“The Other Women’s Movement.”
In the frenzied aftermath of the police killing asphyxiation of George Floyd, we have seen the emergence of a remarkable and sustained movement against racism and the state terror of police. As I watch it in wonder and really awe, it occurred to me that the organizers of this new movement are women.
This movement, this mass, multi-racial not to mention multi-gender and many-aged movement is led by people who occupied the lowest rungs of America’s ladder of race and class. Black women, mostly very young black women. They have seized the hour and brought forth people from almost every segment of society.
They are the nucleus of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and they are ringing the bells in the night, warning America, and the world, that the American house is on fire. They are to quote the iconic scholar-activist up there, Angela Davis “smarter and better than their elders of the sixties.” They are students of history, and they’ve proven that they are masters of organizing.
The issue of state terror against Black and poor communities has been thrown on the table. And few, if any, politicians have a meaningful response. Marks and Ingles argued that the state is, “but the executive committee of the rulers and voila, they have no real answer to this problem that has lasted for generations.” So ideas are coming from the movement and fought by politicians. Politicians who allegedly represent the will of the people and the media, or should I say, the corporate media. We’re in the midst of a movement, kind of like chilling in the eye of a hurricane and everything is being shaken, if not removed.
What a day. What an hour. From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
