American has two birthdays, 1619 and 1776. 1619 represents that enslaved people landing at Point Comfort – Jamestown Virginia in 1619. “My people didn’t land on Plymouth Rock,” as Malcolm pointed out when he slapped those of us who had amnesia, “Plymouth Rock landed on us!”
No, this is not part of a diatribe against Europeans because we are fully woke and know that greedy African kings played a poisonous role in enabling the transatlantic African slave trade.
1776 represents the second start of the American nation as marked by the patriot/slaveowners’ signatures on the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of United States. It is a legitimate date, but so is 1619.
This is one of the ways that we intellectually push back against the attempts to whitewash and erase Black history from our books and discourse. The New York Times 1619 project co-crafted by Nicole Hannah Jones must become a staple in every Black home, soaking into the minds of men, women and children. As soon as a child is weaned and acquires the norm of reading to enter school, a vaccination of true history must be injected.
As the opposition prohibits the 1619 Project, we teach the Tulsa destruction of Black Wall Street that took place in Sherman, Texas in 1930. This carnage against Black townspeople started with the lynching of George Hughes. Similar carnages took place in Elaine, Arkansas and Colfax, Louisiana.
As the opposition freakishly bans Nobel laureate Tony Morrison and Ta-Ne Hi si Coates, we adopt the motto, “Each one Teach one, Each one Reach One.” This is part of our response to the falsification and evisceration of Black history from our educational system. With digital access to information bases there is zero reason for anyone to be ignorant. But we recognize that no one is so blind as he that refuses to see. May God bless the willfully blind and ignorant.
Kujichagulia- self-determination is the second principle of KWANZAA. KWANZAA is global celebration of the fruits of the harvest and Pan- Afrikan survival, well-being and Black futures. It means “to define, create, and speak for ourselves”.
The apologists for white supremacy and fake history cannot speak for an empowered and woke Black community.
Emmet Till’s mother had the courage to look at her disfigured boy that was stolen in the night and murdered and proclaim to the nation that I will determine the narrative about the life and death of this child, family and nation.
It is our historical duty to follow in the footsteps of Crispus Attucks and the enslaved ancestors who ignited the revolution at Boston, Lexington and Concord after supplying the uncompensated labor for the birth of the American nation.
From 1619 to 1776 to 2022, our store and role in the formation and finishing of the American Nature must be honestly told. This is KUJICHAGULIA.
