Tribute to Curtis Mayfield on his birthday

CurtisMayfieldToday I celebrate the memory of Curtis Lee Mayfield (3 June 1942 – 26 December 1999)..The first time I ever heard Mayfield and paid attention to him was in the 1961 “Impressions” song “Gypsy Woman”..it can not be overstated that you cannot judge the importance of a song or record release by how high it scores on the sales charts. But the real “tell” is how much the piece touched the public and influenced the culture. Mayfield began as a gospel singer in the group ” Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers” in Chicago. He was seven years old. Curtis got his first guitar when he was ten, he was fond of saying ” he loved his guitar so much he used to sleep with it” Curtis was a self taught guitar player and learned to play along with gospel and Doo-Wop records and was really influenced by Muddy Waters and Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia.. But the first big move for him was in high school when he joined his friend Jerry Butler’s group “The Roosters” Curtis began to write songs for them..and they became “The Impressions” two years later. When I was a teen who joined many others in my age group in the civil rights marches and demonstrations of the 60s it was often songs by the “The Impressions” that became our “fight songs” . Often I heard this music on a record player of one of the older activists in SNCC ( Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee ) before we heard them on the radio. Tunes like “Keep On Pushing,” “People Get Ready”, “It’s All Right” “We’re a Winner” “Move on Up”…These were the songs we listened to and sang as a whole generation of “kids” went off to war to fight “Jim Crow”..I like to say that Mayfield wrote the “soundtrack” to the civil rights movement. If all Curtis Mayfield ever did was that , it would make him a “giant” among American musicians and composers. But after Mayfield became a “solo” artist he became much more. With his historic political commentary music and movie soundtracks Curtis Mayfield pushed the envelope of using music to point the finger at oppression and repression , crime and “benign neglect”..pulling no punches in political commentary like no other American artist before or since. His driving anti-drug commentary in the soundtrack to the film “Super-Fly” broke new ground in innovative music, re-defining what we were calling “funk” music ..and adding east African and west African rhythms to the mix and blazing a new trail with each album. But Mayfield never strayed far from his roots in gospel and “love” songs Just listen to his songs like “We the people who are darker than Blue” or “The makings of You “..mixing those “sweet” lyrics with a powerful message in a way only Mayfield could do. And a whole soundtrack in the movie “Claudine” that was a tribute to “Black Love” in hard times in America. The soundtrack to the fictional musical ‘bio-pic” “Sparkle” dug into the roots of R&B music but remained fresh and innovative . The prison drama “Short Eyes” a soundtrack that took “funk” and blues to places they never went before. I could go on writing about Curtis Mayfield all day long……I WANT TO…but even though I have a big day ahead talking to people about the gun violence plague…I will from time to time go up to my office and post a song by Mayfield…the supply is generous…We won’t see another like Curtis…even in his last years when he was disabled after a tragic accident while getting ready for a show Curtis found a way to keep telling us about our world….a powerful talent.

The Mystery Of WHITESPLAINING

imagesIf I were a white guy and I commented on a fb thread where mostly black people were talking .and one or more of them said that I was commenting in a way that was patronizing and kind of sounding like I was trying to explain to them what the “real” situation was. And that this was one way that a subtle type of racism rears it’s head among so-called liberal and progressive white men as well as lots of women? Would I get angry and say NOT ME ! and deny that I was “whitesplaining” and say I was just expressing my opinion. And when the black people told me that they get this all the time and thought that because I was at least trying to be some kind of progressive they would try bringing the subject up and that I might even thank them for telling me. Instead when they told me that I got angry and said “ha well I see my thoughts are just not wanted here…so I won’t EVER comment here again.. even when they told me that my opinion is welcomed it’s just the way I approached them..I then act like I didn’t even hear that part.. ….Sound silly does it not . Well In the last year I have made a point of telling so-called progressive white people how we feel when they do this. I consider this the “last frontier” of racism …getting along with white people who at least SAY they want to work with us. Well my score has been 50-50..about half the time the white person …men and women have listened.. some even glad I pointed this out ..and many have made it a point to work at not doing this..the other half mostly end the conversation not me ! I was NOT whitesplaining okay I just won’t comment where my opinion is not wanted..I have several white friends with whom I have had this conversation and it really did enhance our relationship..I have had some people to thank me for doing this..I had one who managed to vandalize my Facebook account and got me shut down for two days..( how do those guys know how to do that stuff ) some who simply don’t comment and or turn away when I see them in public…but mostly they just get real mad…well I’m going to continue to do this when it’s fair and proper to do so..for me and that percentage of white people who have gotten something from it..
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Joe Biden throws his hat into the ring

I’m using this picture because this is what Joe Biden looked like when I met him for the first time.. that would be 1975 or 76. I had been asked to come to Delaware to run voter registration workshops for the DNC..Biden was new to the Senate he had been in office about two years.(hey that shows how old I am ) I like Joe..he is honest.. you can turn your back on him and you won’t get a knife in your back..( Cory Booker )..his presence on the ticket was a big reason for Obama’s victory…BUT…Joe is what Joe is..maybe he won’t hurt us ..but he won’t help us move forward. Remember Joe during the Anita Hill vs. Clarence Thomas thing?…I actually would say the same thing about Bernie..He won’t hurt us..but he won’t move us forward, Bernie has what we used to call when I built rockets aerodynamic drag..So many of his followers are the worst of the “toxic white male” liberal..you know …the guys who think nobody is a “progressive” unless they do what I say guys. ( and a lot of them are white women too) I wouldn’t even ask a Black or Brown voter to follow those people to a dogfight..and this is a national election….And to Joe Biden ….with respect..I will say “thanks Joe ,,,but no thanks this time. Like I said two days ago I have not made up my mind who I will support in the primary.but it won’t be a white male..and it won’t be a chicken hearted asskisser like Cory Booker..But when the primary is over I will work for who ever gets the nod….you gotta keep your “eyes on the prize” …it’s about beating Trump right now..

Sen.-elect Joe Biden, D-Del., visiting Capitol Hill after being elected in 1972.

Sen.-elect Joe Biden, D-Del., visiting Capitol Hill after being elected in 1972.

Just a few thoughts as the fall political season begins September 2017

I talked with a huge group of college students and faculty today. They mostly wanted me to talk about the “glory days” of my being in SCLC then SNCC and then the Black Panther Party. For some it’s “sexy”..exciting and they always ask the same predictable questions.. the guns, the FBI..and as usual when I get to the part of being an African American. who not only worked for equality in America but went to prison doing that in Israel. as well as taking part in the anti-colonial wars in several African countries..it really shakes them up….you know…a Black American taking the struggle to an international level..it’s still hard for a lot of people to wrap their minds around that..it’s supposed to be all about “we shall overcome”, or leather jackets and shotguns…Well today I spent less time on that and went to what bites my ass today. My state, Pennsylvania , has a republican ruled legislature.my country…the good old USA has a republican Senate as well as the House…and what are most of the people who would be and should be organizing the opposition to Trump…and or looking for candidates to help take these legislatures back doing ?? Well a lot of them are still ….yes still demonizing Hillary Clinton..they act like the Democratic primary is still on And just like during the election they have an obsession with making Hillary..who is no longer running for office the villain . Something totally of no consequence now. I have been doing my normal fall voter education and registration stuff. As well as trying to identify communities were voter participation have been traditionally low…My people in Chester Pa. have registered 1200 new voters in the last two weeks. I will be checking on  my regular folks working in N.W. Philly next week ..but I know they have been having “teach-ins” and forums on how to run for office …and finding good candidates and how to help them win….this is NOT MMe and FDRove.On .org…nor the local “missionaries” that call themselves Neighborhood Networks…these are just ordinary people from churches and campuses and senior citizens homes working in their OWN communities…and then I come home to see all the so-called “activists” doing nothing but bitching about HIllary on facebook..this stupidity is a big part of the matrix of things that cost us the election. Grow up …get over it….get to work…or at least if you are still doing the “get Hillary” thing SHUT UP…it would be a great help

ABOUT THE RACE FOR PHILLY DA IN 2017

18491839_10211175347331026_7198973368837060910_oI did not want to write this, I have been busy getting over chemo, as well as a cardiac procedure that came later. And the simple business of being there for my family has gotten complex since my daughters accident . But both at the supermarket yesterday as well as just now at the Sunoco station several people want to know how I feel about this District attorney’s race. First just in case you don’t know is I have NEVER jumped on a “bandwagon” in my life. I have NEVER chose a candidate to vote for because it was trendy or “cool” to do so. Or because I wanted to party with the “hip” people….and oh yeah ….the hardest part of this choice is remembering that there are NEVER any “perfect” candidates.Now with all that being said….nobody is going to like this who is with the “in” crowd..I’ve been out of circulation …but I have not been dead…There are three candidates that stick out for me …with good reason to vote for them …but they ALL still have many negatives… My three choices are Joe Khan…a scary former federal prosecutor with all that ” mandatory minimum sentences” baggage.as well as having gone along with other questionable policies ..but he has risen to seem like the most competent of the candidates running.and he is an “outsider”.but running the D.As office is something I would trust him with..this would be my choice if I just wanted to “play it safe”…then there is Rich Negrin..he knows all the right people…a lot of people feel they owe him favors for shadowy things we don’t know about.worst of all this man is the choice of both the local police unions…he is indeed scary ….stinky ..but many, MANY people I trust and have worked with over the years have “stepped in line” to endorse him…he certainly knows city hall ….knows everybody in city council …and knows where ALL the bodies are buried…but again even with that smell..I would consider him another safe choice…third candidate is Lawrence Krasner ..just like Negrin he has a HUGE bandwagon following..both trusted old comrades as well as the clueless elite liberal hordes have jumped into this following…what gives me cause to again have to hold my nose is even though I have seen Krasner be there for Black Lives Matter..and step in for what he calls civil rights cases….I have to admit that in all five case where I have encountered the man in person….that old arrogant patronizing “white liberal thing” where he talks to white people in one tone of voice …and talks to black people like they are children.was ALWAYS there..But after the last election I have taken to talking about this particular “malady ” more…because it’s time for it to stop…this is a struggle white people have to look inside themselves and have the courage…or even the balls to admit and deal with…and I have to say that Krasner shares this problem with about half the “white liberal males” I know……and a lot of the women too..so he is not alone …Hey after 52 years as an activist and organizer maybe this is something I’m tired of running from…So these three are who I think would be the best choices…and to say what about 30 people on the street asked me just today. With EXTREME caution I am voting for Lawrence Krasner….not for ANY of the reasons you hear in his adds…but simply because with the District Attorney’s department we have had for the last few decades I WANT SOMETHING BETTER….I can’t stand Krasher but like I said ..the “perfect” candidate does not exist….so I’m taking a chance…a leap of faith…or hey it could be something else..I’m also voting for Mark B. Cohen the son of my “Philly politics” mentor David Cohen..for judge of the court of common pleas…..there I said it all ….you may not like it ..the thing is you get to make your own choice when you vote tuesday ….but PLEASE VOTE

My favorite woman leader from the 1960s civil rights era Gloria Richardson

This is one of my favorite historical pictures of all time ….This is Gloria Richardson…and she was one of Malcolm X’s heroes …Gloria Hayes Richardson was born on May 6, 1922 in Baltimore, Maryland to parents John and Mabel Hayes. During the Great Depression her parents moved the family to Cambridge, Maryland, the home of Mabel Hayes. Young Gloria grew up in a privileged environment. Her grandfather, Herbert M. St. Clair, was one of the town’s wealthiest citizens. He owned numerous properties in the city’s Second Ward which included a funeral parlor, grocery store and butcher shop. He was also the sole African American member of the Cambridge City Council through most of the early 20th Century.

Gloria attended Howard University in Washington at the age of 16 and graduated in 1942 with a degree in sociology. After Howard, she worked as a civil servant for the federal government in World War II-era Washington, D.C. but returned to Cambridge after the war. Despite her grandfather’s political and economic influence, the Maryland Department of Social Services, for example, refused to hire Gloria or any other black social workers. Gloria Hayes married local school teacher Harry Richardson in 1948 and raised a family for the next thirteen years.

When the civil rights movement came to Cambridge in 1961 in the form of Freedom Riders, the town was thoroughly segregated and the African American unemployment rate was 40%. Gloria Richardson’s teenage daughter, Donna, became involved with the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) effort to desegregate public accommodations. Gloria, however, refused to commit herself to non-violence as a protest tactic.

When the SNCC-led protests faltered in 1962, Gloria and other parents created the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC) which became the only adult-led SNCC affiliate in the civil rights organization’s history. CNAC enlarged the scope of grievances to include housing and employment discrimination and inadequate health care. Richardson was selected to lead CNAC.

This Richardson-led effort differed from most other civil rights campaigns of the era. It took place in a border state rather than the Deep South. It addressed a much wider array of issues rather than the one or two that motivated other campaigns. Since Richardson and her followers refused to commit to non-violence as a philosophy or a tactic, CNAC protests were far more violent and confrontative. Protests in 1963, for example, prompted Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes to send in the Maryland National Guard. The Guard remained in the city, which was effectively under martial law, for nearly a year. The Cambridge Movement also drew the attention of U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy who unsuccessfully attempted to broker an agreement between Cambridge’s white political leaders and Richardson’s CNAC.

By the summer of 1964 Richardson resigned from the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee citing her exhaustion from leading nearly two years of continuous demonstrations. Richardson, who had divorced Harry Richardson in the late 1950s, married freelance photographer Frank Dandridge. The couple moved to New York City with Richardson’s younger daughter Tamara.521618_4987366773452_1067897297_n

Just making it clear how I feel about the MLK “day of service”

528783_10151382017949311_875778593_nI have not written any new entries here for a while….I guess I just put to much of myself into the last election …and more than politically burned out from the results…The last time I posted this picture , an old friend complemented me on taking such a nice picture when I was a young man. But to most of you I don’t have to tell you, this is Dr. Martin Luther King born Micheal King Jr .he is at Morehouse College in 1948. I always stop and honor Dr. King on this day. But most of the time I don’t go out and do any special activities on the Holiday that is his birthday. I have tried to make everyday that I am able to serve as Martin Luther King Day. I won’t say I was a friend of Dr. Kings. He certainly knew who I was. He was a very early hero to me long before the march on Washington. But I was much too young to have been in his circle. And as a youngster I tried very hard to spend as much time with the people I considered the “movers and shakers” in the civil rights movement. I must have washed Martins car about 10 times. and helped cut the grass at his house a few times. But for me as I grew further into my teens. It was Julian Bond, and John Lewis, Diane Nash, Lonnie King, C.T. Vivian and a lot of other people you never heard of from SNCC and the Atlanta student movement that called to me and formed my idea of the type of activist I wanted to be. Even though Atlanta Georgia was the only true Metropolis soaked in the culture of “Jim Crow” It probably was the biggest threat to the old segregated culture..Because as anyone who knows the area can tell you, the city is full of historically Black educational institutions and even today it’s the Black educational capital of the world..many movements from the civil rights era may have started in other towns …with student and clergy from other places. But they all seemed to gather in our city when the movement matured. I got to see it all happen. The meetings . planning sessions. And all the talk about what tactics to use. heard many of the arguments between different factions. And I was just a kid. But that was rarefied air to be in if you were growing up then and there. I still remember the talks among my “elders”..meaning 22-30 year olds ..making plans to risk their lives on campaigns to change the way we lived “down south” as well as the way Black people all over America saw themselves and how we were perceived by the rest of the country as well as the rest of the world. These same people lead me to be able to go to several other countries and see and participate in movements for freedom and justice for oppressed people , Angola , Palestine, North Viet Nam and other countries. There is a reason why I am so disgusted by “coonery” , deadbeat dads, monkeyfied rappers, and hip-hop hoochie mamas. Back then ALL the images we saw of ourselves were clowns, maids , janitors, criminals, shoe shine boys, “bucks” and Mammies. And these people in the movement were the best and the brightest of us. Risking not just any future success in employment but their lives in order that the coming generation could walk unthreatened. with dignity and pride…..seems like a simple thing today….but it was not. Today’s activist need to understand that it was a deadly business. Most of us didn’t expect to live past 30……..and many did not. Martin Luther King was NOT Santa Claus , and God bless him our Dear John Lewis who Trump insulted this week is not. Regardless of whether you always agree with Lewis today….I consider him one of the the bravest Americans who ever lived. I was on that bridge in Selma when we were both along with dozens of other people beaten and trampled by horses and gassed. I know we did not “fix” America back then …..but there are a hell of a lot of things black, brown and poor people can do today that they couldn’t do before the movement….and it goes on ..and it should everyday..NO Martin was not Santa..the movement was not “cute and fluffy”…and one day of service won’t change sh*t. Honor Martin in what you do everyday…….thanks…..just an “old head” talking

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Just a few words on the results of the election of 2016

This photo was taken on a day in 1970 when as a Captain in the Black Panther Party I addressed thousands of people at an anti-Viet Nam war rally in Atlanta. tim at demo 1970  2Well the election of 2016 is over and I don’t think anybody saw the results coming just the way they did..after some rest and taking care of some medical stuff. I hope I can still find that guy in the picture somewhere inside..with his lack of fear and his intelligence, to face life In Trumps America and still hold on to the wisdom that I have today. I was told today by an old comrade from those days that I had “too many white people” in my life. I think that looking at the fact that so many of my so-called liberal and progressive white friends seem to be totally blind to what is happening …..and what will happen to the poor and non-white among us after this 9/11 for us. They are already starting to fight over whether the result would have been different if Bernie had been the candidate…a cosmically stupid question. Or suggesting that getting rid of the electoral college could be a fix…well wake the fuck up ! ! !..none of that changes the fact that the sleeping racist giant that really is America and always has been has been awoken ….and emboldened ….they have proof now that being them is the right thing..If you white liberals still want to be called “allies” and not something else. You need to at least try to see this from the “darker” perspective ( no pun intended )..getting rid of the electoral college won’t help or change a damn thing… working on the still racist nature of being a white American will..and that includes your arrogant brand of liberal racism too….

THIS MAY BE MY LAST WORD BEFORE THE 2016 ELECTION….or maybe not.

Hillary Clinton is not my most favored person to run for President ….in fact NOBODY who has run for president in the last 60 years has been…for almost thirty years the worst people in the American political system have waged a propaganda war on this woman that for the most part had it’s beginnings in the simple phrase “How dare that bitch do that” ..in other words it really pissed them off that the wife of a President they did not like would DARE. Over the years this war of accusations and nasty words kept up. And last year when I was actually campaigning for another person …Bernie Sanders I began to hear all that bullshit from young idealistic Sanders supporters who were simply too busy watching “Sesame Street” when the Republican war on Hillary started to know that most of this had it’s roots in bullshit. And they began to repeat all those old republican talking points like they were real…It didn’t help that the Clintons …who had NEVER been rich people used their celebrity after the Bill Clinton presidency to finally get rich. When Hillary ran for President for me it really sounded like we could get four more years of an Obama like administration…and let me say here that I am a Maoist Communist way down in my core…and although I worked for Obama’s election, as many of you know he was far from what I would call my ideal candidate or President ..in fact within weeks of Obama’s taking the oath as president I was on facebook and in the streets protesting positions he had taken..anything Hillary did as a member of the Obama administration as Sec of state she did as an employee of Barack Obama…Although I campaigned for Bernie Sanders in the primary ..just like I was willing to have an Obama presidency I’m willing to have a Hillary Clinton presidency..she is no more a “killary” than Obama was or is. and actually less of a “hawk” than he is ….but a hawk all the same…and just like with every single person who has been president since I could read a newspaper I will have many disagreements with..I mean come on she ain’t a Maoist Communist so she can’t be perfect…but we know what the alternative is…we know who Trump is……some of us have even figured out what he is…I am willing to fight with Hillary rather than see the people suffer under Trump….it’s just that simple. VOTE THIS TUESDAY….or I don’t want to here any of your CRAP13244_10_05_16_2_20_42

Why there is nothing wrong about another slave movie.

One of the things that has really bothered me in this crazy election year. has been the way so many people become victim to the “bandwagon” mentality. If something becomes popular with enough people to reach a certain “critical mass” then it becomes something many people think they just have to do, or think, or at least try to say they believe in. I mean you can’t be considered “hip” or cool unless you embrace certain ways of seeing things or making certain “talking points” a part of your normal conversation.No matter how stupid..if enough people think it’s cool ..you say it too..Among many Black people this had lead to a type of anti-intellectualism . You shut down critical analysis because it just “ain’t cool” any more.One of the ways this manifests itself in today’s world is the “I’m tired of hearing about slavery” crowd..I consider this a childish and backward rejection of a part of our history that still affects us more than any. While I understand why one would say this, from my experience to make such a statement has more to do with ones sense of “racial self esteem”..As Important as it is to study the complete Black Historical experience..from pre-history to now. We still are being influenced by the experience of slavery as a people ..and as a nation… I was a part of that generation that while maybe not the first but certainly was the first in mass to begin to study and research Black History beyond the time of slavery. Fifty years ago we were making pilgrimages to west Africa, saving up to go to Ethiopia, Somalia, Seeing sites in the Middle East. I went to Algeria, and Israel , and Tunisia as well yes Egypt. in search of Black History before slavery. I wanted to find out as much as i could about Moorish history and religion. Important stuff, true. What this all lead me back to is that we still don’t have a really complete understanding of the psychological impact of slavery. or the long lasting pathology that causes us as Black people to act out is some ways over and over in generation after generation. I’m tired of hearing people say “I don’t want to see any more movies about slavery.” Well true there is a lot more to our story than that……a lot more. And I would like to see more films and published studies on Pre-slavery Black history. But we have only scratched the surface of the peculiar institution of slavery. So yes I’m looking forward to another film that deals with slavery…but this one..called “Birth of a Nation” deals with a part of the slave experience most of the films have stayed away from….Rebellion…so it may turn out to be a good film….and it may not. But that anti-intellectual bullshit about “I don’t want to see another slave film” will not keep me out of the theater..to see the trailer use this link.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIlUerVomDE1453915282377.cached