|
Do Not Relegate History to Dusty Old Books
|
Junious Ricardo Stanton
|
Feb 05, 2007 06:07 PST
|
*From the Ramparts*
Junious Ricardo Stanton
*Do Not Relegate History To Dusty Old Books*
/"One of he most profound things that we've learned in psychology is
that the most powerful forces that shape human behavior are those
factors that are consciously not remembered by human beings, that are
unknown by the person, are those experiences the individual can swear he
never had. That is one of the paradoxes of human behavior, that the very
things that shape us and make us behave the way we do, see the world the
way we see it and relate to people the way we relate to them, are those
things that occurred in our lives at points we cannot remember or
recall."/ Amos Wilson, T*he Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness.*
Page 34.
I have noticed over the last few years we as a people have eschewed
celebrating Black History Month. It is almost as if we have internalized
our enemies dread of African and African-American history, we seem to be
content being dummied down and satisfied being ignorant of our legacy of
resilience, struggle, greatness and divinity. Have we acquiesced to the
will of our oppressor, are we mindlessly cooperating in our own demise
and destruction? History is not just what happened a hundred or a few
thousand years ago, it is what happened last month, last week yesterday
or a few hours ago. History is really personal, history is not what we
were brainwashed to believe about the world, history is the accurate
record and study of our past. There are lessons in our immediate and
lengthy past which we generally call history that we need to learn,
benefit from and resolve.
Much of what makes us who and what we are is the result of our history,
our total past, meaning past lives, past world history, past ethnic and
personal history. If we relegate our past to the recesses of our
unconscious we fail to learn the needed lessons from them. Ironically
learning the lessons of our past allows us to better live in the moment
and wisely navigate our lives as we overcome past addictions, experience
success and improve on the things we need to overcome. For example there
are lessons about Hurricane Katrina Africans in AmeriKKKa need to
discern, learn and master. For one thing we know each of the
governments: local, state and especially the Bu$h federal government
performed extremely poorly. We know in the case of the Bu$h
administration they knowingly, callously and deliberately allowed
conditions to worsen despite being warned by weather specialists and
satellite imagery days beforehand that the approaching storm was capable
of major devastation and destruction. This is one more example in a long
series of criminal actions by the US federal government since its
founding, comparable to their program of genocide against the Native
Americans and the sanctioning of the trans Atlantic slave trade as a
revenue source for the government's treasury (See Article 1 sections 2
and 9 of the US Constitution as well as Article IV and section 2) that
negatively impacted thousands of our people.
Our collective and personal history in AmeriKKKa is very painful and
will continue to be so into the foreseeable future despite superficial
changes in the AmeriKKKan socio-economic and political system. In his
new book Pawned Sovereignty Ezrah Aharone shows how the Europeans who
founded this country moved to codify the subordinate status of Africans.
/ "The discriminatory content of the Constitution picked up where the
Declaration of Independence left off. Article 1, section 2 paragraph 3
known as the 'three fifths clause', relegates the status of Black people
to three fifths of a person and establishes bold boundaries between the
races. It states, 'Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned
among the several states which may be included in this Union, according
to heir respective Numbers which shall be determined by adding to the
whole Number of free persons including those bound to Service for a Term
of years and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other
persons.'"/ . We cannot alter these facts but we can accept what
happened and learn the lessons from what happened.
We can learn from our dealings with Europeans not to believe everything
they say. We must make their behavior , how they act the real test of
their integrity. We must also remember our history on this planet
extends for millennia before our experiences in AmeriKKKa! One lesson we
can learn from our collective past is if our ancestors could create
magnificent civilizations throughout the continent of Africa like
ancient Sudan, Kemet, Nubia, Zimbabwe and Mali and beyond as well as
create a free republic in Haiti, we certainly can be just as determined
and creative. It's in our genes ad DNA. We can be creative and bold
wherever we find ourselves in the world. History can teach and inspire
(stir up within ourselves) us how to do it. We each have long personal
histories of successes we can build upon. Collectively African people
can take direct action to resist our oppression and fight back in a
myriad of ways. For example the New York police department recently
fired over fifty rounds into the car occupied by three African-American
males outside a nightclub killing one of them, Sean Bell. Suppose if
every time there was an incident of police brutality in the Black
community, our people retaliated against the system in some way? What if
we stopped supporting our own oppression by buying products manufactured
and sold by our enemies? What if we stopped going to the movies, buying
magazines and books or watching videos that blatantly promote white
supremacy and reinforced denigrating racists stereotypes about African
people. What if we decided to go on a buying fast and absolutely refused
to buy anything Black people didn't make, own or distribute? Since white
folks care more about the dollar then they do morality, I think such a
boycott would be successful.
When we go to a doctor for the first time, they ask for a personal
history so they can figure out what is wrong and how to treat us.
History is just as important in psychological healing and restoration.
Healing and redemption require also action. We have to cooperate in our
own healing. To heal ourselves and our communities, requires both
personal and collective action, mental action, emotional action and
physical action! Our past is a valuable tool in our liberation, we have
to embrace it no matter how painful it is, learn the lessons and use the
past to heal and free ourselves now and in the future.
-30-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* BLACK WORLD EVENTS
http://www.topica.com/lists/BW-Events/read
(||) * Be informed, in touch, in step and on time ( || )
|
|
 |
|
