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(Kamala Harris is now facing the same anonymous
scourging of whether she is really an American and thus
qualified to be on the ticket!).
Also, you need to understand that within the minority
or black community there are those who are self-appointed
"anointers of blackness" and whose commentary is the
supposed gold standard as to what qualifies for getting and
keeping your "black card."
The mental trap that black people must assiduously
avoid is being tempted to malign our political candidates
with badges of dishonor and lack of being credible "In Da
Struggle" because they may have a spouse of a different
ethnic grouping or their jargon sounds a bit too "white" or
they have political pronouncements that may seem sketchy and
thus are not viewed as being of importance to the black
community.
Gladly, there is no tried and true top 20 "black"
questions, that if even graded on a curve, if you miss four
or five, you are deemed racially suspect and thus unable to
fully identify with, "Da Struggle."
I mean....listen. Frederick Douglass, an unassailable
champion for the black race, was married to a white woman.
Who questions the street cred of the light-skinned Black
Panther Angela Davis, who can spin philosophical loops
around even the most learned debaters?
The famed pugilist, Jack Johnson, was known to cavort
with white women and the early religious leader, Father
Divine was married to a Caucasian.
Does anyone throw shadow at either the late Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., because of his pronounced and perfect use
of the English language or that of the late Senator Barbara
Jordan from Texas who was an oratorical genius?
One thing we do not need as black people is a litmus
test to determine who is or who is not "black enough" to
engage in the civil rights struggle.
If you do not own a dashiki, do not like the twisties
hairstyle, prefer Bach to
Miles Davis and would not be caught dead, in public or
private, chowing down on chitlins or Hoppin John, you have
nothing to apologize for.
"Our" tent has enough canvas to give everyone
sustenance and cover as long as you reject racial
foolishness and do not stab each other in the back.
Yes, even the much maligned Omarosa can find shelter in
"Our" tent!
The only miscreants that need to be watched and
checked are those who blatantly and intentionally cause
havoc or a ruckus because their politics or social
commentaries reveal a mindset or an attitude that denigrates
people of color in order to benefit their handlers, white
people who have a malignant agenda against us.
Yeah, we have stumble bums in "Our" tent along with
those criminally minded who engage in black on black crime
and those whose ambitions are not high minded but
nonetheless, "Our" tent is still intact and our resolve is
to keep it going in the right path and direction in spite of
their distractions.
"Our" tent boasts of brilliant educators, politicos,
musicians, architects,
doctors, craftsmen and craftswomen, housewives, firemen,
artisans, athletes, mechanics, pastors, inventors and others
whose gifts and callings populate the sciences and the arts.
It includes those who see themselves as gate keepers
of "Our" tent, but they too must give ample leeway for those
who political persuasions are different but not harmful.
Included are those are people who choose to wear the "R" or
the "D" and even the "I" political affiliation.
Yes, and it even encompasses those who prefer a
vacation in Austria versus a safari in Botswana or attending
an opera as opposed to sitting in a jazz club listening to
the geniuses of a Sonny Rollins or an Art Tatum.
If we let cosmetic appearances and personal taste
cause division and duress within "Our" tent, it means that
we have succumbed to the inane gibberish of the political
foxes and carnivores who mean us no good.
Regardless if your worship facility is a humble
storefront that seats a maximum of 20 or an airy sanctuary
in which five thousand can run the aisles with room to
spare, it remains, "Our" tent.
We need to protect and cherish "Our" tent as important,
needful and which has a great recorded history initially
embedded in the ancient bedrock of Africa.
"Our" common ancestors did not originate from the
Scottish Highlands or from the plains of the Danube River or
the steppes of Outer Mongolia or from the Canadian Rockies.
"Our" common ethnic denominator or ancestral homeland
is Africa and the myriad of peopled hues, shades and shared
experiences that we gifted to America when we were
involuntarily transported to these United States.
So, the next time Kamala Harris is called on the
carpet to defend the color of her marriage spouse or the
originations of her parents or the style of her
hair or her enjoying latkes instead of back eyed peas and
cornbread, slowly pump your cultural brakes...pause and
remember, she is in "Our" tent!
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com
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