Sunday, February 26, 2006
Black Community Witnesses Nazi March
A Minneapolis based neo-Nazi group The Nationalist Socialist Movement marched through a predominately African American neighborhood in Florida today to lay blame on Black people for crime. Apparently, fist fights flared up between the Neo-Nazis and members of the opposing demonstration. Police reported that no Nazi's were arrested..hmm.. Actually, let's stop calling them Neo-Nazi's, like they are some sort of not-so-Nazi-Nazi... A Nazi is a Nazi is a Nazi - neo or not.
The most important part of the story is not the presence of these perennial peddlers of hatred, bigotry and violence, but the Black grandparents and grandchildren who stood witness despite calls from officials advising community members to stay indoors and "ignore" the dastardly assault. Big ups to them for not heeding the call to turn their eyes away from Hate. "The older generation grew up seeing hate. They grew up seeing these kinds of groups being open and I think for some African-Americans they want the younger generations to see that hate still exists," said Rev. O'Hara Black of Mt. Pleasant Baptist church who was quoted in online article. I, however, believe that we may need to do more than just stand by and witness.
Many young people, myself included, have no visceral experience of the viciousness and intensity of Nazi hatred and this ignorance could prove deadly for us all, whatever combination of ethnicities we get our genetics from. We must remember that this ugly brand of organized hatred was the fuel of a global war, led to the systematic murder of untold millions, and almost succeeded in the destruction of the democratic way of life. Let us not be lulled into a false sense of security that the beast has been laid to rest for good. Clearly, Nazism is no specter but a demon that still walks the street of our communities, workplaces and schools; and, no doubt, we will be called on to combat it once again. In other words, remember Auschwitz and vow never to allow it to happen again!
It is worth recalling that Nazism achieved the racist state and the mechanization and professionalization of genocide. It is a creed devoted to the demonization and murder of all people who are not members of the so-called "Aryan" race or in other words are not straight born White. Through acts of propaganda and public spectacle Nazi's work to associate all people of color with degenerate criminality, abhorrent hyper-sexuality and barbarity. The great irony, which they themselves are unaware of, is that they achieve just what they attempt to brand onto others. Another telling irony most Nazi's are also unaware of is that if they looked into every one of their cells they would find there the unadulterated mitochondrial DNA of their African mothers.
One other salient fact worth remembering is that the true genesis of most criminal acts in the Black community is a system of economic apartheid that denies Black people the means of economic survival - namely education and jobs; criminalizes the economic actions they do undertake on their own behalf having been locked out of the "above-ground" economy; hauls them by the millions into jails and disenfranchises them either as the resultant end of the felonization of their economic activity or criminally and secretly as was done in the elections of 2000 and 2004. Moreover, the greatest tragedy of this system of economic apartheid is that the criminality and violence it engenders is most often committed by Black people against other poor Black people. Black crime is not perpetrated against Whites for the most part. So, what do the Nazis care anyway? Again, this is part of their process of trying to label Blacks and non-Whites as morally inferior and degenerate. It also bears noting that the Nazi's presence in this community was the reason for the disorder and they walked away, shall we say, un-arrested.
It is my sincerest prayer that People of Color and all people who are opposed to organized hatred will have the strength of our grandparents who marched and fought in The Movement; who placed their bodies in the service of freedom without the armor of hatred, bigotry or violence; and who deployed songs of freedom to counter their fear and muster their strength; who finally, although opposed by ruthless murdering racists, and all the brutal edifices of the state and military, could not be denied the freedoms we so blithely enjoy today. And, although I applaud their courage, It is not the anti-Nazi skinheads and the anarchists alone who should have been arrested in the streets violently opposing their moral opposites and mirror images, but people of color, who are the targets of this vile organized hatred. We should be standing there, singing "Wade in the Water" once again, locked arm in arm, immovable in our determination to non-violently oppose racist evil.
The most important part of the story is not the presence of these perennial peddlers of hatred, bigotry and violence, but the Black grandparents and grandchildren who stood witness despite calls from officials advising community members to stay indoors and "ignore" the dastardly assault. Big ups to them for not heeding the call to turn their eyes away from Hate. "The older generation grew up seeing hate. They grew up seeing these kinds of groups being open and I think for some African-Americans they want the younger generations to see that hate still exists," said Rev. O'Hara Black of Mt. Pleasant Baptist church who was quoted in online article. I, however, believe that we may need to do more than just stand by and witness.
Many young people, myself included, have no visceral experience of the viciousness and intensity of Nazi hatred and this ignorance could prove deadly for us all, whatever combination of ethnicities we get our genetics from. We must remember that this ugly brand of organized hatred was the fuel of a global war, led to the systematic murder of untold millions, and almost succeeded in the destruction of the democratic way of life. Let us not be lulled into a false sense of security that the beast has been laid to rest for good. Clearly, Nazism is no specter but a demon that still walks the street of our communities, workplaces and schools; and, no doubt, we will be called on to combat it once again. In other words, remember Auschwitz and vow never to allow it to happen again!
It is worth recalling that Nazism achieved the racist state and the mechanization and professionalization of genocide. It is a creed devoted to the demonization and murder of all people who are not members of the so-called "Aryan" race or in other words are not straight born White. Through acts of propaganda and public spectacle Nazi's work to associate all people of color with degenerate criminality, abhorrent hyper-sexuality and barbarity. The great irony, which they themselves are unaware of, is that they achieve just what they attempt to brand onto others. Another telling irony most Nazi's are also unaware of is that if they looked into every one of their cells they would find there the unadulterated mitochondrial DNA of their African mothers.
One other salient fact worth remembering is that the true genesis of most criminal acts in the Black community is a system of economic apartheid that denies Black people the means of economic survival - namely education and jobs; criminalizes the economic actions they do undertake on their own behalf having been locked out of the "above-ground" economy; hauls them by the millions into jails and disenfranchises them either as the resultant end of the felonization of their economic activity or criminally and secretly as was done in the elections of 2000 and 2004. Moreover, the greatest tragedy of this system of economic apartheid is that the criminality and violence it engenders is most often committed by Black people against other poor Black people. Black crime is not perpetrated against Whites for the most part. So, what do the Nazis care anyway? Again, this is part of their process of trying to label Blacks and non-Whites as morally inferior and degenerate. It also bears noting that the Nazi's presence in this community was the reason for the disorder and they walked away, shall we say, un-arrested.
It is my sincerest prayer that People of Color and all people who are opposed to organized hatred will have the strength of our grandparents who marched and fought in The Movement; who placed their bodies in the service of freedom without the armor of hatred, bigotry or violence; and who deployed songs of freedom to counter their fear and muster their strength; who finally, although opposed by ruthless murdering racists, and all the brutal edifices of the state and military, could not be denied the freedoms we so blithely enjoy today. And, although I applaud their courage, It is not the anti-Nazi skinheads and the anarchists alone who should have been arrested in the streets violently opposing their moral opposites and mirror images, but people of color, who are the targets of this vile organized hatred. We should be standing there, singing "Wade in the Water" once again, locked arm in arm, immovable in our determination to non-violently oppose racist evil.
