Mumia Abu Jamal

[col. writ. 7/21/12] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The Trayvon Martin case is rightly the straw that broke the camel’s back, for it shows, with unusual clarity, how Black life is so easily trivialized.
But it is not alone in this endeavor.
How the corporate media has responded to this tragedy is its own form of trivialization; a feeding frenzy of sheer spectacle, the exploitation of emotion, and endless, […]

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[col. writ. 7/19/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Henri Alleg was a journalist’s journalist.
Of French-Algerian ancestry, he witnessed the horrors and brutalities of the Algerian War personally.
What distinguished him from his colleagues was his willingness to speak out against the State, which was waging an anti-colonial war based in large part on state terror and torture.
Alleg defied the state by writing accounts of such French torture, and […]

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[col. writ. 7/14/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
It may’ve begun with a bang; but it ended with a whimper.
The acquittal of George Zimmerman for the slaying of 17 year old Trayvon Martin was, for a generation of youth, a wake up call.
Young people around the country made this their cause, and believed, as only young people can, that justice would prevail.
But belief and knowledge are two […]

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[col. writ. 7/10/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 Her name, her incredible contralto, her audacious talent, her scrumptious beauty have made Lauryn Hill a legend in hip-hop and music generally.
Her solo effort, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, earned her a Grammy in 1998 (for best album), and a place in the hearts of millions.
When she tired of the industry she tried to build a life for herself […]

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(col. writ. 7/8/13) © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 By the time these words reach you, perhaps it will all be over.
“It” is the Zimmerman trial in Florida.
I have no idea what the ratings are for CNN, (nor CNBC, for that matter), but I’d bet it’s pretty elevated for their usual summer viewership.
In this place, of prison population, every man with a mouth wants to discuss the case.
In […]

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FLIGHT FROM BABYLON
[col. writ. 6/23/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 Not since the late Phillip Agee (he of former CIA whistleblower fame), have we seen the like of the case of Edward Snowden, who formerly worked for the CIA, NSA and the private contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton.
Agee’s 1975 book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary (New York), blew the doors off the CIA, and revealed to many the […]

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[col. writ. 7/4/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 Muhammad Morsi, who had the proud distinction of being Egypt’s first democratically elected President, has again made his historical mark, by being the first such head of state to be undemocratically removed.
A military coup, albeit a seemingly popular military coup, is a rebuff to democracy, not a support for it.
Now, and perhaps for some time to come, the generals […]

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[col. writ. 7/2/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
It made history, surely, when the US Supreme Court struck down, on equal protection grounds, the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996.  It found that the section of the law which prohibited federal benefits to gay and lesbian couples, married in states where such unions were legal violated the Constitution.
While the decision was typical for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who […]

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