All was quiet in the social media streets until a new video surfaced claiming that several notable Black leaders were really aliens from another universe by a mysterious Youtuber known only as A.I. Hoover. Almost overnight, he had gained 100,000 loyal subscribers. 

It was not until the YouTube channel made a hundred grand from super chat donations  that it was revealed that Hoover was really an artificial intelligence bot created by a secret agency called The C.R.O.W.S. (Counterintelligence Removal Of Warrior Scholars) …

One of the most important scientific breakthroughs in modern history has been the invention of AI (Artificial Intelligence), a computer program that can use anyone’s voice or likeness to create a digital clone. This has produced a diabolical scheme known as deepfake. Recently, many people panicked when an AI version of President Joe Biden was used to influence the New Hampshire primary. 

However, we should be asking, how is artificial intelligence going to affect a Black community whose major source of information has gone from the morning paper to cell phones?  After all, we already live in an era when most social media news is not vetted but is legitimized by click bait generated YouTube hits. This new technology is especially going to impact what is known as the conscious community.

Although we cannot overlook the work of such Black leaders as the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey in establishing a climate of Black pride in America, Black consciousness was largely propagated by Steve Biko, who applied the term to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa during the 1960s.

According to Biko, “the most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Therefore, raising the consciousness of the people would break the mental chains of oppression. (Read Biko’s “I Write What I Like”)

The phrase Black consciousness was also used by Kwame Ture who taught us that the duty of the conscious is to make the unconscious aware of their unconscious behavior, thus combatting mental programing.

Today the term conscious has come to refer to members of a social media community whose videos feature everything from in depth discussions of hidden historical facts to convincing people that Jay Z is a clone created in a secret lab under the Marcy Projects. 

Back in the day, before Facebook and Instagram, our warrior scholars had to hop Greyhounds and travel from city to city doing lectures, hopefully selling enough books or cassette tapes to get back home. Unlike today, when social media revenue can make you wealthy and give you rock star status, from the comfort of your basement. 

However, this does not come without an unprecedented set of problems. The proverbial powers that be (CIA, FBI, etc.) have long tried to neutralize Black freedom fighters and have used all types of means of deception to do so. One of their methods under former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) was to send agents and infiltrators into Black organizations. 

One operation being the Ghetto Informant Program of the ’60s and ’70s (read Kenneth O’Reilly’s book, “Racial Matters”). Not only did the bureau attack such militant groups as the Black Panther Party, they also conducted surveillance on Black writers and intellectuals going back to the Harlem Renaissance era. 

According to William Maxwell’s book, “FB Eyes,” the FBI hired ghost readers to monitor the work of writers such as Claude McKay and Langston Hughes.

The reach of the fed’s counterintelligence programs has only been curtailed by how many agents they could afford to put on their payroll. But in the era of AI, there are no such limitations, and they can create a clandestine internet army large enough to eventually snoop on every activist on the planet. If COINTELPRO’s goal was to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah, then AI might be the anti-Christ.

So, how do we counter the AI onslaught? 

In African tradition, one would have to seek permission from the elders to speak. I remember my late elder, Brother Hotata, used to demand to see battle scars before a young buck was allowed to interject opinions into one of his sessions. Somehow, we have to return to this type of order that prevents misinformation from being spread.

Secondly, we have to put the dirty dashiki theory into process, as proof of a revolutionary consciousness and commitment to the struggle of our people. This means that if you claim to be a freedom fighter or warrior scholar, you must provide proof of your labor or have some dirt on your dashiki.

Lastly, we must develop think tanks where actual books from our master teachers will be used to counter lies with truth.

In 2024, we must be on high alert and be constantly on guard against the AI deception. 

Like Michael Jackson’s mama warned him about Billie Jean back in the day “be careful what you do, ‘cuz the lie becomes the truth.”

Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement, P.O. Box 15123, Durham, N.C. 27704. He can be reached at 919-972-8305 or minpaulscott@yahoo.com.

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One of most iconic scenes in Black film history is the part in “Boyz N the Hood” when “Furious Styles” is on the block schoolin’ the neighborhood homies about gentrification and how their actions were playing a role in the destruction of the Black community. Although the message seemed to resonate momentarily, it didn’t stop his son’s best friend “Ricky” from getting gunned down in the street a few days later … .

It has been more than 30 years since the premier of  “Boyz N the Hood” gave middle America a glimpse into street life. The movie also came out during the “conscious hip-hop” era when message music was still rockin’ on the radio and topping the charts courtesy of groups such as Public Enemy. As we enter 2024, we have to critically ask ourselves why are “Lil’ Rickys” still being murdered every night in cities across the country even with hip-hop still being a dominant cultural force? As they say, “the math just ain’t mathin”

The music to which people listen has always been a strong indicator of the cultural pulse of a society. Although Killer Mike’s album, “Michael,” was arguably the best project of 2023 and had “hip hop headz,” optimistically, hoping for a return of a politically, conscious era, Rolling Stone magazine picked Sexy Redd’s “Skee Yee” as song of the year, which features her bragging that she has “shooters in the cut with a lotta guns.” What is ironic, and simultaneously sad is that 2023 was the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop.

But before we blame the evil empire, a.k.a. the music industry, let us look in the mirror and ask the rhetorical, self-critical question, “did we drop the ball?”

The conscious hip-hop era (1988-1992) presented the greatest potential to use cultural expression to awaken the masses of our people since the late 60’s. But as the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  So, what happened?

One thing we did not do collectively was thoroughly connect the dots between conscious hip-hop and the political precedence that made it possible. Of course, there were hip hop artists that attempted to stand in the gap whether it came from sampling freedom fighters from Malcolm X to Kwame Ture or placing suggested readings from Black warrior scholars in the cassette covers.

But what about the loyal listeners?  Somehow by the end of the era we had begun to value the music over the message, thus, a chance for cultural continuity was lost.

Secondly, we were not good stewards of hip-hop history, leaving out key elements, whether by omission or commission. One notable example was the failure to credit the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad with the development of hip-hop. Also, who even bothers to mention that before there was a Public Enemy or X-Clan.

There was Brother D and Collective Effort (How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise) and Imhotep Gary Byrd (The Crown) during a period when being conscious was not considered radically chic. Not to mention that the story of the sacrifice’s artists such as Professor Griff and Sister Souljah made for spreading the words of the master teachers have yet to be fully explored.

Lastly, we allowed the music to become disconnected from what was happening in real time to Black people, globally. During the 80s and early 90s, tragic events such as the murder of Yusef Hawkins and the Virginia Beach riots blended with the beats to form a soundtrack for a generation. But where are the anthems for Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown Jr. and Breonna Taylor with the timeless relevancy of “Fight the Power” in 2024?

Also, with the rise of juvenile gun violence in many cities across America , where are the songs calling for an end to self-destruction, or, with the fentanyl plague are there no Brand Nubians warning us to “slow down?”

To be fair, older hip-hop artists like KRS-One and Special Ed made headlines in 2023 exposing the hypocrisies and contradictions in hip-hop. In addition, hip-hop activist Dee-1 was able to ruffle some feathers by digging up some old bones that some wished to have remained buried. However, the question remains, where is the movement that is going to move the culture forward in 2024?

To paraphrase the words of the Honorable Marcus Garvey on his quest to find the Black man’s kingdom, finding none, we must create it.

Recently in Durham, North Carolina, we implemented the Black Hoodie Brigade. In the same manner the Black Panthers politicized black leather jackets, we are making the more readily available black hoodies, symbols of Black power, Black knowledge and Black Unity by adding African beads to the ensemble—a throwback to the leather African medallions of the conscious hip-hop era.

Just add a bangin’ beat to the mix and you have a recipe for revolution. The brigade is based on the theory of leaderless leadership; if you raise the consciousness of the people, the people will organize themselves.

So, in 2024, the movement to save our children will not start at the top of a radio station tower but on the ground with the people.

While it may be too late to save the generation of “boys in the ’hood,” maybe there’s still a chance to save the boys in the hoodies?

Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement, PO Box 15123 Durham, N.C. 27704, 919-972-8305 Twitter/X @truthminista

The post The ‘boyz’ in the hoodies: How we failed a whole hip-hop generation appeared first on Final Call News.

There is currently an uncivil civil war being waged across the United States over the control of the curriculum of classrooms. Although the conflict is being shielded as a discussion over critical race theory, in reality the roots of the dispute go much deeper.

According to “Words that Wound,” published in 1993 (Matuda, Lawrence, Delgo and Crenshaw), “critical race theory is grounded in the particulars of a social reality that is defined by our experiences and the collective historical experience of our communities of origin.”

In the context of the 2021 discussion, it means developing curriculum from the perspective of the historically oppressed with race being the common cause of their oppression. However, this discussion takes on a unique nuance when seen through the prism of the Black American experience.

Perhaps the best way to put critical race theory into a Black perspective is found in Neely Fuller’s book “The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept Texbook,” where he wrote “unless you understand white supremacy, everything else will only confuse you.”

To get to the root, we must start with the uproar surrounding the establishment of the first Black Studies department at San Francisco State University in 1968, involving such notable figures as Dr. Nathan Hare and George Murray, a former Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party. (Read. “Black Power and Student Rebellion” by James McEvoy and Abraham Miller.) This event set the tone for discussions in which we are still engaged over half a century later. As Dr. Noliwe Rooks wrote in “White Money, Black Power:”

“There is to date no other discipline so closely aligned with social protest, student activism and violence as Black studies.”

In 1987, Dr. Molefi Asante wrote “The Afrocentric Idea,” which serves as the premier exercise in apologetics explaining the need for African-centered education in universities. Immediately following was the rise of “conscious Hip Hop” by groups such as Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions and X-Clan who preached the gospel of Afrocentricity to the proverbial “streets” but quickly spread to mainstream America courtesy of shows such as MTV Raps.

What scared White America during the early 1990’s was not that more Black people were beginning to learn about ancient African civilizations but they were being compelled to challenge information that had previously been treated as historical sacred cows.

During this time, scholars such as Drs. Tony Martin and Leonard Jeffries came under intense attack for using books such as the Nation of Islam Research Department’s “Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews” to discuss Jewish involvement in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, giving a new perspective on the concept of the Black-Jewish Alliance that had been propagated since 1915.

Also, by the mid-90s, professors such as Dr. Mary Lefkowitz (“Not Out of Africa”) and Stephen Howe (“Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes”) began to label Afrocentrism as a form of pseudo-science created to make Black folk feel good.

Since 2013 and the murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright and many others, it was inevitable that the racial unrest that followed would invade the curriculums of the public school systems in states across the country.

In North Carolina there is currently an effort underway by conservatives to push back against race conscious education under the guise of a Fox News-like “fair and balanced” anti-critical race theory movement.

Recently, the issue reached a boiling point with a Washington Free Beacon hit piece on N.C. teacher Lisa Patrizio. According to the article, last Black History Month, Patrizio, allegedly, gave an assignment that, in the opinion of some, compared the Jewish Holocaust with the millions of African people who perished during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which spanned hundreds of years.

What is disturbing is the fact that, immediately, Right Wing websites began to dogpile on Patrizio in an attempt to make her the professional martyr of the critical theory race war in Viola Liuzzo type fashion.

Currently, the Conservatives are organizing an offensive to attack anyone who dares challenge traditional Euro-centric thought.

Although, many in the Black community have championed the cause of Black history education we have not effectively created institutions to protect educators who dare to venture down the road less traveled.

Our task must be to create spaces where students are free to learn and educators are free to teach the truth regarding the Black experience.

As we deal with forces who have continuously tried to demonize Black people as natural born criminals, we must continually remind young Black Americans of the traumas faced by their ancestors at the hands of White supremacists. Or in the words of the great wordsmith Andre 3000: “There’s even lower levels you can go/take sun people, put ’em in the land of snow.”

Min. Paul Scott is founder of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement. He can be reached at (919) 972-8305, or P.O. Box 15123, Durham, N.C. 27704. Email minpaulscott@yahoo.com.

The post Pulling the Sheets Off the AcademiKKK Onslaught: A Critical Look at the Attack on Critical Race Theory appeared first on Final Call News.

One of the greatest leaders in Black America was assassinated today. Minister Marcus Hampton was shot seven times at point blank range as he stood before a packed auditorium in Chicago. Although there were thousands of eyewitnesses, because of the no snitching code of the streets, the assassin, William Roberts aka Agent 666, simply walked to his car, cashed his informant check at the Stop and Go and headed on his way to kill another Black leader … .

The release of the movie “Judas and the Black Messiah” is sure to create some conversations around the role that FBI informant William O’Neal played in the assassinations of Chairman Fred Hampton and Mark Clark of the Illinois Black Panthers on December 4, 1969. But the bigger question is what have we learned from these murders and how do they impact the Black community in 2021?

One of the worst things you can be called in the ’hood is a rat. This label, as well as the anti-snitching movement, has led to the deaths of countless numbers of Black men and women. Although, “snitching” is usually a term used when a 10-year-old little girl is hit by a stray bullet and no one says anything because of the no snitching code of the streets, we must take a critical look at the historical root of the anti-snitch mentality in the Black community.

Let us begin back during chattel slavery. According to Dr. Claud Anderson in his book, “Black Labor, White Wealth,” there used to be something called meritorious manumission. This allowed enslaved Africans to legally obtain their freedom by performing “good deeds” for Massa, which included snitching on fellow slaves.

During the early 20th century, there were even rats in Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, including James Wormley Jones, also known as Agent 800. (Read “The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms,” by the Council on Black Internal Affairs.)

It must also be noted that not all informants during this period were Black. According to the March 21, 1993 edition of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Joel Spingarn, one of the early White leaders of the NAACP worked for the Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. Army and obtained a list of the 32,000 members of the association on the agency’s behalf.

During the Civil Rights Era, it must never be forgotten that Malcolm X’s bodyguard, Eugene Roberts, the man who attempted to perform CPR on the dying leader at the Audubon Ballroom, was really an undercover agent with the Bureau of Special Services and Investigations for the New York Police Dept. According to Karl Evanzz’s book “The Judas Factor,” BOSSI was “an ultra secret unit of the New York Police Department created by Percy Foxworth, then head of the FBI’s New York bureau.”

However, Roberts and O’Neal were not the only snitches during the Civil Rights/Black Power Era. Kenneth O’Reilly in his work, “Racial Matters,” states that the FBI had at least 7,500 known “ghetto informants” who would go around the ’hood trying to dig up dirt on Black militants.

Even in the Hip Hop Era, as much as rappers talk about snitches, few mainstream artists mention the government and law enforcement surveillance of entertainers from Paul Robeson to Tupac Shakur. (Read John Potash’s book, “The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders.”)

Although, the FBI’s COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) is supposed to be a thing of the past, the late researcher Steve Cokely always warned us to be on the lookout for “Now-INTELPRO.” Unfortunately, it may be another decade before all the surveillance information surrounding the protests of the post Trayvon Martin era is revealed.

Since America has yet to really fess up to this dark side of her history, many White folk can’t conceptualize the innate distrust of the police by Black Americans. Most alarming, without historical context, is the idea “no stitching” has been used to allow some Black people to be willing accomplices in our collective genocide.

The eternal question is, if we can’t trust the police, what is the alternative so we can make our communities safe so our children can play outside?

It all boils down to communal responsibility. Those who murder other Black people should be pointed out and ostracized by the total Black community instead of protected. They should be disowned, so much so that their own grandmothers won’t let them in the house for Sunday dinner. They must become such pariahs in the Black community that even the young cashier at McDonalds will throw their money back in their faces yelling, “Your blood money’s no good here!” even when they try to order a Big Mac.

Until we address the true meaning of the word “snitch,” we will continue to have members of the Black community suffering under this deadly code of silence without even knowing why.

Min. Paul Scott, of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement, can be reached at P.O. Box 15123 Durham NC 27704 or (919) 972-8305. His website is BlackMessiahMovement.com.

The post Race, Rats and Revolutionaries: Flippin’ the Switch on the Snitch Myth appeared first on Final Call News.

Bob Whitman was incensed. While pouring his morning coffee he happened to take a quick glance at his son Billy’s homework assignment where his teacher had quoted, “because of the deep rooted prejudices of Whites and the 10 thousand recollections of Blacks a division would remain …which will probably never end but in the extermination of one or the other race.”  He immediately emailed Billy’s principal, Dr. Assata Jackson, that the racist ramblings of Black militants being used to teach his child would not be tolerated! However, he dropped his coffee mug when Dr. Jackson replied, “umh..that was Thomas Jefferson, sir” with a smiley face emoji to punctuate her sarcasm. ….

If the protests of 2020 have taught us anything it is there is a fear in White America that we are on the verge of an apocalyptic  race war where hordes of Black ruffians will commence slaughtering innocent White people, indiscriminately. 

Not only is this sentiment insulting to African Americans, it also is a false narrative that has often been repeated over the last several months. 

The anxiety of White folk can be understood, so I get it.  After 400 years of systematic oppression, who wouldn’t want a little payback? So, when they hear about rioters tearing up cities, their first impulse is to think that the late Soul Brother Number One James Brown’s “The Big Payback” record had been remixed for 2020. But that does not gel with the reality of the times. Truth is, many of the rioters in these cities are White kids.

There were reports last summer that many of the protests following the murder of George Floyd have been made up of predominately Caucasians. After the Breonna Taylor riots last September, the mayors of two North Carolina cities openly blamed White anarchists for hijacking the racial justice movement.

This is not to say that Black people have not risen to fight the power when necessary.

Historically, there have been many instances of Black rebellion including the Nat Turner uprising of 1831. Historian Herbert Aptheker states  in his book, American Negro Slave Revolts, that there were over 200 slave rebellions, but the newspapers and politicians suppressed the information because they feared that the truth about the  rebellions would spread fear among Whites and encourage more rebellions amongst Blacks. 

In his work Urban Racial Violence in the Twentieth Century, Joseph Boskin chronicles how, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and other cities,  Black folk did not just lay down and die but fought back, valiantly, against the oppressor but were outnumbered and overpowered by the might of racists backed by the U.S. government.

So, it is clear that Black folks ain’t scared to throw them hands when necessary. As Lerone Bennett, Jr. wrote in, Confrontation Black and White, “the concept of confrontation; the idea of  forcing men to confront the gap between word and deed, promise and performance has always been a key element in Negro History.”

But in 2020, what America is really seeing is a civil war between conservative and liberal White folk and African Americans are just being used as a raison d’etre. 

But the fact that what is happening in America is largely White-on-White violence is conveniently missed by network talking heads who are always in search of a big, Black boogey man to place all the ills of America on his shoulders.

Let us be clear. The media is bent on finding a Black equivalent to match the White supremacy that is running rampant in this country today. A prime example is a recent Fox News story that, unjustly, featured the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in a picture alongside the likes of White supremacist Richard Spencer  and even OJ Simpson thrown in, for good measure, to fan the flames of fear in White America.

However, history has taught us that any “race war” that starts will be instigated by White supremacists determined to “Make America Great Again” not those who are most deserving of the long arm of Justice layin’ a smackdown on somebody.

See, White supremacy is a sophisticated global system.  And no matter how much we might want to pin racism on some uneducated, “yahoos” from the backwoods, the reality is, the architects of White supremacy are highly educated. Carl T. Rowan in his book, The Coming Race War in America, points out that the author of the right-wing militia “bible,” The Turner Diaries, “Andrew Macdonald” was not some high school dropout forced to work at his daddy’s gas station but a former physics professor named William Pierce. And it takes brains to fool a whole country into thinking that the current turmoil is about African Americans fightin’ to get a piece of the American pie when neither the White conservatives nor liberals plan on leaving us a crumb.

So, Black folks can’t get caught up in a White family feud over who’s gonna take home the leftovers when we weren’t even invited to the picnic.

As Kwame Ture once said, at the end of the day White people are fighting for power but Black folk are fighting for survival … and we’re gonna survive America.

Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Black Messiah Movement based in Durham NC.  He can be reached at (919) 972-8305. His website is BlackMessiahMovment.com.

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“Y’all been eating long enough now stop being greedy. Just keep it real partner, give to the needy.” “Stop Being Greedy” by rapper DMX

Every four years, it’s the same thing. Political operatives come before Black folk with the same Chicken Little scare tactics that the sky is falling. And if we don’t vote a certain way (insert Democratic) some Armageddon-like prophecy is gonna be fulfilled by lunch time the day after the election. Either we are gonna be stripped of our “inalienable rights” “or we are gonna be loaded up in a fleet of city buses to be carried off to plantations en mass.” Of course, this never happens but after every election one thing remains consistent … the hood remains “tha ‘hood.”

However, in 2020 there was a slight change in the game with Senator Bernie Sanders pushing “Democratic Socialism.” For many, it is a great alternative to the status quo.

But not so fast.

If you study how socialist theory has been manifested through its political application of Communism, there is a downside in dealing with racial matters as race-specific conversations are replaced with talks of a political euphoria where color doesn’t matter. This is why Black Communists such as George Padmore were ostracized by the Communists in the early 20th century.  

However, for a community that has suffered under Capitalism for 400-plus years anything is better than the current system of government.

But we must ask ourselves, can the two terms “Democratic” and “Socialism” really find common ground within the context of an overriding, Eurocentric political thought.  

As Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, wrote in Consciencism, “there is such a thing as peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems, but as long as oppressive classes exist, there can be no such thing as peaceful coexistence between opposing ideologies.” Or to put it in 90’s Hip Hop terms, as Nas said on One Mic “some beef is everlasting.”

Nkrumah taught about the universal application of socialist thought and Kwame Ture, the late activist formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, urged us to combine socialist thought with African communalism to create a political ideology that was compatible with the condition of African people in America generations ago.

But the question we must ask ourselves in 2020 is what does this theory look like in real time with the myriad of problems we are facing?

Early in the 20th century scholars such as W.E.B. DuBois presented the idea of Pan-Africanism which sought to unite all African people across the Diaspora or as Marcus Garvey put it “at home and abroad.” I believe that this is still the ultimate solution to ensure the survival of African people on the planet. However, it must be modified to fit our current reality.

The answer to the problems facing our people today lies in “Pan-Hoodism,” the belief that the long journey to unite African people globally begins in your own ‘hood.

What we must do is take the wisdom and communal traditions of our African ancestors, the ideology of Dubois and combine them with the methods of Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey.  

We must apply this method to the less affluent, predominantly Black communities in our own cities which are suffering from economic exploitation, political manipulation as well as destroying themselves through the internal drug trade and “Black on Black violence.”

How can we expect to stop the neo-colonization of Africa if our own public housing in America is colonized? How can we stop the tribal wars in the Motherland if our own brothers and sisters down the block are shooting each other every night?    

The benefits of Pan-Hoodism are many.

First, it includes those who have been disenfranchised out of the political system by incarceration as part of the process. Just because you can’t vote does not mean that you can’t play a vital role in helping your community achieve political power by other means.

Secondly, it includes the Black youth who feel they have no stake in the system. Because in the current system, unless you are old enough to cast a ballot and/or contribute financially to a political campaign they really ain’t tryin’ to hear nothin’ you’re tryin’ to say.

Thirdly, it will establish a security fence around the Black community that protects the ‘hood from outsiders who seek to exploit it. We will control everything that is sold in our communities and every business must contribute to its wellbeing as opposed to being a detriment.

And lastly, it changes the definition of “ ‘hood” from its negative connotation into an acronym meaning “Hope Out Of Despair.”

Back in the ‘70s, the Isley Brothers posed the question “when will there be a harvest for the world.” If we ask the same question in 2020 it would be “when will there be a harvest for the ‘hood.”

Under Pan-Hoodism the answer is soon and very soon.

Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement P.O. Box 15123 Durham, N.C. 27704. Email info@nowarningshotsfired.com or text (919) 972-8305.

The post The Politics of Pan-Hoodism appeared first on Final Call News.

Bad things do happen to good people.  This is perhaps one of the oldest clichés in the book, yet it’s true. However, the question that always seems to be before us is, why do these terrible things keep disproportionately happening to Black folk?

Over time, there have been many attempts to explain this phenomenon. Slaves owners used the “Curse of Ham” story as a Biblical explanation. Scientific racists have used the myth of genetic racial inferiority. Even the entertainment industry, via Hip Hop, has promoted the idea that we are just “Naughty by Nature” or “N–gas With Attitude.”

All the above reasons are, of course, patently false. But we are still left with the ever evasive question of why we are most prosecuted by Murphy’s Law?

The uncomfortable answer is that it was, for the most part, systematically designed that way.

If you read Walter Rodney’s outstanding work “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” he gives a breakdown of the origin of our miseries leading up to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. While some of it may be attributed, as in all cultures, to natural disasters and just plain bad luck, it was still the mass enslavement of our ancestors that led us to where we are today.

Also, we cannot minimize the effects of chattel slavery followed by Jim Crow laws, Black Codes, racial violence, etc., as long-term effects are rarely considered when folks try to diagnose the sickness plaguing the Black community.

During the Civil Rights Era, even initiatives that were supposed to work in our favor–like the “noneconomic liberalism” of the NAACP’s Joel Spingarn, read “Plural but Equal” by Harold Cruse–did nothing but substitute the solution of economic self-determination for the integration of lunch counters and toilets. This has led to us being chronic beggars instead of producers.

We must not leave out COINTELPRO, the domestic spying, infiltration and disruptive counterintelligence operation of the FBI which destroyed many Black leaders and organizations during the Black Power Era, thus creating a void filled by street gangs. Although the gangs were originally formed to protect the Black community, with the magical appearance of heavy artillery and crack cocaine in the hood, allegedly courtesy of Uncle Sam and the CIA according to the late journalist Gary Webb, the gangs began to turn their guns on each other.

So that’s why in 2020 many of our people are stuck in “The Trap.” In the vernacular of Dirty South Hip Hop, “tha trap” is a place where drugs are sold and all kinds of demonic debauchery takes place 24/7.

But in reality, the TRAP should really stand for “Terroristic Repression And Persecution.” And our entrapment takes many forms, from the seemingly self-inflected genocide going on in many communities to environmental racism and benign neglect. A good example is Durham, N.C.’s largest public housing development, McDougald Terrace, which is not only experiencing a disproportionate amount of violence, but community activists fear recent deaths of at least two infants may be related to carbon monoxide poisoning and poor living conditions.

But what do we do about it?

First, we have to help these young brothers and sisters in the streets realize that what they accept as reality is really economic ethnic cleansing, a calculated scheme to remove them to make room for high priced apartment buildings and Starbucks.

For those who don’t believe this can happen, read Elliot Jaspin’s book “Buried in the Bitter Waters” where he documents there are communities in America where all the Black folk just disappeared. If they did it once, they’ll do it again.

Secondly, we must deal harshly with an entertainment industry that has had our young people dancing their way to destruction for over three decades. We must not continue to allow rich White executives to keep the minds of our children trapped in a maze of mischief.

Lastly, we cannot be so distracted by band aid solutions we use to triage our problems, like Black on Black violence, that we lose sight of the need for political organization and economic empowerment as the end game strategy. In every community we must constantly compel the gangstas to unite to fight the power instead of fighting each other. We must also build a financial infrastructure that will allow Black men and women to feed their families legally instead of having to rely on criminal activities which destroy our communities.

So, in 2020, we must organize a mass Exodus out of the Trap led by brothers and sisters, who like Pac said would “rather die than be trapped in a living hell.”

Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement, P.O. Box 15123, Durham, N.C. 27704. Email  info@nowarn-ingshotsfired.com  or text  (919) 972-8305.

The post Exodus or Extermination? Escaping the Trap in 2020 appeared first on Final Call News.

“Round and round and around we go, where the world’s headed nobody knows.” Ball of Confusion-The Temptations

It has been a bloody 2019 so far in my city of Durham, North Carolina. Almost every day, a shooting has occurred that has left someone’s son or daughter lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. The majority of the victims–African American young men under 30 years old. While these are the tales from my ‘hood, chances are, it’s the same in your community, as well.

I’ve been in this city since 1985 and this is not the first time Durham aka the “Bull City,” but now known as the  “Bullet City”  has undergone a wave of violence. But this time feels different.

Maybe it’s because of the drive by shootings that are happening in broad daylight at random places around the city. Or perhaps because the age of the victims seems to be getting younger (the youngest this year being a nine-year-old child).

So, we have undergone a year’s worth of panel discussions, peace rallies and marches with the participants all begging for the ever evasive “solution” and all asking the unanswerable question:  “Why?”

Of course, city officials and concerned citizens have offered the usual White user-friendly suggestions of “more police,” “better jobs,” “better education,” etc., but these solutions never seem to work. The only solutions that have ever been able to stop Black self-destruction have been activities rooted in Black Nationalism and the creation of a positive self-identity.

Let us look at this, historically.

You rarely have heard of Black on Black violence being a major problem when Black pride and awareness were at its highest such as the early 20th century when Marcus Garvey organized from 6 to 11 million Black people under the red, black and green flag of Black solidarity. Nor did you hear about drive-by shootings during the rallies of freedom fighters such as Kwame Ture or Malcolm X during the Black Power Era.

Even during more recent years, you can point at the “conscious Hip Hop Era” when the hottest rap groups were Public Enemy, X-Clan and Boogie Down Productions as a period when Black self-inflicted genocide was at a low point. Or the period immediately following the 1992 LA Rebellion (in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict) when Black street gangs decided to put aside beefs and “fight the powers that be.” Also, how many fist fights broke out at the Million Man March of 1995?

So, if Black unity is a verifiable workable solution, why has it not been utilized? There is a fear amongst White America of Black people coming together under unity and self-determination. One can make a strong argument that the Black Codes which prevented Black people from gathering in the post-Civil War Era have never gone anywhere, just assumed different and more nefarious forms.

History records that the fall of the Garvey and Black Power movements were caused by government sponsored programs like COINTELPRO. One could also argue that era of positive Hip Hop was replaced by gangsta rap because of the fear of another LA Uprising against oppression.

So, the Black Codes of yesterday seem to still be operative, whereby, the  powers  that be have clandestinely decided that the gang violence that permeates many cities is preferable to a Black United Front and the status quo of White supremacy must be upheld by any means necessary. Unfortunately, many of our young brothers and sisters are being used as pawns in this deadly game of destruction. But what can we do?

First, we must end the fallacy that there are no solutions. Our scholars and activists have given us hundreds of solutions over the last hundred years that can all be found on the internet or at your local library. One must only look at the works of Dr. Carter G Woodson–“MisEducation of the Negro,” Dr. Amos Wilson–“Black on Black Violence,” or Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow.” There are no shortages of “solutions,” what we lack is implementation.

Secondly, we can no longer afford to just “preach to the choir” but we must hit the proverbial “highways and byways” to deliver a message of empowerment to the victims of a failed Euro-centric educational system. We must come up with new and innovative ways to reach a generation that is seeking light in the midst of darkness.

Lastly, we must organize, organize, organize, as the ancestor Kwame Ture would say. In Durham, North Carolina, there is a new movement being formed to unite the brothers and sisters on the streets to fight for political empowerment called BLAC (Black Liberation Action Committee). These efforts must be duplicated, not only in Durham but in every ‘hood in America.

If something revolutionary isn’t done, as the  Friends of Distinction sang back in the day, “We’ll forever be going in circles.” Min. Paul Scott is founder of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement. He can be reached at:  info@nowarningshotsfired.com  or  (919) 972-8305. Follow him on  Twitter@truthminista.

The post Goin’ in Circles: Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Black on Black Violence appeared first on Final Call News.

This current generation of millennials is, arguably, the most “woke” group of African Americans since the conscious Hip Hop Era of the late 80’s and some would say, with their skills at social media, since the Black Power Era.   Since the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012, there has been an awakening of the masses and the high-profile police involved shootings of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and many others have fast tracked us on the road to the revolution that Malcolm X talked about 50 years ago.

But as in science, for every action there is an opposite reaction. So, for everything that wakes us up, there is always something to put us back to sleep.

Drug use has always been glorified in Hip Hop to a certain degree. After all, when the early rappers said “ski” they weren’t talkin’ about a vacation in Aspen. But this new generation is on a whole ‘notha level.

Thanks to mainstream Hip Hop, getting high off of prescription medicines seems to be just what the doctor ordered. The past decade has seen a rapid increase of rappers being self-medicated via prescription drugs. You can hardly listen to the radio without hearing artists like Future rappin’ about pills like they just raided Grandma’s medicine cabinet.

Much of this madness originally came out of the Dirty South as rappers from Texas to Tennessee bragged about “sippin’ on that Sizzurp” aka Lean and some have died from takin’ too many sips of that ‘Purple Drank.’ For the less hip, Lean is a deadly combination of soft drink, Kool Aid, codeine, cough medicine, Jolly Ranchers and anything else somebody feels like throwin’ in a cup.

Now enter something called “Legal Lean.”

Either some mad scientist or some hipster with a determined idea and too much time on his hands has come up with a way to   push that potion in the ‘hood, legally, by substituting codeine with natural stuff. The ingredients are different but the effects are supposed to be the same.

Now, while Legal Lean may be available near some college campuses so some wealthy White coeds can vicariously live out their Lil Wayne fantasies, most of the stores that sell this are in the ‘hood.

Of course, the makers of Legal Lean think they are providing a service by giving cough syrup junkies an alternative.   To hear them tell it, Legal Lean is to Purple Drank what Methadone is to Heroin.

After all it is 100% natural. But so are psychedelic mushrooms and if you really want to get funky with it, cocaine contains a 100% natural ingredient, as well.

So, once again the Black community is under a biochemical attack at a time when we need to be in our collective best state of mind to survive the Trump Era.

Fortunately, some groups around the country are not giving up the ‘hood without a fight.

In Wisconsin, the Original Black Panthers of Milwaukee have staged successful campaigns against stores selling Legal Lean

Also, in Durham N.C., activists have started Operation #LeanBack to have the product permanently shut down, nationwide.

Every community activist should be fighting to get Lean up outta here, whether legal or illegal.

As always, you are gonna have some to defend destruction to the grave. But those of us who aren’t “gone off that Lean” have a responsibility to raise our voices in protest.

As Kendrick Lamar said on “Be Humble:”

“I let my soul speak, you let the meds talk…”

Min. Paul Scott is founder of the Black Messiah Movement. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com   or follow him on Twitter @truthminista

The post Fightin’ the Biochemical Attack on the ‘Hood appeared first on Final Call News.

Professor Afrika Jackson had just finished a two-hour lecture in front of a packed house discussing how African American parents could prevent their sons from dropping out of high school when someone handed him a strange note warning that “they”  were out front waiting for him. Fearing that he was surrounded by the KKK or the Skinheads, Professor Jackson, cautiously headed for the auditorium door. But when he got to the parking lot he didn’t find Neo Nazis,  just a bunch of Bougie Black folk in throwback Gordon Gartrell shirts and ascotts  yellin’ “ Go Back to Africa. …”

Recently, popular lecturer and Black youth advocate Dr. Umar Johnson, made an appearance on The Breakfast Club Morning Show. In an era when the airwaves are filled with either violent or barely decipherable lyrics, you would think that a Black man droppin’ knowledge on a Hip Hop radio station would be a breath of fresh air.

Nope.

By the time Dr. Umar had even left the studio, the attacks had begun. The first shot was fired by the Root.com, as the site launched a vicious attack on Dr. Umar’s credibility. Next came the now infamous triple team on Roland Martin’s show on TV One. And that was followed by, yet another attempt by The Root to throw shade at the good doctor. Looks like the “Bad and Bougie” have declared war.

Now, don’t get it twisted. I am not a cheerleader for #TeamUmar.  But I am a strong proponent of Black Nationalism and I refuse to let an ideology that has meant so much to so many be disrespected under the guise of a petty, personal attack on an individual.

Historically speaking, the attack on Black Nationalism did not start with Umar Johnson, it goes back almost a hundred years.

During the early 20th century, the Honorable Marcus Garvey was attacked by WEB Dubois and his Talented Tenth team. Members of this squad started a “Garvey Must Go” campaign which contributed to the fall of Mr. Garvey and his Universal Negro Improvement Association.

The attack on Black Nationalism was peppered with Black classism, which, besides the works of Dr. E. Franklin Frazier (Black Bourgeoisie) and Harold Cruse (Crisis of the Negro Intellectual) has been rarely discussed in the Black community.

There was even some serious hatin’ going on during the Black Power Era. This is best exemplified by the treatment of the militant “Abdullah” by “Daddy Rich (Richard Pryor)  and the Wilson Sisters (Pointer Sisters)  in the 70’s movie Car Wash as they danced around him bashin’ his revolutionary ideology.

However, in recent years the cries of a more White liberal friendly Black Lives Matter have replaced calls for Black Power in the media, And as aging civil rights leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton no longer dominate the news shows, there has been a mad scramble to be the new spokespersons for all Black folk or as the older generation would say “the new HNIC.”

In the past, it has been pretty easy for the pseudo-revolutionists to have a monopoly on the media and sell their White corporate sponsors on the idea they are the authentic voice of African Americans. They have served as gatekeepers, blocking anyone with, as Dr. Umar would say, an “unapologetically Black” ideology from reaching the masses.  But thanks to YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms, the playing field has become somewhat level. Examples of this are the popularity of YouTube Channels such as BlackNews102 and the blockbuster-like success of Tariq Nasheed’s Hidden Colors series, which owes much of its popularity to social media promotion.

So, as we see with the attack on Umar Johnson, the Bad and Bougie have been engaged in an uncivil, civil war against those who they,  unflatteringly,  refer to as “Hoteps” or “Dashiki wearers.”

But what the attack on Dr. Umar has done is unify the Black Nationalist community in ways not seen since the Million Man March. Even those who have not exactly been fans of Johnson are taking exception to the blatant attack on a Pro-Black ideology.    Looks like the Bad and Bougie have told one ankh joke too many.

So, don’t worry about it Dr. Umar, we are ridin’ with ya. As the rap group Migos might say, you keep throwin’ up the Black Power fist and “dabbin’ on them like the usual.”

Min. Paul Scott is founder of the Black Messiah Movement. He can be reached at (919) 972-8305 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com or him follow on Twitter @truthminista

The post The attack of the Bad and Bougie, Dr. Umar and Black Nationalism appeared first on Final Call News.