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.
