Confronting shame online and offline is an ongoing challenge for most, if not all, scorned and suborned people of African descent in the Americas.
We have been brainwashed since birth, if not sooner, repeatedly, to believe that some part of us is inferior to whites or even to other blacks.
It might be our color (too dark); our hair (too nappy); our features (too "African"); our diet (too country); our religion (too emotional); our values (too "homophobic"); our politics (too Democratic); our income (too poor); our wealth (comparatively none); our intelligence (too low); our civility ( too criminal ); our togetherness (lacking esprit d'corps); our spirits ( broken ); our appearance (too this or that), etc.
Our defects are legion if we listen to folks online and offline, and allow them to influence us, spiritually and culturally, in our self-conceptions.
Some of our cruelest critics may be the misguided souls in your own families, under your own roofs, your own churches, schools, lodges, fraternities, sororities, or your friends.
Naturally, in a historically racist society, you are daily conditioned to expect degradation and vilification, however deceitfully purveyed, on television, and mass media, in politics, at the hands of police, prosecutors and judges; in housing, real estate, banking, education, business, and elsewhere in society.
It is not just whites from whom these tacit attempts to shame emanate. It also comes from blacks who bully you, tease or ridicule you, ostracize you;or who criticize you for: being "too black" or "not black enough;" too accepting of whites or not accepting enough of whites; too this or not enough that; always falling short of their standards, of their expectations.
Let me quickly close. You are made in the likeness and image of God. That you even exist from the plenitude of sperm, tens of millions, ejaculated by your father into your mother, is itself so rare as to be almost lottery-like, mathematically improbable, yea even impossible ! But here you are in defiance of cosmic expectations, by reason of cosmic assignations!
With consciousness and emotions you are here; with power to negotiate this material realm, you are here. There is nothing, literally nothing that is beyond you and a few others who will work with you, and who will plan with you to acquire it or to become it!
That is the secret of our existence! That fact all religions and all prophets all religious tomes tell us. We mouth them prayerfully, ritualistically. But we do not believe, much less accept know them, enough in our hearts to become them or to execute them, out of our woeful fear of failing, and out of our shame.
Fear, shame, humiliation, envy, desire, and embarrassment are the weapons formed against us that do prosper, every day and every night, online and offline, in our homes and in the streets, on television, radio, film and in too many magazines, newspapers and books! Such is our cup, bitter though it be, until we accept our own nobility as being kindred to the other heavenly bodies of which we consist. They are stars. We are stars. They are galaxies. We are galaxies. They are, and we are, all creations of the Creator; emanations of the Almighty.
Glory in yourself! Glory in your God!
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
CONFRONTING SHAME AND GLORY
CONFRONTING SHAME AND GLORY
Confronting shame online and offline is an ongoing challenge for most, if not all, scorned and suborned people of African descent in the Americas.
We have been brainwashed since birth, if not sooner, repeatedly, to believe that some part of us is inferior to whites or even to other blacks.
It might be our color (too dark); our hair (too nappy); our features (too "African"); our diet (too country); our religion (too emotional); our values (too "homophobic"); our politics (too Democratic); our income (too poor); our wealth (comparatively none); our intelligence (too low); our civility ( too criminal ); our togetherness (lacking esprit d'corps); our spirits ( broken ); our appearance (too this or that), etc.
Our defects are legion if we listen to folks online and offline, and allow them to influence us, spiritually and culturally, in our self-conceptions.
Some of our cruelest critics may be the misguided souls in your own families, under your own roofs, your own churches, schools, lodges, fraternities, sororities, or your friends.
Naturally, in a historically racist society, you are daily conditioned to expect degradation and vilification, however deceitfully purveyed, on television, and mass media, in politics, at the hands of police, prosecutors and judges; in housing, real estate, banking, education, business, and elsewhere in society.
It is not just whites from whom these tacit attempts to shame emanate. It also comes from blacks who bully you, tease or ridicule you, ostracize you;or who criticize you for: being "too black" or "not black enough;" too accepting of whites or not accepting enough of whites; too this or not enough that; always falling short of their standards, of their expectations.
Let me quickly close. You are made in the likeness and image of God. That you even exist from the plenitude of sperm, tens of millions, ejaculated by your father into your mother, is itself so rare as to be almost lottery-like, mathematically improbable, yea even impossible ! But here you are in defiance of cosmic expectations, by reason of cosmic assignations!
With consciousness and emotions you are here; with power to negotiate this material realm, you are here. There is nothing, literally nothing that is beyond you and a few others who will work with you, and who will plan with you to acquire it or to become it!
That is the secret of our existence! That fact all religions and all prophets all religious tomes tell us. We mouth them prayerfully, ritualistically. But we do not believe, much less accept know them, enough in our hearts to become them or to execute them, out of our woeful fear of failing, and out of our shame.
Fear, shame, humiliation, envy, desire, and embarrassment are the weapons formed against us that do prosper, every day and every night, online and offline, in our homes and in the streets, on television, radio, film and in too many magazines, newspapers and books! Such is our cup, bitter though it be, until we accept our own nobility as being kindred to the other heavenly bodies of which we consist. They are stars. We are stars. They are galaxies. We are galaxies. They are, and we are, all creations of the Creator; emanations of the Almighty.
Glory in yourself! Glory in your God!
Confronting shame online and offline is an ongoing challenge for most, if not all, scorned and suborned people of African descent in the Americas.
We have been brainwashed since birth, if not sooner, repeatedly, to believe that some part of us is inferior to whites or even to other blacks.
It might be our color (too dark); our hair (too nappy); our features (too "African"); our diet (too country); our religion (too emotional); our values (too "homophobic"); our politics (too Democratic); our income (too poor); our wealth (comparatively none); our intelligence (too low); our civility ( too criminal ); our togetherness (lacking esprit d'corps); our spirits ( broken ); our appearance (too this or that), etc.
Our defects are legion if we listen to folks online and offline, and allow them to influence us, spiritually and culturally, in our self-conceptions.
Some of our cruelest critics may be the misguided souls in your own families, under your own roofs, your own churches, schools, lodges, fraternities, sororities, or your friends.
Naturally, in a historically racist society, you are daily conditioned to expect degradation and vilification, however deceitfully purveyed, on television, and mass media, in politics, at the hands of police, prosecutors and judges; in housing, real estate, banking, education, business, and elsewhere in society.
It is not just whites from whom these tacit attempts to shame emanate. It also comes from blacks who bully you, tease or ridicule you, ostracize you;or who criticize you for: being "too black" or "not black enough;" too accepting of whites or not accepting enough of whites; too this or not enough that; always falling short of their standards, of their expectations.
Let me quickly close. You are made in the likeness and image of God. That you even exist from the plenitude of sperm, tens of millions, ejaculated by your father into your mother, is itself so rare as to be almost lottery-like, mathematically improbable, yea even impossible ! But here you are in defiance of cosmic expectations, by reason of cosmic assignations!
With consciousness and emotions you are here; with power to negotiate this material realm, you are here. There is nothing, literally nothing that is beyond you and a few others who will work with you, and who will plan with you to acquire it or to become it!
That is the secret of our existence! That fact all religions and all prophets all religious tomes tell us. We mouth them prayerfully, ritualistically. But we do not believe, much less accept know them, enough in our hearts to become them or to execute them, out of our woeful fear of failing, and out of our shame.
Fear, shame, humiliation, envy, desire, and embarrassment are the weapons formed against us that do prosper, every day and every night, online and offline, in our homes and in the streets, on television, radio, film and in too many magazines, newspapers and books! Such is our cup, bitter though it be, until we accept our own nobility as being kindred to the other heavenly bodies of which we consist. They are stars. We are stars. They are galaxies. We are galaxies. They are, and we are, all creations of the Creator; emanations of the Almighty.
Glory in yourself! Glory in your God!
