When it comes to presidential elections, I follow a philosophy rooted in an oft-repeated lesson provided by a Vietnamese peasant a lifetime ago (I’ve used this example a few times in past columns, and I think it applies to this column you’re reading now).
The peasant told me his family decided to have his two sons fight for opposing armies, believing that no matter the outcome, they would be on the winning side. Regardless of which side won the ‘civil war,’ his status as a poor and disconsolate rice farmer would not change.
Indeed, history (and ‘His-story’) reveals the truth of that lesson.
Ask any of the 40% of impoverished Black Milwaukeeans, and they will attest to that fact. Indeed, despite 12 years of Democratic presidential leadership over the last 16 years, the socioeconomic status of Milwaukee’s 40% has essentially been stagnant.
Granted, there has been some growth and prosperity, but that has primarily been among the educated, disciplined, and middle class tribal members.
In general, we have actually regressed economically, educationally, and entrepreneurially. Indeed, MKE continues to lead the nation in seven negative social indicators, earning the title of ‘the worst city for African Americans in America.’
Regardless of who wins next month’s presidential sweepstakes (and I assume Kamala Harris will kick some big, flat orange butt), I don’t foresee a ‘Marshall Plan’—or a ‘Moses Plan’—for that matter on the horizon to change the status of those on the bottom.
But, as we close in on the possibility that the Kamala victory will bring some nutrients far across the land, we should do our part to enrich ourselves.
Take heed of the advice of a Muslim friend of mine who declared, ‘When you stumble, you can either fall down and cuss, or fall forward faster.’
With that in mind, let’s figure out what we can do to improve not only our individual, quality of life but also to empower our community. We can lay down and cuss, or do that little dance Black men invented to confuse onlookers—stumbling forward faster.
Let’s use the election as a reference, initiating a local movement that will require little energy or effort but will make a world of difference.
The following is a ‘baker’s dozen’ list that serves as a first step:
• Look inward and upward for wisdom and strength. Join a church, mosque, temple, or spiritual group. Know there is a divine design and a Creator who charts our course, even though we are given leeway and free will to deviate. Know we have within us the wherewithal to be great; we need to tap into our god connection to achieve what we may.
• Join something. Take out membership in the NAACP (if you subscribe to its agenda). If you are more in tune with Black Nationalism, join the Black Panthers or the National Black United Front, organizations that promote Black empowerment. Join the Leaders Forum, the Urban League, the Socialist Workers Party, the YMCA, the PTA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PETA). Join something. Anything! Just get involved.
• Commit to relationships that end in marriage. The dismissal of the Black nuclear family from our community has resulted in a dysfunctional community. Absentee fathers, poverty, exploding gang memberships, and crime.
• Prioritize spending your money—buying your goods and services—with a Black business or an entity with solid connections to our community. The goal is to ensure that a Black dollar touches three Black hands before it exits our community.
Use a Black carpenter, plumber, accountant, or mechanic. Keep our dollars in our community. If a Black dollar touches three Black hands before leaving our community, it will cut the unemployment rate in half.
• READ! Not just this paper but everything you can put your hands on. Read the Journal Sentinel or the condescending Shepherd Express.
Let your children see you read. I had a library of over 200 books. Our children watched us read every day. We explained it made us powerful. Reading is to the mind what spinach is to Popeye. (Don’t believe me? Read the article on page five about the power of reading, in this case for Black boys and men.)
Read about your people and ‘Ourstory.’ Read non-fiction books dealing with the impact of our enslavement, Jim Crow, ‘The Great Migration,’ the Civil Rights Movement’ (beyond Dr. King and the March on Washington).
I recommend starting with the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Nicole Hannah-Jones, ‘The 1619 Project.’ From there, you can branch-out to other Black History and social commentary books such as ‘Eviction,’ ‘Caste,’ ‘The New Jim Crow,’ ‘The Warmth of Other Suns,’ ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X,’ and others.
For fiction that has a historical and cultural focus, start with ANY book written by James Baldwin, even his non-fiction work, such as his seminal collection of essays, ‘I Am Not Your Negro.’ Better yet, start with his book ‘The Fire Next Time.’
Also read ‘Invisible Man’ (not the sci-fi version—‘THE Invisible Man,’by H.G. Wells—but the one written by Ralph Ellison), and the works of Richard Wright (‘Black Boy,’ ‘The Man Who Lived Underground,’ ‘Uncle Tom’s Children,’ and his most famous and most popular book, ‘Native Son’).
Even though these aforementioned titles are fiction, the stories are set in and are about the daily struggles of Black folks to overcome an oppressively racist apartheid American society. Some successfully, others not so.
• Expose your children to the world outside the central city. Go to the museum, the zoo, and the Marcus Theater. Take them to the DuSable Museum in Chicago (and the African Arts Festival, which is held during the first weekend of September every year next door to the museum). There are hundreds of African merchants, many of whom will engage you in conversation about culture.
• Get involved in your child’s education. If you don’t have a child, get involved in a relative’s, neighbor’s, or friend’s. Become a partner in the educational process. Show a child the power of education and, equally important, the importance of knowledge. Monitor homework, take them to the library, help them do research.Arm them with ammunition that can never be stolen,and that provides the key to unlocking racism, stupidity,and confusion.
• Greet everyone as if they are a brother or sister. Thisis the simplest mandate: Never pass a brother or sisterwithout saying ‘hi’ (Habari gani) and wishing them agood day. It doesn’t take much effort, extends thefamily, and plants a positive seed.
• Seek out and immerse yourself in our culture—theAfrican way—Maat—the ‘Afrikan Way,’ where lifeoriginated and the journey began.
Learn who you are, and then you will be great. Teachyour children who they are—break the chains of ‘mental slavery’ and low self-esteem. Once ‘reeducated,’they will strive to reach their full potential. They willthen reach for the stars instead of the sidewalk.
Instead of spending their rent money on Europeanwigs and six-inch eyelashes, they will claim themselvesas Afrikan–Black and beautiful. They will reject thefalse premise that ‘white is alright (or ‘always right’),and ‘if you’re Black, step back.’
• Understand you are either part of the solution, orthe problem. In other words, don’t contribute to the negatives that stagnate Black progress. Don’t buy stolengoods; don’t remain silent when your child does drugs;don’t turn your back on criminal activity, whether it iscommitted by someone you know or not.
If you had reported the ‘punk’ or ‘punkette’ you sawstuffing department store merchandise in their purse orcoat at Walmart, the store wouldn’t have closed andmoved to the suburbs taking jobs out of the community… a job you or a relative may have depended onfor survival.
Say something to that ‘Neckbone’ who threw thediaper or the chicken bones out the car window. Takedown the speeder’s license plate number.
• Lastly, drop the word ‘nigger, nigga, or nigra’ fromyour vocabulary. While you’re at it, get rid of the derogatory words: ‘bitch,’ ‘dog,’ ‘honky,’ ‘zipper head,’‘wetback,’ ‘chili pepper,’ and ‘redskin.’ Never call orallow yourself to be referenced by a negative epithet.Calling ourselves niggers keeps us ‘chained’ to a self-destructive and hateful past, to our ‘holocaust.’
Nigger is the last word heard by the untold thousandsbefore they passed out from the pain of the whip, bythe sharecropper seeking a loan. It was the last wordheard as our forefathers were lynched and ‘barbecued’— literally ‘burned at the stake.’
And those who believe we can control the word orclaim it as solely ours are delusional. If that were true,the next time a white man called you a nigger, youwouldn’t have gotten mad, ready to whup his behind.
Only in America will you find people who call themselves by negative, denigrating adjectives and don’t understand why they remain at the bottom. In thebeginning was the word, and it wasn’t nigger.
I asked a sister recently if Jesus was a nigger (however spelled). She said “yes.” How warped is that?
Drop those condescending, denigrating, and self-actuating words from your vocabulary and henceforthrefer to yourself with adjectives and nouns befitting thedescendants of kings and queens.
Recognize that you become what you envision anddescribe. Moreover, what we call our children becomesa permanent chain around their necks. Make sure thosechains are made of gold, not toxic lead. Hotep
