Mr. Tom Porter, educator, activist, author, joined us to discuss recently discovered documents about the federal government surveillance he and others were under as organizers of The Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
See also our previous interview about Leonard Ball with Jamil Muhammad.
Jared,
I’m almost 10 years into understanding I have no privacy in private communications. I once read African guidance about secrets in community effectively saying choose the option you can present to the community. All secrets will eventually find the light. If they can know everything on playback, then the question becomes what should they see when they look at me?
I want them to know of my non-violent life strategy, because war masters out-gun everyone. Then I want them to know I work to uplift the least of us and I count lying and killing as the only agents of human diminution. Truth simplifies life and affords me better rest.
So when security profiles me in Target, for instance, I talk to them about forming a worker union to uplift the least of us. When banks or IRS or police bully me, I talk to them about strengthening or forming a better union with their colleagues to uplift the least of us. If DNA shows we’re 99% duplicate then what the problem is? I ask. In America, non-white males figure prominently among the least of us. I’ll tell any white supremist I will help build whites only love palaces all over the world if white supremists will stop lying and killing others.
Peace,
barry