Looking America in the face
Because I was born on July 9, 1964 on Lakeland Farms in rural Perry County, the early years of my life were filled with the evidence of the racial prejudices and the demeaning injustices that we faced as African Americans. For the first sixteen of my life, I was forced to recognize the fact that I truly lived in a segregated society. I grew up in a mostly African American community where my grandfather worked on a dairy farm. Often I would witness him refer to various Caucasians as mister or madam, even though he would be much older than they would be. I attended a segregated school and worshipped at a segregated church where the usual topics of discussion included some references of how the American society was treating us as a people. In spite of the words that I learned to repeat as I faced the American flag, in reality, I came to understand that I lived in a country that was actually many different nations under God. I came to realize this country was divided. Moreover, I came to realize that it offered liberty and justice only to those that belonged to the desired race and/or had enough money to purchase it.
As I left the comforts and seclusion of my small rural beginnings in 1981 to venture into the vast world, my heart was filled with the hope of discovering the America that I was taught about in school. I yearned to find the America that was shaped by the idea that all men were created equal. I yearned to find the America that was built upon the foundation of liberty and justice for all. I left Alabama, moved to Miami with my mother, and enrolled in American Senior High School. Even though I would no longer face the unmistakable racism of rural Perry County, I soon discovered that in America, the preferred way of life was indeed segregation. Moreover, the America that I was taught about in school did not exist.
During the decades since I left rural Perry County, I have had the chance to travel this great country. The one thing that I see no matter where I go is we are still a country that has not fully erased the lines that divide us. When I wake up in the morning, I find myself waking up in an America that still encourages us to place separating barriers on ourselves. I wake up to an America that is actually many nations, under many gods. I wake up to an America that has divided itself into many segregated communities of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Japanese Americans, Irish Americans, Native Americans, and White Americans. I wake up to an America that offers liberty and justice to all only if they are of the desired race and/or have enough money to purchase it.
In the four and a half decades since the start of the American Civil Rights Movement and my birth, the American society has yet to come to grips with the words that the founding fathers of this country penned in the sacred pages of our constitution. These words mention something about us holding certain truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by God with certain right, which includes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Even though these very words have been repeated and included in various sermons, commentaries, and articles, America remains at a complete loss to the real meaning of these words. Over the years, America has been constantly trying to reshape itself into the nation that is presented in the preamble. Yet for some reason, we have still fallen short. True, we have gotten rid of slavery and other injustices that were placed upon various minorities. Yet, we have picked up other injustices and now fight to make them a part of our permanent society.
Therefore, I must question how we can hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal. That all men are endowed by our creator to certain inalienable right that includes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, when these truths have not even become evident in our communities, business, organizations, or in our way of thinking. The only truths, in our society, that have become evident are that we are many different nations, that have divided ourselves into our own preferred segregated communities, and that we serve ethnically colored gods.
It has become plainly apparent that the motives of our modern day leaders have turned away from making sure that everyone regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, or economic status will be treated fairly in America. Their goal has now become one of making sure that only the rich and powerful is taken care of without regard to the condition of the rest of our fellow Americans. Their intention is to reintroducing into society the very same ideals of segregation that many fought so hard to get rid of in the first place. Their objective is for America to evolve into a society where jobs will be issued out according to wealth, power and influence rather than qualification. However, it is time for the American society to wake up and see that any kind of forced segregation need and should be a thing of the pass.
Today, the American society, in practice, has become even worse than the Jim Crow society of old was in reality. Today, we, the American society, continue to segregate ourselves from each other. Today, the rich and elite of the American society practice and possess the same misguided attitudes that African Americans had to endure from the white race for so long. Today, we, the American society, have taken up where the Klan left off years ago. We are killing ourselves and destroying our own neighborhoods. However, since the economic tide has turned, it is now time for us to put aside our outdated way of thinking and press forward to making the dream of Dr. King come true.
I assure you that the American society have not forgotten the many heroes of the past civil right struggle; nor have we forgotten the great price that was paid in blood, sweat, and tears for the freedom that America can claim today. Instead, we, the American society, must now wake from our dreams of a bright future that was teeming with opportunities to excel. We must now face the reality of an American society that has become broke because of the overwhelming greed of the rich and elite and our desire to segregate ourselves. In order for the American society to become a great country, then we, America as a whole, must come to understand just what the words we hold so dear really do mean. They mean that if America is one nation under God then it must also be in God. We must possess the same opinion of the God that we say we serve. We must be colorblind just as God is colorblind. We must possess the ability to see each other not as African Americans, Hispanic Americans, White Americans, or even rich, middle class, or poor Americans rather just as Americans.
Nevertheless, my fellows American, as we press forward into the unsure future, let us not forget to look at the past. When we look, let us not look through the glasses that have been shaped by racism or grounded in hatred for our brothers and sisters. Rather let us peer through the same spectacles of hope that our ancestors wore when they first envisioned this country. Rather let us peer through the same spectacles of faith that Dr. King and many others of all races use during the Civil Rights Movement. Let us peer through the same spectacles of hope and faith into the self-evident truth that as long as we realize that we are all a part of the body of Christ there will never exist a wall big, wide, or strong enough to hold America back from become the great country that God has called for it to be. A country where we realize that we are all created equal by one God and given the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Then as Dr. King said, “Then we can all join hands and sing with new meaning the words of the old Negro Spiritual ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God, Almighty, America is free at last.”
