Written by Alberta Parish
As national leaders, which included President Obama, Representative John Lewis, and Colin Powell stood facing the 30-foot statue of the late Civil Rights Leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sunday, October 16, 2011, the world still faces many racial and social barriers. Despite the achievements of King, Malcolm X and others, Africans around the world face brand new challenges. Instead of facing these challenges collectively, and working to solve the many issues that plague entire populations, Whites and Blacks in America are too busy spreading racial animosity toward one another. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lived during a time when his life was constantly threatened, there were separate public restrooms for Whites and Blacks, African people couldn’t enter a white-owned restaurant, sit down at a table, and be served. Yet, he never advocated racial hatred and violence toward Whites. Would he have made it to the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. if he was just another Black racist?
Dr. King wanted to turn the Civil Rights Movement into a Human Rights Movement by taking our human rights violations before the world court at the United Nations. But King never had the opportunity to complete that mission, and in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, was shot dead. He died at the age of 39. The real culprits behind King’s assassination has never been implicated, because it was the U.S. Government behind King’s assassination. In fact, the U.S. Government has been the real culprit behind most assassinations of powerful Black and White leaders who preach human rights and equality among all men, and who have threatened to bring the United States Government before the United Nations for its human rights violations. King not only marched alongside blacks, but he also marched with whites. Black racism just like White racism is a disgrace to his legacy.
As much as I revere Dr. King for giving his life to defend the rights of all men, it is now up to those that are living today to continue where Dr. King and Malcolm X left off at. Racism within any group is a detriment to all of humanity. It has been the major cause of wars, genocides, and the economic crises that all nations currently face together. While the powerful elite continue to spread racial hatred through mass media and manipulate current events around the world, the real culprits behind the wars, revolutions, dictatorships and mass murders of entire populations go undetected. What is the difference between an American, European, African, or Asian racist? Hatred toward any persons based on his/her ethnicity is racism. Hate speech whether written or verbal toward any persons based on his/her ethnicity is racism. Many people do not know that Malcolm X, toward the end of his life, had a change of heart regarding his own racial animosity toward whites. Malcolm condemned the whites of his day, because of the many human rights violations occurring against Black folk. Malcolm constantly denounced human rights violations and he taught Blacks their true history. Early in his career, he did preach separatism from white society. But later in his life, Malcolm had a change of heart on many things.
Today, there are human rights violations occurring against Black Libyans, which, in a way, has been sanctioned by the U.S. Government. When President Obama declared war on Libya’s Colonel Qaddafi, it set off a chain of events that culminated in Black Libyans being slaughtered by Arabs. The media has termed these people as the rebel forces. But all I see is open genocide against Black Africans by an age-old enemy who also traded in African slaves for over 700 years. Ironically, history is repeating itself. Before Africans sold other Africans as slaves to the Europeans, they traded in African slaves with the Arabs. If the Black racist hate Europeans/Caucasians, they have to also hate Africans in the Motherland. How is Black racism going to solve the many issues that plague Africans around the world? How is racial hatred going to advance the interests of African peoples around the world? In the early 20th Century, you could pinpoint the enemy. Today, Whites and Blacks work together in a corrupt system, and you could easily be manipulated or ruined by a member of your own race. Having knowledge of African history and the genocide currently being committed against African peoples worldwide, racial hatred toward Europeans/Caucasians is not going to stop the mass genocide of Black Libyans or the spread of HIV in Africa. A march all the way to the steps of the State Capitol building in Washington, D.C., or boycotting Wal-Mart, Kroger, Kmart and Target, or perhaps, using your energy to come up with real solutions to basic problems that Black people face within our own communities would possibly bring about results. Hatred for non-Africans is not helping us to advance technologically and economically as African peoples around the globe. Unless we put our words to action like the late Dr. King and Malcolm X, what is the point of hatred? Unless you can put Black youth to work in their own communities, then what good is all the racial animosity? They’re robbing people, because they’re not employed anywhere. We are still going downtown begging other people for jobs!
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