Saturday, May 24, 2014

the spook who sat by the door is no more...,


WaPo |  Sam Greenlee was underappreciated, disgruntled, professionally disemboweled and perpetually agitated.

His sudden death at the age of 83 offers opportunity for reflection on a man trapped in the suspended animation of one great work that briefly elevated, then haunted, him into his last days. An apprehensive and highly educated foreign service officer who abruptly quit the business of American global dominance in anguished pursuit of a lifetime in written word, Greenlee spawned like a lost child of Ralph Ellison.

He will not be forgotten, but he will also be remembered in the starting lineup of a tortured lineage of creative black literary minds way ahead of their time. From George Schulyer (Black Empire) to Ellison (Invisible Man) to Chester Himes (If He Hollers Let Him Go), hard shift to Greenlee and then John Edgar Wideman (Philadelphia Fire), to Brent Wade (the Company Man genius who just … went missing) and now Todd Craig (Tor’cha), they and others are temporary flashes of a fire of brilliant black men’s acrimony shared through risky, genre-bending books. 
 
For Greenlee, risky was an understatement. To write, screenplay and release a film adaptation of a novel deconstructing the global white supremacy pyramid scheme was dangerous at that time, and he invited his own ostracism from the social grid. Few in this day and age of grainy, elevator-security-camera fight videos, overpriced designer headphones and LeBron James Android apps will celebrate the name, much less recall it. But Greenlee was the godfather of black rage long before The Boondocks’ creator, Aaron McGruder, became his stylish stepson—merely channeling select nuggets of Greenlee’s seminal The Spook Who Sat by the Door because, against the visceral boom bap and fading Africa emblems of Generation X, it was cool like that.

There were those of us who spoke of Spook as if speaking in a special, uniquely branded tongue of black revolutionary cryptography. You did not understand the rugged totality of modern black existence unless you were schooled in it, and suddenly we were all aspiring Dan Freemans in training. Greenlee’s semiautobiographical tour de force managed to tap into dark, revenge-filled fantasies of bold, brainy brothers outwitting The Man. 

Mr. Greenlee joined the U.S. Information Agency in 1957 and was among the its first black officials to serve overseas. He was stationed in Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia and Greece before quitting in 1965 to focus on writing. 

In his novel, Mr. Greenlee drew on his work with USIA but transformed the central character in “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” Dan Freeman, into a black CIA officer who quits the spy agency in disgust. Freeman returns to his native Chicago, where he puts his CIA training to use by organizing street gangs into a paramilitary black revolutionary movement that spreads nationwide. 

“My experiences were identical to those of Freeman in the CIA,” Mr. Greenlee told The Washington Post in 1973. “Everything in that book is an actual quote. If it wasn’t said to me, I overheard it.”
Mr. Greenlee’s novel was first published in England in 1969, after, he said, it was rejected by dozens of mainstream publishers in the United States.

13 comments:

Ed Dunn said...

Looking at the author Matt Schudel track record, he appear to be this 1970 Jew obsessed with having the last say about Black revolutionaries utilizing the power of mainstream media. Jewish people obsessed with Blacks like him are nothing more than punks and cowards, using the mainstream media in this fashion knowing there will be no counterbalance to their propaganda and Mr. Schudel believe he has the last word.

This has been the modus operandi of these cowards for the longest time, everything from reporting about "Blacks" on their New York news channel to Wall Street Journal and New York Times having editorials about key Black figures and Black culture without having any counter-balance in their media. They are a collective group of punks and cowards and operation from a bully pulpit.

I'm pretty sure he already have his content written up for Minister Farrakhan to attempt to narrative the life and legacy of Louis Farrakhan in mainstream media from an ADL perspective. But you know who fault this is? This is the fake of these worthless Black revolutionaries who don't do ish but talk and huff and puff but have done nothing to create counter institutions to speak for their own as public record. They don't even blog or publish or anything - they run around on comment boards talking about how pro-Black they are or they have a group that talks silly psuedo-history nonsense about the Statue of Liberty was a Black woman or obsessed with talking about COINTEL over and over again.

Mr. Greenlee do not deserve to have the first line written about him as "Sam Greenlee was underappreciated, disgruntled, professionally disemboweled and perpetually agitated." and it is apparent there is a Jewish-operated post-mortem hitlist on these guys via the mainstream media channel to narrate people like Mr. Greenlee legacy. But the bottom line, these kufi-wearing clowns ain't got a damn thing to counter this known attack except running their mouth on a comment board somewhere and cosplay like Hebrews in a park somewhere....

CNu said...

lol@"cosplay like Hebrews in a park somewhere"..., jes dayyum.

Ed Dunn said...

I find it interesting the treasure trove of data clues with this Elliot Rodger guy and no one picked up on it. Check out the #11 post on the following link. There is tons of facebook information, bbs trolling, youtube channel and more and no one picked up on this? But Edward Snowden is monitoring the phones of some Valley Girl talking about her maid refuse to take the poodle for a cut and shampoo?

http://www.docdroid.net/ckku/im-tired-of-seeing-losers-with-hot-chicks-bodybuildingcom-forums-.pdf.html

CNu said...

Think about it bruv..., how scary would it be if they had an effective Patrick Bateman filter?

Ed Dunn said...

But Eric Holder advocated such a filter early on but got backlash. There are data points here that are definitely measurable. Sexually frustrated, loner, blaming others for his problems in public rantings. It is not going to be picked up yet but this guy was extremely obsessed with the 1980s and I caught a lot of references to 1980s movie lines in his YouTube rants. The selfies he taken remind me of the VA Tech shooter taking all those selfies sending to NBC before selfies became popular. And the cops were informed. Not to rant on but there was way too many online data and profiling here that I expected the government to detect this guy and they did not. And I'm on the watch list at the airport, I bet this guy wasn't on any watch list.

Makheru Bradley said...

“It is apparent there is a Jewish-operated post-mortem hitlist on these guys via the mainstream media channel to narrate people like Mr. Greenlee legacy.”

Dood, you’re losing it. Charles Ellison (The Root) is the author of this article, not Matt Schudel. Schudel begins his article: “Sam Greenlee, a onetime Foreign Service officer whose 1969 novel and a subsequent film, both called “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” became underground sensations during the black nationalist movement, died May 19 at his home in Chicago. He was 83.”

I don’t know if Ellison wears a kufi or not, but before you go into attack mode against him take a break from that Mad Dog 20/20.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MD_2020.jpg

http://www.politico.com/arena/bio/charles_d_ellison.html

Makheru Bradley said...

[To write, screenplay and release a film adaptation of a novel deconstructing the global white supremacy pyramid scheme was dangerous at that time, and he invited his own ostracism from the social grid.]

It is really interesting to see concepts like global white supremacy, which have propagandized exclusively by Afrikanists over the past 25 years, suddenly appearing more and more in the MSM. That does not happen by accident. Once the MSM grasps such concepts they attempt to systematically distort, revise, and redefine the meanings of those terms, to serve their interests.

[Greenlee’s death happens at a very peculiar time of cautious black presidents who delegate what-must-be-said reminders to their black attorneys general. “The greatest threats,” explained Eric Holder—grand sensei of spooks—to a crowd of largely clueless black college graduates, “do not announce themselves in screaming headlines. They are more subtle. They cut deeper. And their terrible impact endures long after the headlines have faded and obvious, ignorant expressions of hatred have been marginalized.”

Wow. Holder did a fantastic job of explaining how the current refinement of institutionalized white supremacy works, particularly with proxies like Obama and Holder making it even more insidious.

CNu said...

lol, the Root is owned by the Washington Post...,

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother CNu:


I must ask you:


1) Since the tale of the "COINTELPRO" is writ large among most "Black Nationalists", N.O.I. and I even heard Cynthia McKinney speak live at a "African Unity" conference, stating that her present doctorate thesis is on "COINTELPRO"


2) Since these same people argue that for Black people to over come WHITE SUPREMACY we must become ONE PEOPLE, regardless of where we live around the world


**** Do YOU believe that the CIA operatives in Libya and Yemen is akin to the modern day "COINTELPRO"?


**** Why do you believe that the news of the CIA operative in Yemen shooting dead two Yemeni people who tried to kidnap him while he was getting a hair cut in Yemen about 4 weeks ago, yet he walked away without being detained by the Yemeni government - GEORGE ZIMMERMAN STYLE did not make it into the American press as robustly as one would expect? (I am not saying that he was not justified in defending himself against a kidnapping. I AM saying that if the reverse was to happen in the USA - the foreign operative would still be detained until a domestic trial or negotiated settlement was had)


**** Think of the dynamics of "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" - a Black American Revolutionary joined the CIA in order to learn their tactics and use them to start a revolution IN CHICAGO for the defense of Black people. Fast forward to today. When I attend various "Black Leftist Nationalist" programs around Atlanta (after listening to WRFG) I am comforted to know that it would be illogical for them to believe that I am an FBI/CIA/DEA agent because then I would be reporting to President Obama and/or Eric Holder. Two Black men who are now running the machinery of government that they run down as OPPRESSORS, yet they mentally absolve their VEHICLES through that represent BLACK ADVANCEMENT by detailing how THE SHADOW WHITE RIGHT WING GOVERNMENT runs America - not Obama.


***** In listening to "RT TV" while I was in Kansas City earlier this week - I heard them argue that THE UNITED STATES, not RUSSIA set up the terms for the problems in Ukraine. It was the RIGHT WING HAWK Victoria Nuland in the Stand Department that plotted the scenario by which Russia was forced to act.


Both Black and White will not stop at INFERIORIZING THE BLACK PRESIDENT OBAMA of his power in order to make their claim that the WHITE RIGHT WING ENEMY, the 6th Estate - has more POWER than he.




I say all of this to ask: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE ABOUT "COINTELPRO" or present domestic surveillance when the LOYAL CONGREGATION is not prepared to believe the truth that does not fit their bigoted, entrenched positions?

Ed Dunn said...

Not losing it...I discussed Matt Schudel history and track record...once again Makheru, you appear to be more style than substance. How is it that I know the decades of history of people like Matt and you don't? Maybe you never wanted to know these people because that is not a fight you want to battle. It probably makes you more comfortable to know this was a black man who wrote that article because that is all you can muster your pro-black bravado to do battle with..another black person.


Do a better job...in the 21st century, the afrocentric name and ancient Afrikan references just ain't impressive as it used to be...run and tell that...

Ed Dunn said...

The Root is now owned by Salon and Bezos wrote that crap off once he acquired the Washington Post. The problem with Makheru is he want to believe Charles Ellison which is incorrect, Matt Schudel wrote it and I emailed his ass directly and let him know what's up. The first paragraph has been edited to the paragraph Makheru is reference now.


Once again, wheat win, chaff lose

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother Ed:


I credit Peniel Joseph (despite rejecting his strategy forward) with capturing the tension between "The Jews" working inside of "The Black Civil Rights Struggle" in his book "Waiting Till The Midnight Hour" in which he documents how Jews played a strong role in the movement.


The Jew - despite his economic success in America, sees himself as an "Oppressed Minority".


There are many Jews that gave their lives and money to support Black causes. "????" Greenberg was the long time head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, winning many civil rights cases. Yet when he attempted to go fill a graduate teaching position in "Black Studies" for a Black professor who had died (I believe this was at Columbia University but don't quote me) the Black students rejected his years of committed service, preferring a BLACK PERSON to provide them with "Black History".


INDEED there is a long history of "Jewish Liberal Paternalism" - I ALSO inspect the hand that THE BLACK LEADERSHIP has played in setting the Black Rank & File up as the injured victim IN NEED OF A PATERNAL PARTNER.

Makheru Bradley said...

“Matt Schudel wrote it.” What’s up with you Bro. Dunn? Now you’re charging Charles Ellison with plagiarism. It’s absolutely guaranteed, that just as with your vitriolic attack on Bomani Jones, you have no documentation to validate your charges against Ellison.

http://bit.ly/1lImH3x

http://wapo.st/1jRJKgI

“all you can muster your pro-black bravado to do battle with..another black person.” Van Jones, Bomani Jones, Charles Ellison attacked by Ed Dunn, and you’re accusing Makheru of doing battle with Black people. LOL. I attack the White Supremacy Dynamic and their running dog lackeys like Barack Obama.

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