From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
The Power of History
“I often say in this regard that if there were not a direct relationship between history and money, a direct relationship between history and power, history and rulership, history and domination, then why is it that the European rewrote history? Why is it that the European wants to take our history away from us? Why is it that the European wants to rewrite our history and distort it? Why is it that he doesn’t want to present it at all? Apparently the rewriting, the distortion and the stealing of our history must serve vital economic, political and social functions for the European or else he would not bother and try so hard to keep our history away from us, and to distort it in our own minds. Let us meditate on these issues and I think we’ll come to realize that there is a direct relationship between history, economics, political and social development.” Dr. Amos N. Wilson The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness Eurocentric History, Psychiatry and the Politics of White Supremacy page 15
Lest we continue to delude ourselves that we are an integral part of the US just because Barack Obama is in the White House exercising and extending white imperial power across the globe, we need to pause a reflect on our history here in this country. Fighting for white interests whether during colonial times or after the nation was founded has not, I repeat has not insured equal opportunity or freedom for our efforts. Black men have fought in every war this country had, including the genocidal assaults on the Native Americans and more often then not our abuse, degradation and desecration at the hands of the Euro-Americans did not lessen one Iota at the conclusion of that particular aggression. In fact after the Revolutionary War, US Civil War and WWI, we were treated worse! The ruling elites created, imposed and codified a brutal color caste system that was maintained by systemic violence, terrorism and oppression that their fellow whites around the world marveled at and replicated in places like Angola, South Africa and India.
This is Black History Month. Black History Month is more than studying and memorizing dates, names and celebrating the first African-American to do thus and so. It means taking a hard look at ourselves and what we have experienced over eons on this planet. It means making sound judgments and assessing the lessons inherent in what we've overcome and what we’ve endured over time, taking a holistic approach to our existence in Africa and throughout the world.
What lessons have we learned about our sojourn here in the US? What can we glean about the nature of our adversaries and any potential for peaceful co-existence? What is the power dynamic involved and what must we do to alter our status in the world? Are we content with being passive bystanders on the world stage? Are we the ones even setting an agenda to question and challenge the status quo or are we asking the right questions? Are we complacently cooperating in our own oppression, happy because there is a brown face in the White House increasingly bombing more and more brown and black people all over the world every day? Is this what our righteous leaders like Malcolm and Martin would call progress? Didn't we learn our lessons about blind conformity to white power from Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice? Is being a lackey strictly a partisan issue or does it occur whether the Negro of the day is a Democrat or a Republican?
Can we discern an alarming pattern about Black faces in the imperial board rooms given what we've seen Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Susan Rice, Eric Holder and Barack Obama do on behalf of the military industrial complex, the Wall Street Kleptocracy and multi-national corporations to maintain global white political and economic domination?
At what point will we do some serious introspection/soul searching to refocus our moral compass so we see through the hypocrisy, connect the dots and ask ourselves, have the underlying values of this country really changed or have we been brainwashed to internalize European psychopathy, love of war and killing for a few crumbs from their table? Ask yourself is there a pattern or relationship between the extermination, pacification and subjugation of the Native American population, the terrorism against Africans during slavery and following Reconstruction and the immoral War on Terror being waged against Black and Brown people around the world as we speak? If there is a connection, why are so many of us silent about it?!
Take a look at the picture accompanying this commentary; this is the real history of the US. Remember lynching was a form of entertainment for white folks! Our ancestors died fighting for the right to live, they died struggling for human rights and to put a stop to extra-judicial murder! Are we to stop the quest for freedom, peace and global transformation merely because there is a black face to Western imperial power?
The benefit of History is being able to look back from whence we’ve come to envision new possibilities and potential for the present and future. Our ancestors called it “Sankofa; going back to the past in order to build the future”. History is a powerful tool to use to construct the future. Let us use the power of our history, the best of what it means to be African to forge a better world based upon truth, not lies, peace rather than enmity, cooperation and sharing rather than greed and selfishness.
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