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Thursday, October 27, 2016

Proposed Testimoney For the Human Relations Commission by Brother Tracy Gibson


Testimony in front of the Human Relations Commission

From Mr. Tracy Gibson

October 23  -- October 25th, 2016

 

1)      This hearing was called to complain about some Black People being called the ``N’’ word by a White Club owner. This is just so much smoke and mirrors to me.

 

2)      I, as a Black Gay Man seeking economic redemption and economic fairness and economic equality am not so much concerned about being called the ``N’’ word because I know the most liberal White People sometimes use such words freely among themselves.

 

3)      What I am concerned about is our unity as Black People. I would first like to know how many People Black, White or any other color have an account at the United Bank, the Black Bank in town and at Progress Plaza and in Germantown? I see so and so many hands went up.  Some of these White-Run banks are very racist and I suggest you start right there and get an account at the United Bank and help money stay in your Black community.

 

4)      I have to ask are we really concerned about economic parity and economic justice or being called the ``N ‘’ word?

 

5)      I Am concerned about being called poor. I want to see 52nd Street from Baltimore Avenue to Lancaster Avenue called and so designated Africa Town by the City of Philadelphia. When I write the Black City Council People about this they have little of nothing to say about it. I have to ask you do you see any Black stores in China Town? Yet we have a preponderance of Asian stores with no Black employees in Our Black neighborhoods.  I LOVe all People, so don’t think I’m a racist. But I’m sick and tired of Black people not having their own place to shop right here in Philadelphia that is exclusively for Black People and our own merchants.  We have very few successful Black Gay merchants right here in Philadelphia. This is what I’m concerned about. 

 

6)      I have a petition to make 52nd street from Baltimore Avenue to Lancaster Avenue Africa Town and I want as many People to have the heart to sign it as possible. If you can’t sign this I have to wonder if you are serious about having economic justice for Black People right here in Philadelphia. You don’t have to be Black to sign my petition.  You just have to be a LOVing and caring person who wants to see real justice and real economic parity right here in Philadelphia.

 

7)      I have a corporation that will be 10 years old on December 18th, of this year. I need money to do a few things that will delight any Black person Gay or Straight who care about our Black People. If you want to buy my book or send in a donation, I have some papers here that will tell you how to give the support I need. I have done a tremendous amount of work for the Black community over the many years I have been an activist. I need your support. Most of all I need your signature on these petitions. I will send copies to the Mayor and our Congress People and our U.S. Senators. Please call me if you have any other suggestions about what to do to make this a reality. We need to stop shopping at Macy’s and places like that and start shopping at our own stores so we can have a Black Macy’s; Black hotels; Black Large apartment buildings; and we need a mature Black consumer that will seriously support a very large Black business community. This will give us the initiative and wherewithal  we need to  build the institutions our Black community needs now and will need 100 years from now. These institutions will not be able to be destroyed by Republicans who cut budgets for social programs because they will be supported privately by Black people and progressives of every race who authentically want to see Black people get ahead.

 

8)       The last thing I want to say is David Fattah had a Black club in West Philadelphia are the Black community didn’t support it. What happened? I want someone to testify about that. I need someone to have the heart to testify about this.  We had a golden opportunity to help Brother David Fattah out, but we didn’t do it. What happened?? We need more Heart!!!!!

Friday, October 14, 2016

what the Devil


 

Don’t Be Fearful Of Witches, Werewolves, Warlocks, Serpents, Goons, Gargoyles, Goblins & Devils…..

 

                Brash hatred of White people can be used by them to ensure that they & White Supremacy are never defeated and fully overcome. In his hay day, Malcolm X said, among many other things, that White People were Devils.  Like most of you, I have many White friends. They don’t seem like Devils to me.  Some, if not almost ALL the people of European descent I know are involved in the progressive movement for human rights on some level. They have NOT let fear of Goblins keep them frozen in inactivity. (We as Black people need to get unfrozen also!!)We can let hatred of Whites get to us to a degree that we become immobile, inactive, frustrated and eaten up by our own hatred of them. White people are great for instilling and benefiting from such hatred in us. I made a conscious decision to interact with & seek out the Whites who are at least trying to assist Blacks and working against the oppression of Black people. There are a few of them. I have also sought out people of every hue who have similar ideas as I do and who do similar work as I do--through my own involvement in promoting & advancing the progressive agenda. This is part of my purpose in life itself. What is that progressive agenda? Working on issues such as: an end to homelessness; full employment; good, affordable health care for All Americans; no more wars—ever!! (and promoting peace through the concept of criminalizing war and the Pentagon war machine!!); cleaner streets; no crime; a vibrant living standard in our cities; Support programs for our youth; much improved educational systems; an end to nepotism and corruption; better housing for all; a cleaner environment; more political and religious tolerance; and more real freedom, openness, fairness and justice in the media, the corporate world and in government.  I have worked on these issues and more than 30 years.  My White friends are either involved in Progressive Politics & supported Senator Obama for President, or work hard for & even financially support the anti-war movement & or the human rights movement in the U.S. and or South Africa and other parts of the world.  My White friends are Jewish, Canadian, Irish, and, of course, have roots in other parts of Europe.  I think a lot of Black people go through unnecessary mental flips & rolls about how they feel about Whites.  Either we hate them & never want to be around them, or we love them and would go to the ends of the earth for them—meanwhile hating or denying some deep part of our own identity as Africans.  Then there is the middle ground where most of us live in the way we deal with White people.  I fall in the Middle somewhere, but I have drastically improved on the way I treat Whites and my mental well-being has improved significantly also as I have learned how to co-exist with them and even consider them as friends and political allies in some regards.

 

                First, let me say it is ok, any way you feel about Whites.   I understand the hatred because the majority of Whites in America have not & continue to NOT treat African Americans with respect, grace & dignity.  They claim ignorance about what our Nation has done and continues to do on the National and international scene & then they vote in people like Ronald Reagan & George Bush Sr. & Jr.  These so-called Presidents have continually & consistently carried the banner of White hegemony, White racism, White Supremacy and war. Many Europeans always have a sorry-assed excuse for their racist, anti-people, pro-profit, anti-worker views & policies.  They have carried the banner of the Status Quo, the Big Oil companies (aren’t you tired of paying almost $3.oo a gallon for gas, I am), the Pharmaceutical companies (I won’t even go into the cost of medicine), the military ($250 Million Dollars a day for two wars), the Pentagon, Wall Street profiteers, the gun lobby, the gaming industry & other profiteers in America.  I know full well that America is a Capitalist Nation (that’s why slave holders were given reparations after slavery and the slaves were NOT given their 40 archers and a mule), but there are Whites who you as a Black person, can connect with, who are about other and better things.  I find it healthier to have a diverse group of people as friends than just Black, Brown and Latin people.  Not just people of your own racial make-up, sexual preference, or even political and or religious background.  I even have good friends who are atheists, but I don’t think GOD is going to condemn me, look down upon me or strike me with a lightening bolt because of this. I also have Muslim and Buddhist friends.  There is a seed of good in ALL people.  Whether that seed takes root or not is often left up to us as individuals. Have you helped another person see and grow his or her positive seed today? Or did you water your own positive seeds of change today?  If you did, then GOD Bless YOU!!

 

                I attended the World Conference Against Racism in 2001.  One of the main reasons I went was to deal with my own personal concept of how I felt about Whites. (I also went to learn more about racism and how to fight it.) I know, at the time, I harbored much resentment & a great deal of anger about White people and how they vote, profiteer, exploit, expand and protect ``their’’ borders,  and act out in general.  The fact that they voted in people like George Bush Sr. who gave us the infamous Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice, and how they, in general, have a smug & uncaring attitude about the poor & about issues that face Black people such as high crime, high unemployment, & drug dependency is what fuels my resentment—some of which I still have.  As long as these problems don’t hit home for Whites, they continue to vote Republican in large numbers, go to work & raise their children to be racists, profit-seeking, self motivated, lazy exploiters who take full advantage of their White skin for every advantage they can get.  Meanwhile they deny us, as Black people, every thing they can at every opportunity they have. No REPARATIONS, NO JOBS, NO DECENCY, NO HEALTH CARE, NO DAY CARE, NO MONEY, NO HOUSING, NO OPPORTUNITY, NO BANK LOANS, NO JUSTICE AND NO PEACE—EVER, CASE CLOSED!! Then, they want us to fight their wars. [Did you know that Black WWII soldiers were not allowed to march victoriously into Paris, France after WWII because they had Black skin?  It’s true!!] Not ALL white people, again, I’m talking about our Republican, Status Quo, conservative, hateful, reactionary, racist ``friends.’’ I’m also talking about the institutions they support and defend like the big banks and the Pentagon, Wall Street and Madison Avenue (advertisers) and the producers of many American films & TV programs and the decisions makers in Hollywood who reject our images and put criminals and fools like Wendy Williams on TV instead of intellectuals like Danny Glover and our beloved economist Claud Anderson. (For example, look at who, in the Pennsylvania legislature, is stopping the gun control legislation in Philadelphia—almost ALL White conservatives from outside of Philadelphia.) They don’t even know what is going on in Philly nor do they care. Not even when it is White cops who are being killed by well-armed criminals!!  The gun- toting, Second-Amendment-Blasting conservatives just want to make sure guns can be sold and distributed freely on the open market throughout America.( And guess who sends these Conservative politicians  political campaign funds—the status quo, the gun distributors and the gun makers among others!!) This speaks to the anger & so-called anti-Patriotism that resounded in the strong voice of Pastor Jeremiah Wright of Chicago last year and the voice of Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and many others...  It is raw, real and mean anger but it is re-active and based on responding to REAL OPPRESSION.  An oppression that is reflected in all the statistics about hopelessness, homelessness, joblessness, crime & drug use that we hear about on TV & read about in the newspapers every day...

 

                I learned when I was about 36 that I didn’t need to allow institutionalized religion to scare me into giving them money so I could avoid Hell and damnation when my time comes to meet our maker.  I am no longer scared of the Devil, Racists or Gargoyles.  Europeans & institutions such as religion drum up such scary images to manipulate the public into responding by loosening their wallets & pouring funds into the church. (We need to question what our churches are doing with all that money.  Are they building new buildings through White contractors or are they providing needed programs& jobs for the community as economic times get tougher?)  Don’t let fear of Europeans guide how you feel about them.  Basically, Black people the world over, love Europeans more than they (Europeans) love themselves.  Europeans, like ALL people, must be judged by their own history &present actions. Don’t let them redefine what they do and have done by reinterpreting and lying about present facts and history.  If Whites blow the National election in November of next year (2010) by allowing themselves to be manipulated by the Big Business media & their own racism—we still have work to do as Black people.  Lots of work!!  Serpents and Goblins serve a purpose.  They can make President Obama or Pastor Wright or Farrakhan out to be a Serpent or a Goblin. The Republicans do it all the time. (They did a superb job of it in 1988 when George Bush Sr. beat the Democratic candidate (Michael Dukakis) over the head with Willie Horton (A Black convicted killer who was released in Massachusetts , again, again and again.) Don’t let that happen again!!  It is up to us to reach for the truth by doing the necessary research & not being herded into an opinion because of racist media manipulation that faces us each day as we change the dials.   Hilary Clinton was good at whipping up images & thoughts of evil and ignorance.  She will be ready on ``Day One’’.  Well, so is President Obama!!  He is Harvard educated, trained on the streets through years of valuable community work, he served in the Illinois legislature & as a U.S. Senator.  He can pick up the damned RED PHONE too!!  We have to be ready for the attacks that the Big White Goliath media continually puts across on us and never give up. We have to question why our progressive, Black perspective is always in the background, or never even put on stage. (They will talk with and about the integrated NAACP but the real grass roots organizations such as N’COBRA and THE Black Radical Congress rarely get Network media play).  Why is that? There are thousands of grass roots people who have worked hard for change, dedicated themselves to the cause, worked through the system and who have real professional standards, good ethics and wonderful community values. I don’t see them on TV!! I have seen countless shows where ALL WHITE males (On CNN and other networks) sit around and analyze the Democratic campaign. A campaign between a White woman and a Black man. (During the Primary season.) Now, turn that on its head and tell me if you would ever see a Black and female only news team talk about two White Male candidates who oppose each other?  I don’t think that will ever happen!!  We have to have the courage to stand up and rise above being racist ourselves and not let hatred get the best of us.  Few of us have any power to really discriminate against Whites on any level as they do all the time.  Our humanity is on our genes.  Don’t run away from being Black & being yourself.  And don’t get eaten up by racial hatred, intolerance & indifference.  Please read other articles on this web page. (www.btganda.com) And don’t let the Devil pull your coat tail—he might not even really exist.    I don’t know about you, but I can see clear through most Republicans. Goons, Goblins, Devils and all!!

Solution: Harsh words such as devil do more to divide people than to build bridges of understanding and unity within or outside of races and classes of people. Yes, I get angry also, but guess what?  There are and always have been people of other races who have helped us as Black people. I’m not saying we don’t call out the ones like Rush and Anne Coulter when they continually act out as the true racist they are and distort the picture, but let’s celebrate the legacy of people like Ramsey Clark, John Brown and Noam Chomsky who dedicated their lives to working towards true freedom and justice for ALL people…..

Police Brutality & Cornbread

If you think police brutality & police misconduct is something new, take a look (gander) at 1974's ``Cornbread, Earl and Me'' featuring (Introducing) a very good performance by a very young Laurence Fishburn. The lead character is killed by the police and Fishburn's youthful character is devastated, as is the young man's mother and the community.