Tribute To The Martyrs

I don't know why it takes death to galvanize us; but it does.  The sad thing about it is, its now taking several deaths.  My heart goes out to the Brown family for the lost of their son, and the subsequent death of others--in other cities--to help us understand this thing is real; and what they do to us in one place, will be done to the rest of us; no matter where we live.   

I have been talking about the need of a sense of belonging and a real Black community within America; and their sacrifice is our moment of truth and our shining hour: What are we going to do?

In the past, James Brown would have spoken to the multitude, like he did when Martin Luther King was gunned down, like a thug and a trouble maker.  Jim Kelly would have met with Kareem Abdul Jabar and several other athletes, to decide what the athletes were going to do about this travesty, like Lebron James did on the Trayvon Martin case.  But, so far--nothing.  Or Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory and George Carlin would have laid down the truth in comedic satire.  As Harry Belafonte would have made some public addresses, and spoke to many others  in the guild concerning taking more roles for social change--but these are different times now.  

As a dynamic young Blackman, Rashon, recently pointed out to me, "Dr. Martin Luther King did quite a radical thing by galvanizing a group of Southern ministers for civil rights and mobilizing Christians from around the nation to non-violently protest against inequality and social injustice."  Yet Dr King and his followers were met with the violence of racism, by the ones who claim to be Americans, in every city that they marched peacefully through.  The world watched, as the media projected the gruesome scene, which lay bear the actual fact: That even though the protest was carried out non-violently, there was not going to be any peace among the two groups.

Most of the members were jailed several times, and Dr. Martin Luther King lost his life, non-violently attempting to get the same liberties and rights as any person in America should have; as the world watched the dominant culture's reply.  John Coltrane told us about it, in a powerful piece called Alabama.  Billy Holiday wept in a piece called Strange Fruit.

The message White America sent, was very embarrassing to this country--world wide--yet it was still sent by those who felt violence properly identified their sentiments.  It was a bloody, ill-spirited message; but the press covered it.  It was ugly, hateful and violent; as the world watched in horror.  Police dogs were violently released on innocent people.  Troops were called in, as large numbers of White Americans reacted to the non-violent protests.  Firemen shot powerful surges of water into crowds of non-violent protesters, marching for many of the rights and liberties, we Blacks have in America today.  Before this time, America was a segregated society.  There were places where Blacks in America could not go: Restaurants that Blacks could not frequent; movie theaters, dance halls, and arenas that Blacks would never enter--even though many of their own people performed in them; to entertain Whites. 

There were two, segregated, unequal societies in America at the time, but America claimed to represent "Freedom in the New World."  Somehow, we want to believe that a uniform "magically" transforms a person; that a man can put on black robes, transform, and suddenly judge another man--without bias or prejudice; or that a police officer can uphold the law, without letting his personal sentiments override and abuse his position of authority; Just because a law is written in the books, that there will be someone within the dominant culture to enforce it.  Surely, Black people have seen enough of those contradictions. 

I often ask myself, "Why does their have to be sacrifices like these, before we, as a people, respond?"  It must have to do with what we believe in.  Back then, it was a promise.  Not all Whites were behind what happened during the Civil Rights era, but it wasn't enough to stop segregation from occurring in this country decades before.  The way I see it (as Rashon intimated), is credit and creditability: America lost all of its creditability around the world, when the media saw what happened to Dr. Martin Luther King and his followers during the peaceful protest.  She was embarrassed by the way she looked and unable to handle our ethnicity--our Blackness--so she promised us she would honor our Civil Rights, threw in laws such as Affirmative Action, an end to Red-lining, and gave us better paying jobs alongside Whites, and access to credit; and we went for it, hook, line and sinker.  

  Credit?     

Yes, a chance to get credit cards straight from White-owned banks.  Remember, during Segregation, you could only use "Colored Banks," and only live in "Colored Neighborhoods."  Now you could get a better paying job, a loan and credit cards, and move right next to White people.  The effect was two-fold: the Black banks lost many of their customers to the false hopes of racial equality, while our savings went into "somebody else's hands"--which gave us the impression; If we could be guaranteed to be hired by them, live next to them, and get loans and credit to buy what they have--that we were equal to them.  The effect of pulling our money away from Black banks, Black enterprises and Black neighborhoods, had the same effect as when Jackie Robinson left the Negro League for Major League Baseball; a whole institution crumbled, breaking the spirit of many.  Some of our people got a good job, and a home in the suburbs; and forgot all about their social, political and economic responsibility to our own Black people living in America.

  What's wrong with individuals securing a fortune for themselves?   

First of all, anytime one's progress and freedom is being bankrolled by someone else, you are in trouble.  When somebody gives you something on credit or loan, there's always the possibility of it being repossessed.  Secondly, "If you dance to the music, you have to pay to the piper."  In other words, none of these things were granted, without strings attached; and nobody wants to be a puppet on a string.  The Civil Rights struggle is a serious multi-prong struggle for our destiny as human beings in America.  I use the word, "Is," because the struggle is ongoing in America.  Our people were tired of our lives being controlled by another group of people, who made themselves rich from our labor.  The Civil Rights Movement consisted of non-violent  and defensive, protective elements.  The Civil Rights struggle also included legal battles, educational battles, political battles aimed at creating legislation to support social change, etc.  All of these things required funding.  Those who were without, sacrificed to make it so, and those who had, didn't have as much as their White counterparts--so they too were willing to fight to improve their lot; but all of that changed with the illusion of integration; when it made more sense to work on autonomy or self-determination.

There were some Blacks who wanted to integrate into the society at large or White society, and those who knew, by the violent reactions of Whites to the Civil Rights Movement, that true racial equality would never happen in this country.  Certainly we can see which numbers believed in the promise of integration on the part of Whites because we--like the South Africans--attempted to go along with the government's proposal towards integration; but all the means of navigating that integrative process was still controlled by the dominant culture.   

Since most of the lasting changes towards the illusion of integration, was done through the legal system; in order to preclude these gains from reverting back to segregation and inequality or chaos, each generation of Black people would have to insert Black politicians into the system or government; whose sole purpose would be to serve as vanguards to safeguard our newly gained rights within the American power structure.  Since America's motivation towards negotiation was to change the world's image and perception, as soon as the image was in place, and written laws of Affirmative Action were on "the books"--several of the Civil Rights leaders [particularly the integrationists] received good jobs and/or positions of power; the opiate was complete.  

Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, and Julian Bond are perfect examples of the types of jobs obtained by Civil Rights leaders during our struggle for freedom.  As a matter of fact, some of our Black activists, drunk from power, position, and individual accomplishments--became lavish, lazy and like the Queen and many members of England nobility--they became just figure heads and remnants of their former selves.  It is easier to appease a handful, than to serve a multitude.  Svengali is in full affect, y'all.  

Funny, but every time the economy goes awry in this country, or money gets tight for the dominant culture in this society, America has frequently had outburst of several acts of violence perpetrated by White America on Blacks throughout the country--often carried by the ones who are uniformed to uphold the law or city and state officials; thus creating travesties of various kinds, while using the press to distort the image; often by blaming the victim or making our people look-like criminals. Thus, making it appear as though being a criminal, thief, or thug is justification for White officers to kill unarmed young men, rather than arrest them; because the officers claim to be scared [maybe the government shouldn't hire so many cowards to be law enforcement officers].  By doing this, the bigot, ethnocentric racial element hopes to dissuade the liberal element within White society not to take action on behalf of the slain Black persons; like Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown.

My central concern, however, is the posture and attitude of our youth today in such trying times.  I spoke of opiates earlier: one should really investigate The Opium Wars in China--perpetrated by the English--to really get a clear mental picture of the effect.  Let's suffice to say, "America has a habit of giving firewater to the natives to ease their pain, rather than giving real assistance."  Drugs always find a way of waffling its way into Black communities in America, even though we do not own ships, submarines, etc., large enough to supply such a huge volume.  This last drug, "Crack," has devastated many Black communities.  The target group were primarily of the age synonymous to the age of someone who could be a parent of the so-called, Generation X children.  This being so, many of these parents gave up on their children, and many of these children gave up on going to their parents to discuss anything.  This led to the so called, Generation Y children, who seem to have a total disregard for tradition or wisdom that came before them; typified by making up life as they go along.  Most of our youth are totally unaware of everything above this paragraph; and only the wisest of them will even read this! 

Traditionally, younger Blacks have often been taught by older Blacks of "how to navigate through White America, while being Black"--but our new Back youth have also interfaced with White youth, who seemingly do not have all the bigotry and racial hangups that their parents have--and are, therefore, rebelling against their parents as well.  Manners, social graces are being compromised, partially because of rebellion and partially because many are of the computer generation; which consists of staying in the house, playing video games, and communication through Facebook, Twitter, and being generally oblivious to what is going on in the world around them--since they generally do not watch the news, read the newspapers or receive much intellectual stimulus past the few short lines that can be texted or tweeted. 

  So, what's wrong with that?   

What this has done is create a generation gap, where the knowledge of how to deal with hidden and blatant racism--perpetrated by elder Whites--is not perceived appropriately, nor handled in the appropriate manner; since following tradition is not a strong point of anyone under 50 these days.  This coupled with "keeping it one hundred" [a slang used to describe frankness which borders rudeness and lacking in social grace] is often being employed.  In the past, American media--particularly blaxploitation films--often descended down to depicting all Black people (especially in the inner-cities) as seedy characters, violent characters, pimps, prostitutes, rapists, looters, murderers, and thieves.  This propaganda often created fear in White people and White communities; particularly where there is little to no multi-cultural interaction.  So you take a White person like this, dress him in a uniform and send him out to patrol in Black areas; and you have a cop whose half-cocked to react inappropriately to anything that resembles any stereotype that might be in his psyche; needless to mention those Whites who are bigots and racists who hide behind uniforms and sheets.  Now you combine this type of officer of the law with the naiveté of many of our youth to what came before their era, and this spells a recipe for disaster:  One wrong word could set it off; and both could be totally unaware of any wrong doing in their approaches.

The problem is, the deck is uneven right from the start.  We are black people living in a White world called America, which operates by regurgitated European values and Western ways; which has nothing to do with Black ethnicity or a full understanding of so-called African-American ways.  Generally speaking, we are treated as an inconvenience; tolerated--at best.  We have had to cope with this position for centuries; longer than America has been a free nation, to be right and exact.  "You cannot go up against an army with a handgun" [LL Cool J].  

Once a White man puts on a uniform, he is believed to be a sworn officer of the law, knowledgeable of how American law works and is supported by the judicial system--way overtop of how the judicial system protects the rights of Black people in America who believe they are equal citizens.  As they say in many southern states: "I am the law."  Those who were raised by Black family tradition know to try to get past any situation (even being "pulled over") without incident or "accident."  Naive ones walk where "Angels fear to tread."  Is this right?  No.  Is this real?  Yes it is, each and everyday of a Blackman's life.  It is important, young brothers, to be politically correct, or face being a martyr--and most of them are dead: Best we can do is defend your honor after you are gone. 

.  Conclusion?   .

The captions on the above pictures are "mad real."  But instead of pushing this feeling of being disconnected to the back of our minds, we need to work at building communities where we are the number one citizens and the officers protect our own self-interests and ways of governing ourselves.  Exodus.  Do your own thing; in the long run, it reaps better rewards. Remember, all these things start with a thought: Sovereignty, the real tribute.

Thank you for your consideration,

C. Be'er la Hai-roi Myers 

Peace.