| Author |
Message |
    
Beautifulwaterstar
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 07, 2003 - 05:16 pm: | 
|
"The New Black Progressive/Conscious Party"
L.Martin (2002)
It had been a while since I'd really had the chance to get out and unwind, so I decided to check this Open Mic poetry session I found out about in a flyer..
I walked in to a room which was lit only by candle light. The smoke from the Nag Champa incense and Frankincense danced in the air, making the atmosphere sweet and inviting. He spoke.."See, The European is slick! Yeah, he'll pull all kinds of tricks to keep The African (continental and displaced) from progressin'"... The crowd assures him with massive praises of "You tell him Brotha's" and "Right; speak on it's". With the solidified energy and approval of the collective, he gains even more force behind his words/energy and he continues.. "Perhaps the slyest and most successful thing he has EVER done was conquer us through dividing us and his psychological strongholds serve to keep us that way, even to this very day!" Okay, true true.. I am following him.. He continues.. "And these non-conscious niggaz are the MAIN problem! They have NO knowledge of Self and carry out his (The European's) oppressive plans and propoganda, criticizing everything WE, the 'progressive' black people do!"
The crowd is ecstatic, but in the midst of all the claps and the "Shole nuff" type gestures, my mind is probing at something much, much deeper and perhaps just as much (if not more)troubling than the words that are being spoken.. "Non conscious black people "<-----> "Progressive/Conscious Black People".. Hmm.. "Non conscious black people <-----> "Progressive black people"="Divide and Conquer:New Age Edition".
Get my drift? If you do, I wonder how and why it just politely slipped past the people who never hesitate to call themselves "conscious", seeing as to how "conscious" is supposedly synonymous to the word "aware".. Was it possible that this articulate and seemingly passionate "conscious" brotha was not "conscious" or "aware" of the fact that he was, and almost in the same breath, promoting that which he knocked; the division of blacks? Was it possible that the "conscious crowd" clapped for and applauded the promotion of this division in total oblivion?
From tribal wars to the said ideas suggested by Willie Lynch, we as a people have in many ways never really been a solidified whole.. "The House Nigga" <---> "The Field Nigga", "Darker Skinned Black"<---> "Lighter Skinned Black", "Upperclass Blacks <--->"Middle Class Blacks"<--->"Lower Class and Poor Blacks" and so on and so on... After all that, you think,"What could possibly be next"!? Well, the year is 2002, and we have a new and improved way of encouraging destruction through separation and its called "The Conscious People Movement". "The Conscious Black People VS The So Not Conscious Black People".. This is no less disgusting or serious than "Willie Lynchism". As a matter of fact, it seems as if the character, Lynch wrote it out himself... "Take the oppressed niggers, give them a book or two so they can call themselves 'conscious' and pit them against the other oppressed niggers whom they don't consider 'consious'.. Now just kick back and enjoy watching the niggers, who are all in the same boat, fight over whose boat is the prettiest! "
Now before I go any further, I have a confession to make. I, Latrice Martin, was once a "conscious sista".. Yes! I wore my headwraps, burned my incense, wore my Frank/Myrrh incense, went to "conscious parties", and I hung around other "conscious brothaz/sistaz"... You know how you REALLY know whether or not you are a "conscious" brotha or sista? It's actually quite simple. Answer this question:
"Do you have the term "Deaf, Dumb and Blind Niggaz" or "Brainwashed Black People" in your vocabulary?" If you answered yes, then it is official: You, my brotha or sista, are in The "New Black Progressive/Conscious Party."
In all honesty, I thought that I was on the "right" path, spreading knowledge and "burnin' 'da European/Eurocentricsm" until one day, I complimented a dear friend of mine (who was attending Moorehouse College at the time) on his "consciousness". He replied that being "conscious" had moreso become like a "clique" and implied that it was something to serve as yet another line of division amongst black people. I thought,"Oh my WORD! He is SO on point with that interpretation!" On that day, I (then 18 years of age), denounced my "conscious-ness" and from that point foward, I truly became much more "conscious" of how the "conscious black people" had in fact formed their own little box, which was safely locked to any black people who had projected anything of a "lesser" mentality.. The box was FULL with "conscious" black people who were FULL of themselves, so FULL, until there was no room whatsoever for authentic upliftment... They all bathed in their light so much until they were blinded by it and could not see how their concepts of "upliftment" were deeply rooted in concepts of "downpressing"..
I often as,"How does one who exist in a box emerge from that box if he/she knows not that he or she does, in fact, exist in a box?" For the most part, "conscious" people honestly are not "conscious" of the fact that they are locked away in a box. they are not "conscious" of the fact that they are, for the most part, really only working for the progression of the "conscious", the ones who are supposedly already superiorly enlightened anyway. As I have just admitted, I was once in that same box, but now knowing that I was in a box, quite logically, I made no effort to get out. It wasn't until the brother, in the first place, made it known that there was a box that I was able to really "see" the box, and the exit simply yet so significantly lay in my realization and acknowledgement of that box's "beingness".
So in closing, for all the brothaz and sistaz who call themselves "conscious" or "progressive", allow me to just put a few things out there for your possible consideration.. It is possible that behind that resplendent rhetoric of consciousness or progression there is a subliminal message of self oppression? Is it possible that you are inadvertantly encouraging the separation and segregation of your own people according to projected planes of mentality? If so, how is the segregation of black people pointing us in the direction of "progress"? Reflect deeply now and innerstand that this is much like running on a treadmill in search of progress. Each one teach one and.. Check the levels.
|
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 07, 2003 - 06:48 pm: |
|
It's remarkable that this truth has revealed itself to you at such a young age, Latrice. What is further amazing about you is that you do not allow your keen sense of logic to interefere with your boundless creativity. You construct the wonderful box that you think outside of! Even the name "beautifulwaterstar" is an exquisite contradiction of nature. You are very deep and I think great things lay ahead for you. |
Beautifulwaterstar
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2003 - 08:27 am: |
|
U(Cy)nique, I hope you don't just think I give you systematic response to your feedback. Each and every little thing you tell me I pay attention and I sincerely, sincerely, sincerely appreciate it. Sometimes your words really come at a time when a sis really needs to hear them. (Not like I can't 'always' use such inspiration, but you know wuttaI'msayin'...) Cynique, thank you. And thanks to EVERYONE here who helps to edify and cultivate my young mind, you really help out an old soul like myself.. Thank you. |
yukio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 09:28 pm: |
|
hmmm.....i think we all think in boxes, some in one and others in many. i think the important concern, is for us to 'contruct...the box that you think ourside of.' Such sage comments from a cynic..lmao! Creating your own porous, flexible web enables you to change and reconfigure as you grow.
unfortunately or fortunately, at times, segregation and separation is normal and natural. if you're looking for solidarity when it counts, then i black people will do it, but for particular class and ideological reasons, you will not....and like it or not, this has always been the case with all groups.....not all whites were racist, but there were enough so that slavery and jim crow and now neo-jim crow could work. indeed, white people only agree when it is about keeping black people down; otherwise, there is much disagreement.....
|
Beautifulwaterstar
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2003 - 03:58 pm: |
|
Hi there, Yukerz! :-) Very interesting response there.
As you have said, we all have our boxes, we do... And yes, segregation/separation seems to not be something that is going to be completely done away with, BUT (lol) look who it is really affecting.
Just like you say, white people only agree when it is about keeping black (or nonwhite ppl) down, yes, 'but' that's just the thing; they refuse to let their pettiness keep them away from reaching higher heights as a collective.. I really wish I could say the same for us.. Well I "can" say the same for us, but it would not be true. Perhaps the better thing for me to do is to will it, starting with my own words/thoughts/deeds... |
|
Email This Page