#black revolt

[thisisbobbylondon]

We need a collective effort to reclaim the movement from the movement™ branding benefits the state not us If the state is comfortable with our movement then we are not moving in the right direction ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬

Bobby London

[thisisbobbylondon]

The world is outraged and I’m just numb.

I feel no more upset or sadden than I did a month ago. The news of cops killing another black person is no longer news, it just is.

There is a sense of pity that I feel from other non-black people, like I’m a character on a reality show as if my venting and pain is a production for others to consume.

Black resistance has become twitter hashtags that now everyone feels comfortable to use. Yes, say black lives matter three times fast and purify yourself of all your internalized anti-blackness and white supremacy!

Temporary awareness means people have finally had enough! Yes, lets take action, yes lets march in the streets, then people get arrested, organization co-opts, and energy is filtered into respectable politics. The movement fizzles until the next Cops Gone Wild video is released and we start all over again.

–I wonder how many fraternities stream the police murders and laugh, how many people watch it with enjoyment, ooh look they just released the uncut version, hell ya put that shit on the wide screen!

Every media outlet cover page reads Black Lives Matter. Media institutions that usually ignore our voices love moments like these. So much click bait. Let this be the moment you let your ONE token black staff writer shine.

So much profit in black death, we are not seen as human. Black people stay exploited, during grief, during pain, and in death.

Our suffering is entertainment, our coping is your entertainment, our resistance is YOUR entertainment.

And like a sitcom that has been on for too long there is predictability in both our action and inaction. Movement politics are as corrupt and opportunistic as state politics. The longer you stay involved the more cynical of people and their intentions you become. This is often written off as being jaded, but I think cynicism is an undervalued trait.

I guess I’m just over it all. What does it do, what has it done? As much as I think action is needed I know that it will lead to nothing. I know it’s not something I’m supposed to talk about or even say out loud. But, I do not owe anyone optimism. I fluctuate from nihilism and moments of hope.

Consider this the B-side, hopefully something out there will inspire me to write the A.

[ill-will-editions]

LA POSITION DU LAISSÉ-POUR-COMPTE — Un entretien avec Saidiya V. Hartman réalisée par Frank B.Wilderson, III 

READ / PRINT

A French translation of Frank B. Wilderson III’s 2002 interview with Saidiya Hartman, “The Position of the Unthought”, in which the two afropessimist theorists work through the political consequences of her book Scenes of Subjection. 

“Donc certainement, cela va plus loin que le désir d’inclusion dans le spectre limité des possibilités que le projet national offre. Qu’est-ce que ce langage – ce langage donné de la liberté – permet ? Et une fois que vous avez pris conscience de ses limites et que vous voyez qu’il est inexorablement inclus dans certaines notions du sujet et de la sujétion, eh bien ce langage de la liberté ne devient plus celui qui sort l’esclave de son ancienne condition, mais le site de la réélaboration de cette condition, plutôt que de sa transformation.”

[soulbrotherv2]

Statue of Bussa, Barbadian slave revolt leader of Igbo descent.

[blackrevoltwakesurf]

Alain en plein test de la nouvelle BLACK REVOLT SWORD 4.6 derriere le Super Air Nautique 230 équipé de Nautique Surf System.

Alain is testing the brand new BLACK REVOLT SWORD 4.6 behind the Super Air Nautique 230 with Nautique Surf System

www.blackrevolt.com

[thisisbobbylondon]

There is the undeniable fact that black people, even black youth, are treated systematically different in this country. We can no longer afford for this truth to be ignored. The cost of this continued ignorance comes at the cost of more black lives. This is a truth that is unacceptable in any society that wants to claim to be post-anything.

With reporter Gary Webb back in the spotlight, the thing that is missing from these headlines is what the black community has always known – that the CIA was flooding black communities with crack cocaine. This served to benefit the US in two ways: it 1. allowed for the US to fund the Nicaraguan Contras without directly linking themselves, and 2. ), in relation to this article, they were able to interrupt the black liberation movement of the 60s-70s by criminalizing the black community, disrupting black advancement and stealing black wealth. Reaganomics and these racist policies was a great tactic that continues to support white supremacy and capitalism over black Americans.

In 2007 we saw the largest theft of black wealth. Which only increased the systematic discrepancies between the loss of white homes and those who were black. It has been revealed that banks such as Wells Fargo purposely targeted black homeowners for their sub-prime loans. Was this on accident, or instead a calculated plot by financial institutions with the complicity of the US government to make sure that White Supremacy remains untouched? Both the US government and its institutions were built on white supremacy and anti-blackness. They have been colluding since the inception of this country to ensure that their empire remains intact.

With an unending threat on black lives – and the Christian State of White Supremacy still at large (read here for more on CSWS) – liberalism should be seen as much of a threat to black liberation as the white supremacist American justice system.  The dominant narrative of historical black resistance has been to use liberal tactics such as advocating for change through voting, reform and civil disobedience. These tactics are not only ineffectual but, given the complexity and structural corruption inherent in our system, are also intentionally complicit in our oppression.

Liberalism is used to pacify any attempts at disrupting and changing the system, because in fact liberalism benefits from that said system. If you look at the events in Ferguson, the power structure made many attempts to co-opt energy that was inspired by the killing of Mike Brown and many other killings of black people by the hands of the law. With the immediate condemning of the few acts of property destruction that took place, the “rioters” were then met by outside pacifiers, looking to quickly rebrand and attempt to gain control on the black youth lead revolt. You could see that as recent as Ferguson October ideological clashes occurred between the youth and the self appointed black leadership. The ones who are so necessary for white liberals, who are eagerly trying to figure out how to control black rage, or at least help redirect its anger to something more positive and less threatening to their way of life. On Twitter you could see the split between the weekend protesters and those who had consistently been on the ground.

 Here in Los Angeles, soon after the first spark of Ferguson hit the ground, Ezell Ford a 24-year-old black male was murdered by LAPD. A week later white liberal activists had quickly organized an event. The first event took place in front of the LA police headquarters and was full of erasure of black struggle, with white people chanting, “we are all Mike Brown” and “hands up, don’t shoot”.

The state has many tactics – liberalism and co-optation are some of them. Hierarchical revolutionaries are another. It is important that black resistance be fought in a horizontal way. The idea of leadership and false prophets should be deconstructed, and collectively shunned from uprisings. Whether that may be the head of the NAACP, the New Panthers, or some white liberal activist organization that claim they want to help fight in black struggle. Liberalism and those who serve to protect it only work in management positions. They cannot be seen as allies, but as compromised people who have a vested interest in maintaining that same structure that is used to terrorize, dehumanize, and execute us with impunity. This is done so with every liberal chant for peace and chants for non-violence.

The ones who have the means to the shotgun should not be organizing the ones who don’t even have access to a blade.