…..for keepin’ it real with “Red Tails.” Yep, we saw the same movie—the one with the *%$#$%-up script! (Enjoyed reading the “Letters To The Editor.”) Folks, this film made me want to run out and buy the HBO ’90s joint on DVD! LOL!

Sheesh! I was just getting used to this, and now I gotta deal with this and this!  (And, of course, I [happily] used Google to find these images! AUUGGGHHHHH!!!!! LOL! )

Dumping below some stuff I turned in to BAR as possible sidebars to this article.

George Jackson

( © Copyright 1971 Bob Dylan)

I woke up this morning
There were tears in my bed
They killed a man I really loved
Shot him through the head

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Sent him off to prison
For a seventy dollar robbery
Closed the door behind him
And they threw away the key

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+dylan/george+jackson_20207841.html ]
He wouldn’t take shit from no one
He wouldn’t bow down or kneel
Authorities, they hated him
Because he was just too real

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Prison guards, they cursed him
As they watched him from above
But they were frightened of his power
They were scared of his love

Lord, Lord, so they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
The rest of us are guards

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

*******************************************

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s NEW Address:

Mumia Abu-Jamal

AM 8335

SCI Mahanoy

301 Morea Road

Frackville, PA 17932

My department colleague, Dr. Baruti Kopano (starts at about 40:00; you MUST hear his pledge at 1:51:50!), was part of this recent event. Check it out!

News For All The People: The Epic Story Of Race And The American Media.
Juan Gonzalez and Joseph Torres.
Verso.
480 pp. $29.95.

When journalists write history, there is always the danger of that history being shallow, surface-level. This remarkable book is one of the rare instances of such a problem being a positive, due to its great, realized ambition. For this narrative successfully weaves the history of Black media, Native American media, Hispanic media and Asian media within the context of the history of America’s capitalistic media development.

Building on the work of media historians and colonial and American newspapers from three centuries, the authors outline a people’s history of American media, with the people publishers and broadcasters of color, and how this history ebbs and flows with the creation of  The One Percent and its information expansion throughout the country, respectively. It matches the growth of the media with the constant surging of America’s white supremacy, each reflecting the other. It finds “rebel editors” of all colors and their publications who resisted the racist tides, often at great personal risk. And it connects these historical figures with the up-to-date issues and modern resistance that the media reform movement is currently waging to save the World Wide Web from being consumed by corporations. “With each day that passes, with each new advance in mass communications technology,” Gonzalez and Torres posit, “our biggest media companies feverishly race to readjust, to become bigger and more dominant in the marketplace. Only by clearly grasping the main conflicts and choices that shape our current media system can ordinary citizens successfully unite with the concerned journalists and workers within the system to bring about meaningful reform. The second democratic revolution of the U.S. media has already begun.”

Ultimately, the authors believe that explaining the history of this sometimes radical, sometimes capitalistic reform will inspire 21st century media practitioners—meaning, all of us—to (continue to) organize with keyboards and cellphones.  As 2011 ends, Gonzalez and Torres provide not just a clear understanding of how the enemy built the empire, but merge historical ideas on how to use the new/old tools at our disposal to resist it.

Gulp!

A new movement that is not completely a movement (didja hear about the “Occupy” reality show yet? ) has luminaries that are not completely leaders. “Democracy Now!” profiled in Monday’s New York Times. West profiled on NPR’s “All Things Considered” yesterday.  West and Michael Moore on "Democracy Now!" for the hour yesterday. Okay, legitimate (elite) public recognition for legitimate work. (Perhaps the mainstream will pay a little more attention now.)  But for people and institutions that are supposed to be "grassroots," it  feels a little too elitist and chummy around these parts, with these (anti?) establishment folks being both sincere and playing their part--as in prescribed role. Perhaps this is just the nature of American society--particularly if you graduated Harvard, as Goodman and West did (and I guess in Goodman's case, we could argue whether Radcliffe was or wasn't Harvard when she attended ), and worked for the white leftist elite, the way Michael Moore did. What about the grassroots co-host Juan Gonzalez, you might ask? Well, thanks to the Ford Foundation (and "Democracy Now!"'s significant exposure, I might add), he's on a book tour. Again, maybe this is just America. Cue Don King--or Tom Hayden.

Well done, sir. The Realm of the Ancestors has another champion.

I will never forget your cooperation and kindness as I reported and wrote one of my all-time favorite stories.  May The Ancestors greet you into their realm with great joy.