Dependence and independence

15th June 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

In a couple of weeks, Americans will celebrate the nation’s 239th birthday. For many, the July 4th observance took on added significance in the years since 2001’s terrorist attacks in NYC and the so-called war on terrorism. But for some, the Fourth of July is a glaring example of the disparity between the realities of living in America and what this nation professes to be.

For Africans in America, Fourth of July celebrations have always been tempered with sobering reflection and debate which is understandable given the nation’s historical and ongoing treatment and mistreatment of people of color. While Africans in America honor the United States as the land where so many of our ancestors fought, bled and died for freedom, we know that it is also the land that has exacted a steep price from people of color for the “privilege” of remaining in this nation. After all, the independence so enthusiastically celebrated annually on July 4 has come at the expense of Black, red, brown and yellow peoples, both here and abroad.

In that spirit, I have to ask: Do you know where your shackles are?

While Black people have demonstrated an unwavering loyalty to and love for this nation, it is a love that has been for the most part unrequited. We have gone to war after war after war to prove our love and loyalty to this nation, only to return to bigotry, scorn, discrimination and racial violence at the hands of our white countrymen.

No matter how you slice it, the reality is that the Fourth of July isn’t half as significant for Africans in America as it is for the Europeans who call America home.

That doesn’t mean we’re any less patriotic. Just that our experience in this land has been dramatically different than that of white Americans.

Over the course of this nation’s history, we have repeatedly heard that the majority rules. Since for the greater part of this nation’s relatively short history the majority has been European, that hasn’t been much of a cause for concern for the larger society. But as we roll on in the 21st century and see the populations of brown, black, red and yellow peoples increase while the number of white Americans subsides, it will be interesting to see how this unchallenged rule plays out.

In the years since George W. Bush won a questionable presidential race and President Barack Obama was elected to the highest office in the land, we have already begun to see the illusion of “fair elections” starting to unravel.

Occasions like Thanksgiving Day and Independence Day invariably prompt me to think at length about this nation’s muddled history and how the story of how this nation came to be has not yet been fully told. Especially in the nation’s schools — private and public — where all too often we get a decidedly Eurocentric view of world and United States history. While we hear about European explorers like Marco Polo, Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus, we aren’t presented with much information about the death and destruction that followed them.

As many have pointed out, the golden rule in the Western Hemisphere has long been that he who owns the gold makes all the rules. Napoleon once said that “history is a fable agreed upon.” Agreed upon by the rich and powerful. While some episodes may be irretrievably lost to us, you can be fairly certain that the men writing the history of this nation for prosperity lost very little sleep over the fact that women and people of color were intentionally written out of American history. It was as if we never existed or never contributed anything of merit to this society.

We, of course, know better.

Still, judging from the attitudes of some members of the larger society and this nation’s continued oppression and subjugation of people of color and women, there is still not a high premium placed on humans who are blessed with melanin and/or ovaries.

While a significant portion of African America does not deny the greatness and power of this nation, many people of color do object to so little credit being given to Native Americans, Africans, Asians and others for the building of the United States. Some of the things that made this country great were taken from us (i.e., labor, freedom, citizenship, life, pursuit of happiness) while we voluntarily agreed to defend this nation and its people in every war since the French and Indian War.

When mainstream historians talk about how the West was won, seldom do they give the legendary Buffalo Soldiers the credit these courageous and selfless warriors so richly deserve. Nor do we hear enough about the scorn, discrimination and ridicule Black soldiers endured for daring to serve in the United States Armed Forces in the 20th century.

Some of us have made the mistake of thinking that if we get enough money, education and professional success everything will be alright. But these goals, however laudable, cannot completely shield us from the scourge of bigotry, racial enmity and oppression. Every now and then, racism rears its ugly head and reminds us of our “place” in the world.

More than two centuries after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this nation is still not prepared to own up to past mistakes and missteps.

Anyone who doubts this need look no further than the controversy surrounding the descendants of Thomas Jefferson, one of the primary architects of the United States Constitution and the American Dream. Some 200 years after his passing, his African descendants are still fighting for respect and inclusion.

The real reason America refuses to apologize for slavery is because issuing an apology implies guilt and this nation has never voluntarily relinquished any of its power or authority. We would be wise to remember Frederick Douglass’ observation that “power concedes nothing without a demand; it never did and it never will.”

Two dates loom magnanimously in the hearts of many Blacks in the U.S. December 31, which Blacks often refer to as Freedom’s Eve because of its historical connection to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and June 19, or Juneteenth, the date when federal troops informed enslaved Africans in Texas of the abolition of slavery in the United States.

One thing we should always remember is that we live in the United States of America and have the right to honor our African ancestors in any shape, form or fashion we deem appropriate. We don’t need the federal government or any institution or entity to give us permission to remember and pay homage to those who came before us who dedicated their lives to freeing African minds, bodies and spirits from oppression and tyranny. We need to start thinking and acting like a free people.

Even if we had never been granted a MLK holiday by the government, we still needed to find a way to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and all the others who fought, bled and died for our freedom. We still need to remember Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X, Martin R. Delany, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washing­ton, Carter G.Woodson, Ida B.Wells-Barnett, Mary McCleod Bethune, Mary Church Terrell, Nat Turner, Asa Philip Randolph, John Henrik Clarke, George Washington Carver, Elijah Muhammad, Huey P. Newton, Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael) and all the freedom fighters to whom we owe such a colossal debt.

We can never repay them but we can and must remember them.

We need to remember the March on Washington, Million Man March, Harper’s Ferry, the 1811 Louisiana Slave Revolt and all the other important dates that mark the history of Africans struggling in America for the right to be.

We need not be bashful or apologetic about telling our own story, in our own words and from our own unique perspective.

Make no mistake about it, this is a great country. But from the very beginning a conscious effort was made to conceal the pivotal role Blacks played in making American inhabitable and a global force to be reckoned with. America could be so much better if it could ever find a way to put aside the hatred, treachery, parsimony, duplicity and inequities of the past, if this nation could somehow find a way to get past skin color. America could be so much better if it could move beyond racial tolerance (who wants to be merely tolerated?) and into a realm of interracial understanding, intercultural exchange and cooperation. This nation could be so much better if all of its inhabitants could only commit to walking the path of righteousness together as equal members of the human family.

This article originally published in the June 15, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.