A Long-Term Vision For Black Reparations
Posted: Saturday, August 17, 2002
Posted By: All words and paintings from RAS JAHAZIEL
REPARATIONS FOR BLACK NATION BUILDING
NOT REPARATIONS FOR A MORE COMFORTABLE SEAT IN THE WHITE MAN'S HOUSE
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The present resurfacing of the call for BLACK REPARATIONS must be seen like the miraculous survival of a victim who has long been thrown off the ole pirate ship and left to drown. The re-emergence of this victim from beneath the waves of political and religious mis-education marks the blossoming of a new level of political maturity amongst the Black peoples of the world today.
Before the development of such political maturity, the people who were bred in bondage had long forgotten what freedom is all about, and therefore their vision of FREEDOM was confined to any new paint-job on the old slave house. But who could blame them? The only place where some of them had ever seen FREEDOM was on paper, and the vast majority could not even read, so they had little chance of even seeing it there. They had long grown accustomed to being treated like dogs, and many had come to believe the lie that Africa's poverty was a result of some form of intrinsic inferiority. They were encouraged to blame themselves for their situation, and many preachers had explained "that was the way "GOD" made it to be."
In those times it was easy to pull a veil over the eyes of the people, and many were led to believe that the gaining of political independence and having a new flag and not singing "God save the Queen" anymore was the real attainment of freedom. Having a Black Prime minister and a Black government looked very much like the children of slaves were now free at last. Just like they did on emancipation day, there was dancing and singing when the new flag was raised. In some quarters it was really believed that the provision of MORE JOBS, the building of better roads, and the right to sit at desegregated lunch counters would have meant an end to the downward slide of the carriage of protracted genocide. Little did the "ex-slaves" know that after the excitement, the "better roads" would lead to nowhere.
Aside from the wide-spread political ignorance that governed the people, there was also another factor that always made them cautious about their demands. They were quite aware of the long history of THE TERRORISTS and their capacity for becoming BEASTS. Even an attempt at registering to vote could bring down the lynching party, and if just a simple demand for the right to cross the segregated line could be met with such TERRORISM like the murder of little children, they well understood that the hour of history was not yet on their side.
RACIAL TERRORISM was so dreadful in its restraint of the Black voice that only someone of privilege and high standing in white society could dare go before the seats of power and raise the call for BLACK REPARATIONS. That is why it was actually a white man by the name of Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania who in 1867 placed the issue of REPARATIONS before the US fortieth congress in section 4 of HR 29.
Thaddeus Stevens, a white Republican, was not too blind to recognize that Reparations was the only just policy after enslaving a race for so many centuries, but the conscience of the slave holding nations was not susceptible to the bidding of such noble ideals. As they are accustomed to do when their clients have lots of money, "LEGAL MINDS" used their tricks successfully to keep the case out of the court house, so that it was eventually confined to the rubbish heap of history and the garbage bin of forgetfulness.
Unfortunately, throughout the history of The White World Order, the majority opinion has never been of the Thaddeus Stevens sort, and so, every effort has been made to delay the case for Black Reparations until the day when the excuse can now be offered that it has become an irrelevant issue because "TOO MUCH TIME HAS ELAPSED AND THE INJUSTICE HAPPENED TOO LONG AGO."
But suppose the criminal element of society learns from this lesson that CRIME can be made to benefit one's offspring as long as one can keep the case out of the court house long enough! If this lesson is taken as an example of what can be achieved by delaying the legal process, the criminal spirit is bound to be emboldened by the surety of such de-facto exoneration. But this has serious consequences in terms of the NON-ETHIC that it establishes, which is nothing less than "CRIME DOES INDEED PAY." What a contradiction for a people who profess to be anti-terrorists, a people who profess to be defenders of "freedom and democracy" and "law and order," and upholders of "values."
The true principles of justice demand that as long as it can be shown that there are beneficiaries of the crime, there must be compensation for the crime, and this is not a very hard task. In the "developed" Euro-American nations of today which were founded on robbery and slavery, every single advantage that is enjoyed over those peoples who were dispossessed and enslaved, is an advantage gained from such history. Whether it be the physical infrastructure of the nation, the advanced economic level of the nation or the advanced social services of the nation, they are all benefits which are enjoyed by the inhabitants of such developed nations because of the labors of millions of slaves and underpaid laborers FOR CENTURIES. Not only is their present "first-world" status a benefit that is derived from having slave labor in the formative stages of their economic development, but such "first-world" economies have also benefitted from centuries of draining the natural resources of the world's NON-WHITE peoples.
To put it in a nut-shell, as long as one is sheltered in the house that slaves built, one is benefitting from slave labor. The only way to escape this truth is to minimize the contribution of slave labor or to erase and distort history completely. This is the main reason why European history books describe ROBBERS as discoverers, and the victimized people as "savages", "cannibals" and "heathens." Such historiography is in the same vein as a CRIMINAL trying to cover up his tracks. If such covering up of tracks had not been done so successfully there would be no reason to have to argue the case for BLACK REPARATIONS today.
Whether they know it or not, the anti-reparations activists are really arguing that CRIME DOES AND SHOULD INDEED PAY. One only has to keep the case outside of the courthouse long enough till everyone agrees that the date of the crime is too far away.
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REPAIRING MINDS
THE PRIMARY TASK OF REPARATIONS
Now that the time has finally come when the issue of BLACK REPARATIONS can no longer be shunned, it is also time to look at the role of MIS-EDUCATION to see how its widespread presence could make Reparations payments nothing more than a windfall bonus with very little long term effect.
It cannot be denied that MIS-EDUCATION is one of the main legacies of slavery and colonialism. Out of the crucible of racial terrorism and mis-education, a certain mind-set was programmed in the newly cloned creature called "THE NEGRO." This mind-set was designed to benefit those that had enough money to buy Black people and snuff out their identity in THE SLAVE-BREAKING PROCESS.
It is this slavery-inherited mind-set, scientifically known as ACUTE NEGRO PSYCHOSIS, that presently chains the vast majority of "ex-slaves" to the worship of A WHITE GOD-HEAD, and it is very rare to find an "ex-slave" who has miraculously emerged from its influence. The worship of the white god-head has become so normal on the plantation that even those who do not hold on to church and religion are still faithful to the white god-head through their cherishing of the same value system, the same standard of beauty, the same philosophy, and the same ideology as the white slave owner. It would not be overly inaccurate to say that roughly 99 percent of all Black people today worship the white god-head, and this is a direct result of having been BROKEN IN, subdued, and DOMESTICATED by white slave owners. Even in the blackest strongholds where everybody in government is black and all the lawyers and judges are black, the god-head that is worshiped is still WHITE. If you know a peoples' standard of beauty, their standard of values, their choice of philosophy, and their choice of ideology, you can know what god they are praising and worshiping. The Black man and black woman only have to examine themselves on the basis of this criteria and they will know what color god they are truly worshiping.
The Slave Owner's mind-set has always been focused on keeping his slaves in their place of subservience under his control, so naturally when slaves share their owner's mentality they actually collaborate in their own oppression, and by their choices, show a mis-educated preference for their state of TOTAL DEPENDENCY.
When the light of Black selfhood and ROYALTY is snatched from one generation, the next generation is left with mentors who are bereft of the light. Three and four generations later, there comes a generation who have neither mother, father or grandparent to whom they may look for light. Total darkness is the outcome. That is the kind of darkness where even the Teacher and the Preacher have completely lost touch with their own sacred origins that house the wellspring of their true soul, and like self-rewinding tape recorders, all that they can repeat is that which was given to them in the white man's house. The darkness can become so thick that the people find themselves chained in all sorts of emotional confusion, spiritual confusion and even sexual confusion. Men become confused and are not comfortable with being men, and women start to hate being women. In the UN-SURENESS of such spiritual confusion and gender confusion, the very sacred act of sex itself becomes a Demon in search of satisfaction beyond its natural boundaries, and there are few to whom the confused may look for guidance on what is right and what is wrong, what is natural and what is unnatural. When a people reach a state where there is no longer any clear voice on what is right and what is wrong, when no one is sure of what is natural and what is unnatural, it can be said that people is wallowing in the piss of their slave master.
Black humanity has been degraded to such great depths by its long sojourn under the degenerate rule of Greco-Roman and Sodom and Gomorrah culture that when the judgment FIRE comes down on Rome there will be very few Black people that will not be burned. Under the steady and relentless influence of the decadence and depravity that emanates from the soul of U-rocentrick civilization, the spiritually orphaned generations have become spellbound in the grips of immorality. Such is the way of the continuing process of DEHUMANIZATION, and the shackles of immorality and decadence soon assume such a hold that The Slave Master no longer needs iron chains to bind his slaves. Every day their spiritual confusion will cause them to fashion more chains for themselves. This is the pit, the deep spiritual abyss from whence the souls of Black folks must now be dug if the glory of Black civilization is to shine again.
If the ultimate goal of the struggle for Reparations is only to put some more money in the pockets of Black folks so that they can survive more comfortably in the white man's house, the struggle would be meaningless to future generations. Without a Pan-African vision that has as its goal the establishment of BLACK NATIONHOOD with a restored concept of BLACK ROYALTY AND DIVINITY, the root of the problems that now face Black civilization cannot be rooted out. The truth must be faced that the problems are not only economic, political and cultural, but they are also spiritual in the sense of having been subjected to unnaturalness for so long that naturalness becomes an unwelcome stranger.
TRAPPED, domesticated and tethered for centuries to the stake of unnaturalness, the caged and domesticated creature is apt to lose its spiritual equilibrium and forget what is clean from what is unclean, what is right from what is wrong, and what is high from what is low. This is the condition of the "ex-slaves" in this time, sorely in need of something more than a political movement, something that involves the reshaping of character in the similitude of ROYALTY. As long as such spiritual confusion exists, the God of confusion will continue to reign in his cloak of red white and blue. There is just no way of escaping it, you cannot praise the same god as the slaver and expect to be delivered from the slaver. If there is no spiritual revolution, Africans can easily find themselves building a United States of Africa that is no different from the United States of America. The only difference would be oppressors in black faces.
TRAPPED in the mixed-up meditations of acute Negro psychosis , and TRAINED as they are to give their strength to their owners, Negroes would still not emerge from their present position of total dependency if REPARATIONS were awarded on an individual basis. A few may use the money wisely, but the vast majority will give it back to their owners, and this will always be the case while the SLAVE-MENTALITY still exists. Not only would the money filter right back to the slave master's house because of mental slavery, but also because THE BASIC STRUCTURE of the global economic system is geared to drain the victims of slavery and colonialism, not to secure their independence.
If REPARATIONS payments are not wisely focused on breaking the cycle of chronic dependency, then a mere fifty years from now the Black children of tomorrow will be no better off for it. They will still inherit the situation of this present generation where they are condemned to be BOYS FOREVER in a white man's world.
If it is to be true to its real purpose of resurrecting Black civilization from its grave of dehumanization and serfdom where it was interred by the forces of white racism, the focus of REPARATIONS must be on those linch-pins of economic and psychological dependency which continue to keep slavery intact long after so-called "emancipation".
The first and perhaps the most important of these unyielding cast-iron pins that keep slavery intact, is LACK OF CONTROL over the mind-manufacturing industry.
Slavery is a condition where the one enslaved has no control over his life. If someone else has control over the mind-manufacturing industry, one is essentially a slave in the controller's hands. This lack of control which was lost in the pit of slavery and colonialism, means that present-day Black civilization is still living in a white man's world.
What is the significance of the white man's ownership and control over the mind-manufacturing industry?
It means that as a Black parent, your child is not your own. Just like it was on the plantation of old, from the day that the Black child is born his mind is injected with the Negro blue-print. This means that he is instantly being programmed to think in a way that benefits the owners of the plantation and to the detriment of his own race. It is the presence of this Negro blueprint in the Black man's head which today causes him to collaborate in his own genocide. Removing this Negro blueprint must therefore be a central component of any REPARATIONS policy.
Without ownership and control of THE EDUCATION PROCESS, the minds of the newly compensated people would still continue to work against themselves in a way that would perpetuate their CHRONIC DEPENDENCY. "Ownership of the education process" should not be misunderstood as mere ownership and control of schools and universities, but also CONTROL OF THE THOUGHT PROCESS that sits within the books and the thought process that governs the television.
INTENSIVE effort backed by generous resources must be placed on The Project of Re-education. The people who have been mis-educated by the slave master to see themselves as separate peoples called Bajans, Trinidadians, Jamaicans, Afro-Americans, Ghananians and Nigerians, etc, must be re-educated to see themselves as integral states of ONE BLACK NATION. When it is recognized that artificial barriers of separate national identity were specifically created to facilitate control of the slave master's plantation, it will become clear that PAN-AFRICAN THINKING is the only life-boat for the drowning peoples of Africa wherever they are scattered. This new thinking can only be achieved if it becomes a priority on every school's agenda, and the bottom line of every church sermon.
The truth must be faced that the education system which was inherited from the Slave-master was designed to keep the plantation running on a more sophisticated level. Better and more highly skilled SERVANTS was the goal, and it is not an accident that THE EDUCATED CLASS of Blacks today are for the most part ORDERS-TAKERS. There is absolutely no way how the cycle of dependency and subserviency will be broken without the introduction of a new education system that has as its goal the development of AFRICAN NATIONHOOD in place of the present goal of Black servant-hood.
Seeing that the Black mind is still being invaded on all sides by the visions and ideas of the white man's house, its rehabilitation will call for the setting up of a vast and all-encompassing PAN-AFRICAN CENTERED education system. It must be realized that NATIONHOOD is first and foremostly AN IDEA which needs to be cultivated, and it could never have been cultivated in the past while the plantation was being run by white owners who wanted to keep Black slave hands tied to the plantation. When the idea of BLACK NATIONHOOD is not being cultivated in our present religious and education systems it is because such an idea will make slaves question their landless-ness and their powerless-ness. All the teachings, be they religious or otherwise, that have bound the allegiance of Black peoples to their separate estates in the plantation economy are complimentary to the global schemes of THE WHITE WORLD ORDER.
The United States of America is AN IDEA that had to be planted and cultivated, and it was cultivated essentially for the betterment of white civilization. Separate groups of Europeans were taught THE IDEA of the USA, and the idea was not considered inconsistent with their religion. It is only slavery-inherited religion that holds the vison of BLACK NATIONHOOD to be unimportant. The white man had the wisdom to know that his personal security and prosperity depended on the establishment of A COMMON NATIONHOOD with a land base. Those who are presently known as JEWS also knew that scattered as they were in minority positions all over the globe, they needed a central land base that made NATIONHOOD a reality, and hence they set up the state of Israel.
The Black man must ask himself,
Where is my vision of Black nationhood?
Is my slavery-inherited religion blocking my mind from seeing the necessity for Black nationhood?
Does my long-term security rest with the fragmented plantation identity?
Am I comfortable with my centuries-old task of building the white man's house?
Should I continue to invest my labors and my monies in the white man's house when it is getting bigger and richer from my labors while Africa is getting poorer and more dependent every day?
Am I satisfied with my dependent position in world affairs where every major decision in my life as a Black man must be made by a group of white men who cannot help being racist?
Is this the situation that I want future generations to inherit?
Am I contented with the island identity which the slave-master gave me so that I would remain a powerless satellite, always lingering on the outskirts of white prosperity?
None but the most drunken can fail to acknowledge the need to cultivate the idea of BLACK NATIONHOOD with the prospect of putting it into reality.
If white men can come together from all parts of U-rope and build their white strongholds, why should the Black man not be doing the same? why should the Black man continue to seek refuge in the white man's stronghold instead of building his own?
In this stage of the struggle to correct the damage of slavery and colonialism, one of the greatest opponents is the white high-tech mind-control system which dominates the movie industry and global communications. It is so powerful that the way how controlled people will be thinking fifty years from now can be plotted on a drawing board and then implemented without fail.
Therefore to cultivate this idea of BLACK NATIONHOOD, major funding must also be allocated for the development of an independent Black theater and movie industry devoted to THE BLACK RESURRECTION. When the word "BLACK" is clearly defined as that which is conscious and effective in its capacity to break chains, there will be no chance of such a venture coming close to the Blakspoitation movie genre where "Black" just meant putting a black face in place of a white face. Neither minds that are bleached white by the U-rocentrick aesthetic, nor minds that are bleached color-less by white-liberal education can create the groundwork which is necessary for Black independence and Black nationhood. More than enough time has passed under the influence of both forms of mind-control to show that such thinking ultimately perpetuates white domination.
In this project of repairing Black minds for the fulfillment of Black nationhood, it will not be enough to put financial resources into the building of schools, universities and movie studios, but paralleled with all this must also be funding for the type of scholarship that is necessary for producing Black-centered books and learning materials to fulfill A BLACK CURRICULUM
The building of any nation demands an education system that is centered within the struggles and ambitions of that nation. That is why the European education system has always been WHITE-CENTERED with a historiography that places slavers, colonialists, invaders and robbers at the center. The victims of the U-ropean project cannot correct their disadvantage or re-arrange their lives without an education system that is centered on their own historical perspective and national ambition. It must be BLACK CENTERED in order to be redemptive.
The importance of repairing Black minds has to be therefore seen as a major task on the REPARATIONS agenda, and success in this venture will determine whether generations fifty years from now or three hundred years from now will benefit from today's struggles for REPARATIONS. The work of breaking down the mental chains of white racism and colonialism has to be seen for what it is, the only key to unlock the dungeon of captivity. Without a break-through in these stubborn walls of mental slavery there can be no TRUE BLACK NATIONHOOD AND ROYALTY.
A STRONG BLACK HOME BASE.
In every land, the welfare of the individual is directly dependent on the welfare of the state and its ability to maintain a prosperous economy. Take for instance the welfare of the average European tourist. He is able to be a tourist because he comes from a country that has a sufficiently prosperous economy that allows him to have enough surplus income to go on tour. He has a HOME BASE that is strong economically. It is not an accident that within the tourist economy, most tourists are white and the servants are black. While the white tourist has a strong economic home base that enables him to have surplus income, the black servant has A BEGGING AND DEPENDENT HOME BASE that barely allows him survival wages. If on the continent of Africa or in the Caribbean the safety of a white tourist is threatened, he has a strong government back at home that will come to his assistance with guns blazing if necessary. On the other hand look at the predicament of Blacks in the USA, the UK, or any part of U-rope where they may be now exiled. They are subject to the worse treatment where they can be lynched and crucified on the cross of racism and there is no strong Black government that can forcefully intervene on their behalf.
A realistic look at the Black diaspora shows that wherever they are presently domiciled, their economic survival is totally dependent on the economic health of the dominant white U-ropean nations. In places like the Caribbean where they depend on tourism, Black survival depends on the white man having enough money to go on tours. If the white man tightens his belt, many black belts will have to be further tightened throughout the islands. In places like the U-ropean strongholds of the USA and the UK, if the white man is losing money and decides to close his factory, out goes Black survival through the window of job cuts.
Throughout the history of the Caribbean, national survival has always been very dependent on exporting labor to the white man's home in the US, the UK, and Canada. Economic survival has long been structured along the lines of the plantation where the Black villagers had to leave their homes and trek to their workplace in the Big House to scrub floors, wash clothes, clean yards and do the dirty jobs. There is total dependency on the white man's economic health, and that is reflective of a situation where a people have no prosperous home base of their own. If Africa was a prosperous home base, Blacks from all over the world would be migrating to Africa in search of work instead of trekking to the U-ropean capitals of the world where they are subject to the scourge of racial discrimination which can escalate at any time.
In the white capitals of power which are so racially charged from centuries of white racism, it is quite unlikely, and even ridiculous to imagine any form of meaningful Reparations to the minority Black populations, for the simple reason that it would create what would appear to the majority white population as the creation of a privileged minority class. If in these countries, Reparations were paid on an individual basis, the majority white population can be expected to lash out angrily at the DEFENSELESS Black minority who would appear to be gaining an unfair economic advantage. Remember Black Wallstreet
(see website http://www.littleafrica.com/opportunity/opprage.html "The date was June 1, 1921, when "Black Walstreet," the name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all-Black communities in America, was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites. In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours, a once thriving 36-Block business district in northern Tulsa lay smoldering--A model community destroyed, and a major African-American economic movement resoundingly defused.
The nights carnage left some 3,000 African Americans dead, and over 600 successful businesses lost. Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. As could have been expected the impetus behind it all was the infamous Ku Klux Klan, working in consort with ranking city officials, and many other sympathizers.")
If the issue of REPARATIONS is broken down into insular pockets of interest where the Afro-American has one agenda and the Caribbean people have another, and the Africans on the homeland have another, one should expect Willie Lynch to exploit the situation. A good look at the continent of Africa today demonstrates how eagerly Willie Lynch exploits differences. If Willie Lynch has his way again, REPARATIONS will be granted with a great show of outward magnanimity which will prove to be the biggest PR stunt of the ages. An end would be put once and for all on the complaints that U-rope did this and U-rope did that, but with insularity and mental slavery still rampant, Black people would find themselves in the same old hole as before, TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON THE WHITE WORLD ORDER.
MYOPIC VISIONS will be exploited and INSULARITY will be coopted in the same way that present day MIS-EDUCATION is being enlisted in the age-old business of COLLABORATIVE GENOCIDE.
What is at stake is the future of Black peoples worldwide, and barring a serious intervention of BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS, that future is as dim as it could ever have been. What kind of future will the Black visionaries of this time hold out for the salvation of the race? All the TRUE VISIONARIES have already pointed to BLACK NATIONALISM as the only means towards ending the scourge of being Black and totally dependent in a white man's world, and it should never be forgotten that racial harmony in the white man's strongholds has always depended on Black obeisance and Black subservience. The only hope for the Black race lies in its ability to get its act together on the continent of Africa. Little island satellites and little minorities are already being jettisoned by the onward sweep of history.
If the present agitation for Reparations is governed by a strong Black Nationalist commitment as it ought to be, priority will be given to establishing A POWERFUL BLACK HOME BASE as a means of securing the future of Blacks throughout the world. Greek thinking, U-ropean thinking, and insular thinking will have to give way to PAN-AFRICAN THINKING.
It is only from this WISE base of Pan-African thinking that the proper areas of NEEDED DEVELOPMENT will be identified. "NEEDS" will be seen as the abolishment of every single relic of slavery and colonialism which serves to perpetuate current BLACK DEPENDENCY, BLACK SUBSERVIENCY, AND BLACK DEHUMANIZATION.
To correct the slavery-inherited maladies, CONTROL AND OWNERSHIP must be restored to those that have been robbed and chained in dependency. As long as the Slaver still controls Black lands, Black resources, and the education process, he will continue to control BLACK LABOR AND BLACK MINDS.
To negotiate and implement this vision of Black Resurrection, A PAN-AFRICAN INSTITUTION should be established comprising of people's representatives from throughout the African diaspora and the African homeland. Similar to how the UN is structured with many subsidiary organizations, this institution should stand as an integral part of the now embryonic UNITED STATES OF AFRICA. This will enable negotiations to proceed on a GOVERNMENT TO GOVERNMENT level which offers a much better chance of bringing about the long-term betterment of African peoples than would an individual arrangement.
On a much broader level however, it must be recognized that this struggle for the long-term betterment of African peoples will prove to be a catalyst for change to the present global economic system. Further up the ladder of CONSCIOUSNESS, the question will have to arise, "What are the chances of turning a vampire into a vegetarian?" Can the proposed betterment of African peoples be achieved while the global economic system is structured on the same rapacious model as the plantation system? The answer to this question will show that for African peoples, the struggle to end racial discrimination will be very much linked to the struggle of all the world's poor to end the fundamentally parasitic nature of global capitalism. That cherished brainchild of old pirates and slave masters who always valued profit above human life has now become a Frankenstein out of control, imperiling the continued existence of all life irrespective of race, class or creed. Even the very earth and its endangered ecological system are now crying out because of the same economic policies that continue to put PROFIT first to the detriment of all life.
The magnitude of the problem is so great that it is going to take more than just a political solution, more than just an economic solution and more than just a religious solution, and the solution will not drop out of the sky. The leadership of THE BLACK RESURRECTION will have be of a quality that is seldom seen in today's human market place where the price of a man's soul has dropped so very cheap. Let the struggle for REPARATIONS become a uniting force that crystalizes the consciousness of AFRICAN NATIONHOOD. AFRICA AWAITS HER CREATORS.
August 2002
The Centuries-Old Vampire That "Romes"
Posted: Sunday, August 25, 2002
By Ras Jahaziel
When the arguments against Black Reparations are sifted and weighed in the balance, there is one overriding attitude that stands out like a centuries-old vampire that still refuses to die.
“Emancipation” did not kill him, “Civil Rights” did not kill him, Black national “Independence” did not kill him, and modern evangelism has not changed him. He still is a beast that views BLACK HUMANITY with malignant contempt. Even though he takes great care to cloak himself in righteous garments and often resorts to righteous pretense, he still cannot conceal the fact that his malignant contempt for Black humanity is still sticking to him as tight as his first birth-day suit.
This centuries-old vampire who has for so long roamed the plantation has ever shown by his words and his actions that in his estimation, Black life is not equal to other life. If the victims of a holocaust are white as in the case of “The Jewish Holocaust,” then no effort is spared in reminding the world that CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY have been committed. Monuments, commemorations and reparations are considered quite in order. But when the victims are Black as in the case of The African Holocaust, the vampire believes that they should be forgotten and dismissed as so much COLLATERAL DAMAGE. He even resents the use of the word “HOLOCAUST”in describing the Black experience at the hands of U-rope, and no matter how long he dips himself in religion he is still not convinced that the term “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” should be used when the victims are Blacks. His words and actions throughout history have long shown that “the vampire of malignant contempt for Black humanity” draws a firm line between “NEGROES” and HUMANITY.
So the truth has to be faced that the much boasted “civilization, and progress, and democratic values” are nothing but a transparent cloak disguising an unreformed vampire who is as arrogant, egocentric, self-deluded, and racist as he was in his formative years when he was not so concerned about disguises. This callous, insensitive and indifferent attitude towards the sanctity of Black life has always been common-place on HELL-PLANTATION, and it has become so “NORMAL” that it is like a pair of contact-lens that sit right on top of the eyes forming the vision of the viewer without being seen themselves.
Because of this vampire called “malignant contempt for Black humanity,” certain racist assumptions have become a sacrosanct foundation of thought permeating the psyche of “post-slavery” society. With the long indoctrination on these basic racist assumptions, it is little wonder that Black humanity is still seen in very much the same way as it was in the days of HELL PLANTATION when Black life was an expendable commodity that could be easily bought and sold. Long habit, long custom and long indoctrination have perpetuated the old attitude of “Work the slave to death and get another. The job is more important than the slave.” Of course today in this age of political correctness, that attitude is no longer prominently worn on top of the nose for everyone to see, but recent admission that the unparalleled brutality of black slavery is still not regarded as CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY shows that the old racist world-view has merely moved from spectacles to contact lenses.
The whole issue of REPARATIONS today is really a searching out of the soul to see how far our concept of “GOD” has evolved from the dark ages of barbarism, when “Christian” founding-fathers robbed, raped and butchered their fellow-man and then said “In the name of GOD, let us have a THANKS-GIVING DAY.”
The vampire, “malignant contempt for black humanity,” was the chief architect of that concept “GOD” which held that SLAVE MASTERS, SLAVE-CATCHERS, ROBBERS and INVADERS should be honored and glorified, while showing little concern for the people who put in the real hard work that created today’s first-world wealth.
Because of the resurfacing of the reparations issue, international morality and conscience are now being tested to their very core, and the moral authority of THE INHERITORS OF THE SLAVE-MASTER LEGACY is once more proving to be as bankrupt as it ever was. To honor COLUMBUS-invaders and slavers while denying that the Black experience at the hands of Europe meets the definition of CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, amounts to condoning the brutal robbery and enslavement of the African peoples. To hold this position IN THE NAME OF GOD is a profession of faith in a god who either condones crimes against humanity, or else he is being seen as a god who made the world’s non-white peoples on the same level as the chickens and goats and pigs which men slaughter every day with impunity thinking that “such lower life-forms were made “for the service of man.”
In these trying times when the mighty are waging war in the name of “RIGHT” it becomes most imperative that such long-standing concepts of “GOD” be re-examined, because if one’s concept of “GOD” is wrong, so too will be one’s concept of “RIGHT.” When racism has been truly abandoned as a guide for international policy, there will be a general willingness to accept certain basic truths which were hitherto not admitted.
Foremost amongst these truths will be the fact that somewhere in the darkness of our formative years, A CRIMINAL GOD-HEAD had enthroned itself in the spiritual seat of government. One of our great philosophers (Dr John Henrik Clarke) once said “ALL HISTORY IS CURRENT EVENT.” If at one stage of your history, your god condones and pardons terrorism, and every year you reaffirm the fact of his criminal nature by offering up thanks for the spoils, how will you escape the bloody scourge of terrorism at a later stage of that same history? If it is agreed that both the slave and the slaver all shared one common humanity, then in light of the extraordinary and UNPARALLELED barbarity that accompanied black slavery, it is fair to say that today’s leading “democracies” have been built on CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.
The only escape from such a conclusion is to argue that some of the builders were not humanity. And this is the question that the children of Africa are asking today, how can your democracy be valid, how can you be truly recognized as an enlightened civilization when you declare that some of your citizens have fore-parents that were “humanity” and some have fore-parents that were not?
Does such ideology not show that today’s generation is still worshiping the same god who yesterday condoned terrorism against the world’s non-white peoples on the grounds of their supposed “NON-HUMANITY?
This revelation automatically poses another question..........
How can the hands of present generations be free of the blood of past generations if they are still worshiping the same god-head that condoned terrorism against the world’s non-white people yesterday on the basis of their supposed NON-HUMANITY ?
If as a people we were not DOPED by the vampire of malignant contempt for Black humanity, the voice of reason would have long brought a change to the old world-views which concocted a god who stood on the side of the racist. It is funny how the same god that gets a people wealth and power can also blind them from seeing the precipice of their own making.
Demystifying The Issue Of Repatriation
REPARATIONS and REPATRIATION for the descendants of slavery and colonialism are two inseparable twins that hold between them the cornerstones for the formation of a new international morality. If one is stripped from the other, JUSTICE fails, and the evil slave-master triumphs once again. Without Reparations, repatriation is more likely to become the repatriation of the privileged.
One should never forget that once upon a time there was an argument amongst the slave-masters about what should be done with the slaves after Emancipation. Some said "Let us see to it that they will never be able to really OWN anything, because we cannot afford to let them become independent. Keep them so busy working that they will never have much time to think, and saddle them with debt so that they will never progress. They can stay here, but they will always be kept busy in the pursuit of powerless-ness." Some said "But we need to keep this place ALL WHITE, so let us bring in more Caucasians and pack these niggers on a boat and send them back to Africa bare-back and empty-handed the same way how they came." The descendants of slavery therefore find themselves today in a situation where the man that is tossing the coin is doing so on one condition "HEADS, I WIN, TAILS, YOU LOSE." Whichever way the coin falls, it represents the triumph of injustice.
There is no escaping it. Historical consciousness is the faculty that causes one's eyes to truly see. Without it, one is virtually blind. A knowledge that has no proper grounding in the trails and trials of the African experience under slavery and colonialism, is therefore like a branch disconnected from its roots. Such knowledge has to go beyond the mere assimilation of facts learned in college and university. It has to be empowered by THE PASSION FOR JUSTICE that naturally flows from an at-oneness with those that have long borne the white cross. From this level of spiritual attunement, one's eyes will then behold the truth that REPATRIATION IS MERELY A COMPONENT OF REPARATIONS. To teach otherwise would surely grant the ole slave-master much pleasure and satisfaction.
It should also be clearly understood that the same ole slave-master who raped Africa and enslaved her children is very much interested in maintaining his grip on stolen property. For this reason the people in Africa have to be kept smelling Hell, and to see to it that they never escape, certain educated Negroes have been put in charge to keep the profits from the plantation flowing smoothly. This is the neo-colonial situation that presently exists in Africa and the Caribbean where there is a Black majority totally dominated and controlled by white invisible minorities. When one is aware of this situation it becomes clear why, despite the appearance of outwardly Black governments, the movement of people has always been tightly curbed and restricted just as in the old days on Hell plantation. Speaking from personal experience as a Rastaman, I have on two occasions been denied the right to set foot on two different Caribbean islands. On neither occasion was I ever even asked my name. Just one look was all it took. On one of those occasions in 1975, I was restricted to the boat until it was ready to leave the harbor. On the other occasion in 1998 or thereabouts, I was taken off the boat, stripped of shoes and all personal belongings, and then held in a jail cell until the boat was ready to leave. All of this with no questioning. After that particular experience, I had the occasion to speak to a sympathetic white woman who was married to a Black Rastaman, and here is what she said: "I can understand your experience, because my husband (the Black Rastaman from another island) was only able to visit the island BECAUSE HE WAS WITH ME."
Now this is the Caribbean where all authority is visibly Black, but it is insightful in terms of the workings of the neo-colonial mentality. It explains why Repatriation has so far been only a vision yet to be materialized. A Caucasian can travel anywhere in the world without let or hindrance. Check the same scenario in this excerpt from a lecture by Haile Gerima the famous Ethiopian film producer of the movie "Sankofa":
"I went to Ethiopia to quickly record as I was doing pre-production for BBC, the documentary film I did for BBC called Imperfect Journey. And here I was with this Niagara, not a new Niagara recorder and I felt I should record my uncle with good equipment instead of what this brother is trying to record with. I felt it was important archival material. When I got to Ethiopia the customs office, they were all these privileged European people with their privileged white trust fund skin in front of me. They went through with all their computers and cameras and here I was with my -- you know, Ethiopian citizen but illegal still in the actual context of transactions in airports. I'm illegal in every airport. I'm not complaining.
It makes you connect. That's when you know you're like the Pakistanian, the Indian, because in London you look around, you're kept -- you know where you belong and language is not important, just you know where you are on this planet. And it's educational. But, any how, here I was, excited with this equipment going to go through this customs and I was stopped. Also an Ethiopian guy with me was also a filmmaker, his machine was taken and mine was taken.
Here I was, when I was supposed to go to the village for the time period I have, I'm at the Custom's office stranded trying to liberate the equipment. I stayed there trying to fight for a whole week, two weeks doing nothing and my relatives are all in Ghanda. So, I just left it and visited friends and took some pictures and got back in the airport and then they handed me my Niagara to take it out. Now, that is not explainable in any logic. I just want you to keep that in mind. It will connect somewhere. That's why most people don't know how to follow my movie.
My thought processes is a very primitive and organized thought process. So, here again, I come back to Ethiopia with now what we call the 'White Visa'. I had my white people from England. I made sure I had three white people in front of me, and I went through the visa and immigration and customs, straight without any problem through their power. I went through every check point in Ethiopia just fronting them in the Land Rover. I made them look like they were the boss, though they were my employees. And the driver always has to have a white person in front of him at every check point. The driver has to quickly point "_________, ________," the new World Bank IMF power. And the government has told everybody, don't stop (foreigners) don't mistreat them, give them everything, don't stop them.
So here I am going any where I wanted to go with this power, armed with this power. Went to every dungeon and made my film. I recorded people who are afraid for their life, hidden in a covert way. And left. We tried in Ethiopia and that is to interview the president. The president refused to be interviewed by me although he is accessible to every beginning white filmmaker that I met who were there from Germany, Holland and. They always say, "We like your film. And I hope I can work with you." But they are in charge of my country. And I always ask them to do me a favor, to get me around."
There are two things that neo-colonial governments despise most, poor people and culturally conscious people.
It has long been known to the wise, and to those that have been put in charge of the neo-colonial system in Africa, that "ONE POOR PLUS ONE POOR EQUALS TOO POOR." What this really says is that if one repatriates without ever breaking the cycle of persistent poverty here, one is more likely to be considered an additional burden on reaching there. That is why no head of state is ever willing to permit large-scale immigration of more poor people. Even between neighboring states in Africa, immigration authorities have been placed in the road to prevent the influx of MORE POOR PEOPLE. Every place where you go in the so-called third world or developing world today, in every harbor and every airport there is an invisible sign saying "WE DON'T WANT NO MORE POOR PEOPLE HERE." In smaller writing there is another that says "and conscious people are not welcome either, because they are potential threats."
This brings us to the real truth that THE EDUCATED NEGRO IS THE MAIN BARRIER TO BLACK PROGRESS. He has been placed in a comfortable position by invisible puppeteers who are very skilled in the art of pulling strings. Whether he does it consciously or unconsciously, the educated Negro is generally a facilitator in the centuries -old project of Black exploitation. His greatest concern is to keep his personal safe place secure, and by his actions, he displays a greater kinship with the white exploiter.
When REPARATIONS and REPATRIATION are examined under the clear microscope of consciousness, one will see that their full attainment will only come after serious revolutionary changes in the present status quo. Moses has to take the message to the powers that be, and the foundations have to be shaken so severely that little puppet heads will roll. This is not to say that everyone should sit patiently and wait for the earthquake. A concerted effort should still be made meanwhile to attain some level of poor people's empowerment, for as Marcus Garvey once said, a people without real power will always be a people without respect. This is why after so many years in the Caribbean where the Rasta people are the poorest, they are still the least respected and the most oppressed.
This brings us to the most current issue that the conscious people should be addressing ...the issue of self-empowerment or poor-people's empowerment. When a people have been robbed of their land and its natural resources, the only other resource that is available to them is THEIR NATURAL CREATIVE TALENT. If these talents have not been fully developed and mobilized, such people will forever continue to spend their lives laboring to make the slave-master rich. Even those few talents that they have discovered will continue to be exploited by others.
In the absence of REPARATIONS, this development and mobilization of the people's creative talent-base would have to precede Repatriation. Where this has not been done, REPATRIATION will be nothing more than the movement of a people who have been able to serve the slave-master long enough to BUY their freedom of movement. And it ought to be considered that the slave-master has set up his system in such a way, that by the time you bow and serve him long enough to buy your freedom, your mind is no longer much different to his. If such people are repatriated to Africa, they will quite easily keep silent and non-involved in the struggle for justice there. They will betray the down-trodden, and by their non-involvement, make common cause with Africa's neo-colonial stooges. By attaining the presently required financial resources, such repatriates would have achieved something that is almost impossible for the average African to achieve. It is not good to be viewed as an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty. In places like Nigeria, such Black achievers usually live behind large iron gates with guards at the door, and high walls with barbed wire strung on top.
True Repatriation must therefore be accompanied by a total revolutionary change in the African social, political, and economic system that allows prosperity to be more broad-based. Otherwise, repatriation will be just a matter of RELOCATING HELL.
Apocalyptic doctrines should never be allowed to put common sense to sleep. Those that step in the right should never be guided by fear. Each one must ask themselves, "What is my particular role in this battle to lift Black humanity from the dust of disadvantage, scorn, and perpetual servitude? What are my unique talents, and how can they best be utilized to accomplish these goals in this generation?" When these questions are properly answered, everyone will know what his or her divinely-appointed station is in this final battle to restore the right. Some may be called sooner than others to make the journey now to help spread the light of consciousness, with the full knowledge that they will be opposed by Black oppressors. Others may have to fight in the lands of the white oppressors to give more power to the truth by galvanizing a movement similar to the days of the civil-rights movement.
Whether Hell is in the east or in the west, it is still Hell, so the battle will remain the same in either place. When this consciousness comes home fully, one will not be motivated in one's efforts to repatriate by the feeling that one is making an escape for a safe place. On the contrary, one will be relocating with the full knowledge that one is moving into place to take over the baton of struggle from the likes of Haile Selassie, Muguabe, Mbeki, Mandela, Steve Biko and all those who fought to bring Africa this far from the clutches of colonialism. The struggle for African liberation must now be taken to its ultimate conclusion, and that is the task that has been prepared for this generation.
Seeing that white-skin preference and rich man preference still overshadow the doors of return, it should be plain to see by now that there are a few righteous steps that must be taken if REPATRIATION is to come anywhere close to the idea of GOING TO ZION.
THE STEPS THAT MUST BE TAKEN FOR REPATRIATION TO MEAN GOING TO ZION
The battle to regain economic independence as a group must start now. This could be said in another way: The battle to regain African manhood must start now. The reason why this battle is so very much connected to spiritual integrity is that it ushers in a generation who can speak fearlessly without wondering if they will lose their jobs.
Because of long DOMESTICATION and continued subjugation under a rigorous slave system that was designed to benumb the soul, many slave descendants know nothing about their own creative talents, and many doubt that they even have them. Therefore most of their waking hours are spent in the mundane activities that have been prescribed by the slave-master for the purpose of suffocating and stifling the genie within. Every effort has to be made therefore to uncork the bottle and let out the genie(us). This is a process that should start from the very first arrival of true consciousness. Because of this reorganization of self, the Zion train will be carrying GENIUSES, well equipped and well prepared to do the work of rebuilding Zion. If you have already discovered your talent, no effort should be spared in sharpening, polishing, and shining it, so that it reaches its full potential. What ought to emerge from this process is a group of people, who despite their origins in the dust of society, have secured by their collective and individual works, that measure of respect that the world will have to recognize. This is a mission that is achievable. Marcus Garvey showed us how.
The people's creative talent is a yet un-UN-DEVELOPED TREASURE. It is a treasure that has been buried by slavery, and it is now kept in a coma by the mundane day to day chores of slave life. It has to be developed and mobilized to generate the kind of power that will command respect. Not only will it provide spiritual and material wealth, but it will also break the yoke of the 9 to 5 slave-master.
When this awakening has taken place, no one will have to be convinced about the essential role of I-NITY, NETWORKING, AND COOPERATION. The present blindness only happens because of faith in the pay-check.
The wide scattering of the people must also be turned into an asset, for it can be made to facilitate product-distribution which is so vital in the capitalist system. If this network is not developed, the present trend will continue where OTHERS are the main sellers and therefore the main profit-makers. Right in our midst, there are products that can be made to benefit more than just a few, but their full potential has not been realized because the words COMPANY AND CORPORATION are still believed to have been copy-written and reserved exclusively for the white man.
This is the time to make manifest THE PEOPLE OF POWER.
And while this vital NATION BUILDING project is being implemented, the battle for Reparations must be waged unceasingly, for that is the only way to resurrect justice from the dead. By struggling for Reparations, one draws closer to the heart of those countless numbers of African ancestors who were brutalized, worked to death, and buried like dogs, who now sit on the other side anxiously awaiting the restoration of their humanity. In effect, what one will be doing by whole-heartedly embracing the struggle for Black reparations is DEMONSTRATING THAT THE BLINDNESS IS OVER, AND NOW ONE CAN TRULY SEE. No generation can claim that their humanity is fully recognized and respected while the humanity of their ancestors is denied and neglected. UP, ye mighty people, you can conquer whatsoever you will.