Freedom, Oppression & Open-Mindedness: Part II of Patriotism

Freedom, Oppression & Open-Mindedness: Part II of Patriotism Current mood: productive
This blog was written as a response to the comments left on a previous blog about my patriotism. You might have to read the first one to understand this one, but its not 100% necessary. It starts out as a response to the last comment left there by my sista Anonda who always, without a doubt, gives me something wonderful to ponder and provides me with ways to develop. Much love to her!

Of course, since white people are in control of what we use and buy in this country, we do provide them with money which leads to a certain kind of freedom for them. However, I cannot and will not accept the belief that I live to make white people free. I believe that my purpose in life is to see all people free. There is no way that I will ever believe my true purpose in life is to be a tool for anyone but God.

You [Anonda] say that Africans in America live to ensure the freedom of whites in America. If what you're saying is true, then it is true for the whole world and all the Africans in it. Nowhere in this world of ours are blacks totally independent of whites. So do you mean to tell me that every black person in this world exists to perpetuate the freedom of whites? Do you really think that it is wise to reduce our existence down to that? I think it is quite dangerous and could be used against us.

America, in my opinion, cannot be boiled down to the last stanza of one song. America is not only a place, but an idea. I respect the idea of what America is supposed and purports to be. I don't know about you, but "land of the free, home of the brave," sounds mighty good to me. The problem is that the people who founded America and who are in control of America don't truly believe this. Shoot, if they did, America wouldn't even exist because they would've never thought it appropriate to take this land from the indigenous people living here.

No, Africans in America aren't truly free. Nobody in America is truly free. Not even extremely rich white people, believe it or not. While they certainly enjoy a more physical and material freedom, they live in an imprisoned mindset that was created by the same capitalism that enslaved us. (That's why when the Depression happened, many of them jumped out of windows! That certainly ain't free.) Racism itself is a prison to the racist! Of course, they don't suffer from it in the terrible ways that we suffer from it, but they are suffering from a serious mental disorder. To have a mind so completely controlled by the unmerited hate of a whole group of people is not freedom. Everyone lives in some sort of restraint on this Earth. Some of these restraints are meant to keep order, some of these restraints are meant to oppress those of a specific group. But no one is 100% free to do whatever they please. So the fact that Africans in America aren't free is not a reason to disavow America to me.

I cannot say that Europeans, as a total and complete group, cannot be trusted. Yes, they are disproportionately responsible for much the pain and oppression experienced by people of color all around this Earth. I will heartily agree with that 100%. But in all honestly I can say that, in my own life, more African-Americans have caused me pain than whites. (The man that I refer to as "papa" instead of my own black father is a white man. Believe it or not, I hadn't even realized how strange this was until someone brought up my whole whites calling blacks "sista" argument. See, in that relationship, my trust and love transcends race. It does not ignore it, it is imply stronger than it.) However, you will never hear me say "blacks are not ever to be trusted." Blacks can be responsible for oppression too. If you ask my friend from Zimbabwe who his oppressor is, he will say "Robert Mugabe." A black man. So I don't feel that the idea of freedom and oppression can be limited to color.

Lately, I have been reading literature by people like Angela Davis and really realizing something about my own hypocrisy and closed-mindedness. How can I say that I am truly an advocate of freedom if I only believe in, and advocate for, the freedom of the groups that I am a member of? While I am certainly the MOST concerned with the freedom of my people first, I would be a fool to believe that they're the only people who are not free and that all of their oppressors are non-blacks. (Case in point: I live in a predominantly black neighborhood. I ain't scared of the Klan, I'm scared of the black men around here who harass me on a constant basis. I know many could wax poetic about how their actions are the results of the oppression of black men in America but that belief only goes so far in my book. Everyone has a choice. If they didn't, then why do some of them say inappropriate things and others do not? In addition, if you read books like "Things Fall Apart" you will see that every oppressive behavior that blacks display are not caused by whites. The main character in that book was oppressive of his wives before whites even came.) As my pastor says, "Everyone your color ain't your kind and everyone not your color ain't your enemy." (And my pastor is SUPER AFROCENTRIC!) I'd trust many a white person in this world before I'd trust Condie Rice, Ward Connerly, or Clarence Thomas.

I suppose that I am moving into an era in my life that, while still centered on my identity as a person of African descent and all that this identity entails, is beginning to explore what it means to be oppressed by capitalism and other oppressive ideologies. After all, capitalism is what created racism. Whites needed a good excuse for why they should feel justified to enslave another human being for personal and financial gain. So they created race and racism. If we or they hadn't been around, they or someone else would've created another -ism. (Now, of course, racism has fully come into its own sickness that can often be present even without the presence of capitalism.) Again, it is not just about, nor can it be about, color. While a white American worker certainly has different, and sometimes more favorable, freedoms than I because of white privilege, they are also oppressed. (Hell, just look at Wal-Mart. They employ more whites than blacks and you cannot tell me that those white people aren't being oppressed.)

Now, don't get me wrong. This ain't no Get Off Of Shannon's Shit-List Free card for white folks. Yeah, I still got beef with a whole bunch of them. And I am certainly not afraid to point out their many, many, many indiscretions. And yes, I still do believe, that every single one of them is racist, either consciously or subconsciously. I could go on, ad infinitum, about white folks and how, for a lack of better term, BOGUS they are. And I'm not turning into one of those shallow dim-witted people who don't believe that race matters in this world. (You aint gonna hear me say, "there's no hiearchy of oppression", or "I'm colorblind".) However, constantly pointing out their wrongs isn't going to help me or anyone else for that matter.

I write to, not only to release personal tension by expelling pent-up ideas and anger, but to garner constructive feedback that I believe will help me develop deeper ideas. Slo said that he didn't believe in patriotism because he didn't see the need for borders at all in this world. I admit that I'm still a little to closed off to that. (Sorry Slo) But I took it into account and one day, I'm sure it will come back to me. Black Butterfly told me that her allegiance was to the "underprivileged, underrepresented, underclass and misunderstood." When she said that, I felt silly as hell for pledging my allegiance to a physical place and not the people in it. (Then I realized that what I truly felt some sort of allegiance to was not the U.S., as the middle country in North America, but to my ancestors, and everyone else, who fought so that I could have the possibility to be free here. I want to enjoy the freedoms that I have here, and fight for the ones I don't have in reverence to their struggle.) John Q. Hull said that feeling allegiance to one's country is problematic. As I looked at what is being done to Lebanon by Israel and spoke with a Jewish woman who gives her support to Israel no matter what they do, I saw how dangerous it can be to pledge your allegiance to a country. A country is just basically a piece of land run by a government. If I pledge my allegiance to this country instead of to its people, I could be pledging allegiance to many things I don't agree with.

Finally Anonda said the words that inspired this blog. I do not disagree with all that she said. I totally agree that blacks have been made to take a subservient role in America. But her words inspired me to re-read the other comments left and truly begin to think about what I had posted. I am not saying that I totally disavow the sentiments expressed in my initial blog. I am just rewording them because now I have found a better language to express them in. Am I proud to call myself an American? I cannot say for sure. On one hand, I am not, because of all the terrible things America is doing and has done in the past. It's an embarrassment. But I cannot help where I was born or who I am anymore than a dog can help being a dog. I am an American. I am a citizen of the United States of America. On the other hand, I am proud to call myself an American because people that I know and love (including my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and tons of military men & women in my family) have fought their asses off for me to have that right. And out of respect to them, I would never spit on that identity.

So here ends my blog and my mini-epiphany.

Note: I only mentioned a few people in this blog, but I'd like to, right now, thank everyone who I have conversed with about these things. You all have, in your own ways, contributed to my development.