‘Community First’ – Brooklyn’s post-election Black Agenda focus

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large

A “community first” call to action is part of the Brooklyn post-election and Black Solidarity Day Black Agenda conversation.

With the shocking Donald Trump win, the General Election is officially over, formulating the Black Agenda is in full effect “cultivating a culture of collaboration,” said Dr. Ron Daniels of the Institute of the Black World, “to heal and empower Black families.”

This past weekend, from the roots to the shoots–a wide array of activists, organizations, and community leaders held Black Solidarity Day gatherings in Brooklyn community spaces like Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn College, and Bethany Baptist and Friendship Churches.
Those addressing multiple audiences with the Black Agenda issue included; James McIntosh, co-founder of CEMOTAP – the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive To African People, Omowale Clay, Chairman of the December 12th Movement; former City Council and Assemblymembers Inez and Charles Barron, Dr. Segun Shabaka from International African Arts Festival, the East New York’s Mosque 7C Minister Henry Muhammad, and Harlem’s Mosque Number 7’s Minister Arthur Muhammad.

At Rev. Craig B. Gaddy’s Friendship Baptist Church in Bed Stuy, Elder Faye Moore moderated the Saturday, November 2nd, Black Solidarity Celebration.
“We hold each other accountable by having a continual dialogue with each other,” said ‘The Community’ panelist Colette Pean, a member of the December 12th Movement. “We make it a point to reach out to different groups, organizations, and individuals – to share the work. Be it the call to Stop The Killing. Be it the call to come out for Black Solidarity Day, to come out for reparations.”

The call to action involves communicating with the different coalitions by utilizing mediums such as the Black and independent press; old-school directed phone calls, leafleting, and the red, black, and green flag-draped neighborhood mega-phoned motorcades.
“Our task is to pull people into the streets, into doing the work, and demanding that people get involved in their liberation.”

Elder Faye Moore asked about what action item could come out of the panel conversations.
Sister Ivy Gamble Cobb of the Family Center said, “I am just one organization. I can’t meet all the needs of the community that our constituents have, but when we partner with other individuals and with other organizations, then together–that strengthens all of us.”

Elder Moore asked the clergy panel what is the “church willing to do to fight to educate our children properly and ensure that our history on these shores is accurately taught?”
Elder Jackie Moore replied, “One thing that we have got to do is show up, to not be afraid to cross barriers of what we call doctrine….the church has to be ready to respond to what the need is at the moment; if it is to add financial support…security if it is to serve food, I think that is where we have to start.”

Min. Henry Muhammad said a united front is the biggest power. “What people see on the surface…is nothing like what is coming behind them. We have to take over these schools. It starts right here in the church, with the clergy, in the mosque, in the synagogue.”

Despite working 9 to 5 and all that goes with that, Muhammad said that continuous sacrifice is necessary, and people must “extend themselves beyond that because we are in a revolutionary mode. We are in a fight for our lives and building a future for our children…Go to the community board meetings; you don’t have to be on the board; sit down and listen to what is being said. Raise your hand, introduce yourself at the end of the meeting, and give them a call as a follow-up. Now we are starting to relate and develop a relationship. And relationships are built on love, trust, and communication, and understanding that our people are suffering from a lack of knowledge..that some of us have a slave mentality.”

Petty fights and dislikes should not prevent a person from deciding to “weather the storm,” reaching out, building, and engaging in the “serious action item. Start with yourself and your family, then get to your local community board or school district meeting, or community council meeting, or precinct meeting, and find out what’s going on.”

At the Black Solidarity Day rally at Rev. William August Jones’ Bethany Baptist Church, there was an array of speakers including the UNIA, the Uhuru Movement, Dr. Segun Shabaka, Minister Arthur Muhammad, Dr. Molefi Asante, and Raymond Dugue.

Aidaruus Shirwa, a Palaver activist, said people have gotten used to abnormal things, but $4000 a month rent, hundreds of thousands of homeless people on the streets in one city, and violent police, he said, “is not normal.” A societal shift is what is needed. “We are fighting for material benefits to better our lives,” he said. “Our goal isn’t just to have a Black person in the White House, it’s to have Black people in homes.”

In the continued struggle for reparations, food, and healthcare, the fighter for community growth said, “Organize where your feet are. Form a resident union in your apartment complex, unite in your workplace without fear, and take control of your community.
This is a battle for our lives…find an organization that aligns with you to fight for these demands…Not false representation and leftover promises.”

Minister Arthur Muhammad said the solidarity blueprint has already been set, as
Nation of Islam head Minister Louis Farrakhan demonstrated the power and meaning of unity with his Million Man March, and subsequent 3 other successful massive community calls to Washington.

“The greatest threat to our solidarity is our unwillingness to reconcile our differences,” reflecting upon what seems to be obstacles, the Fruit of Islam member continued, can in fact be “a great opportunity. Let us be intentional as we tell our struggle, and make sure that young people are in the room.”

Greg X from Hood Therapy decried the influx of illicit drug use and the new weed that school children are ingesting and getting high every day before school starts.
“Our children pledge allegiance to social media…to weed, and pills, and fashion…Our children are under the influence of drugs, and they are making decisions that are putting them onto a collision course with the criminal justice system.”

For future reference, he said, “It doesn’t matter who wins the election, they are always going to take white people’s priorities first…We need to vote for ourselves.”

Operation POWER co-founder Hon. Charles Barron told Our Time Press, “Every day we are facing the consequences of the marriage between politicians and Wall Street CEOs, which creates the industrial complex systems like privatized prisons, real estate, and the City of Yes and housing. It guarantees that whoever is declared the winner – personalities over policies; capitalism will be in power, and poverty and unemployment will be in power.

“We have to organize like we have never organized before. We have to continue our fight for access to great healthcare, address education and poverty, and to help the unhoused. We have to create a strong post-election united front and build with our grassroots organizations on a local and national level.”