Monthly Archives: March 2012

Imam Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) is one of the most revered Black revolutionary leaders from the ‘60s who is alive today. He was a legendary organizer with SNCC and briefly with the Black Panther Party, then later in an Islamic community in the West End of Atlanta, Georgia. This is one of the true fathers of rap music. Atlanta will rally Monday, March 19, 3-5 p.m., at the Georgia Capitol, 206 Washington St., to bring Imam Jamil back to Georgia from federal prison in Florence, Colo.

In a Hollywood Reporter article, Spike Lee is quoted: “In 1989, ‘Do the Right Thing’ was not even nominated [for best picture],” said Lee, with some mock outrage. “What film won best picture in 1989? ‘Driving Miss Mother F-ing Daisy!’ That’s why [Oscars] don’t matter,” said Lee. “Because 20 years later, who’s watching ‘Driving Miss Daisy?’”

The new CDCR proposal will only make things worse by creating the Security Threat Group (STG) designation so as to place thousands more in Ad/Seg-SHU-type units. It’s the only way for CDCR and CCPOA (guards’ union) to recoup some of the loss sustained from the prison population reduction forced by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May of 2011.

The Kony 2012 campaign is still taking heat over its portrayal of Africans as victims whose only hope lay in the actions – and wallets – of white saviors. And critics say it’s that centuries-old narrative that’s in part responsible for the campaign’s viral success. The white savior complex isn’t just a familiar narrative – it’s a lucrative one.

The LRA is a raggedy bunch of a few hundred at most, poorly equipped, poorly armed and poorly trained. Addressing the problem called the LRA does not call for a military operation. Rather than the reason for accelerated military mobilization in the region, the LRA is the excuse for it. Alas, this message has no room in the Invisible Children video that ends with a call to arms.

CDCR has released its “Security Threat Group Prevention, Identification and Management Strategy,” which proposes new gang validation and SHU step down procedures. “The biggest issue with the stakeholder review is that the most important stakeholders, the prisoners who have been validated and are currently in administrative segregation or the SHU, are not included,” says Jerry Elster.

On Friday, March 16, a rally will be held at 10 a.m. at 1335 Quesada Ave. in Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco. Please come out and support as Dexter Cato and his family, longtime community members, reoccupy their home that was criminally foreclosed on. We want to send a message to bloodsucking predatory banks and their cohorts, STOP PREYING ON OUR COMMUNITY!

Portraying community and political activists as violent gang leaders and violent criminals was employed in the run-up to Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s ouster in 2004 and gained momentum in the years afterwards. The continued demonization of militants and activists is exemplified in the defamation campaign against grassroots activist Samba Boukman.

Under the false premise that I was organizing prisoners for purposes of carrying forth a physical assault in the spirit of Black August, 18 years later, I remain confined in their “mad-scientist” like torture chambers as an alleged prison gang member solely because I refuse to become an informant for the state!

"The ever-present propaganda campaign of white superiority and Black inferiority, since slavery, has succeeded in rewriting history without its African roots and has continued to downplay Africa’s contribution to civilization and to the world as we know it. If Africa were more effectively promoted as the birthplace of civilization and the beginning source of all sophisticated culture, the myth of Black inferiority would be forced out of society because it would then be evident that we are all connected and, ultimately, all African." – DeBray Carpenter, aka Fly Benzo

I insist that California Gov. Edmund G. Brown and President Barack Obama take a hard look at the inhumane treatment of California prisoners here in the United States of America being tortured in solitary confinement units because of their political beliefs, influence and being jailhouse lawyers etc. And even if someone is a gang member, it still does not give CDCR officials the right to torture them.

In 1960, the late Dr. Arthur H. Coleman founded the Coleman Medical Center at the corner of Third Street and Ingerson. In the tradition of Dr. Coleman and those other professionals who worked so hard to bring quality services to the Bayview, the center continues on with a new group of health care providers who are carrying the torch.

When Tanya Dennis, an Oakland public school teacher and reporter for the Post newspaper, reclaimed her home last year, she eventually received a fair modification from Wells Fargo Bank. However, at that time, Tanya acknowledged that her fight with Wells Fargo was only half over as she turned her attention to saving her 91-year-old mother’s home also.

The myth that Fukushima radiation levels were too low to harm humans persists a year after the meltdown. Views like these are political, not scientific, virtually identical to what the nuclear industry cheerleaders claim. An October 2011 article in the journal Nature estimated Fukushima emissions to be more than double that of Chernobyl. How anyone, let alone scientists, could call Fukushima doses “too low” to cause harm in the face of this evidence is astounding.

Lela Nicole is one of the new talented voices beginning to make a name in media on the West Coast. She recently created and wrote a television series called Oaktowne about life in Oakland. She just wrapped up shooting the pilot to her series, and Oaktowne was recently accepted into the 10th Annual Oakland International Film Festival, which will be held at the Oakland Museum April 6-8.

African Americans continue to be held at a disadvantage when it comes to learning English, partially due to their natural disposition to Ebonics and partially due to the discrimination and the indifference of America’s public school system. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination; however, Blacks have been yet to benefit from Title IV, which prevents discrimination by government agencies that receive federal funds.

Shouting “Inside, outside, we’re all on the same side” and “Here comes Oakland,” five full buses and two vans left Oakland to meet up with marchers from as far away as Portland and Seattle who had already arrived at plantation San Quentin for one of the largest anti-slavery rallies in California history.

This powerful event resonated deeply, bringing meaning to the “occupy” movement and showing that its power is to support existent fights and organizing efforts for silenced peoples that have been raging on for years as well as to shed light on the increasingly po’lice controlled state that we all live under.

My call to arms is this: Until we are organize in consciousness as one class, which we are as prisoners, and eradicate the petty politics that give the illusion of security but only act to strangle our solidarity, we are hypocritical in our demand for CDCR to take the boot off our neck and the knife out of our backs.

DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter was put on trial for allegedly obstructing and assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. Mendell Plaza, located at Third Street and Palou Avenue, is an important public gathering place in the heart of Bayview Hunters Point. “People have been plugging in that boombox right there for years,” said Benzo’s lawyer, Severa Keith. “That corner is used for everything.”