by C5Damani (old head of the movement)
“How refreshing to consume words that have meaning and depth. In the great and honored tradition of wisdom literature and if there is anything that could be called instant wisdom, ‘nigga notes & quotes’ fills that void. This book may be the finest book of quotes, anecdotes, sayings and sage bromides any people struggling for human dignity and liberation will ever read.”
Tanomar Akili Muumba
Black Poet Activist (Rest in Power)
when describing “nigga notes & quotes”*
– day twenty-eight –
Today we lost another giant.
Today we lost a strong advocate and a willing warrior for Black people in Detroit, Michigan and in the United States of America.
Today we lost the steadfast sentry for the empowerment and repairing of the descendants of slaves here in the American Experiment.
“…blacks in the U.S. have been subjected to the most thorough brainwashing of any people in history. Isolated as we were, and are, from our land, our roots, and our institutions, no group of men have been so thoroughly terrorized, dehumanized, and divested of those things that from birth make men strong.
author forgotten
John James Conyers Jr., the longest serving African American congressman in congressional history died today at the age of 90. The liberal Democrat from Michigan loved Black people. He loved who we were and who we are constantly and continually becoming. He loved all of our Universal Black Family.
“…we exist in a world that does not respect people who do not speak up and fight for what is rightfully theirs. It may be true that we’ve had little voice in the making of this world, but that doesn’t mean we will not have a hand in its reconstruction.”
author forgotten
So much so… he demanded this country account for its ills, its brutality, its dismantling of the Black diaspora through the horrors of chattel slavery as practiced here in America. He was unflinching in his defense of African American necessity for financial compensation for the damage done by a racist system and structure. Conyers did not allow a country to forget that its ghastly atrocities against enslaved Africans forged this prosperous nation and thus the reason why this nation needed to reconcile (monetarily) with the descendants of those whose backs were broken to create its uncommon prosperity.
“…did I colonize, kidnap, make war on myself, destroy my own institutions, enslave myself, use myself and neglect myself, steal my identity and then, being reduced to nothing, invent a competitive economy knowing that I cannot compete? Sounds very foolish, but this is what you propose when you place the blame on me or on ‘us’. It was a fool who created this monster, one unaccustomed to power and its use, a foolish man grown heady with power and made drunk, dizzy drunk from the hot air that inflates his ego. I am his victim, born innocent, a product of my surroundings. Everything that I am, I developed into because of circumstantial and situational pressures. I was born knowing nothing; necessity and environment formed me, and everyone like me.”
George Jackson
Black Panther Party
John Conyers was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 1964. His unconditional love and unflinching defense of Black people was on full display when in 1989 and every year thereafter until he left the House in 2018, he introduced a reparations bill that would study slavery and its lingering effects in order to provide recommendations for ‘appropriate remedies’ – structurally, systemically, and financially.
“…substandard schools, medical care hardily fit for animals, overpriced, dilapidated housing, a welfare system based no a policy of skimpy concessions designed to degrade and divide (and even this may soon be cancelled) – this is only the beginning of the list of props in the overall scenery of oppression which for the mass of blacks, is the universe.”
author forgotten
“…people in positions of trust owe an equitable distribution of wealth and privilege to the people who have trusted them. Each individual born in these amerikkkan cities should be born with those things that are necessary to survival. Meaningful social roles, education, medical care, food, shelter, and understanding should be guaranteed at birth… why else do people allow other people to govern? Why do we give them power over us? Why do we give them taxes? So they can say that the world owes our children nothing. The world owes each of us a living the very day we are born. If not, we can make no claims to civilization and we can stop recognizing the power of any administrator.”
George Jackson
Black Panther Party
In honor of John Conyers Jr., i shared throughout this post quotes from “nigga notes & quotes” that specifically speak to the need for reparations, a cause that Conyers unapologetically carried for a people.
Rest in Power, Brother Conyers Jr.!
*Since most of these quotes were collected prior to 1985 it means some of the authors of these quotes, I have simply forgotten… blame old age! (Ha) When the author is known, I will indicate it. When an author is not indicated, please forgive me and understand. Furthermore, this collection of quotes was first started as a personal endeavor never meant to be shared publicly thus the reason why some authors may not be indicated.