"Working" and historical contexts...

I think that one of the many perfect examples of pointed social and political contexts the book “Poetry and Protest” is Devorah Major’s poem, “On Continuing to Struggle” dedicated to Mumia Abu Jamal, a Black Panther who spent thirty years on death row and remains a political prisoner.  There is much evidence to that Jamal did not commit murder; he was convicted using unconstitutional and illegal processes and his conviction took place at a time when the government used pointed tactics to defeat the Black Panther Party.  The whole thesis of Major’s poem is that the speaker, an activist, is tired of commemorating people who should not have been put on death row or convicted in the first place.  The speaker wants to see real change, hence “continuing struggle.”  The speaker uses repetition in the last stanza, saying they will work to free Mumia.  I think there is so much repetition of the word “working” because, as we can observe today from our society of social media bandwagoners and people who all too conveniently start caring about a cause once it becomes popular, social change and racial justice take extremely hard work.  There are so many lamentations of injustices that cannot be undone, and rightfully so.  I don’t think Major is trying to discourage remembering the injustices of the past.  I think she is proposing that these white supremacist structures, especially the prison industrial complex are still thriving.  They are used repeatedly to criminalize and frame people of color, especially people of color who have very necessary ideas about the ways in which to bring about racial equity and justice.  The third paragraph on the poster says it all.  It says, “black people were systematically excluded from the jury, he was denied the right to defend himself, and his membership and writings to the BPP were used to ‘prove’ he was a cop killer” (129).  If a white person was denied white people on their jury, was not allowed to take the stand, and had their political writings used against them to allege they murdered a police officer, history would remember them as Martyrs for their causes.  History books constantly mull over the fact that certain figures who had ties to the Communist party were executed as part of the Red Scare.  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a white couple, are constantly lauded as Martyrs who should not have been executed by many people who claim to have liberal sensibilities.  Why then, do we not hear the name Mumia Abu Jamal, who is still wrongfully imprisoned on a regular basis?  Mumia Abu Jamal’s blackness is criminalized by the criminal justice system (how can we trust a system which calls itself a system of justice but epitomizes white supremacy?).  I think that Major’s idea is that those who fight for Jamal should not concede to the defeat of the racist white supremacist system- it benefits the system and strengthens white supremacy when concession happens.  Of course, fighting fear, fatigue and complacency is so real.  This poem particularly made me think about the psychological implications that fear has on our brains.  It takes so much tenacity to fight through fear... it takes “working” (129).