9 Areas Of People Activity 43586x

9 areas of people activity Heritage, nationality

American culture is ripe with ceremony and ritual. Just recently, on the 4th day of July, the United States of America marked its two hundred and thirty-seventh year of Independence and in ritual fashion, Americans assembled in social gatherings, cooked barbeque meat-feasts in ritualistic open-fire fashion and set off copious amounts of symbolic fireworks. I in turn celebrated my 30 year of life, however, in ceremonial fashion, I ignored the importance of my own transition due to the manifest focus that accompanies the remembrance of the g of the Declaration of Independence. In short, I failed to celebrate my own birthday because the Fourth of July is an American holy day 1. I learned firsthand at a young age the power of ceremony. That the crowds of people, piles of food and fireworks that were always present during my birthday were not in celebration of when, why or whence I arrived. That is what it is like daily for many people of color that I know when it comes to competing with American rites. The mere nature of the country‟s history usurps the energy and focus of its citizens for itself and ensured that Black Americans true heritage erased and replaced after their ancestors were kidnapped and brought here as Chattel. We are indoctrinated to this American school of thought within the mass institutional education system which creates to live by a historical narrative that does not contain the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Our ideas of what constitute a functional adult in areas of human interaction are based on a historical narrative that is rooted in what professor, author and social critic bell hooks identified as an “imperialist whitesupremacist capitalist patriarchy” (hooks, 2004). The idea of nationalism is based on connecting the values underlying our individual identity with that of the values of the larger social context. However, due Black Americans lack of a collective conscience, the power we encom and lend freely and at times mindlessly to the development of the imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy will continue to ensure that we have none left to lend and develop our own sense of independence.

As a Black woman, learning how to become a productive member of American society has been a double edged sword. In order to be identified as such, it was necessary to create a physical appearance that was in line with the created world view and to take on rites of age that would allow me to be recognized as a person of worth by my peers and society at large. I was required to adhere to a particular school of thought in order to participate in what Neely Fuller, Jr. identified the “nine major areas of people activity, including economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war/counter-war” (Fuller, 1984). However, life experience replaced this acquired knowledge through a process most describe as „learning the hard way‟. I continued to follow the ascribed advice and way of life I learned through acculturation, and time and time again, I came to a crossroads in which I was constantly forced to make a decision between the values of the dominant ideology and myself. It wasn‟t until I started consciously accepting or rejecting the influences in my environment that shaped my personal beliefs and attitudes that I noticed a drastic positive change in my personal action potential and its outcome. I have noticed that in order to be fulfilled in this life, multiple paradigm shifts are necessary. Paradigm shifts that could have been avoided if properly aligned and designed Rites of age had been available to me as a genetically African woman in a socioeconomically, politically and ethically Eurocentric world. Marcus Garvey can be quoted from his speech “Look for me in a Whirlwind or a Storm” as saying, “there is no future for a people who deny their past”. This quote speaks directly to the fact that during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Black Americans were systematically terrorized and psychologically brutilized by the imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy to deny and ultimately forget their heritage and ultimately their personal identity. Law on chattel illustrates that individuals “not otherwise attached to the land […] are not to be considered as part of the land, unless the circumstances are such as to show that they were intended to be part of the land. [… O]n the contrary, an article affixed to the land even slightly is to be considered as part of the land, unless the circumstances are such as to show that it was intended all along to continue a chattel, the [responsibility] lying on those who contend that it is a chattel.” (Define Fixtures and Chattels) In short, in order to ensure the longevity and institutionalization of chattel slavery, slave traders first had to create a physical, mental and spiritual disconnect between the people they abducted and the land from

whence they came, because in order to be considered true chattel slaves, the population in question can never be attached to any land in any way, shape, or form and must never be in a situation that will highlight their connection to any particular land. Living under the reign of terror led by imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarch Slave Traders was integral in destroying the sustainability of the economic, social, political and cultural identity of the societies taken into chattel slavery in order to replace it with a new historical narrative. One that has created the generational poverty and ancestral amnesia that keeps Black Americans linked to the beliefs and attitudes that make it possible to identify with the values, traditions and development of a nation that is famously documented as being the primary source of the terrorism and destruction of his or her ancestry. This, linked with the drive to further acculturate into American society is indicative of Stockholm Syndrome – an adaptive evolutionary psychological mechanism called capture-bonding which allows Black Americans to “have positive feelings towards their [imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchal] captors […] show fear, distrust and anger toward [attempts to liberate them from their captors and whose captors] display positive feelings toward captives as they begin to see them as human beings” (de Fabrique, Romano, Vecchi, & Van Hasselt, 2004). It is necessary for Black Americans who no longer wish to be victims of the complicated and confounding System of White Supremacy to first gain a collective consciousness of their true historical narrative before we will be able to create rightful reparations. In order to properly manage our autonomy as a sociopolitical and cultural force, we must first organize the identified population and ensure they are well equipped to interact in the nine areas of human activity in a way that seeks to “replace the system of White Supremacy with Justice (balance between people)”. Transition from the current sociopolitical status to one that is indicative of our true action potential must happen on more than just an intellectual and physical level. Replacing the rites of age that maintain the current state of injustice is integral in harnessing the necessary power for change that has been unconsciously and systematically focused on the advancement of the imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

corroborate

“Reconciliation cannot be imposed from outside, nor can someone else‟s map get us to our destination: it must be our own solution”. These words from South African social rights leader and former Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak to the current issue of the state of the Black Agenda. For the last 5 years of the Obama istration, I have observed many opinions and emotional appeals to the perceived lack of direct effort by the President elect on the forward and upward mobility of the decendents of slaves and victims of the System of White Supremacy (racism). It is in my opinion that it is not a lack of action on President Barack Obama‟s part, but a lack of a clear, concise and all encoming aim. In order to request any sort of action on the part of the government, first there must be preparations made in of direction organization, validation and implementation. Recently, Olivier Knox quoted the President on his first public commentary on the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the purported second degree murder? of Trayvon Martin. Knox states, “Obama poured cold water on suggestions he call a national conversation on race, but encouraged churches and families to discuss the case and urged all Americans do engage in some "soulsearching."” (Knox, 2013). By encouraging both churches and families to function as leaders on the discussion and urging ALL Americans to do some „soul searching‟, I believe he is pointing to the same fact; that the power and authority for action and change come directly from the public. It is our responsibility to ourselves and our ancestors to ensure that going forward, historical patterns of generational poverty come to an end by reevaluating and dismantling the very mechanisms we have learned through what Obama eloquently identified as “a set of experiences and a history” and replacing them with beliefs and actions that will create a positive change. It is not only the responsibility of Black Americans, but ALL Americans. Division is divisive and disruptive, so it is important to that in addition to each individual context, there is also the larger more encoming context where each issue is involved with the next. Issues on race are intertwined on issues with class; issues with class are closely related to issues on sex and gender; issues on

sex and gender are directly affected by issues with race; and the cycle continues to intertwine and become confounded, ad infinitum. There have been many plans of action that translate into symptomatic cures to the condition of Black America from Affirmative Action to the faulty public policy and effectiveness of the welfare system. I believe these systems are faulty for the same reason former Archbishop Desmond Tutu mentioned in the foreward of “Reconciliation After Violent Conflict” handbook. The same system that is developing, facilitating and istering programs for social welfare in the Black community is the same system that was built to serve and protect the interests of the same people who enslaved and disenfranchised them in the first place. It is flawed logic at best.

Soul searching. Find where you‟re direction is dedicated.

South African social rights leader and former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, stated “