FINDING US IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT"
by Khalil Somadi

   Let's talk about Change. Change in the form of letting go of  the customs born out of white supremacy that have now become staples in the everyday lives of Black People.  Holding onto customs and traditions that do not benefit our growth is not only a self-depreciating act but thwarts our desire to learn about our own customs, our own culture.
   We owe it to ourselves and to the future generation of Blacks to set out on a quest for truth and pride in our African culture, to learn about it and actually live what we learn rather than remaining immersed in a culture that is not ours, that was in fact forced upon us through psychological assimilation.    
   Your average Black person can tell you all about the white man's customs but not very much about his own beyond what was taught in history  books; and although that is by design, we have the power to change it. But it must be important enough to Us to want to!
   We need remember that the white man HAS no real culture of his own. What he has is a little bit of this and a little bit of that he has stolen and meshed together as a means of decimating OTHER cultures, based on what he desires to TAKE from the peoples who originated those cultures. And then through various methods he declares this hodgepodge as The Culture. What this does is set him up as the status quo that everyone else must aspire to, with no real chance ofcourse of ever truly being embraced.
   Hence Black people and other people of color come to internalize  their own second-class existence as an accepted mindset; and this is the REAL reason why releasing Theirs to recover Own is so scary to most of Us. But we have to love ourselves enough to pursue knowledge about Who We Are, Who We Were Before the oppression of slavery cut our people off from their customs, their culture, even their real names!
   I realize that there are those of Us who don't see any real importance in coming to know any of those things, who feel that what matters is Here and Now. And as long that is the mindset held, We will remain trapped in the complacency which keeps Us second-class citizens in our own mind and feeling obligated to accept What Is as The Way It Is And Has Always Been...
When nothing could be further from the truth!