Bear these facts in mind as pundits and critics malign the progress of African Americans since 1963, this 50th Anniversary since the March on Washington and
"The Dream."
Our progress as a people has been and continues to be extraordinary!
From constitutional slavery in 1789, the year of this nation's founding; through 1865, the year we won our freedom on our "Freedom War's" battlefields, we have progressed.
From 1877 to 1965, we have progressed beyond the political betrayal by the Republicans, our falsely acclaimed "liberators;" beyond "Jim Crow" segregation and the denial of voting rights in the South; and beyond its political, legal,and economic equivalent in the North.
From 1965 through 2013, we have progressed through: the political assassinations, COINTELPRO, community-busting and family-destroying busing for integration, which was negligently, if ignorantly, fomented by black civil rights organizations' litigations.
Beyond white flight, purposeful job scarcity, the deliberate introduction of drugs and guns in black communities, in that same era, 1965-2013; beyond the war on drugs in those ghettoes, beyond ensuing mass incarcerations, and the resulting "welfare state," we have progressed.
There have been casualties, true. Many casualties! Too many. But these are still the exceptions. The great bulk of us are still popping!
Like popcorn, we have overcome and are still overcoming! My loving parents, now both deceased, would be amazed at our progress! I am amazed myself from even though I steadily study history, theology, law, science, geometry, and literature!
So, when the pundits and the critics start citing statistics to suggest our lack of progress; and when anyone else starts deprecating our people's progress, or making predictions of our demise--in order to promote their next book, charity, or whatever--just say, like our late Brother James Brown, "Popcorn!"
Sunday, August 25, 2013
"POPCORN"
"Popcorn!"
Who measures popcorn by the corn kernels that do not pop, instead of eating those that do? That is how popcorn gets its name, isn't it?
Everything is measured by its manifestation not by its duds.
Duds are everywhere, from fig trees that don't bear fruit, to artillery shells that do not explode, to sown seeds that do not grow.
Some people are duds, too. They are the popcorn that does not pop. They are the barren fig trees, the nonexploded munitions, the sown seeds that, for whatever reason, do not grow.
They are the salt that has lost its savor, that is good for nothing, but to be thrown "into the draught."
Bear these facts in mind as pundits and critics malign the progress of African Americans since 1963, this 50th Anniversary since the March on Washington and
"The Dream."
Our progress as a people has been and continues to be extraordinary!
From constitutional slavery in 1789, the year of this nation's founding; through 1865, the year we won our freedom on our "Freedom War's" battlefields, we have progressed.
From 1877 to 1965, we have progressed beyond the political betrayal by the Republicans, our falsely acclaimed "liberators;" beyond "Jim Crow" segregation and the denial of voting rights in the South; and beyond its political, legal,and economic equivalent in the North.
From 1965 through 2013, we have progressed through: the political assassinations, COINTELPRO, community-busting and family-destroying busing for integration, which was negligently, if ignorantly, fomented by black civil rights organizations' litigations.
Beyond white flight, purposeful job scarcity, the deliberate introduction of drugs and guns in black communities, in that same era, 1965-2013; beyond the war on drugs in those ghettoes, beyond ensuing mass incarcerations, and the resulting "welfare state," we have progressed.
There have been casualties, true. Many casualties! Too many. But these are still the exceptions. The great bulk of us are still popping!
Like popcorn, we have overcome and are still overcoming! My loving parents, now both deceased, would be amazed at our progress! I am amazed myself from even though I steadily study history, theology, law, science, geometry, and literature!
So, when the pundits and the critics start citing statistics to suggest our lack of progress; and when anyone else starts deprecating our people's progress, or making predictions of our demise--in order to promote their next book, charity, or whatever--just say, like our late Brother James Brown, "Popcorn!"
Bear these facts in mind as pundits and critics malign the progress of African Americans since 1963, this 50th Anniversary since the March on Washington and
"The Dream."
Our progress as a people has been and continues to be extraordinary!
From constitutional slavery in 1789, the year of this nation's founding; through 1865, the year we won our freedom on our "Freedom War's" battlefields, we have progressed.
From 1877 to 1965, we have progressed beyond the political betrayal by the Republicans, our falsely acclaimed "liberators;" beyond "Jim Crow" segregation and the denial of voting rights in the South; and beyond its political, legal,and economic equivalent in the North.
From 1965 through 2013, we have progressed through: the political assassinations, COINTELPRO, community-busting and family-destroying busing for integration, which was negligently, if ignorantly, fomented by black civil rights organizations' litigations.
Beyond white flight, purposeful job scarcity, the deliberate introduction of drugs and guns in black communities, in that same era, 1965-2013; beyond the war on drugs in those ghettoes, beyond ensuing mass incarcerations, and the resulting "welfare state," we have progressed.
There have been casualties, true. Many casualties! Too many. But these are still the exceptions. The great bulk of us are still popping!
Like popcorn, we have overcome and are still overcoming! My loving parents, now both deceased, would be amazed at our progress! I am amazed myself from even though I steadily study history, theology, law, science, geometry, and literature!
So, when the pundits and the critics start citing statistics to suggest our lack of progress; and when anyone else starts deprecating our people's progress, or making predictions of our demise--in order to promote their next book, charity, or whatever--just say, like our late Brother James Brown, "Popcorn!"
