A call to action: We must do better

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of one of the most influential, most powerful and greatest civil rights leaders in history, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His legacy is advocacy for social justice. His iconic non-violent techniques battling racism were a significant milestone in our struggle for equality. His powerful speeches continue to resonate within us — a sense of freedom from an era of Jim Crow. He challenged the establishment.

Yet we are at a crossroads of our moral compass in this country. Our morality hangs in the balance. Which way is the pendulum swinging? The unpredictability of our leaders in this country leaves us dumbfounded and weary as to race relations as it applies to our country and the rest of the world. It has been compromised. The inflammatory words on immigration as depicted by our president have created yet another firestorm, gone to some, unnoticed and silenced by others. This kind of racism is always met with diverted conversation to justify the means. This bigotry stokes white nationalists and other hate groups. Fifty years after King’s murder — can you imagine what this country would look like and become if this rhetoric is supported and reinforced by mainstream America? We have seen all this before, decades ago, playing out just like it was planned. We have to question, are we really free? Are we moving back or regressing to a period in time where we have made significant gains in race relations. We must do better.

As Black Americans what can we do? Well we can begin by reconditioning our minds to the evils of racism. We can begin by embracing and supporting each other — we must do better. We can stop the jealousy and the JONES syndrome — we must do better. We have to stop being the crabs in the bucket — we must do better. We have to let grudges go — we must do better. We have to be better parents, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers — we must do better. We have to encourage and empower our youth — we must do better. We have to stop talking behind our backs — we must do better. We have to stop the negative criticism when someone is striving to succeed — we must do better. We must think of the success of our community — we must do better. We must honor our mothers and fathers and most importantly our elders — we must do better. We have to stop hating one another — we must do better. We should be able to say “good morning” even if we don’t know that person — we must do better. Our day should start out with a smile — we must do better. We must embrace our young men who are victims of the streets, the criminal justice system and death — we must do better. We have to become better role models — we must do better. Keep our money within the black community — we must do better. Buy from and support our black-owned businesses — we must do better. We have to be careful of our choice of words; words can be hurtful — we must do better. We have to create more black organizations to assist in battling racism — we must do better. The black psyche has been brainwashed from the effects of slavery. This brainwashing has left us in a state of divisiveness among ourselves and our community — we must do better.

Below are excerpts from an essay that may explain and give light as to why we are in this predicament with ourselves and our community. The details outline how white America had a master plan to keep black people and the black community in bondage psychologically. It is a must-read.

“In The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave, Willie Lynch was a slave-owner during the 1700s that developed his own theory of how to control a black slave. He owned a plantation in the West Indies where he experimented with some of his methods and tested them out on his “subjects.” Once he believed his theory was effective, he sailed to America in 1712 and implemented his ideas of how white slave-owners can keep control of their slaves and domesticate them to the point where they were dependent upon their white masters. Lynch uses fear, distrust and envy to control slaves. His speech given to other slave masters entails methods to keep slaves under control for the next 300 years, supposedly. Lynch claims that if slave masters use differences between slaves it will make the slaves more obedient. The crux of his methods of keeping slaves in line is to divide them against each other using factors of age, color, intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations, attitude of owners, location of slaves, the hair texture of slaves and their height.

“Lynch states that slave masters must pitch the old black male against the young black male, the young black male against the old black male, the dark skin slaves against the light skin slaves, and the light skin slaves against the dark skin slaves.  These methods were carried out with each factor respectively. Lynch also claims that slave masters must pitch the female slave against the male slave and the male slave against the female slave. The manipulation of the slaves leaves them only to trust and be reliant on the white slave masters.

“Willie Lynch does not even refer to African slaves as humans in his speech, but as valuables and properties. The blatant disdain and the de-humanizing of the African American race has kept its people marred and misrepresented in the myriad of misguided myths and conceptions of the black race. The Willie Lynch method still exists today and can be found permeating through the African American community. The Willie Lynch letter has left African Americans paralyzed and still coping to find unity and solidarity in their social group.”

Also a must-read is the full letter of the Willie Lynch story outlining the details of how this white man came up with a master plan to keep black Americans enslaved through their psyche. After reading this letter it made sense as to why we do the things we do to each other. I wasn’t aware of the Willie Lynch letter, but I always felt like there was a psychological hold on my psyche. Now I see why I felt like this. We need to create support groups to begin to recondition our minds from this Willie Lynch curse.

Above, I have given you just a few of the discrepancies, in our misguided interpersonal relationships as a people. However, I have given you the reasons why as well. With that we can begin to reprogram our minds and psyche to look beyond and overcome this enslaving bondage. We will not be free until our minds are free. We have to become united as one within ourselves and our community. We must do better, we can do better and we will do better.