Category: Ahjamu Umi

Saving the Home of Angelah Hill

by Ahjamu Umi Meet Angelah Hill. She’s a 49 year-old mother in Portland, Oregon, and like plenty of people today, she’s fighting to save her home from foreclosure. What makes Angelah’s case worth noticing is that, as a black woman, she is the poster child of racism and predatory lending when it comes to foreclosures.…

Racism 101

by Ahjamu Umi Is the Occupy movement racist? The obvious answer is yes, but there are still going to be plenty of people who wouldn’t agree with that assessment. In fact, it’s a pretty safe bet that a significant number of activists within Occupy would argue Occupy isn’t racist. It’s also probably true that many…

Is there Really Such a Thing as a Middle Class?

by Ahjamu Umi We constantly hear the term “middle class” thrown around by politicians and the corporate media as a term designed to define everyday people, but never do these folks make even a half-hearted attempt to define what that term means. I would argue that a major reason why the term is never defined…

Occupy As the Name – What’s the Big Deal?

By Ahjamu Umi I’m an Occupy Portland organizer and I’m an African (Black) man.  Some people would call that a paradox.  It is a fact that the numbers of African people, and other people of color, are very small in the Portland Occupy movement.  It is also truth that the numbers of people of color…