The War is Coming Home: Who Will Protect Black Shreveport?
The imperial wars that the United States has waged across the planet are coming home with a reckoning. D.C was hit first, will Shreveport be next?
The War is Coming Home: Who Will Protect Black Shreveport
After the mentioning of Shreveport’s crime rate by the California governor Gavin Newson and the pressing of the issue on CNN to Mike Johnson, Shreveport is now in the crosshairs of a fascistic and deranged federal government. In a leaked pentagon report produced by Reuters, 1000 national guard troops (about a battalion) will be occupying all of the major cities in Louisiana until September 2026. No start time has been openly discussed but all it would take is the approval of the far-right white nationalist governor Jeff Laundry for the troops to be mobilized. Laundry’s historic love of imprisoning (enslaving) and killing black people in Louisiana makes the national guard coming to our streets inevitable.
Louisiana’s black population are well accustomed to fascistic rhetoric and violence of the state, one only need to look at the bloody reconstruction and post-reconstruction history in this area. Caddo parish, in particular, was an epicenter of lynching and is hot bead of the most reactionary members of Louisiana’s ruling elite. However, this crisis moment that black Louisiana is in has very dangerous particularities. During the reconstruction period, the south was in a period of deep political violence after its defeat in the American civil war, during which a revolution of social relations was beginning to take place (read Black Reconstruction by W.E.B Dubois). Because of that violence and the collaboration of white liberals with the enemies of the black nation (the white supremacist Democrats at the time), that revolution ultimately failed in many of its aims. As a result, we were plunged into a political black hole that black America wouldn’t emerge from (partially) until the beginning of the civil rights movement.
The violent period we are entering in is the pre-conflict violence or antebellum violence. Many analysts have stated that the United States is in a “pre-civil war” or “cold civil war" phase. Peter Turchin in his book “End Times” has some of the best quantifiable analysis on the issue. One only needs to look up ‘second American civil War” and listen to the slew of experts and weirdos who warn of a coming internal conflict. The future battle lines are being drawn by the two capitalist parties (Democrats and Republicans) and currently both sides are looking for maneuver room. The military occupation of Louisiana’s majority black cities are just the opening power plays by the white nationalist faction (Trump's Republican party) of American elites against their perceived local opposition.
For black people, this moment is very different from any moment from the last 60 years. To quote the great brother-revolutionary Ajamu Baraka from an interview he gave in “Connecting the Dots” with Dr. Wilmer Leon “we are in a more vulnerable position compared to any time during the civil rights movement". This moment of vulnerability is comparable to the post-reconstruction period, where black political power in the south was ultimately defeated for more than 80 years. The white supremacist reaction to reconstruction had completed its victory and now has run a foul across the black belt (area of majority back counties). Unlike reconstruction, the violence will only get worse as both the domestic and international contradictions begin to sharpen. The violence implemented abroad is beginning to boomerang back into the United States, starting with its black and hispanic populations and soon to reach the broader population. To quote el-Hajj Malik el-shabazz (Malcolm X), “the chickens are coming home to roast.”
Louisiana is a Testing Ground
The Trump administration is hell bent on making a test run for his implementation of a full fledged police state. The police state is something that the black population is accustomed to, we have lived under a police state since the “slave patrol” system, which morphed into the modern policing apparatus. This time, the police state will soon be implemented to the entire population, not just this country's subjugated black colony. The police state will become increasingly militarized, with the military taking a more central role than simple militarized police. The far-right white nationalist war minister Pete Hegseth is being charged with overseeing the newly named Department of War's Quick Reaction Force (QRF). The newly forming QRF will be used to invade the cities of his political opponents and crush domestic rebellions more effectively than the national guard (4). It is a force not too unsimilar to the Rapid Support Forces formed in Sudan to suppress domestic descent under Omar al-Bashir. We should take note of the consequences of creating such a force.
Who Fights for Black Shreveport?
When the national guard moves in, who will fight for black Shreveport? As we see with the DC occupation and the anticipated occupation in plurality black cities like Baltimore, Chicago and New Orleans, the Democratic party is not going to be the bulwark for black Americans. The DC mayor, the traitorous Muriel Bowser, is busy cooperating with the Trump regime and has even thanked him stating “We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city”(1). She is a perfect example of the degeneracy of the black bourgeoisie and its duplicity. It positions itself as the leaders of the country’s black colony while firmly wanting to mimic itself off of the far wealthier and more powerful white bourgeoisie. If the current mayor was black and part of the Democratic party elite, black shreveport would still be in the same situation. This is because, the black bourgeoisie are simply proxies of the far-wealthier and more powerful white bourgeoisie financiers (capitalist) who run American politics.
The spineless Tom Arceneaux will not provide any push back against this invasion of Shreveport by the federal government. He is a white Republican after-all and needs to balance the increasingly backward/fascistic nature of the south's white population against his responsibility to the overwhelmingly black population with its political complexity. His coon of a police chief Wayne Smith, has even formulated a plan on his use of the national guard when they are deployed to Shreveport. His plan is to put them in “high crime areas” (black neighborhoods) and to be very visible to citizens. Dramatically aiding in the occupation of black Shreveport and the atmosphere of oppression. This atmosphere can only logically lead to violence. It should be made clear, for any deaths or violence inflicted on the citizens in Shreveport as a result of the military occupation, blame should be placed equally on the entire city government with consequences being the same.
Will There Be Troops?
The pressure the mayor is to receive from Laundry and regional good-old boys (neo-confederates and Klansmen) will be immense. He will capitulate fully to any invasion of Shreveport by State and federal troops if the governor demands. Much greater cannot be said of the black representatives sitting on city council positions or Mr. Cleo Fields, the house representative representing a plurality of Shreveport’s black population. Most of these Democratic party actors are self interested hacks and members of the ever shrinking black petit-bougougie who believe that their interest lies outside of the slums and ghettos that most black Shreveport lives in. It is indeed true that black Shreveport has no defenders within public office. It is only through collective action, organization and mobilization that we will be able to defeat this occupation.
We are Our Own Defender
The black population of Shreveport will soon be coming under true military occupation. The imperialist wars waged across the planet since the 90s are officially coming home. Instead of the gray, green and red zones being in Kabul or Baghdad it will now be in Shreveport. Our political representatives act more as occupation authorities not dissimilar to Fatah or the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul. Like these occupation authorities, they will become deeply unpopular as the true weight of military occupation hits the population. Black Shreveport will struggle with more militarized raids, extra-judicial killings, extreme prison overcrowding and the spiritual dehumanization that occupation brings.
It will take popular action to defeat this occupation. We must pressure our representatives but we cannot stop there. We must rethink our understanding of politics in this city. A new political formation that is pro-worker and is rooted in black political, economic and social autonomy needs to be formed to battle the neo-colonial puppets and the white klansmen that run our politics. The answer to the current existential crisis that black Americans face is, like always, black self determination.
