Baldwin Warned of "The Fire Next Time"

Charolettesville; The ALT-Right: https://news.vice.com/story/vice-news-tonight-full-episode-charlottesville-race-and-terror

Strange fruit has been hanging
From Lynching Trees
Since my Father’s birth
In 1963

Strange fruit has been hanging
From Lynching Trees
Since my Grandmother’s birth
In 1933

Trace the roots of our ancestral trees
They’ve been lynching us
Before the Mayflower reached
Shores of Cape Cod
And gave birth to
American History.

Black Power salute
Beyoncé added kindling
To a forgotten,
Resilient ember
That awoken fears
And set Columbia ablaze.
The media ignored ALT-Right
Red politicians smiling and shaking hands.
They believe the rhetoric
They love power,
So they don't mind
Standing next to Nazis,
Standing next to the klan
Photo-ops blessed alms
Bestowed upon racist demagogues.

Aristotle, Leo, and Gomes
Were like Johnny Appleseed
Dispersing disparaging seeds
Introducing ethnocentric supremacy.
Heroes of Western- European history
Wouldn’t have shook my hand
White was RIGHT
Anything other
They considered less
On the scale rating humanity.
Their Lynching Trees
Survived the Dark Ages
And inspired
Jefferson’s, Newton's, and Voltaire’s
Enlightened Theories.

The Earth’s rotation
Propels a malign,
Chilly wind
Symbols of the White City,
Carry the cold breeze
ALT-Right march
Columbia is theirs
By any means
A torrent wave of torches
Salutes high like sails
A deluge of chaos
Overtakes the land
Miss Simone’s soulful, melancholic voice
Permeates the howling Westwind:

"These are the Backlash Blues
Bloody leaves fall;
Young and gifted minority hues
Absorbed into Columbia’s root.
Supremacist Terror at home ignored
Until the pedestrians weren't
Fast enough to move
The metal launched bodies
Across adjacent roofs.
RAGE, RAGE, RAGE
“The Fire Next Time”

No protection from Prince Trump
Or Alt-Right Justice Department
They recognize Fine Nazis on one side
Islamphobia in their eyes
Terror is only BLACK or BROWN.

The Vanguard of the PEOPLE
Stands ALT-Left
The offense for supremacist defense
Rifles in right hands,
Rifles in left hands
A wave of Panther Pride
We're ready to crash upon
Sam’s Hill
Like Spring ‘67,
We're ghosts of Bobby Seale.
We're ready to burn symbols
Of Supremacist elegance,
We're ready to burn the House Divided,
And Witness true democracy
Rise from the ashes like the Phoenix.
The Constitution will truly
Be color blind.

By any means necessary
Refrain from Novocain silence
Refuse to suffer peacefully.

By any means necessary
Protect your Brothers and Sisters.
Protect your Family.
Nazi militias ready for war
The Blind and The Media
Refuse to acknowledge power
Of segregationists.
Do not dismiss
The second coming
Of Justice Henry Brown.
We have turned the other cheek
Our faces habitually bruised
Over the decades
Peaceful protests,
Compromises with Columbia and the States,
We only have martyrs
And a month honoring legacies.
Baldwin warned
Of “The Fire Next Time”.

Reviews

[Bare Trees]

I saw a video of young black men pulling another young black man out of a deli and stabbing him to death. I've seen numerous videos of black men assaulting and slashing people. The knock-out game became popular with young black men. Is this the result of the fire?

[Stoned Immaculate]

Oh my... I wish I saw your comment in real time!!!

Considering the way you posed your question, my gut is telling me your a bigot, whom holds a prejudice towards black people, or at least indulges in the stereotype that most black young adults and teens are prone to be violent thugs. Why else would you feel justified in drawing a correlation between the malign actions of what is a mi`nute population segment of one race to the whole group and subsequently look down on that race’s culture and history? I am pretty sure there are PLENTY OF VIDEOS WHERE THERE ARE NON-BLACK PEOPLE ARE TERRORIZING OTHER PEOPLE, why do you only focus on pointing the acts of people with hues of brown and black skin (i.e. Black Americans)? For instance, I could easily talk about the “White Teens” that tried to lynch an 8 year old almost a year ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/us/biracial-boy-lynched-new-hampshire.html. But I guess the knockout game is more malevolent 😑

You know it is funny; black people have tried for sooo long to escape the demeaning stereotypes that have plagued us since the days of the Arab and Atlantic Slave trades, but somehow, when we see, in the media, white people commit acts of terror and Police, majority of those officers white, use excessive force against, or kill, an unarmed black person, we are supposed to view them as abnormal behavior and is not indicative of what ideals and beliefs drive those 2 groups existence, as well as, their interactions with black people 🙄😑🤦🏽‍♂️

Why is it, when we speak on our history, current events, and how institutional racism (i.e. includes class-racism, gender-racism, etc) continues to evolve with every advancement we make regarding equality. Assimilationists and Segregationists like yourself say, or do, things like: 1) (say or passively imply) we are angry, reverse racists, or 2) give us biased statistics concerning crime, unemployment, poverty, etc or 3) suggestions from people completely out of touch with the cultural background of the respective race, or ethnic group, geared towards proper adherence to the philosophy of uplift suasion, or all 3? 😑🤦🏽‍♂️

Roughly a year ago, in regard to this same poem, I was asked if Africa should pay reparations for their role in the Arab and Atlantic Slave Trades? The question encompassed the typical absurdity that makes up the Assimilationists and Segregationists worldview that is intertwined with a debased form of Social Darwinism. The thoughts in my mind: Why should the (West) African slave trading nation-states be responsible for paying reparations, as they mostly received general goods such as, guns, metals, etc., when their trading partners: the British, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Americans, forged imperialistic empires? Why should the (West) African slave trading nation- states be responsible for paying reparations, when the late 19th Century saw most of their trading partners take part in on the Scramble for Africa, where by 1914 only 1/10 of Africa was not under the control of a European country. Thus, after witnessing their countries raped and ravaged by imperialistic machines, and fighting to regain their independence; at the same time, the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum in United States, and when these newly independent emissaries witnessed the abhorrence that is America’s Institutionalized Racism, where WWII Nazi POWs had more rights than Black American Soldier/ Veterans. Ultimately pressured Washington (i.e. JFK/ LBJ) to do more to propagate equality for Black people. Umm 😐 no they should not have to pay reparations. I say that to say this:

Assimilationists and Segregationists like yourself seem to be unwilling to acknowledge, let alone understand, since the late 13th/ 14th century (i.e. I am sure we can go back to a much earlier time) the “West’s” writers, thinkers, scientists, philosophers, Church/ Spiritual church leaders, etc., abided by a ignorant, systematic approach using various racial hierarchy theories to facilitate the degradation of any cultural group of black and brown people, which served as the justification for the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Berlin West Africa Conference (i.e the Scramble for Africa), and is the root cause for the racial disharmony/ turmoil prevalent in many societies today. Why can’t Assimilationists and Segregationists like yourself understand the relationship of how disparaging racial stereotypes, propagate bigoted beliefs about people from different races/ ethnicities, which propagate discriminatory social norms and rules, and ultimately nourishes prejudices that drive institutionalized racism? I bet someone like you does not realize that “we” didn’t need the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Voter’s Right Act of 1965, as we already had the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 15 Amendments.

Most notably, this “Fire” Baldwin described in his book “The Fire Next Time” and to a lesser degree, what I described in my poem is comparable to the riots that took place in 1965, 1967, and 1968, which propagated the creation of the Kerner Commission, as well as, the book “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation” (Hamilton and Ture 1967), Malcom X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU)/ Muslim Mosque Inc., and MLK’s/ SCLC’s Poor Peoples Campaign (1968)

It’s worth noting the Kerner Commission’s scathing report aptly draws a correlation between institutionalized racism and urban rebellions, where the commission declares: “The press (ie media) has too long basked in a white world looking out of it, it at all, with white men’s eyes and white perspective” (Kendi, 2016). Additionally, the Kerner Commission asserted under the veil of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voter Rights Acts, where the United States claimed to have fully embraced the idea of racial equality, “our nations was still moving towards 2 societies: 1 Black and 1 White- separate and unequal” (Kendi, 2016).

Lastly, we do not believe in media-suasion or uplift-suasion. We believe in Black Power. Please note true Black Power is about establishing political and economic power (ie includes educational power) comparable to what the dominant power structures hold today. Also, not conforming or pledging blind loyalty to 2 political parties that have both historically displayed political apathy to the needs of the middle and working class, as well as, many marginalized minorities, but leveraging voting power.

P.S. I say Assimilationists and Segregationists because I do not know, where you fit on that spectrum.

[Bare Trees]

Thank you for your reply. I can see you took a long time and a lot of thought into it. For the record. I'm in no way a bigot. I think I was referring to the frustration that many young black men go through on a daily basis. To the point they turn on themselves. I'm familiar with Malcolm-x and his speeches being I've watched them. The black power you reference in your poem sounds more like an uprising by any means necessary, and that sounds dangerous. Being I'm short on time, I'll once again thank you for the reply.

[Stoned Immaculate]

Gotcha. Given the way you framed your question, I didn’t catch you maybe referring to the frustration felt by some disenfranchised minorities. At times brevity can be a barrier to clear communication.

The uprising I am referring to is one of a philosophical and political awakening that is Coupled with an unrelenting and uncompromising energy; something comparable to the Poor Peoples March on Washington and when Bobby Seale led the peaceful, armed protest into the California State Capitol to speak out against pending gun control legislation that would inhibit the BPP from policing the police.

The energy I am describing in my poem is no different than the energy of the Suffragettes, the Freedom Riders, the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee the Citizens Committee, who exposed Cointelpro, Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the Pentagaon Papers, as well as other Protesters of the Vietnam War.

Every instance habilitating change was propagated in America, it was because a minority, not the Majority, of the American public made it uncomfortable for the dominant power structures in America to maintain the status quo.

[John the Baptist]

Do you think the Africans should pay reparations?

[Stoned Immaculate]

Do you think America's social institutions truly propagate an equal society? Or do you think since some civil right laws were finally acknowledged by the courts and the states institutionalized racism is a myth?

[John the Baptist]

The older I get, the less certain I am about anything. Tell me though, what about the Africans?

[Stoned Immaculate]

(In my opinion) Hoping for reparations reinforces the degradation ideology that attributes to racial hierarchy theories spewed by many segregationists. I'm sure The only reparation any marginalized minority wants are just laws enforced by the executive branch, equal opportunity, and sufficient public school systems!

[John the Baptist]

Good answer.