More From the r(E)volution . . .

"Once there are foreign troops in your country, you can not sleep well, you can not say your prayers and they are like a bacteria in our country and we recommend to them to go to their countries before we fight them as we fought the Ethiopian troops who fled from this country." --Sheik Hassan Dahir Aways, chairman of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia

A Black Sense of Direction

It took me awhile to see the truth, and much longer to admit the truth. But the truth of the matter is that many, many Blacks play for a living. By that, I mean, we spend our lives dreaming, but never visualizing and acting upon that vision. In a state of perceived wakefulness, yet soundly comatose.

If I had a dime for every Black brother and sister I met with dreams but with no vision or practical application for getting there, I'd be "nigga" rich beyond measure. Our people are so comatose that they can be presented with boundless opportunities to showcase and prosper from their real skills, but they'll allow unfounded, irrational fears, selfishness and misplaced alliances to keep them from obtaining generational sustainability.

To some extent, I know what's wrong with us: we have no "knowing" in our abilities. We have bought into the myth that we are non-contributors, that our people never did anything, that we are weak-minded and lazy and that all we want to do is have sex and make babies, which we promptly abandon.

We've been told wrong so long, we think wrong is right. That's why we are okay with not pursuing the things in life that can not only make us happy, but provide independence for generations to come. It's not that we don't have it in us; it's that we don't believe we are truly capable of worthy endeavors.

It is a main reason why we seek the easier routes in life: sports, entertainment and MLM schemes. Those things that we have been "told" we do well, but things, that at the same time, never prosper us in ways that others profit from our participation in them.

William Rhoden's book Forty Million Dollar Slave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete offers a critical and eye-opening analysis of how our bodies, our minds and our labors have been used for the betterment of disinterested, capitalistic groups. It is a must-read for parents with young children, especially young males whose highest aspiration is bouncing a ball, swinging at a ball or catching a ball--anything to escape the "hood."

A revealing aspect of Rhoden's book is that if we were to replace every instance of "athlete" with any other line of work regularly conducted by Blacks that mostly benefit other groups of people, the book would remain relevant and so would the circumstances.

I, more than anyone, want Black people to be free, but I can't make Black people free, not physically, mentally or socially. I can only work on me and instill in my children a sense of confidence and dedication to finishing what they started. Hell, even to start something in the first place.

And that's a major problem in our community. We don't finish what we start and we don't start something that we have the commitment to finish. We lie to ourselves constantly about what it is we really want for ourselves and for our families.

I know there are a lot of other groups of people who face these same obstacles, but they've found ways to overcome them. It puzzles me that the major overcomers of the Earth cannot do the same. But I do believe that if we got black to a Black sense of direction, we'd find in our children's lifetime our roadmap to freedom.

The Hard Questions

• Is it because we have not and cannot admit that all of us have been psychologically damaged by our experience at the hands of caucasians that we continue to suffer our children from one generation to the next?
• What would happen if we admitted how traumatized we were and then took steps to remedy the wounds within and began to work on healing the wounds without that disproportionately affect our people around the world?
• What would happen if we stopped dreaming--the Amerikkan dream and any other illusionary ideology--and began visualizing our place in this world through a Black lens, using Black roadmaps to get us there?

~evolve~

The Making of Sheeple

The following was excerpted from the late Baba Asa Hilliard's book The Maroon Within Us, which I copied from AfroAsiatic's blog (giving credit where credit is due). Sometimes the way it was said, is the best way it can be said.

Sheepdog Program successfully creates "Black Sheeple" (Sheep + People)

"Recently, I saw a television program on training sheepdogs. It made a great impression on me, so much so that I have used the story as an example in several speeches. It makes many points that are important for the education of our children.

In most places where people raise sheep, a special type of dog with a special type of training is used to watch a flock of sheep. If one of the sheep wanders, the sheepdog will bring it back. This dog will protect the sheep flock from all other animals, including other dogs. When the sheepdog is with its master, it is usually described as loyal, gentle, and intelligent. But the most striking part of the description to me is that the things that are said about the sheepdog's behavior are all from the point of view of the master and involve the master's needs. The dog's own needs are not really considered, other than to determine how those needs may be used by the master to make the dog do what the master wishes.

How does this happen? How does a dog come to lose interest in its own independent direction or in the direction which, as a member of a 'dog family,' is expected to keep? The program on television showed how it is done. At birth, the puppy is separated almost at once from all the other dogs--from its brothers and sisters, from its family. It is then placed into a pen where there are nothing but sheep, including the young lambs who are nursing. In its normal drive to satisfy its hunger, it seeks out a ewe and tries to nurse from her, along with the other lambs. When it is successful, it continues, and is then raised with sheep as a lamb until it is sufficiently developed to be trained.

Notice here that it continues to look like a dog as well. It will leave the track of a dog and will have the speed and strength of a dog. Yet, while it has the intelligence of a dog, it will develop the mind of a sheep! Once that happens, it no longer acts like, or in the interest of itself as a dog, or in the interest of other dogs. Notice also that this dog has mastered the 'basic skills,' from its master's point of view. It would also have passed very high on the 'D.A.T.,' or 'Dog Aptitude Test.' Moreover, it will see its own brothers and sisters as 'the enemy' since this dog does not know them as brothers and sisters.

Let's take a moment to review what this story teaches us.

For the dog's master to work his will with the dog, he established a training, not an educational process that had certain key features in it:

1. The dog was separated from its family and group at an early age.



2. It was continually isolated from them during its learning years.



3. It was placed into a sheep's (alien) environment.



4. It was fed a sheep's (alien) diet.



5. It was given a 'special education.'



6. It was totally dependent upon the master and never allowed to hunt for itself.



7. All the decisions about its training were made outside of the family and without its consultation.

Now we can begin to see what must have happened to the dog so that it would dedicate its life to the service of others while seeing its own family as the enemy. Because of separation, it lost its people's collective memory or history. Without memory or history, neither the present nor the future can be interpreted.

This is the first step toward developing dependency. The dog becomes totally dependent upon the knowledge and interpretations of others.

Because of isolation from its 'people,' it can not learn the normal survival rules and agenda for dogs. It can not learn from the experiences of other dogs nor test its sense of reality with theirs. It even loses the opportunity to learn dog 'language' so that it can 'ask questions' later on.

Because it grows up in a sheep's environment, it begins to live in a world of illusions, seeing itself as a sheep. Because it is nurtured on an alien diet, it comes to crave that diet and to depend upon those who could provide it, since it can not produce the diet for itself. Because of its 'special education,' it accepts training and confuses it with education (critical awareness). Because it is dependent, it can never challenge the master or 'bite the hand that feeds it.'

Because none of the decisions about its training or education can be made by its parents, family, or community, and because it can only agree or disagree with what is provided, it becomes a living, breathing, highly skilled, and quite intelligent, robot. But to all outward appearances, few would ever know."

Note: Is this not the "living, breathing, highly skilled, and quite intelligent, robotic" Afrikan of today?"

evolve

White Out

The other day I got a phone call from a brother new to my area. He was perplexed, disappointed and a little angry.

"I thought this was supposed to be one of the most conscious cities here? What's wrong with the people?" he fumed.

I grimaced, because I knew just what he meant. I've been where he's now treading. I know what's at the end of the road.

I also know every emotion he was battling with. It's an emotion only derived from battling against the asinine actions of my people--and I use "my people" loosely.

When I first arrived in Atlanta, I was elated based on what I'd been told: "A world of consciousness awaits you"; "You'll see so many natural Afrikans here--this is the land of opportunity for being your Black self"; "You're going to be right at home, amongst your people."

With accolades like that, I was wondering why I hadn't been here all my life. It didn't take long to find out that my definition of consciousness was quite different from those walking in and out of the shadows of Atlanta's "conscious" community.

It is in Atlanta where I ran into the part-time revolutionaries. As long as there were panels, debates and other events where only talking was required, these part-time revolutionaries did not, would not, miss the opening curtain.

But the minute lanes changed and someone wanted to begin taking action, the tone changed and the seats emptied. It's been during my time here that I've also noted something else--many of us always want our "captors" to know what we're doing, what we're planning on doing and how we plan to do it.

One event comes to mind. Following B.O.'s election, a panel of Black scholars was created to discuss what B.O. owes black people. Now, first off, I say he doesn't owe Black people a damn thing because he never promised them anything--end of discussion.

But, for some reason, someone thought they needed to "talk" about it. It was at the end of this "talk," which seems to be the only real thing happening in the "conscious" community, that my husband looked back, tapped me on the leg and beckoned over his shoulder. I turned around and my mouth dropped open.

Here we are, supposedly planning for the building of a nation within a nation, and we've got european jews as vendors in the back. A "Black" function, but europeans are allowed to purchase vendor tables. No wonder the tables were sold out when I called--the europeans had them.

What kind of evolution is that? If you're wondering what kind it is, it isn't. It's the same old, stale-assed revolving Black people have been doing for years.

To evolve means that we will have to undergo a drastic whiteout process. Whites out of our discussions. Whites out of our child rearing. Whites out of our homes. Whites out of our family affairs. Whites out of our Motherland. Whites out, period.

Pass the brush.