This speech by Malcolm has been on my mind for the last several weeks or so: as I grow older, its meaning becomes clearer. I know where I began as a Black man entrenched in integration, yet no one I knew was willing to admit to being a “House Negro”. With raised fists we were defiant. Yet we were/are house negros. From Frederick Douglas through MLK the objective was to ask/beg for participation, but not compensation. Participation in a system in which we have to ask, “Do Black Lives Matter?”
Participation in a system in which “Blacks have the highest poverty rate at 19.5%” (Poverty Statistics | Poverty Estimates- Federal Safety Net).
Participation in a system where “blacks have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease than other groups, and black children have a 500% higher death rate from asthma compared with white children.” (Health disparities between blacks and whites run deep | News | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
Participation in a system where “Black men comprise about 13% of the population, but 35% of the incarcerated.” (Criminalization & Racial Disparities | Vera Institute)
Participation in a system where “Only 12% of Black males are proficient in reading by 8th grade.” (https://menformation.org/teach-them-how-to-read/)
These statistics mean that after over 500 years of enslavement, torture, and ridicule we have not learned to take care of ourselves; Those of us who have “made it” have forgotten the field negros as we pity their plight and identify as house negros.|
“Black people are used to walking in circles and getting nothing accomplished but if we let white media-friendly elements do the talking the same thing will happen with reparations.”_Profeessor BlackTruth.
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