Since writing the last paper, "The Way It is," my person has learned a few things, as well, from the facts I presented to you. As my person has said before, our position in America is a very precarious situation: One in which has alienated our people from our native homeland, made us function as a people without a country, while living within a country that does not have our best interest at heart. We can clearly see by the provisions left for us in America's concentrated areas (ghettos), the downtown facilities, exclusive White areas, suburbs, etc.--that the "Separate but Unequal posture" is still in full effect. But that's what happens when you depend on others to provide things for your needs.
The division of our people from our homeland occurred, largely in fact, to the American slavery experience: its laws forbidding tribal customs, the way Americans traded of our young, and how marriages between Blacks were never really honored. The vacuum created by this behavior, produced a condition in which, most of what we know about culture and civilization, is derived from what we saw from the barnyards, plantations, and servitude positions all across America. Its like the lyrics that we hear from the Johnny Cash tune, Folsom Prison: "I bet there's rich folks eaten', In a fancy dining car, They're probably drinking coffee, And smoking' big cigars, But I know I had it comin', I know I can't be free, But those people keep a-movin', And that's what tortures me"--every word rings true accept, the acceptance of our condition (imprisonment/slavery, that is). We want that type of opulence, things were already carved up before they freed us, and for the most part we have to be in their employ in order to survive. These are very precarious positions. It places the descendants of the colonists in a position of judges and we stand amongst the judged. Julius Caesar tried to offer true citizenship to all world peoples and got assassinated in the process--with his friend Brutus putting the last dagger in.
Blacks must know a lot about American culture, as a matter of survival. We must have skills and a firm grasp of the American phenomena, in order to present ourselves in such a way, as to be picked for gainful employment. We learned about culture and civilization from the activities conducted in the thirteen colonies, by White people (never by a free Black Asian or so called African man visiting this country).* This is quite ironic, because the view that most Blacks have concerning these things, was originally conceived through the aural and optical nerves of a slave. We looked out into the colonist's world--though the barns and plantations of America but never as citizens conducting equal and proper enterprise: Who ever cares about how the person who serves you coffee or shines your shoes gets along in life? We watched through holes in America's dresser draws, but we never studied our own culture--as a whole (we are too far removed). We watched what White America did, as the horse that they rode on, romping through the fields. We watch them, as they altered the land, as the birds of the sky--knowing the could destroy our forest. We watched, not as one of them--but as ones brought over here by them! "It's hard to be free, when you're bought and sold in the marketplaces of America," Jack Nicholson's character said that, in the film, Easy Rider. We observed their ways and actions, and adapted ways of our own from what we observed. We saw America, not as American colonists or Western people, but from the view of the subjugated; the people they controlled.
This perspective is unique--but subsequently important--because a lot of our actions, thereafter, can be viewed merely as survival techniques. A lot of what Blacks do in this country is out of employment--not patriotism--because we truly know how the outsider feels (and we know by how we are treated we are second class--never the same as).
The way the Blackman originally viewed this country, was through the eyes of the menial worker; a slave. The free Blacks in this country, during the time of slavery, was not much better than a slave's life--and much less commensurate to that of a White freeman. He had neither the rights or the privileges of a White freeman in America--the Blackman's life was always under the scrutiny of the colonist (as we can see from police surveillance in densely Black populations in America today). During such times, free Blacks held neither office or much influence in America; but he could own land and he was not the property of an individual slave owner--though the society decided his actions (a.k.a. here comes another discriminatory law), based upon the best interests of the colony itself--but not for the people the society was controlling.
We watch America gain, grow, and exploit us whenever it was convenient. Anyone who watched Glory, featuring Denzel Washington, knows this to be the case: Many free Blacks and slaves died at Fort Sumter to allow the White Union troops advance. And though it furthered Blacks to "token citizenship," Blacks never gained America's love:
"Don't let them, get the best
Of your heart;
Leave the rest up to love,
And you'll be taken care of;
"Don't let them, get the best
Of your heart;
Leave the rest up to love,
And you'll be taken care of."
--Leave The Rest Up To Love
Chaka Khan & Rufus
These words seem to summarize our condition in America. Jesse Owens went over to Germany, during the Olympics, and smoked all Aryan on-comers for America--and had to once-again deal with America's racism when he returned to America: We are like a love sick, inexperienced young girl, who is trying her best to meet approval of her love one: a.k.a. the one who's eager to please; The one who wants to make everything better. In the movie, "Man In The Iron Mask," (the one which stars Richard Chamberlain), two twins were in love with the same girl. They were both princes of the same kingdom, and the fact that determined who the ruler would be, was whose head came out of the womb first. One of the two princes was a man of the people, the while the other prince exploited all the privileges of his noble position--and then some (that is, he was very abusive). The cruel prince already had a wife--but he took the paramour on as an unwilling mistress. She was obliged to be his mistress, from an obligation or debt that her father had to the cruel prince. Once their father, the king died, the cruel prince imprisoned his twin brother, and focused all his attention upon his mistress (much to the dismay of his wife). The mistress was not in love with the cruel king--but she had to do as he said, otherwise her father's life might be in jeopardy. But when the cruel king made advances, but she slapped him. The cruel king said to his cohorts, 'I don't know what is that makes me want her so. The more she spurs me, the more I want her so!' And that behavior describes exactly how we Blacks in America, behave in the face of "the evil prince." The more the society spurs us, the more we try to show America how wrong they are about us, rather than establish the ways and means of our own survival.
I know some of my Christian family were raised up with the concept to love your enemies--but when I look at all the senselessness of lives lost in gang war, I can only come to one conclusion: We do not love each other like we should, so we continue to play this game. Why else would be care so much about what Whites think concerning our people, and not enough when it comes to what our people think about ourselves? Maybe it's because we feel we would receive more gold for our labor than we would with Blacks. . .Why else would we not strive to prove our greatness to ourselves?
During the 40's and 50's, when segregation was at its' highest, we were much more confident to trust in a Black man to provide services to our community, than we are today. We had much more of a belief in each other to provide for each other. But this was largely due to the fact that our backs were against the wall and the choices were limited. Whites were not doing much trading with our kind. As soon as the flood gates were open--that is, the Kennedy Administration ushered in desegregation--more Blacks were willing to trust Whites to treat them fairly and do a better job, than they were willing to trust their own. I don't know why, given the prior history. This has always been an enigma to me, because prior to desegregation, there was segregation, reconstruction, and slavery--as well as the larger population of our people originally migrating from the rural south (so we should have known better).
I learned what part of the problem was, after my person became more conscious of myself and the plight of our people. My father was incarnated (appeared in the flesh) in 1922, my mother in 1933. Both parents were from the Carolinas--whose chief export was rice and cotton. The southern states were where the essence of slavery existed. Both parents came up North seeking better wages and an escape from THAT PART of Southern tradition (Jim Crow aspects). On my mother's side, the woman known to my mother as grandmother, would had definitely experienced reconstruction--if not slavery itself! My mother told stories of her mother picking cotton, so I'm am sure there plenty of eyewitness stories to be told of the period. My great, great grandmother was killed by her slave owner, for not giving into his demands. Her daughter, after witnessing this horrific act, conceded to the slave masters sexual desires, and later gave birth to my grandfather. When I confronted my mother over why more of these experiences or chronology were not passed down to us by her, she replied, "I was afraid it would have only made my children bitter and possibly resulted in lynching. I didn't want to lose any of my children." And from her tone and posture, I got the impression that she believed there wasn't much that could have been done about this behavior: After all, we represent less than 20% of the American population. Though I could understand my mother's sentiment, valuable information, chronology, legacy and tradition was not handed down!
The difficulty with not handing down the chronology, legacy and tradition is--despite one's fears, the overall picture gets clouded. The person sees the circumstance, but they may not have a clear mental picture of how things got to be that way. Often, when parents break up and the children are of the pre-adolescent or adolescent age, they usually blame themselves for the break up--because they don't know the factors at play here! In many cases, their egos, self-esteem, etc., become greatly impaired--because the conditions suck. These same sort of things happen when those who were slaves in our family, do not pass all of their experiences down to their children: They won't accurately know who or what caused these things to happen (a.k.a. what made circumstances this way), and may begin to think of themselves as the causative factor. They begin to think of themselves as not being good enough. They curse themselves for having humble beginnings. This is called, "Blaming the victim," especially where the victim blames him or herself, because they are taking the responsibility no further than themselves. In these cases, the victim also believes those of their kind couldn't possible be any better than them--and thus starts a whole bunch of hateful and subconscious disrespectful treatment towards themselves their people. This was the cause of neighborhood graffiti, broken glass on the street, your momma jokes, and a whole bunch of appearance jokes. . . It's the classic "I'm not Ok, you're not Ok" syndrome. There are many other scenarios which has slavery as the basis for them, but time nor space will allow for the elaboration. Suffice it to say, a lot of our dysfunction can be traced back to what a few of us call "Post-traumatic Slave Syndrome."
Everyone knows that the grass looks greener (and it may be), but we will not have ownership, if we keep depending on others to employ us; or if we keep forcing concessions, due to a White guilty conscious. All we really need from them is noninterference and equal opportunity; especially in the areas of education. Since White Americans are reluctant to repatriate our people--how about a couple of generations of free college education? I'm sure we could improve our outlook, if we were more knowledgeable and could see what's out there waiting for us--but more importantly, we have to change our attitudes towards ourselves. That is the most herculean of the tasks that lie ahead for us. For when Marcus Garvey learned the truth, and looked at the condition of Black folks in his day, the mighty Universal Negro Improvement Association (or U.N.I.A.) was formed; which is the basis of all Black power movements in this country. When Jesse Owens learned the truth, he smashed all records and became a legend for the world to see. Booker T Washington was spectacular after his education--but the birth of the Tuskegee Airmen from his college was even more so. Yet Black collaboration is a slow grind, because we can think of 15 million reasons why it won't work, as opposed to why it will. And that, my friends, is ironic--because we have refuted most of what Whites have to say about Blacks; but the tougher cookie to crack is the negative opinions we have about ourselves.
Far too often, we have let religious differences and self hatred interfere with our impressions we have concerning one another. Taking advantage of becoming aware is not a top priority. We buy fancy cars and clothes--but we don't make our health and welfare our priority. We will accept those conditions, far too easily--whereas our counterparts are most reluctant to take on a job without good health benefits. When I look at the overall American society, I can see improvements in diet, health choices in Fast Food Restaurants, health treatment, etc. When I look at Black people's approaches to the same subject, I basically see arrested development. We have got to take ourselves more seriously. Instead of putting so much time and effort into convincing others, let's roll up our selves and start convincing ourselves. You can't make White America love you, but if you are sincere, you can learn to love yourself!*
Now, I'm not telling you to take on non-believers: i.e. people who do not have a positive opinion of Black people (I know that's a harder nut to crack); what I'm saying is--talk to each other. See if you have some things in common. Nobody's perfect. If you find that their basic character is generally in the right place, try to work with it: Play down the religious and philosophical differences: Most people believe their "prosthetic" is best for them and others, otherwise they wouldn't be rocking that religion. Leave that settlement, for after we build our monuments. Besides, anything religion that doesn't teach you, how to treat your brothers and sisters the way you want to be treated--is not a religion that will work for building Black confidence. Despite some of our ugliness, in essence, we are really beautiful people. Let's strive to gather the beauty together and embrace that first. Then, after we have enough love, we can go after our other demons. After all, 458 years of ill-treatment, is bound to create some obstacles in our own Black minds. . . It's hard to stay positive, when you're incarcerated. But if you look at our representation in the Hall of Fame, Science and Industry, and amongst areas of notoriety, you'll see we far exceed our less than 20% representation of the American population. Now, if we can pool these resources towards the betterment of our inner-city youth and the aim of Black excellence and better self esteem. . . You got me?
"Don't let them get the best. . ."
Once Again, Peace and Blessings,
C. Be'erla Hai-roi Myers
C. Be'erla Hai-roi Myers
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