Modern-Day Slave Plantations and Quarters?
Let’s start with the following three questions/premises:
1. If far too many Blacks are not signing their own checks in 2017, then are they living lives that are analogous to those who were on the Slave Plantations?
2. If far too many Black churches are still sub-par when it comes to community assistance, organization and development, then are they simply Slave Quarters for the mentally-enslaved?
3. During slavery, there were Blacks that were either too angry (e.g., those who wanted change immediately) or too happy (e.g., church goers who wanted change but were happy enough to be serving God without seeing a way out, and thus accepted the status quo). Are most Blacks still living a similar life today?
So, I met this elderly Black American man named UNCLE MICHAEL, with whom I communicate when I want to look at things at a different angle…
Uncle Michael, a very reasonable and thought-provoking man, who understands and loves the Black American community very well, yet seems to have a rare ability to THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX while analyzing its issues with a fine-toothed comb for their TRUTHS, told me the following:
“BLACK CHURCHES are analogous to slavery-day SLAVE QUARTERS because both the leaders and the followers are MENTALLY-ENSLAVED. Far too many of them are either unaware of what’s happening in their communities, or desensitized by them or ill-prepared to do anything about them. Thus, all they have become is a place in which “mentally-enslaved” people gather to be HAPPY TOGETHER without a TRUE DARN REASON to be truly happy about… and the COMMON THEMES are: (1) They are still talking about the White Man; and (2) The White Man who can’t believe that these people are still happy despite the pains in which their communities are going through.”
UNCLE MICHAEL has induced me to ask the following questions:
a. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO BECOME THE MAIN THEME?
b. WHEN ARE BLACKS GOING TO DEMAND MORE OF OTHER BLACKS (AS OPPOSED TO BLAMING IT ALL ON THE (WHITE) MAN)?
c. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO KEEP OUR LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE WHEN IT COMES TO BLACK COMMUNITY INEQUITY OR CONDITIONS THAT SHOULD BE DEEMED DEPLORABLE & UNCONSCIONABLE?
Okay, Blacks are the ORIGINAL PEOPLE, GREAT!
Fine, Blacks have LOST THEIR IDENTITY and don’t know who they truly are (Isaiah 5:13; Hosea 4:16 as ISRAELITES)… for even HITLER has been reported to have said that “the White Jews know that the Negroes are the real children of Israel who are kept in captivity.”
So, why are most Blacks still in captivity (living from pay-check to pay-check) or going to Black Churches that offer nothing of substance to their community except great HYMNS that make them JOYFUL over things that GOD already gives us all, health, life, freedom (a human right which has been established), and the pursuit of happiness, yet another human right, which has been established and perfected in America and other developed nations.
So, what are these BLACK CHURCHES or SLAVE QUARTERS truly offering the Black community in return for its tithing, offerings (while the pastors live lavish lifestyles)?
Thus far, nearly absolutely NOTHING!
WHY?
The BLACK CHURCH, for the most part, is not truly acting like A VILLAGE… and has become a SHAM and nothing but a SLAVE QUARTER... where Blacks meet to talk about BLACK STUFF and make each other feel good without ACCOMPLISHING anything of substance.
Here is why:
1. The BLACK YOUTH is in more disarray than it has ever been… s/he is still more unprepared than that of any other group both upbringing/home-education-wise and academically. S/he, for the most part, cannot open his/her mouth without uttering mostly FOUL LANGUAGES, and has a rather short-term view of the World. S/he disrespects his/her elders, and other Blacks in as many ways as s/he humanly can. WHO HAVE WE BECOME? WE USED TO BE THE MODEL OF RESPECT FOR ELDERS AND ANCESTRAL SPIRITS, RIGHT?
2. The communities that surround the Black churches have no program for Black youth (particularly Black boys, who I have called BROKEN BLACK BOYS (BBB Syndrome-Striken Black Boys) who will have become broken Black men (i.e., men that cannot effectuate change and progress in their own communities.))
3. Far many young Blacks feel disenfranchised; and feel like they get offered NOTHING from America at large or from their own communities that would give them a reason NOT to get in trouble…
So, while we are still busy POINTING OUR FINGER AT “THE MAN”, THREE are pointing back at US… ALL OF US… because even folks like OPRAH or JORDAN or OBAMA were not truly in control of their success… because I guarantee you that they had/have mostly WHITES surrounding them, or at least depending on their fame to ensure that their BRANDS remain liable so that they can continue to do well themselves. And, by the way, some Whites actually DO CARE more about Blacks than many Blacks care about other Blacks. Thus, even Blacks at that level are STILL NOT SIGNING THEIR OWN CHECKS YET.
So, what the heck is my point here?
As per Uncle Michael’s assertions, and my observations and listening ears, we have to get things together.
Enough singing of hymns to God only to go back to BROKEN COMMUNITIES, HOMES, HUSBANDS, WIVES and CHILDREN…
Is GOD truly listening? Or are we singing to the Wrong GOD?
So many Black young men are being incarcerated at rates that should have alarmed Blacks and the country at large ENOUGH that it should have been a NATIONAL EMERGENCY and the TOPIC of ALL TALK SHOWS… Yet, we all stay silent about it all… Black are TOO SILENT.
Dr. King said: "in the end, we'll remember the silence of our FRIENDS more"... Do Blacks have friends modernly? Who are the friends of Black people? MY GOD!
We are still like the Blacks who were in the Slave Quarters or Plantations… either too angry to be stuck on those PLANTATIONS, while HOPING to become FREE AT LAST, or TOO HAPPY in the SLAVE QUARTERS with delusions of happiness while the WHITE MAN is saying: “I have beaten them, raped their wives and daughters, and treated them like ANIMALS yet they are STILL HAPPY!”
My question to Black Churches and Leaders at large is:
When are we going to start talking about BLACK INEQUITY & STAGNANCY?
Because until we do so, we will have remained on mentally-enslaved on/in those symbolic slave plantations, and in these slave quarters, making 2 steps forward and nearly 10 backwards.
COMMUNITY (DIS)ORGANIZATION has become the Black Community’s biggest weakness not just in the United States but the World at large. Even the only Black nation that ever gained its independence by itself (Haiti) or that achieved self-emancipation is still not community-organized. Blacks must move past the mental-slavery states that they are in order to attain a state of SELF-RELIANCE. Black must learn to depend on their own leaders more and thus their leaders must be better prepared and more RELIABLE as well. Unfortunately, we are not EVEN close to where we need to be YET. But, if we expect GOD or THE WHITE MAN to do it all, then we will have been ONE LOST PEOPLE, with a LOST IDENTITY and PURPOSE, and CENTURIES from now, we’ll still be singing the same OLD HYMNS while uttering the SAME OLD EXCUSES, but only not to be respected.
Do you truly love/like your fellow Black men or women? Is that demonstrated in your actions in your community?
RESPECT must be EARNED. The Asians might not have been LOVED, but they earned their respect. Even after being BOMBED, they fought back, worked together, COMMUNITY-ORGANIZED…
As Blacks, we first have to admit that modernly, we SUCK at community organizing, maintaining unity and since we are not truly monolithic, we are also the most CONFUSED GROUP on EARTH!
Let’s get it together folks... let's stop the self-hatred trends (e.g., hair and self-genocide) and convert them to SELF-LOVE (e.g., community organization and development). It's arguable that the Blacks in the SLAVE QUARTERS had one advantage over many modern Black American families; and that is, even on those plantations, there were SLAVE BLACK FAMILIES that were very united UNLESS they were forcefully-divided by Slavery-related realities.
Enough CHIT-CHATS about Black achievements, as if Blacks were NOT SUPPOSED to achieve anything. PLEASE... STOP IT...
COME ON NOW, Blacks are the original people, we have achieved enough by becoming everyone else. HOWEVER, modernly, we are UNDERACHIEVERS. We are easily identifiable by our pigmentation and phenotype. We are perhaps the most easily identifiable people on Earth both from afar and up close. Some of us either get too envious of each other, while others get too excited when ONE OF US achieves something great. The problem with that is that such ACHIEVEMENTS should be THE NORM because WE (Blacks) are an amazing people. THE ORIGINAL COPY/PEOPLE.
I thank Uncle Michael for inspiring me to write yet another very SPECIAL ARTICLE. I never know when I will bump into him, but whenever I do, he never ceases to appeal to things in my soul that were boiling to be catalyzed. I love you, Uncle Michael. I believe you are correct, far too many of us are still MENTALLY on SLAVE PLANTATIONS and QUARTERS.
Uncle Michael's Book Recommendations:
1. The Dark side of Black History by Koko Ishe
2. From Babylon to Timbuktu by Rudolph R. Windsor
3. The Valley of the Dry Bones by Rudolph R. Windsor
Dr. Pete Lorins is the Chief Editor of LorinsPOST.com. This article was sponsored by LORINS.biz
LORINS.biz is a multi-industry consulting firm that provides the following types of services… Management of Law Firms, Medical Clinics, Businesses...Project Management, Sales, Marketing, & Leads Generation...Research & Engineering... It can be reached via www.LORINS.biz
