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www.themaroontiger.com
February 29 - March 6,2012
OPINIONS
The Blacks Who Parted the Seas
Garrett Ransom
Staff Writer
g2ransom@aol.com
T he definition of the word
“conscious” can be de
scribed as “well informed,”
“awake,” or “keenly aware.”
Recently, I took the time to
analyze many so called “con
scious black people” who un
fortunately do not fit the mold
of consciousness, and serve
as a symbol of separation in
our communities. Although
many conscious blacks have
great intentions, the issue at
hand is that they have veered
away from mainstream Black
culture and created their own
subculture of thought that
does not result with any sig
nificant communal growth.
The average conscious black
individual believes that they
are keenly aware of problems
that have left an adequate pro
portion of the black commu
nity stagnant. This movement
of consciousness was created
in essence to build a foun
dation for growth in Black
America. With conscious
Blacks all over America, such
as Cornel West and Minister
Farrakhan, you would expect
that there would be a rapid
change within the Black com
munity that sprouts growth,
intellectual thought and eco
nomic advancement. Ironi
cally, the truth is that it is
nearly the opposite.
The problem with con
scious blacks is that they ul
timately have no connection
with the average blacks living
in America. These individuals
detest misogyny pictured in
rap community, the apparent
image of hyper-masculinity in
the Black community, and all
other forms of so called “ig
norance” exhibited by certain
blacks in America. The aver
age Black person, who may be
unaware of their so called “ig
norance,” recognizes, accepts,
and also possibly adheres to
the various forms of ignorance
that conscious Blacks detest.
With this information at
hand, what possibly is the so
lution to the divide between
conscious Blacks and the rest
of Black society? Conscious
Blacks believe that speaking
on channels such as C-Span to
a full audience of other con
scious Blacks will help reach
the Blacks who are considered
ignorant. What many con
scious Blacks fail to realize is
that they are unintentionally
ostracizing mainstream Black
America from their ideas,
thoughts, and enlightenment.
The reason that charismatic
leaders such as Martin Luther
King Jr., Malcolm X, and oth
ers had such an exponential
impact on the Black commu
nity is that they had the abil
ity to touch the minds of a di
verse audience. Those leaders
recognized that ignorance is
nothing besides a contradic
tion between two individuals
thought processes. All lead
ers who have created change
have been cognate of the au
dience they were aiming to
reach, and created a message
that could be understood and
followed by the masses. Con
scious Blacks in today’s soci
ety serve as preachers yelling
sermons to each other with
their backs turned to their
congregation.
This divide between con
scious Blacks and the rest of
Black America needs closure
in order to create growth.
Conscious Blacks need to be
come less critical of their race,
and instead develop innova
tive solutions that can influ
ence the Obamas and all oth
ers that fall in between.
What Black America needs
is not a message that every
thing that they stand for is
wrong, but a message sug
gesting modification to their
lifestyle that could potentially
create growth and commu
nal opportunity. I believe that
many conscious Blacks have
lost sight of the fact that a few
different turns in their destiny
could have caused them to
have the same state of mind as
the ones they aim to correct.
At Morehouse College you
are instilled with an urgency
of helping your brothers. It is
impossible to help your broth
er the same way that you help
yourself; you must accommo
date to and compensate for
the differences that separate
you, while creating a strat
egy to get your brother to the
same place as you. I honestly
believe that many Blacks are
so deeply submerged in their
consciousness that they have
forgotten this fact. It’s time to
truly become aware.
We Must Still Fight
for Equality
Jared Loggins
Online Content Editor
jared.loggins@yahoo.com
N early 50 years ago, on
Feb. 1, 1968, two men,
Echol Cole and Robert Walk
er, were killed in Memphis.
At first glance, one may as
sume that Walker and Cole
may have been victims to
the widespread racial hostili
ties that existed in Memphis.
This is partially true. The two
sanitation workers killed half
a century ago were crushed
to death by a malfunction
ing truck at the hands of a
neglectful and abusive labor
system that mistreated Black
workers.
These deaths sparked what
would go down in history as
one of the largest labor stand
offs in Memphis’ history after
nearly 1,300 Black employees
went on strike that year. This
strike also cost Dr. Martin Lu
ther King Jr. his life as he trav
eled to Memphis that April to
advocate for economic equal
ity on their behalf. However,
this strike was but a fraction
of the work the Southern
Christian Leadership Confer
ence was doing in 1968 during
the Poor People’s Campaign
to demand economic justice
across the nation. This strike
is an example of the fearless
ness of an audacious people
who truly believed that justice
was worth death.
In retrospect, we see that
millions of people across
America were willing to lose
their jobs, or even die, in pur
suit of an American dream
they knew in their hearts was
possible. Unfortunately, here
we are now on the cusp of yet
another economic downturn.
Millions of impoverished
Americans, many of them
who are African-American,
are under attack by insurance
companies and special inter
est groups who are threaten
ing to deny them equal access
to health insurance. More
frightening is that the Afri
can-American unemploy
ment rate unflinchingly sits at
15.7 percent.
If the injustices placed upon
generations past were worth
losing it all, what has hap
pened to our society today
that has caused us to become
desensitized to those same in
justices? The African-Ameri
can community has the high
est unemployment rate, the
highest rate of incarceration,
and the lowest percentage of
those who have access to af
fordable health insurance.
What must the percentage be
to create an environment of
dissatisfaction high enough
to bring about sweeping re
forms?
Perhaps we have become
exhausted from fighting for
the same equal rights for de
cades. The passion for justice
has been replaced by a criti
cal cynicism and pessimism
within our own community.
Speech after speech has been
delivered, and dreams have
been occupied. Attempts have
been made to address eco
nomic disparities through
protests, but the recent at
tempts do not seem to have
worked.
One glaring difference
between our generation of
apathy and the past genera
tions of civil disobedience is
that they were unified. They
shared the same heart and
soul for justice. They shared a
fearlessness and zeal that to
gether was able to tear down
the walls of inequality. We too
must capture their passion.
We too must find that some
thing worth dying for and live
for its cause. As a community,
we cannot go down in history
as the cowardly generation.
Protesting inequality in this
generation has shied away
from the streets and into
American courtrooms and
Capitol Hill. Despite that cer
tain dynamics have changed
as it relates to the spirit of
protest in this century, we still
must possess in our hearts
a passion for justice. Even if
we choose not to take to the
streets in a literal sense, we
still must make our voices
heard through collective ac
tion, whether it be it judicially
or legislatively. Whatever we
choose to do, we cannot sit
passively as inequities con
tinue to flourish within our
community.
Jared Loggins is a Freshman
Political Science Major from
Memphis, TN by way of At
lanta, GA. He is also the On
line Content Editor for www.
themaroontiger.com.
A Stranger Among My Own Brothers
Leslie Oko Bortier
Contributing Writer
leslieamelon@yahoo.com
W ith seemingly almost
every bit of thought
in this country being di
rected towards greater eco
nomic instability, students
are anticipated to mobilize
every bit of virtue that they
can muster in order to get
through these hard times
and finish their studies. For
someone with the status “in
ternational student,” like me,
the situation is much worse.
It is hard for international
students to leave their be
loved families and homeland
to come to a foreign country
and endure difficulties such
as campus life, classroom
adjustment and, worst of all,
the racism we experience
from our African-American
brothers.
I feel a compulsion to speak
out about black-on-black
racism in our community
with hopes that people do not
merely want to live with the
situation as if it does not ex
ist. In my country, Ghana, we
offer hospitality to foreigners
so that they feel like they are
among their own. By contrast,
the reception I have gotten
upon my arrival to the United
States is simply the opposite—
specifically our treatment
here in the AUC.
I often ponder the causes
of what are childish idiosyn
crasies. Initially, I thought of
these attitudes expressed by
many African-Americans as
mere discrimination against
their African ancestry. I
knew of racism as merely a
word, and the idea of actual
ly experiencing it was quite
far fetched. Racism was a
fantasy, something that I
thought I would never expe
rience—after all, I was com
ing to America and attend
ing an HBCU!
For me, racism is now no
longer something I view in
a test tube, but something I
have experienced first hand.
To use the politically correct
term, I suppose the word I
should use instead of “rac
ism” is “ethnocentrism” since
the discrimination I have ex
perienced is based on where
I was born as opposed to my
skin color, which is the same
as those who make me feel as
if I am in some way inferior,
or undesirable.
Another attitude that di
minishes my African-Amer
ican brother’s humanity is
that so many people I have
encountered here in the AUC
put prices on the services
they render to mankind. The
phrase “blessings from above”
has become utterly meaning
less! My experience has been
difficult and upsetting since I
have been perceived by those
I have helped as someone that
lacked “street-smarts” and be
came someone to take advan
tage of.
I certainly do appreciate all
the great students and people
in the administration who in
one way or the other, have
helped to add much value to
my school life here at More
house College. To them I am
in eternal gratitude, and say
medawasi or “thank you” for
giving me so much of their
precious time and assistance
in making such an enormous
transition in my life.
Although my expecta
tions of Morehouse are hard
ly what I have experienced
in actuality, I brought with
me the knowledge that life
comes with dashed hopes and
blurred dreams. However,
at the end of a journey, one
learns to appreciate the strug
gle that brought him to his
ultimate destination and the
lessons learned that makes fu
ture struggle easier to endure
and benefit from. Struggle,
in my opinion, is merely a
shadow that we all face from
the light until the right people
come along to drive it away.
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