As I sit here staring at the blank page upon this monitor,....I am in complete understanding that the month THEY call February has been earmarked to highlight the achievements of so-called "colored" people in this republic.  It strikes me as humorous that even though nubians are the aboriginal people of the planet and who--through the grace of the Creator--created most things of this terrestrial plane.....it's odd that we are only given one solitary month to mark our many accomplishments.

But, then it occurred to me that in this country our history has been one of  nothing more than oppression, manipulation, deprivation and control.  There are a few roses among the thorns, but let's be honest with ourselves....slavery is nothing to be proud of or to commemorate.  It is to be REMEMBERED and of course, I find strength in knowing that our people struggled through this hellish scenario to come out of it a strong, proud people.....but it is a negative memory none the less.

And the period after emancipation is not rosy and bright, either.  Freeing a people without a proper socio-economic system in place is like trying to drive a cadillac without a steering wheel.  It almost guaranteed that our fore-fathers would wind right back on the plantation to struggle through another form of slavery called "Share-cropping".  WE shared and worked the land, THEY took the profits.  Anyone who stood in the way of this putrid arrangement or spoke out against it stood a good chance of getting "Klu Kluxed".

As I stated earlier, this is not to say there aren't SOME bright spots in our existence here--there are many, many good things that have happened because WE got tired and wouldn't take it any more...THEY didn't GIVE us nothing...... WE fought for it.  But, let's be honest...this country has denied us our HUMAN--not just CIVIL--rights since we have been here and they still are.

Let's do a quick "Blak" history month quiz...Noble Drew Ali--killed by racists prison guards....Marcus Garvey--set up by the GOVERNMENT,  jailed and deported.....Paul Robeson--harassed by the government.....Elijah Muhammad--jailed and harassed by the government.....Malcolm X--harassed by the government, killed by execution, possible government involvement....Martin Luther King--harassed, jailed, shot and killed on a balcony, possible government involvement....Abraham Lincoln passes the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves only in the slave-holding states that seceded from the union--he is later assassinated....Medgar Evers--shot and killed....Black Panthers --harassed, killed and jailed, possible government involvement...Bobby Seale bound and gagged in court....Muhammad Ali--stripped of his championship belt and main means of support because he refused to fight in an unjust war.....not to mention the un-named victims of  racist abuse and lynchings.....

The list goes on and on....The crux of what I am stating is that only through brave perseverance did our people survive.  NOT government  assistance. Our forebears knew that one day the tide would turn.  They sang songs of it... "WE will understand it better by and by..."

So, we are now at the age of a new millennium and it is OUR generation's turn to make a statement that will echo through time. The past is to be held in  remembrance---but not to exist in. WE MUST go on and reclaim that which is ours and steer ourselves into the future.  WE MUST build upon the "positive" legacies that the ancestors left us.

STOP sugar-coating and skirting the issues that need to be addressed concerning our very selfhood......STOP the division among our ranks.  We OVERSTAND the effects of what has been done to us...it is now time to bring the POSITIVE solutions that will bring about change to the forefront....as Sis. Amala once told me, "This is about NATION BUILDING!"