The President just spoke of hard truths. Here is one for you. I belong to the Baby Boomer generation. Black folks from this generation make up the children that marched in the Civi Rights Movement in Greensboro, were soaked with water hoses in Birmingham, and who cried in Memphis. We are also the last generation of Africas children who recall the dynamism, creativity, spirit, and comfort of an all Black neighborhood. We Baby Boomers integrated high schools and colleges and many of us hold the title,First Black......... whatever we did. When we were teens, Motown was in full flower, Viet Nam raged, the whole world was watching to see what we would do next, and on Sunday morning, we all listened to Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland. Lorraine Hansberry described us in 1960 as, A people. Integration, and all its difficulties, took the best and brightest from our community and created the largest gap in American culture; the gap between affluent and working class blacks. We left our communities without realizing that we would leave our cousins vulnerable to a shifting racial and economic tide. We didnt realize that America, while skimming the genius from the top of our culture, would begin to pass law that destroyed previous gains. First, affirmative action shifted from the poor to the powerful under Ronald Reagan and globalism, public education was abandoned by William Bennett, Bill Clinton took groceries from the mouths of babes, and George W. Bush drove what was left of the distinguished vehicle of Western culture over a cliff. In the process, Rodney King was beaten until he begged, Why cant we all just get along. Without our once supportive and cohesive community, we went adrift in the consumer crazy environment of small gadgets and big debt. We were proud though because we (and black folks are the only ones who truly believe it) are rugged individualist. As a result, more and more of us conformed to the brightness of whiteness and drank the individualistic kool-aid whike whites and everybody else depended on their networks and banker buddies to develop and grow whike we were turned away for business, home and auto loans by the thousands. We forgot that if you come to America an Irish terrorist and fly into Boston, you can borrow money from the Bank of Ireland and go into business. If you are Saudi, go to L.A. and the Saudi Bank gotcha covered, if you are Mexican, go home or to North Carolina where one of the strongest Latino Credit Unions in the country can be found. If you are Black as 12:05 and been here since 1619, who the hell do you borrow money from? We gave our money to Wells Fargo when Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin needed it for summer trips to experience Ethiopia and Birmingham. Our ancestors had more sense in 1890s just out of slavery. I have been amazed in my life at the number of white millionaires who have come to me in airports and bars and told me that the greatest need in America was the strong, moral, united voice of a Black commu ity in America. Many of the said, Logie, I inherited my money from Momma and Pappa, but I learned about life from Beaulah and Big George. We raised America. What made us think that anybody would teach and raise our own children better than we had raised our own and theirs for 400 years. We went out of our minds and our children are paying for it. If you are Black and dont know how to view this moment, read John Berry Meachums narrative, To The Colored Citizens Of The World. John Meachum is a pioneer and founding father of the city of St. Loius. Arriving there in the 1830s and being an advocate for free Blacks he built a boat to educate children on the Mississippi River for it was illegal in the state of Missouri to educate blacks. The Floating Freedom Schools are his legacy. He believed then, as I do now, in Psalms 68:31- Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands toward God. Read his work, it is a blueprint for an ailing nation. After this last wlection and this court decision, I have had to conclude that America means my children no good. It aint been no bed of roses for me, but recent events and the current trends in fear, Obamahate, political lies and the onslaught of oligarchy in the absence of a true American or Christian spirit, I am left with no option other than to take my sons and prepare them to view America with suspicion, distrust, and a watchful eye for those who would smile and steal your world while you pray with eyes closed, thinking of the cross, heaven and all its immortal glory. Actually my sons, God is where you meet and join your brother in agreement. Jesus said, The kingdom of heaven is within you. Turn now toward each other because Mother America has gone out of her rabid ass mind.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:12:19 +0000
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