[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.I was receiving a lot of mail from all over the country.Most of it came from people i didn’t know, mostly militant Black people, either in the streets or in prison.I got some hate mail, though, and some letters from religious people who were trying to save my soul.I wasn’t able to answer all of those letters because the prison permitted us to write only two letters a week, subject to inspection and censorship by the prison authorities.It was hard for me to write anyway.I was also very paranoid about letters.I could not bear the thought of the police, FBI, guards, whoever, reading my letters and getting daily insight on how i was feeling and thinking.But i would like to offer my sincerest apology to those who were kind enough to write to me over the years and who received no answer.I spent my first month at the middlesex county workhouse writing.Evelyn had brought some newspaper clippings and it was obvious the press was trying to railroad me, to make me seem like a monster.According to them i was a common criminal, just going around shooting down cops for the hell of it.I had to make a statement.I had to talk to my people and let them know what i was about, where i was really coming from.The statement seemed to take forever to write.I wanted to make a tape of it and enlisted Evelyn’s help.As my lawyer, she was dead set against it and advised me not to make the tape.But as a Black woman living in amerika, Evelyn understood why it was important and necessary.When the prosecutor found out about the tape he tried to get her thrown off the case.She was ordered by the court never to bring a tape recorder again when she visited me.I made the tape of “To My People” on July 4, 1973, and it was broadcast on many radio stations.Here is what I said:Black brothers, Black sisters, i want you to know that i love you and i hope that somewhere in your hearts you have love for me.My name is Assata Shakur (slave name joanne chesimard), and i am a revolutionary.A Black revolutionary.By that i mean that i have declared war on all forces that have raped our women, castrated our men, and kept our babies empty-bellied.I have declared war on the rich who prosper on our poverty, the politicians who lie to us with smiling faces, and all the mindless, heartless robots who protect them and their property.I am a Black revolutionary, and, as such, i am a victim of all the wrath, hatred, and slander that amerika is capable of.Like all other Black revolutionaries, amerika is trying to lynch me.I am a Black revolutionary woman, and because of this i have been charged with and accused of every alleged crime in which a woman was believed to have participated.The alleged crimes in which only men were supposedly involved, i have been accused of planning.They have plastered pictures alleged to be me in post offices, airports, hotels, police cars, subways, banks, television, and newspapers.They have offered over fifty thousand dollars in rewards for my capture and they have issued orders to shoot on sight and shoot to kill.I am a Black revolutionary, and, by definition, that makes me a part of the Black Liberation Army.The pigs have used their newspapers and TVs to paint the Black Liberation Army as vicious, brutal, mad-dog criminals.They have called us gangsters and gun molls and have compared us to such characters as john dillinger and ma barker.It should be clear, it must be clear to anyone who can think, see, or hear, that we are the victims.The victims and not the criminals.It should also be clear to us by now who the real criminals are.Nixon and his crime partners have murdered hundreds of Third World brothers and sisters in Vietnam, Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa.As was proved by Watergate, the top law enforcement officials in this country are a lying bunch of criminals.The president, two attorney generals, the head of the fbi, the head of the cia, and half the white house staff have been implicated in the Watergate crimes.They call us murderers, but we did not murder over two hundred fifty unarmed Black men, women, and children, or wound thousands of others in the riots they provoked during the sixties.The rulers of this country have always considered their property more important than our lives.They call us murderers, but we were not responsible for the twenty-eight brother inmates and nine hostages murdered at attica.They call us murderers, but we did not murder and wound over thirty unarmed Black students at Jackson State—or Southern State, either.They call us murderers, but we did not murder Martin Luther King, Jr., Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, George Jackson, Nat Turner, James Chaney, and countless others.We did not murder, by shooting in the back, sixteen-year-old Rita Lloyd, eleven-year-old Rickie Bodden, or ten-year-old Clifford Glover.They call us murderers, but we do not control or enforce a system of racism and oppression that systematically murders Black and Third World people.Although Black people supposedly comprise about fifteen percent of the total amerikkkan population, at least sixty percent of murder victims are Black.For every pig that is killed in the so-called line of duty, there are at least fifty Black people murdered by the police.Black life expectancy is much lower than white and they do their best to kill us before we are even born.We are burned alive in fire-trap tenements.Our brothers and sisters OD daily from heroin and methadone.Our babies die from lead poisoning.Millions of Black people have died as a result of indecent medical care.This is murder [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]