It's a Sunday afternoon, and I have had so much on my mind within the last 24 hours. No, it doesn't have to do with what I did last night… and no, it doesn't have anything to do with Tony Parker winning the Skills challenge; Kevin Love winning the 3-point shootout; or Jeremy Evans winning the Slam Dunk Contest (I'm a fan of the NBA All-Star weekend… what can I say?).
What I really wanted to discuss were a couple videos I watched and a little bit of research I did last night and this morning.
Before reading this in its entirety, I want you to watch (at least) the first part of a little history lesson by hip-hop legend KRS-One during his visit at Temple University:
Former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (the very first director of the FBI), issued a counter-intelligence program, which (in KRS-One's words) was "the FBI's way of checking up on and breaking up social organizations". In other words, the purpose of this endeavor was to use their power to counter against any group of people who posed as a "threat". These threats include features that many young people in society overlook: revolting for civil rights, joining unions for equal pay, the FBI's perceptions of who they thought were communists, etc. Hoover knew that what they stood for may have inspired others to go against what the superior wanted, which is why one of his set long-term goals for the Black community was to "prevent the coalition of [these] groups". The document proceeds by stating, "In unity, there is strength," and, "An effective coalition of Black nationalist groups might be the first step toward a real 'Mau Mau' in America, the beginning of a true Black revolution." Note that "Mau Mau" is referring to the uprising that took place in Kenya from 1952-1960 that essentially ended the British military campaign there.
Another way of preventing the Black community from gaining any societal influence, one of J. Edgar Hoover's long-term goals on his agenda was to prevent the rise of a "Black messiah". As stated before, any person who went against the beliefs of powerful people posed as a threat because it went against their individual wants… and what they wanted was more power over the people.
KRS-One, also known as, "The Teacha", helped remind everyone (including myself) that the primary reason for the initiative of getting rid of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael (organizer and spokesperson of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who popularized the term, "Black Power"), Elijah Muhammad (leader of the Nation of Islam), and the characteristics and personality of Malcolm X… who died in 1965, before this was written in 1967.
The Teacha follows these statements with something that is extremely important to recognize today. He implies that the people who have been assassinated (i.e. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X) were killed because of what they represented. There are many people today who say that the primary reason that these two leaders were killed was because they were Black… because of racial hatred. They compare the deaths of Dr. King and Malcolm X to the general misinterpreted view of what the Ku Klux Klan is, or the misperception of who Hitler is in this day and age.
It is now decades later, and the society has now become a product of what I'd like to call "subliminal ignorance". Simply put, being ignorant is when one lacks knowledge or awareness and chooses to completely "ignore" sources that may help them gain this knowledge or awareness. Subliminal ignorance is when people don't know that they lack this knowledge or awareness, and therefore subconsciously ignore the problem that exists. In other words, there is an issue of not knowing about the issue.
To make things clear, KRS-One uses a great example in his TU lecture. The United States government is blamed for a lot of things that they are not actually responsible for (or at least not solely responsible). Going back to this "counterintelligence program", FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (a person that holds a very high status in the government) was a man who manipulated the society for his personal good: to keep the white, rich male superior to everyone else. Meanwhile, the FBI (a governmental agency in the Department of Justice and an organization that we are supposed to trust), is now considered questionable because of certain individuals' preferences and establishing policies for the society to follow.
How does this relate to how we think today? Well, how many times have you heard people blame the government for what they have done? How many times have people criticized Barack Obama for the things he does/has done? "Stupid health care system..." "Stupid war…" "Stupid people in the government who don't know how to do their job…"
Now… in comparison to that, how many times have you heard people criticize the government for not doing something? Mind you, this was something that people in the Civil Rights Movement did… and, in turn, the society saw some changes. However, after the seventies, more and more people are saying things like, "Racism doesn't exist anymore," or, "We live in a more equal society now." The struggle for equity has been impeded for decades, as people of a superiority are still doing a good job at maintaining their huge abundance of power. We, the common people, are not doing a good job of battling against them anymore.
Have we given up… or have we just lost our motivation? I truly believe it is the latter, and that we just need to find a motivation as a collective group. We need to let people become more aware of what is hidden from us. This is a message to stop ordinary ignorance, but more importantly to stop subliminal ignorance, as well. To re-use a quote from the proposal of the counterintelligence program: "In unity, there is strength." Let's use this strength to go against the "superior individuals".
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These are the links to the other videos of KRS-One's lecture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQYr31GWqT0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1mgPr8X7ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab6gfvYzxr0
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| Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone |
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