Greatness & Richness Deferred (America’s Saddest Loss)

Each time that white America excluded African Americans they held themselves back ten‑fold. Ample support for this analysis is found everywhere, but not so glaring as is seen in sports and entertainment, the two industries where opportunities for blacks have always been plentiful and today is wide open. We must acknowledge that opportunities now exist in almost every arena; they’re just not as expansive as they should be. The country’s leaders and politicians who’ve done and do the bulk of negotiating and planning for our serious inclusion into American power and prosperity always seem to find ways not to have it happen on their watch. America, as a nation, continues to be the sad loser.

America may be mighty, powerful, dominant, wealthy and a whole host of strong adjectives that exalt America in the eyes of the world. America is even almost great, but not quite. You see, the African American struggle for freedom and the attainment of our birthright is and has always been the struggle to free the total greatness of America. Ironically, it is these same American leaders and politicians that have vigorously resisted this struggle and, in many ways, are worse enemies of America than can ever be found abroad. One of our greatest spiritual leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., struck at the very heart of white American hypocrisy when he challenged America to live up to the “true meaning” of its creed, understanding so keenly that America would never achieve true greatness and never be as rich as she could be as long as we were excluded and held down.

While the public rhetoric of America’s leaders and politicians has changed the same practice of excluding blacks from true power merely saturated itself into mainstream America, major corporations and American institutions so insidiously that racism is virtually standard operating procedure in the sense that exclusion of African Americans is still the most predictable result, statistical or otherwise. All one has to do is open their eyes and look around. What you’ll see, among other things, is that almost any black comedian can have their own television show, but not one of us is a state governor and not many of us hold any position of “real” shot‑calling power in American policy here or abroad.

 RESULTS OF ILLITERACY

Sink your teeth into this one: for hundreds of years a people are forbidden to learn how to read. Then other people point at them and call them intellectually inferior, ignorant and dumb. Well, huh! Who did they expect to find? Neil deGrasse Tyson? Or maybe this is what other people wanted us to believe about ourselves permanently. The smart ones knew that wouldn’t happen, but they also knew that many of us would buy into it and perpetuate illiteracy and ignorance through our offspring, enough that it would saddle us as a people for generations to come. And why not? Was it not the dominant message we received? Was it not bred into our psyche? Was it not the very air we breathed? I will never hold it against any African American who walks through the door of opportunity provided by sports and entertainment, even as it helps perpetuate the Bojangles and dumb jock myths. All of us are not destined to attend colleges and universities, but can you imagine what a place America would be had we been allowed to read those 200 years between 1660 and 1860? Or if Native Americans, Africans and Europeans had lived in harmony instead of hell? No, America is not great and America is not rich. America is mighty, powerful, dominant and wealthy. America’s greatness and richness is deferred. Those rewards will not be released until the moral and constitutional contract America has with all its citizens is fulfilled.

SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

When intellectual inferiority theories abound is it any wonder that African Americans are readily honored as the undisputed kings and queens of the physical plane? Running, jumping, singing and dancing. America, after having a mini‑Civil War over whether to allow blacks to participate along side whites on sports fields, finally surrendered the major American sports (baseball, basketball, football) to the “more physically gifted.” After shattering the theory that we couldn’t compete physically the inferiority theorists retreated to the position that we’ll never be coaches, managers, quarterbacks, executives or owners. Need I say anymore about sports or baseless inferiority theories?

Music and entertainment in general took a more low‑key, though no less sinister journey. While the talent itself couldn’t be corralled it was controlled and looted. In film the main thing to control was the images, so that blacks were servants, buffoons or low‑life’s, while blacks in the music industry were robbed, imitated and kept out of the American mainstream. Today we jump for joy that those days are over, but are they? Yes, to an extent, but as we continue to tear down stereotypes let’s not forget that sports, music and entertainment don’t run governments. Just ask Jesse Owens, Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown and countless other warriors and freedom fighters who tried to translate their celebrity into political and social change. Read their histories. They were met with the most ferocious racists venom imaginable, often by those who cheered them on while delighting in their physical talents. The message was this: “Don’t get uppity; you may be famous, but you’re still a nigger.”  “Shut up and dribble.”

This long‑stemmed desire to keep us “in our place” is nothing but residual slave master mentality and when we assert ourselves powerfully we bring out the worst in white America. The urge to control the slave and all profits derived therefrom is still very present. It was okay for Jesse Owens to symbolically defeat Aryan white supremacy in Berlin, but back in America he may as well have been Emmett Till. Even today America uses black Olympians to dominate the world in certain events and posture itself as some model of diversity and brotherhood, while maintaining a solidly segregated society from top to bottom. Our lawmakers and politicians may say one thing out their mouths, but as conditions for African Americans don’t change or move at excruciating molasses‑paced rates, the only thing that rings true in their words is “I represent the sentiments of the people.” And the sentiments of the people seem to be “let ’em run, jump, sing and dance, but that’s all.” “Shut up and dribble.”

THESE THINGS TAKE TIME

While it’s true you can’t undo hundreds of years of conditioning and tradition in a few short years you can change quarterbacks at any time in the game. This is to say that we can no longer allow the government or anyone else to micro‑manage our upliftment as a people. Not Democrats with all their feel good rhetoric and not Republicans with that subliminal “party of Lincoln” crap. Have we not been insulted long enough?

We can make America great and rich in just twenty years time if we get firmly on the road to taking our birthright of wealth.  Like a child refusing to swallow castor oil America will not bring herself to do right by us. America is still too sick and too arrogant to allow herself to truly heal. Therefore, we have to force it down America’s throat because all of our health, well‑being and survival is at stake. Reparations for slavery is just too bitter a pill for America and it’s not one that we’re in a position to force. Self‑Reparations is in our power and we have every right to repair ourselves. More importantly, to solidify our place in history as builders rather than beggars of wealth, we need to do this for ourselves infinitely more than America needs to give it to us. America needs her medicine, for sure, but we can’t stay sick demanding that she get well.

DOES APOLOGY = REPARATIONS?

Some reparations advocates and lawyers believe that an official presidential apology for slavery will clear the way for reparations; that the federal government would, in effect, open itself up to such liability and then open the U.S. treasury coffers. This is the litigation road map they salivate for. I say be careful what you wish for. One of these days an American president will stand up and give the most heartfelt, even tearful, apology the country has ever seen, sending the advocates and lawyers down a long, winding road of litigation with no promise of victory, while at the same time placing us firmly back on the road of waitin’ and beggin’. And if you think that litigation isn’t a form of beggin’ you’d better think again. You can have every legal argument in your favor, every legal precedent supporting your brief and a judge or panel of judges can still rule against you. Be careful what you wish for.

As for the concept of reparations as a legitimate form of redress, America isn’t at all opposed to it in theory or practice, just not to us. America will even advocate for reparations to other people for historical grievances or modern day atrocities. America just reserves the right to decide, as with most other things, how and when it applies to her. You can do that when you’re the biggest bully on the block. We have to learn to respect that and we have to learn how to still get ours.

I AIN’T MAD AT YA, PER SE

There’s nothing wrong with telling things like it is or like it was. That’s why I don’t sugar‑coat slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, racism, stupidity or whatever. Slavery was what it was. America came along, put her program down and came up lovely. We can stand around and cry foul or we can put our program down. Truthfully speaking, America didn’t do anything different than what nations have been doing since the dawn of man: hittin’ each other over the head and battling for supremacy of the globe. Egypt, Greece, Rome, Carthage, Spain, England, Russia, Germany. Everybody wants to rule the world and almost everyone has tried. America is in a long line of conquerors and a long line of slave holders. When we keep it in a historically raw context, guess what? No crying allowed. Carthaginians (Africans) ruled Italy and parts of Europe for more than 300 years and the Moors (Africans) ruled Spain and other territories for more than 700 years. Don’t even mention Egypt (Africans) and the thousands of years they ruled practically everything and everyone in the Middle East, Mediterranean region and pretty much all of sub‑Saharan Africa.

Many of us will say “but the African nations ruled in a civilized way.” So! Even if that were true it didn’t mean those were the rules for everyone forever.  Just because you hit me over the head with a rock doesn’t mean I can’t chose to use a boulder on you or the next man. All nations ruled and conquered in a manner they chose for themselves. Even today with all kinds of rules of engagement and Geneva Conventions nothing says that battle has to be “even steven.” Japan didn’t have an atomic bomb and Iraq didn’t have air or naval power; did any of that stop America from using hers? Case closed.

America has the superior weaponry, superior intelligence capabilities, superior everything, except moral righteousness. What I say to America is this: I ain’t mad at ya; you did your thing and I respect the game the way it’s played. You did plenty of foul shit, especially to my people and for the most part you’ve gotten away with it. Now it’s time for us to stick a knife in the American pie and cut out the slice that’s called our birthright. You’ll benefit too because you tax everything that moves in your domain. No problem; just let us live too. This is the proper respect any bona-fide bully, mobster or superpower is due. Then you move on your endeavors and see what kind of respect you get in return.

PAID IN FULL

America’s forthcoming greatness is inextricably tied to African Americans being paid in full. The American way is to create your own wealth and we’ve proven we can do that. More important than creating the wealth is utilizing it to compete equally in all facets of American life, thereby contributing to the overall health and vibrancy of our country. We must abandon all notions that suggest we are not Americans; we are indeed original Americans. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t continue to acknowledge our African essence and all its endowments, but the sooner we start seeing and negotiating with reality the way it is rather than how we think it should be the sooner we’ll get on the road to building the reality we know we deserve.