Posted on May 21, 2020 by toddpanther

It’s great to have a mayor who’s also a top Black poet! For more information about the event, please check here.

Netflix “Who Killed Malcolm X?” Doc: Nine Thoughts On Malcolm As CSI, Stagecraft Over Sincerity

Posted on February 22, 2020 by toddpanther

1) Now everyone will see Newark the way I see it: as a small town. Treating it as a “small town with deadly secrets” was amusing. It is a place where, if you ride a bus or sit somewhere and be quiet, you will hear Old Heads talk about their time with The Nation. Now I finally understand why, in a city where historically you can get killed for looking at someone wrong, Bradley was able to walk around untouched. You also now know that we, as a group, care more about collective, community advancement than ideology and argument: the comment by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka that he learned from his father to “leave that alone because that won’t advance our cause” is classic Newark. Congrats to my brother, Baba Zayid Muhammad, for his honesty in this documentary. He educated me a lot about what this Black Power city is still like. I absolutely believe that Newark “got there first” in Black Power zealotry.

2) Continuing with Newark: why would Bradley be in Booker’s Newark mayor campaign commercial? Why would New Jersey Lt. Gov. Shelia Oliver be at Bradley’s funeral when she knew?!? Point-blank, Newark is a community service city, and all the community servants know each other. If you do “change your life around” and “do something positive,” particularly for our youth, we wipe your slate clean. That how we be. If Bradley had killed, say, Rahim Johnson, it wouldn’t even be brought up.

3) Last Newark note: I love the irony of Bradley’s high school being eventually being renamed after Malcolm. 🙂

4) It was extremely annoying that Peter Goldman, who wrote 85 percent of this documentary’s content back in the 1970s (!!!!!), was almost invisible, blotted out. The only thing more annoying is that Baba Zak Kondo was “second historical bananna” to David Garrow–this documentary’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kondo should have been the main voice here, and his wrap-up almost redeems this time-waster.

5) The big winner here was WABC-TV, who clearly sold a lot of footage. (Why did the documentarians keep misdating that Talmadge Hayer interview as 1970? That was very annoying and needs to be fixed!) See how great “Like It Is” was, folks outside of New York? Today I am very proud to have a doctoral dissertation that has a small part devoted to it. I will appreciate this Nextflix series forever if it leads to the show finally getting archived.

6) The “search” for Bradley was ridiculous stagecraft. And where were articles like these, since Bradley was so difficult to find? LOL! This program could have easily been cut by three hours. The phony drama should have been replaced with more on the Ali-Malcolm schism. That deserves its own doc or movie.

7) And speaking of future MX media products, my vote for the next movie or documentary needs to be solely based on his extraordinary travel diary. The fact that Malcolm tried to unify the African-Muslim world–and that he chose to return to America when he had choices to possibly stay alive longer–is a story that desperately needs to be told.

8) Um, where was this part? Did I miss it when I was in the bathroom? Did I miss any mention of the Minister? What’s going on? And if Goldman and Kondo were read so carefully, why didn’t Obi-Wan tell Luke that the FBI reported that Louis X was at the Newark mosque on the day of the assassination?!?

9) This could have been a lot worse, seeing that Henry Louis “Skip” Gates was the exec producer and Manning Marable’s wife a consultant. At least this is better than Spike’s treatment. This puts Spike’s movie in the fiction category the way Marable’s disastrous bio, at its best, put The Autobiography in that same category.

My 2006 Phone Chat With Cory Booker For The Crisis Magazine (And a 2014 Root Epilogue)

Posted on February 1, 2019 by toddpanther

So Cory Booker is running for president. (Insert .gif here 🙂 )

Below is a .pdf of the actual page in The Crisis magazine that featured my Q+A interview with him, back in 2006. (No copyright infringement intended.) It was after he had just become mayor of Newark. And here’s what I wrote about the aftermath, which was part of this.

TSB Crisis Interview With Booker

And then there was this 2015 coda of sorts.

Why Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Is Getting Re-Elected Tonight

Posted on May 8, 2018 by toddpanther

This is a good audio summary from WNYC-FM (New York’s NPR affiliate). It’s been four years since memory, history and community service collided.

Bashir Akinyele: Why Ras Baraka Is The Only Choice For Newark Mayor

Posted on April 28, 2018 by toddpanther

See the source image

Bashir Akinyele is one of those veteran revolutionaries that Newark is proud to consistently produce. He is a grassroots activist, a committed public high school history teacher, and a serious thinker.

See the source image

He sent the following out this afternoon. It’s about why he thinks Newarkers should re-elect Ras Baraka as mayor.

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The Meaning of Mayor Ras J. Baraka

On May 8, 2018, Black people, Brown people, and Newarkers of all races will go to the polls for the Mayoral election in Newark, NJ.

The two candidates are Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins and incumbent Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

Hands down, Mayor Ras J. Baraka is the most progressive candidate of the two. In fact, he is the most progressive elected official in the state of New Jersey.

Although many of my progressive, revolutionary, pan-Afrikanist, Afrocentric, Black nationalist, and liberal brothers and sister have not come forward on a mass level to give our people a proper analysis of what Mayor Ras J. Baraka’s campaign for re-election in Newark, N.J. means to Black people, oppressed people and for Newarkers, I am not like them, family.

I have been taught and trained better than that in this struggle for self-determination, liberation and power. I understand what a Black leader and a Black elected official is and is not, and the science of electoral politics are in this world.

If you are a progressive, revolutionary, pan-Afrikanist, Afrocentric, Black nationalist, and liberal brother and sister, you still understand that liberation will not come from an elected official or electoral politics! Liberation only comes organically from the masses of the oppressed!

When we have real Black leaders, they lead in the battle to help Black people and oppressed people struggle independently for power. Real Black leaders continuously keep Black elected officials and the system of electoral politics accountable to the people. However, like Malcolm X taught us, we only use Black elected officials and the science of electoral politics as a tool to protect Black and oppressed people’s interests period (e.g., controlling the school board, controlling the police department, controlling city hall, controlling the fire department, etc.)! But Malcolm X also taught us that if we do not have a mass movement to force a Black elected official and the electoral system to support us, then the Black elect official and the electoral system will sell us out whole sale!!! And for the record, many Black officials and the electoral political system have sold Black people and oppressed people out. But Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka has not sold Black and oppressed people out, family!!!!

You see, you must understand something about brother Bashir Muhammad Akinyele: I am a well studied Blackman and Muslim. I have been a community activist for over 30 years. I know that Newark was home to the following: two Black Power conventions, the Black and Puerto Rican Convention, the Congress of Afrikan People, the Committee for a Unified Newark, Black Nia F.O.R.C.E, and the Hip Hop Political Convention. Many of these movements were organized by the Barakas (Daddy, Momma, and sons).

I also know that Mayor Ras J. Baraka has said over and over again, ” Please hold me accountable.” And some people in Newark have done just that, family. But others have gone overboard with their criticisms of the mayor. Why? Because they do not care about the masses. They are not connected to a movement! These people only care about themselves, family! At the same time, I know that some of these people, who are overly critical people, are very misinformed about the issues. On the other hand, others are straight-up informants and government agents!!!

In conclusion, I have met some of the greatest Black and Muslim leaders in the world! I know a sellout from a stand up Blackman or Blackwoman.

Let’s be clear: Mayor Ras J. Baraka is not a Black leader any more, fam. He is an elected official now. However, his ideology and elected office are rooted in helping to provide resources, support, and the protection of our Black and Brown, and Newark’s interests!

Therefore, based on his track record thus far, he has demonstrated that he is not a sellout. He is good for Muslims, Christians, Jews, Black people, Latino people, poor people, gay and lesbian people, poor Whites, working class people, union members, and all Newarkers.

Black Power! All Power to the People! Free the Land! Uhuru! Habari Gani! Hotep! As Salaamu Alaykum!

Bashir Muhammad Akinyele
Educator, Community Activist