THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
I was in the eleventh grade in high school. The language of liberty was conveyed in the dialogue of Gil Scott-Heron. My little squad became skilled in civil rights mentored by political figures who spoke with power and grace and activist who left us awestruck by their strength and made me feel somewhat fearless.
So when I found that Gil Scott-Heron was going to perform at UCLA, I found the phone number of his manager and asked if he could come to my high school to talk about his work. I was ready for a polite no. His manager left for a minute, came back, and said, “What are the address and the time?” My friend and I began to scream, and the manager laughed. The day arrived, and everyone flocked for a seat in the auditorium. But then I looked at the clock. and he was 15 minutes late. Two-thirds of the student body were waiting and the entire basketball team. Most of the teachers just stood there and the principal seemed to glance at me every three minutes. I kept thinking, how am I going to live this down? Where was this guy? One of the representative symbols who stood against black apartheid in America and South Africa had not shown? His contributions were celebrated for addressing the social complexities that plagued inner cities, and the need for resistance and activism against inequality. Yet he wasn’t there. Classes started to grumble. Then the doors opened and there he was, with his entire band. He spoke about social change, opposition persistence, and opposing injustice.
Here we are more than three decades later, and the victory sought, even what was achieved was erased with the executive pen of oppression.
The triumphs built with the sacrifices of John Lewis, Medger Evers, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, and Rosa Parks will be remembered for the charity of their souls and the largeness of their hearts. James Reeb was a white pastor, beaten to death by a segregationist in Selma. Viola Liuzzo was an activist from Tennessee, murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Selma, and later Jonathan Daniels, a pastor who died shielding a black teenager from a fired shotgun in Hayneville, Alabama. They all wanted people of color to have what they had for themselves. We must recognize the Urban Indian, whose multi-tribal confrontation was considered the most successful political event by Native people in the 20th century, The manner does not matter, and we are obligated to respect they choose a method. From Harry Belafonte to Gil Scott-Heron, they all used their voices to build bridges, and their worlds and actions appealed to our better nature. They, all besides thousands of others, share in the triumph of heroism.
These were real soldiers who fought to change the old dogmas of racism, excelled in the power of activism, and demonstrated the capacity of the people to free themselves from bigotry, inequality, brutality, and the hangman’s noose. They did not hide in camouflage and other gear to conceal who they are. Their refuge did not lie in remaining unidentified if they almost beat someone to death or shoot a peaceful protestor. Even private contractors should have a sense of ethics and recognize that the power given them by Donald Trump and William Barr, violates the First Amendment and human rights while reducing their dignity.
Americans who take refuge in the argument that against a professional army nothing can be done, and who sit down to wait until all necessary detached conditions are accomplished somehow spontaneously, without seeking to accelerate them, will be waiting forever. It must be clear to everyone now, that it is an undeniable truth that racism, injustice, cruelty, and disenfranchisement are still matters that cannot be ignored today. Despite promises and appearances to the contrary, once and again, we have a crisis in America, which is utterly intolerable. Maybe the revolution was not televised when Gil Scott said it would not be, but it certainly is now, and you might see your friend, or your neighbor, perhaps your son or daughter with pellets being shot into his head.
When a government has come into power through some form of fraudulent or not and pretends to maintain the appearance of constitutional legality, the movement of human rights will experience considerable difficulties. Still, until we replace it with democracy, civil protest is our right and our responsibility.
Khalilah Sabra, Muslim Americans for Social Justice and Diversity
