All posts by Dr. James Thomas Jones III

African-American History

Black Panther Party Leader Bobby Rush Remembers the Murder of Fred Hampton

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The first evening we held a Political Education class and after that the Central Committee was supposed to meet at Fred’s. After the Central Staff meeting, which ended early, there wasn’t enough room for everybody to stay there, and a member dropped me off. It must have been about two-thirty.

Between four and five that morning I got a call from a member who had gotten a call from a woman who lived down the street. They said there was a shoot-out at Fred’s house and the cops had cordoned off the streets. So I had somebody come by and pick me up, and went over to the woman’s house.

Her apartment was in the basement. We stayed there, listening to the radio. I guess it must have been about six, six-thirty. And they – they had said, you know, that there was a shoot-out – but they said Fred Hampton had been killed. He had been taken to the Cook County Hospital. I don’t know what other persons they had announced. I don’t know if they announced anybody, but they said Fred Hampton was killed. That’s how we found out about it. On the radio.

It was very…I mean it was something where you…I mean I broke down and cried.

I guess the next thing I remember was that I hoped Fred took someone with him. They didn’t say, but I knew that Fred was…that taking someone with him was what Fred was gonna be about.

I guess maybe we stayed down there till eight, eight-thirty, nine o’ clock. I’m not sure what all was going on. It’s almost a real blank in terms of what was happening. People calling in, us calling folks, things like that. I remember Eldridge. He called fro Algiers. Tried to tell us how to deal with the situation. Something to do with retaliation and that kind of thing. What was he doing calling from Algiers, some villa in Algiers, telling us how to deal with something here in Chicago?

Not so say retaliation wasn’t on our mind. We were gonna retaliate. I had given some specific directions about what should have happened and where it should happen. But certain things didn’t get carried out. In retrospect it was good that revenge didn’t happen militarily, but politically. The political development and consciousness of the people of Chicago would never have occurred, the whole thing would have been blurred and obliterated, had we gone out and killed some policemen.

We went over to the house and saw the bullet holes. Then we dealt with the attorneys, dealt with the media, dealt with trying to find out whether or not somebody else had been killed, trying to find out what had really happened. It was then that we found out another member, Mark Clark, the defense captain of the Peoria branch, had also been killed.

I remember going to the morgue…you know, identifying Fred’s body.

They didn’t cordon off the apartment. So we had people walk through the apartment. Twenty-five thousand people came through that apartment to see what was going on. That was the biggest thing in terms of making sure that our version of the story was at least heard and also accepted.

The next thing was this guy who used to be a producer of the NBC midday news. He invited me and another Party member and Hanrahan, the state’s attorney, to be on his show. Hanrahan refused. We went on the station and told him that Fred had been murdered. That’s how the word really began to get out that Fred had been murdered. One reporter, named Phil Walters, took the side of the Panthers. He called it murder. He almost got fired. But then a couple of days after, the Tribune came out with this big article questioning who did it, who shot, how many bullets were fired, and was it a really shoot-out, or was it murder, just cold-blooded murder?

(Interview with Bobby Rush)

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Why Black America’s Tradition of Supporting “Bad Niggers” like Queen & Slim Confuses White America

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If it can be said that America loves its gangsters. It can also be said that Black America, a community that has often taken its cues regarding values and the keys to success from Whites, has similar proclivities. Truthfully speaking, the adoration that Black America heaps on their “lawless,” a population that writer Gilbert Moore characterized as “bad niggers,” hinges on the rebellion being someway aimed against White supremacy. Many are shocked to find that the omnipresence of White Supremacy has failed to create an annual crop of “bad niggers” who seemingly revel at the opportunity to fight against occurrences of racial bigotry and institutionalized racism that impact all of Black America in one way or another. 

Maybe it can be attributed to the fact that there is no dearth of daily reminders, let alone a full history of racial oppression in this nation that causes African-Americans to include themselves in some intangible way to the antics of “bad niggers” rebelling against the existing system of racial oppression. It matters little to those offering what amounts to inconsequential support that from the moment they appear that their arc will be similar to shooting-stars in their spectacular impromptu appearance and short lifespan.

The recently released film Queen and Slim beautifully reflect this portion of Black life.  

One may wonder why Black America silently champions the “bad niggers” in their midst. The truth of the matter is that they realized long ago that it is the comprehensive tie of Race that holds the potential to put them all in the same boat. Blacks understand that neither educational attainments nor socioeconomic status mutes the dangers of being Black in White America. There is not a socially conscious Black person alive who does not have the absolute worst nightmare of being stopped by a bigoted “law enforcement officer” eager to express his own leanings lethally. 

Blacks know that even a mundane traffic stop like the one that starts a cascade of unexpected twists-and-turns in the film Queen and Slim is capable of ending Black life. The reality that Black life could terminate without any notice encourages their sporadic and tenuous moments of Black solidarity on behalf of “bad Niggers” like Assata Shakur, Eldridge Cleaver, Karl Hampton, and the fictional characters Queen and Slim. From the lens of Black America, the appearance of such figures conveys some hope that the battle over racial matters is not over. 

Albeit frustrating for White, racial matters are permanently affixed at the forefront of the minds of most Blacks. Many would argue that it is the single-most-important variable in their lives, and therefore it will never fully recede to the recesses of their minds. 

The criticisms of American Whites regarding Blacks continuing agitation for politico-economic improvement serves to encourage Black America’s rallying around “bad niggers” such as Queen and Slim seeking to capture tangible and intangible resources that Whites have always considered their sole possession. 

Let’s be honest about America’s Race problem. It began with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants who long ago shared their birthright with late-arriving European immigrants. It stands to reason that if the socially constructed system began and has been maintained for centuries by “Whites,” its existence and therefore demise lies in the lap of White America. Unbeknownst to Whites, African-Americans exist in a constant state of suspicion. Their skepticism of Whites revolves around the reasonable expectation that there will be a debut of chicanery designed to continue Whites’ monopoly over politico-economic resources.

When framed by the above matters, I hope that Whites are not bothered by the natural inclinations of Blacks to offer varying levels of support to “bad Niggrs” such as Queen and Slim as they seek to escape the hang man’s noose that Black Americans believe will one day be placed around their neck. After all, “bad Niggers” like Slim and Queen that White America denigrate “lawless gangsters” are inspirations to a maligned Black populace that has experienced far too many losses and been dominated far too long.

I guess it is true that one man’s terrorist is another man’s revolutionary. 

Dr. James Thomas Jones III 

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.

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Unlocking the Genius of Black Males: Why Black America Must Act in a Decisive Way

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Although I have not conducted a “scientific study” that elitist academicians would consider worthy of being published in some high-brow Academic Journal that approximately six people, and that is being generous, will ever read. I know through face-to-face interaction that many, not all, of the African-American males sitting in my classes, have purposely muted their intellectual gifts due to a desire to fit in with their peers. Unfortunately for my students, acceptance into that world hinges on a most-unfortunate construct of “blackness.”

The most obvious sign of this on-going process is that the public face of my students conflicts with the one that they show within what can be termed the safe confines of my office.

To my chagrin, it is common to hear critics place the voluminous centuries-long problems affecting Black America at the feet of Black men. The most familiar form that the alluded to criticism arrives is the charge that contemporary Black males do not understand what it means to be a Black man in America. This tired refrain is a clumsy assertion that avoids impactful matters such as discrimination, racial bigotry, and institutional racism. According to critics, it is the shortcomings of Black males, not structural problems that are the root cause of Black male misery.

From my post as an African-American Studies Professor, I have mentored hundreds, if not thousands, of African-American males. This frontline experience has taught me that the vast majority of my students carry an unnecessary burden that erodes essential portions of their being that will be needed to confront a hostile unsympathetic White world. Richard Majors characterized the referenced burden as “the cool”.

According to Majors, the most pernicious portions of “the cool” are found in its ability to cause Black males to secretly lock away their intellectual curiosity in a dark place where no one, including themselves, will ever find it. Despite what critics may choose to believe, anyone who has raised or interacted with Black boys can attest to the fact that they enter this world overflowing with curiosity. Evidence suggests that in time, these natural inclinations are muted by external factors. By the time Black males reach my classroom, they have done everything in their power to avoid being labeled a “nerd”; a descriptor that is diametrically opposed to Majors’ “cool”.

Now I do understand that much of what is shared with me flows from the fact that many Black males consider my office a “safe space” where they can expound on hidden interests and goals. The repetition of this situation convinces me that many of my Black male students’ are afraid to display their intellectual curiosities in public spaces. They are apparently paralyzed by a fear that a coalition of friends, strangers, and family members would persecute them for harboring such interests.

I view these young men as kinsmen as I also harbored intellectual curiosities that I am certain caused my “outsiders” status among my peers. Fortunately, I was oblivious to such matters as I was too busy pursuing my intellectual interests.

Somewhere along this path called life, I learned that it was crucial that I developed “knowledge of self”; meaning, an examination of what has occurred to me. Experience has taught me that the process of knowing thyself is an arduous one that forced me to closely examine success, failures, likes, dislikes, trials, and tribulations. This particularly difficult process led me to view my environs and those that populated them in a less than favorable light.

The pain associated with my examination of life pivoted along a dangerous rail that led me to an examination of from whence my feelings of inadequacy emanated. I know that I am not alone in such matters. If you are a Black man born and raised in a nation that enslaved your ancestors and maligned you merely due to your physical appearance, rest assured that something and I mean something significant, happened to you. Your failure to examine and address what occurred is akin to a death sentence.

I’ve learned that a breakthrough that allows you to escape from the hangman’s noose can occur at any moment. For many Black men, the stay of execution never arrives.

My stay of execution arrived while reading the writings of noted intellectual James Baldwin. It was Baldwin’s generosity to allow me to view his rocky relationship with his father that illuminated crucial portions of my relationship with my father, grandfather, uncles, cousins, and associates. In the referenced commentary, Baldwin penned the following.

I am not so much my father’s son as he was his father’s son.

I have yet to find a more poignant line that illuminates the unspoken uneasiness and angst that I developed regarding Black men.  

In time, I understood that many of my issues with the Black men surrounding me were due to the fact that we viewed the same world through vastly different lenses. I am a portion of the first non-Southern generation in my family. Therefore, my interests were formed by an urban setting, while my father and grandfather (the foremost influences on my understanding of manhood) hailed from an undeveloped, rural Stone Mountain, Georgia. I am certain that their love for fishing and hunting was partially born from necessity; I never developed the love. My compulsions flowed from likes, not needs forced on be due to survival purposes. I learned that for the sake of camaraderie the need to suppress my interests and engage in fishing.

I, like many of my students, learned that my likes and dislikes were a double-edged sword that simultaneously provided enjoyment and a distancing from those that I desperately desired approval from.

This situation was exacerbated by the fact that my peers’ favorite pastime of socializing was a true allergen for me. While others busied themselves socializing, I spent my time with a “who’s who” of Black intellectual thought.

Richard Wright became a friend.

Huey P. Newton a comrade. 

W.E.B. Du Bois an advisor.

Alice Walker taught me what a man ought to be and ought to do via Grange Copeland.

I relished the fact that books provided endless opportunities to avoid social settings. Yet, my experience was markedly different from my students.

Unlike many of the male students that I advise, I never felt “peer pressures” as I was too busy pursuing my intellectual interests to be bothered with such triviality. The ability to pursue my interests without restraint is one of the most reverberating gifts I received from my beloved mother. She created a safe space for me to pursue my intellectual endeavors at every moment. There is little room to argue against the notion that I was what others termed a “nerd” and even less room to question if such a characterization affect me at all.

I am not an overly optimistic person; however, I do recognize that many of the young black men I speak to regarding this matter are suppressing genius inside of them. In many ways, the suppression of genius that would undoubtedly benefit themselves, their family, their community, their Race, their nation, and the world is an unbelievably selfish act. I have found that so many of these young men need permission to unveil their true identity.

Black America could help the activation of this latent genius by seizing and reversing a daunting narrative that has denigrated Black people for centuries. The lies regarding Black inferiority and inefficiency have been repeated so often that even Blacks have joined others in denouncing their own. This psychosis reminds one of the infamous “Black and White baby doll test” performed by Kenneth and Mamie Clark that proved pivotal in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) case.

The maligning of African-American males intellectual capacities and lack of intellectual curiosity has created a public discourse that suffocates their intellectual interests. Black America must busy itself altering this narrative. Such is the only purposeful path capable of positioning African-American males on a path to success.

It is time that an environment that encourages Black males to venture beyond typical expectations such as sports and music emerges with the force of a Hurricane. Although difficult for many to comprehend, the seizing of a tired narrative that disenfranchises Black males is the most reliable path for them to both discover their purpose while securing success against formidable odds. At least that is what two decades of teaching has taught me.

And, I am willing to bet that I am not wrong.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

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Why Stephen A. Smith and Others Like Him Should be Silenced “By Any Means Necessary”

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I am sure that no one is surprised that ESPN talking head Stephen A. Smith has once again become ensnared in a seemingly made for TV controversy. This time around it deals with the on-going saga of colluded against Quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Let’s be honest about Stephen A. Smith, he is basically paid to “talk shit” about Race to an audience that knows little more about racial matters than he does. I cringe at much of what I hear that he has said on some episode of ESPN.

In many ways, Stephen A. Smith is the luckiest Black man alive for the following reason. He is not unique in his penchant to “talk shit” for hours, if not weeks and months at a time. Truthfully, he is not much different from the droves of Black men who spend hours upon hours “talking shit” about Race, women, and sports in barbershops, sports bars, strip clubs, and any other place where loudmouth Negroes are found. It would be a gross overstatement to say that Black men such as Stephen A. Smith are a dime a dozen. His kind is much, much, much more common than that.

The latest reality-TV debate that Smith has manufactured via his over the top style involves all people, Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens. In response to a recent show regarding Colin Kaepernick’s latest ingenious escape from what appears to be the National Football League’s attempt to depict him as a washed-up quarterback whose skills have eroded to the point that his playing again is a ludicrous proposition, Owens proffered that Stephen A. Smith’s argument directed at Max Kellerman revealed him as a “company man” willing to do the bidding of ESPN. Owens’ words were intended to reveal Stephen A. Smith as the latest in a long line of Negroes willing to fight against the fight against racial bigotry and institutionalized racism on behalf of entities that have made such matters the most impactful element in the lives of Blacks. Smith responded to the charge with a to be expected dimwitted tweet that his position did not cancel his blackness. Despite what those who are new to serious discussions regarding Race may think, neither Owens’ charge nor Stephen A. Smith’s rebuttal is new arguments.

Terrell Owens’ charge is as common as the counter-argument issued by the ESPN commentator. This matter raises the following question. Is there an expectation for Blacks to adhere to a particular viewpoint? Are those “free-thinking” Blacks who refuse to do so destined to be ostracized by their contemporaries? The answers to the above questions are not clear cut.

Blacks such as Candace Owens, Clarence Thomas, and Stephen A. Smith whose perspective appear to resist what Khalid Abdul Muhammad termed “the liberation and salvation of the Black nation” have sought cover under a flimsy argument resting on calls for the need for a diversity of thoughts and voices within Black America. The words, ideas, and ideals of such figures who often classify themselves as Black Conservatives have repeatedly opposed politico-economic progress within Black America. Please do not consider the above an indictment against all Black Conservatives as it is intended to address the few who serve as a vocal minority whose ideologies malign the entire political perspective.

Despite the outcries of some, certainly not all, Black Conservatives who present themselves as the most recent victims of Stockholm Syndrome (they identify with and work to advance the agenda of those who dedicate their energies to the further exploitation and denigration of Black America) should be criticized, denounced, muted, and curtailed “by any means necessary.” The advised action has nothing to do with political censorship or calls for conformity and everything to do with the development of a political agenda aimed at advancing Black America’s interests.

I do not need to tell you that it is late in the game for Black America to entertain political voices that work against their interests. Those voicing political programs that threaten to keep progress for racial equality derailed are foolish. Experience has taught me that they are actually too foolish to be ashamed of their actions. Yet, they are comforted by the ransom that they are being paid by those who continue to devise strategies and seek alliances necessary to maintain their selfish stranglehold on precious resources.

Regardless of the venue, it is clear that figures such as Stephen A. Smith and Candace Owens will tell you that the show must go on because they have bills to pay. To hell with the rest of us as we continue to fight for the uplift of all.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019