This month’s theme is one that perplexes many and begs of us to ask the following questions: How? How do we dismantle an oppressive system? What are they? Are they régimes led by dictators? Are the tools they use courts and prisons? Or our schools and what and how students who look like me are taught? What about their economic institutions? Or other institutions like marriage, military, healthcare… Arguably, these are all systems that oppress. To “oppress” is a concept that many people truly do not understand until it is explained to them what causes them to do and feel that certain actions or ideas must be taken or invested in irrespective of the consequences or concerns of others. This is how oppression works. It is the trap we cannot see that blinds possibilities, opportunities, and disregards others.

Indeed, all this sounds a bit iconoclastic. Yet, as the late Dr. Bobby E. Wright was so blunt to state: “…in a racist social system, all institutions will reflect, protect, and sustain values that are consistent with racism. This should not be considered surprising or profound since all institutions serve to perpetrate the social theory of the group which created them.” That said, the question we now must ask ourselves is: How do we dismantle “racist” institutions and build or R.E.B.U.I.L.D. institutions that work to benefit every member of society? The obvious answer: Deconstruct the concept of race in and of itself!

Here, we must envision a world where our children are taught those defining moments in history where the political ambitions of powerful men created a divide amongst humanity. We must teach them the history of colonialism–not as patriots, but rather critical thinkers and humanitarians. Whereas, the expedient of the day is a VISION and MISSION  that deems racism and all the other “isms” antisocial, psychopathic behavior. By embracing and supporting such a vision, we aid in the conscious development of future generations who will have the tools to effectively beset those elements responsible for creating the poverty that eats at the core of humanity. In doing so, we educate them in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed; a science to which we (i.e., the masses) have been socialized with that shapes our well intended, yet often misguided, values of work ethic, individualism, and material culture.

Only through such conscious development will we be able to dismantle an oppressive system. Because it is through this lens that we move onto direct action. Whereas, in tomorrow’s world we will continue to witness American society and the world over toppled by movements of every sort. They will be led by Generation X, Z, Millennials, and a budding Generation Alpha. They are our abolitionist brothers and sisters who strike at the pillars of the American criminal legal system. They are our Palestinian brothers and sisters who ever expose the terror in Gaza and how American foreign policy has created a zero sum game with human causalities. They are and will continue to be the ones who bring the world to its knees every time George Floyd is murdered, revealing an ever present occupying force in poor, black and brown communities. Each of these revelations, very much like my imprisonment, have served as an eye-opener in that they, not only exposed the fallacy of American institutions, they also demonstrate to us that we the people have to take action in the political transformation of our communities. This is what direct action looks like. No longer will we accept a society that allows the well-being of few to come at the expanse of the many.

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