Unpublished Letter to CityBeat

Here is a letter I wrote to CityBeat that was never published. I wrote it back in 2002 after I read an article naming Angela Leisure "Person of the Year."

Dear CityBeat,

I am writing this letter to commend you on giving the Person of the Year award to Mrs. Leisure. She is to be commended on her handling of the situation involving her son's death. However, I feel that although what she did was morally right, it may have hurt the black cause politically. Let me explain. In your article, you mention how she "could have called for revenge," she "could have fed the fury over her son's death" and she "could have yelled 'Enough isenough! Let's burn this city down!" It is my opinion that her refusal to engage in those behaviors as well as the strategy of using '60's style activism exercised by the so-called "radicals" has resulted in the people who hold positions of authority in Cincinnati and Hamilton County believing that they can walk over the black community. At the beginning of your article you list some of the last names that have become household names in Cincinnati. "Roach. Thomas. Luken. Fangman. Streicher." I would add the names Allen, Bronson, Cunningham, and Winkler. All but one of these people are white males and all but one of these people are still alive. Given the way that Palestinians have handled discrimination against them and the way that Tamils in Sri Lanka have handled discrimination against them, just to name two groups as examples, one could conjecture that if similar activities were engaged in in Cincinnati with the result that one or more of the above named men joined Mr. Thomas in death, the people in power would think twice about the way they treat blacks, if for no other reason than fear. I do not think I am far off in assuming that most whites think that the black activists are a joke, for the so-called "boycott" is not receiving widespread approval such as that received during divestiture in South Africa. The only casualties in the aftermath were people arrested during the riots and black men who died during the summer police slowdown/crime wave. The above named people, along with some hostile councilmembers and corporate executives whose businesses lie on the side of Central Parkway that police would not allow access to during the riots are all still alive and free to continue discriminating. The unwillingness of Mrs. Leisure and other outspoken individuals to give rioters the names and locations of individuals at which their anger could be directed has resulted in more destruction in black neighborhoods and a successful attempt by city leaders to return to business as usual. By not joining places such as Northern Ireland, Israel, Sri Lanka, and most recently, Nepal, as places where business as usual can no longer prevail, I believe we missed a chance to bring substantive change to this city, change that cannot occur by trying to make people ashamed of condoning behavior that they do not believe is wrong.

It has been 4 years since I wrote that letter, which CityBeat did not publish, and Palestinians and Nepal citizens are still providing the example for black people that they were providing then. They have been joined by Iraqi citizens who know the proper way to fight back against oppression. The racists I named in that letter are still alive and stil committing racist acts against the Black community. For example, Peter Bronson is now selling a book about the riots where he spews racist hatred toward the black community, and Bill Cunningham engaged in such terrorist acts as offering to sponsor the funeral of the 100th black person killed in Cincinnati in 2002, going on national TV to defame Nathaniel Jones after he was summarily executed by the Cincinnati Gestapo, and then most recently inviting Kabaka Oba, Nate Livingston and others onto his propaganda radio station to air the dirty laundry of a conflict that should have stayed private. Bronson and Cunningham have been joined by racists such as David Pepper, Leslie Ghiz, and the White Citizens Council group known as Westwood Concern in boosting their own careers by by inflaming hatred against black people, as are all the people I name in my first blog entry. The young black men are still killing each other instead of the above named racists. The city is still pursuing business as usual. One of the few men who was standing up for black people was murdered and will be laid to rest. The wrong person was murdered. It should have been someone like Chief Streicher who was murdered instead.

The correct approach is being taken in Nepal, Palestine, and Iraq. The "kumbaya" "we shall overcome" approach is still being taken in cincinnati. It is time to heed the message being sent from the Holy Land to "go forth and do likewise."

Was only going to make one post, but this point was too important to ignore

This article has a point that it is worth noting. I think not enough people know this. It is the reason why I name names in my previous post instead of pointing the blame at whites in general like some people do, and like white people think that all black people who fight for racial justice do.

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w44/msg00468.htm

A quote from that post (with emphasis added):

"In the United States, the Black nation is not in fundamentally inconflict with white people but with the American state and theimperialist ruling class that stands behind it. Of course, to theextent that white people or, indeed, other people, rally to their state,they can get caught in social-political crossfire. But the fact that thestruggle is fundamentally against the state is a big part of the basisof unity across national lines. Along, of course, with the fact thatBlacks are workers and oppressed farmers with an interest as part of theworking people of the United States in defeating the exploiters."

This is for all the white people and brainwashed black people who think that black people who stand up for themselves and their race, like the late freedom fighter Kabaka Oba, are "racist." I won't get into the argument here of why black people can't be racist, there are many places where you can read all about that.

How to end Racism in Cincinnati

This will probably be the only entry I ever make in this blog. Hopefully people will find it and read the important message it contains to begin making this world a better place.

This is an article I came across recently that basically speaks to the feelings I had following the murder of Timothy Thomas in 2001. I still feel the same way today. This article was written over 30 years ago, so it is long past due to take the advice written in it.

http://www.weisbord.org/AfroGuerilla.htm

...What are the targets for the new guerilla fighters attacks? These no doubt would be carefully considered. First comes not the looting of banks or the bombing of corporations but of assassinations.

In city A the police captain orders a group of three policemen to seize a Negro youth and to beat him to death with their clubs. The Afro-American community protests this outrage but nothing is done. Now if the captain and those three policemen who wantonly clubbed the innocent Negro youth to death were themselves seized silently, clubbed to death and left in the street for the dogs, would not the ghetto whoop for joy? Would this police terror continue?...

Kill Mike Allen. Kill Jeff Berding. Kill Peter Bronson. Kill Tom Callinan. Kill Patrick Caton. Kill John Cranley. Kill Bill Cunningham. Kill Joe Deters. Kill Pat Dewine. Kill Keith Fangman. Kill Leslie Ghiz. Kill Bill Gustavson. Kill Melva Gwynn(sp). Kill Phil Heimlich. Kill Blaine Jorg. Kill Charlie Luken. Kill Chris Monzel. Kill David Pepper. Kill Stephen Roach. Kill Jeff Ruby. Kill Merlin Shiverdecker. Kill Tony Snow. Kill Tom Streicher. Kill Ted Winkler.

If this action is taken. It will send a message to White Cincinnati that the Black community is to be taken seriously. It will shine as a beacon of hope to the rest of Black America as a solution to their local racists. It will shine as a beacon of hope to the rest of the African Diaspora that we in America have woken from our capitalist slumber and are ready to lead the fight to eliminate neocolonialism and corporate globalization.