Political Pimps

        Last night on a radio program I was asked to share my thoughts about today’s black leaders. I responded that in the past we had authentic black leaders who were freedom fighters; people who would lay down their lives for the cause. Today we have a lot of political pimps posing as freedom fighters, whose deepest desire has little to with the liberation of the masses , and more to with economic and  celebrity status. This may be fine for personal upward mobility, but it does nothing to liberate the masses.

I remember many years ago, wearing overalls and marching behind a mule,  alongside SCLC leaders like Golden Frinks and Hosea Williams.  Many of today’s leaders wear designer suits while only  pretending  to lead the masses from limousines and expensive hotel ballrooms. Most of these people were tried and tested in the early day s of the struggle, but seem to have become blinded by the bright lights of their own personal success.

Where Have All The Leaders Gone

  

I believe that the greatest hope for a brighter future for inner city youth and ending gang violence is for our leaders to first acknowledge, and then take steps to remove, the psychological chains of slavery. It’s time to call a spade a spade. It is self-hatred that has given rise to self-destruction and dysfunctional behavior in the inner cities of America. That self-hatred has its roots in the psychological trauma of slavery. As evidenced by significant population of successful African Americans, the psychological chains of slavery have been broken for most. For others, not so much.

For many, the pain and humiliation of indentured servitude, along with the separation of families during slavery, has left a lasting and ongoing legacy that has for far too long, been overlooked. In most cases, a defining legacy that has seldom been openly addressed. Therefore, without realizing it we have passed down from generation after generation, a legacy of inferiority and self-hatred.

Young people who hate themselves don’t have a problem hating others , or killing someone. They hate themselves because subconsciously, they believe in their minds, that in the eyes of society they aren’t good enough, that they aren’t equal. They don’t feel empowered to determine their own destiny. Therefore to them life has very little meaning. It’s kill or be killed.

We need to find ways to empower our youth. We need leadership that will subscribe to that fact. We need an army of courageous leaders to not only identify viable solutions to this problem, but also to lead a mentally enslaved peopled to the Promised Land, where self-hatred, hopelessness and fear are non-existent.

But where can we find such leadership? It seems that our most introspective and talented leaders have fled to a safe haven in the plush surroundings of  suburbia, leaving behind so many who so desperately need to bear personal witness to  the successful achievements of people who look like them. It is selfish not to acknowledge where you came from, and it is insensitive not to be willing to lead to freedom those you have left behind. Yet I understand all too well your reluctance to look back. You have little or no desire to return from whence you came, especially when your most vivid memories are rooted in desperation and hopelessness. You somehow beat the odds, you played by the rules and made it to suburbia vowing to never return to the bowels of that slave ship from which you so desperately fled.

Addiction To Racism

 

 

               Seldom does anyone, black or white, ever want to be told that they have issues.  Just try getting an alcoholic to admit that they are an alcoholic, or a husband or wife to admit that they are the reason the marriage failed. It gets worse when you try to get a racist to admit to being a racist.

 

 I have for some time now, felt that racism is an addiction not unlike addiction to drugs or alcohol.  Donald Sterling   retreated into denial the second his blatant racism was revealed before the world.  After having his addiction to racism exposed, he denied that there could have been even the slightest possibility of racism underlying his “unfortunate words”.

 

Just as Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind”, boasted about how well she treated her slaves, Sterling continues to boast about how well he treats “his” blacks, especially his black players. He talks of buying them “food, and cars, and houses”. He doesn’t have a clue how that sounds to his millionaire players, whose exceptional talents helped him make his billions. He is so blinded by his racist superiority complex, that he actually believes that his players love him. In all actuality, they probably want to open up a can of ass-whipping on him.

 

               Like most addicts, Sterling has failed to seek the help he most urgently needs.  He is learning the hard way, a very important lesson; that in 2014, he lives in a society where the majority of its citizens, at the very least, want to appear to treat its fellow citizens with a degree of fair-mindedness and humanity.  The blatant transgressions of a few brought on by years of unbridled addiction to a tradition of racism will no longer be tolerated.

Mothers of the Wilmington Ten

There has been much said about Ben Chavis and the Wilmington Ten. No one ever mentions some of the greatest civil rights workers of all time, our mothers. As Mothers’ Day approaches, I am dedicating this entire week to the mothers of the Wilmington Ten.  

These women fought hard and valiantly for our freedom. Dolores F. Moore, Louise Hyman Carolyn Vereen, Margaret Jacobs, Etta Patrick, Sarah Wright, Elisabeth Chavis, Florence Epps, and Lue Vell Tindall. Though Ann Sheppard was also a co-defendant she was also like a mother to some of us. These brave women risked their jobs and reputations to fight for justice and freedom. They marched tirelessly around the country demanding justice for the Wilmington Ten. They car-pooled to prisons around the stare delivering comfort and home-cooked meals to us. 

Most of them never lived to see to us pardoned, but it is never too late to honor them. I honor them now. I will do a special honor to my mother in my blog on Thursday.