We Are A Produced People

Africans taken during the transatlantic slave trade knew who they were, what land and people they were from and what language they spoke.  History shows that they even understood slavery, captivity and indentured servitude within their respective societies.  They had wars and skirmishes resulting in any variation of these statuses, but nothing approaching lifetime chattel slavery that Europeans and white Americans practiced. 

If there is or ever was such a thing as a civilized way to practice any form of slavery, I’ll dare say that’s what all the world’s people thought they were doing before racially motivated chattel slavery was introduced.  Chattel slavery and the overall manner in which Europeans/whites subjugated darker peoples of the world, particularly in the Western hemisphere, was so insidious and so purposeful that it actually produced brand new people on the planet.  If some prefer to say new or different strains of people, that’s fine with me.  Just let me clear my throat.

Six hundred years ago there were no such people on the planet called Puerto Ricans.  An easy examination of the history clearly shows that Puerto Ricans are a mixture of Spanish speaking Europeans, African slaves and the native Arawak Taino.  It’s out of this genetic pool that Puerto Ricans, as we know them today, were produced.  Furthermore, the name Puerto Rico does not denote ethnicity.  Translated it means “rich port,” the name given the island by the Spaniards.  All it was to them was a very rich port for goods and trade.  It was the island of “Borinquen” to the Taino, but that got trumped by the conquerors.

Current day African Americans didn’t gel quite so easily into an identifiable ethnicity like Puerto Ricans, but make no mistake about it, we are just as much a produced people.  Our genetic pool consists of African slaves, English speaking Europeans and various mixes of indigenous so-called Indians, now referred to as Native Americans.  Hundreds of years of special attention, however, was paid the Africans to ensure they had no identity except that of slave.  So that when we were finally able to lift our heads up as a free people, we nor anyone else knew what to call us.

While “nigger” remained our default moniker, several names (official and otherwise) were tried over the years.  We were “coloreds,” “Negroes,” “Afro-Americans,” “Black Americans” and finally the still very controversial “African American.”  Afrocentric educators asked us to consider calling ourselves “Nubian,” while the Nation of Islam said we were/are the lost tribe of “Shabazz.”  Still, others offered that we were descendants of the original “Hebrew Israelites” of scripture and Warith D. Muhammad tried to name us “Bilalians.”

After 300 solid years of slave indoctrination (which was akin to animal breeding) all substantial traces of “Africanism” except for pigment was gone, though even pigment took some very significant hits through rape and intermixing.  The result was a cut off, formless shell of a people with nothing to call their own, not even the very bodies that carried their weary, hungering spirit.   Certainly we had no culture worth sharing with the world and no identifiable patch of homeland to connect with.  No family histories intact, no continuity of culture, no traditions – nothing!  We were simply a product made in the USA. We are as American as any American product ever produced.

The term “African American” was supposed to put us on par with other ethnic groups who can claim a homeland of either direct origin or the origin of their parents and/or grandparents, but that’s not quite the case.  White people don’t refer to themselves as European Americans.  That’s simply identifying with an entire continent; it’s what we do.  Instead, people of European descent identify with a particular country, such as “Italian­-Americans,” “Polish Americans,” “German Americans,” etc.  Most can tell you what town or village their family comes from and many visit relatives in the “old country.”  Many even speak their native tongue as well as English.  They have thriving communities where businesses and cultural activities flourish, serving to further cement the ties one generation after another.  They literally experience “belonging” in every sense of the word.  When they come to America they retain their heritage right down to the very patch of soil from which their forebears sprang; some even maintain dual citizenship.

Do so-called African Americans enjoy all this?  Emphatically not! Because we are not African in any real, livable sense.  We are simply American and original born Americans at that.  Not particularly indigenous to the land, but produced here prior to and along with the founding of this nation called America, just as Puerto Ricans were on that island called “rich port.”  Inasmuch as we want to identify with and cling to certain aspects of African culture – even claim to be proud sons and daughters of its past greatness – “African” does not uniquely identify us, and its greatness, past or present, is not ours to claim.  Our greatness is yet to come.

Time and time again we’ve seen glimpses of the greatness we’re capable of as a people, only to have it derailed by white supremacy – like “truth crushed to the earth.”  At the same time there’s been a successful manipulation of black excellence and protest by shrewd white politicians, as well as behind the­ scenes power brokers – all of which keep the descendants of slaves eternally subservient in what essentially is a shell game of power sharing – with us as the primary suckers who choose wrong most of the time. And because we play along we feel we’re really in the game and can eventually win big.  In the interim we hem and haw, cry and beg, march and sing until more heralded “Negro first” appeasement’s materialize.  Then we settle back down into molasses-paced wealth re-distribution myths,  affirmative action and quotas.  In truth, these can best be described as bad plans with good intentions.

Our greatness and our power will only be realized when we first grasp what it is that’s truly at the root of our problems and rectify that.  Only then can we be players at the big boys table as a people.  That rectification will come when we take from the American economy our birthright of wealth!  Then we, as productive Americans, can produce for ourselves and participate powerfully on the American and world stage.  Finally, we can then resolve the question of who we are and what others should call us.