HOW RAP REC INDUSTRY PUSHES BLACK YOUTH INTO JAIL

The US record industry is complicit in America’s prison-industrial complex. When rappers write lyrics about police brutality, the execs shoot it down. But glorify gang violence and prison, and they’re happy to release your record. Here’s New Jersey hip-hop artist Wise Intelligent spitting some truths on the issue.

ALT-RIGHTER: ‘GENIUS EUROPEANS’ NOT SLAVES BUILT U.S.

This clip is a reminder of what our brothers and sisters in the US are still up against. In it, alt-right leader Richard Spencer claims that America’s current economic prosperity has nothing to do with enslaved African labour - but rest solely on “European geniuses”!

He denies slaves in the cotton industry played a pivotal role in the development of contemporary American capitalism, influencing not just the South, but the entire nation's economy, propelling it to the top of global markets.

By the mid-19th century, cotton became America’s largest financial asset and its most critical export. The profits from cotton were fundamental to the North's industrial rise and, by 1860, the Mississippi River Valley was home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the country.

Continued.........Moreover, slavery helped establish financial tools such as credit lines and mortgages. A wide financial network involving bankers, lawyers, investors and traders in the North evolved for the sole purpose of streamlining the business of subjugation.

According to Edward Baptist, professor of history at Cornell University and author of 'The Half Has Never Been Told,' the financial systems of North America were directly tied to slavery in the South, with the wealth generated by enslaved labor being funnelled into global markets, creating a kind of financial empire centred around the whipping, beating, killing and sexual abuse of African people in America.

Video credit: TV One TV (YouTube)

SOURCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsCbHwZn3qE

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/09/baptist-book-relates-slaverys-role-shaping-america

https://nature.berkeley.edu/agroecologylab/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/How-slavery-became-the-building-block-of-the-American-economy-Vox.pdf

https://www.history.com/news/slavery-profitable-southern-economy#

https://equitablegrowth.org/new-research-shows-slaverys-central-role-in-u-s-economic-growth-leading-up-to-the-civil-war/

BARBADOS PM CHANNELS AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AT UN

In her address at the 79th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley reminded delegates of the African humanist philosophy of ubuntu.

‘Ubuntu’ is a South African Zulu and Xhosa word that roughly translates to 'humanity towards others.' The New World Encyclopedia defines ‘ubuntu’ as ‘embodying all those virtues that maintain harmony and the spirit of sharing among the members of a society.'

Mottley said ubuntu should be used as a guiding principle to carve out a new path of goodwill for the collective prosperity of all nations and all people.

Video credit: United Nations (YouTube)

SOURCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUvWnTesK3w

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ubuntu_(philosophy)

THE APPLE AND THE TREE: ELON MUSK'S PRO-APARTHEID GRANDFATHER

Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk, recently told South Africa’s @podcastwithmacg (X) how his ex-wife Maye's father, Joshua N. Haldeman, was a pro-apartheid white Canadian who moved to South Africa to support the Afrikaner regime that took power in 1948.

In his book, ‘The International Conspiracy to Establish a World Dictatorship and the Menace to South Africa’ (1960), Haldeman claimed Black South Africans’ accounts of mistreatment under the white-led apartheid regime were part of a false ploy to brainwash the public. Haldeman abhorred the widely growing opposition to the apartheid regime at the time, claiming, ‘the white man has always developed the country he inhabits to the benefit of all concerned,’ and that African civilisations had ‘built nothing and discovered nothing.’

Continued...........Meanwhile, many have criticised Tesla founder and X owner Elon Musk for promoting narratives that downplay the generational impact of slavery in the Global South. For instance, on 15 October, Musk retweeted a post highlighting the supposed ‘good’ of the British Empire. Adding his perspective to the tweet, he wrote, ‘Not many people these days know that the British Empire was the driving force behind ending the vast majority of global slavery. Slavery or de facto slavery was standard practice throughout the world from the dawn of civilisation until a few hundred years ago. It is even discussed at length in the Bible, for example.’

Such rhetoric not only glosses over slavery’s atrocities and the British empire’s barbaric nature but also overlooks well-documented historical facts, such as the British government's decision to compensate enslavers for the loss of their ‘property’ while the enslaved received nothing. Moreover, after abolishing slavery, Britain colonised territories that now amount to 56 modern countries.

Does the apple truly not fall far from the tree after all? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Video credit: @podcastwithmacg (X)

SOURCES:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-world-according-to-elon-musks-grandfather

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1U5x8LXgs

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/elon-musk-says-british-empire-ended-global-slavery-indians-say-have-some-shame/articleshow/114262071.cms?from=mdr#

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1846211256622968856

According to this Ghanaian proverb, some situations may appear simple, yet often require more thought about the potential outcome of each choice. Therefore, thinking carefully before you embark on action is essential.

What do you think about this gem from Ghana? Let us know in the comments.

BIDEN PARDONS SON TWO MONTHS AFTER EXECUTION OF BLACK PRISONER

Two months after pleas to pardon a Black prisoner, Marcellus Williams, in a case with contradictions went unheeded, US President Joe Biden granted his son, Hunter, a ‘full and unconditional pardon’ for offences committed between 1 January 2014 and 1 December 2024. 

Biden had previously stated he would not pardon his son, emphasising respect for the judicial process. However, in his 1 December statement, Biden cited political interference as a factor.

Hunter Biden faced a 12 December sentencing for federal gun charges after lying on a firearms application about his addiction and a 16 December sentencing for tax evasion, with prison sentences totalling up to 42 years.

Continued.........Williams was executed on 24 September despite evidence casting doubt on his guilt and opposition from the victim's family. The prosecution allegedly incentivised informants who testified. After dismissing six prospective Black jurors, the almost all-white jury contained only one Black juror. Meanwhile, DNA evidence on the murder weapon did not match Williams.

Legal efforts to commute his sentence were unsuccessful, with the Missouri Supreme Court rejecting a motion for life without parole, and the US Supreme Court declining to intervene. His case aligns with broader systemic disparities, as a 2022 report by the National Registry of Exonerations found Black people are significantly more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder in the US.

What would the reaction from the West be if an African president granted his son a pardon? Does the difference in how Marcellus Williams and Hunter Biden have been treated relate to proximity to power? Let us know what you think.

Continued.......Sources:

Hunter pardoned

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/president-biden-pardons-his-son-hunter-biden/ar-AA1v5xZv 

Marcellus Executed

https://innocenceproject.org/who-is-marcellus-williams-man-facing-execution-in-missouri-despite-dna-evidence-supporting-innocence/ 

Black people more likely to be wrongfully convicted

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/report-black-people-7-5-times-more-likely-to-be-wrongfully-convicted-of-murder-than-whites-risk-even-greater-if-victim-was-white

21ST-CENTURY SLAVERY IN THE U.S.

In 1865, the United States formally abolished slavery through a constitutional amendment—but with a significant exception: Forced labour could still be used as punishment for a crime. This loophole has perpetuated a system where, though the whips may be gone, a different form of coercion endures, enforced through the legal and carceral systems.

Inmates, many of whom are disproportionately Black, find themselves trapped in a cycle where they serve the state or private companies under conditions that resemble the very institution slavery was meant to abolish. Major corporations like McDonald's and Wendy's, as well as various government agencies, benefit from the low-cost labour pool.

This arrangement is particularly glaring in Alabama, where 10 predominately Black formerly incarcerated men and women filed in December 2023 a class-action lawsuit in federal court over forced labour.