Thursday, October 25, 2007

Reading, Research AND Discernment Are Fundamental in the Search For Truth

No matter what you think about that historic march in Jena, LA there's no denying it brought a lot of people together - that day and beyond. The exchanging of photos, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers got a lot of people talking to each other who probably never would have but for that beautiful September day. The sharing of thoughts, ideas and information continues and it's wonderful because it has people "reading" again which I think is the greatest benefit. I got an email from some of my "Jena Family" the other day and I wanted to post it to hammer home the reading thing. Deleting all the addresses, here it is:
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Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:27:40 -0400Subject: Statement Read On NYC Radio Station Regarding Black People - READ!!!! Wow, its like that in 2007...I knew they thought it never thought they would dare say it in public. Read on!!! BLACK PEOPLE, PLEASE, READ & HEED. POIGNANT. The sad thing about this article is that the essence of it is true. The truth hurts. I just hope this sets more Black people in motion towards making real progress. Chris Rock, a Black comedian, even joked that Blacks don't read.Help prove them wrong! Read and pass on.Please Note: For those of you who heard it, this is the article Dee Lee was reading this morning on a New York radio station. For those of you who didn't hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote it. Dee Lee, CFP Harvard Financial Educators Dee Lee

THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED and SELFISHNESS. Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, "The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book." We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com , not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all. GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%). Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU. And they still think that having a Mercedes and a big house gives them "Status" or that they have achieved their Dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn't want their money and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They'll continue to showoff to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them. SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois, said that there was an innate division in their culture. A "Talented Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read that the "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM). They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms. Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want and keep thinking they are "helping"their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, THEY DON'T READ!!!!(Prove them wrong. Please pass this on! After Reading it..)

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I did not pass the e-mail on as requested. Instead, I hit "Reply to All" and responded: Sent: Thu 10/18/2007 10:12 PM Hey Jena Fam! Glad to see the trip has kept everyone in touch! I have to say that neither the “diatribe” nor the fact that this is the way some people think of us surprises me. I’ve known it, felt it for a large part of my 51 years. As the Jena story slowly unfolded I was surprised myself when people kept saying, “This is the first I heard about this on the Baisden, Ballentine or Al Sharpton Shows.” The story had been on the internet and in The Chicago Tribune since at least May or June of 2007 – long before Black Radio began talking about it. It both angered and saddened me. But I knew there was hope when finally enough people heard about it, cared enough about it and got angry enough about it to wake up from that nap behind the wheel and take a stand. We don’t read enough Family – we just don’t. We have fallen prey to every gimmick, must-have, must-have first, bigger, better thing thrown at us. Materialism without understanding has changed us from a strong, grounded people to the next sucker born every minute. When I was younger I was one of those suckers too. But a large part of my “awakening” came through books, magazine articles (skip the ads and pictures sometime), papers, essays, the internet – you name it, I read it. We’ve got to learn to search for our own truths and not wait for the sometimes “hazy” truths of others. That’s why we’re here in 2007 and there can be “white tree” in Jena and a child, our child, could go to jail for the possibility of 20+ years OR, after THOSE charges were thrown out he could be sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile facility for a parole violation involving the very same charges that were thrown out! Sheer madness! We keep doing the same things, expecting different results and still don’t understand why we’re not getting them by now - after all, we’re more educated, richer, more upwardly mobile, with big houses and fine rides in mixed neighborhoods now aren’t we? Or are we? I apologize for going on and on but it’s been on my mind. I started blogging lately just to get the thoughts out of my head - I’ll probably put these thoughts there tonight! :-) Nobody’s perfect Family, but we CAN do better. We have to - for our own sake. How about an online Book Club? No going on the Oprah Show or dinner with the author or anything like that. :-) Let’s just read and have intelligent discourse as we search for our own truths. I’d like to suggest a wonderful book by bell hooks entitled, “Rock My Soul” that I think would be a wonderful start. I think you’ll see a lot of people and situations we deal with every day to which we never give a second thought. I know I did. Anyway, take care of yourselves and keep in touch and thanks for listening, Deb

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After responding, I went online in search of Dee Lee since I don't live in New York and had not heard anything about this. I found her at "hfe - Educating the Financial Consumer." Follow the link and read what she said. I thought it important to share what I read with the rest of my Jena Family. So, I again, e-mailed "all" with this response: Sent: Thu 10/18/2007 11:17 PM Checked the internet for the statement and found this: http://www.deelee.net/ Something else to read in the search for my own truth! Whether she said it or wrote it, my last email still stands because there ARE many who DO have those feelings! Good night! Deb

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And yes, I stand by my last email to my Jena Fam because there ARE many who DO have those feelings. Here's an article I read on washingtonpost.com just last Saturday as a matter of fact - "Scientist's Remarks on Blacks Cause Furor." Those who've dug in their heels about who we are, have dug in their heels about who we are - which is why I have no compunction at all in expressing how I feel about them.

Truth without research is not truth - it is gossip and innuendo. And let's just be clear, culling through all the information available out there will not necessarily get you to the truth either, especially since there are a whole lot of folks, with a whole lot of opinions and a whole lot of access to what we see, hear and read. The best opportunity to reach one's own truth is to be led by discernment while researching and reading. Only then can you "Get Lifted."

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Dee,
cam a cross this page through some link.My question is how do you get these blacks to read?

DebC said...

I'm going to ignore the "these blacks" thing and give you the courtesy of an answer because presumably you READ what I wrote and chose to ask what I thought.

The way to get people to read is to provide them with something of substance to read; something, anything to which they can relate; something about them; something for them; something that speaks TO them - on any level - and not AT them; something to make them think; something to make them act; something to make them dream; something to help positively inform the way they live in this world.

That's why "this Black" reads anyway.

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