Newspapers / Fayetteville State University Student … / March 9, 1998, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Fayetteville State University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The broncos Voice March 9. 1998 EDITORIAL COMMENT FADE TO BLACK by Roger A. Harris Like going to sleep, fading to black is the last thing we feel or see before we’re born and before we die. Fading to black is feeling and understanding the foundation of all color un der the sun, for without black no color could exist. Fading to black is relating to the one ab solute in our universe: that God, in all of Her many manifesta tions, resides in the encom passing and uncompromising totality of Her lone dark and own majestic spirit, for every culture’s god(s) were either created in, resides in, or ex tends its will and power from and through the darkly-veiled realm of this. Her “penetrat ing and great unknown.” The fear and misunder standing of this powerful dark ness has driven man to hate and to despise and to disrespect the very essence of life and of love within himself; a hatred that, today, has found its physi cal manifestation in the warped psyche of an -american nation still grappling with a truth de nied and a rejected reality re vealed: that the heart and - soul of what it deems as human and of what it considers as hu mane is, in essence, black. -america’s slow regression towards the new millennium is marked by an impressive at tempt to remain grounded in a barkening for the way we were, the good ‘ole days: apple-pied skies, buttermilked clouds, cotton-candied dreams, and spot running on a green lawn as dick chases jane behind their white picket fence. No. Stop. Now, begin... -america never was that way because by -america’s very denial of her blackness, she not only acknowledged that same and looming dark presence (my people, all people: please read Toni Morrison’s “Playing in The Dark”), but within this denial she also eliminated the very essence and existence of her “self’ and the foundations of what we have come to know in -america as “soul.” She wants to cook her flaky triple chocolate cake and eat it, too; she wants to dance, sing, and The heart and soul of what it (-america) deems as human and of what it considers as humane is, in essence. Black. do the boogie-woogie mambo on a fling, bop. But, as most people with rhythm know, “you can’t kick it if you ain’t got feet.” Feel me? To explain: we Africans are the -american’s feet, and without us there never was, never is, and never will be an other dance. Dig? Be that as it may (Dr. Jonsson!) and as I’ve said be fore, the “politics of dancing” are wicked as Cain, and they’ll hold you down if you’re not Abel, so dig the prodigal gifts I’ma give ya ta lift ya: 1. Stop trying to understand who the white man is (he is you, for, at least from an eco nomic and spiritual standpoint, the African made the american...rich, I mean to say). 2. Start making a conscious ef fort to love your blackness and your self (because for too long, -america has forced us (mi norities) to choose between one or the other: that day is dead and gone the moment you say “Now” out loud, black as you wanna b e , proud as you gotta be, strong as you need to be: do it right now, it feels good!). 3. Don’t accept the conten tions that -america is close to a colorless society because of inter-racial mixing (400 short, culturally raped -american years cannot destroy thou sands of years of African cul tural priming: Click your heals, Dorothy, you’re closer to home than you think you are). 4. Don’t accept the twisted logic that makes whites a mi nority at an HBCU when Af- rican-americans are yet a mi nority in this nation (this rea soning is as flawed as the Rodney King verdict and it’s just not fun or funny anymore, so don’t laugh). 5. Computers and economics are the new religion and bible that’s teached and preached to -america today. African- americans have an aversion to both because both draw one further and further away from the spiritual foundation that has kept us so tightly united through this hellish -american sojourn for Truth. Yet if we don’t learn, understand, and use this new forced “religion” to our advan tage (as our ancestors did with Christianity), then we will be dooming ourselves and our fu ture generations to the contin ued servitude and bondage that has yet and will forever keep us as slaves in this -american wilderness. Unless we unite. Unless we fight...for the right...to be. If we are to survive as an African culture in -america, then we must look to the Hai tian example set in 1804 by Maukendoute and completed by Boukman: we must make the sacrifice, beat the drum, run united into this -american wil derness, into its forested-dark- ness, and together (“A circle of one people: one heart, one thought, one mind”) turn off america’s national TV set, and let the world watch us all fade to black, fade to black,...fade to black. The Slave Master’s Legacy By Jason Arthur Recently, while conducting some private business of my own, I was privy to a conver sation between an FSU staff member and a fellow female student, the contents of which perturbed me greatly. The girl, hereafter referred to as Sally, had decided to avail herself of one of the many services pro vided by the university college and as procedure demanded, she had to fill out a form de tailing f)ersonal information be fore she could do so. She then handed the said form to the staff member, hereafter re ferred to as Molly, who then looked it over for any errors. Molly immediately noticed that Sally had checked off the cat egories, Black and White, in an swering the question about her ethnicity. A slight disagree ment followed, but, in the end, Sally was told that she could not be both and that she had to choose. What perturbed me was that though Sally was living proof of what is known as a mulatto, Molly was insistent that Sally could not be both. Mulatto, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is “a person of mixed white and black par entage.” The dictionary makes it clear that interracial mixing is a reality; however, some members of our society still refuse to acknowledge the off spring of interracial unions. Why must one be forced to choose one half of his or her own heritage? One may be tempted to ask why Sally chose to check the aforementioned categories in stead of “mixed” or “other.” The answer lies in the fact that mixed or other are very imper sonal catorgies which do not give the sense of identification which is inherent in all of the other choices. Tiger Woods, Masters golf champion, was recently given a lot of flak for the fact that he seemed to be denying his blackness when he said that he was not black but indeed both black and Thai. While in New York a few months ago, two friends of mine acknowl edged that they were both also upset with Woods. And they attribute this to the fact that Woods’ placement of the word not before the word black was, to them, a denial of his blackness. Has this issue become a game of seman tics? There are many ways to frame a sentence con veying the same idea, and I agree with Woods’ use of the word not, because the reality of the situation is that though he may always be considered black, he can never be one without the other. Woods and Sally are just two of a great many of our people who have had their lives plagued with unfair questions about their ethnic allegiances. This problem dates itself as far back as the days of slavery. During slavery, the slavemasters classified people as qua droons and octorroons (per sons with a quarter and an eighth of African blood in them, respectively). Though these acknowledgements may seem to hint to a greater level of consideration for people’s ethnicity than that which we have today, this was not the case. These labels were created for the See Legacy pg. 5 TUB roncos ’V oice Faculty Advisor Operations Advisor & Business Consultant Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Copy Editor Office Manager Web Master Entertainment Editor Fashion Editior Photography Editor Advertising Editor Staff Brandon Ramcharan Keron James Vadrin Colvin Reeshemah Parkinson Dr. Linda Barlow Shawn Torry Roger A. Harris Jason Arthur Alysia Wilson Latoya Bozier Doug Barnes Tameka Kenan Rencia Bennett Jason Downey Ebony Lincoln Neron Ferguson Andre Whitehead Richard Corley Janina Berkeley The Broncos’ Voice 1200 Murchinson Rd. Fayetteville, NC 28301 ph. (910)486-1357 fax (910)486-1857 email edt@sequent.uncfsu.edu Copyright 1998 .'a'jKx i 'O - .v.
Fayetteville State University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 9, 1998, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75