As a Black man in America, I can never come to hate my country. Yes I understand the history of racial bias and the violence beset upon us by ignorant members of the majority but I cannot become what I detest. I guess after living and learning about the history of other people around the planet, I embrace my Black experience as a badge of honor. Although it is not proper to compare oppression between ethnicities, I rather proudly teach the facts about a group less than 150 year ago ensalved and 150 years later becoming leaders in major fields establishing our great nation as a world leader and superpower. This position I hold today was not one I always held close to my heart. Especially when I had to visit relatives in the deep south and attend a private board school in New Hampshire. The psuedo-science of inferiroity really pissed me off and the comparisons to every animal with amaizing physical attributes drove me to my wits ends everytime a basketball was dunked, a homerun hit or a tennis ball aced. Why did our skill have to be associated with animal behavior and other competitors talents and achievements assigned to work ethics and intelligence?
Alas, the world may never know but I did not use violence to terrorize these social commentators or racist sport fanatics.
In fact, my experience has given me the insight to understand how people can become brainwashed into thinking they will have a greater reward if they blow themselves up rather than try to communicate their grievenances in a forum towards resolutions. I have come to know that violence is the easiest of human expressions to exhibit in the face of conflict. When I was approached by an unassuming young lad and asked if I had a tail, I could have easily punched him in the face and proved that I was the chimp he was making a reference or as I did, answer him with a simple no and let his stupidity eat away at him. I for sure in the hell was not going to pulll my pants down and show him my backside! So a terrorist I can never be but I can say that I find it amazing that many Blacks are not terrorist if you really clearly examine the history of racial oppression and the current gaps in health, education, economics and overall quality of life.
For me, terrorism is a cowardice choice where my people have marched and shed blood to forced a nation to live up to and to actually beleive in the principles it espoues to the rest of the world. I think about my family members in wars gone by and how they fought an enemy abroad and returned home to fight for a seat for something to eat. The conflicts puzzled me as a youth and I joined every radical group I could find to express my disdain for historical inequalities. Now these same inequalities are the basis for my writings and attempts to bring to light the truth of a humanity denied. A humanity which I could have never understood if brother Douglass had blown himself up to gain his freedom and to learn how to read. This humanity whould have never been realized if sister Tubman had strapped explosives to her breast instead of the dreams and sufferings of her passengers on the underground railroad. No, the humanity which allows me to speak to Presidents, Mayors and everyday people would have been stolen by a violence which destroys the very goal it seeks to achieve.
Today, I write because I have become concerned about how Blacks are being recruited by extremist to their causes in prisons and poor neighhborhoods. At first I thought it was very well and good that the Nation of Islam was working with foriegn governments to address poverty in America's forgotten inner cities slums. Then I remembered what I was told at a very early age, 'nothing in life is free'. This simple saying made me realize that even freedom had a price and we had to pay it by loving our county and doing what is best to create a nation of love and justice, not hatred and revenge. What if Black people had to declare Jihad on America if they had become Muslims or align themselves with a foreign power. It would be like the communist scare and only worse for Blacks attempting to make the American dream a reality. Where are the borders for Blacks to run across if the community is invaded? No Blacks cannot become terrorist because we are citizens and we love our country right and wrong!
So I will continue to teach and to write on the humanity of Black people even if the courses are cancelled after I depart or only dusked off during Black History month. As a song tells the audience from one of my favorite performers- YOU AND I KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON. So I carry on, listening to AM talk radio and reading the papers and hoping that one day there will not be a reservation for Black people in the United States of America nor hidden detention camps for Black people with un-american intentions. I can tolerate Barry Bonds not being recognized as the Homerun King but I cannot tolerate Senator Obama being called a good boy or liken to those good Blacks who served their master without a touch of resentment. A terrorist I can never be, but I a free thinking citizen who was borned into a minority rich with international achievements is a badge I wear without letting social mudslingging dirty its shine.
Signing Off Number One
