The Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday is upon us again and the annual hypnosis of integration is being infiltrated with the use of mindless birthday celebrations and remembrances all across the country even as I speak. People are still moaning, “We shall overcome” and chanting, “I have a Dream!” Well, I am not one who has ever gone along to get along or who has followed anyone’s crowd. This year is no different. Every year for the past 20 years or so, I have asked myself, “When are supposedly intelligent people (Black people) ever going to snap out of this hypnotic state, this deep psychological sleep?” Every year I get same answer, “Never!” This year is no different.
I want to personally thank Dr. King for being the so-called drum major for peace and integration. I don’t really blame him and his predecessors like A. Phillip Randolph and Roy Wilkins for the idea that they came up with which they honestly believe would free Black people from white hatred and white supremacy. When I look back in history, Black people in this country were treated less than human who were forced to live under the brutal laws of segregation and a consciousness of white superiority that justified (in the minds of whites) the mal treatment of our people. However, in that same history book I read where other people were oppressed too. But the difference in the solutions to the oppression varied. Native Americans, under the threat of attack from the majority of this nation’s first presidents like George Washington and Andrew Jackson, chose to fight off the attackers rather than integrate with their pending oppressors and fall for their broken treaties. Even though they lost a lot of their people in battle, they fought to the death for their right to be free and to maintain their culture that was granted to them by God. I respect that.
The white Jew-ish people who were being killed and oppressed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party chose to fight rather than integrate with the enemy and oppressor of Jew-ish people. You have never read in history books nor will you ever see a movie produced in Hollywood that shows a Jew dating and marrying a Nazi to gain freedom. Integrating with Nazis was not even considered an option as a path to freedom for all Jews back then and even now.
The Japanese during WWII, rather than give into American oppression, fought and died for their freedom and independence. They even used kamikaze fighter planes, where the pilots loaded the planes up with explosives and purposefully flew into enemy warships in the ocean. They were not playing. They understood the concept of freedom not being free.
So, now you have black people. Still in 2012 fighting for freedom and equality with our historic and current oppressor. What is it that Jews, Japanese and Native Americans understood about the power of independence from your enemy and the importance of maintaining race and culture that was completely lost when it came to African Americans? We have prayed. We have marched. We moved next door to. We have sex with. We have married. We have had mixed babies with. We go to church with. We have done all of these things that we were convinced by Dr. King and other leaders in the Civil Rights Movement and we are still oppressed.
All I know is when I read up on the days of segregation in this country, we did not have much economically I guess, but we had black owned businesses. The family had fathers and mothers in the home. Single motherhood was not an issue. Black boys were protected more. Black girls were protected more. We had real churches. We had a thriving community. We had a love for our race and culture. Most importantly, we had a deep love for education and striving for excellence was a no-brainer. Since we were not legally allowed to be a part of the so-called American infrastructure as a people, we turned to each other for all of our needs and wants. WE were self-sufficient. WE were a nation within a nation.
Now, since we have integrated instead of fighting like other intelligent groups of people to become independent of the oppressive system of white supremacy, we still face racism in this society such as unfair mortgage lending practices and neighborhood political districts being drown down racial lines to the advantage of the dominant culture. There is a shortage of fathers in the home. There is an overflow of Black males in the prison system, but a lot of empty seats in college classrooms. The Black family has been reduced to 34 year old grandmothers with a daughter who usually a single mother. We are only 12, maybe 13 percent of the population, but statistically we top the list of prison incarceration, divorce, and the contracting of HIV/AIDS. Black boys are now being suspended at a higher rate this nation’s public schools and are even being given harsher punishments for misbehavior than their white male counterparts. Now, so many Black girls’ self-esteem is so low that they have resorted to using their bodies as a means to an end economically. The morals that we once coveted as a people went away along with our racial pride and sense of culture when Dr. King and many others chose to use integration as a strategy to freedom.
I can go on and on about this reality, but I won’t because it’s like beating a dead horse. Maybe one day we will wake up from this nightmare and get on the path of actual freedom and independence. Maybe we will finally understand that no people in history have ever achieved freedom and independence from a wicked oppressor by marrying him, praying for him or praying sitting next to him. Well, I hope this day comes soon. Our children can’t wait any longer for us to stand up like men and women.
I will say this for Dr. King. He did wake up. However, when he woke up and realized that he had made a huge mistake and that Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey both made good points about being separate and doing for self, the eternal damage was already done and the assassin's gun was already cocked, loaded, and pointed at his face before he could tell the rest of us how sorry he was for unknowingly leading his people into burning house.
Dr. King, I know you meant well, but thank you for nothing.
1 comment:
GREAT POST..
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