The "Power of Community" Essay Contest, sponsored by Hill Motor Corporation, is available to: 1. Graduating High School Seniors 2. Undergraduate College Students 3. Graduate College Students Scholarship Rules:You must write an essay that is at least 500 words addressing the following points(Remember, the more you can say with the fewest words, the better): 1. Why is it important for Black Americans to re-build a sense of community that transcends socio-economic boundaries? 2. What can be done to connect the fragmentations we have allowed to divide our race?3. What are some of the characteristics of a growing and thriving community?3. How can on-line social networking platforms such as HBCU Connect, Facebook and My Space best serve to aid in establishing the community that closely mimics the natural communities to which we were accustomed to growing up? Deadline For Essays:* June 1st, 2007 Scholarship Payout:* Winners will be contacted no later than September 15, 2007 * $1,000.00 * Must prove enrollment in a college or university in the United States prior to award Submitting Your Essay:First create a user account: http://forums.hbcuconnect.com/register.phpAll essays need to be submitted as NEW THREADS here in the HBCUCONNECT user forums under the "Essay Contest Forum". You can edit your submission as many times as necessary before the deadline... All essays will be made readable only by you until our deadline for submissions has been met. Once the deadline has been met, we will open up all threads for PUBLIC viewing while we select finalists. Once finalists are selected we will post a poll to allow for public voting for winners. Winning submissions to this contest will be posted on www.hillmotorcorp.comIn order to manage your submission you will need to create a user account and post your essay using the following link: http://forums.hbcuconnect.com/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=53(Report Obscene Photo)
The state of the African-American community is in peril of complete disintegration. The already thin fabric of tradition and unity, which once bound our culture, is being cut away by several conditions. True, these conditions have been in existence since slavery, however, today these conditions are in the forefront of the African-American conscience. Unfortunately, this conscience has not been positive; it has only succeeded in separating us from one another. In order to begin repairing the fabric, we must take an extensive look at the damage.
Our community consists of persons whose individual skin coloring ranges from shades of very dark to extreme light. Ever since the days of enslavement, this unique diversity has not served us well. We have been taught that beauty within our culture is based on a lighter skin coloring. This teaching has also infiltrated into the texture of our hair. For example, if the hair is ****, then it is not considered a good grade. However, if the hair is straight in nature, then it is of high quality.
Still a third violation this teaching has wrought is our judgment of one another through our linguistic differences. Some of us possess an urban flavor in our tone, while others of us speak with a non-regional distinction. This non-regional distinction is associated with the "white" way of speaking. Therefore, many of us do not seek to learn and master the English language for fear of speaking in the white way.
The aforementioned have definitely played vital roles in tearing the fabric; however, the demolition of the family structure represents the most significant rip. The number of single parent homes in the black community has tripled in the last twenty years. Many of these families are run by mothers who are young and lack the experience for raising children. As well, fathers do not deem it necessary to take responsibility for the offspring they have created. Hence, this modified foundation bleeds in a negative way to the socio-economic aspects of our community.
If we hope to counteract this weakening in our society, we must first remember those things which contribute to a thriving community. This means that a healthy functioning family unit has to be present. In order for this to happen, a conversation has to take place between our youth and elders. This dialogue needs to include the history of our people, with an emphasis on how the benefits of the family structure played an important part in our past.
We must also remember that our ethnicity is steeped in spirituality. Therefore, we should seek guidance and counsel from those in the community who are spiritual leaders. These leaders need to influence and encourage programs that would work toward a thriving culture. These programs include mentoring, education, and economic growth.
As these repairs are taking place, we have to recognize that it is necessary to transcend beyond our socio-economic boundaries. These boundaries have prevented us from obtaining the promise set forth by our ancestors. It is imperative that we make proper use of the hard work and achievements by those who preceeded us. This will establish our people as a viable force in the world at large.
Now that the Internet is accessible to most everyone, on-line forms such as HBCU Connect, Facebook, and My Space can be used as tools to correct the prejudices among our people. These sites can promote forums geared toward high self-esteem. In order for us to revel in complete acceptance of our inner cultural diversity, we need positive reinforcement from each other. In essence, it is pertinent that these sites aid in molding our dignity.
If we hope to gain unity in the future, we cannot continue treading on the current path. Our ancestors demonstrated that we come from a strong people with a proud heritage. It is time we honor this by living up to our formidable tradition.
Throughout history, we have seen that our ancestors were often in a position in which they could quite literally change the world. If we were to travel back in time, we’d see Imhotep’s prowess as a medicine man leaving the vast Greek and Roman empires in awe, we’d see the cunning military tactics of Hannibal the Carthaginian general challenging the powerful Roman legions, we’d see the a center of learning through the University of Sankore and the library at Timbuktu, and we’d see the Moorish empire propelling Europe out of its Dark Ages with knowledge of astronomy, health, philosophy, architecture and mathematics; we’d see a great people capable of reaching pinnacles in their endeavors. Travel forward to present day and it is obvious that something has changed within our people. It is as though we have fallen into a dream and lost ourselves in the process and our people now resonate symbolically with the Simba of “The Lion King” that has forgotten he is a king or the Neo of “The Matrix” that cannot lead Zion from bondage until he wakes up to his own power.Our challenge is now to transcend generations of conscious and unconscious humiliation, degradation, discrimination, and reduction to a state of subservience by oppressive forces in order that we may get back to who we really are. This is essential because it is the trauma of the last five hundred or so years that has damaged the psyche of Black Americans and caused the lack of love for ourselves, our culture, and each other that is widespread today. I believe that the building of strong communities is of utmost importance but in order for this to happen, each of us must first build ourselves up or else our communities will begin to reflect any disorders that we have allowed to persist within. The most significant disorder is the lack of cultural pride and self love among Blacks today. The black on black ****, absentee fathers, drug dealers, pimps, video vixens, disregard of education, veneration of external appearance over internal abilities and merits, exploitative rap, and defeatist attitudes in regards to participating in the political process are all symptoms of the deconstruction of Black selfhood that has taken place in recent history.We first need to understand that the maintenance of the current status quo depends on our inability to reconnect with our rich, diverse and dynamic heritage. Self empowerment is the single greatest threat to this system as we know it and the single greatest asset to successful Black communities. The problem is that the empowerment that we need is “hidden” in places few of us think to seek out; books. Through education, we can obtain a holistic understanding of who we are, where we came from, and what our future could hold. With this understanding, we can build communities that undermine the status quo by conveying to each of us the truth that we can change this system that attempts to alienate us from one another. Alone, we can do little but if unified, we can get better schools for our kids, obtain significant political influence through voting, and improve our standards of living. The Civil Rights movement of the 60s demonstrated what concerted efforts can do for us; we should emulate the great men and women of that time period because it is THE winning formula.The popular proverb, “Knowledge is Power,” could not be any more relevant to the state of Black America and our communities. We need to learn that beyond the gritty ghettos and self-defeating portrayals of Blacks in the media, there is a dormant power in each of us; a power that our predecessors used to great affect. As I was reading about both the struggles and triumphs of our people, I could feel this dormant power awakening. What I’ve learned is nothing short of beautiful; that collectively, we can usher in a new age or prosperity for our people and even the world itself but this can only be done together. Essentially, it was education that set me free and instilled a stronger sense of love in myself and my people. If each of us reaches this point, we will see the end of many of the social ills that plague us. We will not destroy ourselves or allow ourselves to be exploited as these are not the actions of a people that love themselves. Instead, we will build ourselves up together and our communities will be the centers of growth, learning, and guidance that they ought to be. We can get here only after we have rehabilitated on a personal level but only knowledge can re-open this door.Online communities such as Facebook, Myspace, and HBCU Connect can help us regain a sense of community because they allow us to reach out far greater distances. In this way, we are not limited by location. For instance, there could be an individual that has very few Blacks in his/her neighborhood but through online networks, they can still interact and share experiences with other Blacks longing for a sense of community. This wasn’t possible in previous generations but would have surely made setting up events easier. We should definitely take advantage of this technology and use it to keep our ties to each other strong; learning and growing together is now done seamlessly and we will all benefit if we keep these online communities moving in a positive direction.
As African Americans in such a society today, the problem is that we can not be operating on senses and perceptions any longer. We need to be operating on absolutes and truths. As George Benard Shaw opines: “ the truth is the one things nobody wants to believe.” If we want our community to survive, we need to understand and “put it on the table” that things must change. There needs to be a clear understanding that “we cannot build a sense of community”, instead we must build sense into our community, meaning we must create educational venues for our people to seek this knowledge and empower themselves. When this is done, we will begin to understand how vital socioeconomic viability is in order for communities to exist. If communities experience a dearth of social and economic values, they become ecological genocides and deplorable holes, which no people can properly survive in. In other words, we cannot rebuild our communities without these necessities.
In building our communities, connecting the fragmentations we have allowed to divide our race can become so overwhelming that in many cases, can lead to inactivity or lackluster performance. The hodgepodge of diverse styles has essentially created the cultural expressions that we know as a black community. I believe that it is critical that we develop a historical lens that will allow us to examine and reexamine the stages that we have evolved from, and through such understanding, we can create platforms that will push the progressive agenda. We have allowed our race to divide, because of our loss of community. The community, as aforementioned provided accountability. There were eagle and vigilant eyes that ensured children were protected, well disciplined, and educated. In other words, it was limpid that children were in fact, the priority of the village.
The Village concept has played an extremely dominant role in the lives of African Americans for centuries. It has been in communities that blacks have garnered individual and collective strength, sources of resilience and coping mechanisms, particularly ways to create buffers to counter the wiles of societal whims. In other words, the village as we affectionately call our community has provided us with emotional, financial, and social support. Hence, the role of community has been the epicenter of our survival as a people. This is reflected in our organizations as colonies during the epoch of slavery, wherein we taught one another how to read and write.
In order for our race to reconnect itself, we must critically scrutinize and evaluate our foundation from both an individual and structural perspective. We must not find ourselves embracing one without the other, and vice versa. This is an ongoing problem in black churches and social organizations wherein many issues and programs are narrow sided. Hence, we must first evaluate our strengths and resources that currently exist within our culture and our communities, and then evaluate whether we have the capacity to gather and recollect the components we feel are missing to help us move forward. When we come to the collective understanding that certain aspects are missing, then we can create an agenda that seeks to fill in the gaps step by step, yet still aggressively.
During slavery, slaves would instead of writing notes to slaves on other plantations, they’d draw symbols on barn doors with black chalk. As perilous as this system was it was productive and successful communication for blacks. Now we have Facebook, MySpace and HBCU Connect and I feel that it is extremely imperative that we not only use each of them for productive and successful communication but to make strides toward building sense into communities and obtaining the reconnection between our race and us as individuals. These networks offer African Americans a solution for what has forever been a problem. Malcolm X said “The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” With these ever-growing technologies we are capable of sharing ideas and solutions far and wide from the ruthless West Coast to the rugged Queens, New York. These avenues will not only allow us to move forward but to rise as African Americans and to rebuild that concept known as a village.
It is important that Black Americans come together -- regardless of socio-economic boundaries -- because of what black Americans have been able to achieve when unified for a common goal. Through the civil rights movements of the early- and mid-twentieth century, black Americans pushed for and eventually won access to public spaces such as schools, universities and public restrooms, which had previously been denied us; the same fight won us the right to vote. This struggle culminated in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, which cemented these rights. It’s time we take advantage of it, and stop squandering these earlier gains. It is paramount that black Americans take advantage of these accommodations because of their bearing on our future and how it can effect the way in which we connect to our own community, and the wider world. In the world today, such advances can only be made by taking advantage of new technologies.
Technology has made great strides in connecting people from different backgrounds, and its pan-American presence has linked people of different income brackets that would have previously been unable to connect. The role of technology is becoming more and more important because of the possibility for connection that it offers society. Most everyone has a computer, cell phone and access to the Internet. Forums such as MySpace and HBCU allow users to show their differences through their tastes in music, movies, and other general interests, while simultaneously showing their likeness by choosing to do this through the same platform. However, too often within the black American community, we have seen fragmentation instead of the kind of unity that would allow us to take advantage of new technologies.
We live in an increasingly global world and thus the importance of a healthy sense of community is just as important as ever. The inability to make a meaningful connection with those geographically close to you subsequently makes it harder to do so in the world at large. Indeed, one might argue that the disintegration of the black community within our neighborhoods is reflected in the lack of community within newer, larger communities such as MySpace and Facebook – in which, for reasons which are no doubt complicated, black American communities have not emerged with the same size and power as, say, music-based communities, or communities devoted to certain celebrities. In this regard, HBCU Connect offers us powerful community-building opportunities, if we are willing to grab them.
It’s clear that things went wrong after the civil rights movement. Instead of blacks rushing to higher education, they trickled, which lead to the divide in black society that we see today. This is unfortunate because education is the best option to bridge the gap in socio-economic differences within the American Black community. College graduates earn more money than people with only a high-school diploma or less. The state of the black American family has been a much-discussed one. The controversial report by Daniel P. Moynihan contains a section titled “The Tangle of Pathology,” wherein he contends that a major problem with the black family is its matriarchal system. Angela Davis counters, in her article “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of Slaves,” that to the extent such a matriarchy exists, it was forced by slavery and its aftermath. Both pieces, however, recognize that the black American family needs a more stable structure. One of the most pervasive problems in the black community is the lack of households headed by two parents, in which over 50 percent are headed by only one parent.
I speak from experience in saying that one-parent households present significant hurdles, such as the problem of the household finances, or lack thereof. Maslow’s hierarchy is a chart of human needs based on the theory that a person first needs his or her physiological needs met -- i.e. having food, shelter, air and water -- before they can achieve any other level of being such as loving themselves and others. When I was younger these needs were threatened numerous times. This chart suggests that the basic human needs have to be met before a person can help anyone else. So a healthy and thriving community needs people who have these needs met and can continue to help themselves and others attain their respective goals. By reaching out to one another through both traditional and high-tech strategies -- that is, joining up with both our neighbors across the street, and our neighbors on the other side of the country -- we can build a stronger black American community.
The original African-American communities, if you recall, were formed on the lower decks of cargo vessels, fortified with shackles and chains. Former kings, queens, sages and servants descended into the abysmal reality that would predominate the experience of Africans in the Diaspora for the next four centuries. Africans who could often not even speak the same language were reborn, baptized in the fecal and urinary waste of the members of their new “community”: that of the African-American ****. The “African-American community” is an abstraction that is only relevant in so far as we continue often to be doomed to poverty in perpetuity on the basis of our heritage. However, when some of us African-Americans break away from our former communities without looking back, or rather, that it is even possible for us to do so, only serves to illuminate the tenuous concept of race as a platform for community.
Race, along with gender, nationality, and so many other demarcations are but means for oppressors to categorize, demoralize, marginalize and terrorize the oppressed. Race abstracts generalities from otherwise diverse, disparate groups in order to solidify a perception of class. Simultaneously, race gives distinction to the apparent differences between oppressed Africans, Asians, Hispanics, Europeans, women and children: differences that pale in comparison to our commonalities. I’ll elucidate this point with a few questions of my own. Do I, as an “African-American” man, have more in common with Condoleezza Rice than I do with working class white folk from her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama? Do I have more in common with Colin Powell than I do with the Latino soldiers he sent to fight and die in Iraq, or better yet, the Iraqi boys that they aim to ****? Do I have anything in common with a parasite like Russell Simmons who pimps out jigaboo minstrel show caricatures of African-American men at the expense of the integrity of our entire conceptual community? No. We have nothing in common other than the fact that our ancestors took a boat ride together, prior to which it is possible that their kin were royal and my kin were servile, or vice-versa. So, it seems we’ve come full circle.
The word community implies a common place, a common goal, or a common interest. In the past, we did have vested interests in uplifting our communities because there was no place else for us to go, literally. If we were going to make it, we would need every member of the community to be involved, to spend money in the community, to organize in the community, and to learn how to live with and appreciate the other members of the community. That African-Americans as a constituent bloc could stand up to racist oppression, and the immediate necessity of that stance gave rise to the civil rights movements of the 50s and 60s: the realization of the relative vulnerability of a single finger compared to the five folded fingers of a black fist in the air, demanding freedom. That there was no way to freedom other than as one community was the ideological bond that solidified the civil rights movement. In 2007, that bond has weakened to the breaking point. Nothing obliges African-Americans to stand by their ex-communities and every time another African-American elite emerges, the concept of an African-American community becomes more diluted. I don’t mean to argue that there is no more African-American community but, a community abstracted from generalizations of Africans, whose most striking common feature other than continental ancestry is poverty, loses its foundation when those members who can escape, do so and don’t look back. There can be no socio-economically transcendental community, when the very substance of our community was our common struggle, a struggle that does not burden all of us in the same way anymore. The “fragmentations that we have allowed to divide our race” are flaunted by those of us in control of them and coveted by those of us controlled by them.
There can be no “de-fragmentation” in the divisions between those who can fly leer jets abroad to “do a show” and those who drown in the attics of the their own homes (in historical plantation neighborhoods, no less). There can be no “de-fragmentation” between those who make a living “making” war and those who make a living fighting in the war: between those who make millions and those millions who don’t make enough to eat. The divisions in our race are written into the formula of the prevalent American ideology: that we deserve everything that we can take and that, in an effort to do so, we ought not allow our consciences to impede our self-advancement. In the never-ending pursuit of capital expansion, the new African-American elite has become the relative beneficiary of the poverty of the rest of African-America.
Online-networking communities can help expose “the African-American community” for what it really is, namely an abstraction that will become, as time passes, increasingly irrelevant. As African-Americans, the majority of whom still struggle under the yoke of an exploitive class system, slowly gain access to these online communities, those who still desire real freedom may find that there are others in the struggle, and others still who understand and support the struggle. They may find that there are real revolutionaries who seek freedom that does transcend socio-economic boundaries, revolutionaries who seek, as Malcolm X put it, “a liberation of the mind.” They may find that some of those people don’t look like them, but are in fact more like them than anyone else belonging to their spatial or racial community. They may find that real community is not contingent upon the same heritage. Community is contingent upon vested interests and reciprocal need. Community is an admission of vulnerability: a statement, that as a group we are immeasurably more powerful than we are as individuals. If they search long enough, they may also find that there is a dormant juggernaut of a community, that has yet to realize itself as such, but as this world-wide web of individuals begins to string itself back and forth across the globe, it becomes an adhesive fabric the complexity of which renders its natural counterpart simple in comparison. When they get there, they’ll find me.
Monique Campbell Separated not by birth, but by the miseducation of an ethnicity, describes the African-American race in an entirety. The time has come for our race to relinquish the negative stereotypes and uplift our race as a whole. The urgency for the African-American race to unite can never truly be expressed. The famous quote states, “A family that prays together, stays together.” Although history revealed that African-Americans were in warfare prior to slavery, we were still considered a united nation as a whole. Since the invention of Jim Crow Laws, blacks were spoon-fed lies about their heritage and the handbook of hatred was distributed in a plethora. Children were taught to be submissive to the term ****** and embrace their false names of Tom, Berry, and John. They were encouraged to exterminate any “negative” factors of their race such as: Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement and Nat Turner’s **** rebellion. The identity of an African transformed into the identity of an African-American, and when a race loses its identity the effects can be deplorable. Hope remains because anything worth recognition encompasses a struggle. It is important for African –Americans to save our race from the shambles so we can truly identify our purpose in life, appreciate the strife that our ancestors consistently encountered, and finally rebuild our race to be the most powerful and dominant. A wound must first be cleaned before its cured; therefore, African- Americans must first clarify and educate our race about their history before we can teach others. Leaders, innovators, celebrities, and parents must reach out to children, who represent tomorrow’s leaders. Websites such as Facebook and Myspace should have an Africa Unite network and group, which encourages children to post any historical question or concern about their race. Then, a historian or a person with an in-depth knowledge will illuminate and resolve their inquiry. The community can become interactive by hosting/sponsoring an African Embrace Festival, which allows the entire community to network and learn how to support each others businesses, so the community as a whole can flourish in wealth and prosperity. In addition, more community centers should be established in the African-American community. Children yearn for a safe haven to engage in positive activities; however, with the lack of community centers the streets act as makeshift home. The easiest way to target children is to have well-respected figures in the community reach out to them. Rap artists such as: Young Jeezy, P.Diddy, and other icons should enlighten their fans on political and social issues currently affect our ever-changing nation. Next, proactive movements should be widely recognized. Alicia Key’s Open Door Scholarship and the NAACP’s consistent activity with the welfare of the African-American race ease the burden of impoverished children and adults. More groups and foundations should be established to continue to uplift the good deeds. A broken heart can not mend within a day; therefore a broken race can not be fixed in a day. Problems will recapitulate; however, it’s up to the African-American race to begin the healing process. We must use any means possible (Malcolm X), in order to fix this problem. Popular websites such as Facebook a Myspace should function as engine of opportunity to develop friendships and establish a brotherhood. The memory of previous set-backs should be extinguished and the socio- economic boundaries should be broken. Let us thrive as a race and never again bee miseducated.
Hill Motor Corporation Power of Community ScholarshipIn the 2004 Democratic National Convention, John Edwards spoke of two Americas, describing the divide between the rich and the poor. African-Americans are therefore, divided also, as part of this America. Because of this divide, there are limits to the opportunities to which the African-American citizens of “poor America” are exposed. The establishment of a sense of community that bonds these two Americas is essential to the advancement of African-Americans as a whole.Sidney Portier commented on the time when such a community existed in his latest autobiography, The Measure of a Man. He described how African-American people in different professions were bonded by the community in which they lived because they were all confined to that community in the strict segregationist era of America. Because of this coexistence of all African-Americans, whether they were plumbers, politicians, or prostitutes, the lower-income members of the community were exposed to more affluent people who looked like them. This exposure enabled all members of the community to be more aware of all of the options available for African-Americans. Now that the African-American community has dispersed in a physical sense, it is essential for us to re-establish this community via other means, including volunteerism, social networking websites, and mentorship, among others. This sense of community is essential to our advancement and strength in many areas. By bringing together African-Americans of different social status, we can show disadvantaged members of our community their full potential. This will lead to increased individual confidence and stronger bonds between those in the community. Through these stronger bonds, our community will then exhibit signs of growth and strength, including increased economic awareness, strong family structures, and an impenetrable sense of belonging.Consider the African-American child growing up in any disadvantaged state. African-Americans outside of his physical community can assist him in his present and help to shape for him a better future, while acting as role models for him. African-Americans can mentor this child through programs organized through his local community center or school. We can volunteer to teach money management or parenting courses to this child’s father or mother. We can also provide the funds to buy computers for this child’s school or community center. Perhaps the easiest way for any of us to help younger people such as this and to uplift our community is by actively teaching and mentoring others via social networking websites. These websites enable us to connect with African-Americans of different backgrounds without having to physically travel anywhere. By initiating online groups or creating a profile and corresponding with website members, many African-Americans who have wisdom to share with others can impart it to those who are willing to listen and who might not have had the courage to seek their advice face-to-face.Social networking sites can mimic the neighborhoods in which an earlier generation of African-Americans established their roots. Instead of a neighborhood boy or girl venturing down the street to talk to the owner of any local business, an African-American boy or girl can now reach out to potential mentors online and hopefully, receive valuable advice. The ability of this online community to mimic the physical African-American community as a whole, however, is heavily dependent on participation from all members, old and young, in the community. Leaders and professionals from all walks of life must be willing to take the initiative to establish an online presence on sites such as MySpace, HBCUConnect, or Facebook, so that younger people can seek them out for guidance and inspiration.
As I began to write my essay, I took a moment to contemplate about the question at hand. Why is it important for Black Americans to re-build a sense of community that transcends socio-economic boundaries? As I read the first question over in my head, I began to realize the complexity of the question, a question such as this question can be asked about any race in America not only Black Americans. Therefore, instead of thinking about how important to rebuild a sense of community in Black America, we should focus on rebuilding a sense of community in America. In a country that is a melting point of so many different cultures and personality it is a shame we cannot look past something simple such as race. We have become so prejudice towards our own people, Whether it is African Americans, Hispanic Americans, or White Americans, we have to remove our titles in society and realize we are all Americans. In order to rebuild this sense of community we as Americans have to start focusing on one community at a time and the rest will follow. If Black Americans want to start this movement, I advise we must begin by remembering our past. It is said that, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it". We as Black Americans must remember the days of Malcolm, Martin, and Rosa, pioneers that understood the beauty of a strong community. This is why they succeed so well in accomplishing their goal. The black communities of the past were strong because of this, they all had one purpose and they banded together as one movement. Today black communities do not have that same mind- set; we do not have a goal to strive for, this has caused us to become divided within our own community, sometimes turning against each other. Yet instead of taking steps to move forward in society, we often blame our division on the white communities blaming them for our division and oppression .Though I believe there is still racism in America today, I do not think we should use that as an excuse for not bettering ourselves. Black people must realize the “white man” did not bring us here on boats, but our own people sold us to the “white man”. To connect the fragmentations we have allowed to divide our race, the black community must strive for one single goal and begin preparing for a better tomorrow. We can do this by encouraging more black-owned business and motivating more youths to pursue a college education. I believe with this mind-set we can prepare Black Americans for a better tomorrow and continue this movement among other American communities. Though I think HBCU Connect, Facebook and My Space can best serve to aid in establishing the community that closely mimics the natural communities, which we were accustomed to growing up to. Although I highly doubt that these on-line social networks can ever replace our natural communities. Martin Luther King did not need My Space, HBCU Connect, and Facebook to get his message across, yet he is the most celebrated man in America today. However, these on-line networks can help keep people in contact with each other. Nevertheless, I believe no new technology can replace interaction. People need interaction, we interact best when we are close together, and no computer screen can replace the feeling of connection once you meet a person face to face. satchel dennis
I cannot accept the premise of this topic. A community that never existed cannot be rebuilt. We fondly remember ‘the good old days’ because it is human nature to do so, however that community that we so fondly remember also had many secrets and dysfunctions. I do not think that should be what we aim for in creating a thriving, robust African American community. We need to build afresh on solid foundation.We have not allowed fragmentation of our race. This fragmentation was systematically, deliberately and maliciously established, no, forced upon us, for economic gains. African Americans are not indigenous people to this soil. Most of our ancestors were forcibly brought here. They were not a homogenous group from one tribe, culture or locale; in fact most times they spoke different languages.Our ancestors had no loving, thriving, progressive community. Any attempt to create one was viciously and violently eradicated. Much of our present social dysfunction can be traced back to this deliberate psychological **** of our people, which has continued to our present day as a form of natural selection. I present some excerpts to show what was done to us over many years and generations. It is difficult reading and I am sorry.“… we will use the same basic principle that we use in breaking a horse, combined with some more sustaining factors. We reduce them from their natural state in nature; whereas nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their needs and the needs of their offspring, we break that natural string of independence from them and thereby create a dependency state so that we maybe able to get from them useful production for our business and pleasure.”“…it requires us to have breadth and depth in long range comprehensive planning, articulating both skill and sharp perception”“Pay little attention to the generation of original breaking but concentrate on future generations. Therefore, if you break the female, she will break the offspring in its early years of development and, when the offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it up to you. For her normal female protective tendencies will have been lost in the original breaking process. For example, take the case of the wild stud horse, a female horse and an already infant horse and compare the breaking process with two captured ****** males in their natural state, a pregnant ****** woman with her infant offspring. Take the stud horse, break him for limited containment. Completely break the female horse until she becomes very gentle whereas you or anybody can ride her in comfort. Breed the mare until you have the desired offspring. Then you can turn the stud to freedom until you need him again. Train the female horse whereby she will eat out of your hand, and she will train the infant horse to eat of your hand also.”“We reversed nature by burning and pulling one civilized ****** apart and bull whipping the other to the point of death--all in her presence. By her being left alone, unprotected, with male image destroyed, the ordeal cased her to move from her psychological dependent state to a frozen independent state. In this frozen psychological state of independence she will raise her male and female offspring in reversed roles. For fear of the young male's life she will psychologically train him to be mentally weak and dependent but physically strong. Because she has become psychologically independent, she will train her female offspring to be psychological independent as well. What have you got? You've got the ****** woman out front and the ****** man behind and scared. This is perfect situation for sound sleep and economics.”“…we have created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis forever, unless a phenomenon occurs and reshifts the positions of the male and female savages”“…the mind has a strong drive to correct and recorrect itself over a period of time if it can touch some substantial original historical base; and they advised us that the best way to deal with phenomenon is to shave off the brute's mental history and create a multiplicity of phenomenon or illusions so that each illusion will twirl in its own orbit, something akin to floating balls in a vacuum.”All excerpts taken from: "LET'S MAKE A ****" by Willie LynchThis prolonged deliberate offensive has created our race and most of the problems we have. We are angry. I am about seven generations removed from slavery and I find it difficult to watch movies such as ‘Roots’ and ‘Amistad’. Black men carry this deep felt anger; why were we and our ancestors unable to protect our women, children and ourselves. Why did we continue in that system when other races found a way out? We are perceived to be aggressive and dangerous and I would imagine that is why so many of us are incarcerated.We feel inferior. It is difficult to admit and I am sure thousands will rise up and say this is not true, ‘black is beautiful’, etc. We accept that we are treated differently because life is not fair. I am sure my white fellow students did not get the same lecture I received when leaving home for school. You know the lecture; how to respond when a policeman wrongly and aggressively humiliates you. It sort of reminds me of one of the Willie Lynch principles. To discuss this makes us, both African Americans and whites uncomfortable.What can be done to create a vibrant, healthy, thriving African American community? Like most psychological disorders we need first to acknowledge that we have a problem. We need to be brutally honest. We need to remove the artfully camouflaged bandage that is covering that deep festering pus-filled sore. The wound must be thoughly cleaned so that new, healthy tissue will grow. We need intense therapy. We need a public acknowledgement of the wrong that was done to us. The anger must be vented so that it can dissipate.The characteristics of a growing, thriving community are respect, common goals and a consensual agreement on how those goals should be met, common morality and an agreement of what is right and what is wrong. Added to that is an acceptance of the rule of law and punishment. We have respect for each other when we are proud of ourselves, our history and each other. In America our measure of success is how much money we have. I do not think this is the goal we should set for ourselves. It leads to our young believing that rap music, athletic prowess or selling **** are the solutions. As Willie Lynch alluded to, we have to reverse what was done to us by finding our original historical base. We, not white anthropologists, must unearth tour glorious history. We must find those things within us that make us proud.It is very important that African American forums exist and flourish. On line forum are perhaps most significant because it affords us an opportunity to be totally honest without feeling judged. It gives us an instant view into the thoughts of many people. I was reading a book by Hill Harper, Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny , which involves this discussion of topics which trouble us. Mentorship, role models and communication in these discussions make huge accomplishments.
