Rhythms of Revolt and Suppression: Black Dissent, Terrorism, Targeting and the Digital

• In Event: Space & Race: Critical Regionalism, Big Tech Racism & Contested Highways

Abstract

[I]n its essential meaning, Maat is rightness in the spiritual and moral sense in three realms: the Divine, the natural and the social. In its expansive sense, Maat is an interrelated order of rightness which requires and is the result of right relations with and right behavior towards the Divine, nature and other humans.

—Maat: The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt, Maulana Karenga.

Afro-indigenous knowledge systems such as Maat and the Seven Hermeneutic Principles are valuable tools for us to imagine a better future. Without an honest reckoning with the unjust history of imperial and colonial behaviors, we cannot have a just society. Economic exploitation is at the heart of inequality worldwide; and it is unethical. This global cause has significant ramifications, or effects, on the lives of human beings. Holistic demands for human rights cannot be suppressed or controlled. Domination will continually cause the dominated to revolt. It is a matter of the law of cause and effect. Black Studies teaches and practices the history of revolution against state sanctioned violence and economic domination. It is, therefore, dangerous to those who wish to keep illegal government activity secret while, simultaneously, invading the privacy and violating the constitutional rights of American citizens.

Post-September 11, 2001, “terror” has become a rhetorical weapon and it is regularly being weaponized against Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists. BLM founder, Khan-Cullors (2017), calls the accusation, “devastating” (p. 7). Rightful action is to care about the well-being of the entire community outside of self. To care about the killing of other African Americans at the hands of law enforcement is rightful action, not what the FBI describes as mere perception in their 2017 “Black Identity Extremist (BIE) Intelligence Assessment.” This paper uses the Hermeneutic Principle of Rhythm to speak to our contemporary moment in the twenty-first century, the role of Black Studies, and the international nature of revolutionary activism in our

intersectional world. The principle of rhythm manifests in everything. The real pendulum is not a left or right political party within one nation; but, the going away from or moving towards social justice internationally. No matter which political party has been in power in the United States, Black dissent has kept the rhythm of justice as it compensates the pendulum-swing from left to right under the dominant two-party system. The measure is independent.

As Audre Lorde (1982) suggests, we continue to define ourselves for ourselves (p. 137). Under Nixon, the rhetoric of law and order injected racially coded language into public political discourse and has been used as a cloak for the executive branch’s abuse of power. If patriotic and brave Americans had not exposed the illegal and covert practices of U.S. government intelligence agencies, the American public would not be aware of the ways that our constitutional rights are violated every day. Whether the othering label being used be uncivilized, Communist, criminal, or savage, the fact remains that the roots of enslavement and colonization have yet to be seriously addressed. Suppression of this knowledge is unpatriotic, unconstitutional, and ahistoric.

Author

• J.E. Young, University of Louisville