MEMPHIS, TN —“Why don’t we get to breathe at home?” shouted a young African woman, choking back tears. She said, “Y’all get to breathe at home, why can’t we?”
Hundreds of residents of South Memphis packed the April 25 town hall meeting to condemn the presence of xAI, the new artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, whose stated mission is to “understand the universe” at the expense of the African community of South Memphis.
The town hall meeting, hosted by the Shelby County Health Department, was held to address concerns around xAI’s latest project, which stands to produce up to 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (a severely toxic gas) and release it into the Boxtown neighborhood in Memphis.
While Musk elected not to attend, he deployed xAI representative Brent Mayo, whose vain attempts to pacify the attendees were drowned out by cries of outrage; the deafening roars of the crowd rendered him completely inaudible as he stumbled through his written statement.
The town hall meeting was supposedly held with the intention to ease the community’s concerns. In the end, the only thing that was eased was Brent Mayo quickly easing out the side door amidst the thunderous protest against xAI’s latest attack on the African community: Colossus.
Colossus promises colossal impact on African people
Colossus is the name of a supercomputer designed for the purpose of powering Elon’s AI software, Grok, enabling it to compute information and carry out various AI functions at unprecedented speeds. Said to be the largest AI supercomputer in existence, Colossus requires an immense amount of power to function.
In order to solve this problem for themselves, Elon and xAI installed 35 gas turbines at the factory where Colossus is based. What was considered a necessary sacrifice—if even considered at all—was the community of Boxtown, which lies less than two miles away from the Colossus factory.
Boxtown, 99 percent of which is African, has been made subject to what can only be called chemical warfare. The staggering amount of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde emissions has made Boxtown’s air virtually unbreathable.
In a community where the existence of more than 17 industrial factories have historically wreaked havoc on the local environment, the addition of the Colossus factory will intensify the already unlivable air conditions in Boxtown—conditions which are responsible for Boxtown residents getting cancer at a rate 4.1 times higher than the national average and dying at an average of 10 years younger than the rest of the city of Memphis.
The reality of Colossus’s impact was the basis of the righteous outrage of the attendees at that town hall meeting, who—despite the smog in the air—were abundantly clear that the success of Colossus has meant the devastation of the African community.
African people have always paid the price
We’ve seen this before. Advancements in the white world have always come at the expense of African and colonized people.
We saw it in St. Petersburg, FL, where the African community known as the Gas Plant District was demolished so that the new, “innovative” Tropicana Field Dome could be constructed on its graveyard.
We saw it in St. Louis, Missouri, when the development of the highly technologically advanced National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) required the violent gentrification of hundreds of African families on St. Louis’s Northside.
We saw it on the shores of Africa when the creation of this entire social system of colonial capitalism required the blood, sweat, enslavement, and genocide of African people in order to sustain it.
It was as true then as it is now that the “one small step for man” and the “one large leap for mankind” have both been over the bodies of African people.
Revolution is the solution—put boots on the ground in Boxtown!
The situation in Memphis demonstrates that not only Colossus, but this entire social system, is powered by the oppression and exploitation of African people.
The theory of African Internationalism explains that the original toxin that has been polluting the earth for over 500 years is colonial capitalism. The only antidote for it is overturning this entire system that is the basis of the atrocities experienced by Africans in Boxtown and throughout the world.
What we need is a revolution—but that will only happen through building a revolutionary organization.
We call on our brothers and sisters in Memphis to get organized today.
Build the African People’s Socialist Party in Memphis!
Put boots on the ground in Boxtown!
Join at APSPuhuru.org!
Uhuru!
