The virutes of segregation (Part 3)...The ballad of Ray Robinson...

Perry Ray Robinson Jr., was born on September 12th, 1937, in Washington D.C.

Ray was reared in the 'Civil Rights' and 'integration' struggles of the fifties, and according to people who knew him was at the Washington Mall on the day Martin Luther King jr., made his famous 'I have a dream' speech. He also attended the 1964 funeral of three white civil rights workers killed in Mississippi. And in 1968, Robinson was among the protesters who set up Resurrection City, a camp at the Washington Mall. 

"Ray was always involved in justice for everybody," said his younger sister, Naima Latif of Pittsboro, N.C. "He was a nonconformist to the status quo. If it was unjust, he wouldn't go along with it."  

Even the way Robinson filled out his children's birth certificates showed his disdain for separating people by ethnicity. Instead of filling in the blank next to "Negro" or "colored," he crossed it out and wrote
in "human" each time.  

In a quest to further display his 'human' solidarity, Ray volunteered to travel to South Dakota's, 'Pine Ridge Indian Reservation', in April of 1973. There, he stood alongside american indians in their fight against the machinations of white supremacy. He integrated himself into the ranks of the 'american indian movement' (or AIM), and their occupation of the reservation village of 'Wounded Knee' in South Dakota. 

This stand off against factions of american federal officers and american indians lasted 71 days, and left two indian tribal members dead and a federal agent seriously wounded. And unfortunately, it also took the life of brotha Ray Robinson.  

Now, you might be thinking, Ray fought valiantly against the american federal agents, which ultimately brought about his demise; but you'd be wrong. Ray was not killed by american authorities, he was killed by members of AIM, who mistook him for a federal agent. Simply because he was Black.

Some reports even say he was 'tortured', then murdered, by these american indians.  

Buswell-Robinson, of Detroit, Ray's wife, said her husband's nonviolent approach conflicted with the violent situation at Wounded Knee and it's possible AIM members suspected he was a federal informant. The personable, 6-foot-2 black man with a deep baritone voice, would have stood out on a midwest american indian reservation, she said.

According to the FBI documents, an unidentified cooperating witness told agents that, "Robinson had been tortured and murdered within the AIM occupation perimeter, and then his remains were buried 'in the hills'."

Any search or excavation attempts would likely be complicated by the reservation's sovereign status. Buswell-Robinson and her two daughters, traveled to Wounded Knee in 2004 to walk areas that Robinson likely walked, but they came back without answers. For years, they've been trying to locate Ray's remains to give him a proper burial.

And for decades, AIM leaders have denied knowledge of Robinson's death. One witness told agents that AIM leader Vernon Bellecourt, who died in 2007, knew Robinson had been killed and, "made a statement to the effect that AIM had 'really managed to keep a tight lid on that one' over the years'."

Clyde Bellecourt, AIM's co-founder, when asked about Ray, questioned why the FBI wasn't spending its time investigating the many unsolved american indian deaths during 'Wounded Knee'.

"There's never been a grand jury hearing on any of them." Clyde said.

Now, if you're a Black man or woman reading this, I'd like you to take this story into consideration the next time you or any other Black person wants to brag about having 'indian in your family'.

Recently, I got into a heated debate with a so-called native american, behind his extolling the virtues of the 'white moral highground'. Firstly, Black people are the real 'native americans', 'cause we were here before them; look up the 'Washitaw Moors' if you want to know who was in america before the american indians. Second, when I asked how this american indian could talk about the virtues of white people, after what they'd done to his people, he told me his people's 'casinos' were making them rich and they didn't pay federal taxes. When I asked if he was personally rich from his people owning casinos, I didn't hear back from him. Moreover, if they are indigenous people, like they claim, why are they paying any american taxes?

Moving on...

So, I'm relaying this story here to tell Black people, it's high time we stopped talking about the many benefits of 'multi-culturalism'. This mainstreamed multicultural campaign is just a ruse used by white and other non-white americans, to tell Black people that we shouldn't ever think about ourselves exclusively in the context of human rights struggles. And, it's telling us we shouldn't follow the examples of every other ethnic group, who only think about themselves. 

Like I've said before in this blog, the 'integration' initiatives of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King jr., were just tricks played on Black people to make us walk away from the thriving business economy we'd created separate from the american social order. Meaning, our dollars were getting too powerful, so whitey had to figure out a way to get them in his/her pockets. 

And again, the reason we did walk away from our own businesses, was we'd been conditioned by white fascists, especially in the american educational system, to love them and hate ourselves. So we thought, any closer proximity to whites would be a boom for Black people. And we bit the bait. And white fascists knew we would, 'cause they understood how they'd conditioned us. 

So I've said all that to say this...THE BLACK DIASPORA HAS NO FRIENDS!

BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS, WE DON'T NEED ANY!!

ALL WE NEED IS EACH OTHER!

Remember, our strength is not in our dollars, but in our UNITY! 

So that's what's needed to get outta' this white supremacist induced, mental strangle-hold we're in. 

Now again, if you're a Black man or woman reading this, ask yourself: do you care whether or not Black people unite for their betterment? Do you care about healing the rift between the Black man and woman so we can save the Black family?

Now, if you don't, you've wasted your time coming to my Blog in the first place. But if you do, the first step is not trying to convince every Black person to adopt your opinion, the first step is changing YOUR OWN MIND!

How we get outta' this, is ridding ourselves of the self-hatred bred into us by white supremacists and their institutions. It involves you doing the work, especially at the subconscious level, to stop feeling inferior to every other ethnic group because of your color. 

And even if you don't wanna' do any of the subconscious work to change, if we can collectively acknowledge what's been done to us, we'll be able to see ourselves and each other in a different light. 

So let's get to work!

Ma'at Hotep!

MontUHURU Mimia

P.S.

If you'd like to see the other two parts of this series, you can do that here: Part 1 Part 2