Assata An Autobiography By Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur (slave name JoAnne Deborah Byron) is a resilient, black revolutionary, but also the first woman to be added to the FBI’s most wanted list. Many of us have heard of Assata, but don’t know much about the woman herself; in her autobiography she reveals herself to be a witty, determined, observant, humble but assertive woman, amongst other things. In her autobiography, Assata concurrently shares the story of the events that lead to her arrest and her time moving through the prison and legal system; and the story of her growth- from living with her grandparents to how she came to join the Black Liberation Party.

Growing Up

Assata was born in New York, but moved with and was raised by her grandparents for some years in Wilmington, North Carolina. She explains how, from a young age she was taught dignity, respect and hard work by her family, and was encouraged to read, especially by her grandfather and Aunt Evelyn; and talks about some of her earlier encounters with segregation and racism whilst in North Carolina (from segregated beaches and movie theatres, to run-ins with white men she believed to be members of the klan).

Having moved back in with her mother and stepfather and attending junior high in Queens, New York, Assata recalls the tension surrounding the intensifying attack on black people in the news, particularly Little Rock and the pressures the raising tensions had on black love- how partners became punching bags to take out frustrations on each. Assata speaks of growing and living for new experiences at the time, and so she took to exploring and staying out late. She goes into detail about running away to Greenwich Village after an argument with her mother, following her separation from her stepfather, at the age of 13. Whilst in the village she describes the encounters she had with some questionable people, as well as being looked out for by Miss Shirley, who looked out for her and helped her secure a job as a barmaid. She also recalls very nearly being assaulted by a group of guys in Spanish Harlem and how common girls being assaulted by a guy or group of guys was growing up; and how skeptical the incident made her of everyone.

I had read this play by Sartre. The play ended with the conclusion that hell is other people, and, for a while, i agreed.

Following her Village escape, Assata moved in with her aunt Evelyn on 80th Street in Manhattan; the point at which she became aware of the class system in amerika and speaks about the vast difference between the people living only a stone throw away. With Evelyn, Assata's love for the arts and reading further blossomed and she became more cultured.

Assata recalls being intrigued by the NAACP while visiting her grandparents and being denied when trying to join because she was unable to say how she would react if spat on. Although she commended the ability of members of the NAACP to remain civil and peaceful in the pursuit of equality, justice and freedom, Assata believes that the civil rights movement never stood a chance...

Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.

Joining The Movement

A significant moment in Assata’s past included her time at Manhattan Community College where she realises she was ignorant to worldly conflicts after befriending some African students from Columbia. Having been schooled on the Vietnam war and the true motives of the u.s. government by these students, Assata makes it a priority to read up on and keep up to date on events. It was also at this point that Assata's concept of beauty changed, and she cut the 'conk' (relaxer) out of her hair.

Our desire to be free has got to manifest itself in everything we are and do.

She later is introduced to the Golden Drums through which she meets other brothers and sisters she describes as having higher levels of consciousness. Through discussions with these individuals she learns about black heroes, other than Harriet Tubman, such as Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, etc. Assata goes into detail about the inaccuracies and distortions of Black history taught in amerikan public schools, specifically in regards to the abolition of slavery.

I had grown up believing the slaves hadn't fought back. I remember feeling ashamed when they talked about slavery in school.

Abolition of slavery was not a moral issue.

Assata also mentions learning from the Puerto Rican students:

Once you understand something about the history of a people, their heroes, the hardships and their sacrifices, it's easier to struggle with them, to support their struggles.

It was years later that JoAnne changed her name to Assata Olugbala Shakur, Assata meaning 'she who struggles', Olugbala meaning 'love for the people' and Shakur after her friend Zayd, meaning 'the thankful'.

Assata also vividly recalls her reaction to learning about the death of Martin Luther King, her desire to riot and need for blood. The words rebellion and revolution constantly run through her mind.

While attending CCNY Assata was married for a period to Louis Chesimard. The two divorced due to differences of what they believed marriage should be, and Assata with the help of friends, moved to Berkeley, California. Here she endeavoured to meet up with and learn from various groups also being attacked by the u.s government, including the Native Americans, Chicanos and had plans to meet up with the Red Guard; she believes that there were similarities between their struggles and that by working together they had a better chance of pushing for change.

People think that in order for something to work, it has to be complicated, but a lot of times the opposite is true. We usually reach success by putting the simple truths that we know into practice. The basis of any struggle is people coming together to fight against a common enemy.

In Oakland, Assata met the Black Panther Party, whom she admired for many reasons.

One of the most important things the Party did was to make it really clear who the enemy was: not the white people, but the capitalistic, imperialistic oppressors. They took the Black liberation struggle out of a national context and put it in an international context.

Whilst meeting members of the Party, Assata was asked why she had yet to join and responded by telling them of the differences in opinion she had with the style of work expressed by some members of the Party; like how certain party representatives addressed the people with a flippant attitude. The members agreed and encouraged her to join the Party when she returned to New York, expressing that the Party needed her and was only as strong as its members.

Assata did just that, and joined the Black Panther Party on her return to Harlem. There she was assigned to the medical cadre and the breakfast program. She spoke about the flaws of the Party, predominantly how enough effort was not put into educating all Party members, and how some members did not understand the importance of organizing with other Black organizations. She stressed how important education was for any successful movement or organization.

Assata speaks about her friendship with Zayd who was a Minister of Information at the Party, of how he didn’t put on the macho bravado, how he pushed her out of her comfort zones and of how open and frank she could be with him. Zayd comes across as a safe space for Assata.

Assata also outlined some of the biggest problems she sees associated with the Black Panther Party, the negative media attention, the growing rate of the Party (particularly being unable to educate the new members), the handling of criticism within the Party and the attack by the u.s. government. She documents the moments where she felt chaos begin to emanate- the Party began to receive word of planned attacks or invasions by the FBI; fear and paranoia began to run rampant within the Party and longstanding members were being expelled from the Party. She also speaks about things not sitting right with her and feeling like she was being watched. It was not until years later that members would learn of the FBI COINTELPRO program which was designed to infiltrate and turn members of Black organizations against each other.

Not long after leaving the Party, Assata is forced underground.

Movement through Prison and Legal System

Assata very briefly speaks on the incident that lead to the murder of Zayd Shakur on the New Jersey Turnpike and her arrest and movement through he anmerikan prison and kourt system. Assata had been travelling with Zayd and Sundiata, when they had been pulled over for a broken tail light only yards away from the Turnpike Authority Administration building. She discloses how the officers as well as the medical responders had waited before removing an injured Assata to the hospital, in hope that she would die. Assata believed that she would have been paralyzed from her injury. She also details being questioned and tormented by the staff and officers at the hospital and being taken to and left near Zayd’s body. For days she was not allowed to contact anyone and had been told they had not been able to reach her lawyer.

Shakur crossed paths with many people while in prison, many of whom were blacks or hispanics. In the 70s, prisons were a goldmine camp for minority groups. They claimed slavery was abolished but they only reconstructed it into a legal system and branded it as a force to protect the people. One day a master, next an officer draped in a uniform with a badge and the law behind him.

As someone reading this book for the first time, I was shocked to uncover the truth of the inhumane treatment Shakur experienced while incarcerated in amerikan prisons. Shakur tells us how she was beaten and tortured and kept in solitary confinement. She was denied adequate healthcare during her whole pregnancy. The negligence is both horrific and graphic. Guilty or not, no human being should undergo such treatments. But Assata demonstrated strength. She was fearless, shouting down guards and judges and demanding her rights. I loved how the women exhibited in this book were strong, powerful struggling to fight a system that was working against them.

The portrayal of black and brown people as lesser, sub human, steams from slavery. History is full of the vilification of ethnic groups for the benefit of another. This continuation of dehumanizing ethnic groups is a recycled technique to make another group seem superior and more advanced. It is reinforced by institutions and platforms such as the media. Which acts as a tool of oppression to construct ethnic groups as folk devils with the intention to create a moral panic and attach all these negative stigmas onto black and brown people.

During Shakur's manhunt her face was plastered all around amerika. While In federal prison a few inmates revealed they had seen Shakur on wanted posters and her pictures on TV but were apprehensive since they didn’t fully recognise her straight away.

‘When I saw your picture I thought you were much bigger. And much Blacker, too”.

“ Bad as them papers said you was, I just knew you had to look bad. And here you are, just a little ole thing”.

This is how the system continues to operate and work against under represented groups. Prisons are a reflection of how corrupted the system truly is. Things that they made illegal are things you associate with people who had no rights to equal education and weren’t getting paid enough to eat therefore were pushed into illegitimate crime to stay afloat. Many of the women were arrested for petty crimes. Crime that would have awarded white women with a slap on the wrists with no jail time.

“there was absolutely no justice whatsoever for Black people in amerika.”

Reading this book I understand Shakur’s frustration and anger, I understand why she was a communist, a radical, I understand why she believed in the armed struggle and how non violence was a sham because her experience as a young black women in the united states of amerika, she saw first hand what was happening to her peers, family and friends.

‘Black revolutionaries do not drop from the moon. We are created by our conditions. Shaped by our oppression.’

It is important for stories such as this to be told. We can not rely on the education system to teach our children the black experience. I am sure many of us can relate to Shakur’s school experience, with our culture and history being dismissed or even fabricated. Shakur’s addresses the misconception about leaders such as Abraham Lincoln who was painted as the liberator of slaves in schools and universities. while in fact, in August 1862, Lincoln stated: “If I could save the union without freeing any slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

We need to dismantle these false narratives and untrue ideas that only white people contribute substantially to cultural, scientific, legal and other advances. By sharing true stories we have a chance to eradicate not only racist behaviour but also racist thoughts. We are able to expand our understanding of history to include all who play a role in it.

Reading Shakur’s autobiography I was able to live history through her eyes and experiences. Her words made history real for me, so painful but also celebratory.

We’re Going to Need More Wine By Gabrielle Union

Gabrielle Union’s ‘We’re Going to Need More Wine’ is by definition the ultimate girl talk book. In these collections of stories, which are not only hilarious and real, but raw and humbling; she tackles a series of subjects that readers can relate to both directly and indirectly, whilst also being very critical of her past self. From growing up in a predominately white neighbourhood, delving into her parents marriage and her own (first marriage), social issues and her assault and issues with control, Garbielle invites us to pull up a glass of our favourite wine and have a seat at her table as she bares parts of her soul with us. So join us while we explore a few of the not necessarily lessons, but things we’ve learnt from her experiences. Be warned...there are spoilers ahead.

The Dual Consciousness

Very early on in the book Garbielle introduces to Pleasanton, CA, where her father moved the family out after a job transfer. She describes being one of the few black students in her school and trying hard not to stand out, especially after being labelled ‘nigger Nickie’ by one of the boys and being apprehensive of drawing attention to herself if she befriended the other black girls, forming a super brown group. By trying no to fit into the black stereotypes Gabrielle becomes the almost sort-of token black friend, with her cool white friends using the “You’re not like them” line to explain away her skin colour.

She also talks about convincing her parents to let her spend the summers in Omaha with her grandmother and cousin Kenyatta, where it becomes clear to her that she isn’t the cool black person her Pleasanton friends assume her to be, but that in Omaha she can more freely explore her blackness. Gabrielle describes the ease at which she was able to switch back into her blackness with every summer she went back to Omaha, but also the ways in which drugs and gangs began to change the town and the people she had befriended.

Double consciousness is something that most black people have experience with. The number of people like us that we have contact with between our professional and personal environments usually vary quite differently and so code switching becomes natural. As Gabrielle explained it can be difficult to share stories from your personal life with the professional group because you are aware, even if only slightly, that they are likely to construe these stories from a perspective different to what you try to bring across.

Sexuality

If there’s one thing that Gabrielle Union is very candid about in this book is her openness with sexuality and how women need to have a healthier relationship with their sexuality and how that comes with exploration. She begins the conversation with the dreaded and very ambiguous sex/menstraution talk that schools usually give to the female population. ‘Your period is coming and you can get pregnant’ is usually the gist of these conversations and depending on how open the women around you are with sexuality, in Gabrielle’s case not very (coming for a predominantly Catholic and Mormon town), that is usually all you get. Luckily for her, they had author Judy Blume who confronted topics such as puberty in adolescent girls from menstruation to masturbation and sex. She reveals that she took control after one of her friends became pregnant, taking condoms from a clinic and passing them onto her female friends when needed, as they were scared of being caught with them.

That’s how it went. I became the condom dispensary, bringing them to school and to parties whenever I got the heads-up. Adults weren’t looking out for us. They assumed that we knew we could get pregnant and wouldn’t risk it by actually having sex. But even when you know better, it doesn’t mean you’re going to do better. That’s a lie parent tell themselves so they don’t have to admit their kids have sex. And they do. They will either live with fear and baggies and abortions, or live with knowledge and condoms.

She goes on to speak about how blase the new generation kids are about having sex or partaking in sexual acts and challenging the young women to ensure that they actions are reciprocated as sex should be enjoyed and about both parties pleasure.

“ “Look, you can’ take your pussy with you,” I said. “Use it. Enjoy it. Fuck, fuck, fuck, until you run out of dicks. Travel to other countries and have sex. Explore the full range of everything and feel zero shame. Don’t let society’s narrow scope about what they think you should do with your vagina determine what you do with your vagina.” “

Surviving Sexual Assault

In ‘Code 261’ Gabrielle talks about being sexually assaulted at the age of 19 whilst working at Payless one night. She speaks about how her father and sister show up to the scene and the haunting look on her fathers face, a look she significantly identifies as the moment her father saw her as damaged, as a victim. Gabrille discloses her ensuing PTSD effects, how soon after the incident she was unable to bring herself to leave the house for a year, how she became obsessed with timing and panicked about being out after dark if she’d lost track of time. She opens up about being able to find hope again after joining a UCLA Rape Crisis Centre group therapy session, where she found a sort of comfort in having people she could relate to and in seeing these women still be successful after the fact. Gabrielle opens up even further about fame and her PTSD, how her PTSD is triggered when grabbed by fans and how she has panic attacks about disappointing fans when trying to draw boundaries.

Dark-skinned Women Blues

Colourism is a thing..irregardless of whether you ‘don’t see colour’ or not and is a recurring topic in ‘We’re Going to Need More Wine’. Gabrielle speaks about being the darker of her sisters and trying to assimilate or get closer to white beauty standards by relaxing her hair, her experiences with guys and being told ‘You’re pretty for a dark-skinned woman’. She speaks about how as a teen she was ‘ineligible for the dating dramas of middle school’ as being a brown skinned girl didn’t appeal to the guys in her school and witnessing the privileges of her lighter-skinned mother and cousins and how these events fueled insecurities. A friend described to her how she was made to feel like she was encouraging division within the community and like she was imagining the effect of colourism whenever the issue was raised. On dating the friend advises her that certain men are not looking for relationships with dark-skinned women, and if being open about many black men look at the end game as lightening the gene pool. She questions the relationships these men have with the women in their families. A line that stood out in this chapter:

What if it’s not simply preference or acquiring a status symbol, but a learned tactic of survival.

-on questioning why some black men want to have lighter skinned children, possibly as a result of them seeing dark-skinned people treated as less than while light-skin is respected.

Gabrielle goes on to criticize herself for being attracted to and dating men lighter than her in her younger years, reveling in the validation she got from her father for dating these men. Until her sister’s friend called her out for being colour-struck and told her that it spoke volumes about her. She speaks about how that intervention encouraged self love. She concludes that the battle on colourism isn’t one for only women,

Men must mentor girls as they grow into women, guiding them to find their own validation so they don’t seek it elsewhere in negative ways. Tell your daughter or niece she is great and valued not in spite of who she is, but because she is exactly who she is.

Giving Up Control

Many people struggle with the fact that they are unable to control the thing happening around them. Life is full of curveballs, something Gabrielle discusses in the final chapter of her book. In this chapter she dives into her close friendship with the Martinez siblings, Ray and Sookie. Gabrielle talks about how Ray was teased, by not just the kids but also some parents, calling him names such as Sweet-Ray, Sugar Ray and Ray-Gay, however, she goes on to explain how she thought i was just that, teasing, and that Ray had had crushes on girls and have even briefly dated a girl; she even goes as far as wanting to fight a house full of kids to defend Ray’s honour.

Ignoring the signs Gabrielle reflects on pressuring Ray to pursue girls and taking him to live sex shows; and how Ray was pressured by friends to finally come clean to her and how much she had hurth them both by believing otherwise. In her reflection, she recognizes that she had been trying to control the way people judged her by the friend with whom she associated, by in-turn trying to control Ray.

She speaks about how easy it was to rekindle her friendship with Ray and Sookie whenever they bumped into each other. She goes on to expand on how Sookie had found a lump in her breast but had put off going to have it checked because, well, life. She’d always put it off because of work or whatever else came up. Sookie had told Gabrielle that she had been diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer. Her automatic response was the shift into control mode; she believed that money, advocating for breast cancer and prioritizing your health and getting in with the right organisations and doctors was the way to overcoming Sookie’s diagnosis. It only became clear to her three years later, after having explained to her that there is no cure for metastatic cancer, that she’d realised that she was again trying to control a situation that she was having trouble understanding and accepting. All she could do was spend time with her friend. Sadly, Sookie passed two years later, surrounded by people she loved at home. It is with her final message that Gabrielle concludes her book:

Sookie made me promise to tell you not to act out of fear. I can only add that you can be scared to death...and do the things you need to do anyway.

There are so many more moments that Gabrielle shares with us from her journey so far; her journey with her now husband Dwayne Wade and raising their beautiful children in a world where racism exists, her experiences in Hollywood and meeting Prince. We can only recommend that you join Gabrielle at the table. P.S. Don’t forget your wine. ;)