Thursday, April 20, 2006

This Silence Is Not Golden


I have often suspected that African Americans are the most insular and most selfish of all the African people in the world. Given what's been happening in Darfur and the lack of interest and out cry from blacks in this country, I believe that my suspicions were correct. Part of the problem of course is that unlike Africans in other mostly Third Workd countries, we have it too good here. After all, we live in the greatest country on earth, and we are often sheltered from many of the world's problems. This, coupled with the fact that we just don't give a damm- primarily becuase we are too selfish and busy with our own lives accumulating material things and keeping up with the Joneses- makes it all too easy to look away. But that's black America for you, if it isn't happening in good ole USA, it just aint happening anywhere. But let's consider what has been happening in Darfur for a minute.

Darfur is in the western region of Sudan, and what has been happening there is a tragedy of epic proportions. Thousands of black people have been killed in the name of ethnic cleansing by Arab millitiamen. They have attacked villages, burned, mutilated, and raped women and children by the thousands; all with the blessing of the Sudanese government. The situation is so bad, that one report says that 40% of the people in that region between the ages of 15-49 have died at the hands of violence. It's a fact that over a million Sudanese have been forced to flee their homeland and have become refugees as the genocide continues.

One of the dirty little secrets from that region is this: Many Arabs look down on black Africans , and in fact, the Arab colonialist to that continent were as, or even more brutal than those who came from Europe. To this day, the Arabs view black Africans as Kaffirs or slaves, and as a result, what has been happening to these poor people in Dafur has had the blessing of President Omar-el Bashir; a man who has used Sudanese troops, and armed militias to carry out his ethnic cleansing. The situation there is similar to what happened in Biafra in 1967-68 when armed Nigerian thugs tried to illiminate the Igbo tribe. And what happened in Rwanda in 1994, when Hutu extremist unleashed a genocide in which over 800,000 of their fellow countrymen were slaughtered. The general consensus is that the people of Darfur do not have a constituency here so there is no one to speak on there behalf. But that's not true, they do have a constituency and it's every black person in this country.

These atrocities against our people take place in other parts of the world, while African Americans choose to do nothing. We go to Durham North Carolina and speak out against the Duke lacrosse team for allegedly raping one of our sisters, or to Mexico to confront their President for making derogatory remarks about us, but there is silence while thousands of black Africans are being slaughtered on a daily basis. Where is Jessie, where is Al, where is the CBC? To his credit Colin Powell did speak out about Darfur and has taken the issue to the UN on behalf of the United States. But it was frat boy who said nothing like this would happen on his watch, and yet, it's happening. But I am not going to get on frat boy about this issue, this is about black folks here at home, not about the President. This is about black folks not having a clue about what's going on in the world and not realizing that we are part of a larger world community.

I have seen more white people involved in this struggle, and trying to bring this issue to the forefront than blacks. And for that, we as black folks should all be ashamed. The UN called this the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and still black folks in this country remain silent. No outcry, no marches in Washington organized by black leaders, no ink from the black press, nothing; just silence.

There is finally a march being sponsered by the American Jewish World Service and other religious groups. And the Jewish community has raised over two million dollars towards the effort in Darfur. Also, I would like to give some props to New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof who is the only journalist in the world who seems to be trying to keep this story alive. -The last time I checked he was a white man- I understand that the Jews have a unique sensitivity to this issue, but so should we. Unfortunately, we are too busy being entertained by UPN and BET, and too busy washing and waxing our cars to care.

The march takes place on April 30, 2006 in Washington D.C. between 2-4 PM on the National Mall.

You can help organize by hitting this email address: MillionVoices@SaveDarfur.org
Or you can hit the web site at: http://millionvoicesfordarfur.com

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

New to the your blog found it from Dell. Great post. The CBC is always missing in action. I will be a regular reader of your blog.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Fam., I am always glad for the input.

FN

Anonymous said...

Hey Field Negro, I agree with your commentary on this topic 100%!!! I was lead to it from a post by "COBB" on Booker Rising. This dude is obviously an intellectual in his own mind.... but everyone is entitled to their own dillusions... lol...

P.S. I am also of Jamaican heritage living in Toronto Canada.

Anonymous said...

Big up yawdie! Did you get some HTB bun and cheese for easter?

Thanks for checking in; I have madd love for Toronto, plenty of yawdies up there :)

FN

Anonymous said...

Can we expect Louis Farrakan to attend? Why does the UN call this a grave hmanitarian crisis but then does nothing? Where are the nations of sub-Saharan Africa?

Anonymous said...

In "The Destruction of Black Civilization" Chancellor Williams, noted that the muslim black americans hanged one slavemasters name and picked up another one.

The hypocrisy of the Arabs is sickening. Furthermore, Egyptian Arabs hate the Sudanese arabs... but thats another subject.

Nevertheless, FN, all I can say is my enemies enemy is my friend...
Move the white Bishop to the east and the brown castle attack the bishop... while i sit back and watch :)

Anonymous said...

In "Islam's Black Slaves", Ronald Segal notes that Islam was importing African slaves centuries before Europe got into the act---and they're still doing it!

African slavery survives in Mauritania and Sudan and probably Niger, Mali and Chad. But these countries are off the world's radar screen; they're isolated desert countries where outsiders are few and unwelcome. So slavery goes on in the 21st century.

Anonymous said...

Field N, did you hear todays OBL tape... this mf-er, had the audacity to say that he doesn't recognize African borders in S. Sudan.

Hypocrite!!! he claims he is oppressed and shit and turn right around and contniues oppressing.

by the way, check this article out, it blew my mind when i read it...
GOOGLE: "Why I turned against america" AND negro

Anonymous said...

UGZ, Thanks I am going to google that article now. And you are right about OBL, he is one crazy *%#@ It just goes to show you how deep religious bigotry is. I mean it trumps people's humanity for crying out loud!

And if I hear one more house-negro conservative wanna be tell me we shouldn't care about people in Africa, I will slap the &%*@#@%

FN

Anonymous said...

Field Negro,

As an African American; I would like to know why you think that it is incumbent upon me to give a damn about Africa; Africans or any other "black" people?

I, nor any African American made the Sudan, nor Africa, nor the Carribbean what it is.

Not only are African Americans not selfish; We are selfless, so much so, that it is a detriment ot Us. Even your White folks have acknowledged that when it comes to monetary, as well as, time giving
African Americans are at the TOP of that heap.

Africa gets much money from this country,billions... they have even said that those monies goes into the pockets of corrupt leaders...who themselves kill their own people.

(In 2005 C-SPAN had an African Congregation that said the very same thing; and added that the survival of Africans and Africa depended upon the people there - should they not know?)

No other black people give a damn about Us - none of them; and finally I am seeing that We, for a change are starting to focus on Us-
first.

If you want to give voice to the Sudan issue; then by all means please do so, and call upon all those Sudanese and Africans and Carribbeans living in this country to be with you when you do it. Right there you have about 2.5 million people who should be giving you voice and support.

And then you should keep it going and start asking questions of why in the Carribbean the number 1 and number 2 killers of black males, 18 - 24, are suicide and black on black violence respectively...

Then you and the 2.5 should march on Washington and get all those Haitians in this country who have been languishing in jails for years in this country... And then take a little further; and you and the 2.5 can go to Bush and ask him and congress why they gave Haiti; after the flood devastation - what amounted to $60,000 US dollars...then turn the mirror on yourselves and ask, why did you not give?

Farrakhan has raised his voice about the Sudan. As far as I am concerned that is enough.

I have empathy for all suffering; but I am not stupid, nor am I self-less.... I was one of those in college marching, holding rallies and meetings during South African apartheid.... and for what? I still have Divest Now pens and such.

We are a minority in this country and We are the ones who fought for and made happen the things here, that this country presents to the world as to What America Is...And How Great It Is...And We Are Still Fighting.... hopefully, We will become those selfish people you lament about. And that can't be too bad, a thing.

Black Africans outnumber Whites and Arabs in Africa, as a whole like 100 to 1; add you and the 2.5 here - just think about what you should be able to do!

If this makes me a house negro, or anything else so be it.

Good Luck.

Anonymous said...

Denise:

Your salvation here, is completely and in whole tied to the salvation of Africa.

Africans gaining power in South Sudan, strengthen us as a race everywhere.

If blacks in America become powerful it strengthens Africans in the motherland similarily.

If you do not think so, then you are not an African American, you are just an American. But you will be surprised to know that Italians in America are very concerned about Italy, Irish about Ireland, the Rusians about Russia etc

but why am I telling you this, you know you are a house negress

Dangerfield said...

FN the reason why we dont care about sudan is because we are a ignorant as group of people at this time and place, for example think about this, how stupid is our fixation with clothes how many people are living in the hood around a bunch of looser but wearing 80 and 100 dollar pair of shows, or the black church how many babies out of wed look, how many aids cases, ect before the black church agreesively deals with these issues. What about the Naacp and the other black social orginizations. No, they did nothing about these issues even the church our social institutions and our community knew goddam fucking well that our sexual habbits were retarded and self destructive and not one of these orginizations had enough sense to make it a priority to tell us (blacks) over and over again to use a condom if your not married. Any group of people who can not firgure out that you should use a condom if your not married are to stupid to care about thier race in other contries. We have the potential but as long as we are intellectually not curios we will never learn even basic survival skillz. Please dont think I hate black people because I love us, but you just cant win if you dont try to learn the best ways of living and doing things on a daily bases. Mark

Anonymous said...

I agree Mark, and I have some serious issues with black chuches and the way some black preachers pimp our people.(But that's for another day)

This is for Denise, who made some well staed but flawed points.First, as UGZ tried to expain, your entire existance is tied to Africa. Do you think Chineese Americans in this country don't care what happens in China? Or for that matter, Jews don't care what happens in Israel? Part of being a complete citizen and knowing who you are is being able to connect and help people of your race regardless of where they were born. Whether you like it or not, you are an African first, and an American second. Hey, that's that's who you are, regardless of where you were born or where you choose to live.

I agree with you about the corruption in Africa and other Third World countries. But part of the reason for that corruption and it's devastating effects, is the abject poverty in most of those areas of the world. Poverty I might add, that was caused by colonialism, and organizations like the IMF. These first world countries exploited poorer nations for years by not giving them proper compensation for their resources. And unfortunately, they are still feeling the effects of this exploitation. You are quick to blame the leaders of those countries but not your own beloved America - I assume the land of your birth- who contributed just as much to the terrible state that these countries find themsleves in.Of course, America is not the only country to blame, the British for instance, are just as culpable, and their long history of brutal colonialism is well documented.

Denise, I am not going to call you a house-negro, because I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that at the end of the day,like all of us, you have your peoples best interest at heart.Having said that, you really need to start viewing the world in it's totality and not fall into that typical American way of thinking; if it aint in the U.S.A. it doesn't exist.

FN

Anonymous said...

Why am I always so angry FN, wish I could be smoother... and try to make my point without a final statement as..
"you know you are a house..."
:) Sorry FN I will try to be a little more patient


ugz

Anonymous said...

Hey UGZ, you don't have to be anything but who you are.

Remember, for every Martin there is a Malcolm :)

I love your style!

FN

Dangerfield said...

FN You made a great point, americans are selfish.Its all about them, alway's 24x7. Does the rest of the world realize how selfish we are?. Mark

field negro said...

Yeah they do, that's why we don't get a lot of love when we travel.

But then, there in lies the problem. A lot of us don't really travel or try to experience other cultures, so we don't really care what others think of us.

FN

Anonymous said...

Field Negro: In the Sudan, the people who are doing the killing of Africans are African Muslims. These people wholeheartedly believe that the African that don't believe in Islam is less than dirt. These Africans are stupid enough to believe the Arab lie and this is the reason they are killing other non-Muslim Africans. From my understanding, the Arabs are funding this massacre to maintain the destabilization of The Sudan so that the U.S. can continue to buy oil from them. The U.S. is aware of this, but we are fighting for our survival here and most people are just getting by.

I was trying to work with some African and got cursed out big time and called an agent of the government. So, when working for the interests of Africans, we must tread lightly and understand their issues. Because many of them simply stated, we (African Americans) get in their way – because we don’t know the issues facing Africa. So - are we selfish, I would say no? Are we ignorant of the facts, I would say yes? But most Americans are fed a bunch of lies and ignorant of what is happening in the world including you since if your analysis blames us for something that is out of our control. Furthermore, before you make these kinds of analysis, please make sure you really know who is doing the killing. Farrakhan don’t really care about The Sudan since he will have to face that it is African Muslim (Black people) killing other Africans (Black people).

Anonymous said...

Excellent point, and I am quite aware that we have to tread softly when it comes to internal ehnic divisions within Africa.

Having said that, we still have a responsibility as human beings and especially as black people to care about the Sudanese women and children who are being brutalized and forced to flee their country.

We sat back and did nothing with Rawanda-ethnic fighting there too- we should never let that happen again to our people, regardless of where they happen to live.

FN

Dangerfield said...

Of course we sat back and watched them slaughter each other. We sat back and allowed black men (young black men in particular) I done told you guys that in my oppinion we are to shallow to even care about ourselves in a wholistic way. One problem that I see in africa is that they have no universals laws that say in every country that you must respect the rights of the minority, you must respect women, you must encourage transparency if you are a public official. Also africa has way more diversity ethnic groups, with way more languages, with way more spiritual beliefs ( usually some kookoo claiming to be a chief of medicine take your choice), but these spiritual beliefs usually dont guide in the direction of fairplay for all of gods humans. Incidently this is why I am biased against all religions on the planet because ultimately the all brush each other off and you know what happens after that. When Italy attacked ethiopia, you blacks here who signed up to go fight with the ethiopians (god bless them they are heros).Even though I love africa ( I dont like how they treat each other generally speaking) and if most blacks In the US are to stupid or selfish to realize that sudan is a ethnic but also religious tradgedy to hell with them. But is it really saying much, do you really expect people who will not use condoms in spite of out of wedlock births, fatherless children, and high hiv rate to care about anybody but themselves. Negro's Please. Yall expect us to look as africans as when we dont even respect ourselves as human biengs. Black folk in this country are extremely shallow. For example think about all of our entertainment and sports stars. How many of them can have conversations like this. I mentioned them because they usually come from the lower and middle class populations. Mark

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