Political Power on Demand: The Coming of the New Black Political Journalism

By Sala Nkrumah

Clearly the fight for the hearts and minds of the people is always at the basis of any aroused political struggle, and this is especially true for African Americans. But with the dissolution of commercial black radio and the drowning out of any progressive alternatives in black music leaves, there is little room left to ideologically challenge the racist-capitalist order through the use of traditional journalism.

The white power structure is sophisticated and capable of changing and adapting. Since the close of the second world war and the emergence of the U.S. as an neocolonialist empire, it has responded to ideological and financial challenges from the developing countries by pulling the dagger of neo-liberal economic reforms out of its red and white cloak to stab, cut, beat and batter the peoples of Latin American, Africa and Asia in responses to their demands for justice.

In reaction to domestic pressure, it touts and promotes Barack Obama, the pro-imperialist black man, to create the allusion of electoral fairness and democracy when in reality is that Obama only represents the narrow, superficial class interests of the traditional elements of the power structure.

They distract the youth by pushing images of Jay-Z holding the arm of Beyonce, telling us this is news, this is journalism. The truth is, however, none of that crap is news and what the practice is not journalism. What they are passing off on us are false gods and perverse idols used by the power structure to make money and destroy the culture. While we have deeply distracted consumers, we also have the reality of the prison industrial complex.

2007 requires progressives and revolutionaries to not only think “outside the box,” but also to operate in a world where there are few guideposts. With the growth of high-speed Internet, viral video, bogging, portable educational devices (MP3 players, Ipods, etc.), we now have at our disposal mediums which negate the white corporate centralization of ideas and information. But by no means should we abandon the revolutionary struggle using newspapers, radio shows etc. to get the word out.

In addition to revolutionizing art in the form of black political theater, we must expand our political arsenal to include these new mediums. Historically, we have not only anchored our political foundations on the works of Huey P. Newton, the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon, among others, but we have rested on the laurels of their often outdated models to reach our community.

I dare speculate that if Elijah Muhammad were here today, he would use youtube to never miss a day to denounce the wicked white man. Malcolm would have recognized that since he could not always travel abroad, he turn to other methods to communicate his message internationalized revolutionary struggle. Even Dr. Du Bois would have used the new technology to carve out a new avenue to reach into the souls of black folk. Imagine King’s poor people campaign under these realities.

This reality, just as everything in life, has an expiration date. Already corporations like AOL/Time Warner, Google, AT&T, as well as a bastion of other monopoly capitalists are lobbying congress to repel “net neutrality.” They are trying to privatize the Internet for high priced corporate bidders, making it expensive for small guerilla operations to access the web. So we must use what we can to keep the black genocide from taking place and being completely blacked out. We must support already existing institutions like Original World Magazine, A7 Movement, and always take a deeper look at the ways we conduct our struggle.

Music for your thoughts:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/01-allah-u-akbar-mp3.html

http://www.zshare.net/audio/06-drop-bombs-mp3.html

http://www.zshare.net/audio/dont-you-wish-you-had-what-you-had-when-you-had-it-mp3.html