I'm not marching anymore

Myth of Brown and Black

or

Justice or Else – NOTHING

I admit a few things right off of the bat. I was immensely influenced by Public Enemy as a teenager and thus I was intrigued by this cat name Louis Farrakhan that was mentioned a few times in different songs from PE. Unlike most of my friends when something interested me I did some research so I did some research on Farrakhan. That led me to re-reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Great book that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to see how a person can grow from a starting point of negative 10 into a man who has convictions, convictions so great that he is actually willing to sacrifice his life for them.

Admittedly everything I read about Louis Farrakhan came from The Final Call because the new media was just not covering him and when they did they specifically covered a speech and not much about him in a personal way. I did get a hold of a lot of coverage about him and Jesse Jackson during the presidential race and he was like an attack dog for Jesse. I also remember Abraham Foxman from the ADL calling him a Hitler and a Hitler lover. Nothing about this guy was ever light. He was unapolotigically pro-Black an I wished we had a Brown counterpart. A Brown man who didn’t kiss White ass or look to be be brothers with Whites. A Brown man who’s main concern was Brown people and more importantly Brown future. Not being allied with Whites and the constant need to cheer lead “good Whites” and ally ship and all of that with Whites. I wanted a Brown man who spoke about Whites giving us hell, White governmental policies, White supremacy and it’s effects on the reservation and on the lives of Indians and Brown people in the inner city. We did not then, and still do not have that guy. I admired Farrakhan because he could face down White people and not act contrite or apologetic. I liked that he was fiery and he could admit we have an open enemy. He often spoke about Indians and Brown folks as family. He was/is smooth. When he spoke f Blacks he had a knack for speaking with an inclusion of Brown people. I was quick to sign up! I brought tons of tapes (back in the late 80’s this was a major way for the message to get out) and his books and even a few VHS tapes. When I began to hang out more and more after pow wow’s and when I joined a drum group I would turn the discussion to political subjects and intersperse these talks with Farrakhan points. Some of the brothers dug it and we could have in depth conversations on political activity for hours and then of course some milquetoast brother would come in and spring some hippie-one love-we-are-all-related shit into the mix and set the whole conversation back onto what it the “Indian way” and the things I was saying and thinking was NOT the “Indian Way”.

Which Indians this particular “way” was coming from was never expressed but it was sure not PRO-Indian because that was too close to being superior which I could never figure out. I would often never get a clear response when I would ask “If We all want to work to be equal to Whites then who the hell are Whites equal too?”

I also was on the tip the White people are the devil. Actual genetic devils. Grafted devils by a mad scientist who had an experiment go horribly wrong. Think of a scientist making and trying to re-animate people and them coming “alive” and getting out. The beginning of every bad zombie movie ever made right? According to Nation of Islam theology this is correct. Yakub made science experiments with “light” Black folks and before you know it he had White people and before you know it they were so wicked and out of control the took over the Earth! (Google – Yakub the big head scientist for yourself).

There was a Million Man March in 1995 and it was spectacular! Over a million Black men ended up in Washington DC to hear and do something. SOMETHING. All day long speakers came and went and spoke of self love, love of kind, building business, ending violence, loving one another and fixing communities and relationships. Farrakhan spoke for over 3 hours. Men cried and hugged and the vibe was loving, light and powerful. For all of the lip service that so man in the ION give to “family” of the Black, Brown, Red and Yellow, this was strictly a BLACK march. I went because so many of the members of the Nation were brothers of mine and I even held a sweat lodge ceremony for the main minister and his two assistants of Muhammad’s Mosque number 1 in Detroit. It was powerful.

Flash forward to 2015 and I was invited to be hands on involved in the Justice or Else march. I was to help gather Indians and Latino’s and work with Abel Muhammad, the Latino representative of the NOI and Yonasda Lonewolf, a sweet heat of a woman who is half Lakota and hlaf Black. We had rallies, many many phone conferences and such going on.

It was great at first, we had a clear focus of what we wanted to happen that day. Jay Night wolf, a supposed Indian radio show host was on board as was a number of well known Indian activists. I mostly stayed quiet and listened. I didn’t know Jay and had to do some homework on him. Warrior Woman was also there as was “Chief” Ernie Long walker. He I had heard of from the “Longest walk” number one back in 1978. Warrior Woman was his wife but I still until this day do not know their tribe.

Social media being what it is, I “met” some of the people on the conference calls by Facebook and noticed something particular. They were Black skin. I am not saying that there are no Black skin Indians, I’m calling us NDN’s from now on, hell I am related to some Black skin ndn people just like I am related to some White skin ndn’s. I don’t consider them Black NDN’s or White NDN’s I consider them NDN. If there is any such a athing as a “ndn way” THAT is a fucking ndn way.

All during the conversations leading up to the march we were told over and over that the day was NOT to be about music and dancing and such. We were there to be serious. NDN people are a musical people because we are Original people and dancing and music is the start of ALL gatherings and ceremonies so some was to be expected but ti was not to be overblown. That was a directive. The conference calls went to shit and I stopped participating when the delegation from Haiti was put with us and all of the conversations became about the state of Haiti and what the terrible things that were taking place in Haiti. All discussion of ICE, of pipelines, of sacred land, of Brown political prisoners, all came to a halt so we could listen, not even discuss, the situation in Haiti. To be honest I gave up. This was something that many elders and especially my dear, most favorite, and sadly departed elder, Thurman Bear, warned and told me about.

“When dealing with Black leadership, be careful as to how much give you give during give and take. They can be worse than paternalistic White Liberals because they will just take from you, push you to the side to be tokenized and then take over whatever mutual endeavor you may have had in mind” Another great elder and famous MC in the Michigan Pow Wow Trail was Tiq Bush and he damn near told me the same exact thing back in 1993 at the EMU Pow Wow. I ha seen signs of it but I was hoping against hope it wasn’t true but I'll be damned if it wasn’t.

I had four chances to go to the Justice or Else march free of charge and with a ride and place to stay. After prayer, not a lot of prayer, and the smallest amount of meditation I chose to stay home even though I put a lot of work into it. Here are a few reasons:

1.) I was asked to speak to the mosque. To it’s children. NOT to it’s adults but to it’s kids like a special treat. My information is not formatted for children, I don’t deliver speeches to children and I am not a token for the kids,

2.) I was invited to speak to the general population but was to invited for Sunday’s because ‘Sunday’s are more spiritually orientated’. Can you think of an NDN speaker that would NOT include spiritual language in a speech? I can’t speak public ally on anything having to do with NDN people and not mention our spirituality. That was a slap on the face.

3.) I was invited to speak on a Wednesday and when I got there, no one was there to open the door, it was not going to be recorded, a small handful of members showed up and mostly members of the Brown community, hardly any Muslims were there. The topic was “The Real Thanksgiving”

4.) I was invited to speak before Farrakhan only after asking Yonasda why there was no Brown representative speaking before him in Detroit, She spoke to Ishmael Muhammad and I got a whole 4 minutes.

When I watched the march collectively all the ndn’s got six minutes. SIX FUCKING MINUTES. Orville Looking Horse, the holder of the Sacred Pipe, was given two minutes to speak so that Warrior Woman could chant “DOWN DOWN U.S.A.” And Jay Nightwolf, member of a fraudulent Cherokee Tribe, of which there are over 200, spoke for 2 minutes. Listen to the speech he gave, Warrior Woman gave and Long walker gave. It’s pablum. Fully of fury and injustice delivered in a boiling crescendo of hate yet it is, like pablum, just filler. Nothing of substance in which as a collective we can gather behind and say with authority, “THIS IS OUR AGENDA”. Nothing like that.

Like the first Million Man March, there was nothing we could collectively walk away from and say,”THIS” is what we learned and this is the path we will take as a collective union and bring ourselves out of the muck and mire we are stuck in. Fuck the Republicans and the Democrats we are starting new and better yet, TOGETHER as the Original people of Turtle Island and Earth.”

Nope. We did get Cleo Malango who is called the “Gay Malcolm X” which I can personally tell you makes his daughters extra happy. We got some gospel screaming, it was screaming, and it was just horrendous. Of course we were not supposed to have that and Orville could have used that time to give a real substantive speech about unity, spirituality and love but no, he was given two minutes so that a woman could scream and damn near lose her wig about Jesus alienating ¾ of the audience.

A year later ask yourself what was accomplished? Some NOI members were at Standing Rock but I can tell you, that like many others that went there, it becase more of a destination to prove your “radicalism” more than it became a place to go and support the warriors there. It was a means of somehow getting a manner of legitimacy that you are “in”. There are stories coming out of White’s looting camps when the members were out taking care of business. Of some NDN’s coming in and instantly hustling social media for money and other “needs”. Inter-tribal squabbles taking place and then getting out of hand. There are videos of Black Afro-Centrics who claim to be “real Indigenous” people to this land, and we, the Brown NDN’s being actual 5 dollar ndn’s and not the real Creator given NDN’s of Turtle Island. (There are rumors that White’s gave members of the Dawes commission five dollars to be included on the rolls so that they could receive benefits. So when a Afro-Cent calls you a ‘five dollah ndn’ they are calling you White so fuck them).

The march was a failure. This Woman’s march may have given you a euphoric high just like the Million Man March did and the Justice or Else march did but as yourself.

WHAT ARE THE TANGIBLE RESULTS?

If you decide that this is the last straw and you want to un-friend me then please do but do me the favor of at least telling me why or don’t. I’m not sweating it.