Amiri Baraka

Newark, N.J. — New Jersey’s Governor Kean, like his lame duck Presidential misleader, Ronald Reagan, wants to leave the people a monument of his “white supremacy – make-the-rich-richer” ideology when he moves on to other evils.

Kean’s once-defeated, now revived (like most recent movie-monster blobs) ‘School Take-Over’ ploy is an attempt to maintain control over rising urban education budgets (Newark is now $330 million per year).  It also means the maintenance of white supremacy and an exploitative social system.

Education, except in the most political sense of the word, has little to do with it.  Just as Ron R’s “Star Wars” bases its popular appeal on the prevention of nuclear holocaust while its actual function will be simply to provide a high-paying “pork barrel” for the militarists, war-lovers, aerospace and munitions makers well into the twenty-first century.

The maturing political forces in the big cities are now just beginning to develop the means to fully utilize school budgets for inner city development.  The largest part of inner city budgets still goes out to the suburbs!  The haughty elitism of white supremacy residential segregation hides the fact that their social hauteur is maintained by sucking the blood and resources of the minorities and working people in the inner cities.  Contracts, consultancy, positions, employment, business development — there are vampires bloated on inner city tax revenues, resources, institutional wealth, etc.

Now that Newark has an elected school board, one not controlled by the mayor, the Klansmen in power feel that perhaps we Newark residents might want to control those millions for our children’s and our community’s benefit.  “What nerve! ” they shrill!

How dare the ugly little white supremacists who run New Jersey on behalf of corporate exploiters pretend that they are interested in educating black people & oppressed nationalities, or working people in general?  It is they, through the years, who have ruled it illegal for black chattel to read or write — then segregated them into American apartheid sub-standard ignorance maintainers!  Now they cynically claim to want to save us from ourselves!

It is the Keans and Coopermans, the explainers & con men of privilege & white supremacy who are directly to blame for dull, anti-black, anti-working-class curricula; anti-education ideology & methodology and hopeless attitudes of resignation by harassed inner city administrators and teachers!

The new Kean takeover vampire presumes that now that legislative elections are over in New Jersey, there are politicians so foul that they would now vote against the wishes of their constituencies and install this new colonialism!

Coretta King and the N.J. & National NAACP supported Kean’s gubernatorial victory — they must now swiftly & unconditionally disassociate themselves from this white supremacist & support mass efforts to stop this new & continuing abomination.