Episode

Homeboy Homeboy Homeboy Homeboy Brothers, there's only one blood Cause there ain't no sense in us Traveling on the stones It's us, down, down to the bone Blood is thick Waters were known well Cousins were kept apart Mothers were often Memories Fathers were not favorites on the farm For he could do some harm He could wreck them at the ski For he, brothers, could dream Your mama ain't no saint Your daddy died on a shallow stream But your uncle, Dr. King Didn't have a dream, my brother And what is your real excuse? Why can't you study your lessons And stay in school? Why can't you study your lessons And stay in school? School Free love That sex ain't nothing but a game Don't never last, try hope Take a chance on love Register to vote Money ain't everything But you can buy her a ring Little blackbird, sing Buy you a record of a yardbird with wings Get into the swing of things Oh boy Buy some tenderness for a change Oh boy Where your history is and it's not too late Your uncle Dr. King wrote a book called Why We Can't Wait Oh boy Birmingham was yesterday The mad dogs, the mad dogs came to call On your mother's mother and sister Your granddad had the blackened boots You know what I'm saying Cause it ain't but one blood It's called fight for freedom now Oh boy Love, love, love Oh boy Fight for freedom Oh boy Your mama ain't the same Your daddy died in yesterday's freedom jazz dance Your sister's on the streets Doing it with whomever she meets Everybody you know is weak Don't be strong Women are free Ain't nobody in school Homeboy By Soon-Chi Ali Welcome to the Comrade Report The Comrade Report The Comrade Report The Comrade Report The Comrade Report The Comrade Report The Comrade Report The Comrade Report The Comrade Report Yeah May the peace and blessings Of the life-giving creative spirit Be upon you and upon your family My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson Coming at you live From Skid Row Studios Now call in 1-800-893-9562 So call in If you want to talk to some of our guests Or just give us a little shout out And a shout out To the cast of the Robey Theatre production Of the Macadamian And if you want to talk to some of our guests Or just give us a little shout out And a shout out to the cast of the Robey Theatre production of the magnificent Dunbar, who has sellouts for a 29-straight performance run at the Los Angeles Theatre Center that ended yesterday, Sunday, December 28, 2014, play written by Libby Lee Simon and directed by Ben Guillory. Now, this week on the Coombran Report, we will talk about the impact of the Black Panther Party with Michael Blaze. He's an archival photographer, photographer for the Robie Theatre production of the magnificent Dunbar. Also, Ms. Mellor is in the studio with her monthly section of Warriors Radio, and Bobby Buck is back with us sitting here in the studio. Welcome to the Coombran Report. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Now, I'm going to talk about the impact of the Black Panther Party with Michael Blaze. He's an archival photographer for the Robie Theatre production of the Los Angeles Theatre. Also, Ms. Mellor is in the studio with her monthly section of Warriors Radio. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want to start off just mentioning a couple of things. We want to talk about the Black Panther Party, very important organization, especially not only the history of African American, but the history of this country as a whole. It's a party that was founded, it was originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. It was founded October 1966 by Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale. Before we get into talking about the 10-point plan of the Black Panthers, my guest, Michael Blaze, he's going to make a statement about the Black Panthers. Michael Blaze. Well, I had, first of all, let me thank you very much for having me on your show, and the other wonderful guests here. I really appreciate it here at Skid Row Studios. I have been invited to do a piece on a Black Panther Party, and I'm going to talk about the Black Panther Party, and I'm going to talk about the Black Panther Party, and I'm going to talk about the Black Panther Party, and I'm going to particular Black Panther, Brother, excuse me, Brother Deacon. Do you know Deacon Alexander? Yeah, Brother Deacon Alexander, who's from the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panthers originally. And I went to a meeting where all the OG Black Panthers from Los Angeles primarily were at. They meet once a month, right? So I had this preconceived idea that I would go there, and they would just be kicking it. Maybe talking about the old days or, you know, something like, you know, just relaxing and just meeting, hey, how you doing? But actually what I discovered is all these gentlemen were actually involved in many different projects around the whole city. You know, I mean, actively involved, you know, raising funds, trying to get people out of prison, trying to do different programs. You know, I mean, all kinds of things they were doing. And I was absolutely astonished because I had this preconceived notion they'd just be kicking it. So therefore, in the film I wanted to do with them, I figured, well, I'd get some clips and spruce it up a little bit because they'll probably be deadbeats, right? You know, but I realize now that my whole idea of doing a piece on the Black Panthers wouldn't be right. I'd have to do a piece on the Black Power Movement, right? They are components of several very important things. Some of them interchange like snakes. Some of them were panthers. Some of them were, you know, snakes. So I discovered that, you know, in order to really do them justice, I would also have to not bring them back to 1966. I'd have to deal with them in 2014, you know. So anyway, so my whole idea changed tremendously. And I was so very impressed by these gentlemen. And they truly are gentlemen. And so that's really what I wanted to say. So I have a whole different idea of what I'm going to do now. I'm looking forward to it. And I'm looking forward to getting a lot of that information you already have. I want you to be a part of it, okay? Okay. Okay is a yes, right? Yes. Fantastic. Nothing like a verbal agreement. Ready to hear first. Yeah. Let's start on Ms. Mello. What are your thoughts on the Black Panther? What do you know about the Black Panther Party coming up? Well, I know. Or any kind of influence on you? I know the Black Panther Party, a lot of negative stereotypes has been affiliated. With the Black Panther Party and positive as well. So for me personally, I think the Black Panther Party was necessary because of the environment they were going through. They needed to feel some sort of protection because they felt that police brutality even back then was pretty bad. And to form a community where they want to protect and better their environment. Yeah. Yeah. It was so necessary. So I commend, I really admire the party for even forming under that notion. But as we continue on further along in history, as they was a vital part in the community, they felt like they were so large because they were a threat to the government. Just simply because they wanted to feel protective and feed their children and get, something positive going in a community. I really feel that the, a lot of the fighting, a lot of the disagreements, the backstabbing, was it counter pro? COINTELPRO. COINTELPRO. We're going to talk about it a little bit. Definitely had a major influence in breaking or slowly disintegrating or weakening the party to where they could have been a stronger unit. Overall, I really do. I really do. I really do admire people who wanted to stand up for the environment. And if they weren't created for the Black Panther Party, then I'm sure it would have been a different group. And it would still been a threat. It was necessary for that point in time for the Black Panthers to form in order to better the community. So I really do like, like their history of why they started. But a lot of the internal mess, you know, could have done away with that. We're going to talk about that. Bob. What are your thoughts on the party? And well, me, like I'm a late bloomer on it myself. But when I came up here to L.A., I started finding out a lot of information on it. And and I see like like I almost wasted my life away being deprived of the information because I'm like, wow. I mean, and I started looking at myself. I'm like, I'm not doing nothing to help make a difference. And so, like, you know, it's a blessing for me to come to L.A. and for me to end up being on Skid Row to start seeing the real about things. So. That's why I decided to take my part and start working toward doing some things and want to do a positive movement called action and find black people who are really doing real positive actions and do a pull everybody together on the same page and start making some things happen. OK. Yeah. Now, before we get talk about this 10 point plan, which I think is very important, we're going to discuss this after. Let me just explain exactly what COINTELPRO is, because a lot of people, when they think about COINTELPRO, they actually think this is something. That just started in the 60s and they need to know the person that started it and when he started COINTELPRO go all the way back to J. Eggers Hoover's first major case. And his first major case was to neutralize Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. That's a young man. So what Hoover developed, he developed a concept called. Infinite. Infiltration and disinformation. And when he became the head of the FBI, he brought this concept over in terms of the counterintelligence program. And the counterintelligence program is just a short for COINTELPRO. And all it is, he would he would take infiltrators and he would infiltrate intelligent infiltrators because he wanted infiltrators who could move up into the upper echelon of the organization. And he would take this infiltrator and they would study the organization and find out who the major players was in attention. And they would play these tensions off into each other. One of the major examples of that was what happened with the Nation of Islam with Malcolm X and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad by having an FBI agent who had been in the Nation of Islam for 20 some years, you know, as an undercover. That called him. 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So that's what caused a lot of the conflicts. Even in the Black Panther Party, we'll talk about it later, it caused a conflict between Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver that broke them up into two sectors that eventually caused their demise. But the Ten Point Program, the Black Panther Party first publicized its original Ten Point Program on May the 15th, 1967, following the sacramental action in the second issue of the Black Panther newspaper, the original Ten Points of what we want now follows. It's number one, we want freedom. We want to determine the destiny of our black community. Number two, we want full employment for our people. Number three, we want an end to the robbery by the white men of our black community. Number four, we want decent housing fit for shelter of human beings. Number five, we want education for our people that expose the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches our true history and our role in the present day society. Number six, we want all black men to be exempt from military service. Number seven, we want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people. Number eight, we want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county, and city prisons and jail. Number nine, we want all black people when brought to trial to be tried, and we want all black people to be tried, and we want all black people to be tryed, group, or people from their black community as defined by the Constitution of the United States. And number 10, we want land, bread, housing, education, closing, justice, and peace. And when you think about that, that's amazing because it looks like we're still fighting for the same, a lot of the same issues. Anybody want to comment on this 10-point plan or what the Panthers were talking about initially? How effective was this 10-point program? Is it something that they forcibly tried to have initiated, or is it just an idea that they wanted to be respected? Well, we're going to talk about the later, a little bit later on, but I thought the Panthers laid, one of the most effective things that they laid was the free breakfast programs for our young people. It became, of course, the federal government took it over and expanded and made it their own, but it was the Panthers that started it. But I think they laid the foundation. The amazing thing to me is it shows you the like of, I don't want to say the lake of progress, but it seems like we're talking about the same thing then that we're talking about now. You know, these prisons, et cetera, like that. It goes way back. Well, I would say a lot of people, when they think they're arming themselves, I don't know how old people are that are listening to this channel, but for eons, the police from Oakland, San Francisco, as well as Los Angeles, were all ex-Marines from the deep South. I think they even had a thing. They had a thing where you had to be 6'2 and up. Yeah, big old white boys that straight were like serious, super racist. And whenever they stopped you, you were truly in danger. You were truly in danger anytime they stopped you. I'll never forget when I first came out here and people would say, well, let's go to the store. And they all look around and say, I can't ride three deep. I'm like, you know, I'm from New York. What do you mean three deep? Three people in a car. There are black people and they'll get stopped. I'm like, what? That's funny. What? And I'm thinking, you know, they exaggerated until I finally saw some of these so-called police. So saying all that to say, you know, the police have really been changed. The ones here now in Los Angeles come usually from this area. They're not imported from some deep South, you know, with certain racial attitudes and, you know, it's a whole different thing to say they were defending themselves against the police then as to the police now. That's all I want to point out. As well as lots of Panthers did not have shotguns, by the way. And that's amazing. Many Panthers were not armed. They were really just doing community work. And that's one of the major issues to keep in mind about the whole history of the United States. You know, United States come into existence through arms and superior weapons. And see the Panthers using their rights to bear arms. See, they showed on the scene to protect the community and they got shotguns, weapons out in the front. This is one of the main thing that I thought that drew the law enforcement to them. They saw the beginnings of a little military that could really, really cause some harm. And then they really, really exemplified it. When they went to the Capitol, to the State House and turned it out, the Panthers showed up right there, here and all of them with weapons and stuff and people jumping all under the seats and stuff like that. They were really afraid of them. But Bobby, what you want to say, anything about this standpoint? But no, I was gonna say, I mean, you said something about when they went into the courthouse. What information was that you telling me about when they went into the courthouse with the judge? Well, they went up to the, to the Capitol. Talking about George Jackson's brother. Oh, you're talking about, oh, yeah. That's what it sounds like. Right, right. That's what it was, yeah. Yeah. Well, that was another situation. George Jackson, who became the minister of defense for the Black Panther Party while he was locked up in Quinn, Soledad, et cetera, like the brilliant brother, one of the mentors of Angela Davis. Okay. You know, wrote two books, Soledad Brothers and Black Panther Brothers. Yeah. And I had blood in my eyes. He had a little younger brother named Jonathan Jackson. See, and the Soledad Brothers, they had them on trial for killing, for so-called killing of prison guards. A guard, yeah. Yeah. And so when they was taking him to court up in, it was the northern part, right where the prisons is at up there. They went to court. And Jonathan Jackson, who was 17 at the time. Mm-hmm. Right? They brought all of the Soledad Brothers there. He thought George Jackson was going to be there, but he wasn't there that day. And so when the court proceedings started, he stood up and pulled out a shotgun and said, okay, I'm taking over. Right? And then they took the judge, they took the bailiff, they took district attorney and all of them. They pulled out a shotgun up to the judges, tied it to his head, take him out to the van, took the Soledad Brothers out there. And before they would let him go, police opened up and just killed everybody. Only somebody that survived was Rutell McGee, one of the Soledad Brothers. And the shotgun tied to the judge's head somehow went off. Blew his head off. Yeah. Wow. Blew his head off. And since they traced the gun to Angela Davis, see, she became the number one on the FBI list, just the same way the sister that's in Cuba right now that's over there, that's number one on the most wanted list. But that's what happened with that incident. Okay. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. See everybody in the streets talking about they're gangsters and stuff right there, right now. But like I say, back then they were real gangsters doing stuff for the, you know, taking back, taking, you know, taking up for the community. Yeah. It all starts out with, with their upbringing as well. If you don't know Newton, he grew up, even though he's the youngest of seven, grew up struggling. And so growing up in Oakland at that time, it was very racist, you know, and even going to school, a lot of them were being passed the next grade. They couldn't even read. And they graduated. So it was really coming out from the upbringing of what the kids are facing today with our horrible educational system. And so we have people that like, like Huey who rose from the ashes and created something like the Panthers in order to better the community. But I think with a better education, he would have probably founded the same group. Yeah. But see the thing about Huey. And I make a clear distinction between Huey, Newton, Bobby Seale, George Jackson, et cetera, like that, because Huey come from an educated, as a matter of fact, they found that the Panthers on a college campus. Yes. You know, Bobby Seale. But the thing is, prior to the three strikes, they had another little trick for the prisoner sentence. They call it indeterminate sentences. See, now George Jackson, he went to prison on a little bit of a sentence. Yeah. He went to prison on a little minor thing. I think it was B and E or something like that. Something that you would probably get 15 or 16 months for. But he had an indeterminate sentence that extended to 14, 15, 16 years. That was the, that was free, free, free strike thing that they used, you know, then to incarcerate a lot of the youngsters, you know. Yeah. Now George Jackson definitely come up out of a poverty situation. Educated himself inside of the joint. Brilliant brother. I thought he was, you know, one of the, one of the best as, as in terms of political theory and all of that. Let me move on to the next thing. Next thing I'm just going to read. Well, wait a minute. Yes. What did you think about the 10 points? The 10 points. You brought it up. I thought the 10 points, the only, the, the only thing, the 10 point that, that, that I would probably reject is number six. When they say we want all black men to be exempt from military service. See, I think it's important in a society. You need to go into military. You need to know how to use arms. You need to know that. You need to bring that knowledge back to the community because that's one of the things that Geronimo Pratt, who was a veteran, Vietnam veteran. Come back. He was when bunch of Carter, we're going to talk about that a little later when he started the, uh, the Southern chapter in LA bunch of Carter was his bodyguard. See, and remember, uh, uh, I mean, Geronimo Pratt was his bodyguard. See, and remember Geronimo Pratt is the one that did 27 years in prison. They framed him for the incident tied into the UCLA incident until Johnny Cochran, uh, John. Got him out. So that's the only one I, I think it's important to, uh, same thing with the, uh, the police force, just like they infiltrate the community. We need to infiltrate us both ways. If you want to look at it from that, uh, point of view, my thoughts is that always feel that, that instead of fighting, uh, uh, the police, and I think this was, we didn't learn from the sixties. You have to learn how to control the police force and what controls the police force. Economics, money. Yeah. And as long as, as long as they control the economics and the money and stuff, they gonna control the police force. Police force is gonna, they gonna lean towards, uh, you know, people just providing the jobs that got the money, et cetera, like that in the capitalistic society that we live in. But a lot of the other stuff, I think we're dealing with it right now when they say, oh, we want to immediate end to police force. Yeah. We want to immediate end to police brutality and the murder of our, uh, black people. We're talking about that right now. Ferguson, you know, all over here, what happened up in Oakland, what happened in New York. Do you know, do you know what the meaning of lynching is? Uh, lynching? Yeah. Lynching. Mm-hmm. In terms of, uh, well. What does it mean? I mean, do you know or? Well, I, uh, well, I think it would be two derivatives that they would think about that were tied into, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, of that. But coming from Mississippi and the deep South. That's why I asked you. I think you would know. Yeah, and knowing that that's one of the methodologies that they use to terrorize blacks in the South by lynching a lot of men. Let me be a little clearer. Let me be a little clearer. Many people probably do to movies, television things. Let's lynch them. Grab a rope, find a tree, put a dude on a horse, put the rope around his neck, hit the horse and go on about your business. But lynching was actually a family affair where the whole community came out, they skin a brother, they tie him up, they'd hang him, they'd burn him, they'd cut off his penis. Exactly. And this was being done to hundreds of black people all the way back. I'm just saying, this seems to be the American way. Yeah. So when I see people who are surprised, I covered all this Trayvon Martin thing and I was astounded. So many people, I mean, I did around six, seven shows, right? So many people seemed to really feel that somebody was going to give a damn. I was amazed. They really felt that, hey, this is going to work. We're protesting. Man. I was like, are you kidding? You know, I mean, the officer, and the people that do things, even the dude that wasn't an officer, was he a night watchman or something? Something like that, right? Pardon my language. Something like that, right? You know, kill black people with impunity. So this whole thing of lynching, which is really the start, is where you bring your little son, here's how we deal with black people. But can you imagine that? To overkill to the point where you done skinned someone, cut off their limbs, burned them, and hung them, and left them like that. Yeah. You know, so there's nothing new that's going on now that hasn't been going on since the so-called end of slavery and the beginning of the industrial industry. Yeah. That's all I'm really getting at. Yeah. And then the related term to that was the term picnic. Because when they broke that, that was actually... I don't know that one. Yeah, all that meant was pick a nigger. That's tied into the outing that you talked about. That's the word that you talking about. Okay. See, and that's how they developed, that's how that term developed. And a lot of people don't know the whole history of that. But that was... He's from down south though, where it was prevalent. Yeah, because see, and then the whole history of what happened with the South versus North, the Civil War, the conflict, people thinking Lincoln did so much. And the fact... Would you have voted for Abraham Lincoln if you could have seen him? Dude looked totally insane. He looked insane to me. Maybe it's just me. Even when I look at him on the bill, I'm like, this dude look like he's out. You know, like he need his meds or something. I mean, if I could have seen him, I would have never voted for him. Yeah, yeah, because... Yeah. Because see, a lot of people miss... He looked insane. Yeah. Yeah. And then to get back and see... Sorry. I think it was just the beard. See, even... What you have to understand about that theory, right? See, one of the major purpose of the Civil War was to transfer wealth from the South to the North. Because up to that time, your wealth was in the South. You know, all this... They had most of the slaves, they had these plantations. They had 100 times more wealth than the people of North. See? And so that's one of the things that the Civil War achieved. It transferred all... That's like come right after Reconstruction, they flipped the script. Went back to the black codes and all that kind of stuff. But let me read about one of the... All I can say is thank God for the cotton gin. Yeah. That's all I can say. Let's talk about one of the most important things that I think the Panthers tapped into. See, they tapped into, they saw, they experienced all of our young people going to school hungry. And they knew that this affected... One of the friends of mine, he said, try starting a school for children. One of the friends of mine said try starting a school for children. One of the friends of mine said try starting a school for children. One of the friends of mine said try starting a school for children. One of the friends of mine said try starting a school for children. One of the friends of mine said try starting a school for children. One of the friends of mine said try starting a school for children. One of the friends of mine said try starting a school for children. became so popular by the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school. Now, see, some of the things that we've got to keep in mind as we begin to work, there's a big need for after-school programs in our community. We seem like we've forgotten about that because we don't have enough after-school programs in the inner-city community, in the underserved community. It's not in the budget. Did you have one when you grew up? An after-school program. Well, see, coming up down south, we were so tied into the church. The church was the after-school program. And here's what happened. See, down south, before... Okay, Brown v. Board of Education came in 1954. They broke down desegregation, right? Up until that time, you had forced black communities, which was strong and independent. We had our own movie theaters. We had our own theater company. We had our own sports team. We provided jobs. Very few people was out of work. But, see, when integration came in 1954, and, of course, remember, it took about 10 years. That's when Dr. King and all that was fighting to make them uphold, that Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. But up until that time, when they finally achieved integration, it turned out to be the worst thing that ever happened to us because it took not only to take all of our sports teams, it took all of our culture. At our time, we couldn't even go to the University of Mississippi. You couldn't go to Alabama. George Wallace stood in the door. Ross Barnett. James Merritt, the whole thing. Now you look at what's happened. Number one football team, Alabama, right? Mississippi and all like that. So they took all of the best athletes. They took the best brain power, sent them to the Ivy League schools and all that kind of stuff. So 114 black schools that we got out here suffering now. See, that's our foundation that we got to rebuild in that. But integration, we have to look at that closer. Because it tore up. This is what Dr. Claude Anson talked about right now, that we need to build up our communities and control our community, provide jobs for our community. You look at Skid Row. Skid Row, about 80% of the people laying in the tents and stuff, African-Americans sitting down there. See, marching, all that kind of stuff, that stuff, hey, they were doing that. We need better tactics. We got to concentrate. We need to concentrate on economics. This is what I'm pointing out. Yeah, we got to provide jobs. And it's kind of hard to compete against Walmart. Yeah, well, we got to take over Walmart. We got to build better Walmarts. Because Walmart's workforce, a huge part of the workforce of Walmart is minorities. I understand that. Blacks and Hispanics and stuff like that. Matter of fact, the director of Walmart is an African-American gentleman. I understand all of that, but they're killing the small business, man, which is really what you're talking about. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's why you got to stand together no matter how small the community is. I'm sorry, not small business, man. The micro industry. Yeah. Micro is five people or less that work, you know. Yep, that's coming this way. Yeah. Let me, because I want to say just a little time for Ms. Mellon, but we're talking about such an interesting subject that's tied into it because you're getting ready to talk about sports, but you need to understand the foundations of what they did to our sports team and to me, taking the NBA and the NFL and all that kind of stuff and have 90% players and then as you move up to change, you see anything but an African-American, you know, all the way up to the ownership where you might have one minority owner but the product is still these African-Americans playing football and basketball and all like that. That's the issue to me when you come to sports. But let me just mention another one. One of the important Black Panthers because he was very important. And this was Fred Hampton. Fred Hampton, he was born August the 30th, 1948, December the 4th, 1969 when they assassinated him. He was an African-American activist, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and deputy chairman of the National Black Panther Party. He was murdered while sleeping at his apartment during a raid by a tactical unit of the Cooks. Cook County, Illinois State Attorney Office in conjunction with the Chicago police and the FBI. And the most important things to understand... Did you say he was assassinated? He was assassinated. Oh, yes. In his sleep. In his sleep when they... It's the fact, when you look at the people that they were taking out then... Charismatic people. Bunch of Carter, right? Fred Hampton. It's these brothers was organizing gangs. See, Bunch of Carter was head of... Well, the Slausons here in LA. See, and he turned... Basically, the Slausons became the southern chapter of the Black Panthers down here. So, and Fred Hampton did the same thing in Chicago. He was organizing these young gangs. He was spreading the feeding programs throughout and all that kind of stuff. That's why they target these brothers. And these were grassroots brothers. Bunch of Carter had come up throughout prison. And all that kind of stuff. So, he understood the prison industrial complex. See, and he fell under the influence of Huey P. Newton and George Jackson. So, when he came here, he set it up. Wow. They tried all kind of tactics. They created us, right? Which was an organization called U.S. Slaves. Headed by Ron Coingo, who is now Dr. Milena, who created Kwanzaa. Right? That became the major enemy of... The Black Panthers. The Black Panthers for the southern district down here. You know, a little earlier, you mentioned Willie Lynch. And that is the doctrine of Willie Lynch. They had the old ones against the young ones. The light ones against the dark ones. And the only person they can trust is the master. The head white guy. In many cases, that's the blonde-haired Jesus Christ. So, it's very interesting. But that's just what Willie Lynch said. We pit them against each other. Right, right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. That's the game. That's it. That's the game. Mm-hmm. And see, when we seek solutions, I think we're in a time period now where we can no longer fall for the racial game. We got to understand, you know, African-Americans are unique in this country because we... Everybody else is immigrants. Can't get away from that. The only non-immigrant over here. The only non-immigrant over here that you find is the descendants of the slaves of America, the African-American that's sitting over here right now. See, but it's important for us to work with like-minded people. You know, whether they are Hispanic or whites or all like that, they need to be educated about that because they will play us off against each other. If we're going to defeat the power structure, then we... It's going to have to come through economics. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's going to have to come through taking over the economic system, you know, controlling your own communities, creating your own jobs, your own movies, your own theater, your national theater company. Your own media. Like, for instance, this media has killed the term third world. Mm-hmm. Remember that used to unify people, right? Third world, right? Yeah. You don't even hear that term any longer, but that's what it meant. All the non-whites were unified. Yeah. Right? So third world is no longer happening. And it's no longer happening because the media creates words. Mm-hmm. And these words control or manipulate people. But let me just say, the first person that I met when I went to the Black Panther meeting and the first person I'm going to work with is a storyteller by the name of Michael D. McCarthy. Michael D. McCarthy. Mm-hmm. And so what he's going to talk about is that whole thing. Excuse me, with Fred Hampton, that's where he was. That's where he was a Black Panther. So I'm really excited about that. Mm-hmm. And that's what I wanted to say. Okay. Let me play a clip from a brother that was in prison for 41 years. He was a Black Panther in one of the most notorious prisons in the United States, Angola, down in Louisiana. See? And Herman Wallace. I wonder why everybody think I'm a poet. I'm not a poet. And understand something. I had this gift, and it wasn't meant to be a poem. It was meant to be a statement. I was in a dungeon at the time when I wrote it. And I just decided to write something about myself and the things, the changes that I was going through and how I got where I am. Somebody had to say it was a poem. I said, you've got to be kidding me. It's a statement. Then when I got locked up through it and all of this, it just took off. It removed my whisper from general population to maximum security. I gained a voice. It removed my voice from maximum security to administrative segregation. My voice gave hope. It removed my voice from administrative segregation to solitary confinement. It removed my voice. My voice became vibration for unity. They removed my voice from solitary confinement to the supermax of Camp J. And now they wish to destroy me. The louder my voice, the deeper they bury me. I say it. The louder my voice. The deeper they bury me. Free all political prisoners, prisoners of war, prisoners of consciousness. Herman Wallace, Angel of Dreams. The title of this poem is A Defying Voice. If death is a realm of freedom, then through death I escape to freedom, which is a quote by Fran Fanana. The Angola Three are three prison inmates, Robert, Hillard, King, Albert Woodfork, and Herman Wallace, who was put in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Prison, Angola Prison, after the 1972 killing of a prison guard. Robert King spent 29 years in solitary confinement before his conviction was overturned and he was released. Wallace, before being released October 1, 2013, and Woodfork spent 40 years of solitary confinement as of 2013. The prisoners have been the subjects of two documentary films. On November 20, 2014, Albert Woodfork, the longest standing solitary confinement prison in the U.S., had his conviction overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals. He has not yet been released. The three men were sent to Angola in 1971 after a conviction for armed robbery. Woodfork escaped from Louisiana Courthouse during his sentences for armed robbery and joined the Black Panther Party. As a member of the prison chapter of the Black Panther Party, Wallace and Woodfork became activists seeking to improve conditions at Angola. They have organized petition and hunger strike to protest segregation within the prison and to end systematic rape and violence. That was these Panthers that did a lot of time. Thank you. One more story. One more story. Something else I have to touch upon. I spent a lot of time dealing with the magnificent Dunbar Hotel play. And I just want to point out, you know, I was doing it like three months ago. It started actually and started over there at Dunbar Hotel. And, you know, following the whole progression of the play, I have to say, it was one of the most special experiences that I had. And the role you had in it, brother, was like meaningful. It was powerful. It was funny because you weren't trying to be funny. He was a funny guy in a sense, but you weren't trying to be funny. You were like, I guess, the house nigger, you know. And Joe Apple. Yeah, but it was really a magnificent piece. I thought each and every one of the 20 cast members was outstanding. Many of them played two and three different roles. So it was, you know, to Mr. Ben Guillory, you know, and Mr. Danny Glover, I have to say that the Robey Theater, the company is something so special for people that, as those cast members, obviously did love the craft of acting. It was great. So I commend you, brother. 29 sold out. I don't think that happens every day, brother. So, you know, we're talking about the Panthers. So much sold out. I didn't see it. Yeah, we couldn't get Miss Mel. I couldn't get tickets. It's okay. I think we're going to. Let's move on to Miss Mel as far. I'm going to have to bring her back probably again. So we can finish this talk. But let's move on to Miss Mel. Mist sebel sebel sebel sebel Mist sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel sebel Mist Mist What's right, don't think What is love, love, oh babe Miss Mello, Warriors Radio. Hey now, this is Mello Desire and it's my second week at Warriors Radio, the place where complacency dies. So we're handling a tough topic of football. Football and our youths. Why is it there is inclined to give us a ball, doesn't matter what shape it is, what football. Out of all the sports we deem as the most violent. Is it really the most violent? We want to discuss and find out. So in the last two months, there was a case where three teenagers died in that same week, different parts of the country, all of brain aneurysms because of the vitality of them playing football. Controversial. So essentially, a lot of the coaches in that area where the teens died, decided to say, okay, well, is it the way that we're teaching it or is it football, a violent sport in general? So what we found out with these three teens is that they were healthy teens prior to playing basketball, basketball. That's another sport that we tend to domineer. But football has been getting a lot of slack in the news lately. With domestic violent cases and a lot of arrest with a lot of these athletes who we deem as someone that we look up to. So we ask ourselves, places in Watson, Compton and Boyle Heights, East L.A., why do we have programs geared more towards sports? And why is football the number one choice? So I have three brothers here with me. Mm-hmm. Powerful brothers in the community. Some of them enjoy sports, I assume. Football, in your opinion, is it something that we need to continue to push towards our kids? Or are there other better alternatives that we need to replace sports as a recreation for our youths? And I'll start the floor with Bobby Buck. Well, you know me, I'm just entrepreneurship. Teaching how to make money. That's my main thing. But sports can be a hobby a little bit. But just intellectual information to help make money. Now, do you feel that football in general, since that's the specific topic, is it a positive sport? Or is it a sport that we can do without? Do without. I don't know about that part. But maybe you can get into it, figure out a better, safer way for people to participate with football. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. Melvin. Well, my whole thoughts on it is not only you can't do without it, but the fact that it's an intricate part of the capitalistic system in which we live in. And I feel that sports in this country, the issue is not injury, like what you're talking about. Because when you look at the percentage of people that's off into these sports and the percentage that go through these, concussions and all like that, probably a small percentage. I think the major issue is the control of the economics that comes from these sports. Like when you look at college sports, when you can have an athlete, he could be a superstar. And he can go to college and they give him a scholarship, you know, a few dollars in his pockets or whatever. Right. And then you can have a coach that can make $40 million. And they get ready. The coach at a school. San Francisco 49ers, right? Mm-hmm. He's a great coach. Yeah, I remember when he was back at Michigan playing quarterback, right? They're getting ready. They're offering him $54 million for a six-year contract, right, to come back and take over coaching Michigan, right? Right. See, to me, it's the control of these sporting enterprises and stuff. Not just the NFL or college and all. I really think athletes should be paid. College athletes, they should be paid. But to me, when you're talking about injury and when you're looking at the percentage, probably less than 1% or 2%. That's not a lot. But, you know, if it's your child, that's a lot. If your child gets injured, that's a lot. But when you look at the overall picture, I think when it comes to sports, that issue is way down on the line. It's the fact that you have. All of these minority athletes, right, who get basically nothing. How many go to the NFL? How many go to the NBA? Very small percentage. What happens to those that don't get their college degree? I think we have to begin to focus in on that to make them be. If a coach can get 40-some million dollars, see, and that's not the product. The product is the one that's on the field playing these games. Average is $22 million. $22 million is the highest gross a football professional NFL player gets. And even with astounding numbers like that, that sends out a bad message, especially to our inner cities where they're looking towards sports and musicians as a way out, or even fast life, even gangster life as a way out. And this is why football, for me, I personally wouldn't let my son to play football. Only because of what I've watched. I've witnessed the outcome towards the benefits of football, what it really does, and the negativity of what it really portrays. Well, let me ask you this. If you got a son that weighed 320 pounds and he's in 11th grade, my son is going to play football. My son is going to play football and get him a scholarship. But I understand what you're talking about. Yeah, just the other day I was walking near Manchester. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I just seen these kids. They just came from football practice, about four big strapping young African-American boys. And two of them were actually pushing the girls they were with. And one of them really pushed the girl so hard she fell. And they were all laughing. And I looked at that as a starting point of how the aggressiveness of just coming into tackling from practice transfers over into the football. And try to try to try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try The nature of how football is created, where you domineer and steal the ball and run and knock down your opponent, that type of mentality transfers over. And that's why I feel football particularly can be replaced moreover in certain after school programs versus basketball, which I would encourage more often. Okay. Mr. Blaze, do you have an opinion on football and the severity of it in our inner cities? And we're kind of winding down. It is a multi-million dollar business. So you not wanting your child to play really doesn't matter. Right. The world still goes on. No. I mean, there's money involved. But every Sunday and Monday, you have people to go all over the place, sit down and get drunk and watch it. And what do you think they're going to tell their children? Their sons. So they believe in this, you know. But me, it's like watching a bunch of dudes running around on leotards hitting each other on the ass. I don't necessarily. I really don't. That's what I don't do. On that note. And let me say this. And we're going to bring you back. The next session, we're going to do a whole hour on your show when we come back in. Okay. But let me wind it down. Let me just thank my guests, Michael Blaze, Ms. Mellor, Bobby Buck. Thank you for tuning in to the Coomera and Reports from your host. Melvin Ishmael Johnson. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creator spirit be upon you and upon your family. I'll leave you with the song that opened the show, Homeboy by Soon-Chi Ali. Black Power. Yeah. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Brothers, there's only one blood. Cause there ain't no sense in us traveling on the stones. It's us. Down, down to the bone. Blood is thick. Waters were known well. Cousins were kept apart. Mothers were often memories. Fathers were not favorites on the farm. For he could do some harm. He could wreck them after skiing. For he, brothers, could dream. Your mama ain't no saint. Your daddy died on a shallow stream. But your uncle, Dr. King, did have a dream. Brother, and what is your real excuse? Why can't you study your lessons and stay in school? Why can't you study your lessons and stay in school? School. Free love and sex.