A Pardon of Marcus Garvey Apparently Would Break America's Bank

I know who shook the ground and brought the fire waters to the east coast. The earthquake and hurricane were the spirit of Marcus Garvey trembling in disappointment.

He kicked the sediment of the shores on the East and churned the Atlantic Ocean yelling, "Fucking Bumbaclot" just after after the Obama Administration denied a posthumous pardon request by Jamaican-American attorney Donovan Parker.

And rightly so. After all the work he did for people of African descent everywhere, the most powerful brother in the world, who happens to be the most powerful person in the world (or at least figure head), cannot extend a simple gesture of justice.

According to the Jamaica Observer,  Parker was "flatly rejected" for a pardon that would absolve Garvey's guilt of being imprisoned for mail fraud for $25 bucks.

Yup, 25-muhfucking dollars. But if you read the intricate and potent politics of Garvey, you would understand why his legacy is quashed by the powers that be and why $25 was nothing compared to the multi-million dollar, million-plus membership he had spanning across the globe in pockets where people of African descent lived.

As quiet as its kept, the Civil Rights movement couldn't even fuck with the dough (especially black dollars) generated through all facets of the UNIA.

The Gurgling Toad

But the reason for the "fuck off" response was simple. America is crying broke.

However, the Administration has shelled out  $600,000 for this ugly ass sculpture that I swear my 5-year-old niece could do a better job designing for only five dollars.

According to the letter, there aren't enough resources to investigate pardoning an icon who plays critical role in global political shifts in issues around post-colonialism, industrialism, and the emerging thought-politics of Pan-Africanism.

The letter basically says, that the Negro is dead and been dead. Let's just let this all go. Shit ain't relevant today. It's kind of like the Caucasian who cries, "I didn't own slaves. Why should I be held accountable. Hey, I'm not a racist man."

The rejection letter reads:

Many posthumous pardon requests would likely be based on a claim of manifest injustice, and given that decades have passed since the event and the historical record would have to be scoured to objectively and comprehensively investigate such applications, it is the Department's position that the limited resources which are available to process requests for Presidential clemency -- now being submitted in record numbers -- are best dedicated to requests submitted by persons who can truly benefit from a grant of the request," Rodgers replied on behalf of Obama, who is the first black president in the history of the United States.

Now let me remind you, or inform you, Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Associated had millions of dollars in bonds and donations from countries and statesmen and women, including black notables who also raised money for the organization.

Garvey didn't believe in the pauper prophet appealing to the guilt of others to fund his cause. He believed in black dollars and he knew that economic force always made a better chess player on the board of global political assertion.

UNIA Parade in Harlem

The UNIA paper, the Negro World, was banned in numerous countries, including Costa Rica, Antigua, Panama and Dominca for its political posturing of Africa for the Africans. For example, the UNIA sponsored a strike in Guatemala and Panama for workers of the United Fruit Company to increase their wages.

Or perhaps you would know about the Black Cross, an emergency response team of nurses that helped black people throughout the Caribbean in natural disasters, health issues, and other crises.

To date, the UNIA remains the largest black global organization in history, and positioned Diasporic blacks into the black American and American politics.

But before I continue to talk about America's raggedy ass, lemme point out that Garvey is considered a national hero in Jamaica, but still hasn't been pardoned for being arrested in his homeland. Get your shit together bumbaclots. Worried about the pardon in the States, focus on the issue in your backyard, Yardie.

It were West Indian infiltrators cooperating with the FBI who eventually aided in taking down Garvey, as well as selling the UNIA two bullshit steam liner ships that were broken down. Mr. Warner and Mr. Grey, you are rotting in your graves along with Agent 800 (Please read a Negro With a Hat by Colin Grant). But best believe there were African-Americans in the mix.

But as Garvey said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Courier, a phrase he echoed that is reminiscent of Harriet Tubman (not Allen West). I'm paraphrasing this one, but she spoke of Negroes, even the ones in the Caribe, who didn't know or cared to accept that they were slaves and craved to be like their former masters or be with them on the plantation. Garvey comments:

From early youth I discovered that there was prejudice against me because of my colour, a prejudice that was extended to other members of my race. This annoyed me and helped to inspire me to create sentiment that would act favorably to the black man. It was with this kind of inspiration that I returned from my trip to Europe to Jamaica in 1914, where I organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.

When I organized this movement in Jamaica it was treated with contempt and scorn by a large number of the highly coloured and successful black people. In Jamaica the coloured and successful black people regard themselves as white. This is also true of the other British West Indian islands. The result is that racial movements tending to the betterment of the Negro have to undergo great difficulties. Such difficulties I encountered with the new organization. I labored in Jamaica with the hope of making the movement successful for two years. Seeing how difficult it was to succeed with only a limited amount of money at my disposal, I communicated with Dr. Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee. He encouraged me to go to the United States on a lecture tour and promised me his help. Unfortunately he died before I was able to reach America.

But lemme get back to the Obama Administration. Obama and his tired verboseness that aroused so many is now sickening. Full of rhetoric and empty promise.

I know we stand on the shoulders of those before us, so it is safe to say Garvey's work added to Obama's Diasporic arse being in office. Definitely got dad over here to put that African mojo on Ann Dunham.

But like the cold and bullshit response I got when I wrote Obama Administration about black unemployment, these letters fall on deaf ears and blind eyes. The people who decide what letters are relevant are absolutely ignorant. I mean, who gives a shit about a negro who dressed in fancy military clothes and assisted in economic and political issues for black people around the world.

Obama surrounds himself with people who gives a fuck about humane issues. What an impotent and foolish reason to reject such a monumental response as pointed out by Calvin G. Brown in what he calls a pardon fiasco.

Nevertheless, this doesn't absolve Obama's complicity as a head nodder on this issue.

Not enough money Obama?

Artist Chuck Williams

This is so interesting because America made a shit load of money from neutralizing Marcus Garvey and the UNIA. In fact, the notorious FBI boss, J. Edgar Hoover cites his "work" on shutting down the UNIA as the template for neutralizing progressive and black organizations.

Garvey was Hoover's first case in creating what was to be called COINTELPRO, an intelligence system directed towards radical groups and progressive groups that were operated by people of color, poor people's movements and radical white folk.

Garvey was the government's intelligence agencies' guinea pig, and as we know, Hoover's tests proved that in fact, his sadistic tactics were somewhat effective. Until the Mafia showed Hoover a picture of him in his infamous tutu, ballerina slippers and lipstick to postpone his derailing of Kennedy and taking down Italian underground organizations who occupied the ports of the United States.

But I have to go back and mention one more thing regarding Obama Administration's flimsy excuse of not having resources. I know we are in a recession, but what an interesting time to shout "Broke".

I had to do a really quick budget review in the Obama Administration to see if researching the request of a pardon would over-utilize resources in the case of Garvey. 

• $550 Million in NATO airstrikes in Libya
• $1.2 Billion on Biking and Walking Initiatives
• Almost $800 Billion in Military Spending in 2011 Alone (with a global troop presence of 500,000 soldiers in 150 countries)
• $600,000 on a Frog Sculpture with a Fairy Riding It's Back at the Pentagon
• $100 million to support programs in Afghanistan aimed at moving former insurgents off the battlefields and into the country’s mainstream economy while Democracy is struggling in the United States.

Damn shame.

Don't forget the habits of a snake Obama. They will always bite.

And don't get it twisted, let's hope that we won't be writing anyone for your pardon one day because they way folk are treating you, people won't even put a food stamp on your history.