Books by Marvin X

Love and War: Poems  / In the Crazy House Called America / Woman: Man's Best Friend /  Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality

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Oakland, Toward Radical Spirituality

March 24, 2009

We know the spirit world is beyond color, therefore we must pray for all those slaughtered in the streets of Oakland, whether police or citizens. It is indeed sad when officers of the peace are unable to secure the peace of a community, but often become brute beasts in blue uniforms. And in return the citizens must become beasts in self defense, especially when they are already under stress from lacking the necessities of life: jobs, food, clothing and shelter, a stable family environment wherein they can evolve from animal to spiritual consciousness.

When violence becomes the order of the day, when the community is mortally afraid of those employed to protect them, when the citizens resort to violence in interpersonal relations, then that society is not of Divine, but is existing on the animal plane, the lowest level of existence, and yet we pretend to be civilized. Yet we act like violent savages at the drop of a hat, the glance of an eye, we are ready to kill, slaughter each other often without the slightest cause, rhyme or reason.

In my 1968 interview with James Baldwin, he said, "It's a wonder we haven't all gone stark raving mad." Jimmy, I submit 40 years after your statement, we indeed have now gone stark raving mad. The streets of Oakland are no place to be somebody, they are on par with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Mexico, where violence rules the day and every man must be conscious of his surroundings and behavior at any time. The politicians and police are not the only ones to blame, but the entire community.

We have churches on every corner yet there is something lacking in their spiritual message, something is being lost in translation from pulpit to congregation to street. How can such massive violence exist in a Christian society or Muslim society for that matter? Why is there so little spiritual transformation evident in the people? The prosperity consciousness in religiosity these days only leads to conspicuous consumption that has led us to the present precipice. Shall we continue in our madness until we slip over the cliff, until we are consumed by our own vomit?

Someone, anyone, step forward and show us the light, the path, the way, for we have become a headless monster, a car without a driver, clearly the politicians cannot solve this conundrum of our lives, the educators are lost in perpetuating the world of make believe called white supremacy. Our economic leaders are lost in their shoestrings, trying to revive a decadent and dying free market capitalist system based on greed, cheap labor and cheap resources. They are determined to ignore their own people in a global conspiracy of pyramid and Ponzi schemes which is the essence of international finance.

All brother Mixon wanted was a job. And the tragedy is that there are desperate men and women like him throughout the streets of Oakland, men and women who will find no job and become mad enough to follow his act of desperation and despair. The police had a job watching him. His parole officer had a job watching him. His prison officials had a job securing him. Was he some sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered for all except himself? No wonder his desperation and despair, no wonder his feelings of nothingness and dread.

No wonder his spirituality was crushed to the earth, making him a beast of prey, willing to do the ultimate to escape the jails and prison, the American gulag, the neo slavery plantations that exist throughout this nation, wherein the commodity is the souls and bodies of men and women. Up from Slavery, Up from Ignut, up from the animal plane to the Divine. Throw off the shackles of mental slavery that permits us to claim the gun as our savior, the panacea for all that ills our community, when in reality it is only putting on the armor of God that will elevate us out of the dungeon of wickedness and despair.

The churches must teach a new way, the schools must teach a new way, discarding that old out of date white supremacy curriculum that over fifty per cent of our children are intelligent enough to reject outright for its abject meaninglessness absurdity. The churches are empty, especially of young men because the message does not touch their spiritual consciousness. They are too smart to be pimped by fake pimps in the pulpit.

The brothers at the barber shop asked me, "OG, what's the difference between the pimp and the preacher?" I replied, "The difference is that the preacher has more whores."

As Brother Fritz Pointer noted below, we can and must police ourselves, the police must be from our community, not living in Dublin, Tracy, and Livermore. These are foreigners who have no love for our community. They are here to enforce white supremacy, white privilege, and white power. And nothing shall change but go from bad to worse until the fundamental order is radically restructured. Sun Ra taught me, "The Creator got things fixed, you can't go forward or backward until you do the right thing." So do the right thing, Oakland, the eyes of the world are on you at this hour, as it has been in the past when you raised up to check the power of brute beasts in blue uniforms.

This time around, know that we have a problem that is not physical but spiritual, for when we put on the armor of God no one can touch us. Didn't Hammer tell us, "You can't touch this"? Those of you who don't believe in spirituality continue down the physical path when we know the end of this path. Look at America at this hour drowning from excessive belief in the physical and material things of life, while none of this path has brought joy, peace and happiness to this world.

As I look around Houston, Texas at the mansions owned by black people, at the same time I see the numerous hospitals here to heal those sick from the trappings of materialism, the mental stress, the cancer and other diseases caused by the belief in the physical things of life, while we know our health is our wealth. What good are these mansions if we act like nigguhs inside them, if the women are in golden handcuffs, abused, neglected and depressed, on the verge of suicide?

We consume, consume, consume, and yet there is never enough. Our closets are full of trinkets we never take out of the bag, still with the tags on them because they were wanted but not needed. And yet there is enough to go around but we dare share, we dare give away anything, but hoard for dear life as though there will be no tomorrow. When we do not reach out to men like Mixon, we see the result, it is no mystery the desperation of his heart, the poverty of his dreams for simple things, basic survival in a land of plenty. Continue to deny his generation and await the Calamity.

To avoid the Calamity we must embrace the Religion of the Heart, beyond churches, temples, mosques, but recognize our essence which is spiritual, beyond the physical and material. What is the use of violence when in the end of all wars in political discussion or diplomacy. Why all the violence when ultimately we must do as Isaiah taught, "Reason together."

 
Marvin X is the author of Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality. He continued his message in How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy.His next book is Up from Ignut, or Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez, the Soulful Musings of a North American African Thinker, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2009.

All of you are invited to celebrate his 65th birthday at the Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theatre, 3201 Adline Ave., Berkeley Ca, May 29, 7pm. Save the date! May 1-3 Marvin X will participate in the Black Studies Forty Years Later Conference at Temple University, Philadelphia. Other participants include Amiri Baraka, Muhammad Ahmed, Askia Toure, Sonia Sanchez

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Oakland Police Die in Gun Battle

March 22, 2009

I got up this morning to see the news that a brother and three police are dead in Oakland, another officer is fighting for his life. I am saddened by this news from my beloved city by the Bay, city of my childhood, city where I learned black consciousness, city of black studies and Black Panthers, once one of the most radical cities in America. Of late she has become a house of death with the black on black homicide, often instigated by the police with weapons sold by the police. As they were in the 60s, the police are an occupying army of mostly white racist officers, and many of the black officers are no better, sometimes even more brutal to prove themselves to their white comrades. Chauncey Bailey is dead partly because he was writing about black police murder squads and shakedowns. The chief recently resigned because journalists were inching closer to his role in allowing abuse under his watch.

The killing of three officers by a young brother may be symbolic of things to come. As we know the new year began with the BART police murder of young Oscar Grant. Yes, the universe has a way of righting itself when things go out of control. We see the universe stepping in to bring humility to the greedy capitalist bloodsuckers of the poor and those addicted to wretched materialism. So it is time to reflect on this rampant violence in Oakland that has left so many people grieving for lost loved ones. And now the police get a taste of their own medicine. As thou has done, so shall it be done to thee. There is no escape for wickedness, especially in high places or low places either. The people do not deserve to live under occupation and violence under the color of law. There is a limit to what a people can take, especially when they see no justice in the land, when the criminals are instituting and administrating the law for their own wicked purpose.

The Black Panthers fought forty years ago against the police—yet today it is business as usual with the "pigs," who banned my open-air classroom at 14th and Broadway, at which people noted I made things better downtown by talking with spiritually burdened youth and adults, counseling them and listening to their problems of homelessness, hunger, ignorance, disease and unresolved grief, so often brought on by the murder of their loved ones. Isn't it strange that youth rioted at the very spot where I taught and tried to bring peace, love and understanding?

I did not discriminate when the white mentally ill came by wanting a dollar, something to eat or simply a kind word like good morning, have a nice day. Often the police would stand next to me, yes, I knew they were listening to my conversation while they supposedly watched young weed dealers making their hustle. For several years the police said nothing to me, then after three or four years they informed me I was vending my books in a restricted area. Restricted for what purpose? There are hardly any stores in downtown Oakland. It is a virtual cemetery, especially after dark while downtown San Francisco is bustling with people all night long.

Oakland has a glorious tradition of radical social action, but it is a tradition soaked in blood, often the result of bad and brutal police relations with the community. Why can't Mayor Ron Dellums use the model the US military exercised in Iraq when they subdued the insurgents by giving them jobs securing their communities? Just as in Iraq, we have young men marginalized and alienated from society, ready to do any crime to "get theirs," but secretly wishing things didn't have to be this way, that all they want is economic parity with the rest of society that likes to eat in fine restaurants, wear nice clothes and take care of their families.

Clearly, the OPD has not and cannot secure the community, so why not be radical, Mr. Radical Mayor Dellums, hire youth to secure the hood you know the police cannot and never will, at least not until there is a radical revamping of this rotten, crumbling capitalist society, restructuring not only the police, but the schools, economic, political and religious institutions, social relations and in the process ending America's cowardly addiction to white supremacy, white privilege, and the desire to dominate the world.

We pray for all those grieving loved ones who are now deprived of their men due to gun violence. We are exhausted from attending funerals, but understand death is life and funerals are a way to help us understand and transcend the pain and suffering of losing the ones we love. We pray the people of Oakland will rise to the occasion to become the great and valiant community recognized around the world for radical social action.

Marvin X is the author of Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality. He continued his message in How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy.His next book is Up from Ignut, or Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez, the Soulful Musings of a North American African Thinker, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2009.

All of you are invited to celebrate his 65th birthday at the Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theatre, 3201 Adline Ave., Berkeley Ca, May 29, 7pm. Save the date! May 1-3 Marvin X will participate in the Black Studies Forty Years Later Conference at Temple University, Philadelphia. Other participants include Amiri Baraka, Muhammad Ahmed, Askia Toure, Sonia Sanchez

The Cold-Blooded Murder of Oscar Grant—BART cop Tony Pirone, an ex-Marine, was on the platform and he immediately began targeting Black and Latino youth—although he had no description of anyone in the reported “fight.” When four of Oscar’s friends get off, Pirone let three of them leave but grabbed one. Then, yelling and cursing, Pirone banged on the train window and pointed his taser at two young Black men—Oscar and his friend Michael—and ordered them off the train. As soon as Michael and Oscar stepped off the train, they were hammered. Pirone lunged at Michael, grabbed him by his dreadlocks, and slammed his head, face down, on the concrete, leaving a large cut on the bridge of his nose. Michael’s friends started to yell, “why are you doing that?” “What did we do?”

Then Pirone grabbed Oscar and hustled him to a wall. Soon other cops came and threatened more youth with their tasers, yelling the “N” word at the young men, calling them “motherfuckers.”

When three of Oscar’s other friends got off the train they too were held against the side of the train by Officer Marysol Domenici who thrust a taser at each one, tapping one between the eyes with it.

Another video clip, not shown on TV until weeks after the murder, shows Pirone suddenly stride by Michael, who was handcuffed and lying on the cement, across the platform toward Oscar, hitting him hard in the face, causing his head to snap back. BlackAgendaReport

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Thousands Attend Oakland Officers' Funeral—All sworn officers and administrative staff members of the police department were given time off to attend the funeral, with personnel from other departments and local sheriff’s deputies covering their shifts. Police headquarters was closed until late afternoon, with a line of police cars from other jurisdictions parked in front. Nearby, a pile of flowers and handmade tributes covered the sidewalk. One read, “We Support OPD.”

The service was held at the arena, home to the Golden State Warriors basketball team, just two miles from where the four officers were gunned down by a 26-year-old parolee, Lovelle Mixon. The police said Mr. Mixon was a prime suspect in a recent rape.

Mr. Mixon was pulled over by two motorcycle police officers, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, and Officer John Hege, 41, shortly after 1 p.m. last Saturday while driving through East Oakland, and soon began shooting. Sergeant Dunakin died at the scene; Officer Hege died later at a hospital.

Mr. Mixon fled, only to barricade himself in a building, where he fatally shot two SWAT team members, Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35. A third officer at the scene was injured. Mr. Mixon, who had a warrant out for his arrest, was also killed. NYTimes

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Leading the march down MacArthur Boulevard near the scene of Saturday’s shootout were Lovelle Mixon’s mother (in red) and, beside her, his wife. His brothers and a cousin were also there. – Photo: Dave Id, Indybay	Lovelle Mixon’s cousin spoke passionately at the rally on Wednesday. The photo on the poster is of Lovelle and his wife. – Photo: Dave Id, Indybay

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Kill and be killed: Police murders in Oakland—It’s time to recognize the harsh reality. Police are virtually an occupying military force in Black urban centers. Their presence will neither eliminate the plague of rampant crime nor address the underlying disease of extreme impoverishment.

The historical record amply demonstrates this fact though there remains wide disagreement on the reasons. My view is that police represent the propertied and monied power structure in this country which both exploits and excludes the overwhelming majority of our population, particularly minorities.

The police role, therefore, is consciously limited to containing and minimizing inevitable explosions of violence that periodically burst from the enormous pressures of ghetto existence. Police neither have the resources nor job description to resolve the enormous social problems endemic to these communities.

In that way, police actions are remarkably similar to U.S. failed military strategies abroad. Police units are dispatched from their headquarters’ bunkers on “search and destroy” missions soon to return to the comfort and safety of the “Green Zone.”

Enormous resources are wasted on these failed military strategies, both abroad and at home. The Oakland police budget, for example, consumes an incredible 43 percent of the city’s General Fund. Clearly, despite repeated calls for more cops, ending violence in the Black Community is not a matter of devoting more police resources. In fact, as we shall see from our later examination of Oakland’s sordid police brutality record, police activity often generates its own crime wave. SBayView

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Books by Marvin X Love and War: Poems  / In the Crazy House Called America  Woman: Man's Best Friend /  Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality Marvin X on YouTube

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BLACK CLASSIC BOOKS   BCP Digital Printing

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posted 24 March 2009