Transcript
Political Chaos in African American Communities by Willie Worley Jr. Society's ills have scared African Americans almost beyond repair, making us subjects of social and moral decay. Our communities lack the simplicities of voting and aiding in the voting registration process. We are so morally out of touch with the most important things that affect our lives. We are the source of our own suppression. Too often we make excuses for not voting by saying things like, "My vote won't make a difference," or "All of them are the same." The list goes on until we become the root of the political chaos that affects our well-being such as the inadequate justice that terrorizes our communities. There is an example that I like to use to get our communities to understand the importance of political processes. 99.9% of politicians are considered to be charismatics and generally we have a way of clinging to their personalities for many different reasons. African Americans praised Bill Clinton as though he was the answer to their prayers. Some of us coined him as being our first African American president. Still to this day we praise his presidency. For the love of God, I don't know why. During our beloved President Clinton's tenure in office, he slashed funding for public housing by $17 billion and boosted Corrections by $19 billion. Michelle Alexander described his actions in her New York Bestseller "The New Jim Crow" as making the construction of prisons the nation's main housing program for the urban poor. Former President Clinton also signed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) into law. This act is anti-prisoner as well as anti-African American. We as African Americans dedicate a lot of our time and energy playing, watching, and consuming various sporting activities. There is absolutely nothing anyone can tell us about sports. We know statistics, teams, players, points, and the list of our knowledge in sports goes on and on. What if we looked at politics like we look at sports? What if we looked at political parties as different sporting events? Or the many different public offices like our favorite teams, political candidates like our most cherished players? Look at going to the voting polls like going to a game. I'll tell you this: politicians would start adding solutions to the problems of the underclass, poor class, and working poor class instead of beginning their address to the middle class like we only exist to fill up prisons so some capitalist can get free or cheap labor. We must get more involved with what truly affects our lives. It's time that we wake up to the ones who are leading us like sheep into the pastures of mass incarceration. Voter's Education Orientation and Registration should be as important to us as our favorite sporting events. By engaging in sports as entertainment the most we stand to lose is a bet of some sort. Whereas by engaging in politics we get so much more. If a person ignores voting for the better candidate due to their unconscious and implicit racism, they may be destroying the dynamic of their financial security. National Intelligence for African American Communities 3rd Party Progeny Black Panthers sees the problem and is dedicated to addressing it. Our goal is still and always will be to stop oppression by reforming our oppressor. Our most powerful weapon in our arsenal continues to be our ability to use and apply rational thought as servants of the people. All power to the people! Willie Worley Jr. Minister of Self-Defense North Carolina Chapter
