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"The crack epidemic rolled through some lives like a wildfire and burned slowly through others over years... "
Dear friends,
Just a couple of months ago, President Obama signed a bill that will, presumably,bring more fairness in sentencing people for drug-related convicions. It was not only beneficial for certain African American individuals, but for our communities as well.
Additionally, while DAs, politicians, and police agencies have claimed an end to the crack cocaine “epidemic”, at least in African American communities nationwide, the recent crack cocaine-initiated massacre in the Mattapan section of Boston, that took the lives of two young men, along with a young mother and her two-years-old son, proves that the assertions by those “prodessional” groups mentioned above are dead wrong.
To be sure, in an advanced civilization such as ours, people are always trying to run from themselves, as we, as individual beings, try to find a way to deal with what has been called the ““lonesomeness and separateness’” of this experience called human life.
One of the ways that we deal with that dilemma is by pursuing happiness. Yet, if not kept in check, a lifestyle of hedonism can develop that can, both unwittingly and uncontrollably, lead to a dependency that makes a person lose his or her “sense of self”, while, simultaneously, losing integrity. Once that happens, the affected individual can no longer keep a promise, of any kind, to not only himself or herself, but to anyone else.
Unfortunately, since humans are social, not solitary, beings, this means that, in any given community, the more individuals who lose themselves to any number of addictions, the more the whole community deteriorates.
Even worse, if we see this as an individual’s problem, as opposed to being a “community” one, then no matter how well-intentioned efforts are made to curb this situation, much less end it, a waste of our most valuable resource – human energy (whether physical, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual) will, invariably, be the result.
In any case, on the link below, the outstanding Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times provides us with a thoughtful analysis of how crack cocaine still affects African American communities. Is the “epidemic“ really over, or has it merely taken on a new form?
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks-20100807,0,7458393,full.column
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"A major problem with African American people, nationwide, fighting against our oppression and becoming communities lies with the fact that we are often our own worst enemies, because of our self-hatred."
Dear friends,
A major problem with African American people, nationwide (and people of African descent worldwide), fighting against our oppression and becoming communities lies with the fact that we are often our own worst enemies, because of our self-hatred. That is, when we see each other, we see a mirrored image of our own self-hatred. So, from African American law enforcement people who treat us differently than they do others - to drive-by shootings, to the Uncle Tom hip-hop clowns who use the word "Nigga" every other word to appease their "white" patrons, feelings and acts of self-hatred even make it difficult for African American men and women to form genuinely loving relationships of any kind, much less encourage our youth to get along with each other. We must learn to love ourselves and our fellows...
Note: As I continue to insist, "Love", as it were, is only of any use as an "act of being" as opposed to a "state of being". In other words, in this society, love, as a "state of being", is a passive experience that we hear about through so many cheap popular songs on the radio and see on tv soap operas and silly Hollywood movies. However, as an "act of being", love means that people are "actively" loving towards one another. Consequently, at least to me, love should be an active, not passive, practice of caring about, being concerned for, trying to understand, concentrating on, and feeling responsible towards not just our mates and other loved ones, but, as well, our work, and our communities. Besides, when love is passive, it does not last long, because it is just a "mood". To be sure, moods change, all of the time. Hence, the serial polygamy practiced by so many of those involved with the institution of marriage and other "love" relationships, in this country.
Still, the cultural institutions in our society lend to the aforementioned self-hatred that is so constantly internalized and practiced among African Americans. Literature and images in schools, the arts, and, especially, the government- and corporate-controlled media, deliberately, perpetuate this indignity too. As a matter of fact, it is no secret that the overwhelming amount of African American theatrical productions, television shows, and movies that are produced in this country, often using Black celebrities like singers and rappers, are, for the most part, events where we can go laugh at ourselves as in "My Arms are too short to Box with God" and so many others.
It's all the same self-deprecating nonsense. In yesteryear, it was Mantan Moreland and Steppinfetchit. Today it is Eddie Murphy, Tyler Perry, and Martin Lawrence, to name a few. On the other side, we have films and plays like "The Color Purple" where "white" folks can feel sorry for us. Both behaviors are similar to those of children who are trying to manipulate others for acceptance or favors. Moreover, many community groups, made up of wonderful people, consider the violence among African American youth to be, largely, the result of a lack of jobs, along with gun possession. However, at least to me, they are missing the point, which is: Lack of both social and historical conscience which lends to self-hatred.
That lack of conscience is no accident though. The great Marcus Garvey pointed out: "This propaganda of dis-associating Western Negroes from Africa is not a new one. For many years white propagandists have been printing tons of literature to impress scattered Ethiopia, especially that portion within their civilization, with the idea that Africa is a despised place, inhabited by savages, and cannibals, where no civilized human being should go, especially black civilized human beings." - Marcus Garvey (Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey, edited by Amy Jacques-Garvey)
Additionally, in that context, long before Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois wrote: "The discovery of personal whiteness among the world's peoples is a very modern thing...The ancient world would have laughed at such a distinction...by emphasis and omission to make children believe that every great thought the world ever knew was a white man's thought, every great deed the world ever did was a white man’s deed..."darkies" are born beasts of burden...Such degrading of men by men is as old as man and the invention of no one race or people...It has been left, however, to Europe and to modern days to discover the eternal worldwide mark of meanness -color!" - "The Souls of White Folks (an essay)",
Finally, while systematic oppression and exploitation have been attacking us for centuries, much of the reason that it continues is because of what I call programmatic self-hatred. In other words, we go along with the system of racism (the euphemism for White Supremacy), by killing, robbing, cheating, and humiliating each other. This is true for sexism, as well. Female self-hatred keeps women and girls from dealing with each other in a wholesome way, so that together they can gain equal access to not just opportunity, but the ability to have responsibility in both determining and directing the aforementioned opportunity. As well, neither form of social stratification (i.e., racism or sexism - i.e., Male Supremacy) allows a person the opportunity to seek to be fully human. Even worse, African American women, unlike their European American counterparts, suffer the "double jeopardy" of both forms of injustice.
In any case, the use of the N - word and the need for it should end once and for all. For ultimately, at least to me, African Americans and others like European Americans and Latinos who now use that word as a result of the market construct known as Hip-hop, must accept the fact that it (n-word) has proliferated for so long, because of European American impropriety and African American self-hatred. Of course, "Language is thought.". Have you ever said to yourself, "I can't think of a word for it."? Let us get rid of racist thinking; our language will follow. Dig?
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
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