On July 4, 2020, rapper Kanye West announced he is running for U.S. president, the public leader in world imperialism. He is running as a third-party candidate, representing the “Birthday party” because he says “when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.”
He said he would run as a Republican were Donald Trump not in the race as the incumbent.
Africans have long recognized Kanye West as a radical integrationist, wanting to become one with white power as opposed to establishing independent Black Power.
In lieu of West’s presidential bid, his derogatory comments about revolutionary Harriet Tubman and his emotional outbursts, Africans have taken to Twitter with hashtags #KanyeMess and #CorruptKanye.
Neocolonialist sell-outs vs. revolutionary leaders
When asked about “race in the White House” by Forbes magazine, West commented: “One time I talked to Jared Kushner, who was saying, ‘We don’t have black leaders, we just have hustlers.’ Why? Because they killed all the black leaders.”
As White House advisor and Trump’s son-in-law, Kushner’s supposed comment exposes several truths and one falsehood. Indeed, the U.S. counterinsurgency assassinated many African (black) leaders, including Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Kushner’s supposed comment also points out that Kanye West himself is not a leader of African people, whatever he attempts to be now. It also exposes that even those such as Barack Obama do not and have never served the interests of the African working class.
Kushner is incorrect, however, about there not being any African revolutionary leaders standing. Omali Yeshitela, “the last man standing,” is alive and well as Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), founded in 1972.
Through organizing the people on a revolutionary agenda, Chairman Omali and the African People’s Socialist Party and African Socialist International (ASI) are leading the struggle for African Liberation and the anti-colonial movement around the world.
West and Obama represent what Chairman Omali Yeshitela calls the African petty bourgeoisie and neocolonialism. They are “petty” bourgeoisie because as African people, they are subject to colonialism, but they are working for and in the interests of the white ruling class with the hopes of joining their ranks.
Neocolonialism is white power ruling from behind an African or other colonized face.
As Omali Yeshitela stated on the “selection” of Barack Obama as U.S. president:
“While Obama is an African, this is not a true determination of who he really represents any more than the fact that all over Africa there are African heads of state that continue to represent the interests of the wealthy imperialists and do not represent African interests beyond those of their narrow petty bourgeois class base.”
The same can be said of Kanye West.
We are not Americans! We are colonized Africans!
An African person becoming president of the world’s biggest colonial power does not change that the U.S. is a colonial power.
The African People’s Socialist Party’s 14-Point Platform, or “What we want – What we believe” defines colonialism as “a condition of existence where a whole people is oppressively dominated by a foreign and alien state power for the purpose of economic exploitation and political advantage. We believe further that this colonial domination is the primary basis of the problems of African people within the U.S. and that we shall know neither peace, prosperity, nor human dignity until this colonialist domination is overthrown and the power over our lives rests in our own hands.”
We were kidnapped from Africa to build white power, which benefits all white people.
One look at the violence inflicted minute by minute against African people in the U.S. shows that we are not “citizens” but domestically colonized subjects. We face similar conditions to our externally colonized African brothers and sisters on the continent of Africa and the Africans domestically colonized in other countries around the world.
Down with assimilation! We want our own Black Power!
While many Africans do not see Kanye West as a leader of African people nor as a viable candidate in the race for president of the biggest colonial superpower, his bid for U.S. president represents the assimilationist political line.
As a people, we can never become one with our oppressor. Our oppressor’s power comes from their ability to exploit labor and other resources from the oppressed. The oppressor would not be able to maintain their power without having the oppressed to exploit.
A sector of us has been made into figurehead puppets serving white power and benefitting from the exploitation of our own people. These sell-outs, just like white power which they represent, must go!
The African People’s Socialist Party is a leading member of the Black is Back Coalition for Peace, Social Justice and Reparations which, among other missions, runs African people for political office on a revolutionary trajectory. This means they run on a platform that forwards the liberation of our people, not against our people’s interests.
Examples of Black Is Back platform points are reparations for historical and ongoing violence against our people and Black Community Control of the Police—the right to hire, fire, train and discipline police that operate in our community or the right to police ourselves.
Those of us who wish to serve our people and lead ourselves into victory against white power colonial-capitalism must join the Vanguard Party, the African People’s Socialist Party and the Black Is Back Coalition!
By embracing and winning the struggle for a unified and liberated Africa, our people wherever we are located will know freedom and independence. The colonized people of the world will be able to live our own lives through our own efforts, serving no one but ourselves.
Long live the African Revolution! Long live Chairman Omali Yeshitela!
Join the African People’s Socialist Party at apspuhuru.org
Join the Black Is Back Coalition at blackisbackcoalition.org
Black Power Matters!
Uhuru!
