Wisdom 101: Understanding the Black Condition & How To Fix It Online Syllabus w/ Links: http://WisdomFTF.com/Wisdom101/ Course Description: This class offers the opportunity for students to get a concise analysis and understanding of American colonization of Black people in a national and international world-context. Students will gain a new perspective on the concept and definition of racism, as merely a tool in the acquisition of power. Using documentary accounts, speeches, firsthand writings and actual historical occurrences, Wisdom 101 offers a powerful yet easy to digest wealth of information certain to heighten anyone’s consciousness. In learning how to connect the dots of history to understand the function of our condition in these United States in the context of their quest to become a World Power, we will finally be able to devise solutions that will change these conditions forever. Wisdom 101 will take you into the psychology of the oppressor as well as the oppressed; a task given little significance in the nation’s colleges and universities. Instructor(s): Wisdom From The Field ([email protected]) Course Schedule: Saturdays 10:30am-12:00pm *Complete weekly schedule at http://WisdomFTF.com/events/ Course Location: The Cultural Hut 2623 W. Slauson Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90043 Course Structure: The course is divided into 8 one week modules focusing on varying topics. Modules consist of one weekly class and a set of complementary online videos, DVDs, readings, and audio clips. Sample Reading List: - Psychological Warfare By: Paul M.A. Linebarger - The Psychopathic Racial Personality and Other Essays By: Bobby E. Wright - The Grand Chessboard By: Zbigniew Brzezinski - The Negro A Beast By: Charles Carroll - A Dying Colonialism By: Frantz Fanon - Notes on the State of Virginia By: Thomas Jefferson Sample Visual List: - The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 - FBI War on Black America - ESPN 30 For 30: The Fab 5 - 41st& Central (The Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party) - Spies of Mississippi - The Lost Prison Tapes (interview) – Tupac Shakur - The Corporatization of the University (lecture) – Noam Chomsky - Thomas Sankara, The Upright Man COURSE OUTLINE I. Politics of American Colonialism *Black History In America(WFTF video) The 13th Amendment (Dec. 6, 1865) Significance of its language Stokely Carmichael – UC Berkley Black Power Speech (Oct. 29, 1966) (audio) Skills, who has them? With slavery abolished and a new skilled labor force ready to enter the job market, how did whites (who had few skills due to slaves performing most labor) maintain control? Criminalization of Blackness& The Rise of Prisons Eastern State Penitentiary (video) Violence, An American Tradition (video) They Don’t Really Care (WFTF video) H. Plessy (1896) -> W. Brown (1919) - > E. Till (1955) -> A. DIallou (1999) -> T. Martin& J. Davis (2012) -> M. Brown & E. Ford (2014) Females too! ->Salecia Johnson (2012), Jmyha Rickman (2013), Kierra Wilmot (2013) II. Science of American Colonialism Dehumanization as justification for treatment/criminalization Thomas Jefferson – Notes on the State of Virginia (book) Charles Carroll – The Negro A Beast (1900) (book) - Not, “The Minority A Beast” Charles Darwin – The Descent of Man (1871) (book) Psychological enslavement How do you get a group of people to accept & allow this treatment? - Bobby E. Wright -Mentacide(1979) (reading), Black Suicide (1981)(reading) - Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment (Aug. 4-20,1971) (video) The Role of Media and Propaganda - Paul M.A. Linebarger – Psychological Warfare(1948) (book) - Frantz Fanon – A Dying Colonialism (1959)(book) Control of the definitions and archetypes - Frantz Fanon – Black Skin, White Masks (1952)(book) - Jane Elliot – A Class Divided (1985) (video) - Sarah Baartman (1810’s) - Vivian Thomas – Something The Lord Made (Nov. 29, 1944) (film) - Henrietta Lacks & the HeLa cell line (died Oct. 4, 1951) III. The 2 E’s: Education and Economics of American Colonialism Educational control for political & economic gain Noam Chomsky – The Corporatization of the University (July 12, 2013)(video) - Ralph Waldo Emerson’s views on mass popular education (1860’s) - Response to the “Time of Troubles” (1950’s-60’s) - Powell’s Memo to the US Chamber of Commerce(Aug. 23, 1971) (reading) - Trilateral Commission 1971 Report, “The Crisis of Democracy”(reading) - John Jay quote, “Those who own the country ought to run it.” (1787) Appeal to the Black Students of the nation’s colleges and universities (reading) - Michelle Obama’s 1985 Thesis from Princeton University(reading) - Stokely Carmichael – Speeches At UCB (Oct. 29, 1966) (audio) and Morgan State (Jan. 1967) (reading) Prison Industrial Complex – The 13th Amendment’s Success School-2-Prison Pipeline - School closures in Philly, Chicago, NY, and Los Angeles - Parallel Charterization/Privatization of schools and prisons Economics of Cultural Exploitation Corporatization of the music/entertainment industry - Spike Lee -Bamboozled (2000) (film) Dave Chappelle’s historic decision. IV. Our Response to American Colonialism PT. 1: Optimism *MLK I Have a Dream Speech (Aug. 28, 1963) (video) The Civil Rights Movement and the Push for Integration Definition of Integration Definition of Assimilation - Concept of conditional acceptance Brown V. Board of Education (Dec. 9, 1952- May 17, 1954) March on Washington (Aug. 28, 1963)/ I Am A Man (Mar. 28, 1968) What was achieved? Civil Rights Act of 1866 Civil Rights Act of 1964 (July 2, 1964) Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Aug. 6, 1965) - White House Educational Initiative of 2012 (Trayvon murdered that Feb.) The vote analyzed The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) (Founded Spring 1965) - Mukasa Dada aka Willie Ricks (WFTF video) V. Our Response to American Colonialism PT. 2: Realism *MLK in 1967: “My dream has turned into a nightmare” (June 11, 1967)(video) From Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X Garveyism and the quest for independent nationhood - Marcus Garvey- I Am A Negro (reading), West Indies in the Mirror of Truth (reading), and Unemployment (reading) Malcolm X - 1963 UC Berkeley Interview (Oct. 11, 1963)(video) - What did he want us to do? - In Focus: Political Assassination of Malcolm X (video) The Rise of the Black Panther Party (Founded Oct 15-22, 1966) Role of SNCC/LCFO Ideology programs Development of nationhood mentality and operation - All Power To The People (video) - 41st& Central (shoot-out Dec. 9, 1968)(video) Fred Hampton & The Illinois Chapter (Assassination Dec. 4, 1968) (WFTF video) Hoover, the FBI, and COINTELPRO FBI War on Black America (video) MOVE & the bombing of Osage Ave by Philly PD (May 13, 1985) Assassinations and the systematic destruction of the Black Freedom Struggle VI. The Internationalism of American Colonialism Understanding our condition in an world context The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo (Jan. 17, 1961)(video) Thomas Sankara–The Upright Man (Oct. 15, 1987)(video) Winnie & Nelson Mandela & South Africa (Prison Term 1962-1989)(video) Cuba! Africa! Revolution! (video) Chicago& South Central through the lens of power politics The so-called War on Drugs (declared by Nixon on June 17, 1971) Freeway Ricky Ross & the Iran-Contra Scandal (April 17, 1986 gov’t report) The DEA and Mexican Sinaloa Cartel partnership (exposed Jan. 2014) The Bigger Picture Game Being Played Zbigniew Brzezinski – The Grand Chessboard (Sept. 17, 1998)(book) VII. Why This Conditioning? What is its Function? What is it Hiding? A lesser told history John Henrik Clarke – A Great and Mighty Walk (1996)(video) John Henrik Clarke – Christianity Before Christ(video) Ancient Afrikan history: “Egypt” not an ancient mystery, but the child of the gradual development of Afrikan genius, beginning in and traceable from the south (via the Nile River). Memphis, the former capital city of Kemet (now known as Egypt) - Hakaptah (House of the spirit of Ptah) – the great temple at Memphis - Hakaptah ->Aígyptos (greek) -> Aegyptus (Latin) -> Egypt (current) Analysis of the major Dynasties Pharaoh Menes (Narmer) and unification of Northern& Southern Kemet (3100B.C.) The peak of our genius, dynasties 1-18 (3100B.C. - 1070B.C.) King Piye and the dynasties of Afrikan conquerors (25th Dynasty 760B.C. - 656 B.C.) The fall of the 25th dynasty and invasion of Alexander (conquered in 332B.C.) The Ptolemaic Period and white influence in Egypt (305B.C. - 30B.C.) VIII. Moving Forward & Building A New Future Rebuilding our culture and nationhood Establishing a Black Social Theory Developing institutions to lesson dependence - Schools -Grocery Stores - Hospitals -Law & Law Enforcement - Banks -International Relations (UN, Embassy, etc) - Businesses Control of popular culture and entertainment industry Eyes on the land currently called Africa Where To Begin Doing the Work, Applying the Consciousness - Wisdom From The Field - Sylvia Nunn Angels - Concerned Black Men of Los Angeles Supplemental Resources Module I: - Hidden Colors 3 (2014)(video) - Malcolm X – The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)(book) - Stokely Carmichael – Power & Racism (reading) - Stokely Carmichael – Toward Black Liberation (reading) - Malcolm X – Our History Was Destroyed By Slavery (March 17, 1963)(video) Module II: - Bobby E. Wright- The Black Child; A Destiny In Jeopardy (reading) - Robert Eisler – Man Into Wolf (1948)(book) - Stokely Carmichael - The Dialectics of Liberation