The Political and Psychological Empowerment of the African

[XXPANTHAXX]

By Solomon Comissiong
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I have always professed to people who I encounter throughout the country
that Hip Hop has been a way of life to me dating back to my inception in
this land called America. Yes, it was Hip Hop that filled in the
extremely large crevices of information that I should have gotten within
the conventional classrooms of every American school I attended.

Yes, Hip Hop helped develop a stronger sense of Black Pride within me
and the rest of the “Golden Era” generation of hip hoppers. Yes, Hip Hop
taught me what it truly means to be a community advocate and activist.
Truth be told, Hip Hop Culture was all those things to me growing up…and
still is. However, the more I am exposed to various pockets of people,
the more I appreciate one of the most underrated things that Hip Hop
cultivated inside of me, and that is Critical Thought.

The ability to critically think is a skill that many people do not have
or, at the very least, fail to use on a regular basis. I seem to not be
able to escape individuals who are devoid of any concrete critical
thinking skills which, often times, seriously concerns me.

A populous that has mediocre (at best) critical thinking skills is one
that is easily controlled. Perhaps that is why our school systems do not
emphasize curricula that are predicated around critical thought.

US based students, at a very early age, are fed large doses of
pre-packaged information which is stacked to one side as if it was
prepared by a lawyer who was trying to make his/her case to a judge.
That “judge” often appears to be in the form of many of those who run
governments which are based on the lack of participation by the general
public.

Of course “they” want you to vote but do “they” really want you to
critically examine all of the key issues? Probably not, and if their
actions are any indicator the answer is a resounding, “no they do not”!
If people really examine the issues and “major candidates”, in this
country, before they vote, there would be (in my humble opinion) a much
stronger push for nationally recognized 3rd, 4th and even 5th parties
that would have to be incorporated into the national debates and local
elections.

However, since many, in this country, lack solid critical thinking
skills they continue to vote for the most popular candidates or the ones
who the corporate driven “media” tells them they should vote for, or
even the ones who the “polls” say are going to win. This is a serious
issue for those who seek true representational government.

Representational government, in my modest estimation, consists of
elected officials and a political system which addresses the needs of
the vast array of their populous. This is virtually non-existent in
American mainstream politics (consisting largely of Democrats and
Republicans).

The vast majority of members, within these parties, consistently fail to
address the needs of a great number of American citizens. Instead, they
consistently pander to their corporate bases and lobbyists. This is why
in a country who last year had a discretionary defense expenditure of
close to 500 billion dollars we see a deplorable education system
receiving a comparatively paltry 51 billon dollars.

Within that same deplorable educational system we see some of the more
unbalanced and blatantly egregious disparities. For anyone to say that,
within America, there is equal access to all; they clearly live in an
America that I have yet to visit.

I consistently see a segregated school system which rewards children for
being white and punishes those who are of color and/or coming from
socially and governmentally neglected communities. I have visited a vast
array of schools during my relatively short life as an activist, engaged
community member, and public speaker.

However, I do not have to travel far to see how unfair life is to those
who are the most impressionable in our society…kids. In my backyard
(otherwise known as Washington DC) I see how vastly different the public
schools are within that city as compared to many which exist outside of
DC in counties like Montgomery, Ann Arundel, and Howard.

Oh yes, there is a county which is also outside of DC that I failed to
mention, and that county was Prince Georges. I failed to mention that
county because within that county one will find many of the same
education inequities that you can see in Washington DC. By the way, that
county, (Prince Georges) is predominately Black. That fact is no
coincidence.

These children who come from socially and governmentally neglected
communities (I refuse to call them ghettos any longer) are consistently
robbed. Failing to refer to these neighborhoods as governmentally
neglected communities takes the pressure off the system which had/has
some much to do with their creation and status.

These neighborhoods are robbed of one of the most precious commodities
known to man…education. These children are robbed of a legitimate and
balanced education and, therefore many are robbed of hope. Many are
robbed of the hope that they can exceed their limitless potential.
American born Africans (otherwise known as Blacks), for instance, come
from a great history replete with ancestors who formed the earliest
foundations of mathematics, science, astronomy, philosophy, and
civilization…to name a few of their superlatives.

However, categorically, they are force fed a steady diet of Eurocentric
values and incomplete history which methodically and subconsciously robs
them of the same inspiration their white counter parts receive when they
get that same diet. This diet of incomplete history is full of empty
“calories” for the American born African child. By placing the American
born African child in school systems which are devoid of the tangible
resources any prosperous school needs to reach all of its children,
“they” are setting many up for almost certain underachievement.

This systematic failure works in different stages and levels, mainly
psychological. Black and brown skinned children, across America, are
systematically being programmed to buy in to a system that consistently
marginalizes them. After a lifetime of this programming you can often
see the effective results in the form of an individual who supports the
system and political parties which have historically robbed his/her
people of the same resources that are doled out to their white
counterparts.

Those of us who are not intellectually dishonest with ourselves know
that these same resources, which are freely given to well to do
white/European children, are the residual effects of stolen land and
stolen labor from stolen people. And to all those contrarians out there
please do not give me that crap about “Black People should pull
themselves up by the boot-straps”. European America has seldom had to
pull itself up by the metaphorical “boot-straps”.

Does stealing land, then stealing people, and then stealing labor mean
pulling oneself up by the “boot-straps”? I don’t think so. When one
looks at it that way, only an intellectually dishonest person would
argue against community wide reparations for Black communities in this
country.

At this time, I can almost hear the synchronized voices of elite white
liberals and conservatives whining, “But we should not have to pay for
the mistakes of our ancestors”. If that is their argument I simply say
that, “We, as American born Africans, should not have to socially and
governmentally suffer as a result of what was done to our ancestors by
yours”. Many of us know that American born Africans are continuing to
suffer as a result of what was done to their (our) ancestors.

As I place my thoughts in to verbal format I grow more and more angered
because of the fact that so many of us continue to support political
parties, as well as a system, which has never served the vast majority
of us holistically. And please don’t give me a few actors or athletes
names and expect me to except that crap.

Until the majority of my people are not living in poverty and in
governmentally neglected communities, I will not be satisfied. As long
as close to a million of my people are incarcerated in a prison system
that is nothing short of modern day slavery, I will not be satisfied.

If I am not satisfied, I can never truly rest peacefully at night. This
uneasy sleep I get should be something that is shared by us all. Anyone
who truly considers himself/herself a Pan-African should also be
suffering from frequent bouts of insomnia.

We need to, collectively, stop! supporting political systems and values
that do not represent our (collective) best interests. These flawed
systems are continuing to systematically “destroy” us in a number of
ways (mentally, physically, socially, etc). We need to stop eating the
garbage that these parties (democrat, republican) are feeding us. It is
the equivalent of low grade junk food.

Should I eat a beautifully dressed up fried burger, with all the high
calorie fixings, just because it is advertised on television over and
over again? Should I eat that same fried burger with over 2,000 calories
if it in the long run could negatively impact my health? Hell no, I
should not.

Using that same logic, why would anyone vote for someone whose policies
could and do negatively impact their life? It makes no sense does it?
However, this is exactly what happens with millions of people each and
every 2, 4, and 6 years when they come out to vote for the “media’s”
favorite candidates. They vote for who they are told they should vote
for without truly ever vetting those same candidates and the issues and
policies they espouse.

This lack of critical thought in the voting process is exactly what
keeps this country’s power structure in the form of a plutocracy and not
in the form of a true democracy. We all know it is usually he/she with
the most money that has the best chance of winning any given
presidential election in America.

One major reason is that that same individual is the one who can best
spread his or her messages all over corporate dominated newspapers,
radio stations and TV stations. White corporate America has even
co-opted my beloved Hip Hop Culture and resold it to the masses in the
form of imbalanced images of black men and women as thugs, pimps,
whores, and anti-intellectuals.

These images contribute to shaping the way America views Blacks.
However, much of European/white America has harbored these ill-conceived
views of blacks dating back to when Africans were kidnapped and stolen
from the land where civilization first began (Africa).

White Corporate America feeds mass audiences the form of Hip Hop Culture
that they want to serve because it makes them comfortable, and
reinforces psychological destruction, all the while making them billions
of dollars. The pre-packaging of the musical selections corporate
America wants us to have occurs politically, as well. We are
consistently fed the issues and the candidates they want us to chose
from, never the ones who best represent our communities and issues. This
is all and out psychological warfare.

We need to seriously take a long look at candidates like Cynthia
McKinney (votetruth08.com) of the Green Party who created a
truly progressive platform. Please take the time to view her website and
what her platform stands for. It makes too much sense to be denied by
any sensible critical thinker.

We need to reclaim our minds and our ability to think for ourselves in a
critical and honest manner. If we do this, collectively, I am very
certain that many of us will begin to shift how we vote and how we
approach politics. After all, politics control everything you can or
cannot do in this world; therefore we need to begin to take them much
more seriously.

We need to approach the studying of critical issues in a very serious
manner. If we do a serious examination of the critical issues that
afflict our communities most of us will recognize that there is a
significant deficiency of attention that has been given to us by many of
our so-called elected officials.

Absence of universal healthcare, the absence affordable and livable
housing, police terrorism, militarism of our schools, dilapidated
schools, wealth disparities, and fallacious media representations are a
few of the things that routinely affect our communities. We need to
galvanize our communities. We need to mobilize our communities. We need
to unify our communities. We need to begin to, once again, embrace what
it truly means to be a Pan-African.

We need to reclaim and embrace our effulgent history. By doing this we
will be able to learn from the lessons our ancestors taught through
their struggle and prosperity. Those lessons can be applicable today.
Those lessons can, and will, give us the inspiration, and strategy we
can use to endure and truly overcome, via unification and collective
political action. Those lessons are what we need to be teaching one
another and to our children.

We need to unify, start, and/or support truly progressive political
parties. And once we unify ourselves then we can begin to unify with
other progressive people from a myriad of backgrounds and races. In my
estimation, the unification of any group of historically oppressed
people needs to come from within, and on the grassroots level.

The unification of people of color needs to be paramount. This idea is
not unprecedented. The great Malcolm X spoke of this Black Unity. His
words and life continue to inspire me and so many others.

We have so much to learn from the lessons of Steve Biko in valuing our
Blackness. It was Biko’s South African Black Conscious Movement from
which the saying, “Black is Beautiful” came from. There is so much power
in that saying.

We should embrace the lessons bestowed upon us by the great Pan-Africans
of Henry Sylvester Williams, W. E.B Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame
Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Ida B. Wells, Angela Davis, Patrice Lumumba,
Amilcar Cabral, Robert Sobukwe, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X, just
to name a few. Their vision and revolutionary spirit still lives on
within so many of us today (including me).

There are hundreds more of our revolutionary ancestors that I could have
mentioned including: George Jackson, Assata Shakur, Ella Baker, Huey
Newton, Fannie Lou Hamer, and the great Fred Hampton. The commitment of
these African brothers and sisters should never be in vain. They laid
down multiple “tracks” for us to continue to build upon so that we may
all ride the freedom train to equality and justice.

There is much work to be done. We need to not only be dedicated to our
common causes, we must be consistent. Dedication without consistency
will regularly equate to unfilled potential. It is now upon us where we
need to be a part of the mass change we want to see in order for our
communities to be elevated. We cannot rest easy until this change
occurs.

However, this change cannot occur efficiently if we do not all play a
role in the movement. We must not only be
unified, we must fully and truly understand the importance of being
unified. There is value in our Black and Brown skin and there is
significant value in our unity and historical kinship. If it takes a
village, we must be that village that not only raises our children but
raises ourselves…in total unity!

By Solomon Comissiong
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