Letter from America:with KENNETH MUFUKA
As an experienced observer of life and manners in this country, I fear that though the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has won the propaganda battles, it is very far from winning the war.
The similarities with the Zimbabwe situation are uncanny as I will show below. For reasons of space, I shall deal with momentous issues without the benefit of long explanations.
BLM concentrated all its fire power on two issues: Police brutality against blacks and what is now seen as systemic racism were in one basket. Later, BLM saw the Republican administration and President Donald Trump as part of the equation. They, therefore, conflated the two into one.
They forgot the wisdom of Dr Martin Luther King. The struggle is largely directed towards winning over the sovereign powers, whether Republican or Democrat.
Then, only then, will this sovereign power pass laws that ameliorate black suffering. Democrat president Lyndon Johnson joined the movement and passed the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965).
Republican president Richard Nixon brought about quotas in hiring. This was a crucial part of affirmative action and has been the source of tremendous advancement for blacks for the last 50 years.
Police the enemy While it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that police in general behave like occupying forces in black neighbourhoods, white culture has insulated whites from accepting the fact that this behaviour is systemic or embedded in white supremacy.
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Whites assume that police brutality is the exception rather than the rule.
The solution advanced by BLM, therefore, goes against the grain of general white culture. In New York, a 600-man secret force was disbanded, U$1 billion taken away from the police budget, and choking of victims forbidden.
Such measures are being advanced in Seattle, Washington State, Portland in Oregon, Baltimore City, Chicago, Atlanta and other progressive areas. The association of police evisceration with Democrats is a bad omen for the future.
As I speak, 4 000 police in New York City have opted to retire end of September. The total force is 20 000. Similar movements are afoot in Atlanta and Chicago. The crux of the matter is that the Confederation of Police Forces in the US has come out in support of Trump for re-election. This is a severe setback for BLM. Police brutality is underpinned by the doctrine of “sovereign immunity”. This doctrine is brutality practiced in tinpot dictatorships like Zimbabwe where presidential guards habitually beat up pedestrians or their motorcades run over waifs and orphans as they drive to the airport. The US Supreme Court has refused to review this doctrine, even as we speak. This is setback number two.
Increased violence As we go to press, a witness at a Chicago funeral is speaking to the press.
“All we saw was just bodies shot up everywhere, all over. There were legs, stomachs, backs, all over the place. We thought it was a war zone out here.”
The police superintendent has confirmed that 60 bullet shells have been recovered from the scene, 17 people are dead and perhaps 70 persons are under doctors’ care.
The funeral service was in memory of a brother (Black) shot prior in gang violence. The “shootists” (US English) drove in a van, ignored a police presence at the funeral and opened fire.
Here are two Chicago police reports. Father’s Day weekend, June 22, 104 people shot, 14 left dead. Week-end of June 27, one-year-old shot while riding in her mother’s car. Police say the shooting was deliberate and may have been meant to send a message. That same weekend 104 were shot, number of dead is unknown.
Similarly, in Portland, last weekend, a BLM female protester spread grease on the street from a bucket. Police wearing heavy boots slipped and fell. One was video-taped in severe pain.
While this is generally black-on-black violence, right-wing provocateurs have followed in the wake of BLM protests burning business areas and restaurants.
BLM has been digging up “stuff” that will shame the devil. When asked about systemic oppression, BLM gives this example.
“Slaves, obey your masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” (Ephesians 6:5) The Episcopal Church has also come under attack. They too owned slaves and George Town University, one of their leading centres of learning, at one time sold 252 slaves, mothers, children separated from their mothers and fathers, “none was spared, not even for compassionate reasons as even children were placed under the hammer of the auctioneer”.
People of faith constitute part of the sovereignty of any country. Dr King’s Letter from Birmingham was addressed to Jewish and Protestant clergy. He called upon them to obey the dictates of their faith, which in summary is the command: Let my people go.
BLM, I am afraid, has alienated this group.
Putting all their eggs in Democrat Joe Biden, I think is a mistake. If the Senate remains in Republican hands, and if God in His wisdom, allows Trump another term, they are done.
Zimbabwe The revelations by Brother Alex Magaisa are earth-shaking and frightful.
Since the defenestration of Judge Anthony Gubbay we have suspected but were uncertain as to the complete capture of the judiciary by the state.
Suspecting a spouse’s infidelity is one thing, finding them in bed with a malefactor brings frightful complications into the equation.
Gubbay spoke about the compromising situation in which judges found themselves since Robert Mugabe refused to assure even their physical safety from war veterans in January 2001.
The revelations by Magaisa that 400 priests of Baal (the indigenous churches) have been supping at the table of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel have put the finishing nails on the coffin which sustained our faith.
The churches, the judiciary, the executive (and the bankers) are pillars of the sovereignty. The revelations have shown that they are part of the systemic oppression. Like BLM, Zimbabwean progressives will find that they have a war on all fronts.
I have fought my battles, I have kept the faith, I and my white brother Andrew Moyse agree on this one thing. We leave these new battles to Fadzayi Mahere and her generation.
l Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot, based in the US. He can be contacted at [email protected]
