Category: Columnists

That which hatred does, compassion can undo

The past two weeks I have written on the Trayvon Martin case. I did so for two reasons. One, the matter exposed the racist underbelly of American society. By extension, this episode warns that racism permeates all aspects of social and political-economic interaction Black people have, even among themselves. Global history has been unduly colored by racism; that morose legacy remains alive. The international political economy is more a product of racial competition than one of racial harmony. Much like Trayvon suffered on the isolated sidewalk in a small Florida town, to be Black is to be a potential victim in danger of being deemed the perpetrator of his own demise. Our color makes us an eyesore to others and thus harmful to ourselves because of the reaction of others to us. As it is with individuals so it is with us as a people and with our nations.

The second reason was that Martin’s tragedy lifted the veil covering a human dilemma even more fundamental than racism. In almost every population, from the smallest, humblest village to large, prosperous nations, there are people who would rather lord over others than allow each to live as they should. As there are those of us who desire the dignity of freedom and independence of thought and action, there is a countervailing element. This element would rather enchain your mind, body or both. People of this ilk seek to bend your will to fit their designs. If your will refuses to bend, they resort to breaking your body. These people will neither stop nor ever question their need for dominion. They only will question why you resist them. This struggle is age-old and endless. It shall exist as long as mankind exists. It exists between races as well as within the races. Oppression is unfortunately versatile to a fault. It often takes the form of racism. But it can be colorblind. It can found itself on religion, ethnicity or on the amount of money in one’s pocket.

Sadly, those who seek dominion over others spend inordinate time acquiring power then maintaining it so that they may perfect their schemes over others. We pray that we are governed by angels but history warns us to be prepared for the opposite. The man who lusts to have a gun, control an army, rule a land, or own the economy is more apt to use these instruments against your best wishes than to help you realize those wishes. Oppression of others is as much a human characteristic as breathing and eating. As long as this world exists, we are one bad turn from a loss of freedom if not of life. To be a person in this world is to be ever vigilant or a victim.

This sounds gloomy. Here I confess a recent comment from a reader struck me. The commenter remarked my columns made him feel sad, as if hope had fled. The comment touched me to the extent that it became the impetus to what you now read. My writing tends to focus on tough issues and do so starkly. I do this not because I am forlorn or to deprive anyone of hope. My goal lies to the contrary. If I were devoid of hope and of the belief that people could have a better life, I would not expend my time in the futile exercise of writing. I would direct my energy toward other things that bring a more selfish profit. But I direct my efforts as I do because I hold the dearest hope for our people and for all of humanity. I believe the common person can face the swelling tide of power, arrogance and hatred yet withstand the awful might of these worldly, awful things. The odds say the poor and average should fold and break at encountering the great onslaught of wealth and power. Yet, I believe there is something that allows us to survive the odds and the powers arrayed against us. There is some thing that stops evil and wrong from claiming total victory. We survive the dark assault that we may join together in common, humane cause to claim a brighter day and just future.

The great thing in which I invest my belief, I know as God. My Muslim and Arabic brothers call him Allah. He is known by other names in other languages and religions. I believe he wants as many of us to escape from perdition and destruction as is possible. Thus, we battle against those things that would drag us in the wrong direction or crush us between the pestle and mortal of hard experience.

To believe in something higher and truer than our mortal selves is to believe we can reclaim our frail mortal beings from the grasp of the powers that would trammel us from reaching better ground.

I write not to break your spirit or resign you to the graveyard. That is as far from my intention as east is from west. I write to warn and awaken you. In times of war and battle, a slumbering man is a corpse in prospect. Ignorance is bliss only for the dead or already defeated. If you have hope and fight left in you, ignorance is as grave an adversary as the armed enemy itself. I write to warn and bestir your mind and passions so that you are sufficiently roused to fight and claim that which by virtue of being human is inherently yours. If perchance anything I have ever written has led you to take a step toward the pit of despair, forgive me for it means my pen has failed in its mission.

To any one whom any of my writings have lead to despondency, I ask that you discard the shrunken-feelings and revive your spirit. Our race, our people have great tasks ahead. There is no room for sadness or space for despair in the curative, collective endeavor we must undertake. We must go forward in the spirit that we live to live more fully despite the powers aligned against us.

In all that I have written, I have tried to sound this warning not to douse your spirit but to arouse it. Sometimes, a topic may anger you. This is good because rightful anger in correct proportion can be a tonic for a people caught so long in stupor’s web. Sometimes a piece may bring some sadness, but that is not to induce a defeated spirit but to make you aware how far things have fallen from their proper place.

A great storm has passed but it is not for you to relax. A greater storm approaches. Those who are not ready shall be swept aside. Each generation and each epoch has its own special characteristics and struggles. Some are times of peace. Some are times of learning and enlightenment. Some are times where little takes place as if history has reached a standstill. Yet, some are times where so much occurs that it seems fate and history never sleep. Some are times not of peace but of war and strife. We live in such a time.

The harshest wars are not always sword against sword, army against idea. At times, the most trenchant wars are those of idea against idea, vision against contrary vision. These are not battles pitting corporeal army against army but are struggles pitting the mind and spirit of enlightenment against those invested in inequity and wrong. Today, we exist in an age where affluent privilege seeks to drive all others toward penury and the socio-political subjugation penury ascribes.

We live in an age where technology and science allows man to do his best for his fellow man. Poverty, disease, hunger and many scourges that have plagued us can be decimated due to the advances in human knowledge. Unfortunately, our moral advance has not kept apace. Worst, not only has it lagged behind, the morality of the political economy has strayed far. Morally, we have entered an age as selfish and uncaring as any prior to it.

Poverty is rife though there is enough food to feed the planet. Water is being hoarded to profit some while the livelihoods and lands of many are being desiccated. People in whose families land has existed before recorded time are being dispossessed. The urban poor and working class are being pushed to the limits of their endurance.

Almost everywhere on the planet the powers of elite conservatism are on the loose, swallowing everything they can then blaming the victims for allowing themselves to be consumed by the merciless processes of a global political economy resentful of most of its inhabitants.

We write not to bring to tearful resignation but to incite the maiden stirrings of renewed struggle.

As Black people and Africans you must realize war is being made upon you. Thus, you will do well to wage your own war back against it. It is not necessary that you call the war upon yourself. War does not just come to the eager and willing. It more often falls on the weak, tired and unsuspected. To claim foul and unfairness will do little good; those that wage war against you will continue with greater relish the longer you ignore the reality of our situation. In America, Black people face resurgent racism. Trayvon’s case shows you can be killed in the middle of the street and your assailant be deemed the victim. Meanwhile, voting rights protection is being swept away. Black poverty and unemployment have escalated to Depression–era levels. That all this takes places under the first Black president only makes the caper sweeter for those effectuating it. American Blacks are being scammed of their hard won yet meager victories yet are mostly ignorant of the massive confiscation being enacted against them.

Meanwhile, Africa undergoes similar assault. The historic forces that detest Black America hold similar content for Black Africa. Thus, rural land is being gulped by international agro-business while food prices climb as do poverty rates. The global economy demands Africa open its markets to international trade but the markets of established nations remain closed to the new types of trade that will assist Africa’s necessary industrial development. If we continue in this way, we will forever remain the lowest rung of the world economy yet they will tell us to be glad with the progress we are making. It will be true that we mark progress. However, that progress will be owned by others and not ourselves. The more we work and do as they say, the richer they become and the poorer you grow. During the coming decades, our commodity prices, especially oil, will stagnate or even lower in real terms. Our population and misery shall be the two things that are sure of rapid growth.

Despite the talk of a world waiting for Africa to development, the world invests more heavily in Africa’s underdevelopment. As in the colonial era, the global economy will establish several outposts on the continent. These places will experience growth and dynamism. But it will not be growth based upon the growth intrinsic to Africa. These outposts will grow to the extent that they mimic how the global economy extracts Africa’s wealth from Africa. You will be told to look at these places as examples of what can be done for Africa when the reality is more akin to look at the harm being done to Africa.

Again, this is why I write. I write to warn you of the war that comes dressed as a friend and that speaks the language of development. I write that you will know the powers with which we must contend and that you understand their strategies, tactics and wiles. This generation must do its best to lighten the burden of five centuries of pain endured by Africa and her children who have been scattered to the four winds. I write that the old sun might set on our broken state and that a new sun may rise on our dreams for equality and justice. As long as I sense malign forces seeking to harm us, I shall write as I do. I hope that you continue to read as you have.

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