GRNGETERI

by Russell
Mdroon Shoatz
Abou the Author

Russell Maroon Shoatz was a dedicated community activ-
ist and founding member of the Philadelphia based Black Unity
‘Gounsel, which merged with the Black Panther Party in 1969. In
1670, Mazoon, along with five comrades, was accused of an attack
on a Philadelphia police station which resulied in the death of
5 cop. This atiack was carried out in response to the war being
wagod against tho Black Community. For cightoon months Ma-
roon was active underground as a soldier in the Black Liberation
Army until his arrest in 1972

‘This freedom fighter esoaped from prison twice, and in 1977 he
romainod at large for twonty-soven days beforo being rocaptured.
On Mazch 2, 1980 ho liborated himself onco moro, but was cap-
tured three days later. Maroon has been in prison, serving mul-
tiple life sentences, since that time. In addition to this text, he is
the author of several other pieces, including “On the Black Lib-
oration Struggle in Philadelphia,” "Black Fighting Formations
“Tho Dragon and the Hydra: a Historical Study of Organizational
Forms,” and “The Real Resistance to Slavery in North America.”
Maroon is currently being held in Waynesburg, PA.

LIBERATION OR

GANGSTERISM:
“Each generation must, outofrlative obscurity, discover its
mission=fulfl it or betray it
~Wretched ofthe Earth, Frantz Fanon

Within two generations the youth of this country have
come full circle. Starting off in 1955, youth were being driven
by two major motivations: One, the acquisition of enough
education or apprenticeships, the use of their unskilled labor or
street:smarts to land “good” jobs or establish hustles, in order to,
‘make as much money and obtain as many material trappings as.
possible. Two, to use the education, apprenticeships, unskilled
labor, streetsmarts jobs, hustles, and the material trappings
provided by them to win a measure of respect and dignity
from their peers and society in general, while at the same time,
learning to respect themselves as individuals of worth, not

simply eating, sleeping, working, and having sex.

The First Wave: 1955-c.1980

The Civil Rights Movement in the South successfully
motivated Black, Puerto Rican, Buro-Amerikan, Native
American, Chicano, Mexicano, Indigenous, and Asian youth o
use their time, energies, creativity, and imaginations to discover
their true self-worth

and earn the respect of the world, while struggling toward
broader goals not measured by material possessions. Over time,
each segment cheered on, supported, and worked in solidarity
with all the others, discovering their common interests and
closelylinked missions with & broader peoples’ goals.

In this way, Black youth clovated the Civil Rights
Movement to the Black Power and Black Liberation Movements.
Puerto Rican youth energized their elders’ historic struggle to
win independence for their homelands, Euro-American outh
attacked the lies, hypoorisy, and oppression that their elders were
training them in within the schools, society, and armed services.

Native American U™t From 1955 until 1975 ham-

Wers returning to their
Ancestral ways, fighting Sters are act these youth

to regain land stolen had joined, formulated, led,
from their people. Asian and supported struggles
youth were strugglingto worldwide against racial
overcome & system and gppression and bigotry, co-
culture that used and Joniglism, and the oppres-

abused them. Indeed,
A1 of them came to Sion of women and youth.

see clearly that neither education, jobs, money, hustles, nor
‘material trappings could, by themselves, win them the victories
they needed, o the new type of dignity and respect that they
deserved.

Moreover, from 1955 until ¢.1975, these youth had
joined, formulated, led, and supported struggles worldwide
against racial oppression and bigotry, colonialism, and the
oppression of women and youth. In the process, they were
winning themselves the respect, admiration, and gratitude of
the world’s oppressed, as well as of their peers. In addition to
becoming people that societies had to take seriously, they were
positive contributors who had much to give, and who were
willing to sacrifice to achieve goals. They were youth capable
of imagining a better world and fighting to realize it, while at
the same time remaining young in spirit and enjoying a good
time. Al in all, they earned themselves a well-deserved place in
history.

From the Mountain to the Sewer

Yot here we are 30 years later and we find youth despised
rather than respected. They have been stripped of that hard-
earned freedom, self-respect, and dignity. They are being told-
as in the past-that the way to regain it is to “acquire education,
skills, good jobs, or the right hustles.” This means, once again,
to acquire as much money and material goods as possible in
order to win respect and dignity from one’s peers and society,
thereby to start loving oneself and see oneself as more than an
eating, sleeping, working, sexual animal.

How the hell did we get back to 19557!

First off, let me make clear that even with all the glorious
strides the youth made within the First Wave, they were not the.
only ones fighting for radical and in many cases revolutionary
changes. In fact, they were more often only the tip of the spear.
They were the shock troops of a global struggle, motivated by
youthful energy and impatience, with no time or temperament
for elaborate theories. They were rushing forward into the fray,
hardly prepared for the tricks that would eventually overwhelm
them. To understand what happened to the youth movement,
we need to examine some of the tricks that were used to slow,
down, misdirect, control, and defeat them. Without a point, a
spear loses its advantage!

Strategic Tricks Used Against Youth of the First Wave

Understanding these tricks in their various guises and
refinements is the key to everything. You will not understand,
‘what happened to get us to this point, o be able to move forward,
until you recognize and devise ways to defeat these strategies.
They were and remain:

1. Co-option
2. Glamorization of Gangsterism

3. Separation from the Most Advanced (politically revolutionary)
Blements

4. Indoctrination in Reliance on Passive Approaches

5. Raw Fear

Co-option was used extensively to trick just about all
of the First Wave youth into believing that they had won the
war. Strategically, amongst every named segment of youth,
from university students to lower class communities, billions of
dollars and resources were made available. This was purportedly
to allow the youth to determine what should be done to carry out,
farreaching changes, but all along they were being monitored
by “experts” who subtly coaxed them farther and farther away.
from their own most radical and advanced elements. This was.
done mainly through control of the largesse, which ultimately
was part of the ruling classes’ foundations and government and
corporate strategies for defeating the youth with sugar-coated
bullets.

Tn time, consequently, substantial segments of these
‘previously rebellious youth found themselves fully absorbed and
neutralized either by directly joining, or accepting assistance
from, the foundations, subgroups, corporations, university
facilities, or

“approved” community groups, or by becoming full-fledged
junior partners after winning control of thousands of previously
outof-reach political offices and appointments.

For all intents and purposes, that same trick is being
used today.

Glamorization of Gangsterism, however, was then and
ontinues to be the most harmful trick played against the lower.
class segments. The males in particular were then, and continue
t0 be, the most susceptible to this gambit, especially when used
opposite prolonged exposure to raw fear!

Let me illustrate by way of two historic groups that
‘presently enjoy nothing less than “icon” status among just about
everyone aware of them. Yet the documented histories of these
two groups clearly show how that trick is played, and continues
to be played, throughout this country. Following is a brief
but clear history of how the original Black Panther Party was
bludgeoned and intimidated to the point where its key leader(s)
consciously steered the group into accepting the Glamorization
of Gangsterism. Because this was a lesser threat to the ruling.
classes’ interests, it won the Black Panthers a temporary respite
from the Raw Fear leveled against them by those circles. In the
process, the organization was totally destroyed. The Nation of
Islam-connected Black Mafia had a different background, but the
same two tricks were played against them. Left in its wake was,
a sordid tale of young Black men who were again turned from
their goal to be Liberators into becoming ruthless oppressors of
their own communities. Never once did they engage their real
enemies and oppressors: the ruling class.

Hands down, the original Black Panther Party (BPP) won
more attention, acelaim, respect, support, and sympathy than,
any other youth groups of their time. At the same time, they.
‘provoked more fear and concern in ruling class circles than any.
other domestic group since Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and,
Bisenhower presided over the neutralizing of the working class
and the US wing of the Communist Party. They were even more.
feared than the much larger Civil Rights Movement. According
to the head of the FBI, the Panthers were the “greatest threat
to the internal security of the country.” Albeit that threat came
from their (BPP) ability to inspire other youth-both in the US
and globally-to act in similar grassroots political revolutionary
ways.
Thus there were separate BPP-style” formations
among the Native Americans- the American Indian Movement;
the Puerto Ricans the Young Lords; the Chicano Mexicano
Indigenous the Brown Berets: the Asians 1 Wor Kuen: the Buro-
Americans- the Young Patriot Party and White Panther Party.
Even the elderly - the Gray Panthers. Also there were literally
hundreds of similar though lesserknown groups!
Intornationally, in addition, the BPP had an arm in
Algeria that the only official “embassy” established for all the
other Afrikan, Asian, and South American revolutionary groups
seeking refuge in that (then) revolutionary country. Separate
Black Panther Parties were spawned as well in India, the
Bahamas, Nova Scotia, Australia and Occupied Palestine/State
of Isral
‘The Nation of Islam, although it had been in existence
since 1930, experienced a huge upsurge in membership during
. . this period, mainly due to the
How did the ruling Gudmas poeniy of
powers of the US 0 iMalcolm X and his aggressive
about the destruction recruitment techniques. His
ofthe Black Panthers, influence continued after his
the Nation of Islam, assassination, fueled by the
and finally, the entire overall rebellious spirits of

youth movement? youth looking for leadershipin
their fight against the System.

Thereisamountain of documentstoshowthatthe highest
powers in this country classified both the Black Panthers and
the Nation of Islam as Class A Threats. They wanted to either
neutralize or destroy these two groups, no doubt considering.
that if that could b achieved, similar methods could undermine.
the power of youth in the rest of the country.

How did the ruling powers of the US go about the
destruction of the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, and
finally, the entire youth movement? Against the BPP they used
a combination of co-option, glamorization of gangsterism,
separation from the most advanced elements, indoctrination in
a reliance on passive approaches, and raw fear: every trick in
the book.

The ruling class's governmental, intelligence, legal, and
academic sources-alarmed at the growth and boldness of the BPP.
and related groups, as well as its ability to win a level of global
support-devised a strategy to split the BPP and coopt its more.
compliant elements. At the same time they moved to annihilate
its more radical and revolutionary remainders. They knew that
they had the advantage, due to the youth and inexperience of the
BPP. They had their own deep well of resources and experience.
in using counter-insurgency techniques much earlier against:

Marcus Garvey's UNIA (United Negro Improvement
Association),

The Palmer Raids against Euro-Amerikans of an
Anarchist and/ or left Socialist bent

The crushing of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the
World) and neutralizing of other syndicalists

The underground work that led to the defeat of Germany
and Italy

The subsequent destruction of any real Communist
power in Western Europe,

The total domination and subjugation of the Caribbean
(except Cuba), Central and South Americaexcept for the
fledgling guerrilla movements

Everything they had learned in their wars to replace the
European colonial powers in Africa and Asia.

Still, the BPP had highly motivated cadre, imbued with a
fearlessness little known amongst domestic groups. The ruling
class and their hench-men were stretched thin, especially since
the Vietnamese, Laotians, and Kampuchans were kicking their
ass in Southeast Asia, and the freeedom fighters in Guinea-
Bissau, Mozambique, and Angola also had their European
allies-whom the U.S. supplied with the latest military hardware-
-on the run. So, despite their inexperience, it was still a mixed
a fighting chance. The co-option depended on
their neutralizing the BPP co-ounder and by then icon, Huey P.
Newton. Afterwards, they used him-along with other methods-
to split the BPP and lead his wing along reformist lines. In the
process, the still revolutionary wing was forced into an all-out
armed fight before they were ready, hoping either to kill, jail,
exile, or break their will to resist and send them into ineffective
hidingout. Furthermore, despite the BPP's extraordinary
stature globally, no country seemed willing to risk US wrath by
openly allowing the BPP to train guerrilla units-something they
could have circumvented in time.

So Huey, surprisingly, was allowed to leave jail with a
stillto-be-tried-murderofa-policeman-charge ~pending. Thus
the government and courts had him on a short leash, and with
that, the hope of controlling his actions, although probably not
through any direct agreements. Sadly, the still politically naive
BPP cadre and other youth who looked up to Newton imagined
that they-the people-had forced his release, Veterans from those

times still cling to such tripe!

Yet it seems Newton thought otherwise, and since he
‘was not prepared o go underground and join his fledgling Black
Liberation Army (BLA), he almost immediately began following
a reformist script. This was completely at odds with his own
earlier theories and writings, as well as at odds with basic
principles that were being practicedto good effect by oppressed
people throughout the world. Even further, he used his almost
complete control of the BPP Central Committee to expel many,
‘many veterans and combattested BP cadre in an imitation of
the Stalinist and Eurogangster posture he would later become.
famous for. This included an all-out shooting war to repress any
BPP members who would not accept his independently derived
reformist policies.

At the same time, on a parallel track, U.S. and local
police and intelligence agencies were using their now infamous.
COINTELPRO operations to provoke the split between Huey’s
dominant wing and other less compliant BPP members. This
finally reached a head in 1971, after Huey's shooting war and
purge.

Even more tolling, it was later learned that Newton's
expensive penthouse apartmentwhere he and other Central
Committee members handled any number of sensitive BPP
issues, was under ongoing surveillance by intelligence agents
who had another apartment down the hall. Thus, Newton and
his faction were encapsulated, leaving them unable to follow
anything but government sanctioned scripts; unless he/they
went underground. This occurred only when Newton fled to
Cuba after his gangster antics threatened the revoking of his
release on the pending legal matters the government held over
his head.

In addition, the glamorization of gangsterism was
something that various ruling class clements had begun
to champion and direct towards the Black lower classes in
particular. This was especially after they saw how much
attention the Black Arts Movement was able to generate.
Indeed, they recognized that it could be used to misdirect
youthful militancy while remaining hugely profitable. They had
‘in fact already misdirected Euro-American and other youth with
the James Bond, I Spy, Secret Agent Man and other replacements
for the “Old West/ Cowboy and Indians” racist crap, so why
not a “Black” counterpart? Thus was born of the enormously
successful counterinsurgoncy genre collectively known as
the Blacksploitation movies: Shaft, Superfly, Foxxy Brown, Black
Caesar and the like, accompanied by the wannabe crossovers
like Starsky and Hutch, with the notorious Black snitch Huggie
Bear. Psychological warfare!

Follow e piyohologs: You can be “Black” cool,
robellioue, dangorote riem, mave. sespect, women, oars, finé
clothes, jewelry, an expensive home, and even stay high-just
2 long. ae yo Aot Gt dhe syatem - o the cop But f you
o o slong with ihat seript, et reads 10 5 back o he ewiy
e Tt Shoot-outs s dhe cops. Gormg o the graveyard,
Prinan. o el exiel But out osh st b e over a5
‘Huggie Bear style snitch, and interestingly, like his buddy, the
postmodem day / futuristic rat Cipher of The Matrix, who tried to
Fotray FTON i vt for ke 1 48 ich, stesleoing movie
. And most mpariantiy: no more Aghting with he 0AGonts
Gevitr

Furihormore, o bolstor tho governmens assault, and o
caddletheoppressedmithaTroan Horss eswoulasmategionlly
Randicas thom for decades to -
como, they bogan 1o flood owr NOW_the intelligence
neighborhoods with heroin, &ZENCies were us-
cocaine, " maciuans, - and ing them in the same
“moth. Yes, ail thoss drugs manDer that alcohol
had earlier been introduced had long ago been in-
into theso aroas by organiacd troduced to the Native
chmminatstnden oo potics oqueed 0
wnapolitical potoetion
Now tho nteNigenoe agonetes were using them in the same
anner that aleahl nad o o e troduced t the Notive
Americans and with the same iniontions and the st foroian-
atficking in opium by the ruling ctasses of Europe and fhi
country: to counter their propensity to rebel against outside
Comtror il profiing of too iRy

Nowion hegun v indulge i drgs as 3 way to seieve the
stross of al that e was facing. Ho beceme a dreg adaic. plain
" simpie. That. nawever, s wpaet the nowy sonstrcted
Fungoterccol that Hollwwood. the. ruling clas. and the
Evermment srors pushing, Athough many BPP cutre and other
tders wore vory norveus about 1. Newton's contrel ~vas by
Thom too frmiy fved for anyone 10 challongo.

AL the same timo. tho.retormist wing of tho BEP did
manage o mike somo. noteworthy sirides undor ft only
Tomats iond, Biaine Brown. Newion's drug aadiction] gangaton.
itestyleprovaked exile caused himon his ow and without any
Comaultafion with o body o -appormi” Blaine o head tho Farty
i abssnce. An excaptiomally gifted womum, ahe elied on an
Innor ciree af fomate BPP cadve. backed up by medo enforcere
to introduce some clear and consistent projects that helped the.
BPP to become a real power locally. It was a reformist paradigm,
though, that could not hope to achieve any of the radical
revolutionary changes called for earlier. In fact, within Newton's
earlier writings he had put the cadre on notice of a point in
time when the above-ground would have to be supported by an
underground, in order to keep moving forward. Yet it was Newton
who completely rejected that paradigm upon being released
from jail, although he still organized and controlled a heavily
armed extortion arm called “The Squad,” which consisted of
BPP cadre who terrorized Oakland’s underworld with a belt-
operated machine gun mounted on a truck bed, accompanied by
cadre who were ready for war! In classic Eurogangster fashion,
Newton had turned to preying on segments of the community
that he had earlier vowed to liberate.

Consequently, we can see all of the government’s props.
bearing fruit: Newton's faction of the BPP had limited itself to
both legally- and underworld-sanctioned methods: “Co-option”
and “Indoctrination in Reliance on Passive Approaches™
passive towards the status quo. They fell for the trick of severing
all relations with those who would lead the BPP if they got to
the next level of struggle: “Separation From the Most Advanced.
Elements.” Through Newton's control, his faction was immersed
in the “Glamorization of Gangsterism.” Finally, Newton, his
faction, and activists from all the other American radical and
revolutionary groups succumbed to the terror and Raw Fear that
was being leveled on them, all except those who waged armed.
struggle, were killed, jailed, exiled, or forced into hiding, or into,
continuing their activism under the radar.

Epilogue On Huey P. Newton And His BPP Faction

Elaine Brown both guided their faction to support
Newton and his family in exile, and orchestrated the building.
up of enough political muscle in Oakland to assure Newton's
return on favorable terms. Thus he did return and eventually
the charges were dropped. Newton continued to use his iconic
stature and renewed direct control of his faction to again play
the cool-political gangster role; and like any drug addict who,
refuses to reform, he kept sliding downhill, even turning on old,
comrades and his main champion, Elaine Brown, who had to
flee in fear.

Sadly, for all practical purposes, that was the end of
the original Black Panther Party. Checkmate! Later, as is well
known, Newton's continued drug addiction cost him his life, a
sorry ending for a once great man.

The “Original” Black Mafia (BM)

“When you grow up in situations like me and CIiff .. there is a lot of
respect for brothers like (drug lord) Alpo and Nicky Bames, those
major hustler-player cats. Cause they made it. They made it against
society's laws. They were the Kings of their own domain.”

“Cliff Evans, Rolling Stone 2000, in Never drank the Kool-Aid: The
Ivy League Counterfeiter, Toure,

Albeit a touchy matter to many, it's irrefutable that the
original Black Mafia (BM) was first established in Philadelphia,
PA, in the late 1960s, and has seen its cancerous ideas duplicated,
imitated, and lionized by Black youth ever since.

And while it’s unclear how much the national Nation of
Islam (NOI) leadership knew or learned about the BM, there's.
no question of the local NOT's eventual absorption of the BM-
under Minister Jeremiah X Pugh. In fact, although the BM was
originally just local “stick-up kids” culled from neighborhood.
gangs, their being swallowed by the NOI would eventually tum
them into a truly powerful and terrifying criminal enterprise-
completely divorced from everything that the NOI had stood for
since its founding in 1930

Most of the high level tricks were also used by the
government and intelligence agencies against the areas they
came from: the same tricks of Co-option, Glamorization of
Gangsterism, Separation from the most Advanced Elements,
and Raw Fear.

Thus it must be understood that although the NOI and
BPP had different ideologies and styles, both still held out the
‘promise to most Black youth of helping them obtain what they
desired: self-respect, dignity, and freedom.

The puritanical NOT's dealings with the founders of
the BM were similar to that of the Catholic Church’s historical
relationship with the Italian Mafia. BM members who attended
NOI religious services did so on a similar basis-bringing the.
attention of the local NOI leadership to their unusually good
financial contributions. Within the lower class Black community
being served, everybody knew that meant that they were
hustlers, stick-up Kids, or both. Just as the Italian Mafia would
contribute huge sums to the Catholic Church, the BM eventually
did the same within Philly's Temple No. 12. The national NOI,
however, had been under close scrutiny and surveillance by

10
1

intelligence agencies for decades. In fact, by the time of his
death, the NOT's founder-the Honorable Elijah Muhammad-had
in excess of one million pages of files within the archives of the.
FBI alone. So anyone who still believes that the assassination of
Malcolm X did not have a US government hand involved, fails
to understand the threat the NOI presented to this country at
that time. Consequently, the BM's financial contributors would
come to the attention of the intelligence agencies through
their monitoring. But overshadowing all the above was the
bloody assault the FBI and local police were leveling against
other Black radical and revolutionary groups ‘such as local and
national BPP chapters and branches, the Revolutionary Action
Movement (RAM), and scores of smaller formations.

As a matter of fact, FBI agents at first tried to recruit
Minister Pugh as a snitch against the local BPP, telling him
that the BPP was out to get him and supplant the local NOI as.
competition for the Black youth's loyalties. Pugh, to his credit,
didn'ttake the bait, and also managed to avoid getting his Temple.
No. 12 involved in a war with the BPP. Doubtless he suspected
that his taking blood money from the BM had also come to the.
attention of the FBI, and he was therefore vulnerable. Around
the same time, Pugh's name was miraculously removed from
the FBI's Security Index, which contained all the country's top-
level threats. After Pugh's name being on this list for years, and.
right after they had filed a report of his refusal to be a snitch,
why would they relax the pressure? How did they think it
would unfold? Giving Pugh and his Temple, along with their
BM followers, enough rope to hang themselves? or to become.
addicted to a game that \vas ultimately controlled by their
professed enemies-the US Government and its underlings. This
would turn the tables on Pugh and force him to be less radical,
‘more compliant, and no longer a threat on the level of the BPP,
RAM, & Co.

For the BM members, the glamorization of gangsterism
fit right in. After all, why would a group of Black stick-up kids
and gang members call themselves The Black Mafia? This was
in the era of “Black is Beautiful,” when millions of Blacks began
wearing Afros/Bushes, and African clothing, adopting African
names-completely at odds with the aping of Italians! Why not call
themselves the Zulus, Watusis, or Mau Mauas younger street
gangs were doing? Nol Hollywood's projection of gangsterism.
was having its effect.

Consequently, within a couple of years, the Black Mafia
would be uniformly recognized as an expensively-dressed, big-
hatwearing, Cadillac-driving imitation of the Italian Mafia. And
they turned countless numbers of street gang members, former.
RAM cadre, and militants from dozens of other Philly groups.
who were fighting oppression, into pawns for the use of further.
destroying their own communities.

The third aspect of the trick of “separating them from
their more advanced elements” operated under cover of Pugh
and other insiders who continued to preach Black Nationalist
doctrine among the youth in the street gangs, and within the
prisons, not missing an opportunity to perpetuate the illusion
that in this way they could gain pride and respect. They believed
they were joining a rebel group that was only waiting for the
right time to throw its lot in with the masses of Blacks who were.
waging nonviolent and otherwise bloody battles from coast to
coast, and on the Afrikan continent.

By tricking them into diverting their energles into
gangsterism, Pugh & Co. were effectively separating them
from the more advanced elements, albeit many, if not most,
bought into the rationale that their extortion and drug-dealing.
proceeds were a tax that would be used to build The Nation. A
few years later, that would be dubbed “drinking the kool-aid,”
in a reference to Jim Jones and his CIA handlers tricking and
forcing hundreds of other Blacks to “drink” their death.

Finally, the raw fear being leveled on the entire society
had its most devastating effect on them (the BM) as well. How
else to explain hundreds if not thousands—of BM street soldiers
fearless enough to cow Philly's long- established and ruthless
Italian Mafia and its other mobs, and most of its warring street
gangs and independents-that same Black Mafia that had fielded
headhunters who literally terrorized the city by decapitations-
how else to explain their lackluster showing when it came to
contronting anyone in uniform?

Tl tell you how. Their leadership had completely
disarmed their fighting spirits by telling them not to resist the
police until they gave the order- which never came. Ironically,
after the police and FBI had succeeded in suppressing, jailing,
exiling, and co-opting most of the BPP, BLA, RAM, and others,
they discovered the BM and in turn attacked them with a
vengeance, while none of the BM put up anything resembling.
real resistance, only to go on the lam. Minister Jeremiah made.
a 180-degree tum, even turning snitch after getting caught in a,
drug sting.

The legacy of the BM, therefore, is one of a ruthless
group of Black thugs who spawned similarly ruthless crews-
notably Philly’s Junior Black Mafia (IBM) and the latest clone,
Atlanta’s Black Mafia Family. But its most harmful effect comes

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from their deeds and mystique that returned a huge segment of
Black youth to the belief that the only way to gain respect and
dignity was to be the best, most heartless hustler around: full
circle from 1955.

Finally, I have used the BPP/BLA and NOUBM because
they present the most well-documented examples. Although
both are surrounded by much mythology, a true analysis has
hardly been attempted, except by government and intelligence
sources. The latter use their findings to refine, update, and
revise older tricks in order to continue to check and control the
country’s rebellious youth, while at the same time persisting in
the oppression of the communities they occupy-n line with the
ruling class’s agenda.

Concurrently, idealistic middle and upperclass youth
(from all segments of the First Wave) allowed themselves with
fow exceptions to be co-opted as the new managers of the very
system they had once vowed to radically change. They became
champions of passive resistance, the doctrine of total reliance
on passive and legal methods, epitomized by their new hero,
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Second Wave: C. 1980-2005

“Orthodox hip hoppers speak of a holy trinity of hip hop fathers:
Here, Afrika Bambaata, and Grandmaster Flash. But like moisture
in the air before it rains, the conditions were ripe for hip hop before
the holy trinity began spinning. Hip Hop’s prefathers or grandfathers
are James Brown, Huey Newton, Muhammad Ali, Richard Pryor,
Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Bruce Lee, and certain celebrity drug dealers
and pimps whose names won't be mentioned here ..." Toure. Never
drank the Kool-Aid.

“Ronald Reagan and crack were Hip Hop’s 80's anti-fathers; both
helped foster the intense poverty and the teenage drug-dealing
millionaires as well as the urge to rebel against the system that
appeared to be moving in for the kill, to finally crush Black America.”
(ibid.)

By 1980, therefore, for all practical purposes, the
youth from the First Wave had been defeated. Collectively
they descended into a debilitating, agonizing, escapist period
characterized by partying. Not to discount the fringe elements
who had been so adversely affected that they had their hands
full trying to rebuild their sanity, their family, to go back to
school, or surviving in exile or prison-while others seemed to be.
dancing on the ceiling. This was similar to shell-shocked vets of
World War I and World War Il and the victims of post-traumatic
stress syndrome from the Vietnam War.

But the most misunderstood victims were the children
of that generation: The Second Wave, from 1980 to 2005. Those
who reached puberty or became young adults during those years
were, paradoxically, in the dark about what had ocourred in the.
recent past. They became victims of the propaganda machinery.
of the “reformed” yet rotten-io-the-core ruling class-dominated
schools and social institutions.

Among all lower and working class segments of the
youth, therefore, Coolio's Gangster’s Paradise applied. These
were children raised by the state in uncaring schools or juvenile
detention centers and homes, in front of TV sets, movies, video
arcades, or in the streets. Within the greatly expanded middle
classes-notably among people of coloryouth were back to the
gospel of getting a good education and a good job. That became.
their highest calling, interspersed with an originally more

consciontious element who The Second Wave youth
tackled politics and academia go))’ Aotm to. cooption,

as a continuation of the First ) CO
Wave's struggle. Upper class t1€ glamorization of

youth, however, followed in rism, separation
the footsteps of their ruling from the most advanced
Class parents, seeing that elements, relying on pas-
radical and revolutionary sive methods, and the
changes had failed to alter the raw fear of an upgraded

country much. police state.
As in a recurring

nightmare, the Second Wave youth fell victim to co-option,
the glamorization of gangsterism, separation from the most
advanced elements, relying on passive methods, and the raw.
fear of an upgraded police state. Left to their own devices, lower
class youth began a search for respect and dignity by devising.
their own institutions and culture, which came to be dominated
by the gangs and Hip Hop. On their own, these could be used
for good or bad. But lacking knowledge of the experience of the.
First Wave, the new generation would be tricked just as their
parents had been.

Gangs are working- and lower-class phenomena that date
from the early beginnings of this country, being in evidence also
overseas. In fact, many of those who first joined The First Wave.
were themselves gang members, notably Alprentice Bunchy
Carter, head of the notorious Slausons (forerunners of today's
Crips) and the martyred founder of the Los Angeles Panthers.

1
15

Little as it's understood, moreover, they are in fact the lower
class counterpart of the youth clubs, associations, Boy Scouts /
Girl Scouts, fraternities and sororities of the middle and upper
classes. The key difference is in the higher level of positive adult
input in the middle and upper class groups. Hip Hop is just the
latest manifestation of artistic genius bursting forth from these
lower class youth seeking respect and dignity.

Alas, Hip Hop culture is daily succumbing to co-option
in ways so obvious as to need no explanation. But woe o us if
we don't come to grips with how The Second Wave's gangs have
been coopted. This is an ongoing tragedy that, if not turned
around, will ultimately make the shortcomings of The First
Wave pale in comparison

Certainly the gangs have comprised a sub-culture that
has historically been a thorn in the side of the ruling class. It
had 1o be elther controlled and used, or eradicated. Usually
that was accomplished by co-option and attrition, with older
elements moving on, or being jailed long enough to destroy the
group. Our First Wave, as noted above, was able to outflank the
ruling class to some extent by absorbing key clements which
lent them prestige among the rank and file and its acceptance
of radical and revolutionary ideas, but was pimped by BM style
groups

It is fascinatingly simple to follow how the Second
Wave has been tricked and continues to be bamboozled into
destroying itself. Just about all the pillars upholding this giant
confidence game are familiar to everyone-through movies, TV,
street culture, and or personal experience with friends, family,
associates, cops, courts, jails, and prisons, not to mention death
or our own unfulfilled yearnings for respect and dignity.

Gangstas, Wankstas, And Wannabes

All of the above-more than anything-crave respect
and dignity. Forget all the uninformed ideas about the homies.
‘wanting the families, fathers, and love they never had. That plays.
apart, butif you think that the homie only need some more hugs,
then you've drunk the kool-aid! Actually, even if you did have a
good father, a loving family / extended family, if everything in
society is geared toward lessening your selfworth because of
your youth, race, taste in dress, music, speech, lack of material
‘trappings, ete, then you will hunger for respect-which will lead
to you knowing dignity within yourself. Even suburban, middle-,
and upper-class youth confront this to a lesser degree. No! All
the beefin’, flossin’, frontin’, settrippin’, violence, and bodies,
piling up around them comes from the pursuit of respect and
dignity.
This is how 50 cent put it:

“Niggas out there sellin’ drugs is after what I got from
rappin’ .. club and the bouncers stop doin’ whatever the
fuck they doing to let you in and say everybody else wait.
He special. That's the same shit they do when you start
Killin’ niggas in you hood. This is what we been after the
whole time. Just the wrong route.

50 cent, Rolling Stone, 2003, in Never drank the Kool Aid:
The Life of a Hunted man, Toure.

Admittedly, at times that simple but raw truth is 50
intertwined with many other things that it's hard to grasp.
Particularly nowadays, the drug game and the git-money games;
and most sets do provide a sort of alternative family. They also
provide a strong cohesion that is mistakenly called love. To cut
through the distractions, Il llustrate my point:

When the Second Wave was left hanging by the defeated
and demoralized First Wave, they unknowingly reverted to
methods of secking dignity and respect hat the First Wave
had elevated itself above during their struggle for radical and
revolutionary change. This was a period when gang wars/ gang
banging was anathemal The revolutionary psychiatrist Frantz
Fanon in Wretched of the Earth notes that the colonized and
oppressed are quick to grab their knife against a neighbor or
stranger, thereby in a subconscious way ducking their fear of
directing their pent-up rage at those responsible for their suffering:
their colonial oppressors.

In this way, the notable early sets like the Bloods, Crips,
and Gangster Disciples’ primary activity was banging, or gang
warring over “turf": neighborhoods, schools, etc, as well as over
real or imagined slights. But the real underlying motivation was.
all of the parties’ desires to build their reputations and earn
stripes, meaning to gain prestige in the eyes of fellow bangers.
This translated into respect among their peers. Moreover, it
caused these youth to bond with each other like soldiers o in
combat; a bonding like a family, even moreso. Not surprisingly,
‘many outsiders decreed that that bonding was love, and some of
the youth would parrot that thought. To exchange love, however,
you first have to love yourself, and the gang banger by definition
has no love for him- or herself. In fact, s/he is desperately
secking respect, without which any idea of love being present is
selfdecei

16
An example: if you respect your body, you can also love
your body, and you would not dare destroy it with drugs or
alcohol. But if you don't respect your body, and you go on to
destroy it in that fashion, it follows that you have 1o love for it
either.

So the bangin’ raged on for years, piling up as many
deaths and injuries as the US suffered during the Vietnam
War-each elevating either the attackers’ or the victims’ stature
in the eyes of their peers. As usual, during those carly years,
the overseers of the oppressive system bemoaned the carnage
while locking up untold numbers of bangers for a fw years, but
overall did absolutely nothing to arrest the problem.

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. Drugs, as
noted, had been flooding into these same communities since the
1960s. Back then, however, it was mainly heroin, with marijuana
and meth playing relatively minor roles. Remember the movies
Serpico and The French Connection exposing that? But the
early gangs, to their credit, never got deeply involved in that
They saw dope fiends as weak, and although they would blow
some sherm or chronic, it was just a pass-time activity for them.
They were serious about bangin’!

Consequently, the bangers were all co-opted, wedded
as they were to their form of fratricidal gangsterism and totally
separated from the remnants of The First Wavewhom they
Jnew next to nothing about. And the “good kids” were being
indoctrinated in passive, legal, get-a-good-education approaches.
All the while, both groups were scared to death of the police!
Despite the bangers’ hate and contempt, any two cops could lay
adozen of them out on all fours-at will.

This accounts for Tupac's later iconic stature among
them: he walked his talk:

“....the fact that while everyone else talks about it, Tupac
is the only known rapper who has actually shot a police
officer; the walking away from being shot five times with
nopermanentdamage and walkingaway from the hospital
the next day and then rolling into court for a brief but
dramatic wheelchairbound courtroom appearance-it's
boen dangerously compellling and ecstatically brilliant.”
“Tupac,” The Village Voice, 1995, Toure, supra.

But something was on the horizon that was about to
cause a seismic shift in this already sorry state of affairs. It was
to alter things in ways that most still cannot or will not believe.
Apparently, since this madness was contained in the lower class.

I
communities, the ruling class henchmen had no desire to do
anything but keep their Gestapo-ike police heavily armed and,
fully supported, since technology had made what they dubbed
the underclass obsolete anyway. (See Sean Penn and Robert
Duval's movie Colors.)

Peep The Game

The South American cocaine trade replaced the French
Connection and ClAcontrolled US distribution of Southeast-
Asian Golden-Triangle-grown and processed heroin as the drug
of choice in the early 1980s. Remember Miami Vice? Well, as
usual, this country’s government, intelligence agencies, and
large banks immediately began a struggle to control this new
cocaine trade. Remember: control-not get rid of, as their lying
propaganda projects such as the Waron-Drugs hype claimed!
Thus they were contending mainly with South American
governments, militaries, and large landowners who controlled
the raising, processing, and shipping of the cocaine, although
for a few years the latter had to also do battle with a few
independent local drug lords, most notably the notorious Pablo
Escobar-Ochoa familydominated Medellin Cartel.

Within this country, nevertheless, the youth gangs had
next to nothing to do with the early cocaine trade, which was then
primarily servicing a middle and upper-class white clientele. It
had a fow old school bigtime hustlers along with some Spanish-
speaking wholesalers, who also had their own crews to handle
‘matters. Although after the fact the Hip Hop cult movie favorites
Scarface and New Tack City are good descriptions of that period.
Albeit they both purposely left out the dominant role that the
u.s. government and intelligence agencies played in controlling
things. Alright, T know you're down with all that, and love it! So
let’s move on.

In the middle 1980s the US began backing a secret war
designed to overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista government
that had fought a long and bloody civil war to rid Nicaragua
of its US sponsored dictator Somoza in 1979. But after being
exposed to the world, the US Congress forbade then President
Ronald Reagan from continuing his secret war. Like a lot of
US presidents, he ignored Congress and had the CIA raise
millions, recruit mercenaries, buy or steal military equipment,
and continue the war. That is how and why crack came upon
s, with all the mayhem it has caused. But here you won't see
Hollywood and TV giving that up the raw. With few exceptions,
such as Black director Bill Duke’s Deep Cover, starring Laurence

18
19

Fishburn, and Above the Law with Steven Segal, you have to
search hard to see it portrayed so clearly. Later I'll explain why.

In any case, most people have heard that crack was
dumped into South Central Los Angeles in the mid-80s-along,
with an arsenal of military-style assault rifles that would make.
a First Wave BPP member ashamed of how poorly equipped s/
he was. Needless to say, the huge profits from the crack sales-
~coupled with everyone being strapped-magnified the body
count. And since crack was also so easy to manufacture locally,
and so dirt cheap, just about anybody in the hood could get
into the business. Gone were the old days of a few bigtime
hustlers, except on the wholesale level. But make no mistake,
the wholesale cocaine sold for the production of crack was fully
controlled and distributed by selected CIA-controlled operatives.

So for all of your around the was dogs bragging about
how big you were/ are, an organizational flow chart would look
something like this:

At the top would be the President, Ronald Reagan,
Vice President and former CIA Director George

Bush Sr.

National Security Advisor

Secretary of State

‘major banking executives

Colonel Oliver North

General Secord

arms dealers

‘mercenary pilots

South and Central American government and military
leaders, including Escobar and the Medellin Cartel
originally;

US Navy and Coast Guard officers, Customs and
Border Patrol officers,

Justice Department attorneys,

State and local police and county sheriffs and deputies,
and their successors in office, and

at the bottom of the barrel: you dog!

Now I know that you already knew in your hearts
that there were some big dawgs over you, but I bet you never
imagined the game came straight out of the White House, or
that you were straightup pawns on the board. If that sounds
t00 wild, then tell me why it's harder to find any government,
CIA, military, or banker-like George Bush, Sr. and his crow-in
prison, than it is to win the lottery? Yeah, they double-crossed
Noriega, Escobar, and the Medellin Cartel and made Oliver
North do some community service, but that's all. The real crime
lords-the government, military, CIA, and banking dons- all got
away. Albeit after Congresswoman Maxine Waters made a stink
about i, the CIA was forced to o two investigations and posted
on their official website their findings and admissions of being
drug dealers.

Naw dog, ya'll were all played! Face it.

That's what happened to you 0.G.s from the 80s. But like
Morpheus said in The Matrix, let me “show you how deep the
rabbit hole goes.”

Gradually the US Government was forced to crack down
on the cocaine corning through Florida, but by then the South
American Cartels and their governments and military allies
had found new routes through Mexico. At first the Mexican
underworld were just middlemen; but quickly recognizing

a golden opportunity, they
essentially seized control The CIA was forced to do

of most of the cocaine trade WO _investigations and
between South America and POSted on their official
the United States, forcing Website their findings
the South Americans into and admissions of being
becoming junior partners drug dealers.
who were responsible for the
cheaper growing and processing, after which the Mexicans
would purchase mountains of cocaine for the trans-shipment
overland and the smuggling into the US and its wholesale
‘markets that produced oil and automotive indusiry-type profis.
One would wonder how and why the South Americans-
-powerful players-would go for a deal like that. As ever, the
answers can be found among the Machiavellian and serpentine
‘maneuverings of the United States government, and their poor
Mexican counterparts. You sce, in the 1980s, the Mexican
government was overseeing an economy that was so bad that
for all practical purposes they could have gone, or did go belly-
up: bankrupt. Indeed, the US and their underlings within the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB)
were forced to periodically give them millions upon millions in
loans in return for further unfair trading concessions, in order
10 save them. Note that the United States was then and remains
today extremely vulnerable to Mexico, because common sense
and past experience told them that the worse things became in
Mexico the more destitute their already dirt-poor majority would
become, forcing them to find a way to get into the US in order
10 find means to feed themselves and their familics. And the US

20
21

could not keep prevailing upon the IMF and WB to lend them
‘money—especially since they saw another way to temporarily
plug up the hole in their control of matters in the international
finance world,

‘Thus another unholy alliance was formed. This one was
between the US government, CIA, State Department, banks,
and the other usual suspects on one side; Their Mexican
counterpartsincluding their first fledgling cartelson the
other, with the South Americans now in a junior partnership
role. However, T don't want to give the impression that it was,
arranged diplomatically, all neat and tidy. Far from it! Rather it
evolved through visionaries among the usual suspects, putting
their ideas before other select insiders and working to craft an
unwritten consensus. It was the same way that they-along with
Cuban exiles in Florida-had used the earliercocaine trade to fuel
the growth around Miami. Only this time it would be Mexicoa,
‘much more pressing and unstable situation.

But it was recognized by all parties that Mexico's
underworld would eventually land in the driver's seat, due to
their ability to take the kind of risks called for, their geographical
‘proximity to the US border, and most importantly, their strong.
desire to avoid confronting the US and Mexican governments-
like Pablo Escobar had done. They were more than willing to
guarantee that most of their drug profits would be pumped back.
into the moribund Mexican economy through large building,
projects, upgrading the tourist industry, fanning, and other
clearly national ventures. And on the messy side, their gunmen
were becoming experts at making reluctant parties fall into line
by offering them the choice between gold and lead.

Nonetheless you would be mistaken to think that the
Mesxican and South American underworld ever became anything
but hired hands of the big dog in the United States government,
and their partners in the banking industry who always remained
in a position to destroy their smuggling and moneylaundering.
operations through a much tighter control of the U.S. borders-
or by maling it extremely difficult to launder the mountains of
small denomination bills they had to deal with. In fact, the then
President George Bush, Sr. ordered the invasion of Panama-
which was/is a major offshore bank laundering hub-after their
hired hand General Manuel Noriega had become unruly in 1989,

Furthermore, these hired hands would insure that the
chosen corrupt politicians would always gamer more votes in
Mexico's elections, by bringing in planeloads of money that the
South American gangsters and government/ military partners
‘would make available as their overhead. But more important for
the United States, a major part of the proceeds would be pumped
into the Mexican economy n order to forestall the looming
bankruptey.

Consequently by the middle 1990s the Mexican
underworld had established the super powerful Gulf, Juarez,
Guadalajara, Sinola, and Tijuana Cartels. Moreover, they had
consolidated their power by not only controlling Who wero
elected to key political posts in Mexico, but had also perfected
the art of bribing key local, state, and regional police heads, as
well as strategic generals in Mexico's armed forces. Check out
the movies Trafjic, the Antonio Banderas/Selma Hayel Desperado
and Once Upon a Time In Mexico, and again-after the fact-you'll
see Hollywood making money by spilling the beans. But you
should not let the stunt work lull you into thinking there’s no
substance to the plots!

Remember: Mexico's Cartels would not be sble to
function without the collaboration and protection from the
highest levels within the US establishment. Just as the CIA
has openly admitted it was a drug merchant during an earlier
period, you can believe nothing has changed-except partners!

The hilarious part is that none of the wannabe real
gangstas in the US know that in reality they're low-level CIA
flunkies; or they can't wait until they get out of prison to become
undercover government agents ... slinging crack

Furthermore, if one does not get beyond the idea
that this whole thing was just a plot to destroy the Black and
Brown peoples-a favorite though shortsighted theory-there’s
1o way to see just how deep the rabbit hole really is. I repeat:
The main objective was to pump billions of dollars into the
Mexican economy in order to avoid a complete meltdown and
the subsequent fleeing to the US of sixty (60) or more million
Mexicans, out of its (then) ninety plus (90+) million inhabitants.
A crisis that would have dwarfed the numbers just beginning
now to make their presence known.

Actually, the big dogs in the US probably didn't know
just how they were going to control the fallout that would
inevitably accompany their cocaine/crack tax. They routinely
tax aloohol, gambling (from the lotteries to the casinos) and
even prostitution in certain areas, don't they? So yeah, it was &
clandestine operation to use cocaine to rescue Mexico and stave
off an economically induced invasion of the US by its destitute
populace. The Mexican people, especially its indigenous
populations, were made poverty- stricken by five-hundred years
of colonialism, slavery, peonage, neocolonialism, and the theft
of onethird of their country by the United States in the 19th

22
23

century.
Sadly though, our First Wave's degeneration into the
glamorization of gangsterism, the Second Wave's hunger for
respect and recognition that was fueling the senseless gang
carnage, the Hip Hop generation’s ability to provide the youth
‘with vicarious fantasies to indulge their senses with the hypnotic
allure of the temporary power that the drug game could bring
them-led the youth in the United States back to emulating the
First Wave's Superfly and Scarface days. Others also see that:

“My theory is that nine times out of ten, if there’s &
depression, more a social depression than anything, it
brings out the best art in Black people. The best example
is Reagan and Bush gave us the best years of hip hop ..
*Hip hop is created thanks to the conditions that crack
set: easy money but a lot of work, the violence involved,
the stories it produced-crack helped birth hip hop. Now,
I'm part conspiracy theorist because you can't develop
something that dangerous and it not be planned. T don’t
think crack happened by accident ... Crack offered a lot
of money to the inner-city youth who didn't have to go
10 college. Which enabled them to become businessmen.
It also turned us into marksmen. It also turned us
comatose.”

Ahmir Thompson, aka Quest love. The Belicver, 2003,
Toure, supra.

With the deft moves of a conjurer, the big dogs in the
US seized upon all this and began to nudge these elements
around on the international chessboard-within their giant con
game. Moreover, these big dogs in the United States had very
little choice where to start their triage in order to gain some
relief from the manufactured domestic crisis. I'l tell you why.
Cocaine in its powder and crack forms is very addictive, and
the addictive ambience of the cultures that use them regularly-
“the rich and famous, the Hollywood set, corporate executives,
lawyers, doctors, weekenders, entertainers, athletes, college
kids, suburbarutes, hoodrats, hustlers, pipers, etc-guarantees
demand!

In many ways, it may be argued, this was the same
as alcohol and tobacco in the Prohibition days-which have
never been suppressed in the US for long. It follows, despite
all the propaganda of “Just Say No" and the bogus War on
Drugs, that the big dogs never intended to eradicate the use
of cocaine. However, on the lower end of the US distribution
and consumption rungs of the ladder, the Black and Brown
communities were becoming major headaches, ones that if left
unchecked could evolve into a real strategic threat! Yes, crack
had turned their lower class neighborhoods into lucrative
‘mainstays of the big dogs’ alternative taxing scheme.

The urgency, however, was graphically driven home
in comparisons with the nonBlack/Brown communities’
consumption of more (mostly powder) cocaine. Yet the trade in
the Black and Brown hoods and barrios was accompanied by an
exponentially unforeseen rate of ever more sophisticated drug-
related violence, especially as the gangs got seriously involved.

As T've pointed out, the gangs were mainly just pursuing
Tespect, prior to getting involved with hustling drugs. And
carnage connected to that was not a real concern to the big

dogs. But this was different 1\ Lo oo oy

from the earlier dumping of h
heroin in those communities 80d_famous hip hop
artists who continue to

which was accompanied by

the comparatively isolated
violence of the Black Mafia-
style groups. That violence,
though terrifying, was also
more selective. The more
widespread availability of

wild-out because they
still lack the respect
and dignity that comes
with _struggling for
something other than

crack and assault weapons HOTICY O POWeT.

led the big dogs to understand that if they did not aggressively
deal with the ultraviolent inner city drug gangs, the latter
would eventually move to consolidate their gains by forming.
South American and Mexicanstvle cartels. Afterwards, like
their Mexican forerunners, they could gradually take over the
inner city politics, threatening to become less predictable (once.
they realized that the money and power would not of themselves
provide them with the kind of respect and dignity they sought).
To understand why not, just observe the rich and famous hip
hop artists who continue to wild-out because they still lack the
respect and dignity that comes with struggling for something,
other than money or power. In short, some type of political or
higher cause.

In any case, the Hip Hop generational favorite TV drama.
The Wire lays out the entire phenomenon pretty much like it had
played itself out in reality in Baltimore and other urban areas.
In fact, the TV fictional series derives its realness from a long-
running expose featured in a Baltimore newspaper. Another
after-the-fact but still
useful piece of work to study. That show, depicting earlier years

24
25

of the Black gangs getting deep into the crack trade, clearly
illustrates my point about evolving into proto-cartels, and
alternately being triaged before maturing into real strategic
threats, leaving the crack trade intact.

Enter the “Prison Industrial Complex,” whose purpose
was to neutralize the Second Wave before they woke up to the,
fact that despite their money and power they were being used:

“Pri Playod for suckors. A
Enter the “Prison Indus- 7% ‘0 suer, &

trial Complex,” WhOS€ pig dogs feared money
purpose was t0 neutral- would not soothe. Thus,
ize the Second Wave be- all of the draconian gun-
fore they woke up to the related and mandatory
fact that despite their sentencing laws were first
money and power they formulated on the federal

: level, where most of the
were being used. big dogs have their power,

and then forced upon most of the states. This was to insure that
the Second Wave would never be able to consolidate any real
power. Precisely because the latter were proving themselves to
be such ruthless gangstas, in imitation of their Hollywood idols,
coupled with the potential power derived from their share of the
undercover tax being extracted from their communities: Triage
them every time they get too big, which averaged from one to
three years in a run; then everything acquired was taken. The,
Hip Hop martyred icon The Notorious B.LG. put it all together
in his classic song-appropriately entitled “Respect”:

“Put the drugs on the shell Nah, I couldn't see it/
Scarface, King of New York/ I wanna be it ... Until I got
incarcerated / kinda scary ... not able to move behind the
steel gate / Time to contemplate/ Damn, where did I fail?
/Al the money I stacked was all the money for bail.”
“Biggie Smalls,” New York Times, 1994. Toure, supra.

Let's get another thing straight. Take the angle that
continues to have shortsighted individuals chasing ghosts about
why powder cocaine and crack are treated so differently. Within
the big dogs' calculations, there was no reason to harshly punish.
the powder cocaine dealers and users in the same manner as,
they were doing with the crack crowd. And racism was not the.
driving motive: it was rather the armed threat within these
proto-cartels. The big dogs witnessed a clear example of what
was to come by way of the Jamaican Posses that cropped up in
the Black communities at the same time. These young men from
the Jamaican and Caribbean diaspora were also a consequence.
of the degeneration of its lower classes’ attempts to throw off the
economic and social effects of its former slavery and colonial
oppression. Led by the socialist Michael Manley and inspired
by the revolutionary music of Bob Nester Marley (which can be
glimpsed in the later Steven Segal Marked for Death and DMX/
Nas Belly movies), the Jamaican posses were the Black Mafia on
steroids! Moreover, their quaskreligious nationalism, coupled
with their ability to operate nationally and in the Caribbean,
as well as their heavily armed soldierstheir ten thousand or
50 were nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands in the
wings in the Black and Brown communities!

The cry from the big dogs' mouthpieces in Congress
was about the gunplay, not so much the drugs. What was not
‘mentioned, however, was the big dogs' anxieties about stopping
these gunslingers before they got over their mental blocks about
using their weapons against the police, or the system. Stop
them while they're hung up on imitating their Hollywood and
Buro-Mafia icons who made a mantra out of instructing their
gunmen not 1o use their weapons against the police. Indeed,
with a few exceptions, The Second Wave allowed themselves to
be disarmed and carted off to
prison like pussycats!

Add to that the unforeseen windfall of thousands of new
Jobs for the rural commaunities (hence the Prison Industrial
Complex and its neoslavery) that were being destroyed
economically by capitalism’s globalization, drive which
benefited the conservative segments of the US that the big dogs
needed to appease in order to
continue enjoying their fanatical Support.

It is therefore necessary to struggle against the short-
sighted ideas about racism alone as the driving motive that
fueled the construction of the Prison Industrial Complex. If you
follow up with your own research, you will be able to document
the who, when, where and how the big dogs set everything in
motion, as well as how they continue to use us as pawns in their
giant international con game.

Conclusion
Ask yourself the following questions:
1: How can we salvage anything from how the First and Second

Waves allowed their search for respect and dignity to degenerate
into gangsterism?

26
2. In what ways can we help the Next Wave avoid our mistakes?
3. What can we do to contribute to documenting who the real big.
dogs behind the drug trade are?

4. Why have they never been held accountable?

5. How come our families and communities have been the only
ones to suffer?

6. How can we overcome our brainwashing?

7. How can we truly gain respect and dignity?

8. In what ways can we atone for our wrongs and redeem
ourselves, families, and communities?

9. What are some ways to fight for restitution and reparations,
for all those harmed by the governmentimposed under-cover
drug tax?

10. How can we overturn the “13th Amendment” to the U.S
Constitution and finally abolish legal slavery in the U.S.2'

Once you have answered those questions and begun to move,
to materialize your conclusions, you will have made the choice
between liberation or gangsterism: freedom or slavery.

£ The 13 amendment, which i eredited with “sbolishing.” slavery, sctually reads "Nei-
ther slavery mor involuntary sevitude, ccpt s puishment focineaher the oty ol hve
ban dupconsctd,shall exis ithin the United Stats...”In doing 50, the amendment di-
el forecasts and legally enables he riseof the prison-industrial complex, particularly
in the South, asa vy to continue the exploitation of Black abor.

o7
References And Books To Read

1. The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon
2. We Want Freedom, Mumia Abu Jamal

3. Assata, Assata Shakur

4. A Taste of Power, Blaine Brown

5. Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party, Kathleen
Cleaver, G. Katsiaficas, eds.

6. Black Brothers Inc.: The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Black
Mafia

7. Monster: The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member, Sanyika
Shakur (from gangster into liborator).

8. Dark Alliance, Gary Webb (documents how the CIA introduced
crack to the US)

9. Lost History, Robert Parry (an even more in-depth expose of the
CIA and cocaine)

10. Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family, Chaxles
Bowden (on the US and Mexican governments’ partnership with
the drug cartels)

11. The Inspector General's first and final reports on Iran
Contra and the Illegal Drug Trade, CIA Official website. (US
government's admissions about its dealing drugs).

12. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an era
of Economic Integration, Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, &
Noland J. Malone (on Mexico's economy, drug smuggling, and
the DEA's identification of its infrastructure-that has never been

acted upon.
‘ ‘Each generation must,

out of relative obscurity,
discover its mission-
and fulfill it or betray it.

- Frantz Fanon,
Wretched of the Earth

Internationalist Prison Books Collective | 405 W, Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27516