_The silent epidemic of African American maternal and infant mortality _
African American women across the county are in shock about the recent case of Jessica Ross and the decapitation of her baby, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr., during childbirth. This case illustrates the deeply troubling maternal and infant mortality crisis affecting African American communities. The heart-wrenching incident is a painful reminder of the urgent inequalities within the United States healthcare system that unevenly impact Black women and their infants. It is an unfortunate representation of a broader crisis that can only be addressed through the struggle for Black liberation and socialism.
The Russian Empire under the Tsar was rightly called a “prisonhouse of nations,” because it oppressed, within its borders, whole nations of people. The Bolsheviks saw that it was a principal task of the socialist revolution to dismantle national oppression and support self-determination for the oppressed nations.
Fight Back! News interviews the chair of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Joint Nationalities Commission Masao Suzuki.Fight Back!: FRSO says that the U.S. is a jailhouse for oppressed nationalities. What is meant by this?
Jacksonville, FL – Throughout the months of January and February, there were over 20 bomb threats directed towards historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Black churches, most of which were in the South. These concentrated actions over the last few months are a microcosm of the extensive history of racism and national oppression that Black people have faced within the United States, particularly its southern region.
A dive into national oppression, violence and trauma in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, FL – The United States has a notorious history with the national oppression of Black people. In the South, remnants of slave society exist as a constant reminder of this – Confederate street names, school names and monuments are physical reminders one encounters daily – but we see it also manifest in the social structure of the Black Belt South – the historically constituted nation of Black people in the United States.
Tampa, FL – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at the University of South Florida (USF) held a lecture and then a protest as part of Black History Month.
Chicago, IL – In the last 11 days seven Black churches have been burned down. The first burning occurred within a week of the June 17 Charleston Massacre, where a self-proclaimed white, racist terrorist murdered nine Black people. Some of the burned down churches had “KKK” scrawled on their outside walls and investigators have concluded that three churches (Hills Seven-day Adventist in Knoxville, Tennesee; God’s Power Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia and Brian Creek Road Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina) were torched by arsonists.
Baltimore, MD – On the evening of April 21, over 1000 community members in West Baltimore met on the corner of Mount Street and Presbury. The angry crowd marched on the Western District of the Baltimore Police Department. Protesters marched demanding justice for Freddie Gray, an African American man murdered by police.
Jacksonville, FL – On April 4, South Carolina police officer Michael Slager shot and killed Walter Scott, an unarmed 50-year-old African American man. Slager, a white cop, pulled over Scott for driving with a broken taillight. Within hours, the North Charleston police began releasing statements supportive of Slager's claim that Scott had reached for his tazer, causing the cop to fire his weapon in fear for his life.
San José, CA – on Oct. 14, a second nurse, Amber Vinson, was confirmed sick with the Ebola virus after helping to treat Ebola victim Thomas Duncan, who was originally turned away from a hospital after developing a high fever. Three days earlier, another nurse who also helped care for Duncan, Nina Pham, came down with Ebola and was hospitalized.
¡Por un movimiento militante y de masas para la liberación!
El 17 de Julio, luego de haber ahorcado a Eric Garner, un Afroamericano padre de seis hijos, los agentes de la policía de New York decidieron revisarle los bolsillos antes de llamar a la ambulancia. Tres semanas después, el oficial Darren Wilson en la ciudad de Ferguson, Missouri mato de seis disparos al joven Michael Brown, dejando su cuerpo tirado en la calle sin llamar por ayuda médica. Por más de una semana la policía se negó a liberar el nombre del oficial Wilson y se rehusó a entregar el reporte oficial. Todo esto demuestra que también pretenden encubrir la verdad sobre el asesinato de Michael Brown.
On July 17, Eric Garner, an African American father of six, was choked to death by New York City police, who then went through his pockets instead of calling an ambulance. Three weeks later, Michael Brown was shot at least six times and killed by policeman Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. His body was left in the street and no medical help was called. For more than a week the police refused to release Officer Wilson’s name and turned in no official police report. All of this shows that another cover-up is underway in the murder of Michael Brown.
Tampa, FL – Activists and community members gathered on Aug. 16 in front of the Tampa Police Department to protest the police murder of unarmed black teen Mike Brown and police brutality against protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.
Jacksonville, FL – CNN wants to make out the killing of 17-year-old Jordan Davis and the first-degree murder trial of his killer, Michael Dunn, to be an irrational dispute over loud music. How else do you explain the headline, “Loud music' murder trial begins” from Feb. 5? CNN is hardly alone, as reporters and pundits try to downplay comparisons to the George Zimmerman trial and make the Dunn trial about anything except racism.
The rulers of the U.S. are waging a war on the oppressed at home and abroad. The murder of Trayvon Martin and the July 13 not guilty verdict for his killer is an indictment of the system we live under. When the rich and powerful talk of justice they lie. Just take a look at what happened in Florida, or Iraq, or so many other places.
On July 13, an almost all-white jury ruled that George Zimmerman was not guilty on all charges for the murder of Trayvon Martin. While saddened and angered by this verdict, we were not surprised that the U.S. so-called ‘justice system’ has again said that racist cops and vigilantes like Zimmerman have a green light to shoot and kill African Americans.
