Faith/Imani

Historical Perspective of Kwanzaa

Real Old School

Faith Once You Have It Nothing Can Shake You, Quake It And Only God’s Force Can Take You!



“Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the deliver thee into my mind hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel.”



The last day of Kwanzaa honors the principle that must be the foundation or the rock that runs within each one of us. It binds us against the harsh winds of life that sometimes will place obstacles in our path of individual and community growth. Just as David faced his demons with the faith that somehow, someway his God would shield him from his enemies. David faced insurmountable odds, yet he had a faith level that was as high as the skies above him. That is what Imani(Faith) is all about it is the resolute desire that when all the odds are seemingly against you. All one has to do is search within themselves and reach for power that ascertains each of our abilities to rise above all our circumstances and defeat the challenges that confront us. I truly believe that “our” ancestors fought against incredible odds that included bigotry, hatred, oppression, repression, depression, regression, violent evil intentions, and unheard of inhumane acts of hatred; yet they had within them the capacity to withstand the storm and evil winds of a society hellbent on their destruction to not break from the bounds of faith. That faith held each of them together who had it and lessened the pain when events took away from them loved ones lost in the struggle for human, civil, judicial and social rights. So as we look around our blighted communities on this first day of 2020. We all must search for our own degree of FAITH and we must assist those in finding their level of faith. No matter how minuscule that level may be it can be elevated, heightened and magnified to shine brightly within us. That is why the seventh day focuses on FAITH because it is FAITH that will move that mustard seed of doubt and belief in self to a gigantic mountain of believing in hopefulness that nothing can stop our eventual progression towards the greatness that is due us. There will continue to be rocky roads or obstacles but belief in unity, self-determined effort, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, unyielding purpose, creative thought and action, tied to the faith in ourselves and others will secure the desired results. We will indeed overcome and the day will come when all of God’s children will seek love, not hate and truly build the community of man. That was I feel the original purpose of Kwanzaa it was meant to build a humane driven society. Let’s all reach for those principles each and every day we live.

Faith/Imani

When all those around you say it’s a waste

Heck, even your family leaves you with a bad taste

That’s when you had better make haste

You see you have to be the one who leads this dream chase

That’s why the most important theme is for YOU to keep faith

You see, YOU, are the most important cog in this here race

So make sure that you stand firmly and solidly in place

Don’t let disbelievers spin YOUR dreams aimlessly out in space

There are those who would love to see your brain encased in thick mace

However stay around those you believe YOU are becoming an ACE.

So remember to score and soar realizing your dreams your indeed make you ROAR

You can defeat those Goliath’s that come at you with just a little more faith

The caravan inside you indeed keeps your dreams safe

Those barking dogs once defiant don’t stop you from being self-reliant

The words that they utter don’t have to make you stutter

Or make your dreams melt like hot butter

You see the life that you are living

Makes it possible for you to start giving

You see that dead lion over there you are certainly outliving

Find folks who believe and stay away from all that deceive

It’s vital that you perceive or your dreams well you will grieve

You have been caught by those nasty dream thieves

Finally, please affirm it will assure your inner self that you have confirmed

That dream YOU hold is not infirmed it is gonna go and be met long-term.

You have just been REAFFIRMED and CONFIRMED.

So just remember the importance of focused alignment

It will protect against any destructive dream malignment



I really hope that these seven days has brought a smile and snicker. I hardly drank any liquor and I damn sure didn’t want anyone to bicker. You see COMMUNITY BUILDING is the kicker. The fact of the matter is I believe it will also prolong your internal ticker you certainly won’t be close to being mentally or socially sicker. Let’s make this year the year that black bodies are left standing and humanity and love of each other are all that we are demanding.

Just a few facts for a Wednesday afternoon related to where we were and where we are now. This post with a few additions was written three years ago concerning reparations. We as a darker hued people have lived by faith too long it is now time for action. Especially considering the fact that 1.2 trillion of wealth was accumulated by the 500 wealthiest people in the world in 2018. The question remains where is our the darker hue people’s justified payment?
 
1. Prior to the Great Migration which begun around 1910. Over 90% of the people of darker hue lived in the Jim Crow South.
2. In 1910 people of the darker hue owned over 19 million acres which had all but evaporated by 1970.
3. Only 45.4 of people of the darker hue own their own homes in America.
4. The people of the darker hue only own 2% of the total land in America currently.
5. In 1964 the median income for a family of the darker hue was 55% of his white counterparts. This was before the signing of the Civil Rights Legislation in 1964 and 1965.
6. In 2011 the people of the darker hue’s median family income was 59% of his white counterparts. So over that 47-year period, the gap between white and darker hue people only lessened by 4%.
 
General William T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton intended to create a complete separation of the races United States of Colored People after the Civil War.  This concept of 40 acres and a mule was devised because they understood that in this nation people of the darker hue would never fully truly be treated as equal to his white counterparts.  What they devised along with Lincoln’s approval was providing the “just freed people of the darker hue” with the following:

"The islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice-fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes [sic] now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States."

These three men understood that “white privilege” would supersede any concept of equality in rights for people of the darker hue. The land that was considered is now some of the most fertile lands in this nation. I assume that the Compromise of 1877 which took over federal troops out of the occupied former confederate states may not have been necessary had this options of land ownership actually had been consummated.  Yet the nation still created two separate nations within the nation with the implementation of the Compromise of 1877. With the immediate end of Reconstruction in place, a total totalitarian subjection of people of the darker hue was implemented in those former confederate states that subjected darker hued people with immediate loss of any rights as citizens. The almost immediate erasure of the 3 Civil War Or Black Reconstruction Constitutional Amendments.

So, was born the United States of White People, Jim Crow style which was put into effect for close to another 100 years.  The effects of the Compromise of 1877, the exclusion of providing property to recently freed darker skin peoples, is akin to creating a system that enveloped darker hued people into perpetual economic dependence.  This in addition to the total breakdown of secured colored business whose patronage from the darker hue community with the implementation of the Civil Rights Bills of 1964. Which opened the once excluded white businesses up to people of the darker hue. The Civil Rights Bill basically disrupted any meaningful economic power in communities that comprised the darker hued people. 

We, people of a darker hue, were somehow taught that any product created by white industries whether a service or an actual good was superior to any service of good offered up by peoples of a darker hue. Maybe it was the fact that something denied a lifetime was more valuable to people of darker hue that goods or services already available readily to them. So when white people say I didn’t own any slaves, or their parents and grandparents didn’t own slaves. The argument is irrelevant because both them, their parents, and grandparents benefited from the ills of a system of inequality that shunned a complete race of people from actually prospering in a supposed land of the free and brave.

It is imperative that the late Representative John Conyers, legislation to create a system of reparations is designed immediately by the federal government in the coming decade. The only way balance is ever going to come to a system that has continued to prosper for now almost 5 centuries is to dismantle it or at least begin to redistribute the wealth. Oh, I hear the arguments coming from both white and black people. Yes, black people who feel that they have benefited from this imbalanced economic and political system.  Yet, whether you are white or black one cannot argue that as of today, the greatest number if people shut out of the economic prosperity of this nation has been and continues to be men and women of the darker hue. People of the darker hue have been running a race towards equality still shackled to the ills of a time when actual shackles inhibited their ability to progress.

It is time to balance the scales both economically and politically. I would suggest what the United Nations deemed necessary a commission that will devise a comprehensive plan of reparations. That will include all facets of national leadership from both races in the areas of education, economic, housing, as well as the political solutions . The greatest minds in this  nation should be able to tackle and solve this problem. If a man can break down the human genome he/she should be able to create true equality in this nation. The only question is do they really want it? Or the have the will to do something about a system that has screwed people of a darker hue now for far too many years to imagine.

2019 is the year that I sold my home, the only home my daughter knew, made a major move 900 miles from my home state, loss my mother in law on my birthday, loss my line brother to cancer, settled some debts others still open, saw my daughter graduate from high school, continued to love my wife even more, and blessed that although disabled I still maintained my sharp mental faculties. Looking forward to a great 2020 with new adventures in a brand new state with a new gaggle of friends to meet and make. Rest In Peace Roberta and Robert you both impacted my life greatly.