If the media is any measure of the mood of the masses, then the sound and fury of the Trayvon Martin case is over. In place of the rage of protest is now silence, and the beast, the media, moves on in search of new prey; a missing white female, a windfall from a state lottery, an Obama Putin tossed up – cool. The rage of millions now gets pushed under the dark waters of yesterday to bubble briefly and drown in the muck and mire of memory.
As for leaders, both civil and political, aside from lame efforts to repeal laws, they have no idea how to attack the situation, and they return to their primary jobs to keep the masses cool; to tap down their furious anger, to keep a false peace, and things just get worse and worse. National civil rights groups tied at the hip with the Democratic Party work in tandem to keep the many cool, lest true resistance arises.
Late great scholar activist Manning Marable, in his 2002 work The Great Wells of Democracy, noted how local activists, often at odds with national groups, pushed for change and used imagination, insight, and grassroots power to build movements against police violence against Black people. Wrote Marable, “Such struggles bring into the public arena diverse and sometimes contradictory ideological and social forces. In the Cincinnati grassroots resistance movement, a wealth of new ideas were brought out in public brainstorming sessions, especially in the areas of public policy issues and economic development.” Marable concludes, “Virtually unnoticed at the local level in hundreds of Black communities across the nation, successful models of resistance are flourishing.”
Trayvon Martin’s life and sacrifice is too precious to be left in the hands of politicians. People must “organize, organize, organize” to quote the late revolutionary Kwame Ture, to build resistance movements to protect and defend Black life. It must begin as all life begins, at the grassroots. From in prison nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
