I joined the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) for many reasons. Most importantly it was my shared hatred for the way things are currently governed under the capitalist catastrophe, in combo with the harsh realities of being a Black worker forced to live under this racist system. A woman PL’er  introduced me to communist ideas. I began revealing to her things that bothered me about our existence as Black people and how our lives aligned with others around the world, and she helped me realize the ways in which my thought processes aligned with party’s line.
 My family has been fighting against police and the racist system since I was a child. Watching my family fight with such frequency has made the police the enemy in my eyes. I can recall memories of waking up with guns in our faces, as the police would kick in my grandmother’s door looking for her sons, my uncles, to lock them up. In addition to my hate for this decaying system and its KKKOPS, there was always this sense of disbelief that stirred in me whenever I listened to politicians talking.
I watched how Demopublicans or Republicrats, whichever party they claim to be, don’t really care about you and me. Yet they terrorize and deprive, working people, especially Black workers of the basic rights they claim to protect.
I would alway laugh at their promises of equality, and justice. It was this and my experiences of being  a Black man in the U.S., as well as observing  the experiences of my working class brothers and sisters that uncovered these lies to me early on in life.
When I returned to Puerto Rico in April with the brigade of comrades from New York and New Jersey to affirm our solidarity with the island’s residents, I was able to see my values put in practice. There were six of us from the original 25 members of last year’s summer project. We revisited the school in Toa Baja and found out that the school had been reopened because of petition efforts by the local parents and teacher organizations. To see parents, teachers, and workers from the community defy the island bosses, occupy the school, and turn it into a community center was supremely powerful for me to witness. It makes me want to get more involved! It showed me that like Black workers, Puerto Rican workers have a resiliency and determination that I admire. They keep fighting no matter how hard they get knocked down.
To be able to do this type of work has developed my awareness of class-consciousness;the same things they are doing to you, they are doing to me. We are in the same class and if we struggle together we can win.
Moreover, my newfound camaraderie with PLP members helped shape my creative process as a film-maker/documentarian, such that it enabled me to use my craft as a vessel for communicating anti-racist and communist values.
PLP gave me a whole new perspective for understanding the world, and the way capitalism is constantly contorting, shape-shifting and creating new ways to distort our reality, and create unnatural divisions amongst workers. Best of all, the most exciting part of being a communist is the way it makes me feel, more alive as opposed to just living or existing. Looking back I always felt like communism was natural to me.