Here We Go Again With The Censorship

(Pic of one of MOVE's new supporters?)

The following was posted on the Philadelphia IMC website:

"shows why tony doesnt belong hereDec 14, 11:51PM
i think this exchange from tony just well illustrates that he's not adding anything with his posts, but is rather just venting his own obsessive personal grudge against MOVE, and using our community forum for this junk. how much longer will tony's flaming, belligerent, and personal attacks become too much and "cross a line" to where the philly imc will follow the lead of other IMC sites that have banned him? he has discontinued his more overtly racist attacks like calling John Africa a "retarded black man" but in my opinion his behavior is crossing a line and he should lose his imc privileges when is enough enough? imc supporeter"

The author of the above signed their message as "IMC Supporter". I wonder how calling for censorship of someone fits into the idea of "independent media". Of course I am not naive enough to believe that the author of this message is anything more than a MOVE supporter I do think it worth pointing out that the group does continue to work to censor my work via their proxies.

It would be tempting to dismiss the whole commentary as laughable would it not be for the fact that other "Independent Media Centers" such as the one in NYC have in fact banned me from posting. It would be further tempting to ignore the rank hypocrisy of the author's arguments if I didn't think that their might be more than a few people who might be influenced by it's message.

As far as personal attacks go, MOVE members are the champions of that and they have not been banned from any IMC websites. As for the charge or racism, that is just typical isn't it. My re-statement that John Africa is a "retarded black man" is not racist, it is my admittedly crude summation of an article that was published in 1985 after John Africa's death. The article stated that:

"By the age of 9, he had been classified "orthogenetically backward" - what educators today call educably mentally retarded. When he was first tested, his IQ was measured at 84; tested again eight years later at age 15, his score fell to 79"

My main issue with all of this is that the IMC is an open forum. Those who disagree with me have as much a right to publish opinions counter to mine or articles that rebuke those that I write. But that is not what is happening. Instead, what is occurring is yet another attempt by MOVE or their supporters to limit discussion about the group via the censorship of their critics.

The threats against film-maker Tigre Hill is just another flagrant and recent example.