Racism within a Race Dr. Martin Luther King said, "I have A Dream!"

After 50 Years, We’re Still Sitting at the Lunch Counters!

On August 27, I watched PBS program on the historic March in Washington in 1963 narrated by Denzel Washington. I was very surprised about what I saw from the face of the camera showing different people at the rally. I noticed from 30 to 40 percent of those who attended the march were whites. All these years, I have always thought that the historic rally was primarily by blacks. This documentary corrected my misconception.

I greatly applauded the work of Dr. Martin Luther King and all the blacks including the whites that supported the march and made it very successful without violence. I applauded those who did the long walk, suffered beatings in the streets, ragged by police to jail with much humiliation. However in 2013, I feel very dejected when I see the inner cities polluted with gang violence and all kinds of crimes in the streets. I will quickly get to my point because I’m not blaming those black kids who find themselves in impossible situations. Black children find themselves in environments of the inner cities that offered them no hope but that of the drug dealers and gang violence. Who should we blame? The blame lies squarely on the blacks who made it to the top and bought a one way ticket out of the black ghettos allowing the black children to suffer through economic segregation we imposed upon them. I see many successful blacks walking away as they look down on the poor struggling blacks in the inner cities. It makes me so angry when for the first time I heard a black woman calling some blacks from the inner cities, "The Have Nots." I was about to curse her out. Just because she had a college degree, all of a sudden she believed she was better than those in the inner cities still struggling to survive the economic injustice imposed on them by society!

Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech of 1963 achieved a historic progress for race relationships in this country. Such an achievement should greatly be applauded! Since then, many blacks have ascended into upper class either through education with professional degrees, or through better job opportunities. After these achievements, most of them packed up and left. The struggling ones were left in the inner cities. What we fail to realize is the fact that, economic or professional success does not change a person’s slave mentality. I see many successful blacks who are still sitting at the lunch counters across the nation while waiting to be served by the whites. Ms. Santita Jackson and Dr. Brenda Wade called this illness Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS). This illness is similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This illness has permeated the black culture today and directly responsible to the degeneration of the inner cities, the poverty, and lack of opportunities for black youths. Even many successful blacks are still suffering from PTSS because they may be rich in materialism, and popular, but are suffering from soul poverty. This horrible illness has led many blacks to embrace other illicit spirits they mistaken for God. They choose to worship trees and the stars and other aspects of creations of God. They developed an aversion to God the creator and will rather worship creations contrary to the will or God. Here is a form of rebellious behavior that started in the Garden of Eden and still continues today.

The question I will like to ask my fellow black brothers and sisters in 2013 in the U.S. of A is, "Why are we still sitting at the lunch counters while waiting to be served?" This slave mentality has not only crippled the aspiration of many talented blacks, but also created a state of dependency on the system we still claim is unjust. Freedom is a two way street. If a person is set free from the oppression of economic injustice or racism, that person must set him or herself free within. As long as we are still sitting at the lunch counter waiting to be served, we will never enjoy the freedom Dr. Martin Luther King fought so hard to attain. There are many blacks today that are very rich, but are still suffering from slave mentality because they are still waiting at the lunch counters to be served by the white folks. These are the people who have actually retarded the economic growth of the black communities and left black children with drug dealers and gang violence in the inner cities. They are telling the poor blacks in the inner cities saying, "I have obtained my piece of pie. It’s your turn to go begging for your piece of pie, because I have been validated." O God I want to start weeping! What a form of self degradation?

This same slave mentality allows for successful blacks to dish out emotional pains to those in the inner cities by detaching from them and calling them the "have nots!" The same crippled mindedness allows blacks to lack the courage to embrace other blacks and validate black talents. For the time being, the most popular television black talk shows producers will validate anything thrown at them by the non-blacks while refusing to embrace the great talents within the black youths. White kids will pass gas from their rare ends, and television shows will be made out of such disgusting toilet habits. For the time being, black youths are dying in the inner cities with their talents buried inside them on the plantations of drugs and gang infestations. I heard a popular black actress bragging that Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech set her free. I disagree with her comment! When I evaluated the black female entertainer over the years, she appeared to be the female version of Michael Jackson. She feels comfortable still sitting at the lunch counter waiting to be served by the white folks! Good heavens! Michael hated his own race so much, while he embraced the white culture. He went as far as letting a white male impregnate his wife so he could have white babies. What a self-imposed degradation! He failed to reproduce himself because he wanted all his children to be white. Michael Jackson hated to be black! What a pathological form of self-hatred and slavery?

As long as we are waiting for others to validate us, folks, we are not free! We have given our power of freedom to others! It does not matter how much money you have, or how many times you dance in front of the television every day and people bow down to you in worship. People who are free learn quickly to embrace the talents within their race and not look down at the black youths because racism has suppressed their talents. I believe God gave every race and ethnic groups with divine talents. While we are still waiting at the lunch counters to be served, we allowed the gold mines of black talents unexplored. Those who happened to stumble on such talents ended up taking advantage of the inexperience black youths. Today, 2013, we still have a dream! God help us!

One of our greatest barriers to economic freedom has always been the Christian preachers who preach on Sunday to get inside the pockets of the black congregation and give them nothing back in return. "God wants to bless you" is the very popular slogan from many pulpits. "Just sow the seed!" Jesus sowed the seeds of the words of God, today’s preachers want you to empty your pocket sowing your money as the seeds. After all these years, God still wants to bless you. What happen to church leaders helping to create economic opportunities for black youths in the inner cities? What happen to church leaders investing and encouraging black talents instead of looking down on other blacks? Many black preachers become millionaires at the expense of their church members while bringing scam artists inside the church to steal people’s money, and some of them lost their homes. Well folks, we still have a dream! Do we still want to blame the white folks for this?

Perhaps, we need to learn from Jewish people who have been persecuted in history. Both races have experienced similar histories. Everywhere the Jews went, they prosper in spite of their persecutions! I’m not saying this because I have Jewish ancestry in my bloodline. Jews did not achieve such prosperity by being dependent on the system or sitting at the lunch counters waiting to be served. They achieved great success by investing in the talents of other Jews. While the Jewish people move towards their communities and helping other Jews, successful blacks run away from other blacks. And they start to play the slave master game by saying, "Don’t you think I’m better than you are? That’s why I’ve been accepted by the whites! You are just not good enough!" As successful backs, what have we offered the black youths in the inner cities besides the plantations of drug dealers and gang violence? Yet, we have the audacity to brag about how rich we are before the television camera! What a crying shame!

Here is the solution, my people: Being a successful black in American without helping the blacks community to educate and invest in the black youths, your success is a total failure. On the day you die, your success will die with you. We have to go back to the inner cities, chase away the drug dealers, lock up the gang leaders, and offer good technical education to back youths. That is what will eventually set the black race free in the U.S. according to Dr. Martin Luther King. What have we done with the opportunities we have gained so far? Blacks are the only people who practice racism within a race. It’s so good to look down on other blacks less fortunate. Feel good about yourself when you see other blacks standing on the corners in the drug infested streets. If you do, you are part of the problem, it does not matter how rich you may be or how many millions you have tossed to black organizations. If you cannot work to set your own people free, you yourself, you are not free.

As long as we become dependent on the system to retire, we will always be victimized by the system we did not design. If a black person created the FaceBook, or created Twitter, or the Amazon Books, would it have made a difference? Of course not! Blacks have talents that needed to be explored and developed. The black youths are being buried everyday with their talents unexplored. The black leaders and the successful backs have failed them by refusing to invest, let alone encourage the black youths. When we surrender our youths into the hands of drug dealers and gang leaders, what do we expect? We then wonder why so many black youths are in jail. If in every inner city in the U.S. technical schools are built to educate the back youths about computer programming, medical professions, private business operations, engineering, and investing on the creative talents of black youths, situations will turn around for black youths in the nation.

Sadly, many successful blacks are still sitting at the lunch counters waiting to be served. After 50 years of Dr. Martin Luther King, we still have a dream! We have a dream to overcome the chains we placed in our minds. Only God can help us from the plantation of racism within a race, and self hatred. Our youths in the inner cities deserved better than we have thrown at them. There is a difference in throwing bones at little dogs compared to sitting down to train the dogs. Black youths are crying out for help from the plantation bondage of the oppression of the inner cities across the nation! They did not create the situations in the inner cities. We did! We therefore have to fix it for them instead of blaming them for the situations beyond their control in the atmosphere of hopelessness. Those children cannot build technical schools! They don’t have money to educate themselves! Shame on you if you bragging about your money and your brothers and sisters are dying in the ghettoes of despair! What is the value of the money that you have acquired for display in your living room while others like you are suffering in the street because of lack of opportunities? If all the successful blacks in this nation get their heads out of their rare ends, instead of bragging before the television shows (including the Christian preachers stealing people’s money), and build technical schools within the black communities to educate and invest on black youths, we will accomplish the dream. For the time being, enjoy your celebrity image while your young brothers and sisters are hungry and dying in the inner cities sugarcane plantations of cracks, gun violence and other illicit drugs.

After 50 years of Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision speech, many black youths have been abandoned in the plantations of the degenerated inner cities while the black stars are bragging about their success and achievements. Give me a break! The black youths deserve better. Our children needed to be rescued. They become victims of the environment they did not create. Today, 2013, we celebrate the achievements of the pioneers of freedom in this nation. I don’t believe the ones coming behind us will have good things to say about us until we rescue them from the ghetto plantations of the inner cities. May God help us!

Yinka Vidal, author, Closer Walk With Jesus

Follow me on Twitter: @YinkaVidal

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