When Will Black Folks Speak Up?

Hoodwinked? Had? Took? Led astray? Run amok? Bamboozled? Those who did not know are innocent.

“When are Black folks gonna wake up? When are Black folks gonna wake up? When are Black folks gonna wake up, etc., etc., etc.” I would hear that every day on a certain Black radio station until someone called in and talked about how White men in the South many years ago used to cut…I’m not going to say it. It’s too gruesome. I quit listening to that station regularly after that. But I ask, “When will Black folks speak up?”

I’m very disturbed about what Black folks are not talking about. I fear they have little or no love for African people.

(“Brother, how can you say that?”)

How can I say that? Years ago when apartheid in South Africa was in style, we marched, protested, yelled, screamed, got arrested at South African consulates, etc. I was there when Jacqueline (Mrs. Jesse L.) Jackson and former Congressman Gus Savage were arrested at the South African consulate in downtown Chicago. We were all determined that Black South Africans would not be under the rule of a White minority government, right? Now there is no more apartheid. We left the Black South Africans to fend for themselves. Now it has one of the highest crime rates in the world. But we are not paying any attention to that. We were all vocal against apartheid, but are we vocal against the slaughter of Black Africans going on now in Darfur, Sudan? Prominent African American scholar Cornel West asked of Senator Barack Obama: “How much love do you have for your people?” I ask the same question of Black leaders and Black America in general: how much love do we have for our people?

(“Brother, how can you ask that?”)

Thousands and thousands Black Sudanese have been murdered by culturally-Arab Blacks from the North. That is on top of over 2,000,000 killed in the South over a 20-year period. You can do a Google or Yahoo search (“Sudan” “Darfur”) and get all sorts of information on the mass murders and genocide. A young man told me years ago, “Your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear a word you are saying.”

A brother wrote on his website The Field Negro: “These atrocities against our people take place in other parts of the world, while African Americans choose to do nothing. We go to Durham North Carolina and speak out against the Duke lacrosse team for allegedly raping one of our sisters, or to Mexico to confront their President for making derogatory remarks about us, but there is silence while thousands of black Africans are being slaughtered on a daily basis… I have seen more white people involved in this struggle, and trying to bring this issue to the forefront than blacks. And for that, we as black folks should all be ashamed. The UN called this the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and still black folks in this country remain silent. No outcry, no marches in Washington organized by black leaders, no ink from the black press, nothing; just silence. (http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-silence-is-not-golden.html).”

How much love do we have for our people? When will Black folks speak up?

This is from a “former” Black nationalist:

“I am a black man, a former nationalist. I became disillusioned with 'black unity and nationalism' during the massacre in Rwanda and Zaire during the mid 1990s. It seemed to me, a student at a historically black college at the time, that black progressives did not lift a finger to protest or press our government or the UN to act to prevent the slaughter amongst black Africans the same way they did apartheid, Haiti, or even the plight of the Palestinians. Why not? Well for one, because there was no white victimizer oppressing people of color, both parties were of the same race. But the main reason was that our black American leadership did not want our intervention in Africa to cost Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party politically. Getting Bill Clinton and some other white Democrat governors, congressmen, and senators re - elected to preserve our puny little integrationist affirmative action and welfare programs was worth more to us than the lives of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of our African brothers and sisters.... Before there can be unity between American blacks and Africans, we black Americans have to start caring more about economic and social turmoil in Africa than we do Halle Berry getting an Oscar. Calling ourselves African Americans (which I honestly believe we have no right to), jumping over brooms at weddings, wearing kente cloth (often made in Korea or China), buying African art (ditto), and lighting candles during Kwanzaa (a black American holiday invented by black Americans for black Americans that has nothing to do with Africa) has nothing to do with addressing the real problems in that continent. Why don't black professionals, who claim that they cannot start or operate businesses or receive fair pay and promotions at European countries, use their talents to help Africa? What is keeping black politicians, who cannot gain any real power to do any good in America, from implementing their liberal reforms in Ghana, Nigeria, or Chad? Rather than doing that, we stay in America and invoke our alleged Africanness merely to spite Europeans. Heck, we blacks didn't even start calling ourselves African Americans en masse until it became the vogue thing to do to stick it to the man and show solidarity with Nelson Mandela during Reagan era....And of course, before there can be unity among Africans, the religious extremism, tribal cultures, and subjugation of women and children have to go. They must accept and adopt modern democratic societies, including economies (if Marxism failed in the Soviet Union, Latin America, and Asia, what makes you think it will work in Africa)? There are no real attempts at unity between blacks and Africans or even Africans and Africans despite all these conferences, nongovernmental organizations, official declarations, etc. It is past time that we stop living a lie and provide real help for Africa (even if it means giving up some of our own agenda in America), and also demand that Africa provide real help for itself, as in stop slaughtering and oppressing each other over tribal differences.(http://www.afrocentricnews.com/html/myth_of_african_unity.html).”

How much love do we have for our people? When will Black folks speak up?

Samuel Cotton, an African American journalist who visited North Africa and was an eyewitness to the slave trade there. wrote:

"On March 4, (1995) Black Africans journeyed from all over the United States to meet at Columbia University. Mauritanians and Senegalese from Washington--Ugandans and Sudanese from as far away as Ohio, would spend two days discussing the beast that continues to bite deep into African flesh—slavery….They would also grapple with the enigma of receiving virtually no support on the issue of chattel slavery from African-American spiritual and political leaders….these Africans are refused an audience with Black Christian ministers, who prefer in some cases to wine and dine with their Arab enslavers. Others, are Black Muslims from Mauritania who are dumbfounded and disgusted by the fact that the prominent Black Muslim Leader, Louis Farrakhan continues to visit and have good relations with Sudan which enslaves Black Muslims and Christians alike. They are disillusioned by Black leaders with African names, who live in houses filled with African statues, and walk the streets in full African regalia but will not raise one voice against slavery…."One African stated that 'African Americans have been at the forefront of the international campaign against apartheid. . . Yet as an African working in the field of human rights in Africa, I am constantly struck, and saddened, by the extent to which a combination of factors have discouraged the majority of Black Americans from speaking out about human rights abuses in sub-Saharan Africa.' Said Rakiya Omaar, a Somali, in the Washington Post….Black leaders have no real interest in stopping the buying and selling of Black Africans. This slave trade is common knowledge in Congressional circles (Fortunately Congressman Bobby Rush and a few others are taking a public stand. – Ed.) and shamefully, Black leaders have not educated the African-American public on an issue central to their history. Are Black Americans playing at being Africans and in reality have no real love or attachment to Africa and African people? Could it be that African-Americans are in love with a fantasy Africa and do not possess any real understanding of African realities and world views? These questions require critical thinking that will move African-Americans past the kente cloth and fashion, to examine if there is a relationship between them and the African….Both Africans and African Americans acknowledge a common place of origin, and both have served as human fodder for the Arab slave trade. However, the Black American appears to have forgiven the Arabs for their participation in the slave trade, while they continue to hold the feet of White Americans and Jews to the fire for their participation. Black spiritual and political leaders travel to Islamic Fundamentalist countries where they have ties and friendships, and sources report that Arab money funds a number of Black politicians. In view of the above, when the Mauritanians and Sudanese request help from the African-American, will there be enough content in the Black community to offer support….Black leaders are not trained to find slavery in countries with deceitful governments. In addition, Black ministers, even if they were sincere, do not understand how modern chattel slavery operates in countries with demographics like Mauritania and Sudan--the largest country in Africa. (Black)Leaders…are over their heads in this game and are betraying hundreds of thousands of Africans languishing in slavery (http://members.aol.com/casmasalc/sorrow_shame.html.”

How much love do we have for our people? When will Black folks speak up?

Finally here is a stinging indictment by a native African:

“In North America, black Americans constitute the only group of blacks in diaspora with sufficient clout, credibility and experience to help their black brothers and sisters in Africa in their struggle for freedom. The experience gained in the civil rights struggle in the 1960s could have been helpful to black Africans but, in practice, turned out to be more of a hindrance…Black Americans HELPED with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. They tended to see the campaign against apartheid as an extension of their own civil rights struggle. This was understandable since the oppressors and exploiters in both cases were white, the oppressed and exploited, black. But many Africans saw apartheid as merely a special case of the oppression that was rampant across the continent. Further, the analysis of African problems in a rigid "civil rights" or black-white paradigm was not appropriate. In black Africa color was not the issue. Blacks ruled themselves. Although in the past their oppressors and exploiters were white colonialists, today they are black. Perhaps, the innocent oversight of this fundamental difference rendered many black Americans extremely hostile to the notion that some black African leaders head more ruthlessly oppressive regimes than the apartheid system in South Africa, notwithstanding the fact that apartheid is institutionalized…It is also true that in the 1950s black Americans provided vital support to Africans in the liberation struggle against colonialism. In recent times, black Americans have been indefatigable in the campaign for one-man, one-vote for blacks in South Africa. But to the blacks in independent Africa fighting for the same political rights, black Americans have offered little or no support....While black American leaders were at the forefront of calls for immediate democratic reform in South Africa, when it comes to black Africa those same black Americans say it is not America's business to interfere -- even when the victims are Africa's black masses....But no one in that congregation of civil rights leaders, which included Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, talked about the rising slaughter of blacks in West Africa and the senseless civil wars which had produced mounting refugees and grisly spectacles of emaciated bodies of famine victims. Not one single black American civil rights leader condemned Arab apartheid in Mauritania and Sudan and the present-day enslavement of blacks by Arab masters (Rev. Al Sharpton did speak out.). …Asked about political turmoil and carnage in these black African countries, Benjamin Hooks, director of the NAACP--the world's largest civil rights organization, replied that 'there is little black Americans could or should do directly to help foster or affect political change in Sub-Saharan Africa . . . I don't think it is our business to meddle in their affairs.' Said one incredulous Ivorian student: 'I wish some of these (black) Americans would take to the streets with us instead of supporting the old order' (Washington Post, April 18, 1991; p.A41). A more searing query came from a Liberian exile in the Ivory Coast: 'Why have you black Americans let us down?' (Washington Post, April 20, 1991;p. A18)…We as Africans need to take a hard look at our relationships with the leadership of the African Americans . . . The African must necessarily become his own advocate…Perhaps a solution to this problem is to let black Africans speak for themselves and for black Americans to do the listening. If black Americans wish to help Africa today, they should side or work with the African PEOPLE, not the corrupt and tyrannical leaders. This is where the distinction between leaders and the PEOPLE is important (http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub161.htm).”

Have we let the Africans down? Have we spoken up for them? A native Ghanaian who was part of a government ministry was in Chicago on business several years ago. He was a high member of the Asante (Ashanti) tribe. I had a conversation with him and an Asantefuohene (Chief). He told me of his frustration of many African Americans talking about their love for the “Motherland” and their love for African people and seeing no tangible evidence of it all. He told me: “The time for talk is over.”

How much love do we have for our people? When will Black folks speak up?

I call to the witness stand Rev. Al Sharpton : “’I am outraged that more of us, particularly of the African American leadership, have not talked about the slave trade that I witnessed with my own eyes in the Sudan,’ Sharpton told CNSNews.com. Sharpton traveled to the Sudan on a fact-finding mission in the spring of 2001. The Sudanese government denies the slavery allegations despite eyewitness accounts by Sharpton and others, as well as documented evidence (http://www.crosswalk.com/1202707/)."

(“Brother, you’re just talking just a little bit too much. You are airing out our dirty laundry. You know you ain’t supposed to do that!”)

Oh, my cup runneth over. Dirty laundry usually “stanks," and I’m putting it all in the wash here and now and hanging it up to dry.

I got more to say.

Black Africans are being treated badly here by Black Americans. An article entitled “African immigrants face bias from blacks” says: “But Mr. Doerue, 44, said that for the last year he's been continually harassed, his children have been bullied by neighborhood thugs, his car damaged and the windows on his home have been repeatedly broken. Mr. Doerue has called police because he feels "hunted" by the perpetrators, who he claims are mostly black youths…. Mr. Doerue says his children were picked on and targeted simply because they speak differently…. Some of the 30 to 40 Somalian families in town have faced other hostilities from black Americans. Their dress, mannerisms and accents mean they stand out as foreigners in many neighborhoods, said Joshua Kivuva, a University of Pittsburgh teacher and Kenyan native who helps ease the families into life here (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06044/654613.stm).

Can you believe this? “Kwame Raoul, a Haitian American who now fills (Barack) Obama's former seat in the state Senate, said he too has encountered skepticism from black voters for his ethnic background and for his name (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012402032_pf.html).

I call as my next witness Majorie Valbrun: “As a black immigrant and a Haitian-American who has lived in the country for 37 years, I know how it feels to have my blackness challenged by native-born blacks…. Many of my black immigrant friends have also had their blackness questioned by native-born blacks who see us as ‘not really black.’ My ancestors probably weren't enslaved on American soil, but they were enslaved on Haitian soil. So how am I less black or less worthy of kinship with black Americans? How ridiculous that someone would think me unable to understand the pain of racism and the long-term costs of white supremacy and slavery
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/15/AR2007021501270.html).” When I was in grammar school, a classmate was from Haiti and her skin complexion was much darker than mine. Yet she was not “Black”?

I call as my last witness Willis Shalita who was born in Uganda and is a naturalized U.S. citizen: “I, too, have been told that I am not a true black American. But who sets the bar? Who defines what it means to be a black American? (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/03/01/EDGRJN7A981.DTL).” Yes, who is the “Keeper of the Blackness”? Where can I get my “Official Blackness” certificate?

Some Africans are questioning our loyalty and support for them. Can you blame them? Is it that we love the notion of “Motherland Africa” and not African people themselves? So how much love do we really have for our people?

(“Brother, you can’t ask that!”)

Well how many marches and protests have you seen or been to concerning Sudan, or even Rwanda for that matter. Ask your family. Ask your friends. There have been a few but not many as we had for South Africa. Over 800,000 Black Africans were brutally murdered in Rwanda. Do a Google search on that (“genocide” “Rwanda”). How many tears did we shed for them? Didn’t we shed floods of tears for Black South Africans in apartheid who were segregated and made second-class citizens? It made us wanna holler, big time. However, they were not slaughtered on a wholesale basis.

Here is a test. Try it out on your friends, family, co-workers, fellow church members, etc.
We have a newspaper headline in a Black newspaper:

“WHITES SLAUGHTER 800,000 BLACK NATIVE AFRICANS”

Now we have another headline:

“BLACKS SLAUGHTER 800,000 BLACK NATIVE AFRICANS”

Which one of these headlines bothers you more?

If you said “the White one,” I suggest that you check yourself, even pray for some inner healing. I posed that question to an African American woman. She said the “White” headline bothered her more. She also quickly acknowledged there was something wrong with her thinking about that. I asked another African American woman the same question. She said both headlines bothered her. That was the right answer. A machete in White hand or a Black hand is a color-blind machete. A machine gun in a White hand or a Black hand is a color-blind machine gun. Do you think that the Blacks in Sudan or Rwanda said, “Man, we are very happy that Black folks are slaughtering us by the thousands and not White folks doing it. If White folks were killing my family, friends, and me, that would be a real tragedy and I would be mad.” What did the survivors of Rwanda, Sudan, etc. think about the collective silence of Black Americans, those who called them “our African brothers and sisters”?

I have already made a public challenge to the Reparations Movement. (The Chicago Defender newspaper already published my own plan for reparations, but that is beside the point.).I’m challenging the rest of Black America as well. I’m asking the members of the Movement to suspend their current mission for a time and to unite to focus on trying to stop the bloodshed and possible genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Then when the bloodshed is finally over, they can go back to their work. Is not the life of one Black African worth more than any amount of reparations money? Many in the Reparations Movement claim to have love for African people. I ask, “Do you really?” I ask, “How much love do you have for your people?” Well, this is the perfect opportunity to put that love into action and save hundreds or thousands of Black African lives. I challenged the Reparations Movement to use the same energy we used to protest and fight South African apartheid. You know what I'm talking about. Now we are directing our energies to the government of Sudan.

Do we care more about dead African ancestors than we care about live Africans who we claim as “our brothers and sisters” who are being murdered at this moment? At this rate, we will have many more dead Africans to care about. Read the next sentence very carefully. Then read it again. I really believe we have a secret belief that Blacks have the right to oppress and to kill other Blacks, but Whites do not have that right. I even wonder if we hated White Europeans more than we loved Black South Africans during apartheid, the hatred of the White South Africans being the fuel to our actions and not the love for Black South Africans. Because when apartheid ended, we quickly forgot about them, did we not?

(“Ouch, brother! That hurts!”)

How much love do we have for our people?

Read again what the brother above said: “…black progressives did not lift a finger to protest or press our government or the UN to act to prevent the slaughter amongst black Africans the same way they did apartheid, Haiti, or even the plight of the Palestinians. Why not? Well for one, because there was no white victimizer oppressing people of color, both parties were of the same race.” And what the other brother said: “They are disillusioned by Black leaders with African names, who live in houses filled with African statues, and walk the streets in full African regalia but will not raise one voice against slavery…. Are Black Americans playing at being Africans and in reality have no real love or attachment to Africa and African people? Could it be that African-Americans are in love with a fantasy Africa and do not possess any real understanding of African realities and world views?”

If the glove does fit, you cannot acquit.

I rest my case.

(“Wait brother! Now let me ask you. How much love do you have for your people?”)

This article is evidence of that. I’m a writer. I am telling the truth so that African Americans can truly be accepting of other Blacks from other nations. I would also like to see some true love, not the “African infatuation” I have observed for years and years. I’m not in the business of hoodwinking, bamboozling, or tickling ears. I write what needs to be written. And I’m sure you appreciate the truth, right? If this article rubs you the wrong way, repent and turn the other way. Then everything will feel good.

Go to http://www.savedarfur.org and http://www.iabolish.org for more information. We have to do something now, not later. Black folks need to wake up and speak up.

This is your wake-up call. What does your common sense tell you?

The time for talk is over, isn’t it?