As we celebrate the graduation of our young people stepping into the world and continue the critically important struggle for quality education for our children, I think of all the Seba, the teachers of the good, the right and the possible, that I’ve known.
There is a rising tide of righteous and relentless resistance by Palestinians to Israeli apartheid and occupation, and Black people and others around the world are increasingly speaking up and actively standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their liberation struggle.
And there was Sen. Tim Scott (R) of South Carolina responding to Pres. Biden’s address to the nation, dismissing the seriousness of racist encounters, trying to reason away racism, and calling for a “common sense and common ground” he failed to show or share.
As we celebrate International Labor Day, May 1, and pay homage to the awesome sacrifices and costly struggles of Black workers and other workers of the world to get economic justice, it is important to remember A. Philip Randolph’s admonition that the struggle for freedom and justice is always an unfinished fact.
But in spite of this coming together of these factors to yield this important victory, let’s not imagine it’s more than it is. It is a major victory, but a single victory.
If there is one hard and costly lesson learned from history and the current and continuous police killing of our people and the depraved disregard for our lives and our right to life, freedom and security that this represents, it is that there is a fatal penalty to pay for our daring to be our Black selves and free our Black selves in America. But we rightfully continue to resist our brutal erasure and savage oppression. For there is no moral or meaningful alternative to this position and the righteous and relentless struggle we wage to achieve these twin and intertwined goals.
Regardless of the obvious legal language, focus and maneuvering in that Minneapolis courtroom that is being watched by the world in horror, hope, trauma and righteous anger, there is in it all a larger moral meaning.
As we remember and reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life, legacy and the deep meaning of his martyrdom, i.e., his awesome sacrifice and assassination, his dedication to creating a beloved community comes into full focus.
As we close out the month of March, Black History Month II: Women Focus, I am drawn to two ancient teachings concerning the sacred and social significance of women in the world. And I want to use them as foundation and framework for paying homage to African women of the world, of the Movement and especially the women of Us.
It is our foremother, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, who taught us the morality of remembrance, saying: “There are two things we should all care about. Never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over.”
This year’s celebration of Black History Month II: Women’s Focus comes at a time of the pandemic COVID-19 and the continuing pathology of oppression. It is also a time of resistance, rising up and raising the battle cries: Black Women Rising; Black Men Rising; Black People Rising; No Justice, No Peace; and Liberation’s Coming From A Black and Beautiful Thing.
Part II. It was Min. Malcolm X who taught us to cultivate a world-encompassing consciousness, not only as pan-Africanists committed to the liberation of Africans everywhere, but also as part of the worldwide revolution and liberation struggle going on and redrawing the map of history.
Part I. The Reaffirmation of the 1960s stands, after the Classical Period of Kemetic civilization and the Holocaust of Enslavement, as a third modal or decisive and defining period in our history.
We move through February and March to celebrate Black History Month I and II as naturally and necessarily as men and women meet and merge for joy and life, and seasons change and bring some new and needed good into the world. Our history is a self-conscious and sustained struggle for growth, transformation and transcendence to ever higher levels of human life in ever-expanding realms of human freedom and human flourishing.
Again, we rightfully set aside time and space to celebrate the sacred initiative and narrative we name and know as Black History. It was first set aside as Black History Week by Dr. Carter G. Woodson (May the good he did and the legacy he left last forever).