A vast majority of African Americans are deliberating the fact that we may not need each other anymore. That we might want to erase the cohesiveness of color that defines us, as indicated by accounts in the African American journal of black dialogue. Many of us wish to be unburdened by racial stigma because it is obvious that we have abdicated our positions as leaders of this nation as it relates to race and color. We would hope that the history of racism would have subsided now, but it is all to obvious that racism has expanded it’s ugly head and holds us in the clutches of a plight similar to the erasing of the hispanic communities identity — which they are not allowing. There are many actions going on like the Tea Party which is uniting new and conservative front end assaults on the progress of African Americans and the progress of Hispanic Americans and the progress of real democracy as it relates to inclusion vs. exclusion. Abdicating the responsibility for a collective nation lends itself to the position of the right.
Confining ourselves to relics of past racial regressions and exponential progress is delineated in the usual denial of the truth. By abdicating our positions as leaders in the fight for quality, we are reducing our political stance along with independent thought and critical research and the true discussion of how and why as a community, the African American population is not progressing. Why is it still that certain statistics like unemployment being the highest among African Americans, especially for African American men and African American teens? Why is the drop out rate so high along with obesity?
It’s obvious that when you walk into a restaurant and you see scenes of obesity that lurk around you, let’s not continue eating and feasting like we don’t know that fat is not good. Like we don’t know that over indulging ourselves in food is not therapeutic, but is instead a waste of our history and it ultimately costs more to take care of ourselves after we have destroyed the fiber that binds us.
The collective consciousness of health seems to be not even a real issue that we want to address. Instead we all joke around like we see on tv shows about how happy and fat and ignorant we can be while making money from it. Aren’t we glad that we are happy, fat and ignorant and we can laugh at ourselves. We cry on the inside and eat another pint of ice cream, drink another soda high in sugar that will only lead to us being more obese and more obtuse when it comes to self esteem in interviews and matters of progression.
Well, there is a composition to communities whose history made movements and made strides for getting above where we were, and yet through our own non- appreciation for history we have begun to replicate the history of a people that have no purpose. We no longer strive to speak collectively. Instead we are all mercinaries for ourselves. Selling ourselves for whatever price they’ll give us and hoping to hide ourselves in some Himalayas or gated community where it’s us vs. them. The issue is that you are on the planet and you will always be one of us.
And for as long as you think that you are better than us you will always be told by the majority of the community that you are only special as long as they say you are special, and as soon as there is no more utility for you we will put you out to pasture. Hope that you felt better by holding back your own people.
There is no general market that needs any excuse on why African Americans continue to be held back by the fact that they are former slaves. There is no place that we can go that we will not be looked at as former slaves, given the fact that we have become slaves to capitalism, commercialism, materialism, entertainment, tittilation addiction and self-hatred.
So as we look at the situation and examine the problem, we find that there is the composition of a symphony that must be played. We must be composers of our history and that means that each of us works as our own instrument to follow the cacophony of the whole composition of the community in it’s entirety. We must begin to compose ourselves and rule out the identity crisis that is facing us. Begin to relinquish those addictions, those self-hate issues that we cannot do alone. We must take walks with our friends for miles at a time. We must push back from the table and no longer eat things that we know don’t benefit us and reduce our chances for optimum health, compelling us to take a pill or push us toward heart attacks. At the same time we must also focus and be honest. Half of the blood pressure issues that we have are from feelings of inadequacy and the stress that we face trying to erase it with food, the financial trappings of materialism and other superficial covers.
There is a spiritual journey for the composition for a black orchestra that can be heard, found inside our hearts to the lyrics of the song of how great we are. But “we must overcome” is really in style right now. It’s okay to go back and listen to a little jazz for it won’t tell you to have a drink. Listen to a little orchestra music because it won’t tell you that you need to “just put it in the bag.” We must begin to delineate and to not listen to those whose spirit doesn’t uplift you and take you higher without inducements.
Read a book. Share prayers. Get stronger. Thank God that we don’t have to pay for prayer, if we do it with ourselves and with others — and so it is for our sake.
Find the music and become more of an orchestra of great destiny with out paying the price. Our self esteem shows at that moment when we are proud to wear the skin that we were born in.
Peace.
