[Ppnews] Damn it, Richard, what the f***?!

[Political Prisoner News]

    Damn it, Richard, what the f***?!
    <http://sfbayview.com/2012/damn-it-richard-what-the-f/>

August 29, 2012
<http://sfbayview.com/2012/damn-it-richard-what-the-f/#>/*by Belvin 
Louie and Miriam Ching Yoon Louie

http://sfbayview.com/2012/damn-it-richard-what-the-f/
*/

Belvin writes:

   1.

      FBI
         1. I don't trust anything that the FBI says, even in its own
            documents.
         2. The FBI has a long establish track record of sowing dissent
            and lies.
         3. It's odd that in the FBI document referenced by the Center
            for Investigative Reporting (CIR) video exposé, all names
            were blacked out, except for "Richard Aoki."
         4. The agent said, "I helped develop him." This sounds like
            bragging to me.
   2. Seth Rosenfeld
         1. Seth Rosenfeld is a longtime journalist.
         2. He's trying to generate a buzz to sell his book.
         3. All allegations refer to the period from when Richard was
            supposedly recruited right out of high school, up to and
            including 1967.
   3. Richard Aoki
         1. Richard always talked about guns, the "pigs and/or fools."
         2. Richard was super paranoid -- "They're always listening."
            Richard never said anything sensitive over the phone. This
            is counter to what the FBI agent said on tape about Richard
            providing reports to him over the phone. In fact, the
            walkway to Richard's rear upstairs apartment was purposely
            covered with loose gravel so that anyone approaching had to
            make a racket.
         3. He grew up in the internment camps and often spoke about
            being raised 200 percent American to prove himself.
         4. He served in the US Army as an arms specialist.
         5. He was a well-read intellectual.
         6. Richard's 2009 response to Rosenfeld's questioning was "Oh,
            that's interesting." This is a typical Richard response to
            draw out more information from Rosenfeld before he responded
            later in the interview that the FBI statements were not true.

While it is possible that he was "recruited" right out of high school 
when he was "200 percent American," this remains only an allegation in 
my opinion. Besides, what are the specific impacts or consequences of 
Richard's alleged reports to the FBI? None are mentioned that are tied 
specifically to Richard.

I was stunned by the allegations that Richard was an FBI agent. I never 
saw any signs of it since I started running with him in 1968. That said, 
I would be inclined to give Richard the benefit of the doubt. One's life 
should be judged by its totality, not by short periods nor by a few of 
the mistakes we human beings inevitably make along life's journey.

Miriam asks:

Why do I feel like me and my peeps just got yellow periled and willie 
hortoned? By a white dude in a suit? Why is fanning racial fear to sell 
product still called "yellow" not "white" journalism?

Cowardice in journalism triumphs when an experienced reporter uses 
insufficient evidence to accuse a movement leader of being an FBI 
informer betraying the Black Panther Party and others -- after the 
brother is dead and the crows and worms have already done their work. 
It's a shameful day when the reporter detonates this bomb in multiple 
media outlets as the first-day publicity launch for his book -- even 
though the accused, Richard Aoki, and his movements are but a sideline 
in a book about Ronald Reagan, the FBI, Mario Savio, the Free Speech 
Movement and Clark Kerr. Sorry, Ronny, J. Edgar, Mario and Clark. Y'all 
white guys will never be as sexy as "sneaky japs" and "negroes with 
guns." Remember Executive Order 9066 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9066>. Remember 
COINTELPRO. Remember the Maine, William Randolph Hearst and "yellow" 
journalism.

It's a sorry day when a reporter employs the Great White Hunter (GWH) 
school of hype, luring prey into the lair, building trust and then 
springing the gotcha! trap, as his cameraman zooms in on his prey's 
distress. That's what GWH did to our bro Harvey Dong for Rosenfeld's 
Center for Investigative Reporting video blast, "The Man Who Armed the 
Panthers."

Did GWH tell Richard's cousin, family minister, filmmakers and sisters 
and bros in the Third World Liberation Front and Black Panther Party 
that he was interviewing them to lend authenticity to his planned exposé 
alleging that Richard was an informer? As courtesies a reporter might 
extend to survivors of internment camps, FBI persecution and police 
violence? Did GWH inform the caretakers of the Harvey Dong, Richard Aoki 
and Ethnic Studies UCB archives of his purpose in using their materials, 
motherlodes created to tell our stories in our own words, without white 
voiceovers?

Richard was my Asian Studies 198 instructor on Third World Liberation 
Movements during Fall 1969. Before we met, he had urged Belvin (my 
"paramour" in FBI parlance) to take up leadership in the Asian American 
Political Alliance and the Third World Liberation Front's Central 
Committee. Sure Richard was a vet and gun nut of NRA proportions, but 
his provocations to our movement were intellectual. His memorial yielded 
a thicket of troublemakers, a testament to the generations of critical 
thinkers he helped instigate. Lord knows he was no angel. And who can 
predict what information may emerge in the future. But to Belvin and me, 
Richard deserves a fair hearing because he served time when the U.S. 
government railroaded him and his family into a concentration camp for 
the "crime" of being Japanese and because he spent adult life motivating 
and educating youth.

Any allegations against him merit careful investigation and analysis. 
Not the savaging of his memory and tooling of his family, friends and 
community to sell product. Not the retraumatizing of those who have 
already suffered FBI harassment and whose families, friends, neighbors 
and employers were interrogated because of our activism and, in some 
cases, because they were immigrants. As is now being perpetrated against 
our Arab, South Asian and Muslim sisters and brothers.

What gives Seth Rosenfeld the impression that he can play, plunder and 
dishonor us like this? Irrespective of what comes out about Richard in 
the future, I believe Rosenfeld owes Richard's family, friends and 
community, especially the Black Panther Party and Third World Liberation 
Front strikers, a public apology for the sensationalist and racially 
exploitative way he conducted his investigation and book promotion in 
relation to Richard and our movements.

And while dealing with my rage and sense of betrayal, I also struggle to 
hold a mirror to myself and my fellow writers of color. Let this painful 
episode be a lesson for us as well. May we be scrupulous in our 
assessments and work with people. May we not pander to prejudice, no 
matter how popular. May we write hard truths without twisting 
conclusions to fill our pockets and egos.

/Belvin and Miriam Louie were members of the Asian American Political 
Alliance and such groups as the Venceremos Brigade, National Anti-Racist 
Organizing Committee, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Third World 
Women's Alliance, Asian Immigrant Women Advocates and Women of Color 
Resource Center. They may be reached at chinglouie at igc.org 
<mailto:chinglouie at igc.org>./

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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