Food for Thought
Revolution #031, January 22, 2006, posted at revcom.us
On November 2, thousands of high school students in Los Angeles walked out of school as part of the nationwide launch of the World Can't Wait movement to drive out the Bush regime. One of those students was a Black youth who decided at the last moment to go to the World Can't Wait rally. He said:
"Maybe you just get one chance to be in on making history. I was thinking that maybe this was my chance and it would be fucked up to miss it... When I saw that you could say what was on your mind and the cops couldn't do nothing, I was like, 'Oh yeah!'"
Think about the whole life experience that would lead this Black youth, and others like him at the bottom of society, to the assumption and expectation that you can't "say what was on your mind." Think about the reaction of the youth--"Oh yeah!"--when he found himself in a situation where he could do this without the cops coming down with force.
What does this say about the promise and reality of rights under this system--especially for those at its bottom? What does this say about the profundity of the class divisions and social inequalities that lie at its root? And what does this say about the kind of society we have to fight to bring into being?