The following text is from the website of the New Afrikan Liberation Collective, a group Shakur co-founded, as originally appeared in 2020.
The average person tends to see the political as something that is separate from self, that it is this whole little thing that can be placed into a box and turned on and off when u choose, no everything is political. From the toilet paper we choose to wipe our behinds with, to the toothpaste we choose to brush our teeth with is a political act and statement. The very choice to even use toilet paper as we know it, is a political act and not just a personal choice. (We are subjects of marketing, advertising, etc.)
Lay ppl and non conscious ppl tend to see and read politics as what we see in politicians and the system of some form of politics being practiced. We are social beings and we live and exist in a social world where some form or degree of social interaction is necessary. This social dialectic, this social interaction is colored by our politics which is manifested through the personal. As social beings we have also been socialized based on our interaction with the material world as social beings and our socialization is what give rise and shape such. As children, as boys and girls we are immediately socialized into gender roles of male and female and what girls and boys can and can’t do or shouldn’t do. What is or isn’t acceptable to society, whether it be sports, the workplace or personal relationships. This reflects a politic, which gives rise to a culture and cultural expressions. I don’t want to get all technical and philosophical. I just want to point out what should be obvious on some levels, especially for those of us that embrace a radical politic.
Its a quote that goes “once you become conscious there is no such thing as unconscious, from there on, there is only betrayal,’ paraphrasing.
What we bring to personal relationships, the way we love, and a host of other practices may be in a personal context, but it still reflects a certain politik or political development or the lack thereof. Which leads me to trying to over stand some ppl recent criticisms of a protest we had outside of the Wardens house for the Westville Correctional Facility where at least a reported six prisoners have died as a result of being infected with the C-19 Virus and this Wardens negligent and oppressive policies. Where at last report the prison had a 0.92% infection rate with over 50 guards infected. A situation so dire that the state moved in the National Guard to perform critical services and beef up security. This is while the warden is being vicious and oppressive, being indifferent to the conditions that the prisoners are being held in. The buck stops with him!
So our Prison Solidarity Coalition spearheaded by the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (NABPP) held a protest in front of his house with body bags and bullhorns while live streaming it. Some people said this was to Personal and we should not pull his neighbors into it. I really find this position extremely disgusting, seriously. Like I want to vomit, disgusting.
How is the kkkrimes this man is committing, the International Laws on Human Rights that he is violating, Not Personal? Are you really trying to suggest that he is just doing his job? That after office hours he should be able to return back home to the safety and sanctity of his house and neighborhood in peace? Hi honey, I’m home, how was your day? Ah, I just weaponized the C-19 Virus and cross contaminated hundreds of prisoners. I had to have some of them beaten for trying to go against me. You know just another day on the job!
With this rationale, why do we protest kkkiller kkkops? Why do we protest u.s.soldiers who torture and kill civilians?
The Struggle is Personal and Political.
People in position of power or authority, people who suppose to have the peoples trust and representation should not be allowed to commit kkkrimes against humanity, should not be able to hide behind a badge, behind the color of law and commit murder or other atrocities. They should not be allowed to hide in plain sight. So yea we should throw body bags on their lawns and educate their neighbors as to what exist amongst them.
You know, reactionaries come out against sex offenders or ex cons living in their communities, but not people who commit torture, not war kkkriminals or racist who allow death to happen in their name, who allow beaten and infectious diseases to spread like wildfire in their prisons on their watch.
So for the critics and from someone that have been down for 20 yrs. and putting in work for over 30, you damn right its personal!
Today its body bags on the lawns who is to say what it might be tomm?! And that my friend is the political statement that we are trying to make!!
If mass murderers and tyrants that were or are in positions of power wasn’t allowed to live in plain sight without being challenged, we might live in a better world and society today.
People need to pick a side or get out of the way. You cannot turn your politics off and on like a light switch and you can’t keep trying to play by the state system rules that you claim to be committed to removing.
You say its to personal, tell that to the families of brothers and sisters who are being suffocated by killer kops on amerikkkas streets, tell that to the families of prisoners who are dying lonely deaths in cages and infirmary beds from this Covid virus. The position is just wrong on so many levels.
Pick a side. Its gonna get real!!
All Power to the People!!
Shaka Shakur
Shaka Shakur, 1996207
Buckingham Correctional Center
P.O. Box 430
Dillwyn, VA 23936
A New Afrikan Political Prisoner
Email Shaka at : shakashakur1996207@jpay.com
