De-meriting successful black men is an ugly remnant of an un-evolved, unenlightened and always inexcusable period of America’s past. This week, the un-evolved, unenlightened and always sobering reminder of how far yet the country still has to go, is also perhaps the most desperate attempt at de-meriting a successful black man yet. It has echoes of black veterans being harassed by racists for wearing their medals of honor or any black man with money or a car being asked, “Where you git that money from bwoi? You steal that dere car bwoi?”
Do people ever stop and consider (1) what FACTORS are behind the success of law abiding, talent expressing, knowledge exploring, society contributing black men? How come they achieved success? Was it by swimming easily with or powerfully against the tide? I would venture to say, favorable currents are few and far between and most swim against a tide full of bloated examples of failure and discrimination everywhere around them. Black people who find success only did so because of:
1.Being truly exceptional and determined
2.Strong adult guidance towards a moral compass as well as the right mix of nurturing and discipline to produce a healthy, confident and capable child. Traditionally this came from a parent or member of a strong extended family and/or strong communities despite the black American legacy of fathers who are transient, migrant workers, incarcerated, prematurely dead. We can thank our tribal village heritage for the cultural belief that children are everybody’s to guide and nurture.
3.Being one of the lucky few blacks to whom the powerful establishment opened the doors whether from unprompted genuine admiration and respect (very rare), Government mandate (more common) or dark, mercenary reasons with the ultimate intention to use , betray and discard the brilliant black person (even more common).
It is my personal belief that Obama falls into categories (1) and (2) and in category (3) he unfortunately is the victim of a power structure that no longer needs him and is ready to get rid of him but not before utterly humiliating him so he does not become a martyr around which a cause is rallied.
There I have said it.
The common denominators behind the ills in black and white communities are poverty and powerlessness.
Now, I would like to engage you in a little exercise. In the same way you just asked yourself what factors lead to success for black men and by extension, black people, I would like you to ask that same question about the opposite. What factors contribute to failure? Excluding individual ability, mental and emotional disorders found in all races, what conditions specific to the black American experience creates the criminal, barely literate, serially unemployed, unwed mothers, drug dealing gangsters, wham, bam thank you ma’am no child-support paying fathers and drug addicts among black people? Have your answer in mind? Good. Now here’s the twist.
Ask yourself what contributes to these same ills among white people?
You will find the common denominator revolves around and involves poverty and powerlessness. Either:
(1)Utter destitution and disempowerment by the system since ancestors’ arrival on American shores after escaping a tragic situation or being forced into a tragic situation and never being able to catch one single lucky break from the system, leading to disenchantment, disempowerment and desperation guiding all decisions OR…
(2) A tragic reversal of fortune either a few generations ago or in this life-time, either for the first time or again, because a calculated financial venture that did not pay off. That venture was most likely related something dark and mercenary. Either something they did consciously as part of the power structure or were being unwittingly used by the power structure to do until discarded and turned into the scapegoat (like Obama) or they were in fact the victim of the dark and mercenary venture like Enron employees, American skilled laborers and families crushed under medical debt because of eating poisoned food.
Who are these perpetrators of dark, mercenary schemes that ruin lives of black and white alike? They are and always have been:
(1)Those who have been rich and powerful for many millennia and...
(2)Those who do the bidding of those who have been rich and powerful for many millennia either a few generations ago or in this lifetime. They either directly or unwittingly participate in dark, mercenary ventures.
By nature of our human society, to some extent, every single one of us
is an unwitting, innocent recipient of benefits from the dark, mercenary ventures. These benefits often take the form of a lucky break which adds just the right momentum to hard work and dedication to help us succeed.
I do not need to tell you that these lucky breaks have always been distributed by the establishment according to a ranking system that places whites in a more favorable position, to access them while denying blacks and other “undesirables” access based on the assertion that they are somehow less deserving.
This is what makes the Barack/birther debacle so insidious and depressing! So many saw his rise to Presidency as a sign that old paradigm was shifting. They actually believed a black man could rise to power based on merit and popular respect despite historical precident. Now we must contemplate a more cynical reality where only a mere “façade of inclusion” is the establishment's smoke screen to pacify us all.
Meanwhile it's business as usual by those who still cling to the belief that black people and other “undesirables” are endemically inferior, because of Divine, scriptural mandate. They should also be relegated to the fringes of the society and limited as much as possible tto menial labor.
Believe it or not, this belief did not originate with people like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. They came from a religious, cultural, economic system where it was already well entrenched and never truly challenged on every level until the 1960s and onward.
One of the boldest moves made by the establishment was to test America’s amnesia level by considering Mitt Romney as a presidential candidate and Glenn Beck as a media darling.
Their tests proved positive.
There are sufficient numbers of Americans who either don’t remember, don’t care or still actively buy into these racist/bigoted religious values. That should not surprise anyone.
Imagine a society where every facet of life reinforces that some people are more superior to others from pulpit to public schools to park benches. Imagine that going on for hundreds of years. It is ridiculous to believe it would not warp the humanity of BOTH black AND white people.
Imagine how much enlightenment it would take both black and white people to see the truth even when the lie infects every aspect of life and every avenue for knowledge.
Imagine how much love it would take black people to see past their experience of dehumanizing desperation and self-denigration. Imagine how that love would have to reverse the devaluation of life that led to a culture of cannibalizing one's own people to get ahead even if it was anathema to your heart and the deep, community connectedness that came from your African tribal roots. Imagine looking beyond the hurt and shame that you unwittingly played right into the hands of those who cast your people as cannibals and now helped them make the lie real using a little human experiment known as “the projects”.
Imagine learning to see beyond all this to the fact that white people were also hurt by an experience of dehumanization even if on the surface it seems as if they are the victors.
Imagine how much love it would take whites to counteract the false expectations, apathy to human suffering, clouded human conscience and hardening of human heart all of which was systemically enforced upon them through a system of fear of becoming a victim of the bullies among their own people. Imagine being honest about the lurid pleasure in being a bully or vicariously benefiting from bullying and making a conscious decision to let go of it even if it was coddling to the ego and an excellent cover for insecurities. Can you wrap your fingers around the kind of love it would take to actively resist a false-sense of superiority (you are born superior and entitled to superior consideration at the expense of another) and consciously attempt to get your self-esteem in a more humane way?
Think about how much love it will take to forgive the fact we ALL allowed ourselves to accept the roles of fearful prey and callous predator.
Think about how much love it will take to ensure the lamb lie peacefully with the lion. After we have forgiven…
Imagine how much power it would take to help our next generation to actually begin to forget. We have to ensure they are born into a world where the false teachings and their ill-effects have been utterly vanquished.
Imagine how much courage it would take to actively resist the establishment that is intent on turning us into sub-humans, black and white alike. Imagine being able to stare down heart-ache, disappointment, alienation, ridicule, defamation, threats and even death and still do the right thing.
If you can just commit a few minutes to take yourself through this thought process, you'll fill the gap of ignorance where racism likes to slowly creep in and start to take root, with enlightenment, love, power and courage.
For me bridging that gap helped me to have truly meaningful relationships with my white brothers and sisters even if I and members of my family have had to live with real live reminders of racism always just a day or news headline or an encounter away. Even if I was raised to be pessimistic, paranoid and perpetually, righteously angry as some supposed show of strength and pride in the midst of injustice, I learned to instead to be hopeful, trusting, open-hearted and righteously committed to moving beyond the anger.
Today my soul mate is white. A soul companion in every sense! We always remember where we are most commonly human in this life and even the one before this one. This has become so natural it has taken our hearts and minds off race completely when we are alone or among our like-minded friends and family who are also racially diverse. In that common space, love, truth, justice take root and make us more discerning, powerful and free.
If you want to access the truth about the entire Barack/birther issue you cannot do so with mind clouded by any lingering false assertions and a heart clouded by any lingering anger or false pride.
That is the lesson I am taking from this entire mess.
Imagine if in response to this entire Barack/birther issue tens of thousands of people gathered around Washington Mall for the largest ever interracial, multi-cultural kiss-in and jam session the world has ever seen. Former skinhead kissing rastafarian. Old Japanese granny locking lips with a white WW2 veteran. Gay white leather daddy kissing Indian dancing queen. Can you just imagine?
I would truly hate it if the selection of Obama was just a ruse. Whether it is or not, we must let the racist powers-that-be know that even if they are not serious about promoting our common humanity, we are and our eyes are wide open and so are our hearts.
Now let me segue into the Masculine/Feminine Imbalance thing to come in the next blog post.
All of us, black, white, brown, yellow and everything in between have very important work ahead of us to bring our earth home back into balance.
History has it that only a few of us now find ourselves the keepers and defenders of the Feminine Divine. We have an irresistible, exciting, feminine, pagan kind of creativity from Africa, India, Asia, Central and South America. Either because it was only fairly recently our ancestors abandoned polytheism and The Mother Goddess for Judeo/Christian/Abrahamic religion and there are lingering echos of Mother still unconquered or they never did embrace Yahweh/Christ/Allah as their single Parent. Some of us are among those only now rediscovering it, even if She has been long vanquished in our ancestral culture.
We have an important role to play in helping those who have been forcibly weaned away from our Mother and made to forget even hate and exploit Her and encourage others to do the same. The European/American/Middle Eastern/North African axis of hyper-Masculinity is going to ruin our planet if we do not do something!
I will tell you why the one-sided Male/Omega/Yang focus is leading to destruction in the next blog post.
