MSM is obsessed today with the fact that Black folks are apparently more pessimistic than ever.
Growing numbers of blacks say they’re worse off than five years ago and don’t expect their lives to improve, a study released Tuesday shows. Black pessimism about racial progress in America, according to the study, is the worst it’s been in more than two decades. SOURCEI'm torn on this one. On one hand I have to agree that I am probably more pessimistic about the future of Black American than my parents were when they were my age. With good reason. On the other hand, I haven't given up hope that we have the power to change things.
This blog isn't just about what is wrong in the world, but about the power of ordinary people like you and me to change the world.
“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” Harriet Tubman
So yeah, we've got work to do, but if our ancestors survived the Middle Passage, slavery, and Jim Crow when they had absolutely nothing, Imagine what we could do with all of the resources we have today. So yeah, I think the train is off the tracks and if we don't shift course I do believe we are 1.5 steps away from Rwanda, but we don't have the option of giving up. We have a moral obligation to keep trying.
What if Harriet Tubman had given up on freeing slaves after she had freed herself? What if the NAACP had given up after Plessy vs. Ferguson. What if the folks in Birmingham had stopped marching after day one? What if Fannie Lou Hamer had retired from activism after she was brutally beaten? What if Barack Obama hadn't bothered to run for president because Shirley, Jesse, Al, and Carol hadn't won the nomination? What if Venus Williams retired from tennis after her little sister won a major championship before she did? What if Doug Williams has given up on the quarterback position and become a running back or if Jack Johnson had given up on going after the heavyweight title after he was denied a title bout?
Black folks ain't ever had it easy. But we've always had faith and hope. Go listen to some Negro spirituals for goodness sakes! Our ancestors even in the face of being considered property were creative, resilient, and downright ingenious.
So yeah, it ain't all kicks and giggles right now, but buck up people! We have a lot of work to do, but no more than past generations had, but you know what is sick and sadistic? Our ancestors had actual physical barriers that you could see, hear, feel, read. Segregation was codified in the law, legs and arms were shackled. Pessimism and throwing in the towel are far more damaging because they are shackles of the mind.
Don't believe the hype...at least not all of it.
