"Whats going on in our community and what should be done to stop all the violence and killings?"

Jessie Washington, age 17. Burned alive in Waco Texas while white people smile and laugh (May 1916).
Update 12/6/2010. I have seen this pic many times and only now noticed that you can just make out 2- 4 men standing in a tree for a better view of the slaughter. Look just above the man lifting his hat. GI

Student of the Mind: 

I understand that there is still racism that exist, but our young people are becoming murderers at such young ages and some parents aren't raising these children right. Recently, I experienced a loss in my family because of a gang initiation requiring two young men to kill two random people on the same night. Even before this recent incident, I noticed the downfall of some African American communities. Its only getting worse. Whats going on in our community and what should be done to stop all the violence and killings? 

Ghetto Intellectual: 

First we have to stop stereotyping black youth. Most black youth are not violent. I think we can acknowledge that violence is a problem in our communities while avoiding the promotion of stereotypes that do nothing to solve the problem. Second, some of us have grown more fearful of each other than we are of our oppressors. If you see a black youth who is out of order, talk to them and try to correct them. 

My position is that the criminal justice system has as its primary aim the control and oppression of African Americans because we have been and continue to be a constant threat to the status quo of white elite domination. Black gang violence is directly linked to the white government-sponsored assaults on the Black Freedom Movement of the late 60s.

Thus we cannot adequately address violence in the black community until we have addressed violence in America--much of it sponsored by the United States government. We cannot address violence in the black community until we have addressed American belligerence abroad (imperialism)--all of it sponsored by the United States government. GI

Please review:

• Amos Wilson videos ,especially Black on Black Violence: the psychodynamics of Black self-annihilation in service of white domination (he has a book by the same title).

• Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow
• Blakmon Slavery by another name

• The website Without Sanctuary

• Crips and Bloods: Made in America

• Black Wallstreet

• Violence: An American Tradition 

• The Lynching of Jessie Washington

• COINTELPRO  
• Khalil G. Muhammad The Condemnation of Blackness

tags: violence, gangs, african american, crime, criminal justice, imperialism

Not Just Gangstas: Alabama's Homeboys

"I have a lot of love to give, you know? I guess they [the youth] can feel my love and compassion."

These sorts of stories always get to me ( in a good way). Homeboy Industries is a comprehensive Los Angeles-based gang intervention program founded by Father Greg Boyle. 

Homeboy’s businesses now include the Homeboy Bakery, newly re-opened in our new Headquarters downtown, Homeboy Silkscreen, which prints logos on apparel and provides embroidery services; Homeboy Maintenance, which provides landscaping and maintenance services; Homeboy Merchandise, which sells t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, and mouse pads with the Homeboy logo, now with a retail storefront in the new Headquarters, as well as online ordering; Homegirl Café, newly expanded in the new building with 86 seats, plus a dedicated Catering kitchen provides a training ground dedicated to female clients in all aspects of the restaurant and service industry. A pilot program, Homeboy Press, will publish a literary magazine in late 2008.

Father Boyle sends reformed gang members on an annual pilgrimage to Pritchard, Alabama where poverty is stifling and options are few. Pritchard is a reminder that extreme poverty is not in every instance "out there" beyond our southern border or, even more remotely, the "third world." Poverty is as American as Jazz. The financial downturn might lead to reduced services at Homeboy. Find out how you can contribute here.


I can only do a screen grab. You can view the video over at the Los Angeles Times. 

Homeboys also rap. This one is called "Homeboys Until the End"

tags: do for self, gangs, los angeles, poverty

TONIGHT 10PM!! Sam Greenlee Author of "Spook Who Sat by the Door" interview

Dig it!

One of the most exciting times in my life was running into Baba Sam Greenlee near the DuSable Museum of  African American History in Chicago. He was humble, unassuming, and generous with his time. I recall being distressed when I realized that Mr. Greenlee scrapes by with virtually no income. We really should do better by our elders...


The screen adaption of Sam Greenlee's Spook Who Sat by the Door is one of my all-time favorite movies. It is what black media should be. The plot: a black man infiltrates the CIA, quits, trains local black gangs in military tactics to bring down da Man. 


Greenlee also wrote Baghdad Blues, a quasi-memoir of his previous career as a foreign service officer during the late 50s (?) in Iraq. A key theme in the book is the historical moment wherein Iraqi and  African American revolution intersected on a the larger geopolitical canvas of the "third world" non-alignment movement.


Mr. Greenlee calls his craft "guerilla filmmaking"--a shorthand description of how a filmmaker must navigate around the many barriers erected to discourage politically informed and socially conscious revolutionary black filmmaking:

Freedom Dues

If we're gonna be outsiders, man, take advantage of being outside. If you wanna be a rich ho, then go to Hollywood. If you wanna say something true about black people, then do what we did. Raise the money from the black community and shoot what you want.

— Sam Greenlee, "One on One"

Yes, they do make good athletes.

— General (Byron Morrow), The Spook Who Sat By the Door

"The bling blings are looking for a white audience," says Sam Greenlee in an interview included on Monarch's DVD of The Spook Who Sat By the Door. "My audience is not white." Comparing his own experience with today's hiphoppish excesses, Greenlee is understandably skeptical of commercial processes. Writer of the 1966 novel on which Ivan Dixon's 1973 film is based, Greenlee's frustrations with history between then and now are palpable.

The Spook Who Sat By the Door remains one of the few uncompromised representations of black armed resistance in the United States. Dewayne Wickham,USA Today columnist, provides context in the DVD's introduction to the film: "It was a story of aggressive reaction to white oppression." On its initial release, the film garnered mixed responses. Whereas, according Wickham, "There was violent reaction in some parts of white America," for many black viewers, it was a wakeup call. Theaters in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland sold out for the three weeks the film was in release. Greenlee and Dixon contend that the FBI pressured the distributor to pull the film (in keeping with other tactics deployed the Bureau's COINTELPRO [Counter Intelligence Program]).

Read entire review here.




Listen to W.E. A.L.L. B.E.  interview of Mr. Greenlee 10pm east coast time (EST) here.


Read W.E. A.L.L. B.E.  Blog entry on Sam Greenlee here.

Topic: The Spook Who Sat By The Door 40 Years Later: A Conversation With Sam Greenlee

Featured Guest...

The Honorable Bro. Sam Greenlee

Minister Farrakhan addressing the murder of Derrion Albert and black-on-black violence

Minster Farrakhan speaks to grieving mothers in Compton, California



Compton Part 2



Minister Farrakhan addresses gangs in New Jersey