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[Christian Davenport]

Any World (That I'm Welcome to)...... Anti-Black Behavior, the Desire for Community & the Republic of New Africa

11/13/2015

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I always liked Steely Dan.  Strange place to start a piece concerning black nationalism but stay with me for a second.  There is just something about Steely Dan's calm melodious funk that just does the trick.  I listen to it when editing something I have written.  It doesn't get in the way like some music.  It kind of facilitates.  One song in particular has always resonated with me: Any World (That I'm Welcome to).  You probably know it:

If I had my way
I would move to another lifetime
I'd quit my job
Ride the train through the misty nighttime
I'll be ready when my feet touch ground
Wherever I come down
And if the folks will have me
Then they'll have me

Any world that I'm welcome to
Any world that I'm welcome to
Any world that I'm welcome to

Is better than the one I come from

I can hear your words
When you speak of what you are and have seen
I can see your hand
Reaching out through a shining daydream
Where the days and nights are not the same
Captured happy in a picture frame
Honey I will be there
Yes I'll be there

Any world that I'm welcome to
Any world that I'm welcome to
Any world that I'm welcome to

Is better than the one I come from

I got this thing inside me
That's got to find a place to hide me
I only know I must obey
This feeling I can't explain away
I think I'll go to the park
Watch the children playing
Perhaps I'll find in my head
What my heart is saying
A vision of a child returning
A kingdom where the sky is burning
Honey I will be there
Yes I'll be there

Any world that I'm welcome to
Any world that I'm welcome to
Any world that I'm welcome to

Is better than the one I come from


I always viewed the song as hopeful.  It suggested that if you did not currently have a home and you were not currently being embraced by some community, that it was possible that you might one day.  In some distant future, you will find your peeps, be embraced and walk right on in.

The discrimination directed against African Americans since their coming to the United States has not provided much of welcoming.  Enslavement was simply hell: beatings, torture, rape, forced labor, medical experimentation, and outright killing.  Post enslavement, things were only better in certain ways. Despite being freed from bondage, they were lynched, burnt, sent back into a version of slavery, threatened, rounded up as "vagrants" and worked in prisons, worked to the bone in factories as the lowest on the totem pole, kept out of housing, good schools, good supermarkets and rendered ever fearful that there situation could slip back into some vortex of violence reminiscent of Octavia Butler's Kindred or Haile Germ's Sankofa.  

Given this situation, it makes sense that African Americans would believe in the distant hope of democratization and democracy studied so carefully by Ralph Bunche in "The Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR".  Confronted with the realities that this might not sufficiently address all of their problems, it also makes sense that blacks would try to think of some other way to be welcomed.  Indeed, this explains black interest in science fiction like that put forward by the Afrofuturists.  "Any world that I'm welcome to" - even if that world is on another planet or set in the future.  Ever see that Deep Space 9 episode where it was shown that Deep Space 9 existed in the mind of some African American set in the 1950s who
was suffering from a host of discriminatory problems. In his pain, he created the idea of Deep Space 9, which you then were led to wonder about as it was not clear if it really existed or it just existed in the mind of the oppressed black writer. "Any world that I'm welcome to".

Similarly, one could view black nationalism as an attempt to make a world, rather than wait for one to arrive and/or be handed to them.  In a version of a Tribe Called Quest lyric, black nationalists seem to have concluded that "If your state is an ass and your police force is a jerk, leave 'em both alone and create yourself a @." As I am not a rapper, I do not need to finish the line.  You get the point.  

Now, creating that place of welcoming was not an easy thing to do.  Few attempts were put forward but one that I am familiar with concerns the group called the Republic of New Africa (RNA) - the topic of my last book "How Social Movements Die".  The RNA concluded that America was not for them - indeed, they concluded that America was out to kill African Americans.  Rather than go back to Africa like Garvey and many white racists suggested, however, the RNA decided to take a different path.  They were like: we built much of the country and we still live in numerous parts of the deep south in numbers that make it look as if they were the majority. They decided that they should be given/take these states and create their own nation.  

What was this nation and what was this idea of theirs?  Steely Dan illuminates: 


I got this thing inside me
That's got to find a place to hide me

The black nation.  That was their idea.  A place where they would not no fear.  A place where all dreams hindered by the racist America could be fulfilled.  A place of peace and harmony and collective productivity.  It was "Exit" in the Albert Hirschman sense or Escaping the state in the James Scott sense.  


Perhaps I'll find in my head
What my heart is saying


​As we see the burgeoning national and international attention given to the newest version of the African American plight in the US (e.g., "Black Lives Matter") and the piecemeal efforts put forward to address them: e.g., body cameras, commissions of inquiry, talk shows and the like, it is worthwhile to look back some other efforts - ones a bit more critical and creative about both how bad the problem might be but also how dramatic the solution might need to be.  One example is that put forward by the Republic of New Africa.  Below is the government that they proposed as well as, if you read between the lines, why they proposed it.  
More soon.
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How Social Movements Die & the Republic of New Africa Archive, Part 1

4/17/2015

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One of the most interesting parts of writing my latest book (How Social Movements Die) was uncovering and exploring an untapped resource of government records. In particular, I utilized what were referred to as "Red Squad" files. These were compiled by police agencies throughout the United States from the early 1900s until the 1970s and perhaps beyond this time. The objective of these units included monitoring radical organizations as well as individuals and, when deemed necessary, constraining and/or eliminating them. The records themselves are fascinating.  One example is provided below.
As you can see, the records identify which government agency was involved, when they filed a report, when the relevant events took place, where the event took place, who was present and what they said. There is also information that is blacked out by political authorities in order to prevent identification from those that gained access to the relevant material (something I will discuss in a subsequent blog). This information becomes useful for not only understanding who did what to whom but it also provides some information about what authorities thought was useful to track (i.e., time, space, actors, organizations and action) and it also says something about the language of both resistance (from the state's perspective) as well as repression. It also provides information on how quickly governments found out what was going on.  For example, in the example provided here governments were delayed two days in reporting relevant activity. I wonder if this varied and why?
The records here concern the Republic of New Africa (RNA) - a black nationalist and secessionist organization principally based in Detroit but with consulates or chapters all throughout the United States between 1968 and 1973.  The particular records identified here were facilitated by an informant being in the organization (simply referred to as "Source") reveals that the RNA was giving speeches, planning to support members being dragged into court as well as identifying orientation meetings as well as shooting practice. Interestingly, the records noted above clearly identify that the RNA repeatedly used churches as meeting places. It is generally thought that the civil rights movement relied upon religious institutions but the connection to black nationalism/secessionism has been less consistently highlighted.


What do you see?
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Questions in/on Black & Blue

12/23/2014

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Been quiet for a bit, taking it all in, preparing for the new year.  More on that later.

Hearing about the death of the two police officers in New York raises a great many issues.

First, the deaths immediately raised the topic of retribution and revenge.  Had it been the case that individuals in the population had decided that it was unacceptable to take African American lives and decided to strike back violently?  Had it been the case that individuals in the population were done feeling that they had no agency and they decided to strike back?  Were they done begging for something to be done?  What did it mean that individuals no longer feared directly bringing the fight to political authorities?  What did it mean that the fear that normally kept citizens in check had dissolved and they raised arms against the state?  Was this the very meaning of individualized anarchy?  Would the attacks diffuse throughout the population?  How many individuals in the population harbored antagonisms toward the police?  How deep and wide did that resentment go?  Or, was this an isolated incident of an unstable individual who took an act that could be misrepresented because of the current context?

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Second, although the discussion in the media has not yet made the connection, with the explicit reference to the word “pigs” in the police killers entries, the deaths reminded me of the days of the Black Panthers, their use of the word and their violent interactions with the police. As shown above, pig has a specific meaning when used by black nationalists and black power advocates.  This phrase is associated with a certain type of vicious agent of the state that appears to just brutalize all in their path. The recent reference appeared to invoke the image but without the data it is hard to say if the situation now is any worse than it was in the 1960s and 1970s when the Panthers were active.  It was not about shooting the police however.  The Panthers wanted to put the police in check for their seeming aggressive and violent attitudes as well as the type of activities employed against the black population.  But, there are some major differences between this period and the current use of the word. For example, the Panthers were a social movement organization with a broad plan for how to improve the political-economic system and not an isolated individual with a single issue they wanted addressed. The Panthers were largely interested in having the police follow the law, not attacking them pre-emptively. This is not to say that there were no violent exchanges. At one point, some members of the organization did decide to break off, start their own faction and to attack the “boys in blue”.  Such action was set within the context of a perceived all-out assault on the black community which could no longer be tolerated. This opinion was not unique to the Panthers. Most black nationalists advocated such a position - especially when viewed as a "reactive" response to anti-black violence enacted by whites in general and the police in particular. This includes groups as diverse as the Revolutionary Action Movement, the Republic of New Africa (the subject of my latest book), the All African People's Revolutionary Party under Kwame Ture, US under Maulana Karenga, the Organization of African-American Unity developed by Malcolm X and occasionally the Nation of Islam.

Third, the deaths of the police officers seems to have invoked a significant amount of sympathy for the police in particular and agents of the government in general despite the recent revelations about their activities and growing mobilization around the topic.  Would the killing of “seeming innocents” or armed government agents “on the job” shift the sympathies of the mass population away from raising questions about what had taken place and what was taking place? Would people be too scared about offending the legitimate users of coercive violence who put their lives on the line daily?  Would the momentum be lost from those who began to come together in criticism of these agents of the state?  Could a separation be made between those criticizing the police and the killer in specific or potential killers in general?  Had the scales been shifted?  Would the general deference to political authorities be resumed and the growing critical tone from much of the population be stunted?

Fourth, there is the issue of when (if at all) it is acceptable for citizens to use violence. Many political theorists speak of the right to rebellion. In the face of tyranny (i.e., a misuse of coercive power by those in political authority), it was believed that citizens had the right to raise up arms against those in government.  Unfortunately these theorists never really dealt with the issue of exactly when someone knew they were in a situation of tyranny.  They provided no definitions, no criteria and no measurement strategies. They did not address the fact that governments were the ones who frequently compiled data regarding the use of coercive power.  They also did not really discuss any variation in the concept of rebellion.  Does such activity have to involve large numbers of people?  Does such activity have to involve violence?  Does such activity have to lay out a clearly defined plan of action or could it just be a “shot in the dark”?  Is all this discussion regarding the death of the police officers and the desire for retribution simply a justification for some violent action with no significance or resonance at all?  In this latter categorization, the activity is not some measure of rebellion or signal of dissatisfaction but instead some horrific act of random violence seeking a justification?  Could the deaths of the police officers be irrelevant for current discussions?  

Questions abound.
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    Analog - The Anti-Blog

    By "Analog" I am referring to the adjective (i.e., relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position or voltage) and not the noun (i.e., a person or thing seen as comparable to another) for I wished to give voice to my thoughts which have come to me in a more or less continuous manner but which do so in a way that is not consistent in content or form. Thus you will see short stories, brief thoughts, haikus, low-kus and even a political cartoon or two. 

    Winner of Best Blog Post for 2014 by International Studies Association

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