RACE IS THE ULTIMATE AMERIKKKAN MONUMENT

Preach R Sun (on floor in black straitjacket) drags concrete cinder block — attached to his ankles with chains — while kneeling white audience member looks on; during 'Chrysalis (cry-solace)’ action at Grace Exhibition Space (Brooklyn NY, 2014)

There is no pride to be held in racialized existence (rather it be black or white). To the contrary, the existence of race speaks to our profound failure as human beings – essentially proving just how spiritually bankrupt and lost we are to the divine truth of our humanity.

I’ve been sitting back in the cut, quietly observing the latest events unfold in the psychosomatic drama of race, our great ameriKKKan dis-ease. Rather it be the incidents in Charlottesville or Trumps (slave master-esque) check of protesting athletes like Colin Kaepernick. It’s both sad and laughable, how so many whites and blacks alike still somehow seem – or perhaps I should say feign – shocked by the reality that is racism in AmeriKKKa. That folks still can’t seem to comprehend the fact that Donald Trump is the true face of AmeriKKKa – a nation intrinsically divided. A nation essentially established on white supremacy and racism (via slavery) as institutionalized through the construct that is race, amazes the hell out of lil ole, black assed and ‘ignant’ me! In fact, the only shocking thing about Donald Trump, calling out the demonstrable irreverence of kneeling (capitalist slave master owned) athletes – enter here the 2014 action: Crucifixion of the Kneeling Man, 2015 action: I Have A Dream, and 2017 action: The Consumer – is that he just called them SOB’s as opposed to the moniker he actually wanted to use, NIGGERS.

Race – as a property of racism and a world established on white supremacy – by design is an innate form of alienation, in which “whites” racialized and objectified "blacks" (i.e. essentially reducing black subjects to objects) as a means to negate their humanity and thereby establish their supreme certainty in the world. And it is on this basis that black existence, as a product of racialization, was made to express the objective reality of whiteness – a condition that still exists to this very day. Hence, blackness is a debilitating schizophrenic condition/prison to which “black” racialized subjects are trapped; inexorably locked in a perpetual state of non-recognition. Ultimately imprisoned and attached to a reality/world that does not authentically reflect or acknowledge their true being. The black BEing is rendered, powerlessly and inescapably, obligated to the epidermal limits of an alien (objectified and fetishized) body. The black body is a racialized body, perpetually stigmatized and predetermined, and it is to this reality that black existence remains trapped in a state of constant derealization (and utter stagnation). Mind you, the epidemiological truth of this (race based) malady is that it is, in fact, a socially transmitted Dis-Ease, actualized and reproduced as a result of relations mediated between, BOTH, blacks and whites. It is our collective attachment to the (socially reified) monument/prison of race that perpetuates and constantly breathes new life into the objective reality/fact that is racism and white supremacy.

White supremacy’s existence is dependent upon the fact of blackness (as established through black recognition). And blackness (rooted in shame and inferiority), made to struggle for WHITE recognition, must always constitute/define itself in relation to whiteness. Hence the black BEing, by design and nature, remains in (direct and indirect) recognition and subjectivity to whiteness. Such is the nature of this socially orchestrated call and response established upon the construct of race – a fact, perhaps best framed in this quote (on the dynamic of race) put forth by James Baldwin: “As long as you think you’re white, there is no hope for you.  As long as you think you’re white, I’m going to be forced to think I’m black.” It’s a tragic cycle of master and slave, in which both (master and slave) are enslaved and incarcerated to a prison of their own maintenance. Wherein: “The black man wants to be white, [and] the white man slaves to reach a human level” (Frantz Fanon 4). Perhaps the real issue that “black” people still face today is that, as racialized BEings, we fail to intuit that our subjective and fanciful pleas for justice and equality (based on the notion of reason) has no objective or tangible basis in a society/world objectively established by white supremacy. In this regard, the blacks supplicating pleas for white recognition of their humanity (BLACK LIVES MATTER) in a society/world where the black has been objectified and Othered as non-existent, is a fatuous waste of time and energy. At the same time, blackness constituted and defined merely in response to whiteness is still ultimately subordinated. And yet, make no mistake, while the immediacy of black BEing (a being-for-itself), as realized in direct contrast and reaction to whiteness, is an imperative step in the formative process of a black consciousness. Beyond this initial reactional phase, however, blackness (racialized existence) – as radical liberating agent – in and of itself, ultimately reaches a limit. As again, blackness that asserts itself simply as a “reaction to whiteness” (Zia Sardar, 2009, para. 22), does not stand as actual and absolute negating agent to the objective (structural and material) power of white supremacy. Instead, blackness on this basis still (in the end) ultimately validates whiteness. As it (blackness) merely posits itself as a comparative measure to whiteness, thereby, acknowledging and “affirming the white man as the [supreme] measure of all things” (Zia Sardar, 2009, para. 22). Hence blackness, by relation, is still rendered inferior. Such is the case with black’s obsessive and desiderative pursuit for equality and inclusion in this (white objectified) world –  as expressed and celebrated through achievements that supposedly exemplify “black dignity” and “black excellence”. In truth, such achievements cannot be true expressions of dignity if they are accomplishments measured and recognized in relation to a white standard i.e., black’s ability to rise and be successful (particularly financially) in a “white” society. Essentially blacks believe that through inclusion, merely inserting black bodies and faces into picture frames (prestigious positions, spaces and places) traditionally occupied by whites, they can ultimately prove or validate themselves as equals (the ability to essentially measure up) and therefore worthy of white recognition. In this context blackness does not stand FREE to determine itself, as (again) it can only realize itself in light and relation to, whiteness. Rather it be, FIRST BLACK [insert accomplishment here], or proclaimed through titles such as BLACK [e.g., scientist, artist, writer, composer, doctor, chef, dancer, lawyer…]. Blackness that must posit, validate or qualify itself – that must literally announce itself upon crossing “white” thresholds – on this basis is still functioning as a dependent/non-essential consciousness (essentially locked in black subject-hood) as it is ultimately determined by a complex of inferiority. This blackness (the racialized self) – merely an expression of the objective relations of a white supremacist society – actively composes and reproduces itself, as a result of its (inferior) social position or relations in society (Fanon Theory of Race, 2015, para 31). Therefore, whiteness remains the theme and center of black determination/existence. Hence, this black consciousness is not self-determined or liberated. And as such, this blackness – a subject of white (epidermis inspired) dictated and engineered, shame and inferiority – cannot BE, a true expression of dignity (which implies and necessitates one’s ability to determine their own existence). Here paraphrasing Fanon when he wrote, the black body (negated) dons a white mask in a desperate attempt to cover the shame of its externally imposed (and exposed) negativity – WAKE-UP SLAVES…. If our sense of self, or “being-in-the-world,” is actualized, or authentically enacted and perceived to the extent it corresponds to, or expresses our desire and ability to shape the world (Fanon Theory of Race, 2015, para 35). We must therefore assert our power in defining and determining our (“black”) existence in the world, as opposed to our (“black”) existence being defined and determined by the (“white”) world – i.e., we remain subjects to the externally produced (internally consumed/metabolized) fact of blackness.

It is the internalization of white induced, negativity absorbed into the black epidermis through hundreds of years of (historical/scientific/psychological/economic/institutional/religious) racial persecution that has left the black BEing – essentially bound and gagged – drowning and paralyzed in the hellish hole of toxic (and psychologically debilitating) shame and inferiority. It is in this regard that black (racialized) beings remain enslaved and attached to the natural conditions of race – a false construct born out of a false history. Mind you, it is now through the agent/drug NEED (as opposed to chains and whips) as established through capitalism – via the green acid tab that is the dollar (the ultimate agent/totem of white supremacy) – that the black (racialized) body remains dependent upon white supremacy, and the white established world. It is through the agency of capitalism, that white supremacy manifests its objective power in the world. And it is capitalism that essentially keeps the black BEing in check, obsequiously attached and dependent upon whiteness. It is capitalism (“conscious capitalism” or otherwise) that ultimately keeps the black, slaving away chasing the almighty dollar (steady picking that green cotton) on this white plantation. And although the black man may go through the frivolous, symbolical and perfunctory, motions of expressing his/her outrage in the face of white supremacy and injustice (e. g., via messages on t-shirts, hats, mugs and any other pragmatic and permissible acts of “protest” and “civil disobedience”). In the end, however, they ultimately remain acquiescent to the white master. They will not outright negate the white world. They will not seek to disrupt and dismantle the masters house. They will stop short of such measures. For they are too fearful of taking any REAL risk, extremely mindful as to not cross the line – that may result in the loss of job and money – and bite the proverbial hand that feeds them. (I can’t afford to stand up. I NEED to survive. I NEED to feed my family. I NEED….)

Indeed, it is the black BEings fetishistic devotion to the almighty dollar that keeps him/her obsequiously devoted to the white master – I NEED THEE OH LORD I NEED THEE (C. R. E. A. M)! It’s an unwavering faith in the (white supremacy founded) religion of capitalism that keeps him/her hopelessly chasing a fatuous notion of equality in a white world, via the path of economic security/freedom, through a fictitious notion of “conscious capitalism” ….

(There is no such thing as conscious capitalism. Capitalism is capitalism. Human exploitation is the soul and life’s blood of capitalism – it could not exist without it. Furthermore, capitalism – as product and property of white supremacy, born out of slavery the institution founded upon the brutal exploitation of black bodies – is by design made to essentially maintain the structural and material power/integrity of white supremacy. Therefore, capitalism by any means and/or conditions will ultimately serve this end. As it is a tool of white supremacy – here employing the wisdom of Audrey Lorde: The master’s tools will not dismantle his house – it cannot serve as tool/instrument for black liberation)

And yet, time and time again (to no avail) the black man is awakened to the harsh reality (of capitalism) that although perhaps, those little green sheets of cotton laced paper will afford a living in the white world; they will not however afford true agency and equality; or the right to TRULY be FREE to determine one’s own existence in a white established world. That is to say, at the end of the day, the almighty dollar with all its divine and magical (white supremacy instilled) properties will not afford the black man an exit out of the alienating land of NIGGERDOM. This is because in a white world founded upon, and dictated by race, no matter how much progress and success the black man achieves, he/she will always be racially determined, and as such will always (ultimately) exist as an object and expression of the white will. Make no mistake, for as long as this world stands, the black man – as the overdetermined property of the white manufactured construct that is race (the construct that ultimately made possible the birth of capitalism itself) – will ALWAYS remain under a white warranty. And as such, the white master will remain in possession of the title/receipt that is “blackness”.

Bottom line, the black man, although no longer bound by whips and chains, remains bound as a slave and prisoner to his own appearance (i.e. racialized existence) – made prisoner to, “the fetishized expression of a false history”, socially reified and articulated in a white supremacist society (Fanon Theory of Race, 2015, para 40). And it is on this basis that blacks have been housebroken and domesticated to the oppressive conditions of their racialization. It is to blackness that they must always, ALWAYS, remain accountable. It is to blackness (the white constructed property of race) that they must always – having been trained/conditioned over hundreds of years – answer to and for. The black man must always BE true to race. He/she must always be black (for both whites and blacks alike) before and above ANYTHING. And it is through the socially reified apparatus of race that the white man keeps the black man bound and circumscribed to the (human-less) dungeon of alienated existence – shackled to the complex of inferiority he has constructed for him/her – in this/his world. It  is on this foundation that the white man ultimately maintains his grip on the black man, and the entirety of black existence itself – via history, philosophy, science, culture, language, capitalism, religion etc.… And, it is upon this construct that he has been able to stand and erect himself as the divine and superior sum of ALL things. The black BEing has been MADE to recognize and apotheosize the supremacy of whiteness EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING. The black BEing, even when trying to determine itself, cannot do so without (subconsciously) honoring whiteness – as in so doing he/she must always acknowledge and pay homage to the oppressive white construct and monument that is, RACE. As racialized subjects, the black must always exist in the shadow of whiteness. (Again, “The black man wants to be white, [and] the white man slaves to reach a human level.”) In this white (objectified) world, black has been established as inferior corollary of white.

White is to black as positive is to negative. White as the color of light, represents life. It is the symbol of purity, divinity, innocence, beauty, salvation and righteousness. Black (as the direct opposite) is the cursed hue. Black is the hue of darkness, it represents death and dearth. It is the symbol of evil, negativity, ugliness, sin and immorality. There is no escaping this fact, it has been reified (over hundreds of years) and established as objective fact in the white world. These truths are engraved on the walls of ALL monuments and institutions; as they are written into EVERY dictionary and holy book. And it is on this basis – as established upon the objective facts/axioms of this world – that freedom, justice, intellect, morality, beauty and humanity can ONLY exist as the divine values and properties of whiteness. It is on this basis that the black man must always chase whiteness – even when he/she is chasing freedom. His/her quest for freedom, is a white (determined) freedom. His/her cry for justice, is a white (determined) justice. His/her pursuits of dignity, is a white (determined) dignity. His/her pursuits of success, is a white (determined) success. His/her notions of humanity, is a white (determined) humanity. Even his/her ideas of spiritual salvation and god are ultimately determined and dictated by whiteness. Rather it be the, self-loathing, black coon/sellout that (dreams of being white) desperately chases white validation and acceptance; or the black revolutionary that dreams of a black world. Both, as racialized subjects, are still nonetheless the (house and field nigger) properties of white masters trapped on the white constructed plantation of race – the foundation of the white world. It is on this plantation (the white racialized world), as an alien to his own racialized body, that the black BEing remains confined to the uniform of his oppression and (objectified) thing-hood. That many blacks believe that the most radical and revolutionary THING they can BE is BLACK, ultimately speaks to the fact that the black BEing is still a being attached to its (objectified) THING-HOOD. While perhaps it is true that the most radical/revolutionary THING the black can BE (in the context of race) is black … the most radical/revolutionary BEing the black can BECOME, however, is a being liberated from the prison of racialized existence – that is an (absolutely) FREE and self-determining, HUMAN BEING. Again, black existence constituted and determined within the racialized construct of the white world, is still a consciousness trapped on a white plantation. Black existence, essentially, ruled by the externalized epidermal conditions on which it has been defined and circumscribed is still, nonetheless, an identity that’s dependent upon the natural conditions of a (white supremacist) world that was essentially established to negate it.

Unfortunately, it is in blackness that the black man has been conditioned to exist. And as such, he/she is doomed to remain as a racialized alien in a white (objectified) world. It is in blackness that he/she has been circumscribed as a powerless observer in this world. Very much the same as with capitalism, by conditioning the black man to honor race, the white man has been able to fundamentally keep them in their assigned place. It is the very idea that you’ve been brought into being to take part in this amazingly profound and unique experience called life. You were brought into this world as a human being (an agent of freedom) – and as such, no different than any other human being – yet, your existence (as a black man) has somehow been predetermined for you. You’ve been made to exist between lines that another being has drawn for you. Everywhere you go and in everything you do, you must always answer to your appearance – check the box of your assigned race. No matter how successful you become, no matter what great things you accomplish, ALL accomplishments must follow (must come second) to your race (see: first BLACK president). Yeah, you’re black. You’re black. You’re black. You’re black. YOU’RE BLACK! But what exactly does your blackness amount to in a world where its not allowed to write its own rules, chart its own course, or breath its own air. What does blackness amount to if its existence must fundamentally adhere to (is essentially dependent upon) whiteness – and the socially constructed standards of race? What value is blackness that must ultimately (affirmatively or negatively) respond to the stereotypical axioms that have been predetermined for it? (I repeat, “BLACK” achievements are not real achievements until and unless they can be recognized in accordance with standards of whiteness – as being established as objective truth in the white world.) It is the stigma of blackness (as defined and determined by white slave masters) that the black man desperately desires to escape and/or erase. However, what the black man has yet to comprehend is that his/her true liberation cannot be achieved in blackness (racialized existence). To be truly free, he/she must act to negate the white world itself and lay the foundation for a brand-new world. A world, absent of race (with its intrinsic property of alienation), and hence the limiting conditions of racialized existence. Such action, however, requires the black BEing to risk death and the stability of its, socially constructed, confines. It requires them to step outside of the externally imposed uniform/spacesuit of blackness to confront and brave the atmosphere of the unknown.

Yet, it is the unknown that the black has been made to fear and reject. After-all, how would he/she even exist without the white world? It is after all, to paraphrase Fanon, the only decent world he/she knows. Who would the black man be without the uniform of (his/her oppression) blackness – a racially constructed identity? Where else would he/she live if not in the past? And where would he/she exist if not amongst the dead? Who would blacks be if not the racialized objects they’ve been made? It is in this context, that the black man’s struggle towards liberation is not driven by an actual desire to be free, but merely to be elevated to the equal status of whites. The black (racialized) BEing simply seeks acceptance and validation in the existing white world. Yet, I reiterate, the white man is dependent upon his manufactured supremacy. He absolutely needs it to preserve his world, and in order for this to remain true, he needs the black man to remain trapped in the alienating inferiority of racialized existence – essentially locked outside of their own humanity. It is only when the black BEing comes to the realization that the true sum of their existence can never be determined, measured or fully realized in racialized existence. As race, essentially precludes true freedom and as such poses a disservice to us all (both white and black alike) as it ultimately alienates us from our true humanity – “in order to be a “human being,” the objective basis of [our] existence as racially oppressed [BEings], and as [BEings] alienated from [ourselves], is an absolute limit that must be overcome. The objectivity of [black] existence has its own necessity that [we] must obey, and therefore, by necessity must destroy in order to live at all” (Fanon Theory of Race, 2015, para 43). It is ONLY when we truly confront and eradicate race itself – and the world that has been built upon it – that we can truly liberate ourselves from racial oppression. It’s only when the black BEing discovers that buried deep in the heart of his/her blackness is the light of a brand-new world; it is only when they embrace (ACT) and become that light that they can burn away the old and shine the new into existence…. In the end black liberation cannot merely be about the liberation of black people from white injustices, it must be about the liberation of the black body from racialized existence, and hence the very construct of race itself. It is in this regard that black liberation must ultimately focus on the liberation of the black racialized BEing from the limiting conditions of blackness itself. As such, our ultimate focus and energy should not be geared towards the elevation of blackness so much as it should be geared towards the salvation and elevation of our humanity. Therefore, our task – if we are to usher in a new world – must be to reinvent the world and thus ourselves. We must be determined to introduce a new human content into the world. A content that embodies and reflects the universal spirit, principles and qualities of TRUE freedom and humanity. And this requires an absolute negation of the current social relations that reproduce the construct that is race, and hence the objectivity of the white supremacist world. In other words, our ultimate struggle is not to be black. Our ultimate struggle, is a struggle for the salvation of ALL HUMANITY! Such a struggle requires the absolute eradication of ALL BLOCKS. Again, inserting the profound wisdom of James Baldwin: “[No] label, no slogan, no party, no skin color, and indeed no religion is more important than the HUMAN BEING.“ The real issue is not black or white. The real issue is black and white. Race does not bring us closer to humanity, it runs us farther away from it….

RACE IS A DYING PLANET. HUMANITY IS THE FINAL FRONTIER. YET, TO DISCOVER IT, WE MUST FIRST MURDER OUR (RACIALLY CONSTRUCTED) DARLINGS.

In the end, race needs our compliance and recognition to exist. Thus, it is the natural condition to which we are ALL attached. My aim is not to elevate myself in union with the white established world, but to interrogate, deconstruct and abolish it one action at a time. It is also the realization that my blackness, albeit an epidermal/socially constructed matter of fact, is not something to be fought for or against. Nor is my blackness something to which I must remain accountable to or for. i am not fighting for blackness. i am fighting through blackness! I’m fighting for (TRUE) freedom and humanity, as fomented by the immediate conditions/experience of my racialized existence – that have made me aware of its (humanity’s) absence.

NOTHING and NO ONE will make, circumscribe, define, or DETERMINE ME! Fuck their/your whiteness. Fuck their/your blackness. Fuck THEIR world. My mission is freedom. i define myself. i, FREE MY FUCKING SELF!!!

Originally written and posted October 4, 2017

*Notes:

James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket (St. Martin’s Press, 1985) 704

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 2008) 191

HiFi, Fanon and the Theory of Race (unityandstruggle.org, 2015)

Zia Sardar, Fanon and the Epidemiology of Oppression (frantzfanoninternational.org, 2009)