(Before I get into it, I just wanna say "thanx" to the anonymous person who signed my guestbook...Wish I knew who you were...)
And then today....As i woke up...It was not with a question of what I was going to wear to work nor what it was that I was going to eat for breakfast...The first notion to come across my mind was the notion of the status of Black people in this country.....the status of my people in this country....I looked back on what I have learned and what I have experienced through myself and others....I came to fully realize that Blacks, as a people, are still very young in their liberation....Yes, slavery ended over a century back....But our actual rights as 100% (not 3/5) human beings and citizens is still less than 100 years....This is in regards to a country that has had its independence since 1776....some 228 years ago....
Blacks are but infants, or at most toddlers, in the realm of freedom....And compared to many other countries....It is a "teenage" mother who is issuing this freedom....
In this light, we must be as our own personal Messiah to each other...We must not look to be birthed from a child and instead look to ourselves to create our own "Emaculate Conception of Liberation"...
We have come to a point in our history through this country that the large and obvious obstacle pieces are moved out of the way....But now, there are still those tiny grains and pebbles that are even harder to define....harder to distinguish....and harder to remove...The painstaking desire to rid ourselves from such seemingly minute obstructions has deterred us from getting rid of them completely...
Look throughout your daily newspapers, your music videos, and your everyday social knowledge....And where there is perhaps some sort of debate of the negative situations that you encounter, that is where investigation must begin...and the question must be asked.....What ever happened to the rebel?
I'm talking about the DuBois', the Booker T. Washington's, the Dr. King's, the El Hajj Malik Shabazz', the Marcus Garvey's, the Eldridge Cleaver's, the Huey P. Newton's, and all the names that they refuse to teach us....What ever happened to those figures of this time?....
I'll tell you....They believe that there is no cause...And if they do believe, they are told that it isn't there....
Ralph Ellison has never been the only one to believe he was an Invisible Man...I too know how that feels...It is time for my people to rid ourselves of that Invisible facade and once and for all....Not to be seen , but to see ourselves...to see where we are....
This is not a task or situation that is to be handled by anyone other than ourselves...Aid, yes, aid is always welcome in any sort of conflict, regardless of race, creed, or religion....But along with aid, we must not sit back and allow ourselves into destruction nor should we be satisfied with ever so slight mediocracy....No....This is a job mainly for those for which it is designated to uplift and improve upon...The job to correct the status of Black people is to be carried out by Black people....To ask for liberation is but to seek hypocracy....For when you ask of your freedom, you are giving power to another person in deciding your fate...No man can give you your freedom but yourself....
Happy Juneteenth