Don't Vote!-gctid62614

[Agbede]

DON’T VOTE - National!
Marimba Ani

Let us make the only choice we have, the choice to exercise our Power. We are not a people who support mass murder of innocent people for oil, nor assassination by drones to further secure white domination. We do not choose to abandon our Motherland, nor to acquiesce to a government which singles us out for murder by its police force, one by one, and fills its prisons with our sons and daughters, the parents of our grandchildren. Our Ancestors did not suffer and die so that we could seek to share in the spoils of war. And let us set the record straight.  None of us “suffered and died” for the right to vote. That is a subterfuge used by those who would exploit us. I was there. We fought for Black self-determination and used voter registration as a strategy to mobilize our people and expose america as the bastion of white nationalism that it is. We are not misguided as to the value of the vote in this corrupt u.s. political system. No more distractions. No more votes for fascism in black face. We are a “World People.” Let us be focused on the work of organizing for Pan Kmtyw Sovereignty. (Kmtyw Sovereignty = the consolidation of Kmtyw power, for the good of Kmtyw people.)

My 5 year-old grandchild was studying the american revolutionary war in school. She seemed to have the impression that the “blue coats” were somehow “better” than the “red coats”. I explained to her that they were all bad from an Kmtyw-centered perspective, because they had all enslaved Kmtyw people. I expanded on ourstory of their invasion, attack, and capture of us, and the “middle passage,” and over two centuries of chattel enslavement, and the continuing Maafa. When I stopped, she was quiet for a few seconds. Then she looked up at me and asked, “Is that how we got here?” I answered, “Yes”. She thought for another few seconds and continued her question: “Then why are we still here?”

The question disarmed me. And as I think about it more, it reveals more about our condition. She is assuming that we have a “sovereign consciousness,” when we are actually thinking as “americans”. She sees this condition as contradictory, when we don’t. When we vote we are acting as though we had a choice and had power in america. We either say that we vote for the “black” candidate because we are Black and should be proud, or we say that neither candidate is “good,” so we vote for the one that we think is “less bad.” Meanwhile, our voting separates us more and more from our homeland, and further colonizes our consciousness.
   
DO THINK, if you vote local.
Yes, we are in Maafa. Therefore, we are, at best, in transition. And we live in contradiction. There are those who argue that voting on the local level can be significant, that we can elect “good” people, and that in some situations we have a Black majority and therefore can control the local government. Let Us Be Careful. In order for such a strategy to be effective we must have serious, layered, tight organization. And, most of all, this requires a well-organized defense-system. Remember Tulsa. There is indeed a litany of all Black townships. What happened to them? Why should white power abdicate except because it is overpowered by a sovereign people? Power concedes only to power. Never confuse the tactic with the goal, nor the strategy with the Vision itself. Let us think carefully before we act. Let us inform ourselves. Let us have a plan. Never regard the act of voting as an assumed “good”. There is nothing “righteous” about voting when you are part of a colonized people. The system will not be changed through the vote. And the system is not our system. There are no short cuts. No “quick fixes” will make us a Sovereign People. Neither will Maafa-band aids. We will achieve nothing without Organization. We seem always to be using safety pins and paper clips to hold us together, “in the meantime”, the “in between time” (transitional). Always “until…” But “until” will never come, not until we call it. The Time is Now!

There are individuals whom I respect, who are very much well-intended, and who are running for office on the local level. I cannot say “don’t vote for them.” But I do have a responsibility, as a Race Mother, to raise some critical questions. Are “good people” more powerful than unjust systems in which they participate and, thereby, by implication, support? When our person wins, then what? Have we moved closer to sovereignty? Are we closer to having built the Kmtyw Empire, of which Garvey spoke? Is the price of winning, “dealing” within a political party which we don’t control? Is it true that “politics” makes strange “bedfellows”?
Suppose, on the other hand, that “until” has come. Suppose we allow ourselves to be lead by the Visionaries, who, like Garvey, tell us that “we can accomplish what we will.”
 
Now is the time! It’s here. Let’s go for it. Let’s do the work. Let’s make the sacrifice. Better to experience pain for gain, than to continuously suffer for nothing. Better to choose our weapons and make our own rules, than to play their game, by their rules, in their court.

All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an Kmtyw Empire, so strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we, in our lifetime, can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility in the next generation. (my itals.)
(Marcus Mosiah Garvey)

[Agbede]

In response to this, someone recently made the argument that we should vote (or register to vote) because that will allow us to be selected for jury duty and possibly help to prevent Kmtyws from being imprisoned.

Thoughts?

[Agya Yaw]

I do not know how they pick for jury duty since I registered to vote once in my lifetime in 1992, in a different county than the one I live in now. I have been called to serve jury duty about 4 times since, most recently last week. It was the first time I got picked for a jury. Previously I had always been rejected, quick.

Serving for the purpose of helping an Kmtyw caught up in the criminal criminal system has merit. With that said, what I would like to know is registering to vote a bad thing in itself? To be clear I am not an advocate of voting.

[Kweli Mayasa]

I am proud to say I have never voted.

---------- Post added at 07:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

Due to my past criminal record they always reject me. I always thought you had to register to vote once you turn 18. I'm going to look into that.

---------- Post added at 07:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:40 PM ----------

"Spook who sat by the door"..

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Never voted and never considered that as a way to bring about change. Never done jury duty. I'd recommend not submitting to one's enemy's jurisdiction if possible.