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Parable of the No People

Parable of the No People

No, no, no! That is all you say. Everything about you is no. Your lips say no, your eyes, your heart, your mind, your arms, your legs, your feet. You are a no person. I run from you. You say no to God. I am afraid of your no touch. I cannot expand my mind around no people. You will kill my spiritual development. No no no no!
When you say yes to life you open the world of infinite possibilities. I understand no part of no, only infinite possibilities. No does not exist in my world, only yes. Yes to love. Yes to success, yes to hope, yes to truth, yes to prosperity, yet to divinity, yes to resurrection, yes to ascension, yes to eternity. I am the language of yes. If you cannot say yes, get away from me. I run from you, want nothing to do with you. There is no hope for you until you open your mouth to yes.

Cast away the yes fear. Let it go, let God. Yes. No matter what, yes. No matter how long, yes.
No matter how hard, yes. Let there be peace in the house, yes. Let there be love between you and me, yes. Let there be revolution in the land, over the world, yes. We will try harder, yes, we won't give up, yes. We shall triumph, yes. Yes is the language of God. Yes is the language of Divinity, Spirituality.

All the prophets ssaid yes. Adam said yes, Abraham said yes. Moses said yes. Solomon said yes.
Job said yes. Jeremiah, Isaiah said yes. The lover in Song of Solomon said yes. David said yes.
John and Jesus sasid yes. Muhammad said yes. Elijah and Malcolm, Martin and Garvey, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth said yes. Fannie Lou and Rosa Parks, Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott ssaid yes.

Mama and daddy said yes. Grandma and grandpa said yes. All the ancestors said yes. Forevermore, let go of no and say yes. Dance to yes. Shout to yes!

--Marvin X

from Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2007

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In Memory of Yusef Iman

Holiday Historical Treasures

	Yusef Iman Memorial Archives

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We remember Yusef Iman's hard work and powerful voice that advanced the Black Arts/black liberation movement. What a dedicated actor he was, also organizer and community builder.
What a pleasure to see his daughter, family and friends keeping his legacy alive. We love you Yusef Iman!
--Marvin X

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YUSEF IMAN MEMORIAL ARCHIVES
(347) 620-IMAN (4626)
yusefiman@gmail.com
Abridged view: www.yusefiman.org
Full view: https://sites.google.com/site/yusefimanmemorial/

Alicia Keys - Wont Tell Your Secrets

Living in the No Stress Zone

Living in the
No Stress Zone


It is what it is, they say in the hood. When people greet me and ask how I'm doing, I reply, "I'm thankful to be alive. And I'm trying to stay in the no stress zone." When I say stay in the no stress zone, I see they have a delayed response, perhaps, to allow the words to flow across their brain cells. I can see they have been hit in the head with a new thought, a new possibility and they like the concept. No stress? Hell, my life is nothing but stress, I see them saying in the deep structure of their mind, in their momentary silence. I've just given them an answer to the conundrum of their lives, that maze of propositions that hit them at every turn of their daily round: stress from their own insecurities, stress from their mate, children, siblings, friends, job, social life or the lack thereof, stress from world events they can't possibly comprehend until they unravel the infinite contradictions in reality that are most vexing even to the rocket scientist.

I must then explain to my friends how I maneuver the mine field called life. It is a process of how one perceives reality, of understanding that most of reality is simple illusion, a figment of imagination that isn't worth the time of day. Most of what we concern ourselves with is of no importance whatsoever. Aristotle told us there are very few things in life really important.

While I was in prison a few months for refusing to fight in Vietnam, there was an inmate who upset the whole prison population although he only had six months to serve. Now there were men who had ten years and more, and they went about their daily round calmly in a state of peace, aggressively working on their case to get time reduced. But this man with six months was a nervous wreck , bugging everybody about his little time, pacing up and down the big yard like a mad fool with little understanding how fortunate he was to have such a light sentence.

And so it is what it is, sometimes we yet pray when God has already answered. We disturb God and ourselves when He has answered us and blessed us with our request, yet we cannot see in our spiritual blindness. We stress ourselves and then extend it to our mates, children, friends, neighbors even.

In recovery they teach us to let go and let God! If your woman or man leaves you, be happy! Why would you want someone to stay with you who wants to go? It may be the will of God that they go, no matter if you love them or not, no matter how heart broken you are, let them go: vaya con dios! Don't kill them because they want to leave, God may have something better for you and them, so why are you blocking your good, stressing yourself to the max, threatening to take your life or the life of your mate. Then what are you going to do with a homicide case?

A man with great talent, a great voice like Paul Robeson and William Warfield, came to me so he could learn the art of drama and public speaking. Although he had a great voice, he had problems reading, but I put him in the studio to record some of my writings. He let me know he was having problems with his woman since I could see he was under stress for some reason. I went on a national book tour, and when I returned a mutual friend informed me that he had stabbed his woman 16 times and threw her out on the freeway. His friend told me he'd caught her cheating on him, although he had a long history of cheating on her, that he had been a real snoop doggy dog, but finally had his day and couldn't accept it. So he killed her and now has a life sentence. If you a dog, why you think somebody else can't be a dog? Why you think your funk ain't gonna catch up with you? Surely you heard what goes around comes around!

Stress is thus internal and external, though most of the time we bring stress to ourselves. We are not at peace with ourselves. We are not confident and secure in what we do of righteousness, if we do any righteousness at all! A friend said everything we do is wrong! We haven't had a righteous thought and right action our entire lives. Mistake after mistake after mistake.

At my Academy of da Corner, the young girls come to me crying about the men who mess over them time and time again. I don't think they realize how many times they tell me the same story about the same man except he has a different name. But it's the same dude! Sometimes I hate to see the young girl coming because I know she got another story that's the same story she had the last time I saw her. And yes she's stressing, swearing she's gonna leave them no good nigguhs alone, but she ain't because she's addicted to the drama. She addicted to doing the wrong thing but expecting good results.

In other words, she's acting out a prescription for insanity. Actually she's manic depressive and in therapy. At least she does go to her therapist on a regular basis, though we doubt any positive results are achieved, since white supremacy psychotherapy can do us little good. Is it going to help liberate us from oppression. Dr. Fanon said only by joining the revolution can the oppressed man and woman regain their mental health. Only us can heal us, and at this point Dr. Hare is calling for mental health peer groups to meet on their own since there are not enough certified mental health specialists, especially those certified in African holistic healing. See my book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Allah El.

How shall we escape to the No Stress Zone? Have no attachments but to God! Understand, our mate may be our friend and she may be our enemy, depending on the time of day or the time of month. Don't worry, don't stress, enjoy her while it lasts and when it's over, let it go and let God.

Don't stress about children, for Gibran told us they come through us but are not us, they have their own lives, missions to accomplish. Help them, love them, guide them, but don't control them, let them find their voice, their bliss Joseph Campbell told us we all must discover.

Much stress is over this matter of bliss. We haven't figured out the reason for our existence. For a long time, maybe half our life, we thought it was about a mate, children, a job, the Jones next door, drugs, more sex, money, lots of money, things and things and things, and yet none of the above satisfied us, only caused us great stress, trauma and unresolved grief.

But one day, maybe after enduring that mid-life crisis, we suddenly realized our bliss, our purpose for existence, something that gave us infinite joy and pleasure. Now we're focused and absolutely refuse to allow anyone or anything to take us off course. Don't matter how long it took to achieve our bliss, but we made it, finally, the stress is gone and the thrill is on! We're like a child in Toys R Us. We can't believe life can be so beautiful. We have truly entered the No Stress Zone. We are in harmony with the universe, with humanity, with all that was, is, and shall be. We can see clearly now, the fog has lifted. Joy. Joy. Joy.

We worry about nothing because nothing is worth worrying about. We stay prayed up as the Christians say. I pray leaving from and returning to my house. I did this as a dope fiend because the most dangerous moment of the dope fiend's life is going to cop the dope. Something told me to put on the amour of God before I left my house because I didn't know what might be outside my door, especially in those seedy hotels in San Francisco's Tenderloin, or anywhere else for that matter. And then I prayed when I made it back safely, thankful God had protected me.

I do the same now, everyday, to put myself is a spiritual mode, to be thankful and thoughtful, as Sly Stone used to sing, and to make sure I am in the No Stress Zone! Even while I am at the Academy of da Corner, I must check myself to the fact that I am not there to make money, money is not the real reason God sent me to that corner at 14th and Broadway, but to serve somebody, to say a kind word to somebody, to reach out to somebody by being silent and letting them vent, even when I don't want to hear it. God says shut up and listen to my people, you are my ears, servant, so listen and shut up, and don't worry bout no damn money. And you think God don't bless me. Sometimes the people line up to give me donations. You better ax somebody! I just go there and stand or sit down and people come by and put money in my hand. Sometimes the people watching can't believe what they're seeing. My brother, a former loan shark, watched people bring me donations and couldn't believe his eyes. Better ax somebody!


Even when your bills are due, don't stress, simply call the white man and tell him when you will be able to pay him or give him something on your bill. Stress gone!

A friend told me years ago not to worry about the Middle East, what's happening in Jerusalem with the Jews and Palestinians. He said, Marvin, they've been fighting there for thousands of years, and they've been living together in peace many years, so don't worry about it. The Jews, Muslims and Christians all claim Abraham as their father. Do you think Abraham is stressing over the antics of his children. He's probably saying, "These some damn fools!"

Solomon told you the same thing about his children. After all his labor under the sun, he cried I still might leave my kingdom in the hands of a damn fool son or daughter! All is vanity and vexation of spirit!

Stay in the No Stress Zone!

It might be another two hundred years before we see true freedom, justice and equality in America. We've been here 400 years, so-called freedom 150 years. So give yourself another 100 or 200 years. Ancestor John Henry Clark said this is not a sprint but a long distance run. So pace yourselves and plan for the next 100 and/or 200 years. And stick to the plan, don't let politricks take you off course, don't let the world of make believe convince you to go for illusions of the monkey mind.

In recovery, we are taught don't get too happy and don't get too sad. Understand that life is joy and pain, sun and rain. Don't think the sun's going to shine all the time, or that it's going to rain forever--unless you live in Seattle, Washington!

Put signs in your house: This is a No Stress Zone. Don't allow stress in your house. A girlfriend came over and when I got a call that took some time to finish, she got an attitude and told me to get off the phone. I told her, "Girlfriend, you can leave, good bye. As-Salaam-Alaikum!" No, you ain't coming in my house giving me orders. It ain't that kinna party up in here!

Ladies and gentlemen, stress is killing us, in the night and in the day. We live in a hostile environment for starters. For most of us, the job is negative, our families ungrateful, our friends hypocritical, the police unpredictable. Jesus told you to be in this world but not of this world, so we must transcend all the stress from the hostile environment until we can change it into that wonderful world Armstrong sang about. Stay in the No Stress Zone!
As-Salaam-Alaikum,
Marvin X
12/16/10

18. The Cultural Unity of North American Africans

Toward Unity of North American Africans

18. The Cultural Unity of North American Africans


The North American African is a unique phenomenon in the western world. Although he shares common features with his brothers and sisters throughout the Americas, i.e. Central, South American and the Caribbean, who are descendants of kidnapped Africans, the North American African is special only because he survived in the belly of the beast, that great whore Babylon. While his folks endured colonialism apart from the motherlands of the colonial empires in France, England, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere, the North American African suffered domestic colonialism, especially after the revolution of 1776. Thus the domestic colonial masters held a tight grip on his mind, body and soul. While residual African culture persisted in North America, in other parts of the Americas, African expression was more pronounced, such as Condomble in Brazil, Santeria in Cuba, Vudun in Haiti.

In North American such spiritual expression was syncretized in the Holy Ghost church and other Christian expressions. Actually, it was the black classical music called Jazz that gave expressions similar to his aboriginal African soul. Like Vudun, Jazz allowed democratic expression of his spiritual consciousness, though the same was allowed in the Christian ritual to some degree, for even his brand of Christianity was suspect and was allowed only with a representative of the slave master present at his sacred services, unless the slaves were able to steal away to Jesus in the woods where the ritual was used to unite Africans for resistance and revolt. See Negro Slave Revolts by Herbert Apthecker.

While African culture enjoyed more vitality in other parts of the Americas, in North America we again must view Christianity as the main outlet for the expression of African consciousness.
After all, the very structure of the Christian myth/ritual was synonymous with his condition of oppression. As Rev. James Cones makes plain, his condition under the cross and lynching tree was in harmony with the crucifixion of the Savior Jesus. The story of the suffering Jesus was the identical story of the North American African who was daily crucified but eventually after long suffering that lasted centuries, was resurrected from the grave of ignorance and passivity, and slowly began his ascension up to the mountain top in the manner of Jesus and more precisely like Sisyphus in the Greek myth. Or shall we say he is also like Hiram Biff in the Masonic myth who was knocked in the head and placed into a shallow grave, from which he is able to resurrect and ascend.

But the North American African also found solace in the Old Testament stores of Moses and the children of Israel. America became that old wicked pharaoh who wouldn't let the oppressed go home. Or the Negro was Jonah in the belly of the whale, or Shadrah, Meschak and Abendigo in the fiery furnace who were delivered. In short, the common theme for the North American African's version of Christianity was liberation, from Nat Turner through Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X which injects the Islamic survival in North American African culture, since it is suspected 20% of North American African slaves were Muslims. The slave narratives are clear evidence, along with the Mississippi Delta music called Blues that havs been traced to African Islamic culture. Of course there are many who say Muslims were already before Columbus, who saw mosques on his way here. And there is evidence Muslims traveled here during the Ghana, Mali and Songhay empires, from the tenth century to the Middle Ages. Certainly, Columbus would not have made it here were it not for his African Muslim navigators. The Moorish Science teachings of Noble Drew Ali are adamant that the Moors (Africans) were here centuries before the Europeans. See Othello's Children.

With the coming of the radical 1960s, the North American Africans shifted more to their Islamic heritage because it was found more in tune with the times, especially after the Civil Rights movement reached a dead end and black power came to the forefront. With the injection of Islamic consciousness into the national struggle, we see a shifting from Christian to Muslim and Yoruba names and practice. Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X set the stage for black consciousness in North American Africans. There was also an infusion of East African Swalili culture from Ron Karenga's US organization with the spread of the Kwanza ritual, adopted from the ancient harvest festival. Karenga's Kwanza ritual has become widespread although his Seven Principles or Nzogu Saba is rarely practiced except during the ritual days. If it were ever practiced it would advance our national struggle on all levels of cultural expression. But this is true for Elijah Muhammad's do for self economic and political philosophy as well.

The present economic crisis is causing many North American Africans to consider other possibilities of economic survival since we see the American economy has gone global without any consideration for white workers, let alone North American African workers who've never enjoyed the American economic dream except during emergency such as World War II.

With the election of Obama as President, North American Africans have given America what may be her last chance to convince the descendants of kidnapped and enslaved Africans that they are truly a part of American culture. But the last two years have given us no indication we should surrender our aspiration for national liberation. With each passing day, North American Africans are losing faith in America and Obama, for he has revealed himself to be nothing more and nothing less than a politician who will do whatever is necessary to carry out his agenda, not the people's agenda. As dire as economic matters have become, we still have no tangible program to address unemployment or the massive home foreclosures that will continue along side the economic meltdown. The time Obama spent on the health plan was noble but misplaced since without jobs how will people pay their insurance bill?

North American African culture struggles around the primary problem of constructing and stabilizing family life in the midst of the chaotic American decline. We shall be forced to rely even more on our African consciousness and cultural traditions as the American empire and republic withers away.

The commonalities of North American African culture survive in spite of cultural colonialism from the wider community, although the bombardment of European American culture takes its toll on those who worship the white version of Christianity, to those brainwashed with the white supremacy school curriculum, to the Jewish produced unconscious rap music and the negative aspects of hip hop culture. On the positive, hip hop culture has continued the North American African tradition of originality and creativity, in language, poetry, music, dress, dance and other artistic expression, including a profound desire and attempt at economic independence.

A journey from coast to coast, from the funky North to the Dirty South will reveal similar cultural expression with a few nuances in language and dress. From San Francisco's Fillmore to New York's Harlem, Bloods are basically the same, same walk, same talk, same music, same dress, same food, same behavior. Now the Dirty South may indeed have slightly different survival techniques. For example, when I went to copy my manuscript How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, the sister clerk at Staples in South Carolina asked me where I was from. Jokingly, I said, "From here."

She said naw you ain't.

I said why you say I ain't from here?

She replied because we don't use that term white supremacy down here.

Okay, I'm from Cali.

Truth is North American Africans in the South have a way of dealing with the white man in order to survive in a still very racist environment. They say we Cali and/or Northern or Up South North American Africans come down south with language and behavior that will only cause problems for the natives and once we get the white man upset and about to lynch people, we leave, but they are stuck with the peckerwood, who will indeed lynch them at worse, fire them from their minimum wage jobs at the least. So the South has a very necessary different psychosocial linguistics, entirely different from Up South where we may tell the white man to go to hell without reprisal.

Of course some might say the north is no different, for we are lynched every day up north by the police, if not each other. So this is merely an indication of the need for continued national struggle coast to coast. Regional divisions are mostly superficial, for there are blacks up north who will not drive their new car to work, for fear the white man will know too much about their business. And there are blacks who refuse to buy my books during lunch hour because they are afraid to return to work with them for fear they may get fired for possessing incendiary literature.
--Marvin X
12/15/10