Elijah McClain taught himself how to play the violin which he would play to soothe stray kittens at the local shelter on his lunch break. He was a massage therapist, a vegetarian, a self described pacifist, and was described by all who knew him as a quirky and gentle soul.

On the night of August 24th, 2019, Elijah was walking home from the store in his neighborhood in Aurora, Colorado. He wore a ski mask as he had anemia and would get cold very easily. That night the Aurora Police Department received a call about a “suspicious person” walking and waving their arms. This call, like so many used against Black and Brown people, was a death sentence.

Kenn Orphan   June 2020

“The forest is one big thing; it has people, animals, and plants. There is no point saving the animals if the forest is burned down; there is no point saving the forest if the people and animals who live in it are killed or driven away. The groups trying to save the races of animals cannot win if the people trying to save the forest lose; the people trying to save the Indians cannot win if either of the others lose; the Indians cannot win without the support of these groups; but the groups cannot win either without the support of the Indians, who know the forest and the animals and can tell what is happening to them. No one of us is strong enough to win alone; together, we can be strong enough to win.” – Paulinho Paiakan, Chief of the Amazonian Kayapo tribe

Kenn Orphan   June 2020

I am so saddened to hear of the death of Sarah Hegazy. She was a courageous anti-capitalist Queer activist who was imprisoned in Egypt in 2017 following a music event in Cairo. Her supposed “crime” was the simple gesture of raising a rainbow flag at the concert. She endured terrible abuse in prison and had to flee to Canada following her release for her own safety. While she was in exile, her mother died, and she was unable to say goodbye. Yesterday, she took her own life.

As LGBTQ people, we often face prejudice, discrimination, alienation and violence from our own communities. The toll on our mental and emotional health can be overwhelming and for many the pain often feels like too much to bear. But for those in deeply conservative societies, it can be even more excruciating. Queer folks face terror and brutality all around the world. But Egypt, in particular, has been extraordinarily repressive and brutal in this way.

Under the corrupt leadership of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a military junta rules the country which has waged war on any kind of dissent, political or otherwise. Imprisonments, beatings, torture, extrajudicial killings, disappearances and sexual violence against critics are routine. And this has only emboldened the most ultra-conservative and fascistic elements of the society. For instance, Muslim clerics and Christian priests have been relentless in their persecution of the LGBTQ community, as well as women and non-conforming people. So Sarah’s courage in the midst of this was something incredibly formidable.

These words are the last ones Sarah wrote:

“To my siblings,
I tried to survive but I failed; forgive me.
To my friends,
The journey was cruel and I am too weak to resist; forgive me.
To the world,
You were cruel to a great extent; but I forgive you.”

Rest in peace and in power, dear Sarah. You did not fail and there is nothing to forgive. No human being should endure what you endured. But you will not be forgotten. People of conscience will carry your light forward, and it is something that we will never allow to be extinguished by hate.

Sarah Hegazy, Presente!

#RaiseTheFlagForSarah 🏳️‍🌈

Kenn Orphan  June 2020

In the wake of George Floyd’s horrendous lynching by cops caught on film, there are some equally horrendous things being said about his character. Candace Owens, the darling of the hate-filled far right among others, began disparaging him before his body was even cold. Owens is a talentless hack who merely provides a convenient black face for modern white supremacy, and she gets paid well for doing so. But white supremacists and apologists for police brutality have been working tirelessly to sling mud on Floyd’s character in an effort to disparage the justified rage and protests against state violence and institutional racism, and the ruthless response to them.

Some are focusing more on Floyd’s alleged crime of trying to use a $20 counterfeit bill than the murder itself, a risible obsession in a society where banks and corporations get billions in bailouts. There have even been a few saying he did drugs and appeared in a porn flick, as if they are justifications for what happened to him. Others are trying to play both sides saying, “well I don’t agree with what the officers did, but Floyd was not a good person either.” Such mealy-mouthed appeals to power are just as loathsome.  All of this reminds me of when people attack a rape victim because she or he or they supposedly committed a petty crime, or because they “slept around,” or they were into BDSM, or they were a sex worker, or they were “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” or they were wearing provocative clothing. In another words, “they deserved what they got.”

First off, the “war on drugs” has always been a vile construct that was designed to crush communities of color, the working poor and marginalized people. It holds absolutely no moral currency. All of this is observable in its uneven metric. Black communities face far harsher punishment for the same “crimes” as their white peers. Second, the accusation of sexual impropriety has been used by the powerful for centuries as a moral bludgeon against anyone seeking justice, especially against Black people, women and LGBTQ people. Simplistic stereotypes abound as a means of justifying state violence against the bodies of those who are dehumanized. And as we can see, this vile legacy continues today.

Seeing all of this should enrage anyone with a conscience, but it most certainly enrages me. I’ve done a hell of a lot (and still do) that many would not approve of. Many would be shocked by some or a lot of it. In fact, if the police killed me today I know it would only be a short time before there would be allegations or photos and all sorts of mud slung the direction of my corpse. The point is to strip a person of their humanity. This is what power does to anyone who opposes it. It is what it has always done.

We should have no patience with the smothering, sanctimonious and sexually repressive legacy of white American puritanism. Its scratchy robes of suffocating conformity and piety are repulsive, and it has always been used as a vehicle for oppression. In every case, we should side with the witches, not those who burned or hanged them. We should not countenance anyone judging our worth or the worth of those who have been historically marginalized. And there is a greater solidarity that is achieved from jettisoning the constraints of a repressive society. Often it means people will part from you. Often it means you will lose status or standing in certain communities. But when you grow into your personhood and step out of the shell that a repressive society has hemmed you into, you must expect, and even welcome, the exit from your life those people who cannot walk with you on your journey as equals.

We will never curry favor, as Candace Owens seeks to do, from the powerful. Those who are eager to dehumanize or demonize the oppressed. Nor should we try. After all, they are a rather pitiful lot who live in ivory towers composed of endless corridors of closets, ones which are packed with dried skeletons. Their only concern is holding tight to their ill-gotten privilege, and they live in constant fear that their judgmental peers will discover them. It is nothing to envy. When they cast their shadow, they are merely attempting to deflect the light from their own deadened souls. So be careful not to emulate them. Because the shadow they project on others is the one that will inevitably, some day, fall back on them.

Kenn Orphan   June 2020

Lead photo by Kenn Orphan.

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” — Vladimir Lenin

With a global pandemic where over 100,000 Americans are dead, staggering unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, the ever present and unfolding threat of climate change fueled catastrophes, white supremacist agitators, the wealthiest and most powerful empire on earth today is facing the perfect storm. Quite possibly, its quietus. At the center of this firestorm, an unhinged emperor is fanning the flames.

Donald Trump is that emperor, and regardless of what some might say about the limits on the executive branch, the president has sweeping powers to use the military and to detain anyone, including American citizens, indefinitely. Given the track record of this one, there is no reason to think he will not use every power he has been granted. And it is all legal thanks to the Patriot Act and provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). He also has power under the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military domestically. This law was originally created to prevent so-called “hostile incursions of the Indians.” It it any surprise that Trump would look to a tool of racist colonial oppression as a solution?

That Trump has declared Antifa a terrorist organization also has frightening implications. Although he has no legal power to do this, his words alone have power. Already, US Attorney General William Barr has said that he will treat protesters as domestic terrorists and has blamed all of the violence on “far left extremists” without any evidence whatsoever. There was no mention of white supremacist groups who have been active throughout the protests. Prior to this, he requested “emergency powers” from congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic. Antifa is not an organization, it is an umbrella term for anti-fascist protesters who are autonomous. Therefore, any protester against fascism can be labeled under this broad term if it suits them to do so for the purpose of crushing dissent.

No empire has ever gone down peacefully. And there is usually a long timeline of decay. We have witnessed much of this decline over the last few decades. But events are not always evenly paced.  Sometimes major shifts or shocks can occur within days or weeks, and such things can inflict terrible pain for many. We must not assume that “it can’t happen here.” Because, in truth, “it” already has. Over and over and over again. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

On a much more personal note, I want to urge my friends, family and comrades in the States to be alert and careful. This is not to make anyone fearful of dissent, organizing, or protesting injustice.  We need to stand in solidarity against racism, brutality and fascism. But the US has always been a dangerous place, especially for people of color, Native Americans, Latinx, women, the poor, LGBTQ, marginalized communities, immigrants, and political dissenters, and I fear that there is something very different unfolding now. Something quite ominous. I sincerely hope I am wrong. But anyone taking a stand needs to understand the risks involved. Standing united in solidarity is the only way to weather what lies ahead.

Stay alert, stay safe, stand in solidarity and stand for justice.

Kenn Orphan   June 2020

          This weekend is the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre in 1921. It has been called “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history,” but I know too many white Americans who have never even heard of it. White mobs took to the streets and even to the air to firebomb the most financially successful Black community in the US. Thirty-five city blocks were burned to ash. Hundreds of Black residents were killed and at least 800 injured. Thousands of people lost their homes and their livelihoods. Most never recovered a single dollar of what was robbed of them by those raging mobs.

Also Today, I have seen several white folks chiding people of color for alleged vandalism and looting following protests for the police murder of George Floyd. Apart from the fact that many of those doing the damage are agents provocateurs (people purposely doing damage to change public opinion against protesters, who may also be white supremacists or even undercover police), or that police response to peaceful protests have been aggressive (tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray), and that Black activists have been assisting in clean up efforts, we white folks have no position of moral agency to scold anyone.

Human life supersedes property. And after centuries of ethnic cleansing, genocide, the African slave trade, massacres, Jim Crow, anti-Chinese immigrant laws, lynching, internment of Japanese citizens in concentration camps, residential schools, segregation, redlining, grossly unequal justice systems, crime bills that target Black and Brown youth for minor offenses, police brutality, “Stop and Frisk” harassment, caging Latin American immigrant children, and continued systemic and cultural discrimination, white people should be the last ones to lecture any person of color about the virtues of non-violence.

          Kenn Orphan   May 2020 

*Photo is the aftermath of the Black neighborhood of Tulsa in 1921.