Confronting Injustice

0:00Good evening, Boston. I am Linda Solomon and this is Confronting Injustice. Tonight, during Black History Month, we are examining a part of history that is often overlooked. We celebrate Black excellence, innovation, leadership and resilience. But we do not always examine how that excellence has been surveilled, disrupted and sometimes criminalized when it challenges power. Today's conversation is entitled The Criminalization of Black Excellence. So let's begin with the simple but powerful question. Why would excellence ever be seen as dangerous?

1:09Because excellence, when rooted in injustice, when rooted in justice, exposes inequality. When Black leaders demanded not charity but equality, not access by transformation, systems responded defensively. History shows us a pattern. Black economic independence was met with violence. Black political organizing was labeled radical. And Black activism was framed as a threat to national security. The message or messages were subtle but clear. Espire but do not disrupt. Succeed but do not challenge and then lead but do not transform. And when leadership crosses those lines, surveilances often followed.

2:16The one of the clearest examples of this criminalization is the Coentel Pro. Coentel Pro, short for counterintelligence program, was a covert initiative launched in 1956 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Its stated goal was to monitor and neutralize groups considered subversive. But in practice, it disproportionately targeted civil rights organizations, Black liberation movements, and anti-war activists. The Black Panthers were considered a subversive group that had to be neutralized. And so this Coentel Pro, this program included illegal wiretapping, infiltrating organizations, spreading misinformation, creating internal division, and attempting to discredit leaders.

3:31That was their mission, that was their goal. And this was from the president down. And among those targeted was of course Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King now honored with this national holiday was once considered a national threat if you can imagine. Turn the other cheek, considered a national threat. Okay, so his phones were tapped, his hotel room was bugged, the FBI attempted to link him to Communism. Anonymous letters were sent, attempting to discredit him, and psychologically intimidate him. And this was not speculation, well documented, all of this was well documented. And in 1971 activists broke into an FBI office in Philadelphia and released documents exposing Coentel Pro's operation.

4:40The evidence confirmed systematic efforts to disrupt Black leadership at any cost. Other leaders targeted included Malcolm X, of course, and then Fred Hampton. Fred Hampton, a charismatic organizer and Chicago was killed during a police raid in 1969 after infiltration of his organization. It's believed that he was drugged before the police stormed the residents and murdered him while he laid in bed sleep. Clearly that was the case of his organization being infiltrated because the police knew exactly where to go, they knew where he, they knew. So unfortunately there always flies in the soup. So these Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, these were, and there were so many more up to present day.

5:48They don't call a call, Intel Pro now, it goes by different name. So they are all documented historical facts, and they reveal a troubling truth that is very real today, as much as it was then. Black excellence, when it mobilizes communities, has often been treated as destabilizing rather than revolutionary. Okay, listen as you're listening to Confunding and Justice on Boston neighborhood network. And today's topic is the criminalization of black excellence. As we go into a commercial break, we will come back to talk about modern parallels.

6:56Welcome back. Welcome back. Some may think this history is behind us, and some would have us believe that. But while tactics evolve, patterns can persist. And in recent years, investigatory ports have revealed monitoring of racial justice activists, particularly during large scale protests, as you can imagine. Digital surveillance has replaced wiretaps. Social media monitoring has replaced physical infiltration. Online misinformation spreads faster than anonymous letters ever could. And after a national wide protests following a killing of George Floyd, documents revealed federal agencies tracking activist groups, online communications.

8:08Language changes. Instead of subversive, we may hear extremists. Instead of radical, we may hear domestic threats. But the core dynamic remains. When organizing demands accountability, scrutiny intensifies. The criminalization of black excellence today may not always appear as overt, as colon tell well. But it can surface the rule, things such as disproportionate policing of protests. You see all these police oftentimes. They outnumber the number of protests. Charging decisions. People are being charged touch the over sentence.

9:09Media framing that shift from folks, shifts focus from issues to personalities. Let's not talk about the issues, the things that we see. So they'll focus on personalities. They'll dig to find whatever they can on people versus addressing the real issues. And then digital surveillance tools. The question we must ask is this. Are we learning from history or repeating it in a new form? Let me ask that question again. Are we learning from history or repeating it in a new form? And we need to ask that question. We should be learning from our history. We should be more strategic since we know the games that are being played.

10:12We know the surveillance. We listen. The perpetrators of this surveillance and the whole colon tell pro sort of systemic stuff. That's clear. We want, they want to try to hide that. And so we should have learned from our history. Let's look at the psychological impact of this dynamic. There is another dimension to this conversation. When leadership is surveilled, communities internalize fear. When activists are targeted, people hesitate to organize.

11:12And when excellence brings scrutiny, some choose silence or visibility. This is how suppression works, not always by imprisonment, sometimes by intimidation. Well, we've made with the intimidation piece because that's more like the rest of this has been historical, right? But here's what history also teaches us. Despite surveillance, despite infiltration, despite efforts to divide, despite efforts to intimidate the movement indoors. Civil rights legislation passed, right? Civil rights expanded. Public consciousness shifted. Progress did not occur because the system allowed it.

12:12No, no, no. Progress occurred because people persisted. People power. Progress occurred because people persisted. People came together, worked together, recognized that. This was not something, this fighting for equality was not an option. It was not something an option, it had to be done. And some impact was has been made. So, tonight, to a Black History Month, let us expand our narrative. Black excellence is not just achievement in entertainment, sports or politics, right? Black excellence is intellectual rigor.

13:13Black excellence is community organizing. It is institution building. It is truth telling under pressure. And sometimes, excellence that challenges injustice will be resisted. But, existence does not invalidate excellence. It confirms its impact. So, the lesson is not to retreat. The lesson is to lead strategically. To stay informed. To protect our movements. To understand the history of surveillance. So, we are not blindsided by the modern, its modern forms. Excellence is not criminal. The man injustice is not radical.

14:15Leadership is rooted in equality. It is not subversive. It is necessary. As we go into another commercial break, I would invite you to think about the criminalization of Black excellence then and now. I am not mad on me. But I am starting to picture what my life could be.

15:24Welcome back. You are listening to Confining Justice on WBCA102.9 FM Boston. Boston's community radio station. And our topic this evening is Black excellence. Right? It is something that we should not have to be talking about. But the criminalization of Black excellence is our topic. And it is particularly poignant because it is Black history month. We want to acknowledge those who have come before us who exemplified excellence, commitment, passion, and dedication to the education uplifting and empowering of our community. And so I would like to talk about a different topic.

16:26Well, a related topic. Like what can we do? What can we do to fight back against this criminalization of Black excellence? And here is some practical and powerful ways to push back. One thing we can do is we can control the narrative. Right? We can challenge media portrayals that equate confidence with aggression. We can amplify stories of Black innovation, scholarship, and entrepreneurship. And support Black-owned media platforms and content creators. Yes, and that's really important because mainstream media seldom when you get the full story for mainstream media. In fact, more often than not, you probably get a washed out version of the truth.

17:30So you want to search out alternative media sources. And we want to teach our young people, we want to teach youth media literacy so that they can recognize quoted language and bias. For sure. We want to protect our children of color early, advocate against disproportionate school disciplines and school-deprized pipeline. Yes, there is a school-deprized pipeline. In fact, there was a cradle to prison pipeline. I am a former retired educator and as much as the school system, while people would like to believe that everything is good in schools, in particular.

18:33In the city schools, there's much that's very much wrong. Children of color oftentimes performing below the achievement gap. And it's not because they're not intelligent. And to really take a look at what's going on, people have to do some self-reflection. You tell someone something long enough and they tend to believe you. Well, you don't have to say it in words. You can say it in actions. So if the message is, oh, this poor little kid from the inner city, on this poor kid, so low in your standard because you have an attitude that is not growth-centered. And you know, some people are deliberate about it and they understand that others just get sucked into it. They have these low expectations and they don't even realize it. But if you have students sitting before you who are not performing,

19:35you might want to look beyond the obvious. What you think might be the obvious. But I don't want to go off on that. I could almost 30 years of being in the field of education. I could share a lot about that. But back to what we can do to push back. Strength and economic power support and circulate dollars within our community. Black owned businesses create mentorship pipelines in professional industries. Invest in corporate economic models. Teach financial literacy and ownership early. Yeah, people instead of paying all these high rents, people should be thinking about buying property. Becoming entrepreneurs, you're working out for someone else when you should be working hard for yourself. And then of course policy reform.

20:35Demand transparency in policing for execution and sentencing data. Support legislation addressing racial disparities. It's beyond my comprehension how district attorneys and judges can have qualified immunity. It incentivizes them to cheat to lie. The innocent project. There are so many people, the innocent project works diligently throughout the world. And people are being freed and being exonerated in staggering numbers. And that's not by mistake. That's not by chance. It's because prosecutorial police makes conduct. And would you say, I'm sorry. I have to spend someone spends even a week in jail. But decades, we see these stories every day in the news.

21:36People getting out. And what does this system do? Not even apologize in most cases, but I won't. I won't go off with that. We want to be fighting for reform. To reform policies and systems. Push for ending qualified immunity and expanding diversion programs. We want to build collective protection from community accountability circles. Right? Form them. A story of justice. I can't push that enough. Formed community accountability circles. Formed community building circles. Document incidents of discrimination. We want people should feel empowered to speak up. Every voice matters. Support organizations that challenge systemic injustice.

22:39And center healing and well mental wellness. Yes, center healing and mental wellness. Normalize therapy and cultural competent care. Right? Normalize healing. It creates safe spaces for dialogue and restoration. Practice affirmations. Practice affirmations. Models. Things that reject internalized stereotypes. And then teach your historical awareness. Understanding history. Or understanding systems like colonel pro. Their mass incarceration helps people see patterns instead of personalizing oppression. It becomes like 13th exposed how criminalization evolved from slavery to modern incarceration. Our device.

23:40Well, 13th is just an excellent documentary. We need to find excellence on our own terms. Right? Black excellence is not respectability policies. It is innovation. Black excellence is innovation. Creativity. Leadership. It's cultural influence. It's resilience. It's joy. It is striving without apology. In final thoughts. The criminalization of black excellence survives on silence. Isolation and internalized doubt. It weakens when communities. Organizes, educates, builds wealth and tells the truth and heals. Let me say that again. The criminalization of black excellence survives on silence. Isolation and internalized doubt.

24:44It weakens when communities do things like this. When communities organize. When they educate. When they build wealth. When they tell the truth. When they heal. When they come together in community to educate uplifting and power each other. Right? So with that, I would like to thank our listeners for tuning in. And we look forward to you being here next Monday evening. Thank you from company and justice. 102.9 FM Boston. Boston's community radio station. Every part of who I am. And I'm sure. I've not met all of me.

25:44But I'm starting to picture what my life could be.