To Know Us

By Omar Gent

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When a person on a mission is working hard to become visible, enthusiastically promoting a cause; there are many people who consider this person’s creative and zealous promoting of this cause, to be vanity. They say judgmental things, but if they were to experience the silencing this person has experienced, or some of the pressure that person went through ,or if they knew of that person’s story, it would alter their perception, when they realize (more than likely) they couldn’t walk in that person’s shoes without crumbling. And maybe they would realize that it’s not vanity that fuels this person’s push to be seen and heard, it’s the extreme silencing that person has experienced that has ignited the fire. To those who have a mouthful to say, I say, if you think you know me or what I’m really about, consider this:

During my incarceration, which placed me at least 1,900 miles away from my family; far removed from the public eye, in the rural, secretive small town citadel of the klu klux klan , I constantly stood alone. I fought for the safety and fair treatment of my incarcerated Black Elders, in the face of racist, armed prison guards, who had the numbers backed by the power of the state (the authority to kill me). But yet, I stood up for my Elders; I stood while most around me walked away (leaving me to face the hostile correctional officers alone) mumbling “that’s a crazy ni_ _ er.”

Dear critic, what would you have done in the face of such odds? Do you even know? For starters, if you’ve never been in a situation as extreme as the one described above, let me ask you this, do you stand against injustice you experience, as strongly as I stood for my Elders? Again, my stance was taken on behalf of others. It might be easy for certain people to risk it all for themselves, but how many people would risk it all to defend others? Would you dear critic? I’ve had death threats issued to me by prison officials just because I dared to file motions/paperwork in court that could shake the prison system to the core. I stood up against well organized prison guards, supported by White supremacist prison gangs who wanted me to fall in line and bow to their demeaning treatment of Black prisoners. I refused to kowtow to the good old boy order that demanded that I keep my head down and go with the flow. No, I held my ground and stood firm on my Manhood in righteous honor of the ancestors who laid down a great legacy of power and freedom. I wasn’t a rebel without a cause, nor was I needlessly making trouble for clout, or some sense of retribution. I overstood that I was in a zone where the order of affairs called for an air of Black inferiority and White superiority, held and maintained by quiet obedience, strictly adhered to by the former. Therefore, I decided to stand as a Man, knowing it could cost me my life. I thought to myself, what is living if you sell out your own sense of self respect and trample upon the ancestor’s legacy. For me, that would have been a fate much worse than Death. It would have been a living death, lived through a man who is only a shell of a man, a walking ghost-like curse of an existence. Rather than live that way, I accepted the challenge of living as a free man, knowing that I was taking a stance that would be overstood and appreciated by just a few of the men who were around me. I knew my enemies must witness my resistance and thoroughly overstand that there are still Lion Warriors being birthed from the loins of powerful Black Women; Warriors sent to shake up their wicked soul-breaking systems to the core. Lions that face them with fierce determination, intelligence, scholar-like litigation and skillful calm that sends chills down their manifest destiny spines and raises questions in their core. Questions like: Who is he that he doesn’t break? Why is our program not directing his soul? Am I inadequate because he won’t scrape or fold? Dear critic, who has hopefully read these lines and become a listener and potential ally, can you see what it took for me to stand unbroken in the midst of the broken? Can you look deep down and ask yourself what you would have done walking the dangerous path of the isolated chosen one?

Solitary confinement and the grounds of countless prisons cry out with the blood of those who were brutalized and/or killed by prison guards, whether these prisoners have the reputation of being radical change makers or not. Many invisible and undocumented, battles and wars are fought against the corrupt gatekeepers behind the iron curtain of prison; a zone of carte blanche and oppression, where the adversaries of the rise and liberation of the people, operate with an unified and potentially lethal precision that can be very difficult to effectively challenge or overcome. Although, the Sisters and Brothers who are committed to the struggle for Sovereignty and Liberation, stand for the collective dignity and human rights of the people, with little-to-no support from those around them, or those who are outside the walls of prison.

Regardless, we stand because we hear the ancestors calling; urging us to move forward, in our Black Uhuru efforts, for their memory & our sake, as their children. Our aspirations are as high as the mountains in Ethiopia ,even though we have experienced some of the lowest of lows-in the valley of decision where we can choose to stand or forfeit it all . True to the calling, we choose the former instead of the latter. If this decision causes us to forfeit our life in defense of our non-negotiable principles, so be it. The oppressor will know that there was an unshakable Warrior amongst them and we shall live on in the air of resistance and power, the realm where legends exist eternally; a realm that allows the people to pull from our example, just like photos and files are transmitted from unseen digital data clouds.

To truly know us and our mission, is to experience the strength of the ancestors moving in the form of lightning that wraps itself around our existence and electrifies the people. We don’t kowtow to the inferiority complex that mandates we must never rise to defend our natural right to defend ourselves from the obvious or covert attacks the enemy system launches at the people nonstop. Our mission isn’t based on getting likes and views for our social media accounts. We are not concerned about who comments on our profile pictures or follows or unfollows our page profile. Unfriend us or Friend us. We know that our true friends are few because we are the forgotten ones; Outcast who are extremely committed to the mission till the point of death. We know that we are the ones we have been waiting for. Only a few will be able to understand us and an even smaller number will begin to overstand us. This overstanding has made us keenly aware of our mission and human nature. We overstand that people can’t truly overstand our fire (that burns inside) because they haven’t walked in the valley of death threats and psychological warfare that we’ve experienced, just because We dare to stand. We aren’t concerned about who gets the credit for this win or that win; this project or that project. We just want our people to be released from the wicked clutch of the oppressive narcissistic beast of prey. Because day after day we’ve witnessed this beast literally sap the life out of some of our closest comrades and others who needlessly suffered behind the prison fence without an advocate or voice.

Once we’re released from prison, we get letters and phone calls (from our comrades In prison) that show the faith that our Fellow Warriors place in us; letters that salute our efforts and gently remind us of our solid commitment to aid our comrades in their struggles for adequate medical treatment, legal aid, family reunification, etc. These manuscripts and calls are heavy laden with the struggle and our comradery, to the point where each word seems to come alive and open a portal of Warrior connection that is stronger than the isolating force of the prison monster. We know that our physical freedom has given us the opportunity to build more connections to help liberate ourselves, our comrades, and our community from the war of attrition attacks of the unjust court system and the prison industrial complex. This is why we push so hard to be seen, to be heard, and to have our experience with the prison beast publicized . We are carrying our own burdens and the plight of our incarcerated loved ones on our back. So we fight to become highly visible and ever present before the eyes of the people . Because we overstand that this visibility will give us the ability to transform our Struggle into currency that will empower us to open doors for our Comrades and ourselves.

This great responsibility requires that we push the mission with zeal and an awareness that reminds us again and again that the mission is much bigger than us. We avoid things and people that can hold us back or cause us to ego trip. We have not only made promises to our family and ourselves, we promised our comrades that we will bring our ignored collective plight to the masses. We promised that we would not forget the struggle and all the evil we have seen administered by the hands of corrupt state officials. This vow is as much as part of us as our DNA. So realize, when you’re looking at Warriors like us, you’re looking at Sisters and Brothers who the system tried to break and silence. We don’t take this mission in vain, neither are we vain. We are committed to the fight because it runs through our veins. We refuse to run from the fight like so many so-called Activist and Advocates have done. We refuse to gain our freedom and forget those who are still imprisoned. We can’t and won’t walk away from our bond with our incarcerated Loved ones.

We’ve been judged, threatened, abandoned, betrayed, taken for granted, tortured, ridiculed by the very people we’ve risked it all to help, lied to, lied on, plotted against, set up, etc, but we’re still standing strong. To know us is to know the ”negative interlopers” that Willy Lynch warned the gatekeepers about, the ones who would come to break the shackles and turn the system on it’s head. Please get to know us because we’ve waited so long to connect with those who truly are committed to addressing the wickedness of the court & prison monster, and the various offshoot systems that attack the people. May the creator bless you all with strength, solidarity, and power.