WHAT HAPPENED TO HARLEM?

WHAT HAPPENED TO HARLEM? Tuesday, June 06, 2017 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman HARLEM in the 1920’s, when it was “in vogue,” was vastly different from that in its ensuing decades, when Harlem was no longer “in vogue.” Literature says it all. DADDY WAS A NUMBERS RUNNER by Louise Merriweather was introduced by THE BLACKER THE BERRY by Wallace Thurman, which late-20’s early 30’s novels sharply diverged from the beautiful Vander Zee photographs of well-dressed black men and women parading down its principal sidewalks on weekends, as though miming and rhyming the poetry of Langston Hughes or Countee Cullen. What happened to Harlem is a pedantic metaphor for the rest of black America? Its answer is as cosmological as cultural; economic as literary; legal as political. I first went to Harlem in 1970. I was exhorted by a brother to buy a refrigerator at the corner of 125th and Lennox Avenue, while walking down the street. No thanks. But “we real cool,” to paraphrase ‘60’s Haki Madhubuti, f/a/k/a “Black Don Lee.”

NIHILISM

All terror is not political, but all TERRORISM is nihilistic, be it criminal or political.

ALLOYS

ALLOYS We are all alloys, alloyed down to our basal alleles up through the vastness of forever: space-time. Nothing is pure but our theoretical speculations, rooted in our imagination. Light is alloyed. Sounds are alloyed. Air is alloyed. Earth-fire are alloyed. Water is alloyed, hydrogen/oxygen. Nature, all nature, is created naturally alloyed, consisting of quanta of this or that. Nothing is pure except the theoretical postulates, speculation that we ascribe to divinity, where even there, God says, "Let us make man." "Us" is the ultimate proof of "alloyance!"

INSPIRATION

I had always thought that Socrates had been a real person. Rather, it turns out that Socrates was made-up: an avatar, a trope, a device used by Plato--who was a real person--to render more dialectic his dialogues. This fact was reinforced upon me once again as I read in THE ELOQUENCE OF THE SCRIBES, by Ayi Kwei Armah (2006) the following attribution: "Readers, I hope, will accept Plato as a credible presenter of the first articulate European view on the matter ["conception of inspiration "]. Instead of a paraphrase, let us use a direct quote. Here is the explanation of poetic inspiration Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates as he addresses Ion: "'[A]ll good poets...compose their beautiful poems not as works of art, but because they are inspired and possessed. As the Corybantian revelers when they dance are not in their right mind, so the lyric poets are not in their right mind, when they are composing their beautiful strains.... For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses and the mind is no longer in him...God takes away the minds of poets and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know that they speak not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us." P.265-266, "The Dance of Inspiration."

EQUIVALENCE DETERS

IF YOUR NEIGHBOR EATS YOUR APPLES, AVAIL YOURSELF OF HIS PEACHES. EQUIVALENCE IS THE BEST DETERRANCE

HUG THE GOOD "TREES"

HUG THE GOOD "TREES" Trees that bear good fruit are good. Jesus in speaking of trees was talking about people, families. Families can be good or bad, whether we speak of Jesse and Frank James or lesser criminals. Some years ago, "The Kansas City Star" found that a disproportionate number of crimes committed in our city, black community, was centered among the same families. Multiple generations of criminality existed in the same household, from great grandmother on down to their juveniles, of every variety. Just as there are families of gross underachieving people, there is also the reverse, extremely great, achieving families, who make us proud. Race is no factor, evidently, though being white it is obviously easier than being black to achieve. I went to Howard with a man from the South, a Vietnam veteran, who went segregated schools, yet he is a respected businessman, his wife is a teacher; one daughter is a lawyer and the other has a masters in mathematics, pursuing a Ph. D. Years ago, in the course of my law practice, I met a couple from Kanas City, Kansas, whose six children are all doctors, either JD, MD, or Ph.D. Neither parent had gone to college. There are many other favorable, black family examples , including my own. Neither of our parents finished high school in Mississippi. Yet, all eight of their children and their grandchildren have attended college, and our parents were twice honored as "Parents of the Year" in the Webster Groves, Missouri, School District; one well esteemed. The distinguishing characteristics of good and bad families seem to be applied faith in God, regular church attendance, hard work, hopeful outlooks, outgoing personalities, and home training . Thus , I would say to those who are looking for remedies to many of the problems that beset us, to look to the families! Look to them for the right stuff and for the wrong stuff, also. Family is where both abide. Once again, Jesus taught us right. Read Luke 6:43-45 for his wisdom. Hug a good, fruit-bearing 🌲 tree. https://www.google.com/search…

DISENTANGLING WHITE RACISM

DISENTANGLING WHITE RACISM IS EXCEEDINGLY COMPLEX BUT POSSIBLE Monday, June 05, 2017 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman If white racism were the only cord to be disentangled, the task would not be so formidable; it would have been already done. But when one adds in other “cords,” like religion, history, science, mathematics, trade, philosophy, education, politics, literature, and law—all of which have been tinctured by race prejudice--the magnitude of the problem of all-pervasive white supremacy gains perspective. These multifarious cords combine to form a considerable knot that has been added to, gradually, since 312 A.D., when Roman Emperor Constantine’s Council of Nicea, agglomerated all of the different Christian rituals and rubrics into just one. From there, over ensuing centuries, the perquisites of power have invaded every other arena of human endeavor and every other habitable land mass. Racism came last. It yielded its own fruit: segregation, fascism, Nazism, apartheid. Thus the disestablishment of white racism also requires detangling all the others. Disestablishing white racism and its tainted kindred disciplines and disciples will require the assiduous labors of many people of all kinds, everywhere, on every level, who are all committed to TRUTH, the cure to what ails us all. Since white racism is the antithesis of TRUTH, lies must be tranformed; mouths rinsed, hearts and minds purified, with the love of TRUTH and of one’s fellow man. It can be done. What is coded by man can be decoded by man and woman.