Story Archives 2019

What is cultural genocide? Cultural identity is an element that unites and binds people together. The lack of cultural identity has left some of “us” in society fragmented and can be defined as cultural genocide. “We Charge Genocide.” Quoted by the UN's definition of genocide as “Any intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, or religious group is genocide." It concludes that "the oppressed Negro citizens of the United States, segregated, discriminated against, and long the target of violence, suffer from genocide as the result of the consistent, conscious, unified policies of every branch of government. The  National Black United Front petitioned the United Nations in 1996–1997, directly citing “We Charge Genocide” and using the same slogan. 

Their petition begins: 

Declaration of Genocide by the U.S. Government Against the Black Population in the United States. 

Whereas, we the undersigned people of African ancestry understand that the proliferation of the distribution and sale of crack cocaine...has reached epidemic proportions, causing serious harm to the African community in the United States. Therefore, we understand that this harm can only be described as acts of genocide by the United States government through its Central Intelligence Agency. 

In addition to acts of genocide perpetuated through the CIA and in this recent revelation, acts of genocide can also be attributed to the Government's use of taxpayers' resources to wage war on a segment of the U.S. population. This is evidenced by the following: (1) cutting back on welfare; (2) privatization of public housing and land grab schemes; (3) privatization of public education; (4) racist immigration policies; (5) privatization of basic health care; (6) building prisons and the expanding incarceration of millions of African and Latino youth. 

The effects of the lack of cultural indoctrination of individualism has been instilled within the cultural psyche to further complicate the ability of people to unite. As a result, it has left “us” more vulnerable as a society. The unwillingness by those in charge to address this deficiency within society has resulted in genocidal warfare within the social, political, economic and education systems. If this mind-frame persists, it will erode the very foundation of humanity and continue to divide “us” as a people.

The tragedy of injustice is that it doesn’t identify the systemic oppression of the perpetrators of cultural genocide. We have unconsciously participated in the oppression of our own people by denying them the knowledge of their own culture. One form of cultural genocide that is been demonstrated within our communities is gun violence. It has become a sub-culture within our neighborhoods that has filtered throughout communities affecting our school grounds permeating to the very core of society where the vulnerable reside, meaning the children. And the root cause of gun violence stems from a society who hasn’t been taught as to who they are as a people and who their neighbors are as human beings. It has resulted in innocent individuals having their lives snuffed out, not being able to even understand and families being left behind asking the age-old question of why did this happen to “us”? It’s the “us” versus “them” mentality. The stigma by society was that those in the inner cities mostly people of color, who are killing each other through gun violence, are not cultivated enough to see their communities as human beings therefore, they behave as savage beasts and that is “their” problem. It wasn’t until gun violence reared its ugly head in Caucasian classrooms that brought the necessary attention it that was needed to address the issue correctly. That being the problem as opposed to “us” who are cultivated therefore this should never happen in our communities. No sense of cultural identity as human beings.

Cultural genocide has a systemic effect as well as a psychological one. The systemic effect erodes from within the lives of individuals and proceeds to throughout communities and holds the very people hostage to their own demise. It spans demographics to several generations. The psychological effect extends to racial disparity. It takes place in the forms of gangs. Some gangs are formed in an effort to become their own society. They become the “law enforcers” within their communities. One reason for this is the disparity or the lack of protection by those who have been commissioned to protect and serve, (meaning police officers), those in these communities. Instead of protecting them and serving them, they instill fear therefore eroding the trust of law enforcement and the criminal justice system and causing them to create their own sub-culture within their communities. Because of their isolation gangs and lack of community identity they do not cross ethnic lines and they become a component of racism. In other words, the same thing that they hate I society, they become.

So, what do we do about these issues that result from a systemic cultural breakdown that affect every area of our society, political, social, economic, and educational. The question for “us” is how are “we” the conscious going to address these issues. We can begin by asking ourselves some pertinent questions:

• What are the social, political, economic, and educational effects of cultural genocide?
• How do we begin to lift people out of these deficiencies?
• What are the imminent dangers of not addressing these issues?
• How much has slavery played a role in cultural genocide within the African American community?
• Have the victims of cultural genocide become pons in their own demise?
• Have we become sympathetic to our captors and now we’re actually feeling sorry for those who would deprive “us” (the Stockholm Syndrome) of what actually is a basic human right to know who we are as a people and where we need to go as a society (Menocide)?
   

According to, William Chancellor (1973), “Because only from history can we learn what our strengths were and, especially, in what particular aspect we are weak and vulnerable. Our history can then become at once the …” 

In conclusion, and this is food for thought. If we are to have a successful society, one that is co-dependent and one that can co-exist, then we will need to incorporate cultural identification throughout the communities; socially, politically, institutionally, educationally, and economically.

References

Lynch, William. (1712 December 25). The Willie Lynch Letter: The Making Of A Slave! 

file://Y:\BPP_Books\temp\Fw. It is never to late to get up off of your knees and fight for w... 8/20/2005. Retrieved from    https://archive.org/stream/WillieLynchLetter1712/the_willie_lynch_letter_the_making_of_a_slave_1712_djvu.txt

Chancellor, William. (1973 Feb 1). The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a 

Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. 3rd Revised Edition, Chicago, Ill: Third World, 215. 17 December 1951^ We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People Civil Rights Congress. 195. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Charge_Genocide

EAST SIDE ARTS ALLIANCE 

2277 International Boulevard. Oakland, 94606

Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 3pm to 7pm

The Mercado de CAmbio/Tha Po Sto' Holiday Art Market & Knowledge XCHange

Poverty, Indigenous, Youth, Elder, and Disability skolaz- altho struggling to even BE/Stay /Live in this stolen colonized Ohlone /Lisjan Land (Oakland) will be putting on our 10th annual revolutionary art market for the holidaze!

Launched with Indigenous Prayer from From revolutionary Hip Hop to the debut of a film by Youth Poverty Skolaz from Deecolonize Academy called "Animal Eviction" to the release of Volume #14 of Decolonewz on Black Land Theft from The Amazon to Oakland - original art & crafts for sale from over 30 indigenous and poverty skola artists-

Yummy food for donation and there will be Po'Kies & the Debut of PoNuts!!! - we will have a whole afternoon of fun.

$1-20.00 donation at the door- No-one turned away - no matter what you got..

If you are an artist/crafts-person and would like to reserve a vendor table- pls email poormag@gmail.com/ by Nov 15th

(To Watch the beautiful Video of the Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tour by Noematic- Click here)- pls share this and help it go viral!!!!!

A Truth-Is-Scarier-Than-Fiction Halloween Story: 

By Cecilia Lucas

125 houseless people evicted from where they found shelter at the Transbay Terminal, to make way for Salesforce headquarters. This happened on one day 9 years ago, part of the stream of years of days of displacement, death and a skyrocketing epidemic of homelessness -- alongside the skyrocketing wealth of one of the richest cities in the world. Tents and Teslas, growing in numbers, side by side. 

 A few months ago, CEO of Salesforce, Mark Benioff, announced that he is donating 30 million dollars to *study* homelessness. Study. Now, I'm a professor. I believe in studying things. But I also believe in not wasting resources. And this is an issue that has been studied plenty. The issue here is not lack of knowledge. 30 million dollars is a lot of money, even though it is a drop in the bucket for Benioff. A lot of people could actually be housed for that amount of money. 

 A few years ago, the Homefulness project, a self-determined solution to houselessness led by houseless and formerly houseless people, began building housing on a lot in Huichin (East Oakland). Several families have already moved in, and the building is continuing and will soon house more families. 

 Today, the Homefulness crew led prayer and renewed their invitation to Benioff to give just 1 million of that 30 million to Homefulness to continue actually implementing the beautiful solution they are building of un-selling mama earth. A model of housing that prioritizes people, not profit. They even framed it as a study, to appeal to his sensibilities and desire to keep studying the issue: their initiative would be a study on the impact of actual housing on homelessness. 

 Benioff was unresponsive, so 3 allies, Nichola Torbett, Amy Hutto and Katrina Tuebcke settled into a tent inside the Salesforce building, intending to stay there until he cut the check. However, he called in about 30 police -- how much money did that cost??? -- to arrest them on trespassing charges. They have since been cited and released -- unlike the many houseless people who end up spending lots of time in jail for the "crime" of sleeping on the street or in a car. What kind of trick is that???? What is the real crime here? 

 Help us get some tiny little treats out of this mess. Please put pressure on Salesforce to give this small amount of reparations to the Homefulness Project of POOR Magazine for their (ongoing) role in the displacement of people

Tech Zombies with Race, Class Privilege 

By Nichola Torbett

I haven’t yet had an opportunity to articulate why it felt important to me to dress as a full-on, grayscale, living-dead zombie for the Salesforce housing justice action yesterday, and I don’t have a lot of time now, and yet it feels important to say something. The following represents my thinking only and not the thinking of the other two zombies arrested alongside me. They will no doubt speak for themselves.

We took action yesterday, at the invitation of unhoused and formerly unhoused people, to ask Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to redirect a small portion of the $30 million he is offering to a local university to “study homelessness” instead toward the Homefulness Project, which is a proven, poor-people-led solution to homelessness that is actually housing people. (You can support that ask today by tweeting this message to @Benioff: No study ever housed anyone. #OneMillonToHousePeople #MakeItOutToPoorMagazine #CutThatCheck #SlideThatCard #Redistribution)

Funding for poor-people-led solutions to houselessness was our demand, and that needs to remain the focus.

AND I think it might be helpful for me to articulate my reasons for participating as I did, especially for those friends and family who might be similarly positioned—not wealthy CEOS, but beneficiaries of certain forms of race, class, and education privilege.

I believe—and when I say believe, I mean not just “intellectually assent to,” but “feel in my body and spirit to be true”—that the same forces that confused Marc Benioff into thinking that funding a study was an appropriate response to the devastation currently being wrought in San Francisco, in no small part due to the arrival of tech companies such as his own, have also been at work in me. Those forces have been at work in me.

Having gone through the U.S. education system, including higher education at an institution not that different from the one doing the study; having been taught to value people according to how they have assimilated to the culture of those institutions; having been born a white woman in America at a time when white women were just becoming professionally ”successful” by cooperating with white supremacist patriarchal rules; having been steeped in the assumption that economically stable people must in some way be smarter and morally superior to those who are living in poverty; having been taught to fear poor people and associate them with criminality, I feel as if I can understand where Benioff is coming from. How do we solve the problem of these poor people (because clearly they are the problem)? Let’s do a study! (To my poor, disabled, colonized chosen family: I know these messages are ugly and hurtful and wrong. It’s time those of us who have benefited from them begin to tell the truth about them.)

I have been steeped in these assumptions. And hear this: They have drained the life out of me.

They have encouraged me to separate myself from the vast majority of the human family. They have done their utmost to get me to dress, talk, think, write, walk, and (not) dance in a way that has separated me from my body, from God, and from the whole living ecosystem of which we are meant to be a part, all in exchange for something they call “success.” My existence has been a pale shadow of what it could be, a walking death, a zombie half-life.

Many of us are zombies without knowing it, having never known there could be more to life. That’s not to say we don’t have privileges. We have them in spades, and that’s why it’s been so hard to realize we are actually dead.

Yesterday, after the police cleared the lobby of everyone who could not risk arrest, you all were outside the glass, and we three zombies were inside with the Salesforce employees and police, and it felt so utterly appropriate—everyone neatly sorted.

But then you all started to sing and dance just outside the glass doors, inventing on the spot new riffs: “Come on, Ben, just slide that card,” and “Oh Ben, make it rain,” and “We all deserve a home,” and “No more gentrification! Redistribution!” You all were singing and clapping and inventing new dance moves to accompany the evolving lyrics, and it was so freaking contagious that we three zombies were dancing, clapping, and singing along inside the tent we had pitched in the lobby—right there, surrounded by police in a locked down space. It was fucking joyful. You did that. You enabled us to be that alive in that moment. I think the Salesforce people and police felt it, too.

I want that for myself. I want to be with you all.

I want it for my white, working, middle and owning class, sometimes formally educated friends and family members.

Hell, I want it for Marc Benioff.

I want us to be one human family.

And that is no easy thing because some of us are zombies. We have zombie desires and confusions and hungers and ways, and that makes us dangerous to human beings. We are conditioned to join the zombie death march that brings with it innumerable financial and social benefits. In the interest of “helping,” we sometimes try to encourage others to become more like us, to join that zombie death march.

My prayer is that by humbly casting our lot with you all, by redistributing wealth, by listening to you and following your lead, by leveraging privilege in strategic ways, we can unlearn our zombie ways and become less dangerous to you and to all of life on this planet (because right now we are well on our way to killing all of it). It’s risky, this coming together—more to you than to me—and even so, I am often scared: scared of being called out, scared of being seen as the zombie that in many ways I still am. I am committed to trying to walk this path (in the opposite direction of the zombie death march) with as much humility and courage and love as I can. I hope so many others will join me.

During these holiday seasons we want to bring in the new year with your support so that we may continue to build walls and roofs for houseless folks; so that we may continue to school our youth, traumatized by poverty, displacement and disability; and so that we may continue to build and empower our community through financial aid, radio, print media, and storytelling. 

As Poor Magazine always says, Homefulness was built  with a prayer and story. We believe in community solutions and collaborating with community who have race, education, and/or class privilege, to support those of us who struggle every single day with the realities of immigration, poverty, and displacement. In hopes of supporting people in a sustainable way, we officially launched the Bank of CommUnity Reparations, the first bank that doesn’t loan money, but gives it to the people who need it most. This direct approach is crucial, because in crisis, the last thing poor folks need is a bunch of papers to sign and hoops to get through to access basic needs.

This year, one of our community members reached out to us as her friend was in deep sadness around her landlord trying to evict her and her water shutting off. This deep East Oakland mama with four children and one grandbaby on the way needed $600 to pay off her water bill. According to Section 8 code if a tenant cannot keep up with their utilities, that is grounds for forced removal of the home and the loss of Section 8. If her water got cut off she would face forced removal from her home and the loss of Section 8. Within days, we raised the money and cut a check to this mama and her water did not get shut off. 

Last month, a community disabled elder, who is also on Section 8, was being illegally evicted from his home. Through the CommUnity Bank of Reparations and legal support from our Jailhouse lawyer, we were able to save his housing.

These examples are just two recent ones. We have hundreds of stories. Our model has been spreading across Turtle Island and reached as far as India. 

In the coming year, we need your help to complete Phase Five of Homefulness as we finish building this housing for our unhoused and formerly unhoused elders and children. We have now specifically received a notice from permit gangsters that we need to complete the whole project by Feb of 2020 or will need to pull all new permits (more Politrickster Gangsterism- which we will be launching a fight against FOR sure!!!) but we also need your support to build Homefulness Houses while we continue to educate houseless and formerly houseless youth in DeeColonize Academy in our street-writing workshops at encampments and so much more! 

We believe that your gift is not a coincidence. You are reading this letter because our ancestors are working together to create a new model of living. From Houselessness to Homefulness-- these are the houses, banks, books and media that poor people built. EVERY single part of it is hard and beautiful and unspeakably challenging and a struggle and strange and almost impossible and each day we pray for its completion. And we cannot do it without your help.

In prayer, resilience, and gratitude -

POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE/DeeColonize Academy/Homefulness Families

Over the span of THIS year, these are SOME of the things we have accomplished, in no particular order: (more at the on-line version of this letter available at www.poormagazine.org)

1. PUBLISHED OUR FIRST TEXT BOOK, POVERTY SCHOLARSHIP- POOR PEOPLE-LED THEORY, ART, WORDS & TEARS ACROSS MAMA EARTH: A poor people theory book release was launched with a reading at City Lights bookstore and then went on a book tour with 6 poverty skolas and 12 akkkademia infiltration workshops across Turtle Island from Tennessee to Columbia University in NY to St. Petersburg, FL to Los Angeles. $4,000 of books sold and all proceeds from book sales and book tour workshops went to Homefulness. 

2. PUBLISHED FOUR OTHER POWERFUL POVERTY SCHOLARSHIP BOOKS: Skeletal Black, Ishy-Me Stranger Danger Saga, Making of Aunti Volume 2 and Krip Hop Graphic Novel Volume 1 were published. 

3. LAUNCHED THE COMMUNITY BANK OF REPARATIONS with Solidary fam from POOR Magazine moving in SERIOUS LIBERATION - so that Po Mamaz Reparations Fund & Radical Redistribution Fund could support Houseless mamaz with Motel rent, Water bills of po mamaz could be paid, monthly rent could be paid- elders facing evictions could be un-evicted - and on and on.

4. LIBERATED AND LOVED ON TWO MORE YOUNG INDIGENOUS MEN OF COLOR from the InJustice system through powerFULL work of DeeColonize Academy Liberation School, as well as successfully transferred core leadership to a young poverty skola/African Descendent teacher/leader Jason.

5. CREATED TWO ISSUES OF DECOLONEWZ: Our student newspaper, the newest one is on Black Land Theft from Oakland to the Amazon- led by youth and with family.

6. OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED PNN-KEXU 96.1FM - Po Peoples Revolutionary Radio Station- with weekly revolutionary radio programs by Joey Villareal (Pelican Bay Plantation prison poverty skola reporter/commentary); Slave revolt radio by elder Black poverty skola Gerald; KRIP HOP radio on race and disability; Po Peoples Newz hour; Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia- a bilingual, indigenous radio; youth poverty skola radio, with young afro-indigenous formerly homeless youth; & RoofLESS radio with unhoused poverty skolaz across this occupied Bay Area & with more to come.

7. LAUNCHED WESEARCH ON THEFT OF TENTS with ROOFLess radio reporters in Occupied Yelamu (SF) and Huichin (Oakland)- 7 teacher/Mamas/Youth and Families spearheaded by SisSTAR poverty skola teacher Junebug.

8. LAUNCHED AN EXTENSIVE WESEARCH REPORT by intergenerational poverty skola mamaz and youth on the hoarded vacant and across occupied Huchuin (Oakland).

9. HOMEFULNESS FINALLY GOT THE $29,000 FIRE SPRINKLERS. It was SUCH A RACKET, with endless hidden fees, and us pushed to the bottom of the list of priority "jobs" for the one of three contractors available to do this work- and the Luxury SRO which will house another unhoused poverty skola POOR family is almost done!

10. HELD THE SCAMLORDS B SCAMMING PROTEST for elders and aunties and black residents of Oakland being gentriFUKEd out of Oakland.

11. HELD THE PRESENCE, PRAYER AND PROCESSION of the housed for the unhoused, where people with the privilege to be housed in gentriFUKation Bay Area came out to Oakland and SF City Halls to show support for their houseless neighbors and say no to sweeps of houseless people- which are done in their name

1. OPENED THE UNCLE AL/MAMA DEE LIVING LIBRARY a  free library for the Homefulness & the BlackArthur Come-Unity of Deep East Hucuin (Oakland) - which doubles as the Pnn-Kexu 96.1fm-Po Peoples Revolutionary radio/TV studio filled with small collections of books by Poverty, Indigenous/Migrant/Disabled Skolaz as well as collections of Raza Studies, Women's Studies, Black Studies and Indigenous Studies Skolaz and Youth fiction and poetry 

2. STOLEN LAND TOUR THRU TECH Truth is scarier than fiction- and the truth is Marc Benioff evicted 125 houseless people from the transbay terminal to build the shiny new saleforce headquarters, then donated $30 million to “study” homelessness without giving a dime to housless people- we as unhoused peoples have already been studied, examined, surveyed and swept- now cut us a check!!

3. ROOFLESS RADIO street-writing workshops on both sides of the bay with vehicular housed residents and people living in encampments

4. POVERTY SKOLAZ THEATER PRODUCTION- A Free three week bi-lingual Theatre workshop that includes a stipend, healthy meals and inclusion in a play of the same name- tour and play has happened so far in LA and San Francisco

5. POOR PRESS 2019-2020 class launched at POOR for poverty skolaz to write and publish their books

AND SO MUCH MORE! 

Who cares for the caregivers?

By: KRB4Real

I got the call while helping a friend in San Francisco that my parents both 80 years old, were in a horrific car accident in June this year. They were driving on 580 and rear-ended a van, which left them with major injuries from compression fractures in their spines, broken ribs and other injuries. The accident left them unable to care for themselves on a daily basis. I traveled by UBER to the hospital in Castro Valley to hear of the news that would change my life. My daily life was busy volunteering for various organizations, traveling,  working in the garden at my church, attending classes, dating and living what I thought was my best life. 

Fear and doubt kicked in and sent me into shock. I became responsible for those who cared for me, without any warning or preparation. It felt like I went back to being a mom again. This time I have 2 adult children (not birthed by me), but placed in my care for safe keeping, nurturing, care and love. Now my 2 parents (children) were placed in 2 different hospitals, so the saga begins. I leave home to make it to the hospital by 8 am to meet with the doctors checking on their progress. 

From one hospital to the next every day, that was my routine for almost 3 weeks. Then the big day my mom is being released to come home with just 2 days advance notice. So now I am hustling to get life set-up for them and my dad is to be released in the next 4 days. Reality just hit hard, how am I going to do this by myself? I called a family meeting with by bumm brother and my daughter to express the need for everyone's support. Well, my brother needs a $90 bus pass to get to the house and my daughter works every day and has a school age child to care for, so that leaves just me to do the daily grind. I get breakfast, lunch and dinner, wash clothes, pay bills, clean-up, provide medication, make all medical appointments, attend medical appointments and did I mention I have to shop for food.

What happened to my best life?  Who cares for me?

Stay tuned for part two.

Beginning of Part two: 

By: KRB4REAL

During this time I was diagnosed with caregiver depression. The Family Caregiver Alliance says “ caregiver depression is more common than you may think, it’s a normal response to a difficult situation”. Depression is “normal” for me I fight depression daily. Prior to my parents accident I’ve dealt with depressive disorder for the last 10 years. 

Caregiver depression has added a double whammy to my life. I am saddened by having to give so much and attempting to be so much for everyone that I lost myself.  In losing myself, I’ve lost my motivation to live freely. You may say how did I lose motivation, I should want to get out? 

 I rarely desire to go out and live. My motivation is to maintain my status quo continue being a caregiver, because I feel that there’s no one else that can do what I do for my parents. Now, I struggle with life, it feels like I lost so much, well to be truthful it feels like I’ve lost my life. 

One of the challenges is that I don’t have a life. The basics of all of my activities are in the house, providing services period! I enjoyed going to church, having dinner with friends  as I mentioned before, I love traveling and just “hanging out”.

 Not only has the caregiving stifled me the depression causes me to feel less than, I cry at the drop of a dime, my perspective on life is null to none I have no desire to do anything, but, to be depressed. Depression is debilitating. I have found with experience of depression is that I need therapy twice a month. 

Therapy allows me to be able to express myself openly and freely. My expression is mainly to cry and voice my “problems” of being a caregiver. I am never judged or condemned. The depression is slowly easing up, I continue to fight and allow space for the intervention of Spirit to help ease my pain and my heart.  

Beginning of Part three: 

Thank God my parents are on the mend and not as demanding, but, I still do everything.  I’m out of touch and sync, my question is how do I rebuild me?

Listen to it at https://soundcloud.com/user-147187058/black-disabled-bodies-police-part-3

Transcript: