 Oh yeah! Episode 70 of Hella Black. You feel me? Seven decades of content, you know what I'm saying? On this episode, we have our nigga Q on this motherfucker. We talk about pan-Africanism and the need for revolutionary violence. Tap it right now. Make sure you fuck with us on patreon, patreon.com, slash hella black pot. We have exclusive extended content and many more things for y'all to fuck with. Tap it with us right now. Let's get it! Can I fuck with you? Q remind me of you in the sense of like niggas who be hella up on a history type shit. Niggas just know hella shit and can refer to hella motherfucker. Niggas be in the books. That's something I like. I wasted my college education. I'm majoring in journalism and I do that. I mean that shit, you gave you a good foundation from like a standard lens of journalism and then you was allowed to use that to apply your... I use my major in all of his facets. I just wish maybe I just wish I had the politicization with it or took more history shit because I didn't I didn't create the habit of like... I have the habit of research and whatnot but I'm just hella bad remembering dates and people. Like I'm not that good at that. Yeah. Mind your history has always been my favorite subject. And nigga, I went to a Baptist school. It's also a skill though. I think it's something I could develop though if I would have... Nigga, they had his memorizing Bible verses at that school. So like I just used that and applied that shit to history. I was never good at things you had to memorize. Math and history. I was terrible at math. But math is like after at a certain point is just nigga. But I also see numbers backwards sometimes. I don't know if that shit is cold. Dyslexia maybe? I think so. See how this nigga just be laughing at me when I'm telling him. You don't know what it's called when you see things backwards. That's not funny. I'm not laughing at dyslexia. I'm laughing at you. Sometimes I see things backwards. I don't know what that is. Oh, shit. It's what's going on. I don't even feel it, man. Yo, what's good? How you living, bro? Well, maintaining, staying this hard, any shit. Shit, I feel you got that East Coast accent. I mean, a little bit, I guess so. What it's like where you at right now? You a Virginia? Yeah, I'm a rich man right now. It's cold. I'm not as warm as woman. I'm just like 74 right here. Niggas doing well. It's freezing. People like to say that it's not freezing in the Bay. Whenever we talk to folks that weren't freezing. All y'all Cali niggas always want to talk about this cold and shit. But it is like 50 right? Right, but 50 degrees is cold. I hear that. I hear that, bro. 50 ain't cold. That's a good day for me. All right. I'm wearing long johns when it's 50 degrees. Yeah, we was just saying that it's been a long time coming. I'm glad we finally got you on. I find it has been talking about this for like a year. No, but it's been like a party about a couple of years. I say first been a couple of months. I thought it was almost been about a year and a half for real. Probably when we initially that's also him. Like we initially wanted to have you and Kings on for an episode. And I felt like niggas like threw that out there like a year ago. And we wasn't able to put it together. And then excuse me. We start to use separately like six months ago. He's gonna have him on to talk about the solely money shit. And then I think we're gonna have you on again. Like a month ago and we could make it shake. Regardless, I'm happy we finally got you on, bro. It's been a long time coming. Yeah, it's all love. For those that aren't familiar with Q, probably most known by his at at Q got no rings on Twitter. Writer, podcaster, educator, as you heard him earlier saying he's healing from Richmond, Virginia. I know some of our listeners gonna be like, you know, we from real Richmond, Richmond, California. But I'm from Richmond, Virginia. I'm from Richmond, Virginia. Is that where Hampton is? Or no Hampton is in? Hampton is about, that's about 40 minutes. Yeah. I feel like I bought it. Yeah. I went on a black college tour. We stopped at Hampton. So I remember like driving. Driving through Richmond. Yeah, driving through Richmond. You a student organizer and activist at VCU too. Man, the way that these words have become so used I'm just a nigga who gives a fuck. At this point, I give a damn. Like, you know what I'm saying? When it comes to organizing and activists, I feel like that comes with such like baggage now that has been completely thrust upon to the title because of the aestheticization of Black Lives Matter. And I'm not really into it. I just, you know what I'm saying? So whenever some people say it, it's cool. But it's like, you know. Yeah. I think that's one thing we say. Even ourselves is like, bro, we're just niggas who care about our community. You know, but by definition, niggas is organizing this shit like that. You feel me? So, but you and I agree 100%. I think that's, you know, your response is a response to a lot of niggas who I feel like have really radical politics that have been saying, you know, like, damn niggas, I'm just a nigga who care. You know, because a lot of that shit, that's how we start our organizing to be honest. It's like, bro, it's like we care about our community. You feel me? Like, I didn't even really know, you know, some of the best organizers I know that probably have not ever referred to them. So as an organizer. Yeah, I think about black folks in general, especially poor black folks where, you know, congregating and coming together, community is just a necessity for survival. Niggas wouldn't consider themselves organizers. I'm like, I'm thinking about my grandma and shit. Like, she for sure wouldn't call herself an organizer. You know what I'm saying? Even though by quote unquote, by definition, that's what a lot of us have done to survive in this nation since niggas got here. And that's a good follow up to our last episode around mutual aid. Like niggas has been doing mutual aid for years. You feel me? For centuries down there. But we didn't always have the words to call it mutual aid. You feel me? So a lot of the shit we've been doing as black people, as African people, you feel me? Has been rooted in and caring and love for our community. Hey, we have always used these terms that are new, you know? So, oh man, I'm just to have you on. It's going to be, it's going to be some heat, bro. I think it's a long time coming. I know you got a lot to contribute. I appreciate you for coming off. So, it's all love, it's all excited. You know, we usually start with black joy. And I guess considering the times, you know, niggas been stuck in the house, I was having a conversation with B yesterday. And we was talking about how so many of the things that we do for like self care, which I think are rooted in a lot of our like, are connected to a lot of our joyous experiences have been kind of taken away with all these shelters in place. But yeah, do you have, what's been your black joy considering the circumstances? Man, I'll probably say about like two years ago, me and Miles probably, yeah, we moved downstairs looking through old scrapbooks of like, you know, old family photos and whatnot, seeing like the lineage and whatnot, seeing like, you know, my great grandfather, like, you know, I'm named after the slaves. You know, most people are in this country if you're from America, if you're black. But just seeing the lineage and like seeing like, how little we progressed and how far we progressed and just the different ways in which family has to kind of protect each other, that type of stuff, it makes me happy as it does make me, you know, sad at the same time. But it's a overwhelming amount of joy that comes from it in the end because I know that the people are always going to protect each other. So just seeing like family and seeing people I've never even met and my mother's stories and whatnot. I think that ancestry and our lineages, man, that type of stuff is hands down the most important because if we're not doing this for the people who we never met and the people who we won't meet, then who are we doing it for? You feel me? So yeah, that's what's up. Yeah, man. I think on an earlier, on our previous episode, I was talking to them. I was, my Black Joy moment was kicking it on my granny and we was just sitting on the porch and talking about what life in Oakland was like in her neighborhood, like 40 years ago. And I don't know, just like hear her again, like hear her story, hearing about my family's history on the block. It again made me hella frustrated because we talking about a place that's being severely gentrified, right? But also at the same time, it did fill me with some joy because it's like, damn, like niggas do got a history. Niggas, I do have a reason to keep fighting, right? Just because shit is not what it once was. That's not an excuse. I got to do it for you. You feel me? Again, my great-grandfather who put in all this time and work to acquire this land and for, you feel me? My great-great niece who I ain't met yet type of shit. Or where am I not ever to meet? So yeah, I could definitely, I feel you on that. What about you, D? So you know how I upgraded my Wi-Fi? That's been a joy moment because Niggas been in the house. You feel me? So Niggas got better Wi-Fi, so you know I've been fucking around on GTA without my network dropping. So that's been some joy just playing Xbox. That's some shit. I feel like I was doing as a kid more. But you know, as you grow older, your time kind of just disappears in a lot of ways, especially in college, playing sports and shit. Of course, Niggas was playing 2K, but I probably haven't really played on video games really until now, somewhere. So I guess that's one positive shit and some joy that I've gotten is doing some of those shit that gave you joy as a kid, as an adult. So that's been my joy. What about you? I've been dumb ass stressed out for the last week. I'm keeping it a bam. Niggas, I know my Wi-Fi's the biggest joy that I've ever stressed out. I've been so stressed out, bro. I don't even know my nigga. Oh, I feel like I think I've seen it as the norm over the last few weeks, but a lot of folks have been doing group face times. And I did one with a bunch of the men in my family last week. So that was cool. You know, I was talking to my cousins and I realized like, damn, I didn't see these niggas in hell alone. And I don't know when the next time I see these niggas. So that was dope, bro. Just linking up with all my cousins, talking shit on FaceTime, getting the chance to see these niggas in. Everybody, hairlines and shit, you know. Hairlines were going by the wayside, man. Going by the wayside. Niggas, what up, Pete's coming out. But that was dope. We're just chopping games with the fam, bro. I enjoyed that shit. So I think, you know, we kind of set the, we laid the foundation to dive into the conversation with Q talking about his Black joy and spending time with family and getting a little bit, know a little bit more about his history. Q, we talk about you being from Richmond, Virginia. And I think folks that are familiar with you also know that you have ties to Philly. So on the topic of like, you know, getting to know the history of these places that you associate with, how has, you know, in the deep Black history and Richmond, the deep Black history and Philly, like how has starting to understand that history allowed you to develop a deeper respect for these places? Word, word. I think that it's probably the stark contrast and the similarities in the two that are hilarious to me, as well as it is like very sad. But in terms of Richmond, Richmond is one of those cities where five minutes you'll be in a suburb, the next five minutes you'll be in a hood, the next five minutes you'll be in the city. It's just one of those county city suburbs. It's very interlocked. So there's going to be a lot of different struggles. And from the time in which I was young, I probably say from time I was probably about five. My mother always had like an imperative to introduce me to Black history from not just Richmond, but from Virginia period. Like Nat Turner, Norfolk, that's like real history that I was always inspired by. Gabriel Poster's Rebellion in Richmond is one of probably the more well-known thwarted slave rebellions in the South. Going from the multiple different historical figures and Black liberation figures that have sprung out of Richmond from the times of anti-bomb slavery to even now. It's actually probably one of the more underrated states in just cities period in times of Black history. So I got to give respect to my mother and all my elders to put me on to the literature and the gyms. Philadelphia is a different story because that's obviously a city. And people like Mumia, Russell Schultz, people like the move Africa, the Africa Move movement. That is probably three of the most influential events on my entire life. Because Mumia is probably at this point you've been in jail for over 26 years now. So before I'm even born, I have family who is protesting from Mumia. I have family who was trying to get him released. And these type of things were just kind of passed down to me and these ideals were just kind of bred into me at this point. And I have to give so much respect to Philadelphia and to just regime as a whole. Because without them, I'm not this person. I also want to say that if people want to know anything about liberation work, anything about freedom, learning anything about freedom, the two most formidable is going to be for me, Nat Turner's rebellion and Mumia. Because both have articulated what is necessary. We need to practice and we need to mind. Because Nat Turner, while this is not Richmond, Virginia, I went to school in Norfolk so I got the history there too. I moved all around Richmond and moved all around Virginia as a child. So I've gotten the game from multiple different elders and multiple different scholars who have basically just been in a place where there's not a lot of emphasis on Virginia being a site of black radicalism. But there's an alternative history here that people don't know, especially the new African independence movement. I could go on for days and days, but I'm just in love with both places and both have a special place in my heart, always will. Yeah, I think Philly gets in terms of recognition as far as black history, black radical history, Philly going to get a lot more love than Richmond. Because the scope that Philly is under and I think having the amount of research and history one has to do to really understand the impact that Richmond, Virginia has had in liberation work for black folks in America. Yeah, so just following up on that Q, is there a moment that politicized you? And I know you kind of spoke about that geographically, but there was any moment or event that you went through in your life that helped shake your politics and helped radicalize you? My mother gave me autobiography Malcolm X in fifth grade. She a real one. She was like, if you want to emulate any black man, this is the black man you need to emulate. And I was like, okay, word. Sat down, read the book. Nah, from then it was all in there. From then I had a class project dressed up like Malcolm. I made a Malcolm board game, but I had to get Elijah out of jail free card. I promise you, it was real. I promise you. You was one of the students who was out of school. He was in the form of the viewers. And yeah, I mean... He was like, you was fucking with your teacher or shit. For sure, for sure, for sure. And they definitely had to sit me down and talk to me about how it was cool to respect all cultures and whatnot, but they always do that when you try to respect your people. You know what I'm saying? I always try to tell you, be tolerant. You know what I'm saying? Other boys, it is what it is. So Malcolm definitely is probably the most formative figure for me. That event changed my entire course of my life because I admired Malcolm's strength. I admired his fearlessness. And I think that that's what attracts to set me in to Malcolm is the lion heart of it all, where it's like, well, I'm not folding. I'm not afraid of anything. I'm not afraid of anybody. And those type of actions, those type of words, and what he was willing to live and die for, it definitely inspired me. I'll also say secondary event will probably be Trayvon Martin. I remember being sunk into the floor when they read that verdict. And the thing is, I knew they were going to read it as not guilty. But I think that it's just sometimes you have to have like that slap in the face. Like, okay, I forgot what I was at. You know what I mean? Like, at this time, this is a time in my life where I was beginning to really realize what the deal was with the American government, with Obama and all these people. I still was trying to hold on to some type of, well, you know, maybe Barack is in on, man. As soon as I understood what this country was, and as soon as I saw that, you know, the president, the black president, wasn't going to stick up for this black kid. Nah, man, it was over. How old were you? You were like 14 when that happened, maybe? Because you were a little younger than me in black, right? Yeah, I'm 23 right now. So when was that, 2013? Yeah, so you was probably in high school then. Yeah. 10th grade? Yeah. 10th grade. Yeah. That's wild, bro, because like, the work that I've done with high school students, like them niggas. Be with the shit. Yeah, bro, you like, for you to be able to like, all right, nigga, at 14, I started seeing a shit for what it was that having a black president didn't mean shit in this country. Man, it's because Trayvon was at age. Yeah. I think too, you know what I mean? Like, that's shit. And this, bro, it's wild. Me and Blake was just having this conversation before you got on that, like, black folks infatuation with Barack Obama causes them to be delusional. Like, I've heard people be like, oh, I miss my president. And it's like, my nigga, do you realize under your, this is under your president? Trayvon Martin happened. Junior Zimmerman walked off scot-free. Mike Brown happened. The Black Lives Matter movement started. And y'all niggas want to go back to an Obama presidency during a pandemic because it was so called better. When niggas was getting killed under that presidency too, Brahms was getting drugs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. And that, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a whole other tangent, almost. Yeah, that's a whole other tangent for me. Don't even get me started. Yeah, we'll definitely get more to, you know, the Black cultural people, the nationalists in terms of, oh, hey, we see a Black person as a president. We see it in that so-called freedom, some shit like that is the word that we use. I'm going to re-word this question since, you know, we spoke about niggas not fucking titles and shit. But we do have a lot of Black college students that listen to Hella Black. So what has been a Black student at a PWI that's doing Black liberation work, Black radical work? What has that experience been like for you? Alienating in as lonely as hell, for real, if I'm lying, keep it a stack with you. When it comes to organizing at PWIs, if you a Black student and you not cooning, then they won't take you seriously. That's pretty much what it is. When it comes to BSUs and it comes to, you know, or student organizations, that's all controlled opposition. Even the folks that are trying to do great things within those orgs, they're going to handicap you with either funding, they're going to handicap you with noise ordinances, they're going to handicap you by putting pressure on you with the administration. That's a whole bunch of BS, but it's necessary work. I haven't been active on the campus in probably about a year and a half due to financial struggles and just, you know, working and whatnot and trying to complete my degree because the able SS, the ableist school that I go to does not believe in my disability as a legitimate concern, but that's fine. That's a whole different tangent, but the whole crux of the issue for Black student organizers on PWI campuses is the fact that we always run into white socialists who always run into white DSA groups who privilege the class question over the race question and that's bullshit. And you know what that is, that's just their colonial inheritance. That's the reason why they don't want to talk about the race question because their colonial inheritance is the very foundation for this planet. Because it's going to be a lot of work, more work, the real work. Exactly. And also a lot of the privilege that they have even though they, you know, are so-called socialists, a lot of them niggas have a lot of fucking class privilege that don't want to be talked about, but they get to a college campus and put a DSA rose on and they're like, oh, socialism. Do people want to put the fatigues on and be like, I'm really in the mud, but I'm the king of this hell. It's fine. But the thing, like, this is just crazy to me. I'm sorry. This is just bad to me. You can curse. Oh, my fault. Oh, my bad. Yeah, my bad. So, yeah, but this stuff is bad to me in terms of being able to pinpoint it. It's just got to be the fact that we will never be taken seriously on PWI campuses. But that's a larger question because black people will never be taken seriously within America, period. Thanks. Yeah, and I resonate a lot with what you were saying, like especially dealing with other black students who are going to be opposition. You know, so like at Cal, you know, we had 10 demands. We was fighting for a resource center, you know, fighting for scholarship for, you know, students with, you know, 0% estimated family contributions. So basically students who have the least amount of money, right? And like, we literally had, like, I had my own student or my own peers as a student. Like, all y'all niggas is like terrorists, bro. Y'all is like ISIS, bro. Like niggas were saying the most outlanded shit just because we wanted a resource center. And I think that's, it kind of speaks, you know, to, I think what happens at a lot of these, you know, prestigious universities, colleges, is that it's a lot of people who are middle-class, who are trying to be, continue to be middle-class. Or you have niggas like who want to become the JZs or become the niggas who was working at Goldman Sachs. So they have that whole different class attitude that doesn't give a fuck about the masses of black people. You know, and that's one big ass thing I'd be seeing on college campuses amongst black students. So it makes it real hard, you know, because even for us, it was like, it was a very few amount of us black radicals, you know, and like half the community wasn't fucking with us even though we was trying to get them their rights and their resource center. You feel me? Niggas be calm. No, I can tell you, man, I can tell you it's probably about max. We probably had at max maybe 14 people at a meeting. Like they'd be through every endeavor, whether it was trying to stop commencement from getting canceled because they were trying to justify another neighborhood and put costs there, whether it was because of increased police presence. It's just we were never able to garner truly the full attention that these issues deserve because on a lot of cases, the black students and just the students period were not receptive to the idea that something is wrong with trying to destroy historically black communities like Shackle Bottom in Richmond and Jackson Ward, which, you know, VCU, the place that I went to, they have been moving further and further inland on encroaching upon these black communities, buying up the properties, buying out grandmother's houses, increasing police presence. And meanwhile, VCU was getting all of this money to spend on nothing that is helping black students in terms of African studies. They're not doing anything for humanities. All the money is going to the STEM and tech, which is actually just a big funneling job for a weapons contractor. So, you know, this is the university system at its core. You know what I'm saying? It's a colonial instrument. You know what I mean? It's just kind of what it is. Sex. And we were talking about how black radicalism does not pay. It's often like glorified and amplified as long as it's not actually threatening to the status quo. Niggas be on these campuses. The folks that are the students that are trying to do this real work on campus, you know what I'm saying? Not getting the support that they need, but then you get these people that go out onto the internet and make all these and try to align themselves with the work, try to align themselves with the movement. I mean, should even at Howard, you know, during during the protests at, you know, H.U. Resist was having the university itself made like a black opposition group to Howard of students. And weaponized them to kind of distract from the protests of H.U. Resist, you know? So it's while what the university will go to, but it just shows you like the way they're that's almost setting up like a coup, you feel me? And if we understand that these universities are sites of colonization, it's a colonization institution, we understand exactly what it's doing too, you feel me? Cue brought up a good point to us like these universities is gentrifying the community. You know, but a lot of people, like you're from that community Cue, right? So it's like you're going to be tapped and you're going to know about it, right? But a lot of students I'm sure aren't from that community so they don't know the history behind that community. You feel me? So it hits a lot harder than you. You don't know the history. Exactly. Why do niggas don't care? Like I'm just here to get my college breath. Black excellence, four years I'm out. But on the whole campus preaching that preaching that black power shift, but not understanding how the work today university is affecting the black people and us around the neighborhoods. Oh man, I wish it was that, I wish it was that good for us out here, man. People out here, you know what I'm saying? Talking about, you know, we just got our elect Joe Biden. We got, you know, black student groups that are dedicated to, you know, making the next CEOs. We got black student groups that are about trying to get Western investments in Africa. It's bad out here, but I'm going to tell you right now, like the university is a site of violence for the colonized person. Period. Like it's just, it's just not, no matter where you at, HBCU or PWI. You just, you know what I'm saying, you behind any lines both in both places. Yeah, that's just real. So I know one thing we was excited to talk about is just like this concept, you know, that you talked about and then we've talked about too is like revolutionary violence and why revolutionary violence is important. So I remember you tweeting about, you know, putting down the ballot and picking up a brick. Can you go into more detail about what that means and just, just this idea of revolutionary violence? Yeah. So revolutionary violence is the armed or unarmed direct engagement with the state and all of its agents. That's kind of what it is. It has to be an organized front and it has to be something that is not necessarily a spontaneous event but has to be something that is manufactured through the process and revolution because revolutionary violence is not something that is always a first option unless the people are being met with direct fascistic violence. You know, like, unless you're, you know, a Jew in the Warsaw ghetto, you're probably not gonna fight back immediately until like, you know, the Nazis are really starting to shoot you. There are those who do directly engage with the state when threatened but for it to be revolutionary violence, that means that a consciousness has been fostered within a sizable portion of people who are willing to throw their discretion for their life and the enemy's life away. That's what revolutionary violence is but people have to be organized to do that and I also want to be clear that when I say pick up a break I'm talking about right now as it stands, that's a theoretical thing because we should be ready to do that but in terms of the present moment it's not safe to be outside it's not safe to stage revolutionary violence it's not it's not the conditions are not there yet because it's like it's Thomas Encara says that you know a soldier without any type of training has the potential to be a criminal and if people don't know why they're being violent then that has the potential for collateral damage that we did not proceed. Thanks. Yeah, that's real. I mean because I think for for us you know it's like we believe in the gun right we believe in the gun as it means to self-defense you know for our community but that doesn't mean that everybody can eat a gun because without politicization you like what you was just saying right what good is the gun if you're not politicized about it right because the goal of the gun you know I think Chairman Mouse so the goal of the gun is to eliminate the gun that's why we pick up the gun you feel when you're like we don't like guns but our enemies using guns we don't like you know these other you know weapons they use but our enemies using it so shit we have the right to use it too to defend ourselves to defend our people and for self-determination of all black people. Yeah exactly another important part of that was like you talk about the words that you use over and over again was organized I think that when people talk about you know violence or they bring up the gun people and refer to the past let's let's see the pathers for example motherfuck is don't understand just how strategic they were with their with their responses to violence for violence right that nigga he was dumb at or hella smart you feel me like and then you also the exact codes of everything okay nigga I am eight feet away from you pig this is the exact policy that says I can be eight feet away with you armed with shotgun pig like niggas actually was very in tune with the law even though it's fucked the law right and even when it comes to the tactics right like niggas have vaccination just sometimes when people think about like arming them so I'm making my strap on my bus back but nigga do you know how to shoot you don't be effective dog it gotta be it has there has to be some organization in their head like they have to go hand to hand organization in the politics got to be behind it or what's what happens when the violence deceased yeah and I think that that brings up another good question is just like what is the importance of organization queue like within these revolutionary movements you know because I think it's we've entered a time where hellish it is just hella individual you feel me it's individual this individual it's book deal this book deal that you feel me it's like it's all about individual you feel me but if we study our history we know our history organizations have always been on the front of revolution so can you talk a little bit more about the importance of revolutionary organizations yeah organization is one of the two imperatives you have to have study you have to have organization and that's all and I want to make a caveat that this is for people who are able to organize people who have groups around them that they can or groups that they can form this is what I'm talking about there are people who are in places around the world and in this country where it's you know very scarce organizing or there's reactionary organizing so I want to get a caveat but for those who are able to do so and for those who are in the proper conditions organization is one of the two imperatives you have to be able to know why you're moving before you move that literally is like your directions your organization is the roadmap to what you're trying to do this shouldn't this is kind of basics one on one but I like to explain everything in basketball terms sometimes so it's like I can't expect my team to go out there and win if they haven't watched the film and if they haven't practiced you feel me so it's like this is this is you know the number one imperative is we have to have people who are willing and able to engage and manufacture the consciousness that we all need because before our feet can move before our feet can even touch the ground before people can even leave the house to join up in these quadres and communes or whatever you know whatever the hell people want to do before any of that there has to be a through line that unites the people consciously it doesn't have to be a hundred percent alignment on objectives it just has to be objectives that we can all agree upon you see what I'm saying so organization is the number one in my opinion go for the left in the next 10 years otherwise we can kiss this whole thing goodbye yeah because you know the opposition is very very organized they got 400 years plus organization to keep this shit intact man it's like we are the masses of people bro but it isn't a question of us being like outsmarted nigga we is out organized yeah simply put we is out organized you feel me the police highly organized the military military highly organized you feel me and these are gonna be these are gonna be the groups that they're gonna use to keep this shit intact that they're gonna continue to use to keep this shit intact exactly one thing I want to touch on because I know being on week when we had these conversations in front of people in reference to like violence being a key element like you can't talk about liberation from a white supremacist state from an imperialist nation without accepting the reality that violence is going to be a part of that right because violence is what was used to obtain it and violence is what was used to uphold it and we experience violence at the hands of the state every day right it's not always nigga physical violence but you feel me like this pandemic is violent you feel me like so one thing yeah QL is hoping that you can just provide some insight as to why it's important that we set that reality yeah yeah I think that could you could you like rephrase the question I don't want to take it someplace where I don't think you're going so I'm saying like people talk about liberation people talk about radical revolutionary blah blah blah and I think this can all happen through our violent tactics and we know that that's not the case right yeah well there will be fools to believe that because if you look at history history is always going to be our guide as Africans as workers as colonized people as captive Africans whatever you want to call yourself history is our guide and history has shown that it has been the sword and the bullet that has seized power and it's always been the organization of the people now I'm not advocating that people take this as the first step there are steps that need to be taken before violence is even on the table there are strikes there's organizing and trying to get your union stronger there's organizing walkouts there's all types of different methods and tactics that we can do before we even have to start loading shit up you know what I'm saying but when it comes to but when it comes to people trying to have this utopian and idealistic socialist revolution show me one time in history where there's been no bloodshed and yet the state has fallen thanks I mean that's the thing about this shit is like if you study your history right and a lot of these people you know even these these so-called burning burn our stands bro like then they get I know they study so these people are also like willfully choosing to ignore the history that is led these liberation movements that has led to revolution you feel me that it's led to overthrowing these I mean what that's like missing this pair of form is the ability to pick and choose which one's your reality to be shit I'm talking about some of these black people who's a supporter to be honest like if I'm being real that shit still spanish because the way that they got our minds calling us bro man they be identified and they identify you see what I'm saying like please be identifying with the best interests of massive because massive has made them see themselves as an extension of them that's why people say our country us you know what I'm saying when they talk about the military versus anyone else it's colonization we see ourselves as as an extension of the colonizer and a lot of us have that ingrained in us so we believe that we don't have to hurt massive because you know Matthew with us a long time ago and you know he's still a human right even though he hasn't seen our humanity in 400 plus years so what you talking about you know what I'm saying so it's all just foolishness you've got to look at history and we got to stop coddling people who want to hold on to this you know well maybe we can care bear and hug it out hell nah hell nah that's what I'm at with it like again it's so many it's so many steps to be taken before a niggas actually just bear arms trying to share it but it's like my niggas if you think this gonna happen without it and it's even all the niggas look it's all the niggas they praise too so it's like if you study history and you study king bro king was praised as an integrationist king was praised as a niggas who would turn the other cheek king would be like oh I love you even if you was hurting me you feel me and how did king die the king was anti-capitalist anti-imperialist he was trusted if we'll talk about it king applied you feel me to have a strap bro king had niggas outside of his house without with straps you feel me like his literally his last conversation with bell of thunder was like I believe I have integrated my people into a burning house you look at the boys the boys was one of the most praised integrationist assimilationist that niggas died of communist in Africa you feel me so even these niggas who was pushing these integrationist theories at first if you study the whole life of them you see how they change and move more towards a revolutionary theory a revolutionary action but it's like niggas just forget that when they use in violence without being provoked so what would you think they're going to do when you get these niggas a reason like come on exactly no exactly and that's because you know violence is at a constant in America because at every turn the original sin is violence you can't you can't decouple America from the violent original sin we can't uncouple 1492 from the present day I make the point all the time the first president is a rapist and so is the 45th so what is the progress at this is this is the same colonizer this is the same person this is a different method and progress is often judged by how well the bourgeois class of colonized people are doing and it's just I don't it's just not I'm not I'm not really into that and for people to want to be proliferating this idealistic socialist revolution with the Bernie campaign and hoping that we can just talk it out with these people let me be very clear with you the Trump administration has somebody in it who we don't even know just how evil that those people are we have somebody like Mike Pompeo who is secretary of state who says that he's excited that the polar ice caps are melting because it will expose natural resources so quite literally the colonizer is telling you I'm going to kill you all and you're not going to do anything about it the gun is already in our faces it's us it's on us to bust back at this point the gun has been in our faces for a hundred years if you can't hear that shit by now I mean come on ma'am a bar a bar that's how you can really say after that like that I think it's got to be I think once you're able to recognize all the different ways that the state is being violent again being violent against you you have no choice the least I can do is take a bigger like that's the least they can do we talk about nigga environmental violence nigga we're talking about saving the fucking world at this point bro we ain't even talking about you know like we was we was talking about saving the world and that's that's the urgency that I feel like we need to have to organize and we can't just be organizing on some bullshit over some democratic fucking campaign nigga we got to organize the people to overthrow the shit that is pointing the gun at us that has been pointing the gun at us you know for 400 years so you know fresh off the press and filming we got Bernard Sanders dropping out of the race man you know all we can think about is like all the time that was being used and all the effort that went supporting him that could have been used to dismantle the system right so you know what's your thought on Bernard's you know dropping out of the racing but just even his campaign and now we've seen a lot of you know even a lot of quote unquote movement people working for Bernie um let me let me be clear that if we're going to be talking in what people like to call practicality okay let me just say Bernie was the quote unquote best choice okay if everyone who's going to buy to get mad at me are we cool now all right burning in his campaign burning in his campaign dog a bunch of settlers like I've been trying to tell people there is no path to liberation through Washington DC there is no path to freedom through the Capitol building none there will never how is a house that's built by slaves don't come on now like come on y'all like like what are we talking about we're talking about Washington DC somebody's on Allen Iverson we're talking about DC DC the DC that has neglected has gentrified has murdered Jim Crow turned the left cheek sabotage with crack guns and all the ills of society have been thrust upon black people by this one central location the most evil location on the place of the planet Washington DC an absolute abomination is a saddler hub of violence you expect that to liberate you you expect that mechanization that has been in design for hundreds of years through the systems and institutions that have hardened to make our oppression even worse and more visible I mean visible you expect that location to be the thing that's going to save you see this is why I know people aren't reading people ain't doing the reading they ain't nobody talking everybody everybody's talking in class but nobody's doing the reading the niggas reading the George Washington biography nigga and they ain't reading Malcolm X it's obvious man it's obvious and I just I don't like I feel like it can't get any slimmer than the way you just broke it down it's like dog you're talking about the place that was designed to kill you feel me to kill in the same dog to steal the land of indigenous peoples and you want to be on that table what does that say about you that the little location where with strokes of pens they have killed millions in that location with strokes of pens they have made sure that black youth never had a chance with strokes of pens they've locked up hundreds of thousands in the new slave system with strokes of pens in that location they drop bombs and have changed the entire geographic layout of the planet because of so much uranium and so much nuclear energy that they put out into the planet this is the location that y'all think somebody like burning fucking sanders is going to go into and change you are out but you out you have lost you have lost the plot if you think anybody if you think anybody anybody anybody H.R.M. Brown Jamil Alameen tells us this if we if we put if we put the ghost of Fred Hampton in overall but we got to fight against that and nigga too or what we talking about because you got to realize bruh it's not peoples it's systems bruh and that's what I want my brother to realize even when you start talking about nigga revolutions nigga it's not people it's not one person it's the people bruh and it's the the organizing and the systems that they put around them that led to the overthrow of my nigga it's not going to it's not going to take one person integrating himself into an oppressive violent position that's going to liberate this my nigga it's not going to happen I don't care what the I don't care what progressive shit they prep they they doing in a press run it's not going to happen dawg it's not going to happen I always explain it like this I always explain it just like this so whenever I'm with students or whatever I'm doing like a talk or whatever I say it like this America is a train track and the tracks have been laid centuries ago I need y'all to feel me like they've been laid centuries ago the track has already been predetermined where it's going to go and all we're doing is fighting over which conductor gets to drive it and they're just upgrading the train all they all they doing is just upgrading the train making it harder for us to see that the conductor is in cahoots with the people building the track and we complain of that like this and yeah and yeah all we doing is complaining because the track is taking too long to get us where we even need to go but they've been telling y'all the track is not for y'all we need to rip the train track up we need to destroy the trains and take out any conductor that's trying to be a conductor for real though and anybody who really want to decide with them is an opportunity they get dealt with period like this is what it is I just want niggas to take all that energy and put it into the right places put it into your communities put it into the people that needed the most niggas is up here uplifting the folks that don't need us that don't need us these niggas gonna do what they do regardless of the black folk how much niggas want to harp on that and build that up these motherfuckers gonna do what we're gonna do what they're gonna do regardless of that regardless of our support and our time bro don't put that shit into some shit that's actually gonna help people that's actually gonna if there are two growers liberation if there are two girls to see old people not only survive but thrive put that into some of the movements and the people that's trying to make that happy your local community organized the niggas who don't have the platforms that the Bernie Sanders got the niggas who don't have the millions and millions of dollars of backings the niggas that don't have the 70 person team you know what's so wild about these elections bruh these these things are just Ponzi schemes bruh this shit is really just schemes bruh because it's you have Bernie raising millions and millions of dollars for a campaign that lost for a campaign that didn't even fucking come close so imagine if all that money was actually just redistributed to filming the people the organizations in the field that is actually doing mutual aid work doing this fucking pandemic niggas like them money's just being fucking wasted man i don't know man and it's also like what happens when these niggas what happens when these niggas when these niggas lose like where's elizabeth mooring down like what what work is she doing she co-sponsoring by that she on saturday night live my nigga doing the doing the drink challenge like flipping the switch like what do these niggas do after they lose what would these niggas do on before they lost that's the thing like what would these niggas do on before they even was running for president come on dawg these niggas don't have a and we gotta stop lowering the bar like niggas be doing the most minimal quote on quote radical thing and we use that to project that into their entire politic because that speaks to the stage of colonization that we're in you know what i'm saying people don't see this is why people gotta see themselves as africans i already know that we're gonna get there but that's why people gotta see themselves as africans because if you understood your position as a colonial subject you would recognize that the instruments of death that were created to keep you in subjugation are never ever going free you they were designed to keep you in the cycle of death America is a corporation of death so why would this corporation of death go against this business model out of nowhere street health for 400 and 700 years into it you know that that doesn't make sense that's a morality that's a morality yeah right niggas yeah we back in on morals niggas home of the free land of the brave we back in on morals niggas come on come on man niggas got a waystay boost bro i got like i'll be trying to tell you bro you gotta read dawg you gotta read and i and you gotta read the right shit you can't just read everything and it's like there's audio books these days too bro there's audio books for those that can't read niggas podcast as well you feel me that is breaking down these theories that is talking about revolutionary theory that is talking about revolutionaries of the past you feel me so that's why i should this radical content mission is so important q i mean you made the point if you were saying you don't know if we're gonna get into it but i think we could just fucking jump into it right now and why is it that black folks in american black folks abroad start to see themselves as what they truly are and that's africanism because i believe in pan afghanism is the only solution to our problems with african people can you try to pan afghanism for for the listeners that might not know what it is sure sure pan afghanism is the total unification and liberation of the afghan continent in the diaspora under the banner of scientific socialism all 54 states all gender sexuality size colors and shapes that's what it is and one currency one visa one land one and one people but we have a plurality of for real one destiny one land and this is the question of land that we've always had to deal with people like the lesser respected now you know people like garvey the more respected like huamin krumah thomas angkara amil khar qabral malkham x george padmore wb de boiz seco torey like you know what to lie to me morris bishop even even kwame torey will argue that for del caster is one of the biggest pan afghanists in history because of his ability to help the afghan continent and people within the diaspora and the reason why it's important to see yourself as african is because we are in a colonial struggle that has never left us just because we got on them both doesn't mean that we stop being african i always make this point that there are white folks who ain't never even been to europe ain't ever even been to ireland and they've even been to france and they've even been to germany never even been to britain but yet when you ask them what are you on britain i'm i'm british i'm i'm one third french i'm i'm i'm european i'm have i'm have germans but when black people want to claim the rightful identity of african ancestry i'm an african in america i'm african in the Caribbean you can even call yourself an african-american but you know what you call yourself first before american african so go ahead bro you can have it which way you want the end of the day is we have a question of land that needs to be solved there are 54 states that are under under the control of the colonial powers in the western imperialist powers and it's our duty as african people to see that unification is our only way forward i'm not one of those people who is a pessimist who believe that it's only black people who want free black people i do believe that we do need coalition work so we do need to have you know what i'm saying intra-communalism like human-nudin profess but african people are at the centrality of the stage that was set to build this new world i need people to understand that the world that you are in right now is a european invention the world that you are in right now is a construction of the colonizer and it does not have to be this way and that if you recognize yourself and if you look in the mirror and if you look at those old photos that people just be go awesome but really look at those old photos really look at those photos of the auction block really look at those photos of pre-colonial african history really look at them and look at yourself because that's you and then look at the colonizer that's them it's literally right here in front of us we just have to see it as a struggle for land if we don't have and especially in the age of climate change telling me black people don't need land is about as ass in our and saying that the world don't need water yeah i mean there's no freedom without land and because the land isn't like if we understand colonization if we understand settler colonialism our oppression is tied to land and i think that's what people don't realize taking of it the acquiring of it the depletion of it the exploitation of the environmental change like it's based off of the fucking land it's based off of the resources that the land provides right so i think yeah we the shit is so important brother like the question of land you know and i think you know us black people us africans who was enslaved in america you feel me it's like we are landless people and then you know what claim to land that we have too as well is like a question that comes up so do you think you can dive a little bit into that because you know there's always been you know what the republic of new africa right and then there's been those right all back to african movements you know and this is a question you know i think i've even struggled with especially you know we think about like indigenous people and then an indigenous sovereignty you know on america right on turtle island mm-hmm um so what else on that i always think about this as like a multifaceted conversation because pen africanism is one of the richest traditions that for some reason is taken as a joke and i know why it is because it's because we got these most like a boom or a shift yeah i'm kind of consciousness over you know i'm saying this is like it's just that's just kind of what's been made a joke is you know people while running around in dashiki he's talking about you know transphobic things homophobic things but then when i say we here for the africans it's like that doesn't work that's never gonna work it's because niggas who don't really understand it are kind of being propelled as the thought leaders of it yeah the black man exactly you make the whole point of all black people shake sizes gender sexuality and like that's the part that the niggas that i've been speaking on have been left have been leaving out and a lot of these niggas and all serious and it's like the niggas is damn near agents of the stakes because there's what are we like making up their own version of pen africanism and we know that pen africanism is what can free us and this you know it's putting a lot of people away towards pen africanism because of the fucking co-teh propaganda yep that's a good that's a really great point i've talked about that with kings in the past before we never really had articulated that like that i like that and the whole point is when you look at what has always been on the radar and what's actually been a threat to the state really look at history it's really never been internal uprising that have been sustainable for african people in america to be able to give freedom that's an important component when i'm talking about revolutionary violence but in the process of revolution for african people there has to be a reconnection process there has to be a repatri- there has to be some form of repatriation there has to be some form of population that goes back there has to be some population that stays here there has to be some population in the Caribbean that fights for freedom there and and and so on and so forth because if we look at history they didn't fear Malcolm he was just an angry negro preacher until he went to Ghana and then met with Kwame Kuma and was actually able to start talking about getting funds to african and america see that's when it gets scary that's when it gets spooky when Martin Luther King goes to Ghana and says okay you know what let's let's actually talk you know what i'm saying when it's like W. E. B. Du Bois saying yeah we need to go to china we we need to go to all over the world and it's internationalism like internationalism and a subset of that well i'm sorry for me the overtone of that is pan africanism right internationalism and solidarity is the two components that we will always need because the state always takes notice when africans are connecting that is why black power slogans were banned in trinidad in the fifties that is why Malcolm X couldn't go to jamaica for uh two universities for certain times not because jamaica didn't want him and black people in jamaica weren't feeling that it's because they were feeling that and it's always going to be because of that that we get the hostess out here saying that we just got to buy in black bank and we got to put a credit card in our it's just all the you know the bull it's just it's just unnecessary it all comes down to a question of land and organization and the question that i always lead people with when when they tell me well when has pan african pan africanism ever worked i said well when have you tried to be a pan africanist thanks because history shows it has nigga like did revolutions not happen on the continent did niggas not overthrow colonial powers you feel me was cuba not giving fucking aides to revolutionary movements on the continent exactly exactly what y'all say niggas don't know their history dog niggas don't know their history that's why it's important because you know you know historical historical illiteracy is the lifeblood of propaganda you know i'm saying like it because you have to keep a people disinformed i mean you have to keep people misinformed and running around with the long information for them to buy into propaganda because you can't tell somebody who knows the history of china even just on a Wikipedia level that oh my god china is a dictatorship where only one person has power that's that racist orientalist bullshit that they put on that and north korea because they wanted to think that oh wait asian people all have this one mind wait isn't that the same thing they're saying that all african people have one mind the animal gene and the warrior gene oh wait that's eugenics but people don't know what eugenics is because they don't study history because america has to keep the people sedated with individualism just get your own votes just get your little billions just get your little billion that you'll never see you realize that you're the person who gets struck by lightning struck by lightning then as you've seen a billionaire man but hey niggas don't niggas don't read and niggas don't study but it's funny because it's true but like when you when you realize like how just how far off niggas are bro like damn i mean you kind of the devil you got to credit the devil the devil is fucking colonized these niggas are working over over over over time though not only do they have they already laid the foundations for centuries they still going hard at this shit like they never like these niggas act like it never happened that's how hard they work and they build in train tracks across the globe them niggas doubling up on the train tracks niggas come out they already been laid in LA and we should they find the new routes to still get you to the same point yeah so i think you know to sum up this conversation and then transition into the extended episode i think it's important you know to talk about just a little bit of you know COVID-19 i've seen you've been talking about this pandemic and um you know what steps should black radicals be taken in and what what should we be advocating for leverage your community your organization your platforms whatever you have to advocate for debt cancellation like housing jobs people should people if i'm being real the government could be giving us $2,000 a month in ubi and they could do whatever they want in terms of that so people want to advocate for you know stipends for disabled folks um definitely we need to be boosting our trans family in this time our trans Africans we definitely be boosting our disabled Africans and their needs and listening to them child care needs we need to be advocating for stronger unions we need to be advocating for free health care now which is another point on bernie bernie has abandoned even trying to push for Medicare for all in his uh last press release last week which shows that he's a op but at the point we need to be advocating for food we need to keep our eyes on the enemy and we also need to understand that what it's about to happen in the next couple months is going to take real solidarity strength and study because 10 million people have just applied for unemployment this is higher than the height of the great exactly exactly and this is higher than the height of the great depression so it's about to get really spooky but we just wait in the water that's what we always been in this country we've always been in a cycle of death and we've always had to navigate it and it's sad that we have to continue to do it and it's sad that we have to do this work and along the way i know that a lot of people are going to get tired and a lot of people sell out a lot of people don't want to do the work anymore but i tell you this man i look at it like this the thing that motivates me every day is knowing that i'm gonna have to look black babies in the face one day and they're gonna say why the f*** you do nothing straight up niggas you have two options bruh like to lay down or fight that's really your options like it's come it's that simple you're gonna lay down or you're gonna fight and i think that's what it's a it's a it's a fucked up ass reality to know like you know that's what you've been doing for the last 400 plus years right it's just like fighting to survive niggas fighting to survive and when we get the brief moments putting in putting in plans for thriving for thriving you know and i mean it's just it is what it is and again like you say we owe it to the future and we owe it to our ancestors because them niggas ain't tap out and we we owe it to ourselves on top of that we owe it to three it's three levels of this you'll sell your ancestors and the people and the people infill me after you appreciate your cue for real you want to plug your socials before we go on to this next extended episode for our patreon yeah for sure just follow me on twitter at cube got no rings that's q g o t and o r n g s and we should we should plug your pot i know it's um i think you only did a few episodes soundcloud.com flash fragments part yeah it's only a few but that nigga got some heat man i'm telling y'all this is when i make you uh i didn't realize the nigga was like 23 like why you like niggas is sharp bro like i told i told b um you you y'all to remind me a lot of each other bro like y'all y'all historians and y'all all rights are you niggas just know so much so much black history so much african history is nuts and that's that's two things i mind about y'all niggas because i can't remember dates for shit y'all like i can't i can't i can't remember and that shit is hella important bro it's hella important so y'all niggas you know you should take some some pride in that shit bro i appreciate it bro for real that's love so tapping on patreon patreon.com slash hella black pie for extended content you feel me shit is needed now more than ever you feel me supporters patreon.com slash hella black pie you feel me extended content much more we got some merch up there you feel me we got that hella black coffee mug up there you feel me so you got your black coffee your your tea your black tea or your lemon ginger tea whatever you be drinking so tapping on her patreon patreon.com slash hella black pie