To Find A Happy Medium

     I hope at this point, I have been sufficiently supplying you with enough documents and sources to back up my statements concerning our situation.  And as I told you in the beginning, it would be hard for you to believe--maybe even strange--but there it is, in "Black and White" (just remember the message is in black--while the surface to make it manifest is in white).  This becomes the metaphor for us throughout life, doesn't it.  Between the extremes lies the means--doesn't it?  Opposites can bring out the best in one another, or drive each other up a wall--can't they?  I'm sure a past-time activity of many of these groups--after the "water-cooler game"--is "Blank people are something, aren't they?"  Many groups have their versions of this.  I'm sure Asians have their version of the game as well.  Cultural differences between nations makes it difficult to find a happy medium.

     The funny thing about cultural awareness, is it makes you aware of how others are cultivated.  Just like agriculture is the study of how plants are raised, anthropology is the study of how culture plays a part, in the raising of a people.  One of the things that is terribly obvious about the European is, he does not like to be involved in anything he doesn't have the dominant role in.  Just take America:  This is a multi-cultural society, but the dominant culture and the dominant rules are established by the descendants of the British--the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (this position is currently being challenged, however).  We learn this culture, abide by its' rules, and even consider its' aspirations (the American Dream for example) as a matter of survival--within the White man's society.  But the opposite is never true: The Rothschild and the De Beers did not become part of the African Societies they invaded. They merely learned enough to manipulate Black countries out of their rich mineral resources--as well as influence our homelands socially, politically and economically.

     A lot of the tribal wars were financed through the European interest in the diamond trade, but the European always played the role of the negotiating buyer (the dominant position).  Europeans are delighted when they are influencing our societies, but are quite upset when the other way is the case (such as Hip-Hop's cultural influence on the youth around the world).

     My reason for establishing this, is to lay bare our symbiotic relationship with American culture and society.  While it is obvious from American History, we were brought over to America to be used as a tool, or an agent of free labor, establishing the foundations of Western society in lieu of the working class  and  bourgeoisie Freemasons; who wrestled the colony from its predecessors who were British masons of noble birth: It was never an established consideration for Blacks by Whites, to have any other life for us--other than enslavement!  In the West Indies, slaves, or Blacks were simply worked to death by their English counterparts!  So while Blacks were used to establish a free nation for Whites, not enough of Whites considered our freedom--until we rallied for it.  For the most part today, a lot of us still live a form of indentured servitude (especially when we use credit cards)!  One of the main issues of this symbiotic relationship dysfunction is everything seems to be done on their terms--making the relationship more parasitical than mutual.  Like for example, while we learn the nuances of this society (language, etiquette, laws, customs) as a matter of survival, most Blacks never receive the type of employment, etc., that would make survival possible without assistance like credit cards, etc.  Yet the ones who employ us, get rich from our mass productions.  In a word, parasitical like a tape worm, flea, or a bat!

     My earlier documentations reveal that our cultural relationship with America was rocky from the start.  Blacks were considered by Whites to be less human, and more like the beast of the field.  This alone indicates our symbiotic relationship was far from beneficial to our prosperity as a people: Even when slavery was abolished, the government offered no assistance for us to get on our feet, by providing any form of repatriation or means of livelihood.  This is because they did not consider us with the same consideration they would have had for a White captive or refugee.  The newly freed Blacks had to go back to the same "disgruntled customer," who was salty about the "human product or tool" he/she had to relinquish, and ask him or her could we work for them for pay.  Imagine how humiliating that was--while this was in lieu of the land indentured servants got, or soldiers received in service for the country!  Our free labor built the wealthiness of this nation, while the nation did not even offer government employment, as a means of recompense.  Sharecropping was little more than working for the "company store" (an employment on the stipulation that everything you needed would come from the employer's general store or purchased and supplied to you at their price)--a.k.a., "soon as we see our pay, you take it (back)."  While in later days, "self help groups" like the Universal Negro Improvement Association (or U.N.I.A. founded by the Honorable Marcus Garvey), the former Nation Of Islam (established by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad), or the early inception of the Black Panther Party, were considered from the onset by the government as "domestic enemies," attacked constantly by the American press. 

     Meanwhile, Black people remain in America, to this day, as a group or nation of people without a separate governing body to negotiate its' terms for settlement in lieu of American institutionalized slavery.  We have tried to be a part of this society, but we were never treated equally.  We remain a group that has to get in, where we fit in: having no lobbyists--past its' state and local representatives, who often are "self-serving."  We do have our own customs, traditions, scholarly pursuits, and arts--often enriching the American landscape--many times, without owning our the means of production.  Although the independent recording industry has grown greatly in these later years, the major labels still provides a "company store" backdrop for our inspiring Black talent.  Creative Writing and the publications that accompanies it has grown as well--but just as with the record industry, it really depends where our heads are at:  Are we working towards autonomy or merely "selling our souls to the devil?"

     The relationship is vicarious and precarious at best.  We should not be even looking for another group to be looking out for the interests of Blacks through affirmative action and such.  When members of a group or nation has to be mandated, directed, or forced by law to behave or play fair--best believe that most of its society members won't.  The chronology of Germany reveals that Its' Jewish population never saw Nietzche, Nihilism and their effect on Nazism, or the people of Germany coming. Commensalism symbiont only works in animals and in personal heterosexual relationships.  That's too much trust when it comes to groups, different races and multi-cultural societies.

     When it comes to societies, communities, and nations, factions within each type must take its own measures to secure their own "self-interests" by supplying their own brand of diplomacy.  For some, that might be working on the damage and exercising damage control: For those within a larger society, it may be challenging the morals and ethics of that society--questioning its' sense of justice and equality, but media is very skillful at turning things around in favor of the majority.  In the past, Blacks best interests were never previously taken to heart by the government--unless civil unrest proceeded it.  Those who are the elite amongst the majority of that larger society, will ultimately be the ones who will allow the change--and that won't happen unless something disturbs their flow.  

     The way we were freed, was an afterthought that arose out of the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.  By the way, the Civil War was never fought over the issue of slavery, it was fought over unfair practices of the North in a majority rule Congress (North passed a lot of legislation and Tariff bills against the South's interests by way of having North or Yankee majority rule in Congress).  So after President Jefferson acquired new lands for the United States, in an acquisition called "The Louisiana Purchase," both the North and South scrambled to acquire the new states--in an effort to change the balance of power in Congress.  When the North acquired a state, it was called a free state and therefore no slave  labor could be performed there.  And when the South started a state, it became called a "Slave State--a state where slaveowners could utilize the slaves they had for construction and various other forms of labor in which they didn't have to pay laborers for. 

      You see, some of you might think that slaves only picked cotton.  But if you  know anything about Booker T. Washington, you would know this is not true.  At one point, a lot of the construction trade in the South was Black--so in order to have that, those slaves must have had those skills.  Anyway, if any of the newly formed states from the Louisiana Purchase were free states, the Southern Slaveowner could not use his free labor to build barns, make and fix cattle fences, do house repairs or dig wells and ditches.  So the state had to be a Slave State in order to have slaves Labor in them.   So this became the final straw for the South: they produced the raw product but the North had them pay higher tariffs, they were not privy to the markets the North had over in Europe.  The Mason/Dixon line or Free and Slave State line was constructed and this was the microcosm of the macrocosm of a divided nation.  The issues were economic: pay vs. free; exploitation of the South by the North or secession.      

      Now as Blacks living in America, we Blacks have a lot of work to do.  A lot of it has to do with a very real attitude change.  First on the list is the belief and respect for one another.  Pride in what we each have accomplished and what we can do with such accomplishments as a group of people.  Part of my reasons of raising your awareness on these issues is to get you to reconsider our current condition.  The other reason is to get our people devoted to the idea of doing for self.  We cannot afford NOT to develop past the state Black people find themselves in within American society.  We are like an accident waiting to happen.  They have already labeled our people Minority.  Our issues automatically become Minority issues, where the rest of the country is concerned.  We are like the cash cow who gets paid in pennies or the Goose that lays the golden eggs who gets fed chicken feed.  Our issues are much bigger than that for us--that's why they must be handled by us to get the proper consideration.

     I remember in the 1980s, when Louis Farrakhan stepped to the Johnson Company and other major Black businesses, in an attempt to produce a toothpaste that Blacks as a whole would buy.  That action was met with major resistance by other American businesses.  First, Farrakhan belonged to a group that was targeted by the nation as a domestic enemy.  Secondly, not all Blacks believe in Louis Farrakhan or his movement, much less belong to it.  This makes the public suspect of Farrakhan's group having ulterior motives.  This point is a very important issue.  Thirdly, it is very hard to get all American Blacks to agree on anything--but Farrakhan had a good idea--he just wasn't the man for the job. 

     In case you haven't noticed, we are the only captive people who have not only thoroughly identified to our captor's culture--but have allowed them to tell us that we need leaders (by way of media spin doctors) and who our leaders are. First of all, we don't have nor need leaders: the sixties proved that point.  Once Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Huey P Newton, Stokely Carmichael, Ron Karenga, and others were identified by J. Edgar Hoover, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as leaders--the government labeled them as domestic enemies and began to dismantle their organizations.   We don't need leaders, we need leadership as a people.  This way the consciousness and sophistication can be recognize as the developing voice of the people expressing and developing their own self interests.   We have genius in all aspects of our cultural creation within America, representing different aspects of social, political, religious and economical thought.  We may not agree with any total ideology of any of these organizations, but their spokesperson may have some good individual suggestions for us as a people.  They all deserve a cautious, analyzing and watchful ear; one which can discern fiction from fact.  If what they are saying is true, we should adapt their thinking to our way of looking at things. After all, truth is truth no matter what; it may come from "the mouth of babes," as well as a bum on the streets.   If they have qualities which establish them as vanguards and pioneers--then we should follow their suggestions and poise, so that we can also learn to lead and govern ourselves.  That's one of the reasons why we read, to collect data and develop ourselves utilizing the contents.  I remember, in my more religious days, when the church minutes were read--how the announcer used to say after the reading of the minutes--"how one should govern themselves accordingly."  I think this is precisely how one, who is aware, should govern themselves: listen, discern, find out what's true and update and upgrade themselves accordingly.  Not to be single-minded free agents, but to form your own perspective and work alongside various persons with the similar ideologies and interests.

     

     I find it extremely ironic, that we live in a country where, by way of the people (or large fashions of its people), weeded Blacks out from the indentured servitude class and designated our people to be made to perform permanent menial labor for hundreds of years (310 formal years of slavery) with no pay--while institutionalizing this same process into its own nationalistic fabric by rules to regulate it:  then emancipate us without proper consideration of our condition--and punish most of our efforts to further our social conditions and interests by labeling our actions as domestic treats to the country.  Why that sounds racist--in and of--itself.  Acts which followed in American History such as the "Jim Crow laws," "grandfather clause" and "separate but equal"--taken out of their context and objectively viewed, would arguably be defined by the neutral arbitrator as acts of terrorism.  Yet, when our people attempted to address our own issues under the "separate but equal" context--such as Tulsa and Black Wall Street--the jealousy such accomplishments created caused many Whites to burn these successful Black businesses to the ground.  And when the sixties came around with its multi-pronged approach towards promoting Black interests--civil rights, human rights, militant, non-violent--the protest acts were initially viewed as domestic threats and handled very violently on a local level until the country was internationally embarrassed by the acts perpetrated upon Dr. Martin Luther King and his "Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement" (patterned after Ghandi).

   

     What this teaches me is, everything is not "Black and White."  Everything is not conspiracy, nor does every White see things the same way.  Most times, it is the policy of business, lobbyists and government that is not yielding to us as Black people.  Then there are other things that never occur, simply because it is not an experience of the people to whom you are relying on.  They simply have no experience in that department or it is just not their interest: Meaning it doesn't strike their fancy, nor does it concern them.  So if you had to rely on these people to support your interests, it would probably never get done.  Protest--in essence--is an attempt to get these parties interested by an "in your face" approach; sort of like being an irritant.  I think you must be careful with this approach because you might be labeled and then dealt with like a fly hovering while waiting for the windshield on the freeway or versing an army with a hand gun.

     Next on the list is to activate what you know as important and necessary for us as a group and our own basic units--whether that be family or those close affiliates.   I think the real power lies in our practices as single people who come together with others because of common interests.  This allows us to grow and develop into advocacy groups who get together primarily because we are advocated for the same common cause. Especially since we have more millionaires in the media, entertainment field--as well as individual Black businesses on the rise from different walks of life.  After all, that's what the "Lion's Club" or the "Kiwanis Club" is.  And no, you don't need to take on each other's mantle--just the things that make sense to do.  I just know that we, as a people, have to promote the interests that concerns Black people, if we are going to ever see these things realized--we should not look for it to happen by people who do not share the same perspective.  We have to make it happen; issue by issue--person by person. 

Peace & Blessings,

  



C. Be'erla Hai-roi Myers