Tag: History

The Dystopian Future is America’s Past

Popular dystopian novels typically take place in the future. But the plot lines of dystopian novels have already happened in America’s past and it usually happened to Black people.

Fahrenheit 451 was about the government denying information to the population. Government inspectors called firemen inspect private homes and if they find books they burn them. There was a time in America’s past where books were contraband if they were in the position of Black people.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/literacy-and-anti-literacy-laws

Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury

The Hunger Games was about a government organized fight to the death. The link tells the tale of Black men fighting for the amusement of White audiences at carnivals. Prior to the Civil Ware slaves fought to entertain Whites on plantations. White slave owners would pit their slaves against one another in fighting contests.

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2014/may.htm

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27919283

How enslaved Blacks beating each other to near-death was a great source of entertainment and cash for white plantation owners

Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

Enslaved Black people were bred like livestock. The fact that Black people were slaves denied them consent to sex. They had no control over their destiny and had to receive permission to marry from their owners. The marriage could also be nullified by land owners. Black sexuality prior to the Emancipation Proclamation was largely systematic rape for profit.

View at Medium.com

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/reproductive-rights-and-long-hand-slave-breeding/

Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood

Segregation was the law in America until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Black people were severely limited in their opportunities and how they could move throughout society.

https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/civil-rights-movement-timeline

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/segregation-united-states

Divergent Veronica Roth

Dystopian novels that take place in the future were inspired by the past. All of the authors I mentioned are from North America. All are American except Margaret Atwood who is Canadian. Their famous stories are undoubtedly inspired by dystopian America which is Black American history.

Fall Book Review: Precolonial Black Africa

I finished a book called Precolonial Black Africa by Cheikh Anta Diop over the weekend. I was grateful to find this book from an online bookseller after not finding information at libraries and mainstream bookstores on the subject of precolonial Africa for years. I would recommend this book if you are interested in African history before European colonization.

Precolonial Black Africa gives readers a good over view on the topic. It covers different cultures in Black Africa and different facets of society. The book discusses religion, education, government, family structure, art, the economy, etc. The author did a good job of sharing information of a vast subject to readers that may not know much about African history.

The book is a little dry and I will attribute it to being translated into English. I didn’t have much background in precolonial African history so I dove into unfamiliar territory which is also a factor. There were parts of the book that I needed to push myself through despite the book only being two hundred and forty pages.

Nonetheless, I would recommend the book if you want to learn about African culture before European colonization. It gives you a good overview and jumping off point for further study. Precolonial Africa is a book that I will save for my personal library for reference.

Here are the few things that stood out for me:

Islam changed African culture before Europe did. Precolonial African leaders were political and religious leaders. Once Africans converted to Islam their traditional leaders lost influence and culture was lost.

Pre colonial African culture had a different relationship to land ownership than Western society has. They didn’t believe anyone could own land or hold a deed for it.

There were more checks and balances in African societies. There was a caste system but lower castes were empowered by social mores.

There was slavery in Africa but many slaves had agency and could move about society. American slaves were treated in similar fashion to the way European peasants and serfs were treated.

Family lineage was traced through mothers.

If you’re interested in learning about Africa before European influence Precolonial Black Africa is worth your time even though the language is a bit dry.

The Legacy of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King is being honored today across the US.  MLK is a trending topic on social media, news outlets are rehashing stories about the Civil Rights movement and publicizing community events to honor the fallen leader.  Martin Luther King’s story is amazing and absolutely heroic.  But I feel like his legacy is being tarnished and Whitewashed.

Martin Luther King was a man that was beaten and imprisoned because of his protests against a tyrannical White supremacist government.  He was a Black man that fought for the rights of Black people and was surely motivated by concerns about the future of his own Black family.  He put everything on the line and died for his people. His movement was successful and created real and positive changes for Black Americans.

But we in America still live in a White supremacist, European centered culture.  Everything has to be not only accessible to Whites but centered around them.  That is made very clear by the historical retelling of MLK’s life.  He is said to be a man that wanted to bring the races together and bring about harmony in America.  He is also portrayed as a Confucius like figure.  I think that narrative is a lie to get White Americans to buy into his legacy.

First of all when you talk about race relations in America you need to think of hammers and nails.  Whites are the hammers.  Blacks are the nails.  The hammers like to act as though there is an ongoing disagreement between two parties on equal footing.  That has not been the case.  Blacks have been getting hammered since the origins of this country and the Civil Rights movement just asked to give Blacks a break.  Give them a shot at the chance to pursue happiness.

When mainstream media talks the accomplishments and goals of Dr. King they act as if he simply wanted Black and White people to hold hands and sing kumbaya together.  He was not the simpleton that history and the mainstream media make him out to be.  He was a freedom fighter for Black American people that had suffered centuries of oppression in the US.

He fought for displaced people that did not truly have a country of their own.  He fought for descendants of African slaves that were prisoners of this country.  Dr. King did not fight and die simply so Blacks could have White friends or land a date with a non Black person which is the story that is being sold across the world today through the American media and American public schools.

The same thing has happened to Nelson Mandela.  He was a brave freedom fighter that fought for Black people in South Africa and won basic rights.  Mandela is also being marketed as a Black man that dreamed of a rainbow nation and wanted to bring about so called racial reconciliation.  This version of history is a lot easier for White people to digest because they are not confronted with their own past.

Since Donald Trump was elected as president in the US I have observed that the media sympathizes with racist notions that affirm White supremacy.  The media typically portrays Whites as heroes or victims.  The stories of the Civil Rights movement can not be accurately told and still portray Whites as heroes or victims.  So the truth is being rewritten.

This disingenuous retelling of history is damaging to all Americans.  There is no way that White supremacist ideas will ever change if they are not confronted.  White Americans refuse to do the soul searching necessary to bring about the cultural changes necessary to bring about the racial reconciliation that they pay lip service to every year.

It’s also dangerous to Black people because it gives them the message that your prosperity lies in other communities.  Most African Americans do not really want to be independent from White tyranny and they don’t believe that Black communities can be self sufficient.  The bogus retelling of history reinforces the notion that Black people need other communities, especially Whites to survive.

I’m very unsure of what is being taught in American schools today.  But I urge everyone to seek out information on the American Civil Rights movement.  Remember to focus your attention of the Black community because those are primarily the people that stood up to American authoritarianism and made modest gains in order to improve their lives, communities and the futures of their children.  As a Black American woman I am grateful for their struggle.

Black on the Fourth of July

This week America celebrated the Fourth of July.  I don’t do a lot to observe the holiday because I do not have a lot of family in the area and I don’t have much experience cooking on the grill.  I don’t have children so I don’t buy fireworks.  But I did enjoy the day off and even when I have had to work on the Fourth of July I enjoyed the holiday pay.

This year on social media I saw numerous posts and tweets being circulated encouraging Black people not to celebrate the Fourth.  Some of the social media messages even criticized Black people that do observe the Fourth of July.  I found these memes to be annoying and arrogant.  “Woke” people on social media often come across that way.

Look.  I get it.  I totally understand why so many Black people feel the way they do about the Fourth of July.  Blacks were enslaved in 1776 and the freedoms that this country is supposed to offer her citizens were never intended to be enjoyed by Blacks.  When you consider the culture of America when the Bill of Rights and the Constitution exposed how hypocritical and callous this country is towards Africans.

But despite what Blacks have faced throughout American history we are the greatest patriots of all.  America as we know it would not exist without Blacks.  The U.S. has the biggest economy the world has ever seen and it was built by Black labor.  In history class American students learn the phrase “Cotton is King” which refers to the juggernaut which was the cotton industry in the 1800s.  It wasn’t savvy business decision that made cotton king it was slave labor and brutal, savage force that made cotton king.

The cotton industry of the 1800s supported the textile industry of the early 1900s which was closely related to the northern Industrial Revolution.   The Industrial Revolution gave opportunities to European immigrants in the North East.  Without Blacks immigrants never would have had an America for which to come.

African Americans are only about 12% of this country and we only live in a few areas but we have influenced the culture in many ways even though we often don’t receive recognition for our contributions.  Blacks have influenced American music, cuisine, sports, fashion, politics, fine arts and sciences.  Without us American culture would be bland an utterly unrecognizable.

I’m not sure that the world had ever or has ever seen anything quite like the American Civil Rights fight of the 1960s.  A group of people that have been reviled and thought of as farm animals in the land where they were born stood up to the U.S. federal and state governments and won in mostly peaceful demonstrations.  People that have had their features mocked and ridiculed proclaimed that Black is beautiful and the said loudly that they were Black and proud.  That took bravery.

Since the 1960s other groups have mimicked the Black civil rights movement.  I don’t believe the feminist, LGBT or immigrant civil rights movements would have ever taken shape without the Black movement first.  Once again we provided inspiration for others in this country.  As far as immigration is concerned Blacks once again paved the way for the way for the next wave of newcomers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  Most of these immigrants come from brown countries and they would not have stood a chance if African Americans hadn’t stood up to White racism first.

We’ve been here trying to make America great all along.  No one really has tried to hold America accountable for her actions they way Blacks have.  We believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights more than anyone.  Because we actually support all Americans having the same rights.  So if you don’t want to celebrate the Fourth of July then don’t.  But if you see other African Americans enjoying fireworks, a cookout or a day at the lake don’t judge and spare us the self righteous “woke” routine.

My family has probably been in this country about seven generations now and they sacrificed greatly for me to have the opportunities that I have in this country.  I’m proud to be an African American and the Fourth of July can be seen as a day to salute patriots and freedom fighters such as Harriet Tubman, Malcom X and Angela Davis.

We deserve to be protected by police instead of targeted by them.  We deserve equal opportunities and access to quality jobs and education.  And se deserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this country that those that came before us suffered greatly for.

 

 

Sick and Tired of Hostility Towards Christians

I use social media frequently and one of the most vocal groups that I regularly encounter are African Americans that are very critical of Christianity.  Believing in Jesus Christ is a choice and it is a valid decision to not follow Christ.  I understand that everyone has different opinions and different experiences that makes them come to certain conclusions.  I respect everyone’s right to choose their own spiritual path and I expect to be respected the same way.  I don’t think that my belief in Jesus Christ is doing anything to harm anyone else and I should not have to defend or explain myself.  But that’s what I’m going to do now.

When I was a freshman in college at Eastern Michigan University I was given a small copy of the New Testament.  I read it in my dorm room that year.  It made a big impression on my heart and I haven’t been the same since.  I’m so glad that the Word of God was presented to me at that point in my life.

I grew up going to church but it wasn’t a great experience for me.  It was not traumatic or harmful, it was just long and boring and I went every Sunday.  When I was growing up there were not the type of Children’s Church that are common now.  My mother was met with resistance every Sunday morning when it was time for church.  I was much more interested in staying home and watching “The Jetsons” and “Fame”.  As an adult I am very grateful to my mom for getting me in church and letting me know that there is a God named Jesus and He is the savior of my soul.  In retrospect the Sunday morning ritual was a great challenge to my intellect.  Being confronted with the concepts of God, the Devil, life, death, heaven, hell and salvation gave me a lot to contemplate as a young girl.

The church that I attended as a child was a very large, old stone building with tall ceilings and stained glass windows that went up to the ceiling.  It was beautiful.  The pastor was a serious looking dude that wore a preacher’s robe every Sunday.  He is a pretty well known.  The church was filled every Sunday and there was even an over flow parlor with folding chairs when the pews were all seated with men in suits and ladies with large hats.

The Bible that I had access to as a child was a King James version.  I tried to read it when I was in elementary school without much success.  There were too many other things around me that were much more appealing and interesting than the Bible.  After a few false starts at trying to read the Bible during childhood I didn’t try it again until I was given the copy of the New Testament that day on campus.

My childhood experiences with Christianity were confusing but I wasn’t convinced.  That’s why reading the Bible while I was in college and since then has been valuable. to me.  The Bible has revealed many answers to questions that I had and still have.  Conviction and revelation is there for the taking if you want it.  You just have to tune out the rest of the world, open your heart and mind and read the Bible.

The Bible teaches that Jesus came into the world to cleanse all of our sins and save all of our souls regardless of race.  The African American, anti Jesus crowd would like to convince all Black Americans that salvation is for everyone else but us.  God loves everyone but us.  They don’t know anything about the word of God and they speak nothing but foolishness based on the actions of men.

Its true that the U.S. has always claimed to be a Christian nation but at the same time they treated Black people like animals and declared them a fraction of a human being.  Today America claims to be a Christian nation but the demonize the poor instead of trying to feed and employ the poor.  The U.S. has never really been the Christian nation that they have claimed to be.  But the African American, anti-Jesus, social media crowd is use to following the actions of men instead of the actions of God.

The critics of Christianity need to learn about the Word of God and stop judging God based on the actions of flawed men and women with short comings and insecurities.  That’s what people mean when they speak of a personal relationship with God.  Every man and woman that can read can learn about God’s word for him or herself.  It is important for Christians to be a part of a good church but it is not imperative for Christians to hang off of every word a preacher says.  It is more important to learn about God’s word for yourself and let it work on your heart and mind.

Furthermore all this foolishness about Jesus being a White man’s god is just plain stupid.  You don’t even need to know the Bible that well to know that.  Anyone that is familiar with Christmas carols knows that Jesus is from Bethlehem and that’s a long way from Europe.  I guess the Black American, anti-Jesus crowd is fixated on the art work that the Catholic church produced.  But truthfully speaking, any culture would make their God look like them.  I have a picture of a Black Jesus hanging up in my bed room.

All of these anti Christian people on social media are frightening.  They don’t seem to be in favor of much accept not worshipping Christ.  They are particularly focused on tithing.  Tithing is cut and dried so there is not much controversy there if you believe that the Bible has merit.

The anti Jesus Blacks love to claim how much money gets collected in Black churches every Sunday and then they ask what gets done with the money.  They love to imply that the pastors misuse the funds for personal gain.  I don’t claim to know anything about the pastor’s personal finances but the churches I’ve been involved with have all fed people, did community outreach projects and helped church members with personal matters.  I’ve only been to two churches in my life that made me uncomfortable.  I simply chose not to go back.  It’s that simple.

I fear that a lot of Black Americans will be led away from the Bible based on all the false teaching that get circulated on social media.  Someone will tell them don’t listen to the Bible.  Listen to me.  Don’t give your money to your church.  Give your money to me.  And so many Black American people will be led astray by simple minded, emotional blackmail false teaching.  Black Americans are a small but influential part of the American population.  Despite what people are led to believe about Black people we are mostly a conservative and spiritual (mostly Christian) demographic.  If we all become completely Godless or begin worshipping false Gods.  It will not be good.

African Americans need to understand that anti Blackness doesn’t just come from one direction.  It pretty much comes at us from all directions and from many cultures.  If Blacks think that they will find acceptance from middle eastern and north African cultures I think that they are going to be sorely disappointed.  I grew up in the Detroit area which has a large Arabic population.  The Arabs in metro Detroit are known for looking down on Blacks.

For me this comes down to respect.  I respect your choice to worship Allah, (who isn’t African either) or your Egyptian sun god, your Druid God or whatever.  I really wish people would respect my belief in my Savior.  There will come a day when we will all know who is right and who is wrong.  We could all at least be civil while we are waiting.