community members and activists showed up.
A roving picket line in front of the house was initiated and at one point a number of us attempted to regain control of the house by pushing our way in as a collective force. We did gain entry into the house, but the sheriffs - who by this time were reinforced with Portland police personnel - responded by pepper spraying us. Several of us were hit, but everyone will be ok.
One person who gained entry into the house was arrested. At the moment, we have decided to regroup, and decide how to next support Patrica and Darren in getting their house back. Stay tuned, and get ready to mobilize -- WE WILL BE BACK. NO MORE EVICTIONS, NO MORE EMPTY HOUSES!
"I AM GOING TO FIGHT WITH EVERY BREATH IN MY BODY..." - Patricia Williams, foreclosed homeowner fighting back
Blazing Arrow Organization joined with other community members and groups today, to help defend the home of Patricia Williams and Darren Johnson, an African/Black couple in S.E. Portland, from foreclosure. KATU news story here.
We were greeted with multiple sheriffs deputy cars, with police trying to forceably evict them. The rapid response network was activated and about 50 concerned community members and activists showed up.
A roving picket line in front of the house was initiated and at one point a number of us attempted to regain control of the house by pushing our way in as a collective force. We did gain entry into the house, but the sheriffs - who by this time were reinforced with Portland police personnel - responded by pepper spraying us. Several of us were hit, but everyone will be ok.
One person who gained entry into the house was arrested. At the moment, we have decided to regroup, and decide how to next support Patrica and Darren in getting their house back. Stay tuned, and get ready to mobilize -- WE WILL BE BACK. NO MORE EVICTIONS, NO MORE EMPTY HOUSES!
The Portland Skanner wrote a piece about the work being done by Blazing Arrow, Black Working Group, We Are Oregon, and others. We are part of a housing justice movement that is taking back empty homes and stopping evictions. Every person needs decent housing! Check out the link for the article and videos like the one below:
