Spike Lee’s third film takes place on the hottest day of the summer in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, New York.  I heard Spike say in an interview this week that while he didn’t know what he was doing on his first film, She’s Gotta Have It, and was finding his way with School Daze, with this film he finally felt like a ‘director’.  And it shows.

On to the tale of the tape…

Relevance:  Fade in on a solo jazz version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”  Follow that up with Rosie Perez working it out to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” as the opening credits kick in.  And that’s (literally) just the beginning…

Legacy:  Yes, this was the film debut of Rosie Perez and Martin Lawrence, but is that really the first thing you think about with this film?  As noted, this wasn’t Spike’s first film, and there were (and continue to be) black independent films with equally strong messages.  But moreso than any other film of its generation, Do the Right Thing really put Spike Lee and modern black cinema on the map. 

Craft:  You know how you can watch a lot of 80s movies today and cringe at how dated they feel?  Not this film.  The 80s elements here feel (as they do in many classic films) as snapshots of the time they were created.   Radio Raheem’s massive boom box.  The box haircuts of Raheem and Mookie.  The conversation about how certain black celebrities (and now President’s?) go beyond the racist definition of what a ‘n—er’ is.  And how about the cast list?  Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Harris, Danny Aiello, John Turturro, Frank Vincent…yes sir!  And that’s just the talent in front of the camera!

Crossover:  In a big way.  The film was nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes, it made noise at the Cannes Film Festival, it was widely regarded as one of (if not) the best film of the year.  Kim Basinger made a point at the Oscars to tell the worldwide audience that it’s a shame that Do the Right Thing wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.  (And it was a shame.  Spike’s never been close to winning an Oscar, how is that possible?)  Anyway, the moral of the story is Spike Lee had arrived.

Apollo:  In the event you the reader haven’t seen the film yet, I won’t ruin the biggest ‘Apollo’ moment of the film.  Instead I’ll focus on the film’s coda:  two very good quotes.  The first from Dr. King, which references his belief that an eye for an eye eventually leaves everyone blind.  The second from Malcolm, which argues that self-defense is not violence; as a matter of fact it’s common sense.  The film does not in an explicit way express which way ‘is the right thing,’ it’s up to the viewer to decide for him or herself.  An argument that can continue into infinity…

The film countdown ends shortly…

Go to FalseFactsComic.com

MINISTER OF DEFENSE, HUEY P. NEWTON- HE WON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLE

HUEY P. NEWTON: HIS REPUTATION HAD PRECEDED HIM

 

When I graduated from high school, I had been pretty much colonialized. I was a Manchild caught in a dilemma between being a street hustler, thug or a factory worker. My high school experience at a predominately white school had only reaffirmed and reinforced my interiority complex. Being Black, I truly believed that I had no other options.

I wasn’t a hustler. I truly loved my sisters. To me, my sisters were truly beautiful and fascinating. I didn’t have the heart or desire to live a life taking advantage of them.  I loved to read and write poetry rhymes. I was completely satisfied to find a dark counter at the public library with a stack of books and read my life away.

I couldn’t be a thug. I had gained a decent reputation as an accomplished street fighter, but I didn’t have the heart or desire to harm anyone. I was a good athlete too, but I didn’t have the money or resources to pay for a physical or the equipment to play high school sports.

I wasn’t a factory worker. Most of my in-laws made a pretty good living at the Chevrolet Plant in Fremont or other factories. I loved the outdoors. My favorite past time was being in the open air and basting in the sun at a local city park like Lincoln Square Recreation Center in Downtown Oakland. I loved exploring the shores of Jack London Square where I spent vast hours alone walking along the shores of the coastal waters. Growing up to be a self realizing Blackman wasn’t an option.  

After graduating from high school, I didn’t know what to do with my life. My dream was to be a railroad Pullman porter and melt away into a life of invisibility and interiority. I was hopelessly confused.

One day, I followed a couple of sisters that graduated with my class to a local college. They were twins, Brenda and Glenda. My cousin had married Glenda as a high school sweetheart joined the military and left for the Vietnam conflict in Southeast Asia. I had a puppy dog crush on Brenda. I had dreams of marrying Brenda and joining my cousin in Southeast Asia and returning home a decorated war hero. I had no idea what war was other than a stage show on a Hollywood set. I was in a fantasy and extremely naïve.

When I broke through the glass double doors of Merritt Jr. College at 59^th and Grove, my life changed. I had never been on a college campus in my life. There were girls of every description everywhere. It was another playground for a Manchild. I decided then that I wanted to be a college student.

I had absolutely no idea how to read a college schedule. I picked my classes regardless of the times, days, units or prerequisites. I picked my classes by looking at the titles, “hum-hum-this sounds good, this looks good, and this sounds good.” I had no idea what a prerequisite was. I had no idea what a class conflict was. One day, a couple of older sisters noticed that filling out a class schedule was beyond my understanding, and sat down with me and showed me how to fill it out properly. A white college counselor had signed my class schedule conflicts and all, like 25 class credit units. He didn’t care. He assumed that I wouldn’t be there long.

At Merritt, Brenda had found another brother as a suitor. I was somewhat broken hearted that I couldn’t join my cousin in matrimony and in Vietnam. My heart and attention then went to a beautiful young lady from Richmond named Johnnie. The word in the grapevine was that she was hard as rocks. She had come up hard, very hard actually fighting grown men off her. The amazing thing was she had been successful. Nobody got close to her. Johnnie was tough as nails, but we had a lot of laughs and good times.

A relationship with Johnnie was difficult if not impossible. She had been claimed by one of the most notorious thugs in Richmond. It was suicide to be caught anyplace near her. I found Johnnie regardless of her background, sweet, gentle, quiet and kind. Our affection was mutual. Our moments together were confined to campus. I wished that I could grow wings and fly her away from her troubles. I was a Manchild full of innocent fantasy and dreams and barely able to take care of himself.

It wasn’t long before Brenda, Glenda, and Johnnie dropped out. I found myself getting high, hanging out on campus and flirting with all sorts of young ladies of all races. The Manchild had found a new playground. I became a campus playboy, a campus clown.

One day, I had spent the day drinking and getting high with the brothers. That evening I was hanging out in the hallway in front of the campus cafeteria cutting it up with a couple of brothers.  One brother was giving me the campus lowdown.

That’s “Michael the Pimp.” Michael was a local fixture. Michael was a light skinned brother with a process hairdo. Michael was always good to stop, talk, laugh and for a conversation. He was a hapless heroin addict that hung around campus. I don’t think anyone took him seriously even the women found him harmless and most irrelevant.

“That’s Marcellus, he is a professional boxer.” Marcellus was a bully and a self centered individual with a head full of greasy Gerri-curls, God’s gift to women. He made a beeline straight to cafeteria to impress the young ladies without looking around.  

“That’s Huey.” Huey was a rather ordinary sized brother with an arm full of books. He was modestly dressed. I noticed that he buttoned his shirt all the way up to the neck. The brother suddenly straightened his back and became alert. He respectfully nodded, and the rest of us got the clue and straightened up real quick and nodded our heads in unison. In passing, Huey acknowledged us and nodded respectfully in return, and entered the cafeteria. “That’s Huey. Don’t mess with him!” 

Huey’s reputation had preceded him. From that day on, when Huey passed me in the hallway it always the same, straighten up and straighten up quick no matter how high you was. Huey didn’t talk much. He talked with his eyes. Huey’s girlfriend was a tall beautiful sister with long black hair named Laverne Williams. She was an opera singer and a serious music major. Huey was prelaw.

One day, Huey and Laverne passed me in the hall. As usual, I was holding up the wall in the hallway high. Laverne looked at me and whispered something to Huey about me. I wanted to blend into the woodwork to avoid his attention. Huey glanced at me for a moment and continued down the hallway. Here it was, one of the most bad-assed brothers on campus and his significant one didn’t like me. I wanted to disappear into the walls.

One evening, I rolled around to the brothers in the hallway in front of the cafeteria. One brother told me, “man, you just missed it. Huey and Marcellus just got in it.” My heart sunk to my stomach, Huey got beat down by a professional middle weigh boxer, I thought. The brother continued in utter amazement, “man, Huey cleaned out Marcellus.”  My mouth dropped wide open. I said to myself, “this Huey P. Newton cat is for real!”

From then on each time Laverne passed me, she continued to whisper something to Huey about me. It made me feel so little, miserable, and a failure not to be able to live up to her and now Huey’s expectations. I wasn’t serious about my education. I was at Merritt to get high, play and clown around with the young ladies. She could see right through me. 

One day she passed me in the hallway with Huey, she said something about me again. Huey talked with his eyes. He never looked at me in a despairingly manner. On his day he sort of nodded and with reassuring look in his eye said, “He will be all right.” I knew that I had to get serious about education, and straighten my life out from then on.

 Laverne didn’t know it, but I had decided that I wanted to be like Huey, manly, quiet, respected, and a serious student. I would ultimately win her respect and friendship. That really meant a lot to me.   

THE BEGINNING: SOUL STUDENTS ADVISORY COUNCIL   

It was 1966. A new awareness was breaking out all over campus, each day there were spontaneous groups of black and white students engaging in vigorous political debates about Civil Rights, and the Vietnam War. One of several Black students that stood out in the debates in regards to having an incredible cyclopedia-like recall of references and historical details was Bobby Seale. I had never seen Black men stand up to debate whites regarding any subject, whether history, psychology, philosophy, it didn’t matter. There didn’t seem to be subject that the brothers weren’t aware of. The heated debates lasted into the evenings, and I tried not to miss a moment.

There was Isaac Moore, Ken Freemen, Leo Bazile, Ernie Allen, and others. They were brilliant and beautiful in debate. Isaac Moore and Ken Freeman became my wise, faithful and patient mentors and teachers. Bobby, Ken and particularly Isaac Moore, took time to school and mentor me through the draft. I wouldn’t have made it without them. I subsequently discovered that Bobby Seale was Huey’s closest confidents. They were a prefect match. Bobby was charismatic, outgoing, boisterous, and an extremely fluent public speaker. Bobby had once been a comedian. Huey was intellectual, modest, and extremely reserved.    

The brothers and sisters on campus began to find a common cause among them, and agreed that there was a need to organize on campus around their causes, issues and needs. Some of brothers reasoned that there were numerous student groups with a common union funded by student fees, but none of them addressed the needs and issues of Black people. Why not organize a student group that would meet on campus around a common cause and union to regularly discuss and address issues important to Black students and people of color. It was Bobby Seale that always constantly emphasized the significance and uniqueness of the “soul” of people of color; soul music and soul food. It carried the day. The brothers and sisters formed Soul Students Advisory Council of the Associated Students of Merritt Jr. College. I believe that Leo Bazile became the first president of the new student union. I was in another world. It was a beautiful educational experience for me. I was like a fly on the wall. I tried not to miss anything.   

One issue was common and pressing to most the brothers and sisters on campus was the unjust Vietnam War, and the draft. Ernie Allen called a press conference on campus, and publicly declared his opposition to the war and became one of the first to refuse to be drafted into a war against his conscious and the Yellow brothers and sisters of Southeast Asia fighting the same enemy that people of color were facing in this country. I was absolutely in wonder of these brilliant, courageous, and worldly brothers. 

Huey and Bobby wanted to take the group further beyond intellectualizing to take concrete and direct actions to help organize the community around issues that affected them. They wanted to expand the scope of the union to address police brutality, but most of the other brothers and sisters didn’t want to go that far. Unfortunately, some of the brothers began to assume that Huey and Bobby were too far out and militant for a campus organization.

Things came to a boil when Huey and Bobby used some of the union’s funds as bail money in regards to arrests that occurred protesting a police shooting in Richmond. It wasn’t that they pilfered the money it was that the brothers and sisters of the union demanded a democratic process before using the council’s money. They demanded the right to vote on it. Huey and Bobby argued that it was a time of the essence emergency and a paramount and revolutionary right existed to use the money to come to the aid of the Black community. It was Huey and Bobby on one side and the intellectuals like my mentors, Moore and Freeman and other brothers and sisters of the council, on the other side.

My heart was for unity with all of them. We needed the intellectuals and revolutionaries united for one cause, the liberation of our people. It was like a dark cloud had formed over my head. I was torn between them. I truly loved all of them, but for pragmatic reasons my soul had to go with Huey and Bobby. I was a young mis-educated and poor Manchild. I felt I had little to contribute to further the movement among the brilliant intellectuals. I had nothing to give the movement to liberate our people, but my love, body and soul.       

THE SPLIT: THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF DEFENSE       

Huey and Bobby branched out of the Soul Students Advisory Council and formed an off campus organization, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPPSD) in October of 1966. Huey, Minister of Defense,  and Bobby, the  Chairman, developed the 10 Point Plan as the party’s platform to rally the people around. [1] The intellectual criticism was that the man could meet all the demands of the 10 Point Plan and we still wouldn’t be free. However, I thought it was a brilliant idea. Bobby and Huey targeted population were the ordinary brothers and sisters of the Black Community that Bobby called the “Lumpen.” The party’s platform was straightforward, comprehendible, and easy to universally embrace.

I was a fly on the wall. Huey and Bobby was right. That 10-Point Plan platform drew into the ranks of BPPSD some of the baldest, fiercest street thugs, gang members, and ex-servicemen of color on earth under one cause, the liberation of our people. 

The other criticism was that Bobby Seale was weak. In my world, Bobby was one of the boldest brothers on the planet. I didn’t quite understand that point. A couple of years later, I would have learned exactly what they had meant.  

I was unable to participate in the early activities of party like the police patrols. The internal policy was that brothers had to equip themselves with their own personal guns. During this time, most of the community thugs and serious hustlers had the need for guns. I, the Manchild, never had the need or desire for a gun. For a time, I didn’t have the resources to obtain a gun.

I missed Huey’s infamous February 21, 1967 confrontation with the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) while escorting Betty Shabazz, the late wife of Malcolm X, from San Francisco Airport to the Ramparts office for an interview with Eldridge Cleaver. One of the young brothers of the escort told me that a SFPD contingent confronted Huey and brothers outside the Rampart’s office. One of the officers demanded the surrender of the escort’s weapons. An officer stepped forward as if to take Huey’s shotgun; and all that was heard was “click-click.” Huey locked and loaded a shell in his shotgun. Huey meant business and that just wasn’t going to happen. The SFPD backed down. On that day, I lot of people besides the police found out that Huey P. Newton was for real.

I also missed the infamous May 2, 1967 march on Sacramento that put the Black Panther Party for Self Defense on the international map in infinity. I learned a great deal about my life as a Manchild from Huey. Naturally at first, I didn’t have the courage that Huey and some of the other brothers had. I thought we needed more brothers. I thought that there might be safety in numbers if only for myself.

Once on campus, I was trying to convince a high school associate, Danny Crockett, to join the party. The grapevine was humming that Danny had ended a notorious thug’s, John Singleton, reign of terror with a bullet. It didn’t kill him, but from John’s own mouth it had slowed him down, and changed his life from random acts of senseless violence and hurting others needlessly.

While I was talking to Danny, Huey passed. I called Huey over and told him I was trying to recruit Danny. You couldn’t coach Huey to waste any words. Huey looked at Danny and asked if he had a gun. Danny said, “Yes.” Huey asked Danny if he was willing to protect his family with that gun. Danny said, “Yes.” Huey told Danny, “You’re a Panther,” and walked away.  

Huey was right. We didn’t need a lot of brothers in the party. We needed only the few dedicated brothers and sisters that we had to be examples of un-selfness, undying and supreme love, sacrifice and courage for our people. We will ultimately win the hearts and minds of the people. Huey had been the perfect example. I wasn’t wrong to want to be just like Huey P. Newton. Slowly, the de-colonialization process of my mind and spirit was jellying.  The BPPSD was molding into a fearless and internationally respected Black Liberation Warrior Clan. 

HUEY P. NEWTON & Chinese Thought Reform

On October 28, 1967, at about 4:51 a.m., Oakland Police Officer John Frey allegedly at random spotted an automobile moving along his assigned beat in West Oakland. Frey ran a check on the vehicle, and within a minute it was identified as a “known Black Panther vehicle.” [2] Frey decided to the stop the car at Seventh and Willow Street. Officer Herbert Heanes heard the transmission and joined Frey to provide cover.

After the stop, Frey found the vehicle driven for Newton by a passenger, Gene McKinney. Frey attempted to arrest Newton for two parking ticket violations belonging to the car’s owner, Huey’s significant one, Laverne Williams. During the arrest, there was an altercation. Frey was fatally shot and Heanes was wounded in a brief exchange of gunfire. 

That night, I had accompanied brothers to Hunter’s Point for a memorial celebration of its rebellion of September 28 to October 1, 1966 after the SFPD shooting of an unarmed Black youth. We got the word that Huey had gone down.

He was being held at Highland Hospital in Oakland. The word came down that we were going in. I had lost the fear of a Manchild. I was prepared. Sometime later, word came down that the entire hospital had been surrounded by what seemed to have been an army. It would have been suicide to go in. The brothers called the mission off.

By July 1969, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense had become the primary focus of the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the CIA’s OPERATION CHAOS covert programs, and was ultimately the target of 233 of the total 295 authorized “Black Nationalist” COINTELPRO actions. The October 28, 1967 assault on Huey was part of the government’s secret coordinated counterintelligence operations to neutralize Huey and the BPPSD.

At a meeting of Federal prison administrators in 1962, MIT Dr. Edgar Schein, social psychologist, suggested using Chinese Thought Reform on prisoners as a policy. James V. Bennett, then Chief of the Bureau of Prisons thought it was a good idea. Dr. Schein:

This [thought reform] “model” of behavior and attitude change is a general one which can encompass phenomena as widely separated as brainwashing and rehabilitation in a prison or a mental hospital. I would like to have you think of brainwashing not in terms of politics, ethics and morals, but in terms of deliberate changing of behavior and attitudes by a group of men who have relatively complete control over the environment in which the captive population lives. [These changes can be induced by] isolation, sensory deprivation, segregation of leaders, spying, tricking men into signing written statements which are then shown to others, placing individuals whose will power has been severely weakened into a living situation with others more advanced in thought reform, character invalidation, humiliations, sleeplessness, rewarding subservience, and fear [emphasis added]. [3]

In 1945, James Van Benschoten Bennett , President of the American Prison Association, was in Nazi Germany visiting concentration camps and setting up American Military Government German prisons that at that time was involved in the illusionary “denazification” thought reform.[4] It’s ironic that Bennett’s thought reform program was too drastic for the BEAST, The World’s Greatest Racial Mass Murderers, but good enough for thousands of Black and Brown inmates who were guilty of struggling for freedom, and mostly economic and drug related crimes.

Dr. Schein was an S factor (Stanford University) fiend. He earned his masters at Stanford, and Ph.D at Harvard University in 1952 in social psychology. Dr. Schein is yet another scientist that migrated to the United States from Nazi-dominated countries to set national policy more consistent with Nazi Germany racial policies than American values of freedom and justice for all. He was born in Switzerland and moved into the United States in 1938, when the German General Staff and Reichsfurhrer SS Heinrich Himmler were moving in Nazi agents, the Fifth Column, into the Americas.

Dr. Schein was a disciple of German Psychologist, Dr. Kurt Lewin, head of the Tavistock Institute. Tavistock was the center of trauma-based-mind control research and engineering human behavior for the military-industrial complexes.

Dr. Schein was also an important CIA/MK ULTRA military intelligence asset that worked with clandestine neutralization teams along with Dr. Fred Williams of the Air Force Psychological Warfare Division, Nazi Doctor Expert, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, Albert Bideman, and Psi specialist Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Monroe. [5]

Dr. Schein’s Los Angeles and Bay Area military intelligence and CIA/MK ULTRA mind control colleagues were Dr. Louis Jolyon West and Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer. They all had worked on top secret and classified programs involving Korean and Chinese “brainwashing, “mind control” and “thought reform” techniques for the government. [6] 

Dr. Schein suggested that physical, psychological, and chemical techniques could be used on prisoners to deliberately alter behavior and attitude. Schein also proposed isolation, sensory deprivation, to destroy socialization among prisoners as well as to sever the links prisoners had to the outside world. Because humans validate their existence, their personality, through contact with others, isolation has a significant impact on the human psyche. This form of psychological disorientation, the removal of others for validation of self, came to be known as the “Muttnik Principle” (so named by psychologist Nathaniel Braden) and was also called the “Psychology of Invisibility.” [7]

In 1968, Huey P. Newton was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for the death of Officer Frey, and acquitted of assault on officer Herbert Heanes. After the 1968 conviction, Newton was committed to the California Corrections Department to carry out his sentence. Newton was placed at the San Luis Obispo Men’s Colony on the isolated central coast of California between Oakland and Los Angeles. It was hundreds of miles from Huey’s comrades and supporters in the Bay Area. Under the Dr. Schein’s “Muttnik Principle,” it was an idea location.

During his incarceration at San Luis Obispo Men’s Colony, which was a department of corrections medical facility, he was subjected to experimental behavior modification techniques that the brothers called “Chinese Brainwashing Procedures.” It was Schein’s classified Chinese Though Reform Program.

The word came down that brothers and sisters had to make regular visits to San Luis Obispo to keep Huey’s mind together. At that time, I don’t believe very many brothers and sisters knew exactly what “Chinese Brainwashing Procedures” or ”Chinese Though Reform” really meant; and the state of art of behavior modification and mind control programs; and the government’s active covert involvement. I know I didn’t truly understand what it had meant.

By January 1969, I along with most of the original panthers and the national and internationally respected revolutionary-intellectual controversial rank of brothers like Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and James Forman from SNCC were purged from the BPPSD, and harnessed by “goon squads” and ex-prison zombies with a governmental “License to Kill” us.  

HUEY P. NEWTON & Clockwork Orange

I, among others, eagerly awaited the release of Huey. We expected Huey would be able to sort out the COINTELPRO, OPERATION CHAOS, OPERATION GEMSTONE, HUSTON PLAN and MK-ULTRA penetrations of the BPPSD that had caused the deaths, imprisonment, assassination attempts, and polarization of so many brothers and sisters.  

On May 29, 1970, the California Court of Appeals reversed Newton’s manslaughter conviction. [8]  Shortly after August 5, 1970, Huey P. Newton was released from prison. I was there along with thousands when Huey was freed at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse. The man that I once knew bolted from the courthouse jumped up and onto a top of a car. He snatched off his shirt and flexed his muscles. I knew instantly that it wasn’t the quiet and modest and quiet warrior that I once had idolized.

I wasn’t the only one that noticed. In 1973, Kathleen Cleaver was traveling throughout Europe, after Eldridge Cleaver’s California parole was revoked and escaped. During a cocktail party in Switzerland, a reporter for the magazine ‘The Christian Century’ interviewed her about Newton. [9] She reported told the reporter, “Everyone who knew Huey before he went to prison, knows that he is not the same man any more. No one changes his views so radically as he apparently has after such a short term in prison. In fact, prison life has historically tended to make political prisoners more militant, not less so.”  [10]

Cleaver characterized Newton’s recent about-face in regard to establishment institutions, drug use, drug dealing, pimping and pandering as result of the “Clockwork Orange” treatment to which he was subjected to in prison.

“A Clockwork Orange” refers to a movie in which a young man serving a long prison sentence for violent and sadistic criminal activity was offered an early release in exchange for his consent to undergo experimental behavior modification, aversion therapy. The treatment was so effective that the young man was unable to function to normal human reactions and impulses to sex, violence, and self-protection.

In an interview with the reporter, Newton denied undergoing aversion therapy or behavior modification. However, Newton claimed to have witnessed the effects of shock treatment, and stress therapy during his imprisonment. He said, “They were like vegetables.” [11]  The article also noted that the Urban-Black Center of the Graduate Theological Union of Berkeley directed a prison ministry program. Julius Thomas, director, said that he had observed several formerly strong-willed criminals come out of prison “acting like pussycats.” [12] The graduate union is linked to Dr. Schein’s military intelligence protégé, Dr. Margaret Singer.

PRISON STRESS THERAPY & THE CIA

There is little information exposed about the “stress therapy” at San Luis Obispo Men’s Medical Facility, but “Stress Therapy” is a code word for the CIA in other California prison medical facilities, particularly Vacaville.

Clifford Jefferson (Death Row Jeff) was confined with Donald Defreeze (Cinque) of the Symbionese Liberation Army at Vacaville. In a sworn declaration to Patty Hearst’s first lawyer, Terrence Harahan, he declared, “In the early part of 1971, Defreeze stated to me that the CIA was conducting tests to try out certain drugs…Defreeze stated to me that he gone through the tests and also knew of stress tests that were given to prisoners, in which they were kept in solitary, harassed and annoyed until they would do anything asked of them to get out; then they were given these drugs and would become like robots.” [13]

Columnist Jack Anderson further revealed the CIA’s “Stress Therapy” in the California men’s medical facilities, “CIA files confirm that this spy agency did indeed conduct drug experiments on Vacaville inmates. The experiments were designed to study the effects of stress and drugs on military prisoners of war, to determine the point which they would crack. Vacaville Superintendent T. Lawrence Clanon said that the CIA did not conduct any experiments after 1968. However, Superintendent Clanon acknowledged that Defreeze had volunteered for medical research in July 1970 and it is uncertain just when the agency ended its testing there.” [14]

The CIA Station Chief at Vacaville was Dr. James A. Hamilton, another S Factor (Stanford University) psychiatrist. Dr. Hamilton’s chief consultant at the Vacaville’s stress cohort group (Black Cultural Association) experiment was Dr. Schein’s military intelligence protégé, Dr. Louis Jolyon West of UCLA, the Maestro of Mind Control. 

INHUMANE TREATMENT & California’s Expermental Medical Psychiatric Diagnostic Units (MPDU)

At the time of Huey’s incarceration at San Luis Obispo, Raymond K. Procunier was head of the California Department of Corrections. Procunier was one of Governor Ronald Reagan’s fascist department disciples that turned the California prison system into little Auschwitzes to experiment on Black and Brown inmates by every imaginable scientific experimental method with mind altering bending drugs; psychosurgery and lobotomy; and electroconvulsive treatments to modify and engineer human behavior.

On November 19, 1971, the California Department of Corrections invited a group of psychologists, psychiatrists, researchers and prison officials to meet at the University of California at Davis to discuss prison violence and a possible new psychiatric unit at Vacaville. Dr. Edward Opton, senior research psychologist at the Wright Institute, attended the sessions.

At the meeting, corrections officials were vague about what treatments they had in vision for inmates confined at the new MPDU. The corrections research director was Dr. Lawrence Bennett, who refused to discuss moral or ethical questions in regards to MPDU. The head of MPDU was Dr. Stephen Sheppard.

After the Davis meeting, the press picked up the story that corrections officials were planning to carry out experimental brain surgery on inmates at the new MPDU. When this information was exposed, the corrections officials maintained that that it was considering only electrocauterization (by inserting needles into the brain).  However, inmate support groups obtained a copy of a letter, dated September 8, 1971, from Procunier, to the California Council on Criminal Justice, which would arrange the financing of the project. Procunier’s letter spoke of brain surgery for “aggressive”, destructive” inmates. The proposal was submitted on November 11, 1971, a week before the Davis meeting. Procunier proposal referred to “serious management problem inmates” as one of its main reasons for setting up the MPDU at Vacaville:

“The control and management of these segregated inmates have become a serious problem, as shown by the recent episodes of violence and disturbance in different prisons where Adjustment Centers had been inadequate and the problem remains unsolved. New ways and perceptions are now urgently needed to provide a better approach for handling of these cases.” [15]

Under Reagan and Procunier, the electric shock and aversion therapies that Huey witnessed at San Luis Obispo was common in California prisons. Electrical shock therapy was administered at Vacaville approximately 500 times in 1971; Prolixin was injected 1, 093 times in 1970. Drugs like Prolixin are described by users as “sheer torture” and “becoming a zombie”.

Shock treatment, a form of aversion therapy, is also torture. Bear in mind that one electrical shock therapy session may include up to 40 electrical shock charges per therapy session. Reports out of the California State Hospital for the Criminally Insane at Atascadero repeatedly mentioned that genital electroshock was used on sexual offenders as aversion therapy.  It was reported that inmates were shown movies of explicit sexual content. If they began to display sexual arousal, their genitals were shocked. The program was entitled, “Errorless Extinction of Penile Responses.”[16] 

The late Attorney Faye Stender, and the late prison activist Popeye Jackson and others viewed the MPDU as a laboratory of behavior “torture”, which in practice was designed to be performed primarily upon militant Black and Chicano organizers in prison populations.

Dr. George Bach-y-Rita, an electrocauterization specialist, was one of the research psychiatrist heavily involved in developing the MPDU. Dr. Bach-y-Rita said that the MPDU treatment would involve little more than intensive diagnosis through electroencephalogram and traditional doctor-patient and group therapy discussions; also perhaps training in Alpha-wave meditation.[17]

Dr. Bach-y-Rita was a Harvard trained psychiatrist who was a member of the American Psychiatric Task force on Violence. Dr. Bach-Rita was a Spaniard educated in Mexico. Dr. Bach-y-Rita had been slyly slipped into the department of corrections through the backdoor along with Dr. Frank Ervin to secretly advance CIA-MK ULTRA involved electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research.  

Dr. Bach-y-Rita and Ervin were part of the medical team of Dr. Vernon Mark, Dr. William Sweet of Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston General Hospital; and the notorious mind controller Spaniard, Dr. Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado. These doctors invasively implanted electrodes in the brain (ESB) to experimentally control and engineer behavior for the CIA and the military-industrial complex.  

In 1967, psychiatrist Frank Ervin and neurosurgeon Vernon Mark proposed to prevent (Black) urban riots by brain implants. The movie, The Terminal Man, was based on one of Dr. Mark’s psychosurgery victims. Their theory was that Blacks engaging in civil disobedience were suffering from damaged brain cells.

These doctors were also to be involved in Dr. Louis Jolyon West’s UCLA Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence funded by the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Bureau of Prisons, and the CIA that was to target children and inmates of color for secret eugenic based hideous and inhuman mind control and behavior modification medical experiments.

Dr. Bach-y-Rita sent a letter to his correction department superiors that exposed the shocking truth that the California Departments of Corrections under Reagan and Procunier were not only involved in psychosurgery, electroshock, Prolixin and Anectine therapy experimental research, but they were involved in torturing inmates with sex hormone injections, brain cauterization, sound-wave control techniques, and lithium carbonate. [18]

Dr. Joseph Tupin was alleged to have used lithium carbonate treatments on Vacaville inmates for years. Dr. Arthur Nugent administered Anectine (terror drug: a sensation “worse than dying”) to prisoners at Vacaville. The MPDU funding proposal read: “There has been, for example, a study in the California Medical Facility to determine the usefulness of lithium carbonate in treating hyperaggressive, acting-out patient. Further follow-up in this area would make a significant contribution.” [19]

They, the group of fascist men, like Reagan, Procunier, Doctors Schein, West, Bach-y-Rita, Delgado, Ervin, Mark, Turbin, Bennett, Sheppard and others had relatively complete control over Huey’s prison’s environment. They could have by electrical shock, aversion, sleep deprivation, etc., so radically in a short term, transform Huey P. Newton, the modest warrior, into flamboyant drug abuse, drug dealing, pimping, murder and pandering. They had the technology, means, opportunity, and COINTELPRO motive.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE OF HUEY P. NEWTON: A Crime Against Humanity   

DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, Article 5:

No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treating or punishment.

In 1948, The United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights was created following World War II. The horrific atrocities committed by Germany through the Nazi’s racial mass murder campaigns caused the world to cry out and demand for justice. The Nazis discredited and made a mockery of notions of absolute state sovereignty which the Hitler state asserted and used to commit mass genocide as a matter of sovereign state right. The Nazis and their allies’ massive inhuman transgressions and crimes against humanity changed the worldview on human rights.  

The Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture goes the farthest of any human rights instrument in directly prohibiting the use of techniques aimed at the disintegration of the personality or reduction of physical or mental capacities, which would include psychotropic drugs and brain-damaging procedures like electroshock and psychosurgery. [20]

Pursuant to Operation Paperclip, 10,000 or more Nazis and SS (Knights of the Black Sun) fiends were brought to the United States to continue their campaign of racial mass murder and genocide, and pass on their hideous and baseless pseudo- racial medical theories and practices. The neophytes, apprentices, and apostles of the BEAST were Dr. Edgar Schein, Dr. Louis J. West, Dr. Jose Delgado, Dr. Bach-y-Rita, Dr. Frank Ervin and Dr. Vernon Mark. All of these doctors had direct and secret access to the American prison-inmate population at their disposal for crimes against humanity hideous pseudo-racial medical experiments.  

Even if Huey being the subject of psychological terror and a secret behavior modification/mind control program is discounted, then one must concede that while at San Luis Obispo, he had witnessed the effects of shock treatment and stress therapy during his imprisonment that turned inmates into “vegetables.” Who were the staff psychiatrists at the prison? Who was doing the shock treatment and CIA stress therapies? Who were torturing the men into vegetative states and for what reason and means?  What happened to these inmates? The behavior modification and mind control operations at San Luis Obispo’s Men Medial Facility has not been disclosed or been open to public scrutiny.

The California Department of Corrections’ torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment and punishment of Huey P. Newton and inmates of color has to be exposed, disclosed and confronted. As with other human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by a sovereign state, justice dictates prosecuting those responsible for the psychological rape and torture of inmates through the reinterpretation of existing laws and the establishment of peoples’ tribunals, and “truth commissions.”

Oakland has an ugly history and dark secret regarding the persecution of the BPPSD; and the setup, prosecution, transformation and assassination of Huey P. Newton. It has an ugly history and dark secret regarding the clandestine activities of the CIA and the military-intelligence complexes in assassinating and neutralizing prominent and independent men and women of color like Charles Alex Gregory, Dr. Marcus Foster, and Dorothy King that also has be to driven to the “Light of Day.”     

By the way, with Huey P. Newton and Laverne Williams as an inspiration to a Manchild Lost in the Promised Land, I graduated from Merritt Jr. College and two other colleges to earn a doctorate.

[2] People v. Newton (May 1970) 8 CA3d 359; 87 Cal Rptr 394, 367

[3] Schein, Man Against Man: Brainwashing, 8 Corrective Psychiatry & J. Social Therapy 90 (1962).

[4] http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Archives+and+Manuscripts/fa_bennett.htm

[5] http://www.xs4all.nl/~sm4csi/nwo/MindControl/Search.for.the.Manchurian.Candidate.htm#_ftnref23

[6] http://www.freedomofmind.com/stevehassan/refuting/

[7] http://www.1union1.com/shucontrolunits.html

[8] Supra at Footnote 2

[9] Rogers, Cornish, ‘Clockwork Orange’ in California: Fact or Fancy?, The Christian Century, August 1, 1973

[10] Supra

[11] Supra.

[12] Supra.

[13] Jack Anderson, Strange CIA Tale, Oakland Tribune, October 1978

[14] Supra, footnote 9.

[15] Weiner, Bernard, The Clockwork Cure, The Nation, April 3, 1972, page 433

[16] Supra, page 434-435

[17] Supra, page 435

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] See Organization of American States, Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, Sept. 12, 1985, O.A.S.T.S. No. 67, 25 I.L.M. 519.

Torture shall also be understood to be the use of methods upon a person intended to obliterate the personality of the victim or to diminish his physical or mental capacities, even if they do not cause physical pain or mental anguish.

The concept of torture shall not include physical or mental pain or suffering that is inherent in or solely the consequence of lawful measures, provided that they do not include the performance of the acts or use of the methods referred to in this article.

Malcolm X mural, San Francisco State University

California students are facing a mega fee hike starting next semester. All because there is a crisis and 1 trillion went into greed knows where. Clearly, none of it ended up in education. So it’s a 10% increase in the CSU (California State University) and 32% in the UC (University of California). In a country where university tuition is already high in the so-called ‘public’ education system, that means a lot.

San Francisco State University is my darling school. I graduated from there. So I’ve been watching closely what I know california students do very well. Fight. They protest against war, for the rights of others around the world and now they are fighting for themselves. For their right to a decent and affordable education. And as usual their protest is creative, loud and clear (see first video below portuguese translation).

They’re right. While they will pay more, classes will be cut down. All together this means less students in college and more students packed in the same classes. Meanwhile the school administration will continue to be handsomely paid to keep up the lifestyle of the rich. Screw the students. Particularly those who can’t afford to pay. Poor commoners should not get an education anyway.

At an University that hosts some of the most beautiful murals dedicated to civil, ethnic and human rights issues, I wouldn’t expect students to just give up without a fight. And although the fee increase will continue under swastikanegger’s rule, I hope they continue the drumbeats, protest art and loud shouting. And occupy the administration building, like it happened at UC Berkeley, even if they have to fight the robotcops. (see second video below portuguese translation)   

The United Farm Workers led by Cesar Chavez insisted that yes we can (not an Obama slogan in case your historical memory got lost). Now, I hope that students look at that beautiful mural outside the student union building and remember the words of Malcom X. Si se puede, even if “by any means necessary”. Basta Ya!

/// 

Cesar Chavez mural, San Francisco State University

Edward Said/Palestine mural, San Francisco State University

Os estudantes na Califórnia enfrentam um mega aumento no custo das universidades começando já no próximo semestre. Tudo porque existe uma crise e 1 trilhão foi dado para só a ganância sabe onde. Claramente, nada sobrou para a educação. Assim aumenta 10% para a CSU (California State University) e 32% para a UC (University of California). Num país onde estudar numa universidade já é caro no chamado sistema de educação ‘público’, isso é muito.

San Francisco State University está no meu coração. Foi lá que estudei. Por isso tenho prestado atenção ao que sei que muitos dos estudantes na Califórnia fazem bem. Lutar. Eles protestam contra a guerra, pelos direitos dos outros à volta do mundo e agora lutam por si próprios. Pelo seu direito a uma educação decente e acessível. E como sempre os seus protestos são criativos, barulhentos e bem claros. (ver primeiro vídeo abaixo)

E eles tem toda a razão. Enquanto vão pagar mais, várias aulas vão ser canceladas. Tudo junto isto significa menos alunos na universidade mas mais alunos amontoados na mesma sala. Entretanto os administradores da escola continuaram a receber salários milionários para manter o estilo de vida classe alta. Dos estudantes eles não querem nem saber. Particularmente dos que não podem pagar. Gente comum não devia receber educação mesmo.

Numa universidade que alberga alguns dos mais belos murais dedicados aos direitos civis, étnicos e humanos, eu não esperaria que os estudantes aceitassem tais medidas sem lutar. E mesmo o aumento continuando enquanto o swastikanegger mandar, eu espero que eles também continuem rufando os tambores, criando arte de protesto e berrando bem alto. E ocupando a administração ainda que apanhando da policia como aconteceu na UC Berkeley. (ver segundo vídeo abaixo)

Os United Farm Workers liderados por Cesar Chavez insistiram que sim podemos (o slogan não é do Obama caso vos falte memória histórica). Agora, eu espero que os estudantes olhem para o belissimo mural na entrada do edifício da união de estudantes e se lembrem das palavras de Malcolm X. Sí se puede,nem que seja “por todos os meios necessários”. Basta Ya! 

Since Nas dropped Hip Hop Is Dead back in 2006, many of the 90s era of rap has tossed in their two cents echoing the sentiment that today’s age of Hip Hop has become too saturated with imitators and not enough innovation.

KRS-One recently made remarks towards the Def Jam label around the time of the Hip Hop Honors which was celebrating Def Jam’s 25^th anniversary.  Although he stated that the brand has helped to revolutionize rap, it has also been the catalyst in destroying the genre.

“Def Jam is the dopest label in Hip Hop, in the culture of Hip Hop.  There really would be no Hip Hop as we know it today if it wasn’t for Def Jam, but you don’t get that respect without also being the label that single-handledly destroyed Hip Hop.”

After such a statement, there seemed to be nobody to counter that statement, not even one rap artist on Def Jam.  Their silence seemed to only solidify what he stated.

Members of Triple Cs, however, have not sat well with the words with the Hip Hop legend and have even found sparks of him being a hypocrite.  Speaking with Rollingout.com, Torch touched on the older generation calling the game dead, but not keeping in mind the way they initially came in the game.

“To top it all off, it’s like Hip Hop is dead, but when they had their run, the same people that say these things, they be in pictures with AKs.  They forget all that now.  You need your track record, do your homework and the same record that people are pointing their fingers, you gotta realize, every time you point finger, the other four are point right back at you.”

The picture in question references the album cover to 1987s Criminal Minded with the rapper draped in bullets and holding a firearm, as well as, the 1988 album By All Means Necessary..

He also added that the campaign against new Hip Hop is being lead by those that can’t adapt to the time and are suffering with their own musical projects.

“You notice it’s the people that always say ‘Hip Hop is dead,’ they ain’t got no money.”

The covers in question were actually politically driven and inspired by Malcolm X, but I guess no one really cares about history these days.  The time then is similar, but nothing to the time now and people must find a way to realize that.

Just read Malcolm X’s “When The Chickens Come Home to Roost.” I am not really sure what to think. Actually, I am sure what to think, though I am less sure how to phrase it. I do not want to sound racist or ignorant.

Overall, I would say I am offended. I can imagine, never understand because I have never experienced slavery, where all his anger comes from. He grew up in an impoverished family, his dad was murdered and his mother died of insanity. That is enough to screw anybody up. This speech though… I don’t know. It angered me. He called white America wicked, evil, compared it to the devil and to the Pharoah of Egypt. It is true that America enslaved innocent human beings for far too long. It is a disgusting, dispicable blemish that will ever besmirch this country’s history. It is true that Americans engaged in separatist behavior, degraded their black counterparts, were physically abusive. White America was all of that. But not ALL of America was ALL of that. Some Americans genuinely believed that white and black could live as one. Not every white American sought to difle African Americans and use them as pawns to gain white power. I found it insulting when he stereotyped all Americans as evil vile creatures. I was most incensed near the end, when he demanded that America supply twenty two million black Americans with the means to support themselves for 25 years. He had just spent sixteen or so pages defiling the American country and now he wants some perks? I don’t think it works like that. And the way he talked about Kennedy? Yikes. I mean really, the guy is dead, he can’t even defend himself. This article got me a little pissed. Blech.

Lupe Fiasco & Michael Ealy

NYC Premiere Of ‘The People Speak’ backstage at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 19, 2009

The film brings together images, music and narration with re-creations of American moments of resistance. There’s the Declaration of Independence; speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.; songs by Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Public Enemy; and a call to action by Cindy Sheehan among many others.

Percy Chapman aka Trag is a true master.
You can check his credentials in this documentary about…

“Queensbridge: the world’€™s largest housing project, with the richest legacy in hip-hop: from The Juice Crew, to Nas, Mobb Deep and the realest of them all: Tragedy. While still in his mother’s womb, Tragedy’s dad is shot dead. Thirteen years later, with his mom hooked on smack, Trag has to hustle to survive, but the kid’s a rap genius and is signed to the world famous Juice Crew ’til he’s busted and sent to Riker’s at 16. Trag emerges political, releasing his Intelligent Hoodlum album. ‘Nuff respect, but he’s eclipsed by young rapper Nas. Trag falls prey to the streets where he discovers teen rappers Capone-N-Noreaga. After dissing Snoop Dogg, they get a record deal. Trag is hailed as a genius for masterminding their geo-political War Report album.
Capone is busted and Noreaga finds stardom, leaving Trag to starve. Then Trag’s mom ODs. At first Trag turns to crime, then finds inspiration, turning pain to beauty with underground albums Against All Odds and Still Reporting. Trag meets Nore to talk about making music together again, but cops pull up on ‘em, throwing Trag in jail. Out on bail, Trag is still reporting from the hood, keeping it real in Queensbridge.“

Prison sentence: On December 27, 2007, Tragedy was convicted of selling narcotics and sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison.
He is scheduled to be released on January 21, 2011

Sábado a noite a Band vai exibir o filme biográfico de Malcolm X!

Nesse filme, que estreiou de 1992, Malcolm é interpretado por Denzel Washington. O filme é dirigido pelo grande Spike Lee.

Vamo vê?

Na Band.

Sábado, dia 21 de novembro.

As 22h.

Det blåser idag. Sånn heftig. Jeg liker det

Vi hadde assembly idag. Jeg tror rektor har en eller annen skummel assemblyfetisj. Jaja.. Men altså, det var en fin lang tale om hvor viktig det er å være positiv og hvor heldige vi er. Sikkert en fin message det, men blaaablaaablaaaaaa. Og jeg begynte å tenke på at det er sånn at man sier man er positiv hvis man tenker at glasset er halvfullt og halvtomt hvis man er negativ. Men tenk om man ikke liker vann, eller øl eller hva det er i glasset, da er man jo positiv hvis man tenker at glasset er halvtomt, og man ikke har så mye igjen å drikke. Så det så, det er det vel ingen som har tenkt på?

Jeg begynte med mechanicsmatte idag, noe som betyr vektorer. På engelsk. Woho.

Det skjedde ett eller annet i break idag, men jeg har glemt det. Jo, forresten, jeg og Ine begynte å planlegge prestentasjonen vår. Det blir nok bra. Brunostkasting med diskutert!

Jeg ble frastjålet den rosa mappetingen min, og fant ut at den var “lånt” av ingen andre enn Mrs. Stubbs, min engelsk litteratur-lærer. Hun liker rosa. Også brukte vi halve timen på å se på Blackadder Også falt Jesus ned fra veggen og landa på Mrs. Stubbs. Hun ble litt nervøs =)

I fritimen lekte vi the shaking game, så nå tror alle jeg er gal, så lærte Lou meg the time warp, så gikk vi rundt og rundt i Sam’s Garden, en garden på skolen, på “the yellow brick road” og sang We’re Off To See The Wizard :=) Så var det ostekakesmaking. Fritime well spent.

I historietimen begynte vi på Malcolm X, den store helten til Mr. Walker. Vi så først på utdrag fra filmen om han, som han ikke kunne vise oss alt av, på grunn av foul language, som han sa. Katolsk skole… Jaja… Så fikk han hele klassen til å stå på pultene med black power hilsen og si “Power To The People!”.

Fin dag.

Nå skal jeg lage tea.

Shoutout to Black Thought one of my favorite MC’s of the Roots crew.

It’s really not that rare and now not surprising to see racially inspired topics on twitter. I think twitter is designed or its design encourages people to simply and without worry of reprise say what they are thinking. I think it’s great. Expose what people are really feeling. Malcolm X had said he preferred the blatant southern bigots to the northern racists who would smile in your face only to scheme in some other way. From what I’m reading most of these tweets are from young kids who in my opinion really don’t know better. We as a growing generation (people 21+ right now) who grew up as the tools advanced and had a chance to get accustomed to them are better off than the kids who were born into this overloaded internet.

Twitter(among other social networks and generally the internet) gets it out of people. The thoughts. Thoughts define actions. We’re talking about thoughts before they turn into actions. Some people are calling trending topics ignorant and not participating and others are promoting them. I think the way to solve this is to talk about and not just yell at people and tell them they are wrong, to maybe show them what is wrong and let them see the meaning behind it. I think the opportunity for people to learn is great. Everyone has their own perspective and even if to you it’s not correct it’s valuable as a lesson and you have that chance and power to reach out and say something. Speak up and be heard.

peace&love

-t

PS-

http://twitter.com/yokoono/status/5831130443

MALCOLM X

MALCOLM X

On November 18, 1992, The Spike Lee Directed Movie, “MALCOLM X,” Was Released To A Nationwide Audience. The Film Was Based On The Book, “The Autobiography Of Malcolm X,” Written By Alex Haley, In Collaboration With Malcolm X, And Published In 1965.

The Controversial Film Starred Oscar-Award-Winning Actor, Denzel Washington In The Lead Role. It Also Featured The Talents Of Angela Bassett (As Betty Shabazz), Al Freeman, Jr. (As Elijah Muhammad), Delroy Lindo (As West Indian Archie) Lonette McKee (As Louise Little) And Spike Lee (As Shorty).

The Movie Chronicles Malcolm’s Life — From His Days As A Young Hustler And Criminal — To His Rise As The Most Visible And Outspoken Figure In The Nation Of Islam During The 1960s. The Film Ends With His Assassination At New York’s Audubon Ballroom, In 1965.Warner Brothers Originally Selected Canada’s, Norman Jewison ( “In The Heat Of The Night” Director, 1967) To Direct “MALCOLM X,” Spike Lee Felt Strongly That A Black Director Should Tell The Story Of One Of History‘s Most Influential Black Leaders. Public Outcry Over The Selection Of Jewison Pressured The Studio Into Finally Giving The Project To Lee.

When The Studio Refused To Give Spike Lee The More Than $30 Million He Requested To Complete “MALCOLM X,” He Used $2 Million Of His Own $3 Million Salary. He Called On Other Prominent Black Personalities For Financial Help As Well. Those Who Donated Money Included: Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Prince, Michael Jordan, Janet Jackson And Magic Johnson.

“MALCOLM X” Grossed $9,871,125.00 On Its Opening Weekend. The Film Made $48,169,610.00 — Making It One Of Spike Lee’s Most Successful Film Projects. Many Critics Consider Denzel Washington’s Portrayal Of Malcolm X His Best Performance To Date.

SPIKE LEE TALKS ABOUT MALCOLM X MOVIE

MALCOLM X MOVIE SPEECH

“In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It.” — Hubert Gaddy, Jr.

Hugh Gaddy

Create Your Badge

]]> http://godwithus1.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/books-in-heavy-rotation/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:15:41 +0000 godwithus1 http://godwithus1.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/books-in-heavy-rotation/

Here are some of the books, that I am reading or have been influential in my development.  Maybe you can add some of these to your own library.  Maybe you have an opinion on one of them. Let me know!

ESV Study Bible (English Standard Version)

This is simply the best study bible out there for people who want to not only read verses out of the bible, but to understand the message of the bible and articulate that message to other people.  Lots of great tools have been included to help one’s study of the Bible. (When you get the Bible, read St. Mark’s Gospel, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,  and Ephesians )

Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley

This biography was such an amazing tale of a man who through the force of his convictions educates himself and becomes one of the strongest orators and thought leaders of the 60s.  Even if you disagree with his politics, his story is fascinating.

Martin Luther King Trilogy by Taylor Branch (Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire, and On Canaan’s Edge”

This trilogy I still haven’t finished.  But if you are looking for something on the life and times SURROUNDING Dr. King and the players in that era (e.g. Kennedy, Malcolm X) this is series for you.  The author spent almost 20 years of his life putting the information together and its well worth the read.

Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper

Piper calls for those of us who are Christian to run after God and get out of boring, safe Christianity, and actually run after Jesus.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

If you are trying to pick up some tools to order your life, there are some here.

Desiring God by John Piper

Piper drops this gem. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”  Please read!

Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams

Mr. Williams spent an inordinate amount of his life tracing the history of the decline of ancient African empires to the modern day neo-colonialism that is Africa’s calling card.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Achebe speaks about a civilization — a way of life — that is killed ironically by “civilization.”  Good book: it gave me perspective.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

I just love anything that Mr. Gladwell writes.  The Tipping Point started the love affair.

21 Indisputable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

John Maxwell writes this great one on leadership.

Slide-ology – The Art of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte

If you are into making presentations and want to understand the art behind great Powerpoint or Keynote slides, pick this one up for your library.

Vintage Jesus by Marc Driscoll

I haven’t read this one yet, I must confess.  However, I hear it is good for those who want to know about the life of Jesus in highly reader-friendly language.

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin speaks to the discontent of the Black America in the sixties.  Some of what he writes is still prescient for today and he is at his poetic best in this book.  The Letter of a Birmingham Jail is included.

Educating America’s youth about history that doesn’t always make it into textbooks is one goal of a new documentary called The People Speak.

It’s a spinoff of sorts from The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn who you may recall from an Eight Forty-Eight conversation last week.

The film brings together images, music and narration with re-creations of American moments of resistance. There’s the Declaration of Independence; speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.; songs by Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Public Enemy; and a call to action by Cindy Sheehan among many others.

Each is brought to life by one member of a star-studded cast of performers. Recording artist, music producer, and Chicago native Lupe Fiasco and author and activist Anthony Arnove discuss the film.

Listen

The documentary will air on the History Channel, Dec. 13.

Video preview of The People Speak — forthcoming documentary based on A People’s History of the United States from Voices of a People’s History

The Sinister Yung Breeze

On behalf of our worldwide audience, Joe Stern-McGovern, global agent and President of Universal Artists, International, is pleased to announce the return of Yung Breeze, former partner of DTA of Houston’s hardcore street duo, The Brigade. Known for such hits as Degradation, Block Bleed, Krunch Time, Real Where I’m At, Mob Style, and Hands if You Feel Me, our listeners can come to expect the return of these classics to the shelves and in downloads on the coming site and charitable brainchild of Joe Stern-McGovern, www.endhivaids.com, dedicated to eradicating HIV/AIDS in our lifetime.

Produced by Joe Stern-McGovern in the earliest days of Universal Artists, International, Yung Breeze was a budding prodigy discovered through H-Town’s young producer, Mastamind, along with his cohort, B-Fly, on the hard streets of Houston’s notorious 3rd Ward. With many a scuffle and near miss with the local Texan thugs and corrupted, as well as close encounters with Harris County’s finest, Yung Breeze was molded by the environment in which he was raised.

Joe Stern-McGovern Posing with The Brigade

While Yung Breeze’s lyrics and the vehemence of his delivery are part in parcel of who he has become, his aura and essence are more of a product and statement of that which he has personally witnessed within his community and the back alleys of Sharpstown, as well as the peril he’s bourne on his shoulders rather than a radical call for violence, rebellion, and disobedience. When he cries out for justice and equality, his words ring with crystal clarity as those of an individual whose lived the life against which he protests with endurance, contempt, and integrity, and simultaneously maintains the roots of who he’s developed into as a man of pride and consequence.

If you wish to know how the other side of the tracks has lived and survived without personally endangering yourself and your future, take a quick listen to the furious tales of the dark side as portrayed on the microphone and in the studio by the genuine article, Houston’s Yung Breeze.

In spite of the anger and resentment one might expect from such an individual, Yung Breeze has developed into a rather charitable individual, donating his time and talent to Joe Stern-McGovern and Universal Artists, International’s struggle against the spread of HIV and the devastating consequences of AIDS.

Look for future production of Yung Breeze through the likes of Shaka Productions, as well at  H-Town’s legendary recording hot spot, In the Jar Studios, run by the studios owner and operator, Al Loya, techincal afficianado and savvy engineer to some of hip hop’s fastest rising legends.

“When I first met Yung Breeze, he was a struggling youth who had a great sense of pride, an enormous gift of expression, and a knack for conveying his particular genius through the local street venacular of the areas hoods and ruffians. Originally recording at one of the illest and most infamous studios in the shadier side of town, Psyche Ward, Yung Breeze was picked up and developed by the genius of the wonder twins, Boss and Ripp.” Collectively, these forces of the city’s darker and far more dangerous neighborhood known as Southwest Houston, Soufwest to the locals, have come to the forefront in recent days.”

Joe Stern-McGovern can personally vouch for the validity of the young anti-hero as through his entrancing telling of the first photo shoot the act was to experience as the entity which would come to be known as the Soufwest Brigade, or simply, The Brigade, led by street veteran and surprising genius given his circumstances, DTA, “Don’t Trust Anyone”, a meeting in which the photographer was so terrified, he insisted the photo shoot take place in broad daylight in a local downtown Houston city park.

The Southwest Brigade

True to his name, DTA came to generally distrust those who held the strings to his future as well as his cohorts, and the split was made as DTA went MIA and Yung Breeze continued the journey on the road to stardom solo. For those dedicated and loyal fans of DTA, fear not, he is yet in his prime and will surely rise back to the surface given the timing, motive, and opportunity, as his tales are of equal importance to those of any and must be expressed through the venue known widely as hip hop.

Currently holed up in Al’s “In the Jar Studios”, Yung Breeze is deliberating the path of his next turn towards truth and the betterment of society and the world around him through analysis of the streets and the general feeling of the times.

“Youths such as Yung Breeze sadden me in a way,” states Joe Stern-McGovern. “He’s just about the age my son would’ve been had he lived, and upon reflection it fills me with a sense that somehow I, as a part of society,  have failed our younger generations, leaving them to inherit a world abandoned to greed and the mismanagement of our leaders and botched policies of the government, an entity whose best intentions are questionable.” Those who have chosen such selfish ends will now come to face the fury and ambitions towards societal justice and self-correction from the likes of DTA, Yung Breeze, two halves of the Brigade.

For more information about Yung Breeze or DTA, please visit us at www.myspace.com/universalartists or www.universalartists.net. For information about booking either of the duo domestically or internationally, please write to Joe Stern-McGovern’s assistant at either joesternmcgovern@myspace.com or www.myspace.com/joesternmcgovern. For inquiries of the artistic nature or to explore your own future as an artist at Universal Artists, International, please write to Shaka of Shaka Productions at shaka@universalartists.net.

Light Brigade Records

For donations to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, please visit our writer’s page at www.universalartists.net. If you are interested in either sponsoring or investing our endeavours at fighting the battle  against HIV/AIDS, please write to joe@universalartists.net, or universalartists@myspace.com attention, Joe Stern-McGovern.

For information regarding the sales of Universal Artists, International’s products or charitable goals, or to download singles towards charity from your favorite Universal Artists, International artist please visit our latest site, www.endhiveaids.com, currently under construction and built by www.lubashadesign.com.

For information about our colleagues abroad, please visit www.pure-records.com or write to info@pure-records.com in Tokyo, Japan attention, Eric. Please look for our international release throughout greater Japan, Eastern Asia, and Australia in early 2010.

Now on Sale, Casey Rankin's, "Speaking in Tongues"

The Black Studies lectures I’ve been attending have really hit home these last couple of weeks. I’ll admit from my first reading of Malcolm X that I was generally uninspired by his message, one which I felt wasn’t really directed at me. After watching Malcolm X the movie I feel like there’s so much that I didn’t know before this class. Malcolm X was a hero and was largely dismissed for saying important things about America that made the white crowd feel uncomfortable at the time. These things he preached were not to specifically alienate white people but to empower blacks, to give them an alternative to integration. Martin Luther King, while still a great man, failed to notice the big picture when looking at blacks, that maybe integrating into a white society isn’t necessarily what is best when the society itself won’t guarantee equality. Malcolm’s message was rejected by the mainstream as it posed too much of a threat to white superiority (I’m guessing). Really, this man should be on par if not ahead of Martin Luther King in terms of the respect this country should have for him. His message of blacks forming an identity and set of rules and structure will not only improve their self-esteem and pride, but can serve as a model for other oppressed people around the world. Honestly, our whole system needs to be reworked starting with education and continuing to neighborhoods, public places and buildings. Everything must be changed to make this capitalist society truly equal. Although, suggesting equality among classes automatically implies Communism to those ignorant white Southerners. I’m not suggesting Communism, I say we reset the way things are, put everyone at middle class, rework the conditions of the aforementioned government institutions and then see where people can go. THAT is the only way blacks won’t be trapped in this neverending cycle of poverty. There was a time (just this past summer, in fact) when I decided to have “black meal night” where I bought all the ingredients for fried chicken, corn, grape soda and watermelon. I noticed how cheap the prices of these items were at the store, though I thought nothing of it at the time. Why did I do this you might ask. I was a bored, upper-middle class white person who was blinded by society and my social class prevented me from seeing the truth. I now know that while I was planning my stupid, ignorant meal, there were (and still are) people that work their asses off every single day just to buy that cheap, fatty, sugary stuff to feed their families. They don’t have the option to buy fresh organic products and make healthy choices when eating. They don’t have the luxury to attend an institution like UCSB, or to have fun on the weekends, or to live a life where you don’t have to worry about job security. Everything in my life has been handed to me, especially as my parents received inheritance. My parents pay for my:
1. Car (including an upgraded one this Thanksgiving, which I didn’t even ask for)
2. Car insurance
3. Apartment Rent
4. New laptop (for graduation)
5. School Tuition, as well as books and food
6. Video game consoles
7. Ipod
8. Occasional money for spending (again, which I don’t even have to ask for)
9. Bikes and repairs/replacement of parts
10. All living expenses here at UCSB including school supplies

There were two particular stories which I reflected on in this past lecture which I didn’t even realize the significance of until recently.

The first story involves me at UCSB last quarter. I went to go play badminton with a friend and arrived to find all the courts taken by at least one person. Not to worry, I thought, I’ll just ask someone to join their game. My friend and I went up and down every court asking people (who were almost all Asian) to join their games. Almost all said no, for various bullshit reasons. I asked one guy who quickly said “higher level only.” This was one of the first times I had ever played there, there was no way he could know how good I was. Ladies and gentlemen, I was subjected to my first experience of racial discrimination. Yes, me, a white male. I was shocked and honestly a little hurt by the exclusion from a group of people who were all friends with each other, but were not the least bit outgoing towards newcomers. I was excluded and my ability was judged solely on my race. Needless to say, my friend and I won that match against that guy and his friend that day, which showed how untrue and damaging racial stereotypes are. That moment had an effect on me, but it didn’t sink in fully until I took this class. Just imagine how people must feel when they experience this treatment on a daily basis. I had NO IDEA until that moment what it was like to be a racial minority, and now I feel far more compassionate towards those less fortunate than I.

The second story involves a camping trip I was on. I went camping with a couple friends of mine and I remember one saying she had to put on sunscreen. I asked her why she needed to, because it would be hard for her skin to burn because it’s so dark. I mentioned she would get a nice tan. She told me she couldn’t become more tan because her aunt would be angry with her, that her aunt always put on sunscreen to make sure her skin stayed as light as possible. She told me her aunt also spent lots of time and money scrubbing her skin and putting on special lotion to make herself whiter. This girl said her entire family is this way, they stress keeping the skin white. I thought to myself at the time that there was something sickening about this, but I couldn’t quite figure out why until recently. Now I know. This is a real life example right in front of me of hegemony at work! “White it better, white is right” is a message strongly given to us by the media. Women, the lighter your skin the better, the straighter your hair the better, the blonder your hair the better you look, the prettier you are. If I had the knowledge I had now, I would have told that girl to accept herself for who she is, don’t listen to her family, tell her family to be proud of their heritage and to read a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X if they need help improving their self-image.

Islam – The Cure for Racism

When he was in Makkah, Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) wrote a letter to his loyal assistants in Harlem… from his heart:

America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.

“Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.

“I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Makkah, I have made my seven circuits around the Kaaba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad, I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.

“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white – but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.

“You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

“During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug – while praying to the same God – with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.

“We were truly all the same (brothers) – because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behaviour, and the white from their attitude.

“I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man – and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their ‘differences’ in color.

“With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called ‘Christian’ white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster – the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

“Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities – he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth – the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.

“Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors – honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King – not a Negro.

“All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.

Sincerely, Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz” (Malcolm X)

(From the “Autobiography of Malcolm X” with assistance from Alex Haley, the author of ROOTS)