The gospel of white fascism (Part 3)...Black reparations and bailout politics...

About two years ago, I was speaking to a brotha who was a semi-devout muslim. I don't know if he came to that faith through the 'Nation of Islam', but he touted the tenets of his religion pretty regularly. When I told him I was a Black Nationalist one day, he seemed pretty impressed with the idea of Black men putting aside their differences so they can work together to build something for our Diaspora.

I basically told him that we could have three Black men in any one room, and one could be christian, another could be muslim, and the third could be jewish, but ultimately, we were all gonna' catch hell 'cause we're Black, not because of our religious affiliations. And I could tell by his response, that no one ever posed this concept to him before.

About two weeks later, this brotha and I were rappin' on something socio-political, and the topic of Black reparations came up. In the midst of our conversation, this brotha said emphatically, that Black people shouldn't get reparations 'cause all we'll do is buy a bunch of gold chains with the money. Needless to say, I shook my head at his theory...then I reminded myself about the two-sided nature of our Diaspora's white fascist induced self-hatred.

Whenever someone, especially a person of color, talks about white fascism or the 'white privilege' in a negative way, I'm usually impressed by their conscious insights. But right afterwards, I have to ask myself a mandatory question, and thats: What is this person thinking 'subconsciously'?

I can't tell you how many 'conscious' brothas and sistas I've encountered who were, and are, complete anglophiles 'subconsciously'. AND THEY DON'T KNOW IT!!

For all their facts about Kush and Kemet, and knowledge of the 'Medu Netcher', and their wearing of dashikis and Ankhs, they ultimately still feel inferior to white folks...just like the muslim brotha who told me we shouldn't get reparations.

And right after this brotha said that, I immediately started thinking about another form of 'financial reparations' I'd read about.

The 'Troubled Asset Relief Program', better known as 'TARP', was signed into law by president George W. Bush on October 3rd, 2008. This was basically the Initiative that bailed out american banks after they bundled together pools of toxic loans that were 'Triple A' rated by agencies like 'Moodys' and 'Standard & Poor's' (if you've never heard of these organizations, google them).

Mind you, other organizations like the 'Securities and Exchange Commission' and the 'Commodity Futures Trading Commission' were suppose to regulate these financial markets. Problem was, lobbyists had long since greased the palms of these organization's executives and almost every politician, so damn near every one of them fiddled while Rome burned.

Now, if you're over thirty, chances are you remember the financial crisis of 2008. And long story short, when the crisis hit, Wall Street got bailed out, and Main Street didn't. Even though it was Main Street's tax dollars that bailed these bastards out. But that's american democracy for ya'...or like the legendary singer 'Femi Kuti' (son of Fela) terms it, 'demo-crazy'.

Now after billions in bailout funds were dispersed, you'd think bank executives would be exceptionally frugal with those monies. But if you did, you'd be wrong.

Case in point, 'Northern Trust Corporation', a Chicago based bank, received $1.6 billion dollars of TARP funds from this government. And with it, they threw a golf party for their clients and employees.

You heard right, this bank used taxpayer money to fund the 'PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open' at the 'Riveria Country Club' in suburban Los Angeles. This event included lavish dinners and concerts for clients and employees who attended the week-long shin-dig. Mind you, this was a bank that stated it 'needed' their bail-out money or it would go out of business.

In 2009, Bank of America (BOA), who also received billions of dollars in TARP funds, threw an NFL 'SuperBowl' party called the 'NFL experience'. This entailed 850,000 square feet of sports games and interactive entertainment attractions for BOA's execs and employees, as well as football fans. NFL executives said it was a "multi-million dollar" event, and one SuperBowl 'insider' said the party's tents alone cost over $800,000.

In the same year, Morgan Stanley, the bank that took $10 billion dollars of TARP funds, held a three day conference/party for clients at the 'Breakers', a five-star oceanfront resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

These 'bank parties' were becoming such a regular occurrence, that Senator John Kerry, who's Secretary of State now, responded to them by introducing the 'TARP Taxpayer Protection and Corporate Responsibility Act'. The legislation would make it illegal for companies that receive TARP funds to host parties or other entertainment events during the year they received the assistance, and in the following year as well.

Now, execs from every bank said these 'parties' were annual events they hosted before they got any bailout money. Then they rationalized that these parties were 'marketing initiatives' to attract new clients and retain existing ones.

So my question is this: If these banks were financially stable enough to host these multimillion dollar events annually, why'd they take the TARP funds?

And ultimately, the point I'm making is this: white people DO NOT have the moral high-ground on ANY ETHICAL ISSUE...NOT ONE! And mind you, I said white people 'collectively', I'm not talking about individual cases.

Now, I'll never forget an episode of 'Oprah' I watched where Doctor Oz said that spanish-americans had a higher incidence of diabetes than African-americans. Oprah donned a shocked look on her face, and said, “Higher than Black people?”

Oprah simply couldn't believe we didn't represent the worst case scenario in that statistic. And this says, she'll always believe that we'll represent the worst case scenarios in all negative stats. And this speaks to a trait I see in almost every Black person whether they have a G.E.D. or a PHD. And that's the fact that nearly all of us, consciously or subconsciously, feel that hating our people is a prerequisite for upwardly-mobile, or socially-acceptable Black people. Just like the muslim brotha who felt we shouldn't get reparations.

So how do we get outta' this mind-set?

As of late, readers of this Blog have asked me for a more comprehensive, or definitive solution to the problem of our people's white fascist-induced self-hatred.

Now I'm not gonna' say I have 'the' solution to this problem, but I do have 'a' viable one to offer, or suggest. And it's two-fold.

First off, dealing with the conscious mind's role in this solution, if Black men and women can see how white fascists have conditioned us more than any other kind of person on the planet to hate ourselves, 'cause we have the most genetic power to breed them out of existence, then we can begin the process of looking at ourselves and each other with more loving and forgiving eyes.

And I know that sounds incredibly glib and corny, and I know I've said this a million times, but if you can not connect EVERY dysfunction exhibited in the Black community to how white fascists have taught us to hate ourselves more than anyone else, then you'll never get out of hating Black people collectively or individually...period.

And again, like I've stated so many times, the reason the american educational system teaches us that only Black people were slaves, is so we can hate ourselves more than anyone else. They'll never tell us that the very word 'slave' comes from the white 'Slavs', or 'Slavic' people. Or how Yugo'Slavia' had so many white slaves, that they named the country after them.

Now, it's mandatory that you're able to grasp this first step. Because if you can't, not only will you always be stuck in a self-hating mind-state as a Black man or woman, but you'll never be able to get to the second step.

And that step is reconditioning the subconscious.

So what I'll do is detail how I've gone about that process for my first post of the New Year.

Until then, consider if this first step is 'doable' for you. 'Cause if it's not, I gather you can figure out how you'll feel about Black people, and ultimately yourself, from this day forward.

Later...

MontUHURU Mimia

Financial crimes and the Black 'triple' standard (Part 1)...Lauryn Hill

In the case of Black people who are associated with financial crimes, there's not only a double standard, there's a 'triple' standard.
--MontUHURU Mimia

This is the first part of an e-book I'll release dealing with the inequities involved with Black people who are convicted of financial crimes. 

This tome will be comprised of three short bios that will chronicle the lives of Lauryn Hill, Wesley Snipes and Jamie Dimon (former JPMorgan Chase CEO). And it will show how absurd the american (in)justice system is in it's dealings with Black people accused of crimes involving pretty paltry sums, while Wall Street and corporate executives who create myriad financial meltdowns that nearly tank this economy, seem to get a free pass. 

It's crazy to me that not one Wall Street executive went to jail behind their part in the 2008 financial crisis. I just recently found out that the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the IRS have an ANTITRUST CORPORATE LENIENCY PROGRAM...a 'LENIENCY' PROGRAM!! Basically this means corporate crooks can confess to a financial crime and government regulators who should lock them up, actually work with them to draw up installment plans so they can pay back what they stole; while they remain free. 

Unfreakin' believable.

The first part of this looks at Lauryn Hill and her troubles with the american injustice system. You almost expect this country to be hard on brothas, but when they start lockin' up sistas...especially young mothers to boot, it says to Black people that we really need to get on the move and make some real changes. 

So here's part one, hope ya' like it:

Lauryn Hill was born on May 26th, 1975; she was raised in South Orange, New Jersey and grew up in a musical family who encouraged her artistic endeavors. Lauryn had early success as a young actress when she landed a recurring role in the TV soap opera 'As the world turns'; she also played opposite Whoopi Goldberg in 'Sister Act 2: Back in the habit'. 

In high school, she met up with a young Pras Michel and started a band with Pras' cousin Wyclef Jean; this eventually became 'The Fugees'. The Fugees released two albums, 'Blunted on reality' in 1994 and 'The Score' in 1996. The Score was a breakout success and it took the number one spot on the Billboard 200, selling six million albums worldwide. 

Now, it was the industry's public relations machine that blamed the break up of the Fugees on Lauryn and Wyclef's romantic fallout; they also said this is what lead to Lauryn pursuing a solo career. But I suspect the industry elites seperated Lauryn from Wyclef and Pras; 'cause they're notorious for this kind of behavior. Reference Beyonce and Destiny's Child, Michael Jackson and the Jackson five, Diana Ross and the Supremes, etc.

The miseducation of Lauryn Hill was released in 1998 and received an almost unparalleled universal acclaim for a Hip Hop album. Lauryn was lauded as the voice of the 'Hip Hop nation', and she garnered five grammys for the record. 

On February 8th, 1999, Lauryn was featured on the cover of Time magazine. 

Now, every american knows that this is the mark of someone who's made a revolutionary contribution to this country's culture; and it's one of the white elite's quintessential stamps of approval. Lauryn was america's sweetheart--she was a kinder, gentler and more easily digestible face for Hip Hop culture, thus making it more acceptable for white audiences.  

Lauryn became the posterchild for what the white elite thought was commercially golden in Hip Hop. And with that status came their co-opting of her moral compass, along with their using her to make black women more palatable to white men. 

Take a look at Lauryn's Rolling Stone cover to the right; again, this is another positive branding of the white supremacist's public relations machine. This magazine gives people their opinions as to what is popular and acceptable in american mainstream culture. But if you look a little closer, you can see the sublime messages coming off this cover. Now, beyond the short-shorts, Lauryn looks like the typical american teenage girl; but if you read the titled captions around her, they intimate something else. 

If you look at the left title on top of the Rolling Stone magazine, you'll see it reads 'Larry Flynt D.C. sex cop'. And the right top title reads 'Hole live'; this is basically saying that black women are to be looked upon as sex objects for white men. Beneath the 'Hole live' title there's a listing of the bands 'Sugar Ray' and 'Everclear'; both bands are and were fronted by white men. At the bottom left of the cover the title reads 'white rappers who don't suck'; yet another sexual reference involving white men. 

And of course, the pale-skinned degenerates in the white elite always have to lob a derogatory insult at us; and this comes in the form of the cover's bottom right title which says 'How social security robs the young'. This is basically calling black women welfare queens with the mention of social security, when the elites know that the majority of people on welfare in america are white; it's been that way for decades. When they say social security robs 'the young', they're really saying that Black people make up the majority of the welfare cases in this country to the detriment of young white people. Again, you gotta' love these wiley caucasians.

  

MTV Unplugged 2.0 was the last album released by Lauryn in 2001. It also received a lot of industry acclaim, but not nearly as much as her last endeavor. And at this time Lauryn was getting really disgruntled. See, Lauryn was discovering the REAL price of fame; and she was still distraught about the Fugees break up. This is why she was prone to crying fits like the one she had on MTV's airing of her 'Unplugged' special. She was morally conflicted about what her handlers were asking her to do and had made her do. 

Coincidentally, Lauryn was given guitar lessons by the industry's elites to make this instrument popular again. Once turntables started outselling guitars, the white elites had to do something to make guitars popular with Black folks, because in whitey's mind, this is HIS instrument. 

Oddly enough, white people's connection to Rock and Roll and guitar playing came decades after Black men created the genre. They used to call Rock and Roll jungle music because we created it and were the only ones playing it. Reference Little Richard, Chuch Berry, Bo Diddly, Muddy Waters, etc. It's funny how Mr. Charley (white people for those of you under 25) now see's this genre as exclusively his own. It was Black men who taught whites to play guitar when they were stuck being pianists and playing irrelevant european classical crap like compositions from beethoven and brahms; but I digress.

Eventually Lauryn's dissatisfaction with her handlers directives had her rebelling and making more political music. And she got so rebellious that she became dangerous. 

Cut to today. It's said that Lauryn owes this government a million dollars in back taxes. 1.8 million to be exact.

Now, prosecutors in her case say this debt was for 2008 and 2009 when Lauryn failed to file federal tax returns for 'additional' income she got over the course of these two years. It's said she also owes money for a tax liability to the state of New Jersey. 

What they're not telling you is before Lauryn's last hearing, she repaid $970,000 dollars of this debt back to the IRS. And she had friends like Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder writing letters to lobby for her freedom. Still, the amer-i-con government said this wasn't good enough and decided to throw her in jail for 3 MONTHS. Mind you, after her three month stint, she'll also has to serve another three months of house arrest, a year's probation and she's gotta' pay an additional fine of $60,000. 

Again, un-freakin' believable. 

Now government officials know Lauryn can pay this debt off, and even in the case of her not having the means to do it right now, she could easily make this money in the near future. But this is the price Black folks pay for bucking america's white supremacist institutions. And the price is even steeper for Black celebrities 'cause they have a measure of influence over the public. 

Now, this was before my time, but I've heard the same thing happened to Billie Holiday after she began performing the song 'Strange Fruit'. For the uninitiated, the song 'Strange Fruit' was and is about the hanging of Black men in america. 

The chorus of the song says: Southern trees bear strange fruit, blood on the leaves, blood on the roots.

It was when Billie started getting too political that white men started pushing heroin on her; and that addiction eventually killed her. Coincidentally, it's also documented that this government worked with the italian mafia to flood the streets of Black communities with heroin to quiet down our political leanings. This was especially true of the time when the Black Panthers were patrolling our streets. Wish they were still around, they might've been able to save Trayvon, but again, I digress. 

Getting back to Lauryn, mind you, she's a mother of six. Now, they're gonna' make a mother of six go to jail for three months for a debt she's clearly able to pay?

Again, the only justice Black people are gonna' receive is the kind we seek for ourselves. It's up to us to organize and light a fire beneath the asses of Black politicians, and tell them, if you don't do for us, we're voting you out...PERIOD!!!

Unity, is the only thing that will save us; and this holds true for us all whether you have a G.E.D. or a P.H.D.

Black people, it's time to put our petty qualms aside; we've gotta' unite to survive the travails that are coming. 

And as Sam Jackson said in 'Do the right thing'...that's the 'triple' TRUTH, Ruth. 

Hotep and Kem Wesir,

MontUHURU Mimia

A twit's 'tweet'...or how CEOs succumb to social networks...

 

On Tuesday, April 23rd at 1:08 p.m., a ‘tweet’ by the Associated Press stated: Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured. 

Several minutes later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 143 points. 

This in itself isn’t shocking considering the information sent via Twitter by the Associated Press, but there was one small problem…the ‘tweet’ was fake. 

So after organizations like the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the CFTC (Commodities and Futures Trading Commission) supposedly mandated new financial regulations to thwart another financial crisis, what happens? The financial markets are nearly destroyed by a bogus, errant ‘tweet’.  

What’s wrong with this picture people?

That same Tuesday by 1:18 p.m., after said tweet was deemed fake by the Associated Press, the stock markets rebounded and gained back its losses. Mind you, that fake tweet wiped out 136.5 billion dollars of the S&P 500’s index value.Yep…that’s billion with a ‘b’.

Talk about truth being stranger than fiction. 

But wait, it gets worse; the reason the stock market crashed so suddenly, isn’t only because no one checked the veracity of said tweet, it’s because the problem wasn’t entirely caused by ‘people’. The market crashed behind ‘AUTOMATED’ trades as well. Yep, you read that right; nearly HALF these trades were made solely by computers. 

High Frequency Trading (HFT) is a new-fangled method of stock trades that take flesh and blood humans out of the mix so these transactions can literally happen in seconds. HFT is wholly comprised of computer algorithms that not only follow the markets looking for ‘key words’ to follow trends, but these programs actually buy and sell stocks too. So there’s literally no one ‘minding the store’ as far as these trades go. On top of that, HFT computers are programmed to make ‘illegitimate trades’ to fool or sabotage other HFT computers into thinking certain trends are happening when they’re not. This is to cut down on the competition when other HFT-driven firms might take a piece of their action. If it sounds scary, that’s ‘cause it is. And to think, people have their life savings in the hands of these purposely corrupted computer programs. 

Just when you thought ‘exotic financial instruments’ like the credit default swap were being tamed by the bureaucrats who run these markets, we’re finding out the financial industry’s ‘crap shoot’ stylings are alive and well. But in the case of HFT, you can skip the ‘alive’ part. 

So what’s it gonna’ take to stop these corrupted computings? Hows about consumers who have money invested with these HFT firms pulling their capital out. Or swearing at your local politician in a Town Hall meeting to let them know the proletariat are done taking this corporate tomfoolery!

Until then, it’ll be more of the same casino-like behavior from the Wall Street bunch. But ultimately, they couldn’t do it unless we let them. So it’s time to get organized and get some results. And the sooner, the better. 

Hotep (Peace)