Ol' Dirty MLK:
America's Most Wanted
TRUTH Minista Paul Scott
"I said it before and I'll still taunt it. Every young brotha with a color is most wanted."
Amerikkka's Most Wanted- Ice Cube
He was considered by some the most dangerous man in America. He spent many nights locked up in jail cells. There were constant attempts made on his life. During his last years he was constantly harassed by law enforcement. The real reason for his untimely demise before the age of 40 still remains a mystery. I'm not talking about Grammy nominated rapper Russell "Ol' Dirty Bastard" Jones," I'm talking about Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr....
Recently, the website Gun.io posted FBI documents suggesting that ODB and the Wu Tang Clan were under surveillance for alleged, illegal activities. It must be noted that the late Dr. Martin Luther King was also under surveillance as documented in Kenneth O'Reilly's book "Black Americans: The FBI Files", proving that if you are an outspoken Black man in America, you don't have to be a criminal for the Feds to watch you.
Although many people today celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King as one of the greatest American heroes, that was not always the case. According to historian Taylor Branch in his book "Pillar of Fire," former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover referred to King as not only a "tom cat with obsessive degenerate sexual urges" but a "notorious liar" and "one of the lowest characters in the country;" in the Hip Hop vernacular " an ol' dirty bastard."
For most people who are only familiar with King via the overplayed "I Have a Dream Speech," this may come as quite a shock. How could a man of peace who only wanted "this nation to rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed" become Public Enemy #1. However, in reality, King was a lot closer to the ideologies of "militants" such as Malcolm X and Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael), especially in his later years, than many people would like to admit. This fact, however, has not been lost on Hip Hop, as even the most revolutionary rappers such as Public Enemy, Immortal Technique and Rakim have all paid homage to him in their songs.
The real Martin Luther King Jr is captured in the parts of his speeches and writings that have been whited-out of high school history books. Most people don't know that in his last speech, " I See the Promised Land," delivered in Memphis the night before he was assassinated, he called for a boycott of Coca Cola, Sealtest Milk and Wonder Bread and also asked that Black people transfer their money from white banks to a black one.
Nor do they know that ,although he is portrayed as the great integrationist, King was as just a strong of an advocate of Black Pride as ODB was of "Knowledge of Self." In his work ""Where Do We Go from Here" King defines Black Power as "a psychological reaction to the psychological indoctrination that led to the creation of the perfect slave." Also, although some only associate Dr. King with songs like "We Shall Overcome," Dead Prez once sampled one of his "missing" speeches where he proclaimed , "Yes I'm Black..I'm proud of it...I'm Black and beautiful!"
This is the King that many hated; the one who dissed President Lyndon Johnson's war in Vietnam by saying that "we have been wrong from the beginning in Vietnam, we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people." (Which was just a nicer way of putting Muhammad Ali's statement that no Vietcong ever called him the N word. )
These are the types of voices that many in this country have always wanted silenced.
Now does that mean that at some point, ODB might have stopped a Wu Tang concert and spoken out against George Bush's "War on Terror?"
We will never know but wild boys do wild things.
Remember, in an AllHipHop interview conducted shortly after his release from prison, ODB accused George Bush and the government of trying to kill him. While most people wrote this off as the paranoid ramblings of someone suffering from too many years of drug abuse , history makes us take another look. As they say in Greek mythology "those who the gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad."
It is no secret that the FBI bugged Dr. King's hotel rooms and ,allegedly, had tapes of him gettin' his freak on with women which they delivered to his wife in an effort to push him to commit suicide.
Also, according to Clay Risen in his book "A Nation on Fire," before his assassination in Memphis, " the 111th Military Intelligence Group had been keeping tabs on King and the SCLC for signs of an impending riot." Also Risen states that on the day of us murder, anti-riot operations were already put in place by the Army Operations Center "before his death was even confirmed."
Even Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote in the forward of Kings "alleged" assassin, James Earl Ray's book "Who Killed Martin Luther King, " "I have always believed that the government was part of a conspiracy, either directly or indirectly, to assassinate him."
So what is the connection between the ODBs, Tupac Shakurs and even the Soulja Slims of the world and MLK ? Every Black man with a microphone is a potential threat. Whether that threat is realized or not, they all had the potential to incite the youth to revolutionary action. After all, law enforcement has always paid an inordinate amount of attention to rappers. Recently, it was even reported that the DC police and the ATF set up a fake Hip Hop record label in Washington DC.
What if Russell Jones had lived long enough to become more political? What if his ideologies were expanding in the same manner as Dr. King's. Remember the purpose of J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO was to "prevent the long range growth of militant Black organizations especially among youth."
Maybe the truth lies in ODB's haunting words when he bum-rushed the stage at the 1998 Grammy awards,
"Wu Tang is for the children. We teach the children!"
And this is America's greatest fear.
Article courtesy of "This Ain't Hip Hop;" a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz.
TRUTH Minista Paul Scott can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Why Are We Still Marchin' ?
Controlled Chaos:
Why We Are We Still Marchin' ?
Paul Scott
I have marched until my feet have bled and I have rioted until they called the Feds.
What's left my conscious said?
"Revolution" Arrested Development
When folks gather in DC for the Jobs and Justice March and the Martin Luther King Memorial dedication this weekend, I betcha a million bucks that somebody is gonna pose the same question that people have been asking for the last 40 years. "What would Martin Luther King Jr say if he was here, today ?" If MLK was at the march, he would probably mean mug the crowd and yell "after all these years, why are y'all still marchin' ?"
While people have accused the Hip Hop generation of being politically, apathetic (many times for good reason) the hardcore truth is that many young folks are just tired of traveling down the same road that has led us to nowhere-ville. They just need for someone to tell them the best way to bring about change.
Unfortunately, most old school cats are still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, themselves. They can't answer the basic question, "after all these years of marching and protesting, why are the conditions of poor people, relatively, the same as they were back in 1963?"
The reason is simple. It's called controlled chaos: when things appear to be out of order but they are really being controlled by a master shot caller. There are forces at work making sure that we stay lost in the wilderness and never make it to the Promised Land.
The government's repression of political dissent goes back decades. One can trace it as far back as the early 20th century with the Bureau of Investigation's attack on Marcus Garvey or the House UnAmerican Affairs Committee's attacks on Paul Robeson and others.
While it is known that the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) played a major role in destroying political movements during the late 60's and early 70's, what must be examined in the 21st century is "how" they did it.
According to Ward Churchill and Jim Wall in their book, "Agents of Repression," the FBI used several techniques to disrupt movements, including infiltrating organizations with agents, falsely tagging activists as "snitches" and assassinations. Another strategy was setting up phony, militant organizations or "pseudo gangs" "designed to confuse, divide and undermine, as well as do outright battles with authentic dissident groups." This may even account for the street gangs of today who will kill on sight members of rival gangs but would never consider bangin' on the system.
Also, although politicians praise the strategy of nonviolence, history teaches us that it is only after riots, when people start tearin' stuff up, that the government suddenly is able to "find" money for all sorts of social programs that they couldn't find before the rebellions. This is a technique that President Richard Nixon used as he transformed Black Power into Green Power.
One of the least talked about strategies to stop radical movements did not come from the Feds but from philanthropic foundations. According to Robert W Allen in his book "Black Awakening in Capitalist America," these foundations used their money to co-opt the Black Power movement. The main organization responsible was the Ford Foundation, headed by former US national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, who's brother just happened to be William Bundy, former director of the CIA. Allen called the Ford Foundation "the most important, though, least publicized" organization manipulating the militant black movement."
Not only did the foundations influence the direction of street organizations but they also manipulated Black studies programs at colleges to make sure they produced "Clarence Thomas's" instead of "Malcolm X's." Noliwe Rooks discusses the efforts of the foundations to take the "black" out of Black studies in her book, "White Money, Black Power."
Later, during the Hip Hop era, we see the role that entertainment corporations played in diverting the rebellious energy of poor and oppressed ghetto kids.
During the golden age of conscious Hip Hop (1988-92) we witnessed a period that best represented how rap music could be used as a tool to organize the masses. This was a time when Hip Hop artists, not only made songs about fighting the power, but also participated in acts of civil disobedience such as when members of the X-Clan were involved in the "Day of Outrage" following the murder of Yusef Hawkins in 1989.
However, after '92, conscious Hip Hop was replaced by a materialistic music that made people want to be part of the system instead of fighting against it. They have made grown men walking around with their drawers showin' the ultimate act of rebellion.
Perhaps the most telling example of the political manipulation of Hip Hop was the 2004 election when, instead of using their influence and resources to politically educate their constituents in the 'hood, Hip Hop moguls created a politically ambivalent marketing strategy called "Vote or Die" that did little more than sell overpriced T-Shirts.
The most interesting political movement in recent history is Occupy Wall Street, as activists have successfully broken out of the box of the Republican/Democratic dynamic and have taken the fight straight to the seat of power. If this movement continues focusing on the source of the multiple problems facing the 'hood ( the multi-national corporations) this could be a major tipping point, effecting the economic balance of this country.
However, we have already seen filthy rich celebrities co-sign what is supposed to be a poor people's movement. And it is just a matter of time before some slick politician tries to turn radical, revolutionists into mild mannered voter registration political reformists good only for putting "Vote for Me" posters on people's front yards.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Today we find ourselves at the crossroads; one way leads to Freedom and the other road leads to perpetual oppression.
We all have a choice to make.
Do we we leave the next generation a movement for real socio-economic change or just sore feet and worn out Air Jordans?
"TRUTH Minista" Paul Scott can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Why We Are We Still Marchin' ?
Paul Scott
I have marched until my feet have bled and I have rioted until they called the Feds.
What's left my conscious said?
"Revolution" Arrested Development
When folks gather in DC for the Jobs and Justice March and the Martin Luther King Memorial dedication this weekend, I betcha a million bucks that somebody is gonna pose the same question that people have been asking for the last 40 years. "What would Martin Luther King Jr say if he was here, today ?" If MLK was at the march, he would probably mean mug the crowd and yell "after all these years, why are y'all still marchin' ?"
While people have accused the Hip Hop generation of being politically, apathetic (many times for good reason) the hardcore truth is that many young folks are just tired of traveling down the same road that has led us to nowhere-ville. They just need for someone to tell them the best way to bring about change.
Unfortunately, most old school cats are still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, themselves. They can't answer the basic question, "after all these years of marching and protesting, why are the conditions of poor people, relatively, the same as they were back in 1963?"
The reason is simple. It's called controlled chaos: when things appear to be out of order but they are really being controlled by a master shot caller. There are forces at work making sure that we stay lost in the wilderness and never make it to the Promised Land.
The government's repression of political dissent goes back decades. One can trace it as far back as the early 20th century with the Bureau of Investigation's attack on Marcus Garvey or the House UnAmerican Affairs Committee's attacks on Paul Robeson and others.
While it is known that the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) played a major role in destroying political movements during the late 60's and early 70's, what must be examined in the 21st century is "how" they did it.
According to Ward Churchill and Jim Wall in their book, "Agents of Repression," the FBI used several techniques to disrupt movements, including infiltrating organizations with agents, falsely tagging activists as "snitches" and assassinations. Another strategy was setting up phony, militant organizations or "pseudo gangs" "designed to confuse, divide and undermine, as well as do outright battles with authentic dissident groups." This may even account for the street gangs of today who will kill on sight members of rival gangs but would never consider bangin' on the system.
Also, although politicians praise the strategy of nonviolence, history teaches us that it is only after riots, when people start tearin' stuff up, that the government suddenly is able to "find" money for all sorts of social programs that they couldn't find before the rebellions. This is a technique that President Richard Nixon used as he transformed Black Power into Green Power.
One of the least talked about strategies to stop radical movements did not come from the Feds but from philanthropic foundations. According to Robert W Allen in his book "Black Awakening in Capitalist America," these foundations used their money to co-opt the Black Power movement. The main organization responsible was the Ford Foundation, headed by former US national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, who's brother just happened to be William Bundy, former director of the CIA. Allen called the Ford Foundation "the most important, though, least publicized" organization manipulating the militant black movement."
Not only did the foundations influence the direction of street organizations but they also manipulated Black studies programs at colleges to make sure they produced "Clarence Thomas's" instead of "Malcolm X's." Noliwe Rooks discusses the efforts of the foundations to take the "black" out of Black studies in her book, "White Money, Black Power."
Later, during the Hip Hop era, we see the role that entertainment corporations played in diverting the rebellious energy of poor and oppressed ghetto kids.
During the golden age of conscious Hip Hop (1988-92) we witnessed a period that best represented how rap music could be used as a tool to organize the masses. This was a time when Hip Hop artists, not only made songs about fighting the power, but also participated in acts of civil disobedience such as when members of the X-Clan were involved in the "Day of Outrage" following the murder of Yusef Hawkins in 1989.
However, after '92, conscious Hip Hop was replaced by a materialistic music that made people want to be part of the system instead of fighting against it. They have made grown men walking around with their drawers showin' the ultimate act of rebellion.
Perhaps the most telling example of the political manipulation of Hip Hop was the 2004 election when, instead of using their influence and resources to politically educate their constituents in the 'hood, Hip Hop moguls created a politically ambivalent marketing strategy called "Vote or Die" that did little more than sell overpriced T-Shirts.
The most interesting political movement in recent history is Occupy Wall Street, as activists have successfully broken out of the box of the Republican/Democratic dynamic and have taken the fight straight to the seat of power. If this movement continues focusing on the source of the multiple problems facing the 'hood ( the multi-national corporations) this could be a major tipping point, effecting the economic balance of this country.
However, we have already seen filthy rich celebrities co-sign what is supposed to be a poor people's movement. And it is just a matter of time before some slick politician tries to turn radical, revolutionists into mild mannered voter registration political reformists good only for putting "Vote for Me" posters on people's front yards.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Today we find ourselves at the crossroads; one way leads to Freedom and the other road leads to perpetual oppression.
We all have a choice to make.
Do we we leave the next generation a movement for real socio-economic change or just sore feet and worn out Air Jordans?
"TRUTH Minista" Paul Scott can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Dethroning a King
Dethroning a King:
The White Washing of Black History
Paul Scott
If the late Civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr was able to look down from Heaven at the numerous MLK Day memorial celebrations taking place across the country, I'm sure that he would have one question.
"Who are they talking about?"
Like many black historical icons,the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, has been victimized by revisionist pseudo-historians who take great liberty with the truth when discussing the life of this great man. . Although, he was assassinated over 40 years ago, every third Monday in January his legacy is murdered over and over again. The King who is glorified as the Prince of Peace bears little resemblance to the man who marched in cities from Mississippi to Illinois seeking socio-economic justice for African Americans.
It must be noted that while some Americans now wear the fact that they "marched with Dr. King" as a badge of honor, he was actually hated by many members of society both black and white, who thought that King's form of radical civil disobedience was moving America too fast.
Even those who initially supported his movement dropped him like a hot potato when he used his nonviolent philosophy in the context of opposition to the Vietnam War. Dr. King was considered the most dangerous man in America by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who launched a smear campaign to discredit King that plagued him until the end of his life.
It can be argued that many of the same corporations who are sponsoring MLK Day events and using his image to attract Black customers to their stores would themselves have been picketed by Dr. King if he were alive today. Also, even though many newspapers will devote a lot of ink towards the legacy of Dr. King, he would probably be considered persona non grada by today's newspapers, who would fear that giving the activist too much coverage may anger their advertisers.
While much attention is paid to his nonviolence "turn the other cheek" philosophy, in reality, Dr. King knew that the best way to hurt the rich and shameless person was not to hit them in their heads but in their wallets.Most Americans do not know that according to Kennth O'Reilly in his book "Black Americans: The FBI Files" at the time of his death, King was planning a Poor People's March which would have pressured the government to spend more money social programs. This surely did not sit well with the conservatives at the time who argued for smaller government.
It must also be noted that, while many churches in America will be singing "We Shall Overcome" during their morning services in honor of Dr. King, he was often criticized by his more conservative colleagues in the ministry. In his book "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65, historian Taylor Branch wrote that King was once "excommunicated" from the National Baptist Convention by the former head of the organization, Rev. J H Jackson.
Perhaps, the greatest myth that has been perpetuated regarding Dr. King was that his whole mission can be summed up in the "I have a Dream Speech, where he prophesied that " the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood." While this is the stuff that makes for good Hallmark greeting cards, it does not capture King's idea of race relations in its totality.
In his later years, undoubtedly effected by the growing militancy of black youth in America following the Watts Riot, as well as the activism of rival leaders such as Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Malcolm X, King was beginning to sound more like a Black nationalist than a staunch intergrationist.
Although , most people only remember the part of his last speech delivered on April 3, 1968, where he emotionally said that he had "been to the mountain top," in the same speech he not only called for economic sanctions against Coca Cola and Wonder Bread but also asked African Americans in Memphis Tennessee to take their savings out of the white owned banks and put them in black ones. Also, according to Dr. Devin Fergus in his work "Liberalism, Black Power and the Making of American Politics 1965-1980, the day of his assassination, King met with a gang called The Invaders, "a group patterned after the Black Panther Party" in order to "help the group secure funding for community programs."
If we truly want to celebrate the life of Dr. King, we must call for an end to revisionist history. Recent attempts to sanitize American history from the removal of the dreaded "n" word from Huckleberry Finn nor deleting references to slaver when reading the Constitution of the United States will move us forward as a nation. America must face the ghost of her past or forever be haunted by it.
As Dr. King said "truth crushed to the Earth, will rise again."
Paul Scott is a minister, writer and activist based in Durham NC. His blog is No Warning Shots Fired.com
The White Washing of Black History
Paul Scott
If the late Civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr was able to look down from Heaven at the numerous MLK Day memorial celebrations taking place across the country, I'm sure that he would have one question.
"Who are they talking about?"
Like many black historical icons,the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, has been victimized by revisionist pseudo-historians who take great liberty with the truth when discussing the life of this great man. . Although, he was assassinated over 40 years ago, every third Monday in January his legacy is murdered over and over again. The King who is glorified as the Prince of Peace bears little resemblance to the man who marched in cities from Mississippi to Illinois seeking socio-economic justice for African Americans.
It must be noted that while some Americans now wear the fact that they "marched with Dr. King" as a badge of honor, he was actually hated by many members of society both black and white, who thought that King's form of radical civil disobedience was moving America too fast.
Even those who initially supported his movement dropped him like a hot potato when he used his nonviolent philosophy in the context of opposition to the Vietnam War. Dr. King was considered the most dangerous man in America by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who launched a smear campaign to discredit King that plagued him until the end of his life.
It can be argued that many of the same corporations who are sponsoring MLK Day events and using his image to attract Black customers to their stores would themselves have been picketed by Dr. King if he were alive today. Also, even though many newspapers will devote a lot of ink towards the legacy of Dr. King, he would probably be considered persona non grada by today's newspapers, who would fear that giving the activist too much coverage may anger their advertisers.
While much attention is paid to his nonviolence "turn the other cheek" philosophy, in reality, Dr. King knew that the best way to hurt the rich and shameless person was not to hit them in their heads but in their wallets.Most Americans do not know that according to Kennth O'Reilly in his book "Black Americans: The FBI Files" at the time of his death, King was planning a Poor People's March which would have pressured the government to spend more money social programs. This surely did not sit well with the conservatives at the time who argued for smaller government.
It must also be noted that, while many churches in America will be singing "We Shall Overcome" during their morning services in honor of Dr. King, he was often criticized by his more conservative colleagues in the ministry. In his book "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65, historian Taylor Branch wrote that King was once "excommunicated" from the National Baptist Convention by the former head of the organization, Rev. J H Jackson.
Perhaps, the greatest myth that has been perpetuated regarding Dr. King was that his whole mission can be summed up in the "I have a Dream Speech, where he prophesied that " the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood." While this is the stuff that makes for good Hallmark greeting cards, it does not capture King's idea of race relations in its totality.
In his later years, undoubtedly effected by the growing militancy of black youth in America following the Watts Riot, as well as the activism of rival leaders such as Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Malcolm X, King was beginning to sound more like a Black nationalist than a staunch intergrationist.
Although , most people only remember the part of his last speech delivered on April 3, 1968, where he emotionally said that he had "been to the mountain top," in the same speech he not only called for economic sanctions against Coca Cola and Wonder Bread but also asked African Americans in Memphis Tennessee to take their savings out of the white owned banks and put them in black ones. Also, according to Dr. Devin Fergus in his work "Liberalism, Black Power and the Making of American Politics 1965-1980, the day of his assassination, King met with a gang called The Invaders, "a group patterned after the Black Panther Party" in order to "help the group secure funding for community programs."
If we truly want to celebrate the life of Dr. King, we must call for an end to revisionist history. Recent attempts to sanitize American history from the removal of the dreaded "n" word from Huckleberry Finn nor deleting references to slaver when reading the Constitution of the United States will move us forward as a nation. America must face the ghost of her past or forever be haunted by it.
As Dr. King said "truth crushed to the Earth, will rise again."
Paul Scott is a minister, writer and activist based in Durham NC. His blog is No Warning Shots Fired.com
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