1970 by Karen Tei Yamashita

Author:Karen Tei Yamashita [Yamashita, Karen Tei]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781566893695
Publisher: Coffee House Press

On the subject of racism, Marxism-Leninism, offers us very little assistance. In fact, there is much evidence that Marx and Engels were themselves racists.

—Eldridge Cleaver

The Black Panther

June 6, 1970

7: I Am a Revolutionary

I know you’re no good for me

But free of you I’ll never be

Nowhere to run to, baby

Nowhere to hide

—Martha & The Vandellas

RG and the Panther running around pulling the blankets off the beds, throwing them at the door to snuff that fire out. Flames flying off that door like it’s tinder wood. When they get the flames down, RG gets some glasses of water and tosses them to cool down the egress. Outta curiosity, opens the door and checks the hallway. It’s still the same empty hallway, somewhat smoked up, but no one’s running out trying to save their lives. Coulda been a major disaster. Shit, coulda been the spark. But all the Moscovites tucked in and sleeping pretty.

“What’re we going to say about the door?”

“Damn cigarettes. Need to quit the habit.”

“Shitload of smoke in here.”

“Windows don’t open.”

“Where’s that pipe?”

“Yeah, after that, we got to relax.”

Pipe lights up with its customary stink. If a fire don’t arouse nobody, what’s a little stink?

RG takes a drag and speculates. “Never thought I’d ever come to Russia.”

“That’s a fact.”

“Used to think the whole world existed inside Chinatown.”

“I never had that problem. Whole world was always out there.” Panther grabs the air like there’s bars and juts his chin forward.

RG and the Panther hold their breaths, then pause to consider how this thing—the whole world—works. How you gonna catch a thing like that in your mind? Che got on his motorcycle. Mao did his Long March. Malcolm did his hajj to Mecca. Now RG and the Panther doing it by socialized modern transportation. In search of the Third World. Could practically fly into every Third World war zone and get a handle on the national question. What’s it gonna come to? Revelation on the revolution at the end of the road.

RG walks to a window you can’t pry open. Looks out on that dark sky and observes the moon over the USSR. Moon this side of the Earth should be red, but it’s all the same. What about that sputnik dog circling around? What kind of dog conclusions does he come up with? How do Russian dogs say bow-wow? Or Neil Armstrong putting his big boot into the moon for mankind? Shit. They’re always trying to colonize someplace. Colonize the moon, if anybody was there. Get this, same day Neil and Buzz walk the moon, Panthers’re in a revolutionary conference to build a united front to combat fascism. Advocate the revolutionary struggle to abolish capitalism and introduce socialism to the USA. Stepping and leaping for mankind.

But let’s get back to the storytelling about how some Chinatown street gang makes a radical turn. Back to the revolutionary war front at home. Pass the pipe, and hunker down with jet lag.

RG obliges. “So everything changes in the year of the rooster.” Meaning last year, 1969.

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