It's 5:12pm Tuesday evening, two days since the end of Ramadhan. The end of Ramadhan gives me mixed emotions every year. Sadness because it is the end of a time of deep reflection and contemplation and doing charitable deeds like no other time of the year. Not to say these things are not done throughout the year, but during this time of the year one can say that they are able to raise their level of awareness and consciousness to another level, giving them the ability to do more deeds and stay more focused on the task at hand. I always cry at the missed opportunities at the end of the month.
On the other hand there is a sense of joy and hope because one comes from the month revived and refreshed, ready to take on the world. Lessons are learned, reminders are given about the brevity of life on this earth, giving one the sense of urgency to do whatever is in their power to bring about peace, justice and most of all a society in which God is the Sovereign Ruler, and not man's tawdry desires, which is driving humans to the pit of disarray and utter confusion.
This past Ramadhan was spent reading the Quran and listening to an audiobook entitled The Race Beat, which discussed the role of the media during The Civil Rights Struggle. The book was entertaining to say the least, although the book had gross flaws at the end,especially when discussing the uprising of the Black Power movements. The book failed to go into more detail about the reasons that prompted certain Blacks to opt out of the Civil Rights Movement and take a more militant stance toward racism and segregation in America. The book was brief on the subject, but like other books and reports seem to give the indication that everything was quiet on the homefront and all of a sudden these unsatisfied Blacks took matters into their own hands and started rioting, looting and destroying their own neighborhoods, which sounds strange to begin with. They also scantily mention Malcolm X's name except for the fact that they referred to him as "angry and militant".
It also failed miserably to convince me that desegregation was effective in combating racism, for while those reporters who were railing against the South and their racism, the television ,which by this time had taken over print as the main source of information(and Americans have been paying for it ever since) had cartoons like the one below in full circulation, nationwide, proving that forcing people to live with one another while sharing disrespect for one another is never a solution for something that was institutionalized whether in the workplace, halls of education, and even the houses of worship.
These cartoons are still published and sold to the masses, although some have disclaimers against the racism shown, such as the Oscar Award Winner series, which is as oxymoronic as cigarettes with the Surgeon General's warning on them. I purchased a DVD box set of cartoons last year from Wal-Mart, only to find a large number of the cartoons were similar to the one above.
In short, we have a long way to go and yet so little time to straighten this human thing out, and we keep taking the wrong avenues, hoping to strike a blow at something that is more of a belief or way of life rather than an attitude. Today people are still asking why Blacks allow calling themselves the N word, but others cannot say it?
My people (referencing African Americans) are doing a terrible job at tackling the issues head on, and keep looking for trinkets to justify the Civil Rights Struggle, and the issue with the current Presidency is no exception. There is a war going on in the Black community, and no one is really looking for the solution, but keep harping on the problems.
What does this have to do with Ramadhan you ask? LOL. I guess I just started venting due to a situation over the past weekend in which I spoke with a bus driver who was discussing the problems he encountered in which he asked the question when it came to "US" He asked, is it genetics? This incident also made me think of the young African American woman who posted a video on her Myspace page of a young Black woman with bad manners and she entitled it, this makes me ashamed to be black....
Believe or not, this is prevelant in my community. So far to go, yet so little time.
Take care everybody.
