Biker Racism: The Jim Crow MC Nation Pt. II Those Racist Black Bastards

If I were an X-Men my mutant power would be my ability to be extremely comfortable in uncomfortable situations. It’s a quality I developed at a very young age that annoyed my parents to no end.  Because I do possess that quality it also allows me to write a blog that apparently makes a great many people uncomfortable yet doesn’t negatively affect my ability to not give a shit in the slightest.

So this week I’ve decided to launch my own Extinction Agenda (X-Men fans know what I'm referring to with that one) and bring up (for the second time) the very uncomfortable topic of race and racism within the biker community. This time however we’re going to take a race neutral approach when discussing race. I know what you’re thinking. How can anyone take a race agnostic position when they’re speaking about race because since that person has got to be a member of a race, neutrality is impossible...? In other words, "Preacha, you're black so how can you not speak from a black man's point of view?"

I'm about to flip the whole world on you right now.

Before I’m black I’m a biker.

I’m gonna say that again.

Before I’m black I’m a biker.

I have found that because so many black bikers cannot see past race they immediately come into the MC community as a Sucka MC and never achieve that premium level of legitimacy that is necessary for a club to be mentioned in the upper echelons of clubs. In other words, do you want to be a black club that's well known in your black backyard or do you want to be an MC that's known in the global MC backyard? I have to ask black (and white) MC's do you want to be the flounder fish in your little pond or would you rather be a shark in the ocean? I don't fuck with flounder fish. I eat them. The wall of racism borders both sides of the property line and that means black* bikers can't see past their own racism and their own racism and ignorance becomes their own form of slavery.

When I consider my club, who I ride with, who I drink with, who I call my brother, I’m not considering what color he is but rather, I’m looking at how he carries himself as a biker. I’m looking at whether or not he respects the traditions and protocols that bikers have followed since the days of the Boozefighters MC. I’m looking to see if this person has studied the rules of engagement within the community and respects them enough to see them through. I’m looking at the men he calls brother to see if they are truly a reflection of their brother or if their club has allowed sloppy members in (probably just to boost numbers). I’m looking at how they interact with women, especially Property because as a form of respect and knowledge, any biker who knows what to do and not to do with another bikers Property is a man I know I can have a drink with.I'm looking to see how they address me and how they expect to be addressed. I make note of  the patches on his rags and where they're placed and what they say. I notice that bottom rocker.

Notice in all that I never brought up the color of a person’s skin.

If you are truly a biker you shouldn’t be concerned with the color of a man’s skin because if that man (or woman) has subscribed to The Life with the passion and commitment that this Life demands, then we all should technically be on the same page regardless of color and to a degree, regardless of gender. I have met female bikers that not only I’d throw down shots of Jack with but in a fight, I’d rather have them by my side then some of these “men” out here.  I have been told numerous times that I’m hard on the sport bike riders and yes I know I make no secret of my disdain for Jap burners however I do not judge the people riding them.  Bikers have general society to hate us so I don’t understand how we could invite an additional layer of hatred within our own brotherhood to further segment the bond that should be there regardless of what style bike we ride and/or what color skin we were blessed to be born into.

Traditionally the image of the racist One Percent White brotherhood is the one that’s been tattooed into the collective brown brains of colored folks. The spider webbed elbow tats and the swastikas adorning rags flying side by side with the Confederate flag are those race triggering images that have conditioned people to believe a person is racist.

And for the most part in general society if you run into a person celebrating those symbols they are racists but the same doesn't hold true with bikers.  Many old school bikers wore the German symbol of death not as an allegiance to Hitler but rather to disgust and turn away polite society from approaching them. In other words, bikers were scorned by the general populace so instead of allowing their feelings to be hurt by it, they celebrated it instead. It’s the same mentality that gave birth to the idealism behind the 1 Percent patch and attitude.   

Admittedly it’s not something black people have picked up on except with the word nigga. Though the word has disappeared from my own vernacular, a lot of black people today justify using that word as a term of empowerment. Translation: they took it from white people and de-powered it because its become (for the person saying it in addressing another black person) a term of endearment. Again, not an ideology I agree with but it is what it is.

What blacks haven’t done for the most part is take racist symbols like the noose and the Confederate flag and owned those things like bikers have taken the swastika and the 1% title and made it their own.  What black people also have yet to get over is the image of the racist hulking white biker who wants nothing to do with black people. Too many black bikers are convinced that the typical white biker is a KKK member without the white sheets trading it in instead for a leather vest and a Harley Davidson tattoo.

I’m gonna have to call bullshit on that.

Not only is that not the truth (notice I didn’t say furthest from because in some cases it is) but those stereotypical bikers who look the part tend to be the nicest, most normal people you didn’t have a conversation with. The racist image of who bikers are is not only stupid but it also gets African American bikers hurt…and not the way you might be thinking.

For years I have preached to stubborn African American bikers that if you want to form your own MC and want to make it legit, you must go through the dominant 1% club in your area.** If that dominant club happens to be white, then you must go to the white boys. If that dominant club happens to be Hispanic, you gotta go to the brown boys. If that dominant club happens to be black, then you go to the black boys and while African American MC’s have no issue going to the black or Hispanic clubs (if they follow protocol at all which I find is unlikely but coupled with if they can get over the fear of meeting with a 1% club) they have a much harder time going to the white dominant club because “they don’t want to kiss no white boy’s ass”. The other one I hear a lot is “they don’t do shit for us so we ain’t doin’ shit for them”.

If you don't know your history (and let's face it, many of you don't) you actually don't know what those white boys did for you and in some cases, those white boys have done something for you. For example in New York twenty years ago, there was one dominant club and that club didn't allow anyone to fly any colors on the Island. They reinforced their rule with extreme violence. It wasn't until another set of unruly white boys came along and fought the war against that dominant club and won, did things change out on the Island. So when I hear black MC's say collectively, "Those white boys never did shit for me" I shake my head. A few years ago you wouldn't even have been allowed to fly your patch unless those white boys fought the war that you would've been too chicken shit to fight yourself. That's what those white boys did for you and now you're showing them the utmost disrespect by not going to their clubhouse and announcing your intentions to create your own club.

Put yourself in their shoes. You and your club fought the war to make your hood MC friendly and then you have all these pop up MC's who refuse to acknowledge you, your club and what you did to establish yourselves. You'd feel slighted and in some cases, you might even feel angry. 

So my question is when you start a new club why not just go to the dominant's club house just to say, "Hi." When you come into someone's house don't you greet them and show them respect as the host? That's essentially the same attitude you need to take when considering the dominant club in your area, regardless of their race. You are in THEIR house and they're allowing you to play in their backyard and just as easily as they allow you to play, they can take away that invite...with brute force. 

If you want the first thing those white boys do with you is to roll up on you and snatch your rags and tell you that you need to come see them, then by all means go ahead. You'll learn soon enough the hard way.  And, by the "hard way" I don’t mean they’re going to force you to read my blog either.

Going to the dominant club that happens to be white doesn’t mean they want you to kiss their ass. The dominant club isn’t looking at you like you’re the black club coming to see them. They don’t look at you like you’re the Asian club coming to see them. They’re looking at you like a respectful club giving respect and in turn they’re going to give you respect back.  By going to the dominant club to start your own club and getting sanctioned you’re letting them know you know and respect traditional protocol. By giving that level of respect, you’ll be surprised at how these racists, noose knitting, Aryan supremacists are quick to shake your hand and if you’re lucky, tell you that your money is no good at their bar.

There is a particular biker bar in New York where I used to frequent by myself.  It was one of the few remaining places where you could wear your rags without having to keep them on your bike. I’d make note of all the One Percenters hanging out there.  On any given night it looked like a RICO top ten most wanted list. They’d come in and you can imagine their reaction seeing one black guy drinking by himself not paying them any mind. I never gave them an inch and because of that they never tried to take a foot.  Eventually they saw I knew how to carry myself and I was respecting their traditions and all this without wearing rags ( I was independent at the time). They recognized and accepted me as a fellow biker.

What does that mean?

It meant they used biker jargon around me. It meant men could be men and when we had uncomfortable conversations everyone was actually comfortable because before we were white or black, we were all bikers and that kind of brotherhood goes beyond skin color. The last time I was at that bar, my wife and I were not allowed to reach into our pockets to pay for a thing.  My wife may very well have been one of the few black women on Facebook who had a FB profile with big , burly white One Percenters surrounding her singing to Al Green.  Because they all recognized her as my Old Lady they treated her like their sister…literally.

Am I pulling the wool over my eyes and saying all white bikers are just big ol’ teddy bears who would’ve marched with Martin Luther King Jr during the 60’s? C’mon, man I’m not stupid but what I am saying is don’t you be stupid and generalize them.  Generalizations tend to border that line of racism and we as bikers can’t afford the high cost of racism especially when there’s a current state of inflation in being a Sucka MC .

African American MC’s already are handicapped because like we do in our day to day lives, we have no interest nor drive in learning and respecting our history and our contributions to this world, MC and otherwise.

Unfortunately the same thing applies to the MC community.

Because not enough of us have taken the time to study and appreciate the Bessie Stringfields, the Tobie Gene Livingston’s and the Sugar Bears of the MC community we don’t act accordingly. How could you ride disrespectfully if you knew what Tobie had to go through to launch the East Bay Dragons? How as a female could you choose to enter the MC community with your legs wide open instead of your helmet tightly on if you understood what Bessie Stringfield had to go through traveling across this country as a black woman alone on a Harley before integration?  We bring our own inability to improve ourselves with a racist profiling set of eyes that hampers our MC’s from being legit. Again, being legit means getting sanctioned by the dominant 1% group of your bottom rocker. If you’re serious about being a biker then you see life through a bikers eyes in everything you do and say and that includes the people you call your brother.

If you see someone on a motorcycle as a cracker, nigger, spic or slope then what you are is a racist bastard and not a biker at all.

Stay Sucka MC Free, y'all

Preacha 

*The primary focal point of racism discussed in this blog is black bikers towards white bikers but please make note it goes both ways. I've discussed white racism in the biker community in a previous blog and what I've concluded in both blogs is that racism is stupidity unfortunately crosses racial lines all too frequently. 

**Years ago when I had planned on starting my own club, I was intent on not only going to the dominant 1 Percent club who happened to be white but also the African American club that had been the longest riding MC in the NY circuit. I wanted to make sure I had "both" sides of the track covered. I highly recommend new bike clubs to follow that pattern to ensure they are being respectful to all the Biker Lords who should be given that respect. 

Why Didn't I Form My Own MC?

If this isn’t your first time reading the Sucka Free MC blog then you know my views on motorcycle etiquette and protocol. I am an MC Republican in that I believe in traditional MC values and I preach a black and white resolution to all things MC with the understanding that each club will find their own grey area.  I have been a student of the culture since approximately the age of six or seven when I was first exposed to the outlaw club that lived next door.  In the twenty five plus years since, I have been an avid archaeologist of MC culture exploring for the answers to my questions and digging deep in the conversations I’m privy to have with the 1 Percenters, Outlaws and elder statesmen of the community*.  I am well versed in traditional or classic MC aesthetic, riding, club structure, by-laws and culture politics.  So the question that I get asked at least once a week is with all this knowledge I have is, “Why didn’t I form my own MC?”

Well, I did…actually…not really but I put an end to it faster than you can say Kim Kardashian marriage and the reason why I did is because of all the reasons I stated above.  Mirroring the political climate in Washington today, the Democrats and the Republicans can’t agree on anything. It’s been unprecedented gridlock in DC the likes this country has never seen and for the second time since the early years of this country, the political climate has become downright violent.   A remarkable moment in history occurred on January 30, 1835 when President Andrew Jackson went to the U.S. Capitol to attend the funeral services of Congressman Warren R. Davis of South Carolina. As the President filed past the casket and descended to the Capitol rotunda, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed English house painter, stepped up, drew a pistol, and fired point blank at the former General. A percussion cap exploded, but a bullet failed to discharge from the gun barrel. Lifting his cane above his head, the 67-year old Jackson lunged at his assailant. But before he could thrash the young man, the attacker drew a second pistol and fired again. A second explosion rang out, but again the gun failed to fire. Eventually the idiot was wrangled in and later executed.

If I had formed my own MC I would’ve had glocks that would have been properly lubricated, loaded and aimed to kill for every half ass excuse, missed run, ignorant to the culture, showin’ up late, scared to ride long distance member in a club that eventually would’ve been the death of me.  What I just described would’ve been the Democratic Liberals members of my MC and with me serving as a right wing Republican (or H.N.I.C.).  The Democrats are (unfairly) painted as the weaker of the two parties on all things defense. They’re not aggressive when it comes to wars and seem to always want to command the department of defense’s budget to produce weapons of mass destruction. The Republicans are the classic American cowboys who bomb first and ask questions later.  They respond to ant size threats with Elephant type violence.  

The MC ignorant members of the club I categorize as Democrats. They’re the ones who don’t understand why I’d punch them in the face for taking their rags off in public and laying them on a chair. They’re the ones who don’t understand you can’t call a One Percent “bro” or “brother” until he addresses you that way. The Democrat Bikers wouldn’t be willing to throw blows for their cut choosing instead to flat out surrender their rags or just quit the club entirely when faced with violence.  I don’t want people like that in my club.

In the same breath while I lean towards a more Republican biker etiquette of supporting traditional biker values and protocols, I don’t need someone whose been watching Sons of Anarchy thinking you can walk into a bar and drop a body and then go have lunch like nothing happened. I don’t need someone who’s patch strong and now thinks because he has brothers in arms that he can start fights with anyone and everyone. I don’t want that either.

But I do know a club mixed with biker Republicans and biker Democrats cannot work.

It’d be like having a Congress with two distinctly different political parties who have to come together to agree on important decisions but never seem to get anywhere because they have such polar views on the same topics.

Translation: Remember growing up how they segregated the kids on the short bus from the kids on the big bus?  Same thing applies here.  

When I was forming my own club two years back I didn’t start by looking for a “cool” name as most people do.  Instead I researched (of course) groups or persons with similar philosophies that mirrored mine.  I do believe people make the mistake of finding a “cool” name and then running with it. Unfortunately “cool” names end up being nothing more then something they lifted from a popular movie or some hip hop jargon that’s popular for the moment. (We all know an MC with a butt ass stupid name.)  I knew if I formed a club I’d want that club to have a legacy and legacies don’t need cool names, they need a powerful purpose.   

While I don’t want to share too much as I haven’t completely let go of the idea of one day having my own club names that came up were The Bastards (a lot of MC’s with that name already but I had a play on it that was totally unique), The John Browns (look him up. The man’s passion rivals my own for MC culture and life), The Maroons  (the West Indian Maroons in Haiti and Jamaica specifically though that could be alienating to the non-black members of the club) and Loki (named after the god of mischief as at the time I was under the drunken influence of all the Boozefighters history I had been absorbing).  Each name was derived from core elements of the philosophy I envisioned for the club.

I did put together a business plan not for how the club would make money, but more so like a timeshare pitch to prospective members. I took the position that I was asking members to share their time with me (away from their families) so I had to present to them the benefit of being in my club. I put together a very convincing presentation that included the philosophy, plans to grow the club in the next two to four to six years and the traditional MC rules that would form the basis of the club. I knew six guys I wanted in the club and one man who would act as an advisor.  I called them together on a Sunday appropriately at a tattoo shop and did my sales pitch.

They all bought in.

And that’s when the problems started.

I had designed a logo that I really loved. It was an afro deaths head smoking a cigar with wings on either side. It was complete badass. The VP was adamantly against it because he refused to be associated with death in any capacity because he felt as bikers we already flirted with death too often to posterize it. In my complete shock he got more members to agree with him and my first act as President of my own MC was to vote on a logo that I loved…that the members soundly shot down.

That logo is now tattooed on my chest.

While I was upset at the loss of the logo I was actually proud of myself for putting it up for a vote and not mandating it down their throats. I had an incredibly sore and throbbing chest with a new tattoo but I was smiling until the second problem came up.

“Dude, my wife said…” “Bro, my girl…” “Homey, my ol’ lady…”

It was as if everything with a vagina was plotting against the formation of this club. The members were all subjugated to the whims and demands of their other halves and it drove me absolutely insane. A few weeks ago I posted a blog as to the Top Ten MC Mistakes and one of them was discounting the destructive nature of a spouse or other half to an MC.  I saw that firsthand as these women saw their husbands “hobby” as a leisure interest and not one of absolute paramount importance.  This was not going to work.  My wife knows of my passion for motorcycles and MC culture so she tolerates quite a bit but that’s because I’ve learned how to balance the two. I’ve had to give up a few things to make it work, but she worked with me and together, I was available to both the MC and more importantly my family at home.  I found that most guys either didn’t have the conviction to stand up to their wives and their selfish demands or just didn’t take the life as seriously as I did.

I don’t expect everyone to be like me. I study MC culture like my life depended on it. I research clubs, personalities, incidents and bikes daily. It’s gotten to the point where I go online more so for motorcycles then porn. I never expected members to be that fanatical however I refuse to have members in a club who are not only ignorant of MC culture but they have no interest in learning it. It baffles me as to why someone would join a MC and not want to learn about the community they’re joining. To me it says you have disrespect pumping through your veins and you’re not truly serious about the life. Those people should join an RC and not an MC.  

One member eventually disappeared off the face of the Earth, terminated his FB account and moved in with his girlfriend in New Jersey. I never heard from him again and while I was irked I would’ve been more irked if I had patched him in only to have him do that afterwards.  Another member who was trying desperately to work around his wife was struggling so much to fulfill his obligations as a founder and his demands at home eventually I just told him to focus on home and not worry about this all boys club over here. I believe what I told him was, “None of us can give you pussy so that automatically makes her more important than any of us.”  He agreed.

The numbers were dwindling and we hadn’t even gone through with the meeting to present our club idea and by-laws to the dominant 1% club in the area. In fact that was the first time I vetoed the members in the club. None of them were as well versed in MC culture and history as me so they didn’t understand why we had to meet with the dominant club and “ask permission” as some of them saw it. I tried to explain that it wasn’t so much asking permission but it was a necessary cleansening process that ensured the already over saturated MC community wouldn’t be bogged down with another Sucka MC.  The members voted against it and I immediately vetoed that order due to my insistence of following traditional protocol.**  

By the time I actually sat down to announce my intentions to the dominant club I was down to three members and tradition stated I needed at least five to form an official club. Because they were so impressed with how I presented my club and our intentions coupled with how buttoned up I was, they were going to allow the club to form on the contingency I got my numbers up but before they could give me their final blessing I pulled the idea of forming my own club off the table.

What was the point of forming a club with three or four members when you could just ride together without 

 the politics and weight of the MC designation on your back? Yes, I desperately wanted my own MC but it was no longer making sense. The logo I wanted was voted out, the seven members had dwindled down to four, three who showed up on time or at all, and my initial feelings of gusto were now being stonewalled by doubt and a bit of anger.  

And then I said to myself, “And you haven’t even formed a club yet and this is how you feel?”

I respected MC culture too much to half ass my way into it.

Another nagging issue I had was I felt there were already too many got-damn motorcycle clubs out here already. Did I really want to add to the congestion? Yes, I know everyone starts a club with the idea that their club is going to be different and wonderful and all that but until it does, it’s just another club and for a club to have any sort of true footprint in the community, it needs longevity. Until longevity is conceived it’s just another club to add to the mix.  I also know a few people start their own clubs to avoid the grueling prospecting period in established clubs because their egos cannot allow them to be “nobody” for a period of time but that certainly wasn’t the case for me so I had to ask myself, “Why do you want your own MC?”

The reason wasn’t as complicated as I thought it was going to be. I wanted to form my own MC because outside of a One Percent club, I knew ultimately I was going to be unsatisfied with any other type club. One Percenters*** are the top of the food chain so why would I merely want to be a link instead of being one of them. That posed a few challenges for me however.  Generally One Percent clubs aren’t integrated so the ideal clubs I would’ve wanted to prospect for would never have taken me. Secondly, the other major outlaw club I truly looked up to and respected didn’t have a NY chapter.  Third, there were no black One Percent MC’s on Long Island at the time. With the exception of a fistful of clubs, I regarded most the clubs on Long Island as Sucka MC’s (because they were ignorant of traditional MC protocol) and secondly, the larger ones were sport bike clubs and I was completely uninterested due mainly to the fact I enjoyed riding distance. Blasting up and down on the Southern State Pkwy is not motorcycling to me.  

Lastly though I had been riding for more than eleven years, most of those years spent as an independent rider. Not enough people knew me on the set that I felt I could justify launching my own club and commanding the respect a President should have not just because of his patch, but because of who he was.

I had to come to grips that it just wasn’t my time.

A Republican White House cannot govern nor be governed by a Democratic Senate. I have little patience for excuses and have even fewer patience for willful ignorance. I’m not suggesting my guys were ignorant because they most certainly weren’t,  but I realized I was bringing them into an MC culture that at times handled its business like the “old men” used to do: with fists. This was no place for some of them and it’s no place for some of you reading this blog right now.

Yes, you can become a Congressman without having served a day in your life in any formal government organization. Your mistakes may be televised nationally but this country is a forgiving one; Outlaws aren’t.  I realized mistakes made by my members could get them killed and I wasn’t prepared to deal with that. I knew I wasn’t going to form an MC that was interested in throwing trophy parties, doing fish fries or any of that common day to day bullshit. My MC would have nothing to do with social clubs, car or truck clubs and we certainly wouldn’t have any women in our ranks that weren’t Property.  I wasn’t interested in guys who had any intentions of using their bikes to get girls. I didn’t want to win any popularity contest as a club that attended every party in numbers and won trophies  (even though half your team showed up in cars)

We were going to ride. We were going to ride together. We were going to ride hard and we were going to ride far.

I wanted a traditional MC who rode American or British bikes (preferably) and dressed in all black. I didn’t want anything to do with sport bikes; it was cruiser, naked or café and no exceptions.  It was going to be an all boys thing where men could be men and where brothers if necessary, handled disagreements with punches to the face and where the jokes were always crude. Jack Daniels was what we brushed our teeth with and vodka would be considered an aperitif to whiskey. I wanted to be in a group of men who loved being with each because the love of our bikes brought us together and the love of each other’s company would keep us on the road.

Looking back on it, I still want that.

I guess in retrospect I avoided a bad marriage because with that group of guys it wouldn’t have worked though to this day we all still talk and interact in some capacity and I ride periodically with all of them, though never together.

It’s still a house divided I suppose.

Thank God I still have the keys…and the tattoo.

Stay Sucka MC Free, y’all

*I purposely seek the counsel of 1 Percents and Outlaws specifically because in terms of the MC community they are the top of the food chain and their club protocols, value and brotherhood are in my opinion, the magnum opus when it comes to all things MC. I make no apologies for my support of their MC acumen

**Many African American clubs refuse to acknowledge the dominant 1% white club because they feel since those clubs don’t come out to their functions; they shouldn’t have to go through them to do anything. It’s a small minded way of thinking and one that can get you hurt. More importantly, being the “Big Black Fish” in a little black pond never allows your club to move past a certain level. You’re beginning with limitations to your growth and influence. African American clubs should look to the history of The East Bay Dragons as a model of how to grow their clubs on the “white” side of things as well on the black hand side. (Sucka MC Blog discussing that coming soon)

***Out of pure ignorance many of you believe that One Percenter automatically means criminal activity. Truth is I know plenty of white collar people who work together to steal money from poor people. You may know some of them: JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, etc. etc. One Percenters are the ultimate physical expression of brotherhood anyone in the MC community can be associated with. They put each other and their motorcycles above nearly everything else in their lives and that’s the sort of devotion I’m looking for and want. One Percenters represent ultimate brotherhood, not ideal criminality.

The East Bay Dragons: MC Responsibility Defined

By: Ali Ar Rasheed / Chief Saba 

Based in Oakland, CA

Riding 40 years overall and 25 years intensely

I am extremely honored to say that I AM AN EAST BAY DRAGON. 

I am probably one of the oldest “new” members of the club. During all the years that I was raising my family and dreaming of flying colors I never considered any other club but EBD. Recently I’ve been asked to explain my affection and devotion for the MC so as easily as I may roll the throttle of my motorcycle, allow me to share.

I have been blessed to be a part of some historic movements and organizations and those experiences have made me the man I am today. I didn't ride with a club for most of my riding years because I considered the commitment required to be worthy of a “150%” resolve and I couldn't realistically fulfill that at that time. I have been around the black biker set over the years, both growing up in L.A. and living in the Bay Area, and I knew that I wanted to join a club that lived up to exemplary standards.

Those exemplary standards naturally led me to The East Bay Dragons.

The EBD process starts with presenting yourself to the Officers' Table and explaining why you want to join. Most prospects know someone in the club and/or have been around the Dragons. If you are accepted then for the next three months you report twice a week to the Clubhouse Manager for clubhouse maintenance duty. In addition you will perform clubhouse cleaning & preparation for weekly club meetings. You have to be present for all meetings but cannot speak. Your clubhouse work schedule is coordinated with the Clubhouse Manager so you can maintain your existing commitments. These work duties apply to all prospects and rookies.

Upon successfully completing the Prospect stage you are presented to the full membership for a vote for approval to become a Patch-wearing Rookie for the next three months. Upon successfully completing this stage you are again presented for a vote by the full membership for permanent status.

In writing this article I fully realized that the values that my elders taught me, the standards of conduct that I have strived for all of my life, are the real reason I knew I only wanted to be a Dragon. Values drive our conduct, even if unconsciously. That is because from our values come the standards we measure our conduct by, the protocols that actually determine how we live in the world everyday. I knew from personal exposure how the Dragons take care of their own, how they treat others on the Black Biker Set and the public at large. The values I saw in action matched mine.

The Responsibility that comes with being a Dragon is not for everyone, just as living a life full of strong values is not for everyone. Some are snared in the Matrix illusions of living, while some simply lack the mental discipline necessary to live a conscious, self-directed life. Because of the Dragons'

long positive history in Oakland and on the Set, many in the public have high expectations regarding the conduct of any and all individual Dragons.

The EAST BAY DRAGONS MC VALUES ARE GOD, Family, Brotherhood, Motorcycle Riding & Community Service. Those are the values that bond us into a Brotherhood that Rides together, Serves Our Community together, and Serves Our Families & GOD as a way of LIFE. A BROTHERHOOD is an organization or group which is united for a common interest or commonly held values and whose strength is rooted in the individual uniqueness & diversity of each of its members.

My life as a patched member of the Dragons has not only met my expectations but the dynamics of the club have been incredibly rewarding as well. The Dragon members and extended family have become my new family and I’m honored to be a part of that brotherhood of Dragons.

I believe that the EBD, along with a handful of other African American MCs, are the standard bearers in contemporary African American MC culture. These MCs have ridden the waves of social & political

changes and yet remained committed to the roots of the African American MC. Some were here before the Civil Rights and the Black Power movements and continued riding as an MC Brotherhood through the turbulent years of Nixon, Reagan, COINTELPRO, Bush I, etc.

Along with longevity however comes change and a lackadaisical response to those changes. My feelings for the African American MC Community mirror my feelings for the overall African American diaspora within this country. While there are some that prey on our community, there are just as many, if not more, that live to serve and give back. I am painfully aware of how the mass media manipulates our perceptions of our own by consistently focusing on the worst elements among us. At the same time they purposely ignore those of us who work hard, create and maintain strong family relations, value education and refuse to participate in the criminal activities glorified by the mass media.

The Collective African American MC Community suffers from the same mass media misrepresentation as the general populace. There are those who believe the imagery of us as criminals on motorcycles, basically involved in the same criminal lifestyles attributed to our broad community. In reality, the Collective African American MC Community consists of professionals of all kinds, blue collar & white collar workers, union workers, small business owners, corporate employees, etc. We are Grandfathers, Fathers, Sons, Brothers & Uncles.

The East Bay Dragons MC has always been strictly an Oakland MC without any other chapters and that is an important aspect of our longevity.  By existing primarily in one location, it has allowed the leaders of the club to have a true, sincere impact on all the members, new and old and vice versa.  There are no “rogue” Dragons.  The future will grow directly from the legacy of the founding leadership, the work of the new leaders and the collective spirit of the old & new members. The Brotherhood of the EBD will continue to represent exemplary values in whatever they do as Dragons.

Again, those exemplary values are what I attribute and associate with the Sucka Free MC blog.

I know of no other forum where the critical issues and concerns of the Contemporary MC Set are being thrashed in a brutally honest manner. Everyone who wears a patch is impacted by the mass media representations of “bikers”. We have to live with the fear and negative expectations those images generate in the general population. SUCKA FREE MC blog is an opportunity to counter the mass media representations, present hard questions to the MC world and advocate for conscious, value-based MCs that uphold the true MC legacy.

When I’m riding wheel to wheel in a chain of pairs of Dragons I am fully alive. East Bay Dragons 4 living and East Bay Dragons 4 Ever.

The Staff of Sucka Free MC is not going to show any ambiguity with our love, respect, admiration and humility to have our blog blessed by a member of the legendary East Bay Dragons. At Sucka Free we have absolutely no agenda except the promotion of traditional  and sincere biker codes, protocols and lifestyle and The East Bay Dragons are an MC we have always looked up as the standard of those codes, protocols and lifestyle. 

As of today we have the East Bay Dragons Golden Patch of Approval and we are honored to wear it.

Chief Saba, your Sucka Free MC tee shirt is in the mail.