The Negro

This article is dedicated to or is about the Negro. It is a paper that argues against ‘racism.’
By Negro here is meant that person said to be black, that person said to be indigenous to Africa, the ‘black man.’
For many years, black people have lived as part human, not recognized as equal to the other racial groups. What should not be lost on anyone is that all through this time, black people have indeed been full and equal human beings. They never ceased, not for a fraction of a second, to be human.
It is important that black people, wherever they happen to be, must never forget this. That over the years black people have been disparaged and scorned is now an immutable historical fact. It is a curious fixture of the present that discrimination against them, to a lesser degree, continues to happen today.
On the other hand, that this happened is beneficial. It is because of this very pressure that black people have suffered that there shall emerge amongst them the finest of world citizens.
The seed for such production has already been planted. It is irreversible now. Global leadership order is changing. In the coming years, black people shall continue to play a more visible and dominant role in global leadership.

Black people themselves, and the rest of the world, shall continue to be amazed at what the future shall produce from amongst black people.

In the not so distant future, black people shall guide the world. For the experience that they have undergone, they possess the best education for global leadership on human relations, and through it, global well being.

Blacks are the ones best placed not to commit the terrible atrocities that have been perpetrated against them. Call it the ‘Nelson Mandela Phenomenon.’ Note why Nelson Mandela is now revered; when, as a reaction, you take the aggressor’s eye when he has removed yours, you lower yourself to his contemptible level, you become just as base as he, and note that no one is deified for such behaviour.

Black people, as a collective, are not innately stupid. Yes, granted, there does exist imbeciles amongst them, just like such idiots are found amongst other racial groups, but such an occurrence does not make the whole race despicable or inferior.

Black people have beneficial mental abilities. They are intelligent. Black people have beneficial and admirable artistic talents. They can stupefy. Black people have beneficial and admirable physical qualities. They possess remarkable physical strength and fascinating beauty.

Yes, they can fly (Bessie Coleman). Yes, they can run (Jesse Owens). Yes, they can box (Cassius Clay). Yes, they can talk (Oprah Winfrey). Yes, the can sing (Michael Jackson). Yes, they can lead (Nelson Mandela). Yes, they can survive (like the rest of us).

The list is indeed long.
What has been written above about the qualities of black people is also true of people belonging to other racial groups. Beneficial and admirable mental, physical and artistic attributes are not a preserve of black people only nor are they a preserve of any single racial group of people. They are the preserve of all healthy human beings.

Nonetheless, education was earlier denied to black people so that they could be ‘kept in their place.’ To denigrate their beauty, black people were deliberately and repeatedly portrayed as promiscuous even when statistics argued to the converse.Further, to belittle their achievements in arts, their excellence is laughed at by stating that these are the fields reserved for minorities, people with limited opportunities or cognitive abilities, like them.This mischaracterisation will change. It has been changing for some time.
For example, that today Barack Obama, a black man, is president of the United States of America is very important for people all over the world. That there now exists such a vivid visual example of achievement at the highest level of national, even global leadership by a man of colour ministers to the very core of humanity about human potential in general.

That such talent should be reposed in one as black is indeed revealing and inspiring.
This is a clear example of what the Reverend Martin Luther King dreamt of when he referred to the ‘content of one’s character’ as the right yardstick for judging people and not the colour of their skin.
Barack Obama was not an accident. Barack Obama did not become President of the United States by chance. That Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America today is a product of the seed that many black people hundreds of years before him planted.

Many black people died for Barack Obama to be where he is today. It was not easy. It was a battle, a painful and bloody battle. This must never be forgotten.

This is why just being President of the United States of America, the mere fact itself, is so important for black people the world over. What happens after his coronation, during his presidency, is secondary and of limited significance. What happened when he won is legendary. That is a good enough lesson for all humanity.

His becoming President was an event of such historical significance that it shall remain a key lesson in human relations for millennia to come. What many black people could, in the past only dream of, is now reality. The mere importance of the event produced sincere tears in the eyes of many discerning historians. What could not, became. The unthinkable happened! The slave had now become master, the symbolism all so real and touching, utterly inspirational and divine. Like Jesus, we wept!

The victory for black people through the victory of Barack Obama lies in the victory itself. His mere ascendancy to the highest political office on Earth is of such significance to black people and all humanity that it should not be lost on anyone. It is symbolic.

Further, never has the fight for human dignity been so vividly highlighted as it has been through the terrible injustice occasioned on black people. That the restoration of human dignity is occurring and shall continue to occur through black people is a poignant lesson for all humanity. In the order of life, where ignorance is rife, a chosen people had to suffer this. This was the Negro’s cross to bear on behalf of the rest of humanity, sort of, attainment of global enlightenment through the persecution of the Negro.

No one ever succeeded or will ever succeed to forever denigrate God’s creation.
Though it was in 1990 that the last formal chains of segregation against the black man were broken in South Africa, segregation against black people still occurs. It is still part of the culture of people in many parts of the world today.

You see, legislation can change overnight but human behaviour does not. It takes time. It is only with the passage of time, with the requisite investment aimed at a change in the orientation of children that lasting change will take place.

Nonetheless, black people will eventually thank God for what has, over the years, happened to them, for their suffering. The revelation of the reason for the preparation that black people have undergone, so painfully for so many years, shall soon dawn on them, and all in the world.

The world shall become a better place for the experience of the Negro.

That many black people today are bitter because of how badly treated they have been over the years (through slavery, colonialism, apartheid, imperialism, etc.) is understandable. This bitterness only reflects their normalcy. It is vital that they should be bitter for it is through the full appreciation of this bitterness/pain that the lesson shall be fully learnt, the preparation thorough and complete. Their persecution is a resource for global well being. It has its purpose.

Dear reader, note that without adversity, the world would be without heroes.

It will not be easy, it has not been. Nonetheless, blacks shall, for a period of time when their lesson stays relevant and before the cycle moves on, lead the world. Then the magnificence of God shall be reasserted in all its glory. This lesson now awaits the world. The hour is coming.

The degree of the suffering that black people have endured from other racial groups shall determine the degree to which they are refined. That they have been so debased shall produce in them the very best of human beings that the world has ever seen.

Suffering has its purpose. It is a key resource for survival. Peace follows suffering. Everything has meaning.

In unprecedented numbers, the world shall witness the emergence of a crop of the finest human beings that it has never before seen. Most of these people shall be black. It is these people that have now earned the moral authority on the dignity of human beings, no one else.

Carbon is now indeed becoming diamond!
In 1957, discussing the topic ‘The New Negro’ on an NBC Television programme called The Open Mind these were the closing words of Reverend Martin Luther King: ‘Well I...when I think of the question of progress in the area of race relations, I prefer to be realistic, and when I say that I mean I try to look at it not from the pessimistic point of view or optimistic but rather from the realistic point of view. I think we have come a long, long way but we have a long, long way to go. But it seems to me that if we would press on with determination, moral courage, and yet wise restraint and calm reasonableness, in a few years we will reach the goal. I, I have a great deal of faith in the future, and the outcome, I am not despairing.’

In closing the program, the host Richard D. Heffner, author and historian, said: ‘And, as long as we have men like you, we can all have faith.’

Men like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. will always be there on Earth. Richard D. Heffner needn’t worry. They occur in all races.

Hope is. Have faith. Always look on the bright side, dear reader.
The ability for the world to right itself is within its blueprint. It is our trump card. In time, this always happens. It is God’s secret.