TARES AMONG OUR WHEAT
Blacks' indiscriminately modern tendency to support every black person or family who has engaged with white people or white power raises a question about discretion.
The "Discretion" of which I speak, was that exercised in regard to the famous Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, of 1955-56, that was led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; in which Rosa Parks was selected point person of black bus protest, instead of the earlier 15-year old, pregnant, unmarried, Claudette Colvin.
Rosa Parks was married, secretary of the Montgomery NAACP, a well-known civil rights activist, member of the Brown Chapel AME Church. Colvin was none of the above and was therefore deemed to be less than sympathetic by black leaders.
History has shown that those folks chose correctly and wisely. Such discretion must be exercised going forward in future encounters with the powers that be on every front!
Since the 1950s, and especially since the 1968 King assassination, "discretion" among black people has demonstrably plummeted in several respects: political, social, economic, educational, tactical.
We are not all alike. Some of us are meritorious, even nearly virtuous , others of us are significantly less so. The necessity of culling out the worthy from the worthless is acute!
Every day, the newspapers and news media carry graphic accounts of blacks killings of blacks, in every city, town, village in the United States of America over frivolous matters, including drugs, territory, personality disputes, etc. It is as though we were at war internally, with each other, rather than against those who use our tax dollars to attack us, to abuse us, to deny fair share!
Civil rights lawyers, leaders, preachers, teachers, scholars, activists, organizations, churches, politicians, schools are despairing in the face of our peer-versus-peer onslaughts.
To my knowledge, not any viable solutions have as yet been found by anyone to redress or extinguish these catastrophic occurrences, or destructive allied consequences of poverty, mass incarceration, social alienation, wealth disparity, etc.
I readily confess to all that I have no answer for alleviating the problems of African Americans , in 2018. I have left that ultimate solution to God. I have however commented. I have commented in the hope that my words, observations may goad others to higher consciousness.
Thus, as matters now serve, it is sufficient for me that I have raised these questions and framed these issues for resolution. That is because I sense that the answer is somehow related to the exercise of personal discretion, with respect to evaluating and demonstrating our self-merit, self-worth and thereby to distinguish ourselves from those who look like us physically, but who are far from us, spiritually, actually!
We are akin to tares sown among the wheat, while we slept, when an enemy crept in sowing confusion.
Friday, August 10, 2018
TARES AMONG OUR WHEAT
TARES AMONG OUR WHEAT
Blacks' indiscriminately modern tendency to support every black person or family who has engaged with white people or white power raises a question about discretion.
The "Discretion" of which I speak, was that exercised in regard to the famous Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, of 1955-56, that was led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; in which Rosa Parks was selected point person of black bus protest, instead of the earlier 15-year old, pregnant, unmarried, Claudette Colvin.
Rosa Parks was married, secretary of the Montgomery NAACP, a well-known civil rights activist, member of the Brown Chapel AME Church. Colvin was none of the above and was therefore deemed to be less than sympathetic by black leaders.
History has shown that those folks chose correctly and wisely. Such discretion must be exercised going forward in future encounters with the powers that be on every front!
Since the 1950s, and especially since the 1968 King assassination, "discretion" among black people has demonstrably plummeted in several respects: political, social, economic, educational, tactical.
We are not all alike. Some of us are meritorious, even nearly virtuous , others of us are significantly less so. The necessity of culling out the worthy from the worthless is acute!
Every day, the newspapers and news media carry graphic accounts of blacks killings of blacks, in every city, town, village in the United States of America over frivolous matters, including drugs, territory, personality disputes, etc. It is as though we were at war internally, with each other, rather than against those who use our tax dollars to attack us, to abuse us, to deny fair share!
Civil rights lawyers, leaders, preachers, teachers, scholars, activists, organizations, churches, politicians, schools are despairing in the face of our peer-versus-peer onslaughts.
To my knowledge, not any viable solutions have as yet been found by anyone to redress or extinguish these catastrophic occurrences, or destructive allied consequences of poverty, mass incarceration, social alienation, wealth disparity, etc.
I readily confess to all that I have no answer for alleviating the problems of African Americans , in 2018. I have left that ultimate solution to God. I have however commented. I have commented in the hope that my words, observations may goad others to higher consciousness.
Thus, as matters now serve, it is sufficient for me that I have raised these questions and framed these issues for resolution. That is because I sense that the answer is somehow related to the exercise of personal discretion, with respect to evaluating and demonstrating our self-merit, self-worth and thereby to distinguish ourselves from those who look like us physically, but who are far from us, spiritually, actually!
We are akin to tares sown among the wheat, while we slept, when an enemy crept in sowing confusion.