TIM HAYES'

One of the silliest things about many people on the left today is the use of the word “woke”. One would think that this means one is “awakened” in thought and able to see past the various “propaganda” efforts of the “powers that be” and see racism, white supremacy, and imperialism for what they are. What this term today most often means is that a person is not “awake” to anything, just carrying on a new mantra that does not “rock the boat” I say this because not just on “facebook” but in the real world where I get to talk to a much larger audience ..calling yourself a “black nationalist” is as far as many of our people will go in terms of joining the fight for freedom and equality. Many love to quote Malcolm X who for much of his life considered himself that..The true arch of Malcolm’s life shows that he actually “out grew” nationalism and in his own words he said to me in January of 1965. “Nationalism is a good way to awaken the consciousness of oppressed people but if you stay in that place too long it leads to stagnation and a type of tribalism” Malcolm became truly dangerous to the power structure when he made this “Revolutionary” leap..I’ve never forgotten that. Marc Lamont Hill represents a big step in black activists bringing meaning to the term “woke”..none of us are free until all of us are free..when we say that we mean our sisters and brothers suffering under brutal occupation and Apartheid .The people of Palestine should have our total support…there is NOTHING anti-Semitic about calling for fair and just treatment of the oppressed..regardless of who the enemy is..But many people are quick to ask what right does a black man have to speak on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict ? As a long time truly “woke” activist and a person imprisoned and tortured in an Israeli prison ..I know that we don’t just have a right to speak up for Palestine ..but an obligation to..What the Marc Lamont Hill situation is, is a chance to stand with a brother who is truly walking in the footsteps of Malcolm..we should all be supporting him…if you need to know more here is one of many articles I read last night..https://www.nbcnews.com/…/marc-lamont-hill-fired-cnn-after-…

I had a lot of things to deal with Saturday and really did not get the facts about the murders in Pittsburgh until early in the evening. But after listening to the radio, and watching TV coverage and some newspaper coverage..I’m sorry but all I can think of now is the sad editorial I wrote the day after the election in 2016. Just about everything I feared then is coming to pass. The forces of hate have been emboldened by the Trump victory..of course they came for Black people first, Trump got harsher..those who have always hated felt like they could get away with more..racists stood up rather than stayed in the slime..Trump and his minions got harsher..they came for women, you see what happened with the SCOTUS hearings..Trumps legions got bolder..they came for the “LGBTQQ” community..Trump’s rhetoric grew worse, They came for brown people and immigrants. Just last week I had a meeting with Jewish people who voted for Trump..and were still going to vote Republican in Bucks county Pennsylvania..They literally thought I was being unfair saying that Trump’s speech was making people who hate us AND them come out of the shadows..sometimes I actually hate it when I’m right..I’m not going to go into all the things that happened to get Trump elected…and all the people whose actions made this happen..but I am staying “on message” the road to getting rid of this “hate mongering” begins with getting out the vote in November…mourn ..have vigils..do what you need to ..then get off your ass and get as many people to the polls as you can.

Well..it’s been over a week since we lost Aretha, and a lot has been written by a lot of people ..some who actually understood her, some who didn’t have a clue..some who were touched by her..and many who pretended to be. I waited because wanted to dwell on her life a bit. Talk to some people I’ve known over the years..see how they felt.. I wanted to find the right words to say what Aretha meant to me..as well as what she meant to a whole generation. What I mean by that is this generation of Black people who were born and raised in the twenty to thirty years after WW II.  She literally stood for everything we began to understand and to become in those years..Aretha was born not in her beloved Detroit but in the “Jim Crow” south …Memphis Tenn.. Being born in ’42 she was a little older than some of us..but  she rode that train of hair relaxers and “skin tone” creams.. Rosa Parks and Martin..wigs and hair dye .of Stokely and Black Power..Viet Nam and All Power to the people right along with us. It’s true Aretha probably was the greatest singer of the later half of the 20th century..in much the same way as Ethel Waters..(who in her day had song writers waiting in block long lines to get her to sing their music) was to another generation..But what made Aretha different is not just the fact that some publicity person named her the “Queen” of Soul. But by becoming a part of all the change and seeming empowerment , and the new pride we had in just being Black Americans…for the very first time..embracing our new love of African ancestry..Aretha didn’t just live up to being the Queen of soul….she defined it …..herself. When civil rights workers needed her ..she was there…but that was safe. When many Black women were reluctant to wear natural hair and African influenced garb on stage or TV Aretha would strut her stuff with pride..causing many others to do the same..When Black Revolutionaries needed the “Queen” she was there…and for anybody else in show business that would have been a risk…when Aretha talked about her support of Angela Davis, record company people reminded her of Paul Robeson..another generations “super nigger” who stepped out of his place ..and how his career was destroyed ..according to Jerry Wexler  her Atlantic records mentor..Aretha said “come on with it”…something sisters and brothers in the hood used to say when threatened “back in the day” she had no fear….Yes Aretha knew she had influence but she also seemed to know when to use it..and when not to..even saying the she knew the term “diva” was really a sexist insult for being a “bitch”..something most singers of her generation didn’t even understand.. but in later years she would admit “sometimes I can get my diva on….but I earned it”..Her life  her career was a celebration of the joy and pride we gained as African Americans after centuries of being treated as well as behaving like third class citizens in our own country..oh yeah and the “respect”…not just the kind Otis Redding sang about …but the kind only another woman understood..There won’t be another Queen..because the times she lived in had as much to do with Aretha owning that title as anything else…and those times were unique…Aretha was not JUST the Queen of soul ..she also had messages for abused women and single mothers… women of all colors and cultures..well it took me a while to find the right words…rest in peace Aretha, “Detroit Diva”..or “Tennessee songbird”…Queen of Soul

August 2, 2015…I have been lucky enough to have met a lot of the great thinkers and movers of the 20th century..Just out of an insatiable curiosity and the luck of just being there. I met Fidel Castro twice..got to have a good conversation with Muhammad Ali. worked for and got a chance to talk with Malcolm X .. twice got to talk with Yasser Arafat..Known Bobby Seale, worked for Shirley Chisholm and once met astronaut
Scott Carpenter..there are a lot more. But only twice in my life have I been so “star struck” as to be completely unable to even express myself. Once was when I was a journalist covering a Jazz festival and B.B. King introduced me to about a dozen of the greatest musicians of all time …The other time was in 1986.when I was working at the old artist hangout and great “dive” bar “Bacchanal” in Philadelphia ..My Band “Philly Gumbo” played there every Saturday night but twice a week I worked there as the Doorman..One day I walked in and sitting in a corner was James Baldwin himself sitting with “Beat Poet” Allen Ginsberg ..Baldwin had been in Philly all that week and had been to the club a couple of times..Loved the fact that he was able to blend in with the crowd two nights earlier when my band was playing to the usual packed house and nobody bothered him…Baldwin was there that night for a Poetry reading..seemed to enjoy himself..and even with my stumbling over my words ..he was just plain folks.And actually listened..was impressed that I was able to ..”decompress” From my former life as a political radical. And we talked about having both been in Selma in 1965…I still keep the glass Baldwin drank from in a book case in my house …For my money Baldwin is only equaled by Mark Twain as the greatest American writer of all time. James Arthur Baldwin was born this day August 2, 1924 and passed away on December 1, 1987..We are still learning from Baldwin ..both in race relations and matters of sexual preference..This film in the link at the end of this commentary is an excerpt from a Debate between Baldwin and William F. Buckley.. younger readers may want to
goggle the old fascist intellectual Buckley as he has been rotting in Hell for some time..if you have never heard Baldwin speak ..in that wonderful voice you are in for a treat..Happy Birthday James Baldwin.click on this link for the film….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbkObXxSUus

..Next month is my birthday Feb. 16th..on that day a film about a fictional character I have loved for over fifty years gets a big budget film treatment…The Film “Black Panther” and no it’s not about me and my fellow comrades ..revolutionaries in the 60s and early 70s. It’s about a super hero. Who is the king of an ancient kingdom in Africa that has long isolated itself from the culturally and scientifically backward outside world..Their tech makes 21 century America look stone age. Their King steps out of the shadows for the sake of helping to save the planet…hey !! This character was imagined in 1966 ..long before the hopeful dogma of “Afro-centrists” Who wouldn’t love this.??..well I don’t have to tell you that there is an epidemic of stupidity in the America of today…At first it was STUPID white people who complained after seeing stills from the film ( and the pictures were magnificent) that the cast was much too black…and many threatened to boycott the film MUCH TOO BLACK..hello? it’s about an African country…Now we see that being stupid works on all races.. The latest Boycott threat comes from groups of Black people upset by the fact that one of the actors in the film ( not the star ) Michael B. Jordan.has been seen dating a woman who is white..I love my people…God knows I love my people. I have put my life on the line for my people on three continents..been shot, been beaten, been trampled by a Alabama state policeman on a horse, fought in two wars in African countries to end colonialism, been jailed and imprisoned over a dozen times….But I have to say.. that this just might be the dumbest thing I have ever heard of…Now let me be completely frank here. In my life I have known a few Black men who have rejected Black women and will only date a white woman…I consider that some sick sh*t..but hey. I never would judge the brother. ..On the other hand I have known many, many people who have fallen in love ..married and have built beautiful families..with a person of another race..you find someone who shares your values and commitment and or intellectual interests ..you commit to each other and it can make no difference what race they are..To confuse one kind of relationship with the other is moronic…it sounds like a cliche but real love ..that old fashioned long lasting love is very hard to come by.. and if it’s a fucked up world we live in…Judging a person on the basis of the race of who they love is backward, ugly and ignorant …no matter who it comes from. And this group of intellectual midgets are going to try to stop millions of people from enjoying what my be a groundbreaking film over a silly concept that should have been put to sleep a long time ago…I HOPE THE LINES ARE AROUND THE BLOCK..

I am sorry I have been neglecting this blog lately I have had some medical issues to deal with….But I wrote this for face book today…I think it really belongs here…I have not been posting on facebook much lately ..I simply have some other issues to take care of. When people in my community asked what happened to me ..I tried to post just a few things about the kids and my family..just to show I was still around..last night a group of seniors who have done voter registration with me for almost thirty years..brought me food..and asked to come in. “It is your voice we miss” they said..”we know you are not well and can’t always show up like before”..Well first I let them know that I was not “that” sick , just going for some treatments..along with “pulmonary rehab”..I excepted the food…fried chicken (something I almost never eat anymore) and a huge salad. We talked until I had to leave to pick up my wife at the train station.SO….here is MY voice…What I need to say here is that these people …who have worked on every election in Philly for over thirty years with me. And knocked on thousands of doors .. and last night we tried to figure out just how many but we think we have registered at least 15 thousand voters just in the last few years. With the exception of me and a few college students who help us out every fall. This has been entirely a force of Black women…It was with Black women and Black college students that I began my life as a community organizer back in 1964. Black women have always been a major force in the conscience of America going all the way back to the original American feminist Sojourner “Ain’t I a Woman.” Truth. They were the
proof in the pudding who showed us that NO, Bernie Sanders would NOT have had a better shot at winning last years election..because the most consistent voters in the Black community for the most part had NO IDEA who or what he was ..and would not have voted for him. And last night it was the power of not just the vote of Black women but the “boots on the ground” Black women organizers who got out the vote..and totally upset the “red state” of Alabama.I have complained a lot in the last year about the white men who try to dominate both the opinions and the actions of the so called American Left..and even white women on the alleged left for the most part have shown the same arrogance..and general dismissive behavior when it comes to minority people and our voices…well while those people are in a “tale spin” over the Hillary crowd or the so-called Bernie crowd question….( love it when they try to call the Hillary crowd “corporate Democrat” …Ha..ha ha. they are ALL corporate Democrats.)..they fail to see that to us …you are all the same “not yet allies”…Congrats to the State of Alabama….and to the white alleged left….get over yourself and learn to pay attention.

We should all be so lucky as to have lead as full a life as the great Dick Gregory..To my generation Gregory at first was important because in a time when we never saw black people on tv doing anything but being the maid or tap dancing, and sometimes we got to see singers.. Dick Gregory was one of the first along with George Kirby to get to do non-demeaning stand-up comedy outside of just a black audience . The first time I saw Gregory I was a kid ..who went to work one night at the local Atlanta Black nightclub “The Royal Peacock” my dad..a chef at a white restaurant by day worked many nights as a cook at the club..some of my first work experiences was being the “ice boy” ferrying large containers of ice from the kitchen to the bar..and walking behind the stage for each trip..I was just a kid but had heard other comics before ..Gregory worked “blue” a lot but he even then ( about 1959-60 ) was the only one who talked about the movement…probably a lot of people have said today how Dick Gregory got to be the first Black comic who got to sit down with the host of the “Tonite Show” after doing his set…it was not Johnny Carson then …it was Jack Paar..and it seemed the more acceptable Gregory got the more militant and topical his “sets” became. As the civil rights movement got more intense Gregory along with Harry Belafonte were the biggest entertainers who faces were always there…But Gregory presented a much angrier face than Belafonte..and by the mid 1960s he began to “turn off” a lot of the white audience. But my biggest exposure to Dick was when he actually ran for president in 1968..on the “Peace and Freedom Party” ticket..Gregory published his second book “Write me In ” for the campaign…I wore out two copies because I think in 1968 I carried that book everywhere I went. Those were some great times, when many of us were waking up to just what a “devil” America was..as well as how we could be proud of ourselves and our history…and so-called activists today have no idea how it all felt when it was so new …so freeing and still so forbidden…Dick Gregory was one of those people who helped us make the transition from “colored” to Black…I can remember being the first kid in my high school who stopped saying colored and insisted on being called “black” teachers hated me…fellow students made fun of me…and those people who went to High school with me and have re-connected on facebook ..YES in those days you all made fun of me…and I would whip out Dick Gregory’s first book ..it was called simply “Nigger” and wave it in the air as proof that we didn’t have be called “colored” any more…I remember how teachers would gasp in horror…yes this is all true…but Dick Gregory ..more than just a comedian was just that inspiring…later on when the sixties were over Gregory settled in to being one of the go to elders of the struggle and even though most people in the last 20 years have no memory of him as a comic..anybody serious in the movement. knows of his commentary on the issues of the the day and Gregory still never “held his tongue”… His way to age is the way I would like to do it.still..the rebel ..and truth teller until the end.. Rest in Power..Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017)