Whether it’s mass protest, indefinite boycotts or a run for office, Americans must decide what “or else” means to them and how far they’re willing to take it.
He was just breaking in his teenage years in 1994 when he went to the Million Man March in Washington, D.C.
“After it was all said and done, we had marching orders: go back to communities and build institutions,” Mr. Asa Khalif, an activist who leads the newly formed Black Lives Matter Pennsylvania chapter, told me today, less than twenty four hours after he shared his thoughts on the 10-10-15 event with Mr. Vincent Thompson, a broadcast journalist with talk radio station 900am WURD, one of the few black-owned media outlets that provided several hours of live coverage of the rally. “Many people didn’t know what to do when they got back on the bus,” Mr. Khalif continued, adding that “or else” was a bold proclamation that didn’t result in any bold actions by the collective body assembled, which was, he said, a huge let down, considering that the day of the rally, which was inspired largely by police violence, it was announced that two independent reviewers deemed the fatal officer-involved shooting of Mr. Tamir Rice, a 12 year-old black boy, justified.
Without much more than a call to boycott Christmas and support, in perpetuity, black-owned businesses, Mr. Khalif said people will have to define what “Or Else” means to them personally and how far they’re willing to take it.
“Or else is a threat,” he said, “Not of violence, but of anarchy and revolution, a complete departure from the norm, it certainly isn’t peace.”
The Washington Post covered the rally with the headline “A fresh call for justice,” but from Mr. Khalif’s perspective – and, admittedly, mine, too – we’re already in the “or else” era, where the calls for justice are, for the most part, falling on deaf ears, leaving dramatic occurrences as the remaining option.
So, what does “Or Else” mean and what should it look like?
While I agree with Mr. Khalif that everyone must define “Or Else” for themselves, there is, to a degree, a level of uniformity that those who are oppressed can display, and it should concentrate on slowly withdrawing from mainstream society’s institutions while bolstering community ownership and control of education systems, politics and political parties, media and economics.
Not everyone will be willing to boycott their failing, unsafe and underfunded school, as I suggested Philadelphians do in response to nurse shortages, but everyone should at least spend time considering how to educate, advance and safeguard their child(ren) without the assistance of a government that has proven largely unsuccessful and incompetent in that area.
Protesting in the street against police violence isn’t for everyone, but all who sees its damaging impact on communities should certainly feel compelled to mitigate it, and at the very least, respond to it, as should be the case with community violence which claims much more lives, and, some would argue, has a greater negative impact on quality of life.
Starting and scaling a media institution to combat the distorted and inaccurate images that the mainstream produces is hard, and won’t be attempted by the public at large, but the oppressed masses, at the very least, should be supporting and contributing – in time, content or finances – to independent media, particularly those owned and operated by people of color, while boycotting media outlets that over-represent African-Americans and people of color in depictions of violence.
Putting one’s self up for great scrutiny by running for elected office, hounding individuals for donations to support a fresh-faced, anti-establishment candidate, or marketing a new political party to the masses isn’t a job the majority of Americans will sign up for, but that doesn’t mean the majority can’t regularly engage and assert themselves into the political arena: increasing voter turnout, securing more knowledge of, and access to, all candidates and elected officials and obtaining a quality civic education is a minor feat everyone should seek to accomplish.
Boycotting Christmas, and the activities like Black Friday that lead up to it, does have an impact on greedy corporations, though not everyone will buy into Minister Farrakhan’s call.
But even if the public doesn’t sit this holiday season out, there is something to the idea of keeping the black dollar in the black community and leveraging the 9-figure buying power to build the much-needed institutions that vulnerable communities are devoid of.
The rally is over. The hype on the street, for the most part, has quieted down and whatever news value the project generated over the last few months will soon fade, leaving the harsh reality of oppressive American policies still center stage for many to face daily.
As Mr. Khalif stated, to which I agree, now is the time to confront yourself and ask: What does “Or Else” mean and how far are you willing to take it?
* Tune into 900amWURD or 900amWURD.com every Friday evening at 6:30pm to hear me relive #TheWeekThatWas*
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™