Earlier I tweeted about Gazi Kodzo (Augustus Claudius Romain, Jr) claims to be younger than he is and that he is actually registered to vote, in Florida and Georgia, under different dates of birth.
And his wealthy upbringing...
This evening we are going through...
*I'm not sure Augustus' pronouns.
the evolution of an attention whore making campy videos to fascist cult leader making videos that feature rape as a form of punishment.
While a hunger for fame and a tendency for celebrity worship have been a few consistencies throughout...
their evolution... a lot has changed.
In 2008 Augustus was in Oak Park where they attended a same sex marriage rally.
Their quotes are interesting because now they claim to run a church and they claim the plight of colonized people...
oakpark.com/2008/11/18/tho…
is the root cause of all problems.
For instance, same sex marriage isn't an issue because colonizers made the law.
No colonizers, no law.
I saw a Black Hammer member write a self critique in which he admits to going through his partner's phone and using information...
they found, against the partner. It was learned colonizer behavior.
I'm getting ahead of myself... but the point is, during this "evolution" Augustus came to believe that all ills are due to colonization.
A view that sound believable on the surface but is, in fact...
full of ignorance in it's simplicity.
Around the same time Augustus (going by Smiletone) was getting noticed for their videos... not just by fans (who chased celebrities for them) but by the pop culture establishment itself...
The original Smiletone videos (judging from comments of old fans who despise what Augustus has become) were typical of this.
The YouTube channel had a blog to accompany it.
While the blog and SM posts don't literally cry out, "look at all my money," they do detail a wealthy lifestyle of trips back and forth between Atlanta, Chicago, NYC, and Hollywood as well as...
smiletone.blogspot.com
birthday parties at clubs and Hollywood mansion parties.
The time spent in Hollywood is significant because it appears to be one of the few "real" jobs Augustus has ever had.
And it is a long way off from relating to the colonized working class.
archive.is/7sria
I'm sure the colonized working class will watch this and think, "I remember when my days were filled wasting time making videos with a couple 'yt' girls.
And pay no attention to the white stars on a blue background that looks just like part of a certain colonizer's flag...
Now, right before this time period, Augustus attended Georgia State University.
Except for the Stone comment... these posts by a classmate show some continuing themes in Augustus life at GSU that persist today.
The desire for fame and the celebrity worship....
The shameless self-promotion.
The anti-Semitism.
Lying about their age (though OP recognized the lie in some of the current videos, they had no way of knowing Augustus' claim, to them, to have been born in 1990 was also a lie).
Ignorance of the topics they claim to study...
The same behaviors would carry over to H'wood.
It afforded more opportunity for the exposure they desired.
The videos moved away from the cheery "you'll get by... if you Smiletone" and became race-baiting and anti-white.
Augustus Romain became Gussie Baptiste.
Gussie Baptiste (Gussie being informal for Gus, which his father goes by... Baptiste was his mother's maiden name) became Gazi Kodzo.
And Gazi was hella good at mixing truth and bullshit while making it sound like gospel proven by academia.
And his followers bought every bit.
Some people did attempt to call out Augustus on his lies.
Particular people who actually lived in Africa and were offended by, not just what he said, but his constant habit of talking down to them and over them when they attempted to open dialogue with him.
Some people not only called him out, bit defended him as well.
And I agree with this blogger who said it was fucked up for people to make fun of Augustus for trying to reclaim his culture.
It's incredibly fucked up.
But so is Augustus' insistence that colonialism and...
capitalism and slavery are only a problem constructed by the white man (a falsehood pointed out by Kevin 'Rashid' Johnson in his criticism of Black Hammer's racial nationalism).
Like I've said before, history (and specifically colonization/settler)...
rashidmod.com/?p=2789
is really dirty.
We have to acknowledge that the rage, frustration, and vulnerability felt by so many during the 2015 and 2020 uprisings were manipulated and exploited by Augustus Romain.
The murders of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray made it easy for some to look past..
the message inside Augustus Romain's videos.
He exploited the rage, and fueled it, with his videos, consistently using the racial climate to pick up new followers.
We have to acknowledge the role the uprisings against police brutality... murder... equality... played in...
rise of Gazi Kodzo/Black Hammer.
Or else he will be free to exploit the next horrific police murder for his own gain.
In part one of the Red Voice expose, they note Omali Yeshitela took notice of Gazi Kodzo and the videos that made him popular...
redvoice.news/the-devil-wear…
I'll continue tomorrow with the evolution of Augustus Claudius Romain, Jr.
Black Hammer's cultism and the footsteps their behavior follow in will be coming soon (direct comparisons).
In light of Black Hammer's anti vaxx stance, "coalition" with Proud Boys...
their CNN protests as well as their Donald Trump simping...
Before we move on tomorrow...
I need you to understand that as Augustus was releasing his 2015 videos, that 4chan and the far-right already saw the potential to redpill and work with Gazi Kodzo.
Yes, as early as 2015.
As the Red Voice piece tells us, the alt-right wasn't alone in finding Augustus.
Omali Yeshitela found them. He gave them a "political education" and a bigger platform.
redvoice.news/the-devil-wear…
Working for Yeshitela's African People’s Socialist Party's Uhuru Movement, this video was released.
The trolling in the comments led to the formation of the Proud Boys.
Both groups acknowledge that the formation was in response to trying Gazi Kodzo's videos.
The Proud Boys using ""Uhuru" was, in itself, trolling the whole African People’s Socialist Party's reparations program.
And Augustus is damn proud of his role in creating the Proud Boys.
Video via @GaziCult
Augustus also worked on the campaigns of Eritha Akile Cainion (District 6 City Council seat) and Jesse Nevel for (mayor), two Uhuru candidates.
This is the election cycle they registered to vote under a DOB of 1990, after...
theweeklychallenger.com/why-i-endorse-…
theweeklychallenger.com/she-came-to-st…
previously having been registered to vote in Georgia under a birth year of 1986.
As has been previously noted, they were made Secretary General of APSP.
And then it fell apart (with Augustus again lying about their age) with each party accusing...
archive.is/hadhO
the other of wrong doing.
Augustus, along with a group of people disillusioned by the motives and progress of other groups, formed Black Hammer.
I don't agree with the ideology of a lot of it but the point is, for them it was about liberation.
For Augustus, it was about Gazi.
I'm not interested in dragging up conflicts that existed inside Black Hammer.
Or reigniting them.
So, next I'm going to point out direct behaviors that Black Hammer exhibits that we've seen in previous cults.
These tweet reads like past cult leaders fail to compare to...
Gazi Kodzo.
That's not exactly a good thing.
It's also interesting to note that Augustus has posted about Stockholm Syndrome in the past...
Sources (besides my own research):
redvoice.news/the-devil-wear…
redvoice.news/the-devil-wear…
redvoice.news/the-devil-wear…
redvoice.news/the-devil-wear…
peoples-voice.org/2020/04/30/aga…
rashidmod.com/?p=2789
rashidmod.com/?p=2797
rashidmod.com/?p=2805
docs.google.com/document/u/0/d…
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