Resistance

Continued from page 17 then-current Black Lives Matter movement. Barron went deeper than the usual Amistead, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Harriet Tubman narrative. His presentation included the Stono Rebellion, Pee Dee River Revolt, Gasper Yanger’s uprising, revolutions in Africa and the Caribbean, and resistance in America.

He also announced his proposed legislation for Columbus Day to be renamed Indigenous People’s Day as in South Dakota, California, Hawaii, and Alaska; in typical Barron fashion, the East New York-based selfproclaimed “elected revolutionary” slammed then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as Black and Latino politicians who denounced the growing call to remove the Columbus statue from midtown Manhattan.

Barron, the author of “SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Articles and Essays on Revolution, Black Radical Politics and Leadership” charged, “What a sad embarrassing case of political opportunism. They should read their history, and they will discover that Columbus murdered, tortured, and enslaved their African ancestors.”

This week, Barron told the Amsterdam News,“Resistance is replacing Black puppets with genuine leaders not motivated by rugged individualism.”

Resistance and resistors have always been a part of the narrative when it has come to the Black community and the historical struggle against the European oppressor in the Americas, from the likes of Denmark Vesey, Madison Washington, Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, to Fannie Lou Hamer, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Assata Shakur, M.OV.E, Pam Africa, Geronimo ji Jaga, Mumia abu Jamal, Mutulu Shakur, Eddie Conway, Mutulu Shakur, Sonny Abubadika Carson, to Soffiyah the landscape and architecture of our buildings.”

Dillard, she realized, had always been involved in forging pathways to understanding between Black and Jewish communities, and she knew what she had to do. On Jan. 17, the university announced the reopening of the National Center for Black-Jewish Relations.

“If Dillard played this role in the past, it’s needed now more than ever,” Ford said. “Part of our remit is to cultivate leaders who act courageously to make the world a better place. That’s who we say we are, and we need to cultivate leaders on this issue.”

By revitalizing the center, Ford and Dillard are also honoring the tradition of a special, mutually beneficial relationship between Jewish scholars and HBCUs that was established nearly a century ago.

Bandele and Viola Plummer.

Barron said the media-accepted Black Lives Matter movement definitely represented the commercialized, acceptable version of genteel opposition, and “not our traditional way of protest and demanding our rights. It lacked vision, ideology and continuity and permanency. They organized around police brutality. It reverberated around world because it was seen to be a safer, acceptable alternative to the real work that has been done for years—and is still being done for the people where no cameras or bright lights shine. This is not scripted. It is real. That was mobilization for a moment, just like Occupy Wall Street. We need to organize not for singular issues, but for real systematic change and radical development. We are talking about revolution, not reform. We know that reform is a tactic, not a result.

“They enslaved us, they Jim Crowed us, they owe us.”

From barber shops to community gatherings, Barron said, the people have to be engaged.

“We stay in the streets, there are many organizations who meet the people every day and listen to what they are asking for—groups such as the Nation of Islam, Operation Power, Man Up, Inc., and the December 12th Movement.”

Barron concluded, “We have always faced our adversity and sought actionable solutions. It was the Black Panther Party, which I was a member of, that began the free breakfast programs that influenced 22 states in the U.S. to give free breakfasts to children. And the Black Panther health clinics led to 40 states beginning free health clinics nationwide. People shouldn’t get caught up in the fictionalized Wakanda Black Panther. They should raise one Black fist, like Tommy Smith and John Carlos.”

“Resistance in 2023 means we should do like the 20 Republicans in Congress, meaning we should fund enough Democrats so that they owe an allegiance to Black people rather than

Finding a home in Black Academia

In 1933, shortly after Hitler tightened his grip on power in Germany, he issued a Nazi mandate abolishing “non-Aryans” from civil service and academia, forcing scores of Jewish intellectuals to seek refuge in the U.S. Most were unable to leverage their reputations back home with predominantly white American colleges and universities—many of which still harbored the same antisemitism that informed the policies making it difficult for them to enter the country in the first place, although Princeton University welcomed Nobel laureate Albert Einstein into its Institute for Advanced Study with open arms.

Others found academic homes in HBCUs, whose leaders empathized with the discrimination they faced and invit- their big-time donors, some of whom are outside of the country,” said Brian Figeroux, activist attorney and founder of News Black Voices. “We should make Hakeem Jeffries belong to us, as an example. And the people who should fund this Black revolution are the Black NBA and NFL players. The revolution of the so-called minorities is to have an effective voice in Congress. It is better than telling people just to vote. We need to have a controlling influence over our representatives.”

Every February, out comes the list of great inventors and influencers like scientists, doctors, architects, teachers, entrepreneurs, entertainers, educators, historians, and authors. Recommended reading includes Nikole Hannah-Jones’ “1619 Project,” Harriet Washington’s “Medical Apartheid,” Gloria Browne-Marshall’s “She Took Justice,” Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” author, Charshee C.L.McIntyre’s “Criminalizing a Race, Free Blacks During Slavery,” and of course, any works of great teachers like Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan and Dr. John Henrik Clarke.

Black Excellence, Black Girl Magic, Black Boy Joy are wonderfully inspirationally buzzwords, and self-determination is the foundation of all of them.

Omowale Clay, a leading member of the human rights organization December 12th Movement, told the Amsterdam News, “Malcolm X once told us, ‘If you can name it, you can claim it.’ Malcolm was instructing Black people to learn that the power to name something also gives you the power to define it—if they name us Negro and we accept that definition, then we will become that Negro.

“Today, violence in society is defined by white people as something native to Black people.

However, we who have fought to define ourselves see racism and poverty as the root cause of violence in our community. It is poverty that has been perpetrated on our people ed intellectuals like Ernst Borinski, Ernst Manasse, and Viktor Lowenfeld to teach at Tougaloo College, North Carolina Central University, and Hampton Institute (now Hampton College), respectively. Just as the Black academics could identify with the antisemitism that kept them locked out of other schools, the Jewish professors gained a deep understanding of the racist landscape of the country through their experiences of working at HBCUs.

According to Aaron Bloch, who heads the Center for Jewish-Multicultural Affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and is part of the seven-person planning committee for the center at Dillard, part of the reason his organization was founded was to carry on the work started at the National Center for See HBCU on page 23 through the theft of our bodies, labor, and genius. A poverty that continues to be violently inflicted, and manifested through poor healthcare, inadequate education, high unemployment, low-paying jobs, lack of housing, and police repression.

“This is why we must define our response as resistance and reparations now.”

In that regard, Clay and the December 12th Movement are calling for the community to push for “passage of the New York State Reparations Bill during Black History Month,” he said.

“We need you to come out, get the information, spread the word, and push your elected officials to act by voting on this crucial bill. We must do it.” (February 16, 7 p.m., Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, 718-398-1766)

With the message that “We have a nation to build,” the December 12th Movement is also organizing the 58th commemoration of the death of Malcolm X (February 21, 7 p.m., New Canaan Baptist Church, 288 Putnam Avenue, Bed-Stuy).

Dr. James McIntosh of the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People (CEMOTAP) told the Amsterdam News, “The motivation for the work I do as a doctor and as an organizer for the people is embedded in work we are tasked to do to help our community. There is nothing more important than empowering our people, and providing information and resources to enable us to be as independent and self-determining as we are meant to be.”

The WBAI “Mindfield” radio host is hosting a Zoom meeting (February 25, 347-907-0629), “How To Make Our Children Malcolm X-perts, Mind Field Eugenics Part 2, In addition, a Book Party event, “The Dead are Arising, The Life of Malcolm X,” features a panel including Tamara Payne, Prof. Gloria Browne-Marshall, Prof. Milton Allimadi, and Nana Betty Dobson.