The
journey toward
Freedom
continues despite
the
crushing setbacks.
January
15, 2014 marked what would have been the Honorable Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. ‘s 85th birthday. His
prolific life as a United States freedom fighter and international peace
activist was cut short when he was slain by an assassin’s bullet on April 4,
1968 at the age of 39. As the nation
and indeed the world pause to commemorate Dr. King’s legacy, I can’t help but
wonder what he would say about the condition of Blacks in America if he were
alive today.
I
can only just imagine. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela are sitting
by the pearly gates in heaven, drinking elixirs of milk and honey, as they
ponder the current state of affairs on planet earth. Frederick Douglass, wearing headsets and
bopping his head to the rhythms he’s listening to, walks up on the conversation.
Fred removes his headsets, starts shaking hands with the brothers. “Hey Martin,
Malcolm, Mandela. What are you guys talking about? You’re all looking so
intent. Why so serious? ”
“Well,”
said Martin, “It’s my national holiday in the United States, not to mention
just last August was the 50th anniversary of the historic March on
Washington where I delivered my monumental
‘I Have a Dream Speech.’ And you know, it’s somewhat ironic, that with
all the progress we made in an effort to eradicate the Jim Crow laws of the
1950s and 60s, Black Americans today have been confronted with some crippling
stumbling blocks that tear at the very core of Civil Rights. Even with all the
progress that’s been made, especially with the election of President Barack
Obama, there’s still so much more work to be done.”
“I
hear what you’re saying,” observed Malcolm. “Who would have thought it would be
possible for a Black man to occupy the White House? Yet President Barack Obama
was not only elected once but was re-elected for a second term.”
“Truly
amazing, even for me to grasp such a fact, although I myself became the first
Black President of South Africa, after suffering so many indignities, being
imprisoned for more than a quarter of a
century,” remarked Mandela. “Look at where we are today. Look at the world’s
realities. Look at how things were when I took my last breath and made
transition in 2013. Look at all the
effects of globalization. Take a look at
the unceasing institutionalized racism. Even with progress, you still must
acknowledge the negative impact on Africans throughout the Diaspora.”
“Well,”
said Frederick Douglass, “I can certainly relate. I recently re-read my own
historic speech, ‘The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,’ which I delivered
at Rochester, New York in 1852. In my speech I argued ‘the wrongfulness of slavery’ and how, with all its
injustices, it was impossible for Blacks to honor the hypocritical so called
‘July Fourth Day of Independence.’ And you know what? I’m inclined to agree
with the lyrics of the modern day rapper Kanye West on his new single, ‘New
Slave.’ I was just listening to it as I walked up on you brothers, and I mean,
he really makes a point. With all the entrapments of the so-called good life,
these millionaire rappers, big time athletes, they all must accept that on some
level, Blacks are still in slavery. “
“Man, I couldn’t agree with you more,”
said Malcolm. “And even though the point wasn’t explicit in Kanye’s lyrics, you
must also acknowledge that slavery for Blacks still exists, especially when you
consider the prison industrial complex. I was just reading this book by
Michelle Alexander. If you haven’t already, you must read this book! It’s
called “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
Sister Alexander is a brilliant legal scholar. She makes an undisputable
argument that today’s mass incarceration of Blacks in the United States has
significantly undermined the gains of the Civil Rights Movement.
During an interview on National Public
Radio with Dave Davies, she makes the case that ‘People are swept into the
criminal justice system – particularly in poor communities of color – at very
early ages…typically for fairly minor, nonviolent crimes. [The young Black
males are] shuttled into prisons, branded as criminals and felons, and then
when they’re released, they’re relegated to a permanent second-class status,
stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement – like
the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of legal
discrimination and employment, and access to education and pubic benefits. Many
of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the
Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you’ve been branded a felon.’”
"So true," echoed Mandela.
“Now brothers, I know these realities
hurt you. They hurt me to my heart too,” said Martin. "I’m certainly not blind
to the fact of what’s going on. It tore my heart out to see how that young man,
Trayvon Martin, a defenseless unarmed
teenager, was gunned down in cold blood by George Zimmerman. And then to
witness the mockery of the American justice system as Zimmerman was acquitted
of the murder – allowed to walk free. Reminds me of how Octavius Catto was
similarly gunned down in Philadelphia in 1871 at the age of 32 and how his
admitted murderer was also acquitted.
And then I was thinking about the disappointing Supreme Court Rulings
that threaten the Voting Rights Act, and the massive public school closings in
Black urban areas across the Unites States. All of these realities hurt.
“But we’ve got to send some
encouragement down to our soldiers in the trenches. We’ve got to give them some
faith, some inspiration. These are dark times, but there’s light ahead.
Progress is being made. Children are being educated. Powerful dreams are coming
true, things are happening we never even could have imagined. Barriers are
being broken down. But the positive accomplishments aren’t being publicized. So
my brothers, I must encourage you to cling to everything that motivated you to
make the great strides that you made while you were down there on the ground.
Use your superpowers as ancestors to guide the actions of those who are still
down there, fighting the good fight. And in the words of this simple
three-line,17-syllable Haiku, remember that:
‘The journey toward
Freedom continues despite
the crushing setbacks.'"
Asante Sana. Peace and Blessings
Always.
