SPEECH TO BE DELIVERED AT BLACK ON BLACK LOVE MEETING AT LIBERTY BAPTIST CHURCH-CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

All of us are here today because we believe in Black On Black Love. But what has really brought us here, to this point, is Black on Black Violence or what we perceive is Black on Black Violence.
Our brother, our shining prince, revolutionary Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter, El Hajj el Malik Shabazz, more widely known as Malcolm X, who, had he not been murdered in his prime, at the age of 39, would have made 84 years old on May 19th, told us and taught us many things in his short physical life on this earth. One of the things he told us was, that America has a problem. She has a very serious problem. And that problem is us. She doesn’t know what to do about us. In some circles this is called the “Negro Question”. In contemporary times, now, is referred to as “What to do with the Angry Black Man”.

As I look around this beautiful institution we are in, I’m looking at a lot of beautiful people of African descent whom I know don’t believe that America has a problem with us because they can’t understand why she would have a problem with us a people. After all, a great deal of what is great about America is because of us. How many of you have ever been to Washington DC? Do you know who designed it? How many of you have ever seen the White House, where a family of African descent now resides? Do you know who built it? Or the Capitol Building, where laws are made? Do you think our ancestors were compensated for all of the labor it took to build those institutions for the United States of America? And that’s a primary reason why we are America’s problem. We began demanding that what is owed to us be appropriately tendered to us. We began stating, NO More Free Labor.

Dr. King referenced that in his speech in Washington DC in 1963. The speech that has come to be known as the “I Have A Dream” speech. He told the world that a check had been presented by us to the American government for the blood, sweat and tears we’ve shed for centuries in this country. But do you know what happened when that check was presented, and is still being presented? It bounced then and it continues to bounce. It keeps coming back stamped Insufficient Funds!

When an entire country such as the United States of America, has benefitted for more than 500 years of work from hundreds of thousands of people for free, and that country has been going around telling the world how great it is, including how wealthy it is and those people begin demanding recognition for their work, that poses a serious problem for that country.
One of the greatest contributions we have made to this country has been the ability to maintain family in spite of all that has been heaped upon us. And in the process of maintaining our family, we have assisted them by developing and raising their children while at times ours have gone without. But that didn’t prevent us from loving, nurturing and rearing our own to the best of our abilities. The Black Church and the Black Family have been the staple and conscious of this country almost from the time we were forcefully brought to these shores. If it were not for the Black Church and the love for Black Family by Black people, we would have long succumbed to the attacks and all out assault on our very existence by those who oppress us, to this very day.
So, the first thing we must do, is that regardless of what negativity is said about Black people, Black children, Black women, Black men, Black neighborhoods and Black communities, don’t believe it, don’t repeat it and don’t act like it’s true.

In order for us to be strong enough to do that, we must know, without question that we are at war. When Dr. King came to the complete realization that America was symbolically a “burning house”, he stated that we would have to become firefighters. When we internalize that we are at war, we will become soldiers. The right kind of soldiers. But first, we must be clear on who the enemy is.

I told you what America’s problem is. Well, we have a problem as well. We have not consistently identified who the enemy is. Too often we have wittingly and unwittingly joined forces with our enemies. And as a result, we have participated in creating our own demise. I’ll use the words of late professor, Dr. Amos N. Wilson in explaining.

“As far as the White American community is concerned, the African American community and related groups function to support and service its dominance. The White community legislates, enforces, and reinforces the role-functions and behavioral boundaries of the African American community in accordance with its dominance and needs. By these means the place of the African American community, relative to the White American community is legitimatized."

"As long as African Americans perform according to the roles prescribed for them by the White American community ego complex, everything is fine according the White American community. However, when and if the African American community threatens to move or actually moves beyond its functional invisibility; when it attempts to escape its role definition, acts on its own volition and thereby escapes dominant group controls,when it challenges the legitimacy and relative autonomy of the White American community, that community responds repressively."(destroying public housing and public schools)

Take the instance of public housing in Chicago as an example. In no more than a couple of years, three generations of Black people were displaced from where they called home. No matter how fit or unfit. Their lives were completely and totally disrupted. Are there any people here who were a part of that experience? It is not different from what our brothers and sisters are experiencing and have experienced in countries in Africa such as Rawanda, Biafra and Sudan. Many families had to separate. Children were uprooted from their neighborhoods which included their schools. Then what happened? These groups of people, who represent a subculture, or tribe so to speak, had to traverse into unfamiliar and some cases unwelcomed communities or territories. Where the indigenous people of those areas engage in another subculture or tribe. And because of the fact that all of these groups represent a subculture, or sub-society, they have created their own sub economy. In this instance, the drug trade. The government knows this. Your legislators, Black and white, know this. But they sacrificed the people anyway. They knew when BD’s (Black Disciples) crossed over into GD (Gangster Disciples) territory, what was going to happen. They knew that when one tribe encroached upon another tribe’s neighborhood and began attending school in a warring tribes turf was going to happen. But it was forced upon the tribes to move anyway.

Now some of you will say, they shouldn’t belong to these groups, tribes, or gangs in the first place. The fact of the matter is, that is an ideal, I agree. But reality dictates that they do belong to these groups and sub-groups. And as a duty-holder, the government, in this case, the United States government / State of Illinois/City of Chicago had an obligation to recognize that and act appropriately. That means, having respect for the value of human life. But that is not what happened. On top of that, as if that wasn’t enough, they began to close schools and imposing a policy called “No Child Left Behind”. When in fact, it is designed to leave our children behind. A policy, that should be regarded as “ a legislative crime against humanity” because it denies our children the right to fully develop in order to become self-sufficient, civic minded productive citizens in this society. Instead, it forces them to remain in the sub-culture that we say they should not be a part of in the first place. And that war continues and they become, just like our young brothers and sisters in Africa, child soldiers. They are recruited, trained and rewarded by those who are real urban terrorists. But to many, they seem to be invisible and therefore our children bear the brunt of being labeled as the terrorists.

We have experienced examples of this behavior time and time again. So, what must we do? This is where things become difficult. This is where we have got to have faith. This is when we have to believe in things not yet seen. First we must unite around the belief of our greatness as a people and we must believe we are entitled to the best that life has to offer. Then we must do some practical things.
1. We must understand how self-alienation relates to Black on Black violence.
2. We must understand how “The Black on Black Criminal” relates to the concept of “conspicuous consumer".
3. Finally, if the African American community is not to be sacrificed to White American lust, vanity and greed-if it is not to self-annilhilate-it must make three compelling and imminent choices. We either must;
· Seize ownership and control of the means of production or influence them in ways such that it can satisfy the stimulated desires and needs of our people
· Radically modify the tastes, desires,values and needs of our people such that their vain pursuit of them will not underwrite our own oppression or self-destruction;
· Or radically transform the American production and value systems, social order, and replace them by a new, fairer (blacker), humane social and economic order. *Amos Wilson

In essence, as Brother Malcom stated, in his speech titled the “Battle or the Bullet”, we must gain control of the politics and the politicians in our communities. We must become politically mature so that we will stop being misled, led astray in supporting people who don’t have our best interest at heart.
We must control the economy in our community. That means we must control the jobs, housing, education and businesses in our community. As it currently stands, even when we choose to shop in our own community, we are supporting businesses owned by people who don’t look like us, who don’t live in our community.

In the words of Frederick Douglass; “Liberty and Slavery cannot dwell together forever in the same country. There is not one iota of affinity existing between them. They hate each other, with a state of irreconciliable hostility. You must decide whether you want to be free or be a slave".

The question is constantly asked, why do Black people always kill Black people. The answer is simple. They have not been trained to kill White people. I am not advocating killing anyone. What I am saying is we are still suffering under the yoke of oppression. Meaning, collectively we feel powerless. We must get some power. Some Black Power. However, “power concedes to nothing less than a demand, it never has and it never will”. Those who have it over us will never give it up without us making them do so. Thank you.