 |
|
Dear brothers and sisters:
There was a time, back in the day, when we acted as if we didn't know we weren't supposed to succeed. We were completely oblivious of the fact that we had three strikes against us starting out. Our focus was not limited by the color of our skin.
What happened? Did we become psychologically aware of our limitations
when we
started blaming "The Man" for our shortcomings? The
late Barbara Jordan once said: "One should transform the
fact of one's race from an excuse for failure to a necessary ingredient
for success." I have not seen evidence of this thinking among
our ranks of late.
We ARE a strong people, as we have proven over the years by
the sheer fact that we are still here. We have the capability
to succeed against all odds. We have owned businesses, managed
all areas of entrepreneurship, maintained enormous budgets and
came out ahead. We have raised successful families, educated our
children,
purchased homes and farmlands with very little capital.
But this was before we knew we weren't supposed to succeed or that we were always limited by the White man. We just somehow bowled right over any obstacle in our path and became the best that we could be. I never heard Blacks in my neighborhood complain about being held back by Whites. And they weren't held back!
Somewhere along the way we became aware of our limitations, and the more aware we became the more limited we became. I think we always knew that there was a divide between the races, and a gulf that separated Black life from White life. Despite the fact that we possessed very little in terms of material things, and our bank accounts were almost negligible we accomplished the unimagined.
Maybe we put too much focus on Whites, and not enough on Blacks. When we keep Whites as a focal point we give power to his existence. We can return that power to ourselves by shifting our focus to Black improvement and successes.
How were we a different people back in the day? We were self reliant-because we had to be. We supported Black businesses -- because we had to. Black on Black crime existed but it wasn't the scary issue it is today-because there were some semblance of love for our brother and sister.
If we will use the yesteryears as a model for what we can become perhaps we can regain some of the Blackness we had back in the day!
Charles H. Pennie Copyright (c) 2000 All rights reserved
E-mail:drumbeats@aol.com Snail-mail:DverCITY, Inc., P.O. Box 1244, Tallahassee, FL 32302 Questions /Comments: Webmaster Revised -- June 3, 2000 |
|