Cultural Mercenaries Don’t Respect Struggle
By
Obi Egbuna Jr
For every Daughter and Son of our Mother Continent, who is either on the frontline or providing pivotal support to the African Cultural and Historical Reclamation Movement, we are thrilled to see the Hip Hip Mogul Shawn Jay-Z Carter on trial in the court of public opinion. Based on the historical significance of the month of August for African people, it cannot be argued, that the timing could not have been better.
Because many of us unfortunately still allow our lives to be dictated, by the numerous lies written in colonialist and imperialist textbooks, it is no question that if you are willing and able, the 31 days of August could transform you into both a born again truth-teller and a selfless transmitter of knowledge.
We are talking about the month that Edward Wilmot Blyden, Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey,Josina Machel, James Baldwin, and Ernest Everett Just make their entrance into this world. This includes the birth of our favorite American President Commandante Fidel Castro.
During this same month, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and Dr. WEB DuBois transition to the ancestors, George and Jonathan Jackson are brutally executed, Madiba Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko are captured and imprisoned.
Those amongst our ranks, truly enamored with rebellions are quick to point to the exact moments in time, that a good ole Baptist preacher named Nat Turner took up arms against our captors, and when our people in the Watts section of Los Angeles erupted in a fiery blaze and started yelling burn baby burn.
Our Comrades in Southern Africa teach us in August that four years before the Sharpeville Kwa Langa Massacre, 20,000 women on Women’s Day protested against the Apartheid Regime’s Pass Act Laws,SWAPO began its Armed Struggle in Namibia and Zimbabwe celebrates National Heroes Day.
Every August,The Civil and Human Rights organizers point us to the journey of A Phillip Randolph who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and nearly four decades later helped spearhead the March on Washington that he called for two decades before it occurred.
The practitioners of Liberation Theology never grow tired of teaching us that in August, Bishop Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church .
Because 2019 marks the 400th anniversary of our arrival in Jamestown Virginia in shackles in August and the Haitian Revolution began in 1791, more than likely all encomiums of our experience this month, will begin at this juncture.
After years of never ending struggle, we have learned the danger of allowing anger and rage, to prevent us from putting key developments in proper historical context.
We remember Brother Malcolm telling us nearly sixty years ago, when we learn the true meaning of revolution, we may change words. This applies to each and every one of us, who have recently called Mr. Carter a sell-out and traitor, for his choice to strike a partnership with the National Football League in the name of Social Justice.
From the perspective of the battlefield, those terms are reserved exclusively for those declare lifelong commitment to struggle, and without explanation abandon the people all together.
It is for this reason placing that label on individuals like Mr. Carter, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and General Colin Powell, who even though they like all of us are beneficiaries of bloodshed, simply put are not worthy of that insult.
The reality is that redefining the terms traitor and sell-out will result in a complete overhaul of the dominant African narrative because many of us are guilty of prematurely declaring people more tailored for those labels than Mr. Carter ever will be, heroes and icons. We have named streets, schools, and buildings after some utter sellouts and traitors, at the expense of not only completely ignoring many true heroes by joining US-EU Imperialism in efforts to assassinate their characters.
The people of Zimbabwe in particular and Africa in general reserve that term for nefarious characters like Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole who while leading the 2nd Chimurenga, struck a deal with the Rhodesian Colonialists to terminate the guerrilla struggle, in exchange for not receiving the death penalty. Our Burkinabe and Congolese family reserve that distinction, for Mobutu and Comporare who pretended to be by the sides of Patrice Lumumba and Thomas Sankara. The comrades of Maurice Bishop remind us till this day, that while the Reagan administration took his life, his dear friend Bernard Coard put the nail in his coffin.
When the final verdict is in, Mr. Carter will be guilty of using his fame and fortune, to buy respectability under the age-old adage of giving back. Isn’t that the humble request we make of all integrationists, who ascend to heights of individual success unimaginable in the land of limited opportunity.
If you ask every devoted participant of blue-collar crime struggling to survive, if they would rather spend their remaining days wrapped in luxury while rubbing shoulders with the truly wealthy and affluent, only a vast minority would have politely or emphatically turn it down.
Those hip hop experts and enthusiasts who helped the US-EU Imperialists, that helped the US EU Imperialist Media Apparatus with Mr. Carter’s rebirth as a born again social justice sympathizer, were forced to run for cover and get in damage control mode when Mr. Carter said we are past kneeling.
The honest opinion of a corporate lapdog, was an indictment of those in and around hip hop, that have viewed marches, protests, and grassroots organizing, as merely dress rehearsals or the opening act for voting registration drives during the US Presidential, Congressional or Mayoral election cycle.
Have we not considered that maintaining this facade as a social justice sympathizer is not only driving Mr. Carter ragged but pushing him to the brink of insanity?????
In a short time span Mr. Carter has gone from a cutthroat executive under the tutelage of Zionist Lyor Cohen at Def Jam records,lending his name to promote a play about the revolutionary artist Fela Kuti, to the face of gentrifying Brooklyn, producing documentaries with sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein, traveling to Cuba hoping to sign athletes looking to defect, partnering with Trump allies like New England Patriot owner Robert Kraft using Meek Mill as a prop to address Prison Reform.
Another part of Mr. Carter’s political reinvention includes occasionally dressing the part, IE wearing a Che Guevara shirt on his live and unplugged album, or his recent hairstyle that appears to have come from watching Whoopi Goldberg on the view.
In an attempt to change with the times, earlier this year the NAACP presented Mr. Carter with the President’s award, which was a shocker because the majority of Mr. Carter’s catalog glorifies genocide, consumerism and opulence,, let us not forget that many years ago the NAACP decided not to celebrate former Heavyweight champion Sonny Liston’s victory over Floyd Patterson, their reason was Liston’s criminal record and ties to the mob.
This trail of greed, opportunism and deceit is what led Mr. Carter to the table with NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell. If the adage a picture is worth a thousand words captures Mr. Carter and Mr. Goddell being extremely cozy together, sitting next to Mr. Goddell is almost identical to EFF leader Julius Malema sitting next to the Imperialist Baron Robin Renwick, which revealed that Mr. Malema is the face of the African revolutionary masquerade on the homefront.
We must thank Mr. Carter for declaring a preference for backdoor negotiations, as opposed to frontline struggle, even though he could not begin to fathom, how many times our struggle has been derailed behind close doors.
While leading a protest against police terrorism and Rodney King verdict,The former President of Howard University Student Government and founder of Akila Worksongs April Silver and the current Ira. A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University William Jelani Cobb, were summoned to a closed door meeting with former Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly who wanted the students who were blocking the 14th street bridge to get off the streets.
The people of Zimbabwe were heartbroken when former Vice President Joice Mujuru had a secret meeting with former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, for the purpose of discussing the succession plan after former President Robert Mugabe left office.
Going back further Congressman Reverend Adam Clayton Powell struck a deal with the Kennedys that Africans would not protest the 1960 Democratic Convention. How many organizers have met secretly with FBI and CIA agents, or have tiptoed into the White House and made countless concessions.
For us to make Mr. Carter the innovator of Corporate Nationalism is not accurate, if anything he is at best a johnny come lately, that distinction belongs to Civil Rights luminaries like Ambassador Andrew Young, Attorney Vernon Jordan, Congressman John Lewis and Reverend Jesse Jackson. According to the Black Power and Pan African icon Mukasa Dada formerly known as Willie Ricks, Ambassador Young coined the term Green Power to divert attention from Black Power in the 1960’s.
Ambassador Young has been a spokesperson for Working Families for Walmart, served on the Board of Directors for Delta Airlines, and was appointed Chairman of the Southern African Development Fund by former US President Bill Clinton. Reverend Jackson currently oversees a Silicon Valley Diversity Campaign, Attorney Jordan and Congressman Lewis are now members of the Council Of Foreign Relations.
Based on the outcome of this initiative with the NFL, It would come as no surprise if the Council Of Foreign Relations decides to welcome Mr. Carter and wife Beyonce with open arms, their seat on the table would be next to Hollywood liberals like George Clooney and Angelina Jolie who are presently members. Mr. Carter can take a knee before the current chairman of the CFR David Rockefeller, and tell him how he named his record company and clothing line in honor of his family.
In more recent time, Mr. Carter’s former business partner and co-founder of RocAFella records Dame Dash recently released an ebook entitled Culture Vultures, the term comes from a song on the called How Not To Get Jerked off the 1992 Boogie Down Productions album Sex and Violence. By no means has Mr. Dash abandoned Corporate Nationalism, he just feels that the blade Mr. Carter uses to cut people’s throats in the name of self preservation and social justice has no ethical parameters.
Speaking of Social Justice, its direction, objective and intent are very unclear, however it appears to be
an offspring of Civil and Human rights, similar to how Social Democracy is championed by those who lost the will to fight for and defend Scientific Socialism.
As part of the decolonization process we find humor at the peak of our anger, to expect the NFL to carry out a Social Justice Program, is the equivalent of letting Dylann Roof conduct seminars on Race Relations and Sensitivity Training.
This is why outsiders to the African experience like ESPN commentator Max Kellerman and Political Sportswriter Dave Zirin consider Mr. Carter a new wave capitalist, when in reality Mr. Carter under the current Capitalist and Imperialist construct, Mr. Carter can and never will own the means of production.
Because of racial sensitivity and a burning desire to remain culturally hip, Kellerman and Zirin cannot call a spade a spade, only Africans can call Mr. Carter a House Nigga with hood origins.
Presently in Hip Hop Mr. Carter leads a fraternal order of artists that has openly adopted ruling class ethics and values, the list includes Dr. Dre, Sean Puffy Combs,TI, Jeezy, and Curtis 50 Cent Jackson. Mr. Jackson’s debut mainstream album and movie both entitled Get Rich or Die Tryin, and Jeezy’s song Corporate Thuggin explains and chronicles how our youth can take the quantum leap from blue collar criminality to white collar respectability.
This includes a young Ice Cube who appeared on Public Enemy’s third album Fear Of A Black Planet, on a song called Burn Hollywood Burn, hypothetically speaking if Africans decide to set flames to Hollywood today would Ice Cube have a molotov cocktail or fire extinguisher.
In real life scenarios we have watched James Evans on Good Times transform into Cliff Huxtable on the Cosby Show, what derives from that metamorphosis is Eddie Murphy’s character in the movie Trading Places Billy Ray Valentine.
The political education lesson of the day is one’s class composition does not necessarily determine one’s class aspirations. Both Mr. Carter and Mr. Jackson were handpicked to get involved in humanitarian work in Africa, Mr. Carter met with former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and used a world tour to bring attention to the Global Water Shortage, that was followed up by a documentary on MTV called Diary of Jay Z: Water for life.
Mr. Jackson committed to one billion meals to the World Food Program in five years. The purpose of these programs is to hold high profile entertainers by the hand , when they select to do charitable work to ensure, their projects never collide with US EU Imperialism .
In 2008 Mr. Jackson met with South African businessman Patrice Motsepe, while visiting a platinum, palladium and indium mine shaft, for the purpose of launching his own brand of platinum.
If our analysis is to be devoid of intellectual dishonesty, what Mr. Carter cannot be blamed for is sabotaging the efforts of Colin Kapernick and Eric Reid, that distinction belongs to a former NFL player and US Army Green Beret named Nate Boyer.
The biggest fear of US EU Imperialism is that our movement against naked police terrorism inside North American borders, transforms into a militant response unequivocally against their efforts to police the African world. When Mr. Boyer convinced Mr. Kapernick to show respect for US Imperialist Military Culture, this effort was robbed of the militancy that not only could sustain it, but maximize potential in every respect.
There is an undeniable parallel between Jay-Z’s agreement to choreograph NFL halftime shows, and Mr. Kapernick agreeing to do a NIKE commercial, that had absolutely nothing to do with Police terrorism, exploitation or what he calls systematic oppression. Mr. Kapernick could have turned the attempt to interrogate him for his t-shirt with Malcolm X and Commandante Fidel Castro , into an opportunity to call for the lifting of the US blockade on Cuba. Mr. Kapernick could have lent his voice and platform to terminating the US Africa Military Command Program.(AFRICOM). Mr. Kapernick’s decision to avoid a more militant narrative, has nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Carter, that can only be explained by Mr. Kapernick or his behind the scene advisers.
Mr. Kapernick’s opting not to discuss US Police Terrorism in connection with US Military and Foreign Policy, was an extension of former NBA player Mahmoud Abdul Rauf whose protesting of the national anthem, got stonewalled by the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad Imam Warith Deen Muhammad leader of the American Muslim Mission becoming a recruiter for the US Military.
The disappointment in Mr. Kapernick’s lack of transparency in his decisions, expressed by one of the key spokespersons of the attempted boycott of the NFL a hip hop artist named Mysonne, highlight an inevitable parting of ways that goes back to the question of electoral politics. If Brother Mysonne decides to dedicate the rest of his life to struggle, he will reach the conclusion Capitalism cannot be reformed.
Both Mr. Reid and Brother Mysonne also must acknowledge is the decision to settle the collusion lawsuit, Mr. Reid had with Mr. Kapernick was the fear of a league wide strike of the entire NFL, in conjunction with College athletes growing more discontent with playing without any financial compensation. Neither Mr. Kapernick, Mr Reid or other members of the Players Coalition that they split from, ever pushed for a directive with that level of fervor and tenacity, we must not lose sight of the fact both Mr. Reid and Mr. Kapernick still want to play the sport they love in the NFL.
When Mr. Kapernick openly stated he did not believe in voting, that put him on a collision course with all the mouthpieces of the Democratic party in the entertainment world, who depend on mobilized rage around police terrorism for much needed votes around election time. This includes Mr. Carter’s loving wife Beyonce Knowles and NBA superstar Lebron James, who paraded around our community with the war criminal Hillary Rodham Clinton last election.
From that moment Mr. Kapernick expressed his distrust with electoral politics,Mobilizers like Tamika Mallory whose parents along with Reverend Al Sharpton were co founders of the National Action Network, would be forced to show solidarity from a safe distance. Ms. Mallory occupies the same space Sister Souljah did in the 90’s. When Sister Souljah was attacked by Mr. Clinton, she was attempting to secure a position working for Reverend Jesse Jackson, as the voter registration coordinator for the National Rainbow Coalition. Both of our Sisters were ideologically trained to convince our people, that the Democratic Party, is a slice of heaven. The time has come to openly acknowledge, that after Reverend Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 campaigns, the Civil and Human Rights movement has been reduced a high profile into the Democratic Party.
Many have compared Mr. Kapernick to Muhammad Ali, on the surface that sounds good, however
we optimistically hope that isn’t the case. Have we forgotten Ali went from refusing to go to Vietnam, which helped SNCC and SCLC, to going to the Congo to embrace Mobutu Sese Seko and the Philippines to embrace the neo colonialist stooge Ferdinand Marcos. Ali’s political 180 degree turnaround helped him win over white supremacists list Bill Clinton and Senator Orin Hatch, who spoke glowingly at his funeral, while the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan the incarnation of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad watched from the audience.
Mr. Carter’s choice to use racism to selfishly benefit from Capitalism, comes as no surprise to those who have watched his music career, Mr. Carter represents the wave of hip hop that ruling class labels wanted to spread as an alternative to the music of Public Enemy,BDP, X Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers,Brand Nubian, Tupac Shakur to name a few. In the blink of an eye, the images of Brother Malcolm, Minister Farrakhan and Dr. King were replaced by Lucky Luciano,Dutch Schultz, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and Carlos Gambino.
Mr. Carter on his best day will never be mistaken for M1 or Stic Man of Dead Prez, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique, whose music represents both music with a message and protest music.
Mr. Carter is the face of a click countless entertainers like Heavyweight Boxing Champ Deontay Wilder and future hall of fame boxer Floyd Mayweather who discuss generational wealth, who feel poverty is to be escaped not eliminated. This explains why the reparations movement focuses on monetary compensation instead of land and repair through decolonization.
Before the bullet from the FBI and CIA snatched Dr. King from us, he called for a radical distribution of wealth, which means if Dr. King was still alive, those who in pursuit of generational wealth would call him out of touch. They might even collaborate with the FBI and CIA to assassinate Dr. King because based on capitalist ethics that would be a smart business decision.
Mr. Carter did not anticipate was how the masses of our people, still groggy from being under hypnosis and hibernation during the Obama era, would almost overnight go from revering him to treating him with utter contempt.
At the moment there are 15 billionaires with African blood. The question is do we need more Oprah Winfreys or Harriet Tubmans, Sojourner Truths,Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethunes, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Sally Mugabes, Ella Bakers, Septima Clarks, Shirley Graham DuBois and Fannie Lou Hamers ?
Should Nigerian youth embrace the legacy of Nnamdi Azikwe or Aliko Dangoute?
Should youth in Mali emulate Mansa Musa or Modibo Keita?
Did our comrades in Angola die in a protracted armed struggle for Former President Edwardo Dos Santos to pave the way for his daughter to be the first women on the African continent to be a billionaire??
When defining Socialism the Zimbabwean Guerrilla Fighter Josiah Magama Tongogara, taught us “If you have two pair of pants and your comrade is naked, you hand him the pants you are not wearing”.
Many who pledge their loyalty to Revolutionary African Nationalism and Pan Africanism, are diametrically opposed to Scientific Socialism, some of them would rather join a Satanic Cult instead of fighting for Scientific Socialism.
Mr. Carter and his handlers underestimate our desire to bury Capitalism and Imperialism, their gross miscalculation will be costly.
What Mr. Carter had better recognize is that, if he continues to dangle the crumbs of capitalism and imperialism in the face of the masses, Both he and Mrs. Knowles will need Prince Harry, Warren Buffett, Robert Kraft and Roger Goddell to find them a place to hide.
The rich and wealthy cannot lead a poor people’s movement, good luck waiting for that development to unfold.
Obi Egbuna Jr is the US Correspondent To The Herald and external relations officer to the Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association his email is obiegbuna15@gmail.com
