What Is,
And What Should Never Be. . .
I spent a lot of time thinking on this issue, imagining how it might be—living in a homeland where all the people look like me; instead of this place which proposes to be multi-cultural—yet exists with a dominant culture ruling over all other nationalities. I thought about places like Madagascar, a small island off the coast of the so-called African continent, occupied by several Asian people—that is, besides the Central Asians or people from Alkebulan; they are a people who practice true multiculturalism, that is, before the White man came superimposing his colonization. Often, I said to myself, “Is there any place where the White man hasn’t gone and re-labeled everything?” They say that Christopher Columbus discovered America, but really, he founded the natives who were already here—people whom he called Indians (because he was looking for an alternate spice route); and once he learned of these people, he immediately began to assert European ways and politics upon these non-European people. It is amazing to me that this country celebrates Thanksgiving; when they know full well, the following season these same “grateful” people would begin exterminating the Native Americans as soon as the winter was over.
We were not kidnapped from one single country in Alkebulan—we were abducted from several different countries from within the continent’s interior. We were captured by traffickers of human cargo—abducted from our homeland—and in many cases, these ancestors were prisoners of war; in a system much different from European concepts of bondage. Our people spoke several different languages from the neighboring tribes. But part of the strategy of the traffickers of human cargo was to take a hodgepodge of single people from several different tribes, each time they loaded the slave ships; This way, communication between tribes was difficult, and the resultant alienation, accompanied by friction between these tribes could work in the slave master’s favor, concerning controlling the large masses. Even today, you can see tribalism between Blacks; like neighborhoods, preferences by their oppressors, and geographical regions (north and south) interfere with our social acceptance of each other; making it easy for the colonial power to assert their politics over the whole group of us, by presenting themselves as the “more civilized one.”
As I said previously, “There has been several people, of various races and nationalities, who have been enslaved; many who have had most of their possessions taken from them—but only Black people have the distinction of having everything taken from them, including their language and forced to sojourn here for several hundreds of years.” This effect came from the manner in which slavery was instituted in this country, forcing several generations of Blacks to be removed from any cultural influence, concerning their indigenous cultures, has for centuries; essentially making a new stock of people who are totally unaware of their language and their culture. The only language we know how to speak in America, is the language of our captors. During slavery, reading was not allowed, education was not allowed; only labor. Whatever culture traits we were able to muster up or mimic, was not of our people in the diaspora, but that of the White man’s. For example, if we knew just one word of our people from the homeland, then we could possibly recall an event or particular phenomena; and by having that one perception of home—we could possibly remember how that perception was derived at by our people—and eventually we could span the gaps of our cultural recollection: We could eventually start acting like the people we are. Learning words in a language is one thing—but you don’t really know a language, or a culture, until you can conceptualize within that language: In other words, “You don’t know a man’s language until you can gauge things from his cultural point of view.”
We have never spoken our language here in America; slavery made that impossible—and in the case of your ancestors—that would have been punishable by death. That methodology was produced by Mr. Willie Lynch. The psyche was designed to keep Black people in line. Their culture had designed a place for us, and people like Lynch were a way of making it possible. The statement of Black people being three-fifths of a man is written into the United States Constitution. To the people of this country, we were their servants. They were not concerned about our ego or our will; that is—no more than one would be, for example, for a beast of burden. And this attitude sets a precedence, not only for how Whites would think of us—but also how many Black people in this country would think of themselves. After all, wasn’t it Harriet Tubman who said; “I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more, if only they knew they were slaves?” That means our people have been under this condition so long, that many of us can’t conceive of any other place or any other condition. And for some of us, have heard negative opinions for our people for so long, we began to think negatively about ourselves. It has become engrained, indoctrinated, and inbred into Blacks—as well as White—that is, that negative, stereotypical view of Black people.
After the Civil War, the North devastated the South, ravaging their land because the war was mainly fought on Southern soil. Then the Union announced the Emancipation Proclamation—which Blacks responded to quickly, by evolving into a separate entity of their former ethos by seizing political control of heavily populated Black areas, evolving a school system, and raising up into formidable society. Southern Whites began to feel disenfranchised and taken advantage of by Northern Whites and their carpetbagger tactics. They were unable to force the Northern aggression after the Civil War to yield, and they were threatened by the development of Blacks on Southern soil. So Southern Whites evolved a sort of terrorist posture against the newly freed Blacks; using fear and intimidation (similar to the Willie Lynch posture), to take coveted lands away from Blacks through a newly formed legal means down South called, the“Jim Crow Laws” and “Southern Black Code.”
Most devastating of all is, White superiority was engrained into our psyches—through innuendo, posture, treatment—intimidation and suggestion; thus psychologically recreating Blacks within America into the White man’s own stereotypical image and likeness. They were the ones who created the name, “Nigger,” and by and large set the foundation for what “Niggers” do. After the Civil War, we depended on Northern Whites to protect us during Reconstruction; but we received nothing but disappointment and abandonment in return. Yet most Blacks who live in America, still continue to visualize the world from the American cultural point of view; even though that point of view includes remnants of a two-tier apartheid society called , “Segregation”—that once existed right here within the United States (1849-1950 + Civil Rights Struggle era) for a long period of time!
Blacks are still trying to escape this imagery and misery to this day; doing it in various ways, but what we are really trying to get away from is the negative public image Americans have given us. We know about it, simply because it has been—and continues to be—acted out on us. Many of us just want the persecution to stop. Some of us act more like them, in the attempt to avoid the persecution by assuming another identity then say; “We’re not like the rest of them.” Others join secret societies, so that they can become “free and accepted” by cause—but we can never be accepted as; because we are different people from them with different customs and destinies assigned to us. And a lot of times, when one group of people have wronged another (or a race or nation wrongs another group of people), the one who did the wrong often gets angry at the people they wronged; subjecting them to the worst overall behavior and public opinion. Just like during the 60s, when Britain had puppet rulers as head of Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. Just consider today, as America is in a recession, Isis is rearing its head, and Americans are becoming angry, taking out their frustrations on all the “Black Muslims” in America (which some don’t like to be called because of fear it might affiliate them with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad).
Blacks in America generally communicate with each other through English, the language of their former oppressors or previous slave masters. Our standards and values are mainly that of America and the rest of the West. Some of our people even call ourselves by many of the derogatory terms that the oppressor referred to us as (like that, “N” word). Bad enough, we are not speaking our own people’s languages; but we are visualizing life and reality according to how another culture or group of people sees things: This makes mainstream Black culture in America like a hodgepodge of public opinion and common trends.
Nomenclature is, by definition, “A devising or choosing of names for things, especially in a science or other discipline; based upon the development of the people who speak it.” It was the European and his Western descendants who went around the world renaming things. He is the one who named Alkebulan, “Africa.” It is the Western man who named Nippon, Japan and Hindi, India. Westerners have a hard time accepting other people’s ways of looking at things, so they give the foreign reality other names—and in effect—redefine it [or change the way it is viewed]. The only time we escape this, is through the use of Ebonics; because here, we tailor the language—through corruption, craft, and idiom—in order to suit our own world view. I have always admired the Jamaicans choice to categorize Ebonics and Jamaican Patois as their national language; or using it to define their realities. It is definitely a way of recapturing our culture and marking evolution.
I know many of our people never leave the neighborhood, simply because they cannot visualize a world beyond what they accustomed to; but before anyone achieves any greatness or evolution, they have to picture themselves as they would be with it. Currently we don’t have enough encouraging examples that we are familiar with. This must change. I want to see lands where everything is being governed by my own people; seeing things done in their own way. Then we can evolve our own wisdom. I want to know my people’s spin on things.
Many of our people, due to negative Western indoctrination, simply don’t have too much belief in what other black people can do; even though today you find Black people in numerous fields where there used to be none. Right now, many of our women don’t have much faith in Black male leadership. We have Black people working in every walk of life, but the way our heads are situated, we don’t have enough faith in each other to pool our resources.
Maybe if we saw what our people have done, or see what they have been doing; visit countries where we are getting along fairly well and are confident in their way—perhaps our healing process will to begin. Musically, entertainment-wise, as well as sports, etc—we can see our talent; but as far as the world is concerned, our talent goes to the oppressor’s savvy. At some point, these things will have to register towards our greatness and our own enterprise. Then, maybe, some of us won’t have to self-medicate ourselves to feel good about ourselves. But that will happen only when we change our views about ourselves. . . In time; in time. . .
Now let's slide out with two tunes:
Thank you for your consideration,
C. Be'er la Hai-roi Myers
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