27 Years In Prison Was The Price He Paid For Freedom
In 1948, the all-white South African government introduced a system of segregation and oppression known as apartheid, which forced all Black South Africans to live in separate neighborhoods, go to separate schools, and use separate public facilities from whites.
Like Jim Crow laws in America, apartheid was a racist jab at Blacks aimed at making white people feel superior. Whites in South Africa were minorities, and they feared the political power of Black citizens, so they planned to divide them along tribal lines to decentralize their influence.
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While Nelson Mandela has been touted as the leader that brought an end to apartheid, he was not the only one who made significant sacrifices in the 50-year political conflict. His colleague and confidant, Jafta Masemola, is an unsung hero of the apartheid struggle.
Masemola spent 27 years in prison, a few months less than Mandela, for his involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow the South African government in association with his participation with the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC).
Masemola, known as “The Tiger of Azania” for his relentlessness and refusal to compromise, taught political education to children at an elementary school until the government declared PAC to be unlawful.
When the government banned PAC in 1960, Masemola started an underground guerrilla organization that gathered weapons and planned a revolution against the oppressive government. Unfortunately, someone exposed the group’s plans and Masemola went to jail for almost three decades.
While in jail, Masemola remained politically astute and kept in contact with Mandela as much as he could. Prison guards and judges hated Masemola because he refused to budge, would not denounce the armed resistance against the government, and swore to only negotiate if the terms included returning land to dispossessed Africans or establishing a free African society.
After serving what felt like a lifetime in a maximum security prison, Masemola returned to politics, but started at the grassroots level this time. He held nightly meetings at a local church to educate other Black South Africans about the tyranny they faced and how to mobilize in the face of it.
Unfortunately, Masemola’s fervent leadership soon came to an abrupt end. While he was driving one night in 1990, a mysterious truck came out of nowhere and ran into the side of his vehicle. The driver sped off and was never caught, leaving Masemola dead in the street in what is thought to be a South African government conspiracy.
Apartheid ended four years after Masemola’s death, and Nelson Mandela has often acknowledged his invaluable contributions in the good fight for a just and fair South Africa. Masemola spent his entire life fighting for a better future for his people, yet his name has long been erased from the history books.
So, today is the day --- Jafta Masemola was a true hero and his legacy shall never be forgotten. To learn more about South Africa’s Apartheid, check out Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa.
Many believe Canada, a country that welcomed enslaved people to enjoy freedom within its borders, has never struggled with racist foolishness.
In reality, when minstrel troupes in blackface came to town, Canadians not only let it slide, they enthusiastically sat front row.
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Schools, charities and even the police would use touring blackface minstrel shows - dating back to the 1850s on into the 1960s - as prime entertainment for their celebrations and fundraisers.
In modern times, McGill University researchers grew so sick of people popping up on college campuses and in the media, costumed in shameful blackface, that they decided something different had to be done.
McGill created the Arts Against PostRacialism (AAPR) program to help young people “raise the level of critical dialogue about blackface” on their campuses and to support “those negatively impacted by blackface.”
The program prioritizes research and safe spaces for dialogue that reminds a population - who embraces the dehumanization and stereotyping of Black people as “harmless fun” - that these caricatures of real people do hurt.
The project’s goal is to keep apathy low and awareness high amongst the general population.
Ultimately, their documentation and outspoken platform create strong resistance to the practice of Canadian blackface and erase any notion that we’ve moved into a “postracial” era where racist behavior doesn’t exist nor need to be frequently denounced.
Interracial marriage in the United States is nothing new. Despite widespread narratives concerning racial “purity” and the taboos of racial mixing, couples historically defied social norms and laws in the pursuit of love.
Laws targeting the mixing of races date back to the 1600s. The first laws to criminalize marriage (or sex) between whites and African Americans were enacted during the colonial era in Virginia and Maryland. These regulations pertained specifically to whites marrying enslaved Africans or indentured servants and threatened exile for white perpetrators. In 1691, Virginia expanded upon these sanctions by forbidding whites from marrying free Blacks and set the precedent as the first law that relied solely on race rather than class or status of servitude to dictate who one could marry. “Anti-miscegenation laws,” as they would later be deemed, were explicit intended to bar interracial marriage and interracial sex.
While anti-miscegenation laws prohibited whites from marrying any person who was non-white, they were really targeted at preventing whites from marrying anyone of African descent. As colonies gained their independence, anti-miscegenation laws were enforced through the state and the punishment for breaking one of these laws became even more severe. Individuals could be charged with felony adultery and fornication with a minimum sentence of one year in prison. Additionally, the law’s advocates made several attempts to introduce U.S. constitutional amendments to make interracial marriage illegal on a national level. Though more than two-thirds of the states possessed anti-miscegenation laws, no attempt for a nationwide ban was ever successful.
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It was not until 1967 that anti-miscegenation laws were considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In Loving vs. Virginia, the Court found that the laws violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a Black woman, had traveled to Washington D.C. to legally marry. Upon returning to Virginia, Richard and Mildred were arrested for defying the state’s anti-miscegenation laws and sentenced to one year in jail. According to the trial judge, “Almighty God created the races…and he placed them on different continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” In spite of his opinion, the Lovings avoided jail time and set a new standard for the legality of interracial marriage in the U.S. In 2016, Loving, the cinematic depiction of this love story and case was nominated for an Oscar, two Golden Globes, and either nominated for or women over eighty other awards.
According to the Pew Research Center, more than 12% of people marry outside of their race. For Blacks in particular, nearly 19% have a spouse from another race. These statistics likely understate the shifting norms towards interracial marriage in the U.S., even despite current racial tensions. While ideas of racial purity still exist today, the sentiments have not found their way into restrictive marital laws as seen in the past. From stories of Emmett Till’s beaten for reason of looking at a white woman, to the contemporary prevalence of interracial marriages, we have clearly come a long way but still have progress to make.
The post How do you really feel about Becky with the Good Hair? A Legal Perspective. appeared first on PushBlack.
According to a recent United Nations (U.N.) report, the United States is the “most unequal” of all developed countries in the world. Over 40 million Americans live in poverty, and half of those live in “extreme” or “absolute” poverty.
The report was prepared by Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special reporter on extreme poverty and human rights.
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He noted that 40% of Americans who might be classified as “middle class” live paycheck-to-paycheck, and are only one minor unexpected crisis - a lost job, car repair, or unexpected medical expense, for example - away from poverty or homelessness
And it’s getting worse. In 2018, President Trump passed a new tax law that reduces the amount of taxes rich Americans and business owners have to pay, which is making our country’s inequality even WORSE.
"The United States has the highest income inequality in the Western world, and this can only be made worse by the massive new tax cuts overwhelmingly benefiting the wealthy," Alston said.
One of the only ways we can reverse this trend is by voting out Trump and his kind - and voting in someone who represents our values. Keep your eye on your local elections and on the next Presidential election in 2020!
Many believe Canada, a country that welcomed enslaved people to enjoy freedom within its borders, has never struggled with racist foolishness.
In reality, when minstrel troupes in blackface came to town, Canadians not only let it slide, they enthusiastically sat front row.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-1512094833018-0"); });
Schools, charities and even the police would use touring blackface minstrel shows - dating back to the 1850s on into the 1960s - as prime entertainment for their celebrations and fundraisers.
In modern times, McGill University researchers grew so sick of people popping up on college campuses and in the media, costumed in shameful blackface, that they decided something different had to be done.
McGill created the Arts Against PostRacialism (AAPR) program to help young people “raise the level of critical dialogue about blackface” on their campuses and to support “those negatively impacted by blackface.”
The program prioritizes research and safe spaces for dialogue that reminds a population - who embraces the dehumanization and stereotyping of Black people as “harmless fun” - that these caricatures of real people do hurt.
The project’s goal is to keep apathy low and awareness high amongst the general population.
Ultimately, their documentation and outspoken platform create strong resistance to the practice of Canadian blackface and erase any notion that we’ve moved into a “postracial” era where racist behavior doesn’t exist nor need to be frequently denounced.
Dr. Ben Carson
It’s terrifying to think that a man who once called enslaved Africans immigrants - as if they weren’t forcibly ENSLAVED - is now responsible for expanding access to discrimination-free affordable housing. Yikes!
We’re thinking this retired neurosurgeon needs to head back to medicine.
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Lincoln Perry
You might better know this early Black actor by his stage name: Stepin Fetchit. Willfully, he played the caricature of a lazy, dumb and docile Negro in many films at the height of Jim Crow. For doing so, he was rewarded plenty of wealth. But, today, his onscreen cooning is simply a tragedy.
“Black Judas”
Dubbed “Black Judas” in the early 20th century by Black intellectuals like W.E.B. Du Bois, William Hannibal Thomas authored, “The American Negro” (1901), a book that condemned Black people for being Black far more callously than any white supremacist. In fact, racists of the day used his book to justify repealing the 15th Amendment.
Clarence Thomas
What a disappointment this Supreme Court Justice has consistently been for nearly 28 years. From opposing affirmative action to his 2013 support of gutting the Voting Rights Act, Thomas has failed us time and time again.
Former justice Thurgood Marshall must be rolling in his grave.
Those Black Women Who Support Trump
Social media stars Diamond and Silk paint a disturbing portrait of how some Black folks who are promised the worst by Trump’s administration can still act against their own interest.
Let’s do the opposite and work in our collective interest toward freedom!
Conducted every two years, the General Social Survey is a widely-respected poll that tracks Americans’ attitudes about a variety of topics, including race, government, and religion.
The latest results have been released, and Americans’ attitudes about race and government spending have changed DRAMATICALLY
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A majority of Americans - the most ever recorded since the first survey in 1974 - believe that the government spends “too little” to “improve conditions” of Black Americans.
Surprisingly, there were increases across all political parties, including Republicans - with the highest increases among Democrats, especially white liberals
Another significant finding: more Americans than ever understand that disparities in income, jobs and housing are due to discrimination, rather than “lack of motivation or will.” Of course, we have known this forever, but the rest of the country is finally catching up
Analysts suggest that better media coverage of things like police brutality and inequities in the criminal justice system, as well as the shockingly overt racism of President Donald Trump, have helped shift attitudes
The survey does NOT indicate that most Americans support reparations in the form of a direct payment to descendants of those enslaved.
But with 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates such as Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker putting reparations-like policies on their platforms, could we see a reparations check in our mailboxes soon? Only time will tell.