No Survival Skills for Black Children

Since 1994, United African Movement has been able to maintain a Freedom Retreat for Boys and Girls. We must learn lessons from our experiences. Freedom Retreat for Boys and Girls arose out of the wrongful prosecution of the Central Park 6 while the Black community stood mostly helpless. It proved that white supremacy was still in full effect and that Blacks had no mechanism to protect their children. Black children were subject to white paternalism. In slavery, there was only a master-slave relationship. There was no parent-child relationship. Family courts and criminal courts still enforce the master-slave relationship. The NAACP, the National Urban League, the Black church and Black social organizations, among others, still accommodate white supremacy. No Black political organizations exist because Blacks are forbidden from engaging in political speech. "Our" leaders and representatives are plantation overseers, slave drivers and snitches. Many of them will be in Denver in late August attending the Democratic National Convention. Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that our children lack survival skills. The public school system is a holding pen for the prison-industrial complex. The school system permits work-release programs and furloughs which thrive during the summer. Children, who must attend summer school, are not allowed to enjoy summer furloughs. Freedom Retreat for Boys and Girls is a sleep-away, African-centered, summer program to provide Black children with survival skills. Environmental racism is a threat. The greatest threat to Black children is the criminal "justice" system. Policemen are modern day slave catchers. The education system is a slave farm. The Black community is a colony. Teaching Black children survival skills today is like teaching enslaved Africans how to read in 1776. The educational system is a farce because it fails to provide Black children knowledge for survival. It elevates statistics over survival. This is educational quicksand. Thus, the prison-industrial complex is ensnaring our best and our brightest while they are chasing rainbows. Freedom Retreat offers a legal advocacy program which teaches our children about this country's criminal "justice" system from arrest to conviction. The public school system fails to offer a similar program. This means that our children are no match for law enforcement authorities. This is by design. See, for example, the Central Park 6 and the Scottsboro Boys. "Those who fail to learn from the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them." Our children are suffering from this syndrome. Black elders and adults are not studying history and transmitting important lessons to our children. White supremacists have been warring against our children for four hundred years.We have moved as a people from a gerontocracy to a morontocracy. Our minds are still mired in slavery. Stupidity and ignorance have been elevated over wisdom. We are practicing abnormal psychology which has permeated African culture. In the meantime, we are clueless. Strategies for survival are non-existent. Because of slavery, Blacks have been saddled-down with myriad problems from a tainted diet to illogical thinking. No relief is in sight including the possible elevation of Sen. Barack Obama to the Big House which will only assuage our problems. We will be preoccupied with distractions.The mission of the Democratic Party is to maintain the subjugation of Africans. Chief Justice Roger Taney was a "fellow" Democrat. He penned Dred Scott. Today, it is still the rule of law. After the Civil War, the KKK was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party. Throughout her life, Fannie Lou Hamer fought the Democratic Party. United African Movement is using August as a month for planning our survival. Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887. One hundred years later to the year, white law enforcement officials kidnapped and raped fifteen-year-old Tawana Brawley. Her survival was at risk. UAM was born on August 17, 1988. The struggle to expose a state-sponsored cover-up of Brawley continues while the estates of Alberta Spruill and Amadou Diallo, among others, are enjoying hush money. Racial accommodationists were appointed to mislead these struggles and, in return, to receive thirty pieces of silver. UAM refuses to embrace known pimps and prostitutes and to peddle the future of black children. Character and ethics must form the foundation for any effective human rights organization. These are the necessary ingredients of African philosophy. After giving deference to character and ethics in our relationship with each other, we must employ the principles of critical thinking to define and survive a risk-laden environment. Common sense and basic reasoning are the foundational keys for critical thinking. To survive white supremacy, which includes white tricknology, critical thinking is key. Mentacide will resume for our children after Labor Day. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has disenfranchised the parents and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who has no educational skills, has fashioned an educational program which spells failure. It is tantamount to D-con for rats. Even rats acquire knowledge to avoid many poisons. What is our excuse? Bloomberg has hired the Chief HNIC, in the Black colony, to promote the continued disenfranchisement of Black people and to undo the sacrifices of countless, revered ancestors including Hamer and Medgar Evers. Next year, the New York Legislature will have to vote on the continued disenfranchisement of Africans and Latinos in education. This HNIC's job is to keep our eyes closed during 2009. What will we do?