I am reading Randall Robinson’s “Quitting America.” I’ve quit America, too, I just haven’t left this jive plantation yet. Its comin’!!
Robinson is my new/old hero. I needed to share this brilliant, powerful black man with ya’ll. Its old history – if you’ve heard it at all – but its relevant.
I love Toussaint! I love Randall Robinson!! I love Haiti!!!
Thanks for posting this!
I got to get some sleep but will definitely be listening to the entire interview a little later on. I’ve been thinking alot about Haiti. This will be a re-starting point for me.
While I really enjoyed watching every part of this -THank you!! its is so painfully painful how much effort and hatred goes into destroying a people, flesh and blood, a nation -I mean these are real living people that they (the West) are working so hard to ruin. **sigh**
VERY informative! An excellent interview with a world class black man! Now I have a basic understanding of Haitian history. So I now understand why America would NEVER allow Haiti to get the donation money that was sent to them after the earthquake.
In a long line of atrocities, the American government manipulated the sympathies of the American people and have stolen the donated money. The history tells me that the money was used to fuel western capitalism. Now the country lay in ruins–still! Are the Haitian people supposed to be dependant upon their bitter enemies for help?
We ought to hang our heads in shame that we can’t help Haiti! With the heroic example they provided us in securing their freedom long ago, now that they are in need, we cant help. We need to take a lesson from Haiti on how to fight a principled battle and properly ally ourselves–as black people. We “western blacks” have been stuck on stupid long enough. It’s past time to stop fighting for white respect and start fighting for self determination!
We are less than useless as allies in any fight for freedom that’s even remotely possible anywhere when our minds are stuck on “that mean ole white man”! He’s going to continue to be mean, you best believe it and accept it, and figure out how to circumvent it! We also are useless to ourselves when we are ashamed of our blackness, wishing secretly that we were white. Yeah I said it!!
We had better get busy properly empowering ourselves. What control the American government has over “black Americans” and by extension all black people starts with our black minds, and it is not rocket science. It can be destroyed if we take the proper steps to destroy it!
IMHO the first step is purging from their negative, propaganda filled media.
I’ve always been an admirer of Randall Robinson. He’s a man of integrity and can’t be bought. I remember how hard he and his group Trans-Africa fought for Nelson Mandela’s release. He made a lot of enemies with the Clinton administration at that time and when Mr. Mandela toured the U.S. upon his freedom; he ignored Mr. Robinson and humiliated him when he tried to attend a government sponsored event for him. The very ones who weren’t doing anything to ensure his release–were now in awe of him and Mandela knew this and did nothing to show his appreciation for what Randall Robinson and Trans Africa had done. In fact, he didn’t attend an event that the latter had arranged. It was clear then that Nelson Mandela was pandering to the powers of state. Mr. Robinson’s book “Defending The Spirit” addresses this as well as his efforts on the behalf of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Haiti with some background on what really happened to another one of my heroes, Patrice Lumumba.
Thank you for recognizing this giant of a man. I would recommend all of his books. They are straight, well-documented “no chaser” assessments of issues that face us as a people in this country and globally.
Thanks, Carolyn! I guess that’s what 27 years in the joint will do to you. I read the part of the “Shock Doctrine” on South Africa specifically because I wanted to figure out how it is that the people there are poorer now than they were during apartheid. Shameful how they sold out – under pressure, of course – but sold the people out just the same.
Oh, and I am picking up Robinson’s Unbroken Agony book today. Can’t wait!!
Lawd ha’ mercy, did I need to hear this! I was beginning to think I was losing my damned mind feeling exactly, as it were, as Mr. Robinson does about this country with each passing day.
Thank you for posting this. If you don’t mind, I’d like to post it as well because its relevance is timeless (as Anna Renee so astutely pointed out about all that aid $$).
I echo Miriam’s painful **sigh** at the pure wretchedness that can continue to claw away at power and dominion through deceit, coercion and domination – with not even a backward glance at the real, human lives left in its wake. In his “Notes of a Native Son,” Baldwin pretty much sums up how they see their actions:
“…the Civilized have never been able to honor, recognize, or describe the Savage. Once they had decided he was savage, there was nothing to honor, recorgnize or describe.”
Anna Renee…You’re dead-on here: “We “western blacks” have been stuck on stupid long enough.” I can certainly attest to that fact! But once the “knowing” finally comes, it never stops – and I find myself, looking around myself, as my people go about their daily lives – singularly – as if “our” self-determination – as a people – no longer matters. “Gettin’ mine” is the order of the day (seems deceit, coercion and domination still holds powerful sway to divide and conquer). **sigh**
Yeah, I think “useless” is a good way to describe our current capacity to be “allies in any fight for freedom.”
Carolyn, a “man of integrity”indeed. Thanks for your recommendation!
Why I love Boukman;
““The god who created the sun which gives us light, who rouses the waves and rules the storm, though hidden in the clouds, he watches us. He sees all that the white man does. The god of the white man inspires him with crime, but our god calls upon us to do good works. Our god who is good to us orders us to revenge our wrongs. He will direct our arms and aid us. Throw away the symbol of the god of the whites who has so often caused us to weep, and listen to the voice of liberty, which speaks in the hearts of us all.”
Peace