Madiba,
Let's be real. This is the dawn of the 21st Century, but there are still
three groups of people of African descent in America:
1. Black people,
2. Negroes
3. Niggers
There are Black people like Farrakhan who have knowledge of themselves and
their history, and an inner peace that allows them to tell it like it is
without apologising to anyone.
Then, there are the Negroes, many of whom are college-educated and realize
the need to bring something to the American Table, but despite their best
intentions cannot get over their Tarzan-induced brainwash. They make
pilgrimages to Africa just to prove how "different" they are from Africans.
They cannot say something positive about Africa without qualifying it, or
apologizing in some form. I'm talking Whoopi Goldberg, Alice Walker, Gates,
James Earl Jones, the list goes on. They're as patronizing as they're
condescending of Africans.
But then, there is the Nigger in a class all by itself. This are the type
you find in every American city. They say Hi to you until they hear your
accent, then all hell breaks loose. This is the group responsible for
mugging Africans especially in the Big Apple. They hate and hold themselves
in such low esteem that they'll lash at anything that reminds them of
Africa. And that's just the Gutter Punks segment of the group. The
book-educated ones could be heard on radio all over the place. Their chief
is call Armstrong Williams. He operates out of DC.
So Madiba, why sweat? People often see what they want to see. Slavery, in
the European sense of the word hasn't existed anywhere in Black African
history. And like I once told a professor of mine "you'll have to be brain
dead to believe for one minute that the White man has paid for anything on
the African continent." They've stolen entire countries for centuries and
lied about it. Our people in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa are still
fighting to get back their lands! Which is harder to steal and lie about -
land or a person? Yet people swallow this garbage about Africans selling
other Africans as slaves to Europeans.
What we need to do is re-write our history, because the simple truth is,
what we learn in school is not our history, but Europeans' version of
African history! Many of this so-call African historians merely take lies
from Europeans books and regurgitate it in a selfish desire to be accepted
as "authentic." Nothing else! So, let Gates appease his sponsors. Just
research who paid for his trip, and believe me the pieces of the puzzle will
all fall in place.
Saul.
>From: Madiba Saidy <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: "...NIGGERS JUST JUMPED ON THE SHIPS!" (fwd)
>Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 12:14:10 -0800
>
>For your reading pleasure.
>
>One love,
> Madiba.
>
>I come here to make a speech, to tell you the truth. If the truth is
>anti-American, then blame the truth, don't blame me -- MALCOLM X
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> "...NIGGERS JUST JUMPED ON THE SHIPS!" By J. Tolbert, Jr.
>
>(editor's notes-nothing in my writing career has provoked so many
>responses as my commentary on Henry Louis Gates Jr.s' "Wonders of the
>African World" http://www.tbwt.com/views/feat/feat1621.asp Many
>readers agreed with my analysis. Those who disagreed believed that I
>was wrong to criticize what they believed to be a very informative work.
>One reader even likened me to a "slave" because of my criticism of a
>fellow African. In essence, I was an unknowing participant in the
>"divide-and-conquer" strategy of white supremacists. I would be as
>foolish to not listen to this point of view, as I would be to discount
>Gate's entire program. But what some saw as a historic sojourn, I saw as
>a continuing chapter of "The Bell Curve"
> (http://www.fair.org/extra/9501/bell.html)
>
>Controversy is no stranger to Henry Louis Gates Jr.. To his credit, he
>doesn't back down nor should he. He has been publicly and privately
>confronted over his perspectives. In some circles, he is to black
>studies what Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is to civil rights.
>Gates has a history of criticizing the work of other scholars of African
>history who actually have credentials in history, not literature. For
>the moment, let's forget all that negative stuff. Let us "imagine"
>that Professor Gates' work is widely recognized as sound; that he is one
>of the premier scholars of our time; and that "Wonders of the African
>World" was a groundbreaking event. It is possible that Gates' detractors
>are just plain wrong. But even if I were to concede that Gates is
>correct in all areas, there is one nagging factor that makes him look
>bad - TELEVISION.
>
>It is gospel truth that the history of television is rift with the
>wholesale distortion of the African image. From Canada to South America,
>Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and beyond. From "Birth of a Nation"
>to "Tarzan," to "Homeboys in Outer Space," television has portrayed us
>as buffoons, clowns, savages, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera. I was
>not the only viewer who became concerned with the strong inference
>coming from "Wonders of the African World," that Africans were the
>initiators and maintainers of slavery. Years ago, a comedian spoke of
>this same distortion when he said the captain of a "slave" ship
>deflected criticism of his role in the trade by saying that it wasn't
>his fault, that he just drove up to the dock and the "...niggers just
>jumped on the ships!"
>
>Today, the whole strategy of the conservative movement in the United
>States is to intellectualize this "...niggers just jumping in the ships"
>mind-set. Whole books such as the "The Bell Curve," "Blaming Whitey,"
>
>http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/1999/11/22/decatur/index.html
>
>and other psychopathic treatises have been written to justify the
>exclusion of African people from humanity. In an age where "image is
>everything," "Wonders of the African World" placed the majority of the
>blame on the Africans. I was not the only one who was left with the
>impression that European involvement was only opportunistic, that
>European involvement did not produce the great "holocaust" of
>enslavement, colonization, terrorism, murder, exploitations, and the
>geographical displacement of a great people.
>
>Despite the beautiful images shown, "Wonders of the African World"
>capitalized on age-old themes of the African immorally, unintelligence,
>and barbarity. It would be difficult, especially in the United States,
>to not find an African American who has not experienced the long-term
>psychological, economic, and political consequences of this
>stereotyping. Maybe it was bad editing?
>
>The African Diaspora continues to suffer the effects of this
>centuries-old oppression with no end in sight. You will not find people
>of Jewish ancestry explaining the World War II holocaust by assigning
>the majority of blame to Jewish people. They are clear about the crimes
>done to them and who is responsible. They still actively look for Nazi
>war criminals to exact justice in criminal prosecutions and reparations.
>
>Many of those who criticized me characterized my outrage over African
>complicity as "denial" although I freely acknowledged that Gates charge
>does "...have historical merit." My outrage is not based in a racial
>apportionment of blame, however, I will not sit back and allow the other
>side to establish a higher guilt in the victims. I believe more than 400
>years of oppression clearly establishes who is the criminal and who is
>the victim. Especially when the criminals are unremorseful and offer no
>restitution, only more promises of rolling back more laws restricting
>civil and human rights. Considering all of this in retrospect of my
>commentary, I really must apologize for not being hard enough on
>"Wonders of the African World" or any other similar work that appears to
>blame the victim and not the criminal.
>
>Whatever good Henry Louis Gates, Jr. may have tried to convey in his
>writings and travels on Africa was lost in his television and radio
>presentations. But I do not believe he is that naive. Based on the
>fact that he is media savvy and uses all forms of communication to
>advance his scholarship. His positions clearly demonstrate that he
>serves another people's agenda that continues to trivialize African
>people. No one is trying to shut Professor Gates up, no one is trying
>to "radicalize" his scholarship or make him march to the tune of 'black
>militants." Others have perspectives and opinions, and for now everyone
>has the right to express what they believe. Said Gates of another
>critic; "...I cherish the sort of debates and discussions that...has
>generated, especially given the fact that it has occurred on the
>Internet. Perhaps this debate will be recalled by our descendants as
>the first such use of the Internet by scholars in African and African
>American Studies to air their views. If so, this will have been a signal
>moment for our field." I agree.
>
>
>ATICLES, COMMENTARIES & EDITORIALS
>
>"blaming whitey"
>http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/1999/11/22/decatur/index.html
>
>confronting "blaming whitey"
>http://www.tbwt.com/views/rd/rd_11-09-99.asp
>
>the dangers facing black radio
>http://www.tbwt.com/views/earl/earl_11-15-99.asp
>
>roaches need to travel too!
>http://www.salon.com/travel/diary/hest/1999/11/16/hester/index.html
>
>doesn't your boss have anything better to do than to monitor your
>e-mail?
>http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/12/08/email_monitoring/index.html
>
>happy black folks?
>http://home.netnoir.com/channels/news/malveaux/index.cfm?happy1=3Dtrue
>
>the fascism of Star Trek
>http://www.friesian.com/trek.htm
>
>not boycotting the TV networks
>http://www.tbwt.com/views/earl/earl_12-02-99.asp
>
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