Black History Month!

I finally got around to posting for BHM!
I have been busieer than the devil these days - translation we eat'in groceries PRAISE GOD!!!

A PLEA TO THE TALENTED TENTH

Harvard University recently concluded a five-year study that found that race is deeply embedded in our cultural landscape and most Americans are in a state of denial. The 50 researchers concluded, "Race continues to play a powerful role in the chances for success in America and black Americans continue to lose jobs to recent immigrants." Andrew Hacker, a white college professor says, "The fact that slavery existed for so long and was so taken for granted cannot be erased from American minds." And says Hacker, "that is why white people, although they won't openly admit it, find it not improper that blacks still serve as maids and janitors, occupations seen as involving physical skills rather than mental aptitudes."Psychologist

Na'im Akbar says black Americans are also in a state of denial about the lingering effects of slavery on our thinking. Akbar and Hacker agree that the American psyche remains traumatized by slavery and is in need of mental healing (psychotherapy). And Dr. Akbar says in psychotherapy, "a confrontation of the original trauma and a restructuring of the mind's faulty adaptations to the assault can serve to correct these disturbed patterns of responding." Under this view, if we are to eliminate the "ghost of the plantation" from our cultural landscape, there must be honest and continuous dialogue within as well as between the races.

What about the "Talented Tenth"? W.E.B. Dubois envisioned that the 10% of Black Americans who acquired the skills and/or education that enabled us to succeed in the larger society would eventually "come home" and use our tools and talents to build a bridge between the Black "haves" and the Black "have-nots." Unfortunately many of the "talented tenth" (and I speak from personal experience) used our tools and talents to build personal bridges between the so-called races and then used these bridges as private access roads from the ghetto to the suburbs. In the process, of course, we left our less fortunate sisters and brothers behind.

Hebrew scholar Ben Ammi, writes in his book, God the Black Man and Truth, "Education today is based upon class, aimed at attaining power and fulfilling materialistic desires rather than providing a service to our fellow man." I remember how my college classmates and I laughed at the African brothers who said they were going to get an education and then go back home to help their people. In retrospect I now know, an immigrant wants to help his people while a slave wants to help himself. Many of us are now confessing we made a bad deal. We voluntarily sacrificed our spiritual health for the pursuit of material wealth. We now remember that when we had less, we shared more. And we also remember when a "good home" meant something more than a "well-built house" in the suburbs.As we enter the 21st century, we must accept the responsibility for our own destiny as a people. Perhaps racial profiling and the attacks on affirmative action are blessings in disguise.

As Professor Hacker so diplomatically reminds us, "America is inherently a 'white' country: in character, in structure, in culture." And in America's version of apartheid writes Hacker, "white Americans show little inclination toward giving full nationality to the descendants of African slaves." We must therefore struggle to understand the words of the late scholar/researcher Chancellor Williams when he said, "Now it is just here within the race where integration is not only needed but it is mandatory."And most of all, we must rededicate ourselves to God. In her appropriately named book, Volunteer Slavery, Sister Jill Nelson uses the term "spiritual materialism" to describe our misguided, dollar driven approach to God. "Spiritual materialism" has infiltrated all religions, however, since we are predominantly a Christian people, I'll define it as talking about Jesus when we really want to live like Caesar. Can the true spirit of Christ dwell in such an atmosphere? We're sending mixed messages to our children and then wondering why they are in such a state of confusion.

One sure way of praising and honoring our Creator is by using our unique qualities and abilities to better the human condition. GOD IS, LET'S GET BUSY!!

By Langston X. Thomas (Baba Adubiifa)