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As
ethicists and philosophers debate the need for intellectuals, I argue
the need, role, and responsibility
of Black thinkers and intellectuals to our community. An African American
is not a creature unto himself or herself regardless of his/her achievements.
We are a part of the whole Black village.
It
cannot be seriously disputed that this society has waged war upon their
Black citizens as long as is has been a nation, even before we were citizens.
And in spite of that we have fought and died first for this nation;
we have made cotton and this nation king; we have been so intimately involved
in the building and sustaining of this nation that it is hard to even
conceive of America without Black Americans--skinheads excluded. Not only
as slaves have we contributed to the development of this nation but also
as contributing citizens. We are and have been inventors, scientists,
doctors, lawyers, judges, and all that this nation is we are.
Our
contributions to the development of America not withstanding, this nation
has waged war on us. [See War Imaging
of Blacks] We have had to carry the heaviest loads and carry them
more frequently; we have had to jump the most hurdles; we have had to
prevail with more odds against us, and yet we rise, the poetess writes!
But
we did not rise based on any individual effort ALONE. We rose and still
rise based upon a village maxim and reality: "It takes a whole
village to raise a child." And since it has taken that village
to raise us, we are obligated to be all that we can be and duty bound
to give back to that community/village that sacrificed for us.
The
Civil Rights Movement, in which Black people gave their lives for children
they did not know and for an ungrateful nation that was not worthy of
their blood, was for all of us--Black intellectuals, thinkers, non-thinkers,
and non-blacks alike. And because many gave their lives that all Black
people could freely develop
their potential, we who have developed our potential should look at all
matters as they relate to Black potential and Black health as an obligation
to our brave dead, who declared by their deaths that the lives their children
would live would be with clarity and the dignity of being.
Today,
there are many schools of thought and much deception afoot to beset the
advances of Blacks in America; these require careful consideration. And
it is the Black thinker, one who lives primarily the life of the mind,
who carefully considers those matters and adds his voice to the whole
of Black thoughts on issues that concern Black people directly and indirectly.
That one sees the forces arrayed against us in this war on us. He/she
sees the perpetual media biases against Black people--some subtle and
some not subtle--he/she sees attacks of subtlety by black hired help;
he/she sees demonizing imagery arrayed against us in literature and films;
he/she sees situations disguised as national normality that are harmful
to the vitality of our community.
All
of these and more need to be carefully considered and brought to the attention
of the Black community. That is the role of the Black thinker, to concern
him/herself with the many issues that impact on the health and vibrancy
of our nation. We are obligated because of who we are and how we evolved
into who we are to look to the interest and concern of Black Americans
as a way of protection and as a way to give back to our community. Each
generation must give back to the previous generation--it is his/her duty!
As Black thinkers clarify issues and engage the intellectual and political
challenges cast before us, the whole of this nation is made better. This
is a truth many in the Civil Rights Movement knew and understood.
To consider black hired help requires a study of historical behavioral
anomalies among African Americans since slavery in this and other nations.
These hired help have always sold their services to the highest bidder.
Being employed in various ways and given various names, their overall
function has been the same. They have gone from generation to the next
giving to their employers their unique skills. They are of the same school
and of the same bent of yesterday: they offer a black face to demean Black
behavior and recommend white behavior as the model for Black imitation.
The
Black thinker must unearth those who function as hired help, lest
our less keen assume a tact and behavior alien and strange for Black people.
It was the Black thinkers who debunked white arguments that Black writers
were not universal so they should not be published. This type of rationalization
is used so often the method itself becomes a standard fare. But Blacks
must see through it and reason through it that our young not see themselves
distortedly and degenerate into self-loathing, as the hired help
has done.
The
Black community must come to see that for many of the hired helpers,
they realize that, on the whole, as a matter of history, Black people
see that they are only working a job, which their employers think is more
effective than it is. So, in a sense, we can embrace them too, but we
must know how to embrace them. They are a historical a part of us; we
embrace that part of us, but not the odorous messages they espouse for
hire.
We
Black thinkers are obligated and duty bound to look to the interests of
Black people in this society and throughout the world because our history
is far beyond America, and our children need to know that truth. []
Simond Groite
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