I see your point. As for me, I cannot truly feel as though I am free if I represent a race that is still enslaved. Thank God people like Harriet Tubman and Moses did not feel that their individual freedom was all that mattered.
I won't further address the issue of whether or not Arabs are white. My point was, that it DOES NOT MATTER which color you are. If you are a citizen of particular north African countries, then you qualify for HONORARY (which in and of itself is problematic) caucasian status, whether you are as light as Scarlett O'hara, or as dark skinned as you can be. . So who constitues a true Arab is a discussion that is of little import.
I never said Jews weren't persecuted. We all know this is not the case. But Jew(ish) people have always maintained their cultural identity. The holocaust (and I'm not comparing pain here) was one of the more diabolical events in human history--but it left the collective mind of Jew(ish) people in tact, some would argue even stronger than ever. Slavery of Africans nearly (some might say totally) abolished the African mind. That's not to say that when our ancestors got on those ships that they saw themselves as the same...merely, they knew who they were and valued it. The fact is African (black) communities did not suffer from what we suffer from now, before slavery. Period.
If you truly, TRULY believe that Black people occupy the lowest wrung of every segment, of every measure, of every socioeconomic ladder, simply because they make bad choices...well, I don't know what to say to that except to suggest a few books. You may want to read Yurugu first, because I think that is the saddest commentary or explanation I have ever read.
If we knew who we were, and valued it, then we might not be in this situation. Black people, with few exception, have been taught to hate, HATE themselves. We have a 400 year culture of slavery that reinforces that hate. We have music that reinforces that hate by promoting the pimps up, hoes down mentality. We have churches that promote that hate by refusing to have pictures of a Black Jesus on the wall. We have an education system that reinforces that hate by focusing on teh positives of European culture and at the same time only mentioning the enslavement of black people. We have black families that reinforce it by telling their children not to play in the sun for fear of tanning, or tearing apart our hair because it is "bad". Unlike the children of Isreal, Black folk have never had a "wilderness" period where the slave mentality could die out.
Of course many black people have indiscriminate sexual encounters. How can you not when for 400 years, the ONLY way to prove your worth as a Black man was to be a good breeder? Do we think that the emancipation proclamation did away with a slave mentality and culture? Of course Black men (many) don't know how to be fathers. We have a 400 year culture (read, generational curse. this is after all, a spiritual battle) that forbade father hood. Did that simply go away? Do we not still suffer from that?
Of course Black folk fill up the prison system. When we understand that the first local government funded systems of policing in this country were slave patrols, do we honestly think that that element of police culture has disappeared after 400 years of reinforcement? When we KNOW (not infer, not theorize about, but KNOW) that after slavery was technically illegal, and millions of Black people were displaced with nothing but their feet to walk on, that the laws in nearly EVERY SLAVE STATE were practically instantly changed to make things like homelessness, or vagrancy a crime, and we see that nearly immediately Black people filled up jail cells, and we know that the percentages of us in jail have never gone down since then...do we really feel like Black folks just commit more crimes?
When we know from studies performed by both HBCU's and MW institutions of higher learning can prove, YES PROVE, that Blacks receive jail time and whites get fines or less time for the EXACT same crimes all ACROSS THE COUNTRY, can we really feel safe thinking Blacks are criminals?
To recognize where one must, MUST improve is not to take away anything from the greatness of one's past, present and future. If you see the acknowledgement of the challenges we face, as an inablity to recognize the greatness of our people, then I would have to say that that is limited, linear thinking. One must always acknowledge who they ARE--the good, the bad, and the potential. We must subscribe to the spirit of SANKOFA--which basically means that in order to move forward, one must, MUST examine one's past. As one who tries my hardest to not limit myself to Eurocentric linear thought (not that I always succeed), I try to see the balance between recognizing both.
If you (or anyone) could let me know where to get that info on Black folks taking up the #12 spot for GNP, I would truly appreciate it.
Quote:
Originally posted by DoggyStyle82
Liberated Queen:
True liberation is knowing when you are free. My mind was freed long ago and my ass followed thusly.
Jews have not been persecuted? They have about 5000 years worth of persecution that they never forget to tell you about. That little thing called the holocaust was an irritation
The answer to your questions as to why all of those negative statistics? Ask yourself why you don't fit into any of those categories. HIV? Do you have indiscriminate sex with homosexuals, unprotected sex with drug addicts, promiscuous sex with numerous people without knowing their sexual history? Seems to me to be completely in ones control to avoid HIV. Maybe there is a little white fairy sprinkling AIDS dust over our communities.
Prison population? Sammy Davis said it best while introducing Barretta "don't do the crime if you can't do the time". Yeah, I know, all those brothers are innocent and "the man set them up".
Oh yeah, all those babies that constitute that %70 illegitimacy rate were fathered by the white devil I guess and not some sorry ass thug/playa/wannabe pimp, no responsibility taking sorry excuse for a real Black Man!!
To fight the evil that is institutionalized racism, the unequal justice, racial profiling, individual racism, and other inequities of the greater white society, we cannot diminish our accomplishments as a GREAT RACE of people by defining ourselves by negative parameters that obscure the greatness that is Africans in America. If we continuously define ourselves by the least of us, the least is all we will ever be.
"If it is to be, it is up to me"
|