South Africa is on its way to Genuine Liberation

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/7290200.html Read full post

Remember what Curtis said, "Keep on keepin' on"

"There' still a lot of love among us, and there's still a lot of faith, warmth, and trust..." - Curtis Mayfield








Dear friends,

As is made so obvious by the song on the link below, Curtis was truly a prophet.
Enjoy!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-l91O9VxN0 Read full post

Is Fatherhood an African American Problem?

Dear friends, 

 There is, constantly and consistently, talk about the need for more fathers in African American households (as if European American and other households don't have a problem with their young).

However, at least to me, the problem with far too many of the guys of my generation, that is, World War II baby-boomers, is: too many cats are confused about being mature adults So what do you expect their sons (and daughters) to be like? 

The two photos here show images that are not only stored forever in the unconsciousness of every person who is looking at them, but more importantly, they are etched just as permanently in the minds of both the fathers and their sons here. 

 Moreover, because the "market" determines both the values of our society, as well as how we acquire the material means by which We subsist, it also affects how, why, what and when We consume whatever it is that we either need or desire.

For example, most of today's television sitcoms, from Two and a Half Men to The First Family To The Big Bang Theory show silly, immature males as the "latest models" for young men and women to consume/emulate. This whole idea of boys and girls never growing up also plays itself out in the behavior of many of Our professional athletes these days. 

To be sure, this is lucrative for those who control the "market". However, once We learn how to build genuine communities that are based upon nurturing Our youth in a way that makes them know that they not only have a vested interest in the continuation of the culture, but, as well, will further the process by preparing for those who've yet to come, then the tables will be turned and the "market" will reflect the values of Our society, instead of the exact opposite as it does right now. Ya dig? Peace. 

 G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech asking "Ain't I A Woman?"

"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?"


Dear friends, 

On the link below, said to be 6'2" tall, this incredible African American woman, Sojourner Truth, in only a few hundred spoken words, defined the plight of all women in both a nation and world where Male Supremacy - euphemistically called sexism or patriarchy, rules.

 Liberation! 

 G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp Read full post

From MWS Journal - Chokwe Lumumba passes...

"None but ourselves can free our mind."
--Bob Marley
"Redemption Song”

We are at the end of the month of February already—the short month from which Negro History Week began the growth of Africana studies, toward today’s recognition by many as African Liberation Month. (Yes, African-Americans, we are an African people, and our condition as a people worldwide remains one in need of emergence from the cultural dominance and outright political oppression of white power.) We in the USA today especially are in need of such awareness; we need to attend to it throughout each year...

The announcement of Chokwe Lumumba's passing this week came with a bitter bite. This great brother had just become the mayor of Jackson , Mississippi (last year) and had launched upon a program of crucial social reforms for the city. However, his remarkable life otherwise reveals much about our history that we must not ignore or neglect.

Chokwe Lumumba death notice--video and links to previous stories related to his life and works (DemocracyNow! Feb 26, 2014)

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/2/26/breaking_jackson_mayor_chokwe_lumumba_has Read full post

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois - Their Ideas and Practice once met in Amherst, Massachusetts

Dr. W.E.B. DuBois (top)
and Booker T. Washington

"We choose to be free. Our choice is the determining factor, no one can be your master until you play the part of a slave." – Dr. Molefi Asante

African Americans are in no small part responsible for the sentiments of society that lead people to help one another. The choice of “free” African Americans helping their brethren, as well as humane early European Americans helping “white” indentured servants and others shows that the generosity of today’s Americans did not drop out of the sky, nor was it born in Us. Rather, it is directly connected to behavior passed on by people who came before Us.

It is always a special moment when an historian finds evidence of an event of significance that has received no apparent attention. Especially, when the evidence here-to-mentioned survives as a monumental physical representation of one of the most intellectually stimulating debates in USA history since the Constitutional Convention of well over nine generations ago.

Nonetheless, right in the little historical town called Amherst, Massachusetts lies the only tangible connection between both the theory and practice of two of the most influential people in North American history, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington.

It all began, about 170 years ago, with an African American minister named Reverend John A. V. Smith. Apparently, in someone's home and also, perhaps, outdoors (as he was also listed in town records as a laborer), Reverend Smith represents the first sign of a Black church. Of course, any preacher worth his or her bible knows that a church is not a "building." For religious worship it is an institution in North America as much as government itself. That is, neither bricks, stones, nor wood constitute the necessary elements needed to establish a church. Consequently, the combined faith of the congregation is the stuff of which a church is made.

The significance of Reverend Smith and his congregation forming their own body of worship is that, up until that point in the African American experience in Amherst, the only clergymen to which African Americans were exposed in the immediate area  (without going to nearby Springfield - as many Black folks here often did) were European American ones whose "divinely-imposed" purposes were to convince African Americans to be docile and accommodating to European Americans.

Of course, in Amherst, Massachusetts, as in African American communities all over Our country, churches have been the dominating institutions for these folks socializing within the context of a community (as opposed to individual socializing such as concerts and so forth.) A generation after Reverend Smith's appearance in Amherst, around the end of the Civil War, some European Americans, particularly the authorities from Amherst College, became concerned about "saving the souls" of African Americans around town. This parental attitude being directed towards African Americans was running rampant throughout the country as many European American rulers and their agents were trying to figure out how to deal with the newly-enfranchised African American man and his community. Recognizing the clear differences between African and European spirituality, said rulers knew that controlling religious expression was extremely important in controlling the thoughts and acts of African Americans.

Local historian James A. Smith wrote that about 143 years ago: "...the Amherst College Church and faculty finding an 'opportunity to show tolerance in matters religious and racial' sponsored the Zion Mission Chapel Sunday School at Amherst, to which they sent their own children to be with Black people." Smith continues that some four years afterwards, "...this chapel had use of a building at the Southeast corner of present day Woodside Avenue and Northampton Road. This organization later split to form the Hope Congregational Church and the present Goodwin A.M.E. Zion Church." (Smith, Blacks in Early Amherst)

In the October 12th edition of the Amherst Record newspaper (forerunner of the current Amherst Bulletin), 108 years ago, the following report appeared, in part: A large audience assembled at College Hall last Wednesday evening, attracted by the announcement that Booker T. Washington, the most distinguished member of the colored race now living, would deliver an address on "Negro education, the proceeds to go toward the building fund of Zion Chapel.

The appearance of Washington itself is a big deal, since he was internationally-renowned and well-traveled. What is also significant about his visit (which was actually his second such lecture held in Amherst) was the fact that for the two main African American congregations in town, both Washington and Professor W.E.B. DuBois had come here in order to help raise money to build a church for each of them. Washington came to raise money for what is known today as Goodwin Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church and DuBois came about six years later for the benefit of Hope Church.

Ruth Goodwin (now deceased), the last surviving member of the family after whom the church is named, says, " We pulled out from the congregational church because the Amherst College had charge of it and a lot of our people thought it was nice to have our own people have charge of the church." (see Ms. Goodwin's interview with James Smith and Mary Commager, Jones Library, Amherst, Boltwood Collection)

To people who have, at least, a fair amount of knowledge regarding African American history, the idea of these two great men becoming involved in what was actually an intellectual "split" is an historic event of great significance. It, therefore, must be greatly appreciated that these two leaders, who have formed the basic ideological structure for most mass African American political and social movements during the past five generations, actually squared off both intellectually and practically - in a small New England town.

Both Washington and DuBois were very sincere men. However, they disagreed strongly about what direction African Americans should take in order to achieve group freedom. Washington felt that African Americans should be accommodating to Our European American brethren. That is, he urged Us not to be so concerned about political and social rights, instead insisting that We concentrate on establishing a more firm economic basis, by shunning intellectual education and opting for vocational skills and knowledge. In Washington's own words, "A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, 'Water, water; We die of thirst!'... The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, 'Cast down your bucket where you are.'...The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water...To those of my race who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say, 'Cast down your bucket where you are'-cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom We are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions." (excerpted from the Atlanta Exposition Address)

Although obviously well-intended, while Washington was asking African Americans to cast down their buckets, the European American southerners who were supposed to retrieve and send back said buckets had been lynching African Americans at a rate of two-per-day for years (what DuBois called the 'Lynching Industry'). Consequently, even more interesting to that Booker T. Washington supported the church that appeared to be demanding separation from the talons of Amherst College.

Yet, a closer look at an article that Booker T. had published in the North American Review, nine months after his second visit to Amherst, reveals why he supported the A.M.E. Zion Church. Here is a portion of the abovementioned essay called “ The Religious Life Of The Negro” from the book, The Black Church in America, edited by Nelsen, Yokley, and Nelsen, “Negro people, in respect to their religious life, have been, almost since they landed in America, in a process of change and growth...The struggle to attain a higher level of living, to get land, to build a home, to give their children an education - gives a steadiness and a moral significance to the religious life...It is encouraging to notice that the leaders of the different denominations of the Negro church - under their leadership, conditions are changing...the (national) A.M.E. Zion Church alone, $2 million was raised..."

Washington was a man of action, not just words. Therefore, to his credit, he founded Tuskegee University, a school that still graduates African American professionals and others in abundance. On the opposite side of Washington's accommodationist approach was Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois. Professor DuBois was raised not far from Amherst - in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He attended numerous schools and universities, receiving his doctoral degree at 27 years-old from Harvard University. However, his learning was far broader than even his formal education suggests. Furthermore, Professor DuBois remains, to this day, the most accomplished scholar in North American history - bar none.

At any rate, DuBois was all for economic advancement, but he felt that it was no use learning how to use a hammer if the storekeeper would not sell you nails. Therefore, the great professor promoted the idea of resistance; that is, he felt that folks should protest those things that were unfavorable to their being. The following passage is from one of his many personal credos that he wrote throughout his life as a habit of "checking up" on his own work and ideals. This particular excerpt was written almost 100 years ago. It first appeared in The Crisis magazine, the organ of the NAACP (DuBois helped found both that long-standing civil rights organization and the aforementioned periodical.): “I am by birth and law a free black American citizen. As such I have both rights and duties. If I neglect my duties my rights are always in danger. If I do not maintain my rights I cannot perform my duties. I will listen, therefore, neither to the fool who would make me neglect the things that I ought to do, nor to the rascal who advises me to forget the opportunities which I and my children ought to have, and must have, and will have.”

Hardly a weekend goes by in Amherst without a political group of some sort standing in front of the town common with a huge protest sign. Professor W. E. B. DuBois once wrote, "Protest is the soul of democracy." Dr. DuBois was telling Us that being able to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner must be at the heart of Our ability to live together, in spite of Our differences.

Starting in childhood, people are taught by their parents or guardians how they should respond to those who live outside of the family unit. That is, children learn when, where, and with whom they can express kindness or anger, acceptance or disapproval. The most prominent reason for this seems to lie in the essence of human relationships, which are, more often than not, political. And so it is Aristotle who is credited with calling humans “ politikon zoon” or political animals (see Landmarks of Tomorrow, by Peter F. Drucker.)

 Anyhow, especially for children, regardless of their skin colors, whose parents are not part of the ruling body in any particular community, learning early when, where, and with whom to be accommodating or resistant has largely determined said children's ability to survive in North America throughout life. Although there has been a tendency of late for parents from all cultures and non-ruling classes to teach their children to stand up for themselves at all costs, many parents still nurture their children according to the assumptions of various religions, that being, somehow yielding is a sign of "moral" Uprightness.

Further, while Professor DuBois was not an accommodationist, he did believe strongly that Our society's so-called racial problems would only be solved through integration (in other words, DuBois had his own version of "cast down your buckets.") Unfortunately, he and others both before and after him wrongly mistook integration for inclusion. For instance, Polish Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jews and other European Americans often, by choice, live in homogeneous communities that are, in fact, quite segregated. Yet, they need not "integrate" in order to receive access to opportunity or responsibility in Our society. Why is that?

Worse yet, not only are African Americans requested to integrate, but We are also expected to give up some, if not all, of Our cultural habits in doing so. In light of everything mentioned above, that is, understanding DuBois' position on integration makes it easy to see why he supported the Hope Church - which was still believed by many African Americans in Amherst, at the time, to be connected with Amherst College. Hope Church has always had a "mixed" membership. However, in the early days, such amalgamation was only acknowledged in terms of "race." Yet, these days, the congregation is made up of various cultures, some of which would defy traditional anthropological definitions (for example, single parents - who choose to be, bi-ethnic families and homosexuals of both sexes.)

Nonetheless, a mere eleven years after what would be Washington's last trip to Amherst, and in spite of their differences, DuBois wrote a passionate obituary in honor of Washington in the NAACP's The Crisis magazine.  It read, in part: The death of Mr. Washington marks an epoch in the history of America. He was the greatest Negro leader since Frederick Douglass, and the most distinguished man, Black or White, who has come out of the South since the Civil War. His fame was international and his influence far-reaching. Of the good that he accomplished there can be no oubt...On the other hand, in stern justice, We must lay on the soul of this man, a heavy responsibility for the consummation of Black disenfranchisement, the decline of the Black college and public school and the firmer establishment of color caste in this land. What is done is done. This is no fit time for recrimination or complaint. Gravely and with bowed head let us receive what this great figure gave of good, silently rejecting all else."

The great Marcus Garvey initially came to the USA in order to meet his idol, Booker T. Washington. Unfortunately, Washington died before such an encounter ever took place. Nevertheless, out of Garvey, grew Elijah Muhammad. Out of Elijah Muhammad, grew men like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Louis Farrakhan. As well, countless African American thinkers, of both sexes, have grown out of Professor DuBois’ massive intellectual capacity. In fact, it can be quite simply asserted that NO legitimate African American scholar or activist who has lived during the past 100 years or four generations can deny the relevance of the role that at least one of these two geniuses played, personally, in both his or her intellectual development and vision.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post

Maintaining our African connection through a music video by our Youth

"During the period of servitude in the New World, the Negro race did not wholly forget the traditions and habits of thought that it brought from Africa. But it added to its ancestral stock certain new ideas." - Booker T. Washington
Dear friends,

In the past this blog has featured quite a bit of the work of scholar/educator/author Dr. Okey Ndibe, a Nigerian national who lives and works here in the US. Starting with the video on the link below, Djatajabs.org will be making a renewed emphasis on maintaining the connection between African peoples of all nationalities from the Continent to the Diaspora. After all, please remember the words of the great Booker T. Washington who insisted, "During the period of servitude in the New World, the Negro race did not wholly forget the traditions and habits of thought that it brought from Africa. But it added to its ancestral stock certain new ideas."

To be sure, there are many African Americans today who refuse to use that term, preferring to call themselves "Black". Yet, as recently as the Seventies, these same people and their families refused to call themselves "Black", instead using Negro and Colored. So people who argue about calling themselves "African American" are simply behind, as either themselves or their predecessors were. a few decades ago

Nevertheless, the crucial point to be made here is: African peoples who were forced to migrate to the Americas did not lose their African cultures. Instead, each cultural group merely took on a different developmental direction. In other words, African American captive workers (so-called “slaves”), for example, were still people. As a result, our forebears adapted to the new circumstances with which they were presented, within the context of their own cultural wisdom and experiences. Dig? Still, we are taught to hate ourselves, especially our African - ness.

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCzugeSPPA Read full post

Stop and Frisk - Is it a Crime against Morality?

 Dear friends,

The recent decision by Mayor DiBlassio of New York City to not appeal a judge's ruling brings back the argument regarding how the "Stop and Frisk" tactics of urban police are concentrated on, especially, young African American and Latino males, as the latter exist in an aura of suspicion that surrounds them. But do the aforementioned tactics violate "racial profiling" statutes? And do the authorities care, anyway? 

Moreover, as far as suspicion goes, perhaps, the relevant question is, "Since most white collar crime is done by European Americans, everyday, then why not start randomly checking the books of companies, corporations, and banks?" In other words, why is there greater concern for people stealing $20 from a person walking down the street or selling $10 rocks of crack cocaine, than for those who constantly steal millions from tens of thousands of retirement funds and the like,for example?

Nevertheless, some complain of police bullying, while others are rightly concerned about the psychological affects on the victims of unnecessary Stop & Frisk practices. And, does being a "white" cop make one feel like a superior being to those who do not claim that moniker? What about a non-European American cop who doesn't even have any history in this country? How can the government endorse such "privilege" to some of the population under the guise of "democracy"?

And how about the statistics regarding the actions of racist employers/employees and landlords? How many African Americans and Latinos suffer from those injustices each and every minute, every second, everyday, including possible loss of work and loss of residency? Why don't the police randomly stop and question all "white" employers/employees and landlords to check and see if they're committing racist acts?

Two crucial aspects of this racist Stop & Frisk practice aren't mentioned. They are 1) Since the overwhelming majority of gun crimes are executed by those who are not seeking to be detected, then it is, at best, a false abstraction to suggest that guns taken during a "Stop & Frisk" would even be used in crimes other than "illegal possession of firearms" (which means nothing, other than determining who gets to be a George Zimmerman and who doesn't). and 2) The "convenient" war on bullying, the game that is currently being played throughout our society, especially in schools, apparently doesn't include babies being killed by US drone rockets in Pakistan. And so, ultimately, the real issue is: Why can't people live together, without using each other as means to ends? Meanwhile, the Catholic priests, Baptist ministers, Jewish rabbis, and Muslim imams smilingly answer, "Come here, son..I want to share some of myself with you."

Still, Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, admits that the New York City's Stop & Frisk policy may not be perfect. But she points out that crime — especially violent crime — happens disproportionately in minority neighborhoods. ( please refer to "Lawsuit Over NYPD's 'Stop And Frisk' Program Heads To Court", by JOEL ROSE, March 18, 2013)

By the way, women and girls are being violated in every neighborhood, in every state, everyday. Violence against females is, by far, the most frequent, as well as the most vicious crime that happens constantly, in our society. Why isn't real energy put into fighting that "crime"?

Finally, why is Stop & Frisk so conveniently implemented for African American and Latino men? At least to me, the real question isn't "Why does a hungry person steal?" Rather, as it has been asked by others before me, the real question should be, "Why do so many who are hungry NOT steal?" It's all about control! For the legitimacy of our government lies in its "threat capacity" through the police and military. Citizens are forced to be automatons, or else! So why is a human better morally than, say, any cat, dog, or bird?

Liberation!

G. Djata Bumpus

Read full post

To where has the leadership in ths country gone?

"The best form of leadership is one that weds imagination and action." - Dr. Okey Ndibe

Dear friends,

Nigerian scholar/educator/writer, Dr. Okey Ndibe writes: The best form of leadership is one that weds imagination and action.

I would like to add to that wisdom from my dear friend and brother Okey that that "action" of which he speaks requires the aforementioned "leader" to also be willing to take the first blow of opposition, like Mandela did for scores of years.

Unfortunately, in this country - the U.S.A. (and most others), so-called "leaders" hide in offices and caves, surrounded by their threat capacity in the form of the police and military, never actually having to confront their own inadequacies and insecurities, much less vulnerabilities.

So how can one be a leader, if his or her value judgments are founded in him or her having no regard for anything other than satisfying himself or herself, as it pertains to receiving both social status and as many material benefits as possible, while, simultaneously, involving himself or herself in as little work/effort as possible?

Moreover, if one is to use his or her imagination to lead, then s/he must necessarily use reason in his or her actions along with the aforesaid imagination. That automatically makes using manipulative intelligence alone inadequate, and, instead, turns all three factors into either a plan or, at least, a progression of plans that will not only require the input needed that can only come from a large body of other people (democracy), but will benefit everyone involved. Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

Interview: Legendary scholar, activist, and author Lloyd Hogan turns 90 (1/23/13 - )

Dear friends,

It is with great honor and pride that I am having the opportunity to present an interview with a man who has been one of the most important teachers in my life, Professor Lloyd Hogan. Moreover, on today, his 90^th birthday, and considering all of the turmoil that still afflicts African American people, we are fortunate to still have his fresh, original thinking at hand Cheers!

Djatajabs: Hey Lloyd…Its been well over 30 years since my brother Eshu introduced us, after several years of him telling me that he had a professor who had become a close friend, at his alma mater, Hampshire College, with whom I would be certain to enjoy sharing ideas while, simultaneously, learning a great deal. To be sure, meeting you back then, and to this very day, has been one of the best things to ever happen, for me. Nevertheless, having been born in 1923, and considering your over 70 years in academia, from student scholar to professor, activist, and author, have there been changes for African American academicians, in both colleges and universities, generally, that have, correspondingly, benefited our people?

Lloyd: During the last 70 years much has changed for the better for African Americans in the institutions of higher learning (academia). In 1943, there were approximately 4 or 5 African American professors teaching in the "white" institutions. Academia had, perhaps, the most white segregated institutions in the U.S. It was so bad that in cities of the South where  African American colleges were located a stone's throw from their white counterparts, the white professors within the same fields kept theirdistance from their black colleagues.

Black students in the white institutions were the most deprived of scholarly camaraderie with their professors and fellow students. They were made to feel that they should be happy to be rubbing elbows with their superior consorts. At the same time, of course, the curricula were steeped in racially distorted nonsense which passed for substantiated knowledge. In short, white academia was subsisting in an atmosphere of distorted scholarship and social stagnation.

It is true that some institutions had exceedingly large black student

enrollments. Institutions like U of Chicago, Columbia U., and New York U. had black enrollments that surpassed most of the southern black colleges.

Closer scrutiny of these institutions revealed that these bloated enrollments were mostly of graduate students in the field of education. These were the southern professors and educational administrators from the black colleges who were studying towards graduate degrees, a condition which they could not pursue within southern institutions due to strictly enforced segregation laws.

Following World War II, with the passage of the GI Bill of Rights, an

increased number of blacks gained admission to the northern white institutions. The largest gains were in the State-supported colleges and universities of the Midwest and Western States. But these enrollments did not result in a corresponding increase in graduation. At the same time a

smattering of institutions employed a relatively few Black professors.

It wasn't until the middle 1960's, when both black and white students began to demonstrate against the corrupted educational system that real progress ensued. As a consequence of black student demands, black studies departments or programs sprang up in a number of white colleges across the land. In many cases, it was a "copy-catting" response to which these institutions paid tribute. Once Harvard had set up a Department of Afro American Studies, the lesser institutions began to follow in lock-step imitation. This led to the employment of a good number of blacks and to the enrollment of significant number of blacks in PhD programs in black history and other black impacted fields of study. So that today it is no longer unusual to see a good number of black students and professors on the campuses of the former segregated white institutions of both north and south. Out of these advances have emerged some important scholarly works by black professors which have influenced the thought processes of people throughout the nation.

But it is time to call for caution. Having been trained by former segregated-minded white scholars it is to be expected that it will take time before there will come into being a truly independent, scholarly, and truthful black intelligentsia. Time and effort are the promoters.

There is a lesson here for current and future African American college and university students. For those who need college degrees as credentials for employment at higher than usual wages, go for it and try

to complete your studies to actual graduation. The degree is your ticket of assurance that you can be a trusted and loyal servant of the capitalists who are your potential employers. They can trust you to count their money, to protect their assets, and to participate with them in exercising control over their work force.

For the relatively few African Americans who want to remain in the knowledge production fields, be aware that much of what goes for knowledge is merely rationalizations of the efficacy and necessity for the existing capitalist social order in which you are now functioning.

The existing knowledge base is flawed and critically fractured. It needs radical revision from its basic formulations up through its fundamental study methodologies. You have important work to do to bring about a change in the approach to the creation of new knowledge. You are truth pioneers. If you don't accept this responsibility you will emerge from these institutions as petty cadets of your intellectual master purveyors of contrived understanding of real world phenomena. Go for it.

Djatajabs: We’ve just experienced the inauguration, for the second time, of Barack Obama, as the President of the United States of America…How do you feel about that, regarding the progress of African American people?

Lloyd: Obama's presidency has been a historical advance in the history of the United States. It certainly has given African Americans an invaluable public relations position. The first time, Obama could not have been elected without the votes of a substantial number of whites. These brave souls went to the polls in revolt against the incompetence of a president who was taking the country to economic and military demise. They were ecstatic about their accomplishment and showed up in person and in television parlors in the millions to witness his inauguration.

A few days later reality set in and they awoke from the dream state. It was as if they said to themselves "what were we thinking..." We should all have known that the President of the United States is the chief executive of the capitalist ruling class. As head functionary of  the capitalist political state his major task is to oversee the promulgation and enforcement of the rules of the capitalist game.

First and foremost among these rules is to insure the continuity of the system...and this means the urgency of preservation of private property rights of capitalists in the ownership of the wage worker's ability to work, which was purchased in market relations; preservation of the property rights of capitalists in the products of wage workers labor, which result from the capitalists use of his private property; preservation of capitalist property rights in the profits derived fromthe sale of his products; and finally preservation of the right of capitalists to reinvest their profits in such a manner as to repeat the process of capitalist activity over and over again without end. There is no way in which African American issues could have been brought to the forefront of Obama's administration in the face of the reality of his major task. As such, it wasn't too long into his tenure that Tea Party and other organizations began to oppose his every action within a posture of concealed and at times overt racist diatribes. Meantime, African Americans and other allies looked on in dismay to witness what appeared to be an administration incapable of any progressive accomplishment. The man is circumscribed by an exploitative political economic system. It is sufficient if he can survive and end his tenure with accomplishments such as a termination of two destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a semblance of a health care insurance plan, and with some growth in employment. He should be commended if he can pull off these modest goals.

Djatajabs: Now, apart from education and politics, I always remember, from years back, how important it was to you to have a fairly large garden, during the warm weather, but also, even today, you still have a small porch garden, at your home. What is the role of food for any population group, as it seeks to reproduce itself as a people, through

time?

Lloyd: It is true that I have always tried, whenever possible, to plant a kitchen garden. It is a conscious attempt to keep in touch with the reality of human existence. In my book, Principles of Black Political Economy, I argued that food production and consumption lie at the foundation of every conceivable political economy that has been known throughout the history of humankind. Since then I have been working on development of a theory of human population. A fundamental postulate of that theory is that in every human society two material crops must be produced to form its core. These are an annual crop of food and a corresponding annual crop of human babies. The annual crop of food constitutes the life-time supply for the corresponding annual crop of babies. I can't go into implications of this postulate in this discussion. However, suffice it to say that different social orders are distinguished by the specific way in which the food is made available to the babies over the course of their lifetimes.

That food is essential should be obvious. No person can exist

without ingesting into his/her person a daily dosage of food (including potable water and breathable air). Food is the elixir of human life. Although people consume many other things, food, nonetheless, must also be

an essential part of their consumption bundle.

In exploitative  societies, it is the robbery of the food from the mouth of babies that reduce the potential longevity of the average population member. It is no wonder that death among the poverty stricken comes easy; while death among the material well-off comes hard. The bread is snatched from the mouth of the poor and death easily prevails.

It is no wonder then that I always try to plant a garden. In these days, I am confined to a few planters on my apartment terrace where I concentrate on the standard herbs--thyme, rosemary. basil, oregano, sage, etc. I also work with peppers such as bhut jaloki, trinidad scorpion, habanero, scotch bonnet, etc. I engage in friendly struggle with Earth-mother.

Djatajabs: Is there a reason to for us to continue the African American experience in a so-called “post-racial” society? I mean, exactly what conditions must exist, in order for a group to become a distinct body for generations, and when is it favorable for them to do so?

Lloyd: I must state at the outset that "race" is a corrupt and corruptible concept. It immediately involves a superiorityinferiority configuration. It was invented by slave hunters and slave

masters to justify to their gods and their evil consciences the wanton control of other human beings as their private property.

"Post-racial" is a related term which has no essential meaning, but provides talking points for charlatans, television commentators, and the unthinking

layman.

African Americans are a distinctive population by dint of their long historical period of reproducing among themselves to the exclusion of all other people.

No individual African American consciously made the decision to be a member of this distinct population. The social and

political economic circumstances under which these people existed in North America are the decisive factors. Black slavery, black

sharecropping in a Jim Crow environment, and late coming to the wage labor class are the historical groundings which cemented African Americans as an identifiable sub-population within the larger U.S. population. As such, it will be an extremely long time in the future before these people will be physically and socially integrated into the larger U.S. population. One shouldn't make plans for this event any time soon.

I must also remind you that African Americans have been physically integrated with a segment of the white population for quite a long time, in the past. If one observes these people closely it becomes, at once, obvious that they have shed a decisive identifying African attribute.

Blackness as a color that is characteristic of African people has almost disappeared from African Americans. They span all colors of the rainbow. Their blood has been tainted with the venom of the vermin slave masters who forcibly injected their polluted seeds into black slave women's wombs. The rape of black womanhood now appears visibly in the panorama of colors among black people. But the power of blackness is such that one droplet of black blood still marks the offspring as black.

The message to African Americans is to savor that history and the cultural entanglements which surround it. There is no escape. After all, it is out of the struggles of African Americans for liberation from all the restrictions they faced throughout their history which made the important democratic advances in the U.S. at large. The nation owes these people a great debt of gratitude for whatever semblance of democracy now prevails. African American struggle and developing U.S. democracy are synonymous events.

Djatajabs: What relationships do you think need to exist between African American men and women for the prospects of our future growth as a people?

Lloyd: I have no substantive knowledge of interpersonal relationships. My only advice to any African American in this regard is to remember that

people are highly specialized and exotic formations of the Earth's

surface. As such they have an obligation far beyond themselves to preserve and improve the species of which they are an essential part.

Be good to each other...love the other better than you love yourself...never do to the other what you would not want done to you, while at the same time always defending the right of the other to do whatever he/she proposes to do. But since the Earth-mother is the source of our being, then preservation and improvement of her is a number 1 activity. That is

all I have to contribute to this most important topic.

Djatajabs: Thanks for sharing your wisdom today, as you have been doing for three generations, Lloyd…and Happy 90^th!...Much Love!

Read full post

Economic Development for African American Youth in Philly & elsewhere

“African Americans, as a people, are legendary for collecting baubles, but we never save. We have never been taught to, as the children of the wealthier have.”

Dear friends,

Planning for the future, without setting goals for the economic development of our youth, is something that may help specific individuals, or even corporations, but it won't change the standard of living for residents of any particular community, much less represent an honest attempt to prepare for their future.

Yet, strangely enough, we never hear mention of our youth, even from so-called progressives, at least not outside of them as recipients of food stamps or health care. From all of the Streets, to the Goodes (won’t bother to mention Ed Rendell), to the Blackwells, to the Fattahs, to, yes, Michael Nutter combined, not a single one of these politicians in the African American community of Philadelphia has ever had so much as a single useful thought about how to empower their constituents economically or otherwise, much less the children of the latter.

Still, how can anyone pretend to be thinking about the future, without having programs that are directly geared towards young people? Our youth need to think about their economic future.

To be sure, African Americans, as a people, are legendary for collecting baubles, but we never save. We have never been taught to, as the children of the wealthier have. Consequently, a good goal for young people to save towards is their college education.

Business groups like the African American Chamber of Commerce can play a giant role in monitoring such a program. Surely, an organization like NEEED (Networking for Equal Education and Economic Development) can help a great deal in the effort.

Of course, in order to save money, you have to make it first. As far as a program for youth to earn then save a few bucks is concerned, one of the major problems for African Americans is: Our, historically, poor sense of how to spend our money. Only the wealthy in this country are taught about wealth. The rest of the citizens (many European Americans included) have little or no idea of even what wealth is, let alone how to either acquire or keep it. Unfortunately, with this, African Americans have been the worst. And even worse than that is the fact that just as we are beginning to gain some sense of the possibilities of saving, investing, acquiring property, and so forth, the train has just about left the station.

It used to be that if a person invested in an IRA from the time they were 19 until they were 25, they could see that grow into enough to retire on even if they never invested another cent. Now, with interest rates so low in banks and investments so "iffy", you have to keep investing, certainly, much longer, to make it worthwhile.

Additionally, the question then arises, how do African Americans tend to spend money anyway, when they are 19-25 years old, much less younger than that? It is then, perhaps, more meaningful to develop as a standard that all youth are expected to have a college fund started by the time they enter Middle School. Never mind this stuff about parents saving for your child’s education. That’s the way that I worked it with all three of my kids and they all have done quite well.

Now, it may start out small, but it is the continual growth that makes a difference. Imagine for example in 6 years, from 7th-12th grade, a student saves $5 per week-the first year, $10 /wk-the second year, $15/wk-the third year, and so forth. Even without interest, that student will have a substantial chunk of money with which to enter college. The real benefit is: They will develop a mentality that puts planning for the future and the assumption that we are all college bound, in the forefront.

At any rate, people who realize that they have a future may be less likely to squander it with petty and larcenous thinking like drug-dealing and prostitution. By the way, while we are on the subject, the worst thing about the drug-dealing mentality is that drug-dealing has no future and people who are involved in it have no vision of the future. After all, no one can say with any degree of either logic or sanity, "I am going to deal drugs for a few years to earn money for college and then, after college, get a good job and raise a family." Even the strippers - who often, claim to be putting themselves through college, by dancing up and down a pole - make more sense than that. (That is, at least, their profession is legal and has a fair amount of history to it.)

One idea that is kind of similar has already been tried in, I believe, West Philly is a kind of “Sweep my steps, please?” program. At ten dollars ($10) per week, for a specified pre-teen or teenager (must be enrolled in school) to come by so many times per week and sweep your steps. No teenager should be allowed to sweep more than ten sets of steps per week. (Let us try to be democratic.) Businesses - including realtors, as well as both homeowners and renters, could be sponsors. Also, concerned adults who simply want to contribute, by sending $10 per week to the specific bank designated to monitor the funds.

This can become a great community cultural institution, lasting for generations. Some kids may feel, initially, that drug-dealing brings in more cash. However, it (drug-dealing) really does not bring in even $10 per week that they can save, for most kids. In other words, after they end up paying the bigger dealers and spending (on baubles) the peanuts that are left extremely quickly (if not before they have even paid the former his money back), they have no money.

Imagine if a hard-working youngster got a (Sweep My Steps) sponsor from the community who would put that money in an interest-bearing account as part of a stipend for the chores represented by "Step-Sweeping." The student will get $10 for his or her College fund. Of course, the student is aware that it is his or her responsibility to maintain a connection with the sponsor who keeps that account growing. What is more, this is the type of activity, if gotten off the ground, that could get matching funds rather than grants. Both businesses and individuals, knowing that the money is going to an account that cannot be touched except by an accepting college or an entity of that sort, would feel much better about their donations and more willing to make what is clearly an investment in the larger community.

So a simple slogan like, "If you make money fast, then you’ll spend it fast...If you make money slow, then you’ll spend it slow.", may eventually convince youngsters to realize that there is no future in drug-dealing. After all, young folks should understand that, if they get caught selling drugs (and they will, because addicts snitch to the cops just for reasons like the dealer will not give the latter drugs on credit), while in jail, they (young drug dealers) will not make any money. Therefore, the potential $500 for their college funds that they could make, with only one sponsor, from one year of the “Sweep” program, is far more than what they could make during that same amount of time while in jail or a youth detention center (which is, basically, nothing).

Ultimately, in order to make any kind of work-related initiative happen, we must, as it has been said, convince young people that "Work is a reward!". In other words, it is the work itself that is the reward, not any money or prizes received for one's efforts.

Unfortunately, so much currency (no pun intended) is given to the idea of "reward" as receiving either Nobel, a Pulitzer, a Grammy, an Oscar, or Lottery prize that youth do not understand that the greatest rewards they will receive in life are far more mundane, coming from the joy that they create through their experiences with other people, non-human animals, and even - things, often with no one standing nearby giving applause.

Moreover, work is a "power" that one should hold as great value. Whether it is working at MacDonald's or as a messenger for an attorney, our youth should consider appreciating the fact that their ability to get up in the morning, go to school and a job moves them forward - in the direction of controlling their own lives (destinies). What could be more empowering, than the ability to work, through study (mind) and labor (body)? And, who does not love the feeling of being powerful?

Note: To be sure, the idea of appreciating our own ability to work has been one that has often escaped youth throughout human history. After all, it is hard as a young person to hear that the satisfaction of a job well done is its own reward, when s/he sees the inequities of the distribution of the harvesting of the "fruits" of labor all around us. That is, those who do the least work, make the most money. Therefore, it is one of those notions that would be fine if everyone believed it, but hard to swallow when you know others are getting away with doing so little. Hence, it is the unfairness that eats away at our resolve to do our best in a society that, on top of the aforementioned, finds humor in its own inadequacy (as revealed in so many Hollywood productions like the Bad News Bears). Still, we must push forward in getting our youth to appreciate work.

Finally, after saving, what happens to the money, if the student does not go to college? Let it be available to the student when s/he is ready. It may go towards tuition in a trade school. It may be usable as down-payment on property. It should not be available as cash or to buy a car or pay rent. The point is that it is about moving the person forward.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

"Seasoning" Our abilities for Profit

Dear friends,

Just as Columbus had initially introduced it with Early American Native peoples, African captives' first introduction to "seasoning" was, more often than not, through violence - then Christianity. In The Black Jacobins, the great C.L.R. James wrote, "All America and West Indies took slaves. When the ship reached the harbour, the cargo came up on deck to be bought. The purchasers examined them for defects, looked at the teeth, pinched the skin, sometimes tasted the perspiration to see if the slave's blood was pure and his health as good as his appearance. Some of the women affected a curiosity, the indulgence of which, with a horse, would have caused them (the purchasers) to be kicked back 20 yards across the deck. But the slave had to stand it. Then in order to restore the dignity which might have been lost by too intimate an examination, the purchaser spat in the face of the slave. Having become the property of his owner, he was branded on both sides of the breast with a hot iron. His duties were explained to him by an interpreter, and a priest instructed him in the first principles of Christianity."

This method of forced acculturation (seasoning) is still very much a part of the North American culture, although manifested in a different way. Now, instead of physical torture being used to make Black people - whether adults or children - assimilate, Eurocentricity and Negrophobia are perpetuated through cultural institutions like the legal, corporate media and educational systems.

The word cultural is used here to describe certain institutions because it is through culture that We transmit behavior and ideas to both present and future generations. However, the first thing that We must understand about culture is: it is largely tied to a people's resources. That is, social status and income as well as materials to produce what people need or desire determine how, why and through what medium folks can express themselves as a distinct group.

The crucial point to be made here is, African peoples who were forced to migrate to the Americas did not lose their cultures. Instead, each cultural group merely took on a different developmental direction. In other words, although they were enslaved, African American captive workers were still people. As a result, Black folks adapted to the new circumstances with which they were presented.

Oddly enough, most North American social theorists have paid little or no attention to the realities mentioned, thus far. Instead, their intellectual energies have been geared towards apologizing for upper class fantasies as they pertain to human progress. However, the real challenge for scholars will be to responsibly analyze societies according to what people actually do to sustain themselves, as opposed to what certain groups think of themselves.

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

Huey P. Newton on Gay & Women's Liberation

"We should be careful about using those terms that might turn our friends off. The terms “faggot” and “punk” should be deleted from our vocabulary, and especially we should not attach names normally designed for homosexuals to men who are enemies of the people, such as [Richard] Nixon or [John] Mitchell. Homosexuals are not enemies of the people." - Huey P. Newton, Black Panther Party




Dear friends,

On the link below, is a short speech by my old comrade Huey P. Newton. What he had to say at the time was very uncomfortable for many men especially, including male Panthers.

The attitudes that seemingly most people had towards both women’s and gay liberation were not those that would move our society forward.

While women in the Black Panther Party enjoyed equal and respectful treatment, things were far different in the overall society. As well, homosexuality was basically unacceptable.

Yet, one of my biggest concerns, regarding today’s social movements is: the word “liberation” has been replaced by the term “rights”. Unfortunately, as a result, the very goals of both the women’s and gays movements now reflect the overall identity crisis in our country.

Finally, if the drive for equality, dignity, and justice, for all people, is diminished to being only for females who call themselves “white”, and people whose “identity” is based upon something as precarious, if not frivolous, as the human sexual appetite/impulse, then Male Supremacy and its spirit - which is male homosexuality, along with White Supremacy, euphemistically called “racism” will prevail.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.workers.org/2012/us/huey_p_newton_0524/ Read full post

Humiliating the Panthers

Dear friends,

I was quite incensed both yesterday and today as some clown, on Facebook, masquerading as an African American, posted a picture from 1970 where some Philly Panthers stripped for authorities after a raid that was led by super-scumbag Frank Rizzo, the top cop back then who later became mayor.

Nevertheless, it's a hugely false abstraction to compare the a displaying of the Emmett Till horror, as well as lowlife Frank Rizzo's stripping Panthers in 1970, within the context of exposing it to people of today, just as it is with the murder of Dr. King, without revealing the relationships between all of those occurrences and their connection with the continuation of both local and federal government actions to demean and humiliate, especially African American people.

Moreover, as someone who had to walk around in the daytime with a pistol on my waist, and sleep at night with a shotgun beside my bed and the pistol under my pillow, while police cars surrounded our offices, and occasionally helicopters hovered above as they routinely performed “combat exercises”, it angers me that that photograph is not accompanied by the question "why did those Panthers undress?". After all, we were always ready to fight!...Consequently, I always saw it as an inside job.

That is, I always thought to myself that the Philadelphia Police Department had infiltrated a local Panther branch  (since there were about seven of them all over Philly)...worse yet, since there were females there too, I can't imagine an African American woman stripping naked in public, as some of them did...therefore, whoever pulled his or her clothes off first was the police informant\collaborator who got the others to join in.

Finally, jealous of the Panthers, many self-hating black journalists and college professors have brought that incident up as an excuse to snicker at the Panthers, when in fact their cowardly selves, including my old friend Cornell West, were too scared to stand up to our oppressors.

Liberation!

G. Djata Bumpus

Read full post

Are they Civil Rights or Human Rights?

Dear friends,

The ever-reactionary US government has, conveniently, diminished all movements, along with their activists, that oppose the actions of the aforementioned government to being in the same league as the sterile movement of the Sixties that died with Martin Luther King. For example, today, ridiculous media and other endorsed spokespeople, call the great revolutionary and Black Nationalist Malcolm X, a “civil tights” leader. Huh? To be sure, about that, Malcolm is rolling around in his grave.

But this diminishing the significance of our human rights just mentioned above can be seen in the inability of African Americans to drink from certain water fountains down South as being called a “civil right”. Being seated fairly on a bus may be a civil right. After all, at least you can get on the bus – or walk. However,  when, in fact, all humans must consume water/fluids in periodic intervals or they will succumb, it is a violation of one’s rights as a human being to not be able to drink from any particular public fountain. . This also applies to public toilets.

Liberation!

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

Langston Hughes on The Negro and The Racial Mountain

"Why is it that we have to portray positive images of ourselves? "

Dear friends,

From Black plays of today that ask either that we come laugh at ourselves or have "white" folks come and feel sorry for us, to hip-hop lyrics that use the word "nigger" so much that even the genre's European American listeners are now identifying with the pejorative term, the level of self-hatred among far too many African American people is, unfortunately, as strong as it was, if not stronger, than the days of Steppinfetchit. Proof? Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and so many other "comics" who are paid handsomely for demeaning us.

Someone then asks: Why is it that we have to portray positive images of ourselves? On the link below, is an incredible essay that was written over three generations ago (1926) by the incomparable Langston Hughes. You should be able to answer the previous question on your own, after that.

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/mountain.htm Read full post

NABJ - fulfilling its Promise?

Dear friends,

I remember back in the early 80s, when I was the big man on campus at Temple, NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) held a conference there.

It wasn’t a very big organization then and the agenda was fairly progressive. Unfortunately, times have changed and the group that exists today under that name is far removed from the activism of its predecessors.

Having been in the movement for all of my life, basically, since the early 60s, growing up in an activist family, I’ve either organized or rubbed elbows with many of the now renowned icons of the movement. The most significant lesson that I was taught and continue to advocate is: we must inform to inspire. NABJ must create a forum on the Internet where African American people will go to share dialogue - not the racist controlled media outlets like MS NBC and the Grio that offer analyses that are often laughable. Moreover, and it will become more apparent when Obama is no longer in office, NABJ can show leadership in the same context as the great Dr. DuBois did, when he started the Crisis magazine - which was quite revolutionary in the early 20th century.

Finally, African Americans in the spirit of our beloved brother Malcolm X and his mentor the Honorable Elijah Muhammad must: Do for self!. That is, we must leave Facebook and other forums in droves of millions and start our own Internet network that joins us with our people around the world.

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

The late, great Curtis Mayfield still reminds us....

"Fathers and Mothers should remember what the great Curtis Mayfield sang, "Keep on keepin' on" "


Dear friends,

During the era of the Black Consciousness Movement (@1965-1985), at least to me, there was not one other popular artist who was more consistent and prolific with songs of inspiration and love , specifically, for African American people than Curtis Mayfield. Bar none. And I'm not intending to trivialize all of the great work from artists like Gil Scott-Heron, Elaine Brown (of the Black Panther Party), or Stevie Wonder.

In any case, from songs like "People Get Ready", "Amen":, and "We're a Winner" while being the lead songwriter and vocalist for the Impressions to his debut solo album, to "Roots", then "Superfly", all the way to the soundtracks of both "Claudine", performed by Gladys Knifgt and the Pips, as well as "Sparkle", perfprmed by Aretha Franklin, to "Thee's No Place LIke America", Curtis Mayfield served as one of the finest artists, of any cultural group, ever.

On the link below, I'd like to share one of his manu memorable works. I found it recently on YouTube.

One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h4xxC0xQVc Read full post

Re-visiting an analysis of Eddie Glaude's article called "The Black Church is Dead"

"He makes no mention of the origin of the Black Church, regarding an individual’s religiosity, much less the inner powers of spirit that were necessary to survive the infamous voyage of the European enslavers’ ships. Or, for that matter, even of post- Civil War concoctions of Black churches that were organized by “white” missionaries and their ilk who established “places of worship” for our forebears (as if our predecessors had no sense of their own religiosity.)"

 (originally posted 3/22/10)

Dear friends,

Considering the health care legislation that was just approved by Congress at the urging of President Obama, the recent publication by The Huffington Post of an unworthy article by Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr, regarding his assertion that the Black Church is "Dead", seems like a moot point. This is especially so, since it was the Black Church that was Obama’s strongest ally, during his run for the presidency. However, it also points to a deeper problem of Black scholarship in this country and elsewhere, or what passes off as such, that has really taken a nose-dive during the past couple of decades.

But what is the Black Church? In Glaude’s perception of what it is, he provides very little historical basis for it, outside of pointing out a couple of questionable characters/preachers who have fleeced African Americans over the past 80 years or so. He makes no mention of the origin of the Black Church, regarding an individual’s religiosity, much less the inner powers of spirit that were necessary to survive the infamous voyage of the European enslavers’ ships. Or, for that matter, even of post- Civil War concoctions of Black churches that were organized by “white” missionaries and their ilk who established “places of worship” for our forebears (as if our predecessors had no sense of their own religiosity.)

Nevertheless, after first focusing on the results of silly studies and polls that claim to document African American worship, Glaude does briefly take notice of various endeavors in which the Black Church has involved itself in order to help alleviate social problems, in the past. Unfortunately, after what amounts to an anti-intellectual, anti-historical introduction, Glaude’s main solution for re-establishing an effective Black Church is some kind of metaphysical drivel about “prophetic energies”.

To be sure, the energy that we need to muster is readily available to us, because each of us possesses both inner and outer powers that will allow us to create and produce what we need and want in this myriad of experiences that we know as human life.

We don't need to search for some type of esoteric entity such as “prophetic energies”. Rather, at least to me, we need direct action that is based upon the struggle of African American people to acquire “freedom, equality, and justice”.

Most importantly though, without Glaude’s anemic article acknowledging the origin of the Black Church as beginning on enslavers’ ships where people were chained together with folks who often didn’t even share the same native tongues, while, simultaneously, living in their own excrement, there is no reasonable justification for Glaude, as an alleged African American “scholar”, to even have written this piece, because his premise is entangled with quixotic notions about propositions that are somehow proof of themselves. Hence, the “prophetic energies” about which he babbles.

In any case, in the real world, later the Black Church developed in cotton fields and other such places. Please remember that a building does not make up a church. Rather, it is the combined religiosity of any group of people – any size - that does. Also, the Black Church is not “black and Christian”, as Glaude so naively, if not mean-spiritedly, claims. There are, after all, many Black congregations of Muslims, Jews (i.e., Hebrew), you name it. Are they not part of the Black Church? In fact, does one have to be enrolled in a particular denomination or attend religious services, in order to be part of the Black Church? Does a person have no investment in the Black Church, if s/he attends a church where most of the congregants are not African American?

At any rate, our church facilities should be open to our youth so that, for example, they can study our history (with no membership or attendance at the particular church required). Resources like the great Charles Blockson collection in Philadelphia, community activists, and college professors can contribute tremendously to making this happen.

Education, of course, is something that you get for yourself. It is NOT something that someone gives to you. Notwithstanding, the Black Church should be the place where young people in our communities can get helpful knowledge and ideas, along with developing useful skills. The schools will, ultimately, follow, if our churches show them the way. Our young people should know that the adults of the community will provide the type of environment where their minds can develop in a manner that will make them be able to control their destinies.

Consequently, for our youth, we must all embrace the old Nigerian proverb that goes, “If you pick a good tree to climb, I will help lift you up.” Moreover, where is a better place for our children to learn to appreciate scholarship than the Black Church?

Yet, to me, there is something much more pernicious going on here. It is: Glaude and his pathetic ilk have no clue as to how to solve current problems in our religious institutions, much less our communities. For example, he didn’t mention the rampant practice of Black ecclesiastics who, just as many Catholic priests of all complexions do, engage in all sorts of sexual indignities with their parishioners. That makes a lot of Black folks not want to go to church!

Still, the Black church lives! Yet, it must maintain a course, based upon the people’s struggle. Churches, mosques, and synagogues need to play a strong role in our community building. The Black church is the oldest institution that we have, again, beginning in the holds of enslavers' ships through chattel slavery, manumission, and the series of freedom movements that have led up to this point for African Americans. The Black church has been there, and it will continue to be. But, like everyting else, it’s part of a process.

Finally, Glaude has taken improper stock of himself in trying to analyze an institution of which he, apparently, has limited understanding. Worse yet, he’s given more reason for mainstream media outlets, like The Huffington Post, to keep the dialogue away from being enlightening/informative, motivating, and inspiring. After all, the idea that the Black Church is dead is useless blather. Is the “White” Church dead? Is it only “white and Christian”? Does it even exist? Why hasn’t The Huffington Post found some fool to write such a piece?

If you’re interested, the link to Glaude’s article appears below.

One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-glaude-jr-phd/the-black-church-is-dead_b_473815.html Read full post