Culture 202

                                                                    C O N T I N U E D

     There is a couple of things most Blacks in this country never consider when they view their conditions here in America: Number one—This area [North and South America] was called, The New World, by the settlers.  These settlers were Europeans on a mission that we refer to nowadays as Expansionism.  It is referred to as such because prior to such times, Europeans did not know that these areas existed; they thought the world was flat until Christopher Columbus must have rapped to a couple of Moorish sailors and then convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to finance his expedition.

     How can I make such an exertion?  Because the Moors are the inventors of an instrument called, The Astrolabe; an instrument used to plot out courses on the sea using the fixed stars in the sky as reference. Christopher Columbus employed Vasco DaGamma, a Blackamoor, as his navigator.  At this point, in the chronology of the two peoples, the astrolabe is an old instrument used amongst Moorish sailors and navigators; So obviously, their view of the planet earth was different from the Europeans (who thought the world was flat and that upon sailing the seas one could sail of the ends of the earth).  Christopher Columbus,  was an Italian or European himself; a sailor who must have been submerged in the beliefs of his day, among his own people.  His ideas, that the world was not flat, probably originated from being in the company of various seamen from different lands—discussing various things, when this knowledge was revealed amongst those who were more experienced at sailing the seas using such a device.  Personally, I subscribed to the idea that one of those knowledgeable persons must have been Vasco DaGamma; because he used him as his navigator.   And for those who don't know, the Moors are from the continent, they are part of what is known as the African-Asiatic group of peoples.

     Expansionism is defined as,  The policy of territorial or economic expansion practiced by the West; which includes the practice of colonialism—a policy or practice of acquiring full or partial control over another country and its' people, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically;  like the pilgrims from England and various other European countries did when they used the Native American's know-how to help them survive America's harsh winters—only to systematically kill off the natives over time and take the land—even those of their people living on lands reserved for the Natives in the California Gold Rush of 1849.  

    Only thing that is implied in the need for a policy like Expansionism that every one losses focus on, namely the vacuum of resources by the ones who practice it.  Personally, I would have considered the helping the pilgrims survive the winter—a noble act worthy of praise and an act of civility concerning the chieftains and people who perform it;  And yet, in most papers in the European colonies within America, the Natives are referred to as  savages; triggering a long standing policy of psychological warfare.  Once you label a human being an animal, beast or uncivilized—you can convince the reasonable people of your own group to accept the second-class treatment of such other human beings; simply because of this "proposed" difference—aka—Yellow Journalism.  

     In the David Milch movie, Deadwood, Mr. George Hearst, father of William Hearst—newspaper tycoon and author of Yellow Journalism,  is depicted as a powerful, persuasive person who used the press and other means to exploit the landscape whenever he could; paving the way for his son, William to monopolize on such an auspicious foundation.   

     By reading the above paragraph, one should not be under any illusion as to what the Europeans were in the New World for.  Nor should anyone believe that the European who were indentured servants, thought any differently about their soon to be slave neighbors; They may have been lowly, but not as low as. . .  

     Let us not forget, we are talking about the word culture; where we get words like cultures, cultured, cultivate, agriculture, horticulture. . .  The idea of growth surrounds them all.  Culture is what a people do, which includes everything for the people's growth and development; like music, art, dramas/plays, education, literature, media, sociology, religion—even propaganda.  We grow up and in culture: It can be a bastion of creative thinking or a putrid pool of stale ideas.  When Expansionism was cultivated in Europe (as with the Industrial Revolution), socially all of Europe knew they had depleted their resources: I don't care if you were a king or a peasant; you knew.  The word was out and the philosophy was clear: We need colonies, so that we can get fresh raw materials for our countries—we need new fresh sources of wealth; we need richer soil for food, etc, because we have depleted ours.  Their needs defined their outlook; their world view as a people became revolved around this outlook—so did their social juxtaposition: Simply, Let's travel and see what others have that we need  and the idea of colonization (the action of settling among and establishing control over indigenous people) meant let's incorporate into their political system, manipulate, sabotage and take it.

     And they came with plans.  When England choose to colonize North America, their settlers were composed of their prison populations of religious and political dissidents, peasants and persons looking for fresh start.  The result was they gained North America.  They did the same in Australia, and won that too.  The natives here were called savages; in Australia, they were called, Tasmanian Devils before the marsupial was.  The people who designed the this expedition to America were rich investors and nobles from Europe.  They owned companies like The Raleigh Company or The Plymouth Company; they were investors who invested on the prospect that this company would establish relations, trade, occupy land and eventually change the politics of the natives who owned the country which housed the colony.  

     They knew that colonization was a risky business and that if their plans were revealed—the natives might try to kill the colonist, so they sent their "guinea pigs" as their "lab rats."  But one things for sure, they thought they were craftier than the people they were dealing with.  And the dissidents knew, knew they were coming here to help their employers exploit the native's resources: You can't put expansionism, colonialism and equality in the same sentence.  They perceived themselves as different and of a superior intellect—and any attempt at humanizing the folks was manipulated out of the colonist psyche by dehumanizing the natives through the press; so that their own folks could accept the ruthless acts their nobility where going to unleash upon the unsuspecting population.  The skillful manipulation of the colonial sentiment were done staged events, such as the Boston Tea Party (where the colonists dressed up as Natives) or the uprisings in Roanoke, Virginia and Deadwood, South Dakota and the press manipulated the opportunity by calling them savage (like today the PLO are called terrorists by the West).  Today, we have movies, television shows and tabloids to persuade public sentiment.    

     European presence in Africa, in the past, wasn't purely a coincidence, they were there to colonize it.  Kenya, Mozambique, Morocco, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and the Gold and Ivory Coasts (named after the materials they exploited) are perfect examples.  We had it and they took it.  The people who designed the this expedition to America were rich investors and nobles from Europe.  They owned companies like The Raleigh Company or The Plymouth Company; they were investors who invested on the prospect that this company would establish relations, trade, occupy land and eventually change the politics of the natives who owned the country which housed the colonies in America.  The Irish migration into America in huge numbers, was as a result of Irish Potato Famine of 1845-49.  Every European who ever migrated or immigrated here, looked out for their self interests first.  Each European immigrant group that came into this country during the early 1900s, blocked the next groups from getting what their group achieved.  Don't believe me, study the history of Jack Kennedy—father of John F. and Robert Kennedy.  Our people are the only people I know—after spending 313 years in slavery being worked to death—could believe that through their own individual efforts they could secure a place in America (among the ancestors of those same colonial Americans) that other Blacks could not secure; and that these Whites who helped them, could protect them from the rest of their xenophobic crowd.

     There is nothing wrong with getting everything you can; but thinking someone else or another group of people are going to secure your self interest—is foolhardy at best.  If you can individually get this from mainstream society, you should be trying to bring this back to your own folks who are advocated for the same common cause; because it is only here that you can secure your own self-interest.  And it is only here that you can build a cultural future for people who look like you.  If you don't believe me, study the history of Pontiac, Sacagawea, Chief Joseph, W.E.B DuBois or anyone who thought they could be accepted by mainstream society—only to find out that those folks stick to their cultural codes for the most part.

Thank you for all your considerations,

(I truly do appreciate you all greatly). . .

C. Be'er la Hai-roi Myers 

Peace