Shaking My Head: Short Reflections On The Killing of Letrell Ducan

On a bright sunny Saturday day, I had to stop to decompress at Dunkin Donutes in East Orange, NJ. I went to the famous coffee shop after Letrell Ducan’s wake and funeral on October 15, 2022. I had to find some peace from the intense anger I felt about the senseless killing of East Orange Campus High Student Letrell Ducan, the murder of a Black woman on 3rd and Central Ave in Newark, and the multiple shootings that happened around a charter school named Newark Collegiate Academy (NCA) right as the students were leaving school for the day. All of these tragic events happened in a span of the last two weeks. Where is the massive outrage? Unfortunately, nowhere to be found. I feel that there is not enough outrage over the culture of violence plaguing the Black community.

After spending 155 straight weeks fighting violence in Newark, NJ as a co-founder of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC) from 2009 to 2014, you would think that the masses of people have finally awakened to putting an end to the pandemic disease of senseless community violence in the area.

Unfortunately, we have not found a way to stop the violence our community. This is very frustrating to me; because the NAVC played a high role bringing attention to the pandemic of senseless violence in Black and Brown communities.

To understand the significance of the NAVC, a little history of the organization must invoked.

The NAVC organization was established on July 20 2009 by then community activist Ras J. Baraka. His efforts were in reaction to the murder of Nakeisha Allen. She was a local resident innocently killed in the crossfire of gun violence on Meeker and Elizabeth Avenues. Now Baraka is the third term mayor of the city of Newark. His office has created the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery. It provides resources and support to people and families experiencing senseless violence in the city.

The NAVC led anti-violence demonstrations in the middle of intersections all over the city for 155 straight weeks to bring attention to the pandemic disease of senseless community violence plaguing Newark. Their efforts inspired the rise of various anti-violence programs and organizations in Newark, such as 24 Hours of Peace, the Newark Community Street Team, Brick City Peace Collective, and the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, to name a few.

Unfortunately, most cities are not blessed to have a Ras J. Baraka. He is one of few elected officials that continuously challenges the system to do right by the people, especially Black people. But the system fights back to erase the progressive strides Baraka makes for our community.

Because our people are under oppression rooted in white supremacy and institutional racism. It continuously and successfully retightens its grip of oppression in cities in America home to Black and brown communities constantly.

The tricknology of oppression has created an illusions of change. It has made us think that American society has obliterated racism and Black self hatred. As a result of its conniving ways, the system strategically places Black faces in high places to make us think parody is present.

Nothing is more further from the truth.

The system of white supremacy and institutional racism has positioned its mechanism to keep oppressed people in a never ending free fall into the permanent underclass, especially Black people.

The system forces many Black faces in high places to distance themselves from the masses of Black people. Ultimately, in turn, Black faces in high places refuses to support a Black Agenda that makes the system or any political party accountable to the Black community. Therefore the problems to our conditions (i.e., poverty, joblessness, reparations, mass incarceration, police violence, European cultural miseducation, etc.) are never solved.

The masses of our people are left in a trajectory to self destruction.

White supremacy and institutional racism gives us enough drugs, and a sound track in music, to get high and dance to the beat of own genocide.

The conditions are so overwhelming to some of us, we can’t see our way to peace and Black liberation. I feel our community has seen so much death from racist whites, ignorant police, and misguided Black people over the decades, we as the masses of Black people are now almost totally dejected and desensitized to all forms of violence (i.e., police violence, domestic violence, educational violence, Black self genocide violence, senseless community violence,etc.).

As result, in my community, there has been no calls for a massive state of emergency from elected officials, school officials, and our people; to put a pause on the violence in the Essex County area in New Jersey.

What’s equally frightening is our clergy has respect in our community. They have lost their voice and platform for Black liberation. As a consequence, religious leaders have not called a meeting to also help morally persuade the powers in the world to end the war against Black people in America. A decades long conflict that has been raging for over 50 years in the African American community.

The struggle continues to make Black Lives Matter all over again in 2022.

Because of these dire conditions in my community, I had to spend some time studying English Lesson C-1 (Verses 1-36) of the Nation of Gods and Earths’ 120 lessons to get my third eye refocused (my conscious mind) on Black liberation. The Nation of Gods and Earths is a philosophically based religious movement founded on October 10, 1964 by Father Allah in Harlem, New York City. In the Supreme Mathematics, the day was knowledge / Power or Refinement (October 15, 2022). When we go into English Lesson C-1 the Knowledge / Power or Refinement degree (the 15th verse) says, “are there any Muslims other than righteous). In the Nation of Gods and Earths, Muslim does not mean in the religious Islamic sense of the word. Muslim is understood to mean one of peace. My understanding is that we must be steadfast for peace within ourselves, for our people, and in the streets.

At 12:30 pm, I went to be at Weequahic's home coming football game to support my students in Newark, NJ. We won. Weequahic beat Westside 42 to 0.

What a day!!!!!

But the struggle still moves onward to stop the violence in the Black community. We must stay vigilant to create peace and Black liberation in our world.

-Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele is a community activist, a member of the Muslim community in New Jersey, and a member of ASCAC (the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations). He is also a history and Africana Studies (Black Studies ) teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ.

Peace!

Hotep!