“We’re not afraid of Donald Trump!” boomed Omowale Clay, community organizer with the December 12th Movement. “Donald Trump is afraid of Black Power! Now is the time more than ever for Black Solidarity action. Trump’s election must be a wake-up call for Black folks nationally.”
As the post “shocking” presidential election result weeping, wailing and throwing up of hands subsides among the mainstream, along with the outraged protestors taking city centers nationwide are the this-changes-nothing shrugs of the independent-thinking grassroots. Thoughts now are fully entrenched in the “what’s next” portion of the global program. Protest if you want to, but organize and be prepared are also running parallel.
“To contemplate Donald Trump as president of the United States is to come to grips with the fact that racist, sexist, xenophobic, Hitler-esque ideologies will now—in an unfiltered way—guide how this country is governed,” said activist April R. Silver of AKILA WORKSONGS. “No one individual, organization, movement or corporation can defeat this order but through organized, long-visioned, collaborative work, we can resist and overcome Trumpism. I believe the two most important things to do is first, study history critically, and also believe that we can resist and overcome this madness. We won’t win this war if we don’t believe we can.”
While all eyes are on Trump’s convoluted search to find a workable, confirmable transition team and cabinet, the name Rudolph Giuliani keeps popping up. Giuliani is reportedly being considered for Secretary of State or U.S. Attorney General. Tuesday, former presidential also-ran, famed neurologist Dr. Ben Carson, took himself out of the running for any position, confessing somewhat curiously that he did not have the credentials to be considered, as he had no experience holding any elected position.
“Frick and Frack,” is how December 12th Movement Chairwoman Viola Plummer described now defeated candidate Hillary Clinton and President-Elect Trump at the community speak out held at the New Canaan Baptist Church, in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn Tuesday night. Plummer quoted W.E.B Dubois’ declaration: “Two parties, one evil. Either Frick or Frack, but one of them was going to be president.”
Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to Afrikan People Co-Chair Dr. James McIntosh used a slide show to demonstrate how manipulation and smoke and mirrors guaranteed a win for Trump. The retired psychiatrist with 35 years of experience, detailed Trump’s father’s documented Ku Klux Klan history and Trump’s inter-connections with international business and the gambling, boxing and construction industries. McIntosh went in on Trump’s and Bill Clinton’s connection to jailed pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
McIntosh reminded the audience that Trump himself had been accused of raping a 13-year-old girl, and that a trial date had been set. He added that Trump was well versed with white supremacists and McCarthyism. “He fits the Hitler-type,” McIntosh said, also noting Trump’s reported mob associations, international connects and how the media played down his wife Melania’s father membership in the Slovenia Communist Party. All this cover-up, McIntosh determined, was to maneuver this particular couple into the White House.
McIntosh concluded that with the questionable Electoral College procedure and a well-entrenched white supremacist agenda in play, Trump’s win was assured.
The audience at the Brooklyn church was hanging on every last word and frame. With something like glee slamming the alternative Clinton presidential choice, McIntosh had his “Hit-lary” and “Bit-lary” refrain running throughout his presentation. McIntosh also spoke of Trump bestie Giuliani’s alleged mob connections, and the unfavorable history with the Black community he had when he was mayor.
“You gonna get more of the same … more of what we have been getting in this country,” said McIntosh.
White militia groups and disaffected white folks voted in droves for a man in whom they could invest their hopes and white supremacist ideas and philosophy. It was misinformed Black folks who fell for Trump. “Black people, what do you have to lose?” Trump asked. “You have the worst housing, in the worst neighborhoods, the worst education, worst crime. What have the Democrats done for you.”
McIntosh—who had told much of the same audience, a week ago on Black Solidarity Day, in the same venue, hours before the result came out that Trump would win—added that an
already “dumbed down,” unenthusiastic Black community refused to go out and support the party which for years had just expected and received a loyalty that they did not have to court or reward.
Finding “the truth within a lie,” saddled with his angry white folk ground swell, plus the “mass media, master manipulators” “this fool can win—we have the conditions for a perfect storm.”
Dec. 19, the Electoral College will be confirming or denying their vote over the popular vote.
“If Trump survives the December hearing you can look for him to institute martial law,” said McIntosh.
The solution to the doom and gloom for the Black community, McIntosh said, is organizing, refocusing and intensifying the vision of a protected and forward thinking community, armed with a self-determination and self-defense mindset. He praised the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s working models of “self-knowledge … self-commerce and self-rule,” all while destroying the mentacide that has left Black people at an economic, cultural and social disadvantage throughout this nation.
With his Black Liberation flag and colors adorning the church, his sentiment of “if all else fails to organize the people, conditions will” was repeated and absorbed.
Since President Barack Obama still has two months in office, McIntosh urge people to push for the release of the nation’s Black political prisoners such as Mutulu Shakur and Russell Shoatz. McIntosh told the audience that incarcerated Black community activists Mumia abu Jamal and Jamil Al Amin are both being killed slowly, poisoned and being denied appropriate medical attention. The people can demand justice in all their cases.
He told the audience that the suffering is immediate, and the current president can and must make a change. He noted that 25 percent of Black people are enduring food insecurity, right here, right now.
“In his victory statement, President-Elect Trump promised to ‘bind the wounds of division,’ and recognize his responsibility to represent all Americans as president,” said Justice League NYC and NAACP Youth and College Division in a statement. “However, his appointment of Stephen Bannon as chief strategist in his administration sends a clear message that he does not intend to leave the white nationalist rhetoric of his campaign behind. Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News, and known for popularizing extremist and racist ideology. His appointment as Trump’s closest adviser is a chilling sign that the civil rights of Black people, and many other marginalized groups, are under dire threat. If the president-elect has any intention of uniting our divided nation, he will not only rescind this terrifying appointment, but publicly disavow all hate groups that have committed terrorist acts in response to his election. The president-elect will not be able to bring our nation together without reflecting the nation in his cabinet. We call on him to appoint leaders with a demonstrated track record of defending the civil rights, and charge his new Justice Department with investigating the hate crimes committed against people of color at schools, college campuses, churches and in the public square.”
Washington D.C. writer and educator Timothy D. Jones concluded, “Now is a moment in time that has drawn the past a lot closer to our present. This provides the best opportunity to develop an informed, holistic plan of action for the best future for our children and our children’s children. The election results have awoken some that were sleep, revitalized many that were weary and justified those who never stopped speaking truth to power.”