Rasheed, Muhammad. "The Value in the Roles." Cartoon.
25 Jun 2020. Pen & ink w/Adobe Photoshop color.
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Muhammad Rasheed - In his book
From Here to Equality, Dr. William "Sandy" Darity, Jr. said that white America will first need to be ready in order for the black
American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) to get our Reparations out of Congress. That means counseling
— an adjustment/softening of their traditionally selfish, anti-ADOS attitude.
The hardcore activists (
Antonio Moore,
Yvette Carnell) who first brought the Reparations topic to the national stage, ain’t no counselors. The activist is of the Warrior Class; they bring awareness with
The Data and uncomfortably speak uncompromising Truth to power. By their nature, the hardcore activist doesn’t play well with others and doesn’t give a sh*t about your feelings – they demand justice
NOW as the debt of ADOS Reparations is long overdue. This creates a natural conflict.
This is where the role of the public intellectual comes in. Speaking with a softer voice than the warrior activist, the public intellectual may actually be capable of making white America lower their traditional antagonism and at least listen. In the best case scenario perhaps this public intellectual,
Nikole Hannah-Jones, will be able to get white America to actually change their minds about sharing wealth, land & rule with ADOS and true progress will finally be made.
Once the necessarily harsh voice of the hardcore activist successfully fires up the people with its Truth and gains the attention of power, then it's the public intellectual's job to step in and massage white America's attitude to make them ready for this great new #ADOS change. Perhaps it's reasonable that the public intellectual may find it prudent during that massaging not to bring up the hardcore activists when there's a strong chance that the mention of their names alone may cause white America's neck hairs to bristle in renewed petty hostility.
It's up to us as the American Descendants of Slavery to write the songs of our battles and victories to ensure the names of all of our heroes are known for posterity.
Norrin Radd - If you let Nikole Hannah-Jones explain Reparations, she'll eventually have it to where literally everyone/anyone EXCEPT actual ADOS receive it.
Muhammad Rasheed - That's not true.
Norrin Radd - What part?
Muhammad Rasheed - The part about her giving our Reparations away to other people. What part of her article gave you that impression?
Norrin Radd - I think eventually her inability to specify and not include those who should be cited while mentioning "orgs" that shouldn't will only lead to more mudding of the waters.
Muhammad Rasheed - BLM is a famous org that is linked worldwide to the anti-police brutality movement. It literally would have been stupid of her not to mention it in the exact way she did on a platform of that size. Your comment lacks insight.
She cited Dr. Darity whose works cite #ADOS. There's a clear line there and we'll just have to accept that. The problem here is that both Tone & Yvette have been very harsh to Nikole in their public comments and since Nikole obviously can be just as petty as they can be, probably decided to slight them for it on purpose just because she could. Comments like yours from the other #ADOS members are not helping. NHJ is not Tariq
— she is a real anti-racism scholar and not a huckster. There's no reason to treat her badly. We need to be trying to repair that relationship.
Norrin Radd - BLM, while famous worldwide, is at best scatterbrained and hasn't actually advocated for anything remotely resembling specificity. What insight am I not privy to that, were I in possession of, would see me defending someone who, by her own words, doesn't actually believe Reparations wiil positively impact ADOS? Is that not questionable and/or huckster behavior?
But, for the sake of argument, let's just say that her recent commits about Reparations & Prof Darity are all sincere, her failure to understand just how her inclusion of BLM (who by virtue of their scatterbrained-ness) kneecaps whatever pro-Reparations points she makes isn't something that anyone serious about Reparations can ignore.
Also, given her level of influence, the fact that she doesn't know that her presumed petty "slights" against Yvette and Tone (who she should be thanking) actually jeopardizes real Reparations advocacy, is all the more reason why she's not suited to speak.
If that's "insight", then I'll pass on it.
Muhammad Rasheed - Norrin wrote:
“BLM, while famous worldwide, is at best scatterbrained and hasn't actually advocated for anything remotely resembling specificity.”
Meanwhile, the criminal justice reforms that Jeff Sessions made it his business to repeal as the new AG came directly from BLM advocacy efforts.
Norrin wrote:
“What insight am I not privy to that, were I in possession of, would see me defending someone who, by her own words, doesn't actually believe Reparations wiil positively impact ADOS?”
Dr. Darity also believed that before he actually started researching the material. Afterwards he became Reparations biggest advocate. During phase one of her #1619Project, Reparations wasn’t Nikole’s core focus, so she was still under the same wrong assumptions about it that many figures were. After she started studying it and filling the knowledge void, her attitude about it changed the same way Dr. Darity’s did – a change we can see reflected during her comments on Oprah’s OWN program “Where Do We Go from Here?” Your comments give the impression that you just haven’t been paying attention at all and it does you little credit.
Norrin wrote:
“Is that not questionable and/or huckster behavior?”
No. It means that at first she just didn’t know, but when she did know, she adjusted her position. Questionable and/or huckster behavior is when people decide to double-down on foolishness even after they see they were wrong.
Norrin wrote:
“… her failure to understand just how her inclusion of BLM (who by virtue of their scatterbrained-ness) kneecaps whatever pro-Reparations points she makes isn't something that anyone serious about Reparations can ignore. “
This doesn’t make a lick of sense considering her inclusion of BLM in the article was specifically regarding the current race riots triggered by police violence, which is what the whole world knows the organization for. Again, you lack insight.
Norrin wrote:
“Also, given her level of influence, the fact that she doesn't know that her presumed petty ‘slights’ against Yvette and Tone…”
Stop. That was only light speculation on my part. Chances are the real reason they weren’t mentioned is because this article wasn’t designed as comprehensive profile on the Reparations topic. Nikole admitted that the paper pressured her to put out something sooner than she intended so they could have a formal response to the nation-wide civic unrest, so I suspect when the formal phase II component of #1619Project is published it will mention the #ADOS founders there.
Shams MarMar - Hannah Nicole is the safe play she said a lot of good things but she’s watered down and seemingly tries to avoid the word reparations
Muhammad Rasheed - She just wrote a high-profile Reparations article in which she literally said "It is time for reparations."
She's "watered down" because she is a journalist and not an activist. She uses her platform differently for the audience she has.
Kelvin McGahee - Norrin wrote: "BLM has very little to do with reparations. It is a scatterbrained org and anyone with a brain should be mindful of who finds them."
We should also be mindful of the Apologist for people like Nicole Hannah Jones. There’s this historical belief that we have to move politically with hat in hand on our knees begging for resources. The tea party elbowed their way into the political arena and didn’t care who the had to knock off the stage. It showed the republicans that they were willing to burn it all down if they had to.
The republicans gave into their demands.
There’s NO. A big ZERO proof that playing nice is going to get us anywhere.
Muhammad Rasheed - Kelvin wrote: “There’s this historical belief that we have to move politically with hat in hand on our knees begging for resources.”
What we need to do is unify politically under #ADOS and use our political capital to pressure government to commit to reparations and our Black Agenda using voting strategy like #VoteDownBallot and economic boycotts, none of which has anything to do with “hat in hand on our knees begging.”
Kelvin wrote: “The tea party elbowed their way into the political arena and didn’t care who the had to knock off the stage.”
White racists behave the savage way they do because, to their dismay, the black American descendants of slavery are more sophisticated than they are and when left alone can make the system work in our favor more efficiently than our rivals can. They bore witness to this fact hen we literally moved from slave to congressmen during the eight years of Reconstruction while they watched. It scared them to death.
Kelvin wrote: “There’s NO. A big ZERO proof that playing nice is going to get us anywhere.”
You’re a fool. White racists use the cheating tactics they are known for – vote suppression, domestic terror, bullying, land theft, market monopolization – precisely because playing the game correctly works so well for ADOS and they really can’t compete with us as equals. The entire point of racism is to hold us back so they can manufacture a faux-superiority lead.
What we actually need to focus on is a militia so we can protect ourselves from our enemy’s inevitable violence while we make the system work in our favor and piss them off.
Norrin Radd - Criminal justice reforms aren't anything new. Nor have they actually worked to reduce Mass Incarceration or make Black men and boys any less of a target by the State. Calls for reforms are a milquetoast response to this moment.
As I've never seen/read/heard Prof Darity express any explicit anti-Reparations ideas prior to his advocacy, I can't deny or confirm your assertions. Nor am I inclined to think that whatever Darity's stance on Reparations was, that it was akin to that of NHJ's. Also, NHJ's previous stance against Reparations is made that much more peculiar considering that it came after she'd already completed part one of her 1619 Project. The research she'd conducted for that project should have made obvious the need for Reparations or, at the very least, caused her to refrain from totally rejecting it as an option. The fact that it didn't, is telling.
While there are riots going on to be sure, where are there actual race riots taking place? Again, BLM and their dubious goings-on, while famous, only serve to redirect and diffuse the energy of the current moment. Any injection of them as a credible grassroots "organization" into what's supposed to be serious Reparations advocacy should raise eyebrows.
As I don't expect you to have insight into NHJ'S actual thought process, my response to your speculative assertions about her possibly petty motivations was made with the understanding that said motivations were speculative on your part.
Kelvin McGahee - @Norrin... This guy is a comedian. Notice how he believes a system created by white Supremacist is working in our favor.
Norrin Radd - @Kelvin... I just think he's wrong.
Muhammad Rasheed - Norrin wrote:
“Criminal justice reforms aren't anything new.”
I didn’t say it was. What’s relevant is that there is currently a nation-wide civil unrest protest going on and the NY Times pressured their most celebrated writer Nikole to submit something to formally address it. Because the entire point of the nation-wide civil unrest was triggered by a police violence incident, it makes 100% sense that she initiated the piece from the BLM standpoint.
Norrin wrote:
“Nor have they actually worked to reduce Mass Incarceration…”
They got the Obama administration to begin to put some laws in place to try to reverse the effects and that’s what AG Sessions made it his mission to immediately repeal his first hour in office.
You don't know enough.
Norrin wrote:
“As I've never seen/read/heard Prof Darity express any explicit anti-Reparations ideas prior to his advocacy, I can't deny or confirm your assertions.”
Then just look it up. It’s part of his story.
Norrin wrote:
“Nor am I inclined to think that whatever Darity's stance on Reparations was, that it was akin to that of NHJ's.”
Black public figures tend to be against Reparations by default because of decades of toxic ‘Integration’ propaganda against ADOS economic empowerment. Until they decide to break out of The Matrix and look the material up themselves the way Dr. Darity did and how NHJ is currently doing, they’ll just remain hostile against the idea by default without really even knowing why.
Norrin wrote:
“Also, NHJ's previous stance against Reparations is made that much more peculiar considering that it came after she'd already completed part one of her 1619 Project.”
The focus of phase one was to demonstrate that ADOS were the only true American patriots who really believed in the nation’s highest ideals, whereas white people only ever cared about their own selfish selves while pretending to be patriots. The connection to Reparations was only obvious to us who were researched into it; NHJ was still getting there.
Norrin wrote:
“The research she'd conducted for that project should have made obvious the need for Reparations…”
We can’t force people to be ready before they are ready.
Norrin wrote:
“…or, at the very least, caused her to refrain from totally rejecting it as an option. The fact that it didn't, is telling."
All it meant was that at the time she didn’t know enough.
Norrin wrote:
“While there are riots going on to be sure, where are there actual race riots taking place?”
A white cop killed an ADOS man in cold blood while he cried out for his dead mother. Of course the nature of this protest is of a race riot.
Norrin wrote:
“Again, BLM and their dubious goings-on, while famous, only serve to redirect and diffuse the energy of the current moment. Any injection of them as a credible grassroots ‘organization’ into what's supposed to be serious Reparations advocacy should raise eyebrows.”
This article of Nikole’s functions as a public statement about the police violence-initiated protests on behalf of the NY Times, which demands a BLM focus by its nature. It also functioned as a teaser trailer for the upcoming Phase II #1619Project Reparations piece. Hopefully the finished work will properly anchor #ADOS and its founders in a place of honor.
Norrin wrote:
“As I don't expect you to have insight into NHJ'S actual thought process…”
At this point I don’t expect you to have insight into anything at all.
Norrin wrote:
“…my response to your speculative assertions about her possibly petty motivations was made with the understanding that said motivations were speculative on your part.”
The relevant part was that you then tried to run with it and argue against it as a definitive truth in a perfect imitation of something that slimy Zaid Jilani would do.
Muhammad Rasheed - Kelvin wrote:
"Notice how he believes a system created by white Supremacist is working in our favor."
The facts of history reveal that the system wasn’t created by white supremacists, but was usurped by white supremacists for their own self-serving goals, even while ADOS worked hard to make the system function the way it was supposed to function for the people. Phase one of the #1619Project revealed that we wouldn't even have a country if it wasn’t for the patriotic efforts of ADOS, which of course strengthens our Reparations argument. That’s why there is currently a racist white liberal think tank trying to discredit and tear down Nikole’s work as we speak. I see no good in #ADOS members trying to help them tear her down. You two need to be more nuanced and discerning in your critiques.
See Also:
A Desperate War Against Truth
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MEDIUM: Scanned pen & ink cartoon drawing w/Adobe Photoshop color.