Postmodern Diversions Of Black Rebellion

Africa World Now Project

We are witnessing a period that is trending towards unprecedented, but it is not without genealogy or tradition.

Those who seek to counter this rebellion promote narratives with increased use of violence that tries to narrow the righteous rage to suggest that folk are responding to one instance of violence. They think that folk are rebelling against a video. They think folks must protest peacefully. The ‘they’ are those in positions of perceived power where thought and action are built upon racial capitalist logics that maintain and reinforce systems of dehumanization.

Folk are not responding to an instance of violence. People are instinctively responding to the structural and historical realties of violence…

It is essential in this moment where European modernity is fracturing, for every critical thinking African and person of African descendant, globally, to grab hold of the fracture and pull with all your might.

Even more important, it is essential to gain clarity of objective and practice a sharpness of means. George Jackson wrote: “We find ourselves today forced into a reexamination of the whole nature of black revolutionary consciousness and its relative standing within a class society…”

Political education then becomes the call of the day. In this regard Fred Hampton provides a clear analysis of the role of political education in this reexamination [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffmg6i0lv_k].

Education—political education must be evident. And allow me to quickly point out that to be educated is to—read. The revolutionary importance of reading is key.

Therefore, our rebellious, ungovernable discourse must be rooted in a critical Human Rights consciousness, specifically a critical Africana human rights consciousness

It is here, the platform that guides the question, what next? can be built. From this CAHRC, we must engage in five activities: 1) seek to institutionalize this moment; 2) develop ideological refinement for clarity towards objective; 3) all efforts must be linked with internationalism—PanAfrican being organizational goals; 4) consolidate written & nonwritten projects of black critique into a sustained counter discourse, that provides response and self-critique; and 5) root all of this in a critical Africana human rights consciousness, which is, in fact, a critique and expansion of human rights theory and practice, currently organized.

As we begin to move further into next phases, we must move, in the words of Kwame Ture, our unconscious to conscious organized response.

Above all, we must also keep in mind the tactics offered by Amilcar Cabral: 1) those engaged in struggle, should unflinchingly practice class suicide; & 2) in spite of all fought for and gained: “Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies…Claim no easy victories.”

It is in this historical genealogy we walk. It is in this ancestral tradition we live. It is here, George Jackson provides more clarity: “We must prove our predictions about the future with action.” And I will add within all expediency of black critique, as the future of our humanity rests on getting this right.

Next, you will hear a recent conversation I had with Dr. Daryl B Harris.

Daryl B. Harris is an associate professor and former chair of political science at Howard University. He is author of The Logic of Black Rebellions; Postmodernist Diversions in African American Thought; as various other chapters and articles.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples!
Enjoy the program!