*We must progress with the love we have, brother to brother, sister to sister. Finally shed the hundreds of years of making black symbolize all that is negative, untrustworthy and void of essence, as well as color.
All the stereotypes sink into the black concise. Black cats are bad luck, black represents evil… (Hmm, untrue. Just take a look at the color of Donald Trump!) There are thousands of associates of the color black and depravity.
Am I my brother’s keeper? It means more than a slick line in “New Jack City.” The phrase comes from the bible of course, Genesis chapter four for my Christian enthusiasts. God’s devastating interrogation of Cain after he killed his brother, Abel out of “rank and jealousy.” God asked Cain innocently, so Cain may repent. “Where is your brother, Abel”? Cain replies “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Most of us grew up with that mindset, beyond it being a cool and catchy saying, but the meaning it had to our parents and grandparents. We can see the plain fact. It isn’t wise to try and deceive the creator of heaven and earth. As seen in the punishment of Cain, who uttered the words “my punishment is more than I can bear.”
With over 400 years of conditioning, people tend to forget slavery was more than physical torture and preventing “us” from reading and writing. They poisoned 2nd and 3rd generations to the true nature of Africa. They mutilated a black man in front of his pregnant black wife. It was more than physical. It was mental slavery to instill fear and self-hate. We all deal with the fruits of slavery, the psychological hangover, that as a race, we’ve swept under the rug. Basically, we let every individual deal with it him or herself. There’s no collective consulting. This produced mistrust and provided no hesitation to kill your brother so you can exist in the same mindset of the world, that black life is less!
Am I my brother’s keeper? No longer is it “soft” to show love, brotherly love for a friend, a family member, a brother. To re-build the bonds of brotherhood, to re-establish the sisterhood that carried black women when their men were destroyed from the fabric of the black community. To be able to trust starts with you. Lend a hand to another brother, regardless if his troubles are self-induced. To understand that we don’t have to step over your brother/sister to climb the ladder of success. Know that it’s wise to do business with our own people.
I give back by trying to help those younger and older black men in homeless shelters, standing up flying signs. Most of my associates come from shelters and hung around corners or libraries to find relief from the weather, regardless of the season.
In my immaturity, I seriously damaged a bond I had with a close friend. He was like a brother. The relationship is there, it’s just different. How do I repair it? Our bond was so deep that yesterday’s past life lives in us. The experiences, the jokes, the life and death situations we were in. I will tell him – never again will I betray our brotherhood…
Sisters whom feel competition is the only interaction with another black woman they didn’t grow up with, is the same mentality of our newer culture. It’s the “crabs in the barrel effect”. If the barrel or hood is too small for all of us to move, exist and make money in, then the answer is not to kill or manipulate one another for that dollar. It’s to increase our landscape, help one another develop new income, organize like the Jews’ foundation of unity and racial prosperity. To continue to organize groups, web businesses, hair/beauty shops and husband/wife businesses. Unify with that which bonds people. Love, money and fame does not matter, your goal does. The rebuilding of “togetherness” will evolve just as negative conditioning evolved.
Am I my brother’s keeper? You must be… Am I the salvation of my sister when there wasn’t enough men to protect and provide because of that time, genocide? Sisters bonded to raise the family, they preserved the black legacy!
Am I my brother’s keeper?
Am I my sister’s salvation?
Let my voice and your voice answer with actions to strengthen these universal natural bonds.
A product of determination – KJS
Knowledge Shabazz was born in the state of New York. Writing is more than a passion. It is all consuming. The pen is my art forum, my exhale. Thank you. –KJS, founder/writer of BlackAwarenessFoundation.com – [email protected]
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