In this moment of a very dark chapter for all the black race across the globe, I began wondering what the death of the late American, George Floyd really meant to the Black African in America and in Africa.
While thinking about this, my mind went back to an audio I have of a college graduation speech that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave in Detroit in the mid 1950s.
In his speech, the first thing, he asked the students and their professors (I imagine black and white people seated) was all my dear black people gathered here, I am asking you today ..... what is your blueprint at this moment?
Nobody answered or said a word. He went on to tell the graduating students to work very hard to find their purpose in life. And not to play second fiddle to anybody whether white or black, hispanic or asian. Because every human being here on earth is special and created uniquely by God, each of us giving a special talent or gift.
He was giving this speech, following a similar incident like what is happening today across America where black people are being killed. Because guess what, a handful of black students were being killed in Detroit, Michigan at the time.
You would have thought he would give a speech to incite the black students towards violence and cause them to retaliate on the white people in the college with the same thing been done to them.
Judging from the tension and the mood at the time in the state of Michigan, this speech by this iconic leader was a bit ironic and off key to the people gathered I imagined.
But to me, he was so on point. Here is why. Whatever bad thing done to you doesn't matter but it is how you react to it that matters most. You can decide to hate your enemy or oppressor for the rest of your life. He or she will continue living his or her life while you may be living a bitter and a vengeful life.
Focusig and planning your entire life on how you are going to avenge the bad things done to you the chance you get.
It is painful and unimaginably difficult to forgive in this situation....
But try as hard as you can to forgive and rise above the hate. Karma and the devine laws of God over time has a way of heaping hot coal on your oppressors and enemies who are not giving in to change and self reconciliation for their own sins and bad deeds.
I am an African, to the Black American community across the world, find a common way to heal the smelly wounds of racism, discrimination and bigotry.
The blueprint or the way to fight racism and discrimination for any black man or woman in the world is to fight and overcome our own internal differences as black people before we go charging on white people.
This should be our blueprint. This should also be our greatest mission to recovery and healing.
You cannot cure racism if you feel you are better than your fellow black man because you had a good education from Harvard and wear a suit and tie to work whiles your fellow black man does not. Forget the white man for a minute. You are more racist than the white man you blame for the oppression if you are guilty of this. You have to see everybody else with the same lens as you see President Obama. Else the looting and the stores you keep burning will only be a heaping cost waiting for your grandchildren and their generation to pay.
To my African brothers and sisters, when was the last time we spoke strongly against the genocides and senseless killings going on in our own backyard. We feel that Tribe A is better and Tribe B is worst. We are black people but we love pulling down and destroying our own, funny enough, sometimes for no reason.
I hope by the time we finish joining hands with our diasporian brothers and sisters in America, we will come back and "chop our own house matter"
Before we preach black lives matter to the white man. We must preach about howlives and equality matter to our own selves first.
We must first remember that injustice everywhere is a dangerous threat to justice everywhere. Be it in Africa or America. White or a Black person.
Now, let me go and drink water and come back next time.
Kwame Sarpong | Freelance Writer:
Comments
Post a Comment