Time to Break The "Cycle" ??
President Obama's "Conversation" with the nation yesterday could mark the start of a very important and historic change; in the way people with any amount of African heritage are perceived in this nation, and in the world. It makes it unmistakably clear that there is something, that, up to now, has been permanent; but has to change. It has to do with our mass social view of race in this country; but, precisely what that is, he did not say.
Let's take a trip back to the 1760(s); before the Constitution and before the Declaration of Independence, to read a very famous (for my generation of African-Americans) poem. It was written by a 12-year-old black girl, named Phyllis Wheatley:
ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA
T'was mercy brought me from my Pagan Land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a savior too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew,
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
For more than 250 years, these ideas and beliefs, instituted and perpetuated by Christians against Africans, and, subsequently, all persons who have dark skins, lie at the root of the wealth accumulated by persons who are white; and perpetual economic disadvantages for persons of color.
This yoke must be broken in the minds of all persons! Christianity has shrewdly found ways to keep these teachings alive. The teachings lie at the root of European wealth and Culture. In the wake of the economic impacts, lie a permanent designation of persons of color as "the other" in law, education, religion, and virtually all aspects of social interaction. They imprison everyone!
Either all persons are "born free", or none are! No religion has the authority to claim otherwise. The Founders, and their European mentors were absolutely wrong in these beliefs and their insistence that persons of color were less than human. The blood and pain from this still flows. We must break the grip of religion and its role in driving our racial beliefs.
Stay Vigilant! If what happened to Trayvon can bring us to this realization, we all will "get free"!
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