Make it Plain-Most Important Issue

What’s the most important issue for Afrikan people?

Dependency and Oppression

Recently I received a text message from a friend asking what is the biggest problem facing Afrikan people in the society? Immediately, I replied that the fact that WE are dependent upon another people represents OUR biggest problem. Our dependency upon other people requires Us to live for them and their causes and their institutions. Consequently, Our own institutions and drive for liberation suffers.

Let’s use the example of jobs. Whites control the majority of jobs in this country, so many of us are dependent upon them for jobs and material wealth. Since we are dependent, whites set the rules for getting a job and many are forced to conform to their standards in order to obtain a job.

Studies have consistently demonstrated that white business owners discriminate against prospective employees with “Black sounding” names. Consequently, in our dependent state, parents, instead of naming their children Afrikan names or a “Black sounding” names and teaching them the importance of Black ownership, self-sufficiency, and self-determination, name their children “neutral” names, which means European, so that their children can have a better shot at getting a job working for other people. Unfortunately, many find nothing wrong with the parents’ response. This represents the height of cultural misorientation.

The essence of power resides in the hands of those who control reward and punishment. In this society, Afrikans continue to be rewarded for exhibiting anti-Afrikan/european characteristics. To look more business-like one is required to wear their hair and clothes a certain way. Ethnic hairstyles and Afrikan clothing are deemed inappropriate in the business world.

This is only one of the many ways that dependency leads Afrikan people to engage in anti-Afrikan actions. Amos Wilson illuminates this concept perfectly by using the analogy of an adult (white society) and child (Black community). “The adult normally in control of the resources, dispenses them according to the desirability of the behavior performed by the [child]. The [child] will identify with the adult because he/she is dependent on him; in order to receive certain rewards and avoid punishments of various kinds the [child] will be motivated to conform to expected behavior.”

The fact that we are dependent upon others for all of our basic needs should be a problem we should work to remedy by any means necessary. But as commander-and-chief Malcolm X would say, we are addicted to dependency, addicted to the white man. “We have what is called white disease. You think you can’t get along without the white man; You think you can’t get some clothes without the white man; You think you can’t get a house without the white man; You think you can’t get a job without the white man. You’re worst than a man you thinks he can’t get along without heroin…You’re worst than a junkie.”

This dependency is largely psychological.

As a condition of dependency and oppression, We must subordinate our causes to appease others. We must go to school to get qualified to work for others and solve their problems instead of working for and solving the problems of our own communities. We must not speak our minds because we are afraid that whites will turn our lights off or fire us from their jobs. This is oppression. This is a debilitating dependency that keeps us away from doing the real work to liberate ourselves.

Dependency and oppression are about power relations not whether or not others call us names and allow us not be served through the front door. For too long, we have not paid enough attention to power relations in this country. For too long we have measured success with token negroes getting elected to offices or getting jobs downtown or qualifying for degrees in miseducation. For too long we have been focused on the outward attitudes that others express towards us.

We must look deeper and discover that the power relations between whites and Blacks remain the same as when this country held Afrikan people in chattel enslavement. Then, it was a master/slave relationship. Now, it is employer/wage slave relationship; the same power dynamic.

Lets wake up, cut this leash to the white power structure, move out (psychologically to begin with) of this burning house called amerika, and use all of our resources (physical, intellectual, and human) to develop a new world where we are self-determining and depend upon ourselves for OUR vital needs. Stop buying want We want and begging for what We need. But first We must imagine that We can move away from dependency. The beauty of the human mind is that it usually create that which it imagines. Imagine FREEDOM and TAKE IT!

Revolutionary Love,

Revolutionary Love

Well ya’ll, they tryna get at us.  For some reason, we couldn’t get the video up on youtube…something about copyright laws politricks.  Either way, check this joint out, leave comments, and definitely pass it on!

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