NUBIAN KNIGHTS NETWORK: e-Celebration of KWANZAA:Good For You (ROD)My Heart Just Wasn't In It This Year

QUOTATIONS OF "BLACK"

"Whenever I use BLACK it relates to some history of Africans in that particular place. It’s the idea of the color BLACK as a metaphor, or as a representation of African-Americans. It’s the notion of BLACK- BLACKNESS - and all its other meanings in relation to the history of race..."

- Fred Wilson

"Most of my fortitude to continue doing the work comes from the moral outrage I feel about the injustices that Black people endure disproportionately daily."

- N. Abdul-Wakil

"In the end, what matters is not skin shade but pan-African consciousness. Loving your complexion, your nose, lips, hair length and texture, no matter what the politics or trends decide, and simply be. That's the problem with us (African folks). We're still learning how to love ourselves. So used to glorifying others and putting others first..."

- Dredlocks Tree

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

e-Celebration of KWANZAA:
Good For You (ROD)
My Heart Just Wasn't In It This Year

e-Celebration of KWANZAA:
My Heart Just Wasn't In It This Year

by N. Abdul-Wakil

(A Guest Nubian Knight's Perspective)

Peace, Rod:

I see that you moved ahead with e-celebration of Kwanzaa via posts to your blog. Good for you. My heart just wasn't in it this year.

Perhaps, it's the cumulative effect of having lived in the ghetto of Bed-Stuy for over three and a half years. I feel good that my voice for progressive movement is heard by a handful of people online. However, I don't even have to leave my apartment to be aware that my activism only creates one small air bubble surfacing among the relentless tide of ignorance that is eroding the coasts of this nation in daily massive waves. No one hears the faint calls for social justice, black nationalism, or reminders of the lessons taught by our great, martyred leaders of the twentieth century. No one hears above the mobile phones plastered to their ears. No one hears through the black, blonde or "ghetto fabulous" loud pink, horsetail-hair helmets that two thirds of Black women don daily to compete for attention among the dwindling number of straight Black men temporarily on the streets between jail terms. No one wants to hear about how their use of the "N" word denigrates their racial self-esteem (and passes it along to their children). It's not as though this is racial self-hatred. This is a hip form of camaraderie. It must be. They see usage of this word affirmed by music videos and popular films. No one even gives a hoot about recycling (which is the law). Why should they? Hasn't it always been easier to just throw the empty liquor bottles and cans out the window? Surely, it's better to do this than to risk everyone in one's building noticing the overwhelming number of vodka bottles in the recycle can. By throwing trash out the windows it's easier to wallow in the denial that no one knows what building residents have drinking problems. Right?