On Feb. 18, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder gave an excellent speech at the Department of Justice African American History program. He spoke mostly about the lack of meaningful dialogue between the races about racial issues.
The entire speech was well over two thousand words. The national media (Fox, CNN and the rest of the gang) focused on six words that didn’t even comprise the entire sentence from which it was extracted: “This nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”
The pundits and the uninformed jumped on this sound bite as if Attorney General Holder had committed an act of treason. None of them wanted to consider the possibility that Holder was right on point. Maybe, deep down, they felt he was too on point. He picked the scab off a sore that America wanted to believe had healed when it elected an African-American to be President of The United States.
The fact that the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a very necessary anti-apartheid movement is a subject that most would rather forget.
Black History Month is only important because American History is devoid of its most important component, the vast contributions of its African-American population.
True American History would eliminate the need for Black History Month because Black History would be an integral part of the American History curriculum.
The present American History curriculum has encouraged a feeling of inferiority in blacks and a feeling of superiority in whites. Both feelings lead to mental and emotional dysfunction.
What it seems to boil down to is that white America is not ready for intelligent, powerful black men who have their heads on straight, especially in positions of great power. I mean, my goodness, here you have the Attorney General of the United States, a black Man, talking about pulling the covers off of the miseducation of Americans, black and white. He reports to a black man, The President of the United States.
All of this is happening less than half a century after American apartheid was made illegal. But like South Africa, America still has much healing to do before it can be considered whole. Things might be better but better is not necessarily good. It’s just better.
Attorney General Holder was just saying what many people know to be true. An honest dialogue about America’s racial history is necessary for its overall healing.
This honesty can’t end with dialogue however. Lifestyle changes must be made in order to bring America to an optimal state of health. You can’t have a situation where five percent of the people possess or control 90 percent of the wealth. You can’t have black women being rejected or ostracized in the job market because they wear their hair naturally.
Our children don’t need to be taught that warmongers and slaveholders were heroes. Americans can’t continue to look at Native Americans who now happen to speak Spanish as foreigners or intruders.
Most importantly, we need to wake up and open our eyes. We must get beyond the sound bites being fed to us by the major media outlets. Most, if not all, of the people who control the major media are among the five percent and they have an agenda. Their agenda is to keep things just the way they are. Real change means they will have to give up some things.
It is in their best interest to feed the public pabulum. It is in the public’s best interest to seek the truth and to live accordingly.
Alim Gaynor is the founder and CEO of the Seedpod Empower-ment Institute.
For questions and comments call 769-798-5247 or E-Mail alimgaynor@yahoo.com
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