The Hard Truth…The ESSENCE of the problem

8th July 2013   ·   0 Comments

By Min. J. Kojo Livingston
Contributing Writer

It’s all related.

The Essence Fest, a white-owned cultural event for Black people, starts kicking out Black local vendors to allow white corporate giants to take over.

The U.S. Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act, claiming that racism is dead.

George Zimmerman becomes a hero to many by stalking and killing an unarmed Black teenager…and the list goes on.

These and other offenses may seem unrelated, but there is a common thread that runs through them all. That thread connects the cultural and economic overthrow of Essence magazine and its Fest with the legal/political attack by the Court with the physical slaughter and media offensive against Trayvon.

That thread, the ESSENCE of how Blacks are treated in every area of life in these United States and elsewhere is white supremacy, the systematic pursuit of white dominance over everything and everyone on earth and elsewhere. White supremacy transcends politics, economics, religion and culture. In the U.S. it permeates every institution, business or system.

You don’t have to be white to practice white supremacy. In fact, the triumph of white supremacy is when people of other races accept and adopt that philosophy as their own. Blacks who enslave or sellout other Blacks are a prime example of this, however it would be foolish and dishonest to ignore that we all have been indoctrinated by this system from birth. Brown, red and yellow people have the same issue to varying degrees.

The challenge for us is to recognize and purge ourselves of the mental, emotional and spiritual infection of white supremacist thought and to dismantle the system by withdrawing our support from it.

You see, the number 1 thing that keeps white supremacy alive and kicking is Black/Afrikan people. Stolen land, stolen natural re­sources, stolen culture, stolen religions and stolen people have made this worldwide system what it is today.

Other groups have been exploited also, but no other group has proven as useful to the cause of white dominion, because no other group in history has been robbed of and made to hate its own identity the way we have. This self-hatred causes us to accept treatment that no self-respecting group or individual would accept and do things that no self-loving people would even consider.

What Essence, the Supreme Court and George Zimmerman all have in common is that they all agree that the Dred Scott decision is still in effect: A Black person has no rights that a white (or other) person is bound to respect.

This disposition is not based on morals or ethics, it’s based on the notion that we lack the collective WILL to generate consequences. They know that we have enough people, money and brains to make anyone pay for screwing with us. They also know that, like a trained lion or elephant, we are not likely to use our real power against our enemies or for our own best interests.

Truth is, Essence, the Court and the Trayvon murder all deserve a harsh, strategic, protracted response from Black people. We should view every attack or challenge as an opportunity to educate our people, rally our power and improve our position on this earth.

How can we do this? How can YOU do this, starting immediately?

I’m glad you asked! That’s exactly what we will deal with next week, but I’m sure you have some ideas of your own.

As racists get bolder and more aggressive, we will be forced to either unite and advance or sit and face a worse situation than we have ever before seen in history. Either way, it’s our choice.

STAR — Stand Together And Rise!

This article originally published in the July 8, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.