Newspaper Page Text
Page 9
Spelman Spotlight, Atlanta, GA
February 22, 1993
PREROGATIVE
The dead carcass
of a dream still stinks
By Vanessa Raye
Environmental Awareness Editor
Adam Smith, eighteenth-century
Scottish economist, generally known as
the "Father of Economics" instituted
the founding principles of American
capitalism, laying down a layer of
American social thought.
In his book The Wealth of Nations
Smith states, " An individual neither
intends to promote the public interest,
nor knows he is promoting it...He
intends only his own gain, and he is led
by an invisible hand to promote an end
which was not part of his intention....It
is not from the benevolence of the
butcher, the brewer, or the baker that
we expect our dinner, but from regard
to their self interest."
African-Americans who have been
proclaimed as black leaders, have
consumed this ideology of self-interest.
Both past and present black leaders
while castigating the ideologies of the
American system, have hypocritically
been the strongest proponents of the
system’s contradictory philosophy.
Black leaders inability to handle
differences constructively, has created
an unnecessary inner struggle within
the larger black struggle. Ego feuding,
primitive character bashing,
characteristics of individualistic
thinking, are a common occurrences
within the past and present leadership
circles. In Black Messiahs and Uncle
By Afua Onyamekye ’Abdullah
Prerogative Editor
America is a country that was
founded on violence and that violence
continues to prevail. All one has to do
is turn on the television and he or she
will be instantly bombarded with news
of violence around the world as well as
in his or her own community.
Six people were shot and killed
execution style in the Bronx; New
York; there were ferocious attacks by
Hindus on Muslims in Bombay, India;
bloodshed intensifies in Zaire; fighting
continues in Bosnia and other parts of
former Yugoslavia; and right here in
Atlanta, we hear of all types of
violence.
The violence which upsets me the
Toms. William Jeremiah Moses states,
"It is a well know that Marcus Garvey
and W.E.B DuBois quarreled violently
....and the two of them descended
together into a pragmatic
contradiction of the very spirit of
black unity of which they paid lip
service"
Garvey himself stated that, "the
greatest stumbling block in the way of
progress in the race has invariably
come from within the race itself'
Subsequent other so-called black
leaders also ate the poison apple of
self-interest and individualism, falling
into a character diatribe. When Mr
Thurgood Marshall was chief counsel
for the NAACP, he described the Nation
of Islam as, "run by a bunch of thugs
organized from prisons jails and
financed by Nasser or some Arab
group."
"...we learned a bitter lesson about at
least two of the other organizations, the
NAACP and SNCC. Neither one of the
groups was willing to put the cause of
black freedom above its own
welfare....Instead of welcoming new
allies in fighting their foes, they
(NAACP) were more concerned with
protecting their own preeminence...,"
stated Ralph D. Abernathy in his
autobiography And the Walls Came
Tumbling Down.
most is the violence that happens
among our own people. I am from
New York City and have seen this
violent disease infect the hearts of so
many of our people, and kill hundreds
of our African-American brothers and
sisters. If the nature of Black people is
to be loving, forgiving and peaceful
then why the violence and why are we
killing each other?
This violence has to end if we wish
for any kind of decent future for
ourselves and our children. No matter
how difficult the task may seem, it is
up to our generation to continue to find
the solutions that will solve the
problems of our people.
The struggle to liberate the system
and ourselves, has turned into a quest
for power. While verbally paying
homage to the African-American plight,
black leaders have been involved in an
individual struggle to obtain control over
the black masses.
"Perhaps this is to be expected
because Negroes cannot compete
successfully for power in the larger
society, and thus they concentrate their
effort in the Black Belt. The result is
that they help, more than they realize, in
deepening and multiplying the existing
.irrational divisions among the
Negroes...," states Essie Udom.
As history is destined to reappear
itself, this ignorant legacy has revisited
the "sacred" "prestigious" walls of
Spelman College.
I recall the divisiveness that existed
between the pledges of Delta Sigma
Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha sororities
last year. The nationalistic tone of both
groups created an inner struggle where
the "preeminence" of the Delta’s was
fighting the "greekness" of the AKA’s.
I also recall two brothers fighting for
center stage during the Rodney King
malaise at City Hall. The blow horn
was the prize as they battled for it in
order to shout "no justice no peace" to
an AUC audience.
This ignorant legacy is not inclusive
Not Choice,
Dear Editor:
“ARE LUE NOT OUR BROTHERS
RND SISTERS KEEPER?”
The resounding answer should be:
“VES, llIE ARE!!!”
After the AJC article “Caste, Race
and Status in the AU Center”, we (the
students of the Atlanta University
Consortium) have a responsibility to
our brother/sister school, Morris Brown
College.
Our obligation is not only for
financial support but if moral support as
well. We need to define ourselves as
to black greeks, it transcends the Atlanta
University Center(AUC), reaching the
outlying areas of the American
community.
The struggle lyes within our internal
enslavement- insecurity, unbalanced
egos, self-interest, and the lust for
power.
As two ancients said, "The mind is
its own place and in itself can make a
hell of heaven or a heaven of hell....The
man who has mastered himself has
mastered the world." Eternal power
comes through cooperation,
independence through service and a
greater self through selflessness. In
order to lead the leader must learn how
to follow.
We cannot pave the way to liberation
with the corpses of our fallen black
leaders. However the archaic, primitive
ideas of self-interest and individualism
created by European patriots, Adam
Smith and Thomas Hobbes can be
eradicated as easily as they were
created.
During the last years of Malcom X’s
life he lamented on past experiences
stating, "I’ve forgotten everything bad
that the other leaders have said about
me, and I pray they can also forget the
many bad things I’ve said about them.
Obligation!
AUC students and come together by
joining the ranks of organization like
OPERATION PHOENIX.
OPERATION PHOENIX is an
organization established to serve as a
catalyst for the evolution of our people.
It was bora out of necessity to absolve
some of the burdens of Morris Brown
College — financial support and disunity
amongst AUC schools.
We must remember it does not matter
which school you attend; we are all
African-American people striving to
better ourselves and our community.
Let’s come together, now.
Bethanne’ Poindexter
Violence!
A Reality That Need Not Be