More than 30 years ago on the streets of Philadelphia, a Black Revolutionary Movement called MOVE was brutally suppressed by the State of Pennsylvania using terrorist methods to neutralize and kill many members of the organization. I remember as a child many of people around the Black and The Latino community spoke with outrage about the massacre that occurred on May 13th, 1985. MOVE was a Black Revolutionary group that challenged the establishment’s economic and political system within the United States of America. Unfortunately, many members of the MOVE organization were killed when the Mayor at the time Wilson Goode and Police Commissioner George J. Sambor ordered to drop a C-4 Plastic Explosive device from a helicopter on top of the MOVE Organization’s home. On the day of the police’s terrorist attack, many men, women, and children were killed and burned alive. The killing of MOVE was used as an example to silence any dissidents and other Black Liberation Movement that was critical of the way Black Community were being treated.
In my opinion, we must and continue to study, learn and
speak about the Black Experience in America with accurate details of the
historical context that happened decades and centuries ago. I feel that we have the lost the way and many
blacks and people of color from all religious and ethnic background has been
silenced, been miseducated, misinformed, or simply has forgotten about Black
Struggle and Revolutionary Movements only what they see in movies. Though I find many politicians and even
so-called scholars’ has simply watered down the black experience history to
push their political agenda, many have been complacent to undermining the
entire Black Experience History in the US and choose not to speak truth to
power to those that continue to oppress the black community.
In the past, we had powerful Black leaders that revolted
against all odds to fight against an Imperialist, Oppressive, Racist and
Undemocratic Ideology in the United States. Our dear brothers and sisters like
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B Du Bois, Ida B.
Wells, Fred Hampton, Stokely Carmichael, Patrice Lumumba, Nelson Mandela, and
many other Black Leaders and Revolutionary Figures worldwide are hardly
mentioned in mainstream media anymore. This is why we must continue to talk and
learn about the black experience to try to understand the circumstances that
are occurring today. From Mass Incarceration to the killing of unarmed Black
American youth in the streets throughout this nation by racist police officers.
Malcolm X
said it best:
The thing that I
would like to impress upon every Afro-American leader is that no kind of action
in this country is ever going to bear fruit unless that action is tied in with
the overall international struggle. (1)
As we are nearly one year away from the election primaries,
we must take into account that politically, black people in the United States has
been disenfranchised and voter’s suppression regulations have been in place to
push away, black voters. In the past, the Communist Party in the United States
were practically the only ones that stood in solidarity with the Black
Community.
On the other hand,
in their experience with the Communist party in the United States, black people
were able to apprehend some of the greatest strengths and weaknesses of
black-white alliances in the struggle for justice. (2)
As a Latino, I recognize the importance of learning about
the Black Experience not only in this country but all over the world where many
have been murdered and their ancestry history wiped off the face of the earth
due to European Imperial Conquest. We must understand the current mechanism in
this country that constantly tries to push important historical facts aside only
for you to purchase a product in the store or online. We must acknowledge the
fact that the triumph of spectacles is supreme, and literacy has been
marginalized for the last 10 to 15 years.
We are currently living in two society; on one side we have
a minority that is aware of the current status we are all facing when it comes
to Black History Experience both past and present. The other side, the
majority, continues to choose comfort over struggle.
by César Omar Sánchez. Community organizer, New York/New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition, Advisory Board Member of ProLibertad: Free All Political Prisoners Campaign.
1. Spellman,
A.B. By Any
Means Necessary, Malcolm X. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1992
2. Harding, Vincent. Prologue: We the People. The
Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader. Penguin Books, 1991
