Laguna Mobilization 2/21 Writers' Group
The Way I See It
- By Jack Crawford
African Disunity and White Supremacy - Our Greatest Challenges
Those of you who are familiar with my point of view have probably heard me
constantly advocate our need to oppose white supremacy all the
time. To eliminate white supremacy is to make a way for a solution
to all the economic, social and political problems facing African
people all over the world.
I had a talk the other day with one of my closest personal mentors
who disputed this premise. As a lifelong scholar and now professor
of African studies, and a person whose efforts and heart have
always been dedicated to the advancement of our people, his words
were simple but so true. "It is not white supremacy that
is the root cause of our problems, it is African disunity!"
He said:
- It is disunity that destroyed the African nations
of the past (wars destroyed ancient Egypt, Songhai and Ghana);
- It is disunity that led to our fighting with
each other thus making alliances with our enemies possible which
gave rise to slavery (He cautions us never to say "slave
trade" which implies that Africans traded our people for
something of equal value);
- It was disunity that gave rise to the conflict
between the House Negro and the Field Negro which thwarted the
successful rebellions of Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner, Denmark
Vessy and others:
- It was disunity that allowed the Klan to rule
and intimidate us in the South;
- It is disunity that causes our people to identify
with the oppressor's values of beauty and culture. (Have you ever
referred to straight hair as "good hair" or thought
darker skin is ugly?)
- It is disunity that is at the base of the breakdown
of our communities all over America. Our best and brightest "middle-class"
families move as far away from the African community as possible
leaving a shell with no economic base, no role models and little
hope for the future Our most vocal and visible leadership works
for their own individual interests which are made richer by pleasing
(or not displeasing) our enemies. (Why have the major "civil
rights" organizations always been largely funded and controlled
by whites? How could Mr Sapperstein decide who speaks at "our"
March on Washington? Why would Jesse excuse Zionism simply as
a "liberation movement.")
- It is disunity that allows our young to sell
drugs to our children, kill each other over the color a stranger's
clothes and see our women as bitches and sluts. (Show me a greater
sign of self hatred.)
- It was disunity at the base of the problems between
the Xosa and the Zulu (a long and bitter war from 200 years ago
underlay the problems between Mandela and the traitor Buthelazi),
the Ibo and the Hausa (remnants of successful divide and conquer
tactics of the British colonizers), the Blood and the Crip, the
Panthers and US (a.k.a. United Slaves led by Ron Karenga), the
Nation of Islam and Malcolm X, the MPLA and UNITA in Angola (1,000,000
dead in a war fueled by our enemies).
I can go on forever. I don't like saying these things about us
and you don't like hearing it. But it's true. The our enemies
planted the seeds of disunity into our thinking a long time ago.
Read Len Hubbard's piece on Willie Lynch. Those seeds grew into
a world dominated by white supremacy and African peoples from
all over that don't recognize their most basic common interests.
A world where we bought into lies about us, our history, our value
as people, our ability to succeed and our spiritual selves. The
result is the disunited African community of today. And our enemies
know this. Whenever they perceive the possibility that we might
unify they place maximum efforts toward making sure we remain
divided. (Popular examples of the tools of recent vintage: Cointelpro;
ready availability of drugs and guns; assassination of or discrediting
any leader who could not be bought; poor, Eurocentricly-based
education).
We cannot end white supremacy as a concept. However, if we reeducate
ourselves and reorient our thinking to stop hating us and all
the things that remind us of us, we will win. Unity of all African
is the way out. Remember, it is not the names calls you that matters.
What masters is which names to which you answer.
It is fine to oppose white supremacy all the time, everyplace
we go, everyplace we are with vigor and strength. White supremacy
is our enemy (and the enemy of white people, too). However, we
can't unilaterally control it. But, we can affect how we individually
perceive the world and ourselves. White supremacy cannot flourish
where African unity exists. We can control our destiny. (jc 10-22-93)
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