Philanthro-Pimping Un-Packed - Truth Vs a Paycheck in Covid19 and the virus of Poverty
Had a dream-
not to save the world
but to save other unhoused disabled mamaz & little girls
U see i was that baby wit my mama
holding that sign
the one you turned away from
pretending i wasn’t alive
grew up wit mama-
her and me almost made it thru the poverty/racism/houselessness drama
hustled for food-
never had the rent
until mama sed chase that dream-
write a grant - take a chance
u got skills tiny
U can do the grant dance
U see - we the Philanthro-pamps
u a sexy young thing with at least one grant circle we can
exploit
just come and sniff a little of this grant guidelines oil…
You can do whatever you want
(Deep star wars voice) BUT ALWAYS DO WHAT WE SAY
So happy
created a job for my uncle, houseless friends and my mommy
Wow- self-determination
liberation words, and dreams
helping each other
And then…
what you aint doing what we say & reporting on each other
keep those feet up- the philanthro-pimps say
that grant might run out
cuz , well u aint sexy anymore - anyway…..
Todays message from a poverty skola is dedicated to all the truth-tellers, action- walkers- never stop/cant stop revolutionary poverty skolaz who innovate, liberate and activate but aren’t ever seen, heard, understood or over stood and therefore are easily pimped, opted, stolen from and never quoted.
Im talking about about liberators like the Poor Peoples Army , Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign Krip Hop Nation, Where Do WE Go Berkeley and Frist they Came for the Homeless, MOVE 9 when it was happening - not now when its glamorized and talked about.
Im talking about people who do the work, with or without the virus called Covid19, blood-stained dollars, fame, or UN raceteers. I’m talking about the Mad Housers in Georgia and Krip Hop In Senegal, Im talking about Tara Colon and Lisa Richards in Florida and I’m Talking about Papa Bear and so many poor and houseless workers never seen people- I’m talking about the I-Hotel and Pearl Ubungen - I’m talking about Nino Parker and his un-sanctioned encampment Im talking about, Peoples Commuity Medics and The Idriss Stelly Foundation - Im talking about Indigenous nations who have been caring for Mama Earth long before 350 .org decided to take up “climate Change” im talking about Refinery walks from IdleNoMore Sf and Pennie Opal Plant and I’m talking about us over here at Homefulness tryin to UnSell Mama Earth - tryin to teach Hoarders how to UnHoard - tryin to teach people we don’t need a savior, a charity project, pimp or an institution we need a poor people-led revolution without ever being opted, stolen, lied about or displaced. Im talking about so-called movements that use all the right language, so they sound like us , (cause it was stolen from us), and thinned out to be more palatable and easily “understood”. I’m talking about academia and non-profiteers profiting, talking and walking about us without us.
To give people terrifying examples of this process let me take you down to journeys that are hard to talk about - but must be exposed.
One is the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign - a powerful poor mama -led movement in Philadelphia launched as the Kensington Welfare Rights Union - that was activating and lifting up the work of poor people since the 1980’s - lifting up and re-activating the work of Dr Martin Luther King and the Poor Peoples March until the Ford Foundation came in and stole and opted all of their work and words and turned it into a massive, middle class led, non-profiteered “national” campaign - using ideas, work and time suffered in real time by real poverty skolaz in Philly for a well-funded , well-oiled Ford Foundationed machine. If anyone else did this it would just be theft, but there is massive money and institutional access behind these moves and so we are just opted and left out.
The opted, thinned out message then becomes the public message, with both “independent” and CorpRape media covering it and reporting on it. And the “fix” is in.
Its “sanctioning” and legitimizing continues as academia takes up the charge. Now there are Reports, studies, research generated and cited and suddenly the innovators, the liberators, the actual oppressed peoples who lived the struggle, activated the change are no longer really even there.
The philanthro-pimps can’t take all the credit for killing these movements. They are just the machines of krapitalism which always needs a new market. So its Very important for people to forget herstory, history and the originators and the resistors. Its VERY important to have a short -term memory and lift up what is “new” ( read re-done) so that new “campaigns” with new jobs, new payrolls, new media and new profits can be generated.
This is where it gets so complicated, and CONfusing. Because people are now hired, many of them are themselves poor people, POC’s who need a job, who want to “work” for something meaningful, who themselves have no knowledge of the herstory/history struggle that came before, but real talk, also just have to pay the rent.
Another example is the UN racketeers ( Rappoteaurs) when they came to town, Homefulness is over here since 2011- a group of homeless and formerly homeless poverty skolaz trying to build housing, supporting, reporting and constantly lifting up the voices of unhoused folks on the streets so they can build/launch their own homefulness movements. But nary a word , an interview, a visit, a mention. No we were completely, intentionally left out - first from a non-profit and academic heavy panel and “report” and then from a cherry picked , non-profiteered tour of “poverty and homelessness which enabled a “lens” that left private wealth-hoarders and indigenous and poor people-led self-determination completely out and separate from the narritive on homelessness, as there is no grant funding, jobs or non-profiteers involved in these projects. In other words, no money to be made.
Another sad example of this by media and academia was the gentrification of journalism of a long-time People of color newspaper in the mission by a cutesy, well-oiled UC Berkeley staffed on-line magazine that basically used and opted the newspapers audience, lens and message. This process was hardly documented except by the SF Bayview Newspaper, Block Report Radio and POOR Magazine.
The academics, corporate non-profit and philanthro-pimps are all in for the money game, but what makes it much harder and where my challenge is directed is at the fellow liberators and movement folks out there who know better and can do better.
In the work to live into being another world, we all need each other, and need to respect, lift up and appreciate each other. This is done through horizontal love, lifting up, shouts-out, sharing of media, resources and by-lines. It is partly why POORPress.net is doing a Po Peoples Survival Guide thru Covid19 and the Virus of Poverty- chronicling everyone who was already here- who should be seen, heard and recognized and never left out and kept out when this moment in herstory is locked in.
As HomiesEmpowerment right here on BlackArthur have been launching their beautiful FREEdom Store we have committed from the beginning to lift them up, love them up and sing them up- to do the same with all other grassroots groups, to honor the land liberation and radical redistribution work of the warriors like Poor Peoples Army/PPHRC, Peoples Community Medics, Sogorea Te Land Trust, Where DO We GO Berkeley, Consider the Homeless, Self-Help Hunger Program, First The Came for the homeless and East Oakland Collective.
From the beginning of this Covid19 crisis, we at POOR Magazine have been working so hard to make sure everyone who is already there, who is standing up is held and loved, respect and seen. Another beautiful example of liberation work, instead of covetous, I-got-Mines moves is the beautiful people at Disability Culture Club, United Front Against Displacement and Anti-PoLice Terror Project, Community Ready Corp who from the beginning of this crisis made a point of reaching out to POOR magazine, with supplies to share, media to share and love to share.
Ford foundation creating a new plantation
Poor people in the fields picking cotton
Some picked to be house negroes
To get that that grant dough..Leroy Moore
And for academia, media examples, the work of Jared Ball from IMixWhatILike, Susan Schweik, Cecilia Lucas, from UC Berkeley who from the beginning have made a point of not stealing, opting or talking about us without us, but rather launching education movements Like Creating Freedom Movement and books like the Ugly Laws, The Myth of Black Buying Power (coming out on May 25th) and Survival HandBook through Covid19 and the Virus of Poverty- (coming out on May 24th available for free to all poverty skolaz and on a sliding scale to anyone who can pay for it.)
I am not calling out peoples or organizations, that would be more horizontal hater politricks, but I will say that in the process to live into being a different way, we need to stop perpetrating more opting and stealing, rock-star leading, scarcity modeling exclusion. We need to lift up each other in all of our beautiful, hard-work, front-line work, so we can truly end krapitalism and build a different world, not just a different paycheck.
“Ford foundation creating a new plantation
Poor people in the fields picking cotton
Some picked to be house negroes
To get that that grant dough… excerpt from Solutions without a Grant Proposal by Leroy Moore, POOR Magazine family, Homefulness co-founder and founder of Krip Hop Nation
To get a copy of the upcoming Po Peoples Survival Guide go to poorpress.net . To get a copy of the upcoming the Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power go to imixwhatilike.org
