When Freedom is a Choice

The following blog is at the request of a family friend who happen to be a few years older than me. This post is a result of a Facebook conversation that was mainly between me and an o'l schoolmate of mine, who I respect and will say is a great guy. However, we differ in our out look of our "Blacks in America" present/future response to our past.  

Conversation Excerpts: 

Me: This one is for all of us beautiful black people - the next time you hear someone say that "the man" or "white people" have always tried to keep us down, remind them that not everyone who took part in the Civil Rights struggle was black - it was a rainbow coalition! Let's stop blaming people for what we are in control of and do what those before us did - make it happen!

Classmate: How right you are. Many were involved in the african-american struggle for justice and equality. As for the blame game about "the man" and what "white people" are doing to hold us down, consider the occurrences of all the unarmed black men shot by police officers in this country. Can they blame someone? How about the fact the blacks are pulled over and ticketed more than anyone in the city. Can anyone be blamed for that? As I recall, the Black Panthers tried to "make it happen". The FBI got sellout negroes to infiltrate and flooded black communities with drugs. Same with the Nation of Islam. When Malcolm was alive. Someone orchestrated all of these events. I wonder if whites are randomly stopped by police? How about what happened in Rosewood? Tulsa Oklahoma? Seems to me when blacks start "making it happen" independently of whites, they get done in. I can go on and on. Sure, there were some John Browns in history. Unfortunately there were and are more Bull Conners and J Edgar Hoovers.

Me: And I would have to differ with you my friend. If we stop selling people images of us being thugs and gang banggers, bank robbers and drug runners, trashy women then we would start to eliminate some of the preconceived idea "this is black folks". If we stop killing each other, video tapping ourselves doing stupid stuff, stop going into wealthy neighborhoods and robbing joggers, we could diminish the need for cops to pull us over when they see us in the other neighborhood. We could do so much to stop the crimes against us, but instead we complain. Will it ever be one 100% Love and Peace- No. That doesn't exist anywhere but heaven. Our biggest problem is we have the victim mentality. Guess what, racism breathes in every country even black on black in Africa, they call it tribalism. At some point we have to get tired of crying about a lot of stuff we've created! @Apryl - so true, and too often we forget that. Our generation has so much more than the previous generations but we cry foul the most. Our legacy was built upon men and women who could take the abuse, hold their peace and prove that they were created by the same God and had the same and some times more intelligence than the person spitting in their face.

Classmate: @ Apryl, please do some research on slavery in pre-colonial africa, then research slavery in america. (I suggest works by black historians, unless of course you feel they can't be objective on the subject) You will find some drastically fundamental differences in the two. @Mel - What are you talking about? Yes, our images are jacked up right now, but guess what. Before we bought in to all of this negativity, when we, by and large were on a positive tip, we were treated the same. Nothing's changed. We were still racially profiled. We were still looked upon as the scum of the earth. Being President of the US doesn't even exempt a half-black man from racist attacks. Fact is, blacks are treated unfairly in this country regardless of behavior, education or socio-economic status. What you're saying is like someone flattening all four tires on a man's car, then blaming him for being late to work because he had to walk and couldn't catch a cab becasue he's black. Lol. There are sooo many factors that weigh in to our shortcomings as a race, and all factors can be traced back to one common event. Slavery. I can break this down step by step if u like. Furthermore, why aren't white collar wall street, ceo criminals profiled? They can/have wreck(ed) the economy of the entire country by illegal activity. They steal 401ks, people's life savings. But I get profiled because some blacks guys sell dope on the corner. How about the guys who own the boats and planes who bring that stuff over here? I guarantee you they don't look like us. You mention trashy women? Blacks didn't start the objectification of our women. Please look up Hottentot Venus. Who started the porn industry? Everybody does stupid stuff Mel. It's only a big deal when we do it. Also, racism and tribalism are not the same. Tribalism is "my group is better than yours". Racism is institutionalized status quo that upholds the mistreatment of a certain group. Only the group with power can truly be racist. Otherwise, you are only prejudiced.

Me: As long as our generation continues to look backwards and complain we will fail where our fathers succeeded. If we look through the eyes of self pity, anger, resentment, hatred will always see only what hatred will allow us to see. As Adrian Manuel has pointed out, even in the injustice in Africa you can find a reason to build upon the pain of others. As a colored Adrian is now discriminated by black government officials. You know why, because people are allowing the past to rule their judgment. @Brent to assume that Apryl is not learned in the studies of her history from all sides of the story is like a cop pulling you over because of your color. You have prejudge her without knowing her. Maybe her knowledge comes from having been to the motherland, hmm. Original point, let's get out of the box and live! ...

It can be said that my classmate made some very valid points...points however that do not push us further towards our Freedom but keep us as a people locked up in the chains of frustration, hatred, anger and so on goes on the list. Now let me say this before you go down the same road as my dear friend. Yes, there are people who have done blacks wrong, horribly wrong. Yes there are people who will never see us as their equal. Yes, yes yes! But here lies the problem. If I'm looking for people to validate who God says I am, I will never see anything except the ugly part of the truth. Truth has two sides, so if I have seen and know the ugly side, why would I continue to look at it when I can choose to flip it over and take part in making the beautiful side. 

My comment (or status) was not to say that evil has not been done to us as a people, or even being done. But instead to say 1. stop saying "whites" (or any other group of people for that matter) have done evil to us. Instead see the many "white" individuals who did good to and for us. See that they marched with us, they road the buses with us, they were lynched, beaten, shot along with us. 2. If those before us were able to accomplish impossible feats, then how much the more when they have proven there is absolutely nothing we can't do including be elected to the most "powerful seat" in the world. 

We can choose to continue to play victim, or we can be the victor. We can choose to take opportunities for granted, or spend them for all they are worth. We can choose to sit in the back of the class room and or move to the front. We can choose to say because someone "trashed" our women we will too, or we can refuse to support such behavior. We can choose to be a thug, or take a job and let it be our stepping stone to being a franchise owner. You see the proof is in those who have done it. The crime is too many choose to turn the other way, and wast energy complaining that I'm here because of what was done to us 200 years ago, 20 years ago. But to live in freedom is a choice not an obligation. 

My final comment to my classmate was if we is keep responding with what others have done we are only looking back and further back, without a hope of a progressive future . We provide no hope of FREEDOM, only the constant frustration of an unchangeable past. Yes we must know our history, but not live in it or be a victim of it. We must stop wearing our past like chains and celebrate it as our passover. To many have proven that it's the only way.  Successful people don't stay in the past, they move forward, creating a new past.

To be continued...