Feelings Towards The White Race example essay topic
Afrocentric ists are supporting their ideas with religion and the need for liberation. The liberation of the black man is needed! Molefi Asante describes 'the Afrocentric awareness [as] the total commitment to African liberation anywhere any everywhere by a consistent determined effort to repair any psychic, economic, physical, or cultural damage done to Africans' (50). Liberation from what... the white race?
Molefi's statement is completely ludicrous; the first copy of his book with this statement was printed in 1988, in my opinion blacks were fairly liberated in 1988. Now the second part of his statement, repair what damage? Any psychic damage which has been thrust upon the black race has not occurred for quite some time: slavery... not in my lifetime nor separate bathrooms were in my lifetime. And I am not about to feel sorry about what happened before my time.
Economic damage is not the white man's fault either. In this day anyone can do whatever he / she likes. The truth to the economic matter is that many of the 'oppressed' races feel they now deserve a free ride. Absolutely no physical damage has occurred in my lifetime. As for as cultural damage, cultures evolve, they do not get damaged.
Clearly all liberation of the black man has already occurred, therefore, there is know further need for reimbursement. The white race is evil! Further, the Afrocentric cause attempts to use religion to denounce the white race as heathens; according the Yakut myth, 'the colour black... is the primal colour; other colours, consequently, are merely shades of black, except for white, which is the absence of black, hence the absence of perfection' (Davies 151). The statement declares the white race to be inferior; why should any one race be inferior?
Oh yeah, it's to get back at the white race for all the years of hardship. The black race was called infidels for many years, and the black just believe what goes around comes around. However, the truth to the matter is that all races are equally imperfect as the next statement will show. The Afrocentric religion goes on to state how the white race was formed, apparently, a 'black scientist named Yakubrebelled against Allah by producing... a new creature with an excess of bad (white) genes... These evil creatures were allowed... six thousand years of rule (i. e., until almost the present day), after which... the oppressed blacks will be liberated from their bondage' (Davies 51). Note the use of words in this passage: new creature, bad (white) genes, evil creature, and once again the reoccurring oppressed blacks will be liberated.
All the words directs one's attention to the idea that the white race is nothing more than devils roaming the earth in search of it's next prey. The black are making the same arguments that the early whites made and are being reprimanded for. It seems this is a bit of a contradiction. Down with the white race! Feelings towards the white race are made apparent when 'Elijah [Muhammad] felt that evil was inherent in the white race, and preached that the whites could not help themselves,' Molefi Asante adds 'we know now, of course, that the condition of evil in whites is not inherent, but inherited through history and environment' (15). The quote is quite harsh; directly saying that the white race is evil... no, not acting evil, is evil and will continue to stay this way.
These words imply the need for eradication because evil is just the devil spelled without a 'd'. One must stand against the devil before anything drastic occurs beyond what has already happened, for instance; 'an outburst of homosexuality among black men, fed by the prison breeding system, threatens to distort the relationship between friends... these gays live in the make-believe world of white gays' (Asante 57). The white race has already begun to corrupt the black race, according to black, with the introduction of homosexuality, which is clearly a bad white habit. The word,' threatens', leads one to the idea of defense against these evil, plotting, gay, devils.
Paraphrasing what was earlier said, the white race will cease to rule after six thousand years of rule, setting all blacks free from the oppression of the devils (Davies 51). That time is now and the black want another holocaust, with the white race suffering. The black feel it is their turn to rule. Violence is the only way to stop the white race! During a speech Malcolm X declared, 'Twenty million ex-slaves must be permanently separated from our former slave master and placed on some land we can call our own.
Then we can create our own jobs. Control our own economy. Solve our own problems instead of waiting on the American white man to solve our problems for us' (Perry 68-69). Clearly, in 1963, Malcolm X feels full segregation is in the best interest of the black race. The quote appears fairly peaceful, however, two years later, Malcolm X changes his mind about peaceful action: 'We " re for peace. But the people that we " re up against are for violence.
You can't be peaceful you " red ealing with them' (Perry 159). A non-peaceful approach to further the black cause is being proposed by Malcolm Little (his more appropriate birth name, seeing how a 'little' man resorts to violence). Eldridge Cleaver, leader of the Black Panther's, too felt violence is the best approach; 'I became a rapist... It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the white man's law, ... that Was defiling his women... I was getting revenge' (14). This about says it, he was putting a notch in the head board, winning one for the boys.
Eldridge Cleaver has, in my opinion, ignorant, uncivilized revolutionary ideas. He only wants revenge for the fact he was in jail. Cleaver reveals that 'Rather than owing and paying a debt to society, Negro prisoners feel that they are being abused, that their imprisonment is simply another form of the oppression which they have know all their lives' (58). The Black Supremists want revenge.
Black want nothing less than for the black race to rule the world. They shall use ideas of religion to back up their claims upon the world and call it the liberation of their people. But the truth of the matter is the tides are turning. How can it be called liberation? The white race had these ideas 100's of years ago and the black called it evil. Now they have the same evil ideas and are calling it liberation.
No, the human race will never learn from history; we will just repeat it. The main question is will their ever be racial harmony in the world? I just don't know. 'We shall have our manhood. We shall have it or the earth will be leveled by our attempts to gain it. ' -- EldridgeCleaver
Bibliography
Asante, Molefi. Afrocentricity. Trenton: Africa WP, 1992.
Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968.
Davies, Alan. Infected Christianity: A Study of Modern Racism. Montreal: Mcgill-Queen's UP, 1988.
Perry, Bruce, ed. Malcolm X: The Last Speeches. New York: Pathfinder, 1989.
X, Malcolm. 'Learning to Read. ' rpt. in Rereading America. ed. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Boston: Bedford Books, 1992.