Black Struggle in America Today: Voices From Beyond

Thomas Jing

At The Slave House in Goree in Senegal, the large portal that opens onto the ocean was once said to be The Door of No Return to black people taken from Africa as slaves. This fortress that used to be a warehouse for slaves for about five centuries has now become a place of pilgrimage. Hundreds of thousands of black people have shuffled through the gloom of its dank corridors and stared with teary eyes and bleeding hearts at the corroding chains and shackles that secured their ancestors as they awaited shipment.

“Never again!” many of them have muttered with trembling lips as they wandered dreamily from one ghostly chamber to another. Some of them have fainted, unable to cope with the pains of bad memories, screams and wails that always seem to still echo through the walls. “Goree is a creepy place!” some have exclaimed.  As African Americans face many challenges, the significance of their trips back to Africa should not be lost in tears of anguish, outrage, and betrayal. The real meaning is hope.

Statistics on problems facing the black community may paint a bleak picture. It is so mainly because the human mind tends to recall pains than joy. Since 1865 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves in the US, hope has come in various forms. It has come from the gains obtained through black struggles. It has come from the caliber of some of the men and women who have served in Congress, the Senate, in the town halls, at the White House. It has come through partnership with other Americans who genuinely love and believe in this great country. Finally, it has come in the ultimate trust black people have placed in God. “We see and have changes everyday, so pray, work, be steadfast and not be dismayed,” once declared Marcus Garvey. The tragic end of Abraham Lincoln, Emmett Till, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr certainly bring tears to the eyes; but in Condoleeza Rice, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Toni Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, and Bill Clinton we find worthy counterpoints. It all seems part of God’s plan. “Never let anyone see your tears,” my father once advised me. However, tears or no tears, joy or anguish, current black leadership needs some self-evaluation as it explores ways to overcome existing challenges.

“Without organization black folk will never be able to take, keep or hold onto anything, much less the hard-fought gains that we have struggled to achieve,” writes Travis Smiley in the introduction to The Covenant. So how does black leadership organize its flock and prepare it to face today’s challenges? Dysfunctional families with children who often wind up in the streets as drug peddlers, gang bangers and petty thieves are telltales of a crumbling community. Skyrocketing school dropout rates and teen pregnancies point to a community in disarray and on the brink of moral collapse. Black people make up 13% of the population of this country but constitute 44% of the prison population. The nature of a community is sometimes a reflection of the quality of its leadership, so such disproportionate and unflattering figures take black leadership to task. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” These are the words of Frederick Douglass. As a people, we must wake up!
Thought is prelude to most human actions. “As men think, so they do react above the thing around them. When men are thought to think in a certain groove they act similarly,” once declared Marcus Garvey. So to steer the black community in a positive direction, a direction of progress and patriotic contributions, its people need proper organization and education. The current strategy of engaging black youths and keeping them off the streets by setting up facilities where they meet after school to participate in sports and other social activities is praiseworthy. Nevertheless, as a response to the crises, it is inadequate. Take basketball for instance. It is more of a stop-gap exercise whose transformation is mainly physical, not moral or mental. Most importantly, since it does not generate funds, such a program is not only unattractive but has the added disadvantage of relying on government subsidies for its survival. This situation makes the black community vulnerable to the machinations of unscrupulous and racist politicians.
The strategy I have designed and that I propose is three-pronged and based on the acronym ART: Attract, Retain, and Teach. It is inspired by my belief that the turmoil in the black community stems mainly from cultural deficiency. Lerone Bernett Jr has clearly demonstrated in the history classic Before the Mayflower how black people were stripped of their culture when they arrived in this country as slaves. To make matters worse, they are constantly bombarded with endless TV footage portraying them as criminals and underachievers. This sort of consistent and negative indoctrination and brainwashing has taken its toll by promoting self-hate and a sense of low self-esteem in many black people. So, any program to rescue black children that makes no provision to reverse this trend and deconstruct their mindset falls terribly short. 

With ART, let us begin with Attract. Generally children marvel at and are attracted to things that are unfamiliar, fascinating, adventurous, interesting or exciting. In a way, this explains their attraction to gangs. So based on this observation, I have dug deep into African culture and compiled a repertory of folk dances. Surreal in outlook, sophisticated in choreography, and mystical in content, colorful and stirred by a throbbing and bewitching musical blend of xylophones, slit-drum, a pair of gongs, and a traditional flute called kifen, some of these dances are the cream of traditional African terpsichorean art. These dances are the flagship of ART, its magnet that will pull children to its programs. The dances certainly provide wonderful entertainment, but they are first and foremost a fraternity or sorority with numerous facets that educate on healthy family values, on thrift and diligence, love and solidarity, self-reliance and community efforts. Introducing these dances in African American communities is a means to an end. The introduction is the first step to Retain and Teach the children.

To Retain the children, the dancing portfolio will be expanded with folk dances from all parts of Africa, its contents constantly enriched through modifications. The children will be taught to run the entire project themselves, from mastering the art of playing the instruments and dancing to creating the costumes and staging public performances in America and other parts of the world. The excitement to learn and execute something completely new that is part of their heritage, to travel to other parts of the world and to be the cultural icons and ambassadors of their state and country and to be appreciated by their compatriots: these are the type of things that will give them self-respect and self-pride and change the way they see themselves. Challenge is what black children need to free them from any sense of inferiority complex, not utterances that constantly remind them how history has been unfair to them and that demoralize them. Anti-white propaganda is no more than an anodyne, a narcotic that promotes unnecessary fear and suspicion, provides room for excuses, and induces laziness and so has no place in ART.

The purpose of bringing children together is to teach them, so out of the dances, and allied to them, will emerge a black cultural school, a kind of “Black Yeshiva.” Like Jewish children, black children will have to go to school two times: a regular school and after-school cultural academy where they are taught who they are as a people: their roots, history, their rights and obligations, what to expect from society but most importantly what to give back to society. In short to give back the cultural identity that slavery stole from them. “If I beg with my mouth will I eat with my butt,” goes an African proverb. This hostility towards dependence and accepting handouts implies that leadership must steer black people to what they really are. Obviously not junkies and pimps, nor gangsters and welfare receivers, not thieves and drug dealers, nor wife batterers! For the four hundred years of labor without pay that black people toiled in this country, even God must be gnashing that they are not its richest citizens. “Let no voice but your own speak to you from the depths. Your first allegiance shall be to your God.” Again Marcus Garvey.

Comments

[Dr. Peter Vakunta]

Great job brother Jing!
The folowing words stood out from this write-up:"Challenge is what black children need to free themselves from any sense of inferiority complex, not utterances that constantly remind them how history has been unfair to them and that demoralize them." Black children in America, Africa, France, indeed the worldover are as talented as children in other racial categories.Their communities and leaders need to provide them with the opportunities they need to reach their highest potential.What they need at this juncture is motivation; not image bashing ponctifications! I have no doubt that your ART Program harbors the germ of potential success for these kids.
Dr. Peter Vakunta,Defense Language Institute, USA.

[Thomas Jing]

Thanks Peter.
You have taught children throughout Africa and in North America. Who else understands what our children can achieve better than you.