Liberation

       

In all the swirl and whirl… I remembered that Moyers had James Cone, of Black Liberation theology, on his show a few months ago… dug up the transcript…

BILL MOYERS: What does it say to you? I mean, Jena’s one thing because of the tradition and history of the south. But, how do you explain the presence of these nooses anonymously– placed in the New York area? Columbia, as you say? Long Island where I lived for 25 years. Not far from where we’re sitting right now. How do you explain that phenomenon?

JAMES CONE: You know, racism and white supremacy is– was not confined to the south. It was all over America. It’s just expressed in different ways. So, it’s as deeply– in many ways, more deeply felt and present in the north of the – or outside the south largely because it was not acknowledged.

BILL MOYERS: We just — recently saw this book called Lynching in the West:, photographs from Ken Gonzales-Day, as he went searching for California’s lynching trees. This is California.

JAMES CONE: Yes–

BILL MOYERS: Three hundred–

JAMES CONE: Yes– yes.

BILL MOYERS: –lynching trees he found out there. I mean, that’s the far west. That’s not the south. That’s–

JAMES CONE: Lynching happened all over. In Pennsylvania, in New York, in California. All over America lynching happened. Now, it was more prominent in the south like Mississippi and Georgia. But and the terror – was deeply embedded there. But, it was a part of America. And that’s why Malcolm X said, “Mississippi is America.” It’s not– you know, it’s not separate. And so, you know, Malcolm X came from the north. And his voice was a lot more militant than King’s who came from the south. And so Malcolm was trying to get people to listen to something that they didn’t want to listen to. Now, King knew. His truth was obvious. Malcolm’s truth was not so obvious.

BILL MOYERS: The truth that?

JAMES CONE: Truth that white supremacy is as present in New York City as it is in Jackson, Mississippi. That’s the truth. And when America can see itself as one, not just the south did the lynching, but it is a part of American culture, then we can figure out how we can start to overcome that. You can’t overcome something if you never acknowledged its presence.

BILL MOYERS: Do you acknowledge the presence of crucifixion and lynching today?

JAMES CONE: Yes, I do.

BILL MOYERS: Where?

JAMES CONE: It’s in the prisons. It’s in prisons. It’s all over. Prisons, I would say, is the most prominent.

JAMES CONE: Crucifixion and lynchings are symbols. They are symbols of the power of domination. They are symbols of the destruction of people’s humanity. With black people being 12 percent of the US population and nearly 50 percent of the prison population, that’s lynching. It’s a legal lynching. So, there are a lot of ways to lynch a people than just hanging ‘em on the tree. A lynching is trying to control the population. It is striking terror in the population so as to control it.  ::snip::

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

He touches very briefly on Obama during the discussion, he does not know him personally.

Moyers was prompted to have Cone on as he caught a tape of a 2006 speech Cone gave at Harvard on The Cruxifixion and the Lynching Tree.  I tried to attach a link to the video of the speech but it seems (and I had suspected) that part of the freeze and crash I have been having relates to some videos.  Whether I run them or not, something in the code or whatever hangs up the computer.

Sorry… but if anyone wants to see the speech it is eaily googlable.

********************************************

About these ads