Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree
EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY
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THE PROBLEM WITH DWELLING UPON BLACK HISTORY
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It's always good to know one's history, but far too many of us are fixated on looking backwards exclusively. That renders them ignorant of what lies before us. Looking backwards exclusively allows us to sit on our asses and brag about our greatness, but it doesn’t answer the following question – if we were so great, how did we end up as slaves?
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There’s a very simple and obvious answer to that question. The answer is, because we’re the people of the future, not the past. We were enslaved because we were in the cradle of our development, and our enslavement contributed to who we are today, and who we are developing into as the people of tomorrow. So our relationship with those who enslaved us is quite similar to the relationship between the Neanderthal and modern man. The adversity that the Black man has been forced to endure has served to make us MORE rather than less. Thus, we represent the future of mankind, while those who enslaved us represent Jim Crow's dying gasp.
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Yes, being enslaved was a painful and degrading experience, but that’s nature’s way. It’s called natural selection. Nature selects certain lifeforms to thrive above their immediate environment by introducing adversity that they must overcome to grow. By managing to overcome that adversity, they become stronger and more viable as a lifeform.
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When man was placed here on Earth he wasn’t as strong as the elephant, as ferocious as the lion, and he couldn’t fly above danger like the eagle, so nature provided him with a brain to meet that challenge. As a result, man can now build machines that can crush any elephant, destroy any lion, and fly far beyond the eagle’s domain. Thus, the experience of surviving adversity was, and is, a source of knowledge and intellectual development, and if recognized as such, will make us much more, rather than less. It will help us to meet our destiny, and should always serve as a constant reminder that our greatness lies before us, not in our past.
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Trumplodytes know this. That's why they bring so much passion to their struggle. So don't look back. Look forward. Because WE are the ancestors of greatness. And WE are the ancestors that reflect the greatness that'll be looked back upon.
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Thus, we should never be ashamed of the Black experience. We should recognize it as a force that has served to make us strong and unique as a people, and therefore, embraced it with reverence and pride. For that reason, I would never change my slave name, because I want my great grandfather to know exactly whose foot is in their ass.
Eric L. Wattree
Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND
INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like
me - it's just that God does.