Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad Named Next Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
By: Lloyd Whitefield Butler, Jr
Posted: Monday, November 22, 2010 3:35 am
THE New York Public Library (NYPL) announced today that Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a scholar of African-American history from Indiana University, has been selected as the next Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, effective July 2011.
Dr. Muhammad will succeed Howard Dodson Jr., who last year announced his plan to retire after more than 25 years of leadership, having cemented the Schomburg as the world’s leading repository on the global Black experience.
The appointment was made by Library President Dr. Paul LeClerc after the unanimous recommendation of a nine-member search committee. (A complete list of committee members follows.)
“The entire committee enthusiastically supports and is delighted with the choice of Khalil Muhammad,” Search Committee Co-Chairmen and Library Trustees Gordon J. Davis and Henry Louis Gates Jr. said in a joint statement.
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“We are confident that the extensive search process, involving many strong candidates out of a pool of more than 200, has brought to the Schomburg a leader of unique vision and inspiration who will bridge the many communities and generations served by the Center.”
Dr. Muhammad, a native of Chicago’s South Side, has served as Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University for five years, where he completed a major interpretive book in African-American studies, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, published recently by Harvard University Press. A great-grandson of Elijah Muhammad, he has deep roots in Black history and in Harlem. His father is the noted Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer Ozier Muhammad.
“This appointment is a tremendous honor and for me one of life’s special moments,” said Dr. Muhammad. “I look forward to continuing the Schomburg’s remarkable legacy as a world-class institution that simply has no peer, to extending its reach to those who may not yet be part of the Schomburg community, and to the Center’s playing a crucial role in moving Black history from the margins to the center of American public discourse.”
“There has never been a more exciting time in the history of the Schomburg Center,” said Aysha Schomburg, great-granddaughter of Schomburg Center founder Arturo Schomburg, President of the Schomburg Corporation, and Search Committee member.
“Without any doubt, Khalil has the skills and the passion to build on the legacy. This is a great day for New York and especially for Harlem. We welcome him.”
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Dr Muhammad
As an academic, Dr. Muhammad is at the forefront of scholarship on the enduring link between race and crime, that has shaped and limited opportunities for African Americans.
“The Condemnation of Blackness renders an incalculable service to civil rights scholarship by disrupting one of the nation’s most insidious, convenient, and resilient explanatory loops: whites commit crimes, but black males are criminals. Khalil’s cutting-edge civil rights scholarship, dynamic university teaching, administrative experience, grasp of information technology, and understanding of the Schomburg's uniqueness will sustain and advance the scholarly mission of this historic institution," said NYU Professor of History and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Levering Lewis.
Of joining the Schomburg Center, Dr. Muhammad says, “I treasure this opportunity to wed my passion for African-American history with my commitment to scholarship. I am committed to promoting the voice of Black people as they have engaged in the most significant issues of our times.
"What matters to me is that they and people of the African Diaspora are able to articulate why their humanity matters, to show and showcase their contributions to the world, and to have in a sense a history that is validated and respected and made meaningful to humanity at large.”
Dr. Muhammad, currently nominated for tenure at Indiana University, is now working on a book-length history of the racial politics surrounding the creation and swift dissolution of Prohibition-era “tough-on-crime” laws, specifically New York’s four-strikes law of 1926. He is also an Associate Editor of The Journal of American History.
“My hope for the Schomburg Center,” he stated, “is to develop it as the premier brand for historical expertise on the great race debates of our time; privileging documents, material culture, visual historical media, living artists, and widely disseminated scholarship to raise public consciousness and historical literacy in the United States and around the globe.”
Dr. Muhammad plans to build upon the Schomburg’s strong beginnings in online studies under Howard Dodson, “encouraging staff and users to embrace digital technologies as we reach out to youth, especially by creatively opening up the Center’s resources and exhibitions so that they can come to know us on their own terms.”
“I am most pleased to extend my congratulations to Khalil Muhammad,” said Dodson. “I am both confident and excited about his continuing the Schomburg’s critical mission and legacy. I have felt strongly that the next Center leader must come from the next generation, and I intend to help ensure that he is well prepared to hit the ground running.”
“After spending time with Dr. Muhammad, it was easy for me to see why he was the unanimous choice of the Search Committee. He is a brilliant scholar doing path breaking work in African-American studies, is eloquent and charismatic, is deeply committed to the Harlem community, embraces the Schomburg’s function of acquiring and preserving the cultural record of peoples of African descent, and knows how to exploit the Internet to bring young people into the Schomburg to discover its extraordinary treasures,” said Dr. LeClerc.
“I know that his career at the Schomburg Center will be one of excellence and innovation, and that the Center will flourish under his creative guidance.”
Dr. Muhammad graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Economics in 1993. After working at Deloitte & Touche LLP, he received his Ph.D. in American History from Rutgers University in 2004, specializing in 20th-century U.S. and African-American history.
He spent two years as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit criminal justice reform agency in New York City, before joining the faculty of Indiana University.
Dr. Muhammad is married to Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad, a network operations manager at Verizon Wireless. They have three children, Gibran Mikkel (10), Jordan Grace (8), and Justice Marie (4).
The public will have an opportunity to meet Dr. Muhammad at various future events including a community forum.
Schomburg Director Search Committee
Gordon J. Davis, Co-Chair
Senior Partner, Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP
NYPL Trustee
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Co-Chair
Director, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University
NYPL Trustee
Calvin O. Butts
President, State University of New York College at Old Westbury
Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church
Eric Foner
DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University
President, The Organization of American Historians; American Historical Association; the Society of American Historians
Raymond J. McGuire
Head, Global Banking, Citi
Chair, Studio Museum in Harlem
NYPL Trustee
Katharine Johnson Rayner
Co-Chairman, NYPL’s Council of Conservators
NYPL Trustee
Aysha Schomburg
Counsel, Committee on Education, New York City Council
Great Granddaughter of Schomburg Center founder Arturo Schomburg
Ann Thornton
Acting Andrew W. Mellon Director, New York Public Library
Darren Walker
Vice President, Education, Creativity and Free Expression, Ford Foundation
Previous Chief Operating Officer, Abyssinian Development Corporation
About the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is recognized as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world. A cultural center as well as a repository, this Harlem-based modern research library also sponsors a wide array of interpretive programs, including exhibitions, scholarly and public forums, and cultural performances. For over eighty years The Schomburg Center has collected, preserved, and provided access to materials documenting the global Black experience and promoted the study and interpretation of Black history and culture. To learn more about the Schomburg, visit www.schomburgcenter.org.
Labels: KHALIL GIBRAN MUHAMMAD, LLOYD WHITEFIELD BUTLER JR, SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE
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Rebuilding America by building Africa
By: Lloyd Whitefield Butler, Jr. - Columnist
Posted: Thursday, June 17, 2010 12:23 pm
WHITE House and Congressional Black Caucus fast asleep at the African switch.
"If the enemy is not doing anything against you, you are not doing anything" Ahmed Sékou Touré
"Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular - but one must take it simply because it is right." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
England’s Chatham House has been the home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs for ninety years. Their mission is to be a world-leading source of independent analysis, informed debate and influential ideas on how to build a prosperous and secure world for all.
According to Chatham House’s independent thinking on international affairs they published a June 2010 strategic report on Africa called “Playing to its Strengths: Rethinking the UK’s Role in a Changing World.”
Chatham House’s executive summary states the following:
"African countries are playing a more strategic role in international affairs. Global players that understand this and develop greater diplomatic and trade relations with African states will be greatly advantaged.
"For many countries, particularly those that have framed their relations with Africa largely in humanitarian terms, this will require an uncomfortable shift in public and policy perceptions.
"Without this shift, many of Africa's traditional partners, especially in Europe and North America, will lose global influence and trade advantages to the emerging powers in Asia, Africa and South America.
"China's re-engagement is for the most part welcome, as is that of the increasing numbers of emerging powers such as Turkey, South Korea and Brazil that see Africa in terms of opportunities - as a place in which to invest, gain market share and win access to resources.
"Economic fortunes across Africa are now diverging, making it less meaningful to treat Africa as a single entity in international economic negotiations. Despite this, it is in the global interest that the African Union should be granted a permanent place at the G20."
The former British Empire’s think tank has finally arrived not from intelligence and insight, but from forced necessity. American think tanks are disgraceful. Racism, greed, and superstition keeps the American political elite spellbound in ignorance with an insatiable appetite for war. This makes business and political foreign policies toxic to Third World nations.
In 1968 US Presidential Candidate Richard Milhouse Nixon while speaking before a group of Black Republicans shared strategic advice when delivering his "Bridge to Human Dignity Speech" he said:
"In order to have human dignity, people need property rights - and never has this been more true than in the case of the Negro today. What do I mean by property? Essentially, the economic power that comes from ownership, and the security and independence that comes from economic power."
The above sounds like Zimbabwe’s indigenization and empowerment law.
The “Words of Dr. Martin Luther King” Selected by Coretta Scott King further enlightens with strategic thinking in order to rebuild America by dignifying its relations with Africa:
"Many white Americans of good will have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation. They have deplored prejudice but tolerated or ignored economic injustice. But the Negro knows that these two evils have a malignant kinship. New laws are not enough. The emergency we now face is economic, and it is a desperate and worsening situation.
"It is impossible to create a formula for the future which does not take into account that our society has been doing something special against the Negro for hundreds of years. How then can he be absorbed into the mainstream of American life if we do not do something special for him now, in order to balance the equation and equip him to compete on a just and equal basis?
"Few people consider the fact that, in addition to being enslaved for two centuries, the Negro was, during all those years, robbed of the wages of his toil. No amount of gold could provide an adequate amount of compensation for the exploitation and humiliation of the Negro in America down through the centuries. 'Not all the wealth of this affluent society could meet the bill. Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages.
"When millions of people have been cheated for centuries, restitution is a costly process ... Justice so long deferred has accumulated interest and its cost for this society will be substantial in financial as well as human terms. This fact has not been fully grasped, because most of the gains of the past decade were obtained at bargain rates. The desegregation of public facilities cost nothing; neither did the election and appointment of a few black public officials."
The Zimbabwe Guardian reports in an article how the “Group of Elders should re-read history” by Tendai Midzi. He opines that: "Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his so-called 'Group of Elders' are making a fool of themselves by making uninformed comments about Zimbabwe without the right kind of briefing from politicians in the country.
"There are crises in many places in the world where these so-called 'elders' have either remained quiet or taken a more informed approach. There are also other places where their contribution could be more meaningful rather than Zimbabwe where the parties are at peace and have managed to strike a deal without their influence.”
Here is an example of a place in the world where the Group of Elders’ contributions can be more meaningful: the United States of America. The Group of Elders is not too elderly to understand the following remarks:
"Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular - but one must take it simply because it is right." MLK
Breibart News reported this week that, “Global military expenditures soared to a record high last year, unscathed by the economic downturn, with the United States accounting for more than half of increase, a think tank said Wednesday. In 2009, 1,531 billion dollars (1,244 billion euros) were spent worldwide in the military sector, a 5.9 percent rise from 2008 and a 49 percent jump from 2000, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its report.”
Meanwhile, U.S. AFRICOM is preparing militarily; sanctions and threats of sanctions are State Department problem solving tools, and, chasing poor Somalian peasant pirates who are compensating themselves for ships that dump toxins in their waters ruining their fisheries are U.S. high points for winning over Africa.
Regretfully President Obama appears to believe that military preparedness should outperform fiscal preparedness. Fiscal availability determines the timeframe and affordability of war; with the exception of self defense. Depleting a nations’ treasury while executing war is suicidal, and, winning a war that results in generational debt is stupid.
The above mentioned reference to President Nixon’s “Bridge to Human Dignity” speech should be applied to the White House, US House of Representative & Senate, Congressional Black Caucus, and Group of Elders.
All Africa, Asia, and Central & South America watch carefully the manner in which the European and American governments treat the Elder Statesman of African Liberation President Robert Mugabe as though he does not exist. The West hatefully and jealously sanction the Zimbabwe people and their new government against the wishes of the African Union, Non-Aligned Nations, and United Nations, etc. because they dare venture into Black African Capitalism.
In Africa and the world President Mugabe is also known as the well mannered Godfather of African Indigenous Land Return & Mineral Resource Ownership. President Mugabe accepts that “If the enemy is not doing anything against you, you are not doing anything.”
In 1909 a white Southerner and gentleman, Edgar Gardner Murphy, wrote in “The Basis of Ascendancy - Our Race Security" the following:
'The perils involved in the progress of the [N]negro are as nothing in comparison with the perils invited by his failure. And yet if any race is to live, it must have something to live for...it will hardly give any deep spiritual or conscious allegiance to its racial future, if its race life is to be forever burdened with contempt, and denied the larger possibilities of thought and effort.'
Gardner Murphy further states in 'The Integrating Force of Opportunity' chapter VII. that: 'Deliverance lies not solely in the white man's baldly assuming the perpetual attitude of the policeman over his treasure, but in giving the negro a treasure too: and, as he becomes also a policeman, on guard as a man and as a race above his own. Keep him forever in his bankruptcy and his destitution, without a life to attract him or a treasure to conserve, and these millions will become conscious of their race only to disown it and to betray it, -- a despairing and devouring menace to the wholesome stability of our own life, and a noisome indictment of the perversity or the incapacity of our statesmanship.'
The Financial Times also reported this week that “China’s engagement with Africa has had a transformative effect on the continent’s relations with the outside world, shaking up an old and fraying order dominated by cautious foreign donors and former colonial powers…Trade between Africa and China rose tenfold, from $10bn (€8bn, £6.9bn) to $108bn, between 2000 and 2008…Africa holds 10 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves – and more still to be discovered. China buys a third of its oil from Africa and the US aims to import 25 per cent from the west African seaboard...Algeria and Algeria the seventh and eighth biggest natural gas reserves globally. South Africa 40 per cent of the world’s gold. Africa after China, the biggest reserves of the rare earth metals essential for production of high-technology items from lasers to turbines
Need anymore be said concerning the strategic importance of Rebuilding America by Building Africa?
How far gone has American foreign policy gone?
I quote an excerpt from former CIA Analyst Chalmers Johnson’s NY Times bestseller “Nemesis – The Last Days of the American Empire.”
‘The attempt to disguise or avoid the policy-based reasons for 9/11 fed the rantings of Christian fundamentalists in the United States. Televangelist Pat Robertson, later joined by Jerry Falwell, declared that “liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters bear some responsibility for [the] terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God’s anger against America,” and they launched a hate campaign against all Muslims. Jimmy Swaggart called Muhammad a “sex deviant” and a pervert and suggested that Muslim students in the United States be expelled. The Pentagon added its bit of insanity to this religious mix when army lieutenant general William G. “Jerry” Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, argued in public in full uniform without subseequent official reprimand that “they” hate us “because we are a Christian nation,” that Bush was appointed by God, that the Special Forces are inspired by God, that our enemy is “a guy name Satan,” and that we defeat Islamic terrorists only “if we come at them in the name of Jesus.”
Labels: BARACK OBAMA, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS, LLOYD WHITEFIELD BUTLER JR
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Nazism and Apartheid operating in South Africa with Western approval
Lloyd Whitefield Butler Jr
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
“What absurdities will not men defend! If the Gospel will tolerate slavery, what will it not authorize [slavery, apartheid and colonialism]?
“Nazi salutes and swastikas as hundreds gather for funeral of murdered white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche - Their arms raised in a Nazi salute, thousands of angry white followers greet the coffin of Eugene Terreblanche as it leaves [Christian] church.”
THE present situation in Southern Africa is, in my opinion, headed toward a racial war in order to return land stolen and seized under Western American Nazi Colonial pre and post Apartheid aggression.
Honourable Julius Malema, President of the African National Congress Youth League is condemned by the 'World White Web' and African colonial press for singing a song about shooting a Nazi Apartheid Colonial invader but White Afrikaner Nazi Apartheidists can maintain segregated white-only Christian churches, publicly salute each other in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Storm Trooper style, profess a secessionist doctrine of a White-only South Africa, and pledge allegiance with a Nazi symbol flag; and nothing is said from the racist SA Supreme Court, the White House or U.S. State Department or Buckingham Palace.
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Before this war starts, preventable measures should be implemented. For example: The African National Congress, the Honourable Nelson Mandela, and His Holiness Bishop Desmond Tutu should face a public tribunal called into legal session to explain in detail the purpose, ways, and means that the SA Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings and conclusions were to compensate, restitute, and reparate the masses of Black South Africa who bore the brunt of American European Nazi Apartheid.
The fact that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was reduced to a state sponsored “police brutality” case is beyond human legal comprehension. Who or what prevented ANC, Mr. Mandela and Bishop Tutu from establishing a War Crimes Tribunal that is required by international law?
The ANC, Mr. Mandela and Bishop Tutu should be made to explain and document to African people why the establishment of colonialism, Apartheid, and the European TransAtlantic Slave Trade are not Crimes Against Humanity.
If America, Britain, and European Union can find time to suggest Zimbabwe and Sudan should be brought before an international court; what should be done concerning these same Western enterprises that are responsible for millions in death, theft, looting, extermination, and enslavement?
The support of International Banker Arrangements with apartheid South Afrikaners is well documented. “The ANC was so outraged on the occasion of the third such agreement that they were provoked into condemning the [foreign banks] Arrangement as an act of "inhumanity" whose purpose was that: "of helping perpetuate the evil system of apartheid.... When the time comes, the South African people will not be unmindful of the role of banks in making profit out of the misery of our people."
The culpability of the world banking community in perpetuating Apartheid is aptly, if inadvertently, captured by the then director of finance and previous Reserve Bank Governor, Chris Stals: If the world banking community should effectively exclude South Africa from international trade and payments systems, it would be a much more effective sanctions measure than trade sanctions applied by governments.
Thabo Mbeki in a recent document offers an insightful explanation."The Apartheid ruling group imposed on the country an unprecedented debt burden whose acquisition had to do exclusively with shifting the balance of force during the period of transition from Apartheid to democracy, so that this anti-democratic group would not be as weakened, politically, as it would otherwise be, in contradistinction to the democratic movement.”
There is no distinction between America’s Peculiar Institution, Colonialism, Nazism, and Apartheid. These institutional systemic viruses arch network systems of overt oppression operated with deadly cruel and unusual punishments against the African Negroid people. The aim of these smartbombed, cluster blasting systems of oppression is to perpetually bombard the African of his birthright, inheritance, and family utility worldwide.
Nazism has been judged to be A Crime Against Humanity which is a Crime Against Nature itself. So, why are its Hitlerian counterparts and inheritors still worshiped and held up as heroes in 2010?
Cecil Rhodes and Stanley Livingston, Charles Robberts, Swart Marais, Viljoen, Pieter Willem Botha, were all fascist Nazi presidents that deserve an historical court marshal and conviction for their continuous crimes against humanity.
The purposes for establishing systems of colonialism and apartheid:
* a) To enslave the African Negro peoples in perpetual mental bondage with selective but limited freedoms to a chosen few. Create chaotic conditions. Maintain African “Civil Society” in European control.
* b) Control plantations and mining operations solely to extract mineral and agricultural resources for Whites only.
* c) Maintain an ignorant class of labourers to work the mines and plantations.
* d) After Containment declare corporate sovereign domain of all productive land and water resources.
* e) Utilize containment, sanctions, or invasion for governments in rebellion against White Supremacy aka Colonialism, Apartheid, and Western Democracy.
* f)Dismantle and or disrupt any indigenous African educational and self governing institutions.
Two recent events stand out that demonstrate racism and apartheid mindsets in 2010. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and the Cecil Rhodes University are now teaching "How To Report on Africa". Imagine an Adolf Hitler University teaching How To Report on Jews?
I am asking these questions because “UNESCO and Rhodes University have teamed up to roll out an online discussion that will culminate in researching, developing and disseminating a possible syllabus on reporting Africa, based on the Unesco Model Curricula for Journalism Education.”
The second event which clearly demonstrates the continuous White supremacy and apartheid business 2010 mindset is:
“De Beers, the world’s largest diamond conglomerate, partnered with the government of Botswana in 1969 to form Debswana Diamond Company, Ltd. After 40 years, it seems that the working relationship is on the verge of collapse after a confidential Slaughter and May report was leaked, showing that De Beers has made tens of billions without sharing their profits.
Nicky Oppenheimer and Gary Ralf—made over $72 billion, while the Ministry of Minerals and all other Botswana partners received nothing.
Why should southern Africa prepare or avoid a race war?
The violent death of white supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche is a sign of Africa's future. Thousands of Nazi sympathisers living in Africa attended his funeral in uniforms of war.
”We think it was an assassination, not a murder,” said Andre Visagie, secretary-general of Terre’Blanche’s Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), outside his farm.”
These Nazi Christian churchgoers, mourners “sang the apartheid-era national anthem…The old South African flag and the party’s flag – which resembles the Nazi swastika – fluttered from pick-up trucks. Police were out in force and helicopters hovered above streets where few black South Africans were to be seen. The church lifted its usual "whites only" restriction to allow in black journalists.”
Hon. Nelson Mandela and His Holiness Bishop Desmond Tutu should be required to provide an explanation for allowing this Christian 'Nazi' Apartheid institutions to live in South Africa; allowed to sing the Apartheid-era national anthem; maintain their Christian 'Nazi' Apartheid Churches lifting its racist segregationist ban on Africans to allow a “temporary whites” status to Black journalists.
This is going on in South Africa? Mandela’s and Tutu’s South Africa? 'Nazis' allowed to exist in South Africa? Yet both these individuals hold questionable views concerning the government of Zimbabwe rooting this Apartheid plague. Is this the reason why Britain, the European Union, and United States are insisting that MDC Roy Bennett be included in the Zimbabwe government?
The Honourable Julius Malema, President of the African National Congress Youth League was publicly condemned by the white and African news media and SA courts for singing the song: “Shoot the Boer.” His own ANC asked him to refrain from singing a song about people who murdered and enslaved his people, established Apartheid, nearly destroyed the African family utility, who relocated the entire South African population to the poorest parts of non-arable land, and, who presently control South Africa and have not paid reparations nor restitution for their Crimes Against African Humanity.
"We are here today to declare war and avenge the death of our leader,” said one 46-year-old businessman from the north-eastern Mpumalanga province, who did not want to be named.
"Most white men between 35-55 have military training and we are prepared to use our skills."
In Apartheid America during the 1960’s Reverend James Forman declared to racist whites the following: If we (Black People) cannot sit down at the table of democracy and discuss justice than we’ll kick the ‘god damn’ legs off!”
Black American Ambassador, Statesman, and Ex-Slave Frederick Douglass spoke on Apartheid aka the Peculiar Institution - Slavery:
“Frederick Douglass: Douglass after his first meeting with [White Abolitionist warrior John Brown] Brown lent his own editorial emphasis to the Society’s resolution—“that slaveholders, as such, can have no rights. They have no rightful existence on earth.” Douglass elaborated this resolution with the Locke-style explanation that slaveholders, by their behavior, had forfeited all right to be numbered with the human family.
‘Slaveholders have no rights more than any other thief or pirate. They have forfeited even the right to live, and if the slave should put every one of them to the sword tomorrow, who dare pronounce the penalty disproportioned to the crim
‘[N]ever were there, never can there be more sacred rights to defend than were menaced by slave hunters…Life and liberty are the most sacred of all man’s rights. If these may be invaded with impunity, all others may be, for they comprehend all others…The man who rushes out of the orbit of his own rights, to strike down the rights of another, does, by that act, divest himself of the right to live: if he be shot down, his punishment is just.”
I say Shoot the Boer like Bob Marley shot the Sherriff but didn’t shoot the Deputy.
Lady Winnie Madikizela Mandela our sign of hope
Press statements attributed to Lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela concerning Nelson Mandela have elements of fact; if true; I maintain the following:
She is human enough to demand under what ecclesiastical, legal, and/or moral foundation, citation, or law can the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC) conclude that after decades of Apartheid and Colonialism that siphoned off more than 4 Trillion Dollars, caused millions of deaths, illegally seized land; forced the relocation of indigenous owners to non-arable deserted areas; and, systematically destroyed the African Family Utility; was all reduced by SATRC to a Police Brutality Case?
In my view Lady Madikizela-Mandela is asking: Is there a Statute of Limitation on Crimes Against Humanity?
Apartheid and Colonialism are Crimes Against Humanity? Why? Because the white founders, installers, and financial beneficiaries of Apartheid in Southern Africa have not spent one day in jail, nor paid one dollar for their crimes.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire.
I would like to ask His Holiness Bishop Tutu what scripture in any religion justifies an apology for intentional War Crimes against helpless people? Warships, cannons, machine guns, chemical warfare, and deceit were used against African bow and arrows, and spears in the name of Western Christian progress.
Bishop Tutu recently said the Colonial West should make war on Zimbabwe to effect regime change. Why? I am reminded of an African statesman during colonial times who stated:
“What absurdities will not men defend! If the Gospel will tolerate slavery, what will it not authorize [slavery, apartheid and colonialism]?
“When the White People came to Africa they had the Bible and Africans had the land; now today, Africans have the Bible and White People have the land. Something is fishy.” Properly put; today Africans have the Holy Bible and no land, and Whites have the land and no Holy Bible.
On behalf of all Africans who perished in the mines and plantations, those who were relocated to desert locations to live in squalor, and the thousands sold into slavery in the Southern African branch of the European TransAtlantic Slave Trade, I refer to John MacArthur’s “Grace To You” ministries for a legal but moral opinion.
Grace To You ministries promote very important moral and theological questions that can be applied to former and neo colonial aggressors (EU & US).
“Answering the Hard Questions About Forgiveness – But What If There Is Reason To Think That the Offender’s “Repentance” Is a Sham?
‘In normal circumstances, love obliges us to assume the best about those who profess repentance (1 Cor. 13:7). Scripture does suggest, however, that there are certain times when it is legitimate to demand fruits of repentance before assuming that someone’s profession of repentance is genuine (Matt. 3:8; Luke 3:8).’
‘When Is Restitution Appropriate?’
‘Whenever an actual loss has been caused by a wrong, restitution is certainly appropriate. The granting of forgiveness for the guilt of the offense does not automatically nullify the need to make reparations, especially when the injured party’s loss is quantifiable. Whether the loss was caused deliberately (as in a theft) or accidentally (through some form of negligence), restitution should be made.”
‘What Is the Difference Between True Repentance and a Mere Apology?’
‘Genuine repentance always involves a confession of wrongdoing and a willingness to make things right. An apology often takes the form of an excuse.’
‘The word apology comes from the Greek apologia, which literally means “a speech in defense of.” Apologies are often nothing more than self-defense: “I’m sorry if you took offense, but . . .”
Genuine repentance is properly expressed in an admission of wrongdoing and a plea for forgiveness: “It was unthoughtful of me to say that. Will you forgive me?”
I believe the African National Congress is duty bound by the Law of Nature and the Honour of their Ancestors who left Southern Africans in Custodial Charge of their land to initiate a Truth and Reconciliation Restitution Court for Corporate Crimes Against Humanity in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
A blind ignorant fool would have demanded that the least penalty for Apartheid and Colonial victims is a Free Education up to a University, High-Tech Technical College, or an Agriculture and Building Trade Skill Certification.
A special Note to the MDC and ANC:
Allow me Distinguished Africans to remind you of a Cambridge University Press publication “The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – A Database on CD-ROM” containing the records of 27,233 “sadistic” trans-Atlantic slave ship voyages. ‘These records, the most complete possible at this time, account for perhaps 70 percent of the Atlantic slave trade…’
Records maintained in the Royal African Company, the Naval Office shipping returns, the Royal Navy, British Public Records Office, and Lloyd’s Registers of Shipping or Lloyd’s List are written manifestations of corporate sadistic behavior alongside English & American state sponsored global terrorism.
‘12 million departures from Africa and 10.5 million arrivals in the various reception zones. It should be noted that these estimates include trade to some areas, particularly the Mascarene Islands that the Du Bois Institute data set does not purport to cover. If we exclude these areas then what we might call the scholarly consensus figures would be 11.8 million departures and 10.3 million arrivals. If we further exclude voyages setting out before 1600—on the basis that the Du Bois Institute set contains only a few such ships—then the consensus figures would be 11.4 million departing and 10 million arriving.’
‘In the present set, the average number of slaves on board a slave ship as it left Africa was 332.0; an average of 281.1 per ship arrived in the Americas. Division of these averages into the aforementioned "consensus" aggregates suggests a total of between 34,482 voyages based on numbers leaving Africa and 35,561 voyages based on numbers disembarking slaves.’
The London-based Royal African Company (RAC) defined children as about ten years of age or younger. For most of the British and French slave trades, a height (about four feet four inches) and/or age (about fourteen years) criterion distinguished adults from children.
The Du Bois Institute data set includes variables for adult males ("men"), adult females ("women"), male children ("boys"), female children ("girls"), adults, children, and infants (reported often as "infants at the breast").
America, Britain, and Europe’s 500 year personality disorder is historically demonstrated in the sadistic decimation of the native populations of New Zealand, Australia, North, Central, and South America. Today in 2010 whites have yet to repent, show mercy, or provide restitution.
The West decimated the animal populations for sport and profit. The millions of Elephants massacred so the West can play pool billiards with ivory balls, played their ivory keyed pianos, had hung ivory tusks as trophies.
American and European society openly exhibits visible testaments of their past crimes in public museums. Take a tour, make a visit, and see for yourself.
And, without embarrassment, unapologetically pontificate sanctimoniously before the world human rights, religion, and democracy to the very victims of your government’s maltreatment. The West are not ashamed for their Crimes Against African Humanity because the African is not defined as human.
PS: Concerning the “Sanctions” assault against the people of Zimbabwe; should one advocate the lifting of sanctions or should one investigate the criminal implications of economically blockading and embargoing a nation simply because a particular nation has the power to do so; is the act of sanctioning legal?
In America if the Republican Party accepted foreign funds solely for the purpose of removing the Democratic Party from power; sanctioning President Barack Obama’s entire staff from traveling abroad to Europe and Asia; restricted banking, manufacturing, educational, and medicinal corporations from any contact with Obama’s staff under penalty of prison and fines: the Democratic Party would have every right to declare War, enact a state of emergency, and maintain a national security mode at all times.
How involved is Roy Bennett with South African 'Apartheid Nazism' should be of prime importance.
Labels: APARTHEID, EDUCATION, JOURNALISM, LLOYD WHITEFIELD BUTLER JR, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Is Obama's African tough love bootstrap theory racist
Lloyd Whitefield BUTLER, Jr.
Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:26:00 +0000
In 1863, the Negro was told that he was free as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation being signed by Abraham Lincoln. But he was not given any land to make that freedom meaningful. It was something like keeping a person in prison for a number of years and suddenly discovering that that person is not guilty of the crime for which he was convicted. And you just go up to him and say, 'Now you are free,' but you don’t give him any bus fare to get to town. You don’t give him any money to get some clothes to put on his back or to get on his feet again in life.
THE Honourable Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America made the following statements to the African world during an AllAfrica interview and his recent lecture to the Ghanaian Parliament:
“We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans,” Mr. Obama said in an address to Parliament televised across the continent. “I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. After all, I have the blood of Africa within me and my own family’s story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story.”
"The West and the United States has not been responsible for what's happened to Zimbabwe's economy over the last 15 or 20 years."
"Ultimately, I'm a big believer that Africans are responsible for Africa."
"Africans are responsible for Africa".
"I think part of what's hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance, that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive, or racism – I'm not a big – I'm not a believer in excuses."
Dear President Obama to draw a distinction between the European American Slave Trade of African people, the African Diaspora, and African Colonialism as separate is false and lacks historical documentation. The three systemic viruses are one and the same organism of oppression and exploitation installed in Africa and the Americas. Of course I am assuming you’re well versed in African history.
I wish to inform you, in all due respect, that what happened to the African in Africa happened to the African in the Americas: both where enslaved and stripped of their dignity and humanity.
President Obama it is an embarrassment that I respond to your interview with AllAfrica with a commentary from African and African American Studies 101:
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., on March 31, 1968. The sermon is titled, "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution."
"...Now there is another myth that still gets around: it is a kind of over reliance on the Bootstrap philosophy. There are those who still feel that if the Negro is to rise out of poverty, if the Negro is to rise out of slum conditions, if he is to rise out of discrimination and segregation, he must do it all by himself. And so they say the Negro must lift himself by his own bootstraps.
"They never stop to realize that no other ethnic group has been a slave on American soil. The people who say this never stop to realize that the nation made the black man’s color a stigma. But beyond this they never stop to realize the debt that they owe a people who were kept in slavery two hundred and forty-four years.
"In 1863, the Negro was told that he was free as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation being signed by Abraham Lincoln. But he was not given any land to make that freedom meaningful. It was something like keeping a person in prison for a number of years and suddenly discovering that that person is not guilty of the crime for which he was convicted. And you just go up to him and say, 'Now you are free,' but you don’t give him any bus fare to get to town. You don’t give him any money to get some clothes to put on his back or to get on his feet again in life.
"Every court of jurisprudence would rise up against this, and yet this is the very thing that our nation did to the black man. It simply said, 'You’re free,' and it left him there penniless, illiterate, not knowing what to do. And the irony of it all is that at the same time the nation failed to do anything for the black man, though an act of Congress was giving away millions of acres of land in the West and the Midwest. Which meant that it was willing to undergird its white peasants from Europe with an economic floor.
"But not only did it give the land, it built land-grant colleges to teach them how to farm. Not only that, it provided county agents to further their expertise in farming; not only that, as the years unfolded it provided low interest rates so that they could mechanize their farms. And to this day thousands of these very persons are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies every year not to farm. And these are so often the very people who tell Negroes that they must lift themselves by their own bootstraps. It's all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps...."
Dear Mr. President Barack Hussein Obama can you inform the world public of the time and place when African governments upon receiving so-called independence were not granted political independence only?
Can you, Mr. Obama explain to the African world what government or company was ever brought to justice for the crimes at the Cape Coast Castle European American slave fort that you visited Saturday 07/11/09?
Can you, Mr. Obama, name an African government upon receiving independence controlled their mineral or agricultural resources?
Can you, Mr. Obama, name an African government upon receiving independence were not controlled by the banks and industrial corporations of Europe and America?
Can you, Mr. Obama, name an African government upon receiving independence controlled their educational institutions?
Can you, Mr. Obama name a corrupt African leader who did not deposit their citizen’s billions of dollars from state coffers into European and American owned banks with permission?
Can you, Mr. Obama explain to African people worldwide how Europe and America made their riches and acquired African land possessions other than through war against defenseless Africans?
Can you, Mr. Obama name a day in the last 400 years that any European or American government ever economically compensated an African government or victim One Dollar for the European and American slave trade in African people as commodities, intellectual properties, and forced skilled labour?
Can you, Mr. Obama inform the African people worldwide of the place, date, and time that a European or American government or corporation were put on trial in an international court for the horrors and deaths caused by the EU-US slave trade in African people and African colonialism; whose death figures run as high as 150 million?
Can you, Mr. Obama explain how Africans are responsible for Africans whereby upon receiving independence were debt free after surviving the African Holocaust of colonialism and slavery?
Can you, Mr. Obama explain which “excuses about corruption or poor governance” are not traced to racist operated colonial institutions? It is a fact that US and EU governments and their corporate mercenaries installed and armed their own African leaders and generals, and assassinating sovereign African leaders who demanded respect and control over their resources?
Is it racist for America to grant Israel and Egypt billions of American dollars in financial assistance, after their present inability to make peace, not violate human rights, and create a sound fiscal government? Did Russia receive an American “Tough Love” foreign aid approach after the fall of the Soviet Union? Answer: NO. The American U.S. Congress immediately restored their economy with taxpayer’s dollars. No tough love for Russia, why Africa?
Have you Mr. Obama visited the CIA recently and 'googled' (researched) files on America’s role in assassinating African leaders and overthrowing their governments directly and indirectly?
Hellloooo Mr. Obama this information is in the public domain and accessible to those who request it.
“If some areas of the globe, with a history of poverty… are still living in a situation of deprivation comparable to that which existed at the time of Paul VI, and in some cases one can even speak of a deterioration. It is significant that some of the causes of this situation were identified in Populorum Progressio, such as the high tariffs imposed by economically developed countries, which still make it difficult for the products of poor countries to gain a foothold in the markets of rich countries…we must acknowledge how difficult this journey has been, both because of new forms of colonialism and continued dependence on old and new foreign powers, and because of grave irresponsibility within the very countries that have achieved independence.” Encyclical Letter, Caritas In Veritate of The Supreme Pontiff Benedict Xvi
Africa needs an Asian International Court to petition for Reparations and Restitution due to their unrelated connections with the European, Latin American, and American Slave Trade of African people as commodities, intellectual properties, and forced skilled labor.
Peace is unto Barack Obama, my Brother.
Labels: BARACK OBAMA, LLOYD WHITEFIELD BUTLER JR, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Zimbabwe: Truth is the mightiest pen
Lloyd Whitefield BUTLER, Jr.
Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:46:00 +0000
THE people of Zimbabwe will continue to maintain that truth is the mightiest weapon in their arsenal; supported by African self-integrity. Mindful that as an African you have every right by the Laws of Nature that birth you from the land and soil of Zimbabwe to stand firm.
This ongoing Colonial War is a fight over the Crown Jewel of Africa: Zimbabwe. Remain vigilant.
“I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK Jr.)
It is a civic responsibility to know the truth of your present state of affairs; and why America, England, Canada, the European Union, Japan, and aggressive corporations of capitalism are now descending on the citizens of Zimbabwe. Stand firm and protect what is yours and the children of your future will bless you forever.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” (MLK Jr.). Where have MDC-T leadership always resided in difficult in times, in Zimbabwe or foreign places of comfort and convenience?
It is beyond diabolical for anyone to allow or use chemical warfare by way of cholera to effect “regime change.”
Why is it that opposition leaders continue live outside of Zimbabwe and expect the citizens in Zimbabwe to do the dirty work destabilizing their own government in order to assist in the financial ruin and national destruction of their home?
Holy Archbishops Desmond Tutu and John Sentamu, both professors of Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, and Diplomat Kofi Annan, all to this day have remained silent on the true cause of and Western influence of 800,000 plus African Christians massacred in two months for their real estate in Rwanda. The three disappeared during that time.
None of these Western connected politicians are presently vocal on the devastating crisis occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Why? Yet, they find time to haul over Zimbabwean Government's “divine right” not to bow down like a slave and submit to superficial colonizers and their African agents of regime change.
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men…. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. (MLK Jr.)
Scientific powered Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Archbishop Bishops Tutu and Sentamu, Diplomat Annan, Politician Odinga and Morgue Tsvangirai have not answered my question to locate one nation, territory, section, community, neighborhood, tribe, or basement that a European nation settled and did not establish hell and death for the Native inhabitants; whether in Africa, Asia, and/or North and South America. Name one location?
In the name of civilization, history, and religion I implore you to name just one single solitary place on God’s Earth where European education and diplomacy can display proof of European civility in a non European location?
You cannot name a single place. Because, arrogant racist western culture represent the world’s greatest troublemakers and warlords; who’s well documented histories are a judgment and testament to their past deeds that you six totally ignore legalistically and ecclesiastically. By what turn of events have European and American neo-Colonizers become exemplars of Christian moral principles and initiators of peace, health, and civilization. If western civilization is so sweet and desiring why shove down the national mouths of African nations? Why force feed democracy at the barrel of a gun and implementation and threats of additional sanctions?
To beat a nation down while on its knees, at the same point in time, as it is fighting for self-government and integrity as a black African people; in their own land; speaks of the type of corporate masters Rice, Tutu, Sentamu, Annan, Odinga, and Tsvangirai reverence just for western kudos. You six are wolves in wolves clothing.
Contemplate this: cholera breaks out mysteriously in Zimbabwe and six black politicians call on warlords and former colonizers to add additional economic sanctions to the very victims of the cholera outbreak? In addition, the six beg and plead with European and American governments to overthrow a sovereign African government?
I am reminded of the peculiar behavior of enslaved Africans victimized within the American slaveocracy (Peculiar Institution). There were two types of enslaved Africans fighting for freedom. One type fought against the institutions of slavery to abolish it wherever found. And, the other enslaved African fought against slavery because they did not enjoy there position as a slave, but preferred to be in the position as a slave-master or enslaver.
Archbishop of York John Sentamu says: "Mugabe and his henchmen must now take their rightful place in The Hague and answer for their actions. The time to remove them from power has come." He says: “The time has come for Robert Mugabe to answer for his crimes against humanity”
The Hague? How does the Honorable Robert Gabriel Mugabe qualify for The Hague Court, a court that US President George W. Bush does not recognize as a civilized court?
According to the Global Policy Forum the “US Opposition to the International Criminal Court - The United States government has consistently opposed an international court that could hold US military and political leaders to a uniform global standard of justice…The Bush administration, coming into office in 2001 as the Court neared implementation, adopted an extremely active opposition. Washington began to negotiate bilateral agreements with other countries, insuring immunity of US nationals from prosecution by the Court. As leverage, Washington threatened termination of economic aid, withdrawal of military assistance, and other painful measures. These exclusionary steps clearly endanger the fledgling Court and may seriously weaken its credibility and effectiveness.
Archbishop what happened to Reparations for Africans from the onslaught of Slavery and Apartheid Colonialism in America and Africa?
“However, the Hague - is not a good way to go about it. It is a kangaroo court, that states do as I say NOT as I do. The U.S. and U.K are immune to any persecutions from this court or system of justice. It is therefore seen as a tool that is good for everyone else to be judged by, but the standards cannot apply to those who set up the court. Why then would anyone respect this court?...It basically calls for ‘you can judge me’, I however cannot judge you.” (Posted Comment in the International Herald Tribune July 2008).
“Hague Invasion Act”: Bush Signs a New Law Designed to Intimidate Countries That Ratify the Treaty for the International Criminal Court. President George Bush signed into law the American Service-Members Protection Act of 2002, which will supposedly protect U.S. Service-Members from the International Criminal Court. (Democracy Now – War and Peace Report 08/06/02)
The new law authorizes the use of military force to liberate any American or citizen of a U.S.-allied country being held by the court. This provision, dubbed the “Hague invasion clause,” has caused a strong reaction from U.S. allies around the world, particularly in the Netherlands.
People of Zimbabwe, maintain your faith in your Constitution and Faith in the God of your African ancestors.
I wrote an article “Are the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and sanctions ethical or legal?” and surmised that: Rich and powerful enterprises and nations of the West decide to correct perceived wrongs of a small mineral rich poor nation. The West decides that to alleviate this poor nation’s (Zimbabwe) condition or alleged tyranny is to economically squeeze the life out of its agriculture, trade, Reserve Bank, and social welfare”. And, this is considered a humanitarian act in European culture. (The Zimbabwe Guardian Thu, 27 Dec 2007)
“Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them.” - Proverbs 22:22-23
“He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.” - Proverbs 22:16
“The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall." - Proverbs 18:11
Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the war-mongering archbishops and diplomats:
‘Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Labels: LLOYD WHITEFIELD BUTLER JR
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