Pattern of Practice Edited: February 2021

1619 began the forced exportation of Afrikans to what is now called the United States. Between 1619 and 1776, this severe form of chattel slavery flourished within the thirteen British colonies: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Simultaneously, declaring independence from its mother country on July 4, 1776, the newly formed United  States government took over this stolen land, including perpetuating the vicious system of chattel slavery. These enduring atrocities continued from 1776 to 1865.

Abraham Lincoln signed the "so-called" Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863, which ended chattel slavery as we knew it. 

The Black Codes law, instituted by the Confederate states, lasted for twelve years (and I'm not talking about "12 Years a Slave" movie). From 1865 to 1877, this newly created exclusion and exploitation system through segregation found the newly emancipated slaves continually denied fundamental human, civil, and political rights. New Afrikans were kept in slavery by denying them a Right to Life. This includes the Right to vote; Right to employment; Right to freely move about; Right to own Land: Right to Education; Right to decent housing; Right to adequate food and clothing; Right to a fair and just judicial system, and much more.

After the U.S. government's Black Code laws,  radical republican state governments replaced the laws with newly introduced measures systematically embraced by this nation; (enacted in the South from1877 through the 1950s), which legalized racial segregation via the Jim Crow laws for nearly 100 years.

PATTERN of PRACTICE

Our Afrikan ancestors, continually forced to make their way, were repeatedly denied any rights, frequently subjected to vicious racist attacks by local, state, and federal government officials. They were using vagrancy laws to criminalize New Afrikans, making unemployment a violation of state and federal law while allowing the same system to shut them out of the job market.

Once convicted under the vagrancy laws, they would be off to prison, where slavery is codified, under the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The government used its judicial proceedings to incarcerate thousands of New Afrikans under these vagrancy-and-Jim Crow Laws, ensuring that they were locked into legal free slave labor, the government's official objective.

PATTERN of PRACTICE

As a domestic, colonized nation (DCN) within the United States' borders, the struggle for self-determination started for New Afrikans in this country in 1619. We have always resisted the brutal system of slavery and injustice forced on us by the local, state, and federal governments. New Afrikans rebelled through civil disobedience, violent revolts on slave plantations, and present-day uprisings in cities all over Amerika.

PATTERN OF PRACTICE

The struggle for Civil rights in this country can easily define the Pattern of Practice. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and Congress still passed. It was supposed to give New Afrikans citizenship and extensive civil rights for all persons born in the United States, except "Native Americans."  The Civil Rights Act of 1870 was a law passed to re-enact the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was considered questionable and constitutionally. The 1870 law was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1883. Then the Civil Rights Act of 1875, a U.S. Law, was passed to outlaw discrimination in public places because of race or previous servitude. Then, again, the Act was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court (1883 – 1885), which stated that the Fourteenth Amendment, the Constitutional basis of the Act, protected individual rights against infringement by the states, not by other individuals.

PATTERN of PRACTICE

The Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, 1968 were testaments to the consistency of a Resistance Struggle for Civil Rights in this country by New Afrikans and the countless others who joined in this Civil Human Rights Movement. Yet, the system would continue how the U.S. Government and judicial proceedings would interfere every step of obstructing the Human Civil Rights for New Afrikans for almost 103 years. And we are right back where we started, today, fighting for our human and civil rights.

PATTERN of PRACTICE

Here is where the real injustices occur, the Pattern of Practice's actual classist/racist application. As long as all government branches systemically deny the human and civil rights of New Afrikans, we will be fighting indefinitely. The government forces New Afrikans to address this issue every year.

NOTE: I have always been of the mindset that we validate a system that does not believe in the human and civil rights that we as a domestic, colonized nation have always desired. It is not surprising that we are not receiving the fundamental human and civil rights we seek. After four (4) centuries of struggle, one would think it's clear that we will not be afforded these rights. Yet, we continue- generation after generation to appeal to our oppressors as if their heart has softened, while countless continue to suffer.

We hold power to human and civil rights, We the People, not the government.. 

BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: 

In our struggle for independence, it is essential to highlight Denmark Vessey (famous for leading the 1822 slave revolt), Martin Delany (one the first Black Nationalist and a physician), and Marcus Garvey of the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).  The UNIA nationalized us as a People and was a catalyst for many Freedom Movements to come. 

These civil and human rights organizations were instrumental in laying the foundation for more progressive struggles to take center stage in our fight for liberation.

The Nation of Islam (NOI).  The  Black Liberation Movement (BLM) gave life to the Black Panther Party (BPP), Republic of New Afrika (RNA), Black Liberation Army (BLA), and countless other revolutionary formations that became the face for Struggle for Black Liberation and Freedom In Amerika. 

The New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) was established. Our struggle continues for self-determination to govern ourselves as a New Afrikan independent nation within Amerika's borders. In contrast, New Afrikans would attempt to mobilize our People around socio-cultural, political, and economic principles that speak to our humanity as a People, bringing into focus an ideology that represents the core of our identity, lifestyle, and beliefs inclusive of all humanity.

Throughout our struggle, the Civil Rights Movement was and is of astronomical value to our Resistance Movement.

These movements would progress to the mid-1970s (74 – 75, give and take). Simultaneously, the state and federal governments waged a concerted, vicious campaign to stamp out all New Afrikan movements, whether peaceful or radical. The local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction to murder and incarcerate any New Afrikans fighting for basic humanity, the Right to Self-determination. These repressive attacks by the government jeopardized the political and ideological development of our People. The brutal suppression programs waged against our People instilled fear and the Struggle for Freedom, and to some extent, the fight of the People took a back seat. 

PATTERN of PRACTICE – LOST COMMUNITIES

The attacks imposed on our communities' included the opening of the flood gates to street vices. They introduced and unleashed on New Afrikan communities: extreme poverty, drugs, alcohol, police, guns, etc., all weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, New Afrikans would move toward assimilation into Amerikan society's fabric, especially the professional New Afrikans, who provide a service to exploit for Amerika's corporate interests--not the best interest of the People. Thus creating a situation where what little wealth and resources were within the communities was outsourced. The more economically deprived the New Afrikan community became, the more desperate it would become. It is here where all sense of society began to be lost, each individual trying to survive at the expense of everyone else, by any means necessary.

From 1975 to the present generation have left New Afrikans to their own devices, causing them to be compromised by the vices just spoken.

PATTERN of PRACTICE – WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION

In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with government support, PCP, pills, and heroin were heavily pumped into our communities.  The 1980s and 1990s saw PCP and crack cocaine devastate our neighborhoods. In the mid-1980s and 1990s, the government supported a high concentration of guns pumped into our communities. Within our New Afrikan communities, there are drive-through, fast-food restaurants causing mass obesity. Liquor stores saturate the neighborhood, enabling easy access to alcohol. Toxic chemical plants became common around us, causing all kinds of ailments. Next came the occupation by the state militarized police departments, where police have saturated the community, murdering our children and people with impunity.

PATTERN of PRACTICE – DECLARATION OF WARS

The government implemented its declaration of wars against the New Afrikan communities.

War on the unemployed: Countless so-called "newly freed" slaves were incarcerated to enslave them under the U.S. Constitution.

War on crime: This came in the 1970s -1980s; thousands of New Afrikans were criminalized under the war on crime. 

War on drugs: In the 1980s and 1990s, a tool to imprison New Afrikans at alarming rates-50% of those incarcerated in the Prison Industrial Slave Complex (PISC) are New Afrikans.

War on gangs: In the mid-1980s, 1990s, and 2000s- the war on gangs terrorized New Afrikan communities. This war saw the intense use of batter-rams, SWAT teams, injunctions, police at schools, gentrification, illegal evictions, intense occupation – all carried out under the guise of a war on gangs.

War on domestic and global terrorism: In the mid-1990s, this war was declared and would be used to open up an aggressive form of fascism on the New Afrikan communities; placing our entire community under the fascist eye of 'big brother,' i.e., government, with tracking devices, cameras, all strategically placed in our communities.  The forces of fascism (corporate Amerika/government) hinder economic and political development under the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). This subjected thousands of poor New Afrikans to civil death.  Under this new draconian law, thousands of poor folks serving life sentences are told they have one year to file an appeal to the state court, on their post-conviction. We're talking about people who can barely read and write. That would mean they come into prison, learn law within a years' time, and litigate their conviction, within that year. If not, they will forfeit their appeal, sealing their fate in these prisons for the rest of their natural lives, where most will die. The so-called "first Black" President, Bill Clinton, signed this law, killing many New Afrikans and countless others by proxy.   These declarations of war are all coded declarations toward declaring war on the New Afrikan People.

 PATTERN of PRACTICE – ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION

The government and corporate Amerika have been active participants in ensuring that New Afrikans and their communities remain economically deprived by maintaining control of all the wealth inside these communities.  They own 90% of the community's commercial and state properties that they allow to be unkempt; schools, businesses, buildings, lots, and empty fields. Those born and raised in these communities watch their property value drop due to the neighboring property's desolate conditions. They are not permitted to maintain or utilize the land for the community's interest. Only when an offer to purchase the desolate property is the true intentions of government and corporate actions exposed.  Owners attempt to hide behind state or federal policies that prevent the property from being sold or given to the People to improve on.  The excuse is that the property is in a low-end area, riddled with crime, or the corporate owners will attempt to place some huge, out-of-the-ordinary price on such desolate property.  They have no use for it, other than using it as an instrument to devalue the already struggling, economically deprived communities. This scheme has been used for centuries to create poverty-stricken environments all over Amerika, especially in the New Afrikan communities.

 PATTERN of PRACTICE – POLITICAL PRISONERS

The U.S. government sanctioned the many New Afrikan Political Prisoners held worldwide in solitary confinement units, tortured by state and federal government workers for their political beliefs. We're talking about the most educated of our People, kept in isolation for decades, with no end in sight for release from these state and federal prisons - torture chambers. Many have dedicated their lives to improving our living conditions and empowering the People so they can control the socio-cultural, political, and economic systems that ultimately dictate how their lives will be.  

We must, as humans, reach back to these folks who have sacrificed so much. 

PATTERN of PRACTICE – MODERN-DAY SLAVE PLANTATIONS

The government deliberately calculated building its PISC in strategic areas. They are providing a surplus of modern-day slaves – the new plantations system, to its many dilapidating, economically deprived white, rural communities creating jobs, at the expense of other impoverished human beings.

This has been a very creative way of laundering taxpayers' money back into white communities. We are talking of trillions over time.

PATTERN of PRACTICE – MAIN CULPRITS

Corporate Amerika works hand in hand with the United States government against the New Afrikan community. It is using its institutions to carry out race and class warfare. Mass media uses a psychological profile that glamorizes a subsidiary subculture. It  is used to dehumanize, devalue, degrade and desensitize New Afrikans to the rest of the world and ourselves.  This is an on-going marketing campaign toward our social, cultural, political, and economic genocide. There has always been an indictment against New Afrikans by the government implemented through policies and laws, tracked easily throughout our 400 years in this country.

Politicians who are the power brokers of this nation who use the Black establishment, the Latino establishment, Asian establishment, the Arab establishment and countless others who are willing participants in carrying out institutionalized racism and race and class warfare, inside policies, whether domestic or foreign, have been genocidal toward human beings.

 PATTERN of PRACTICE - CONCLUSION

There seems to be one thing that the Democrats, Republicans, and Independent politicians can agree on unanimously: the declaration of wars while depriving humans of basic necessities, such as adequate educational institutions, adequate jobs, and proper housing, adequate food and sanitized water, etc.

If we are truly about the social justice movement, the People must address corporate racism and institutionalized racism. It is the only way we can attempt to achieve something regarding ending the prevalent injustices that plague us as humans.

The term New Afrikan defines us as a People.  We as descendants have evolved as a domestic-colonized nation inside Amerika. Negating the deliberate contradiction caused by our identity crisis, and the many classifications often given to us by others: n-word, Negro, Colored, Black, Afro-Amerikan, Afrikan Amerikan, and the many names we place on ourselves out of ignorance: mixed, multi-racial, colored, Creole, Dark Skin, Light Skin, Half Breed, etc., etc. We have to understand our historical contradiction because we evolved on slave plantations into a domestic, colonized nation.  Our ancestors from many different countries all over the continent of Afrika were forced to coalesce. They didn't speak the same language or share the same socio-cultural, political, or ideological beliefs. Yet, they were all colonized under a system of oppression (slavery). It's here where we evolve into New Afrikans.  No matter what our oppressors did to us, we would still be Afrikans. Everything we were and believed in was made anew, even our identity, to some degree. So it's part of our history that we identify with our Afrikan heritage and legacy, forever connecting us to the land and People to which we all descend. We are New Afrikans.

One Love,   One Struggle    Mutope Duguma     Revised February 2021 

How Much More Time: Revised March 2021

by Mutope Duguma

September 2018

Revised March 2021

How much more time must a person be imprisoned after being locked up for 10, 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years? 90% of prisoners come from lower class oppressed communities, exclusively people of color. The US is a Christian nation, where the core idea is “vengeance is mine”; this is used to justify the deliberate destruction of lives of those held in captivity, their family, and community. 

Sanctioned under the 13th amendment of the US constitution is the justification of the mass incarceration and indefinite sentencing of many throughout this nation. 

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

. 

All incarcerated individuals that are held, stem from the idea that each and every offense should suffer a consequence. Thinking about humans held indefinitely inside prisons should bring about raw emotions in anyone.

We must continue to shine a bright light on race and class contradictions. The rule of law comes from a prejudiced/ racist judicial system that subjectively applies and designs the lto imprison people. These laws were designed and applied with the intent to kill folks held for more than half-century in some cases. 

Reflecting on these elders’ state of mind when they were youth and came to prison allows us to understand their reality at that time. In dealing with the many social ills, plagued by poverty, consider how the inadequate educational institutions failed these men and women, who were youth: teenagers and young adults, ranging from age 15 to 25.

The Senate Bill 260/261, introduced by the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), was supposed to correct this grave injustice, but what we see with the Board of Parole Hearings, (BPH), is a blatant disregard for SB260/261.

Frivolous rule violation reports (RVR’s), confidential information, one’s political views, juvenile history, controlling offense, etc., are all used in these BPH Hearings.  

You can meet with a psychiatrist for two (2) hours and subsequently receive a diagnosis of a pathological social disorder meaning “one has a problem with authority”. This is extreme--based solely on the dialogue of past events, meaning. So, to have a prisoner come before the BPH, who has been in prison for 10, 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years, and deny them for another 15,10, 7, 5, or 3 years, is cruel and unusual punishment. Many of these men and women are weak, fragile, and suffering from aging illnesses, yet, their minds are still healthy and strong.

If the US government takes authority over another (although by force) one would think that government would be responsible to the other humans to be fair in all of its proceedings. Unfortunately, this is not the case because racism exists in all the institutions that govern them (PISC) prison industrial slave complex is still plagued by hatred and the exploitation of people based on their race and class status.

The system (PISC) is committing murder by proxy, by way of execution -all prisoners whose politics or lifestyle is contrary to mainstream society and the government. If any of these prisoners held for 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years who have educated themselves, were reviewed by an unbiased board they would be deemed suitable for parole; since paying their debt to society for crimes they were convicted of as children and youth. How can a system be considered humane when it has no mercy for fellow human beings?

Many prisoners emasculate themselves to be paroled. I’ve heard some sad stories from men and women who deliberately went to their BPH and cried, lied, and subjected themselves to all kinds of humiliation, trying to get paroled. What is a prisoner to do, if he or she has been given a hate sentence, that will lead to their death in prison? We have innumerable evidence that racism exists inside the prison industrial slave complex. How are the people able to deal with the abuse of such a racist system? By waging a campaign that deals with the continued gross injustices of prisoners who have been in prison for over 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years. When we begin to look at these cases individually, we see something seriously wrong with this system. We can also look at the many elderly prisoners who are on their death beds, seriously ill, or who have passed on, to prove that the PISC is using this racist system to kill men and women unfavorable to them. This validates the need for the legislative body of California to mandate these men and women released. 

How much more time does a prisoner have to do, after 10, 20,30, 40, or 50 years, before he or she is released?

Life is life, whether lost by first, second, or third-degree murder, manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, etc. 

With Love and Respect, Mutope!!!

Indefinite Sentencing is Cruel and Inhumane

On 12/7/2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón gave a public announcement In Special Directive 20 - 14 [PDF downloads on click], which laid out a comprehensive directive or blueprint toward ending state-sanctioned execution in the form of indefinite sentencing, where, for decades, humans in the CDCr suffer permanent imprisonment.

We, the people, support this comprehensive special directive 20 - 14, but believe it falls short as it is not yet reaching the prison population, who have been held indefinitely under cruel and unusual punishment. As a human being who has been subjected to 33 years of imprisonment held in an 8x10 cell for a conviction in the 1980s is cruel and unusual punishment.  To keep any human in such a space for an indefinite period is torture.  The building structure of such a horrible environment has the effect of being a human kennel. In reality, human beings are being held like dogs in a kennel inside of prisons.

Prisons have long since been used to freeze time for many incarcerated people held indefinitely inside them. Yet, they slowly watch as their family, friends and associates sadly pass away over the years during this cruel incarceration, leaving many of us devastated and with serious regrets for what we have done as teenagers or young adults.  

The deprivations that the incarcerated suffer as a result of their conviction is enormous. Permanent disconnect from your family, friends and community. Children are raised without one or both of their parents, and have to try to find their way through a very complicated world. Where many of the lifers who have been held indefinitely could easily be of some benefit to their children, no matter how old the children, because the yearning for a child/adult never stops, when there exists a long absence.

The work that lifers are doing upon release is remarkable and a great asset to their communities, to say the least. An end to indefinite sentencing would end suffering of human beings in and out of prison. Let’s join in a massive campaign to support District Attorney George Gascón in ending torturous treatment exclusively of the incarcerated.

Mutope Duguma, Lancaster, CA

Lost in time: Lift up our brother Sitawa and strike down indefinite incarceration

by Mutope DugumaPublished earlier on the SF Bayview and on Sitawa.org.

It’s always hard to stomach news that is disheartening. To hear that a brother and comrade has suffered a stroke after spending countless years in solitary confinement, as well as being held on an indefinite sentence for an alleged crime he did not commit, is even more disheartening.
I need not stress the sorrow that is felt amongst the whole prison

Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa in July of 2018

population for our brother Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, who, along with countless fearless prisoners, pioneered our Prison Human Rights Movement (PHRM) to the world’s stage. We continue to see men and women incarcerated far too long – beyond anyone’s imagination – and continue to be held indefinitely.

Our beloved brother Sitawa is amongst this class of men and women. The inhumane treatment of prisoners must end.

Our brother Sitawa and many others have suffered enough and should not continue to do so based on being given a life sentence that equals a civil death. Prior to 1968, under original Penal Code Section 2600, California prisoners suffered complete civil death, which means prisoners were stripped of all civil rights.

The prison system is actually covertly executing all of its lifers. The United States is the only country in the whole world that incarcerates people indefinitely – forcing them to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Men and women have been incarcerated for 35 years or more.

Many of these people are lost in time. They came to prison as youth in their teens and early 20s in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Yes, many of them were immature, many had no real direction, but they all became adults in the Amerikan prison system.

At present these prisoners, Baby Boomers, most of whom have survived decades of incarceration, are now between the ages of 60 and 80. Many of these senior citizens are wheelchair-bound or use assistive devices such as walking canes.

Like most seniors, many are on special medications, require special medical therapy for seniors, and suffer from aging illnesses of various sorts. I hear some say that a few manage to get around good at 70 years young.

Many say, yes, they should be in prison, and that may be true in some cases. Given the things they did in society, the way they carried themselves in the youth of their lives was utterly wrong and disrespectful, but that was decades ago when they were young! Decades!

They are now older, mature, grown, senior adults, who have fulfilled all requirements from various parole boards around the U.S. Multiple prisoners have complied with all laws, rules and regulations of the prison and carried themselves as role model human beings and in many cases have done so for decades.

Still, many of them are forced to remain in prison when the maximum amount of time on their sentence has long since expired. This is terrible and extremely cruel to force rehabilitated human beings to remain in bondage and especially when statistics clearly show that 90 percent of them are not returning to prison once released.

Sadly, 89 percent of prisoners across the US are Black and Mexican. From 1619 through the 1800s, the chattel slavery plantation concept lurks in the shadows like the Wizard of Oz.

This “behind the scenes” type strategy involves money laundering exclusively into white rural areas under the Prison Industrial Slave Complex (PISC). (That’s where prisons were built during the height of mass incarceration, in small rural communities that had lost their economic base, where people were so desperate for jobs, they were willing to work in a prison. These were white communities with deep prejudice toward Blacks. – ed.)

Many of us may very well die in these man-made tombs. It should be stipulated that these deaths are in clear violation of the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

The suffering is indefinite where there exists no end to the punishment. Many have died, and many will continue to die where there is no remedy to resolve the cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners.
We must resist to end this cruel and unusual treatment of human beings and encourage our brother Sitawa, who is fighting for his life. We will fight for his freedom and the freedom of the thousands of men and women lost in time.

One Love, One Struggle,

Mutope Duguma

Sitawa is recovering from a major stroke. Send him some love and light (Sitawa is currently housed near San Diego, mail will be forwarded):

Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa with arms crossed, in 2017

Freedom Outreach
Attn: Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa
Fruitvale Station
P.O. Box 7359
Oakland CA 94601

BLACK AUGUST 2019: Homelessness

Is a result of a failed government. The people of the United States have already through countless protests, movements of all sorts, declared that housing is a human right, and every human should be afforded housing.

How is it in the 21st century ‘We The People’ see a homeless epidemic? Because of a failed government: local, state, and federal.

The politicians have always had a disconnect from their constituents…No politicians, regardless of the state, can justify or excuse the homelessness we the people are witnessing here in Amerika today.

How can you represent a district of people, as a city councilman or woman, mayor or governor and allow the people to reach such deterioration in astronomical numbers where the whole state begins to be affected by it?

The federal government has a responsibility to the many states it collects taxes, etc...from, to maintain the security of the country not just from the so-called bad guys...where the federal/state government has clearly misappropriated taxpayers funds by building what is known today as the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, PRISON INDUSTRIAL SLAVE COMPLEX, and MILITARIZED POLICE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX that is/has cost trillions of dollars for taxpayers annually.

Each of these industrial complexes has a common denominator, which is that they target humans for extermination; all one has to do is study their reason for existing.  You may be wondering what this has to do with homelessness? Well anytime you allocate funds heavily in one area opposed to balancing the funds out to truly meet the needs of the people then there will be a neglect of some kind, and what we see in the homeless crisis is deliberate neglect and a result of a failed government.

The people have always been at the mercy of the government no matter how rich or poor they are, which is why we the people have to have one voice when it comes to human rights. If a government is allowed to supersede the people it governs, then the people have failed themselves. Adequate housing, food, water, etc. etc that sustains one's life is a human right!!!

It is not negotiable under any circumstances if we are going to use the failure of a person's social life as a justification for such homelessness ( i.e. addicts drugs and alcohol usage, inadequate wages or unemployment, etc. etc.) it should also be stipulated that the people have been bombarded with an influx of drugs into their communities where they have basically succumbed to chemical warfare. These chemical weapons have been allowed to enter our communities by the tons!!! Yet, taxpayers are paying trillions of dollars for many agencies annually:FBI, DEA, CIA, ATF, etc. etc.to protect them from that which is a threat to them...domestic terrorism, FBI; drugs, DEA; International threat, CIA; guns and alcohol ATF, each of these entities are failures. We have seen countless mass shootings occur in this country, we have seen drugs decimate our communities, and an influx of assault weapons into our neighborhoods at alarming rates. These agencies are responsible for protecting the Amerikan people from these threats that claim countless lives.  Why is this government continuing to fund such agencies when it is obvious they are complete failures? So much money, energy and time wasted to these agencies when it is obvious that they are failures. To massively incarcerate people for drug use or possession of any sort is part of the problem that leads to homelessness. We see that drug users only hurt themselves for the most part. Housing is a human right that all humans should demand be given to everyone under the sun.

Love and Respect,

Mutope Duguma 

August 1, 2019

The Nigger in the ‘nigger’ Syndrome

The Nigger in the ‘nigger’ Syndrome

Mutope Duguma

October 2015 revised 01/01/2019

   The ‘Nigger’ in the ‘nigger’ syndrome is a disease that has been cultivated in the psyche of New Afrikans (i.e; Blacks) who for years have been morally compromised to the point of demoralization where they/we lose just about every sense of our morality. I believe that the only way to morally destroy a people is to take away their sense of understanding, of what is right and wrong. This deprives them of moral conduct which leads to being principled, righteous men and women.

   The ‘Nigger in the nigger syndrome’ is about understanding that this word‘nigger’ has a serious reason for its usage. Which is to demean, devalue, degrade and dehumanize Afrikan/ New Afrikan People, no matter where they exist in the world. It is a weapon used to manifest behavior in these targeted human beings.

 We now see the ‘Nigger in the nigger syndrome’ being carried out as a lifestyle in all groups to some degree. Proving that these are not mere derogatory terms, but instead, are a  malignant social and psychological orientation and indoctrination that conditions you inside the many subcultures, ghettos, barrios, trailer parks, and rural, impoverished communities, where people are subjugated, marginalized and exploited to be dysfunctional, mentally diseased, immoral.

 It’s important to reflect on how you, the individual use the term nigger or nigga,  even if it’s briefly, in association with your actual behavior. The‘Nigger in the nigger syndrome,’ is conditioning tied to a malignant social disorder where those who use the word “nigger” do so openly with pride.

We can go all the way back to the slave plantations where our ancestors were domestically colonized, and the word ‘nigger’ was used to dehumanize. Since that time, we have struggled with our identity as a people as we resisted numerous derogatory terms throughout our New Afrikan historical origins since 1619, where the following terms were used to identify us as a people: nigger, negro, colored, black, Afro-American and Afrikan Amerikan.

   We would have these terms linger throughout our struggles in the United States that would exacerbate our identity crisis as a people. Through our own social, political and ideological development we would identify ourselves based on our historical contradiction in racist Amerika. In 1968, the term New Afrikans was coined or formulated by political (nationalist) theoretician for the purpose of scientifically basing and defining

the actual national identity of our people, who comprise a subjugated nation (i.e., domestic colonized nation).

The term ‘nigger’ would be used in oppressed communities throughout Amerika, while at the same time, glamorized in the Blaxploitation movies, where most of the infamous celebrities would use this derogatory term, making it socially and culturally acceptable, by providing a functional application as to how a ‘nigger’ should act, think and look, which in my personal opinion was part of the conditioning of our people around a malignant social disorder, that led to the dysfunctional behavior and demoralization so prevalent among us today.

When you see or hear people who suffer from the ‘Nigger in the nigger syndrome, they have no moral compass for the most part. Case and point: In a discussion with some Brothers who are possessed with the ‘Nigger in the nigger’ syndrome,  I asked why we don’t look down on pimping when the pimp is the predator that preys on young teenage girls and women? Their responses demonstrated that they were very misogynistic toward women.   To accept the Pimp Culture means that we do not value the women in our family and extended community. Any time we embrace something as a lifestyle, it becomes part of our culture, and if it’s malignant, then it becomes a detriment to us as a people. The ‘Nigger in the nigger’ syndrome accepts just about anything immoral, foul, disgusting because they have been demoralized.

Therefore, the very word Nigger has manifested inside the user of the word Nigger that accepts a lifestyle that is immoral. Even in our contradictions as so called ‘gangstas’ we rejected the ‘pimp,’ because we knew, he or she was a predator on our women folks in particular. When did we start hating women? Is it that we have been dehumanized so badly that we cannot regain our humanity? The Nigger in the Nigger syndrome is a disease because it has demoralized many of us as a people and it has to be diagnosed in all of us who have been compromised by this disease. The first step to being diagnosed is to understand that your use of the word ‘nigger,’ casually, whether it’s an endearment from your perspective or not, represents everything we are not, as a people.

Most of our oppressed people in and out of prisons have no consciousness of the dehumanizing aspect of the word Nigger because most are unfortunately unaware of the ‘Nigger in the nigger,’syndrome!!! Take or make a moral assessment of yourself and reclassify yourself as New Afrikans which will be a reflection of our new morality.

One Love, One Struggle,    Mutope Duguma

End Prison Draconian Policies

End Prison Draconian Policies

By Mutope Duguma

October 2018

   It’s no secret that the government, whether local, state and federal have been complicit in the exploitation of prisoners, where the political, judicial and prison industrial slave complex have all signed up to exploit the poorest citizens of this nation. But, before I go into the essence of this story, let me speak to what motivated me to write it.

   I was recently placed back in solitary confinement for mistaken identity, where I was placed in cell with a youngster name of Jamico Wright, who was sentenced to 13 years, for an alleged robbery. Normally youngsters like Brutha Wright would ask me to help them with their 602 appeal, on their solitary confinement placement. Yet, Brutha Wright was seriously agonizing over how the state is charging him $23,113.39 restitution in association with his alleged crime. I would learn that Brutha Wright, is like most youngsters who came out of humble beginnings (i.e., impoverished communities), single parent homes, foster care at a young age, then to the streets, where they are forced into a world of their making.

   I wasn’t surprised in the least bit, of Brutha Wright’s story, because like most prisoners (men/women) held in prisons, they share similar stories. Brutha Wright came to prison at 19 years of age, on July 26, 2011, for his alleged offense, and, what’s different about Brutha Wright is that he gets it, and actually took steps to do something about it, where he became a certified plumber (May, 2014), earning himself a trade. More remarkable, he earned an AA Degree in Business Management, July 17, 2017, demonstrating that he has done just about everything consistent with rehabilitating himself. Sadly, Brutha Wright would learn that he will be unable to utilize his AA Degree while incarcerated. He was given 85% of that 13 year sentence, which is 11 years and 5 months.

   The new sentencing laws enacted in the 1980s and 1990s would make sure that young prisoners did 85% of their time, when the government conspired to massively incarcerate its poor citizens of this nation. Brutha Wright would still have six years to serve on his 13 years. He, like many of us held indefinitely in Amerikkka’s prisons will have to navigate through the inhumane conditions of prison life.

   This story isn’t about time, but instead, it’s about how you have a young man like Brutha Wright, who has gotten an AA Degree in Business, and owes the state $23,113.39, of which he has paid $1,768.39; money he received from working class citizens, who are working minimum wage jobs; family members, friends, etc. The state charges him 55% of each dollar he receives, meaning, if he gets any money for commissary, for example, if his (poor) Mother sent him $25.00 for hygiene when he gets the money it will be reduced to $11.25. If he had  a medical condition and sent in a CDCR-7362 medical form he would be charged a co-payment fee of $5.00 for every medical slip he submits – that would be immediately removed from his trust account statement, leaving him with $6.25 of that $25.00. If he had legal fees of any kind, they would be deducted from those fees, as well. If he submitted a dental form, he would be charged a $5.00 co-payment charge, leaving him with a $1.25, of that $25.00, which is why so many youngsters refuse their dental/mental care in prisons: because they choose hygiene and food over dental or medical care, when they actually have funds on their trust account!!!

We older prisoners didn’t get charged with astronomical debt. Our restitution was $100.00 to $200.00. The restitution that these youngsters are being asked to pay is ridiculous, and the 50% is supposed to be paid to all alleged victims, whereas, 89% of the cases never received one penny of the restitution fees collected. CDCr trust office adds 5% charging fees for removing the fund off your trust account. This adding if you file a civil complaint (i.e., lawsuit) about prison conditions, etc. You would pay a $450.00 filing fee. If you continue to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeal you will pay another filing fee of $505.00. They initially charge you 20% of each dollar you have in your account, so if you have $200.00 in your account. They’re taking 20% of that which is $40.00 and they will do this every month ‘til you have paid what you owe because incarcerating prisoners is big business, and the exploitation of California Tax Payers, where they pay $14 Billion dollars a year to maintain its 34 prisons. This is real money spent.

   I understand that we live in a capitalist country that exploits all forms of life from humans, to animals, etc., etc., for profit!!! But, what’s cruel in this form of exploitation in respects to prison, is that prisoners like Brutha Wright are restricted from creating businesses, or using their creative talent, whether it be their art work, rap songs, writings, movie scripts, etc., etc., from legally making a profit while they are incarcerated, per CCR Title 15. Yet, they have many taxes being imposed upon them. Prisoners should be encouraged to find creative ways to market their talents for a profit. Yet! they are charged for restitution and other fees, then told that you can’t involve yourself in any profit earning businesses. This is a perfect way to encourage hopelessness in men and women held in prisons… while you feed on them by exploiting them for the crumbs they receive. Brutha Wright and many more just like him, have to wait ‘til they parole before they can begin to pay on their monetary debt to society, that would for sure burden them in their attempt to be re-assimilated back into the so-called free world, where they for sure would be at a disadvantage simply because they are starting in debt, where their checks would be garnished for that 55% accordingly in keeping up with their restitution.

   We all know that prison working wages start at 3 cents to 15 cents an hour, which usually turns out to be $11. to $20. per month, and then 55 % of that is then taken for restitution. Slavery in the 21^st century is real, and I personally feel that the cruelty in this exploitation is in the hopelessness it produces in each and every prisoner. This practice has to be abolished because it would further influence recidivism. With these debts prisoners have to be able to earn a decent wage while incarcerated, so they can begin to pay off their restitution, now, or end their restitution all together. These types of policies are counterproductive and only hurt the prisoners and their families. Can you imagine doing a decade or two with a $30,000 dollar debt to pay when you get out??? If this is not ‘cruel and unusual then what is!!!?

One Love, One Struggle,

Mutope