Buy Black Wednesdays 8: Occupy Black Wall Street!

by Paradise Free Jahlove

Farm-Fresh-Choice-youth-run-produce-stand-at-Berkeley-Youth-Alternatives-2007-by-Ecology-Center, Buy Black Wednesdays 8: Occupy Black Wall Street!, Culture Currents There is an incredible movement going on right now to fight government greed and corruption worldwide. It started about six weeks ago, mid-September, in New York City, with a group that calls itself Occupy Wall Street. Their main focus is that the 1 percent greedy corporate super rich elite are oppressing the other 99 percent of the world and we are not going to take it anymore. And their hundreds of young, mostly white demonstrators have morphed into thousands and millions of multigenerational and multiethnic folks worldwide.

At first the corporate owned propaganda media machine – the “best news that money can buy” – refused to cover them, but their growing numbers and resolve eventually could not be denied. Author and filmmaking activist Michael Moore showed up, as did author-scholar Cornel West, the godfather of Hip Hop KRS1, actress Susan Sarandon, environmentalist Ralph Nader and a plethora of unions and others.

Until Occupy Wall Street spread to Occupy Greece, Occupy London, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Washington, D.C., Occupy San Francisco, Occupy LA, Occupy Seattle and Occupy Everywhere, including Occupy Oakland at Oscar Grant Plaza, where activist-actor Danny Glover recently delivered a resounding speech about taking back this country and planet worthy of an Oscar for the people award. And Occupy Oakland has become the sister in solidarity to New York and Occupy Wall Street after organizing over a thousand peaceful protestors and being tear gassed, rubber bulleted and having their encampment demolished by the Oakland Police Department.

I am all for this movement. But is it for Black people? Yes. Because this will probably be the last chance humanity has to take back the world from the warmongering, New World Order oligarchy of kleptomaniacs before they use their evil technological advances and war machines to put the whole world on lockdown; as Wall Street, which was built upon the backs of Black slave labor and is the cornerstone of the American Empire, attempts to expand its Slave Plantation globally. This fight is real. It’s serious. And it’s urgent. The fate of the whole world will be determined in these next few months.

The New World Order oligarchy wants to put the whole world on lockdown as Wall Street, which was built upon the backs of Black slave labor and is the cornerstone of the American Empire, attempts to expand its Slave Plantation globally.

But Afrikans should join this movement with caution and be careful not to walk out onto another plank and fall over another precipice into the abyss of more multiculturalism and integration that leads to the disintegration of the Black Power Movement and the advancement of the Afrikan diaspora. You may be surprised and delighted to hear the “Power to the people!” chants rising up from the voices of these Occupy protestors. And I say amen to that.

Buy-Black-Wednesdays, Buy Black Wednesdays 8: Occupy Black Wall Street!, Culture Currents But where were these people 40 years ago when the Black Panthers needed them? When oppressed people needed them? Are they rebelling against the mistreatment of brothers and sisters red, black and brown on reservations or in the hood? No.

They are revolting now only because they are finally getting a taste of what it has felt like to be oppressed and Black in America for over 400 years. The folks in Wisconsin, Ohio, mainstream America and the middle class are being dumped by “the establishment” into the same Third World status as the majority of poor people in the world and are looking into the ugly face of a bleak future. And they are angry, terrified and aghast. Welcome to the revolution … and our daily lives.

But keep in mind that back in the ‘60s these people had a similar tantrum (it turns out) and had a Sexual Revolution, Hippie Flower Power, Summer of Love, Free Speech, Drop Out-Turn On-Tune In movement, where the peace sign was in vogue. But eventually they soon exchanged their “peace signs” for Mercedes Benz signs, went back to Wall Street and back to work for their daddies who they were rebelling against in the first place – a luxury we have never had.

And when they went back to their lives of privilege they forgot about us. Comparatively, although for the last few decades America has been about white supremacy disguised as democracy, it was okay with mainstream America – until America became elitist white supremacy disguised as democracy.

Some brothers and sisters in the spirit of the times have even started an Occupy the Hood website on Twitter. But the pigs have occupied the hood for a long time … and now the 99 percent wants to cry “Foul!” and “Bad America!”

So join the Occupy movement. But join with caution and ask yourselves of any movement: Does this group have a collective goal or game plan to work on which assures that we, Black people, are making progress for our people every day, if not every hour?

Join the Occupy movement. But join with caution and ask yourselves of any movement: Does this group have a collective goal or game plan to work on which assures that we, Black people, are making progress for our people every day, if not every hour?

Buy Black Wednesdays is a movement that has such a plan. So feel free and be encouraged to actively join our international [Buy] Black Wednesday campaign. It’s not just about buying Black once a week, it’s also about reblackifying our deblackified minds. It’s about revisiting Black History Month and Kwanzaa and each other on no less than a consistent weekly basis. It’s about excavating the black gold in great Black legacies of which there is no end.

It’s about OCCUPYING BLACK WALL STREET by recruiting new members hourly, every day. There is no reason for us to be a poor trillion dollar nation. The gold, the diamonds, the oil, the wealth and resources of Afrika are merely the shadows of its people. Black people. The greatest wealth of Afrika and the world is us. Afreeka be free.

It’s about OCCUPYING BLACK WALL STREET by recruiting new members hourly, every day. There is no reason for us to be a poor trillion dollar nation.

P.S. Black Wall Street in this article is a metaphor for the thriving Black business community of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1920s, for the organization of the present Black businesses on International Boulevard in Oakland today, and for Black businesses and busy-ness everywhere.

Buy Black Wednesdays Business of the Month

Our Buy Black Wednesdays Business of the Month is a Black youth produce organization called Farm Fresh Choice, the Ecology Center’s food justice program that engages low-income residents of South and West Berkeley in reclaiming their optimal health through youth empowerment, nutrition education and community outreach that reaffirms our collective ancestral wisdom and our relationship to nourishing foods.

The program makes fresh, organic, regionally grown and culturally appropriate foods convenient for purchase at after school programs through partnerships with local farmers that reflect our communities of color. Incredibly, they are presently working with thousands of youth across the country to implement a national Food Bill of Rights to insure that every child and human being in this country has a basic right to be fed and have access to food regardless of their financial situation. Amen.

Every Tuesday, Farm Fresh Choice is at Frances Albrier Community Center in San Pablo Park at Park and Oregon Streets in South Berkeley from 3:15-6:15 p.m. Contact them at ffc@ecologycenter.org, www.ecologycenter.org or (510) 848-1704.

Buy Black Wall Street and IBWA join Occupy Oakland General Strike on Buy Black Wednesday

Please join the International Black Writers and Artists and Paradise’s Cultural World’s Fair on Tuesday, Nov. 2, in downtown Oakland to represent the artists of the Bay Area in Occupy Oakland’s General Strike against the city. My dream of pulling a cultural coup on the city is coming true. This is the moment and these are the times that every spoken word and performance artist, slam poet and activist has been preparing and waiting for all our lives.

We will meet, march, mingle and perform for two sessions, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. and later have dinner and refreshments at Shashamane’s Restaurant, 2507 Broadway, at about 6 p.m. Singers, dancers, musicians, drummers, poets, freestylers and artists of all persuasions are encouraged to come.

Paradise is president of the International Black Writers & Artists Local 5 in Oakland and was recently honored by the City of Oakland with “Paradise Day,” on Oct. 6! He may be reached at oaklandworldsfair@yahoo.com. Paradise also facilitates the Buy Black Wednesdays Facebook page and group, hosts the Black Wednesday Show every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on www.harambeeradio.com and blogs at www.blackwednesdays.blogspot.com.