The Biden admin’s fascist state propagated prosecution of me to “appear as hard on left wing extremists as the right.” This kicked off the politicized nature of my case. A “Black, Muslim, militant, extremist domestic terror threat,” as my FBI profile says. But I’ve been designated a “doomed man” in the words of George Jackson, long before the FBI did so. Born poor, Black, and Muslim, twenty five was the average age we’d make it to before being dead or in jail. The fascist state’s systems of oppression orchestrate the demise of doomed men, women, and children like this, daily, for fun. They love their controlled and manipulated statistics.
I’m no one to be controlled. ODOC [Oregon Department of Corrections] found that out, clear and present. No matter the hole they put me in, nor the length of time they put me there, I do not capitulate. Nor does the community of love and solidarity and rage I have. The people who fight the state because resistance IS essence, because the people are what matter, their love endures. Oregon chose now — after all their state sanctioned violence did not break me — to make me the problem of another DOC, and to attempt to sever the ties and connections forged in the crucible of revolutionary love and struggle. They’ll succeed in making me another DOC’s problems, at least. But as an abolitionist, it’s nothing new. Our rage at the carceral state encompasses ALL prisons. Cuz none are free ’till we ALL are free, ’till ALL cages are empty, and all prisons are libraries. As a revolutionary, prison is just another front for the war. Any prison.
So I’ll fight and resist on this new front, I’ll continue to agitate, aggravate, and organize against the state. I will NOT leave ODOC alone either. They will need to answer for their hole abuses, their hindering of my legal counsel, turning away visitors without cause or reason. Their blatant, racist political persecution. And their hope that sending me across the u.s. to the south would see me as a fish out of water — but I can swim anywhere. Anywhere the people are, I’ll build community through love, rage, and solidarity.
ODOC did not like my cross racial study group. They didn’t like the education of the people because they prefer slaves. But to break free from the slave mentality, one must be ACUTELY aware of being one. That’s why education is the cornerstone to giving the people the tools to liberate themselves. Militancy without education is wanton aggression. Political education without militancy is all theory — academic. To forge both is to create a weapon most deadly against the state. So ODOC created a fictitious reason to put me in the hole, then created an in-house RICO charge because the other wouldn’t stick. They painted the blog and fundraiser as racketeering and spreading propaganda.The DR [disciplinary review] (I wish I still had it) was as ridiculous as the RICO charge on the Stop Cop City siblings. They wrote it in such a way to convince their superiors I was a threat to be sent away.
No one gets sent FROM Oregon to South Carolina, one of the most dangerous DOC’s in this fascist carceral state. The Lee County riots saw twenty one dead, forty five injured. This prison system has one of the worst overcrowding in the country. The intake and reception process takes up to 180 days — I’ve heard people be here longer — because they don’t have any bedspace. They get bedspace when someone is killed. Each soul carted off from R&E [Reception and Evaluation] to their prison is replacing a dead one. They passed an overcrowding act to let out nonviolent people. They make everyone eligible for parole and do percentages on their time, and still, they do not have enough beds for the people the state persecutes. R&E is three to a cell — one on the floor because there’s only two bunks.
The food has no nutritional value — yesterday’s breakfast was bread and water. This system believing prisoners deserve bread and water is on par with this being the Bible belt, the Antebellum south, the home of those capitalists that sent poor racist whites to defend their ideal form of capital accumulation against the north and were rewarded with Black codes, the prisoner leasing program, and the mass incarceration we see today. Of course, they don’t even believe we deserve bread and water. We’re still only 3/4 of a human being. Work horses that need to be beat, not food.
They mask the racism by having a nominally all Black staff. That means nothing. The overseers of the plantation are just inundated and indoctrinated to do the bare minimum, not think. They’re turnkeys, nothing more. That’s why they do not stop violence, much like how pigs on the street can hide behind the Supreme Court decision that ruled they have “no duty to protect,” so can these fascists let stabbings occur, even orchestrate them, and continue on overseeing the plantation. Who cares about another Black man’s death in here? Certainly not those coming for a check. Prisons are an otherwise destitute economy, providing careers for those not qualified to work at McDonald’s — which would be much more respectable.
Thanks to this transfer and being in R&E, I missed the Eid meal in Oregon and could not participate in the one here. The state’s repressive tools seek to break me down and eviscerate my relationships, but the people who love the people, like I, don’t break so easily and exist all over the u.s. I take state repression as a sign I’m doing something right. Anytime you have the oppressor in a reactionary stance — it’s good. Their rigidity and yearning for consistency is their downfall.
An anarchist’s greatest weapons are their critical thinking skills and adaptability. I adapt well. No environment can change me or break me. So I’ll do here what I do. I’ll organize, aggravate and agitate against the state. I’ll rally community. I’ll educate. I’ll grow ties, build bonds, and forge relationships that will endure lifetimes full of revolutionary love, rage, and solidarity. I’ll never stop fighting for the people. I’ll live, fight, and die for them because I love the people. Because I am the people, not the pig. And those that are with me, I hope it’s not out of pity, but cuz you realize this shit is killing you, too, however much more softly [1]. Ours is a love, rage, and solidarity that recognizes no imaginary border lines, abandons the constructs of time, permeates through walls, bars, and prison gates. It stays like the roots of an oak, stands tall as the fir, and may bend as the willow but still defies gravity and won’t break. Our love persists like daisies pushing through sidewalk cracks and dandelions blown through the wind, scattered from a child’s wish.
I sit on the floor in this cell, meant for two but rooming three, awaiting the ticking clock to send me to what will be my residence for the next four years. And I am reassured, steadfast, and ready. This is an opportunity to meet new people, organize in a new space, a new state. To do whatever I feel called to, by my creator and myself. It feels like part of the plan, Allah’s plan. I will remember that resistance is essence. And no matter the circumstances, I’ll sow seeds of revolutionary love, rage, and solidarity.
At this time, they only give me two envelopes per month and four sheets of paper. I have to buy things from the “cadre” that work the units. It’s gross, prisoners exploiting prisoners, but that’s the deal. If I don’t respond right away to your letters, I will when I can.
If anyone from my queer Ashville community would reach out, I’d love to talk more about the community you’re forging there. I’d love to know if there are any groups like CARE out here.
Love rage & solidarity
Malik
Footnote
[1] From The Undercommons by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney.
You can write to Malik at:
Malik Muhammed #400523
Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center
Unit F3A-203 4344
Broad River Rd Columbia SC 29210
