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| ISBN-13: | 9781524614454 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 06/25/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 332 |
| File size: | 291 KB |
Read an Excerpt
When We Were Black
By Blakk Jack Samm
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2016 Michael NormanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5246-1446-1
CHAPTER 1
We People Who Are Darker than Blue 1949–1969, 1969–1980
We, the people, who are part of an American dream that, for us, has become a nightmare!
We, the part of the vast great American cooking pot that has become a side order, only added upon request, sitting on the side of the pot wilting in the kitchen for lack of interest. We, the side order that is very spicy and can cause indigestion. This side order should be properly sauteed so that the right flavor can be added to the vast gumbo of ingredients. This sauteing through education creates a mutual language between ingredients. Yet the pot is rarely interested in this "rare" ingredient; it can be ruined before the process is properly started because of ignorance of it. Many times, this rare ingredient is overcooked until it has no more kick!
So overcooking this spice or side order takes all of the fragrant taste out of it. There must be an understanding of this ingredient for the best results. If it's not sauteed enough, it's too strong; yet, cooking it too much leaves it bland and tasteless. Like peppers at a flea market, there are all colors, especially in the international market of peppers. Some may look bland, yet even to just touch one pepper and then accidentally brush an eye can have alarming results, sometimes even blindness! The most common mistake with the side dish is to think that all in this category are the same, when they can be vastly different.
In rare cases, sauteing through the educational process creates an even stronger side dish, causing not only indigestion but actual food poisoning. The pot-stirrer finds that this side dish does not fit in and tries to eliminate it altogether from the kitchen. The cook has no consideration for the other side dish ingredients awaiting the pot and just rids the kitchen of all.
How the side dish arrives into the kitchen is given any consideration. Sometimes it arrives with no tending in the garden or fertilization. So in essence, this side dish is much stronger than the others, like a weed in a garden that refuses to die, in spite of the fact that we have been poisoned by disease and sometimes spoon-fed drugs that kill. Yet, as always, our strongest always survive and thrive in the heat of battle.
So Black people are like a side dish in the American melting pot. As everyone knows, when you add black to other colors, it changes the hue, view, or perception. Some are reluctant to stir the pot. Today in America, Black people are ignored, and their problems are ignored as well. Oh yes! America gives us lip service yet, upon investigation, not much aid. Why should Black people be ignored when we have been here longer than everyone other than the Native American? There is evidence that we were here when the Anglo-Saxons and Spaniards arrived. People from all over the world marvel over an America built by Black people. Even if we were just labor, is that not part of the process? Yet our being just labor is far from the truth.
As far back as 1843, Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) gave an address to the slaves of the United States of America. This man was born into slavery but escaped from Maryland to New York. At that point, he pursued his education at the African Free School #1 and the Oneida Institute. Later, he became a Presbyterian minister. In Chicago, he delivered a speech to the National Convention of Negro Citizens in Buffalo, New York. This was as far back as 1843, and even farther back, people came together as a race for the purpose of gaining equality. This group lamented the tears of their fellow slaves in the South. They felt that their hopes were in vain as years passed while they awaited their fellow slaves to be freed. Garnet did not attempt to chronicle all of the sins of the United States, but he raised the issue that the propagators of this system committed crimes against an innocent people. In his speech, he spoke of people who were injured by being brought to the shores of America by men who claimed to be Christians. He spoke of the churches who turned their heads at the degradations of this innocent people. These were not immigrants, not farm workers, but a people kidnapped — with females raped and sometimes males. Yet his words were, "We cannot be free while you are enslaved." What affects one of us affects all of us, even today. This is not new. From 1843 to 2043 is two hundred years. We are still aiming for the same rights today.
Another Black in history was James T. Rapier (1837–1883), who delivered a speech on the civil rights bill in 1875. Many, many pioneers fought for the rights that we take for granted, as well as the human rights we deserve. Rapier spoke of the civil rights bill, yet he was torn because he was an elected US congressional representative of the Second Congressional District of Alabama in 1872. Here he was fighting for rights, yet he only had those rights in his office as a representative. When not in his own official capacity, he endured the same discriminations as the rest of his people. How ironic it must have been, sitting among those people who had the chance to make the difference yet knowing how they truly felt about him and his people behind closed doors.
Today, it is not enough just to ignore us; our neighborhoods in the city must be destroyed so that we can truly be forgotten. It is no different than taking the lands away from the Native Americans and moving them to other states. Cities have no intention of rebuilding neighborhoods but are only interested in burying any memories, creating a disconnect so that the former residents will not wish to move back into what the government calls more modern living apartments or even homes.
So urban planners and real estate developers have systematically taken over houses that have some value, sometimes whole neighborhoods that were Black at one time or another, leaving Black people on an exodus from the city or civilization into the suburbs now that yuppies want the neighborhoods — and not just the neighborhood, but sometimes tax monies that paid for collective benefits. City Hall should work for you, not exterminate you like a bug. The city moves lines for supervisors and the rich to take neighborhoods, little by little, year by year. When neighborhoods are divided up, votes can be divided up, which takes away the voting power in your neighborhood. It smells of bureaucratic racism.
Today, the KKK wears a suit and tie (although not all are men) in broad, open daylight. The banks are ordered to help those with bad credit but do not help Blacks. The Feds give lip service to our anger, but it is only lip service. Banks are ordered to help those in low-income neighborhoods but do not. The very few that they do help cannot make a difference because they are generally not the ones in need anyway. Even if you do help with money, if you take away police protection from the "terrorists living in the ghetto," the neighborhoods will die. If you allow the stores to be bought up by foreigners, then the neighborhood will not thrive; they won't benefit the ones who live there, although sometimes some would rise from the ghetto by exploiting their poor neighbors, especially women and children. The neighborhood is not just the housing, it is the whole neighborhood, including the banks, the stores, the schools, and churches or religious facilities.
Malcolm X's point of view was that we are not "antiwhite"; we are "anti-oppression," "anti-exploitation," and "anti-degradation." He said, "And if the white man doesn't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing, exploiting, and degrading us."
In the melting pot, the side dish, the Black people who assimilate and blend in, are lured away from the neighborhoods. In the melting pot, the side dish, the Black people who assimilate and blend in, are scared away from the neighborhoods. In the melting pot, the side dish, the Black people who assimilate and blend in are turned against and taught to hate the old neighborhoods. It is hard to love a place where you lived in substandard conditions. It is hard to love a place where you feared those who looked like you. It is difficult to love a place where your rights as a citizen, the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as well as the protection of your family, are ignored. Americans who live and work in the financial district of a city are rarely in fear of these conditions.
In the words of Malcolm X, "Why would/should we sit at the table and watch the others eat? We have earned more than a piece of the American pie, even more than a meal at the table of prosperity. Just sitting here in America does not make us Americans if we are denied human rights. We are the only race or which laws had to be passed to ensure our freedom. A freedom that comes at a cost yet without the same privileges as others. Other races just land on the shores and are readily accepted as Americans. No special laws protect them because they are not needed. If birth here makes you an American, why are there still provisions to protect us as people?
So, African American, are you an American?"
Echoing Malcolm's words, "No, I'm not an American. I'm one of twenty-two million black people who are victims of Americanism." "I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare."
March 16, 2013 Mississippi ratifies the 13 Amendment, which ended slavery, 145 years after it was proposed.
In any neighborhood worth its salt, there is a conscious effort to take it over. This is not so easy in the 'South' where Black people have long understood the 'buying property' as opposed to renting. In today's America it is so sadly NOT UNUSUAL to walk down the street and see men as well as women, pushing carts, dying for a bath or shower, dressed in 'underwear' ... people are literally dying on the street. They look just like the newly freed Negro or Coloured leaving the various plantations, needing loans to get started in life. These people have no dreams but are living the AMERICAN NIGHT MARE! Many or most are drug polluted as well as malnutrition. Life in the big city.
They sadly look like "pre-Black" "negroes" and "colored" people who were pushed off of the plantation with no skills having nowhere to go. Many still need unemployment or even welfare. These programs, especially welfare, were killed because it was believed that it only affected Blacks and other minorities but you see that whites were people dominated the system while Blacks were in the newspapers. Many of the homeless are veterans of wars. So, do you aid the poor or send them to jail? Check out your local Penal system prior to voter registration.
Slaves were bred to stay ignorant, so, it was unrealistic to figure that this would just go away after a few generations. Slavery was more than 400 years. We still need 400 for some of our people, so sorry to say; but, hey! Let's go and get it. It will help us all in the long run, the crime starts in our own neighborhoods. History and results itself will bear this out. There cannot be slaves without war, there is a war being waged and fought. It cannot be war without weapons, use your mind if nothing else.
We live in a system where they are just beginning to take down the 'Confederate flag' hoisted by those who would wish to keep their slaves. AT LEAST THEY ARE REAL!!! What is truly sad is that many Black children do not even understand the significance of that flag. Many children do not understand the significance of being called a Nigger. People died so that we would no longer be called nigger. Let me say this again, people died so that we would not be referred to as nigger!! Socialistic brainwashing has changed this into a joke. You hear the word at least once a day. Nigger is a curse word! Nigger is not a joke. Young people do not understand the significance of being called Black. The Negroes and Coloured people who hated when militant Black people where dying and standing forward are still reaping benefits. Many who never wanted to be Black are passing this casual attitude on to their children. Casual Blacks can walk past the homeless, ignore the prostitute, hate the drug addict and feel nothing. In the words of Malcom X, if it affects one of us, even if it is all the way in Africa, even if it is in the North Pole or Russia ... it affects all of us. If they are still hoisting the flag, of CONFEDERATION we are still suffering from the fallout of slavery. That is an argument unto itself. If they still feel proud about being slave owners, we live in a slave environment! THIS IS WHY FOREIGNERS COME HERE AND TREAT US LIKE SLAVES!! They think it is ok to turn their noses up at us because white people have been doing it for 500 years. Yet ... the casual Black does not want to make waves or come across as militant and WE ARE DYING. We will be spoken of as the Native Americans. The interracial marriage, breeding is breeding out our culture; but, even these are treated as less than; unless, they pass for white.
It was 1900, 1920, 1940, 1960 when the signs still said, Whites only, not 100 or even 1,000 years ago when the confederate flag was hoisted. Most of the foreign people who are allowed to vote come from places where disabled are just disabled. No benefits. Most foreign people come from systems of "cast", you were born poor, you die poor. That, is not the American Dream. Many of them were running from places, and are just glad to see that someone is doing worse than they are. Wake up! Communism was not just in places like Russia, Germany and Eastern Europe; it was here in the United States of America. Many escaped and sit in mansions spending up the money their ancestors exploited. That is why there were all those movies causing you to look for Communism in other countries when it was in the back yard. No one even wants to talk about Communism in the United States. Hitler was trying to purify the human race. There were many in the United States who believed in these moral guidelines.
Niggers want to be Free; but, they still watch TV — the Last Poets. They were rappin' this way back in the 1960's and now TV is bigger than ever. In the hood there are still unofficial contests over who has the biggest TV. Think owning homes, not owning cars or TV. Even if you own your home, give your children something more to stand for in your home.
There is still Black power in our unity, use it, please.
If you were to take the readers of this book. As individuals, we are poor. If we were to collect all of our money, this week, together, we may have a few dollars. Yet, if we were to pool for a whole month, well now, there is money. Just think in terms of a whole year. If you can collect the wages of anyone who buys into this train of thought. It is same train of thinking. Well, slaves worked with no wages, while others stockpiled there store houses. A slave's hours were from can see to cannot see. This was the fastest growing economic country in the history of mankind.
There was the rise of the Freedom Riders in the South. This coincided with the rise of the KKK, 1866, becaming prevalent. The Black people never knew which Police, City Officials, the local courts, the Supreme Court Justices was one of the KKK. These individuals, were the regulators as well as the law makers. This was American justice. Now, today, they have brainwashed people into thinking that all of those groups are dead because the Klan was the one and only group that was disbanded. Not hardly.
There are always the misconceptions that this was only going on in the South.
The FREEDOM RIDERS were of the first groups traveling through the South attempting to stop segregation non-violently.
It is sad that most young people do not have any idea about the struggle that their ancestors and predecessors went through for them to have the privileges that they take for granted, especially the educational process. These people were not afraid to die, and many, many did.
There were many important Civil Rights leaders. Stokely Carmichael became part of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). On TV he watched a sit in. A sit in was a place where a bunch of people were attempting to integrate an establishment. He was touched to see people knocked off of chairs; yet, these would get back up onto the bar stools. People would sometimes ... pour sugar into hair, eyes. This was a calm sit in. Black people sat through a lot worse.
The Whites took segregation very seriously.
Malcolm X said a people who do not know their past cannot have the best future. Come and learn what Black it meant to be Black. Try to understand what it means to be Black. BLACK was a "cultural revolution" NOT a color. Black is a state of mind, not something that you wear.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from When We Were Black by Blakk Jack Samm. Copyright © 2016 Michael Norman. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface, vii,Introduction, xiii,
Chapter 1 We People Who Are Darker than Blue, 1,
Chapter 2 The Cultural Change, 15,
Chapter 3 American Political Democracy, 29,
Chapter 4 Division of those who are divided Four Women, 59,
Chapter 5 Young, Gifted and Black, 77,
Chapter 6 Fighting their Wars, 105,
Chapter 7 I'm Black and I'm Proud, 125,
Chapter 8 Education, 189,
Chapter 9 Yesterday's Heroes who never make history books, 207,
Chapter 10 Psychological Warfare Mental Lynching, Terrorists, 213,
Chapter 11 Black Muslim movement Nation of Islam, 221,
Chapter 12 The Black Panther Party Movement, 229,
Chapter 13 Legal Slavery, 237,
Chapter 14 Black Seniors Are Dying, 243,
Chapter 15 The Fallout from slavery, 251,
Chapter 16 The B. S. U., 259,
Chapter 17 Your Mission Impossible, 263,
Chapter 18 Internationally Black, 269,
Chapter 19 Next book, 273,
Bibliography, 275,
Discography Music, 277,
References, 279,
Works Cited, 281,