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Guest Editorial
Where Shall We Meet?
Irving Henderson
Guest Editorial Archives
Friday, October 29, 2004; Page 23
Has the revolution started without me? Vote or Die. My hip-hop community says if I don’t vote, I’m going to die. So I guess the revolution will be televised on November 2, 2004. However, we all know deep in our hearts and souls that not too much is going to change in the poverty stricken community whether we vote or not. I agree we should vote to help bring in a decent administration, but only we (colored people) can save ourselves.
The revolution this time around will be about re-educating our people so we can rely on each other as opposed to waiting for helping hands from our politicians. The revolution in no way begins at the polls, Capitol Hill, the White House or congress; it begins and flourishes in the streets, in back alleys, in basements, store fronts, churches and mosques.
Or maybe we don’t need a revolution, maybe I’m just caught up in the sixties. Well, I am caught up in the sixties and so are we all as African-Americans and even Latinos. So there is a need for a revolution because, in reality, we are dying extremely faster in 2004 than we did in the sixties. I’m not going to point my finger at the system or the American society, but I am going to point to the cemeteries, penitentiaries, free clinics, projects, dilapidating public schools and health deprived colored people as the effects.
The revolution is near, but in no shape and form is it in effect. I understand we lost countless soldiers to this powerful word “revolution”. I know there are still political prisoners and exiled soldiers fighting inside and abroad for revolution. I, in no way, take the word revolution lightly.
The President said we are “turning the corner”. I say lets turn the corner – into a meeting ground. No one can save us but us. Gentrification is making us sell our homes faster than Enron stocks. The jails and prisons are modern day concentration camps because they are concentrating our Black and brown brothers in record numbers.
Talk is good and needed at all times; however, actions speak ten times louder than words. We can no longer discuss gentrification, racial profiling, AIDS, and imprisoned Black men. We have to come together, destroy and conquer it. There are enough of us colored people here in Amerika to now make the first last and the last first. Forget dreaming and saying what if. What if we continue to be blind? We will surely perish, or continue to be America’s burden barriers.
If we can’t meet on the corner or city altogether, I know we still have the acres that we inherited from our grandparents down South (my two acres may be enough to house a movement). To be bluntly honest, they are pushing us underprivileged back to the fields anyway, so we might as well use it to our benefit. United we stand, educate, relocate, protect, nourish, prosper and reclaim what we so desperately crave for--- life. Black Americans never lived their life here fully in America, from the day we exited the Mayflower to the day when we entered the projects.
We, as Blacks, are still slaves. Forget what you think, see and hear. We have not prospered yet. Some successful colored people have turned the corner until the brotha from the corner rips their fictional life into pieces.
We, as colored Americans, need a revolution like third world countries need food, like Arabian countries need for us to leave. It’s now or never. Do we need to be lynched, hosed with high pressure hoses, beat, whipped and worked like dogs to see that we are still in an undeniable struggle? Do we need hooded men on horses to burn down our houses and rape our wives before we say, okay, let’s rebel? The worst thing to happen to Blacks in America was freedom. Now we can’t see the wolf but we are continually being eaten to death.
If you really think that things are better now than the in the sixties, just start standing up as a whole and watch what happens. Then you will see America’s true color shining through. Let’s unite and become aware and watch how fast we see those water hoses and Jim Crow laws come flying back. Life isn’t “all good”, you’re not “chillin”, and you’re for sure not “keeping it real”. I’m calling out every colored person, including myself, let’s meet anywhere and start moving to revolutionize our people. Voting for the right president can make a difference, but the only way it can work is if this new president makes the law work so that it benefits everyone in American. Do you believe that’s possible? If you do, then there’s no need for you to rebel. Good luck.
However, I must admit, I love the struggle. It’s beautiful. The struggle keeps me grounded. It keeps me searching for the truth. It keeps me calling out to God. It keeps me aware, but it also keeps me in a struggle. The revolution has started in some back alley in the hood without me and you, however, if you want to catch up, then we should meet. We can meet before the polls, during the polls or after the polls, because believe me the struggle will be here waiting for you. |
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