West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Train of Thought => Topic started by: Lincoln on February 26, 2004, 07:39:51 PM
-
I'm gonna try to do this every week. The first edition of Classic Speech Of The Week brings a classic 1968 speech by H Rap Brown, now known as Imam Jamil Abdullah Al Amin.
I give you Rap...Rap Brown...Rap...Rap...Rap...
[applause]
First of all, I'd like to start out by thanking brother Cleaver and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. See, unlike America would have us believe, the greatest problem confronting this country today is not pollution and bad breath. [laughter] It's black people. It's black people. See, that's just one of the big lies that America tells you and that you go for 'cause you chumps. You go for it. One of the lies that we tell ourselves is that we're making progress; but Huey's chair's empty. We're not making progress. We tend to equate progress with concessions. We can no longer make that mistake. You see, when they gave us that nigger astronaut, you say we were making progress, but I told you they were going to lose him in space. He didn't get that far. [applause] They gave you Thorgood Marshall, and you said we were making progress. Thorgood Marshall is a tom of the highest order. Anybody who sits down before...anybody who sits before James O. Eastland--a camel-breath, peckerwood nasty honkey from Mississippi...[applause]...and lets James O. Eastland subject him to the type of questioning that he did, he's a strange breed of man. You put Adam Clayton Powell in office and you couldn't keep him; what you think they gonna do with Thorgood Marshall when they get tired of him? They gave you Walter Washington, of Washingtom DC, and you said we were making progress; that's not progress. See, it's no in between: you're either free or you're a slave. There's no such thing as second class citizenship. That's like telling me you can be a little bit pregnant. [laughter, applause]
The only politics in this country that's relevant to black people today is the politics of revolution...none other. [applause] There is no difference between the Democratic and Republican party. The similarities are greater than the difference of those parties. What's the difference between Lyndon Johnson and Goldwater? None! But a lot of you running around talking about you Democrats, and the Democrats got you in the biggest trick going. They tell you, "It ain't our fault, it's the Dixiecrats." No such thing as a Dixiecrat. The only difference between George Wallace and Lyndon Johnson is one of them's wife's got cancer. [uproar...applause?] That's the only difference. But you go for it! You go for it because you chumps! You go for it! The only thing that's going to free Huey is gun powder. Black powder [power?]. Huey Newton is the only living revolutionary in this country today. He has paid his dues! He paid his dues!
How many white folks you kill today? [uproar] ...But you revolutionaries! You are revolutionaries! Che Guevara says they only two ways to leave the battlefield: victorious or dead. Huey's in jail! That's no victory, that's a concession. When black people become serious about the revolutionary struggle that they are caught up in, whether they recognize it or not...when they begin to go down and knock off people who are oppressing them, and begin to render these people impotent, that's when the revolutionary struggle unfolds...not until. [applause]
See, I want to develop upon what Bobby [Seale] was talking about about green power, because green power is a myth. [There's] no such thing as green power as long as that honky got the power to change the color of money. It's [...] power that controls this country. To show you America's wanton use and abuse of power in connection with money. Internationally, America changed the international gold standard from...monetary standard from gold to paper gold. Her gold reserve had dwindled from 13.7 billion dollars. France had 12.9...that's why DeGalle was raising all that hell. DeGalle says, "I got almost as much gold as you! So how you gonna have more votes than me in the monetary system?" United States got slick cause they got power. They changed it to something they got an abundance of...paper gold. Paper gold. You see, black folks are chumps. If America were to tell you to bring all the rocks in this country to her, and she'll give you a million dollars for it, you'd do it! And the next day she'll telling you, "We using rocks for currency, chump!" [uproar, applause] You'd go for it because you enjoy being lied to. You enjoy being lied to. You find your security in the lies white America tells you. For four hundred years she taught you white nationalism and you lapped it up. You taught it to your children. You had your children thinking that everything black was bad. Black cows don't give good milk. Black hens don't lay eggs. Black for funerals, white for weddings. You see, everything black is bad. The only black biblical character you knew was Judas. That's all. Syrrup of black draught [?]. That's white nationalism. Santa Claus: a white honkey who slides down a black chimney and comes out white. [uproar, applause] Flesh-colored band-aids: they had a brother who put one on and thought something was wrong with his skin. That's cause you chumps. You go for it! You enjoy white nationalism! Huntley and Brinkley: black folks got more confidence in Huntley and Brinkley than Catholics got in the Pope. They believe anything. According to Huntley and Brinkley, we through fighting in Vietnam. We through killing the enemy; we shooting trees. But you go for it. That's what you want to hear. And you say that you revolutionaries. Well, if you are revolutionaries, you must assume the revolutionary posture. Chairman Mao says power comes from the barrel of a gun. [applause]
Yes, politics IS war without bloodshed; and war is an extension of those politics. But there is no politics in this country that is relevant to US...to black people. Bobby Kennedy sold black people out. He's not interested in black people. He called for vigilante action this summer. He says that the good citizens should ban with the policemen to put down lawbreakers. You know who law breakers are in this country. Lyndon Johnson...Lyndon Johnson has set the attitude...the atmosphere, rather, for vigilantism in the country, when he came out in his latest...speech, I guess you'd call it, and said that one day law-abiding citizens will rise up to put down the law breakers, and one week later the longshoremen went over and beat the peace movement up with hooks. That's vigilante action. The same thing happened during the Battle of Algiers--the Algerian Revolution, when France passed the proclamation establishing People's Militias. That's what this country is doing. That's why white folks are buying guns: they buying them for YOU! And understand: class differences will not save you. There is no such thing as a black middle class. You don't believe it, go to Detroit. [applause] There's no such thing as a black middle class. The man does not beat your head because you got a Cadillac or because you got a Ford; he beats you because you're black! Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford. They cannot divide us by saying that you're middle class or you're lower class. He kills you because you're black. The concentration camps--they got 37 in the country--and me and [Stokely] Carmichael can't fill all of them. They GOT to be taking somebody else. [applause]
You've got to stop dividing yourselves. You got to organize. I agree with Bobby [Seale]: we are not outnumbered; we are out-organized. You have to organize on every level. Everybody in the black community must organize, and then we decide whether we will have alliance with other people or not, but not until we are organized. [applause]
In terms of the revolution, I believe that the revolution will be a revolution of dispossessed people in this country: that's the Mexican American, the Puerto Rican American, the American Indian, and black people. [applause] We happen to be the vanguard of that revolutionary struggle because we are the most dispossessed. An old African leader says about leadership, he says that leadership should never be shared; it should always remain in the hands of the dispossessed people. We will lead the revolution. [applause]
I want to end, because brother Carmichael has a message for you. I'm sure he has a lot to tell you about his revolutionary struggle, about the revolutionary struggle. [uproar...demands that Brown continue?] OK...you asked for it, brothers. OK, we going to talk about law and order versus justice in America, then. You see, Lyndon Johnson can always sit up and talk about...he can always raise an argument about law and order, because he never talks about justice. But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down. We got to begin to understand that. [applause] See, justice is a joke in this country, and it stinks of its hypocricy. Johnson is Hitler's illegitimate child... [applause]...and J. Edgar Hoover is his half-sister. And we must conduct our struggle on this level. We are fighting enemies of the the people! America for centuries...for years have blackmail[ed] oppressed people with the threat of nuclear war, and war in general. The natural reaction becomes not to fear war. This is the lesson we learned from Viet Nam. [applause] They tell you your problem is unemployment. Well, I got a program that can employee every black person in this country over night. [uproar...applause] Ain't nobody in Vietnam unemployed. Think about that we you need a job! [applause]
We talking about revolution because that's the era that you're caught in. You're caught in a revolutionary era. See, black people are responding to a poem that Langston Hughes wrote a long time ago--a poem that was in the form a question that was never answered. The poem was "What Happens to a Dream Deferred?" It says, "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or does it fester like a sore and then run? Or does it sag like a heavy load? Or does it explode?" Detroit answered that. [applause] See, they used to call it Detroit, now they ... {recording skips]. But America is moving to combat that. She's saying, this summer, what we can't buy off, we gonna kill off. That's why she's building up her armories. Understand that! This is what the National Guard is all about. This is what the new weapons are all about. You see, the poverty program for the last five years have been buy-off programs. In Harlem, which has been one of the greatest victims of the poverty program, how you act is nothing but an act; that's all it is. They give the brothers forty-five dollars a week to go to manpower...to come to class at manpower training. That forty-five dollars a week goes into drugs; that's just enought to keep the brother hooked. That's all--they pay you enough to keep you hooked. The poverty program was not designed to eliminate poverty. It does not speak about the ending...[tape skip]. It does not speak about how poverty is embedded in this society. Rather, it talks about the effects of poverty, not the causes. Black people must address itself to the causes of poverty. That's oppression in this country.
So black people all across this country are uniting. They must unite, and they must organize themselves. Everbody has a responsibility in that community: women, men, children--take 'em out [of] the Boy Scouts and get you a black guard. [applause] You must begin to take over your institutions...your schools, because that's where the young minds are. The last time I was out here was for the Watts picnic. See, I don't believe that Watts burned down so that they can have a picnic every year. But what they did during that time was that they ... [tape skip]picnics on weekend notice they gather up seven thousand kids and took them off to a military camp. That's a dangerous thing. Next year they say they hope to take a million. What if they took a million and they didn't come back? Who going get 'em, chump? [applause] You must address yourself to these problems. These are the problems you live with daily. They don't want your old hard heads; they want the young minds. You see, ours might be to do or die, but for the little brothers, theirs should be but to reason why. [applause]
So now, I really am going to end. [protests] Wait... And in ending, I'm going to end in the Swahili saying, it says [in Swahili], which means "We shall conquer without a doubt." Black Power! [applause]
-
up
-
What a racist motherfucker.
-
What a racist motherfucker.
I disagree with that.
-
Black Muslims make me laugh ;D
-
What a racist motherfucker.
I disagree with that.
That's your perogative.
-
Black Muslims make me laugh ;D
Why?
-
white "black muslims" make me laugh even more ;)
quite a well written speech.. some parts are very true. the subliminal emphasis on certain themes shows through when its written down though.
however.. black revolution? please.. violence aint the answer..
u gonna march wit em lincoln.. would they let you, or lynch you?
they need to quit the colour shit, make it poor vs non-poor.. they're getting there with the "dispossessed people" shit, but u gotta include the poor white there too..
-
however.. black revolution? please.. violence aint the answer..
not ever revolution has to have violence
I will say this, that speech was a speech that defines that era nicely. Minorities then were fighting back for the first time for rights. And well people like Martin Luther King and Caser Chavez did it non violent, there were people taking a more human responds to their problems. Their call to violence was a responds to the violence done on to them, and well we like to look at the more non-violent responds, and uplift that, there is no question that many in the community looked at non-violence and laughed, and thought that was a joke. The news media at the time called it, the Hate that breeds Hate. In other words, the hate whites gave blacks was the hate that blacks were now giving whites. Take it how you will
-
my 'responds' (response..) is this..
how i take it is that people dont understand that it aint about color, its about power.. wherever any race has power over another they wont let go.. its the way it is. its way way deeper than black/white/brown.. divisions of each would stick together given the chance..
hell yeah fight the powers that be doin bad.. but dont put it on everyone else who happens to be the same colour..
a few bad apples spoil the whole damn bunch? naww
they get militant they will get shut down.. hard.
-
Black Muslims make me laugh ;D
In 5 words you managed to be wrong twice. #1-H. Rap Browne had not yet converted to Islam at the time of this speach. At the time of this speach he was a member of the black panther party. #2- Today, H. Rap Browne, now known as Jamil Al-Amin is not a "black" Muslim. He is a Muslim. He is not of Elijah Muhammad's brand of Islam but the brand of Islam practiced internationally by 1 billion people from Indonesia to Nigeria and throught most of the Middle East. This Islam has nothing to do with race. In his most current book, written in 1996 he had this to say about racism:
H. Rap Browne (now known as Islamic Imam Jamil Al Amin after his conversion to Islam in the 70's):
"You have to go beyond the whole concept of nationalism when you are talking about successful struggle....So, race becomes something that is insignificant when you try to trace it all the way back; because you can't go any further than Adam."
"Peoplehood is based upon belief more than anything else. More than race, more than on any psychological characteristics, peoplehood is determined by belief; Allah has given us many narratives in the Qur'an than can substitute this."
-
Licoln u really made urself look like an ass this time
you fucking white why are u posting that shit? ur an idiiot i swear overseer just fucking sonned you, ur not even muslim yet either ::)
i respect Ifinites opinions but not urs ur crippled i dont like cripples
-
white "black muslims" make me laugh even more ;)
What is that supposed to mean? There is no color preference in Islam. And if you studied who Muslims are in the world Muslims are of every race. The Berbers (white) of North Africa were largely influential in the spread of Islam, leading the way for Muslims to rule over most of Europe. And I'm sure your aware that the Chechen seperatists in Russia are white. Bosnia, Albania, these are countries that have been in the news in your lifetime with the majority of the population being white Muslims. I'm sure you have heard about them. Allah has said in the Qu'ran:
O mankind
We created you from a single pair
Of male and female
and made you into
Nations and tribes
So that ye may know eachother
Not that ye may despise eachother
Verily the most honored of you
In the sight of Allah
Is he who is the most
Righteous of you.
And Allah has full knowledge
And is well-aquainted
With all things.
-
white "black muslims" make me laugh even more ;)
quite a well written speech.. some parts are very true. the subliminal emphasis on certain themes shows through when its written down though.
however.. black revolution? please.. violence aint the answer..
u gonna march wit em lincoln.. would they let you, or lynch you?
they need to quit the colour shit, make it poor vs non-poor.. they're getting there with the "dispossessed people" shit, but u gotta include the poor white there too..
I have no plans to march with them, and I would tend to agree with the points that you made.
I just thought it was a well written speech.
I'm just not sure what was meant by the white "black muslims" things. As Ibrahim pointed out, Islam has no colour preference. It's a religion which eliminates racism.
-
how i take it is that people dont understand that it aint about color, its about power.. wherever any race has power over another they wont let go.. its the way it is. its way way deeper than black/white/brown.. divisions of each would stick together given the chance..
I agree 100%. Stick the White man in the ghetto and make Blacks the majority and give them the power, it would be the same situation reversed.
-
my 'responds' (response..) is this..
how i take it is that people dont understand that it aint about color, its about power.. wherever any race has power over another they wont let go.. its the way it is. its way way deeper than black/white/brown.. divisions of each would stick together given the chance..
hell yeah fight the powers that be doin bad.. but dont put it on everyone else who happens to be the same colour..
a few bad apples spoil the whole damn bunch? naww
they get militant they will get shut down.. hard.
very true. Which is why when Martin Luther King was going to have a poor peoples' march, I think that would be the most effective way of hitting the problem.
But it is easy to say from the outside looking in. As a Latino, I see a white majority and they are in charge, it's hard for me to realize that most poor people in the United States are white. From the inside of an opress racial group, first of they tent to have less education, so it is hard to see from a whole perspective, and instead groups tent to see from a very central outlook in their eyes. I personally think that what the Black Panthers (which you could tell Rap Brown was in at the time, after all he did mention Huey Newton's chair) and the Nation of Islam was just too extreme, and down right coming from ignorance. BUT, they were a people that had a small view of the world due to the situation Black America was at the time. Now we can look back and realize this, but at the time, it seemed right, for the sight of Black America was just to get to point B from point A, and how they got there, it really didn't matter. I know a few rooten people don't make all whites bad, but at that time, the view was not that, but how to overcome the ones that were bad. If that meant talking about all whites, then so be it. The 60's was the decade America changed, and lost it's innocents.
-
very true. Which is why when Martin Luther King was going to have a poor peoples' march, I think that would be the most effective way of hitting the problem.
The reason for that is because Martin Luther King, unlike many of the civil rights leaders, wasn't racist. He was a genius, totally understood the problem and was intelligent enough to know how to properly approach it. Unfortunately, his message has been perverted by some since his death, and a lot of whites don't realize what he actually stood for.
-
very true. Which is why when Martin Luther King was going to have a poor peoples' march, I think that would be the most effective way of hitting the problem.
The reason for that is because Martin Luther King, unlike many of the civil rights leaders, wasn't racist. He was a genius, totally understood the problem and was intelligent enough to know how to properly approach it. Unfortunately, his message has been perverted by some since his death, and a lot of whites don't realize what he actually stood for.
OMG We Agree :o
Now that doesn't happen everyday.
Martin Luther King was not racist, he was not a Reverse Racist, and he knew how to solve the problem because he was an educated man, he had a Doctorate Degree, and he was a Man of God. Too bad more people didn't follow him. He did start out with Black Civil Rights, and moved on from there, he was about Justice. Not just Black Justice, but Poor people justice, women's justice, other minorities justice. But at the end of his life, he was more to Poor People's justice, and his Poor People's March.