48 yrs ago today, Kuwasi Balagoon would again escape from Rahway state prison in New Jersey. At that point, he'd join the Revolutionary Armed Task Force(RATF), the faction that later liberated Assata Shakur. The RATF would also put out a statement of solidarity with the PLO.
I would not call El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz “Malcolm Little.”
I would not call Muhammad Ali “Cassius Clay.”
I would not call Kwame Ture “Stokely Carmichael.”
I would not call Jamil Al-Amin “H. Rap Brown.”
I would not call Assata Shakur “JoAnne Chesimard.”
I would not call Kareem Abdul-Jabbar “Lew Alcindor.”
I would not call Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf “Chris Jackson.”
When people insist on using a persons discarded name, they are not being “historically accurate.” They are being disrespectful and I see this weaponized most against Black folks whose name changes are associated with abandoning a name soaked in chattel slavery or with an embracing of Islam as their way of life.
On the 100th anniversary of Black history month, let’s not forget our current black political prisoners who fought for our struggle and liberation. Free them all !!!! 💚❤️🖤
In 1968, 500 Black revolutionaries got together and drafted the Declaration of Independence for the Republic of New Afrika. A sovereign Black nation to be established in the Black Belt states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Free The Land
Please take a moment to honor Baba Sekou Odinga who transitioned on January 12th, 2024. He was a veteran member of the OAAU, the Black Panther party, the Black Liberation Army, and was a conscious New Afrikan.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.
Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (former known as H. Rap Brown) has gone home after spending 82 years in this world. May Allah reward him for his courage and commitment to the liberation of oppressed people.
Right now, I’m thinking about something he said surrounding responsibility, parenthood, and being an educator. Al-Amin said that:
The first responsibility of the Muslim is as teacher. That is his job, to teach. His first school, his first classroom is within the household. His first student is himself. He masters himself and then he begins to convey the knowledge that he has acquired to the family. The people who are closest to him.
Too often do we think about the revolutionary as someone that is fighting the outside, while forgetting the revolutionary struggle within the self and one’s own home. To truly be a liberator you have to be consciously committed to being an educator.
I know people are only familiar with one or two songs but when I tell you this album has ZERO SKIPS. Her harmonies are wild. Lowkey a 2000s R&B bible.
I haven’t seen a lot of this kind of genealogical analysis in the wake of D’Angelo’s passing but I don’t think the sonic shifts made from ‘Brown Sugar’ (1995) to ‘Voodoo’ (2000) can be adequately considered without thinking about Janet Jackson’s ‘The Velvet Rope’ (1997).