“A vision of cultural homogeneity that seeks to deflect attention away from or even excuse the oppressive, dehumanizing impact of white supremacy on the lives of black people by suggesting black people are racist too indicates that the culture remains ignorant of what racism really is and how it works. It shows that people are in denial. Why is it so difficult for many white folks to understand that racism is oppressive not because white folks have prejudicial feelings about blacks (they could have such feelings and leave us alone) but because it is a system that promotes domination and subjugation?”
-Bell Hooks, killing rage: Ending Racism
We live in such a violent society, yes this American society. We (black folks) are constantly under attack. Racism is forcefully oppressive on the mind, spirit, body and the soul. We, black folks, still in slavery, still in chains. Too many of us hate our skin color, despise our hair, feel disgust at the sight of our broad noses. The internalized racism wakes up with us everyday. Upon waking up we go to work on the neo plantation and put a smile on our face. We walk around like being Black in America is normal, but nothing about our situation in this hell of a country is normal. We’re dying everyday from disease, AIDS, stroke, high blood pressure, Cancers, lack of self-love, broken hearts. Yes, we are a strong people, for who has survived this form of torture, slavery, genocide, rape, beatings of every sort, the middle passage and pure hate and lived to tell about it? Very few. Yes, we are strong, but even the strong get weak. We struggle to get up, we have so much contention and strife within and it spills out into our relationships with men, with women, with our children and some of us our so filled with hate that we shoot and kill each other and then say, “Yeah, that Nigga deserved it”. We refer to each other as “bitches”, “hoes” and “niggas” and then we laugh in comradery. Oh we are a broken people!
We speak of each other in ill manners, gossip and point fingers and argue with each other, yet never address the people who brought us to this ratchet place, America. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and we are divided. We hate each other because we have not been taught to love. In fact, we are afraid to love each other, because loving each other would mean we would have to love ourselves, and why should we love ourselves when we’re “dirty”, “debased”, “niggas”? I’m saying the things we are too afraid to admit. Mother against son, father against daughter, wife against husband, friend against friend. If you do not love you, why should I love you? We pretend like we are ok, but we’re not! We are a broken people and I am not afraid to say it. We go to church, but no one is being helped. We go to the mosque, but no one is being assisted. We seem to be like Moses’s people, wandering in the desert for 40 years, lost, no direction, no purpose. Why are we here?
Where are we going and how will we get there? And what is the point of all this black on black crime? Why does my son have a greater chance of going to prison, being on probation and being shot and killed because of his skin color? Who will the black woman marry when her man is locked up and away? Who will hire my man with a prior conviction? A conviction created by a people who created the condition and the system; the matrix-an impossible maze that leads to jail? My heart is sad, but who will weep for the black woman? The mule of the earth; overworked, underpaid and tired, tired of being strong, tired of being both man and woman.
And who will weep for my son? For Treyvon Martin, for Emmet Till, for Michael Brown? Who will weep for the black man underemployed, unemployed? Who even gives a damn. Damn. Oh, this wretched country, called America. Home to us, but continually we are unwelcomed, even in our own home. What will we do? Go back to Africa? Where there is no connection? What will we do? Commit ourselves to a better religion? What will we do? Turn a blind eye, and say, “Well, that’s not my son”.
Slavery never ended. Do you not see that we are still in chains? This neo-slavery is worst than before; it’s spiritual, emotional, economical, brutal, unmerciful and we have become our own slave masters- in bondage. How will we ever become free? Harriet Tubman said, “… And I would have freed even more slaves, if they only knew they were slaves” and then she held a gun to their head and made them escape. Will our freedom come by force? Will we have to be forced into freedom? God only knows. Until then, stay awake, stay aware and be ready to get free…
