To My People
2018; The Feminist Press; Volume: 46; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wsq.2018.0041
ISSN1934-1520
Autores Tópico(s)Race, History, and American Society
ResumoTo My People1 Assata Shakur (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 1. "To My People." Third World Women's Alliance's Triple Jeopardy 3 (2) November/December 1973, 10. Courtesy of Frances Beale. [End Page 216] Black brothers, black sisters, I want you to know that I love you and I hope that somewhere in your heart you have love for me. My name is Assata Shakur (slave name JoAnne Chesimard), and I am a revolutionary. A black revolutionary. By that I mean that I am a field nigga who is determined to be free by any means necessary. By that I mean that I can never be free unless all of my people are free along with me. By that I mean that I have declared war on all forces that have raped our women, castrated our men and kept our babies empty bellied. I have declared war on the rich who prosper on our poverty. The politicians who lie to us with smiling faces and all the mindless, heartless robots who protect them and their property. I am a black revolutionary, and as such, I am the victim of all the wrath, hatred and slander that amerikkka is capable of. Like all other revolutionaries, I have been hunted like a dog, and like all other black revolutionaries, amerikkka is trying to lynch me. I am a black revolutionary woman and because of this I have been charged with and accused of every alleged crime in which a woman was believed to have participated. The alleged crimes in which only men were supposed involved, I have been accused of planning. They have plastered pictures alleged to be me in post offices, airports, hotels, police cars, subways, banks, televisions and newspapers. They have offered over Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000) in rewards for my capture and they have issued orders to shoot on sight and shoot to kill. I am a black revolutionary and, by definition, that makes me part of the Black Liberation Army. The pigs have used their newspapers and TV's [End Page 217] to paint the Black Liberation Army as vicious, brutal, mad dog criminals. They have called us gangsters and gun molls and have compared us to such characters as john dillenger [sic] and ma barker [sic]. It should be clear, it must be clear to anyone who can think, see or hear, that we are the victims. The victims and not the criminals. The Real Outlaws It should also be clear to us by now who the real criminals are. Nixon and his crime partners have murdered hundreds of thousands of third world brothers and sisters in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Mozambique, Angola and South Africa. As was proven by the Watergate, the top law enforcement officials in this country are a lying bunch of criminals. The president, two attorney generals, the head of the FBI, the head of the CIA and half the white house staff have been implicated in the Watergate crimes. They call us murderers, but we did not murder over 250 unarmed black men, women and children, and wound thousands of others in the riots they provoked during the sixties. The rulers of this country have always considered their property more important than our lives. They call us murderers, but we were not responsible for the more than 6,000 black people lynched by white racists. They call us murderers, but we were not responsible for the 28 brother inmates and the 9 hostages murdered at Attica. They call us murderers, but we did not murder and wound over 30 unarmed black students in the Orangeburg Massacre. We did not shoot down and murder unarmed black students at Jackson State or Southern State either. They call us murderers, but we did not murder Martin Luther King, Emmit Till [sic], Medger Evers [sic], Malcolm X, George Jackson, Nat Turner, James Chaney and countless other black freedom fighters. We did not bomb four black little girls in a Sunday School. We did not murder, by shooting in the back, 16-year old Rita Lloyd, l l-year old Rickie Bodden, or 10-year old Clifford Glover. They call us...
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