United Black Men of Queens Foundation Inc.

10/18/2026

10/07/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CENTER FOR PAN-AFRICAN STUDIES: ECONOMIC REALITIES DEMAND A MORAL RECHARTING OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

As we approach the second anniversary of the last general election, the Center for Pan-African Studies urges a sober, data-driven reflection on the state of the American working class. We are issuing a call to conscience and clarity to all voters specifically those who crossed party lines in the last election to examine the material conditions of their lives versus the rhetoric that promised to improve them.

Two years later, the economic indicators are undeniable. The cost of living has outstripped wage growth for the most vulnerable. Gas prices remain volatile and high, straining household budgets. The national debt has ballooned, threatening the stability of social safety nets. Simultaneously, the United States finds itself entangled in an increasing number of global conflicts, draining resources that could be invested in our domestic infrastructure and communities.

The data suggests that the current political trajectory is not serving the interests of the American working man, woman, or child.

"We must engage in an honest conversation about the intersection of race, class, and economics, Historically, poor and working-class white women and Latino families have been sold a narrative that pits them against their neighbors. However, the reality of the last two years shows that neither gas prices nor grocery bills care about the color of your skin. The pain is universal, and therefore, the solution must be collective."

The Center for Pan-African Studies believes that the path forward requires a "Moral Charter" a commitment to a Democratic Socialist agenda that prioritizes human needs over corporate profits. This agenda includes:

· Economic Justice: Policies that cap the cost of essentials like fuel, housing, and healthcare, and ensure a living wage for all workers.
· Peace Dividend: A foreign policy that prioritizes diplomacy over warfare, redirecting military spending toward education, infrastructure, and social security.
· Moral Governance: A commitment to dismantling systemic barriers that keep the working class divided.

We are calling on white women and Latino voters and all Americans who feel abandoned by the current economic status quo to reconsider their political allegiance. This is not about party loyalty; it is about survival and prosperity.

It is time to vote for a moral charter. It is time to vote for an agenda that looks out for the best interests of the American working class. The opportunity to change course is now.

About the Center for Pan-African Studies:
The Center for Pan-African Studies is dedicated to research, education, and advocacy regarding the African Diaspora and the global struggle for economic and social justice. We advocate for policies that uplift the working class and promote equity.

10/06/2026

"The War We Are Waging Is Science": Ibrahim Traoré's Charge to Burkina Faso's Youth

An analysis of the Burkinabè leader's address on religion, knowledge, and national development

A Mission He Cannot Keep Silent About

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso's head of state, opened his address with a confession of obligation rather than authority. "I have a mission," he told an audience of high school graduates and teachers. "And if I do not pass this message on to you, the younger ones, I will have betrayed that mission."

What followed was not a conventional graduation speech. It was a sweeping critique of how religion has been taught and used, a lament over Africa's developmental stagnation, and above all a demand that the continent's youth abandon passive faith for active scientific labor.

The Central Argument: Faith Without Works

The speech's most provocative thread is Traoré's insistence that a distorted understanding of religion has been weaponized to keep Africans passive. Quoting Jomo Kenyatta's famous observation “When the white people first arrived, we had the land and they had the Bible... when we opened our eyes, the white people had the land and we had the Bible" Traoré argues that religious instruction has been used to direct African attention toward the afterlife while others extracted the continent's wealth.

"You are advised to find yourselves in mosques, in temples, in churches, waiting for everything from God," he said. "God will not come to give you what you want. If he created you with a brain and limbs, it is so that you can use them."

He was careful to distinguish between belief in a divine force and the institutional religions he criticizes. "The divine force is one thing, but religion is another. The misunderstanding of religions... and the use of religions for exploitation, politics and for domination."

His language grew sharpest when addressing religious leaders who, in his view, "lull our youth to sleep" while living in luxury themselves. "A poor understanding of religion leads us to be stupid. Very stupid. It completely shuts down our neurons. We can no longer think."

Traoré extended this critique to terrorism, describing fighters convinced that dying in battle secures them paradise “even going into battle knowing they are going to die, wore metal codpieces to protect their ge****ls because they have 72 virgins waiting for them."

Rejecting the Curse Narrative

A striking passage addresses the historical narrative of Black inferiority. Traoré invoked the medieval scholar Ibn Khaldun's claim that Black Africans were "closer to wild beasts than to the human race" words he argues facilitated slavery and colonialism.

"You were made to understand that you are the first on Earth, but that you are a cursed race," he said. "God never sent a people to Earth without sending guides. Black people also have many prophets, many guides. But you will never be told that."

He argued that Africans themselves participated in this erasure: "God sent us many prophets, many guides. Unfortunately, they were assassinated and we spent our time conspiring and assisting in killing them. We never recognized our guides."

The Practical Turn: A Nation That Cannot Build

The speech's second half pivoted from historical and spiritual critique to hard technical realities. Traoré described a Burkina Faso rich in resources but lacking the human capacity to exploit them.

"Suppose that tomorrow we discover oil in Burkina... There is no one capable of manufacturing the pumps to do it. We will go and pay for those pumps, those drills. And even if we extract the crude oil and I say, 'Build me a small refinery'... No one can build a refinery for me. No one can weld it."

He cited concrete statistics: of roughly 65,000 high school graduates, nearly half come from the literary A series, while only about 571 students enroll in the E series focused on industrial technology and just 38 in certain key technical pathways.

"With such numbers, we cannot realistically expect to build a strong industrial economy."

The problem, he argued, extends to those already credentialed: "Most of the engineers you see... don't know how to make anything. It's all theory. Rare are those who know how to actually do something."

A Direct Call to Youth

The core of Traoré's message to the graduates was a demand for a shift toward science, technology, engineering, and vocational skills without dismissing the humanities entirely.

"Literature nourishes the mind, opens up neurons and all that. It's very good, but we need few literary experts and many scientists."

He urged students to use the internet to train themselves, "to manufacture, to copy, to do everything that is necessary." He warned against treating a diploma as an endpoint: "Excellence lies in the ability to influence and impact the lives of those around you."

"You are capable of things you cannot even imagine, because you are the divine force with everything necessary, but it is up to you to work to unlock that."

On Gender: A Rejection of the Concept

In a brief but notable passage, Traoré addressed the Achille Mouga competition, launched to encourage young women into sciences. He rejected the framing of "gender" itself:

"I am opposed to the concept of gender because it is discrimination in itself to create the concept of gender. Everyone is the same. That's the basic principle. When people bring up these gender issues, it's to discriminate against you, the women."

His stated rationale for the competition was practical rather than ideological: girls are disproportionately concentrated in the literary A series, and the initiative aims to redirect them toward scientific fields and to encourage the teachers who guide them.

Patriotic Education and the Nation-Building Project

Traoré described reforms across the education system—modern schools, revised curricula, and what he called "civic and patriotic speech education" integrated throughout. The goal is a generation that is not only technically competent but "responsible, principled, and patriotic citizens."

"A nation cannot be built by human resources who are technically is capable yet disconnected from the values, sacrifices, and collective destiny of their own country."

The Stakes: "We Must Change the Game"

The speech's urgency rests on Traoré's conviction that Burkina Faso and Africa more broadly stands at a hinge point. He described a generation "lulled to sleep" and "dumbed down," and set a timetable: "In two or three years I can see a change and be told that it is these young people we spoke to, that it is this generation that is doing something wonderful."

His final framing was stark: "The war we are waging is science. Weapons, mechanics, am******on, explosives everything is science. But we are useless. We cannot produce anything. It hurts, but I have to say it bluntly, because we have been lulled to sleep."

He concluded with a challenge: "May the number of industries flourish. We must have thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of industries in Burkina Faso to produce everything locally... Guys, science, science, and science. Let's change the game."

Assessment

Traoré's speech is a document of considerable rhetorical force, weaving together Pan-Africanist critique, religious reformism, and a hard-nosed developmental agenda. Its diagnosis of Africa's structural weakness a shortage of practical, technical human capital is difficult to dispute. Its call for youth to embrace science and industry is concrete and actionable.

The also, however, a political act. Its critique of religious authority, its framing of gender, and its emphasis on patriotism and national discipline all serve to consolidate a particular vision of Burkina Faso's future under Traoré's leadership. Whether that vision produces the engineers and industries he demands or simply another generation "lulled to sleep" by a different set of promises remains to be seen.

What is undeniable is the speech's central demand: that young Africans stop waiting for miracles and start building. As Traoré put it, "As long as you do not fight, God will not accompany you."

10/03/2026

Remarks by the Mayor on Confronting Anti-Black Racism and Investing in Black New York

As Recommended by the Center for Pan African Studies in Response to the Mayor's Address on Antisemitism

New York City

Thank you. Thank you all for being here.

Let me begin with a fact that should stop every one of us in our tracks.

Here in New York City, Black New Yorkers make up roughly one in five residents. And yet, when we look at who is stopped by police, who is arrested, who is locked out of housing, who is denied a mortgage, who is more likely to die in childbirth, who is more likely to lose a job in a downturn the numbers tell a story that has been told for four hundred years in this country. It is not only unacceptable. It is something we all have an obligation to change. And City Hall will lead the way.

I want to be clear about what we are talking about. Anti-Black racism is not a relic. It is not something we solved in the 1960s and put on a shelf. It lives in algorithms that flag Black tenants. It lives in schools that suspend Black children at three times the rate of their peers. It lives in hospitals that ignore Black pain. It lives in the slurs scrawled on subway walls and the nooses hung in workplaces. It lives in a city that built much of its wealth on the backs of enslaved people and then wrote them out of the story.

For generations, Black New Yorkers have sustained our city. They built the streets. They ran the underground railroad stops in Brooklyn and Manhattan. They organized the labor unions. They created jazz, hip-hop, and so much of what the world calls American culture. Today, we hold a responsibility to sustain and protect our Black neighbors.

So today, I am announcing a strategy that does three things: it protects, it teaches, and it celebrates.

First, protection.

We are allocating 29 million annual hate crime prevention budget, up from just $3 million before this administration. Security cameras, lighting, reinforced doors the basics of safety that no house of worship should have to beg for.

Second, education.

Public school students will see an expanded curriculum on Black history and I mean real Black history. Not a paragraph in February. Not a sanitized story that ends with a speech. Students will learn about the slave revolts, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the civil rights movement here in this city, and the ongoing fight for justice. This will include more field trips to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the African Burial Ground, and the Weeksville Heritage Center.

Third, cultural investment.

We are investing 2.5 million in the expansion of the Schomburg Center in Harlem, one of the greatest archives of Black life in the world. And we are funding a new public awareness campaign on LinkNYC kiosks that highlights Black contributions to this city and tells every New Yorker how to report discrimination when they see it or experience it.

And now, the harder part.

This plan does not shy away from the truth. It does not pretend that anti-Black racism is only a matter of individual bad actors. It does not treat the legacy of slavery, redlining, and mass incarceration as ancient history. It does not confuse a police reform debate with a conspiracy against white New Yorkers. And it does not tell Black New Yorkers that their pain is a matter of perspective.

Some will say this is divisive. I say that a city that refuses to name a wound cannot heal it.

Let me end where I began. Black New Yorkers are not a problem to be managed. They are the heart of this city. The goal of this plan is simple: to build a city where Black New Yorkers are not only safe but celebrated.

That is the city we are fighting for. That is the city we will build.

Thank you.

09/07/2026

THE CENTER FOR PAN-AFRICAN STUDIES ISSUES URGENT WARNING: AI DATA CENTERS CREATING A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY IN BLACK COMMUNITIES

GARY, IN – September 7, 2026 – The Center for Pan-African Studies today issued an urgent warning to the Black community regarding the accelerating crisis caused by artificial intelligence data centers strategically located in historically Black and marginalized communities. Recent reports indicate that these facilities are draining electrical grids and water supplies, leading to prolonged blackouts, water shortages, and public health catastrophes, with the city of Gary, Indiana, serving as a critical case study .

The Center is calling for an immediate investigation into the placement of data centers and a halt to the "sacrifice zone" policies that leave Black communities to bear the burden of the AI revolution.

The Crisis in Gary, Indiana

Recent reports confirm that residents of Northwest Indiana, including Gary, have experienced nearly two weeks without power in the scorching summer heat . This occurs as utility companies like NIPSCO budget billions to power massive data centers for tech giants on the outskirts of the city . Data centers, which require immense baseload power, are placing an unsustainable strain on the grid, leading to blackouts that cripple essential services .

The Water-Energy Nexus and Infrastructure Collapse

The crisis extends beyond electricity. The Center emphasizes that the water crisis is inextricably linked to the electricity crisis. Data centers rely heavily on water for cooling, a process that directly competes with residential water supplies . Furthermore, the loss of electricity leads to the shutdown of water pumps, a critical failure that is often followed by water mains breaking during winter months, leading to catastrophic infrastructure collapse and dangerous shortages .

A National Pattern of Environmental Racism

This is not an isolated incident. The pattern of siting polluting and resource-intensive facilities in Black and Brown communities is a long-standing reality of environmental racism . The NAACP has recently issued a "Stop Dirty Data" playbook, highlighting that these communities are being forced to absorb the environmental and economic costs of technological growth without safeguards or consent .

In Memphis, Tennessee, civil rights groups have sued xAI, citing unpermitted gas turbines polluting historically Black communities and contributing to the energy burden . The Center notes that the explosion of AI development is mirroring the historical exploitation seen during the industrial era, where the benefits of progress flowed out while the costs remained local .

The Winter Warning

"The loss of electricity is a direct threat to the water supply," “Without power, water pumps fail, and when we face winter weather, those pipes freeze and burst. We are looking at a catastrophe where people will be left without heat and without water in the dead of winter. This is a direct result of prioritizing AI infrastructure over human life."

A Call to Action

The Center for Pan-African Studies is calling for:

1. A Moratorium: An immediate halt to new data center construction in residential and historically marginalized communities until full environmental and social impact studies are conducted .
2. Infrastructure Investment: A mandate that tech companies and utilities invest in grid resilience and renewable energy that does not compete with or deplete local water sources .
3. Community Consent: Meaningful community engagement and consent before any new data centers are sited or expanded .

The Center for Pan-African Studies stands in solidarity with the residents of Gary, Memphis, and all communities fighting against the extractive nature of the AI industry. Innovation must not come at the cost of Black lives, health, and basic survival.

09/07/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Center for Pan African Studies
Statement on the Crisis of Conscience in the U.S. Military and the Ongoing Aggression Against Iran

The Center for Pan African Studies issues this press release to express grave alarm over the deteriorating moral and material condition of the U.S. military, as its leadership engages in acts of aggression against Iran that have resulted in the deaths of countless civilians, including children, while simultaneously silencing dissent and intimidating its own service members.

We are witnessing an unprecedented crisis. Reports confirm that U.S. military actions in Iran have resulted in the bombing of schools and civilian infrastructure. The destruction of a girls' school in southern Iran, which evidence suggests was struck by a U.S. missile, is a stark symbol of this tragedy, resulting in the deaths of innocent children and teachers. Far from accountability, the Pentagon has engaged in a pattern of denial and cover-up, with officials downplaying the extent of civilian casualties and failing to investigate hundreds of reported incidents.

The human cost of this war extends to U.S. service members themselves. The prolonged deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln has led to severe hardship, with reports of food and water shortages, exhausted crews, and record-long periods at sea. Morale is critically low, reflecting a broader “overstretch” of the U.S. military machine.

In a desperate attempt to control the narrative and suppress the truth, the Pentagon has escalated its intimidation tactics. The firing of the publisher and editor of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes for “insubordination” is a direct assault on press freedom and an attempt to silence those who report on the war's grim reality. This purge is part of a broader pattern of retaliation, including reports of polygraph tests being administered to military personnel to identify whistleblowers and the investigation of high-ranking officials who oppose the war.

The military’s leadership is in disarray. The dismissal of the Army Chief of Staff and the resignation of the Army Secretary represent a dangerous politicization of the armed forces during active combat. This leadership vacuum is a direct result of an administration that values loyalty over integrity and seeks to punish those who expose its failures.

The Center for Pan African Studies stands in solidarity with all peoples who oppose imperialist war. We condemn the targeting of civilians in Iran, the suppression of press freedom, and the treatment of U.S. service members as disposable tools. We echo the voices of those who have said “no” to this war and call for an immediate end to the violence.