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December 14, 2006
Just Thinking...
Good Morning...well, when I started this piece it was morning: Now it's good afternoon, and I'm starving!
Today's diatribe is a result of the recent controversy surrounding the Assata Shakur/Guillermo Morales Center sign at City College. I wrote an oppinion a couple of days ago about it, but I've had some time to think and well, you know what happens when I start thinking...
The sign above the Student Center at City College which reads, "Assata Shakur/Guillermo Morales Center" will be taken down, and no doubt renamed. My initial reaction to this controversy was that it was trivial. Doesn't this Kadinsky kid have anything better to do than defame Black and Latino heros? It's not like they're being given a congressional medal of honor for Chrissakes, their (little known by many) names were going to be humbly displayed by students who were honoring their contributions to Black and Latino history.
As a Black woman, I felt that somehow I had been stripped of a piece of my history. During college I can remember throwing my fist in the air, as a salute to Black Power and pride. I was tired of learning about the oppression, suffering and fear that Blacks had suffered under a racist system. I felt vindicated knowing that the Black Liberation Army, the Black Panthers and the heros associated with the Black Power Movement were fighting back. Instead of feeling hurt and embarrassed by the atrocities of slavery, Jim Crow segregation and violence. I finally felt empowered. I was impressed by the mile high afros of Assata Shakur and Angela Davis. Beautiful sisters with dazzling smiles and fierce pride who would not be intimidated by a racist and unjust system. They fought back.
During college,I had just come into my racial and political identity, and this was more than thirty years after the Civil Rights struggle and Black Power movement. I watched hoses and dogs sicced on little children while they went to school, churches being bombed, countless murders of little Black boys and girls who were simply exercising their inalienable rights as Americans, while the government and the police who were supposed to serve and protect turned a blind eye. I'll never forget how I felt when I saw the photo of Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers storming the California legislator with their guns raised, embracing their rights as Americans to bear arms, and protect themselves against who they felt were killer cops in their communities that harrassed and victimized them
The turbulent 60's gave rise to the Black Liberation Army, FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional) and other guerrilla organizations, which produced the Assata Shakurs, Guillermo Morales' Stokely Carmichaels, Huey Newtons, and Soledad brothers who would risk their lives to stand up to an inherently racist system.
I read an excerpt of Assata's biography in which she describes that fateful night when New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster was shot. She was wounded as well. Assata maintains her innocence and claims that she was framed. I cannot speak to that. Although it is not unlikely-there were many political activists considered subversive and framed by the FBI, and CIA.
I remember being heartbroken coming to terms with the demise of the Black Power Movement which disolved not only because of FBI infiltration but because of a lack of organization and cohesiveness among it's members.
None of us will know for certain what occured on that fateful night more than 30 years ago, the one thing we know for sure is that Werner Foerster was fatally shot, Assata was convicted of the crime and she, along with Morales, escaped custody and found freedom in Cuba.
A friend of mine travelled to Cuba many years ago with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement where they were able to visit with Assata Shakur. At that time, she told my friend how she was saddened by the fact that she wasn't able to see her new born grand-child who was in the United States with her daughter whom she hadn't seen in years.
In yesterday,'s Daily News article, Joe Connor, expressed regret that his father, Frank Connor, who was a victim of one of Morales' bombs, "went to City College for several years and never had room named after him." *
That got me to thinking...
My politics have matured over the years, and I can no longer say I support any form of nationalism, as I think it is divisive. Disparities exist between us, but I believe that the sooner we move away from making race the focal point of every discussion, the sooner we can move towards achieving some kind of human understanding and connection,which ultimately will lead to healing and cooperation. Whether you are poor or rich, Black or white, male or female, we all experience grief, joy, pain and loss. Human emotion transcends all those superficial things like race, class and sex.
II understand that it's difficult to ignore race in this case because of the political and racial circumstances during which these incidents took place. However, I want to address another issue: the student who alerted the Daily News to the sign and started the controversy, Sergey Kadinsky. It would be unfair of me to assume that his actions were racially motivated (i.e.-that nigger bitch is a cop-killer! Yeah, I just said what many of those who expressed outrage were thinking) but I wonder if he understands why these two people are considered heroes to their people. I wonder if he understands the racial, social and political climate that converted Josie Chesimard to Assata Shakur, and motivated Guillermo Morales to create the bombs which caused him to blow up his own fingers. It may be bold to say this but hey-it's my blog and I can be as bold as I please-but Kadinsky's last name suggests to me that he should understand the reason some people are lauded as heroes while others may villify them for bucking against a an unjust system. If not him, perhaps his ancestors would.
I also found myself thinking about the Sean Bell shooting and this Assata Shakur cop-killer controversy. I hope that justice is served as quickly in the Sean Bell shooting case as the sign came down at City College. I know...I know...I think too much.
Posted by renee at December 14, 2006 9:34 AM
Comments
Why not put your curiosity to rest and Mr. Kadinsky and initiate a dialogue? Too often we spend more time guessing and second guessing the motives for ones actions when we could simply ask. "Hey Kadinsky! WTF!?"
Posted by: Anthony at December 19, 2006 12:56 PM