By: Black Pepper
Citizens of the world, an hour of destiny is upon us. Late Congressman Mickey Leland was driven by the plight of the wretched of the earth. Leland knew that nations wanted independence and people wanted freedom. His Catholic social ethics led to him to be prescient about the last becoming first and the first becoming last.
His protégés, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (18th) and Congressman Al Green (9th) have courageously embraced the plight of the Ukrainian people and the looming humanitarian crisis.
When you lay the Ukrainian issue flat, it is not really complicated. The Black Kenyan ambassador took the biggest stage in the world and made it “Malcolm X” plain. His speech was so brilliant that it set the foundation for Fareed Zakaria of CNN’s Global Public Square to frame the crisis as a tyranny and autocracy versus democracy. This game-changing speech told the world that clinging to ethnic, racial, or religious homogeneity as a basis for statehood would lead to bloody wars. Those that desire ethnic enclaves in the world, United States and the former Confederacy should take off their ideological blinders and dismiss the lost cause. Let losers Jeff Davis and Robert E. Lee RIP.
Ambassador Kimani was crystal clear about allowing a sick dictator, President Vladimir Putin, to re-establish the imperial ambitions of the Russian bear would cause the death of the modern world’s peacemaking tool, multilateralism. Multilateralism is our tool for peacemaking through a rules-based international order.
Pair Ambassador Kimani with Ambassador Linda- Greenfield and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and we have the trifecta. A trifecta of competency and not ethnicity. Greenfield has been uncompromising as evidenced by her accusation of China’s genocide against the Uighurs. By the way, she is a faith-based woman from Bakers, Louisiana with a degree from Louisiana State University (LSU). Austin is from the red clay of Georgia and after graduating the US Military Academy, he spent 41 years in uniform. These educational competencies are mentioned to tattoo education on our door posts and foreheads. Ambassador Kimani has a Doctorate in War Studies from the University of London. President Joe Biden and the nation sought out and received the very best.
These men and women are giants when compared to the lost cause midgets in Texas government. Not such much because of their educational credentials, but because of their UNDERSTANDING or lack thereof.
A star for our Congressman Lee and Congressman Green. Unbeknownst to me is why African Americans and African expatriates are not vigorously advocating for Africa and advancing the Pan African Agenda. Now, Ethiopia has about a million refugees from the war in South Sudan and the Tigray region. Among these exhausted and emaciated refugees are a hundred and fifty thousand Eritrean refugees. If these names are not familiar to you, it is because our leaders have not shone the light on war, rape and killing in Africa. How many know about the carnage and war crimes happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the massacres in Burkina-Faso or Mozambique. All of these are humanitarian disasters. Are we using a colorism yard stick to determine who suffers and who deserves the most aid?
I am taking a leap of faith because most Americans think that Africa is a country. This must sadden all of us who know differently. All of Africa is not at war just as all of Europe is not at war.
POTUS Biden gave a near flawless speech last week and through sanctions our government will increase the pain index for PUTIN and his kleptocrats. I thought he would say something significant about our kleptocrats and he chose not to. His focus had to be singular, and we understand that.
I could not stop thinking about the thousands of Haitians that were killed by US Marines in the 1930’s. Never any recompense or meaningful reparations. Tuck this into your knowledge memory band. Before Toussaint and Dessalines and the Haitian people kicked France and Napoleon out, Haiti was the richest colony in the world.
I could not stop about the horsebound Texas troops that used lead batons and whips to force the Haitians across the Rio Grande. Who speaks for the well-being of the Haitians, an African people?
At this moment, we must stand shoulder to shoulder against cluster bombs and the subjugation of the Ukrainian people. We can do this without forgetting that WE ARE AN AFRICAN PEOPLE and Black well-being will always be at the top of our agenda. Or will it be?
