Italian Vogue – The Black Issue

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Black models, Racism

Do Black models sell magazines?

The July issue of Italian Vogue will feature all Black models. How beautiful is that? I would love a copy.

Get a preview now, and be sure to pick up a copy. Rumour has it they don’t expect this issue to sell that well.

 

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Any Fool Can Be A Politician

Anybody who regularly reads any of my writings will know I’m not the most devoted supporter of Barack Obama. While many people are more than willing to give Mr. Obama their unwavering support without fully understanding or even knowing anything about where he stands on issues sensitive to the black community, I feel that the black community, like any other community that has interest that need protecting, should ask Mr. Obama, like any other politician courting a community’s vote, what are his position.

Without exception every social measurement shows that the black population comes up short to its white community counterparts. Black people suffer higher rates of unemployment, black people suffer higher rates of incarceration, black communities have to deal with inferior quality schools, black workers make significantly less than white people for the same job, black people are less likely to receive or be able to afford quality medical care, black people are more than likely to be shot up by police as they walk down the street, black people are more than likely to pay higher rates and fees for credit, and the list goes on and on without end. If Mr. Obama was president, what kind of assistance or relief can the black community expect from his national leadership? Ever since Mr. Obama made his bid for the white house official I have made the argument that black people need to hold him accountable.

Mr. Obama can go in front of organizations that promote issues sensitive to the foreign country Israel and nobody thinks anything of it. It is a smart political move in fact because everybody is either comfortable with or is naïve about the Jewish community’s influence over our national policies. Mr. Obama can go in front of hardworking Americans, white Americans, and present his argument as to why he would be the best candidate for them. But to promote the idea that the black community should look for the same type of consideration from Mr. Obama is so unpopular it makes people angry.

Black and white people alike argue that it is not in Mr. Obama’s best interest to affiliate himself with the black community. Many black people say that black people who want assurances from Mr. Obama are defeatist who want nothing more than to sabotage Mr. Obama’s historic presidential bid. Black people who are willing to jeopardize the historic opportunity of America getting her first black president are doing the bidding for white people. The fact that it isn’t about Mr. Obama but about the black community is lost on these people. The chance to make history is more important than assurances for the black community.

Many white people make racist arguments that Mr. Obama is trying to be the president of all America and not just the president of black America. That is all the explanation needed to justify Mr. Obama staying distant from the black community. However, Mr. Obama participating and ingratiating himself within institutions of white culture does not invoke the opposite argument that Mr. Obama wants to be the president of white America and not the president of all America. There is an inherent assumption that white America and all of America are one and the same. By his very actions, Mr. Obama reinforces this sentiment.

However, it was reported that on Father’s Day, Mr. Obama returned to the black community whence he came with an appearance at the Apostolic Church of God in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. When I first heard that Mr. Obama ventured back to the black community, I was bracing myself to capitulate to the fact that Mr. Obama is without question a man of all the people. In all honesty, considering the alternative for the president, I’ve always considered Mr. Obama a better choice than John McCain. Once, after hearing a considerably disparaging remark made against Mr. Obama, a remark with racial overtones that called into question his ability to govern the high executive office effectively, I went to the Obama website and made a financial contribution to his campaign. I am beginning to regret that decision.

Mr. Obama, with his wife Michelle and his two daughters Sasha and Malia in the congregation, went to the pulpit at the Apostolic Church of God and delivered a passionate speech calling for men to take greater responsibility for their families. To a series of resounding ovations and hoots, Mr. Obama explained that any fool can cause a child but it is the courage to raise a child that makes a man a father. I actually made a donation to his campaign so I could support him so he could tell me this. I can get the same speech from Bill Cosby for free.

It is true that the black community suffers from too many fathers being absent from their children’s lives. But what can the black community expect from the president to help us reverse this trend? Is it the black community’s lot in life that all we can expect from Mr. Obama as president is more rhetoric? Hasn’t it already been proven that rhetoric alone is not helping the black community? Would the black community tolerate a white politician telling the black community that black men need to get their act together? But we will accept this from the black politician who takes the black vote for granted.

Any fool can stand behind a pulpit and say any fool can be a father. Any fool can be a politician and do what is safe to win the favor of the dominant white community in a political race. Any black fool can be a politician that courts the white community’s favor at the expense of any black community association. But it takes true courage for a black man to stand before the black community and confess true understanding of the issues that affect the black community.

Why are black fathers not in the black family home? Could it be a contributing factor that black people are denied jobs and black families can only get government sponsored financial and medical help if the black man is not in the picture? Is it possible that if black people were getting a fair share of employment and educational opportunities that the black family would be more likely to remain a cohesive unit? Is it possible that if black people were not being disproportionately hunted by police and prosecuted by a legal system hell bent on keeping black people in their place of subjugation that the black family would be in a better position to support the black community?

It takes courage for a black man to stand his ground and say that there is more to the story than the stereotypical argument that black men are the main source of the black community’s problems. The majority of the black men that I know go home to their families every night and do what they can as a father and as the man of the house as responsibly as any other group of men. In instances when the black man and black woman aren’t able to work out their differences and live together, the majority of the fathers that I know do what they can to financially support their children. The idea that black men are irresponsible and are not supporting their children is a negative, racial stereotype that uses a minority of examples to prove the whole.

Any high profile black fool can say that poor black people aren’t doing their fair share. Anybody can say that helping black people would be a handout as they make real policy to handover billions of dollars of our national treasure to American defense corporations. But it takes solid community leadership and courage to say that we need to address the problems of the black community as a society, as a community of compassionate people working to help our own. Any fool can talk rhetoric. To promise real leadership for the black community takes courage.

I have called for Mr. Obama to show courage and come before the black community and give some kind of indication as to what black America can expect from him. He just answered that question loud and clear.

I appreciate Mr. Obama’s return to the black community. However, as a member of the black community, as a black man who takes my responsibilities to my family and to my community very seriously, I cannot in all honesty support Mr. Obama in his bid for the presidency. This is not to say that I will become a John McCain supporter. The chances of that happening are pretty slim to none. Compared to Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama is a better choice as far as I’m concerned. But that advantage is slim and the affect on the black community will be an absolute wash. I have a good suspicion that regardless of who becomes president, the white man that is oblivious to the plight of black people or the black man who feels he has too much to lose by acknowledging plights of the black community, black people will continue to suffer.

Conservatism Has Nothing To Do With It

My mom has got to be one of the most conservative people I know. She’s serious old school. She is literally from a different generation. Whenever the woman sees me she cringes inside. She hates the lifestyle I’ve chosen for my family and my self. She hates the fact that I’m living in a committed relationship with a woman that has not been sanctioned by any state government. She hates the fact that I wear my hair locked in a style that clearly embraces my African ethnicity. I should have one of those nice close haircuts that handsome black man on the news channel wears. She hates the fact that my son, her grandson, was born out of wedlock. She hates the fact that her grandson is going to have locks.

My mom hates the fact that whenever we get together to celebrate the traditional holidays, I will not let the occasion past without trying to get people to think about exactly what we are celebrating. Yes it might be called Thanksgiving Day, but why is the black community bothering to celebrate the European taking over the land we now call America and condemning the Native Americans to virtual obscurity? The European coming to America is one of the biggest factors that led to the African holocaust and our ancestor’s journey through Middle Passage and the subjugation of black people. When the conversation gets intense my mom would respond with one of her pleas for peace and unity for just one day.

My mom hates my religion. Jesus Christ is the only lord and savior of people. She doesn’t care if an African based spirituality existed thousands of years before the Christ was born it is blasphemous if it does not recognizes the son of god. Are you kidding? I recognize Jesus! He’s one of the greatest ancestors humanity will ever know. Unfortunately, the life of the man we know as Jesus has been manipulated and redefined to represent him as a meek man who quietly resisted the establishment with some kind of version of civil disobedience for his day. It isn’t unlike what the establishment is trying to do with Doctor King’s legacy. In fact, if Jesus the Christ was here today he’d probably be hated as some kind of Middle Eastern terrorist in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba! Can we have peace in this house for just one day?

But with all of her conservative views my mom wouldn’t hesitate to help the black community. My mom is the type of person who tries to hire the unemployed in her community. There are a couple of men in the neighborhood who will knock on her door and ask her for a little help. She’ll hire them to wash her car or help her in the backyard. Unfortunately for them, since I’ve moved back home and am much more accessible to help my mom out for free, the amount of business my mom does with these men isn’t near what it used to be and they just don’t have a reason to come around as much any more.

My mother goes to one of the neighborhood black churches as often as her eighty year old ankles will allow her. When she needs work done on her house she does her best to hire black contractors. Some have taken advantage of her. Others have done phenomenal jobs and have established a serious long term business relationship. When she gets work done on her car she uses a mechanic in the black neighborhood. My mom is a big supporter the local theater clubs whether her ankles allows her to attend an event or not. My mom does her best to support what remains of our urban black neighborhood.

Like most urban black neighborhoods, the neighborhood I grew up in, the neighborhood I have returned to after all of these years, has seen much better days. A lot of the people who worked hard to buy their homes and to keep them looking good have passed away and their homes have gone to people who don’t have as much vested in the property. Some of the houses have been abandoned and severely damaged. There are vacant lots where some homes and businesses used to stand. There’s little money, or interest, in the black community to provide for the cleanup of litter and trash throughout the neighborhood. But my eighty year old mom will continue to plant flowers on her property and fight to keep the weeds from the neighbor’s yard from encroaching on her bluegrass lawn. Whenever she buys fertilizer and lawn treatments she makes sure she buys enough to cover the two immediate neighbor’s lawns.

My mom is royally disappointed in the black community. The younger generation of people doesn’t seem to care much about anything other than the pursuit of selfish materialism. But my mother also knows that there is a subtle but constant pressure being applied to impressionable people in the black community to conform to a particular set of stereotypical behaviors for black people. Yes black people are using drugs. But where are these drugs coming from? Yes black people are shooting each other. But where are the guns coming from? Yes black people are committing crimes of property. But where are the jobs that will keep unemployed black people from stealing? Yes black people are angry. But why are black people angry and what are we as a society doing about it?

I learned a lot from my mom. And one of the things that I’ve learned is that being a black conservative doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to abandon the black community or think that black individuals need to do for themselves. Like most communities, people with a vested interest in the development and survival of the community need to work together to keep the community strong. A community cannot survive if everyone is trying to do only for themselves. That’s not community but individuality.

When someone says they are willing to be hard against the black community or when they say they want to help the black community by removing any tools and instruments that can be used to help the black community, it has nothing to do with being a conservative or liberal. Such concepts are deeply rooted in a psychosis to perpetuate the status quo of white privilege and black subjugation. Black people who have the resources to help others in the black community or the black community in general but make the choice not to help are not limited to a conservative or liberal mindset. Conservatism has nothing to do with it.

Resistance Is Futile

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. We will add your capability and technology to our collective consciousness. Your people will adapt to serve us. Your freedom is irrelevant. Your history is irrelevant. Your culture will cease to exist and you will become one with us. We will strip away your identity. You will no longer think independently. Your thought patterns will become one with the collective. Your only goal in life will be to serve us. Your defenses cannot withstand our attack. Your only hope of survival is to cooperate. Resistance is futile.

These words may sound like the monotonic speech of the scariest villains from the Star Trek universe. But these words could have just as easily been the words from the Europeans as they descended upon Africa and started to dice and slice the continent up into their colonies.

Like the Borg in the 24th century, the Europeans in the 15th and 16th century knew that to assimilate the people of Africa they had to strip away everything the African knew about his or her world. While the Borg would use technology to assault an individual’s will, the European managed to subdue the will of the African with intense pain, agony, and torment. Like the wild mustang that resisted a saddle or a bridle with every ounce of its strength, the strong willed African became a challenge to the descendant of Europe. The white man had to suffer the possibility of exhaustion and working up a sweat from having to swing a whip to rip away the African’s defiance and gain his or her surrender. The image from the television mini series Roots of a bloodied and beaten Kunta Kinte, played by Levar Burton, hanging from his manacles as he is asked what’s his name. The name Kunta Kinte was irrelevant. The key to salvation from the pain was to submit and admit that his name was Toby.

With the African’s acquiescence of having his or her name replaced by a new designation, the first step in the assimilation process has started. The African surrendered his language as well. It could really hardly matter to the African. All family and friends were gone and the chances of running across someone else from his community were pretty slim so the consequences of forgetting the familiar language were already in progress when he or she was abducted from the home land. In order to keep some kind of social interaction in the new strange place with all the other subjugated peers the familiar language was replaced.

But what was truly a stroke of African assimilation genius was the separation of the African from his or her spirituality. What the white community chose to misinterpret and under appreciate as mere superstition was the African’s native spirituality. The pagan belief system of the sub-Saharan African, who was the primary source of African slave labor, was forbidden and the belief system of the conqueror was provided in its place. The theory here is that the African could not be completely controlled by white people as long as he or she continued to gather their strength of character from their belief systems that operated independently of any Caucasoid influences. The Africans had to be trained to avoid their traditional beliefs like the plague.

The many Africans who continued to value their spiritual beliefs here in the land of severe enslavement did not give them up easily. Some were probably given beatings that would make even Jesus in the Passion of the Christ wince and say, “Damn!” So the old ways had to be abandoned. Some of our ancestors couldn’t quite make the transition to the new European based or European influenced belief systems completely and had developed a hybrid that consisted of elements of the African pagan spirituality with the traditional European belief system. An example of such a hybrid would be the Santeria beliefs that are a heavy dose of Catholicism and an equally heavy dose of the Orisa based Yoruba traditions.

But many of our ancestors had to learn to reject their African beliefs at the end of a whip. For those that learned and adapted quickly they became the overseer of the others and would take responsibility for the spiritual teachings of the slaves. These people were the slave preachers who studied the master’s bible and earned the master’s trust. The preacher spoke on behalf of the master’s god and therefore the master. In the world of the enslaved the preacher was an enforcer. African’s who couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt to their new mandated spirituality would actually invite the entire community to suffer the consequences. The master was liable to cutoff privileges for everyone if they did not do their best to control the rebel rouser. Therefore, the slave community would work to make sure peer pressure is applied for the salvation of any one who defiantly tried to resist spiritual assimilation. The enslaved black community adapted the same assimilation techniques as the plantation. And resistance was futile.

This is not to say that the beliefs of the Christian, Catholic, Jewish, or whatever you may have of the white conqueror were necessarily inappropriate for the kidnapped Africans or for their future generations. Many people of African descent have adapted well and have developed their sense of religion based on the European traditions. There are many paths to god and one is just as good as the other.

But the real problem is that now that so many people of African descent have adapted the European’s belief system, we no longer value the spiritual traditions of our ancestors who lived in Africa free from the European or our ancestors who suffered through the middle passage. Indeed, the black community has learned en masse to turn our collective nose up at our brothers and sisters who still practice any form of African spirituality. We view these misguided souls as evil and anti-Christian. And if we see them as anti-Christian, then we must have no choice but to see ourselves as anti-African.

It’s not just a simple fact that it is different. Black Christians will tolerate the typical Jewish belief even though the Jews do not accept Jesus. The black community will accept the various forms of the Native American’s pagan beliefs. But as soon as we are faced with the beliefs that are our birthright, the African beliefs that go back thousands of years before Jesus and Moses walked the earth in the Middle East and Northern Africa, we are repulsed as if the devil himself has danced across our path.

People in the black community no longer have to fear getting hit with master’s whip for not conforming to his belief. Black people have pretty much adapted to the beliefs of the Europeans. But those of us who choose to honor our African ancestors and return to our African beliefs have to continue to contend with rejection and ridicule from our African peers as if master was still standing over us looking for one of us to slip up. As long as we continue to vehemently reject the spirituality that used to be ours as descendants of African people the more difficult a time we will have trying to establish our identity as descendants of African people. This is not a call for black people to cast their current European based spirituality aside. However, it is a request that you don’t immediately reject those of us who wish to embrace an African based belief system. Acceptance of the African based spiritualities will no longer bring master’s wrath on your head. Acceptance is not futile.

A Soldier’s Story

Back in the day, in my former life I was a working actor. Looking back at my life to that time so long ago, it does seem like it was a former life. I am certainly a much different person than back then.

Anywayzzz… when I was making my living as an actor in Toronto Canada, the experience was fulfilling in many ways, but it was mainly very frustrating. When it came to film and television roles, they were primarily U.S. based productions, so all the main characters were already cast with American actors. My first few years were working as an “extra” … basically in non-descript roles making up the background scenery. It was grueling work and somewhat demeaning. I remember many times when as an “extra”, I had to wait off to the side during meal breaks until the lead characters and the crew had eaten, before we were allowed to get our lunch and/or dinner (i.e. leftovers) from the meal table. After some time I was able to get an agent and I got cast in “better” roles in these productions. As a Black actor, I was primarily offered the role of “Black thug on the right”, or “Black thug on the left” … or if I was really fortunate, I got cast as “Black thug in the middle” , who got arrested by the lead “white” cop character and got to say a variation of the line: “hey man… I didn’t do nuttin!” After a number of these roles, my sense of self-respect couldn’t handle it, so I told my agent I wasn’t going to do them anymore and to try to get me auditions for roles that were not “race” specific. I think I went on 2 auditions after that before the agent dropped me.

When it came to theatre productions, things were a little better. There was certainly more “artistic-license” taken by producers and directors when it came to “non-traditional” casting. I played a variety of roles in numerous productions. I was given the opportunity to play “Benvolio” in a summer stock production of Romeo and Juliet. It was a fantastic experience and it led to an audition for the artistic director of the Stratford Festival. This festival is the premiere Shakespearean festival in Canada and it is world renown. I had known a couple of my peers… and I literally mean two Black actors, who had been cast in minor roles at the festival. However they were cast as background figures, non-speaking roles… “spear carrier on the right” or “servant on the left”. As a part of the festival’s training program, both were given the opportunity to “understudy” minor roles. From conversations with these friends about their experiences, it was obvious (to me at least) that the festival only hired Black actors (and other “actors of colour”) in an effort to appear to be inclusive, so as to ward off any criticism that they were racist or discriminatory in their casting.

So I decided that instead of doing a “standard” audition where I would recite a monologue and then stroke the artistic director’s ego and claim how it had always been my lifelong dream to work with him and be a part of the festival, no matter how small the role, and that I would be forever grateful and in his debt for the opportunity… I decided to put him on the spot and ask him why I should want to work at the festival? What was the advantage for me? What role(s) did he have in mind for me? I informed him it wouldn’t be worth it to me, to go there and play insignificant background roles. Needless to say, he wasn’t impressed. He gave me an exasperated lecture on the importance of respecting the auditioning process and “paying my dues” . He then ended the audition. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get an invite to work at Stratford… but strangely I felt a certain amount of pride for my stance.

I then made the decision to do low budget independent films and theatrical production dealing with social issues, primarily those relating to the Black and African community. I also worked with a collective of Black artists doing our own productions. However it became increasingly difficult to work on a continuous basis as there wasn’t much community support and the government funding for what was termed “non-traditional productions”, went primarily to “white” film production and theatre companies that had submitted proposals to do “ethnic-based” productions. I worked for a couple of these companies and found that they were very eurocentric in their perspectives on social issues, as well as blatantly condescending and patronizing in their ethnic-based” productions. Although I worked for approximately another year or so in the arts before I decided to do something else, my most rewarding efforts during this period were the productions I did with other “artists of colour”. I didn’t feel like I was a slave to the whims and self-promoting generosity of “white” producers and directors.

PBS Frontline: On Our Watch

I watched another heart-wrenching documentary on the genocide in Darfur. Titled “On Our Watch”, it was featured on PBS Frontline. It’s unbelievable that this atrocity is still occurring in 2008 and the leaders of our world community cannot muster the “will” to impress upon Sudan that it must stop this genocide. The documentary touched on some of the reasons why there is such a failure to act… the most vital being oil. It’s paradoxical that there are those who believe that Iraq was invaded because of it’s oil fields, while Sudan is left to continue it’s policy of genocide because of it’s oil fields.

There is lots of blame to go around for this failure to act, from the U.N; the U.S. (which has taken a hardline and imposed strict economic sanctions on Sudan, but could obviously do more… see here); the European Community, The Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Iran, The African Union, The Arab League and China… to name just a few of the major players. Let’s not forget about the Afrosphere, which could do much more to advocate for the people of Darfur. If half as much energy, focus and commitment was utilized by bloggers of African descent to organize, petition and demand action to stop the genocide in Darfur, as was generated to support the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, there would be more pressure on our leaders, both community and political, to address this issue. If we don’t show we care by taking action, they certainly won’t! For some of us, it will be a historic achievement to have a black face in the White House… while for others, it’s a historic achievement to survive the day without being raped, tortured or killed… and being able to have one meal for the day. Let me give a “dap and a big up!” to Yobachi over at BlackPerspectives.net, who has been constant in his commitment on keeping Darfur an issue in the Afrosphere.

Below are links to the PBS Frontline documentary and other informative sites on Darfur. There are also links on these sites giving you the opportunity to get involved in stopping the genocide.

1. On Our Watch
2. sudanreeves.org
3. Eyes on Darfur (Seo Company)
4. Save Darfur
5. Save Darfur: Partner Campaigns

Back Into Subjugator Hell

In 1849, at the age of twenty nine, give or take a year, Harriet Tubman escaped the system of institutionalized slavery in the state of Maryland and ran for freedom in Pennsylvania. Ms. Tubman made extensive use of the famous Underground Railroad network. It is believed that she took a common route for fleeing slaves which was northeast along the Choptank River, through Delaware and then north into Pennsylvania.

It was a journey of nearly ninety miles. Traveling by foot it would take a person between five days and three weeks. She traveled at night guided by the North Star. She had to avoid slave catchers that were just all too eager to collect a reward for the return of a fugitive slave. Through a variety of deceptions a number of people helped to hide, protect, and move her. At one house, Ms. Tubman hid in plain sight sweeping the yard to make it appear as though she belonged to the home owners. When night fell, she was hidden in a cart and taken to the next friendly house. The true particulars of her escape remain a mystery. But she admitted that she crossed into Pennsylvania with an overwhelming sense of liberation. Said Ms. Tubman, “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

But it wasn’t enough for Ms. Tubman just to be free. Immediately after reaching the city of Philadelphia, she began thinking of her family. Said Ms. Tubman, “I was a stranger in a strange land. My father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and they should be free.” No stranger to work, Ms. Tubman began to work odd jobs and save money. Shortly after her arrival, the United States Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 forcing law enforcement officials throughout the entire union to aid in the capture of fugitive slaves and imposed heavy punishments on those who helped them escape. The law increased risks for escaped slaves. Many headed north to Canada.

In December of that year, Ms. Tubman received word that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold along with her two children, six-year-old James Alfred, and baby Araminta who remained in Cambridge, Maryland. Horrified at the prospect of having her family broken further apart, Ms. Tubman did something very remarkable. Ms. Tubman voluntarily returned to Maryland and risked her freedom. She went to Baltimore, where she hid her until the time of the sale of her relatives. Kessiah’s husband, a free black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife. While he stalled to make arrangements to pay, Kessiah and her children disappeared to a nearby safe house. When night fell, Mr. Bowley ferried the family on a log canoe sixty miles to Baltimore. There they met Ms. Tubman, who led the family safely to Philadelphia.

In spring of 1851 Ms. Tubman headed back into the lion’s den of Maryland to guide her brother Moses and two other men to freedom. Word of her exploits had encouraged other blacks. As she led more blacks to freedom she became more confident with each trip into danger. Ms. Tubman risked making the ultimate sacrifice in order to help other enslaved black people. The ultimate sacrifice wasn’t death but the loss of her freedom and the return to cruel enslavement. But her sense of family and her sense of black community compelled her to do for others what she had managed to do for herself at great personal risk.

Ms. Tubman didn’t sit on her ass back in Philadelphia in relative comfort and safety, looking down her nose at other black people who were too afraid to muscle up the courage to make that dangerous trek on their own. It is seriously doubted if Ms. Tubman simply pointed to her success and said, “I did it! Why don’t you pull yourself up by your boot straps and show some personal responsibility?” Ms. Tubman would never have said something as selfish and uncompassionate as what some black conservatives say proudly to applause from their white mindset peers these days. She would never say something akin to “black people aren’t doing enough to lift themselves out of their predicament” or something as assinine as a “black woman will not be truly free from racial restrictions until she can, without guilt or regret, disclaim being black or owing anything to black people. Watch out for the man who says another man has no choice, that he owes a debt to the race.”

In fact, Ms. Tubman didn’t do much talking at all. She lived simply and did what she could to help others find their way. She put her most cherished possession, her freedom, on the line by venturing back to where many escaped slaves feared to tread. She didn’t do it for glory and she never stood in front of anybody to gain their favor. She simply did what she could. Black people everywhere learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. We were taught that stuff when we were knee high in school. But instead of learning from her model and learning what it means to actually help others in the black community we relegate her example to the deepest and darkest corners of our consciousness. It is as if many of us have gone through a Vulcan mind meld and have purged any connection of her from our own actions. We applaud her for her selflessness but exercise behavior that is the most remote from her example.

A lot of our modern black, or formerly black, brothers and sisters could learn a lot from this simple woman who is one of our most deserving ancestors whether we in the black community recognize and fully appreciate her sacrifices or not. Black people who have done well and who have achieved levels of success that many of us can only dream of turn back to the black community and say all the rhetorical things about what we should and shouldn’t do, while they sit on their ass in their own personal materialistic heaven. They have truly escaped the bonds that keep the majority of black people imbedded in a system of white privilege and black subjugation. They don’t feel the need to reach back into the black community to pull all the others who dream of true freedom. It’s far better for black people who have made it to sit back and berate other blacks for not being strong enough or fortunate enough or smart enough or bootlicking enough or tom enough.

Although it’s been a long time since anyone had to use the Underground Railroad to escape institutionalized slavery there is a need for another more modern Underground Railroad to help people in the black community escape the chains of enslavement that hold us back today. Some black people do reach back to help other black people. Some are a lot more involved with the black community than others. I know of a high profile black celebrity that talks about how she regularly cleans out her closet and donate clothing to help others. Harriet Tubman could’ve simply cleaned out her closet and call it a day. But she didn’t. She went considerably above the call of duty. She never did it for ego. She never gave one thought that it would make her the cherished ancestor she is today. She just did what she had to do to help others. More people should learn from her example.

Winning the Nomination Obama Presses Forward

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2008 US Presidential elections, Add new tag, Barack Obama