What They Have Done To Us

A Facebook associate shared an image about the good deeds performed by the Black Panther Party for their local communities, specifically East Oakland, California. One comment on the post was, "Wow, they warp my history so much." This statement became the inspiration for this article. "They warp my history so much" or often stated another way, "What they have done to us." 

We have to stop affirming what "They" did to us, or what "They" are doing to us. It's time to step up to the plate, start reading and researching for ourselves, as many have done in the past. The biggest setbacks for African Americans in the 21st century would be ourselves, Christianity, and the Bible. 

The Bible and Christianity are all about being submissive, "Turning the other cheek," "Waiting on a Savior," and a posthumous reward in the hereafter. Astoundingly, the 1st book of the Bible - Genesis 2:17 states, "But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die." This is clearly telling you not to read and research outside of a medieval book, written by approximately 40 authors who had very limited knowledge about the world around them. They believed the world to be flat and that planet Earth was the center of the universe. 

Octogenarian Explorer Barbara Hillary, "Christianity is the greater shackle, the greater rape of the Black Mind than slavery ever was..."

African Americans were not the only race of people that were repressed, disenfranchised, tortured, and murdered. Over 6 million Jews were exterminated during the Holocaust. Granted, Germany and Hitler were financed by the Rothschilds, so they financially supported the extinction of their own nationality. Be that as it may, the Jewish race has bounced back rather well. Yes, many received the financial assistance that Blacks did not; we never received our "40 acres and a mule," but that's no reason to make excuses. Excuses serve no relevancy and only place additional obstacles in one's path.

Even a germaine excuse, especially in the 21st Century, is not, and has never done us a bit of good. Therefore, we must do it for ourselves. Myriad black families, past and present, have succeeded far beyond expectations. The first self-made female millionaire in the United States, black or white, was Madam C.J. Walker. Look at the monumental success of Oprah Winfrey. We had an intelligent African American in the oval office along with his beautiful first family. 

There are a plethora of other stories pertaining to prosperity and accomplishment for Black people in America. We've been extremely successful and resilient as a race, thus we need to retire the statement, "What they have done to us." 

Dr. King stated, "A man can't ride your back unless it's bent." Similarly, Mufasa (Lion King) told his son Simba, when he came to him in a vision, "You are more than what you have become." As a race, we are so much more than what we have become. 

Certainly, it was tragic what Europeans did to our ancestors, but it's time to roll up our collective sleeves, start reading and researching independently, toss the Bible out the nearest window, and force a change. I've always lived by the personal adage, "You don't have to like me, but you must respect me." If you have knowledge (which provides complete confidence and can never be usurped), coupled with the ability to articulate a point, along with self-respect, there are no limitations on what you can accomplish. When you enter any room and your energy is electric, powerful, and buttressed by self-awareness, no one can touch you! 

40 Acres and a Mule: On January 16, 1865, during the Civil War (1861-65), Union General William T. Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 in January 1865, calling for the redistribution of confiscated Southern land to freedmen in forty-acre plots. The order was rescinded later that same year, and much of the land was given to poor white folks. 

Union General Sherman issued his Special Field Order No. 15, which confiscated as Union property a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. John's River in Florida, including Georgia's Sea Islands and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast. The order redistributed the roughly 400,000 acres of land to newly freed black families in forty-acre segments. 

Gen. Sherman's visionary program would have fundamentally altered the course of American race relations. Unfortunately, Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor and a sympathizer with the South, overturned the Order in the fall of 1865. Historian Barton Myers concludes, “returned the land along the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coasts to the planters who had originally owned it”. The land was returned to the very people - the insurrectionist of the 19th Century - who had declared war on the United States of America (much of the land was unsettled so it really belonged to no one. 

In spite of the Africans' tragic history in America, we have succeeded and continue to break new ground on a daily basis.