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“I am a 20th-century escaped slave.” —Assata Shakur
Assata in Freedom
Syncopated Survival and the Score of Resistance
Assata Shakur was sentenced in 1979 to a life confined behind prison walls for a murder, she affirmed she did not commit. But she did not vanish into the abyss. She escaped and recomposed.
In 1984, Assata surfaced in Cuba, where she was granted asylum by a nation that recognized her not as a fugitive, but as a freedom fighter. Her escape from a United States prison was not just physical—it was metaphysical. A refusal to be silenced. A refusal to be written out of history.
She called herself an “escaped 20th-century slave.” A reality that far too many Africans living in America can’t grasp because they refuse to realize enslavement remains with us. Neither can they wrap their collective heads around the fact that escape is still a viable option.
Assata understood Imperial aggression abroad and its connection to political and economic aggression at home. In doing so, she reframed exile as a form of authorship. Her life in Cuba became a syncopated survival—a rhythm of resistance that pulsed across borders, generations, and movements.
In Havana, Assata penned Assata: An Autobiography, a text that braided memory, poetry, and political critique. It became scripture for the dispossessed—a guidebook for those navigating the intersections of race, gender, and state violence.
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win… We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
While living not in exile, but living in freedom in Cuba, Assata also wrote, Assata: In Her Own Words, a collection of essays, speeches, and other musings where she preached the gospel according to Assata.
Her words echoed through hip-hop, protest chants, and classroom walls. She became a symbol not of escape, but of endurance.
Assata’s so-called exile was not retreat—it was syncopation—a deliberate break in the beat of American tyranny. Like Coltrane’s solos, her silence was never empty. It was charged and composed.
“My music is the spiritual expression of what I am—my faith, my knowledge, my being.” —John Coltrane.
“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth.” —Paul Robeson.
“Revolutions overturn systems.” —Malcolm X.
Assata lived her revolution, not in spectacle, but in sustained refusal. She refused to let the state define her. Refused to let history erase her. Refused to let exile mean invisibility.
Today, as the U.S. government teeters on the edge of another shutdown, and as state-sponsored repression slaps the entire continent in the face, Assata’s legacy feels urgent—the system stalls, the people suffer, and the rhythm of governance stutters again. This time, White, Red, Yellow, and Brown people are caught in the crosshairs of a tyrannical empire in the making, alongside their Black brothers and sisters.
But Assata reminds us: survival is not submission. Silence can be a strategy. Exile can also be a form of authorship.
Her life offers a blueprint—not for escape, but for endurance. For composing truth in the margins. For refusing to be forgotten.
Let Assata’s legacy be more than a memory. Let it be a method.
Let us write in her rhythm. Speak in her syncopation. Refuse in her resolve. And strike a blow for freedom, the kind of freedom long sought by our ancestors, and not the freedom of a non-repentant reconstruction designed to appease the confederation.
“If the system won’t change its tune, maybe it’s time we write a new one.”-
Today, Texas Democratic lawmakers did something remarkable—and notably, not unprecedented.
They boarded planes and fled their state, effectively halting the legislative session and blocking a deeply controversial Republican congressional map from coming to a vote. At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss this as political theater. But what’s unfolding in Texas is deeper than theatrics: it’s symptomatic of a broader democratic crisis that is increasingly defining our era.
This new Texas map, introduced by the state's Republican majority, isn't subtle. It openly carves out five additional safe Republican seats, solidifying GOP control even further. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’ 38 congressional seats; under the new plan, that number could rise to 30 – an astonishing consolidation of power in a state growing increasingly diverse and politically competitive. For Democrats, blocking the map isn't simply about gaining partisan advantage; it's a defense against a rigged electoral playing field.
And to do it, they resorted to the only effective tool at their disposal: denying Republicans the quorum they needed.
The politics here aren't subtle, either. Democrats fled largely to Illinois, a choice that isn’t accidental.
llinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, known nationally as one of the Democratic Party's most substantial financial supporters, quietly and effectively backed this maneuver. Pritzker, who has spent heavily supporting progressive causes across the country, provided not just logistical support, but a clear political statement:
Democratic solidarity in this fight against aggressive Republican gerrymandering transcends state lines.
But even as Democrats rally around the Texas delegation’s symbolic stand, it's worth acknowledging the complicated dynamics that define redistricting nationwide.
In states controlled by Republicans, gerrymandering has become something close to an art form – precise, strategic, and increasingly ruthless. Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and others have aggressively redrawn district lines to ensure partisan advantage. But Democrats, where they have the power, have often responded in kind. Illinois itself is no innocent: its most recent congressional map was graded "F" for fairness by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, illustrating that partisan redistricting is a bipartisan disease.
Yet there is an important difference emerging between how many Democratic-controlled states and Republican-controlled states are handling this process. California, Colorado, New York, and Washington, all Democratic-leaning states, have shifted control of redistricting to independent, non-partisan commissions. This approach, while imperfect, attempts to depoliticize district-drawing and restore fairness into a process that shapes the very foundation of representation.
Texas Republicans, by contrast, are moving aggressively in the opposite direction. They aren't just playing partisan politics – they're actively reshaping political geography in ways designed explicitly to dilute the power of Democratic-leaning voters, particularly voters of color.
This isn't just political strategy – it's fundamentally anti-democratic.
The Democrats' flight, therefore, should not be dismissed as mere spectacle or partisan brinkmanship.
It is a desperate measure born from a political system increasingly rigged against fair competition. It’s worth remembering that this isn't Texas Democrats’ first act of defiance; they did something similar in 2021 over voting restrictions and in 2003 to resist another GOP redistricting plan. Each time, their dramatic acts have drawn national attention – but ultimately, Republicans have prevailed. And yet, Democrats continue to return to this strategy because it illuminates how few options remain when democratic processes themselves are compromised.
JB Pritzker's involvement, quietly facilitating this moment, points to an emerging strategic solidarity among national Democrats: understanding that local battles over redistricting have national implications.
As Republicans across the country increasingly redraw districts to entrench minority rule, Democrats like Pritzker see state-level fights as central to the future health of American democracy itself.
His funding and support underscore how the fight in Texas isn’t just Texas’s fight – it’s America's.
Folks, I have no long history of political bias one way or the other... More specifically, I was among those Americans who paid surface attention to what was happening in Washington, but the demands of our daily lives far exceeded the time it could take to keep abreast of what was happening...
The time when Washingtonians were trying to scare everybody about communists--accusing anybody and everybody... was quite some time ago. However, those who choose to disrupt America for their own purposes has surely been ongoing... But, it is clear that, right now--yes, right now... those individuals have succeeded in placing an individual perfectly suited for the type of leader that already was a conman in his own world and only became worse when given the power of the presidency. Obviously none of us who were "living our lives" had sufficient time, nor, perhaps, interest, to see the direction that was evolving through the years.
What that means is that we have reached a point where criminal acts have resulted in total control, including the Supreme Court to a great extent, in the presidency. A total rejection of all things that once made America what it was, has been, and was always intended to be... FREE.
Let me be very clear, it is impossible for anybody who believes in God OR, not religious, but still cannot accept starving an entire group of people is just wrong, would never consider that what Israel's leaders are doing right now (and Russia) is the right thing to do... Further, the pretension of actions here in America by the government that declares any action against Israel as illegal... is...also just... plain... WRONG! Anything done, as is/was being done to rig our elections in America is just as criminal as is all other actions now taking place under the present administration... May God Be With Us and All those Who are Being Damaged in some way, including death, as we struggle to be freed from such extreme and lawless activities!
Can America survive the minute-by-minute actions against humanity by the rich and powerful now in control? Only if we all fight in every way possible to stop the MADNESS OF HATE, RETRIBUTION, AND, MOST OF ALL, GREED!
So, we come back to Texas, where people apparently do not matter... Remember that little has been done to help those who lost so much, including their lives in Texas' greatest losses during unprecedented flooding.
Because of course, the politicians have all been involved in working to ensure that the majority of Texans are not fairly treated in our upcoming elections... Yes, that means that the majority (non-white-male) of Texans have been gerrymandered within a "MAP" CREATED TO ENSURE THAT HAPPENS! And it had nothing to do with the redistricting done in association with the last nationwide census... So many lies...how can we keep up???
It is hard not to be thinking about exactly what your basic beliefs entail these days, isn't it? Prior to the January 6th Insurrection, we routinely heard about the connection between the evangelical christians and the republican party/Trump. That seems to have changed recently? Could it be that somewhere along the line, the recognition of the violence incited--the hate and prejudice incited--by this man who had promised them a number of things... and left him alone to do the horrendous damage upon America that he did!
We are finding out more and more each day as the hearings on the Insurrection are being held and available on news stations across the world. We have seen the individual life stories of damage, of threats of harm or death made by or in this man's name... The President invited us here! We're here because Trump notified us of the time and location, telling us it was going to be "Wild!"
Illustrating its impact was shown just yesterday while the stories of the three generations of the Moss family were shared! The grandmother had so instilled the recognition when those who were Black were now allowed to vote that the child and grandchild became involved in the activities necessary to ensure the routine voting act was carried through... The grandchild even became a permanent employee in responding to those seeking information... That is, until Trump accused them publicly and the routine threats from white supporters of Trump took up their forked tongues to condemn the fact that they were "surely" doing something wrong if they showed no support in getting Trump reelected! It's a sad story, one that is illustrative of the many individuals who were forced into considering falsifying their work just because a president asked them to!
The fact that Trump is white...and that he was seen as the representative of all those who hate anybody who isn't, makes us all sit up and think! How could this man ever have been elected in the first place? Simple: He lies...and lies...and lies... so convincingly that for some, he was believed--perhaps because he was spewing the hateful vitriol that many seem to harbor, sadly.
Plus the fact that they apparently made a deal with the devil... He promised and fulfilled the appointment of conservative judges, which has brought about the evolution of so Many MORE HATEFUL OUTCOMES THAN EVER COULD HAVE BEEN IMAGINED. All those things that had evolved to change limitations of governmental prejudice which were removed by the Constitution when it proclaimed that all should be treated equally...had slowly came about... Had it gone too far, I wondered? Yet, the millions that were no longer ostracized began to be legally able to live as others live. Could this be wrong?
So, as I always do when confused, I started looking for more information.
For centuries, the most common image of Jesus Christ, at least in Western cultures, has been that of a bearded, fair-skinned man with long, wavy, light brown or blond hair and (often) blue eyes. But the Bible doesn’t describe Jesus physically, and all the evidence we do have indicates he probably looked very different from how he has long been portrayed.
What Does the Bible Say?
The Bible offers few clues about Christ’s physical appearance. Most of what we know about Jesus comes from the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. According to the Gospels, Jesus was a Jewish man born in Bethlehem and raised in the town of Nazareth, in Galilee (formerly Palestine, now northern Israel) during the first century A.D.
We know Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry (Luke 3:23), but the Bible tells us virtually nothing about what he looked like―except that he didn’t stand out in any particular way. When Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane before the Crucifixion (Matthew 26:47-56) Judas Iscariot had to point Jesus out to his soldiers among the disciples―presumably because they all appeared similar to one another.
Interestingly, it opens to the infamous march in 2017 when white supremacists chose to interrupt a protest...
Jeremy Shere: On the evening of August 11th, 2017, hundreds of white nationalist neo-Nazis and others associated with the far right gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from a local park. Carrying flags with Nazi and Confederate symbols and brandishing torches, the protesters marched toward the park, chanting. [Sound of people chanting]
In case it's hard to make out, the marchers are chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” Now, like most people you were probably horrified by this brazen display of bigotry, antisemitism, and racial hatred. But for American Jews — at least for those born after World War II — the scene in Charlottesville was also surreal, as though a Nazi rally from an old black-and-white newsreel had sprung to life in full color in the present. Jews will not replace us? Who exactly is the “us”?
Eric Goldstein: The “us” is obviously some definition of white society that doesn't include the Jews...
So, I just have to ask...just who ARE those who choose hate toward anybody who is not like Trump--full of prejudice, bigotry, and violence... Where does it come from?
Certainly not from those Caucasians like me who not only accept Jesus as our Savior and the God of Love for all... Certainly not those who are Black and have suffered both in the past and as recently as during this fiasco thrown by Trump and his followers who lied about three Black women who chose to give their time celebrating the time when Blacks were first given the right to vote! And certainly not the Jewish people who are scorned by many who "choose" to hate by ethnic group. It certainly is not the Indigenous people, who are separated and left to try to make a living in whatever way they can... It certainly is not those who have immigrated into America and have become Americans who fight and have fought for our country...
...For many scholars, Revelation 1:14-15 offers a clue that Jesus's skin was a darker hue and that his hair was woolly in texture. The hairs of his head, it says, "were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace.”
“We don't know what [Jesus] looked like, but if all of the things that we do know about him are true, he was a Palestinian Jewish man living in Galilee in the first century,” says Robert Cargill, assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. “So he would have looked like a Palestinian Jewish man of the first century. He would have looked like a Jewish Galilean.”
READ MORE: Who Wrote the Bible?Is That Important to Us as we Consider the world today?
Remember the history of many who fled other lands for freedom of religion, only to, then, murder and steal the lands that Indigenous Americans had lived on for decades and perhaps even longer, and thought nothing of the violence they used in this effort? And, remember over the many years when America, through its constitution, welcomed the poor, the hungry, yearning to be free came to America...the land which continued to welcome? Well, many of those individuals came from countries where a State Religion had been declared... and they thought nothing, for instance, in Spain, to force conversion to Christianity...just... because... And history shows that it certainly wasn't because they shared the love of Jesus with all these people, so that they would, be given the choice to accept Jesus as their personal Savior...
Well, some of us...many of us...have been watching a certain segment of those who claim Christianity... become nothing but those who were the heads of authoritarian churches in Europe who followed a State Religion, often claiming that it was God's Will...? Yeah, even I, who know little about the actual details behind the facts of those days...still can see that America is now being tested! Are we the country who welcomed immigrants from all over the world, providing the freedom of religion that the constitution promised was the basis of America? .
Or, are we going to try to "Claim" that God really doesn't love anybody else but Christians.. And that those "people" therefore, should be in control of the government as well?! I live in Pennsylvania. I DO NOT AND WILL NOT SUPPORT A MAN WHO WAS INVOLVED WITH THE JANUARY 6TH INSURRECTION TO OVERTHROW THE 2020 ELECTION!
Personally, I think it is kinda ironic that the Democrat candidate for the position of Governor is from an active and involved Jewish Family with a proven track record in the State. So, some Christians want us to NOW hate the Jews, even though their own history acknowledge that Jewish people were favored of God?
But isn't that the issue...Some Christians quote from a Bible, those parts that can be manipulated to mean exactly what they want...us...to believe that they mean. I call that deception, not like my God of Love. I call that lying. Not like My God of Truth... As a professional book reviewer, I have a problem with those words which, to me, do not mean what many Trump followers are gaslighting and hoping you accept they mean. Claiming that "they even may have to use violence..." Mastriano, who sought to overturn Pennsylvania’s vote for Joe Biden in 2020, attended the rally preceding the attack and chartered buses to bring others. Though he says he left when things turned violent, video showed he passed through “breached barricades and police lines,” according to a Senate Judiciary Committee report..." He is now a republican candidate for Pennsylvania, as well as "Dr. Oz" a Trump-supported man who is not even a Pennsylvania resident! LIES!
All I say to you is that...I Bear Witness to God's Love for All...Equally... I chose a non-Christian, but faithful man of God as my choice for Governor... All I ask is that you do your own research... Seek God's guidance...NOT those MAGAs who are using a supposed, Holy Book, to manipulate words to create fear, hate, and prejudice... I CAN NOT AND WILL NOT BELIEVE THAT THESE ACTIONS ARE HAPPENING AND SUPPORTED BY MY GOD OF LOVE...FOR ALL PEOPLES...And, to be more, specific. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT AMERICA WAS MEANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN NATION...BY USING LIES AND MANIPULATION AND INCITEMENT OF FEAR AND HATE IN ORDER TO MAKE IT...A COUNTRY BASED ON THE GOD OF LOVE... it is illogic... it does not compute. it does not support the American Constitution...
God Bless you in fighting your way to the truth through this group who will do anything...including lying to Americans, without any remorse, shame, and, really, void of sympathy, empathy...and God's Love... Just My Personal Opinion, Of course...Bearing Witness to God as Love for all that He created...just as we are...After all, if you really believe what your Bible says, God knew each of us before we were born. That means, he created many different types and colors of people, don't you think?
Tonto says: White Man Speaks with Forked Tongue... READ, READ, READ, SEARCH FOR TRUTH! . I stand on the Rock of Ages...Solid Ground... Make sure what your house is built on...Lies cannot stand a solid ground...
Gabbie admits: Between you and me, I often get soooo confused with what is going on these days... Who do we believe? Who do we Trust? Is there anybody who speaks Truth? If you're like me, let's just continue working our way through all the lies...and, surely, surely, we'll be able to freely believe...and...trust...again...
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