Every Picture Tells A Story. . .

   I was told by my art teacher, Leslie Kamison, “There is no Art for Art Sake!  All Art is social, political, or economical.”  In my upcoming book, Do-Wop, A Separate Reality, I state: Whites in America have a separate reality in America than Blacks.  Many times, when Blacks work at establishments, the person who runs the overall operation is White.  If a Black person advances in a corporation, ultimately, he or she still reports to above him who is White.  

   This phenomena reflects an order that extends back to the inception of this country.  In the Introduction of my book, I said, America was originally only a colony of England.  England [during the time] is an Imperialistic society.  Imperialism is a type of government that seeks to increase its size, either by forcing (through war) or influencing (through politics) other countries to submit to their rule.  When the English came to the New World (America), their plan was to politically manipulate the Native Americans out of land and resources.  So this pretty much so established the attitude that the colonists had towards the Native Americans. 

   Colonialism represents the way that the Europeans usurped America from the Native Americans.  Colonialism has to do with one country [England] exploiting another country [America/New World] by making it into a colony; which is usually good for the mother country [England/The Europeans] but bad for the colony [namely the Native Americans], as we all so well know.

 The Europeans were visitors here, who wound up taking the country away from the natives.  But what most of us don’t know, as well as what probably goes by unnoticed to the reader—is the cultural context through which colonialism and Imperialism has been superimposed on Blacks and the indigenous people; as well as the impact that colonial culture has had upon their psyche (as well as the various other people) throughout their sojourn within this America.

    Throughout the chronology of this country, Blacks have been trying to be accepted into the mainstream White society; but somehow between our humble beginnings, the easiness of being able to be discriminated against on sight, and the subsequent government institutionalizing of racism based upon the color of our skin—Blacks have been stereotypically the target of racial discrimination and inferiority posturing—based upon some imperialistic notion and supremacist way of thinking on the part of the people who run this country towards its subjects; which becomes engrained and stamped into not only the subject's psyche but every American within this country (by means of indoctrination and legislation).  These thoughts become self-evident  when one is reading the United States Constitution!

   For example, Queen Elizabeth of England and her relative John H. Hawkings, were evolved in the slave trade: The crown of England was also essential in the colonization of the United States--the subsequent American Revolution--and the War 1812.  England imposed its will on America, and was responsible for creating the various subsequent responses (the revolt, war and defense in 1812) through her behavior as a mother country.  What surprises me is the large numbers of Whites who state they are totally unaware of any bigoted and elitist posturing towards Blacks, despite the school having to be forcibly desegregated. . .

  When the powers that be in America tell the story of slavery in the United States—the most common story is that Blacks were once indentured servants—right along with Whites who came from England, until a certain incident in Virginia; wherein a Virginian colony magistrate handed down a slavery for life sentence to a Black man for being involved in a civll infraction during the early 1600s.  This—at least—made this incident a government institutionalized affair; propagandized into a country's posture.

  However you may look at it—or whatever the case may be—several countries of Europe were also evolved in the slave trade in America and Europe for sometime; that is, before human trafficking became passé and morally unacceptable by most of European society.  This attitude carried by Europeans for so long, created a social posture of inferiority aimed at their Black or African brothers; especially in the New World.  Surely, this was the case—for it is no doubt when the colony's magistrate handed down the sentence and took additional steps to legislate slavery—the acts reflect the sentiments of a vast majority of Europeans living in America during the time.  And as these postures became more subdued in Europe, colonial America continued to enslave Blacks—long after it won its’ independence from England.  Some may even consider America's posture at that time institutionalized distain towards Africans or Blacks wherever they might be.

    As a matter of fact, when America discriminated against its' Japanese constituency during the second World War, America offered its Japanese population repatriation in exchange for its’ transgressions against them—but did nothing where Black people and slavery were concerned within the United States. . .  The act, in and of itself, lets you know the social, political and economic environment Blacks liver in America really is; as it professes racial equality. . .  And, although the conditions here are not exactly like Apartheid in South Africa, the powers that be in America politically manipulated the country into a Segregative society within which lasted from the Emancipation Proclamation—well into the beginning of the second Civil Rights Movement of 1964.

  Yet, despite all these examples to the contrary, what disturbs me most is that most Blacks in America generally remain somewhat optimistic that our people will be accepted into American society with the same footings as the Whites who made this colony to serve their own purposes—and they look to the power brokers of that society to do it for them!  

What I mean by not being optimistic—is that this place was never designed by America's founders to be for that purpose.  Everything that has happen to my people in this country (including current times) proves that!  

   All our efforts have made their marks towards our freedom of movement—granted—but they have not granted us equality nor integration.   All it has given us is a better bargaining chip; and that's the best you are going to get from a people who have another destiny—who've paved their way through blood.  We were never included in that destiny and now—somehow—we believe this same group of power brokers who went from imperialism to colonialism—then to capitalism; to grant us (the persons they used as slaves) status their contemporaries and equals. . .  

   What a great delusion!  Talk about Martin Luther King' Dream. . .  During the sixties—these elements (doing the will of the people) were the ones who politically ordered King's assassination and restructured Atlanta with the remaining "Civil Rights Activists" who were willing to take the compromise offered.

   And although Frederick Douglass had Black folks participate in the Civil War during his time—hoping it would gain Blacks equal citizenship—what he was able to orchestrate was an escape from chattel slavery and a chance to gain some political control over areas of the South which contained large concentrations of our people.  This was granted—through Abraham Lincoln—by the hands of the Republican Party.   However, it did not reward our people with any form of repatriation or employment, or any land under any form of G.I. Bill—but it did allow us to form communities which allowed better take care of some of our interests as Black people; because we had Black people who were willing to roll up their sleeves. . .

  

   Ironically, it was during the Segregative Era in the United States that Blacks made progress securing their own self-interests, while achieving some of our greatest cultural developments. The Harlem Renaissance defined—for our varied population, what it means to be Black.  James Brown later created a song [Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud] which encouraged and increased our impetus during the late 1960s to early 1970s.  Jet, Ebony, and Essence still remaining as remnant symbols of earlier attempts at Black periodic journalism in this country—expressing many of our own interests to an unwilling population—showing ideas and achievements; giving our people in this country a mouthpiece for our own ideas and perspective on social events.

The Negro League had a dominance over the Major League Baseball for several years [even though Whites called them exhibition games and therefore chose not consider those games official proof of their prowess].  And although Motown came later—it still set the precedent for auto-determination within the record industry.

   Despite the odds, we did more things to act as a coherent group of people during those times, than any other place in our chronology mapping our sojourn in America  However, my brothers and sisters, I do fear readers—we did these things—simply because Whites offered us no other recourse!  Had the government offered us any other deal, I do believe we would have strongly considered it before embarking on independence. . .  Factual proof of this, is how our folks acted during the Second Civil Rights Movement, when offered the false illusion of Integration: There became a great social divine up-North, between those who received token hand-outs from benevolent factors within mainstream society against those who did not—simply because they didn’t want to lose the opportunity offered.  Here we are in 2018: Are we anywhere closer to true social equality in American society than we were in 1964 or 1968?  Think about it. . .  

But if you ask me, it is both illusion and delusion. . .  I think we need to serve and protect our own self interests; rather than depend on an unwilling America to give it to us.

   The other day, as I was streaming on Netflix when I ventured to watch the movie, Versailles.  Louis XIV (the Sun King) said something most profound to his brother Philippe.  Its’ dialogue is poignant and germane to Black peoples’ contribution to the building of America, and our contribution to the cultural arts in this country: 

Louis XIV [to Philippe]: 

  You never understood politics or survival.  The State is a person and a person either asserts himself or is subjugated to the will of others. We stake our clam or we are plowed into the field.  It is ether one or the other.

Philippe: 

You acted out of pride. 

Louis XIV: 

  I acted for France, because I am France!  Because without me, this country will consume itself in noble squabbles. Music, Dance, Art, Fashion…. All of these things have the power to change a nation from within, to affect the hearts and minds of people, to bring them over to us

  We could never invade the entire world, but the world can imagine use to be their center and one day, my brother, they will.

  If I were to teach you a piece of music. . .  If it were to strike you in your heart and the sheets and the staves were burned; you might then play it from memory to a salon (exhibition of living artists) of 100, and they might take it on and play it and take it on and on. . .

   The song we sing here brother, I mean it to be played forever.

   When this country got started—there was only European classical music and the rural folk music; the immigrants brought it to the New World.  Its’ social conditions were birthed from European soil and behavior phenotypical to its folks.  They danced to waltzes to their classic forms and jigs to their folk styles; but our culture was stripped from us.

  Our music was birthed from our social conditions right here in America.  We responded to the tones and conditions here with Jazz and the Blues—which by definition—makes Jazz and the Blues. America’s only true musical art forms.  All other music birthed here are derivatives of it.  But why is this not known to the populace?  Why is it concealed?  For political reasons, for sure.

   Anyone who has heard Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You” knows, if Ray had his own label or means of production like James Brown had, Ray would not have had those background singers he had on that record.  Best believe those background singers was a political move on the part of the producers—in other words Ray was coerced through extortion.  Those singers are “vanilla” at best, and you know it.  Besides, once Ray generated enough money—he formed his own backup singers, The Raelettes—and never looked back at those types of vocal arrangements.

  Scott Joplin, a Black composter, is undeniably the inventor of Ragtime Jazz, but once Benny Goodman and Glen Miller appeared on the scene; the term Swing began to be used more often, but when I googled the terms—the difference between the two musics was mainly elusive (and therefore political).   Now I have listened to Ragtime and Swing—and other than who is playing it—I can’t tell the difference—other than a more modern sound; But once I listen to Billie Holiday’s “Now They Call It Swing”. . .  one can’t help but think it’s political.  

  How many times have we been the inventor of things—but because of economics, publicity, or the press—the story reads differently?  I have lived long enough to know—music has gone through many time-periods; And if you don’t have the years—you must rely on what others have wrote about it; often bringing up the issue of objectivity.  If those of us who amass fortunes—do not make it a point to support our own cultural arts, literary works, journalism or assist in the gentrification of former communities (aka your old home town); How can we expect the communities we come from to bloom as a people?  After all, Jay-Z is a product of Marcy Projects and is a personification of the genius that community can produce—it only makes sense that he should give back to his "Homiez," like Rasheed Wallace, Jill Scott, and Kevin Hart did for their former communities. . .

  I have seen injustices and have seen people show obvious prejudices—only to see nothing done about it in this society: Ferguson for example.  Or the Cotton Club in New York, where all the entertainment was Black—but no Blacks were allowed to frequent the shows.  Black musicians who wanted to see other Black performers perform, were forced to go places where they could—which, during that time were places like the Five Spot of New York; where this sort of thing was possible.  But it was some time before those politics were ever changed.  The history of BeBop was intended to preserve the legacy of Jazz—as Doo-Wop was to navigate and diversify—what was called Race Music; and yet some of it remains an enigma. . . Why?  Because it isn’t in the interests of mainstream America. . .

   And yet I will not simplify the issue, and say that it is a matter of color or people, because there is never a level of consciousness amongst a total group of people—that all its’ members function out of: Life consists of various levels within various groups of people. . .   But I will speak of the intent of governing bodies and democracies or rulership among an elite group of people; wherein those persons consciously—affect and effect along-certain-lines—perpetrating their acts upon common-folk—for the sake of common-causes like Expansionism, Colonialism, Imperialism, Race Superiority, Citizen Councils, etc, etc.   

   For as we well-know, these are forms of governments or Congress—and by definition—the methods of political control; which exerts its will upon the unsuspecting masses; exerting their desires by the stroke of the pen. . .

   These are the political reasons why you may see a majority of polish police in a Polish community, but you will never see a Black majority within Black communities: Ever since America became a colony of England and Blacks were brought over in the slave trade against their will, there was reasons for surveillance, political control, and propaganda.  Certain names don’t appear in the press, murders in the suburbs are not reported in the papers the same as in the inner cities, certain things never make the press, certain people are reported certain ways etc, etc. . .  This is the way of keeping the status quo. . .  These are the current Black Code Laws. . .  Politics as usual.

  I will not continue to speak upon the others and how it impacts on us; For there are different degrees of subterfuge, and different ways to escape culpability.  If they are both from Europe (for example), they can lie and say they are something or somebody different—and may escape persecution—but we may not.  We are recognized from sight.  They may intermarry and emerge out of it, feeling they have the best of both worlds, so to speak.  But it is very, very different, when you can be spotted or recognize on sight—then the issue becomes Black and White. 

   But I’m not here to speak about them so much, as I am here to question our motives.  I am not speaking about hiding our identity, I am talking about defining it undeniably.  I have a “Do for Self” mentality.  I am not looking for anything I won’t do for myself.  I think we tried hard enough to be accepted in a society that will not accept us as equals.  We cannot continue to wait for better days, we must make our own help—we need it.  We need to tell our own story: Genghis Khan had the greatest empire this world has ever seen, but we know so little of that greatness because his people didn’t have a written language and had to rely on others to tell his story. . .

    It is not the people of this society that is at fault here entirely.  After all, members of congress or government wrote into the constitution that we were 3/5ths of a man to be considered with livestock; it was the governors—not the governed.  They sway public opinion, the rest just read the papers, and catch feelings. . .  The people responsible,  have the power and glory. . .  And the money to buy and pay off people.  They protect and preserve their own self interests.  They own the press, and they own the record companies.  This group of people have the money and influence necessity to create the politics we are governed by.  They are the regulators, and they operate the ones who govern surveillances within our neighborhoods—and during slavery, they had the plantations and they were the rich slave-makers of the poor—whether tits Black people or people who work in their employ and  get paid around the same wages as you; Black or White.

      What goes on in this country is clearly the will and aims of one group of people in relationship to all others—in true colonial fashion.  If others benefit from such legislation, so be it; but the laws were constructed and continue to be constructed in the interests of those persons who founded this nation.  When something is given to you by others—in a sense, you are regulated by how much will be dispensed.  They are truly in control and they do so, in their own self-interest.  When they report things, they do not do so to tell the truth, but to present it in such a way that furthers their own self-interests.  If the truth be told, it will have to be us who tell it;  otherwise it will always stand a chance of being slanted by the institutionalize disdain that permeates its people.  

   I am not looking for a handout, I’m looking for our own people to develop and protect our own interests; instead of believing that the ruling class will do so for us.  We are capable and always have been; we just take the road of least resistance—regardless to how that makes us appear; and that too is indoctrination.  They have their own destiny, and we have ours and the solid truth is; they are quite different—because we are quite different people.  It is just as simple as that, without prejudice.  As I said earlier, I AM NOT LOOKING FOR A HANDOUT FOR MY PEOPLE, ONLY THE RIGHT TO DECIDE OUR OWN DESTINY:  For as my mother use to say; “I’m not begging and crying—I’m betting and buying.”

Peace

C. Be'er la Hai-roi Myers