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Cincinnati Fires by Mumia Abu-Jamal
"The government is
only as lasting as your understanding of administration. The
Army is nothing without people, the Air Force is grounded without
your endorsement, the ships of the Navy could never have sailed
if your leaders didn't have you sail 'em, and the brutal depravity
of police would be non-existent if you didn't wear the
uniform."
Black youthful rage explodes
in Cincinnati, Ohio and several nights of fire, rebellion and
pain reminds us that the much-maligned and heralded '60s were
really not so very long ago.
For like the riots that rocked
the nation in the 1960s, the precipitating event was an act of
brutality and violence by police against black folks.
Police violence against blacks
has sparked rampages of rebellion from coast to coast, costing
hundreds of millions of dollars in destroyed property, and hundreds
of lost lives.
Over 30 years have passed,
and in the intervening years we have seen the emergence of the
black political class, and the entrenchment of the black poor
in inner cities, projects, and ghettoes more desolate, more isolated
and more hopeless than the 1960s.
We have seen the explosion
of the Prison Industrial Complex, at rates that would've been
unthinkable in the 1970s, with upwards of 2,000,000 men, women,
and juveniles in American jails.
The U.S., with only 5% of
the world's population, has 25% of the world's prison population!
And for black young men and
women, the horror of prison has become a perverse rite of passage,
marking one's transition from youth to adulthood.
So, while things have gotten
better for some African-Americans since the 1960s, things have
gotten demonstrably worse for millions of other, poorer blacks.
Public schools, never quite
outstanding in the first place, have gone into decline. City
services have declined. Industries have fled cities for the South
and the suburbs, leaving cities with less employment, and with
remaining jobs paying for less money, while costs have gone up.
Cincinnati, sparked by the
police shootings of a black man, could have happened anywhere
in America. The social ingredients are all there, in every major
city in America.
In every major city is economic
and social despair, mixed with a militaristic police force that
targets black life and liberty.
In every such city are black
politicians who function in the role of keeping the restless
natives in check; keep them suffering in silence.
Cincinnati represented the
eruption of youth who see their position in grim, hopeless situations.
Cincinnati is a harbinger
of things to come.
Cincinnati is the fire next
time.
_____________
This column may be reprinted and/or distributed by electronic means,
but only for non-commercial use, and only with the inclusion of the
following copyright information: Check www.mumia.org and its links
for
important action alerts. Mumia Abu-Jamal is the author of three books: Live from Death
Row, Death Blossoms, and All Things Censored.
_____________
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