Okafor: In Memory of George Floyd
Toyin Falola
I want to breathe
But I cant breathe
I could not see his face
His knee was on my neck
Life was going fast away from my soul
I want to breathe
But I can't breathe
46yrs ago, I learnt my first word
Mama! mama! mama!
25th May 2020,I spoke my last word
Mama! mama! mama!
And I still pleaded because
I want to breathe
But I cant breathe
My color was black
His color was white
My crime was black
His right was white
I still want to breathe
But I cant breathe
Minneapolis is burning
Real Americans are angry
The world is shocked in disbelief
Because I wanted to breathe
But i cant breathe
They were four of them
Four messengers of death
I saw the face of my wife
I felt the smiles of my kids
I remembered my friends
For their sake
I just needed to breathe
But I cant breathe
I asked for water
The pain was getting more
My neck hurts
My stomach hurts
My eyes were closed in agony
My offence again?
My color was black
His color was white
I have paid the price
Price of being black
Cry no more Minneapolis
I was one of the added numbers
My blood on that pavement
Will always remember that
I wanted to breathe
But I had no right to breathe
My offence again?
My color was black
My name George Floyd
My crime was black
His color was white
His name Derek Chauvin
His right was white
He has the right to breathe
I want to breathe
I can't breathe!
But someday this battle shall
Be over.
I go in peace but remember
25th May 2020
Mama!mama!mama!
My last word!
-Collins Okafor
#ICantBreathe
Sent from my iPhone
Pamela Smith
It said it all
Endearingly,
Endurely.
R.I.P.
George Floyd
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__groups.google.com_group_USAAfricaDialogue&d=DwIBaQ&c=Cu5g146wZdoqVuKpTNsYHeFX_rg6kWhlkLF8Eft-wwo&r=qMHo0jABnWy_k058JRFMMbozPcY5ZtnWAZeTWwiqyb8&m=VIT3TJBOlysUUOfFrnWXScFAjH9PNxasx9VL22YyIcU&s=e2bg2_AjjSxD3wToj5kxrDevWbL5bCIQcPJxaco7SQw&e=
Early archives at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.utexas.edu_conferences_africa_ads_index.html&d=DwIBaQ&c=Cu5g146wZdoqVuKpTNsYHeFX_rg6kWhlkLF8Eft-wwo&r=qMHo0jABnWy_k058JRFMMbozPcY5ZtnWAZeTWwiqyb8&m=VIT3TJBOlysUUOfFrnWXScFAjH9PNxasx9VL22YyIcU&s=cNiGtxmlKaV1nP1tOKtvbRPbWlYRAm1wJ_TgfLf-R_s&e=
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_d_msgid_usaafricadialogue_EA6F6CDB-2DC770-2D43B0-2DB93E-2DA3DF13157C72-2540austin.utexas.edu&d=DwIBaQ&c=Cu5g146wZdoqVuKpTNsYHeFX_rg6kWhlkLF8Eft-wwo&r=qMHo0jABnWy_k058JRFMMbozPcY5ZtnWAZeTWwiqyb8&m=VIT3TJBOlysUUOfFrnWXScFAjH9PNxasx9VL22YyIcU&s=z3Snfn37atEoR5RuDrYQEtEg421dWt1dIqpNHHHpvSc&e= .
Gloria Emeagwali
GE
Sent from my iPhone
> On May 31, 2020, at 4:13 PM, 'Pamela Smith' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you for this, Collins.
> Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
O O
Sent from my iPhone
Work
> On May 31, 2020, at 3:13 PM, 'Pamela Smith' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you for this, Collins.
> Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
Gloria Emeagwali
Are you not the same person who stereotyped Black People not too long ago?
Sorry I tend to mix up my O’s and A’s.
GE
> On May 31, 2020, at 7:45 PM, 'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Would a black police officer not do to GF what the white police officer did to GF? And why or why not?
Cornelius Hamelberg
Sisters and Brothers
I just wanna grab your attention
Who be me?
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.”
No protocols here not for convenience not even conventional big grammar punctuation because I’m angry so unspeakably angry I could shoot him in the knee
I’m beginning like this because once upon a time I remember one Orlando Marville at that time working for UNESCO and marvelling at one of his students at Milton Margai Teachers College by the name of Theodore Dougan having the temerity not pleading guilty and yes actually having the balls the perspicacity the presence of both mind and good conscience to begin some maiden speech or other with the opening preamble “Gentlemen and Ladies” which at the time my marvellous Senior Brother Marville thought was cool pretty cute maybe even quite revolutionary when his aforementioned student Dougan daring to insist in not reversing the natural order of sanity/ reality/ i-manity/ humanity not even for politeness sake ( such as hush now child “there are ladies present “) but no holds barred let truth be boldly told and crowed out loud (and clear) considering that according to the natural order of reality Grandpa Adam, of course, came before Grandma Chava Ḥawwa Eva Eve came long before God put Grandpa Adam to sleep and pulled out one of his ribs which later on was fashioned and shaped to become the creation known as Grandma Chava was created which is at it was in the beginning and should forever be namely respect for Adam the elder therefore the adage age before beauty came into being and nowadays every time I say or think of “age before beauty” I think of the recent usage and misapplication ( in this forum) of the word “geriatric” by one 47-year-old old youth and e.g. Tom Lehrer of National Brotherhood Week fame ( badly needed in the USA today) saying “ It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year” and I seem to remember that when Steve Biko was assassinated he was only thirty years old 30 Frantz Fanon died at the age of thirty-six 36 Patrice Lumumba was assassinated when he was thirty-six years old 36 Walter Rodney was assassinated at the age of thirty-seven 37 Dr King was assimilated at the age of thirty-nine 39 Malcolm X was assassinated at the age of thirty-nine 39 all of them cut down in their prime.
Sometimes it has to be expressed in what is poetry
or what looks like poetry but is certainly not poetry
through poetry so as to bypass
censorship the sensitive diplomatic language filter
but assuming that this dumbass
question is coming from some really bitter
old Negro black as my donkey’s ass
it’s a natural reaction when you think that Steve Bantu Biko didn’t
just die it’s not as if he was killed by nobody or somebody who didn’t
Know what he was doing since the killer was someone who didn’t
like Biko and his Black consciousness and because that someone didn’t
such a dumb-ass question coming from one of us pisses me off
Respect demanded so please remember Brother Steve Biko died
He was killed it was part of the method in the madness he died
we’re pissed off because you are looking for some highfalutin
philosophical rhyme and reason asking such a dumb ass question
I’m not a disciple of Lombroso so is this supposed to be academic
Some smart as dick thing for you guys to discuss and split hairs
“Would black police officer not do to GF what the white police officer did to GF? And why or why not?”
Did Cain kill Abel?
For Oluwatoyin : The Knee of Listening
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/9ABDD3CC-A950-46E9-AAFD-D91629103A17%40gmail.com.
Salimonu Kadiri
Skickat: den 1 juni 2020 20:23
Till: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Okafor: In Memory of George Floyd
Gloria Emeagwali
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BN7PR06MB4068EEE83714062C721C7495AE8A0%40BN7PR06MB4068.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.
Julius Eto
Thank you sir. I think Trump is missing Adolf Hitler whose actions may have sat well with the current American president. He could even be a closet Hitler admirer. Remember that the Trumps migrated from Germany and his father was a shady character and known supremacist.
I saw a WhatsApp picture of Don's dad in KKK regalia and the white terrorist in New Zealand who targeted Muslims not too long ago in a shooting spree actually hailed Trump as "a symbol of common purpose" by which he clearly meant white supremacy and its Nazi-style fascist world domination project.
Trump may even support legislation such as that of the state of Missouri in 1922 that issued Nigger hunting licence. It gave the holder the legal right to hunt and kill African-Americans.
On Monday, June 1, 2020, 10:34:48 PM GMT+1, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Take note, my dear Rabbi Hamelberg, that every participant in discussions on this forum always identify self with name before initials.
Double zero, 'O O', is an exceptional suspect. If he is not what Frantz Fanon called, Black Skin, White Mask, he must certainly belong to Neo-Third Reich Brown Uniform. His hypothetical question, I think, is meant to provoke otherwise, he could
just have informed readers about his personal experience of a Black police officer he knew that murdered an unarmed Black civilian in order to prove his point that the White policeman that choked George Floyd to death did the usual thing the US police used
to do irrespective of the colour of the skin of the perpetrator or the victim. It does not make sense for double 'O O,' a probable Black Skin, White Mask and perhaps an inheritor of Third Reich Brown Uniform, to insinuate about if a black police officer could
have done to George Floyd what the white police officer did to him or not.
S. Kadiri
Julius Eto
His grandfather, not father, was a shady character and known supremacist.
Cornelius Hamelberg
It should be painful for the accused who is wrongly or wrongfully accused of being a racist, an ethnic supremacist, or a Nazi. So, we have to be extra careful and avoid making false accusations or accusations without any strong foundations.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
Thou shalt not bear false witness, period.
Here’s one reason why we should not look forward to Trump’s re-election:
Trump is not the kind of person that’s going to wage war against police brutality. As we can all see, he would rather tear-gas his peaceful fellow American citizens peacefully demonstrating outside the White House just as he did yesterday, without remorse, and also, just as he said yesterday, he wants to wage war on his fellow American citizens. He would like to call out the full force of the battle-ready, awesome US military against other unarmed protesters, fellow Americans who he views as the enemy. So, there are now two enemies: the visible enemy (fellow Americans, including the more militant protesters, looters ) and then there’s the invisible enemy that is causing the kind of economic ruination of what he was boasting about as his achievement.
The last such encounter that I remember, was at Kent State University where four students were shot dead. There’s was this protest song about it : Four Dead in Ohio
When the student cadres of the moral, upright America start protesting about the spate of brutal, unlawful Police killings of unarmed Black People, then America will have a chance of redeeming its name that is being sullied during Trump's watch.
As Chairman Mao once said, “Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”
Hopefully, the moral majority students will protest peacefully – as they did at Kent State University, this time, without being gunned down mercilessly, e.g. by Trump’s war machinery. Some of them think that they can get away with anything because they read in Isaiah. “Though your sins be scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”. I would like to hear what Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan has to say about that perception. Well Louis Farrakhan is one of the Black Leaders in the US, and here’s what he has to say about the cold-blooded murder of Brother George Floyd
Trump thinks that nobody knows the military use of force better than him. America’s chief soldier has just contradicted and corrected him about his latest plans of sending in the troops
Trump is not the kind of person that’s going to wage war against police brutality, unless of course, such brutality were to be perpetrated on a near and dear member of his own family, in which case we can take it as fore granted he would be speaking differently.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
We can ruminate over this question that is neither poetic nor philosophic not even the weepy Biblical “Why do bad things happen to good people” it’s a straightforward hypothetical question:
Members of the Jury, if it had been Jared Kushner’s life that had been crushed under Derek Chauvin’s knee, what do you imagine would have been Donald Trump’s reaction? What would he have said in his address to the nation? Maybe - he would have declared three days of national mourning?
That being the case – and we all agree that it’s “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.”(Shemot / Exodus 21: 24 - 25)
There’s Cuomo Prime Time ( I pray that he will be increasing the heart on Trump’s rump)
Twitter says fake "Antifa" account was run by white supremacists
Please check out these tweets
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/749258133.1542395.1591209596823%40mail.yahoo.com.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Correction: not heart but heat; should read:
There’s Cuomo Prime Time (I pray that he will be increasing the heat on Trump’s rump)
CNN’s noble knight Anderson Cooper 360° is a pro-America and therefore an anti-Trump warrior, so are Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon , all three of them doing a marvellous job and by the grace of GOD our prayers will soon be answered, this November.
The United States of America deserves someone other than a clown like Trump as their leader. Surely, the United States can do better? Four more years of Trump and Americans believe that the United States will be abetter place? “Great Again” Will the United States ever be greater than its current president?
Globalism? Global consciousness?
The whole world is fed up – sick and tired of Trump. I don’t know anyone who likes him – not even a single person here in Sweden or anywhere else in the world, that likes Trump. What a loser. Idiot, buffoon!
About the sort of person Trump is, this says it all:
Protesters Dispersed With Tear Gas So Trump Could Pose at Church (New York Times)
My own prayer request is simple:
Dear Hashem,
O Lord, hearken to my prayer, and may my cry come to You.
You don’t like ugly. Please hear our simple and sincere prayer and let our cry come unto YOU
Please, Trump must go! I pray that the chorus will swell: TRUMP MUST GO!
Trump does not believe in Climate Change.
As you know, Trump is not a good leader. Trump is not good for America. Don’t You think that America deserves much better? Trump is not good for Europe, he’s not good for the UK, he’s not good for Africa, he is so arrogant - he says that your beloved Africans live in “shithole countries” – he’s a bigot and a racist - if he thinks that the white man - a white like him is God, then what has he learned from the Torah? He is not humble, he doesn’t even like Your Beloved Black American peoples either. Or Mexicans. He’s not good for the Caribbean, he’s not good for central America, he’s not good for South America, he’s not good for Asia, not for China, not even for Japan, he’s not good for Russia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, North Korea. He’s not good for Australia, New Zealand, not good for the Middle East, not good for Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, not good for the Far East, not good for the children of Abraham, not good the Arabs, not good for the Berbers, not good for the Christians and not good for the Jews, You know better than anybody that he’s not good for your Beloved people in Israel: Or do You think that he is good for Israel? What about the Palestinians?
Pharaoh Sanders - You've Got To Have Freedom
Cornelius Hamelberg
Correction: not heart but heat; should read:
There’s Cuomo Prime Time (I pray that he will be increasing the heat on Trump’s rump)
CNN’s noble knight Anderson Cooper 360° is a pro-America and therefore an anti-Trump warrior, so are Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon , all three of them doing a marvellous job and by the grace of GOD our prayers will soon be answered, this November.
The United States of America deserves someone other than a clown like Trump as their leader. Surely, the United States can do better? Four more years of Trump and Americans believe that the United States will be a better place? “Great Again”? Will the United States ever be greater than its current president? If Trump knows that he is going to hell must he take the United States along with him? Of course not. We pray, “God bless America!” We don’t pray, “God bless Donald Trump”?
Globalism? Global consciousness?
The whole world is fed up – sick and tired of Trump. I don’t know anyone who likes him – not even a single person here in Sweden or anywhere else in the world, that likes Trump. What a loser, Idiot, buffoon!
About the sort of person Trump is, this says it all:
Protesters Dispersed With Tear Gas So Trump Could Pose at Church (New York Times)
My own prayer request is simple:
Dear Hashem,
You don’t like ugly. Please hear our simple, sincere prayer and let our cry come unto YOU
Please, Trump must go! I pray that the chorus will swell: TRUMP MUST GO!
Trump does not believe in Climate Change.
If there was unlimited freedom of speech in this forum, I would tell you more. But You know everything already. I am only a humble supplicant, humbly beseeching You
You know, Trump is not a good leader. Trump is not good for America. Don’t You think that America deserves much better? Trump is not good for Europe, he’s not good for the UK, he’s not good for Africa, he is so arrogant - he says that your beloved Africans live in “shithole countries” – he’s a bigot and a racist. If he thinks that the white man - a white like him is God, then what has he learned from studying the Torah? He is not humble, he doesn’t even like Your Beloved Black American people either. Or Mexicans. He’s not good for the Caribbean or Canada, he’s not good for central America, he’s not good for South America, he’s not good for Asia, not for China, not even for Japan, he’s not good for Russia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, North Korea. He’s not good for Australia , New Zealand, not good for the Middle East where they know that he’s a good-for-nothing, not good for Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, not good for the Far East, not good for the children of Abraham, not good the Arabs, not good for the Berbers, not good for the Christians and not good for the Jews. You know better than anybody that he’s not good for your Beloved people in Israel. Or do You think that he is good for Israel? What about the Palestinians?