Newspapers / The AC phoenix. / Dec. 1, 1991, edition 1 / Page 18
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Pag* 18, AC Photnlx, D*c*mb*r 1991 Church Leaders Listen!, continued from page 14 the necessity for such an effort in the first place. Furthermore, fetters of the plantation dealt objectivity, and objective relationships between white men and Black men a death blow. The Resurrection of such relationships is only possible through the ashes of white racism. Until such time as the end of white racism is directed toward the Black community, there can be no objective communication between Blacks and whites. It stands condemned because it is but a verbal, literary, and social sham; and an endless search by men who have committed evil deeds of the past and now seek to find justification and positive self vindication through juxtaposing the proper footnotes with improper assumptions lo arrive at a presenr day literary conclusion that excludes the truth of thejiast. But the tragedy of the Black man’s past will not vanish before the onslaught of sociological charts of graduate school and theoretical assumptions of a dissertation prescribed by classical academic n'llKMlology. Direct recipients of lie brutal deeds of other men ('• 'Hand a day of reckoning. In short, those who have done the .sowing must now do the leaping. Is not that the truth of the scriptures? Then, those who sowed the blood of the Black man in North America .mist leap the harvest of the Black rc''ohttion in order for that blood to ■K ri ileemed. Furthermore, at the ihat white men snipped Black . from the shores of Africa, they .ii'o sirippcd Black men of the nvvcssity to be objective. Any group of people bound by oppression and exploitation attemp ting to view their world objectively are liars to themselves, deceivers of posterity, traitors to the struggle of that jieople. When a Black man writes or teaches, he has a special obligation because he is a Black man. As long as Black people are oppic'sed, the Black writer and ',l>ea! . r must be subjective. In fact, he must be revoltingly subjective. For writing and speaking must become for all Blacks, an act of resistance, an effort at rebellion, and an ultimate goal: Revolution. Why? Because in white America the Black writer and speaker has nothing to affirm. The Black writer and speaker must act with an understanding that he acts to throw off '.he role of white exploiter, civilization, the imposed culture, the foreign standard, the violently- enforced value system of white lavism that has been, to this day. accepted by Black jjeople. Walter B. Rideout is correct when he asserts tha “Whether he is African or American by place of birth, the Black writer and speaker by the condition of his existence has been made intensely aware of a white ‘civilization,’ which, whatever its virtues, nevertheless, does impose its domination of the Black body and mind.” The so-called “objectivist” Black writer and speaker, conceding his oppressed state and accepting it as "...those who sowed the blood of the Black man in North America must reap the harvest..." sanctioned by God, will indulge himself in an endless search for dates, epochs, eras, and theories set forth by his master as literary style, academic content, and procedural standards of methodolgy. The sum total of all is such that a person will amount to substantiating his present situation and staying in his place. The so-callcd “objectivist” Black writer and speaker merely finds a route to justifying the status quo and pretends to the world that he loves it. The objective Black writer and teacher is usually found at the colleges and universities writing papers to be read at seminars and conferences. The papers are filled with rhetoric and Black words, but empty of any substance. For this kind of irresponsible intellectual knows damn well that if he writes as he knows he should, he will have to leave the halls of the university and make his living as any other man: standing straight up. Exchanging a life for a mere living, he writes in order to buy a house at an inflated price, drive an overpriced car, and wear the superficial badge of “I am somebody.” He knows, however, that he is nobody because he cannot speak his own words. In short, he is not free. But I, on the other hand, care less about the literary phenomena that explains the existence of op pression and provides it with a rationale as if it has a reason to exist. After more than three centuries of lychings, which still go on in America today - a Black person would have to be entirely without common sen.se and vision, not to see the very crucial difference between knowing the world and changing it. The Black writer and teacher, in order to liberate the Black com munity—and let us make no mistake about it, the liberation of the Black community is the most important item on the Black agenda—must write and teach it in such a way as to make sense to his own people, whether it be pleasing or make sense to those who would be masters over us or not. The Black man does not write or teach to please his master; he writes or teaches to end the master-slave relationships once and for all. Writing or teaching from the master’s point of view is to forever see oppression as “coming to an end.” And of course this “coming” can go on for centuries. To write and teach from the slave’s point of view, a subjective point of view, is to see the master-slave relationships as inexplicable, irrational, dis- picable, intolerable, and subject to destruction immediately, by any means necessary or available. History teaches us that masters all over the world never cease to cite “objective” reasons for maintaining their position over the people. We are familiar with the UNIVERSAL LIE OF THE MASTER CLASS; “The native cannot govern themselves.” We know the UNI VERSAL TRUTH: “The natives have always governed themselves.” Before the coming of the masters, however, they governed themselves without having to be oppressed from without. In the black community the UNIVERSAL LIE prevails: “The natives have not yet acted in such a way as to govern themselves.” POLITICS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY are con trolled by the white man, for the white, in the interest of the white man, and under the name of running dog lackeys called Black politicians. The ECONOMY of the Black community is controled by the white man, for the white man, in the interest of the white nnan, and under the name of Black capitalim. EDUCATION in the Black com munity is controlled by the white man, for the white man, in the interest of the white man, and under the name of two or three house Negroes on the Board, and deadend street integration plans, endless and expensive court struggles, and a public relations program of progress. Meanwhile, Black children are growing up dumb, backward, misinformed about the world they will have to confront, and ill- prepared to make a living. Standing on top of all this, accepting it, giving it sanction, and saying it is all right with God is the Black church. And it is to the centuries of religious brainwashing carried out by the Black church, under the auspices of white racism, that I wish to address these writings. For a revolution in Black religion is the key to a successful social re volution in the Black community. The revolution from within must now be fought out and a direction established as a pre-condition to a successful revolution from without. In this matter the Black church and the Black clergy class will be decisive factors. In order to get some answers one must first ask some questions. Why has the white man allowed the Black church to exist as an entity unto itself, yet acted to restrict the growth and development of Black-controlled schools? Why has the white man allowed the Black church to flourish and grow, yet acted decisively to restrict the independent economic growth of the Black community? )^y has the white man not deemed it necessary to interfere in the religious development of the Black com munity, yet he has decisively intervened in the politics of the Black community to such an extent that Black politics are under the complete control of the Democratic and Republican parties—both parties of racism and oppression directed toward Black pec^Ic? "Why are Black men afraid of establishing their own schools...?" But, we must also ask some other questions. Why are Black men afraid of establishing their own schools as they seem not afraid to establish their own churches? Why are Black men afraid of establishing a national Black political party (demanding that all members resign their membership in the Democratic and Republican parties) as they seem not afraid to play politics within their church groups? Why are Black men afraid to demand control over every dollar that passes through the Black community as they seem bent on controlling every dollar that comes through the Black church? The question being raised is why does the Black man in matters of religion appear to desire in dependence, along with the Continued bn Page 20
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