Don’t pay attention to people who think they can write

“Like all other Black revolutionaries, America is trying to lynch me.” Attributed to Assata Shakur.

We will first address the grammar. Since the second part of the sentence completes the first, Mr. or Ms. Shakur is saying America is a “Black” revolutionary. Note also the capitalization of B in “Black.” That is common from racist, prejudiced, self-victimized black writers. In graduate school, I reviewed the book “Exodusters.” I do not remember the author’s name, only that she was in a doctoral program at the University of Houston. That author also capitalized “Black.” She did not capitalize “white,” although white people played a major role in the emigration of black people from down South to up north.

I did not recognize the name Assata Shakur before reading his/her quote. So, I searched. Turns out she is “Oh, that woman.”

Assata Shakur is a black woman. She is a “former member of the Black Liberation Army,” so Wikipedia says. She is a convicted murderer. She shot and killed New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973. The Black Liberation Army, Wikipedia says, “led an armed struggle against the US government through tactics such as robbing banks and killing police officers and drug dealers.” Ms. Shakur has lived in Cuba since her prison escape in 1979.When former President Obama supposedly reinstated relations between the United States and Cuba, vast right-wing conspiracy writers and groups wondered if the president would insist on extradition of convicted murderer Shakur.

Silly question. Obama was our first Black president.