The Crusader Newspaper Group

KUJICHAGULIA IN A TIME OF POLITICAL CHAOS

Eight years ago when President Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, most Black people were ecstatic. For some, it heralded a new age; for others the beginning of a crack in the brown ceiling. After years of forced servitude, Jim Crow, segregation and many other morally degrading situations, a Black person had achieved the unthinkable. Even veteran civil rights activists were amazed at this accomplishment. Some, however, were leery of the change. They felt that we should brace ourselves for a backlash, and in retrospect, they were right on target! The Republicans in Congress thwarted the president at every turn, yet in spite of these obstacles, President Obama was able to achieve quite a few breakthroughs and today, he is arguably one of the best presidents that the United States has ever had.

There is something called Karma – it is a word that has its origins in eastern philosophy and basically means “what goes around comes around.” It is similar to the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you!” As we see the chaos swirling around politics in the United States today, we can surely see Karma in action.

A common refrain among some Democrats and many Republicans is “anybody but Hillary” for the next president of the United States. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been the victim of her past as Secretary of State and, more importantly, as the wife of former President Bill Clinton. It would be interesting to ask why HRC has been called the lesser of two evils – if we delve deeply into it, we will see that, on the one hand, she is being blamed for what her husband did while he was president. It was during his tenure that policies were enacted that resulted in the increased incarceration of Black men. At the time, HRC referred to certain Blacks as “super predators.” This has not been forgotten. HRC is also taking a beating for decisions that she made as Secretary of State in response to the “Mother of all Wars” that really started during the Bush administrations. Her email accounts are just the icing on the cake, along with, no doubt, a liberal dosage of misogynistic victimization.

The Republican Party, conversely, now resembles a political version of the crazy Keystone Cops. The Party is in a shambles, and they don’t seem to know why. Objective observers, however, can easily connect the dots between the current situation with the GOP’s candidate, Donald Trump, and the frantic move to get him replaced with someone more palatable to traditional conservative values. They don’t see that their mean-spirited treatment of the sitting president and the increasingly intolerant stances that they have taken have spilled over to impact a vulnerable and dumbed-down electorate. It has become more and more okay for bigots to come out of the woodwork. Donald Trump has just come along and swept them up into his camp. He has a great deal of the disaffected, mostly white population supporting him. Many of his supporters have resented President Obama from the beginning of his presidency not necessarily because of his policies, but because of his race. Republicans in Congress have made it popular and okay to denigrate Obama and anyone else that they feel threatens white supremacy. Representatives of this ilk feel that they are losing control over their country and will eventually be pushed out by interlopers; i.e., Blacks, Muslims, immigrants, and some others.

When looking at the current state of affairs in light of what has gone before, it becomes obvious that Karma is at work in America…her political chickens have come home to roost. America is essentially embroiled in a civil war of words; in an “us against them” mentality, and many are embracing splinter groups because of this. It has often been said that a house divided cannot stand. There is a saying that chaos presents opportunity. Whenever there is a breakdown, new possibilities emerge. Because of this, the Black community in America can benefit by taking this opportunity to move into a new direction, into a mindset of Kujichagulia; self-determination. We can emerge triumphant and learn how to support each other and oppose the ridiculous trend of police murders of Blacks, along with Black murders of Blacks. If we don’t, the civil war of words just might turn into the real thing! A luta continua.

 

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