W.E.B Dubois talks extensively about the duality of the African-American experience. The fact that we as black people live in a country that CHOSE, with deliberation and some would say glee, to dehumanize us from the very beginning. And yet that same country has been touted as a beacon of freedom the world over. America has always sat atop of a moral high ground as land of the free and home of the brave, yet we know that ground was fashioned by free labor and the rape, torture and systematic destruction of an entire race. There is no where in American history where there is not blood on its hands, running in its streets and flooding its spirit. Our joyous songs of freedom from tyranny are sang to the tune of old Negro and Native American and Latino spirituals of men and women hiding their plans to exact their God-given right to freedom. Our roads, bridges and railroads bear the blood, sweat and tears of the Asians we have oppressed. There is no stone you can turn, no avenue you can go, no city or place you can venture into in this country that does not bear the evil sin of slavery, the trail of tears, internment, or forced labor. No one in this country is exempt from oppressions profits. To say so is to deny facts, and pure history. There is not a bank, a school, a city or a township that did not profit from evil of devaluing humans as property. This ugly truth exposed 400 years ago resonates in the streets of our neighborhoods, the halls of our universities and the banks of Wall Street. If you believe that America is untainted, pure in its love of freedom the bearer of justice then you are either ignorant, blind or just not educated enough. But despite the truth that the fix is in, that this country never liked us, we African-Americans still choose to serve her. We sacrifice our lives, our time, our communities to support the tenuous hope that some day, somehow America will live up to its noble words for all its citizenry, not just a select few. We cling to the hope that our duality to love what this country stands for but hate how it manifests itself will dissipate in a slew of reforms, reparations and restitutions. We pray that the notice of justice will be met out equally among all Americans not just the ones without pigment in their skin. And more often than not Americas ugly past does not infiltrate our lives. We live middle-class, joyous existences doing good work and good deeds for one another and the hope springs eternal. But some days, just a few, we close the door, shut down the television and take a look in the mirror and we remember that though we love this country it does not always love us back. And we rage against the machine until our rage turns to uncontrollable sadness. And then we crawl under the blanket of night exhausted by the invisible tyranny that surrounds us at all moments whenever we think beyond hyperbole and examine reality. Our sobs push us toward an unrestful slumber and we awake anew, to the light of hope that is a sliver in our hearts window. Because though this world has dealt a most assuredly evil deck of cards for us to live by we refuse to stoop to the level of our enemies and we eschew hate and violence in favor proving them all wrong. And in the end what we do matters to us only but it can, one day, we think actually change this world. But we cannot change a world in which we do not acknowledge its fault. If we do not recognize its evil, its wrongdoing we can never correct it. You cannot offer constructive change to something you believe isnt wrong. And there in lies the rub. For we as the maligned know clearly the problem with this country, yet we are the only ones who do and we are the only ones who expect change.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 05:18:15 +0000
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